April 2013 - We've all had our babies now. Let the (hard work) fun commence!

[HadALittleFaithBaby]

Thought I'd take the liberty of starting a new thread since the last one filled. So mark your places, get comfy and prepare for a few sleepless nights!

In particular we think of Empress and little Sam - hoping and praying he's coming home! :)

When I was a baby my parents used to put me in a bouncy chair. On top of the washing machiene! Imagine if a hv these days saw you do that!

Evan sleeps wherever he happens to be when he is tired! It can be on me, in his moses basket in whatever room I am in, on our bed (use v-cushion) if I am pottering in there, in his bouncy chair, in his pram or in the sling (wrap or mei tai).

I guess very roughly he has a fairly easy routine in that he feeds, will stay awake to sing, smile, play in his swing or just chat and will then go to sleep. I usually change his nappy when he wakes and might change it again before he goes back to sleep if he has been awake for ages.

We are off to our second baby massage class tomorrow. He loved legs last week. We found the tummy massage really helpful with DD1 when she was weaning and constipated.

Eeek! Having a bit of a panic. Realised it's three weeks until Henry's baptism and we have arranged precisely nothing (well, I ordered a dress but it's too big)! Time to get on it I think!

bird Faithlet will take up to 3.5oz but generally refuses any more! She is 8 weeks today. It varies between babies anyway but that should be enough to keep her settled. We did the same introducing a bottle with me in the next room. Then we did it daily for a couple of weeks in the evening (I go and get ready for bed) and then I was confident to leave her with a bottle for an hour to get my hair done!

Mama that's so sweet about your grandad! :)

We've had a nice day - traveled to see my Grandma. First time Faithlet has met her. She is in a care home and has dementia but still retains new information so was very excited to get cuddles. Faithlet was fine on the journey there and slept the whole way (2 hours) but I had to stop and feed her in a layby on the A1 on the way home!

Thanks to whoever posted that link about sleep - such an eye opener to predicting behaviour patterns! Faithlet woke when we got home so I knew it would be an hour before she fell asleep and it was! Think its going to be very helpful to me :)

Is slightly worried about Hollie's amount she takes (5oz) no idea how much on breast. Sometimes more. Still only 3-4 hour breaks but not drastically gaining weight. How much heavy are the other babies who are 9 or 8 weeks?

She isn't taking 5 each time at moment though. Since Friday been wanting boob often and for about half hour then more an hour later. Give her bottle she then takes 2oz. Then 3 hours later 2oz then about 4 hours later takes the 5oz. Hope she is OK.

Congrats to everyone who has a routine - we currently have nothing resembling it - except laying on Mummy after a feed for 20 mins, due to posse ting/wind.

Hope everyone is having a good night tonight :)

We're up for first feed, but to combat the fact he sleeps the longest in his first sleep on the night, we all went to bed at 8! Was really tired, but great to start the night after a 4 hour sleep

Thanks dysgu, num3, mama and toobreathless (hope didn't miss anyone, hard to check back on phone and memory all but gone!!) for your daily routines. Just sounds like we all have different babies and households for them to fit into, so everything is normal.

Poos-B is 9 weeks and was 12lbs10 last week and 7lbs10 born, so guessing at 9 weeks he's about 13lbs as puts on average 8 ozs a week.

Mama-your grandad sounds fab, I've lost all mine in recent years, so just the one great gran, but he has one grandad, my dad, my partner lost his as a child, but my other nieces and nephews call my dad 'crazy grandpa' as he can just gets into their mentality and kids just love him, so I'm sure he'll more than make up for it, just shame he's in Wales

Right B gone down, back to sleep I go hopefully as now feel remarkably awake!!

01:30 like clockwork

First feed of the night just done,but we were a bit later to bed so her last feed wasn't until 8:30-9:00ish. Problem I've got is she won't wind so is now squirmy, it was an ace sleepy feed though so she took 8oz :)

Need to go back and look at the sleep link, might be interesting to see if I can improve it or not. :)

See you all in the morning.

