March 2013- here we go....

[Oodsigma]

Welcome old & new to the other side!

I'll start with a stats list!

Ood -ds 7/3/13, dc4! Elcs

If anyone wants to add any more details feel free!

Well, we may find out tomorrow, because if she's fussing at breakfast I'm calling the doctor. I've done an awful lot of googling these past couple of weeks, and time and again coming across descriptions of similar behaviour that turns out to be silent reflux. After the last total failure at feeding, we put her to bed, and took the bottle back up half an hour later, by which time she was calm and sleepy. Drank three ounces, bringing the daily total to 14 so far. Here's hoping she manages the usual six or seven over the final two feeds, but I doubt she will.

Haha we often joke about chucking him out of the tree when he's being a right monkey. We did try infacol worsester right back when it first started it helped for a day or two but does nothing now except make him smell really bad. They don't put that on the side-effects!

He's had a monster sleep at tea time which I didn't have the heart to wake him from he was sleeping so well, but of course now he's wide awake and grumbling. I'm hoping OH has remembered he said he'd give me the morning off tomorrow so I can lie in. Hopefully he's going to get up for the morning feed and take him over to see his mum and dad so I get a bit of me time.

stormy that really sounds like reflux you're best getting to the docs if it's affecting them eating. Mine will eat but then screams and thrashes after so he's still gaining weight ok just an unhappy boy. Get some infant gaviscon off the docs that really helps BUT it did make mine really constipated so we had to give up on it. If you try it I'd introduce it gradually to see how little you can get away with just incase as they scream as much about the constipation as the reflux. Can't win.

Morning all.

stormy I don't know why this has popped into my brain but could it be cow's milk intolerance? You poor thing - hope you work it out soon.

Well after the miracle night last night, this is not going well tonight. We had neighbours/friends over for tea and they stayed till 9:30ish. DD only wanted quick feeds at 6:30 and 8 and slept the rest of the time whereas normally she's cluster feeding for the night ahead and going down between 8-9 for her first stretch of sleep. I love our friends but I just wanted them gone to be honest so that I could whip my chest out, strip DD and get her to start feeding.

As it was, she didn't wake til they left then I stripped her and she fed on/off till 11:30 and we finally got to sleep 11:45. She woke because she'd managed to wrangle her arms out at 2:30 and here I am not even had a 3 hr stretch :(

Better get on with the feeding... I'm knackered.

I'm reluctant to try infant gaviscon because she only poos once a day anyway, and seems a bit distressed by it. Anything that's going to slow that down doesn't sound ideal. But I very much doubt the doctor would agree to any other medication before that's been tried. Does gaviscon need a prescription or can one just get it from the chemist? (My doctor's is quite a hike away but the chemist is round the corner.)

I've googled cow's milk intolerance and it doesn't really seem to fit, but I'll keep it in mind. At least she ate enough in the end, three ounces at each night feed, and she was crying and chewing her hands in her sleep at 5am so I got another couple of ounces in her then. She sounds awake now, but not actually crying, so she can stay in bed a bit longer. We have the in-laws descending at lunchtime so fingers crossed for a better, less grumpy day.

Yes fingers crossed Stormy.

Well DD fed for ten mins when I posted earlier then stirred at 4:30 but I groaned,didn't get her up and she went back to sleep. She stirred again at 5:15 (must be 45min REM cycles?) and I turned over again because I am v tired but again she didn't wake up curse these noisy nearly wakenings and I finally got her put to feed her at 6 and she's still going, on and off.

So written down, feeds at 2:30 and 6 look quite good but having had a late night and waking up lots in between those feeds mean I'm knackered. Grr.

Hope you all had good nights?

Yes stormy it's only prescribed annoyingly so it means trying to get to the docs. Pooing once a day is fine for a formula baby, I asked my hv about that. It's if it's a few days and plasticine like I begin to worry. I was told to try giving an ounce of cooled boiled water between a feed and so far that's always helped but it is hard to get him to drink it. Because it's not milk he's not really interested.

Pooing once a day sounds pretty good to me. DD is bf so maybe that changes things but she regularly goes 5-7 days between poos. This worried me to start with, but the midwives and doctor assure me that it is perfectly normal, and up to two weeks is not unusual. Two weeks ????

Had another reasonable night last night - feeds at 4.30pm (no nap), 7.30pm (no nap), 9pm (very overtired and stroppy), 10.30pm (in bed so she slept), 12 midnight, 4.45am and 7am. I have come to the conclusion that she will only sleep in the sling, the pram, or my bed. Sometimes she will go down in the moses basket in the morning as she is fairly dopey then, but that's about it. Not sure how to change this, but for now I'm just going to go with the flow whilst I catch up on sleep myself.

