October 2005 Babies - it just keeps getting better and better!

[Elf1981]

Thought I'd steal the honours of setting up a new thread

MB - I would hold off. Its only six weeks til the golden 26 weeks. I'm with you on this one, he probably wont gain much (if any) weight when gaining solids as it is such a tiny amount, and given the list of allergies in your family it doesn't seem worth risking it. Its only six weeks til the golden 26 weeks anyway.
As you say, he's got loads of wet / poopy nappies, he's happy and healthy. Keep taking him to be weighed but try not to worry. He may surprise you and put weight on when you next go. He isn't losing weight, so I'd hold off for now.
Oh and dont get me started on chocolate. Went to see FIL last night and he said "shall we get you a chocolate button?" but I think the death stare I gave stopped that happening!

Elf - sorry, didn't mean to open your chocolate button from FIL wound!!
I'm just Googling about slow weight gain. One main factor can be decrease in mothers milk supply. One of the reasons for decreased milk supply is pregnancy. Maybe I should test just in case. OMG

MB agree with elf only 6weeks to go and you say that he looks happy and healthy thats what matters not a line on a chart.

didn't mean that to sound off if you know what I mean. (difficult to type the right words if you know what I mean
Sorry I started the whole "pg scares"

MB - I agree with Elf, the longer you can hold out the better, thats an awful lot of allergies he is susceptible to and he might not gain that much weight through weaning anyway.
BUt for me its a case of 'do as I say not as I do' because I have started to wean Fin already. Luckily I have no allergies in my family and I always seem to have ,ahem, rotund babies

mawbroon - you don't sound paranoid at all. Given your family history you are being very sensible.

:o at the death stare Elf.

We are visiting the IL's soon and taking ds to see the whole of his family. I'm anticipating having to fend off (again) sugar water in his bottle, rice added to his bottle, rusks (ack!) etc. I know they only mean well and think they're trying to help but arrrggghhh anyway!

MB - the chocolate wound hasn't closed properly yet so not reopended :) its amazing how annoyed you can get with people when it comes to a 'simple' thing about your baby!
Piggiesmum - lol, so it's not just my family that say things like that? Luckily not had sugar in the bottle yet!
YF - sorry that I kept you up the other night!!

DH's step sister is pregnant again, got her 14 week scan today, fingers crossed is all well. She already has a daughter who is 3. Anyway, a new baby will mean that they may stop pushing stuff on Evie as theres a new baby for them to pay attention to iyswim

Oh, we found an interesting connection between Evie's lack of sleep the other week and her bath! It's odd, but I brought some rubber ducks to have in the bath, one squirts water, and she liked to pull it out of the water and suck on it. She was drinking quite a bit of water with it. The waking up started when she had these ducks, and then DH decided to not let her drink water out of it (or suck it out the sponge, honestly, I dont know where the water obsession comes from) and she started sleeping through again! We think she was filling up on water, topping up with milk, and obviously not getting enough calories to last through the night! Probably purely coincidence, but it is an interesting thought!!

Raine71 - dont worry, I have started weaning too! No allergies in the family, except I have a small dairy intolerance so I am trying to leave dairy out of Evie's diet, so far she gets fruit and veg, she hates baby rice & rusk (which is a bad thing as I love rusks and I now have a box I can eat!!)

elf glad its not just me then, Fin loves carrots and apple, and doesnt mind rice, I havent tried him on anything else yet but do have the parsnips and sweet pot ready in the freezer, but since he's been ill he hasnt had any solids since Friday.
Have just been to the docs and Finlay DOES have conjunctivitus (on top of everything else!!) aaagghhh.

What is it with relatives and chocolate - Im just waiting for SIL to bring round an Easter Egg!!, Mind you, if she does, then thats more for me,lol

I think the penny has just dropped.

I haven't used my breast pump for six weeks or so. around this time, Johnny started to sleep through 7pm to 7am quite regularly. I had to get up in the night to pump and froze all the milk (that's what he's getting just now to top him up). I then started just pumping enough to relieve the pressure and now if I don't feed him through the night, I can go until around 6am without any discomfort. It was around 6 weeks ago that his weight gain started to drop off.

Reduction in demand = reduction in supply.

It's so bloody obvious isn't it....

