Totally's postgrads - you know who you are.

[Meita]

Totally's original thread was for TTC after MC. It continued long after Totally herself graduated, and is still going strong. Totally's grads was set up as a thread for pregnancy post MC - i.e. anyone who graduated from Totally's thread and anyone else who had experienced MC and was now pregnant. It, too, is still going strong.

Now, more and more of us have graduated from Totally's grads - including LouiseSH, whose Georgie was born asleep. I suppose that makes us postgrads. We have travelled together for a long time and would like to stay in touch, but the pregnancy post MC thread is starting to get very big, and I think it should be allowed to keep its focus on pregnancy post MC. May it be as wonderful a place for support for current "members" as it was for us.

So this thread is a place for us to keep in touch, share experiences, and provide support.

(This is the first time ever I'm starting a thread - hope it works out...)

Great news on the tongue treatment Reds, pleased to hear it went ok. Funny how some things are more traumatic for the parent than the patient! I really hope it makes a big difference on feeding, and consequently better sleeping. Still outraged on your behalf it didn't get spotted sooner though

Toomt you know, things might just suddenly get better. At the risk of getting something thrown at my head, we had one surprisingly good night at 6 weeks. Then another. Now a week of good nights.

I have SO just jinxed myself haven't I? There's ARSES for you!

Meita sounds ouch, but good that it turned out to be a muscular thing iyswim. Sounds like a prescription for a long hot bath is required.

Wishing everyone a good night x

Well, we sat down to dinner at 11pm. So only 2.5 hours of howlywailing. Poor thing, so tired she was besides herself. I just sat in a dark room, holding and patting her. Tried to sing a soothing lullaby, but rather think it made things worse :-( Really, really hoping she naps during the day today.

TMT - perhaps you should think of it as gaining a team member. Take her along, if she does wail at least you'll be used to the noise and her cries might well distract your opposition.

Keeping my fingers crossed Gilda that your good nights continue and that Unbuffy had another good sleep.

Meita - ouch! Definitely second Gilda with the hot bath.

Gosh, two babies in our small group with Tongue tie, and it seems it's not routinely checked for and picked up right at the start when it needs to be.
I wonder if this could have been the issue with DS1, he sure did a lot of damage, could we have avoided switch to formula? Still feel guilt at that but he was a tiny tiny baby and couldn't have survived any further weight loss. No speech issues now which it often leads to but have also read some tongue tie stretches and self resolves by the time they learn to talk... . Guess I'll never know...
huge respect to RHG and Dorcas for battling through. Has it made feeding a great deal easier for you now?

We also enjoyed a quiet evening yesterday! Hurrah! More daytime sleeping, and I think I managed to keep him from overtiredness... But probably more by luck than good judgement. It was bliss though to watch something on iplayer whilst feeding contented sleepy boy rather than walking up and down shushing and racking my brain for any soothing tactics that might work next...

Good luck at the quiz TMT

We cranked the heating up last night and got a brilliant night's sleep as a result. Must remember to keep this place warm otherwise she does not want to be put down.

How are you all having such nice evenings!?! I spend the entire time trying to get J to drop off, mostly unsuccessfully. This is crap on a number of levels...

1. DH only ever sees her being grumpy, as a result he believes she is totally grumpy. I think it's genuinely getting him down.

2. I am knackered by the end of the evening, and then the night begins! Luckily her nights seem to be settling as four nights in a row I've only fed once, although I've been woken up regularly to soothe her, but that's quite low level waking.

3. DH and I never get any quiet time together.

SO... what do I do!? It's not like she sleeps all day either. Send tips this way please. I don't mind the cluster feeding, if she's just settle in between. I am however really pleased for you Gi1da and Alba!

What use is an extra team member whose specialist subject is howlywails!?! That won't be one of the rounds! It's a pretty serious quiz, once a year, 40 teams, paid entry, in the village hall, in its 22nd year. She definitely won't be allowed to cry through it! And last year we miraculously came 2nd, and got trophies and everything. Still, not that I bring much to the team at the moment anyway.

