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!!!

Little cough has become awful big one, sitting by her cot counting breaths per minute and hoping she will be ok.... Hope it's quiet on here because you are all having good nights.

Sending hugs and good vibes for miniEig.

Argh just wrote a long left-handed post while I feed DD but MN crashed! Grr.

Eig, what's rsv? Hope your DD is no worse. My DD seems no worse and I've not had to use the snot sucker just yet as she's not been fully bunged up. I'm the same except I now have a hacking dry cough and I'm losing my voice :(

leni, I'm sure you'll do it in your own time :)

DD went 10:45-4:45 last night which was wonderful. Just what I needed, except my throat and cough kept me awake in between those times so I didn't get an unbroken 6 hours

DD took her 2oz ebm bottle no fuss from DH earlier which was frat and I hope it lasts. I wrote more in my lost post on my thoughts on stopping BFing but I'll leave that for later or another day as she's crying and I can't be bothered to write it again!

We're having a farty evening here. Actually had a good day nap wise which is unusual. But he now keeps waking himself up with what must be uncomfortable farts every twenty minutes and he has to have a cry about it each time.

Hope mini-eig feels better after a sleep. We seem to have a permanent snotty nose in this house but thankfully no coughing.

Just wrote a huge post that got eaten up when MN briefly went AWOL...

Eig - excuse my ignorance, what's rsv? Sounds horribly stressful, I hope she improves after a good rest. Sending you hugs.

Worsester - completely agree. Irresponsible and dangerous to tell people not to do it. Just tell us the safest way! A secure bed nest or similar on the mother's side with proper bedding and parents not having had a skinful and twenty lamberts is clearly different to an exhausted parent dropping off whilst holding baby on a couch. Scaremongering to new parents is just not fair.

Leni - no one outside your house is gonna give two hoots what you feed your kid. Formula isn't poison! If anyone actually said anything you have my express permission to tell them to shove it.

I have resorted to writing down a list of all household chores to show dp. He takes me for granted and is blind to mess. I love the socks off him but he can be so brainless sometimes. The cat has an eye infection so needs to see a vet for drops, and he somehow expects me to take her with DS in tow. I haven't enough arms! Apparently the infection could have been avoided if only I were more diligent with cleaning the litter tray...I wanted to smack him round the head and LTB when he said that. Luckily some kind soul invented white wine so I can attempt to calm down a bit.

Hello lovely march mums, I had no idea about these post natal clubs!! Can I join?

And can I just start by asking if anyone else is starting to struggle through feeds? DD is formula fed and has spent the last few days pushing her bottle out with her tongue... Very tough to get a decent amount into her a lot of times. It is frustrating as I know she is hungry because when she does finally take the bottle she has a good feed. She is teething already... Could that be the problem? Someone told me pushing out the tongue is a teething thing but I am not sure...

Oh and have just had a good old read through your recent posts and feel soooooo much better that I am not the only one who worries about all the things I worry about!! Thought it was just me!

Hi emerald how old is your LO?

Plonko, I took the cat to the vets today for grooming. She's a Maine coon and going through her moult her coat has a tendency to turn into dreadlocks. Arms were a bit of an issue, got out to the car with cat in box, baby in car seat and changing bag over shoulder. Car is parked 30 yards from house - I will have muscles like a navvy by the time he turns one! She did need undercoat clearing it seems. They weighed her before hand at 6.87kg and after at 6.62! (Yes, this means she is quite a bit bigger than DS).Mind you, my vets know me very well, which helps. All the nurses were very soppy over him.

I've missed a few of my fenugreek supplements, and am sure my supply began to drop today but at least I think if I just get taking them back on track then it should pick up. Every time this happens DS hammers my nips trying to get more out and they are killing again today. Fx I can get supply back up quickly and they will ease again.

My mum had agreed to come with me for memorial service and take DS for a walk while the service is on. If it was for family I wouldn't hesitate to take him, but as I am there in my professional capacity I am just too nervous of him kicking off and the family finding it upsetting.

And emerald I think you want to talk to Stormy about bottle feeding issues - she's having nightmares, but we hope will get some more useful help soon. (Stupid gp!)

