Late Jan 2011 (some very, very late!) - here we go!!!

[ThreeBubbasAndManyBumps]

Graduated
JJKM - Twin Girls
Stars - Baby Boy
FloraPost - 6th Jan - Baby Boy
Mimou - 14th Jan - Baby Boy - 7.3lb
Zippy - 14th Jan - Baby Boy - 7lb
LadyBuzz - 18th Jan - Kali Margaret Briany 6lb 1oz
Scuba - 22nd Jan - Baby Girl - 6lb 13oz
AmIGoingMad - 25th Jan - Baby Boy - 7lb 5oz
Gallicgirl - 26th Jan - Alys May - 7lb 2.5oz
BubbaAndBumps - 27th Jan - Lachlan Robert - 12lb 3oz
Travispickles - 27th Jan - Saskia Faye
Fuzzy - 28th Jan - Evan James - 8lb 8.5oz
*Saltnvinigar - 28th Jan - Henry David
Ryuk - 28th Jan - Ezra - 7lb 4oz
TheBreastMilksOnMe - 30th Jan - Amelia Rose - 8lbs 9.5ozs
SaraL77 - 31st Jan - Reuben Mark - 7lb 2
Pootle - 2nd Feb - Jacob - 8lb 9oz
cyberfairy - 4th Feb - Rowan - 7lbs 7oz
RockLover - 5th Feb - George Christopher - 8lbs 4oz
RunningKatie - 5th Feb - Isobel Millie
CupcakesHay - 5th Feb - Jesse William - 7lbs 1oz
Crystylline - 8th Feb - Xavier Louis - 8lbs 11oz

Count: 8 girls, 15 boys

Still Huffing and a Puffing..?
Shanster: 30/01 Boy (1DD)
Faraway Trees: 22/01
RobynLou: 24/01 ?? (1DD)
Loopylu: due 31/01 (1st?)

Here we go, down the slippery slope of parenthood. Slippery thanks to the poos, wees, leaky boobs and goodness knows what else :o :o

We'll be here to hold each other's virtual hands through the tough nights and delightful days, and to laugh at each other's stories of comedy nappy changes , and the fear (or not?) of getting back in the saddle, and coating some cervixes just for the fun of it again!! :o

hello all!

glad to read everyone's updates are good and lots of happy babies and mummies!

came home yesterday and MW just been over to check all is well. he's feeding beautifully, but has a little touch of jaundice. the forceps marks are fading slowly and his little cuts and bruises are also going down.

argh! sorry - thought I was going to have enough time to reply back to everyone and write a logn update, but Xavi's calling!

i'll be back soon, promise!

in the meantime, hope everyone continues to enjoy their new arrivals xx

Hi ladies, good to read up on you all, some less than lovely birth stories (but to be expected - how the feck the human body hasn't evolved a bit better to cope with it all, I don't know!!)

We took Lachlan to our respective places of work yesterday to show him off (together with the girls, who ruled the roost in both schools :o) and he was gorgeously well behaved but had the gunky eye and has come out in 'milk spots' so wasn't looking perfect but still got lots of lovely comments! Awful that I care! :o

Registered him today, so he is real!! :o

Now we're all chilling in front of CBeebies. Jubbly! :)

Congrats to faraway and shanster btw

faraway congratulations to you!

fuzzy I have the mountain buggy urban double and I bloomin love it (its my 5th ) I love that Kali is in the carrycot.
What did you get?

flora I managed just to get on the bus but can only fit in the wheelchair bit, on the way home the was a wheelchair in it so I had to get a taxi so I was on time for DS1 from school which cost a bloody fortune! but I can fit so will just have to plan better in future!

Really enjoyed being out though, met my friend for coffee!

I got the Silver Cross Duo Pop which is ok, pushchair bit for both of them so no carrycot unfortunately but I'll use my Silver Cross pram for days when DD is in nursery. It's pretty light though which is good, plus it was a bargain eBay purchase, hardly been used.
Got a really snotty little man here today poor little fella.
Lovely to hear from you Flora love the name.

We're lucky that most things are walkable for our DDs so only using the baby travel system thingy we used with DD1

fuzzy are you also obsessed with getting wee boogers out of wee nostrils, or is that just me?

