August 2011 - a place to wAit until the rest graduate !

[MrsVidic]

Hi,
Thought I would start us a postnatal thread. Were still in hospital, here till Tuesday monitoring dd (now named Eva) and giving her the anti biotics. Im missing dd1 loads as I only get to see her at visiting and trying to contain a toddler on the ward is tough.

I'm still bloody here [throws daily tantrum and wonders what the hell the little fella is doing in there that is so freaking interesting that he wants to stay put whilst im also growing more concerned about how much weight he'll have piled on in the 10 days since his due date]
pfffffffffffft. That's all I have to contribute, not having a baby yet and all............

hi - i've been using a dummy when my baby won't settle at night after being fed. he doesn't need most times but sometimes he does. he isn't very good at keeping it in his mouth for a sustained period of time so i help him a bit. normally takes him 10-20min with dummy to settle and fall asleep. i felt awful when i first used it - but was so exhausted i needed him to sleep!!

Hi sarge my Lo is 12d old and we did nearly identical plan as yours last night and my gosh she slept 11.30pm -6am with a 3am feed in middle! I feel like different person this morning oooh sleep is SO nice I actually did some dancing in kitchen this morn to the radio after had got DD1 dressed &out door with DH at 7.20am for preschool. Fingers Xed for a nap later though as gonna need it as Lo seems to need hourly feeds 5-11pm to fill up first.

Oh Annie so am I :( Had a sweep yesterday followed by contractions every 10 mins then a show in the night. Was sooo convinced we were finally starting and this morning nothing! I'm so fed up I could cry. And if one more person asks when its going to come I swear I will not be responsible for my actions. I've stopped actually believing that I'm ever going to have a baby

aw kt and annie i really feel for you both ive been well over with all 3 of mine, Willow was the earliest at 10 days late, KT i had show and contractions after sweep that then stopped but then started again for real a few hours later, maybe if this is your first then it may just take a little longer, fingers crossed, legs open!!!

Hello all - its been that long since I posted on here its vanished out of my active threads

Fizzy DS was given one on the hospital after being advised by the NICU nurses that it would be better for me and him as he was using me as a dummy.

He still has it now 6 weeks on, but only when he feels like it. He can go hours/days without needing it then the next day cant go without it. I also find it a good way to see if he really is hungry (can tell my the hard sucking noise he makes)

I'll try to catch up with everyones posts soon.

DS and I are doing well. I cant believe he's 6+3 already!! Hes now out of his premature and newborn clothes and in 0-3months. He's grown sooooooo much :( I gave up on BF after my antibiotics despite expressing whilst on them my milk just got less and less. DS still latches but gets stressed after a few min as there isnt the supply there. DS is much happier on FF and is growing much better and tbh it is so much easier, had to pick DP up from the hospital on Friday so rather than dragging him with me to sit and wait my mum looked after him (although he didnt need a feed whilst I was out, I felt better knowing she could feed him as much as he needed)

DS technically slept through last night (well he would have if I hadnt put him down at 9pm) last feed 9.15, night feed 4.15 then up at 8am. Although he did get transfered into out bed as he woke up crying at 12 as he'd kicked his covers off and wouldnt settle with them on despite it being cold!!

Hope everyone with LO's are doing well and good luck to the ones still waiting x

Hey everyone, not getting time to post but am keeping up with you all. Sounds like we've got some good babies out there!
Elise is awesome :) but very bloody hungry. At 10 days old we've already had a growth spurt, lots of stress about not having enough milk to keep up with her, stress about having too much now (woke up with boobs like boulders this morning!), stress about not being able to feed her off my right side (am giving her the left on demand and expressing from the right and using this to top her up/let DH feed her when I need to) - plus immense baby blues yesterday. But she's a big girl -9lb7 at birth so she's going to need some feeding! MW has just been and now I'm stressing that she's not putting on enough weight, any words for me anyone? She was 4260g at birth, dropped to 4140 at 5 days (negligible weight loss) but today is only 4170g, so she's only put on 30g in 5 days and MW says it should be 20g per day?
She's a crazy cluster feeder at night especially and in the mornings a little too, but is sleeping 12-5 or 1-6 straight through which is ace as far as I'm concerned, 4am is a very lonely time! Although now I'm wondering if she's going too long and I should be waking her (see earlier comments re weight gain) but she's done this since birth, and I don't want to mess with a good little body clock either, seems to me it'll make sense later if she's used to sleeping?
Other than she seems v content, I'm just about getting used to being a mum, but it's a veritable minefield of conflicting emotions and stress, isn't it?!
KT and Annie I promise those babies will be here by then end of the week. You poor things :(
Still not going to put my birth story up yet, it's all still a bit raw and mental (I shouldn't have read the HV handover notes from the MWs yesterday about how she was when she was born.)
Hope everyone else is cool and all is going swimmingly :) xx

Jennifer that sounds exactly like my DDs weight loss. She was 9lb7 too and lost just more than 10%, gained a little and then lost some more. I was advised to mix feed but I really wish I'd given her a little more time now. The mixed feeding really messed with my supply and I never got her back to exclusively breastfeeding. I think so long as she is gaining weight, has plenty of wet/dirty nappies and is settled I wouldn't worry to much about the actual amount gained IYSWIM. All babies are different and a big baby can cope with losing more and gaining it back slower than a little baby.

I'd seriously recommend getting some hands on support from a breastfeeding counselor, either at BabyCafe, or your local NCT/La Leche League/Breastfeeding network will have counsellors. They can help you with positioning and attachment and should be able to help you work out why she will only latch on one side (my DS did that too - turned out he only liked lying on one side so if I held him under arm he would feed on the right. After a few weeks he was fine feeding on either side). If you can get the hang of it BF is really worth it IMHO and I had an absolute nightmare first time and then a reasonable time second time :)

Annie I hope you LO is here very soon.

