The brookers post graduate thread

[hawthers]

We've got so good at brooking no argument for no pregnancy complications and sneeze births, we're going for our Phds in big fat babies

Thank you Jaggy , Pomme , Biscuits and Dream . I really appreciate your comments. I finally got DH to remove the dummy at 9.30pm but DS only fed for a few minutes then fell asleep with nipple firmly clamped in his mouth. After half an hour I removed it and put him in his pram. And half an hour later he starts crying and is now repeating the process on the other breast. Think he may be too tired to feed properly but too hungry to sleep properly. :(

And Dream it does not make me feel better to know that you're knackered and feeding constantly too! I just hope you get a good sleep at some point tonight...

Jaggy FX the nappy rash clears up quickly - must be so stressful worrying about that on top of everything else!

Dream's arse-shaped hole in the sofa! But seriously, glad the colief instructions are easier than you thought. Phew!

And Scream I think I'll start infacol tomorrow - after the confusion of today I can't face introducing something new!

Hello all, I'm back!

M has been introduced to her great-grandparents, great-uncles and great-aunts, step-great-grandparents, various friends and, as an added bonus, her 100 yo great-great-grandmother. She also starred in Pass The Baby with her 10 yo uncle, 8 and 5 yo aunts, grandpa and step-granny. How's that for a weekend? As a result, she was so knackered she slept for 6.25 hours last night! Between 12.30 and 6.45am. I kept waking up wondering if she'd died.

Laptop is playing up so will post now.

Okay, so!

Scarlet, I'm so sorry things have been so rough for you. How is your wound now? A MW told me to put breastmilk on my wound as a natural antiseptic - you could try that. On the same note, it occured to me reading biscuits and jaggy's posts about nappy rash that ebm might help that too. Will test this theory at next nappy change!

Scream, did you try the savoy cabbage? I tried it after Thea was born because my milk came in on day 5 and obviously wasn't being used, so I had massive engorgement and it really does help. It sounds ridiculous but it does. It just cooled everything down and although I still leaked like crazy for weeks there was no more pain.

Dream, I may be a terrible mother for suggesting it, but I would give up on sterilising the spoon for the colief. The dishwasher does a good enough job and every child has to eat a peck of dirt and all that. The photo of you carrying the twins is amazing - what happens if they wriggle?

Pet, this too shall pass, this too shall pass!

Biscuits, how is the poxy one? Am at E moving into 3-6 clothes already! M is still mainly in Newborn, although I was going to try her in the 0-3 stuff tomorrow because due to the washing machine issues last week and the weekend away none of her Newborn stuff is clean

Pomme, I would have cried and smacked the child if a toddler had scratched M! It sounds nasty - has it healed up okay? Maia frequently feeds from both boobs and has done for a long time. She tends to clusterfeed all evening, so I keep her on a boob for an hour and then switch sides. I was getting a bit cavalier with the side-switching chez papa as there wasn't a handy clock to keep me focused and wound up with neither boob feeling very full, so I spent today trying to get back to one boob per feed in the daytime and an hour per boob during the evening feeding frenzy.

Right, M has been asleep for half an hour so am going to drink a pint of water and then go to bed myself. I'm currently really dehydrated and hardly peeing at all, so I need to get better at drinking. Bottoms up!

I lost you! Soo long since I posted you had disappeared from threads I'm on! What have I missed? I cant even catch up now as need to go bed. Anyone give me a summary of events?

My little girl is 3 now. :( How time flies. She is really lovely and I am proud of how she is developing though :)

Also my nipple is currently hanging off. I so hope his latch improves, it was a bit better but I had one bad feed earlier and well yikes.

TTFN!

aw happy birthday wee purple! i was totally freaked out at the idea of DS1 growing up from a wee baby, but am more looking forward to it this time because of watching DS1 become a cool wee person. :)

oops, DS2 just choked and milk came out of his nose!

Hello Too ! Glad your weekend went well - and hurrah for M's long sleep!

Good news here - DS just slept for 3.5 hours (and I also wondered if he'd died but was too lazy to check ). So hopefully things are going to be ok with feeding and sleeping, as you all said (but I was too stressed to believe).

Ahhhhhh, Purple - I was wondering where you'd got to m'dear! Welcome back! Happy birthday to your DD - it is frightening how fast they grow isn't it!

I agree with Jaggy though that having seen how DS1 is a proper person, I'm kind DH excited to see how DS2 will grow up. It's hard to imagine him walking, talking and interacting like DS1 and dare I say it, even doing things to make me cross!

Hope the latch gets better for you soon though Purple to give your poor boobs a break. What can you try to improve it?

Now I'll attempt a summary for you. Apologies in advance to the relevant people for anything I miss - I don't mean to overlook anything. And also hope that no one thinks I'm making light of anything in an attempt to summarise it. Anything I've missed out (and there will be things!) is a function of my crap memory, not a reflection on the importance of any issue anyone is facing!