Evening all, hi Emerald.

Bubs is mostly thrashing & chomping on nipples rather than feeding this evening. Very annoying as I couldn't sleep last night so I'm shattered. We went swimming today & everyone else was telling me how sleepy their babies always are after, not helpful!!!

I hope BabyEig settles overnight. If you're getting worried overnight I'd pop to A&E. usually much more effective than out of hours GP & even if you just come home again at least you'll have out your mind at rest for a wee while.

Pud you mentioning the cat has just reminded me that I missed puppymonster's appointment for her booster today. Crap!

Dreadlocks cat!

Welcome emerald - how old is your DD? I'd not heard the explanation of pushing the teat out being teething before. My DD does that when we've been trying to give her the bottle and she certainly isn't. Is this your first DC? I think a lot of things can be put down to teething. The thing to look out for on their gums (right at the front top or bottom) is a little dark line, the width of a small baby tooth. That's when you know one's about to break through (dredging the memory for this!).

Otherwise, it is more likely to be that your DD is getting older and is just playing with the teat to wind you up for fun?!

Thanks and hello!!
DD is 10.5 weeks... That .5 makes all the difference (!!)

WingDefence yes, I think there could be an element of winding me up... Clearly she takes after her dad :)

She is my first and I don't know what the hell I am doing but am somehow muddling through with a lot of neurotic panicking and slightly too much wine

Eigmum I really hope your LO is ok, that sounds horrible for you.

Hi Emerald. Welcome to the comedy of errors that is the March thread. I mean that is the nicest possible way. The ladies on here are hilarious, they keep me sane on the bad days and make me laugh on the good.

My little nuisance darling messes about with the bottle as well.... usually if the temperature is slightly off. For her a drop on the back of the hand needs to feel neither warm nor cold, i.e. pretty much exact body temperature. Not that she is fussy or anything

Huge sympathy to those of you with colds, and babies with colds. We've yet to cross that bridge here, although as DH is harbouring a sore throat I suspect we'll be next. I probably ought to start googling snot suckers. Honestly, the things we do.

Not much else to report here, other than two explosive green nappies yesterday. Not good. Mixed feeding in a mine field as it means that I'm absolutely busting with milk for the bfs and as a result there is too much fore milk. I guess I'll have to start expressing and binning some

I'd say it's a black comedy!

DD was far more sniffly overnight, poor thing, and it's gone onto my chest so I'm coughing tons. Boo. She went 10:45-1:45 (but I got her up because she was so snotty so I thought I'd feed her) then 2-ish till 5 when I brought her into bed next to me and fed-comforted her/snoozed till 8ish.

DS isn't in preschool today and it's currently sunny so we may go out later if I feel up to it.

Hi all, not the greatest night as cough meant she brought up feeds, walking around with her trying to keep it down and kicked dh out f bed so she could sleep next to me as seemed calmer when next to me. .... Had only the lightest of wet nappies this am.

Got some fenugreek yesterday to up my supply, how much are you taking pudnat ? She won't take the bottle and with all the throwing up I need to make more milk.

wingd - www.babycenter.com/0_respiratory-syncytial-virus-rsv_1754.bc

When DS had a cold it was from the rsv virus and he got broncilitis. Meant his chest muscles retracted as he struggled to breathe. They can't do anything for it other than put them in an oxygen tent and wait for them to fight it. Dd has it mainly in her nose but is getting chest retractions so will go see the doctor today...

Irony for those with the guilt is I wasn't bf DS when he got this and was made to feel like he wouldn't have caught it if I had bf'd him. Of course now Dd has it and she was exclusively bf for 6 weeks and then mixed fed so of course it means nothing! Children get sick, very litte we can do about it except help them get better. Disadvantage of bf when baby is sick is you are more knackered.

worseter I love the comedy of errors!

I'm taking 2tablets 3x a day. This was based on suggested doses on kellymom site here's the link

Wors can't you freeze it?

Good night here but DS has started puking after feeds, which never used to happen. I must start leaving the bib on after or we'll have no clothes left!

