November 2011 - early birds, just in time and late to the party, all welcome!!

[TwoJackRussellsandapumpkin]

Hi all,

just starting up a post natal thread for all the due in November peeps on the antenatal forum and anyone else who would like to join in too, hoping to see my arrival by the end of the week, so officially an early bird I hope :)

Cali I was told it is weight in pounds x 2.5 oz in 24 hours. Eddie is 9lb now, so should be having 22.5 oz in 24 hours (which is roughly 675 ml). He has 7 feeds per day, so that should be around 3 oz, or 95 ml per feed. He actually takes between 4 and 6 oz each feed, I keep thinking he'll start to go longer between feeds, but not happening so far! Abi is 11 and a half pounds (ish) so she should take 11.5x2.5=28.75 oz or 862.5 ml in 24 hours. If she feeds every 4 hours, thats 6 feeds a day, so 862.5/6=143.75 ml per feed, around 5 oz. Don't worry too much, its all approximate, some take much more, others much less. Have you tried making her feeds 3 hourly? Eddie can't seem to get past 3 hours in the day, but can skip a feed at night (which is bliss). Hope that helps, they don't call me MathsWhizzy for nothing!

just I found 5S really useful when Abi won't settle. That and what dp calls my Jedi mindtrick - stroking her forehead from between her eyebrow upwards. It sends her off no time.
Also, I bite the bullet often and let her fall asleep on me - mostly when she just won't settle anywhere else. Then I can quietly transfer her to her cot/pram.

Does anyone else have issues with conflicting advice from HV?

When DS was constipated I rang HV who advised to give him cool boiled water. Today when different HV visited she told me not to...

Really irritates me when I get conflicting advice like that, makes life very difficult when trying to do right by LO. GRRRR!

Cali I went by the box initially, but as soon as DS was consistently draining his feeds, I upped them by 1oz. So he is currently on 3-4oz (depending on hunger) every 3-4 hours.

Perish I had conflicting advice from HV about Eddie's blocked tear ducts. She told me to massage them to try to release the blockage. He got an eye infection so I took him to the doctors, and was told not to touch them. He said that it can take up to a year for babies tear ducts to open, and was nothing to worry about! He still hasn't had any tears, but he hasn't had any more eye infections either.

Lol at your Jedi mind trick Cali, I'll have to try that!

Lizzy These are not the Zzzzzz's you are looking for!

Cali OMG Jedi Mindtrick is incredible! I have tried it just the once, and DS is fast asleep in his moses basket... now will this last long enough for my pizza to be delivered and scoffed? (wishful thinking)

Loving the Jedi mind trick and will be keeping it up my sleeve! I've used a dummy a couple of times when the crying is unavoidable (e.g. middle of the night nappy change. He hates having his nappy changed sometimes and will wail the place down) but lucky for us, L is not proving to be a big cryer. He does like to suck for comfort though so may introduce more regularly once we're in a more regular feeding routine, to give my nipples a break

Bit of a personal question now so feel free to bypass if you want! Has anyone else had significantly increased wind / stomach 'rumbling' type stuff? I assumed it was just all my insides getting back to normal positions as I'm not constipated, but DH is slightly concerned by how loud the noises are It's not 'normal' wind, as in farting, definitely in my stomach. Not sure if I should mention to my midwife on Monday or if it's normal and will die down shortly.

Truffkin for about a week - 10 days after DS was born I had the most extreme wind that I have ever had (even worse then when I was pregnant and that's saying something!) lots of tummy rumbling along with farting. It died down after a little while, but if it is bothering you then mention it to midwife, she might be able to advise/reassure :)

Also my LO hated having his nappy changed at first (I'm sure it's the shock of having their little bottoms exposed and pressed against a cold changing mat) but now he just lays there and accepts that it is part of his little life. As they get a little older you can distract them more which makes it a little easier - although I am not looking forward to it when DS starts crawling and escaping whilst semi-naked!

