May Baby Mayhem!

[Bodeccia]

Hello fellow May mums. Let's follow on from our lovely ante-natal threads, here's the first of the post-natal ones. Join us as we work out how to handle nappies, feeding, colic, crying and all things newborn, or just to celebrate the joys of a new baby!

SES last week my ds1 who is 2 said " I need another baby, I need baby murray (this is my friends baby whom we had spent the day with), baby murray quiet! I asked what we should do with our baby (who does cry quite a lot) and his reply was "put him in the garden". When I said we couldnt have baby murray as he was Jacks baby brother, he asked if we could have baby millie (his cousin). He does love his brother most of the time though.
I am so fed up with this rain, Fergus loves it though, was covered from head to toe in mud today when we went out for a walk. I need to get a waterproof cover for the sling and some new wellies as my summer purchases this year I think :(

Yorky sorry about the redundancy, but fab that you're getting your extension. We also often end up with 3 under our baby gym! Glad Pippa is doing well :)

Nicr1 wow - 11lb 3oz!!! Congratulations!

SES good to see you! Poor DS! One of my friend's DS did ask when the baby was going back, a few weeks after his sister was born! Think it's quite common, but :( though.

Had a lovely day yesterday - went out in the morning to see the Olympic Torch come through Evesham. It was really nice - there is such a lovely community here, everyone is really friendly - made me feel quite proud of our little town!!! There was a Sports Festival in the meadow by the river, and DD1 was doing her duck dance there with her freestyle class (yes, she has a fluffly duck costume too!). They all did really well. Afterwards, there was much time spent on the bouncy castle and inflatable slide, had a nice lunch together in a cafe, fed the ducks, went to the play park, had ice cream etc. Just a lovely family day. The rainy weather managed to hold off too, and the sun came out in the afternoon - I ended up getting sunburnt .

Today I took DD1 and DD2 for their swimming lessons, then the HV came to do DD2s 2.5 year check. A few things came up at the normal level for 2.5 yrs, the linguistic stuff came out at the 3 years level, and the visual category came up at 4 yrs. Really pleased, as I don't feel I've spent as much time with her as I did with DD1, and was feeling very a bit guilty!!! DD3 was weighed and is now 11lb 7oz at 6 weeks. Need to go and feed her now!

Hello goodname and CatsyCat :)

I think it is quite a common sibling response but it really tugs at my heart strings! DH did say that he asked DS if he loved Aoife and DS said yes. One of my friends also said to DS the other day "Shall intake Aoife home with me?" I was a bit that she said it to him but DS was adamant that Aoife was staying with us. I take some comfort from that!
My mum is round a lot at the moment - helping a bit and also acting as chauffeur until I can drive again after the CS. She seems to be aggravating DS though but she'll be offended if I tell her. I'm hoping to be able to drive again from next Tues (will be 4wks since CS on Saturday) and hoping that will help "dilute" my mum and get out and about for DS activities a bit more.

CatsyCat - your day yesterday sounds lovely :)

Sympathy to all those with very overdue babies - I remember how long the 'extra' 11 days with DS2 were! Hope you're recovering well now and getting used to each other, and looking forward to the 1st lot of jabs :( , seemed so odd that DS2 was having his first lot after some of the babies on his AN thread had had their 2nd!

I can't remember what my older DC did when, is anyone else's DC spending quite a long time happily bashing things on the toy arch? or does Pippa just realise she needs to entertain herself until the older siblings are in bed, then she gets her turn?! I'm sure DC1 wasn't this self sufficient!

If anyone is interested in watching how we spend DH redundancy money here is the link to the FB page!

goodname some people offer help,come to your house sit on their backsides and expect to be served tea,refreshments and to be entertained.Oh yes,they can hold the baby when he's asleep,the minute he starts to cry "off you go to your mummy".Stick your help you know where,no,it's not convenient for you to come.
Thank goodness there are more people offering help and meaning it but trying to avoid the empty promise makers.

Your episode wth DS and the baby reminded me of my sister and me told by my mother-my sister is 5 years older,my mum was sitting at the kitchen table and i was asleep peacefully (or so she thought)in the adjacent room.Next thing my sister appears at the door dragging me by my leg on the floor asking "mum,why this doll doesn't open her eyes?"