You're not alone Bubba I'm tempted by one of those snot sucker things. Mostly to make Evan feel better but also to stop him wiping snot all over my boobs, which is really rather unattractive!

Ugh - snot - hadn't noticed as yet - my nasal apirator is sitting in draw waiting to be used.... although Jesse is sneezing a bit.

I completely forgot that at the start o this thread buzz was the QUEEN of pushchairs and buggies and the font of all knowledge on this one

Just read my notes from hospital - and forgot that I threw up so much that i filled 800ml bowl with my sick and it almost overflowed! NICE.

crysty pleased that Xavi is doing well - andyou are too! Were you scared of the forceps?

m/w visited earlier and Jesse weighed in at 3080g - and his birth weight was 3200g - not bad for day 5 apparently! Think DH feeding me my thorntons truffles as i'm b-feeding! ha ha! Just told Dh he needs to get me more - but he gave me the finger

MIL, Dh's Uncle and Aunt are visiting tomo, sat and sun. Staying at B&B.... (eek) - BUT DH agreed that i was right [gri] about saying no to his mum cming down for the birth... and also agreed that visitors need to fit in with our schedule - so they'll have fun sitting i front room whilst we b-feed in bedroom for 40 mins... oh well - we'll let them change nappies!

but proper shocker that DH has actually grown up!

So exciting for you bubba showing off DS!

OK - question - at mo, i'm b-feeding in bedroom sitting up against bed with Jesse on stack of 3 pillows - doing it rugby ball style. How in the hell am i ever going to be able to b-feed in say, front room (or more critically) at airport?????

Quiet here today! As for BF, it's 2 steps forward, 1 back at the moment. I am expressing off the right one at the mo as have a scab on the nipple that HURTS so will let OH give her that tonight... but may well introduce a dream feed of formula soon as am finding the nights hard! Will perhaps express on an evening to store milk and then put in dream feed, I don't know yet... Tbh I don't feel that strongly about the importance of BF (runs and hides from breast nazi midwives) although it is easier in terms of equipment. And she likes it and is gaining weight at great speed!
We'll see...

Finally managed to get the laptop on and catch up, can't believe we have all made it to graduation! Congratulations Shanster and Faraway

I have uploaded some pics of Jacob and am loving the pics of all our other little (and not so little) ones!!! Although Rock I could not see your pictures of George

Flora am loving the name, it's so cute and am hoping he continues to sleep for you!

Lady how's Kali's sleep going? Jacob sqwarked all night yesterday, fingers crossed he has a better night tonight as dh has to get up to go to London at 5am

JJKM fingers crossed that the week goes quickly for you and that you can get your girls home. How old are they now?

Cupcakes I know how you feel about the smoking, dh smokes and we have had the odd arguement discussion about when he smokes and when he can go near Jacob. It sounds like you may be getting a bit of cabin fever, have you and dh thought of getting a hotel for a couple of nights where it is just the 3 of you before he heads back to Syria as a kind of babymoon? It may help to take a step back, I can imagine if I was living with my mum, I'd have killed her by now!!!!!

Crystyl glad all is going well with you and Xavier

Rock it sounds like we have had similar breast feeding experiences. Jacob would not latch on in the hospital and my milk did not come in til day 3, so having been accused of neglecting him, we were cup feeding and then bottle feeding him to the point that I said I would formula feed, just so that we could get home. Putting him to the breast became a traumatic experience where he would just scream and I would then be upset as I knew he wasn't eating. I bought a tommy tippee expressor which is faulty and have now hired a hospital standard expressor and can express both sides at the same time so am saving time, but have now found out, I have a lazy left boob [shocked] and will only express less than 1/2 of my right!

I'm now scared to put him to the breast in case it becomes traumatic again and I am also concerned that I don't know how much he is actually taking. Tuesday he had 2 realy good feeds from me, but the next 3 were so poor I had to give him formula top up.

He is bright, happy and alert so am going to stick with the expressing and giving him the bottle and only topping him with formula when my lazy left boob stops producing enough! But he had defied the people that said you can't bottle, breast and have a dummy - he has kind of mastered all 3!!! I think I will be heading to the local breast feeding clinic next week to get some ideas of getting the left one going!

