September 2010 - we've met our little ones now!

[comixminx]

Or most of them at least - there are some late September ones still to come!

Hi ladies can I join you please? I had my first lo on the 4th of august by emcs a gorgeous little boy 8lb 2oz. He was 13 days late so we re a bit behind on the august thread.

I have the problem with sweating too....... it s related to hormones esp oxytocin which is why its worse with breast feeding. It s a pain yet my dh doesnt even notice!

Having a bit of cord problems myself......not red or smelly and skin around it is ok but the inside of his vest is stained/crusty. anyone else have this?

I m having a horrible couple of nights and finding it hard to be positive :(
F is up from 7pm after his bath until 1am feeding and fussing. Then he s awake every 1.5 to 2hrs but will feed for about 20 mins then drop off again. I m soo tired and scared this will last for weeks.

My mum died 7 years ago and miss her so much especially now :(

Sorry for the long post.......will bring cake next time :)

6 weeks + 2

Welcome chickieno1! I initially asked about bellybuttons, my little boy is 5 weeks so has no cord but his belly button hasn't healed fully yet. I am lucky I suppose as Luke has his grumpy time between 5 and 9 so I'm not getting too disturbed at night. It must seem awful that we are complaining about mum's when you don't have yours anymore :(. Do you have a nice mil?

I don't have the grunting problem beaditAli but then Luke isn't in our room so I may not be hearing it. I would suggest that you don't pick him up, if he's not crying I guess it's not distressing him too much. Although if you do pick him up and it solves it at least you will be able to get back to sleep!

My ds1 is ill at the moment, had a temperature Saturday evening and was complaining of being cold. Asked to go to be early and without any dinner :(. He was then up 3 times in the night as well as my usual 2 feeds for Luke so was knackered yesterday. Luke was a nightmare yesterday, would only sleep while being held and cried a lot! Eventually got him to sleep at 9.30pm and to my amazement he slept until 4.45!!!! ds1 was up then too so had more calpol and went back to sleep, so only up once last night. They are both asleep now still but I had to get up for my childminded children who are watching CBBC at the moment . I have to go to uni tomorrow for my course so dh is off work and bringing the boys with him so I will have to leave my lectures to feed Luke and dh will have to find something to do with ds1, fingers crossed he's better as it will be enough of a nightmare even if he's well!

5 weeks

chickieno1 anyone is welcome with the promise of cake!!! Confused tho. do you mean 4th Sept!! Is that a bit of baby brain creeping in

I don't think the sweating is just for bf mums just probably continues longer. I noticed it to and stopped feeding at 10 days. Its just stopped now.

Welcome chickieno1! The list of babies and mothers is further up the thread - why not copy & paste it with your details?

I've just started getting a cold - bah - but then DP has had quite an annoying cough and cold so I guess it's nit surprising if I get some of it too. Do I need to be specifically careful for DD in any way? (Still ebf so she will be getting my antibodies, I know, but given that I've already got this cold I don't know how much help that is!) I've kept an eye on her nose to see if I need to de-snot it, but is there anything else I should try / look out for? I think someone's said before that having the Moses basket on a slight slope, so her head is a bit higher than her body, might be a good thing to do if she is bunged up: anything else?

6 weeks + 5

beaditAli, I've stopped picking him up when he's grunting, unless he starts to cry of course. Last night he was really grunting after every feed, but I knew he was fed, winded etc so I just left him and each time he eventually settled down. It can take him an hour too though.

comixminx, when Louis was a bit snotty, the mw said not to worry as long as it's not interfering with feeding (ie she doesn't keep pulling off to breath). You can get saline drops if it is a problem, and raising the end of her basket a bit can't hurt.

Welcome chickieno1

6+5

Hi all
Welcome chickieno1

Lovely pics melly.
Jodey - am sweating too! I think it is prob a metabolism thing. Its a bit ick tho.
Phoebe is grunting too by night. usually as she is settling or just waking up and mostly involves wind or poo. It can be a bit epic tho. but I dont pick her up until she gets upset.
Im totally knackered. Phoebe has a decent enough stretch from midnight til around 4 am but then its 1 1/2 to 2 hours before she settles again. She is then awake and hour and half after that looking for her only short feed of the day. And its game on after that so I am averaging one 3/4hour stretch a night and that is it. Im seriously thinking about bottle feeding. Im so tired and my legs are sore every morning - cramping from tiredness mostly. Is anyone else the same? My friends tell me their babies only fed for 20-30 mins at a time. But Phoebe, like her brothers, does both breast a good 20-25 mins each. ITs all day long. DH is all for bottles too as he wants in on the action and to be fair he isnt seeing a lot of her at the moment as he is usually managing the other two while he is around. \he is very hands on and all kinds of super but new babies are tough on a relationship. We dont have as much to iron out as its our third and know that patience is vital at this stage but we had some major blowouts after DS1 and a few minor ones after DS2. At the mo its actually the two boys that are trying us but they are just reacting to knackered and stretched parents. the joys!
On a lighter note am considering radical hair change. Have spent last year and half growing it out. Is now just at shoulder but all I do now is tie it up. Im thinking of cutting it up short - yay or nay?
Hope some of you are getting some sleep! Night