Winter - hiya long time no chat - glad to hear you ok. X

I would like to give Grace a dummy to stop here comfort suckling me but she is just not interested in it.

In good news she is back to birth weight, she is 2 weeks today and I'm feeling I'm through the worst with feeding. she is just so windy on an evening and wants to cluster feed all evening. I have tons of milk on a morning so express between 60 and 80ml and she gets that about 9pm.
I can't complain as she sleeps from 11 to 7 with an hour up to feed and change etc around about 4am.

kt and annie how are you both doing hope babies here very soon or on their way now

rafiq seems to be feeling a bit under the weather since this afternoon :( he is really snuffly and doesnt want to be put down at all just sleeping on me, poor thing. any suggestions what to do for him? as cant really give them anything at all at this age even snuffle babe is from 3 months. i feel really sorry for him. wonder if he has picked something up in stay & plays as we've been out all week in them cos i really missed them! there wasnt really a lot of children tho, quite quiet n didnt c ne1 with a cold? i suppose also could b the crappy weather, me and ds1 got totally soaked thru in the rain the other day it was coming down sooo heavy! anyway just hope he will feel better soon. hope he lets me put him down to sleep at night time too, am already feeling so tired!

Still no baby here :(

Oh kt I really feel for you- when is your induction date? Being over due is the worst thing!

Eva is doing well sleeping 8-2 then feed then 2-4 then feed then 5-7 so were good here! Wish I could get her to take a dummy though but she just refuses!

No baby here either but induction date has finally arrived (12 days overdue now) so fingers crossed for a quick one please ladies! Have had the worst cramps and show since midwife did 3rd stretch and sweep on weds so really hope I'm already on my way when they start...they predicted that one low dose of the gel would be enough so fingers crossed it's not a 3 day event. Hopefully be posting back soon... Xx

Also, thinking of you KT and hope we're both on the other side soon xx

Im the walking dead too... DS is good with sleeping (5hours ish at night) but im just knackered! Im getting more sleep now than a few weeks ago but my god im sooooo tired.

DS today though is needing mummy cuddles constantly which is getting frustrating - finally got him to nap so he's back in his cot now.

Yep walking dead here too slept 11pm-1am,up till 5.30am, slept till 7am as had to get up look after DD1. DH does half day Fri so he promised to be hone by 1pm and take DD1 swimming so hopefully can get a nap in if babe allows this arvo before hourly eve feeds start........

Gd luck with induction kt and annie sounds like you already on the way with pains sure the gel will fast track it.

Good luck Annie

I'm 40+13 by my dates but officially 40+20. Have just had my 4th sweep this week and am 5 cm but cervix easily stretches to 9cm. Mw said she doesn't know what's holding baby in and she could almost pull it out by its ears!!! Am going in tomorrow to have my waters broken and with a bit of luck that will be enough to get things moving, but I'm disappointed not to be able to have my home birth. Just can't stand the waitling any longer.

good luck kt and annie!!! wow kt im suprised you are 5cm and not in labour, hopefully it'll be a quick and easy one then as you are half way already

sarge i am also quite tired. when they all wake up in the morning im always thinking nooo, not time to get up yet. this morning ive gone and tried to sleep more on ds1's bed while they play, cos just dont have the energy to be properly awake in the early morning. but then if have coffee i am alright, and keep drinking a few more coffees through the day. without the coffee i think i would be walking dead

Blimey 5cms KT - I never got that far after 6 days of contractions!!

DS continues to be a star - slept for 8 hrs solid last night and now weighs in at an impressive 12lbs 11oz. We took him out for lunch day (he had milk we had steak and ale pie!) and he was cooed over by our waitress and assorted biddies. He treated them to lovely smiles and took a shine to a light fitting - he would gaze at it and giggle away like mad. Not quite sure what he found so appealing but it was very cute to watch.

Thw waitress also said rather nicely that i looked amazing and i made it look easy. Just lucky we have a good sleeper and i have good foundation I said!

Kt and Annie feel for you having always gone overdue too. Hoping babies are in yours arms in a matter of hours.
Ds3 is a month tomorrow and gone from 8lbs 6 to 11lbs 11.not surprised as he feeds so often. I never get more than 2.5 hours sleep at a time so am shattered. Ds1 started school this week and lve

Whoops-smart phones and breastfeeding co ordination problems there. Meant to say ds1 loves school but is also exhausted. DD thinks her new teacher is too strict and health visitor thinks ds2 may have a slight lisp from all his thumb sucking so needs speech therapy. After school yesterday had a couple of extra kids to tea to help out heavily pregnant friend so looked like the von trapps walking back from school with 6 kids-only less serene and with more screaming and less singing! Oh for some sleep

My life line is tea! Prevents me from falling asleep during the day. Eva is starting to go longer between feeds during the day- which is welcome as I can do more with dd1.

Dd1 is dropping her nap, which makes 4 pm onwards overtired hell! I'm tempted to drive around/ walk till she sleeps- then as soon as we get home she wakes up!

mrs v sometimes mine are really tired around that time too, if they are really overtired and moody i will just do dinner 4.30 and bed 6pm!! sounds ridiculously early but makes life easier if you are having one of those days when you're just thinking 'hurry up bedtime!' and sometimes they need it. well as long as it does not result in them waking up @ stupid times of the morning like getting up at 5am for the day or anything!

hersetta wow 8 hours!!! he is a really good baby!