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.

Teldi- congratulations! Well done with the expressing- are you keeping trying to let your dc feed too? My friend had to bottle feed for a week but she kept trying and her ds latched. Perhaps try when you dc had just fed? Please don't beat yourself up- you tried your best and baby is still getting all the milk they need. And please don't take it personally, it can be so easy to give babies adult motives/ emotions when we feel down.

I cant believe dd is 4 weeks old now! I'm only having 6 months off work as I only work 2 days s week and think it's going to be really tough going back- I may extend it to 7 months so I can make sure she's properly weaned.

Took dd to cranial osteopath and think it's really worked

congrats on your dd teladi!
sorry your feeling bad about the bf, i would try not to feel guilty though because if she never latched on properly and fed even though you tried, that's not your fault. my 1st did that at 3 weeks just suddenly refused to latch on and i never got him to feed again
mrsv mine is 4 weeks today too must be born on the same day. it has gone quick!

i am sooo tired today, i think all the lack of sleep is starting to catch up with me a bit. rafiq did not sleep well last night at all i think maybe a bit too overtired and overstimulated during the day as he was awake wayy too long in afternoon and early evening, which doesn't seem to help. hoping to persuade dh to sit with the kids for a bit n keep an eye on them so i can sleep for a little bit! although as he's still recovering he does not want to do anythingggg to help out at all so need to persuade him its not going to medically harm him, i really need the rest for a bit

Firawla- my dp makes me laugh as he will take dd1 to the park then think he has done his bit- I have to remind him that we have 2 children and easy as it is with dd2 I have still not had a rest as I have been feeding etc! I have been going running quite often on my own which is 20 mins of bliss!

Second timers does a newborn remind you how much more work older kids are? The days dd2 are in nursey are my easy days - I get to watch what I want on tv and actually sit down!

Totally mrsvidic! This is my third time and the older two are way more work than the baby!! First time round it's such a steep learning curve though, and it's been easy second and third time as I have a much better idea of what the baby wants and feel loads more confident. My mum is having DS1 and DS2 this afternoon and it will be like an afternoon off!

Teladi congratulations! I sympathise with the breastfeeding issue - I had a similar thing with DS1 after a traumatic birth. I found that after about a week he suddenly 'got it' and breastfed brilliantly, I was able to stop expressing within a day of him learning to bf. In hindsight he must have had such a headache as he was rather bruised . Keep putting her to the breast, when she's at her most alert and you never know, she might start. If it doesn't work please don't beat yourself up about it though, you are doing really well and all that expressing is hard work, you sound like you are doing your best.

Ds1 was 4 yesterday, he had a little party in the garden and it was lovely. Ds2 had so much fun too and now they are playing shops with DS1's new till and groceries. Very cute to watch, they are becoming pretty good playmates, although they do have theor moments of one of them is shattered....

hi ladies, im finally here!! hooray! little Willow Ann was born on Tues 30th Aug at 4.50am weighing a teeny tiny 6lb12oz! (her brother was 10lb3oz)
she is gorgeous and very very good she barely cries which is also the complete opposite to her big brother but her big sister was a v good baby so hopefully she is following her her footsteps!

i had really bad backache for 2 days and a bit of a show on the sunday, i had a sweep on mon morn with more show and on/off contractions during the day and was getting v excited and scared! but they stopped at night so i went to bed at 9pm, when dp came up at 10.30 i got up for a wee and they stared again i tried to sleep but couldnt so i went downstairs on the ball and walking around and then rang the hospital to check if i should go as they were still irregular but 45-60 sec long and i needed the anti biotics for strepb, she said have a hot bath, so i got in the bath at 1am and then after 10 min i had a whopper and shot out the bath and woke dp up and said we had better get my parents round! the contractions were getting really strong in the car i had my tens mc on when we got to hospital it took me ages to get in cos i had to keep stopping having them, so glad it was 2 am and only a few people saw me!! mw examined me at 2.45 and i was 4cm but i warned her it would go really fast as it did with ds,she said i should have the iv antibiotics so she put a horrible canula in the side of my hand and i had two bags which too an hour to get in, i was on gas and air and the contractions were really strong, every other min for a min, she had to sqeeze the anti biotics in to speed them up it was agony. Then she said i could get in the birth pool, i was so glad she agreed i could as the two mw before had said no so in i got and within 30 min i started to feel the need to push a bit at the end of each contraction, i kept saying "im going to have it soon" and the mw just kept saying "lets hope so" she was still sat on her chair reading something when i had a contraction my waters popped and i said "its coming" she still didnt get off her chair, and i pushed and Willow shot out under the water and the mw shot off her chair to come and get her out and lift her upto me, so i was only in the water for about 40 min, i didnt have the injection to get the placenta out, i sat on a stool thing and it came out after 16 min so was fine.

