October 2012 babies part 2: winding, yawning and grizzling, and first smiles?

[YompingJo]

Part 2: in which our babies learn to sleep through the night and make us tea in the morning

Just waving a little pompom for Little Lambs reusable breast pads - made of bamboo and I find them pretty absorbant - it's just that I could soak through anything!

Londonmrs my LO is 5 weeks today. Doesn't go longer than 3 hours between feeds at night and can quite often take between 1.5 and 2 hours from start of feed to settling. Fine during the day but a terror at night. Will also often play the "i'm asleep in your arms" card (floppy limbs, grunting etc) and then the minute I put him in his basket his eyes are wide open and arms are flailing around. It's rare that I get more than 2 hours sleep in a block so you're not on your own x

Londonmrss We're the same as kyyria here. No more than 3 hrs between feeds and he's suddenly getting really hard to settle at night - last night it took more than 2 hours. I am so flipping tired. You're not alone. He was 5 weeks on Wednesday

Yomping... Feel free to copy!

Kyyria.. Sometimes i do have to hold ds arms on his chest for a minute when first putting him down, and repeating sequence from above, hair stroking, hair stroking and dummy.

If ds is fussy taking dummy i also find it helps is i put my palm on his cheek to mimmic face being pressed into boob.

Sometime it would be easier if i had 3 or 4 hands to get this all going together! Lol

5-weekers - feeding and sleeping were rough until just after 6 weeks for me then it changed literally overnight one day - fingers crossed for you all xxx

Well that's the second very honest BF opinion in 2 days! Saw female GP yesterday and female physio today. Neither apt anything to do with BF, just talking about in conversation. Both similar age to me. Both BF own babies. Said it is so hard and difficult and exhausting at start for up to 2 months, then suddenly it turns a corner and is brilliant and you are so much better off and hassle free and liberated by lack of bottles!!

Thought that would cheer some of us up!

More on physio and pelvic floor later! But she says I am totally healed and able to DTD...... Shhh, don't tell DH!

Am feeling tired, grumpy and miserable. I woke at 5 today and couldn't get back to sleep, despite DD asleep. And didn't manage to sleep at lunchtime either. Frustrating.

However, in the interests of positivity, my sister told me that,breastfeeding really does get easier. I too am sick of being stuck to the sofa/DD . She tells me she used to have her daughter in the baby bjorn, feeding as she walked around the supermarket (with a big baggy t shirt over the top to hide her modesty). now I assume you need quite big knockers to manage that, so not achievable for everyone, but as a vision it cracked me up. Multi tasking sister!

Angelico the wedding planning isnt happening at the mo - we have agreed guest list and booked venues, so the rest can wait. DF and I haven't quite recovered from our fight on tues yet. And I'm not looking forward to another weekend with him in his study and me doing all the baby stuff alone, again. At least during the week other mums want to meet up. On the weekend they all have family time. Sigh. And seeing non baby people is tricky because it makes me so sad. I want their life, not mine.

Right. Enough moping. Best feed this child and start the windathon.

yikes bit stressed. had 8wk check and babypaving has a sacral dimple, pectus excavatum and has dropped a centile in weight.

have to go back to doctor in 2wks to check weight for possible referral to tongue tie clinic and for her to give us latest advice on the pectus thing, which is essentially something to do with his chest being slightly caved in. i'd noticed it but assumed it was just his anatomy really hope it's nothing to worry about. she wasn't overly concerned about his sacral dimple but i'm paranoid cos I didn't start taking folic acid until I found out I was pregnant.

just bit argh really

I mentioned to DH how unsexy it feels to constantly have one boob hanging out. His response? 'Get them both out then.'
Don't think he gets it somehow.

Hope all is ok cravypaving

My baby has sacral dimple too but if you can see the bottom of it and legs moving fine and no tuft of hair very unlikely to be a problem, I think - as I remember from med school embryology - not a paediatrician!!

My dad has pectus excavatum and runs 8 miles a day - he is 60

Hope the weight gain thing is a blip - likely unrelated to the above

Thanks huffle for bf encouragement. Have started evening feedathon and needit!!
Hope all ok crazy surely gp not worrying is good thing... They dont risk leaving things with nrwborns surely?
Hubby out tonight for work. I want a boob fairy to appear and do night shift please...
Exhausted.
Determined to do pelvic floors properly ftom now on. Leaking must stop. Will get gp to check me agsin next week... Looked at bits in mirror. Big purple scar not sure if one of my tears or episiotomy. Gross. Poor hubby not allowef amywhere near me. Romance is dead...!

Why does it still hurt to have sex? It's been eight and a half weeks ...

Oh livvy, it sounds like u feel a bit unsupported by your dp- that is the last thing u need. bean had her 4 week health visitor check and has only put on about 10% of her birth weight and has dropped a percentile. hv not too worried, but wants to weigh again in 2 weeks. need to look into it more, really- not sure how much they should be putting on and of the consequences if they r not. not going to be happy if i am told we need ff top ups after all the sleep deprivation to build supply. on a happier note, managed to take bean to beauty salon for spray tan yesterday, and have done hair and nails (sadly at the expense of napping), in preparation for wedding tom. wanted to do beauty regime as really struggled to find a nice b/f dress as the choice was really limited, and had to settle for one i didnt really love

Joining in the general 'feeling unsexy' thing... After a few days of light bleeding I am bleeding more again tonight and have cramps nearly a week after D&C. Really hoping this is just AF arriving or something because I REALLY don't want to have to repeat fecking D&C.