Wing that's why we moved DD to her own room at six weeks. She was sleeping okay, but I was waking at the slightest noise. I suspect the same is happening with naps, so I'm ignoring the grumbling I can currently hear on the monitor. Since she's perfectly capable of grumbling in her sleep. She'll actually cry if she needs me, right?

If the weekend's a disaster I'll try for a doctor's appointment on Monday. Probably too late to get one today. On the plus side, having to ring the surgery at 8am for an appointment will no longer involve getting up criminally early, since I'll be awake anyway!

Well at least that's one silver lining in the cloud that is very early mornings

DS is most put out about DD being in our room, bless him. He keeps asking when she'll be moving into her own room and at the moment we're telling him another 8 weeks, which is roughly when he went into his room too. But at 4, he doesn't have a strict sense of time so if it's a bit later (I doubt it'll be earlier than 12 weeks/3 months) he won't know...

Twelve weeks! I take my hat off to you, Wing. I'd have cracked up going another six weeks with bugger all sleep.

Stormy, silent reflux sounds nasty. I hope you get it sorted. I am doing better today. Little one still under the weather and had diaherea last night ( they suspect the nystan) and the dakarin is clear and much easier to get on. I am improving and no longer want to chop my boobs off! Little one fed at 10 and again at 2.30, one a bottle fed one a boob feed but woke at 5.20, was back to sleep at 5.50 though and slept til 9.45 so can't complain.

Wing, that is amazing. We have a sofa bed in the nursery so at the minute while she is unsettled one of us sleeps in with her and the other one gets some rest. We still do the same with our son if he gets sick. I can't do the co sleeping thing as I don't sleep for fear of squashing them and the Moses basket is a pain as I keep getting up to look in at every grumble.

Stormy, I rang my doctor out of hours and then went to the chemist and the doc rang through the prescription. Might be because they ad already seen her so knew she had thrush but maybe worth suggesting.

Gosh I didn't think that was amazing - I thought I'd get flamed as the official advice is 6 months isn't it?!

DD's been crying a lot more today but I think she's been v windy and puked up a lot of a feed earlier on my arm (nice). We've been out though and she had a great nap in the carrier on DH (I've not even had a go of that yet with her - I think he sees it as his daddy&daughter time seen as I get so much time feeding her).

Eig, glad to hear you no longer want to give yourself a mastectomy

omg what do they put in formula??? DD had her first bottle today, as I had to be out for 2 hours and DH has yet to grow boobs and produce milk. Got home to find her happily chowing down a full 5 ozs in about 20 mins, before playing merrily for half an hour and then going down in her moses basket for a nap. She NEVER sleeps in her basket the afternoon.... ever. She turns into nutter baby from nutter-dom and does her level best to drive her poor mother demented. At least that is what it feels like. I'm now beginning to understand how people might actually have babies who really do sleep through the night at three months. I always assumed they lied!!! I bet they aren't breast fed....

So, now I'm in a quandary, I have ebf up to today because breast is best, and frankly what's a little bit of chewing and inconvenience if it gives her the best possible start in life. BUT, on the other hand her feeds last at least an hour, and evening cluster feeding can leave me pinned to the sofa from 6pm to 11pm with scarcely enough of a break to have a pee... Hence I am knackered to the point where I fainted the other night. My heart tells me to stick with the boob, but my head says switch before you go mad.

DD still asleep btw which is irronically a pain as I'd like to go out whilst the sun is shining but if we go now she'll wake up hungry! And to think all I used to have to worry about before leaving the house was that I looked vaguely respectable and I had my keys!

You can still bf but give one bottle a day to give you a break - say, and early evening one? And you can use half expressed milk and half formula as an option too I think?

How did she take it btw? DD always seems to be choking as it's so much easier/faster flow from a bottle teat.

Stormy have you tried Cow & Gate anti reflux formula? We had the same issues and got some of that which was great - it's thicker so they can't gulp it down and it doesn't slosh back up the oesophagus. I mixed it half and half with breast milk when I couldn't handle any more boob time.

Whoever was asking about teats - sorry I can't see who now - sometimes a grain of formula gets stuck in the hole so if you flick it it dislodges. I spent 30 mins with DS sucking nothing and getting angry before realising it was blocked!

We're having a growth spurt here, DS slept unnervingly all eve and all night without waking once himself to eat... I kept thinking he was sick

Typically OH was home so he had a lovely quiet night shift after my hellish week, grrr. This morning I sat for a 2 hour boob feed without shields (working like magic now I've worked out how to stuff more nipple in if it hurts to stop the pain) but DS was still hungry so had to top him up. He just falls asleep so often after a while I have to give up or we'd literally go all day.