OH told me he can't possibly carry on doing his one 3 hr shift with DS in the mornings. He says i don't understand how hard it is (!). So he's basically only capable of being awake for 13 hours a day, not doing any baby care at all on work days and still adding to the mess in the house despite me begging him to put things in the bin/kitchen/steriliser.

Then he happily signs me up to drive across london to view houses and see his friends at the weekend.

So now he gets a 8 hr sleep and does nothing in the house whilst I take care of DS 24 hrs a day inc BF, how is that fair? It's as if he does manual labour, his job is sitting in a chair looking at a wall of screens with naked women on them!

Thanks pudnat very helpful site doing the same now, fingers crossed it works. Phoned doctor waiting to hear if I can get an appointment. MiniEig doing ok. V tired but still managed a couple of smiles during her awake time so hopefully she s fighting nasty virus like a trouper!

leni I am with you on dh's. Utterly useless, had to send mine to the attic last night as couldn't deal with his dreadful snoring while walking the floors with mini eig. She is having a nap now ... Sleeping reasonably peacefully, fingers crossed on the mend...

Eig i just had a deja vu...

wingd how are you feeling?

Sorry leni, that's not fair of me so I've reported my post. :(

Eig, I really hope it's not rsv then. Sounds rough.

Apart from being embarrassed at my previous post, I'm just snotty, coughy, headachey and generally bleugh. I went to a pharmacist this morning and she said I can take lemsip so DH is making me one now. And I figured any of the paracetamol or decongestant that does go through to DD will probably help her.

DH got some good and bad news earlier: he's got some regular three day a week work starting next week potentially till the end of July. Bad news is it's in London so he'll be away from 5am Tues mornings till late Thurs evenings. And there I was hoping he'd get some work - be careful what you wish for, eh?

I know that some of you already have to deal with OHs who work away - how do you do it? If we time it right, DH will be away only on DS's preschool days so I should be able to find people to visit and groups to attend while he's not here and I've asked my DPs to help one night a week to get DS to bed. That's going to be the hardest thing - getting up and out in the morning to get DS out and then making tea and bedtime in the evenings.

Hope you're all having okay days x

Leni - right on your side here. He's not being fair. Tempting though Wing's suggestion might be, it might be a good tactic to arrange something that means he has sole charge of the munchkin over the witching hour, and not leave anything organised for him. Milk in freezer, bottles not sterilised, changing area in disarray, your mobile 'out of battery' and out you go for the evening. After several hours flying solo he might just appreciate what you go through every day... and then you can have the discussion about a fair share of responsibilities. Failing that give him a good slap

I know it sounds sensible to freeze my milk, but I'm wanting to wind down my supply so just need to express a little of the watery fore milk so the tiddler gets a more balanced meal. With mixed feeding she isn't draining my boobs down like she used to and is filing up on the watery stuff. At least I assume that is what the green nappies are about.

Eig - I hope mini-eig is doing better

Wing - stabby is good... emotionally dead would be bad... and the best things about MN is stabby is allowed. In fact it is positively encouraged. Shift your ar%e over to AIBU. All stabbiness is welcomed there with open arms . Joking aside I hope you aren't having too rough a day, and Wing-baby is behaving.

Leni, I guess you don't want actual relationship advice, just the chance to vent and hear that it doesn't sound like you're being totally unreasonable. (What DOES your OH do for his work? )

It has made me feel less guilty about making OH do stuff when he gets in and is tired after v long stressy days ATM, as even allowing for that he has to do max 2 hrs with him inc poss bottle (at the moment usually too late for this) help with bath and bed. Recently, more like 30 mins. In the mornings he kisses us goodbye and that's it. I have lost my rag with him rather when he's then complained that if does lots at weekend he doesn't get any time off - er, hello? Still, I do insist he does shopping on way home if we need anything rather than me try and manage it, and have become brutal about his mess. Prob makes me a right nag, but before baby I used to get up 30 mins early to do chores (laundry, dishwasher etc) and I really don't see why he couldn't adopt that system for us now...

Wing, sounds rubbish. Hope you feel better soon. And 3 days solo sounds hard without DS to cope with. Hope the extra help makes it doable.

Wing,