January 2013 Part Two: Coos and smiles but not always so much sleep...

[SpringFlowers]

Our first thread has almost finished so I thought we'd need a new one!

Lora totally agree! And once they get to school who can tell who had what :)

Lora Agree on the feeding thing being no-one else's business. Also I'm with you on the curry pits

I apparently have a staph infection of my nipple :( Anyone had this? I have to take antibiotics which I'm not happy about as it just means I'm more likely to get thrush again. So fed up of having manky nipples!

Did anyone watch Bedtime Live last night? Need some tips on how to get my DD to sleep in her crib.

Lora, I feel like I have to justify it whenever somebody asks, I don't know why, maybe it's because I feel a little guilty that I didn't carry on longer .... (Especially after reading the traumas you guys have had with your boobies)!!
Or maybe I should tell them to sod off and mind their own business

DD has just been weighed and is now 11lb 3oz! She is 8 wks old ! Little pudding!!

Ok so at 8 weeks what time was your LO settling down for bed!??
DDs bedtime seems to be between 11-12!!!! she sleeps beautifully once asleep but I just wish it was earlier!!
Any tips??

It was a staph infection which caused my abcess tugs, whats your nipple doing? Is it swolllen or just sore? Im too scared to use the bad boob bbut il have to if i dont want to be lopsided

Dexter was going sleep about hal ten at 8wks... Its now half 11-12 its ok for me though i dont tend to go bed early... Its the 6am wake up that im no fan of.

Oh god lora didn't realise staph caused your awful abscess... It's in one nipple and that boob is quite lumpy but I feed DD with it a lot (excruciatingly painful!) and express to try to get rid of the lumps. Can't be doing with getting an abscess yours sounded like such a nightmare. Has it gone now?

Yes thats how mine started (doesnt mean itl happen to you though i dont want to scare you!) it got to a point where the swelling and abcess blocked my nip so nothing could come out i i did feed him from it, i blame all the drs and midwives i saw who ignored my siyuation or who didnt realise that it was as bad as i was saying, they just kept saying feed hom from it... Well he couldnt ffs its only a tiny scabby bit noww milk does come out but nowhere near as much as the left side which is why i started the fenigreek but cos he gets stroppy on that side im scared itl all happen again.

I found hot flannels helped with the pain in the stage your at then i was given voltarol pills to help swelling which were crap only pain relief that helped was the strong cocodamol

And expressing in the bath or with lansinoh on it helped more come out

Gosh, you ladies are amazing putting up with all those issues like staph & abscessess etc...I only managed mastitis & thrush a couple times before giving up - but hey - I had managed to express lots in the freezer so he still gets one bottle of ebm a day. He's a guzzler and was 12lbs at his 6 week check!!!!!

Lolli - Ds goes to bed at 6:30/7...I'm a kind of losely trying to be gina follower (for better or for worse)...he has sleepy feeds at 10:30 & 4am, and then usually I wake him up at 7 to start the day

So our little man has always struggled with sleeping between 7-10 he will only do it he's sleeping on me, the last few nights hubby has been working until late so I've taken advantage and have gone to bed early at about 8 to watch a film in bed (rock n roll) I popped him on our bed while I went to the bathroom to wash up etc came back and he was zonked! So I tested the theory and he has settled himself the last few nights and slept through until 10:39 when woken to feed, he has then gone straight back into his Moses basket and slept well........am I setting myself up for a fall by doing this or shall I just go with it????

Lora have you tried starting the feed on good side and change once he has got the first let-down and quenched his thirst a bit? Also bung a load of nip-salve on to make it more soft. It might fool him a bit but doubt it, these little mites know what they like!

Bernie go with it! I just do whatever works although all of mine have tended to sleep better if they settle themselves (though would be nice if someone expained that to an over tired and screaming Ivy :( )

Letting agent came out to see house and barely looked! After we spent the whole day madly cleaning everything! He did mention that the rent is behind by a lot...shocked us as its only a month but his old company says 3!! So now we have to go through old statements to show its paid.. He then said that we had over paid his new company franky no idea whats going on but surely if we were that behind they should have mentioned it??!!

Still at least house is nice and clean and tid (until dcs destroy it again)

Wow am amazed at the people still bf with so many issues.

