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

ouch vix hope your hand's feeling better soon. of course you're right about big poos :) which is why I've resisted having scales at home up to now. Trouble is he's not gained anything this week so looking at the bigger picture it's more that he hasn't gained rather than he's lost

mibby I've just seen your other thread, you're not alone on the preferred breast thing, Norry would only take my left boob for the first week of bf. I like your DH's theory! :) I hope you're getting on better now.

Thanks Fenouille its improving slowly, think we might end up with combination bf/ formula feeding rather than ebf but at least the worst of the cant/ wont latch/ feed thing seems to be over. I know its partly hormones but it made me feel such an utter failure

mibby :( it's amazing how it knocks your confidence isn't it? We're still not out of the woods yet either as Norry is still not gaining weight, but for the moment we're topping up with spoon fed breast milk that I've pumped. Bit of a faff but going to persevere for another week or so to see if we can get the weight up before we decide what to do for the longer term.

Mibby, I haven't seen the other thread, but Lottie wasn't feeding well of my right breast at first either, which is what led to my getting mastitis, so you're certainly not alone. She still fusses more on that side, and this is the 3rd baby I've breastfed and still none the wiser as how to improve things! Last time things suddenly got much easier around 6-8 weeks, so hopefully things will improve for us all soon!

It's great to hear I'm not the only shuffler .

Actually, I'm feeeling better today but that could be due to my lie-in, dp took the older two downstairs and Astrid and I stayed in bed until 11.30 (dp also did the 7am feed!). I'm making the most of it as he goes back to work tomorrow, so I've got all three girls and school runs etc from tomorrow shudder.

We gave Astrid her first proper bath today, she managed to sleep right through it..

<a class="break-all" href="//?body=www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=16021461&l=53c7b67952&id=823220225&subject=Astrid" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">?body=www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=16021461&l=53c7b67952&id=823220225&subject=Astrid (hope that works).

Boris, that link links back to this page, bizarre!

Fenouille I was getting confused too. Aino is a good sleeper, but the midwife told me I should be waking her every four hours at least to feed. The problem is that when I did, she really wasn't interested in drinking. Mum, Dad and DH have all been telling me to let her sleep and get some rest myself.

We are slowly getting there with the feeding and I hope that Aino has put on some weight when she gets weighed tomorrow. Certainly if the number of wet nappies is anything to go by then she is getting plenty to eat. The midwife has told me I can stop pumping unless I need to relieve excess pressure.

Does anyone use a hand pump? I've got an electric one on loan from the pharmacy but I'm wondering about investing in a small one for use later if I occasionally want to be able to leave aino with someone else for a few hours.

Mumcha I'm still bleeding a little, but nowhere near the bloodbath that I expected and it's getting more yellow now.

argh am so confused now. friends have told me to try Gina Ford sleep routine to get LO to sleep more at night instead of the waking up every hour (between 2-6) to feed she does now.

mom says to feed her water so she'll get to a 2.5h feeding routine.

MWs say feed on demand for now.

what am i supposed to be doing?!?!?

and then there's the sleeping at night. she drifts off to sleep after a feed and i put her in her cot. 10 min later she's crying and awake and nothing will settle her other than cuddles (not burping, not feeding, not changing). falls asleep in my arms, i try and put her down, cue more crying 10min later.
she doesn't behave like this in the day though so i really don't know what to do.

:(

Vix Its just so unhelpful isn't it, no one can agree what you should be doing.
Personally I'm going for lots of feeds in the daytime then if she sleeps at night I'm leaving her asleep. She's really grumpy and doesn't feed well if woken from that deep night time sleep anyway so I don't see the point. If she wakes up I'll feed her but not otherwise.

Midwife came again this morning and weighed her, shes not put any on but not lost any either so I'm quite pleased.

Vix, I'm having similar problems at night, started this thread today. I'm still feeding on demand, from previous experience they seem to settle into their own routine once they're up to a certain weight, Lottie has just started going a bit longer between feeds, she'll be 5 weeks tomorrow.

Does anyone elses little one have baby acne or milk spots? Poor Lottie is covered, I keep seeing these lovely smooth skinned babies and my little one looks a right mess! Have being assured it'll clear up on its own soon. She obviously takes after me on the spotty skin front, poor thing.

hmm just posted on your other thread with our osteopath experience. I've also just looked up milk spots as never heard of them and yes, we have some here too.

vix I've stopped asking for advice as every time I get a different suggestion I hope things settle down for you soon. If it's any consolation I saw a friend today who said her DD fed every 2 hours every night for the first month. It did improve after that though and in the long run she is convinced it was very positive for her milk supply.

mibby sounds like our DC have a similar routine. We're currently in the middle of the evening crisis of hourly feeding before things settle down for the night. Luckily DH loves playing with him in between the feeds so I can do something useful mumsnet

Weird - I've put pic on profile instead.