Anyone else's skin on their hands so dry it's literally sandpaper?!

Glad your boobs are improving, Eig. I wouldn't be surprised if the nystan gives them the runs - we've had two proper explodey ones in the past twenty four hours. Turns out she didn't wake up hungry for the dream feed, she woke up because the man had to change not just nappy but all her clothes. And she just had a massive one while feeding, which escaped - poo on her jeans, poo on her foot, poo all over her stomach... I threw the vest away, it wasn't salvageable! Perhaps yesterday's extreme fussiness was partly bowel-related.

Wing the official advice is six months, but the officials aren't the ones trying to sleep through all that racket! And puke on the arm is fine. It's when they get you right in the cleavage that it's a bugger. And when you've stripped off the soggy clothes and they do it again and it drips in your crotch is even worse.

worsester formula takes longer to digest than breastmilk, I'm told. So yeah, formula babies are probably a bit more likely to sleep for longer stretches as they won't get hungry quite so soon. You could always go for mixed feeding - that way she's still got the benefit of the boob but you get more sleep. Maybe try formula at bedtime?

leni I'll add anti-reflux formula to my list of things to explore. We're on aptamil rather than cow and gate today. No fussiness yet but she's less of an appetite than she's had for the past ten days or so. Only eleven ounces down in four feeds; she's been having ten in the first three recently. So I'm going to stick with the aptamil over the weekend and see how she goes. If it turns out she just doesn't like c&g it'll be good because problem solved, but bad because I've got two and a half kilos of the stuff in the cupboard.

Right. The in-laws have been and gone, the baby's been good as gold all day (and had a lovely snooze on her great-grandma), she's now gone for a nap, and I don't know quite what to do with myself. I'm thinking something involving horizontality might be good. Maybe some closed eyes too...

Oh, and leni, could you be a bit dehydrated, if you're still doing the boobs? I hear you need to drink about a thousand gallons of water a day or something equally ridiculous. Dehydration could cause dry skin, right? That or it's all the extra hand washing that comes with having a baby around. Mine got horrifically dry until I decided not washing my hands between smokes and baby-handling wasn't actually likely to do her much harm. (Is there a ducking for cover emoticon?)

Euw sick in the crotch

I'm in a grumpy hormonal mood today not helped by the late night and disturbed sleep plus the fact that DD has been feeding on/off for the past three hours - I'm sure she's drained both sides a few times over. :( I think she really needs to nap but as I said upthread, she's crying a lot more today and I just can't work out what the matter is apart from giving her more boob seems to help. It's actually starting to annoy me now though especially when she pulls off and them gets annoyed because she isn't still latched on. Grr!

Oh no, now you've done it Stormy the lurkers will be back! Seriously Stormy, I love you! you make me laugh, aren't afraid to say what you think and can take the p*ss really well! I think aptimil is great. My first little boy did very well on it. also too much hand washing could be a problem too, they need a little bit of exposure to bacteria!

Wing, I have been really emotional for a while, just need more sleep I reckon, so that will be about 3 to 6 months time before I feel better!!

She's still feeding! ARGH! Not meant to have a growth spurt before 6 weeks, right?!

Hand washing doesn't help for sure but I'm not going overboard - mainly because I've not had the use of my hands most of the time! OH just broke the last rubber glove as well so I washed up without any and I hate that. Don't think dipping my hands in the steriliser umpteen times a day is great for the skin either, literally it started the day he was born though...

My belly has tightened a little now but the weird pouchy sack of loose fat/skin with the sexy stretch marks on it is still extremely pinchable. It looks truly horrendous I found an old picture of me (a bit of a naughty one ) that I'd emailed to OH ages ago, and he said he missed my old belly

We've got two kilos of formula he hates in the cupboard too, such a waste, hoping later on we might be able to mix it in.

I'm trying to hydrate more but lately I just don't get around to drinking anything much because I'm spending so long sorting out DS. When OH is working I have a mere hour when he has charge, and then I normally shower and do housework. I might invent some kind of velcro helmet so I can stick everything I need to have to hand on it rather than sitting with DS attached and realising I don't have a drink / the remote / muslin / phone anywhere in arms reach. Dragon's Den perhaps?

Our bedroom smells milky but I can't find the source, hoping it doesn't turn cheesy how often am I meant to bathe a 4 week old?

Leni are you still using Milton, I found my hands were impossibly dry using that.