Hi MammyG - snap, re hair - well, sort of. Mine is currently longer than shoulder length and I've been thinking of cutting it shorter, probably to about shoulder length. (Maybe it'll end up the same length as yours currently is??!!)

I would have considered cutting it shorter still, but I had really short hair for about ten years and then spent a few years growing it properly long; I don't want to go back to a short hairstyle again quite yet though I probably will at a future point. It's so much easier when hair's really short, but then my face shape and personal style were different when I had short hair so I dunno how it would work for me to go back to short hour. (Different face shape = ie when I was in my twenties.)

I'd say, go for it! It's much easier for sure and can look great, though any big style change is tricky to pull off of course.

On a different note - what is everyone doing with their CTF voucher? And will you be adding money to the govt £50, or are you worried about the fact it gies straight to the child when they turn 18?

I think it depends how important bfing is to you MammyG! if you are knackered and you feel your whole family is suffering then I can see why you'd want to stop. Ds1 fed upto an hour total but always had both breasts, he did get much quicker with time though and didn't feed as frequently as Phoebe is. It was very important to me and I had no other children. This time I worried how it would be but Luke is so much quicker and as I feel much more confident it doesn't stop me doing anything, I answer the door if one my parents arrives to pick up /drop off, sit on the floor and can still play one handed, read ds1 bedtime stories etc so don't find it as restrictive.

I have put mine into the childrens mutual as that's where ds1's is comixminx. We have the ones that are high risk until they're 13, thenthe money is moved to safer shares. My dad currently puts £20 a month each in and ds1's is doing very well. I think it will depend on the 18 year old you have but they need the account number to access it

Is it too late to apply for the CTF? I completely forgot about it! Although, I'm not sure how much I would trust an 18 year old boy not to just go and spend it on beer. The £50 I wouldn't mind so much but if there was a lot from us contributing to it for the next 18 years I definitely would!

Are there any other alternatives to an account they have access to at 18? I guess I could open up a secret account in their name - but would correspondence be sent to them? I sound like I'm being devious but I know what I was like when I was 18!! Not in the slightest bit sensible with cash.

cinnamon, good point that they need to know the details to access it! But I guess that the building soc would write directly to the child & they'd get the details that way.

pickle, have you not already applied for child benefit? You should get the CTF voucher as a result. You've then got a year to open the CTF account so plenty of time!

On the finance threads in MN people have discussed things like opening an ISA for the child, but in your own name; that would be safe from them but then it uses up your own ISA options. I think I'll just open a cash CTF for Aphra and try to train her to be sensible! Yeah right.

Well anyway the thing is that the vast majority of the building socs offering cash funds are small ones that need to be managed in branch, but aren't located where I am. The best interest is from one in Staffordshire, and I'm in Oxford! Trying to decide whether it's worth the trip to open one there...

picklesarnie I've not applied for Child Benefit yet either. They do back date but only for 3 months, so i need to get my skates on as they are hurtling towards 3 months now.

Mammyg I am seriously considering giving up breast feeding too. But for different reasons. My boobs are not getting any better from the first few days of medication when they improved slightly. They are so sore. They are being kept at bay by the cream that was recommended to me on here (begins with L) but that is not getting rid of the thrush. I'm really reluctant to do so though, infact i'm slightly devastated about it. I've totally set my mind to it and also formula caused so much problems for DD that she is still affected now and takes medication everyday because of it. We were in and out of hospital for years. I suppose i need to think that that isn't necessarily going to happen this time. I have 2 things that i am going to try before i give in. One is a new appointment with the doc for different medication and the other is the local breast feeding group.

cinnamon do you remember what medication they originally put you on? and when it didn't work, what they changed you too?

Isobel grunts too- always when she is trying to pass wind. She sometimes cries when she manages it, cos it's that forceful it hurts her bum....bless.

