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.

Trish completely understand. When we were in hosp and then home at first I was bf'ing, expressing and cup feeding every 2.5 hours. The whole process took prob 1.5-2 hours so I had half an hour then had to start again! Exhausting. In the end we just got to the point where I felt he was eating as well as he was likely to and stopped the expressing and top ups. Everyone much happier all round and DS is thriving.

About to start expressing once or twice a day so that DH can give a late night bottle. Hmmm, we'll see how that goes!!

Trish, don't feel bad, you've tried and if its too much then it's too much.

Num I use already made up feed, sterilise four bottles and then fill them and put them in the fridge, when I need them every two hours I nuke them for twenty seconds in the microwave and then I'm sorted.

Went back to drs again today after another bad night, dr fast tracked my paeditrician appointment through and it's at 3pm tomorrow. Still think I'm ordering an angel care monitor and letting Lucy tummy sleep, she's so much more comfortable on it, and happier. Just terrifying to say yep this is what I'm doing.

Does it work out much more expensive using the ready made milk? I had considered doing it just at night. Dd likes her milk room temp so wouldn't need much heating up

Num, I was going to suggest that. An sure it is quite a bit more expensive, but if it is just one a night(?!) it could well be worth it. You can just leave them at room temperature I think and then just decant into your sterling bottle (I have no idea what I'm talking about- ebf'ing for now )

Lol bona once open both cartons and bottles of ready-made formula need to be stored in the fridge. Dd currently takes two night bottles so second would need heating. I may give it a go.

I leave them in the fridge and just give them the twenty seconds in microwave to take the chill off, so it's closer to room temp, a bottles of formula 1l costs around £3.29. You need to use it within 48 hours of opening. I get through one bottle per day, have no idea wht the cost is compared to powder, I'm too lazy to do it. :)

Funny, I was going to ask about formula-feeding today and here you all are talking about it!

DD is mainly bf but has had one bottle of formula a day, late evening before bed. It started in hospital when I was too ill to breastfeed her the first evening (had maternal sepsis and it was like a scene out of Casualty). But to be honest now we are home, I need the break from breastfeeding late in the evening. We have been using those bottles that you get in the hospital, that don't need to be sterilised - really expensive but she only has one a day. But I guess we will have to switch to something else soon as she already drains the whole bottle.

Anyway, am going to try to persevere with bf but it is getting knackering, even more so with a two-year-old and I am trying to recover from a post-partum haemorrhage (severely anaemic).

So just trying to get more of an idea of how ff works really as didn't do it with DS. Interesting ratbag about the large pre-made bottles that you can decant... may have to switch to those as she gets bigger. Re: tummy sleeping, I didn't want to be the one to suggest it as have seen people flamed on other threads (can't stand it when people judge like that). BUT... my opinion is that if it's a choice between her sleeping on her tummy in a controlled environment versus you being so tired that she falls off you and ends up face-down on a pillow... well, to me it is clear you have made the sensible choice. Good luck for your referral appointment and hope things settle down for you both soon.

Back to bottles... how do you deal with taking them out and about? I mean, say I get DH to take her out for a while... Once bottles are sterilised and filled with milk, how long can they be kept? Do you have to have a cooler bag? Or how do you all do it? Would be greatful for any advice.

Oh and also, what brand of bottles do you all use (those of you that do)?

After having bought shares in tommee tippee Hunter has decided he won't take them! Got so many TT things still sealed!

Currently on NUK! He liked them as he had the teats in SCBU. He prefers the standard to the wide neck and prefers the latex!

If I was starting from scratch and he hadn't been in SCBU I would have gone for MAM x

Hi all

Checking in after a manic few days as all grandparents etc have visited.

Ratbag, great news that you get to see a paed quickly, I know some people that tummy sleep because their babies have to for similar reasons, and it works for them

Well done Alex on being over 7lbs! And Trish, quality time with H and DH is so important, and a well fed baby (by whatever means) is a happy baby.

As for us, DD pretty much did a 36 hr marathon session, my milk came in Sunday evening, then suddenly at Midnight she couldn't latch on, we had a screaming meltdown at 3am, I caves and gave a bottle of formula. I then gave her to DH to settle and went to bed - I got 3 hours sleep (after going on 36 hrs without more than 20 mins) and baby got 6! I called the midwife before DD woke up, but luckily when she did DD fed. Midwife came, weighed her and did a BF talk with me. Luckily, yesterday DD fed ok, and last night was up 3hrly, so I got 2 x 2 ish hours sleep and then another 45 mins this morning, and an hour thus afternoon

She had lost weight yesterday (7.5%) but gained a bit today so midwifes were happy. She has also started pooing at day 5!

No one day or night has been the same yet, so I am taking each hour as it comes, and today we tries to walk down the high st, which was a disaster because she wouldn't settle, I tried to feed her in a pub but she wouldn't feed well/ to sleep so we came home where she then slept for 3 hours

I'm hoping we have another good night and please god I get some sleep but will see!!

