It's April 2013, the time is now & HERE ARE OUR BABIES!

[toobreathless]

Our first post natal thread!

Cooking & Cleaning can wait till tomorrow
for children grow up we've learnt to our sorrow
So wipe away cobwebs and dust go to sleep
I'm cuddling my baby cause babies don't keep!

A thread to celebrate the highs of life with a gorgeous newborn and the lows of sleepless nights, stitches, feeding traumas & Baby blues.

Hooray!!

(Nicola Scott on fb - new mum of twin boys, Milo and Woody)

Marking my spot too!!! Lets hope I can be posting on this thread from home in a day or two!!! xxx

Typing on phone while feeding H!

Hooray! Is anyone else still feeling really bruised and sore after delivering just over a week ago? I've also got the night sweats pretty bad. I can't wait to feel well again and concentrate on my baby!

Lutrinae I think I was sorest after the birth of DD1 even though she is the smallest of all mine (and was less than half the weight of your DS!) Not saying it is a good thing, but this time i have healed very quickly in comparison but don't like to think what that says about the state of things... Hope you are feeling better soon.

Trish hopefully just one or two more nights to go until you and Hunter go home. Fingers crossed for you.

I am just sitting here listening to Evan snuffling in is moses basket. He will probably wake up wanting to feed in an hour or so but I am considering moving him upstairs so I can lie in bed and read a book. I came home from the school run today and DP suggested I have a nap - and I woke up after lunchtime! DP is great at helping in the night but he doesn't wake up when Evan does so it is usually easier for me to get on with things myself. Or if DP does it I end up being awake anyway as I am such a light sleeper. Right now we are working in shifts so DP has been in bed for a couple of hours already but will get up with Evan any time from 4am onwards and will start his day then! I am not sure how this will work once he goes back to work next week but I think it is pretty much how we got through the early months with DDs too!

Hello all! Am currently trying to put Harry in his bedside cot. He is happy to sleep on me but every attempt to put him down has failed so far! My OH is helping with the first night feed (expressed milk/formula depending on how much I have managed to pump). It is just about saving my bacon as Harry feeds for hours at a time and I was getting no sleep/losing the will to live ; ) fingers crossed for a good night for us all!

Hi all - glad to have the thread started!

Itsaruddygame - same here. DS is 4 weeks tomorrow and his
Lovely co-sleeper cot which is attached to my side of the bed is completely unused. On me or at a push right next to me are the only options! He'll happily sleep during the day whether out and about or at home in his pram...

Exclusively bf'ing here so no relief from DH in the middle of the night sadly!! We've had a terrible case of thrush which is only now starting to clear which has made feeding agony and made me come close to jacking it in (or just running away!). We still have a few latch issues so feeding is not painless but hoping to sort that out this week.

Feel like if I can get over the feeding pain issues I can cope with the rest - even lack of sleep!

How are others getting on with feeding?

Hello

Feeding baby here, she tends to cluster feed between about 10pm and midnight but then has been going until about 6am which is remarkable really considering she is only 7 lb 0 today. not counting my chickens though as I am fully aware it may all change next week!

We have been to Kiddicare in Nottingham today and are now the proud owners of a snot green kiwi green Phil & Teds Navigator double buggy. We got £220 off making it a just over £300 for everything- not bad. It is utterly hideous, well actually the buggy is lovely the green covers are hideous but I wasn't going to get snotty (excuse the pun!) about the colour when only the green one was on offer.

Breastfeeding is going well here although it is pretty sore & I'm having some rather embarrassing oversupply issues needing multiple top changes. I get very strong (& quite unpleasant) let downs and get them just looking at the baby, hoping it settles soon!

lutrinae I think we delivered on the same day (6th?) I had a second degree tear dir to C flying out and am pretty much healed. But Dd1 was 8 lb 8, forceps and then a 1.5 L bleed and I remember feeling like I'd been run over by a truck for weeks. I think you had a bleed did you? Take it easy it takes time for your blood count to recover, I hope you have lots of help?

trish really hope you and Hunter get home ASAP.

We are having feeding issues what with her being so small. The latch has kicked in today but its such hard work for her bf we got in a vicious cycle. She screamed the house down for hours. Lovely MW and student came and took over....despite having some top up she actually needed more. She is finally full and has stopped wailing like a banshee! Fits with what they say about tiny babies being hungry! They've got me a side cot now which I hope will help too. Going to try and get some sleep (hopefully both of us! now.

