April 2011 - cake-offing, gin-guzzling, wine-sipping, dreams of sleeping

[fraktious]

Thread 3!!!

JKS if it's any consolation L was exactly the same last week with two of the worst nights ever but she's slept through for the past few (hope I'm not jinxing it) so hopefully it'll be the same for you.

Greetings from Aberdeen! Yes we are here again. But this time is for a Spa day with my Gurkhas! Can't wait!

B is definitely teething. I'm drowning in droop. And he'll end up with no hand if he keeps chewing them the way he's going. thanks for whoever mentioned dentinox. I would have just bought bonjela nut it's really doing the trick.

Went to see my granda (not the dead one obviously) and he had the cheek to ask where I got such a bonny bairn!

Sounds like my friend had a time of it. He had fluid on his lung I think they said, and the chord was round his neck, she had to have an emergency c sec. He seems to be doing ok now tho he's in intensive care.

buck hope bubs is ok now after the cat encounter. And hope the gaviscon helps.

How is h doing cycle?

Ouch iltmi poor thing. S is on and off constantly during a feed and it's doing my head in.

Have a lovely time jks... if u can with all that feeding. Gar.

Lol at ur granda fizz

We had a family portrait this am. S was great at the start. So some lively ones of him on his own. But the stupid photographer asked me to take him down to his nappy and them dress hom again so that and a lack of sleep (he was in a good mood til I dressed him again) meant he cried thru most of the ones of the three of us. He said let's leave it there, happy mum? I said not really as most of my pics have my baby crying in them. Dies he honestly think I'll want to buy those. He should have gone with what worked instead of forcing his routine pics. I didn't like him on sight. Stupid man. We are viewing the pics sat so we shall see. It was a Xmas present from my mum and I had birthday money for pics so I'm v disappointed .

That's a bit pants Kitty, hopefully there will be couple that are ok.

H had a night of wanting to sleep on mummy and went 8-9 9.30-11.30 then various stirrings and feedings while he slept on me on the sofa

I feel awful but he's kicking and smiling away. Eugh.

sorry your friends birth was so traumatic, Kitty. Hope that's the worst over now.

Cycle, I was about to moan about my night, but at least I got to sleep in my bed.

That sounds horrid Cycle - what an awful night. Here's hoping that you have a better one tonight.

I'm in Plymouth :)
Been to dartmoor a couple of times, and the Hoe to see the Lighthouse - spent lots of time here growing up as my Mum is from here so it feels as close to coming home as i get (moved around a lot/lived abroad as a child).

Not a fab night but not awful, 1, 3 & then up at 5.30.

Another one with a rubbish night - awake every hour from 2am! Very tired today and L seems thoroughly grumpy to top it off!

Morning April ladies.

How funny that there is an April 2012 thread, ILTMIMI. I don't know where time is going. C will be six months old in ten days and I simply cannot believe it. I'm already firming up dates with the nursery and the end of mat leave feels like it's looming. I thought I would be desperate to get back to work but I have loved this time with C and can't imagine not spending all day, every day, with him. I have to go back to work, we can't live on DH's salary and I don't think I'd want to be a SAHM full time (not that I can't see why others do, of course) but it's going to be so very hard to do. Still, there are three months till we start the settling in, so a while yet. Must just enjoy it and not dwell too much on the end.

Kitty hope all is well with your friend and that they are all home safe soon. Re sleep - C has always gone down in his cot (moses basket in cot and then just cot) at bedtime since the early days. I have never left him for long to cry but I have often done a minute or two, then gone up to comfort him, check he's ok and then put him back down again. I've never taken him back downstairs or given him alternative places to sleep when he does cry in his cot. Sometimes this has meant going up and down stairs maybe five or six times but he's now happy to go to bed in his cot and even goes there for naps in the daytime, it's often the only place he wants to be when he's tired. Sometimes, if he's crying, I'll cuddle him till he starts to drop off but then I put him in. I don't know if that helps at all, it's hard as all babies are different and what works for one doesn't for another but I've found this works for us.

Nights are going ok here (touch wood) and C seems to wake up around 2am for a feed and then wakes to start his day around half six/seven. This is all very civilised, hope it lasts. He's about to hit 16 weeks corrected age but I am hoping that maybe it won't count coz he's not REALLY 16 weeks. Forever the optimist!

