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!!!

As bad as it is, Wing is right Stormy. Female GPs tend to see a lot more women & therefore a lot more children so are generally more experienced in these kind of issues. It's really shit that you have to keep doing this but just keep bugging them & going back until you get some proper help.

It seems girls struggle more with eating from what I read here - We're currently suffering the opposite, i.e. DS is like a goldfish, he will just eat until he explodes! Not sure either extreme is preferable... As we've had no contact from the HV I have no idea if he's put on too much weight now. Today he's just crying even after a feed, grumpy bugger.

Anyone would think i starve him the way he eats. Today we're on both boobs about every hour

Stormy I wish GPs would listen more - we know ourselves and our babies best after all. Most of the time I go in and just tell them my diagnosis. Then they treat that without really bothering to ascertain if it's correct...

I lugged the pram down stairs again today and braved going into town on my own with DS to return something and go to the bank, but as soon as I set foot in the first shop DS started crying and I just totally freaked out and went straight home

We did go via a baby change in the shopping centre, and I noticed that there's actually no way to use the loo if you're on your own with a baby - you can't leave them outside but you can't take them in a cubicle so what do you do?

He's a solid little man now, would be an asset to any rugby team, yet only 2 weeks back he was a mere skinny waif. I'm worried I'm misinterpreting cues

stormy we are same age, max we have got down her is 5 ounces, and we did this with bigger teat and no winding and it stayed down. Our girls are fussy, no way your hv advice would work here!

leni in my not very vast experience of one of each born roughly the same weight the boys eat way more. Don't worry about overdressing, our boy was über tubby and it all dropped off when he started to move. Little miss is more petite and fussy. But I can't complain, we had the perfect gina day of naps and play . If only she would do a poo!

Ducking for cover realise I shouldn't admit to liking the gina routine!

Over eating! Over dressing oophs?!

Eig each to their own we say :-) I'm sure if we could magic our babies into a reliable Gina routine we'd all be doing it!

leni well done for getting out and about, sounds like a massive achievement with the pram lugging. How to wee confused me early on too. Use disabled toilets. That's the answer. You can take pram in with you then.

Have been lurking for few days. I have no wisdom on bottle front I'm afraid as I still can't get dd to take one. Sending good eating vibes your way tho stormy and a kick up the ass to you doc.

Anyone on here still breastfeeding? Who was it with painful right boob? We've had a breakthrough with mine :-)

Had gyne appointment today to check me post third degree tears. After sticking their fingers up my bum and vagina they tell me there is hope for my pelvic floor. Seeing them again start July. And leni was it you with fissures and the poppers? They have me a steroid/painkiller alternative today which won't give me a headache. You could try that?

Been reading wonder weeks book. Anyone else rate it?

Hope your babies all go down a treat tonight. X

Still bfing here, in fact EBF at the mo (yay after all we've been through to get here), and he's getting a little fussy over bottles which could be a nuisance as first kit day coming up soon.

Not going to bed tonight though. Had monster feeding session from 4.15 and so rolled straight into bedtime bath routine. Wouldn't go to sleep. After 50 mins went down but has woken after 40 mins and refused to resettle. In fact only more boob appears to be the answer which is madness, he's done 4.45hours already today and still going... There isn't supposed to be a 9.5 week growth spurt is there? Of course, dinner was just ready when he kicked off again and I'm starving...

And Leni, many changing cubicles have a loo in them. If not, use disabled as Eco says.

Well done for getting out. Don't worry too much about scamming DS, but won't be the first time now. Good for you.

Hi Eco, it was me . Mine was much better for a while but today is painful again, all a bit random. We are absolutely exclusively breast feeding here but it's not for the love of trying! Madam will not allow anything silicone/latex to pass her precious lips without a full on paddy, only human flesh is to be chewed on!!! It was driving me a bit demented because I've got 2 very good friend's hen dos in the Next couple of weeks & another opportunity for a sneaky night away with DH but now that I've come to terms with not going its bothering me a lot less.

Well done for venturing out Leni, it's just a shame about the timing of the screaming. It's easy to say ignore it which is probably what we & all passers by should do, they're babies, they scream sometimes but I'm out every day & it still really bothers me. I found myself walking around waitrose the other pushing the trolley with her carseat on with one hand & holding her with the other only for a very helpful old lady to explain to me how I was making a rod for my own back!

Attempting the bedtime feed here but she keeps pulling off to grin at me! Not the best sign!