Catsy sore nipples are thankfully a thing of the past-sod the lansinoh so much advertised even by midwife,the best thing is to squeeze a bit of milk after finishing feeding and let it dry off.Such a pity mw never told me that.The thing that she said was to try to leave my breasts exposed at home-was hoping that nobody was going to knock the door and me accidentally opening with my assets out...after that I doubt that DH will ever see me as object of desire again

SirCharles hope you found the answre to your poopy question-if your baby id bf it might be due to processing lots of foremilk-watery and rich in lactose which is the primary cause for a green poop.

Yorky at least your DH has a job to go to and the business so it's not too bad.Go for the extension when you have money and opportunity.

Nicr1 that's some size of the baby!

Hello SES,nice to see you my overdue whinging buddy:o i was looking for a link on may antenatal thread when i was pg and came across my own post predicting a couple of June babies-oh,the irony,little I knew about I was going to have one of them...

tostaky happened to me so many times that i write the post as mail and then copy and paste it when I'm ready.This way if I get kicked out the post is still in my computer.

Fraser's feeding just now so managed to sneak to my laptop.He hasn't pooped since last night so I'm dreading what's coming...Was going to take him out in the pram but knowing the sod's law he'll poop immediately after leaving the house.
He outgrew his first sleepsuits-his legs are too long for newborn ones so he's in 0-3 which are good in length but too wide.
Yesterday he gripped the edge of changing mat and tried to turn into his side.

Could somebody please explain to me the purpose of vests?I find sleepsuits much easier,one outfit and that's it, vests require trousers and socks so more fiddly to deal with.Or am I missing something?Unfortunately we got loads of them as gifts.

Recovering from mastitis now-on antibiotics,gosh,that was dreadful.Went down very quickly,couldn't even see the redness as it was underneath and on the side of my breast.Of course never thought about looking into the mirror.

HV comes tomorrow,she's fine but a bit OTT at some times.

A bit private question-when did your lochia stopped?It will be 4 weeks on Thursday since i"ve given birth and still using pads.A few times nearly nearly finished and then came back again.

Right then ladies,now I have discovered when to use the laptop so hopefully will catch with you more often from now on-that's if somebody's not too wriggly.

Take care,hope you'll have easy and peaceful day:)

lime my bleeding stopped at around 3 weeks but I also had it coming and going like you describe..think it's when you're more active it starts up heavier. My baby is 6 weeks today and I've got my period (ballroom think it was you asking about that before & I said I'd had same for my ds1.. well same again for ds2 even though I'm bfing constantly.. oh well!)
Anyway lime sounds like you're doing brilliantly.. yes try to fend off unhelpful guests!!

goodname I think my ds1 is starting to drop naps.. only fallen asleep in car recently.. yesterday we lay in mine & dh's bed for a bit while I fed Seb.. he didn't fall asleep but was a nice rest so might be worth you doingthat with your ds1?

yorky sorry about your dh's job but how exciting about the extension! Good luck with it. Seb isn't hitting toys yet but just stares at them (but he is a month younger than pippa)

catsy you live in Evesham? Such a lovely place, I used to go on a Summer camp there when I was about 11 :)

Hmmmm, everyone here sounds so much more productive than me! Ds2 still loving sleeping in the sling so I do tend to spend a lot of time on my feet but apart from usual, laundry, dishes, dinner, I haven't been doing much. Night sleeping is still difficult, some nights ok (last night), some nights bad (night before last, pacing from midnight til 2am and then he still woke up 4 and 6.30 for feeding...

I have a feeling if things keep on like this I may have to try and start encouraging some kind of routine. Previously dd and ds just fell into one. They were happy to nap in moses basket so could let them sleep there and they usually did so at fairly similar times, and so on. I don't know how to get an unwilling child into a routine... any advice?

Yorky - woo, an extension! We are kind of bursting out of our house but just big enough for five. My FIL wants an extension because apparently a three bedroom house is too small for him, his wife and baby son! Ds is always under the play mat, snuggling into ds2, which is a little too close to suffocating for comfort!

Hello to limeflower, SES and Nic! Congrats!

Catsy - Well done to your dd2! We have been a bit worried about ds1's language as seems behind but talking to hv it seems fine as long as he is progressing. Actually looked at 3yr checklist and he was doing it all, even language stuff so I don't think it is an issue. I talk to him all the time so I hope I'm not to blame!

