March 2011 - we made it!

[Muser]

The waiting is over, the babies are arriving. March 2011 mums, come on in your time is up.

RE: jabs - it's not a great deal of fun but not that traumatic. With DS I gave him a dose of calpol half an hour before (he was bang on 2 months) to dull it a bit but tbh I don't think it made much difference! Just pop them on boob/bottle afterwards or even feed whilst they do it - they quickly forget. Much worse for the mums!

(Much easier when they're bigger and you can pull out the chocolate buttons after they've been jabbed!!)

Just did the supermarket shop with both kids. Phew!

Hi all,

Had the 6 week check this morning and to my surprise it was only for baby, I was under the impression it was for both of us. She is a healthy 11lbs so sitting on the 50th percentile again :) I guess I'll have to arrange an appointment for myself at some point. I did find out though the gel they gave me for Anya's thrush could also be used on me to treat mine. Hers still hasn't cleared up but then I think that is because I still have it. It has greatly improved though.

juipiter - glad you didn't get the carrycot. Anya has just moved out of it and it is now in the cupboard awaiting the next family member who needs it. She fits quite comfortably in the bigger chair.

Last night Anya slept in her cotbed rather than with me. She seemed quite happy about it so maybe it was me needing it more than her. I didn't like having to get out of bed to feed her and I kept waking and wondering if she was ok. I worry too much. :(

Hi all,

Highland I hope you are feeling much better now.
Catherine well done on getting Anya to sleep in her cotbed - you are allowed to worry, you're a mum!! :-)

Lozario - hope the supermarket shop wasn't too bad and that you added some treats for yourself!!

I have just got back from having Bethan weighed at clinic - she is now just over 9 weeks and weighs 7lb 4.5oz - I am very pleased with that and think she is progressing well (bless her!), but she has now dipped off the 0.4 centile so they want me to have her weighed again next week too....
she is breast feeding well and is not a sicky baby, sleeps ok too, so all is good in my eyes, but now feeling a bit miffed cos now feel like I must be doing something wrong if she is not following the curve!!!! (well that's kinda how they made me feel)

Hi Purplefan. My LO also dipped off her curve and we have to go back again. But she seems very happy and has lots of weight and dirty nappies, so I'm not too concerned. If Bethan seems well then I wouldn't worry too much, I'm sure she'll pick up again. I've been told that it should only really be a concern if they drop more than 2 percentile, although I guess with Bethan being little anyway that might be different for you. Hope she's back on track at your next weigh in.

catherine I twice read that you put Anya in the cupboard, not the carrycot. I think I need more sleep!

purple How horrid that they made you feel that you are doing something wrong. Its sounds like she is doing fine and hopefully will get back on her curve to reassure you soon.

I'm thinking we must be in a growth spurt but will check today at my bf group as I feel i'm running out of milk (and I always felt I had a oversupply!). I know breast milk is like a river, not a lake but I feel like I can't keep up and by the end of the day am getting bashed in the boob and my nipples twisted off.

Since Sunday we've had huge long feeds when she used to be a quicker feeder and 2 hourly night feeds (we were going 3 - 4 hours). She has been unsettled, windy and back on 5/6 poos a day (did have 0-2 per day) Anyway best go get ready.

Hello all.

E is under the weather. Both him and DS2 have some kind of poo/vomit bug. He had his 8 week check today and the doc doesnt seem concerned as some children at school also have it. Although I fed him in the surgery and straight after before I even moved he vomitted the whole lot back up all over me and himslef and the floor. We have a podgy one here though, he was 5.6kg/12.3lbs today. I took him the sling and my shoulders are aching.

He is relaxed now and has managed to keep his current feed down and is napping ona nd off.

We switched to a grobag last night and he seems to like it. A friend gave me a few. They are large as they are from 12-18 months but as far as I am aware this is just about size and I dont think there is any risk puttin him in a bigger one. He cant go into it or anything.

halo that sounds like the growth spurt angus had a couple of weeks ago

mixed as far as I now with grobags the only danger is that they can wriggle down into them if they're too big that is if the head and arm holes are too big.
Hope your LOs gets better soon that bug sounds awful, mine has really bad cold just now and keeps waking himself up coughing and snotting, didnt expect him to get a cold this young :( anyone else's DC had a cold yet? not sure whether calpol will help?
anyway, at least the mastitis has cleared up with lots of massage, hot showers and feeding and I'm feeling much better!

For blocked noses try saline spray, a nasal aspirator to suck the mucus up and some baby olbas oil on a cloth in the cot/basket.

thanks Muser, will give it a try, hopefully he'll get more sleep tonight!

highlandbird calpol will help if he has a bit of a temp. With DS, we used the philosophy "if in doubt, use calpol!" My DH had a cold last week and DS told him he needed some calpol :)

Purplefan I think some HVs take a sideline course in making mums feel bad... mine told me I should have been co-sleeping and breastfeeding for a LOT longer than I was comfortable with and made me feel cruel that I didn't want to with DS past the age of 9 months!! You know if she's feeding well so don't worry, she's just a wee little thing.

