December 2010 - Merry Christmas new babies!

[Chooster]

Hi, I couldn't see a post-natal thread but as we grow in numbers we'll need a place to chat!

All good here... Jude is now 5 days old and such a wonderful good baby. Mind you he must think he's been born in the Arctic as it was -16 outside this morning in Edinburgh. Brrrrrrr - Its not always this cold Jude .

How's everyone else getting on?

lol at the poo stories

kitty sorry you and your DH are arguing so much. The sleep deprivation really does affect you more than you sometimes realise. Have you two had any time off since LO arrived? If not, it might be worth arranging something if you can. One of the things I think dads don't get is what it's really like to be a full time mum and if they really understood, things would be a little different. But life just isn't like that!

rudbekia I got my period this week as well - lucky old me had to book a smear test too

crazy sorry to hear your family are ill, there's certainly a lot of bugs around at the mo. Any chance of you negotiating a morning off at the weekend - getting out of the house, even if it's just to the local coffee place with a good book?

WWSB of sleeping baby - Matthew howled at our appt this week. He wasn't too bad after the first jab but the second, well that was another story!

Had my pn check up as well - GP didn't even ask about, let alone look at my stitches. Fine by me - I think that area has undergone more than enough close inspection

Hope everyone's having a good day

sorry you're feeling low cheryl I'm not a bfeeder so I can't really help, but having had a look at your questions, I would imagine if you're only thinking of introducing one bottle, your body will manage to cover the rest of her milk needs and therefore you'd be able to revert to EBF if you need/want to at some point in the future. From what I understand you have to make sure you don't cut out bf at night as that affects your milk supply. Good luck.

oh and I know it's easy to say it, but don't compare yourself to the other mums - they aren't you!

Sorry you're feeling so down. I've had a look at your other thread and it looks like you're getting some great advice. I'm interested too. I ebf my DD until she was around 8 months but not sure I want to do it for as long this time around.

I have tried my LO with a tommee tippee bottle and a carton of Aptimil when I wanted a night off. She wouldn't take it from DP and only took it from me when I put the teat right next to my nipple. After that though she was fine but my boobs woke me up around 4.30am coz they were so full. Think this only happens for a week or so though.

It seems perfectly possible to mix-feed babies but the most important thing is doing whatever it takes to make you feel happy. My mum bf her first 2 children then FF the rest of us (3), she said it was just too difficult to sit and bf with her other children running about. 37 years on I feel no lingering resentment about this , and am just glad she did what was best for her.

I'm also very, very about your night-time routine!

cheryl I think you have been given excellent advice on that thread, nothing I could add to it except I mixed fed my 2 boys,as I had to work and could not express, they both managed fine with BF evenings and mornings, one dropped BF suddenly one day when he was 8m, the other was over a year IIRC.BTW re Formula milk- try tasting it- there were some I wouldn't give my Ds's as they were yuk- some years ago though.

And comparing yourself to other people is misery- you know it.I bet you are not in the least fat and if you have a bit of a jelly belly then at least you are 10 yrs younger than me that is plenty of time to do something about it!

Hi, thanks for your replies as well, I've taken some of the advice and ideas from the thread and will see how we get on. I keep saying to myself that I must try to catch up with you all, but I find I can get too lost in MN and spend hours reading just 1 thread then feel bad at abandoning dp on the other side of the room.

Oh meant to add, I am also unimpressed with DH right now. Don't want to get into a rant about it. I know it is part of the baby process and the rollercoaster will come round to the good bits again, just annoying having this constant low level irritant.

Baby is doing great though- 11 1/2 lb, smiley, alert, sleeping better and not hurting when BF. Starting to enjoy nappy changes and baths. Nosy and talkative- typical girl!

My 6 week check is going to be at 8 weeks - next week. I am slightly concerned they will want to give her jabs at same time .

We are hoping to get an extension built starting in a few weeks, not looking forward to the disruption, noise, dust etc with the baby but will all be worth it I hope!

I feel a bit mean for ranting about DH now. I'm feeling like hell with the bug DC's have got and tonight he offered to cook dinner and he got all the DC's ready for bed without me having to ask and he sais he'll take DC's down in the morning to let me sleep too.

Why does he have to be really helpful or totally unhelpful? We need to find something in the middle.

ff I don't envy you with the building works coming soon. Our house is due to have heating and wiring done soon and I'm really dreading it.

