November 2010: Welcome to life on the other side

[bunnygirl80]

Pull up a chair and help yourself to a LARGE glass of wine

Welcome to the dark side the wonderful world of motherhood

Ooh, a post-natal thread somehow makes it official

Well that and the fact I'm up and feeding at 4am

Thanks bunnygirl, just marking my place

thanks bunnygirl ,how weird does it seem we have a postnatal thread and not long ago we were talking about our pregnancy worries now it will be baby worries.

With all the babies arriving, this thread should fill up fast as long as we can all stay awake long enough to post!

Abbie is doing great. She put on over a pound this week going from 8lbs to 9lbs2. Newborn clothes no longer fit her and she's practically out of the 'up to one month' sizes too. She's 3wks old today and seems to have been here forever.

She feeds really well, almost too enthusiastically though as she guzzles then ends up puking quite a bit! I try to get her feeding every 3hrs during the day. Night is hit and miss. Some nights she'll go 4hrs in between feeds and other nights, like last night, she'll feed every 2hrs which is a bit of a killer when you have to get up with a toddler in the morning.

The HV did her final home visit and we can go to clinic from now on. She kept asking me if I get out much. Er.... not when it's pissing down with rain, no! I suppose her thought process is that if you get out and about, you're less likely to suffer with pnd? I do get out when I can work up the energy !

Anyway looking forward to hearing about all the new arrivals.

Ebb sounds like you're doing great :) Cooee mumcha and hmm it's nice to be on the other side

We spent one and a half hours with my midwife today discussing bf as Einar's weight has stagnated since last week. We checked position and latch and she got us going on the 'other' boob. He fed for over an hour so now I'm feeling bad as I've been practically starving him since last week when we started bf after 10 days of bottles.

Anyway, midwife was very supportive and I'm going back next week to check on progress. Going to keep pumping to stimulate supply and top him up with expressed milk for the next few days to give him a bit of a boost.

He's a right skinny-malink so hopefully he's going to start to fill out soon.

Thanks for starting this bunnygirl :)

BF got off to a good start in hospital but I'm having to top up with formula at the min, my milk isnt in yet (side effect of the epidural apparantly, tho no one told me....thank god for MN). Shes still latching and sucking tho, just not getting a lot. Hopefully it will arrive soon!
Spent most of morning/ early afternoon with a migrane so feel like my Friday is just begining, odd, especially as its dark again!

Hello, here we are on the other side. May I just say that my nipples are absolutely killing me. Had to express in the hospital (lazy baby and clueless mother). Aino is now very enthusiastic about breastfeeding, but tends to chomp a bit . DH put his finger in her mouth when she was hungry and I think he now appreciates what a powerful suck she has. The midwife has also got me worried that she is not putting on weight, so I have to collect 24 hours worth of nappies. Going through those will be fun.

hi all well i had to change Olivers formula from sma to cow and gate last night as the sma was making him constipated and sore.But on the plus side from i changed him he has had two dirty nappiess and isnt in pain anymore :). It was actually the hv that suggested changing the food as sma doesnt have something in it [cant remember the name] that it causes most babies to become constipated .

Can't believe Lottie is over a month old, the time has flown by. The little monkey is still refusing to be put down to sleep, or at any other time for that matter. It's come as a bit of a shock, I thought 3rd babies were supposed to slot into things easier, Lottie is far more hard work than the last 2! A few people have recommended Cranial Osteopathy, not sure it's something I 'believe' in so to speak, not a big one for alternative medical practices, but I'm willing to try anything. Does anyone know anything about it?

Glad things are going well Ebb, I can't believe how fast they're growing either, Lottie only wore a couple of things twice and they no longer fit, they drowned her when she first came out.

Hope Einar starts to fatten up soon Fenouille.

CardiCorgi, I remember the sore nipples from Dd1, Ouch! Thankfully I think they've toughened up this time, I've already had mastitis and thrush, but thankfully not sore nipples. I found rubbing some breast milk on them and letting them get plenty of fresh air really helped with sore nipples, along with lansinoh.

Mumcha, when I switched to formula last time I had the same problem with sma. I was advised to use Aptamil as it's closest to breast milk and gentlest on their tummies, so you could give that a go too if the cow and gate starts causing problems or you can't get hold of it for any reason.

Hope your milk comes in soon mibby, get the cabbage leaves at the ready!

hmm we saw the osteopath a couple of days ago as it is de rigeur here. I was (still am) also pretty sceptical but Norry seemed to like the massage if nothing else. The osteopath did claim to have slightly evened up his head so that his eyes open equally wide

cardi it's a lovely name regardless of its origins, but I do have a soft spot for Finnish names - they always sound so joyful :) And the people and the country are so nice, what a lovely heritage she has :)

And you have my sympathies, we have another chomper here as well. Probably exacerbated by only using one boob for a week (although we got him to take the other one yesterday, yay) but I'm hoping they toughen up soon.