Sorry you are having such a tough time with nights Cycle, hope it improves soon.

Some good news here with feeding as I finally got Aptamil Pepti prescribed and it seems to be helping him. Much less screaming when feeding, which is such a relief. I am keeping everything crossed that it continues to improve.

Hello! Posting from my iPod so excuse the typos and the typos from last night.

B did is usual when we stay here up 3 times fed twice. Dh has done his back in doing god knows what. And I've lost a contact kense and have no replacent. Posting like this . It's in the bathroom beside the mirror I'm sure but just can't find it. Dh can't bend Dow to look and b will prob eat it of I get him to look! Spa day off to a great start!

Noemi head hurts from trying to focus with only one lens arrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhh

Morning all :)

Kitty That's annoying about your pictures! I'm lucky as my friend is a part time photographer so she does all my pictures for me and if R isn't in the mood we just try again another day. Hope your friend is doing ok after her EMCS and that baby is out of ICU soon.

Fizz Losing a contact lense is the worst!! Do you not have a pair of specs with you that you can put on to find it?

Starting to worry now about what's ahead sleepwise in the next few weeks as R is 16 weeks on Monday. Sorry to those of you that are having bad nights. So far we've still been quite lucky, last night she went down at 9.30-5.20 and then 6-9.45 so a long lie this morning!

Feeding problems seemed to be resolving slightly, she has dropped one bottle all together now so no tantrums and screaming and refusing the bottle. Just me now worrying about making sure she takes enough in all the others!! I'm trying to stay calm about it and not panicking when she doesn't finish a feed and have so far resisted the urge to write down everything she takes as I think it would just make me worse!! She seems happy enough and as everyone keeps telling me it's not as if she's skinny!!

Buck hope the gaviscon works for F. It seemed to make a difference the first day for S then it just made her constipated.

Fizz hope the spa day went well. Dreaming of doing something like that soon.

Can't believe there is an April 2012 thread going already! Ans Jo that C is 6mths old!! Glad the Aptamil is helping things.

After a terrible week of feeding S, the worst since she was born I think, she's now refusing the breast almost every feed. I can sneak a few in during the night when she's sleepy but in the day she just screams as if I'm trying to kill her so I've started giving her bottles. Can't get enough through expressing (hats off to you Fizz for your super expressing ways) so have been giving her ff too.

I have to say that everyone always congratulates you when you breastfeed but really I think the harder option is ff. How does everyone manage to do all the sterilising, boiling, cooling palaver and have bottles ready on time but not too early etc. And how much per feed, and when? Complicated! Boob is much easier. I suppose I'll get my head around it soon enough but for now everything feels all too hard .

Thank god it's the weekend and I think when the clock hits 5 I'm decalring it o'clock!

caramel - having been a 100% bottle feeder, not through choice, I also think that formula is a right ol' hassle. It's not easier at all. I tend to make up a few bottles in advance, no more than three. Always make the formula with boiling water as that kills the bacteria (or with water that is at least 70 degrees, so within half an hour of boiling). Then chill with cold water and store in the back of the fridge. You are advised to make up a bottle fresh for every feed but that's not really realistic and this way is as safe as you can get without doing that. When I'm out I tend to use cartons as that just takes all the faff/danger out of it. If you can't use cartons then the best way is either to do as above and bring out with an ice pack, or to take power and boiling water out and cool when made up.

Conor is 13lbs and has 6 feeds in 24 hours taking between 600 and 700mls on average, over that time. I usually make up bottles to 150mls and he'll have between 100 and 150 depending. He's not a good feeder though so you might find you need more. At the hospital they suggested to take weight in KG and multiply by 150 to get the total mls for 24 hours, however I think this gets rather a lot the larger they get and C rarely takes that much.

Hope that helps.

Caramel I'm only doing one ff at night at the moment but am finding the aptimil cartons to be a lifesaver. You just tip them into the bottle and you're ready to go and theres a guide as to how much to give on side. Each carton holds 210ml and costs around 65p so more expensive than having the big tub of powder but so much easier.