Thanks lost,i'll try that tomorrow hes been on it twice tonight and its sore now cos it has a lot of catching up to do its not been used by his over zealous mouth for 8 weeks. Lansinoh will be my new best friend for a while...

Not going to make the cut for the sleep team yet but just recorded a new PB 11-4

Hi all. We are trying out baby cinema today! Our local Odeon does a screening for mums and babies of the latest release. Apparently they turn the sound down a bit and turn up the lights. No idea if he'll like it, but will give it a go! And he has a bunny outfit to wear from baby gap - bless him :-)

How is everyone else doing with baby clubs, swimming etc?

Hi all. We are trying out baby cinema today! Our local Odeon does a screening for mums and babies of the latest release. Apparently they turn the sound down a bit and turn up the lights. No idea if he'll like it, but will give it a go! And he has a bunny outfit to wear from baby gap - bless him :-)

How is everyone else doing with baby clubs, swimming etc?

Hi all glad to see you are all doing well
Things have been upside down here still no sense of routine or normality!
LO has taken to sleeping though from around 11/12 til 5.30am which feels great, hoping this will lengthen at some point.

Lora we are very lopsided, my chiropractor has said she can treat LO for it I will let you know how I get on. He is always twisted around to his left and sleeps on that side too. Prefers my right boob which is now much bigger.

Bit fed up with bf as latch has gone wonky, turning feeding time into a battle when it used to be lovely. Want to persevere but may throw in the towel if cannot get it fixed - feeding is taking ages, we have green poo and just not convinced he is getting enough.

meringue sounds like you've given breastfeeding a good go. Main thing is a healthy baby so don't feel bad if you decide to move to formula!

bunny we're starting Baby Sensory classes next week. DD1 loved them and I met some local mums. They were the best classes we did.

bernie go with it, that sounds like a great routine!

How much time are people spending playing with baby?

Bunny, I went to the baby cinema screening yesterday for the first time - it was great! We're going to do it weekly now. There were only 6 of us in a massive screen which was quite funny.

I'm starting baby massage in a couple of weeks. Going to try and get to a baby group this afternoon I think as well as I need to meet other people but it's been a disaster every time I've tried so far.

Hubby is off work til Tuesday so we're going to try and get lots of bits finished in the house etc.

I play with Bailey loads. He seems quite alert and if he doesn't want to play, he often likes sitting on your knee just looking around and watching tv...

Eight til fi-ive! Eight til fi-ive! Ei-ei-ei-ei-eight til fi-i-i-ve!!

Dan slept from 8pm (in the swing), refused to take a dreamfeed at 9.30pm, transferred to the crib at 10.30pm and stayed asleep til 5am. Thats a first and I bet it doesn't happen again for a while. I'm on the lookout now for something new he can do to account for it now.

Meringue You've done really really well to get this far and its absolutely fine to change to ff if you want to. Don't be afraid to ask for help with the latch and the fussiness though, it could be down to something fixable.

Daniel went through a stage of fussy feeding popping on and off the breast every few seconds, windy and green poo, it was because of too fast flow and too forceful letdown rather than any kind of low supply though. I ended up expressing into a towel for a minute before feeding him so he just got the slower settled down flow instead. Then I block nursed on the same side for 2 feeds at a time before switching breasts for the next 2 feeds, for a week to deal with my oversupply. I still have a forceful letdown but Daniel can now cope with it once the first few seconds are past.

We are going swimming on a sunday morning as a family. Other than that Daniel just comes along to stuff we do with DS1, playgroups etc. I don't get much time with just him to do any classes really.

Thanks guys!
Pascha I think it is fixable, just haven't had any luck doing so with help of NCT bf counsellor, HV or helpline. Was doing the Flipple before when working really well, but for some reason can't seem to do it any more. Have tried block feeding and I think my letdown is slow rather than fast so vicious circle - I need that good latch from him to get it flowing, more frustrated we both get the less likely it is to work.

We've been to baby cinema too, was great! Saw Les Mis which I missed as went into labour. Brilliant. Also been to Tots and Tinies which was fun tho think he was still too little to make most of it. It was more fun for mummy!

Cannot get that bottom lip to pout out no matter what I do

Ok dont laugh but Kellymom suggests deep breathing and relaxation techniques to speed up a slow letdown.

meringue manually flip it out with your finger.