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.

Congratulations Eviepoo, what a whopper!!! Hope you are okay too.

Congratulations Evie!!

Well we have survived the first month (can't believe it has been a month already!!). Alex is still gdoing well and sleeping between 6 and 6.5 hrs at night. We have been getting beautiful smiles for the last week and yesterday got our first giggle which just melts your heart.

His big sister who is 4 this week is completely in love with him. She constantly kisses him and tells him how much she loves him and chats away to him about whatever she is doing...it really is lovely to see them together.

Fingers crossed we have sorted out Alex's constipation issues. we moved him from Aptimil comfort formula to cow and gate comfort and he has now been on his own with no help from me at all for the last 2 days.

Hope everyone is holding up well.

Congrats Evie!

Hersetta I am so jealous of your 6 1/2 hr sleep, smiles & giggles!! We're a week behind you and at the moment are getting a max of 3hrs sleep and lots of dinosaur baby noises as well as feeding marathons. Today there have been no naps that last longer than 20mins. Ah well a lot can change in a week?!?!

awww giggles! that must be lovely. looking forward to those. we have started getting some smiles but its mainly still the while asleep ones rather than awake proper ones. still very cute though
dinosaur baby noises also sounds cute fizzypig!
hersetta i know what you mean cant believe rafiq is 3 weeks already so nearly 1 month, the time is flying tooo quick!

Realized my last msg sounded a tad negative - just had an impressive display of push ups in my chest & neck muscle development! Yip time is flying almost 1/6 of mat leave gone - WTF??

You're going to hate me now!!!

Alex fell asleep at 11.15 last night and I had to wake HIM up at 8.20 this morning!!! He had a little grizzle at about 3am but I just put his blankets back on him and he settled himself back to sleep. he definitely cluster feeds in the evening to stockpile food for the night as he had two 6oz bottles in three hrs, had a poo and then passed out!

We are celebrating DD's birthday today (she doesn't know it's actually on Wednesday) because my DH is going away for work tomorrow for a week so he would have missed it, Glad Alex is being so good at night as I will be managing by myself for the next week.

Glad he is being such a good boy Hersetta!

Eva is doing 6 hours then 2 then 1 but that's fine for me. I'm going to take her to an osteopath to sort out her grunting as she looks in real pain!

I can't believe it but I'm actually in my pre preg size 10 clothes again- woo hoo! I do look odd thou with huge boobs!

Fizzy I am in the max three hour sleep, dinosaur noises, feeding marathon club.
yesterday I spent nearly all day feeding while ds hardly slept. still today he is sleeping loads-which is just as well as I am trying to get DD to tidy/clear out her bedroom. how many crystals/rubbers/pens/trinkets boxes/random bits of paper can one 8year old need? It is harder work getting her to tidy her room than giving birth!

Hello can I join you. the first to pop from the Sept edd club. Had DD on Fri by C-sec is our 2nd DD (1st is 4.5yrs). Came home yest pm. Struggling again with BF. Dejavou as had horrid time getting BF established with DD1 vowed not to get in that state again but alas last night despite nipple shield had blood out cracked nipple. Only just feeding on one side and using syringe formula to top up. Baby has lost 10% weight in 3days but as she was 8lb14oz and other signs ok MW not overly concerned yet. Steeling myself for another night of exhausting hourly feeds ahead..... somehow it seems better once u make it to 4,am and dawn approachs.
DD 1 is proving challenging over excited loud big sister not quite understanding why baby sleeps all day!

Congrats ssmile!

Glad I'm not the only one in the baby dinosaur club!! Yay major! Although have to admit I'm jealous of the other sleeping beauties...

Had what seems like a major achievement - Baby took a bottle of expressed milk! So pleased. However if anyone has any tips on improving technique they'd be gratefully received - milk seemed to escape from both sides of his mouth & he spat what seemed like a lot of it up after the bottle was finished. Posted about this on feeding thread too.