We had to stay in 2 nights as Willow couldnt keep her temp up at first and had to go on a heat pad, and her heart rate was a little slow, we were really worried it was to do with the strep b and the fact i did not get the anti biotics in long enough before delivery so the did some blood tests but there was no infection, she just took a little longer to get going.

Im breastfeeding which ive never done before and its going really well, was hard work at first to get her to latch on but there was a fantastic mw who really helped me and staying in an extra night prob really helped even tho i hated it and it was so horrible for my other dc's.

her big sis and bro adore her and dp has been being fantastic but he has to work sun and mon morns so im a bit scared about being left on my own so soon with 3 but im gonna have to get used to it.

will catch up soon on how everyone is doing xxx

Teladi that's really great your expressing so you still can try and get your DC to latch! I'm impressed! :) My DS is now 17 days old and is having a massive growth spurt according to the midwife and is BF every bloody hour for the past two days!
I also have mastitis and thrush in my milk ducts which is so excruciating!! I didn't think I could carry on BF but I went to the baby cafe again this week and someone said that nipple shield will help until the cracks heal and I'm on antibiotics from my gp! they've honestly saved me although it takes twice as long as usual for a feed! I have to go back again on monday to make sure mastits is clearing up in case I have to be admitted back to hospital :( After spending so long in there after DS was born I really want to avoid it!

I suddenly crashed after all my outings like most of you said! It's just caught up with me and I had a mini nervous break down. My DP didn't have any paternity leave and so I've done everything cleaning/cooking/babywise. GP said yesterday that it's normal to think you should do everything if he's at work, but I think he's going to have to help me at least once in the night because I can't cope with this lack of sleep! I can see Sargesaweyes Dp seems to be helping! How are everyone elses partners and husbands helping out? I have a serious resepct for single mothers now, I don't know how I would cope!!!

Showing DS off at a family party tonight, I'm a bit stressed because they all smoke indoors (even with 6 children of their own, and smoked through pregnancy). I was hoping if the weather was nice we could just go in the garden but it's raining! I don't know what to do because we want to go but you can't tell someone not to smoke in their own home and there is no way DS is sitting there with them all puffing away!!

Hiss42 poor you! Nipple shields are fantastic to help through a rough patch, this is the first baby I haven't used them with. Used them with DS1 for about 2months and with DS2 for a couple of weeks and they kept me feeding. Mastitis and thrush at the same time sounds awful, separately they're bad enough! Hope you are better soon. Sounds stressful re the smoking, I wouldn't be happy with that either.

teladi wow your doing vwell with expressing its much tougher to keep that going than just BF well done. I had problems with first DD once I stopped expressing and got her going on me on shields I had more energy less tears. Our local surestart childrens centre hires electric Breast pumps out for min cost and has BF cafe &helpers maybe see if your local one has such support.
My DH has been fantastic keeping the housework going and taking our active 4.5yr old out daily. I've just turned a blind eye to the amount of chips n icecream treats he has bought her as just getting a few hrs quiet time in the house with babe has been utter heaven. I had few tears today as day 8 we had first trip out. I did slow shuffle around local harbour followed by hot chocolate at local pub. But the walk left me exhausted (post c-sec) so had few tears but it passed and I had hrs nap when we got home and world felt better again.
I did laugh as DH said this morn "had a gd night?" (he sleeping in lounge at moment so he can get gd sleep&look after DD1 &i can have bedroom to myself w babe). Yep I said well I considered 6hrs of sleep split into 3x2hr chunk gd :o !

Hi all - hope some of us are getting a few hours sleep......

Teladi I sympathise with the energy it takes to combine BF and expressing as DS didnt latch (he had a breathing problem which is another story entirely). Hire a double pumper if you can; it will make you feel like Daisy the cow but save you precious time.
Also, ask your midwife/HV to check DD for 'tongue tie' as this can be a common reason for poor latch initially but easy to solve. Meredith had this diagnosed at 8days and snipped at 9 days - shes 19days now and my nipples have nearly recovered
There is limited support for exclusively expressing mums in this country if thats the road you decide to take: 'pumping moms' is an American group that I found after stopping pumping!!

Keep going for as long as you want but, easier said than done, dont beat yourself up if you switch.