One of my bosses emailed me the other day, this is the one who always seems fairly uninterested in me (at best), eg, no good luck when I went on mat leave or congrats on birth of baby... anyway she was offering me work! Another organisation she works with is looking for comms support two days a week and would I like to do?? Lol. Very good news! Anyway I'm not sure it is definite yet but it would be great to have more work, would need to get some childcare though (come Nov) as I would be pretty much full time.

Right, ds is asleep on sofa so I really should try and lie down, or tidy (??), but Finn is bound to wake up as soon as I do!

Goodname- I got the wilkinet sling raincover last week and it's great. Fits on a wrap sling nicely and packs up pretty small. If it's really rainy you'll still need a brolly though as the rain would come down between you and the baby iyswim.

Poor Adam has been very unsettled today- bringing up a lot of milk and very windy. Even the sling hasn't calmed him. We get days like this every now and then so hopefully he'll be back to normal tomorrow.

We've had some fantastic sleeps from him! The last five nights he has gone pretty much 8pm until 4am! Other than that he feeds pretty much every 1 1/2 to 2 hours, plus almost constantly from 5pm, but I can live with that to get that long stretch of sleep.

Bleeding- mine stopped very quickly, after about five days, then came back when I started to get more active again post CS. Finally stopped just after four weeks. Been feeling a bit emotional last couple of days so hope it's not my periods returning! Didn't get it back until 9 months before, about 3 days after I finished feeding ds1.

Hi All.

How are you all? DD2 is 5 weeks old today. goes so fast doesnt it?? Remember her birth so vividly - it was amazing & very quick. exactly one hour to the minute. and thankfully didnt have a pph like with DD1.

Finding it good with the two of them. we have moments... but doing ok considering.

Does anyone else find that their LO doesn't burp as easy at night (early hour feed)?

Hello! Just checking in again, s'been ages and I have no chance of catching up so I'm just going to jump back in and attempt to keep up a bit more than previously.
DD is 10 weeks now, she's chubbing up and I think possibly going through another bit of spurt or something. She's been sleeping long stretches for a few weeks, which is great (would be better if I actually went to bed early too) but not doing so great with the naps. She had been fine with re-settling for a longer nap duration, but recently seems to be finding it harder so is only having about 45 minutes for any one nap. She doesn't have a problem re-settling at night, so not sure what's going on there, tomorrow I should be able to be at home over lunch so will have a go at persuading her to re-settle around lunch time.
Evenings are better though - for those struggling with unsettled evenings it did just get better quite suddenly, she started falling asleep around 9, then 8, and now it's as soon after 7 as I can get to her after saying goodnight to DS.
The dinner/bath/bed bit is still completely chaotic, I do it solo most nights and have tried various timings, someone always seems to lose out - mainly DS as I can explain to him. Which then makes me feel guilty at more disruption to his life.
Anyone who has a good pattern for that time of the day, please share

Catsycat can I ask you a question? What does the fennel tea do? My DS is 6 weeks now, he had the green poo thing a couple of weeks ago, it cleared up but is now back with a vengeance! He's quite explosive with it too and uncomfortable passing it. He also suffers from colic/trapped wind and I've read all about the fore and hind milk thing, trying to feed him accordingly to improve things but seems to be getting worse, not better :(

Does the fennel tea help with wind?

Really impressed with all you mums with more than one LO, I don't know how you do it! Some good sleeping going on too, very jealous. DS seems to sleep for one 3hr ish block a night then is up again almost hourly, takes ages to get him back to sleep after a night feed.
Every day seems to be different so it's hard to try and get into any kind of a routine! Is it too early to have a 'bedtime'? I never know what to do for the best in the evening, DS usually falls asleep about 8 or 9 ish, I have been keeping him downstairs for this 'nap' but then it ends up being midnight when he wakes and I've got to feed, change and try and get him to sleep again! Just wondering if I should try putting him to bed earlier with the monitor or whether it's too early to be separated from him? ( thinking of the SIDS guidelines? ) What does everyone else do?

Whoops that turned into a ramble, sorry! On the plus side, DS has fallen asleep so it's back to bed for us...

Cydonia I go to bed when DS does atm. We aim to go to bed for the night at 9, and are now almost always asleep by 10. Then I can have breakfast and chill in bed for a few hours before he wakes up in the morning, which feels positively luxurious.

This also means that by the time he's onto 2-hourly wakes I've had a good solid sleep, and am pottering/reading and happy to be interrupted.

