Jan 2012 - Higgs Boson Gang pt1

[Oeisha]

Link to antenatal thread for convenience

Not a very good title, but it will suffice 'til we fill this one in record time!

Congratulations to all that have popped so far!

Oh peanut what a terrible time of it you andWilbur have had

Poor little mite sounds like you are all on the road to recovery now. I am wishing for you that he continues to recover and get stronger day by day and that you and your family can get back to normality some time soon. Xx

Oh peanut hugs to you and your family. What a horribly stressful time for you all. So glad that silver is on the road to recovery.
A positive story for you.
When my cousins baby boy was born his insides were all higgledepigglede. He was very ill and on life support for a time. As well as other complications one of his lungs was non functioning and the other was under his heart. Long story short, he is now 17yo and apart from not being able to play a full 90mins of football he is perfectly healthy if not a little cheeky!

Typo on my mobile. So sorry for changing wilburs name to silver

Oh peanuts, my heart goes out to you - hugs... Sounds like Wilbur is on the mend, but it must have been awful for you.

I was just coming in here to sigh that DD has been feeding almost continually for four hours and is crying like you wouldn't believe. DH is taking her out in the pram in the hope it will settle her. The poor mite . But you've reminded me that there are much worse things we could be worrying about so I'll shut up now.

Good luck to Wilbur!

Oh peanuts, I'm so sorry you all had to go through that. thank goodness Wilbur is on the road to recovery - he sounds like a fighter and has such a good name! Thinking of you all xx

Oh peanuts sounds like a you have been through a living nightmare. So relieved little wilbur is on the mend as it's just not right seeing little ones suffering in any way, you must still be in shock? Hope you and your family can start getting back to some normality and sending
((( big hugs ))) for you all xx

Peanuts my love, i'm so sorry to hear of the trial you have been through. I had a funny feeling in my gut that something wasn't quite right. I have been so worried for you. I'm glad to hear that you and wilbur are making a full recovery. I can't imagine what it must have been like to recover yourself and have to go through everything as well.

Arms around you and yours right now xxxxxx

Peanut,

I'm so sorry to hear that your little boy has been so poorly, and glad to know that he is on the mend. I had a week in NICU with my first (sadly without a happy ending, but very different circumstances) so know some of what you are going through. He sounds a little fighter and am sure he will be home with you very soon.
Xx

Congratulations oeisha hope the feeding is going better, ds was getting expressed milk for first few days but has been managing to latch on the last week.

Congratulations peanuts on your ds! I hope you are coping and getting plenty rest. My dd had life saving surgery when she was 2days old, she had bowel and oesophagus problems - she is now a very cheeky 3 yo. It was such a shock, we ende up in hospital for a few weeks. If there is anything I can do, let me know x

Things are going ok here, ds has been sleeping for 3-4 hours - don't want to get too used to thar in case all changes!! He has got really gunky eyes, it's like snot - he couldn't open them the other day. Health visitor coming tomorrow so hoping she'll have some advice.

How is everyone else doing?

buzz have you tried breast milk on his eyes? just swipe with cotton wool moistened with breast milk and water. Use a seperate bit of cotton for each eyes and go outwards from the nose to avoid spreading infection.

buzz - my mw said to drop breastmilk in then wipe away with clean cotton wool. Alternatively cooled boiled water will do, too

peanut - sorry to hear what you've been through. I hope everything keeps improving xx

Congrats Peanuts and I hope that Wilbur will be home with you soon. What a lovely name.

Good advice on the breastmilk into the eyes. Dd1 used to have that and I didn't think to put it on a cotton pad and used to spend ages trying to direct a spray of milk into her eye. Would end up with milk all over her face. (Yes, I'm that much of an eejit) But it does work really well when it gets there.

I can't believe that my girl is 3 weeks old now. She's grown so much too and fitting into 3-6 months clothes, or 60cm as they use cm here.

