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.

We started with Tomee Tippee dummy but wouldn't stay in for longer than 5 minutes, last night tried mam orthodontic one which seemed to fit much better.

I still can't believe she went 8 hours! Have expressed 4oz ready for tonight, but again today she has fed much less frequently but for longer each time (20 mins + per boob), am still worried she isn't getting enough stimulation though, I wonder if it will mean I'm in for a particularly bad night again :P

Dummies just take a bit of perseverance, after moaning baby bird couldn't keep her tomee tippee in for more then a second she managed for half an hour today but then woke up when it fell out...was amazing while it lasted I managed to eat dinner with 2 hands!!

p.s don't want to sound ignorant tattooed but what's witching hours?!

Hi all. Well we've had a variable day....very fussy baby from about 10-3, I suspect due to trapped wind. She only settled when my sister got the wind up.

So can I ask, has anyone got a baby with tongue tie? I'm starting to wonder if Faithlet has it - her latch is variable and always has been, she's very windy, top and (stinky!) bottom..also lacking in the poo department. We had nothing for 6 days, then a huge (Albeit soft) bowel movement, nothing again now for 3 days. I think I'll be taking her to the GP Tuesday if things continue.

We are going to look at introducing a dummy soon because we've got a very sucky baby and thought it might help. I'm not keen to use it too much though because I don't want to miss her feeding cues.

Did someone mention post-natal exercises a while back? I'm trying to do mine daily (not easy to find the time!). I'm a bit chuffed to say according to our scales I now weigh less than when I got pregnant! But my tummy has lost all tone so I'm working on those stomach muscles and as I said to DH if that's how my stomach looks, what does my pelvic floor look like?! :)

Is the witching hour that point where you reach despair and want to hand the baby over to someone else?!

I think the witching hour is in the evening, some babies go fussy & won't settle/feed properly for a few hours. Coincides with cluster feeding sometimes if I am thinking of the right thing?

Faith I'm a bit worried about possible tongue tie also, latch is still very temperamental (I tend to have to try 1 boob for a few minutes, then swap, then if still can't latch change nappy, then try 1 boob, then other etc etc, sometimes it takes me 2 seconds other times 15 minutes!) I hand express the top off & if my boob gets overly full I express it completely using manual pump as she can't latch once boob gets hard & it hurts!

oooh you just reminded me though, I didn't weigh myself yet, will go do now!

Has anyone heard from Empressmatilda?

That feeding sounds like us!!! Especially in the night it can be a right faff to find a position she'll happily latch on.

I've been thinking about Empress too, hope things are ok...love and prayers to the family and for Sam.

Hi all,

Trish, glad you saw the doc, rudely forgot to reply when you commented on my ? Stitches being infected; I saw the midwife and they were fine.

Isobel slept from midnight to 6.30am (when i woke her up!) this morning, so I felt great, although dreading tonight as she didn't sleep a wink today, until 6pm, she's still sleeping now so i have visions of me cluster feeding all night, and I haven't had a nap today due to wide awake baby.Can't decide whether to wake her or not :-/

We are being weighed in the morning, then off to visit grandparents for the weekend.

Re: coldsores, I had one in late pregnancy so i also googled, and know the horror stories of which you speak! I think generally good hygiene and no kissing is advised, they do not seem to know if babies get immunity from mum. Also, i love and recommend the cold sore plasters/patches when you have one, as they are an added barrier and should prevent accidental touching/contact of fecking bastard coldsores

Have a lovely BH weekend everyone x

yup- witching hour is when nothing you can do for baby works!
i try sitting up, laying down, bouncing, being still, bottle, dummy, winding.. and nothing!! don't have the heart to just leave them to cry but its hard with two (who seem to do it at separate times which i don't know if its better or worse?!

as for dummies which shape has everyone gone gone for? cherry or orthadontic?

Faith - breastfed babies have a wide range of "normal" for frequency of pooing - DS used to always poo once every 3-5 days, and that was completely normal for him. Breastmilk has less waste for some babies, so there is just less to come out!

