April 2011-kicking back drinking lactulose cocktails and riding the maternity surfboards

[Petalouda]

Post-natal thread for all the antenatal April 2011 Family!

Share the birth stories, the baby blues and everything else.

Jen - babies under 6 months are supposed to be weighed not more than once per month once they are back to birthweight, so you are fine. I have no idea when T will get weighed again, as clinic is always a 20 minute wait to weigh and the timing clashes with getting DS1 to pre-school. I am not trailing across town to another clinic either!!

Big (((hugs)) to everyone suffering, all sounds utterly miserable.

Ecuse - I hope things are picking up for your little one. failure to thrive is a horribly emotive phrase but it sounds like you're doing everything you can for her and she'll be piling on the ozs soon enough.

Kits- I too am a bit shocked that they couldn't be bothered to find you a breast pump. And what a crap time you are having with your wound - when I had a bit of trouble with mine it really got me down, more than the sleeplessness because you just want to start feeling normal again. Hopefully the ABs will help now. I was on ABs for the first two weeks after the birth and didn't get thrush so you may be lucky too, fingers crossed.

In news from me George slept for a FIVE hour stretch last night albeit lying on me on the sofa but it's a start. I had got to the end of my tether as it was 3 am and he was wide awake and I was in tears at the thought of watching the sun come up without having been to bed yet again. anyway I switched the radio on and he instantly relaxed and went to sleep - hurrah!

ecuse so sorry to hear of your difficulties. Fingers crossed you?re getting some good advice off your other thread and can re-establish BFing.

Hurrah for the 5 hours lucie - that?s awesome!

kits huge hugs coming your way. I hope you heal up soon and at the staff who wouldn?t get you a pump. Write ad complain if you feel up to it because that?s totally unacceptable!

Jen we weigh monthly too when we go to see the paediatrician.

cycle hope you manage to see DH soon.

BFing question which has probably been answer 100 times ? after 10-15 minutes M gets fussy, pulls off, tries to latch back on but ends up woodpeckering without closing his jaw or if he does then he doesn?t suck. It can take quite a while before he gets the hang of it again and then he?ll feed happily once more. Any ideas?

Babywearers I have discovered a very, very dangerous place with lots of wraps and other ovely carriers for sale. I think we?re going to be graduating from our stretchy soon as the only hold which feels secure enough to put up with M?s wriggling is a front wrap cross carry and that?s 3 layers of quite heavy material. So I?ve bought a calin bleu cotton gauze, a 50% cotton/50% linen Didy and a 100% cotton Didy jacquard. Oops.

What station were you listening to lucie. B had a wide awake night last night after sleeping from 6pm to 11pm in the pram. Dh and I were almost willing him to wake for a feed but he only grumbled a couple of times to fart! WOuld anyone wake their DC up if they slept all evening? Poor DH went to work this morning like a half shit knife.

My mum and sister are staying tonight and tomorrow night, is it bad to wish the novelty of a new baby to wear off soon? We've had someone staying every weekend since B came home. And although they look after themselves I kinda just want my house back!

B was back up passed his brith weight at his second weigh in and when we were at the BF group yesterday the community nurse mistook me changing his nappy as a signal I wanted him weighed so I just went with it. He was 9lb7 1/2oz up from 9lbs on Friday last week. I could see me getting obsessed by his wieght, so i won't be getting him weighd again until his 6 week check.

frakk - is it a website? Do share

morning ladies,
we have finally got better at sleeping at night even if half the night is in our bed !!!
I have finally phoned the HV regarding breastfeeding as one breast is still so painful to latch on it is making me swear
I hope itis just to do with positioning as i do feel so guilty when it comes to using that breast, as i am beginning to dread the left breast feed
The HV suggested it was just positioning but looks like im going to have to go and sit for god knows how long to see a HV. Lets just keep fingers crossed i dont turn into a blubbering mess at the HV , which seems to be the theme at the moment.

Isaac was weighed for the first time at the baby clinic last friday but because of the difference in the mw scales it isnt a true weight compared to the last weight. I am freaking out a bit about gw=etting him weighed to see the increase , as i have convinced myself he isnt feeding properly.