Cydonia I think you could consider the 8-9 as a bedtime. DD started off going to bed around then and it very gradually has come forward to about 7 or 7:30. You could still keep him with you until you're happy to go to bed. I don't change DD after she's had her bath and been changed into her sleepsuit, unless it's obvious that she's done a poo during the night, which is pretty rare.

I have always put DD in her bassinet in our room for her sleep, unless we're out and about. The guidance here in NZ doesn't emphasize same room sleep for naps, just for nighttime sleep, but I have a monitor on and DD is a noisy sleeper. I'm in and out while she sleeps as well. But there's no reason for you to stop having her start her nighttime sleep with you, if that is what you want to do. I'd just do a bathtime routine, get him settled however you can and then transfer at some point. Possibly before he wakes for his first feed?

DD is now sleeping from sometime between 7-8PM until sometime between 3-6, then feeds and re-settles quickly. The times when she goes until 6AM are a bit of nightmare for me, as I wake up so engorged and sore and she finds it hard to latch on and then seems to overfeed and brings up an entire feed. I'm experimenting with how I feed in the mornings to try balance satisfying her, getting breakfast into DS, and not letting her guzzle so much that it all comes up as she gets upset when that happens (not to mention me needing to change as it usually happens with her facing me, so I get the full fountain of milk effect).

I managed to get her to sleep a couple of hours around lunch time today - by sitting watching tv with her on my chest . Now that's my kind of 'sleep training'...of course it did mean no tidying, laundry or other chores got done, and I was both starving and bursting for the loo by the time she finally surfaced but it was a small sacrifice for the lovely snuggle and I was even able to justify it to myself as an experiment to see whether she would sleep longer if the conditions were right. Now...just need to work out how to get her able to feel that sleepy and comfy without being on me. Although I wouldn't complain if I got another session tomorrow. Off to bed now...thank goodness no daycare for DS tomorrow, so no rush to get out the door, yay for more relaxed mornings!

sorry got my she/he mixed up, I meant to refer to your DS in that post cydonia...

Interesting about bedtimes. With DS, he wouldn't settle day or night unless on me (we later realised due to tongue tie) but DD seems to naturally settle asleep on either me or DH around 9pm whilst we're watching tv. I'm thinking of going up to bed with her around this time. I can sit up in bed and feed her with the tv on there (sleeping that early or during the day isn't something that comes easily to me )
She usually does about 3hrs in her crib, then wakes and has a feed and resettles in her crib after about an hour for another 60-90 min sleep. When she wakes a second time, I bring her into bed.

I think feeding has settled down a bit in terms of DD's efficiency and my supply. She does seem to take a bit too much sometimes though and I do wonder whether she has a bit of reflux. The last few days she's been bringing up a lot more. She also doesn't nap well during the day in her crib but seems to prefer her car seat. I'm not overly keen on this as I think it's not meant to be good for their back or breathing, being in the car seat for too long. The proper seat for the buggy may work but now DH has produced it from the back of the garage, it needs a good clean before I can put DD in it!

I find that with DD2, She feeds roughly 2hourly in the daytime, is then alert, then naps about 45mins after feeding. ish. It varies of course. then she will feed and nap before bath time with DD. (DD1 goes to bed at 7pm and sleeps through)

After that, DD2 is usually alert and in & out of naps until about 9/10pm ish then she will go a good 5/6hrs. then feeds again at about 5:30ish.

Also, she's downstairs with me in the evenings, and we both go up to bed about 9ish, then both sleep around ten. (Well i go when she's out for the count)

Wow Ladybee, how old is your DD? You're lucky to have her sleeping so long, though I suppose at the expense of your boobs!
SES and Little ray, think I might follow your example and go up to bed earlier. Think it's just laziness ( or exhaustion! ) on my part to sit watching telly with DS on my lap asleep til about 11pm, he's going to get into bad habits eventually!
Last night he slept about 9.30 - 12.30, then 2.15 - 4.50, then 5.45 - 7.30 so I suppose not TOO bad! He would have slept longer this morning but we had to get up for his hip scan at the hospital at 9am. All was fine, just a precaution as he was breech for a while and was a bit frog-legged when he came out!
Also went to get him weighed, he's put on quite a bit from last week so that's good. Always reassuring when you're BFing to know they're getting enough.
Was funny when he had his scan, I put him on the bed and the nurse asked if he was my first. I said yes, she said 'oh you can tell' I thought I'd done something wrong til she said it was cos I'd placed him down so carefully, I guess with more practice you realise they're not that fragile! Still wouldn't chuck a baby about though...