Hey all just thought I'd pop in for a catch up... Been a hectic couple of weeks but I think I've got it now haha... Darcey is now two weeks old and we have made birth weight again and MW have discharged us and it's looking like no more jaundice yey :) however getting checked again officially on Friday.

This baby is a dream and we've had one bad night since she was born where she woke at 2 and wouldn't settle till 5, she was crying unless put in her Moses basket she just didn't want to sleep... Hoping it was a one off! She is breast feeding around 3/4 times a day now and I am
Expressing around 90mls which she has every 4 hours with a 30-60ml formula top up... I have become obsessed with her feeding though haha

I think her little trip to SCBU has affected me more than I thought though as I found out today that I couldn't choose to left her o always want her on the same room as me... I'm going to have to deal with this soon before it gets put of hand!

Hope everyone is well :)

That was wasn't crying unless in Moses basket

H007 - don't worry - we call Abi a "Velcro" baby - I hate having her away from me, and I sleep with my arms around her every night (open sided cot) - you can't spoil her at this age, and you will get to know her inside out by having her close all the time.

Well done for doing so good with BF! Every time I feed Abi I feel the urge to pull my boobs out, but I know I'd get neurotic about her food, and for my sanity I can't do it. But I get such an urge that 6 weeks after going over to formula I'm still leaking!

Truffkin Yes, I had it for a few weeks - more so when I bf'd and contractions were stronger. It sounds scary, DP used to freak out at the noises I made in the middle of the night!

LO struggling with farty madness atm - any tips?

Hi all, can I join you? I was on the December ante-natal threads (due on the 20th) but had my baby girl on 21st November. She weighed 5lb 4oz at birth but is now up to 5lb 11oz.

We're mixed feeding as she was too hungry on my breastmilk and was really constipated on just formula, mixed feeding seems to be the perfect solution.

Is anyone else not BFing and if so how much is your baby taking? Eva is taking 100-120ml every 4 hours which seems a huge amount considering she shouldn't even be here yet.

hi sevenswansaswimming, welcome! DS is taking between 150ml and 180ml of formula every three hours, but he is over six weeks now and about 12lbs weight. But when he was only about two weeks he was on about 120ml every three hours, but he was over 8lbs when he was born.

Cali going by the advice you have been given on calculating feeds, I'd say my DS is eating way too much. But I never got such precise advice on amounts. I did ask my HV about his feeding, as I was worried about overfeeding him and two different health visitors told me it was all ok as they tend not to overfeed, and if they do take too much they would most likely bring it up again. And although he is quite a big baby, he is not actually chubby, there are no wee rolls of fat. I'd say this illustrates very well what Perish was saying about conflicting advice, it seems we are all being told something different.

oh, and with amounts of feed, although DS is a hungry baby, he does stop eating if he has had enough, so although its mostly between 150ml and 180ml, sometimes he only takes 100ml.....

snoozle sounds like we're same here...6 weeks and taking 150ml every 3 hours with one 5/6 hour gap in night. Sounds a lot but she doesn't always finish whole bottle (although this is rare - shes a milk monster). Just wanted to ask everyone...dd is ff and has approx 1 or 2 bottles of expressed bm a day...she will go for a poo every 2 days approx now ( sometimes more often sometimes slightly longer) and its always a massive poo explosion ( hard to believe someone so small can create that volume) but its soft yellow. And lots of wet nappies in between...is this normal? She gets progressively worse and smelly gas the closer it gets to her going! Drs on mon for 6 week check although slightly nervous about being let loose in car with dd on my own!
h007 it's so hard the first time you leave them, we went to pub for an hour the first time and I practically bolted my food down to get back to her.

kate the yellow explosion is the result of breastmilk. DD was doing hard yellow pellets on formula but since she's been having some breastmilk she has a rotten-smelling yellow explosion every day.

Hey sevens not so little Darcey is on the same amount every 4 hours and a mixed feed at two weeks old, however she was a monster at 10lbs 6.