Carmel I'm partially FF too and I agree it's a faff. I've been doing it a different way to Jo, which I think I read in the Sensational Baby Sleep book or somewhere: wash and sterilise a load of bottles, then empty/fill/boil the kettle and pour the water into bottles in advance. Then keep on the side/in the fridge until needed and add the powder when she's ready to drink it. What Jo said made me wonder if that's safe, but I read somewhere that it was... .

She will take it fridge or room temp so I rarely bother to heat it up any more esp in the hot weather but when I did we used the microwave. The advice not to is because of potential uneven heating meaning they could get burned on a bit that's hotter than the bit you test on your wrist, but I just give it a right good shaking after it has been microwaved. We used to do something like 20 seconds for 60mls going up to about 35 for 120mls but it's pretty approximate.

That being said, we have used a lot of carton milk because I'm lazy ... not many places sell them, but you can buy 500ml cartons for about £1.50 and keep them in the fridge, which is slightly more reasonable than buying the small ones. But I keep the small ones in for out-and-about.

I agree it's MUCH more of a ball-ache than BF.

We're not doing too bad on the old weaning-back-onto-breast, although I'm doing it really slowly. She's on 60ml top-ups after her breast feed now, having been on 130-150ml at her peak. Think we'll drop to 50mls next week. Need to do it very slowly for my supply to catch up - it's very slow to react. I'm on Domperidome and Fenugreek but still by the end of the day I have pretty much run dry. It is improving, but slowly slowly slowly [bored emoticon]. It's a bit chicken and egg because of the FF but I'm not prepared to leave her (too) hungry.

Ecuse where can you get the 500ml cartons?

Totally agree with the ff hassle consensus. I found it a nightmare when I did it for the first couple of weeks. Huge kudos to those who get the hang of it!

Busy day so am just place marking...

Mrswajs I alway forget something when we come up the road. This time was my specs! I found the lens and an hour soaking in solution and it seems fine.

Spa daywent well. I now have pretty tootsies(toes) and fingernails. Been out for italian too. Friends brought a cake too so there was much when that came out!

Got home to a very over tired B who screamed for about an hour. Calpol, teething gel and an extra bottle and he has finally fallen asleep.

I have a mega headache after my massage. I'm hoping itll pass soon.

ecuse, and all, the Sensational Baby Sleep Plan does say that it's ok to put formula powder into cold/cooled boiled water; however, guidelines now suggest that it should always be 70 degrees or above. I know that the NNU used to make up formula as per the Sensational Sleep book, so it can't be that dangerous, but I've been over cautious. C has terrible digestion anyway, so I decided to stick to the guidelines.

I think the formula needs to be made up in water at no less than 70 degrees to make sure any bacteria is killed off. I make all my feeds for the day first thing in the morning and keep them in the fridge. I know there is a risk in doing this but you'd be making bottles all day otherwise!! I have a friend who works in paediatrics and they do the same so i'm not overly worried.

Arch. For two sleeps today I tried s in his basket in the cot. He just isn't having it. Tried again tonight then thought maybe the blanket isn't wrapping him enough so swaddled in his shawl and tried again. Nope. Am now feeding him and have bought the basket back to my room as ive had quite enough for one day. It's stressing me out. How can he tell he's in a different room when he's in the same bed. I wonder If dh being off this week has affected him (it has me and not in a good way) and maybe Monday's injections? I feel v low. like all I did today was feed and settle. We took him with us to dinner with friends and he woke up during the main course grumpy.

That should be argh not arch

Kitty some days are just like that, and they are a total pain - they do get fewer and further between though, honestly.

T is teething and v.grumpy, he wouldn't be put down all day. Between that and being on poo alert with DS1, I got nothing done whatsoever, we didn't leave the house.

T has been asleep since 9pm, just given him a dreamfeed and he's back in bed without waking (fingers crossed).

Sympathies to those of you having awful nights atm, I remember it with DS1, I was nearly insane with tiredness. Hope things improve for you soon!

I gave up. He went down after the feed but just woke me for another. Hope you are all ok.

morning! well, for the second night ever (last one was 21st July, I remember it well), F's still asleep and I'm up pumping my norks!

I will be mostly spending the day looking for a pattern between those two nights.

uh oh, I think he's stirring...