December 2012 - the Christmas buns are coming out of the oven

[PurplePidjChickIsNotTheMessiah]

New fred...

Well I would just hand express about 20ml so it would relieve the engorgement but not fool your body into producing more milk, I just did it into a cup, just like milking a cow when your boobs are so full

Dear me, mammoth session this morning from t (after usual sociable night) - she has been awake for 3 hours, more or less on the boob. Really hoping she's settled for a bit now so I can catch a quick nap. On the plus side, weaning from bottle top ups seems to be going well, she only had one bottle last night (none all day yesterday or so far today) and my milk seems plentiful judging by the amount she has puked back at me!

Thanks all, powering through the morning, DS has been painting which kept him occupied, just a bit worried about him, he got a toy chainsaw for Christmas and keeps wanting to 'chop chop Kitty into little pieces'

Not sure how to handle it, may post on the behaviour board for advice.

Congrats Annelid!

Stacey, both mine had jaundice, as long as they have it I'd recommend not demand feeding, feed every 2 hours and pop them in a light area, near a window, it'll soon clear up.

Thanks Michelle that makes sense

Utopian medelas are one of the best and are usually quite straightforward to use. You usually have to turn them up at first to stimulate the flow and then down once the longer "sucks" kick in.

stacey I know it's hard not to worry but I was sent to the hospital 3 or. 4 times with ds1 for jaundice and in the end a doctor actually wrote on his notes that he just had very tanned skin NOT jaundice. Hopefully it'll be that simple!

My nan visited yesterday and all we heard was in her day babies were fed 4 hourly then put down to sleep, none of this cuddling and letting baby sit there for ages (I just smiled and nodded) but it is funny how things change, when I was born my mum was told to feed 20 mins one side then change nappy and wind and then 20 mins on other side no less or more.

Back to the breast pad discussion - my new favourites are johnsons

Yes COD my MiL (only 50) told me to put DS into a "routine". Leave him/wake him 4 hourly and feed him and that's that. Smile and nod, smile and nod

Meant to say he was 6 days old at that point!

Morning all. Mammoth boob session here this morning too but it followed 3 hours of peaceful co-sleeping so I'm happy. stacey hope all is ok with the jaundice - we've had people think little Z had jaundice but others have disagreed. One midwife was convinced he was yellow until I pointed out when he was feeding that when he was next to my breast, I was an awful lot yellower than him.

pidj mentions an interesting point about routine. We could have a good night's sleep with minimal interruptions if we just let Z sleep with us rather than trying to settle him in his carrycot. He's just over a month now - should we just let him have what he wants (namely nighttime snuggles and comfort) and not worry about getting him sleeping in the carrycot for now, and try to get him in a routine of settling in his carrycot, are we making a rod for our own backs? He does sleep in the carrycot but generally only for the first part of the night - it's hard to settle him back there after he's woken up.

Afro I really wouldn't worry. It's quite normal, especially for boys I think to use really quite violent imagery in their play - they have no concept of what chopping someone up would actually be like so don't mean it in the way we might hear it iuswim.

goodness hard keeping up with u all!

stacey I though George was quite luminous in hospital but he didn't need treatment. bilirubin runs in our family a bit; my sister goes orange if she eats too many oranges and carrots (which she loves) and dh was told he had the same recently (can't remember wot it's called) .mw prob just being careful. you do .get babies who are a tad orange for a while and G does look a bit like he's been on the self tan at the mo at 21 days.

I'll try Johnson's honey - what's nice about them?

a 'wtf' moment; G usually sleeps between feeds in day not a prob. had a reasonably good night last night with two 3 and 4 .hr gaps between feeds ( plus a fussy 4 hours). dh wanted to work today so I set myself up for dry run 'on my own' day - and the little monkey has fed literally every hour since 8, screamed over his winding and then only been calmed by another feed starting the whole thing again. tried sling, changing (helped a bit) then put him in crib - fine for half an hour before starting again - and then dh decided to put him in sling and go to shops and little monkey stopped crying and fell asleep! only diff I can tell is the snow suit went on.

caught dh smugly checking himself out in mirror with sling and calm baby while I went up to clean my teeth for first time today. I repeat, wtf ?!

our dull button hv who still can't confirm thrush so sending me to doc with him on thurs (I know it isn't but worth checking anyway as hvs seem so unsure) suggested fennel tea to help with wind (for me) - anyone tried?

does this 'foods you eat affect baby' thing exist? la leche league seem to say no but most admit last 2 times I've had bad wind so gas he..... (fish n chips yesterday).....

whoa that was a bit post sorry!

