September 2012 babies - warmest welcome!

[Macaroons]

Here's the new thread for September babies fresh from the oven!

I'm a first time mum and I'm struggling with breast feeding at the moment, my 6-day old DS always seems to be hungry (a feed every 2-3 hours, each lasting roughly an hour), and when he's hungry he's very aggressive towards my nipple it really hurts! Any tips out there? And how often do you feed your baby and for how long? how do you teach your baby to be gentle on the nipples?

Good luck to those still waiting for their babies to come out! Will be watching out for more baby news!

Grrrrrr to all these bloody germs!!! Went to get Euan's jabs yesterday and the nurse wouldn't do it as he had a slight fever. I know they have to be careful but I'm just cross at the thought of another week not getting out to playgroups: going mad with dd at home all day. My FIL gas just turned up spluttering all over the place and I'm sure he's where we all caught the bugs from last week! Go home germ bag!! ( as you can tell, no love lose there )

Leetleloo - hope your LO will recover soon. Can you say it's feeding / bed time and hide yourself and LO in the room while the germ bag visits?

Smallgreenone - I really wish DS would sleep through the night soon but I think DS has his own ideas. On a gd day he sleeps 7-11 then 12-5, on a bad day he wakes up at 2 then 4 then 6! I did a google search and looks like ff / bf is not the determining factor, have a quick look!
community.babycentre.co.uk/post/a22218605/do_any_breastfed_babies_sleep_through_the_night

TMI WARNING

bright green baby poo like mint sauce! ok or not? google says maybe not.she is taking nystatin;for the last 2 weeks and I'm taking cyclosporin; for the last week but this is the first green poo we'v seen.
we BF with one bottle (at the most) of aptamil first milk per day.any help please?x

I may be talking rubbish, but i thought green baby poo can be a sign of dehydration. Is that a possibility cjbk ?

The last two nights dd2 has slept from 11 til 6. I can't believe it, dd1 didnt do that until she was 9 months old. Wonder what she will do tonight.

She smiles now and gurgles at us, it is so lovely! I am so much more relaxed than i was with dd1 and i am enjoying it so much. She will be our last baby so i am making an effort to try to enjoy and savour every possible minute. I wish i could bottle the smell of her when i bury my nose in her hair so i can never forget it. I love having her in the sling so we feel so close.

There was someone on the antenatal thread expecting triplets wasn't there? I cant remrmber her nsme. I wonder hoe she is getting on.

Hi madmonkeys re dehydration; I'm not sure... she'll sometimes go three hours without a feed during the day but seems happy enough then when she wakes she'll have left right left boob...should I wake her?
anyway she's fed well and had yellow seedy poo again today, thanks for reply x

Hello, hope this finds you all well.
Just dropping in as I was on the September due date thread and completely failed to post once my wee one actually arrived...been feeling guilty!
Ben was born on 2nd October, 8lb 1oz, after being induced 1st stage of labour was recorded 2hrs, 2nd stage 16mins so only had gas and air, meconium in waters and issues monitoring his heart rate, he turned back to back in labour, forceps delivery, third degree tear so trip to theatre afterwards for stitches. And I've somehow lost five and a half weeks of my life since then, there's definitely not as many hours in the day as there was before! I guess labour stories seem a distant memory to some of you who had actual September babies!
Not sure how much time I'll have to keep up with thread, but returned to MN as breastfeeding is going awry and I'm starting to combination feed and it is so useful reading a few threads to see how others tackle these kind of things. Will try to keep looking in to see how all of you a few weeks ahead of us are getting on!

Hi all lovely to catch up and see how everyone's doing! Very of those with babies sleeping through already! Anyone else feel like they're a bit lost with lack of routine etc? DD is my first and I adore her but feeling a bit about us now being 9 weeks in and still so up in the air.... Are others feeling the same? Generally she sleeps and feeds well but we seem to go from one problem to the next, first she was fractious during evenings, that's now settled but now she won't really settle in the day unless I take her in the car or Bjorn.... This morning she was exhausted and fell asleep in the car but every time it stopped (dropping stepchildren to various places) she woke up crying, she's currently asleep on me now.....

Sorry for rambling post just feel I should have focused on settling DD earlier.... dares not to mention damn Gina Ford

Afternoon all. Just read an article in The Telegraph (would post a link to it if I knew how?) about babies stress at being separated to sleep in their own cot and that they sleep better and develop better sleeping with their mum. Was glad to read it because Euan has been in my bed a lot because of his cold and I've been worried about him. We both get so much better sleep that way and I was glad to read something that made me feel I was not doing something wrong.
My dd also slept 12 hours last nite for the first time ever . Probably just a one off but now I know she can do it there is hope.

