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!!!

I think the teats may soften with use? We're only using the small bottle that comes with the pump at the moment and I think the teat feels slightly softer to the ones we haven't use yet in the box of big bottles.

After the 2:45-3 feed DD went till 6:20 (I ignored her noises at 5:30) and has been awake or feeding on/off since then. Six weeks today and after our check ups on Tuesday I will be attempting some form of routine.

Eig, how are you doing this morning?

Stormy, Gaviscon can cause constipation. We were advised to drop it for a few days when DS hadn't pooed for a week and one day. Were advised to give boiled cooled water between feeds, do clockwise tummy massage and lots of leg bicycling. HTH.

As for the reflux, it's only a prob if it bothers them, so if its not waking her after the 3am feed I wouldn't worry too much.

Worsester We started off using Tommee Tippee until DS suddenly took a very strong disliking to the man. I chucked all ours in the bin and tried him with Mam teats (which fit boots and Avent bottles) which he much prefers. I think they're a lot softer.

Stormy very glad you have plans to get shitfaced. I think you deserve it!

Eig do what feels right. If that's pumping to relieve your sore boobs and sticking it in a bottle, or chucking it away and giving her formula then do it. It took awhile for DS to get used to formula (maybe four days or so?) but hes thriving now. any dirty nappies yet? I was still able to hand express a few drops up to 5 weeks after stopping BFing so please don't just stop or you'll be in a lot of pain (and wearing a v wet top).

SoYo hope you feel better after your wee break. Makes it all so much more bearable eh?

Well I'd best get up. I've stupidly put myself on a strict sugar free diet as I got weighed at the drs and nearly cried. Damn those yummy custard creams, cornettos and big mugs of horlicks, they were my only comfort when I went overdue. Am paying the price now with sugar withdrawal. And mother's making me traipse round a garden centre this afternoon. I can't effing wait.

Will work massage and legs into the routine then, and hope we don't get too clogged up in there.

Naptime is still not going amazingly - she woke up after fifty minutes. But just occasional whimpers rather than the full on wails of the last couple of days, so I guess they were in part hunger. Went to do a dummy return at 9.30 and got waylaid by a fucking enormous monster of a spider on the stairs. I was very brave, and managed to shift it with a pint glass, but really, this is what I have cats for! They're been bitching for their breakfast when there was a tasty morsel just waiting for them on the stairs!

Having big tantrums with DS this morning and I've akleady shouted at him twice (v unusual in our house). :(

Stormy and other cat lovers, you must watch

Stormy - this morning I took DS into the living room to stop him waking OH at about 5.30am and almost trod on a huge spider... I'm hugely phobic but as I had to satisfy a hungry monkey I saw it go under the recycling and just sat with my feet up on the sofa hoping it would stay there so I could put a glass over it after feeding. But then when i poked the recycling with a mop afterwards it wasn't there, instead another spider came running at me so i chucked my milton solo steriliser over it, thinking problem solved (i thought it was the first spider). Went off happily to change DS and then put him back to bed, looked down next to the cot and saw monster spider number one on the floor! Jumped on the bed and grabbed a glass whilst DS was looking up at me quizzically, but it ran somewhere so I had to wake OH and make him dismantle the entire bedroom whilst I took DS and hid in the other room- he whacked it with a mop as it made a run for it. I hate killing them, but I was on the edge of a full scale nervous breakdown!

Now I'm worried there'll be more waiting to get me when OH isn't here! He's afraid of them too but he knows unless he mans up I will outright refuse to go in the affected room.

I need therapy....

Hi Stormy - it's the starter pack, so smallest teats and 5oz bottles. I think her littlest-ship has copied plonko-baby and decided to turn her nose up for some unspecified reason. Wind direction? Alignment of the planets? Who knows. She was having none of it though, and when offered the (preferred) boob as a substitute clamped on with an air of such frantic concentration it was as if she was saying 'try that again mate and there will be trouble. BIG trouble. You think you've seen screaming before... well let me tell you you ain't seen nothing yet...'

Thanks for the tip though plonko, I'll look into Mam. DH has apparently just bought an avent bottle (these men, they go off piste without instruction...) so if that is rejected to I'll stick a Mam teat on it and see how she goes. Better I hope. Hysterical screaming and a late feed was not quite how I'd envisaged my early night would be.

Soften with use you say Wing - Perhaps I should chew a couple after all! Who would know... I don't have to tell now do I (although DH might question the teeth marks)

Garden centre Plonko???!! That would drive me to sugar too... and I don't even have a sweet tooth.

SoYo, let me know how you get on with the Nuk latex. At the risk of amassing an excessive collection I'm thinking of ordering some.

Leni - you do!!!!!!