Scarlet has had a tough time this week. After her EMCS last Sunday (after the worlds longest induction) she's had an infection in the CS wound, which has required ABs. Hopefully this is starting to feel a little better after the removal of the staples today, but the ABs have given some upset tummies for her and her beautiful DD and made the milk taste bitter which hasn't helped with BF. however, they've been doing brilliantly as even through all this, her dd has started to put a little weight on (after the intial loss expected in the first days) so hopefully things are going in the right direction. Brooking required for a swift wound recovery and some sore noob recovery.

Dream is, naturally, performing daily miracles with the dreamy twins. I forget Dream which way round it is for the colicky nightmare but am I right in saying Ben is suffering the most with it? Gaviscon and colief are being drafted in to assist with matters but are an enormous faff to administer, as if parents of colicky babies needed any more hassle!

Scream is suffering with engorged boobages still, and that's been going on for a horrible week now . That's making it hard for Autumn to get a good latch . And the after effects of SPD are still being felt so brooking required for the physio appts (starting next week) to start showing some improvement there.

Too has managed an amazing weekend away - sterling effort - and to get M to sleep for 6.25 hours!!! (? Moi? Never......) But is dealing with a broken washing machine which is, as we can all imagine, no joke with a newborn!!

Pomme had a frightening episode at a riddle group where some random toddler rushed over and scratched A's face while she was asleep in her car seat! Think she's recovering now, but pretty frightening to have to rescue her from some wild toddler!

Jaggy is waging war against nappy rash, and a marvellous MIL with some class comments about how tying bf on demand must be, and wondering what they might do with Ds2 if they go on holiday....

Pet has been doing a sterling job of dealing with a sleep dodging DS, and is planning to crack open the Infacol to see if that will help with expelling wind to make him more comfortable.

Things have been pretty quiet on the Hawthers front, although you've been popping in to brook for us haven't you, and I'm hoping this means that everything is going ok?

Yay for a big sleep Pet! And at being too lazy to check . Hope you were able to make the most of it and get some shut eye yourself.

Oh yes, my mum managed to day today (on that maybe joking but maybe not kind of way) 'oh DS2 would sleep through for Grandma.....'

WTF? HOW?????? It's not like I wake him up for my own entertainment!!!! Hmmmmmmm.........

Yay for Purple being back! (Boo to the sore nipple though, hope that heals asap!) Happy Birthday to miniPurple1! at being 3! Well done you. I can scarely imagine Autumn at 6 months let alone 3 years!!

Jaggy I hope your DS2 is feeling okay and I hope you don't mind but the image of milk coming out of his nose is hilarious! So long as he's okay of course

Pet I hope you get some sleep tonight, your poor little DS. I didn't manage to remember the infacol until after midnight, so we've only just started on it over here. We'll see how it goes!

Hope the Dreamy twins are behaving themselves tonight and giving their Mum a well-earned sleep!

The only sleep that happens over here is when Autumn is curled up chest frog style (like now). I'm petrified of going to sleep while she's on my chest though, because she's on her front rather than on her back in line with the safety guidance. Every time I think she's in a deep sleep, and transfer her to her cot on her back, she wakes up within 5 minutes!! Roll on 5a.m. and her handover to DH! Although I miss her as soon as DH takes her

x-posts with Biscuits - amazing summary!! Was that all from memory?!

Did you decide how long to keep DS2 in quarantine for, just in case? Or are you happy to take him out and about now DS1 is better? No Brooking for longer sleeps!

Hello am checking in but still suffering sleep deprivation so its almost too depressing to post every time I'm up. F's sleep overnight seems completely random still. We've had a run of bad nights with three wake ups then tonight he made it from 8 - 3.50 which is amazing and I managed to be in bed since 10 so enjoyed most of.that except DS1 woke up at 2 being sick so we were all up for an hour dealing with that. Blew him he coped really well esp as we are staying at mil's so he is not on familiar territory.

Update more and name check tom as f now asleep so I'm going for he transfer.

not quite sure how the nose thing happened scream as i was being a caring mum and MNing at the time.

either the milk came out a bit fast, or he fell asleep and forgot to swallow. he's fine anyway, although it did make him sneeze a bit

away for a nappy changed.

we've had 2hrs sleep, 2hrs feed/wriggle/nappy change/feed then another 1.5 hours sleep. i dreamed I'd already got DS2 out of the crib there, then woke up to him crying. oops!

v impressive summary biscuits!

hope you get a better night soon hawthers 4 months is hard work. :(

Impressive summary, Biscuits - well done! It was like Vanessa does on Radio 2 at some unpleasantly early hour :)

Hawthers hope DS1 is feeling better and F does more sleeping from now on.

Speaking of which - Biscuits at your mum! Mine is also prone to silly comments, partly because of a poor memory, I think. Shortly after DS was born (planned home birth but only because hospital was v close if needed; ended up in hospital with cervical lip, syntocinon drip, epidural, forceps and episiotomy!) she kept telling me I should get him into a routine. I was sobbing daily with baby blues and didn't know what had happened to my own life / routine let alone how to make a tiny baby feed and sleep when I wanted! And then she came back from a visit to my brother's and announced triumphantly "Your nephew - her first grandchild - is lovely and I have to tell you he has a routine !" DN is a year old.