Still EBF here too, and also with a bottle semi-refuser. Couldn't be bothered to try today - first day in four weeks we haven't but need to again tomorrow. DH wants to be ale to give her a bottle in case I 'want to go out for the afternoon' but I have not plans to do that so I'm not sure why he thinks that is is a pressing need. I put him straight - I just want a good night's sleep ie for him to be able to give the middle of the night feed please!

She's got a terribly snotty nose tonight. Was fussy and grumpy all evening after I'd vaguely tried to space out her feeds today and suddenly got extremely bunged up at 7 so I'm just feeding her as she wants as I think it'd be cruel to withhold boob, even if just for comfort, if she's ill.

I've already got a saline spray (Boots own) as she was bunged up with post-birth mucus after my sneeze (geddit) birth. I've used it twice but she still sounds horrendous and could probably do with a sneeze. I assume we're going to have a rubbish night ahead...

Well- cousins DS should finally be discharged tomorrow. I'm sure this has upset me much more than it would have done before I had DD. can't help imagining what it must have been like.

My lovely lovely mum came round today and took tiddler out for a couple of hours so I could clean! Ironic that I start caring about what my house looks like just when I have no time to clean. They had a lovely time by all accounts, I'm feeling very lucky to have a wonderful mum. Particularly because my little sister basically screamed for 3 years after she was born, so I have no guilt and my mum is very well equipped to deal with a slightly grisly dd having gone through all that!

Nearly ebf here- 1 bottle a day either formula or ebm depending on how I'm feeling. Bottles were a bit of a fight until we moved from avent to MAM, bit of a revelation and we can now even manage stormy's trick of feeding her flat on her back in her cot without her ever waking up!

Today we mastered feeding lying down side by side. Lovely lovely lovely. I dozed on and off while she just got on with things. Although woke up, put the news on, and the first item was the SIDS/co-sleeping advice. Anyone else bring dc into bed with them if they wake up too early and tell themselves it doesn't really count because its not nighttime? not sure I'll stop doing it but will prob be a bit more careful with duvet/position/pillows etc.

Anyway. Time to go and get the tiny one for dream feed. Maybe tonight's the night for 10-6?!?

Lots of "lovely" in that post. I've clearly had a lovely day. Apart from flooding the kitchen floor that is...

wingd the snot sucker works but you have to suck quite hard and is best used after the saline which loosens it, all this comes from my practise two weeks ago.

We are still only doing two bottles a day here as missy doesn't poo that often and the change formula advice from useless gp worries me as they are all pretty much the same unless you go for comfort milk and I don't think we need that but ask me again in a few weeks. I am actually five with the bf now I get 10am and 10pm off . Means I can do a morning or an evening off and it gave my poor nipples a break to get over the thrush which seems to have gone. I am still using the tiniest but of gel in her mouth once a day and doing all the topical treatments on me and will continue my treatment til I stop bf as don't want it to come back!

To get the lunchtime nap to work I made sure she had nearly 5 ounces from bottle, lots of play time, then used blackout blinds and blackout curtains in room so not a chink of light. Hey presto age woke after 45 mins, opened her eyes for a bit then went back to sleep, I can see all this through my spy cam, I then work her up at 2pm and she was smiley. Sod's law this wont happen tomorrow and I will be back to pounding the streets with the pram, my husband helpfully told me we descend from nomads hence why they like walking around with us! But feel so much more rested today for 2.5 hours off a lunch! I know I know tonight will be a nightmare now! I've jinked it!

Vj - I'm exactly with you on the morning lying down feed so-it-doesn't-count thing

Wil lost more but poor DDhas just woken with a screaming start on me.

Yep spoke to soon, never leave the man to do anything!

Well DS has had the most disturbed night. Having fed again during my last post, we put him back to bed but he grizzled on and off til I came to bed at just gone 10. Kept thrashing legs out of swaddle and blanket, and is I think suffering with painful wind as farts seem to make him cry. And we're up again now < sigh> I have the feeling it could be a really long night...

It took an age & lots of wakings to get madam to sleep but managed about 11 & just awake now. She might have gone a bit longer as she'd just started squeaking when I picked her up but I'd woken up before she did with a painful, lumpy, rock hard right boob so wanted to get her feeding on it before it got worse.
Hope everyone's had some sleep.

Not a brill night here but expected at least. I couldn't rouse her at all for a 10;30 feed (she was changed and dressed though) and hadn't fed since 9 so woke at 12:30 (grr!) and then again 3:45.

I'm so tired tonight. Feels like the most tired I've been since the very early days. Doesn't help that my throat feels as large as anything and is sore too so it actually hurts to yawn :( And even DS got out of bed and came into our room at 1:30 having apparently had a bad dream. Since he was 12wks old he's only woken a handful of times during the night (and probably only when ill) so that was highly unusual.