My DH is scared of spiders too. And mice. And wasps. And bees.... As for hornets let's not even go there. Moving to the country has been a tad traumatic for him

I work on the basis spiders eat flies so are my friends. Try looking at it like that maybe.

Love the video Wing. We have a Maine Coon who is the biggest fraidy cat ever. She has only sniffed DS a couple of times, and is not at all sure. Think she suspects he's another tool in our arsenal of things which we will eventually use to try and kill her (you can't be too careful...)

We have a wedding to go to in June. What do I wear which will hide post baby lumpiness and enable me to feed while still being wedding-y? Argh, sartorial nightmare... Esp annoying as like lots of people, I have several items, usually bought in sales on the pretext that they'd be great for a summer wedding and none of them will do up allow me to bf. Sigh.

Worcs, true - but there are still too many legs and too many eyes and they move so damn quickly.... Shudder.

I have got better about them, and can handle small and medium sized ones now (unless they're the ones with the real big bodies - Wolf Spiders?) but the big Tegenaria Domestica (always be able to name your enemy) scare the crap out of me and my best effort is to get a glass over them. Ugh...

Rational, no. What I do, yes.

pud I have a wedding reception (evening only) on 31st May and I have zero idea what to wear :(

DD has been asleep in my arms for two hours! DH took DS out to Sainsburys an hour ago as I was certain she'd wake up and want feeding but she's still zonked. I had swaddled her to transfer to the basket but couldn't do it in the end as she looks so adorable!

Ooh they back. Better go.

T. domestica is fine, pud. It's T. duellica I can't abide - the great big bastards. The one this morning was neither. It was really chunky and black and brown. Blended in with the carpet wonderfully. I am stupidly scared of spiders, but for years I've lived with people who are equally scared, and sooner or later someone has to man up and deal with the things. I won't let the man kill them though. What if their friends are watching and they come back later to take revenge?

worsester cats eat spiders. Cats eat flies. Cats eat everything. (Weaning's going to be fun!)

Oh God I should NOT have just google image searched "wolf spider". If anyone needs me I'll be gibbering in a corner.

So, having taken nothing from the bottle this am, thrush that looks worse, a snotty nose and two completely dry nappies I gave in and fed her. so looks like I have to beat this thrush and get on with it. Going back to the doctors on monday. She will still take some bottle so I should be grateful. I umm'd and ah'd about what to do and while I won't have a lot of family support for my decision (other than dh and that's the main thing) I want a healthy child that is eating and having wet nappies and pooing so I am going to keep feeding her and keep offering the bottle twice a day. At the 10 am feed her choice- bottle first and if not breast, at the 10pm feed bottle or nothing so I and my nipples have a break. I will gave this regime a full week and see where we are then. My child, my decision. It may not be popular with my mum but I am nearly 40 for goodness sake and I am the one listening to the tears or even worse last night having the lethargic baby....

In denial about T Duellica and no, apparently one shouldn't google wolf spider...

Do what you want Eig, your choice, your boobs, your child, your sanity. Good luck.

Nothing like dry nappies to get you worrying, is there, Eig? Do what you feel is best, and bugger what your mum thinks.

Thanks pudtat. She is literally sleeping like s baby since I fed her! And my swaddle is on its way!

I echo pud. We're all here to support you Eig x

stormy agree with both points. She's a lovely baby and just very different from my enormous always starving boy. Got to stop comparing and start enjoying, she gave me the most lovely smile this morning .... Made up for a night of worry!

Thanks wingd I was dreaming last night I had to go to a breastfeeding support group and wear the baby in a sling (I would love to be good at that but so not me)! Just got to do it my way. Can't believe I am finding it so much harder the second time around..... Read a bit of the baby whispherer book last night, I think I am suffering from having had an angel baby last time! This one is more touchy!

Hey Eig, all babies are different and you do whatever is right for you, as by extension that's right for your baby too.

Me I appear to have morphed into a breast feeding baby wearing earth mother, which given it took me 40 years to actually have a baby, on the basis I'd hate the whole thing has surprised everyone... myself included.

Enjoy her I bet she is absolutely adorable.

My adorable little bundle has (from the smell of her) done something that requires my immediate attention. Super.

We appear to be having another day of nap fails. She's managed about two hours in total in her cot today. However, she's just fallen asleep in the bouncy chair in front of the formula one. Hmm. Right, I need to try raising the cot mattress (good thing I have ten pillows on my bed, can spare a few) and possibly a radio. Am determined to crack these naps. I want the time to put my feet up for a bit!

worsester in my experience, smell is no indicator. Possibly this is because I have produced a champion farter. Definitely takes after me, this one.

Another one for the sartorial challenge of a wedding! 25th march here, I went shopping 2 days ago & found nothing for less than £100. Not happy! I'll try again at the weekend. Plus it's bloody difficult trying clothes on with massive pram in tow!