Oh Cydonia - My ds2 sleeps worse than yours! Last night he was up about every hour and a half and bedtimes? No where near. Last night he slept quite well from 8ish but if you put him down anywhere (like moses basket) he wakes up! I think I may need to start trying to resettle and put down again soon, instead of just giving up and letting him sleep in my arms, I'm just so tired I can't face it.

He has a wee virus recently, v snuffly in the night and having to prop up on a pillow. The doctor heard a little noise ('not quite a wheeze') in his chest yesterday so that may be affecting him, hoping that when that clears the sleep pattern will improve.

As I said, any advice on improving sleep patterns, or settling babies in baskets, appreciated!

Waiting for a call from my new client to discuss first project.... very pleased to have work but urgh... work??!

Sorry to hear sleeping is still not great LittleSarah. Have you been swaddling? That plus white noise can help a lot, or we use one of these which actually really helps to settle Adam in his crib. It never really worked on DS1, not sure if maybe we started using it too late so he'd forgotten womb sounds iyswim. They're pretty expensive though if it doesn't work (manufacturers really know how desperate sleep deprived parents are), but you might be able to find some womb sounds online to write onto a cd? I think other than that time will help as he gets more secure in the outside world.

If it's bad could you try co-sleeping? As long as you follow the safe sleeping guidelines it's safe and means you both might get a bit more sleep? Adam goes to bed in his crib at bedtime (around 7.30) and comes into bed with me after he first wakes so I can feed lying down and doze. I rarely put him back in his crib after that first feed.

Neither of mine have liked swaddling but we've just started using a Grobag with Adam. First night of it last night and he seemed to like it.

Has anyone else noticed their baby getting more alert now? Adam is starting to have a lot more awake time and is really taking it all in! He really seemed to enjoy looking around at playgroup yesterday and watching his big brother play when we had friends round.

I'm really loving my sling right now, it's been so useful with my bad wrist, no need to push a pushchair as that's a bit sore still. Walked a good 2 1/2 miles yesterday with Adam in the sling. I carried a scooter for ds1 and dragged him on that when he got tired. As well as the Close sling I now have a wrap, much easier to wrap than I thought. I came across Gotmylittlelamb on the sling board on here, sounds like they're doing well. She said she'd try and pop over and find us on here soon.

has anyone been to a wedding and BF their LO? any tips on what to wear? I have been invited to a wedding next month.....

God Little Sarah no wonder you're tired! I tried swaddling last night, (used a summer infant swaddle-me 'bag' ) after DS had been screaming all evening and was still awake at 11pm! He hated it at first but just when I was about to give up he fell asleep and slept for 5 hours!! Unheard of! Will see tonight if it was a fluke.
We got a Ewan dream sheep for his cot, it plays womby noises and emits a red glow, was about £20. Not convinced it works but it looks cute!

Sir Charles- someone linked to this site on the breast and bottle feeding board. Might be able to find something on there? Otherwise separates might be your best bet (or wear what you want and head somewhere private to feed- the dreaded feeding in the loo).

Cydonia, I think those sheep are fairly similar to what I have but a bit cuter .

I have a christening to go to on Sunday, will be our first 'function' as a family, not sure how I'm going to manage feeding in public either! The venue only has one tiny toilet so that's not an option. I'm going for a nice nursing top I got from mamas and papas with some smart trousers and the lovely big scarf I've just been given by my brother and his girlfriend. Harder for a wedding though as you have to be a bit more 'dressy' I suppose.
That websites great though Wigglebum, not come across it before. Milk Chic though, what a name, almost as bad as the Hot Milk bras! :)

Thanks wriggle! We actually are co sleeping a lot of the time but I haven't tried swaddling. Will definitely give it a go tonight, especially with Cydonia's success story to spur me on. Now just have to look up how to do it as I don't have any particular equipment!

My mum's (ex health visitor) advice was to switch to bottle. Hmmm. Not sure that would even help, plus having managed over 6 months with first two I'd really like to manage the same with Finn. 'It was 6 weeks in my day' says mum.

Typically after moaning online last night was okay; midnight to 3.30am then up about 5.45, then 7.30 or so. Not fantastic but good for us. Do really want him to nap more in basket during the day so trying swaddling now!

No help for your wedding sircharles but definitely think a large scarf/pashmina is good for artfully draping over when feeding.