We don't really have set plans to do anything today so I really really must try to grab some sleep at some point.

Hope those of you who have posted on here this morning are sleeping now.

Seems as though things settled a bit since last feed as he's gone 3 hours without waking til now, which is good for second part of the night. Still trumping like a good un though slightly less bothered by it?

Anyone else find that they wake up as I have now to his grunting and grumbling, thinking 'oh no, I thought you'd gone to sleep ok, don't say you won't settle' only to find its 3 hours later and you've had all the sleep you're getting... I do sometimes wonder what the benefit of having him next to me for SIDS is when I sleep that heavily, surely a breathing monitor might be more use?!

And Soyo, I do think that if he tried to sleep through the night at the mo, I'd be awake and in agony with the choice of poking him tilhe woke up and fed or going and pumping...which would sort of defeat the lovely object a bit.

Hope others are having good nights.

Just reading through and catching up on everyone's news, and I agree with leni.

By now we all know our babies, know their little quirks and normal routines, and more importantly know if something isn't quite right with them. DD is for the most part a fairly easy baby, and for example I've learnt that for her it is normal to go 7 days between dirty nappies when ebf, or 4 when on mixed feeding. It was much more often in the early weeks, but there isn't a problem, it is just how she is. Similarly with feeds, as she is now fed half and half it is impossible to count the number of floz taken, so I don't worry about it. I have noticed however that if she has a bottle at lunchtime she will down 7floz, but at other times she is much less hungry so may only take 3floz. She also goes 10 plus hours without a feed at night now, and that is absolutely fine too. I think we should all go with our instincts.

Stormy - I hope you find a more interested and sympathetic GP and get a referral. Just go in and demand one, say how worried you are. If it were me I'd take DH and present a united front, it makes you look more determined. As for your HV, I'm speechless. Do these people actually have any qualifications?! Good luck, and if that fails any chance you could stretch to a private consultation? I know you shouldn't have to, but if you get a problem identified privately the NHS will at least pick up the baton from there on in and treat it.

A couple of really long shifts here, as DH is travelling for work leaving me for 48 hours at a time. It's getting easier though as the tiddler is settling into a pattern which works for me, and more importantly for her.

Morning all
DD went down at 4:15ish, but snuffled and snorted till 5when I brought her over into our bed and laid her on her side next to me. I kept the pillow well away and protected her head with my arm and she just had the duvet on her feet with the rest of it well away from her. I could keep cuddling her (not too close to overheat!) when she snuffled and she seemed a lot happier that way.

Then she fed on and off 6:20-7 and DH took her downstairs so I got another hour in bed, bless him. He's taken her in the sling to drop DS at preschool and I've pumped for the bottle attempt later.

I can't stop my nose from running. :( What medicine can I take? Paracetamol I think is okay?

VJ I read a lot about the new cosleeping study yesterday and it's not quite as cut and dried as was reported on the BBC. My trainee MW bf posted this UNICEF response to the study and althought I've only skim-read it, it's fairly dismissive. I also read that the risk has gone from something like 0.08% to 0.25% but the study is based on old data, some of which doesn't evenask questions about factors such as drugs or drinking and where it is drinking it's only, say, the mother's drinking the time of the incident as opposed to the drinking of the person the baby was actually sleeping nearest/next to etc.

And the link also says that this is dangerous as mums may now feed their baby on the sofa or armchair which is far, far more dangerous than safely in bed.

So lots to think about...

Totally correct Worsester. Barring the odd shopping trip/haircut I've been with DS 24/7 for nearly 11 weeks now. No one knows him like I do, and for that reason alone Stormy I would expect my gp to listen to any concerns. My hv said that in her team there were some people who used to be midwives and nurses but I get the impression she's just a busybody...she's lovely and has been marginally helpful, but made me feel like crap at 6 weeks. She asked if DS grabs for toys (something he's only just being to do now) and when I said no basically implied he's slow.

I hope you feel better soon Wing. Poorly with a baby does not seem much fun.

Vj that's the only time we cosleep but I guess it'll stop now. Surely if its done properly with a bed nest and appropriate bedding, on mothers side and only if shes not smoked etc then the risk is pretty much as low as it could get? I'd like to see the actual paper to see if these factors have been considered but I'm far too lazy.

Today we are going to brave any bad weather and scale the mountain to get DS weighed. He looks massive now so I'm a bit worried. I really worry about my own weight so there's a possibility I'm projecting that on to him, so it's something I need to assure myself about and knock any issues on the head.

Massive x-post with Wing