Ooh lucky you Franken having an extension done. I wish I was in your position, having owned a couple of houses each, and having to sell up when splitting with our respective exes, we find it so frustrating renting. Hopefully it won't cause you too much grief and will be so worth it when it's done.

Off shopping for DD tomorrow (I could spend a fortune on childrens clothes ), although she hasn't filled her clothes out she is far too long now for the 0-3 stuff.

crazykat - the heating really isn't that much of an upheaval. I had it done on my last house when ds2 was a few months old and tbh I really didn't find it any bother at all. Dunno about the rewiring as the plan was to rewire room by room as I did each one up but I only got as far as the kitchen before splitting with xp.

ff that's what they did with us - put the baby check at 8 weeks (rather than 6) and did the first jabs at the same time. I also discovered that they've moved the second MMR jab much earlier now as well.... He was a bit grizzly that evening and some of yesterday, but I think his teeth are bothering him a bit . He's back to his smiley chatty self today though.

meant to say earlier that Matthew slept from 10pm to 6.30am last night - as I went to bed at the same time as him, it meant I got 8 hours uniterrupted sleep for the first time in....I genuinely cannot remember how long! Fingers crossed he manages it again tonight. Would be great if he's cracked it as it's half term next week and I'll need all my energy to entertain DD

cheryl I'm with you on the children's clothes buying!

max so of 8 hours sleep, I count myself lucky if I get 4 hours solid sleep, though the past few nights it's been two between feeds and other DC's waking due to illness.

I'm hoping DS will sleep better tonight after coughing himself sick last night. Took him back to the doctors today and he's got a chest infection which is causing his fever.

I'm hoping Kira's cough is just from her cold. I feel so sorry for her when she had a coughing fit, she coughs so bad she can't even cry when she finally stops - she can only manage a little whimper. At least with the older two they can have calpol and cough medicine, Kira can't have anything and it's aweful seeing her like this again. I'm just glad this time she isn't choking and going blue like she was at two weeks old with her first cold.

Glad you are getting some good advice cheryl I did take a look at your thread but as a first timer I have no useful advice to give. I agree with Maxpower though, try not to compare yourself with other mums. Most of my NCT group seem very keen to excercise but at 40 I have no motivation to start running round the park at 9am!

crazyKat, FF and anyone else who is frustrated by their husbands - you have my sympathy. I too don't want to get all ranty about it but it's really hard finding a way to explain to DH that I am trying not to over stimulate the baby without it sounding like I am criticising him all the time. we had a chat this afternoon about it and I think it's all ok but I do feel iritated a lot of the time.

Bob isn't going to be in 0-3 for much longer either, he is now 11lb 11 oz :)

Injections are next Monday, really not looking forward to it. We also have an appointment with the hospital consultant on Tuesday which is something we will have to do regularly after his problems at the birth.

Top tip about the bottle right next to nipple Esian I've been trying to give DD expressed milk. Tried different bottles, teats, temperatures, even different people. But your tip worked this evening and she guzzled down two ounces - yay!

Cheryl I've found that DD likes the breastmilk quite hot and I also pour cooled boiled water over the teat so it's nice and warm too. I'm using Medela and Tommee Tippee Closer to Nature bottles. DD quite likes Aptimel. I've only tried the readymade cartons though - also heated up.

I'm of 8 hours' sleep maxpower! The most DD has managed is 10pm to 4.45am and that was only the once!

I'm started to dread the time after 5pm. It can go really easy and she's asleep by 7.30pm and then other days she's cluster feeding or just won't settle properly until 9.30pm.
Anyone else find that their babies are more settled if you're out and about doing stuff?

DP is worried about DD's neck now. She always sleeps with her head facing to the right and looks to the right all the time. Anyone got any experience of this? there's loads of advice on the net - too much

franken Good luck with the extension.

I hope your DD and DS get better soon crazykat

Have a fantastic weekend :)

Hi ladies,

I haven't been on in ages but am going to try and keep in touch a bit more.

The girls are now 14 weeks old, as they were premature they are still fairly small. Florence is 9lb 6oz & Vivienne 10lb 11oz. They've only just started wearing 0-3 month clothes so at least I'm getting good wear out of everything

I've started a proper routine this week and so far it's going well, GF but I'm doing it loosely, I haven't blacked out the windows or anything. Every night this week they've been asleep at 7pm and it's nice to have my evenings back,they don't sleep through though, and in previous weeks I've had nights of them each waking every other hour now we're routining it though, we're down to just a couple of night time wakings.