Cardi - I don't have a hand pump, but have invested in a Medela Swing. I would recommend, with the only downside being that the motor seems a bit noisy. However, it only takes 5 mins on each breast to get around 5oz so I can live with the noise for 10 mins at a time.

No hourly feeding here, I swear if I left it to her, Astrid would feed once every 6 hours. I aim to get at least 3/4 oz into her around each four hours during the day and then leave it up to her during the night (to lazy to schedule proper feeds in here . I figure if she's hungry enough she'll wake up on her own).

Vix I tend to feed and then cuddle in a loosly swaddled, upright position for about 10 mins to let the milk "settle". Don't know if it's an old wives tale, but it does the trick here and might be worth a try. I've also began using Infacol before feeds too, as A seems to have inherited my Scottish miserlyness and is never keen to part with her wind!

Hi boris when you say you aim for 3-4oz per feed in the day how do you judge this (or are you expressing and feeding from bottles?) I find it hard to work out just how much Norry is getting, as I 'know' that babies are more efficient than pumps for getting milk out so don't know whether to use my pumped amounts as a basis to decide whether to top up or not.

And your daughters are all beautiful :)

Hopefully there's a pic on my profile now

Thanks Fenouille, just need to find the time to find one and take her now!

Gorgeous babies Mibby and Boris, here's Lottie

I've ordered a medela swing too, so glad to hear you like it boris. Cardi, I do also have a handpump but find my hand starts to ache after a while, was all I used with Dd1 but then I never managed to get her to take a bottle, so that probably amounted to it being used about 3 times!

Ooh, all those chubby little cheeks :)

Norry has been eating non-stop since yesterday evening and has finally started to put in some weight so feeling a bit more relaxed (although my nipples aren't).

The midwife thinks (thought?) he may have a UTI that is/was stopping him taking advantage of my milk, so I've spent the last two days trying to get him to pee into a little sack thing in his nappy How is it that he can precision pee over my watch while I change him but not in to this sack which is in his nappy for goodness sake? grrr.

Anyway, the little noodle is sleeping like an angel on my chest at the moment, so I hope you are all also having nice and peaceful afternoons :)

Hello ladies
Didnt think til today to see if the was a thread set up for us who have already popped

So how is everyone doing?
I cant believe DS or I should say Isaac is 2 weeks old today.
Hes feeding like a champ, almost 7lbs now (he was 6lbs 8oz when born) and everything is going well apart from his jaundice still not going so we are off to the hospital Thursday morning for blood and urine tests :(

Hooray, Aino has regained her birth weight. Now I am allowed to let her sleep through the night if she wants to. She celebrated this milestone by staying awake until 3 am, chomping on my nipples every half hour and pooing in her nappy five times.

Thanks for the pump advice. I was looking at the medela harmony as it also likes like a handy size for if we are travelling.

Midwifes just been, Annabel's put some weight on so I feel better now.

Hope everyone else is doing ok :)

Great news Cardi and Mibby :) What a relief for you both. There seems to be something in the water as Einar has now gained weight for the second day running and I'm starting to feel a but more relaxed about it all finally.

Have nice rest of the afternoon everyone - I've got a couple of friends who popped a few weeks before me coming over for Kaffee und Küchen (that marvellous German institution even more sacred than English tea and biscuits). Should be fun :)

Glad little one's are gaining weight Fenouille, Cardi and Mibby. Lottie has been a bit of the opossite, she was 5lb14 at birth and now weighs 9lb7 , but then she does seem to think that being awake equals eating.

I finally got her to sleep in her cot (rather than on me) last night, it took swaddling plus half an hour of singing, stroking etc. to settle her but she finally went to sleep and lasted 2 hours! Small steps but at least it's a start!

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Thought the mamas and papas gift card might be of interest

Hi Fen I was expressing as I wasn't sure if I was 'producing' enough milk (paranoid me?!). However, now that A is visibily bigger I'm happy that she's happy with my supply - if that makes sense?

hmm WOW - that's some increase! Sounds like Lottie is thriving, she's gorgeous Mibby - as is Annabel.

Rinny - Good luck for tomorrow.

Cardi - Hooray and well done Aino. Lol at her celebration!

All good here, although I feel like a bad mother as I have no idea what Astrid weighs. She's only been weighed twice, once at birth and once by the midwife last week. HV coming on Friday so hopefully she'll bring some scales with her. Not too worried though, as A is filling out her sleepsuits much more than last week (tries not to wonder if I've shrunk them in the wash . hmm I've also got a lo who loves being petted. Luckily dd1 and dd2 are always happy to oblige, for the moment - I'm dreading the novelty of their new sister wearing off.

Well done hmm and Lottie here's hoping it's just a start!

Thanks Boris for the explanation, I don't think I was paranoid enough at the beginning! Although I do think it's a bit more healthy to only weigh once a week or so, rather than this obsession and subsequent pressure on new mums.

Fenouille I agree, weekly weighs would be better, MW has weighed Annabel every other day this week and is coming again on friday! It just seems excessive