March 2013: Smiles, sleep & excellent feeding.....the thread of wishful thinking!

[SoYo]

Well we may as well start the thread on a positive note before the grumbling about the little darlings begins!!!

Leni, you can use Cetirizine (Zyrtec) and piriton - some of the others are a no no if breastfeeding, speak to your doc if not sure.

Thanks Pud, I got some loratidine. Hellishly expensive these days having allergies

Gosh leni, you're really going through the mill, aren't you? :(

Today has been a lot better. I've realised that DD does suckle on me for comfort a lot - this morning she sucked my finger for ten mins before falling asleep instead of me automatically popping her on the boob. DH gave her the bottle at 7:30 while I was having a short lie-in which seemed to work tons better than doing it in the evening when she's extra fussy (Dur - obviously) so I pumped again this afternoon ready for tomorrow morning.

She's slept far better today too - 3 hrs this morning in total! Partly on me and then in the car seat while we went out for a coffee. She's also slept this afternoon for an hour while I caught up on writing some thank cards for gifts. She must've been shattered after yesterday.

So tonight I'm going to try a finger to suckle instead of automatically giving her my milk. We do have a dummy (came with the pump) and may start using that if we need to.

Will catch up with the other posts later.

Wing, I often use a little finger for comfort. Works well, though gets a bit wrinkly sometimes!

Leni, if the antihistamine works, get your doc to give a prescription you might as well take full advantage of your year of no charges!

A rite of passage! We have just had our first hugely explosive poo all up the back incident, warranting the throwing away of a very cute vest. I was in bed failing to nap at the time, but heard the "Oh my word!" from downstairs very clearly.

Glad you're having a good day, Wing, hopefully it'll mean a good night to follow. Little fingers are a godsend!

stormy was it really 'oh my word'? Very restrained in the circumstances. It's a bugger getting the vests off them without smearing poo in their eyes or mouth isn't it?
pud when I begged the pharmacist for some antihistamines (allergic to dogs and sistert has one so turned to ball of snot when we visited her) he refused them all cos of breastfeeding. Do you think it's a doctor job?
Leni the fissure cream gave you a headache? Or am I being dim? That really sucks. I'm putting aloe gel on mine and have stopped taking lactulose now. But yes, the ripping feeling is nasty. Had hoped 7 weeks on things would be improved.
Dh took dd on trip to clinic and bounce and rhyme at library this morning between feeds so I had two hours of just being me. That was nice. But I did the jobs that needed doing rather than the fantasy Skype friend/bake a decadent cake/nap of my dreams. She must have had an exciting old time because three (yes three. Am I a moron?) hours of patting over the Moses basket didn't get her to sleep this afternoon. Gave in and took her for 1.5 hour walk and still only a measly half hour snooze. Maybe the calpol is having a weird, unexpected effect. Tried another bottle Worc myself and got fifteen mins of grins but no sucking. Encouraging to hear you cracked it though. Well done! Is it you pud with mega sore right nipple every feed? I tried rugby hold today on that side and it was much better.
wing great napping action your end! Does that make things seem a bit brighter? I've tried to get couple more thank you letters done today. After the 40th one ones enthusiasm wanes rather.
plonko how was friend/vodka/choc?
Dh due home from work imminently and he promised best fish and chips from other side of city as I've done bedtime on my own. Yum. :-)
Sending calm, quiet night vibes to one and all.

Hi all. Yes it does seem a lot brighter tonight (and the glass of I'm currently nursing is helping too!). DD is currently zonked out in my arms after her usual constant feed/suckling as I didn't feel up to many transfer fails and an evening stuck in my bedroom until after her last feed and she pulled the funniest 'yeeeeuch' face at my little finger earlier so the boob it was (rod and back getting well acquainted now). But I don't mind half as much as last night after the breaks I've had today. It might be that my fingernail's a little long or it tastes of soap or something but I will try it again when I take her upstairs.

eco, three hours ?! Wow. It is amazing though how quickly time passes when you're doing the shush pat thing. We did it with DS and it worked fine but hadn't yet really with DD. I'm not panicking yet though. Hope the f&c were good :)

Eco the cream for the fissure is a vasodilator - basically not far off poppers, those things kids sniff to get high! The dilation of the veins in the head is what causes the headache. Really not pleasant

Antihistamines aren't officially tested on breastfeeding women so I'm not sure doctors like to risk it even if the drug has had no adverse effects ever noted. Stupid if you ask me. Especially as my gp has to look in the drug book to find out what to give me!