What is everyone doing about 11pm feeds, do you let the babies sleep until they wake by themselves from 7pm, dreamfeed or do a proper wake up at 11pm? I've tried all but am unsure what works best. I'd be interested to see what's working for you all (or not as the case may be)

What about where the babies sleep? I have 1 cot in our room which they share but they are starting to get a bit too big for it and I think they are waking each other in the night. Only answer is to put the cot in the nursery withe the other one and split them up . It is right next to our room though (joining walls) so I could hear everything and have a monitor.

Will try and keep up and hope you are all doing well, I'm a few weeks ahead of most of you and can honestly say it's only really been the last 3 weeks that I feel like I'm on top of it and am actually used to being a mum and now that they smile back it is just the best

Hello Lavita, if my DD sleeps at 7pm, I dream feed at 11pm. I don't wake her. She BF automatically for about 6 minutes and then sleeps until 5am. But if she goes to bed later, I don't bother and she wakes then at 2am and 5am.
I sleep in spare room with DD in Moses. Have Moses in the cot ready for full transition to cot soon. I don't want to leave her on her own yet only cos I'm a heavy sleeper. My neighbour has twin girls and they sleep in separate cots in same room. She hired a sleep consultant who said it's better to have twins in separate rooms but neighbour didn't do that.
Congrats on getting them in a routine though :)

Hi all, well welcome to half term weather! Was looking forward to getting out an about this week with the boys but doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Lavita, well done getting into a routine with your girls, must be so much harder with 2. We have DD in a cot at the end of our bed, I'm not one for putting babies in their own room until quite a bit older, but I'm not sure if we'd squeeze 2 cots into our room, so in your position would have to put them straight into own room.

Stenogirl, yes DD is very peaceful when we're out and about. She is also one for sleeping in odd positions. Her favourite position is with her head twisted and hanging down to the right. Looks very uncomfortable but she seems to like it.

We're not happy as someone has taken a chunk out of our new car (we've only had it a week after getting rid of the 'poocasso'. Can't believe we only had that for 2 months! But it truly was awful). We don't know when it happened and it's more annoying as the car was so clean with no marks whatsoever.

steno my nephew only slept with his head on one side and my sis got him some sessions with an osteopath (cranial...) and it seemed to do the trick. it was almost as if it was painful for him to sleep any other way. just a thought. Also how old is your DC again? DD gave us real problems after her 6pm feed for about three weeks, refusing to settle, crying, the odd bought of cluster feeding and sometimes wouldn't sleep until after the 10om feed. She does seem to be getting better. (I read somewhere that babies can be generally unsettled at this time of night; its not 'colic' just their natural 'wakeful' time esp. they've slept lots during the day.)

Lavita DD used to wake at 10pm for a feed but for the last couple of weeks she's been deeply asleep at this time - I was waking her but she fed badly and was awake for a feed again at 1am! I tried the whole 'dream-feed' thing but had similar issues. I've resorted to not waking her and waiting until she does - the first night of doing this she woke at 1.30am for a feed then slept until 6.15am! The second night she woke at 12am and 4am for feeds and last night she woke at 12am, had a feed, then again at 3am..but wasn't fussing so DH settled her back down and she went to sleep until 6.45am....I really hope this is the start of dropping the middle of the night feed, but I'm not holding out much hope!

DD in her cot in her new Grobag! After a great week of her dropping off within about 1/2 an hr of being put to bed, tonight she's mega unsettled. sigh. I think she got a bit overtired yesterday - took her into to work and she was passed from pillar to post - with no fussing - but I'm paying for it today!

Cheryl know what you mean about the weather - damp and miserable here. sorry to hear about the car, how annoying, I'd be equally about it...but I did chuckle at 'poocasso'!!!

steno my DS used to always sleep on the same side and nothing we tried worked. He did eventually grow out of it and he doesn't do it now.

Poor DD1 now has a fever btu thankfully DS seems to be getting better with his antibiotics. I just hope Kira doesn't end up with it too, but it's looking likely with her cough getting worse.