Quick question to the non-first-timers - how long is too long when sleeping at night not to feed? Norry slept 6 hours through last night (and I swear I'm not boasting but I'm a bit worried that's too long. During the day he normally wakes every 2 hours to feed during the day and has slept for 3-4 hours at night since the beginning when he was in bottles, but since he's been getting a proper serving (since yesterday) that's spread out to roughly every 3 hours. He feeds about every 1 hour in the evenings from 8pm onwards. Does that sound normal? I have no idea what the expect

Just had a midwife visit, seems the milk is here but not in vast quantities so shes given me a schedule to express/ feed to so we can improve things.

Annabel wasnt impressed with the heel prick and being undressed for weighing tho.

fenouille your not alone oliver has been sleeping from about 8 or9 until 4am then going back down 20 mins later until around 8 or half past.but from 6pm he takes bottles every hr until he goes asleep for the night.Iasked my hv about lifting him to feed him but she said dont as he will wake when hes hungry,hes just a good sleeper :)

Oooh just spotted this - hi all.

Nothing too exciting here. Astrid is a delight, very contented and happily munches from breast and bottle with no apparant preference. Although, I have invested in a pump to reduce the FF guilt trips (Medela swing btw and I would heartily recommend). Glad I did, as both older girls were off school almost all week with a horrible virus and so far Astrid doesn't seem to have been affected. Mind you, I could have happily strangled the other two by Thursday evening as they would not stop bickering and picking at each other - back to school on Friday and what a relief .

The mw team "forgot" about us and I had to call and remind them that we hadn't had a home visit. The mw came and took heel prick, which wasn't too traumatic as Astrid was too busy on the boob to cry. I mentioned various aches and pains/headaches etc. and was prompty sent to the gp, who then sent me back to the day unit at the hospital. BP is still high, but according to the hospital it's likely to remain so for a few weeks until hormones settle back down. So have to continue visiting the docs a couple of times a week for BP monitoring - great .

I'm still walking around like an old lady, not that I've been doing much walking to be honest. Am I the only person who isn't fully mobile yet? It's now 8 days since the birth and mentally I feel like I should be able to do more, but am phyisically knackered.

boris it took me a fortnight before I could sit down pain free and was also shuffling round like an old lady. But I've finally started feeling more normal so hopefully you'll start feeling better soon :)

oh mumcha just saw your post. I thought I remembered you saying Oliver is a good sleeper but I didn't realise he cluster fed with bottles as well in the evenings. I do think I will set an alarm tonight though as he seems to struggle with the latch if its been too long since the last feed. And we're still having weight gain issues so I guess I need to encourage him to boost a bit?

Boris im still hobbling too, and knackered. Just take it as easy as you can :)

oh dear, i was told to wake her up every 3h if she doesnt wake up herself. both for her feeds and to keep the milk production up.

then again i never had the problem of having to wake her up at night. she wakes up every 1.5-2h! driving me nuts already.

qn: anyone else having wrist pains/carpal tunnel aches? or is it just me having problems with my big baby?

these days i find i have problems bending my right wrist and it feels like i dont have much strength in it. debating whether to go see the GP and poss get a jab/steroidcream/wrist splint.

all the picking up baby from cot at night and nursing and comforting is making it hurt.

Hi vix that's why I'm confused, I've also heard that but my midwife didn't seem surprised when I told her. We haven't had the usual evening tantrum tonight though so maybe we are finding a new rhythm now he's eating properly.

Ouch about your wrist :( Definitely see your Dr about a splint before it becomes chronic.

Hi mibby hope you're feeling better soon too.

hi all was just wondering if every1 is still bleeding ?Everyone has told me my bleeding should have stopped but its been 17 days and im still bleeding

Vix I got told to wake her every 3-4 hrs too, for milk production as much as for her. Different advice from different people I guess :)

boris I've just noticed that yesterday and today have been the first 2 days that I've been able to walk around completely pain free (am on day 10 now). My pain was actually the worst on day 7 - was on the verge of ringing the obs to get myself checked out, but I think I'd been pretty numb from the swelling the first few days, and as it went down I actually felt the pain. Ended up spending the evening sitting with ice packs in my knickers and my bra

fen I was told to wake every 4 hours at night, but then in our breasfeeding class they said if your baby is cluster feeding in the evening the will probably sleep longer over night. So yet more conflicting advice for you

Yet another one here being used as a human dummy. I caved yesterday, and gave Will an actual dummy for the first time, while being racked with guilt and worrying he'd start to reject the boob. Took him 2 mins with the dummy to settle off to sleep, compared with the hour he'd been gnawing on my nipple

mumcha I'm still bleeding nearly 5 weeks on,just starting to settle the last few days. I've heard it's normal to take up to six weeks so I wouldn't worry.

haha love the way all the advice is conflicting, and they wonder why us first time Mums get so stressed Actually the problem partially solved itself last night as he woke every 3 hours by himself (I'd set the alarm for 4 hours). Just weighed him again though and he's lost 10g since yesterday :( I think we're going to have to start topping up again :( I just don't get it, I know I have milk and I can hear him swallowing and feel him emptying the boob and he's consistently eating for 30-40 mins total (20-30 mins on first boob, 10-20 mins second boob). It's so frustrating :(

Fen, 10g cld be just one massive poop?

My hand still hurts so taken to feeding propped up on bed, baby resting on tummy so I don't hv to support entire body.
Advantage is she seems to latch on faster in this position too.