Right, where's that pump!!

what do you think \link{http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk?rn=25237&topicid=1700&threadid=155422&redir=25237\to this?}

aw bless him, he looks a real sweetie.
Just keep it for future girlfriends,lol. xx

MB - have you set up a new thread about this asking the question? IIRC Tiktok & Hunker are very good on the breastfeeding questions, they've always seemed very clued up when I have read their messages. It may be worth asking the question to see whether they think the expressing will help. Worth a shot!

Left Evie with my ma today while I met a friend for lunch, came back and she had a apple and blueberry mix and ate the whole lot, greedy guts!

MB wouldnt worry too much re: weight gain, He is gaing weight NOT losing. It is common for bf babies to slow down gaining weight around and after the 4 month mark, whereas bottlefed counterparts generally continue to gain. Which is a reao why bf babies tend to be leaner and less likely to be obese as they take what they need. My DS has gone from gaing 1lb a week for 12 weeks to averaging just 3 oz a week since then..his centile loooks like a big curve an is now on the downward curve. Not sure of feeding patterns but my offering both breasts at evry feed to increase milk supply may help, Or a friend of mine was recommended to go back to same breast for two feeds in a row so that lo was getting plenty of the calorie laden hind milk. I too am trying to hold out for the magic 26 weeks, mainly due to laziness on my part. I know how my baby is and so am not going to go to clinic again for him to be weighed unless I am really worried. 3 weeks for us and counting....... Had to lol the other day when my mum said that I should give him some solids after I told her that he went over 5 hours between a feed one day!! keep up the good work and well done for feeding for so long. It's bloomin hard work and very tiring using up all that energy....oh well back to the choc digestives!!!

Not having a good night here DH left work (80miles away) at 5.30pm and still isn't home, there has been a major accident on the M4 and he has been sat there engine off since 6.45pm. At least I know he is safe and well (thank god for mobile phones-what did we do without them?) It's some other family I feel sorry for

YF hope he is home soon, safe and sound!!

YF - I'm sure he'll be home soon. Does he commmute that far every day?

Thanks all of you for your words of reassurance regarding ds's lack of weight gain. I spoke to my La Leche League bf counsellor this afternoon and she suggested a few things to do. Most of which I am doing, and also she suggested to get pumping again to help boost the supply. The other thing that she suggested was to pump some milk and leave it sitting and then when the cream has floated to the top I should feed this to him on a spoon. Sounds like a plan, but I'm not sure what I should then do with the "skimmed" milk!! Maybe I could make some milk lollies for the summer LOL only kidding. She also said that baby rice wouldn't help at all as it has fewer calories than the breastmilk - just as we suspected Elf.
We had a great afternoon. Johnny was cooing away and hooting with laughter at all sorts of silly things - hardly the sign of an undernourished baby is it. I am less worried about it now - thanks girls.
MB

MB - I also "double feed" where I offer the same breast. I do it in the morning, so feed off the right, then an hour later, offer the same boob. Partly do it so that I get loads of expressed milk out of the left, but as my boobs are so full in the morning, I do it so that Evie is getting all the milk out of the breast. I used to panic that sometimes she may just be sucking and getting nothing, so when she finishes feeding, I tend to squeeze my boob and some milk will come out which reassures me! Glad that your mind is at ease now, it's a minefield isn't it where one comment can put doubt in your mind which is hard to get away!

YF - what time did your DH eventually get home? It's horrible hearing about a bad accident knowing that loved ones travel the same route. The other day there was a pile up near me, when I knew that my two sisters and mum and dad would have been travelling down that road at some point in their cars. Luckily they were all okay. Hope your DH wasn't home too late.

Morning Ladies
DH finally got home at just before 11pm, the police got everyone to turn around and drive the wrong way up the motorway to the previous junction so that was nearly 5.5hrs! which usually takes 2hrs home at the most but at least he got home safe thanks for asking.
DH only started this job 2 weeks ago and had arranged to have tomorrow off (his redundancy package from previous company meant that he kept company car for extra 4 weeks) to take car back, but he has phoned in sick today as he has now started with this bug that has been going round (don't really think that he will be making a good impresion on them!)

Elf he is having to do this commute until he can find a well enough paid job nearer home as I am a SAHM. Since being told about the redundancy he has had loads of interviews in Cardiff (40 miles away) but the offers that he has had would have made us a lot worse off money wise so it is just a waiting game. It's hard though cos what price do you put on that extra travel time? dh didn't get to see or play with Thomas at all yesterday So if any of you out there own a home builders or a engineering design company (pref in Swansea) let me know!!lol
MB glad things are looking up

MB glad you're feeling a whole lot better about the weight thing, I think Buttonmoon is spot - he's still gaining not losing !!!