My PGP seems to be getting better now and heamrroids are gone too. Haven't even thought of trying my pre preg jeans as I'd have to face reality then and I'm not ready for that just yet. Congrats to you though who are.

So glad that everyone is doing ok - even after the few shaky moments with CS and life-saving surgery on a newborn - scary stuff.

William is now officially one month old today. And today was the first day that I had to 'cope on my own' as DH at work (has been for 2 weeks) and my DM left yesterday after 2 weeks of moral support. I realise that with a one week in hospital, one week with DH and 2 weeks with DM, I have been extremely lucky.

The little monster had projectile vomit all over the settee at 9:40am. It scared me because he had had only 2oz and it seemed like 5oz came out!?! He was unsettled until 11:45am when he had another 4oz and took it happily. (My neighbour happened to pop round, offered to feed and wind him and hey presto - settled!) Does me me feel like a stupid mother who after a month can't feed and wind her child properly!

Oh peanuts what a difficult time! Glad things are looking up and congratulations! What you've been trhough makes my next rant seem very petty.

Re: feeding. Abi's doing very well, but is now taking about 75ml every 3-4h...
Part of me really wants to keep going with BF, but she's still not reallly getting the hang of latching and fully sucking and at the moment, the EBF is going so well, I don't want to muck it up by latching her and allowing her to suckle for ages, but not getting anywhere. She is actually sleeping well and is feeding quite well. I really don't know if I could cope with having to feed on tap. Though I guess if she stays in this 3-4h routine, then this might help with the BF...if she can stay in that routine if we try and switch.
On the other hand, expressing is not easy. I'm getting out about 150-200ml each time, which everyone keeps telling me is great, and "you can just freeze it", but at this rate I'll have no freezer space left for anything other than milk. Shoudn't complain, I know, but at least with formula I wouldn't be stuck to a 3-4h routine of needing to be stuck to a pump for 30mins, adn we can guarantee she's eating enough (my paranoia with BF now is that we just won't be able to tell).
I guess I could try BF throughout the day and EBF at night...but then I don't want to express off during the day too much/too little...for so many reasons.
ARGH! I'm def. overthinking this, but my head might explode with the options.
On the lighter side, in the bath this morning my boobs were leaking, looked like a weird smoke-machine effect..!

As for sleep, she did really well and only co-slept when I was trying to get her to the 4h mark so she could chomble back a whole load. Still worrying the shit out of me mind you.

Oop, she's awake! Better go try and BF I guess.

oeisha how about a combination of EBF or BF and FF? For some reason the MWs are particularly anti this approach but they encouraged me to do it in hospital when we were trying to get Thea's blood sugars right. I think their issue is the confusion between breast and bottle but you already have this issue anyway.

peanuts how is Wilbur doing? Hope everything is going well x

Thanks everyone for the advice on gunky eyes, have been using breast milk and they do seem clearer already. That's ds now 2 weeks old today, although it feels like he has always been here! DS's cord is still on, not sure if that is ok or not?

Hey buzz, I think the guidelines for cords are 7-14 days before it falls off - DD's came off at 8 or 9 days I think. If it's all clean and not looking infected etc then I'm sure it's fine. Just keep cleaning the area with cooled boiled water and am sure it'll come off soon!

When do you guys get the time to write so much???

FIrst off, Peanuts, what a scary time you've had of it. SO glad to hear that Wilbur is on the mend and doing well. WIshing you all the strength in the world, and be kind to yourself - I'm sure the shock and worry will come out gradually, so don't be afraid to talk and cry to whoever seems best.

Cakes and FIsh - you both sound so much more upbeat - very glad to hear it...

Oeisha I can see your dilemma. Have you got access to a BF counsellor who could give you some more advice?

