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

They give first jabs to newborns at birth in Australia??? Yeesh. That's a cruel welcome to the world...

Havent posted for ages, but trying to keeo up as much as I can and glad to hear poorly babies are on the mend :)

Evie had her 8 weeks jabs (at 10 +2) due to Xmas! And she wasn't best pleased! Proper little sobs
and real tears :( poor thing. Made me feel awful! Not looking forward to the next lot, but better than all the nasty things it saves her from I guess.

Have put her in her cot in her own room tonight - boo hoo! Can't believe how sad I feel! She's waking herself up hitting the side of her Moses basket so had to happen sooner than later. She's so good tho and still went down awake, so hopefully she will sleep better for it. Only a couple feet away, but still have monitors at the ready & doors open! Lol
Anyone else put their LO in their own rooms yet?

sarahbuff they vaccinate babies against hepatitis B here, and the first dose is given at birth.....poor things.

babybean We've ordered Will's cot but we're not picking it up until we move house in a couple of weeks. Not sure whether I'll put him in his own room or chicken out and keep him with us.

Been meaning to ask bunnygirl, where abouts in Oz are you? Hopefully not in the flood zone, I have a few Brisbanite friends, thankfully none flooded themselves but it all sounds pretty grim. DH is applying for a job in Melbourne as I type, don't suppose you're from that neck of the woods?

After complaining about Lottie's sleeping in my last post, she's been fantastic the past 3 nights going 8pm til 2.30am til 7.15am, may long it continue , I feel like a new woman! She's started wanting both sides each feed now, so I guess that must have something to do with it, her little belly is now big enough to hold more.

comtessa, hope your wound heals soon. Re the six week check I've had to book it all myself here, no reminders or letters from GP just a list from the health visitor of things I'm supposed to do when.

Thanks Mibby and hmmSleep. It's frustrating because I feel fine (just tired!) but the wound just keeps bleeding sporadically. I am getting better at doing less though and DH has just finished clearing the passage from our back garden to the road to I can take the pram round as we're in a terraced house with steps up to the front door.

Our GP practice is usually helpful and efficient. They saw Anya when she wasn't registered yet and have already sent the appointment letters through for her 8 week check and immunisations. She's six weeks old today so will call tomorrow to arrange something. ABs are affecting me less this time but have taken no chances with LO as her rash has only just cleared up so she's on formula for the week and I'm expressing and discarding my milk. So far so good, but it's easy to forget to express, just hoping I'm doing it enough in order to still have some when I'm off the ABs and back onto combination feeding.

Have just posted thread re. next Nottingham meet-up here

Forgot to say hmm I have friends in Melbourne. They moved over there about four years ago and have just had their first baby. This is my friend's blog about adjusting to life down under - hope it helps! They were intending to only be there for a few years but have really adjusted to it and I don't think they're planning on moving back.

Hi all Oliver got his jabs on wed whih was awful and i forgot to tell them not to give him the whooping cough one so ame home crying he had a fever for 24 hrs afterwards.Now the little mite has chicken pox but they r not othering him at all.

hmm we're in Sydney, so thankfully we're well away from all of the flooding. How exciting that you're thinking of moving over here - I can't recommend the lifestyle enough. If you want any advice/info about life here/moving then feel free to ask away

Well done to Lottie on the sleeping, it's amazing how much difference getting a good night's sleep can make

We got Will a new toy yesterday, my friend's dd has outgrown it so we're looking after it while she persuades her DH to let her have DC2 It's a Fisher Price Jumperoo It seems to be the solution to all our entertainment problems as he absolutely love love loves it. Technically he's still a bit young for it as he doesn't quite have enough head control, so he's only using it under strict supervision, but the boy hates lying down. I have a bad feeling his hatred of being horizontal will lead to early standing/walking, especially as he's already rolling

Thanks bunnygirl, he's not even sure if they're acepting foreign applicants yet but could be exciting, and thanks for the link comtessa, will give it a read. Funnily enough I've visited Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and various other places in Oz, but not Melbourne, so no idea what it's like there!

We have that Jumperoo in the loft from when Ds was little, must did it out soon, it is fantastic, large and expensive but if I remember rightly worth every penny!