Really glad to hear the tongue ties are sorted. My Dad's a dentist and deals with them in young children quite a lot, so they must not always get picked up, which is so rubbish. I hope it really improves things for you guys.

Meita are you feeling better?

And clare you ok? Or have they taken you away for your boob/sleep incident!?!

As I said to RHG on bookface, it's so nice to put tiny faces to names... we make some pretty cute babies!

Hello all,

Am reading your posts but not much time. Hope to join conversation properly soon. Amazing birth story Muser.

Baby's weight fell too low so we're bf and bottle at the mo.

Good news is she will now latch on and do a ten min feed before the bottle.

All tips on how to increase milk and time baby latches on for are welcome.

Xxx

Lotta increasing baby's feeding... Stopping, burping, putting him back on... Nappy change then start again... Breast compressions (see dr jack Newman website for details -just google jack Newman breastfeeding and you should find it), all worked for me. I also expressed whilst I fed (pump and baby one each side) so topped up with expressed milk. We had to do one FF per day (also huge weightloss) but have dropped it now.
Hang in there and good luck!

Everything that Alba said on increasing feeds. Also stripping baby down to just vest & nappy to keep them awake. Muselet got too sleepy to feed so it was nappy changes, stripping off and rubbing her hand/blowing on her face to keep her awake.

TooMT we have our challenges in the evening. Not screaming, but constant feeding. I just don't try to put her down until she's sleepy and keep feeding her. I am an expert at eating one handed now!

turns out the ouchiness is not a pulled muscle but rather a cracked rib. ouchy-ouch-ouch. still nothing I can do about it. grumble.

lotta speed boob swapping. tickling baby. waking baby to feed at night if baby doesn't wake automatically.

toomt I love a good quiz! and you deserve a night out, so I say go! sometimes a walk in the fresh air (to the village hall) in a car seat can have hypnotic sleep powers... you might want to give it a go, and if the howlywailing commences make a swift exit.... Sometimes with a bay you just have to put a brave face on it and tough it out (this is what I told myself after I discovered I'd gone the whole way round sainsburys with my feeding vest unclipped with DS1...)

lotta sorry ot hear you're having a tough time of it - can't offer any further advice than that of the brilliant ladies here, just wanted to let you know I'm thinking of you and I hope this week sees her piling on the oz.

Had a moment of enlightenment last night - the difference between pre-pregnancy and post pregnancy... pre babies if someone threw up in your hair at 2am you'd immediately wash it out... post babies you think "meh... its only a bit of spit really, I'll deal with it in the morning..!"

meita OUCH! on your behalf - is paracetamol helping at all? Can't believe they thought it was a pulled muscle! don't these doctors know you've just been through childbirth and therefore your pain threshold is now extremely high?!

Crikey Meita how'd you do that? How long til it knits?

Clarea not wrong re change of attitude post baba. My immediate instinct this morning was to jump into the wee fountain to save having to wipe up the floor (yup I know, duh, turned my back to get new nappy which I had forgotten to have ready). Realised then my clothes have become nothing but oversized j cloths. This from the woman who once spent more on a pair of boots than my best friend spent on a car.

They are VERY lovely boots and it was a VERY shit car!!

Toomt what's the latest in your quiz plans? Can you use a sling and stand and bounce? Also may work as distraction technique!

How's Muselet getting on?

Lotta no more advice, but good luck!

Didn't jinx ourselves for sleeping last night but have had a want-to-be-held-and-jiggled ALL DAY day today. My arms are like lead!

Gi1da probably it was a big cough. I don't have the best of bones, once managed to crack a rib by sneezing... broke collarbones untold times, and several ribs too. No idea how long it will take, forgot to ask - doctor was very kind and suggested I take lots of painkillers. It would be ok if it weren't for the cough.

Feeling a bit miserable -pout- but hey, I'm finally getting some time to lie around lazily and read

hope everyone is having calm babies this evening and quiet nights ahead!
TMT sometimes being in a loud, busy place is the best way to get a baby to sleep...

Hi Ladies,

On hols in Ireland at home with my family for the last week, been super super lovely but only getting on MN now.

unbuffy great you got some sleep

gilda goodfor u on the good nights!