How old were/are peoples babies the first time they left them? I have a panic if OH is in the next isle to me with her in the shop... I think it's because I was forced to leave her so early that now I feel like I shouldn't choose to

I was told 150-200 ml/kg divided by number of feeds in 24 hours, by the dietician when we were diagnosed with CMI.
But I guess every baby is different, and with different needs!

Abi has finally found her appetite, and is now up to 4.5oz every 3-4 hours! We've had so much faff with feeds though, I'm not going to ask her for miracles anytime soon.

We had our first bath together too - she loved it!

h007 I think Ella was 4 weeks the first time I left her. I went to hairdressers and left her with dh and then in evening we went for a meal and left her with grandparents. I was more worried about leaving her with grandparents than dh! It could definitely be a reaction to having to have left her early on that you now don't want to. Maybe it would help if at first you just start having a bit more time to yourself whilst not actually leaving home, like leave your oh with her downstairs and go have a long bath or watch tv for half hour in different room. To be honest though I think it's just a natural mummy reaction, I still hate leaving her and won't do for more than a couple of hours!

I think if we were FF I'd be driving myself crazy with trying to work out if he was having enough to eat - although I do sometimes wonder how much he's having / if it's enough as we're EBF, I appear to have plenty of milk and can always express even after he's finished feeding. He is content, sleeping and producing lots of wet and dirty nappies (it's improved from 6 times a day to 2-3 now, with a few wet ones in between!) and his poo is yellow, soft and sweetish smelling. He's also alert when he's awake so am going to accept that I can't know, but that he seems fine. There's always something to worry about hey

L has had a bath today, we have a tummy tub and he really likes it. Even if he has a meltdown whilst I'm undressing him, he calms down once he's in the water. Typically he decided to do a poo just as I put a clean nappy on him once he was all clean and dry! I'd like to try him in the bath with me, so might do that next week. I'm not normally one for baths but think it might be nice to have one with him too.

I've left him twice, once to get my hair cut and he was at home with DH and a bottle of EBM in the fridge just in case and once (again with DH) when I had a wander up the road with my Mom to look round the shops. We don't have any family nearby at the moment so wouldn't have had the opportunity to leave him with anyone else, although when we move next weekend there will be loads of people (who have already offered to babysit!) so we might get round to doing something. We have aspirations of a cinema trip over the holidays so will see how that pans out. I do have a Christmas night out planned for 23rd December with all of the ladies in DH's family. It's an annual night out and they've planned it as late as possible so I could go along. L will be fine at home with DH and a fridge full of EBM (again, better safe than sorry ) but I think I'll be desperate for cuddles when I get home.

H007 I can totally understand why you don't want to be parted from Darcey and if you don't need to be, then I don't think it's an issue. I'm a firm believer in 'there's no right way, just the right way for you' so don't let anyone make you feel like you should be doing anything you don't feel like doing.

I love the weekends with DH at home, back to just the two of us tomorrow for the last week. We'll be back in Birmingham on Saturday and then there will be lots of people to 'play' with nearby. Midwife appointment tomorrow to get L checked as his cord hadn't come away when the midwife came on Tuesday, it has now though and looks fine. He also needs to be weighed as she wasn't convinced that the hand held scale was measuring correctly. Then the health visitor is coming on Tuesday and I need to get her to send all of our notes up to our new doctors to make sure we get the continuity of care for L. Am hoping that by this time next week we are settled in our new home with a lovely twinkling Christmas tree and can chill out properly.

H007 to start with I couldn't even let DH take the moses basket round to his side of the bed because I missed DS too much (even though he was about 4 feet away!). We left him with my sister for about an hour and a half when he was about three weeks, as we both wanted to attend a particular church service that DD was partipating in, and that was the first time I had really left him, and it was hard, even though I was 100% confident that he was safe.