OMG we have virtually NO daytime sleep here at the moment from Lara!! She's fab at night once she goes off and occasionally settles herself to sleep if we catch her at the right time too but I'm now having to start settling her at 6pm because she's so passed it. After that she only really wakes once or twice but settling her is increasingly difficult, I'm really keen that she holds on to her ability to self settle but she's not gone off quite as happily this week :( My mum is here too and I feel a bit under pressure to show her I've got everything under control so maybe that's transmitting a bit. I have to try and settle her before I get to DS in the evenings but sometimes I inevitably have to leave her for the 10 mins it takes me to get DS into pjs and read him a story. It's an IMPOSSIBLE job with one pair of hands! The days when DH gets home in time to help are great but sadly they are few and far between :(

OK dinner time! (so nice not having to cook, my mum has done it all this week!)

Just a quick drive-by to say hello. S had her first jabs today. She handled them quite well, just a bit of crying, then lots of feeding and sleep. She got a bit fussy later in the day and just wanted to be held a lot, but she had a very calm bath and went to bed as usual at 7pm, so I'm optimistic that tomorrow will be a better day. I hope so, as we're meeting another local mum and her LO for an outing.

I also took S in to work this week. It's nice to be feeling more more comfortable getting around with the buggy and all the paraphernalia it entails. Makes me feel mostly human again. :)

C-section wound is finally closed up properly after re-opening. Yay! I'm still supposed to wait a couple more weeks before using a sling/carrier but I've tried a couple of short walks. S really didn't enjoy the Moby, but I think I didn't have it snug enough. I need to hunt down a video or something as I'm not sure how tight it should be before you put baby in.

Are many of you still getting regular HV visits? Mine stopped by once and said that was all they'd schedule. I'm supposed to go in to weigh S every few weeks, but TBH I can do that at my GP's, which is closer. Hopefully that won't be a problem.

Thanks Ladies,
I am not worried was more pissed off than anything!! To be honest my Health Visitor is lovely, but it is not her that I have seen at weigh in clinic, it is the Nursery nurses that work with her. DH said to point out that she has Turners syndrome and these girls are small therefore won't follow the growth of an average child as maybe they are not aware (although it is written in her red book!!) Health visitor herself has good knowledge of ts, which is very reassuring.
Edeluna glad to hear that your wound is now healed.

Hello everyone, not really posted much but keep upto date with what's happening.

Haris is 9 weeks old today, had 8 week check n all ok. He now weighs 14lbs!! Chubby but healthy so I'm happy. As for me she just asked if I was ok, had my stitches healed so I said I think so!. Also had I had sex? I said yes n she said well that's a good indication all is ok. Am now on the mini pill as it doesn't interfere with BF.
It may be just me being over sensitive but I am feb up with people I don't know, commenting on my son being too big for his age! It winds me up. They say ooh he's big for 8 weeks!. Rant over.

Catherine do u use a cosytoes footnote with the seat now Anya isn't in the carrycot ?. I wasnt sure when to start using the seat as he's still ok for now but I'm itching to try it out

Still BFing which I'm pleased with but it's still bit tender sometimes. He feeds every 2-3 hours in the day but night he goes down around 9 or 10 n gets up 3-4 n then again around 7.30 . Bit hit n miss but can't get him down any earlier. I live in a studio flat so we are in same room, think I need some kind of black out system around the cot, any ideas ?

Thanks , have good weekend

Good morning all,

quick post before Anya wakes and my day begins.

Gem - No, I didn't buy into the necessity of a cosytoes thingy to be honest. If it was winter then maybe but for now her favourite blanket will do as it is a lot easier to remove and put in the changing bag if not needed. Might buy one when winter sets in. As for when to start using the seat I guess that depends on your pram - in the buzz the transition is easy as it lies flat too which is useful when LO doesn't quite fit into it yet. Anya is 11lbs now and even though the straps are on their lowest it is still a tad big for her but in the lay flat position its acceptable. I think at 14lbs she would fit perfectly.

As for suggestions for coping in your studio flat - When it was cold we were living in only one room as only one room in my flat gets warm. She was in her carrycot then which I would position so the flashing telly didn't flash in her face and just have the volume lower than normal. I suppose for a cot you could use a cot bumper along the area where the light is shining on his face. I have heard of them increasing the risk of cot death because of overheating and the lack of fresh oxygen so moving your cot so that you can use it to block out light without blocking out his oxygen supply could work. I can't really think of much else you can do.

14lbs isn't too big for 9 weeks, people love to pass comment though. What really annoyed me was when Anya was crying in ASDA because she was overtired and 2 people told me what was wrong with MY daughter after I told them she was "just tired and needs a cuddle". {sigh} I'm still finding things to complain about, can't blame pregnancy for it anymore

Why are my posts never quick?