Lucy vomited in my hair yesterday, no-one told me and i didn't notice until bedtime. it is long and a bit straggly atm so think i'm definitely due a haircut.

MammyG If bf is making things harder on yourself and yor family then it might be better to give up. Try some alternatives first such as an evening bottle of ebm so hubby can join in and you can rest or focus on the boys. Once you give up it is hard to restart.

Sassy i feel for you with the sore boobs. DC1 blistered me and it was painful for ages, it must be harder with 2.

Im opening a ctf for lucy with the one i did for dc3. i know there is a 'risk' they will blow it on beer but i'm hoping they will be more savvy about money and they will use it sensibly

9 + 3

Hi everyone, I haven't been on here for ages so thought I'd catch up on things.
Orlaith is now 3+4. I'm really struggling with sleep. She's having mainly formula along with bits of EBM as I'm drying up now. I tried BF'ing for 5 days but she wouldn't latch and lost loads of weight so I gave up.
She's now feeding about every hour to hour and a half and having about 100ml each feed. This is the same pattern day and night so I'm getting hardly any sleep.
I try winding her regularly but she never seems to have much coming up the top, just lots from the bottom.
She'll only sleep for an hour at most normally and goes for about 4 hours at at time being awake. Yesterday evening I was exhausted and desperate for a nap but she was awake from 4.30 - 11pm constantly after only one nap in the day. I can't work how how she's staying awake so much.
Even now at 1.20 I haven't had a shower because she's been awake and wanting cuddles since 8am.
I NEED SLEEP!

I thought they'd stopped the ctf?! how do you get it???

The one that didn't work was daktarin sassy34264 I can't remember the one that did work but the cream was in a horrible yellow brown box, will have a look when I get home in case I still have the box!

You get the voucher automatically when you apply for child benefit bananastew. They have reduced it from £250 to £50 and will stop it for household incomes over £16,000 from April.

Hi all, (it's Parkj83, I've gotten bored of that one though!)

DH went back to work today, and now's the first chance I've had to myself (ha!) since this morning!

How is everyone? I've briefly skimmed through, but haven't absorbed much apart from the odd bit and piece lol

sassy sympathy with your bf concerns - I had it very similar with DS, and I only managed to feed for 3 weeks. We both had thrush, and I cried through every feed, and dreaded each one so bad :( I take my hat off to you for keeping going through it, especially with twins! Lansinoh is great though - I've used it religiously this time round, and it's really helped keep things at bay. I struggled with some scar tissue left over from DS's permanent demanding feeds, and it's helped massively with the painful latches I've been getting.

Mary is now 3 weeks old, and was weighed today - 9lb 1.5oz! I'm really chuffed, as I was a teeny bit worried about her intake, as she has been a bit sicky the past few days poor lamb. She's battling with a bit of a cold, and she's got a snotty nose which she hates me wiping!

She's also got some of those red spots, and my HV said it was a hormonal thing, erythromycin (sp?) or something, and it'd clear up by itself. So I'll just watch and wait :)

Her sleep pattern is a little erratic though. There have been times when she's slept for 6-7 hours at night, and others where she'll go for an hour, or maybe 1.5, between feeds. I quietly hate the night-time feeds, as my hip plays up big time when I'm changing her, and then I find myself dropping off when I'm feeding her too - I'm petrified that I'll drop her! I'm tempted to try lying down to feed her, but the risk there is that she'll burp/sick up when I'm asleep, and be in one huge sticky mess when I come round wake up!

As for CTFs, here is a handy thing I found on the net. You have to have your CB in place first, as it gets triggered from that or something.

Mary - 3 weeks today!

UMPH cinnamon i'm putting dakatin on now and then half an hour later i have to put fucidin cream on as well and then i have to wash it off before every feed and give the babies 1ml of nystatin after every feed.

I'd be grateful if you could find out what the other is called, if not though don't worry. I've been researching on the internet and this seems to be the dominate treatment .....fluconazole.....was it that?

Oh help! Jack has slept all day long! DH is at football training tonight so I'm dreading the night to come! I'll bet the little man is awake from 6pm ish to 1am.
I'll update tomorrow if my brain and body aren't fried from tonight!

I dont know how you re doing it sassy....bf twins with thrush! well done. are you taking a probiotic supplement? also if you were using lansinoh or nipple cream you should get a new tube in case of contamination. you prob new that already though. hope things improve soon.

bananastew I ve definitely got baby brain, I wont even try to deny it :)I meant 4th of September

My ds has the sniffles too, I think the saline drops help. I use them before feeds esp at night.