Glad the tongue tie is getting better too

hope everyone gets good nights tonight..

i'm feeling quite guilty re emcs, i tried so hard but now wonder if i could have been trying harder once my waters broke. all ifs and buts.

ciara doingwell, teeting quite badly though which is crazy given how she is only 12 weeks today but big red cheeks, big swollen gums etc, she is in good form though and still sleeping pretty well.

time for a cup of tea..

i know it's cheesy but just want to thank all of you ladies for all of your support. sorry i'm a bit over emotional today but just ah ye are just amazing.

Oh Meita. You poor thing. I find coughing a nightmare with my stitches. Can only begin to imagine the pain with a cracked rib. Big hug!

ah Lotta, thanks :) but go easy on that hug ok? Do you have a cold on top of everything? Hope it clears up soon, and that you have lots of support!

HappyG, good to hear you had a nice holiday! I know what you mean about being emotional, there are times when I go all gooey over this thread (and the previous ones). It's great to 'have' you all :)

ClareA yes paracetamol takes the edge of the pain, and anyway, today I'm already feeling much better, probably down to coughing much less. And DP is doing everything around the house and I'm just lying around doing nothing :)

We only went and bloody won it! Hahaha... we have a foot high trophy in our fireplace that has to go to the engravers on Monday. I have rarely been so proud. I have to say having MIL in the team and a round on "Kings and Queens" (it's different, and random, each year) sealed it for us, you name the year she names the King!

Plus J was really brilliant, she cried a couple of times so I fed/changed her, but I'd forgotten it's surprsingly noisy in there and people hardly noticed. Then she actually slept through the second half. I think it was a combination of the warmth, noise and the fact that I walked her around for longer than at home. I normally get fed up of having her on my shoulder really quickly at home. But I think having no choice, needing to get her quiet and having a bigger more interesting space to walk around meant I could face it without trying desperately to sit down every two minutes. Anyway, you were right Meita and now we have to look for somewhere bright and noisy every evening! Ouch on the cracked rib though, hope that gets better soon.

Glad you're having a good trip happy... no guilty feelings re. EMCS though, you don't need to. You did what you could do and what happened happened. Ciara doesn't mind how she was born, just that she's here safely, so you certainly shouldn't feel guilty. I hope things get easier for you with time.

Jungle gym playmat thing arrived today, so far it has only caused howlywails. I'm hoping that wears off!

at clare walking around shops with your top undone and Gi1da jumping into wee fountains. I've found myself catching poo on my hand to avoid a full nighttime suit change... gross!

Gilda and Clare my husband calls himself a human muslin cloth.

Congrats TMT!

Sorry, can't stop to namecheck, big style howlywails this evening and it's my turn again in a second.....

Wow brilliant toomt well done!! Glad j behaved so well and you got some time out having fun!

alba in RL my friend who had a baby 2 days after me also had a tongue tie... I hadn't realised how common it was either.

Just marking my place on the big girls thread !!!!!

I will be back at some point once the feeding frenzy has settled (LOL!!!!) down! I have put my birth story on the grads thread and there is a little photo on my profile

Catch up sooooooooon! xx

Good to see you here Magic! Amazing birth story too, lucky you not having to have the Caesarian.

We have first set of jabs tomorrow. I know they shouldn't have them if unwell and I remember with DS1 the nurse was so vague on 'unwell' and said I should judge that. X is very snuffly and sneezing a lot still. Feeding fine and behaving normally (still lots of howlywailing but not unusually so ) so I'm wondering if I should postpone or just get on and get them done?

Poonami... Must go and change...

Big welcome to Magic. Tis great to see you here!

Quick question: growth spurts - when (usually) and how long and what happens? C is the sleepiest baby ever! Really. She was laughing and smiling a lot towards the end of last week so we were looking forward to her sister seeing that this weekend. But since Friday night she's been sleeping for England. We've had barely an hour of wakey baby time - the rest is spent feeding (not vast amounts), crying (not overly much) and sleeping (lots). She's 7 and a half weeks. Does this sound normal? Poor DSD, she was so excited about hearing her little sister laugh.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and that TMT is still revelling from her victory on Friday night!