Who thanks leeletoo off to find article to make myself feel better after streaky weekend! Well done to your DD hope all mums and babies have had food weekends x

I feel lost loup deffo no routine here and I'd like one!!! I went to the opticians today and ended up talking sleep deprivation with the optician! He has a nine month old and did control crying at 4 months on the suggestion of a sleep consultant. His wife is a midwife and was breastfeeding. Apparently she cryed for two hours the first night, twenty mins the second and nine the third and has slept 7-7 ever since. I don't really agree with control crying but he was such a persuasive soul that if we're still getting up all night at 6 months I might give it a try. Hope not though!
I find if he gets up at 2 he's up at 4 and 6 as well macaroons on a good day does 7-11 12-4, 4-7, the good days are scarce!!! Congratulations to anyone who has one sleeping through!!!

cjbk - I'd say if in doubt go to the GP with a photo of the nappy.

smallgreenone - I always wonder if I should try controlled crying as suggested by a friend too. my DS struggles to fall asleep / settle on his own during the day, but he sleeps alright at night (thankfully it's not the other way round!) I tried to not pick him up immediately (like watch him for a few minutes) hoping that he'll settle himself and fall asleep, but that doesn't happen.......

madmonkey - yes I remember there's someone expecting triplets! Wonder how they are all doing! I certainly can't imagine having to deal with 3 crying babies / 3 hungry babies at the same time.

leetleloo - I envy you re 12 hours sleeping baby! hope this will last and you must share your tips!

loup - I was feeding on demand as well but am slowly moving to a 2.5-hourly-feeding, and it has worked so far! It does make life a little easier as I can guess when he's likely to be hungry / grumpy, and I can plan when I can have my lunch!

cluelessmama - welcome back! sorry that your birth didn't go according to plan, anyway that's all over, let's forget the horror story! when you say combination feed do you mean FF plus BF?

it's now 22.20 and waiting for DS to wake up for feeding. hope he'll do a 12-5 tonight! TBH even a 12-4 is good! have a good night everyone, hope our LOs would behave!

oh forgot to say in my last post - we bought a high chair that's suitable from birth, it should arrive tomorrow and we're looking forward to it so DS could join us at meal times / I could do some cooking in the kitchen!

Just wondering if anyone had baby photo taken by professionals? We are tempted to get some done, if you have any recommendation who charges a reasonable amount in / near London please share.

We got given a gift voucher at Venture that includes a 5x7 but prices for additional photos are crazily expensive (starts from 200 to few grands and they have financing options. Seriously, I'm not gonna push myself into debt by a few photo prints no matter how good they are!)

Ah Macaroons you did make me laugh!! Dd is my 3 and a half year old who has never ever gone through the night: she is the worst sleeper ever. The baby sleeps better than she does. I do not and have not had more than 3 or 4 hours straight since she was born. So was v happy she slept through. Ds 9 weeks wakes on the dot for 4 hourly feeds pretty much; he had gone 5 or 6 but its rare.
We've had a shocking evening here so far as he has constipation, which seems to be side effect of ff, never had this with dd who was bf. anyway he finally managed to go, so maybe now he'll sleep.
Sweet dreams to all however long or short they may be.

re photos, google for the cherub scheme. When we had DS1 the local photographer for them contacted us as she got our details from Bounty. I've not had a letter from her this time so wondering if they've stopped getting the birth notifications. Cherub scheme was 3 small pics (one from each session) in a presentation thing for £35 i think. She was a brilliant photographer, but any extra pics are not cheap but there are ways around it. They are meant to sell 6 images on a CD for £300 or you can pay stupid prices for the prints. We said we couldn't afford that each session (4months, 8months, 12months) and she agreed to sell images £50 each....we then got them developed by the same place that she used and so would pay £50 for a massive framed print, whereas if we'd bought that from her she'd have charged £250!!!!! (she didn't tell us who she used, i just researched onine and the photo place let slip that she uses them too!)

DS2 will be 10 weeks on Wed, and going to get him weighed on Thurs...he was 13 10 1/2 at 6 weeks and dread to think how heavy he is now. He is comfortably filling 3-6 month clothes and DP got 6-9 month down from loft this weekend as he is growing so quickly we will soon need them!

Hi ladies! Hope you all had a nice weekend. Loopy- I have a big boy here as well. We're in 3-6 separates and 6-9 sleepsuits. Funnily, it was Thomas who was the bigger baby (10lb 12oz) at birth, but Ollie bobs is now mapping Thomas the height and weight charts, so i think I am destined to have 2 strapping boys who will totally dote on their mum.