Cinnamon my mil is v nice and we get on well. She doesnt have any daughters so i think she likes having the female interaction. she does have different ideas about things but tends to keep them to herself :)

anyone know if lo sucks on his hands does it always mean he s hungry?????

Thanks for welcoming me to thread :)

ooh nystatin sounds familiar sassy34264 but I had the same brand of cream and drops each time. So daktarin drops and cream then I'm pretty sure it was nystatin drops and cream, are the drops cherry flavoured? Ds1 had fucidin when he had an infection in his willy about 6 months ago.

No it doesn't chickieno1, I was caught out with that one first time around. They also suck thier fists because they are windy and sucking is a comfort too so before they can find their thumb or individual fingers they often suck their fists too.

Bloody hell Sassy - you are in the wars! I had an awful time with DS1 and nipple just would not heal. Got to the stage where DH would nearly hold my legs while I latched him on. In the end I was crying dreading feeds etc and just had to stop for my sanity. At that stage tho I really didnt know enough either about being able to half and half etc. Bfin went well with ds2 but ds1 was still only a baby then so just did it for 3 months as the balancing act was too hard.
This time round one breast is constantly sore or niggling. Time is the biggest issue and juggling the other two. They are only 3 and 4 so climb all over me when I am feeding etc and esp ds2 is starting to get cranky about all the things I cant do because Im feeding. I am going to do it for another two weeks then introduce another bottle and see how that goes. Maybe I can keep up two feeds or something.
Saoirse - is there anyone to babysit and give you a few hours? Im knackered too as Phoebe can be awake a lot at night or more frequently. Its tough the first few weeks until a routine kicks in and they mature a little. Hang on in there.
Comix - am holding off on hair decision until I can actually get to a hairdressers regularly. Forgot that was such a pain when the boys were young. short hair is easy but has to be maintained more regularly and at the moment its all too chaotic!

Today i've put Jack in size 3s due to 3 night time leaks. He's only 4 weeks old...... did anyone else find this necessary? He had his nappies on for between 2-3 hours when he leaked last night so think he just does monster wees.
So imprsessed with sassy and everyone else who's sticking with the bfing no matter what! I just couldn't carry on and really wish I could have.
With twins as well! I think a lot of you are Super Woman!
The little frog is snoozing on my tummy so yet another cuppa's going cold just inches away from my reach! Us MNetters need to invent some helpful gadgets and make ourselves the millionaire September thread!

I don't know about super woman........more like stubborn mule! beaditali I want to give up, as i am like mammyg says, dreading every feed and even trying to pacify them for as long as possible when they start crying for food, to give me that extra 30mins etc for my boobs to stop hurting as much. I know that i will regret it if i stop and also i have a selfish reason. I'm eating that much chocolate at the minute that if i stop breastfeeding i think i will go up 2 dress sizes in a week!!!! ha. I had lost 2 and a half stone without any effort by 2 weeks, since then (nearly 8 weeks later) i have lost NOTHING! Baring in mind breast feeding loses you 500cals a day, mine should in theory lose me 1000cals, you can imagine how much i eat! ha. I am 2 stones heavier now than when i got pregnant. I'm thinking my boobs weigh about 7lbs each though....:o :o :o
Seriously need to stop with the choc. I've gone from a regular bar to having a 100g/200g bar and instead of having a box of chocs as a treat, i now get a tin of chocolates instead. (had 2 tins of roses in last 2 weeks) I could say that dd and dp help me to eat them, but i still eat most of them.
My psychological theory on why i'm doing it, is threefold (lol). I was convinced my gestational diabetes was going to be diabetes so i was thinking i'm never going to be able to have sugar again, so in my mind,i was eating chocolate for the last few weeks. secondly, i'm here day after day after day on myself. Babies are 9 weeks and 5 days and dp has been away for 4 complete weeks and for another of the 2 weeks, he has only been here at the weekends. It is very stressful, i'm knackered and i'm not drinking cos i'm breastfeeding, so chocolate has been my coping strategy. And thirdly, i was a size 10, i trained no less than 5 times a week, and i am a qualified fitness instructor, so i know it's not forever, so i may as well just indulge for now cos i know i can fix it when i go back to training with my club in the new year. How can i compete with that logic.......my willpower is just not that strong!!!!!!!!!

beaditali I have gone through so many sleepsuits in last few days cos of leakage with jacob, he definately needs the next size up of nappies.

chickien01 welcome.