Afro dd keeps 'raaaarrrr' ing at ds

Just got Felix weighed and he's 8lb6 that's only 4oz in two weeks but the HV didn't seem worried

clarella I go sometimes dh can settle dd better as she can't smell my milk so maybe it was that or I have found putting a cardi on Keira while she's indoors seems to make her settle easier.
I personally think after feeding 4 other dc's that it definately makes a difference what you eat and drink. For instance if I eat spicy food baby get awful wind and in the past if I drank coffee they'd get terrible trapped wind. Oh and fennel ive always found to be brill

afro and spotty!

oh ok cod maybe I'd better pay more attention to what I know keeps me settled then! have two fennel teas lined up as try to get some kip - who on earth thought a good idea to go to a ny party with a 3 wk old? oh yes, dh.

Well it would seem that Edward is a major fan of the boob juice.

HV weighed him today and he had put on 11oz in 10 days!

aw fab FOD!

..... at said new years party friend is cooking Lebanese food.... does that make u gassy ??!!

Stupid stupid hospital. Tried changing dd's appointment and the next available one isn't until July so I'm going to have to keep this one and lose £20 for a morning at nursery she won't get to go to. I'm so angry they've cancelled the original appointment with less than one working day's notice. And they've got dd as master instead if miss (doesn't really matter but something else to get annoyed by )

That's rubbish Spotty and if you'd cancelled at such short notice there'd be all sorts of threats of striking you of lists etc.

We have a poonami situation here, luckily daddy's on duty for once . He's never handled one of the bad ones before he's disgusted!

I would seriously be tempted to put a complaint in spotty. that's not on to not offer another one soon if they've cancelled it in type first place.

I cannot nap during the day anymore for some reason. and dh has snuck some more visitors in. I can hear them. next lot due at 5. there's a reason most of the east confines mum's fir 40 days - dh's best man's wife is Japanese and they aren't allowed out for a month and have to stay with her mum! grr

Afro - my DS1 (35 months) said, out of nowhere, 'Not hit the baby bruvver on the head with a hammer' which wasn't exactly the most reassuring thing I've ever heard!

Seconds - from what I've read and heard from trustworthy sources (my friend who is a GP and mum of 2 recommended the book Baby 411 - yes it's American but it's really down to earth, practical and reassuring) the first 2 or 3 months of a baby's life you can get away with anything without getting into bad habits - just do whatever it takes to survive and get some sleep. That's why I actively decided to co-sleep with Zacharias when he wouldn't settle in his basket and as a result I'm much better rested than I was with DS1.

Z is also loving the boob juice - he was 6pounds when he was born 15 days ago and when HV weighed him today he was 7 lbs 10oz! That's 26oz in just over 2 weeks. Nice to know the endless bfing has been worth it!

Hmm 4oz in two weeks is really rubbish then isn't it

On foods affecting milk- my friend was told by the idiot hv that drinking coke would make the milk fizzy MIL told me I shouldn't eat grapes, at which point I got a mammoth craving for them and ate 2 boxes in front of mil and no effect. She also told me to stop eating chilli, which I love and she hates, but midwife said it doesn't make any difference. If you like spicy etc and have eaten the flavour during preg apparently the baby will have had a taste through the lyca so are more inclined to like it when they're older

wockcomble thank you for that; it's v reassuring. Little Z is currently asleep on his daddy's chest after many hours of feeding!

spotty a gain is still a gain so try not to worry - I worried when Z lost weight (he's STILL not up to birth weight after a month, the little monkey) but so long as he is otherwise healthy and is producing lots of nappies and has now reversed the trend to gaining not losing, I'm not worrying. All babies are different after all; even when z was in the womb my early scan said everything was small for dates but he caught up so the "12 week" scan turned out to be at 13+5. Gosh those days seem a lifetime away don't they?

On another note, after a few days of no bleeding, I'm bleeding again with a bit of fresh red blood. Is it normal for it to be a bit stop-start?