All the best. x

aaww that is so sweet of your dp dreaming sargesaweyes my dp is being really good too with the other dcs and has gone a bit ocd on the cleaning and is makin me feel a bit bad at times, as soon as you put something down hes there clearing up!! but hes at work in the morn hopefully for half a day so im letting him do it cos its gonna be hard without him already!

What is a good breast pump to use and when is ok to try, are you supposed to wait a few weeks? also mw said that you can have a couple of glasses of wine etc and still bf is this Ok? thanks

Hi ladies, well have been busy adoring Grace. We've been out most days and had plenty visitors.
Today was more tough, up earlier than usual to take DH to his sponsored bike ride so proud 26 miles in 3.5 hours with a dodgy knee. Met him at the end for a BBQ on the beach. Loads of friends and kids and babies there. Busy afternoon Grace fed for ages and ages but would not settle. On the drive home had to park up to feed more. In asda, fed more. She cried in car again til home and eventually settled, over tired I think. So now gonna have a bit of an unsettled night... The last 4 nights she has gone down between 11 and 12 sleep til between 5 and 6 and then fed and down til 8 or 9. Which is amazing. DH shouting on me gotta run catch up with you lot later x

Hiss42 I sympathise re the mastitus as I had a couple if weeks ago-I felt so ill. mine came on pretty suddenly but looking back I had not fed ds3 as frequently as I should have as we had so many visitors.

my second solo park outing with the kids was as disastrous as the first. Ds2 got a dreadful nose bleed. as we tried to leave he fell over again and screamed so being helpful DD pushed the buggy with ds3 in it for me. unfortunately it was a bit hilly and the buggy tipped over giving me two screaming children. can envisage lots of people shaking their heads thinking 'she's not really coping with 4 is she'

still did enjoy watching x factor with DD earlier so we must have both recovered from the trauma and the boys seem fine.

Does anyone else find BF makes them windy? I can't seem to stop farting whilst I feeding babe

mrsv yes definitely, older 2 are a lot more work.
sarge im mainly keeping mine in baby grow type suits with vest, or some top & trousrs but he is still small in mostly 7.5lb clothes so i dont have that much for him, mainly the all in one suits. once he gets to 0-3 i will be looking forward to have bit more choice. i've not been using snowsuit or coats when going out, even on the cold days cos hes in the buggy cocoon so quite well padded there with just blankets, depends how your buggy is i guess
never congrats!! beautiful name, glad youre both well
majormoo oh dear your poor ds, hope he is okay now. sure noone would have thought anything, we all have those days

Sarge- dd is in baby grows - warm days no vest. In the car i can put blanket if I have air con on and also in pram. Places to be careful of over heating are indoor shopping centres- people forget they're inside and also they get warmer when they r held lots.

Never- I wouldn't express till at least 2 weeks or you run the risk of messing your production up. Also if I would have seen u at the park I would have thought how lonely a family helping out, what good kids!

Hello all, I've not been about much as tbh I never thought I was going to get here!
I had my baby, after 3yrs and 6mc including a molar preg, I did it!
My DD was born on the 23rdAug weighing 6lb13.5oz.
She had been breech from 20weeks so I had an ELCS.
She is beautiful and we are besotted with her.

Congratulations to you all on your babies and fx the ones that have made it in to the the next school year get a wriggle on pronto!

sarge the only way our first DD would sleep was swaddled so we bought. A grobag swaddle blanket was godsend in early days but can do with any blanket it stopped her arms flaing about. Guess like anything you have to ensure they dont get too hot. This DD doesn't at moment seem to want to be swaddled is happy n content in a loose blanket with arms above her head.

I wasn't sure if the excess wind was a by product of c-sec or BF but everytime i feed I need to fart suddenlyfrom no where and it gets really uncomfortable

Huge congratulations prettyVacant what a lot you have been through to get your beautiful precious daughter, made me go all goosebumpy when i read that! Well done x

I swaddle dd as she couldnt keep her temp up in hospital so they said to keep her extra warm so she has socks vest babygro and swaddle and mits on! think im gonna tame it down a bit as warmer today and she is doing really well now.

Another bf question here! how much coffee and tea are ok to drink? i read the caffine passes through and can keep them awake so dont want her overtired but ive had to have 2 cups of coffee this morn as dp at work from 6am and ds woke at 7, got 5 hours sleep in total, 2hours, then up for 2 hours then 3 so quite big blocks but im still catching up from the 3 nights in hospital of having virtually none!

ive just put some pics on of Willow and her sister and brother