Can I ask a quick question?

Would you let someone drive you and your beans if they had had a drink, just one beer?

Evening, been ages since I've posted but all your posts are a godsend to read in the middle of the night feeds. Erin did a couple of 11pm til 6:30/7:30 nights but now we are back to waking at 3am - and she feeds, gets so sleepy - and does a giant explosive nappy so have to get up and change her and she wakes up again then. She then wriggles and snorts in her Moses basket for ages. She's got a new sleeping bag so that's fab as she can't kick all the blankets off. She's nearly too long for her basket now - at 7 weeks - that was an expensive unnecessary purchase then as she'll soon need to go in her cot.

Bella so sorry to hear about your husband, I'm sure all will be well in the long run but it's bad timing and an unnecessary stress for you both now

Yomping I totally agree re breast feeding being a total pain - and I really just had painful nips for a week, it's more that it's so tying and I still find it a bit embarrassing/ stressful to feed in public - as I too have fast flowing milk that sprays everywhere if it's been a while. I want to try expressing sometimes but am too stingy to shell out for the machine to milk me, bottles and steriliser as I don't think I'd get a lot of use. Also, how much do you express for one feed? Do you think I could do enough by hand just into the one bottle I have (a freebie avent one)?

Huffle I too still am leaky, went to GP for check of undercarriage as I can feel something there - and she said my stitches were ok but it's just very collapsed and I can just feel the back wall of my fanjo . She said to just to my pelvic floor exercises and that it might take a year to be back to normal - a year...

Erin had her weight taken yesterday - she's 12lb 6oz now at 6 weeks, 6 days - what a bruiser (7lb 12 at birth). She certainly likes her milk... She has started 'speaking' - making cute baby noises, gooing and almost chuckling. Very cute

I am very happy. I have beside me a G&T. A very weak one mind, but nevertheless a wee gin!!!! Am I on the cusp of some kind of normality???

And it has been worth the wait!!

And DH is getting up in the night. Shame he doesn't have any boobs.

Wantan yes I would if just one beer - although depends who it is too - I have some friends I always try to avoid being driven by regardless of alcohol intake!

Karla, it really depends re expressing. I give expressed at night as it's quicker- otherwise she'd just stay at the boob all night just feeding for five minutes every so often. at five weeks she's on about 120ml per night feed and smaller but more often during day at boob. if you're planning to express a lot, would recommend hiring medela symphony at £45 per month.

Growth spurts are bollocks. Master midge feeding every 2 hours the little monkey. And a babygro destroying crap. Happy days.

Beccus, I'm having hilarious and slightly wrong visions of a fake-tanned and manicured baby! Assume it was you who got the treatments? Bet it felt luxurious!

After lovely chilled smiling day, mini yomping is celebrating her 6wk birthday with an overnight feeding frenzy. Convenient for me to have had virtually no sleep overnight, when today we are driving for 2hrs to visit my dad (out of hosp. yesterday) and take care of my mum (as she has been running around after my dad and not looking after herself), then coming home then DH has his works do so I will be on my own all evening and he will be hungover tomorrow. Nice one, mini yomping...

yomping sympathies we are at 6 weeks + 2 and we have also had a shitty night. I'm not really sure what's happened because it all blurs into one but between 12 and now I've had virtually no sleep. Luckily DD did do 2.5 hours before 12 so I'm not totally sleep deprived. And we are driving 3 hours to see PIL today and staying overnight. Not something I want to do really but never mind.

Tomorrow we are going out for lunch with lots of DH's friends which will be lovely and i'm looking forward to showing off baby olives but I have nothing to wear! Have been wearing same 3 things in rotation because nothing else fits or is suitable for bf. going to look crap next to all the other ladies who are far more glamorous...and prob will get no sleep tonight either so will have even bigger bags...

Oh and I'm going to moan even more because DH has snored next to me through the whole night!

Katla Thanks for answering. I'm worried I've offended my brother. I wouldnt want someone driving us if they'd had a drink at all. Last night we went out for a meal and he gave us a lift there but I said beforehand that we would get a taxi back, then when it came to it he offered a lift home too. I said no thanks, we're happy to get a taxi but he went on a bit and I said, you've had a drink so I'd prefer to get a taxi and he got all sarcastic and laughed at me. Was I really being that daft? I never fall out with my brother!

Greetings from NZ ladies! Flights were perfect (priority treatment all the way thanks to baby), perfect baby (he just slept and ate and didn't cry once - if only he did that on the ground!) - but longhaul and its effects in you after 5 weeks with a newborn is hell. I feel physically as rough as I did when I came home from the hospital.

DS' infected (baby conjunctivitis?) eye still looked nasty so had to stop in at after hours doc on way home to get more antibiotic drops. This is the third course of them, it just won't go away!!! Anyone else having this prob?

No plans the next week aside from sleep, hide from the world and cuddle baby. Desperately miss DH already, just 22 nights (I would say 22 sleeps but who am I kidding) till he gets here.

Thank god I brought Irish tea with me somI can have a proper brew at least.

And I forgot every single pair of undies I own (except the pair I'm wearing) at home. Feck.