Well hello from Wales

DD2 & I are on a girlie weekend with 7 of my old uni friends while my wonderful DH looks after DD1. We had a good trip down here (4 hrs) & I think C is really enjoying not having to share me with her sister for a few days. She has been cuddled/picked up/fed every time she as much as squeaks :)

faith Babyfaiths poo pattern sounds pretty normal for a BF newborn to me, H used to go weekly! Breast milk is so nutritionally complete there's not much waste. WRT the dummies both my girls hungry signals (rather than sucking for comfort) are pretty clear, if they are hungry the dummy gets sucked once then spat out in increasing rage. It is def worth getting checked for tongue tie, there can be different degrees and they are not always easy took up. C is also very farty (smells like rotten eggs urgh!) & I think it might be as I have a very fast let down.

kelle can't believe your Dh got called into work! Howard you finding life with two?

FWIW I think it is worth trying a few brands of dummy both mine didn't like the Tommee Tippee ones and Mam & Avent were much more successful. MAM also come in a box that you can use as a steriliser and Avent have very cool caps to keep them clean.

For those whose babies are pooping weekly, think yourself lucky!
We get probably 10 dirty nappies a day, of varying colour / consistency / explosive power!!

We've been awake since 3am here (probably got to sleep about 1am), baby fed, changed, wouldn't settle, now feeding again. Yawn!

Haha the fancy sterilising dummy case got destroyed in desperation to open it to stop the sodding crying!

Night not going too bad, went bed after feed at 11.15, oh did his expressed feed at 1.30 then I got woken at 4.45.

Baby username poo's all the time, mostly it goes everywhere too. 3 blankets and vests yesterday I must be quite bad at doing nappies.

Just heard people walk past on way home from night out, funny how life changes! I only just realised is weekend!

Good morning everyone. Need to catch up on this new thread now we have finally made it to the other side!

Just over 24 hours old and although I'm rather battered, stitched and bruised it feels like we have had her forever! Also rather proud we made it through our first night!

Bless photo! I found taking the painkillers (they gave me paracetamol and dihydrocodiene if I needed it) meant I could mobilise better and gradually it got easier.

We had a better night. Key is definitely getting some sleep in the day to cope with the night for me! She's also doing well at waking me for feeds so I haven't even set alarms to wake her - she doesn't need them!

I know what you mean user - DH bought a box of beer for the weekend and it never even got opened! How times change! :)

Thanks for the reassurance too. I'm going to see how she goes over the weekend. I don't want to become one of those obsessive mothers rushing baby off to the doctors every moment! We've already had a trip to A&E! :)

Just wanted to pop in and say another one here with at least ten dirty nappies a day..... Actually bored of changing them now

I remember the worry about infrequent poos last tine, but apparently it's not genetic, as we seem to have ordered a multiple pooer this time! Doesn't help that the tail end of the Antibiotics has left DD with a very runny bottom! Had to soak up one nappy this morning with loo roll to be able to pick it up!

Oh the joys of children!

Yup we have a frequent poo monster, always with an explosive noise, DD was a predictable lass.

Day 8 and all he wants to do is feed, my nipples are going white where he is sucking so furiously and they are still so sore. Applying lashings of lansinoh and not much difference. I've used as much so far with Wilf as I did the whole 15 months of BFing DD. He had gained 2oz by day 5, seems to be just a boob monster :)

too Bea is being very wilful with me and fights about everything and wants to be very independent and do it all herself. But she is very gentle with Wilf at the moment and very thoughtful. We bought her a tractor ted DVD (a local farmer we know) and she can't stop watching it, it's 40 minutes of tractors and farm animals, so managing to bribe good behaviour out of her, along with some Jelly Babies.

We used Mam orthodontic with DD, have bought some for Wilf, the glow in the dark ones, which are easy to find if they spit them out in the night. He sometimes just wants a little bit of a suck and it saves my tender nipples.

My stitches are healing well, fingers crossed, they were pretty swollen and tender for a few days, I have been nipping in the shower morning, noon and night to keep things clean and using a cream with witch hazel and tea tree which stings a bit, but seems to be helping. Two cm short of a 3rd degree tear.

Embarrassingly, I have my first case of piles, really sore and tender, more so than the stitches. I have some cream which doesn't seem to be doing much, midwives advised me to see the GP for a pessary, so that's on my list for Tuesday.

I too have been wondering how Empress and Sam are getting on.

Hope everyone has a nice bank holiday weekend lined up, we are just going to be mooching around home and the garden, the weather is going to be warm.