A trip to the doctors for him on Monday revealed he has an anerobic infection in his belly button so we need to keep putting some powder on it to clear it up, it's still a bit weepy and bleeds every now and then, so will be back to doctors on Monday if it doesn't clear.

Have the midwife coming in on Saturday and I think as long as there are no further concerns he will be discharged to the health visitor!

Can't believe I started typing this at 10pm but a certain little boy needed feeding!

And cupcakes yes, my dh has grown up overnight too!

Right he seems to be asleep ( touch wood ) think I had better go and join my boys in the bedroom!

Night ...

Let's see how long I manage...

Firstly, congratulations cupcakes !! our popping times overlapped, so haven't had a chance to tell you yet.

congrats also to shanster and faraway

gladd Lachlan seems "real" now bubba. though I feel like bambi atm, i can't wait until I'm confident enough to be out and about with Xavi and to get his birth cert.

BF is a tricky business, isn't it? Just thought I'd got the hang of it yesterday and then... sore nipples and breasts too hard for him to feed from. now expressing a little before feeds and lansinoh is going to be my new best friend!

sorry to hear pootle and rock you've been having issues with BF. Not fair to get negative input from the hospital though. surely, the point is to get babies fed and happy - either BF or FF... grumble grumble.

Had similar experiences discussing co-sleeping! can't get Xavi to settle in his moses basket at night. (during the day he's fine in there). so, have been co-sleeping - even did it at the hospital. at hospital - this was fine and they helped me make a little nest for him. MW that did home visit told me off... now confused and just want Xavi to sleep happily. think i might invest in a swaddling blanket today and see if that will work.

and joining the snot discussion...

(i first read the posts yesterday early afternoon and thought to myself... "snot, what snot??", but now realsied what you all mean!! GAH! )

Xavi seems to exhale his feeds through his nose now - bless him!

nex post - birth story...

here goes...

went in for induction at 10.30am, pessary in and then half later my waters broke and were full of meconium.

decided they monitor me for a few hours, but by 5pm no contractions and still loads of mec, so was plugged straight into the drip.

several hours of contractions started building, then at about 12am it all went a bit mad.

had to have clip on xavi's head for monitoring and also bloodtests from him too as his heart rate was all over the shop.

contractions started doubling on themselves so was getting over 4 continuous minutes of one contraction with about 30 secs to breath in between and during each xavi's heartrate kept hitting the floor. dilated from 3cm to 10cm in about 10-15 minutes - ouch, mcouch ouch! and then started pushing...

Was puffing away on gas and air, so all started to get hazy, but essentially the consultants decided it was getting too dangerous to let me continue and baby was stuck half way down with the cord around his neck.

wheeled into the theatre... spinal block straight in and forceps delivery. doc and MW were amazing!!

but, placenta had fallen apart, so had to have manual removal of that, PPH and lost more than half a litre of blood.

all in all, not brilliant.

except that, i have a beautiful baby who's lucky to have made it and the care team were superb all the way through.

spent a couple of days in hospital, then allowed home. I'm rattling from all the pills I've got to take, but deliriously happy to finally have Xavi and to have him home.

Blinkin' nora crystylline that sounds truly awful - that's filled me with tears. But as you say, you've got a gorgeous Xavi to make up for it.

pootle I can't see your pics - think you might still have your profile set to private.

jjkm to answer your question from yonks ago, he's lost about 300g (about 10oz) which is only just over 5% of his birth weight, it just souds a lot compared to most babies. Also these days they're less worried about weight and more interested in happy babies, which he is (once fed at least!). Having to be mean mummy though and wake him up as he's like travis's baby and gets the oyxtocin drug hit after a few mins and is zonked to the world! Then it's hard to know if he's ever getting to the 'hind' milk (or whatever they call the creamy milk at the end.

HV yesterday said with Lachlan it might be more a case of 'weight adjustment' rather than weight 'loss' as such (i.e. he shouldn't have been born quite so large!! and is now 'readjusting'!! :o)

It's our wedding anniversary today :) Thai takeaway for supper :) and beautifully behaved children all day :) :)

Bloody hell Crysty I was a mega wimp compared to you, I BEGGED for an epidural. I had a similar prob in labour in that George's heartbeat dipped if the mw's moved the position of the bed, but because it went back to normal when the bed was raised back up the consultant wasn't too worried.