Absolving self of liability

Lis It was just local radio Heart, he was asleep by the end of the first song which is do remember was a bit of an 80's discoish number as I was a little about his taste in music :)
I think G likes noise to sleep. The night before he wouldnt sleep either so I sat on the bed to feed him about 2.30 and there was a loud crack. Looked under the bed and basically it had broken ( must lay off the cake a bit) DP then looked at me crossly and asked if I was going to turn out the light... cue me flouncing downstairs because he wasnt listening to me saying the bed was broken, (my flounce was only slightly undermined by forgetting to take the baby with me) Went back upstairs and poor sleepy confused DP cottoned on to what I was saying and got out of bed to 'sort it out'. Ended up moving the furniture around so we're not sleeping on the broken end and propping it up with books. Anyway somewhere in the middle of the kerfuffle George dropped off to sleep. I'm not sure I've got the energy to recreate that every night though. :)

Mrs Wajs I just remembered you answered about clicky hip and I hadn't responded . Was it found at the newborn check? M's newborn was normal, it was the Dr at 6 weeks that mentioned it. How's the 2 nappies going? I hope it sorts itself.

Erm, M just turned over...and I turned him back and he did it again. Twice.

Normally he's a lazy little sod about tummy time - just lies there and occasionally farts, kicks or lifts his head. Tummy time is obviously still supervised but how long before he learns to go the other way?!

Oh no Frakk, I couldn't hold back from clicking...think my bank balance is going to take a hit. Good thing I spend no money on myself anymore! I'll need a full review of your purchases when they arrive!

Lucie I have broken our bed today too!!

Went to sit on it earlier and loud crack, and I felt the bed collapse under me! Managed to get mattress off and I have managed to crack the frame completely. DH reckons he can fix it, but he hasn't seen the damage yet. Well it has spurred me on to lose some weight I can tell you. How embarassing that I managed to bloody break the bed, with my fat, lardy arse.
A contributing factor is probably that dd likes to jump up and down on it, and calls it her Bounceline. I predict that DH will try to fix it this evening and will get cross and swear a lot!

I think my sleep deprived brain has stopped working frakk, but I cant see anything for sale on that site. just forums!

Lucie B likes mama cass, dream a litlle dream of me! Not bad for a young 'un eh??

It is a forum. A forum full of people selling/swapping gorgeous second hand slings with pretty pictures

There's also an ISO (in search of) section.

And they're nice and helpful too.

Sorry to hear of everyones woes

I do come on here and read our thread a couple of times a day, but I often then don't get time to post. You know the story, crying baby, whinging toddler ...............

Frakk - pulling off/woodpeckering. Sounds like one of three things to me:

1. overtired and comfort sucks to go to sleep
2. wind / discomfort of some kind
3. wants to comfort suck, but instead of butterflying with his tongue for comfort he's sucking and getting milk - which he doesn't want.

Of course it may not be any of the above, but they would be my best guesses!

I was a month old yesterday and we had our last MW appt. He was is now a few oz over his birthweight, so he's 11lb 6oz. I cried when the MW left, I felt so emotional that that part of the pregnancy/birth/newborn phase was over

Whoever mentioned weighing. DS has been weighed twice since birth. I won't be going to the HV clinics, just every few months I'll do a rough weight at home. In your heart of hearts you can tell if they are doing ok. Growing out of clothes, wet and poo nappies, defined awake and asleep times. Constant weighing just seems to make me fret rather than reassure me, so I choose not to weigh very often. But of course, some people find it a source of comfort ........ horses for courses and all that.

Now off to look at the sling site with credit card in hand ............

Oh I see , I need everything explained to me in a very slow and simple way just now.

B is still being sick after feeds, not massive amounts, but I think it would be more than what a posset should be. His nappies are also green and honking

Lis we've been returning and swapping gifts. Mainly the things people have bought in bigger sizes thining we'd get loads of newborn stuff but the bigger things are completely for the wrong season - e.g. winter coat for 5-6 months when it'll be summer. We've also had so much pink! I'm going pink blind, I get excited when a gift isn't pink :) and DH and I have agreed to not buy her any pink until she asks for it. I'm really not sure what to do with some of the handknitted gifts we've got though - I don't like to seem ungrateful but some are hideous I couldn't bare to dress her in it even in preparation for teenage embarrassment!

Back in the present I think she's really over tired again, not too much crying yet but she's not really slept during today - I'm off to check out the sleep forums, but any advice? She's currently downstairs kicking on the playmat and watching TV (I seem to have created a TV addict already )

My advice on unwanted gifts with no gift receipts is to accidentally lose them! We've been given a couple of awful outfits (by people I don't even know but are friends of mil!) but no gift receipts so I plan to lose them till they're too small for L and then give them to charity.

I have thought of a possible 4th reason frakk, maybe you have a fast letdown and M finds it difficult to cope with sometimes?

I have taken back about half of I's gifts . If you feel guilty about it Lis, take a picture of B in the outfit, then exchange it

chilli, I still doesn't really nap unless attached to my nipple, so I put him in the sling if he's overtired and he nods off in seconds.