Ollie bobs is alot more alert during the day- long gone have those early newborn days when he would feed, sleep, feed, sleep. We have quite a lot of crying too, when I haven't a clue what he actually wants or needs. That can be very draining. He also only ever wants mummy, so if he sits on daddy's knee, he just looks at me for a few minutes and then kicks off. However, he is getting so much better at settling himself in his cot during the night. He still is up every 3 hours (or sometimes 4-5 hours) but will feed and then go back to sleep again (and I can pop him in his cot without him protesting). Definitely no routine, but I am not too bothered at the moment. Control crying never worked for us the first time round, probably because we weren't persistent enough. I can't even remember now when Thomas started settling himself in his cot. You forget all these things, as once they start doing it, you move onto the next problem phase.

I need to practice Ollie with a bottle of expressed milk, as I have a gig to go to early December. Hmmm, I tried one a few weeks ago and he was ok, so will try one a week.

HI ladies, it's nice to catch up with all your news! We had jabs and check up for DD's 8 wk appointment last week - she's still only a teeny 9lb 2 but is tracking her curve (9th centile) nicely so no worries there, she's just dainty! She is 25th centile for length tho so I've decided she can become a supermodel and keep me in the lap of luxury! I would love a routine, but as soon as I see any pattern emerging of naps, feeding, whatever, DD changes just for fun. Though we are going 6 hours between feeds at night nowadays which is definitely an improvement.

Does anyone have any nursing bra recommendations please I"ve given up trying to find a soft cup one which is actually supportive for 32g/h so am looking for the much frowned upon wired nursing bra...

Nightmare - this may not be very glamorous, but it's the only nursing bra I've found that actually fits and it gives a surprising amount of support. It is very comfortable. I tried on loads of nursing bras in Mothercare and none of the others felt right. But maybe I'm just a funny shape. They don't come up very big, I'm a size 12/14 (36DD at the moment) and the large one fits me.

www.mothercare.com/Maternity-Comfort-Fit-Nursing-Bra/LT4652,default,pd.html?dwvar_LT4652_color=White

Leelteloo - my first dd became constipated when we switched to formula. You could try warm baths, keeping upright, or lying him on his back and peddling his legs. We resorted to dilute baby apple juice on the hv's advice after a coiuple of days. It worked very quickly. Not sure if that's the current advice though.

Thanks mad, he's not constipated at the moment as he is poorly with this horrid cold and has very wet nappys. But I'm sure he will get bunged up again, so thanks for the tips

Monkeys yes it's still the advice given. I was told you could also dilute prune juice which would work. I haven't needed it though as so far Herbie has not been constipated.

So we have our 8 week jabs tomorrow. I'm dreading it, feel so sorry. Would anyone give their Lo some calpol before the jabs? As I was thinking of doing this.

Not sure if this applies to you in your area or if they even are there but in my bounty pack I got a voucher for a free photo shoot with pixi foto, one for 0-3 months, 3-6 months, 6-9 months and one for 9-12 months. I haven't used mine but my sister went but spent nearly £300 on photos. I'm not sure how many she got. I would love to get it done but my Oh refuses and I don't want to go by myself :(

We have no routine here either. When he wants feed he gets it no matter when his last feed was, he sleeps when he wants and is awake when he wants. I just go with the flow and try to sleep when I can, although he is very good at night time. Will take a couple of good feeds close together and then sleeps 4-9 hours. Depending on when he wants more. But he normally settles back down which is great :)

Hope everyone had a good weekend

Oh and congrats clueless but don't feel guilty as everyone here understands what it's like to be in baby world and forget about everything else.

Thanks loopy for sharing info on the cherub scheme! Certainly sounds very interesting and more reasonably priced than venture! (I hate receiving marketing information so didn't join the bounty scheme)

To those With upcoming jabs - Don't worry DS didn't get any fever afterwards but we did give him one serving of calpol the night after he had the jabs in case he develops one in the middle of the night. He's fine, just more sleepy and grumpy the day after.

We wanted to get a high chair for DS so he could sit with us at meal time (rather than sitting on the bouncer and feeling a little left out) there aren't many that is suitable from birth, when I searched on kiddicare the bloom snug came out, and I was like, really, a bloom high chair for only 30 quid? Then I realised its just the cushion inset. The chair itself is almost 400 quid!! we got the fisher price easy clean one in the end, it's suitable from birth and DS looks happy in it!

Last night DS was only up at 330 then 720, today he's up 200 then 430... Argh! How can I teach him that it's better to only wake up once in the middle of the night? It's clear that he's capable of doing it! (there was a day where he only woke up at 440!)

Macaroons - I'm trying to be as boring as possible at nights - low lights, no noise, no happy chat, so DD knows I am there for comfort but not fun at that time - not sure if it has any effect but it makes me happier!

Last night she slept 11.30 - 5.30 then 6.30 - 10 am, how on earth do I change that so the whole thing is 2 hours earlier? I've tried and it seems to work for a day or so, but she soon slides back to these times, any ideas?!