Wing how much does your LO eat now? Mine polished off both boobs (I could see the milk gushing out around his mouth) plus 2 bottles on top earlier, and was still yelling and eating his hands. Refused the dummy too. How is it possible he eats this much?!

FX for an itch free night - have dosed myself with loratidine

An old friend just came over and for some reason I was really negative about how I'm doing with motherhood... I could hear myself saying things that must've sounded so awful no idea why either. Maybe I'm just tired. My boobs are becoming red and shiny, feeding's painful again and I can't seem to comfort my baby, even though OH can quiet him easily. I was really chipper yesterday, such a rollercoaster....

Leni, I'm afraid I have no idea how much she feeds, especially now I think some of it is comfort suckling. But sounds like your DS is definitely going through a growth spurt.

Eco a friend gave me this pearl of wisdom so I'm passing it on.....vests have envelope necks so that you can pull them down rather than up in the event of a poonami therefore avoiding the face & hair....I thought this was a revelation!

I've been out for dinner tonight with 3 of my lovely friends & brought Miss Madam along. Thought she'd be a monster but she was gorgeous. Slept for 20mins then was contentedly passed around & sat watching everyone then the owner came & borrowed her & took her on a tour of the dining room, what a showgirl! It was really lovely actually, even managed to feed her in fancy restaurant while eating.

The only downside is she feels very hot tonight & was starting to get sweaty & grizzly so she's just in a vest in her sleeping bag & I've given her some calpol just in case. Fingers crossed she's not getting poorly.

Leni I hate days like that, it makes you feel like you're taking a step back even though I'm sure it's a normal part f their development. Growth spurt perhaps? When Madam has one she only wants me for milk, not comfort.

Wing glad you've had a bit of a break day & enjoyed yourself.

Right, time to swap boobs to fill her right up & then attempt transfer.

2 empty boobs & no sign of sleep. Not good.

Still no joy....

Oh my goodness SoYo :( I hope the fact you've not posted since midnight means you're asleep...

DD has given me a really good night. I think she saves it for when I've gone slightly crazy. I couldn't rouse her at 10:30 for a last feed (I didn't strip her though to be honest to really wake her) so input her back down to sleep at 10:45 and she'd not fed since 9. I heard her groan a bit a couple of tons but stuck my hand across and rocked the basket and she slept till just now (3:15ish). Thanks DD especially as I was certain you'd wake up at midnight :)

Hope you're all having a good night.

Oh SoYo, hope the lack of anything since your last implies success and you being in the land of nod for the next ooh six hours? Poor thing. Anything obvious? Tummy troubles etc keeping her awake? Are you still on your own or do you have help?

Fussiest feed going on now, but he is very farty which I think is distracting him. Very annoying!

Thanks guys. Unfortunately not as good as you'd hoped. Got her to sleep at 12.15 & she woke up at 1 & 1.45 & had to be walked around & feeding now. Still on my own, DH on night shift so can't help until Friday. I'm hanging on by a thread.

Oh bugger SoYo :(

Well I've had transfer fail x2 here so currently feeding DD again in bed and I'll try again when she's finished. Swaddling's like a dummy - I helps get them to sleep but when it comes undone/falls out it has to be redone/put back in. Her arms are very strong tonight [hmm{

Oh no, a few broken nights by the sounds of it. These tiddlers, trying to break us....

Leni - you don't like cake?! That is excellent news. Come visit... we can bond over a bag of pork scratchings and empty cake tins. Well maybe not the pork scratching bit. DH has developed a v strange craving for them, which is (to my knowledge) not shared by anyone else. The man used to be veggie ffs. I have a pantry full now though. Classy.

