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!!!

SoYo if you have an iPhone or ipad you can download apps. I used a free one once called Evoz (I think) where I left my ipad in a hotel room plugged in and auto turn-off turned off and my phone with the same app so that DH and I could go for one drink in the hotel bar last year when I was at a conference and they had joined me for the night.

Just a wet fart!

Oh those bloomin wet farts!

Well we've done again what we did last night (of course, I say 'we'...) and put DD down upstairs in the basket at 8:45 and we'll try to wake her again for a change and feed before we go to bed. I would go to bed myself now until then but I know I'll get into a really deep sleep and will then feel rotten and resentful when I have to wake up again.

Hope we all have good nights ahead x

We have had no poo for 36 hours and seem a bit stressed! Let's hope it comes soon....

Wing you're a star, I'm sat downstairs with a glass of wine & iSitter downloaded having a lovely evening. I'm sure I might pay for it overnight but now it seems worth it. First evening time off I've had since she was born & it's lovely.

Wing are you going to wake yours up when you go to bed for a feed? I can't decide. I'm loath to if she doesn't wake up but I hate being woken up in the first 2hrs after going to bed! Opinions please....

Hurrah for an evening off!

It feels like that here too when she's upstairs. DS has always been an excellent sleeper so these past two nights have been so quiet it's almost like I've forgotten we have children

I was also loathe to wake her half hour ago but I wanted to change her nappy for the night ahead and said to DH (who didn't want me to wake her) that if she woke enough for a feed, great I'd pop her on but if she didn't, I'd not bother and see what happens... She has woken up just enough for a ten min feed and I'm going to try the transfer now...

I'd just decided she was sound asleep & I would leave her when I knocked a pint of water with lts of ice cubes over & she started stirring so I've picked her p to feed her. We'll see how this goes!

Well transfer had all gone fine but she unswaddled herself and has woken up again. First time I've had to feed her this early since the first week or two. Serves me right after the miracle night last night :(

Wing, sometimes I can get away with a gently brisk and not engaged reswaddle without feed if I'm genuinely confident he won't be hungry. Boy has a mammoth per bed feed tonight, but has just gone 5.5 hours since his bedtime. Sadly I didn't go to bed when he did but hey...

Re 10 min night feeds, this from the evil ha ha baby whisperer made a lot of sense to me/us and ensuring I don't let him stop at this helps him go longer between. whisperer quencher&f=false link

Page 102 result.

Go SoYo for evening off - hope you enjoyed it.

I did enjoy it & we're up at about the same time as if I'd had her asleep by 10 so about 1hr less sleep but worth it for the couple of hrs off. We'll see how the rest of the ight goes. For some reason it's really sore (toe curling) her feeding from the right side so I'd like this one over quickly!

Thanks pud. She just naturally came off then - normally shelled for far longer on each side. Eg when she cluster feeds it can be up to 30 mins on/off before I swap her over.

Well after last night comes rubbish night! Can't believe I'm up again after only 2.5 hrs. Must be the shortest first stretch since the first week or so (can't check on phone). Grr. I will feed, probably change once she's fed and see what happens.

• she'll feed

Ok so this is super hard. LO has hardly taken any milk all day ( about 12 oz) which is under half what she should be. Thrush looks worse on her and she can't poo. My boobs are like boulders and having to pump and dump as milk is infected with thrush is no fun. Nor is crying self to sleep. So what do I do? Keep going with the formula? Persuade doc for yet more thrush meds that make me feel crappy and keep feeding her? Everyone around me is so obsessed with her taking a bottle. Need to try and sleep. If she was ok and pooing and getting over thrush I would be happy re formula. But if we are down to yet more interventions for constipation and thrush getting worse then I would rather feed her.

Eig, as she's been bf up to now she won't take the 'right' amount of formula for a while. Think the average size of a bf feed is estimated to be c2.5oz and b feeds stay about the same size up to 6 months, the content simply changes. So her tummy won't be used to taking anything like the formula volumes she'd be on if she'd been ff up to now.

As for your boobs, they will remain sore until your milk goes. There are recs for how to stop and generally involves pumping for shorter periods reducing every few days. Need to be careful that don't cause mastitis or similar from engorgement issues. Think there might even be meds your doc can prescribe to help dry up supply but not sure... Think a friend mentioned this to me a while ago.