Well tough day here. I'm in the Over tired I'm crap at being a Mum zone. We tried a dummy and she spat it out! Took a bottle of expressed milk well though do hopefully we can introduce that. Challenge at present is getting to express though cos I never know when she wants to feed again. DH and I are still at logger heads over the whole bf/bottle/introducing formula - I really don't want to do formula if we can avoid it...
In happier news she has poo'd again! :) not such an explosion this time.

Kelle ouch re the nipples! Are you happy with her latch? I've had a nasty pile too but I found the anusol worked after about a week. Not pleasant though!

faith, and I had an over tired moment yesterday and felt horrible. Hope you can catch up on some sleep and of course you're a great mum.

Well after two days and nights of refusing to settle in her moses basket or pram Teapiglet has been asleep in one or the other virtually all day. I'm starting to wonder if there might be such a thing as cluster sleeping Fully expecting to be up all night now.

Thanks tea, I needed that :) I feel calmer after some dinner - I didn't have a proper lunch not a good plan!
I have googled and concluded that giving her a bottle isn't the worst thing in the world but that in an ideal world I want to wait as long as possible before we offer her formula. Currently in bed chilling while DH holds a sleeping Faithlet. Going to get some sleep before she's after food again!

Congrats on the breakthrough with the sleeping tea. She may well wake - I hope you've rested today in anticipation? I am certain cluster feeds exist. Faithlet hasn't been so bad the last two days but was definitely doing it last week!

Hello all. Had a lovely day today. We went to a baptism meeting and have booked 30th June for Henry's baptism. We then all went for a lovely lunch with DD's godparents and I had brie and rare steak (finally)! Then we went for a walk in the sunshine.

H has slept a lot of the day though, so I'm worried that'll affect how well he sleeps tonight. Going to bed now just in case!

Sorry for not name checking (on phone) but I have my fingers crossed that we all get eight hours sleep tonight !

faith it's defiantly the latch, he really doesn't open wide and has a shallow latch. We start the day with a nice deep latch and it just gets worse through the day and then he gets frustrated and just latches so quick. Hopefully with a calmer weekend we can dedicate some quiet time to sort it out.

kelle just wanted to offer some sympathy and , Fleur is also a boob monster and on day 10 she's still giving me sore white nipples from sucking so hard! I have also given in and she is now happily sleepin with a dummy. My poor nipples couldn't take it any more and she went 4 hrs without sleep earlier cos she cldn't suck me to go to sleep! Oh well, will jst have to get used to poppin it back in her mouth throughout the night. Both dd's were the same and gave them up easily when they were about 2. In other news, we've had a fab day! Took all 3 girls out on my own - feel like a need a medal! Lol dd1 and dd2 had swimming lessons, we went to soft play and I successfully completed my first public breast feed! Yay! Just settling down with a cuppa and hoping for a good night with a bit of decent sleep

faith or anyone else - I need some advice! when do you find the best time is to express? I think dh is feeling really left out as we've hardly spent anytime together since Fleur was born - she's been attached to me and he's been doing stuff round the house and sorting older dd's out. Would be good if he could do a feed too and give me a few hrs break if I need to go anywhere without worrying about feeding time. Atm she's feeding roughly every 3 hrs. Don't want to express then not have enough to feed her or to double up on feeds/expressin so my supply increases!

I am struggling with expressing! I never know when she's settled or if she'll wake to feed again! I guess if she's settled for over 30 minutes she's likely to sleep for 1-2 hours so then would be best. How much I get off varies too! I'm hoping that'll get easier as we establish a routine?!

Enjay - I can't remember the guidance I found about when best to express.... Possibly try kellymom, or post on the bfandbf thread here... I am enjoying the novelty of a good supply this time that I probably could express from, but my memories of expressing with DS were so disappointing that I haven't looked out the pump this time, and I don't know if I will bother this time...

Kelle - we have the same deteriorating latch problem - nighttime is the worse, DH can hear me curse from another room! But I am finding that my tolerance is getting higher, and DD is getting better at correcting herself. She does it occasionally during the day, and it's putting me off trying a public bf, but I think that in a couple of weeks I'll probably barely remember we had a problem - time seems to be the greatest healer of latch problems! I do try to assist her chin downwards, which seems to help us, despite conflicting advice on Kellymom - may just be that it makes me feel like I'm at least trying something! My hospital room had a wonderful poster that always made me laugh sardonically that said "Davy opens his mouth as wide as possible" - none of my children have ever managed that!