Scream I have a shocking confession: I have started to put DS to sleep on his back! I know it's more risky but it's the only position he's comfortable in!

Jaggy my DS also did a little nose-puke the other day. Last time that happened to me I was 11 years old, laughing uncontrollably with my best friend while eating custard pie. Custard pie snot is quite unpleasant actually . Hope DS does some more sleeping and gives you (and his poor bum) a break from nappy changes!

Hello Purple - happy birthday to your DD!

Dream any sleep yet?

Oh. DS just fed then did a huge puke. On the bright side, it went all over his sleeping bag (first time we've tried using one instead of blankets) and not on me :) But does this mean he definitely needs some sort of medicine? :(

And in the post before my last post, of course I meant to confess that I'm putting DS on his front . Stupid tired brain.

Scream I came to the conclusion with the quarantine that I'm just going to be really careful where I take him (and DS1). I'm not going to see anyone I think is high risk (like the pregnant / new baby NCTers. And anyone else I'll just warn and let them decide. One of my friends has already said that she wouldn't mind at all if her toddler got it! So that wouldn't be too bad.

Hawthers - yay for DS2 doing a nice long sleep, but boo for DS1 being sick. Bless him. Hope he's ok and it was just a one off. Hope you've all got some more rest.

Bless Jaggy's DS2 for the milk out of nose business!a few times when I've fed ds2 out and about I must have hassle something wrong with his position and when he's finished and I sit him up, there's milk dribbled out of his nose - odd indeed as he hasn't coughed or sneezed or anything.

I often do the 'dreaming I've already picked him up' thing in the middle of the night and the find I'm still in bed and he's grunting / wriggling / crying in the crib .

pet ds2 is sick often after a feed. Not all the time but he'll go through a little phase of being sick after a feed. Sometimes a tiny bit, sometimes it seems like most of the feed. I would say that doesn't necessary mean medicine is required? I think some babies are more sicky than others and ds2 is a lot more sicky than ds1, but he's way way easier to wind, so I have a completely unsupported by medical evidence theory that it's as it's easier for 'stuff' to pass back up for DS2 be that wind (which we want back up) or sick, which is rather not.

It's blooming frustrating though when you've dragged your arse out of bed in the middle of the night, changed him, fed him and then have to mop the whole lot up (or change both your and his PJs) as it seems like a bit of a waste - we could have all stayed asleep and he would have had just as much milk in his tummy!

And how frustrating is it when you think they're fast asleep, and you go for The Transfer to the crib / pram or whatever. Gah! They're just pretending to be asleep and as soon as you out them down the little face screws up, DS starts holding his breath, his face goes red, and you just think 'Arse.....'

And yes, the summary was memory

Pet how do you get underlining in your posts?

I can bold and italicise things and even strike through or make a link but underlining is beyond me.....

i think it's the underscore_biscuits?

DS1 was fairly puky too pet i think unless the baby is distressed or throwing up gallons at every feed it's normal baby stuff. something to do with the valve at the top of their tummy not being that strong so if you have them at the wrong angle the milk comes back out.

I wonder if I need 1 underscore or 2

oooh, either!

Much obliged Jaggy

Jaggy - just saw your post about DS1 reading your bf book . How cute!!

I have a pic of DS1 at about 1.9 yrs sat on the floor 'reading' a book I have on the history of Stalin. But then I have another one of him wearing a sieve on his head so it's not all high brow

Oh and Pet I meant to say earlier it sounds like you went through an awful lot with the birth - hope you're ok and recovering from it. I had forceps and episiotomy (and third degree tear) with DS1 and it's a jolly uncomfortable sort of thing to have to get over so you have my sympathies indeed. Hope it wasn't too dramatic having to transfer to the hospital half way through.

Just wanted to say that I hope you and DS are both recovering ok xx

Oh, and I can't believe you haven't got a routine yet - we've had one since 1 hour after DS was born, and he sleeps through the night (I just get up to post on MN out of politeness) *

This paragraph is categorically untrue *

We've had a highly detailed and complex routine in place since the day Autumn was born. It's called the "Autumn does what she likes and ignores everything else" routine We can't so much as get her to open her eyes during the day for her adoring visitors, let alone getting her to close her eyes during the night when we want to sleep ourselves! This is clearly the reason why nature makes babies so exquisitely loveable, or there would be a parental revolt!

Jaggy my imw gave me the exact same explanation, of the underdeveloped sphincter muscle at the top of a newborn's stomach, as the reason for the sickiness. I agree that it's probably not a "problem" unless the sickiness is extreme, and certain level is to be expected.

I've been trying the infacol all night and I have to say it seems to have made a slight improvement! She genuinely seems less windy. Does this mean she now needs infacol before every single feed for the next few weeks?!

Love your routine Scream

I've been doing in facial every feed since about week 3 - I noticed a slight improvement at the start and now darent stop in case it would make him worse. Was planning to go until maybe 10-12 weeks? It does become part of your routine though if you keep it near to where you normally feed. In fact I find now that of I give E the infallible he understands that food is en-route and stops howling quite as much