If you can't bear to bin it, this resource on kellymom gives ideas on reducing risks of infection but says its fine to give while receiving treatment.

Perhaps bottle feeding mostly expressed milk is a happy medium while you both recover and you can consider you options if you're still not 100% sure.

Hope you feel better soon whatever. Hugs.

Up again. She's been up bang on everyb3hrs overnight. 8.20. 11.15, 2.20 & 5.20. It's meant an extra overnight feed for me but for my evening off I think I can cope with that.

Eig I hope you get sorted. It's really early days in your switch over & within a few days you'll feel much better about all of it but I can see its just o tempting to BF now. Just go with what feels right for you & make sure you look after your boobs, Pud's right you not want mastitis on top of everything else you're having to deal with.

Eig our first 24 hours on formula, she only had 13 ounces. Stick with it a few days and see how it goes - her tummy should stretch soon enough.

Oh sod, she's just woken up. So much for long name-checking post and a leisurely breakfast!

HHhheeelllpppp... I've got a bottle refuser on my hands. Weird as she started fine, but due to DH being unhelpful unavailable for quite a few evenings the 9pm bottle idea kind of got shelved, and now she won't take it. Pants. Utter pants. I was looking forward to spending a bit more time wearing something other than saggy unflattering bras, and a bit less pinned to the sofa as well. Not gonna happen if her ladyship has anything to do with it. Little madam.

So, any ideas? I'm thinking it may be the nipples. The Tommy tippee ones are frankly huge, and I'm of a slightly more dainty persuasion myself. The silicon is also rock hard, so she just pushes it round her mouth and doesn't suck. Google suggested nuk bottles, anyone tried those?

Oh Eig , nothing is ever easy is it. Wish I could send you a magic solution through the ether, but the best I can do is a cyber hug.

Worsester I've tried every bloody bottle going and nothing. Madam is the same, just pushes it around & when she does suck she spits it back out or chokes. My last ditch attempt is going to be my NUK bottle with a latex teat & if she won't take that I think I'll just have to accept she's attached to me until she starts being weaned.

worsester I find the TT teats are really soft! Too soft, perhaps - she can push them round her mouth and not actually drink far too easily. How long have you been persisting with the ones you've got? Don't give up and change bottles after just a day or two, or you'll end up spending a fortune on bottles she won't use. DD tends to announce she's full after two ounces at the moment, we only get more in her by persisting. Just keep putting the bottle back in her mouth, and eventually she gives up and drinks a bit.

SoYo glad you're feeling better for your evening off. Makes a wonderful change, doesn't it?

I think we may be heading in the direction of constipation. Each poo seems a bit more solid than the last...

Stormy - I must have a rogue batch. The TT set I have is really firm... I was almost tempted to give them a good old chew myself to soften them down a bit but fortunately common sense got the better of me. Same boat as SoYo really, only got about 5ml down her, and of that roughly 4 went down her vest. Still, if at first you don't succeed.... and I refuse to be beaten by 11lb worth of baby, even if she is cute and has me wrapped round her little finger

Which flavour TT do you have? Ours is the natural or whatever that's supposedly just like a boob. Pretty similar to the Avent ones that are equally boob-like, except those ones really are solid.

Well, we were up at 7.15 and she tried to give up after two ounces. I persisted until she had three and a half down her. Quarter past eight, she was making "give me my dummy, I'm getting sleepy!" noises, so I gave her the rest of the bottle instead. Making the breakfast total five ounces over an hour. Hoping this will lead to a better nap, and won't bugger up her hunger for the next feed. If it all works out, then we shall simply discard the bit of the baby whisperer that says only spend fifteen minutes trying to get milk down them and then if they don't want more give up. And then have a good think about how to manage things with just six doses of gaviscon per day. It's already a bugger because she's on seven feeds, so gets no gaviscon at the 3am, and always has dried milk caked on her chin when I get her up in the morning.

Have just checked Tesco, it's the Closer to Nature TT bottles we have. My brother picked up a four pack of the five ounce bottles - they come with newborn teats as standard. Fortunately last week they had a two for one deal on two-packs of teats, so we got four of the size twos and four of the size threes for twelve quid. On the size twos now. But that's something else you could check - what teat size are you using?