Hope Oliver recovers from his chicken pox soon Mumcha.

Blurgh, feeding every 2 hours on the dot all night here for the last 4 nights. Any tips??

On the plus side, yesterday DH had his 2nd day off work since 12th Dec. He's been doing 15 hour days since his paternity leave ended (but at least he took it). Project from hell, poor man.

On Thu I'm attempting to take both boys abroad for DH's grandfather's funeral. Bit of a mad thing to do, but he was v dear to us - and it will also be a chance to spend 72 hours with DH.

Hope chicken pox over soon mumcha - and glad you have water again. That sounded frightful.

Hope things well kiwi.

mumcha sorry to hear about Oliver, hope he's recovered soon.

Umf, how old is your LO now? Could it be a growth spurt?

finn fed like mad on friday and saturday barely going 2 hrs before each feed when usually it's 3-4. Then he went on a bit of a sleep marathon, only waking once in the night saturday, and barely had his eyes open except to graze on tiny amounts of milk til this morning. V strange, not complaining though as got 2 nights with 4.5/5hr stretch of sleep. I'm a new woman i tell you!

Dp has interview this afternoon and has to give ten minute presentation at the start. Fingers crossed he gets it, as would be one less thing to worry about with our move/ my redundancy which has been all but confirmed, should get official notice in 3 weeks and then hopefully can persuade them to pay me all my maternity pay at once as part of my package. My new manager seems to be on my side and has spoken to HR about this fkr me.

Have my post natal check on thurs but annoyed as 'wanted' an internal check but period has decided to make a return today

Hope all is well with rest of you

Oops forgot i named changed, must change it back. In case it wasn't obvious am lainey1981

Just had K measured at the baby clinic and she's 12lb and (a very tall) 63cm! Puts her at 50th and 95th percentile. Oh she's 10+5wo.

Her weight gain has slowed down but the nurse says bf babies are like that?!? She still feels heavy to me though.

Qn: how DO you get your LOs to sleep in the day? K refuses to be put down still! Either she sleeps on me or she gets v cranky when left to sleep in her cot.

Lainey fingers crossed re redunduncy pkg for you.
Is a lon meetup still on?

vix yes meet up still on though only seems to be us 2 interested. Although think kiwikat might be from london too. I'll post a message on the meet up thread

Hey everyone, extremely pleased with LO here! Aiden slept for 10 hours last night (9:30pm till 7:30am). That's the longest he has slept and it was really scary at first when I woke up and realised he hadn't woke/fed for so many hours. But I feel much better having had a nice 7 hour sleep (I went up about 11:30/12 ish).

Aiden has got his 12 week injections on Wednesday, hoping he'll be as good about them as he was last time. DP might be coming with us this time, if he can get a bit of time off work - so I might get him to hold Aiden whilst they give him the injections

Quick question for any ebf mummies - I don't express very often but has anyone found that after they've expressed, their baby then gets really fussy later on in the day? Jessica is 6 weeks today, feeds brilliantly usually (has gone from 7lb 3 to 10lb 12 in 6 weeks, chubbster!) but if I've expressed during the day she seems to get upset during evening feeding, and then gets really fussy and screamy until she wears herself out... Her sad little face makes me feel so guilty!

Also this week, am getting a taste of mixing work and parenting - am taking phone and email enquiries and bookings for my aunt & uncle's properties until the end of the month and it's so time consuming and stressful and I miss being able to just focus on Jessica all day. Doesn't bode well for my return to to work but at least it's not until October. Anyone having to go back to work anytime soon?

Ps if anyone wants to book a luxury self catering cottage in Norfolk.... Shameless plug but I'm working on commission and I want to buy a jumperoo after bunny mentioned it!!

sgj is it anywhere near Cromer by any chance? Me and dp usually go and spend a week with his family on their holiday in august but the house they rent is now to small for our famille too, so are looking for somewhere nesrby

Thanks lainey! He's 7.5 weeks. Last night he fed at 7pm, 9pm, 11pm, 1am, 3am, 5am, 7am, and 9am. Now he's been asleep for 2 hours in pram cos I've been walking.