Thanks!

Hello all! Have had a busy few days (weeks....months...) so no time for posting! All well in team twinny, the girls are just the best!! They are sleeping between 4-6 hours over night (dependent on whether they're in our bed or not!!) so it is very bearable. BUT I have jacked in breast feeding and expressing this week. We managed 5 weeks of combo feeding but then my mum went home and with DH at work it wasn't manageable. The girls are thriving on formula though - 6lb 9 and 5lb 2 last week - so it is going well!

My birthday today and the girls gave me the present of seeing almost every hour of it PLUS both of them vommed on me before dawn - a new record! Early night? I think so!!!

mrs stevo sounds like a grand birthday present hopefully the coming ones will make up for it.
fizzypigs gd luck with ur ebm. Sorry don't have any tips except maybe slower delivery either teat or syringe? I really struggling with cracked nipples so resting them by hand expressing into a sterile cup then sucking up with a syringe and feeding baby that way. Then supplementing with formula same way. Can just about tolerate feeding off one nipple using a shield. It's early days ere &unfortunately I had a similar experience with my first DD 4yrs ago but I did get there after 4-5wks and made 9mths BF so hoping I can keep going through this vhard patch one day at a time again.

Another member of the dinosaur club here! Joshua is sleeping a max of 3 hours (usually in with us) and has 4-hour cluster feeds morning and evening!! Needless to say I'm not getting much else done and my amazing DP is keeping the house going...however, he's gone back to work today Someone please tell me the feeding gets less frequent, before I lose my mind! xxx

bettyboo it does get less frequent but they all different. With my 1st DD 5wks was magic turning point when things started to settle more. I keep a note pad on the go writing when fed how long etc and I Rember around wk3 more of a 2-3hr pattern emerging. Hang in there it seems endless but it will improve.

I very proudly hand expressed 9ml off my vsore boob earlier. It doesn't sound much but was just relived to keep it going. That was 3hrs ago so about to try again. Phew seems such hard work but know it will be worth it when I'm confidently whipping out boobs for feeds with out thinking about it in about 5wks time........I hope.

so baby took ebm again tonight..yay! but had to breast feed straight after for about 40min which seems to defeat the purpose. this is after a feeding marathon this avo. i am hoping this is a growth spurt that will pass quickly as at the moment my plans to bf till 6mths are fast diminishing. i need a break!! i had no idea bf would be so intense.

Once you get past the first few weeks it's easy fizzypigs. I had a very hard first few weeks with DS1, traumatic birth, had to express for the first week using electric pump which gave me a huge oversupply so I leaked everywhere for weeks afterwards, sore and cracked nipples. Kept going out of sheer bloodymindedness as I wasn't going to give up when I'd got so far. Got to about 6 weeks and it was so easy, fed him for 9 months in the end. With DS2 it was easy from day 1, couple of weeks of sore nipples at the start but soon settled and fed him for 9 months again. Really easy again this time with DS3 so all that perseverence with DS1 has paid off for me. It's so simple to feed out and about once you get used to being discrete and great for not having to get out of bed in the night !

thanks littlemiss! i hope so. think i'm just struggling with how intense it is - it's just really overwhelming to have someone need you this much. i guess part of this is about becoming a parent and another part is about feeling like my body is not (still after giving birth!) my own. just feeling like the prospect of having a night off is far far in the distant future.

Fizzy, I'm feeling your pain. I'm having 6 hour cluster feeds on an evening and I want to cry... I have 40ml ebm in fridge and if needs be DH will give her it in a while....I think she might be settling now..I hope so.... Shattered.
Good luck x

Poor you Evie! Hopefully in a wee while we'll look back at this and laugh or not even remember how consuming it was. I've eaten at least my body weight in biscuits as some sort of compensation but now feel a bit sick! Oh well tomorrows another day - let's hope it's a better one!