Fish, you asked about the garlic medicine: I make a jamjar full whenever I need it, and store it in the fridge. I think you can keep it a few weeks. CHop or crush one bulb of garlic, add juice of one lemon, and about 5 dessert spoonfuls of honey. DIlute to about one jarful with lukewarm boiled water and leave to "fester" overnight, then strain off into a jar. It's strong stuff, so don't give on an empty stomach, and you may need a bribe (chocolate works for us) until she gets used to it, but I find it really effective.

By the way, I asked about softening water for a baby's bath, but no-one answered me [sulk emoticon], so I went ahead nd tried out the porridge oats in gauze method and it works well. Roo's skin is lovely now, so I can recommend that approach.

I am also facing my first day alone on Friday as DH is off to Warsaw for a job interview, leaving at 5 am . There is a slight hitch in that temperatures here atm are around -20, set to fall to -30 on THursday. THere's no way I'm taking Roo out to do the school run in that! So will have to call in a favour...

Hope things continue to go onwards and upwards for us all!

I've had 6 hours of sleep in 3 stints - I feel almost human! Who would have thought I'd have been saying that a few weeks ago!

Butterfly, I have MN on my phone so tend to just catch up/post while I have a minute - haven't been on the laptop for weeks though
Thanks for the recommendation re oat baths - DD was a bit overdue and so seems to be shedding a layer of skin and is a bit scaly, poor mite, so we will try the oat thing too. Sounds like the gauze is the best plan.

DD has put on 11oz and is 13 days today - little chubster! my DH is back at work tomorrow because we wasted a week of his paternity leave with me stuck in hospital and has to stay on base for 48 hours! My mum is coming to stay but I remain unconvinced that this will be more restful for me despite her best intentions....

I've been out of the loop for so long, can't believe all the gossip and goings on here in my absence! hope everyone is doing ok and getting rest and as much sleep as possible.

Jacob is 18 days old today. Health Visitor been round to weigh him, he's doing fine.

Quick question - is everyone leaving their baby to get to sleep themselves in crib/basket etc? Health visitor said today I am not to let him fall asleep on me, but he screams and screams otherwise. Which is impossible at night time - as he'll wake DD up! if it's not one, it's the other!!

He loves to co-sleep, which I am trying to avoid, but in the middle of the night it seems the only way to get peace...
Trying to leave him during the day... he's much better at sleeping during the day.

Also, he's not pooed in a long time, so health visitor said to give him water... so fingers crossed he'll get some relief soon!

Butterfly - good tip about the oat bath, we have really hard water here so that might come in useful.

Ghost - my DD has skin shedding from her feet and hands. I asked a midwife and she recommended massaging olive oil in two or three times a day. Ive done this once so far and it seems to have helped already.

Miamamma - as someone typing one handed on their phone with a sleeping baby over their shoulder, my answer is a definite no, we can't get her to self settle! I don't seem to have many baby friendly songs on my iPhone. I'm currently singing along to Imogen Heap and Red Hot Chilli Pepper songs to her to get her to sleep.

Congratulations to Oiesha, Buzz and Kelli - I missed that in my last post.

Buzz, DD still has her umbilical cord attached at day 16, I'm hoping it'll come off soon.

I'm absolutely knackered today - was at hospital till 1am and then it took till 2.30am to settle DD. got up at 8am with DH as he went to work. I'm not good at sleeping in the day but think I'll have to improve.

Ds only just list his cord today at 19 days. Stump looks a bit manly, but he's had a bath so hopefully it's nice and clean and will improve.

I hope none ofyou get mastitis. I feel like i'm having the worst flu ever.can't even pick LL (ds) up as so achey and wobbly.

As I said on fb, bf mums make sure you vary the positions you f eed in so baby draws the milk from diff parts of the breast. My boobs feel so much better now we've had a few feeds in rugby ball hold.

Lost, not list

Manky not manly.

Bloody phone

I think it was 10days when DS lost his cord... stump stayed a bit manky for a day, two at the most. keep cleaning and it'll look normal by tmorrow hopefully!

mastitis is so painful, I know! are you keeping your breasts cool?