Re: co sleeping, we don't and i also have to get up, bring baby into living room, arrange cushions, check/change (if dirty) nappy, feed for an hour etc. It is difficult, but we are not set up for co-sleeping. Baby is in crib at end of bed, and it seems so far away

Wow 3.29 a day is steep!

I buy aptamil powder which is about 9.50 a tub, currently lasts 8 or 9 days. So around a pound a day!

We have the newer style Avent naturally/nature/cant remember bottles and had no probs. Used Avent for all 3 babies now.

With regards to bottles when out n about I think best bet now if your not going to be giving the feed within two hours is the indiviual ready made cartons. They hold about 8 or 9 oz n don't need be in fridge until open, they are about 70p each. If your feeding within two hours I'd make a bottle n take it.

Cheers Trishstar - we have also got NUK at the moment, I got them as they seemed most similar to the teats on the ready-made Aptamil bottles.

Thanks for the advice num3. I feel a bit silly and a complete novice with this stuff!

No one day or night is the same I hear that! Waiting for routine to kick in.

It's interesting to see different approaches to feeding. We had to top up Faithlet with formula in hospital via cup. We have some in stock in case and also keep at least 30mls expressed milk in the fridge in case the bf doesn't seem to satisfy her. Generally she's feeding well though. I'm keen to express and use bottles sooner rather than later (so maybe week 3) so that I get some freedom!

We've had a lovely day, been into town (she slept the whole time!), I now have proper fitted nursing bras (Mothercare were great) and bought some nursing t-shirts and joggers. This afternoon DH's grandparents come up to visit. Tomorrow we're off to a local nature reserve for a walk if the weather holds. They have dogs so it'll be nice to go for a walk!

Ditto here - still no routine, every day/night is a surprise!

We're 1 month old today!
BabyCandy has fed for ~1hr less in total than the last few days and don't my breasts know it! When she latched on / pulled away earlier we had an actual milk spray/fountain!
She's been very sickly again - she's still not bothered by it, no crying, just occasional fussing/gas and lots of outfit changes! Plenty of wet/dirty nappies - so I guess there's no need to worry at the moment.

Oh my gosh I had no idea formula was so expensive?! Looking at Amazon subscribe and save (I'm an amazon addict!) ready made cartons work out to about 55p each - that might be worth looking into?

Just marking my place on this thread. Hoping to be discharged from hospital today and am sure I will be needing a bit of guidance from you all to ge through the first few weeks xx

LikeCandy sounds like you are having the same problem as me with oversupply. I am trying to solve it with block feeding. Annoyingly I have what I think is a plug on one side (a very hard patch) which I CANNOT get rid of despite plenty of massage, changing feeding position and draining the breast. Anyone any further tips?

Thanks again for everyone's kind words and thoughts re. the family situation.

bona don't know how you can feed quicker at night but if your using rugby hold try buying a v-pillow to put across your lap and rest the baby on that, I found it helps for getting baby latched on properly (after getting very sore nipples the first few days) and it's really comfy for baby to fall asleep on snuggled next to me during the day when I don't need to get up and do anything...

congratulations to all the new arrivals.
ive had a blocked boob duct and was in absolute agony. had to take some pain killers before I could contemplate going near it to try and express I think its ok now the lump has gone but its still a bit red and sore will get alex back on it when he wakes up again.
we kind of have a routine going to try and fit in with ds's really.
its bath at 6 boob book and bed.
he managed to self sooth with a dummy and a mobile last night. still up 3 hourly to feed. which im ok with as my boobs are near explosion at that time anyway

oh and we had lots of smiles this morning followed by a massive fart which made him cry

also just wanted to ask re:bleeding the first few days really wasn't so heavy, less then my normal period(!!!!) ans suddenly now a week later it's got much heavier, is this normal?!

Hi all worryingly calm here! Ds and dd are playing alex is feeding ....I have time to mumsnet. Calm before the storm no doubt. Alex's feeding frenzy continues, he has fed for hours today and been awake all day. He twists and turns his little head desperately trying to take in everything at once.
I hope everyone is doing well will name check later Alex has now decided he wants to burp

birdbrain think that os quite normal.i had a section and no bleeding for aboit a week then bled for 2 1/2 weeks thought it had stopped but then passed a massive clot yester day and now nothing think our bodies just doing what it needs to. think only need to worry if bleeding is very excessive and filling pad after pad

bird and giddy I think pretty much anything (other than full on haemorrhage!) is considered normal for the first few weeks. I'm pretty peeved because the bleeding had started to settle for me but now I am 99% sure I'm starting my period - 1month after birth and exclusively breast feeding, I thought I'd at least get a few months off?!

Help!
Dd has decided she no longer likes sleeping in pram or noses basket only on me or my bed!
This is not good! I'm scared of co sleeping and have two other dcs to run round after so can't have her stuck to me 24/7!

Back from hospital with new formula that I now need to make up and rantitine (sp) hopefully should get an improvement now. :)

Does anyone make more than one bottle up of powdered formula at a time? I'm considering doing six for overnight!?!?!?