Another quiet night here, so perhaps my maternity nurse friend was right when she said that 10 weeks was the point at which babies can and should start to sleep through. I would caveat that the words 'bottle fed' though. We're on 2 bottle feeds a day now, which to be frank is the beginning of the end as once you step of the ebf road your breast milk really does start to dry up. I've not fed her myself since 6pm now, and I'm not in agony. It's sad... It's the right decision for me as I need to start doing things other than just sitting on the sofa all day feeding, but a little tiny piece of my heart is breaking

Big news, the cot arrives today. Mini-worse is all growed up and graduating from the moses basket to her own proper bed. Sob. Whoever said they grow up so fast was absolutely right. Blink and they'll all be off to uni and we'll be throwing a party crying over empty rooms and full fridges. Perhaps I should get cracking on number 2

Ha, Wing that has actually made me snort with laughter to the extent I nearly put DS off (karma for earlier?)

Oh Soyo, what a pain. It does seem that I'm very lucky here as nighttime transfers are very painless and have been ever since I took the bottle out of the equation and just bf him in bed. I make sure he gets into the hind milk, but beyond that whenever he falls off sleepy, I just gently put him back in the Moses basket next to me, reswaddle him and he drifts off again by himself. I change him before feeding at the first feed of the night as by now he's usually gone 5-6 hours by then. Figure that should get me through til morning usually, and feeding him calms him down again. I only burp very gently at night, and quite often he starts drifting off over my shoulder at which point I will put him down then if needs be. I'm obviously very lucky! and he obviously takes after me who sleeps like the dead and these days rarely wakes up to check him unless he starts grizzling as I'm so exhausted

Has she outgrown the Moses basket Wors or have you outgrown sleeping through the snuffling ?

LO might not be a very chunky monkey (although we passed yesterday's weigh in, holding within his centile band though not exactly busting through it!) but is getting long... Not sure how long I've got til he will be touching both ends... A few weeks only at this rate! And he gets stressy when his feet bump up against the end. Hoping to get to 3 months as will be harder to tilt cot and hopefully by then he won't be so refluxy. Will also be good for me as I can come out of spare room where cheap mattress is killing my back. In here as cant fit any extra furniture into our bedroom due to all my clothes storage and when he goes into cot that will have to be in nursery, SIDS guidelines or no.

Haha - sorry pud! She took until 4:40 I think before she went down so a long awake time for us but then she went till 6 before needing reswaddling so DH put her on him while I slept and we all went through till 7.

He brought her downstairs then to change and give her the bottle but she did a poonami (a poojectile?) everywhere and she got upset so I've come down and am feeding her. Bottle can wait for next time. I still think (from what I saw when I came down) that she's still got it just in the end of her mouth but looking down at her now I think she's doing the same. I wonder if she's got lazy with her latch at some point and going to have to rectify that next time...

Worse, I read recently that at some point between 6 & 12 weeks (I think), your boobs will always feel soft and 'empty' in between feedings and you'll leak less but that doesn't mean you've run out - it means your boobs have learnt to make exactly how much is required. So don't worry, really. It sounds completely normal.

I've found the link on this here - on Kellymom.

Hi all. Big hug SoYo and wingd. wingd I was writing the same posts as you at 6 weeks and it gets loads better at 9 weeks.

worcester we are at the same point, needing to wake dd at 3 and she is taking less and less, we are also on two bottles a day 10 am and 10pm and that works for me and once she is more used to formula I will introduce more at 12 weeks. 3 months was as long as I planned to bf for anyway and while I will be a bit sad I wont miss the risk of thrush etc.... Is yours taking big bottles? Still only 4 ounces max here if it's a bottle!

leni weird antihistamine advice, my gp said fine to take Clarytin while bf and I have been??!

stormy sounds like comfort milk is working for you which is great, their digestion gets so much better by 12 weeks and we are so nearly there that it will get easier ( she tells herself too).

The bit we haven't cracked here is bedtime. My ds is in bed by 7 and I want dd in bed at a similar time with no fuss. At the moment taking at least an hour to settle, which I know isnt ages but when you have had a toddler all day it's an age at the worst part of the day ....