Have I Sofia is 9 weeks old.. Got her weighed at 8 weeks and she was 11 lbs 4 oz (6lbs 6 at birth)

sneezy good luck with the baptism plans. Don't worry, you are more organised than us! We havnt even got round to booking hers yet

mama that does sound like a lovely gift from ur grandad. I love unique presents like that.

We had a good night again, Sofia fell asleep about 9.30 and woke up 3.50 for a feed. She has been a bit unsettled since then and has decided to cry as soon as I go back to sleep! She has just had another feed and has fallen asleep so I might get an extra hours sleep if I'm lucky

Have Faithlet is 8 weeks, she was 8lb 6oz last week (low birth weight at 5lb 4oz). She takes 3.5oz in a bottle. With feeding, my GP said they get off what they need in 15 minutes so try removing them gently after 15 mins if they don't stop naturally and offer the other side. Working well for us. Sometimes I think she would dummy on me for hours otherwise!

ratbag have you tried infacol or gripe water to get the wind up?

sneezy you have plenty of time!

Well Faithlet finally went down at 11. Stirred at 4.10 but I popped Mr Slumber bear on. What felt like 5 mins later I stirred to hunger noise smacking - 6.10! Not expecting this is be regular but it's making me consider a dream feed again.

We managed 4 hours between feeds for the first time last night. Actually was about 4 hours and 20 minutes as I put the dummy in the first time he stirred and that gave us an extra 20 minutes or so.

HOWEVER...
This might have something to do with the fact that he has been having the wrong milk! DP, for some reason, had been using the normal Aptimil (that we bought with expectation that Evan would be on normal milk when he came home from NICU) instead of the prescribed Pepti milk (for possible allergies due to family history). Anyway, I only noticed when I went to take the powder pot upstairs for the night and saw it was wrong stuff.

Evan has obviously been having a mixture of milk over the weekend with me using right stuff and DP using wrong stuff. BUT it doesn't seem to be bothering him, he did a normal poo yesterday and another this morning and, as I said, he went 4 hours between feeds over night (back to about 3 hours after that).

So now my dilemma seems to be what to do next. He obviously is fine on normal formula so should we just buy more of that and keep going. (there is a tiny bit of me that is a bit that we will now have to pay for his formula but then, if he doesn't need the prescription stuff then we shouldn't carry on getting it.

And then... what do we do with all the prescription stuff we already have as I only collected his prescription on Friday so we have 6 full, unopened tins of the Pepti stuff. Can we give it away? Will they take it back at the pharmacy (I have an idea that they would take it back but then throw it away?)

Dysgu - tempting to try the regular if he seemed to sleep for longer but shame to waste the other! Perhaps you could mix until you finish your stocks.

At 12 weeks we still seem way behind most with sleeping! He goes down well and has one long sleep of 3 to 4 hours which is great but after that he feeds every 2 hours and only sleeps for an hour at a time between feeds!! It is a hit knackering! I have been reading the no cry sleep solution so feeding is done very quietly in the dark but he still wakes up and scarfs away and then won't sleep for longer than an hour. I have stopped torturing myself with dreams of 8 hours sleep and just keep thinking that one day he will sleep!!!

I think a lot of it is that he is growing so fast after being small when born so one long gap between feeds leaves him
Hungry and needing to catch up. He is a dream in the day though so I can't complain and now sometimes goes 3 hours in the day between feeds which is both novel and a lot easier than it has been.

Faith - he is getting more efficient now but would not have fed in 15 mins. Interestingly if I express after a quick feed in get l

Was going to say that I get quite a lot of milk out even after a feed so not sure what the g.p is saying is necessarily right for all babies especially in the early days.

Dysgu, chemist won't take it back, I had ten tins of pepti that were new, I sold them on ebay for £40.

Faith - tried infacol but it doesn't help, will try gripe water.

Have you all had your free book start packs? It has a black and white baby book in and two other cute books too as well as a£1 voucher for anew book too :)

yes RATBAG have had free books and think they are fab!

Ooh free books? where from?