The thing is they offered me the chance to carry on with the aid of a synto drip to try for my vbac. If I had tried to give birth vaginally, god knows what would have happened, but the consultant said it would have been pretty hairy with the "proper" knot in the chord.

I'm so glad you and Xavi are home and doing well. :)

CORD

Ooh Crysty that sounds awful. So glad you and your little man are safely home.
I can confirm that breast milk does indeed clear up a gunky eye. Great advice, think it was from Cupcakes. on phone so difficult to check back.
Cupcakes in answer to your question about b feeding in the airport and other places, you should hopefully find it easier to latch Jesse on and feed him in less than ideal places. I find taking a muslin or light pashmina to cover up a bit helps. Also you mayfind that you can feed him when he's in his sling, not sure if this is possible with all slings. In all honesty it just comes with practice. Feeding without pillows helps the bicep toning anyway!
Hope the feeding and sleeping is getting better. Fingers crossed Evan is sleeping very well though he did decide to feed, play, get wind and generally mess about between 4 and 5.30 this morning. I'd love a full night of sleep soon

Has anyone still got huge swollen legs and feet? Mine are appalling and VERY painful, nothing seems to help.

Called the dr last night in a panic as I was doubled over in agony for 2 hours or so. Turned out to be trapped wind which is apparently very common after a c-section, but mine was made worse by the liquid morphine I was prescribed to help my back pain. Won't be taking that any more!!

I can't stop thinking it, but George is the most beautiful thing I have ever laid eyes on (apart from Emilia my gorgeous DD), I'm so stunned that I have managed to create yet another amazing little human being.

My ankles are swollen too and carpal tunnel still. On the upside, just had a lovely bath and back is not aching so much now.

Know exactly what you mean about George... I feel the same about xavi

And obviously Saskia is the most beautiful girl in the world!! She is very alert and smiles a lot... Trying different approach to sleep tonight. Wish us luck!!

Blimey it's quiet on here!

Think I have managed to make my photo's public.

I have found another thing that you get rooked for when you have a baby, I put an announcement in our local paper - £37 (wtf?) for a 5 x 2 advert. Oh well, he is worth it but really?!

And proud mummy moment, Jacob slept for 5 1/2 hours last night, but I kept waking up to make sure he was still breathing!!!

Aaahh Pootle another gorgeous boy.
Had a bit of a crappy day here. Evan really unsettled, feeding for 2 mins then freaking out or falling asleep then throwing up whatever he managed to take. I was worried he hadn't had anywhere enough milk so I gave him some formula, he guzzled 5oz and only brought back a little. So happy now that he's fed but hoping we can get back to breast feeding properly tonight. Think my boobs might explode if he doesn't. Trying not to worry about the fact he's now had formula but hey he was clearly hungry.
Heres hoping for a good night for all.

Fuzzy Jacob swaps between formula and breast milk and it doesn't seem to affect him. He too has been having heppy fits today with his feeding where he won't burp but waits to be sitting quietly before projectile vomitting it everywhere (including over my phone whilst I was trying to MN whilst feeding!)

Another thing they don't tell you about being a mum!

Thanks for that JJKM , the midwife is due here tomorrow so will speak to her. He seems to be taking his feeds ok, it' just he won't wind. I was concerned about nappies as he had not had a dirty one for nearly 24 hours, but then since 10am we have had poomagedon at every nappy change and his fontanel is ok, but his skin is very dry.

lol @ poomagedon :o (well, not the poo bit for poor pootle, but the word!)

Have you tried different ways to wind him? I know lots of people do the sitting up holding face/head and burping thing, but I do the rubbing back from bottom up (like trying to squeeze an air bubble out of cling film, with gentle patting too - L throws up less that way for me. I also stop to burp him quite often cos if I leave it too long he burps the milk up too)

Poor little thing is absolutely covered in milk spots - even in his hair! Don't think it bothers him as such but it looks sore. :(