Omg I the six hour of evening feeds was bad but she slept for 6 hours last night.....
I can't help just gazing at her, she's too beautiful.

Eviepoo glad you had good night.
these marathon feeding sessions do pass. I keep telling myself just need to get through the first six weeks then breastfeeding is so easy.
ds3 seems to be following my dds voracious appetite. I thought her mad feeding was because she was born in the 2003 heatwave and was thirsty but no heatwave this august and still got a very hungry baby.
last night was not too bad but so far this morning ds2 has pooed all over the hallway having decided he is now too big for nappies and ds1 is wandering around in the nude demanding to try his school uniform on. Luckily DD is at a sleepover so she is out of the equation for a while. how I will ever get them to school on time with lunches made is a mystery. at least now I can feed in bed for a bit and leave dh to cope with the mayhem for a bit. Thank god he works from home most of the time!

Hello everyone! Congratulations!

I had Jonah on the 17th, so he's two weeks today. He was 8lb 3oz when he was born, but I must have pretty impressive breast milk as he was already 9lb 1oz by 7 days old!

I feel like I'm having post traumatic stress about the birth, I keep thinking about it at night, googling it and crying it's awful!!! Have all of you with slightly older babies got over it? I had a forceps delivery in theatre and had a hell of a lot of stitches! Because of the high risk of a cesarean I had a spinal block rather than an epidural and I think feeling that helpless probably is what's causing me to be so stressed about it.

How long did everyone take to get going again? I was in hospital as me and DS had an infection and were both on IV antibiotics for 5 days, we came out and went to nandos with all the family was so yummy! Then we went to the trafford centre the day after, shopping again the day after that and then to london to visit my family for 4 days. I walked to the doctor for some lansinoh the day I got back and she was shocked I had made it to the surgery... good job I didn't tell her I'd been out and about for days! I thought getting back on your feet was what would help you get back to normal?
Having said that, after all these stitches sex is definatley not on the cards for another ten years unlike what I've read bacck on this thread!!!

hiss42 wow in awe of your outings mega impressive. You are allowed to take it easy. But I was bit like that after my first determined to prove my life had not changed that much and could still do it all. I also had a form of post baby/not the labour I wanted stress. I think large stemmed from being an in control career woman prebaby to suddenly my life wasn't my own any more. Massive shock to the system. My SIL had counselling post birth talking through her notes with a Snr MW which helped her deal with it.

This time baby no2 is 5 days old and I making most of any opportunity to just lie in bed relaxing. I've got until 12sept when DD1 starts school for first time to be 'unrountined' so making most of it :o

BF I found relentless for 5wks never thought I'd keep it up then suddenly turned a corner and by 6wks was enjoying it with DD1. If you can keep it up it should get easier, I too made 9mths with DD1 against the odds. Hoping can get there this time as also finding it vhard again but taking it each day at a time.

hiss congrats on your ds!!
that sounds quite similiar to my ds1's birth, also forceps in theatre with spinal & stayed in a week for antibiotics. at the time it was quite traumatic but have got over it fine now. i would see how you feel in a few more weeks if you're still thinking about it a lot & affected a lot, cos you can get post birth councelling if you need but with more time you may be okay so see how you go?
i find getting out and about very helpful aswel its good to keep busy & back to normal imo, especially once paternity leaves finished & your on your own, cos once you go for it & go out & about as normal then you feel confident that you can do it & cope fine whereas i do know people who became quite anxious about taking them out, getting on bus and tube etc and they are still that way after a couple of yrs! so to me i find it best just to get on with it. although the idea of relaxing is quite appealing too, if i ever get the chance

smile congrats & welcome! i hope things improve for you with the feeding

feeding is going well for us this time, compared to the other 2 its amazing really! actually this is the longest ive exclusively bf any of them (well excluding his formula top up in hosp for the low blood sugar). he does feed quite a bit but somehow just seems to be a lot easier this time round

mrsstevo happy belated bday!