Don't worry, I will bet you 50p, that in a couple of months, you're HV will be "telling you off" for him putting on too much weight!!! You know your baby best and if you don't want to wean him, don't bl88dy do it

As you may remember from my previous posts, I weaned my first 2 very young, and I mean very young. They were hungry, they were screaming and if I gave them more than 6oz of milk they sicked it up. Loads of lactose intolerance in my family. However as soon as I started weaning them, they were completely different babies!!

However dd is nowhere near wanting solids, she is a wee petit thing. She is happy and healthy and has a wee double chin and I have no idea what she weighs!! Your wee Johnny sounds a happy wee lad as well, please don't be bullied into doing something that doesn't feel right for your boy!

Sorry for the mega lecture MawBroon , but I hate hearing you upset, when you're obviously doing the best for your baby.

Raine71 hope Finlay is feeling better.

Yorkefleet – brilliant picture he’s a wee cracker, and I’m glad your dh is ok.
NM – took your advice and put babies in the same room. First night dd slept through from 7pm –7am She had a couple of cries, but by the time I got through to the room, she was back to sleep!!!
Ds2 slept better as well. It’s strange, when dd was in our room, her crying used to wake him up, but now when she cries in his room, he sleeps through it!! Also his crying doesn’t wake him up. Weird. Hopefully a couple more nights and neither will cry!! And pigs might fly!!

Elf – how are you feeling? I’m beginning to feel sicker and sicker about going back. Mainly due to the uncertain with redundancies etc, it’s not a very nice place to be at the moment.

RTL - you're absolutely right. I bet once ds starts solids that there will be no stopping him!!

He's loving all this extra feeding btw and I'm enjoying the extra time on mn whilst doing all the extra feeding!

YF - it must be worry about DHs in cars week. We are under a lot of snow again today and DH took 2 hours to do his 35min commute. I asked him to let me know when he had arrived at work, but when he hadn't called, I phoned to see if he was there as I was worried. His boss said "No, he's not here. Are you sure he's not sitting there with you wondering whether to have another cup of tea or not?" I haven't met this man, but even if he was joking, it's not a very funny thing to say. Grr

Gosh I'm touchy today......

RTL Not looking forward to work at all, feeling really sick about it because the office has gone from being a team of four to being a team of about nine, work isn't getting done, a lot of my stuff has gone wrong, there's a division between the old and new staff... argh!!

Too Evie to be weighed, she's 15lbs 8 oz now, and 64cm long. Also had her head circ done, she's just under the 50% mark for all of them. Miss Average, and if she has the same blood group as me, she's Miss Average all the way!!

Saw the doc as well as she's had a spot in her ear for five weeks and doesn't seem to like lying on that side. Doc tried to burst it as he thought it was an absess (!) but it wasn't. No idea what it was, Evie screamed the place down so he stopped faffing and told me to keep an eye on it and bring her in if she got a temp / red ear. Felt like sighing and saying that I've been keeping an eye on it for the last four weeks as per HV and brought her in as she doesn't like lying on it / putting pressure on it, so why not tell me the absolute emergency case of bringing her in and I'll pop in then, rather than 10 trips saying "bring her back when..."

Oh and I'm also stroppy today, how peed off was I today with driving? Went to my mums so sister could cut and colour my hair, got stuck behind this idiot in a 4x4 driving at 30 mph down a 60mph road. Wouldn't mind if it were raining / bad conditions but it's a decent driving day today. On way home, got stuck behind another 4x4 driving at 10mph under speed limit despite good road conditions, swerving here there and everywhere and looking at herself constantly in the mirror checking her lippy. At traffic lights was going to get out and tell her if she couldn't drive her stupid car to get off the effing road!!

Elf and MB have you taken you af yets as breastfeeding - sounds like maybe they are on there wayyyyyyy - lol

Still af free here!! Do panic every so often I could be pregnant, but I am on pill, plus using condoms & breastfeeding offers some protection, so it would be a small miracle!

(Friend of mine had her baby at the end of August, she's pregnant again, I panicked when I found out, but still too chicken to test!)