Hello all

I'm feeling surprisingly chippy for three am as she managed two hours asleep in her Moses basket with no choking or sick due to reflux, trip to a and e Sunday morning for meds has really made a difference.

Trish - here's hoping you're home soon

Tell you what ladies, it seems such a long time ago I was five weeks pregnant and one of the very first lot of posters on the April thread, Amazing that were all gradually getting our babies (or they've been here a bit longer for a few of us) and well carry on through the highs and lows of babies and hopefully even beyond that.

I'm here at this ungodly hour, too. LO is having a good old midnight feast to himself. I find this feed usually takes ages - he is much slower to get full somehow and sometimes one or both of us fall asleep, waking 20 mins later just to carry on! I have learned from bitter experience tho - if I try to take him off before he is really really finished the second breast he will settle for 10 mins then the hunger cues will start again and I'll end up starting again!!

I'm here at this ungodly hour, too. LO is having a good old midnight feast to himself. I find this feed usually takes ages - he is much slower to get full somehow and sometimes one or both of us fall asleep, waking 20 mins later just to carry on! I have learned from bitter experience tho - if I try to take him off before he is really really finished the second breast he will settle for 10 mins then the hunger cues will start again and I'll end up starting again!!

Morning/Afternoon/what time is it??? Have a feeling this thread will see a lot of 3am posts! We are just feeding, I'm exclusively bf so no help with night feeds but to be fair I have been lucky, Blake feeds every 3-4 hours then goes back down in his Moses basket so I am sleeping in chunks, although sometimes I struggle to fall asleep when he does which is so annoying as I worry about being tired the next day which makes me less likely to sleep-oh the vicious cycle!

Anyone else constantly worrying if they are too hot/too cold and what I should be covering them up in in bed and when we go out?

Hello everyone! It's lunchtime here and I'm in the middle of "operation you will sleep in your Moses basket and not my arms" . Dd sleeps fantastically at night, often going 6 hours between feeds, she just will only do it on me. Part of the issue was over feeding and then being sick as soon as she lay flat, so I'm now only feeding from one side each feed, but she still wakes and screams as soon as she realises I've put her down. Took me two hours of putting down and resettling this morning, but she's now had a two hour sleep in there.

My plans to have a break from cluster feeding in the evening by letting DH give a bottle of ebm have been scuppered too. Had pumped and frozen several feeds worth of milk, but got up on Sunday to discover the freezer had broken and it had all defrosted. Gave her one bottle of it, but all the rest went down the sink. Just spent 20 mins pumping more to replace stocks, but I must have not screwed the container on properly, and when I finished I put it down, the whole thing disconnected from the pump and the entire contents spilt all over the floor. Gutted.

lutrinae after DS I felt pretty bruised for about 2 weeks. I had a second degree tear, and the pain actually seemed to increase at about ten days, probably as I got more active. I think my recovery from the elcs this time has taken the same amount of time, I've just given myself more chance to rest because my I can tell myself it's ok to sit around because I've just had major surgery. With my vb I was just so glad not to be pg any more I went crazy running about doing stuff

toobreathless I've got a navigator too, although it's in lovely red rather than snot green! I'm so so glad I decided to get a double in the end, and pushing a combined 18kg of toddler and baby in it will certainly help rid me of my baby weight! Can you find the hood in a nicer colour on eBay?

We have been on the go since 4am now - with a major changing table incident that saw off 2 nappies in the middle! How long are your babies taking to feed? Harry is feeding for what seems like hours then he is hungry again in another hour sometimes!! I guess it is due to him being early and little. He will go longer sometimes but Sod's law it's normally in the day!

Bona - hope the thrush clears up - sounds painful! We have now g

We have been on the go since 4am now - with a major changing table incident that saw off 2 nappies in the middle! How long are your babies taking to feed? Harry is feeding for what seems like hours then he is hungry again in another hour sometimes!! I guess it is due to him being early and little. He will go longer sometimes but Sod's law it's normally in the day!

Bona - hope the thrush clears up - sounds painful! We have now a pain free latch on the right - not quite there on the left yet though (no idea why!).