E is a big boy too and people constantly tell me and the imms woman (who wouldnt actually give him the imms because I was 10 hours early) told me he was hungry when i knew he was tired because we had been waiting in the boiling clinic for ages and are not allowed to take pushchairs in where he would have been sleeping nicely.

He still hasnt had his 8 weeks imms, firstly because off the above early issue (another doctor has confirmed there is no such rule), I couldnt get there this week which means next week at 10 weeks. I finally have 6 week app on 6th June at 12 weeks, just ridiculous. I am so organised and keep trying to do these things but bureaucracy and stupid systems keep getting in the way.

I feel a bit shattered this week. E has been under the weather and just a little while ago brought up all his feed again. He has finally settled to sleep. DS2 also been ill this week and so have I. As a result of all this E has beeen waking up again at about 3am when he had started waking about 5am.

Sorry to nothave a more positive input today.

Thanks Catherine , very useful info. I know what u mean about people thinking they know best, winds me up too. Think I'll try the buggy seat today n take him for a nice walk x

Oh dear mixed sounds like u could do with a break! Wouldn't that be nice

Hope u all star to feel better soon . Weathers so nice today.
The day just goes so bloody fast doesn't it

Enjoy x

Gem I get the oppostite to you.... people constantly stopping me to ask how old Bethan is and then telling me how tiny she is for 9 weeks etc... then I get all the questions... was she prem, what did she weigh when she was born, what about now? etc... I don't tell them about the Turners syndrome because it is frankly none of their business, but people just can't help passing comments!!! I am getting used to it now, but would love to turn round and say something witty one day!!!

purple maybe u should just say good things come in small packages!!. It's so hard to bite ur Tongue especially when they say the same thing everytime . I guess it's just something we will just have to deal with.
My friend had a baby girl last week, she weighed 5 lbs 7 n she is so small compared to Haris but shes lovely. And eventually they will all catch up
Catherine took my chunky for a walk in the buzz with the seat unit , he fits fine but the straps are far too big, need to try and adjust them but it's nice for him to see the world from another angel.

Off to carboot for a wonder this morning. Find great baby clothes n toys, got a vtech cot lullaby projector for £3 last week. But I think I enjoy it more than the baby!!!!
Xx

lozario We too are struggling with daytime sleep. And Hannah cannot self settle ever!

I currently feed her to sleep at night and have just fed her to sleep for a nap now. I can't bear another evening of overtired crying but am I wrong to feed to sleep? She naps on me, occasionally in the car seat or pram but wakes the second I move! I can't seem to get her to settle at all in the moby now and she seems to hate the babyhawk (hoping this will suit her when older.) However none of those places are gauranteed to send her to sleep.

Oh no, got to go. Seems I failed and she is awake.

gem Hope you get some bargains.

Halo... I think you need to do whatever works. If feeding her to sleep means you are less stressed about her not sleeping and in turn she isnt stressed then I would say it is definitely the right thing and not the wrong thing.

We have a broad bedtime routine. About 6.30 I take E into the bedroom and chnage him into a clean babygro, stick him in the grobag and give him a feed, he then needs the dummy and me rocking him for a while then before he is completely asleep I put him in the cot and take the dummy out. Seems to work. Sometimes though he has only had a feed at abotu 5.30pm but I still do a small feed just so he knows bedtime.

I dont bath them every night. Every other night for the two older ones unless it has been really hot, they are parrticularly mucky and tend to do E in the day when I remember, when he has been sick etc

Halo our babies are way too young to be self-settling. Don't worry about the feeding to sleep. I do it too. Most people I know do it. It's designed to make babies sleepy, might as well take advantage.

muser Thats what I thought, books make me doubt things though. I worry about routines (particular the bedtime one which I can't see fitting around cluster feeding?), self settling & number of feeds because of them. I should throw them in the bin. Right now I would love feeding to sleep to work as I have one very overtired grumpy baby. Total daytime sleep since 7 = 1 and half hours, all on me with the last "nap" ending at 4. DP has taken over from the feeding method and going with the rocking and cuddling method.

I have taken to ignoring the books and just doing what works for us. So it's napping in the sling and feeding to sleep. I do have a "routine" of massage and clean sleepsuit then feeding in the dark bedroom. But really the feeding is what does it just now. I have tried to do other things but when I do she switches from sleeping for 6 hours straight to waking every 2-3 hours.

Yep books are being ignored here too. We do have a routine which isobel has kind of initiated herself. She wakes up btn 6-6.30, naps for an hour in the morning, naps for 1 1/2 hrs at lunch ( struggle with this one if we are at home), then a doze midafternoon. Bath at 6, feed then she goes down at 7. I then wake her at 10-11 for a feed and the last 2nights she has then slept through!! Amazing, . I've just followed her lead really!