I tried to make the 11pm sleep a really big one, but that didn't help. I fed in chair and put him back in his cot after it too instead of just feeding him in bed in case the cosleeping was encouraging snacking. But ravenously hungry at 1am anyway.

Tonight DH will have to give him a bottle of formula at 11pm. 5 nights of this have nearly killed me. Or rather, I'm still surviving fairly cheerfully, but am becoming dangerously stupid. With DS1 I once mistook a bottle of floor cleaner for mouthwash; I don't want that kind of thing happening again.

Is it growth spurt? Or cos he's so big? (about 13lb/6kg already at under 8 weeks, already in his size 3-6 month clothes) I feel like I have loads of milk, so don't think it's that. Aargh.

SGJ I too am doing some account work at home as we have our own business. Took mat leave from other job but unfortunately still have to do our stuff! Luckily Evie sleeps for an hour ish in her chair a few times during the day so I try to do it then. Do find it a struggle at times tho & wish I could just focus all my attention on her!

She slept for 8 hours last night so feel a lot more refreshed! Feel for you umf as I thought every 4 hours was bad enough! Does he feed that freqently during the day as well?

Forgot to say, Evie also been in her cot in her own room for the past 3 nights & has been a little star! Seems to love the extra space & wakes up chattering away full of smiles which is lovely! :)

SGJ we get the 'fussy after expressing' thing sometimes but we also get 'fussy for the sake of bring fussy' so I cant decide if there's a connection. Could it be to do with expressing the more watery milk and leaving the creamy stuff behind which takes a bit more effort to get out?

babybean glad shes doing so well in her cot, think we'll have to try that soon, before she gets wedged in her basket!

Oh umf you poor thing that must be really tough! I doubt it is because he's big, Skye is 14lbs and 9 weeks tomorrow, she's a major chunk! She has been sleeping through 10:30pm until 7:30am without a feed for a few weeks now. I doubt very much that there is anything "wrong" it's probably just that he's gotten into this habit of waking up. Have you tried settling him with a cuddle instead of a feed, at least the times when he's waking up and it's only been a short time since his last proper feed? Other question, how long and how vigorously does he nurse each time?

Hi everyone. Sleep info is really useful. Looks like 12lb's is the key. Teddy wakes for a 2am, ish feed but is quick and goes straight back down. Then again at 5-6, aftyer which he's pretty unsettled but will sleep again.

Had 8 week immunisations today and he's slept most of the afternoon, just waking for a feed - is this normal?

umf, not sure how you feel about dummies but would trying one help him to settle. I don't use one all the time but sometimes it does help to comfort him, it flops out after 10 mins and he's back asleep - I know not everyone likes them - just an idea

Umf - I really feel for you! I suspect Jessica would feed whenever I offered her a nipple, so we often pacify her with a little finger & some jiggling & eek it out to 3 hours when she's being fussy. If your LO doesn't take a dummy, maybe 'the finger' will help? Hope it all settles down soon.

Hadn't thought about foremilk/hindmilk thing, Mibby, could be the case. Might just have to resort to ready prepared formula in future if it continues although I'm so proud of my breast milk only status!! But for the sake of a happy baby it doesn't matter really, does it?!

Any yes, Lainey, their properties are in East Runton, about a mile on from Cromer (small world!) although their cottages are luxury ones and v v expensive in the summer!! Would work out about £300 per person for a week but there is a hot tub!! Sorry all for taking the thread on a complete tangent!!

It's 5:30am and I gave up on sleep an hour ago. So far tonight, if Will hasn't been feeding he's been tossing and turning and grunting so loud I can't sleep through it anyway

In the last 2 days he's gone from waking once in the night to feeding at midnight, 2am and 4am and being a nightmare to get off to sleep in the first place.

I'm really not sure if it's the three month growth spurt or that he's just got used to getting fed if he wakes. He resettles himself fine if he stirs during his daytime naps, so don't know why he'd loose the ability at night. Tried giving him his dummy while he was still half asleep and grunting, it just seemed to make him wake up more.

I think I'll give it another night and if he's no better I might get DH to try resettling and see if food not being on offer helps.