Bunny - what a nightmare re: your milk - I would probably cry!! I have been expressing but not getting a huge amount. With Harry feeding so regularly and for so long I don't think I would still be feeding if my oh wasn't helping out with one feed - if I can get 3 or 4 hours in one go I can just about do it.

Still up from the 2am feed, reflux not settling as well as from first fed as I'm struggling to,get her to wind and then it makes reflux worse, just done another feed so expecting to be able to put her down in forty mins. I'd really like an hour then.
Even though I'm bottle feeding I do,all night as DH at work, but when he gets in, I go straight to bed for an hour at least. I'm going to be dead later today on one and half hours sleep :(

Hi all, just marking place. On the third feed of the night, and she's fussing and farting like nobody's business! BF has started off really well and she's a very efficient feeder, so we have about 20 min feeds. She sleeps in her moses baskets between feeds, but she is SO noisy in her sleep - squeaking, grunting, farting. Anyone else have a baby that sounds like a rusty wheel?!
Also she's still really sleepy - she was 23 days early which must account for it, but she's probaby only awake for 3-4 hours in 24! I'm sure I'll look back on it in a few weeks and wish it was the same, but for now, I do worry that's she's too sleepy.

Ratbag - that sounds brutal. Was going to whinge that I only got an hour in bed between feeds but as you have been up all night I wont! Hope u can get some sleep later.

Jessie - we have some nice quiet snoozes and some as you describe - lol! I am sure she will be awake for longer as she gets older - that is what is happening for us.

Ratbag - that sounds brutal. Was going to whinge that I only got an hour in bed between feeds but as you have been up all night I wont! Hope u can get some sleep later.

Jessie - we have some nice quiet snoozes and some as you describe - lol! I am sure she will be awake for longer as she gets older - that is what is happening for us.

Well I got a grand total of 0 hours sleep. I hate hospitals. We had been told we could go home yesterday but then one set of bloods wasn't in. I got a bit teary at that!

Henry fed al night last night, despite feeding beautifully during the day, and then MWs were popping in to do obs. He's been popping along to NICU for antibiotics at 2am and each time a MW came for him and took him. This time, a new MW asked me to remind her he needed to go at two (so had to watch the clock) and then she made me take him (I'd been hoping for half an hour's shut-eye while he was gone)! I'm exhausted.

The paed has just been to finish his checks so once the bloods are in we are going. One of the MWs said maybe they will redo it but I am not going to let them! He's been prodded and poked enough.

Still awake here FFS. Figured it out though, or some of it,when I've just put her on DH side of the bed now he's gone to work she star fishes, literally stretches as wide as possible and zonks out (only to realise ten mins later she's hungry) I her Moses basket she tries and hits the sides and wakes herself up. Off to johnlewis to get a cat net for cot, then will have to dismantle cot in her room and bring t in here. Maybe producing better sleep for me :)

Hi all just marking my spot, feels like I've been postnatal forever!
Hope all is good sneezy and you can go home to sleep!
Ratbag, that sounds tough, not much advice but plenty of sympathy here, rant away if it helps!

Copying over my post from ante natal as don't have time to type it again before next feed.
Trish- I hope hunters weigh in goes well and u can make plans to go home ASAP. Finally took a good look at the fb photos, oh my goodness hunter is gorgeous! So handsome he looks like he's thinking some very important thoughts
Dysgu- thanks for the reassurance, I'm so glad Evan is doing so well I have had chicken pox luckily but they are still concerned apparently it is possible to get it again.

I had the night from hell, they have kept Alex in, for observation we can go this morning if his bloods come back with no elevated white count. He hated the needle, then I had to go back to see ds1 so I left expressed milk and a bottle for one feed as I was never gonna make it back in less than two hours- well Alex went mad, he's never had a bottle before but the nurses were all he will be fine if he's hungry he'll eat- not my son, he screamed, he howled, he was sick, he wouldn't be touched just mad him worse... I got back to find him in a real state straight onto the boob, fed, sighed and fell fast asleep. He's been fine since, I feel terrible but I can't be in two places as once. Desperately hoping we can go home today, though obviously still very worried it hoping that if he was going to get sick he would have done so by now.

Aaaw thanks Bec he does strike some poses!!! Hopefully today or tomorrow for going home as long as weight is ok and sugars have been consistent xx will add another pic or two xxx