I'm so tired, even though DH was on baby and DC duty this afternoon while I went back to bed for a few hours I could quite happliy sleep till monday, this bug is aweful, I've turned into a big baby with it and just want to curl up in bed till it's gone.

lol crazy and steno don't be too Matty woke up for some milk at 3am last night. DH had just got in from work and told me he'd be up to feed him in a minute, but by the time he got upstairs, I'd finished feeding him!

lavita well done on establishing a routine. If it's any help, my SIL had her twins in their own cots in the nursery (which was actually on another floor to her room) pretty much as soon as they got home from hospital (about 5 weeks old).

cheryl about your car - although I like my poocasso as you call them . Not impressed with the weather forcast either, especially as DH is working late shifts and trying to study so it would be mega useful if I can get the DC's out of his way this week. Think I'll have to call on my mum for some help....

hope you and the DCs are better soon crazy

DD and I made some fab scones this afternoon - the last time I tried was at school and they were a complete disaster. I'm turning into a bit of a cake maker I think!

Crazykat - that sounds horrendous! The last thing you need with a new baby... some of these viruses are awful and seem to last for ages. Fingers crossed Kira starts to improve soon (and your other 2 of course!).

Good to hear from you again lavita - sounds like you are getting it sussed with the routine. The two friends I have with twins put them in 2 cots in the same room as well once they outgrew one joint cot... not sure if it worked well or not though.

DF - like you, I'm not much keen on exercising but I do want the benefit of it! Damn... Am seeing my best pal for the first time in about 9 months in 2 weeks time and although it doesn't matter I'd like to look good, actually thats not really true, i want to feel good, but at the moment I feel like a lump with a big jelly belly - and it kind of gets me down sometimes.

In terms of routine, I put Jude to bed anytime between 7pm and 9pm depending on when he settles and then just let him sleep on until he wakes up himeself. The lsat few weeks this has normally been just the once about 4am. He's a good boy .

Hope all doing well. Its been our half term last week and I'm so looking forward to school being back. My elder boys normally get on well but they are just bugging the hell out of each other and fighting - not like them at all and its driven me to distraction...

I am reading all your posts about routines with interest as I am still co-sleeping and we don't have a routine to speak of. Bob always goes to sleep by 11pm and sleeps through until 5 am or sometimes even 6am but we've never had any kind of routine for the hours before that except for tonight and yesterday when he slept from around 7/8pm until 11pm (one day I just fed him in his sleep and he slept through) and then carried on sleeping until gone 5am.

I wonder if I am making a rod for my own bak and I am going to regret it later but I just love having him here in the bed. I have been trying to put him into the crib for naps but he wakes up and cries and despite trying to comfort him and shush him back to sleep he is just much happier in the bed, on me or sometimes in the moses basket. I am happy with this now but wonder if it will be a pain when I need to go back to work.

I went out with friends today and one sad 'get him into a routine as early as possible' but I just don't feel the urge to force it yet.

Wave to lavita your twins sound lovely. It's amazing that they are still both smaller than Bob and yet so much older than him.

sorry to hear about your car cheryl

CrazyKat you poor thing having to suffer all that. Hope you and all your dc's are better soon.

DF, Caitlin is in her own routine really, I'm not one for routine and kind of just go with the flow so to speak. If you're comfortable as you are don't feel you have to get yourelf and Bob into a routine would be my advice, and the same with the co-sleeping.

Chooster, same here. I've stopped taking the pills I was on as I read a bit and most people using them said they made them moody and put on weight, so they all went in the bin. I hate wearing jeans, if I could ban one item of clothing it would be them, but atm feel too fat to wear anything else. Which in turn is getting me down as I don't feel confident in jeans.

It was ds1 who came up with 'Poocasso'. I, very unimaginitively, called it The Blob and DP called it The Egg. DS1s name stuck and seemed more apt! SIL also loves her one maxpower and I've only ever read 2 bad reviews about them (both complaining about the same things we hated).

Rib Eye steak for dinner tonight, Pizza Hut nachos to start. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm, can't wait! Hang on, did I say I was down about my weight? A few hours a day on the Kinect is going to be needed.

We went to see Bob's Great granny today. When he sucked his hands she asked if we had a dummy (we don;t) and it made me wonder, is hand sucking not comforting enough? Is that what dummies are for? I always saw them as things you put into a baby's mouth to shut it up ha ha

One of my NCT friends has put up a picture on facebook of their baby holding a pencil so now I am thinking 'ooh, should Bob be doing that?' - amazing how competitive things get eh!

oh that was horrible Bob had his injections today. Cried and cried and then cried some more. Dreading the next ones.