I went to pick up a light projector show thingy I got on off a local FB second hand group, it's a v-tech. It's in great nick and only a fiver so I'm really pleased. I ventured into the huge Sainsbury's, it's on the other side of town from me but was in the neighbourhood. Having some lunch (so is Faithlet!) and got a swimming costume for her and me (going away next week) and some photo thank you cards printed for £5. Good trip all in all :)

Hi everyone,

Hope you all had lovely weekends

saturday night was a bit grim for us, she didn't go down until2.30am! But last night was better, she went down at 11am.

I have started a separate thread as I need to be away from babyangel for an evening next week (6pm-midnight ish) and so DH will need to give her a bottle. She has had 3 emergency bottles of formula up until now (currenty 7 weeks, will be 8 weeks when I have to leave her for the evening) and has taken these ok. I haven't expressed as I started when she was newborn, but due LO feeding all the time, and my cracked nipples, i stopped amd decided to reconsider/revisit at a later date when things were a little easier.

SO...how do I leave her for those hours without my supply being affected? Express between now and then to buildmup a supply? Give formula while i'm out? Start giving a bottle a day now, to get her used to it? If I introduce a bottle formula each day, will my supply be affected? She still cluster feeds in the evenings.

So many questions! Those of you that give bottles, please share your wisdom. I would be happy for this to be the start of her having a bottle a day, so would love to hear when and how you've introduced this. I was waiting until my nipple wound had healed before starting this, but that may be months away.

Hi, just a quick question - with the first vaccinations did any of you give calpol before the injection or just after if they needed it? With ds1 I was told afterwards that I should have given a tiny dose before but I'm not sure if the current advice is different!

I only received one baby book from the HV, the ones with the black and white patterns in.

Baby is eight weeks old now and we have a rough routine but nothing standard. It suits me to be honest at the moment as we have lots going on so he kind of fits in around us

For free books go to www.bookstart.org.uk

You get a folder and books,it's rather cute :)

We had an amazing night last night. Once again we failed with the 7.30pm bedtime but when DD went down at 9pm she went through until 4am - 7 hours, I feel like a new woman!
I'm pretty sure it'll be a one off though.

bird, I'm encouraged that baby bird is taking a bottle. I last tried Thea with a bottle at 5 weeks and she refused. She'll be 7 weeks on Wed so I'm determined to try again this week.

ratbag I got the Book Start pack from my HV and the books are great.

angel I have no advice on when to express for a bottle but will be reading replies to your question with interest as it's something I've been wondering about.

cheese I wouldn't give calpol before jabs routinely. There was a study published in the Lancelet in 2009 which seemed to show a link between giving calpol & reduced immune response. Conclusion seemed to be that giving calpol routinely MIGHT in theory reduce how effective the jabs are, bigger studies needed etc etc. I would give it after it needed for high temperature or very unsettled etc but not 'just in case.'

Angel - I don't think it would affect your supply if you miss a couple of feeds on your night out. If you miss a feed a day your body should adjust and make less milk but at this stage your supply should be established enough to cope.

Ratbag thanks for the free book tip!

Teapig I am jealous of the 7 hours - please one day can it happen to me!

Can I ask what nappies you are all using? Pampers give DS a sore bum so am trying to f

Angel - I don't think it would affect your supply if you miss a couple of feeds on your night out. If you miss a feed a day your body should adjust and make less milk but at this stage your supply should be established enough to cope. I have been expressing and missing the odd feed but it seems to be fine.

Ratbag thanks for the free book tip!

Teapig I am jealous of the 7 hours - please one day can it happen to me!

Can I ask what nappies you are all using? Pampers give DS a sore bum so am trying to find the most absorbent alternative. I have been using tesco and have just bought some aldi nappies to try but wondered what you are all using and how absorbent they are when on for longer at nightime?

itsaruddygame I bought asda little angels nappies and they're great, I find them just as absorbent as the pampers ones and they're half the price. I did find them a bit smaller though she is in size 2 of asda already but the few pampers ones I have left are size 1 and still fit.

free books sound exciting, can I ask the hv or do I have to do it through the website?

8 week check up tomorrow scared for the injections