Evening all,
My LO is only 18 days old and I haven't left him yet, can't imagine it actually! He's been in the other room with DH or my parents while I've had a sleep but that's it. I'm not expressing milk though so would be sacred to leave him in case he woke up and needed a feed.

Truffkin do you mind me asking how you are expressing? Hand or pump? I have been advised not to use a pump until 6 weeks and I can't get much out by hand but it will nice when I can express so DH can do some feeds.Maybe I should try again by hand.

F doesn't seem to cry too much unless he is hungry but he had a very restless day a couple of days ago when he wouldn't stop grizzling unless he was sucking and my thoughts did turn to a dummy, didn't have one in the house though and he's been ok again since so will put off that decision until later!

My main problem is that F is sick after almost every feed. I burp him and try and keep him upright but as soon as I lay him down, either in the basket or to change his nappy, he is sick. Its so frustrating - has anyone else experienced or got over this?

DH went back to work today so I'm pleased to say we've survived our first day as 2 - even if I didn't get dressed or achieve anything! Right, better peel baby off my chest where he likes to sleep and see if I can get him in the basket so I can cook some tea, he lasted 10 minutes before crying last time I tried!

hello all... its been about 2 weeks since I came on, so thought i'd better just say hi and let you all know I am still alive! Just having so much fun being mummy, that not thought to turn the laptop on!!!!

Hope everyone is well, i will scan back and catch up a bit in a min - but busy cooking dinner at the mo!

Tilly is 3 and a half weeks now and doing super - weighed 9lbs 9 at 3 week mark from birth weight of 8lbs 7 - so mummys milk obv doing her some good! Night times are a mixed bag - but huge improvement since discovering infacol! Generally get enough hrs -0 but some nights we get nice 4/5hr stints, other nights she wants feeding every 2 hours!

Will try to catch up now... byeee xxx

Well, spoke too soon - Abi is screaming down the bottle again - we dropped the lactulose as it was giving her horrendeous gas - and it has helped a smidgeon, but now she's continuously hungry, down to 3-hourly, and can only get about 40ml down her before the screaming starts - then we get back on the force-feeding wagon and it's all screams and cajoling for another 40-60ml.
I'm at a wits end - and HV, paed & dietician all say it's fine as long as she's gaining weight - I think they can try feeding her for a day and see how pleasant it is to make your baby eat. I'm in a mind to stop forcing it down her and see if they'll actually investigate when I bring her in dehydrated and malnourished (sigh). I wish treatment was more pro active and less "Shit, something is wrong" - this is what happened when she lost 14% of her body weight - apparently she was just "a colicky baby" while she wasn't getting any food at all.

Argh. I am seriously losing it with this.

Hi Ladies. Apologies for not keeping up and posting regularly. I have just been so busy, as I am sure you all are with your little ones.
We finally took DS took the doctors on Friday as he is very unsettles and I m wondering if he has the same problem as his older brother (dairy and gluten intolerance) We had already exhausted the infacol route and all the other tricks to settle baby. Haven't yet tried cranial osteo (did try this with my first son and had no effect)
Doc said they are happy to refer him to hospital but he s still very young (3 weeks) So we are trying colief- Has anybody used this?? It is a faff to use when BF as it needs to be added to warm milk before each feed.
We need to give it at least a week to kick in I think.
No effect as of yet and we have one very unhappy baby. Awake and unsettled, screaming from pain in his tummy/ trapped wind from about 4-5pm until around 2 or 3am when he finally goes into a deep sleep until about 5 am. He is generally more settled then and will sleep after a feed until about 8 ish.....
I really feel for all you mums with colicy babies/ feeding issues.
A couple of questions re expressing-
Are any of you expressing by hand? I can't seem to do this (well only get a very tiny amount) what am I doing wrong?
I can express with pump (manual) but takes ages I wonderd if an electric pump is worth the investment?
Sorry for the very long and self indulgent post. I promise I will catch up at some point.
Happy sleeping and feeding to you all.