I'm currently trying to find a way to keep everyone happy at dinner time (mostly ds3 tbh). He would like to cluster feed at the same time of day that I need to start cooking the dinner (I mostly prepare it during the day, to cut down on time spent in the kitchen later on in the day) Any ideas please let me know, although I imagine most of you are experiencing the same.

Most of my gifts don't have receipts but every shop so far has exchanged the unwanted gift for something else. However I have found the truly horrendous ones are often from unidentifiable shops - which can never be a good thing imo

Lis - that is good taste!

Jen - that's what's happened here! Key piece of frame has split.. We could do with a bigger bed anyway now George is here as its only a double so a good excuse!
And DP has been given a very nice pay rise in his new job which is awesome as I might be able to stay off work a bit longer..woohoo!

Chilli - when G is overtired we put him in the sling and he goes straight off - I think newborns tend to get overtired if they're awake for more than an hour or two so get overtired very quickly.

ILTMIMI - I can't help but would love to know the answer I have the same problem! We eat so late as I have to wait to finish feeding before starting on our dinner

Well, went back to docs for more help with this thrush (well i think it's thrush) - the doc seems totally unconvinced weirdly.
So he wants me to supply a sample of my milk to send off for testing
Pretty sure i've never heard of this before. He says thrush will show up in the test if it's there (though some sites i've looked on say you can't reliably test for it). He really seems to think that it's all from 'congestion' - i think he means engorgement. And i do get engorged as supply is all over the place & i've always been an over-producer. But have never had this kind of pain before. He thinks i would be fine if i just pumped - but he obv knows nothing about the supply & demand (or more accurately demand & supply) chain of milk production.
I was too tired to really argue & he prescribed more fluconazole anyway but is very keen for me to stop taking it if the test doesn't show thrush.

So have dug out my pump & microwave steriliser thingie to sort out a donation tomorrow morning.

re tea - have to confess to 'cooking' lazy meals for the boys even more than normal. Freezer toad in the hole works well - half hour in the oven & ready to go :)

Our dinnertimes are also hell at the moment too. I try and get something rustled up in the day but even putting it together is impossible without S screaming through the whole palaver. Even when she's in the sling she screams. She wants to be on the boob or held upright with the back patting happening. Impossible when DS wants his dinner and is generally going nuts then too. Basically 6-7pmish is Scream o'Clock in our house .

Hello, thanks all. Infection seems to be improving in that my stomach is no longer brick red and boiling hot. It's still swollen and feels a bit 'burny' but much less than it did. I spoke to my stand-in consultant today (my consultant is away at the moment - of course!) and she's sending me another prescription as she thinks I need to be on the antibiotics for longer than five days. I agree- my fear is that I won't entirely get rid of it and it will just flare up again. Far better to absolutely kill it over ten days.

As for the breastpump refusal I'm going to mention it to my consultant when I see him. I honestly think it was tail end of the night shift apathy - they just couldn't be bothered to make the phone call up to the postnatal ward and get one down. I just think it's fairly crap that a hospital with a whopping maternity unit (that is literally plastered with breastfeeding posters) wouldn't be more proactive about helping someone in this instance.

Frakk it could be the following: -

1. Wind. My boy fusses at the breast when I try to latch him on if he's got a burp stuck. I'll give him another pat-and-rub session and often another burp will come up.
2. Tiredness. If he's had a good feed and is knackered.
3. Not enough milk. I often find if I swap to the other side he'll latch on well and feed.

I always try winding first though as more often than not it's another burp. After that I'll offer the other breast and if he refuses that I'll assume he needs a break/is knackered. I usally give him a cuddle for a few minutes and then try again. If he still refuses I assume he's not interested. Hope this helps.

LisaMc glad your supply is improving. That's great news.

Yes dinnertime with tired toddler and screamy baby is also a disaster-zone in this house. I have taken to cooking the dinner after breakfast if possible - bolognese, casseroles etc - and that works to some extent.

Frakk - I would second or third the idea that it could be wind, or the fact that the breast is largely emptied (I know they are never empty but YKWIM). T sometimes struggles to latch onto a very softened breast, and will do better on the other, fuller side.
I know you were block-feeding to reduce over supply, so perhaps you won't want to try that.

JKS - are you getting any blanching? I was, and the pain was incredible. I've really worked on T's latch over the last week and things have improved hugely. I was getting a really burning pain in my nipple and breast after a feed, really horrid. I'm not convinced now that I had thrush at all, even though I took my course of fluconazole. There is some good information on Jack Newman's site.