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! :)

Ouch Lola I had a split nipple, it was agony. This sounds strange but what helped a little was kind of squeezing that part of the boob together while Alex was feeding he cold still latch but the pressure was relieved a bit. Might help?

Hi River and Lola xx

enjay my lo is quite a sicky baby not sure if it was worse those couple of weeks with the milk coming to fast can't remember!

user baby bird also likes to pretend sleep, she sits in her chair very quietly sucking her dummy with her eyes closed looking fast asleep...until I stand up to do something!!!!

We have had a lovely but oh so busy day with DH off work this afternoon. I took the girls to toddlers this morning, I'm toying with discussing the fact that they serve whole grapes as snacks with the committee that runs it. I bite DDs in half but it really gives me the heebie jeebies. I am pretty relaxed, didn't baby proof, no stair gates & definitely not overly precious but I wouldn't give a child under 5 whole grapes or cherry tomatoes....anyway. This afternoon we took DD1 to a local pub with a soft play area which she loved. It is not park weather here today. Both girls are currently napping :)

I definitely do not feel jealous of pregnant ladies at present. I am just busy enjoying every second of DD2s babyhood. They grow so fast! A couple of my friends announced their first pregnancies in the last week which is wonderful as I was the first of my close friends to have a baby when I had DD1 and its lovely that they are also entering the same stage of life. I had DD1 at 27 & have just had DD2 at 29 which is pretty young for my profession which has one of the highest rates of IVF amongst professional groups.

For those thinking about a second its worth having a long, hard think about work/childcare and making sure you are entitled to a second set of mat leave if you want it. I took a year with DD1 then instead of going part time returned full time & fell pregnant ASAP to give me the max benefit. So I was back at work 8 months before going back off. My two are 23 months apart and it is not easy! I adore both but it is very hard work and IMO much more so than going from none to one child.

WRT nurseries I would look now. In the SE we only just got a place for DD1 after booking after my 20 week scan. Now we are elsewhere in the UK we got two of the last three places for feb 2014 in April 2013! But we need a full time place and therefore I was very fussy about the nursery. I think I would have been far more relaxed if it was only 1-2 days a week.

trish I am So jealous of your family helping out when you go back to work! Loving the pictures on fb of H & ALL THAT HAIR!

kelle you sound like you're doing amazingly well considering how little time your DH is around I'm down your way in mid June if you fancy coffee?

lola ouch! Rant away & feel better soon.

WRT to fast let down and baby choking/spluttering, apologies, who was this? I let C come off and catch it in a muslin for about 10 seconds then stick her back on rather than using a pump.

Oops I seem to have written an essay....

Ooh & thank you faith for the new thread! Apologies for usi g the last space on the old one so couldn't link to the new one

I know i am very fortunate my mum will help. My mum says she will not take any £ either but I shall look after her!

I'm only going to go back to work 2-3 days a week so do you think it's a good idea for H to go to nursery once a week for socialising etc?

Thanks Sarah xx he still hasn't lost any hair!

Just marking place

I was told in April to think about getting on the waiting list for November for nursery. Places tend to come up in September with those starting school. I'll be going back to work 3 long shifts a week - my sister is having Faithlet one day, Dad 1/2 a day, 1/2 day nursery and DH one day (on a weekend). Trish it might not be necessary but it might help with interaction but it doesn't have to be paid nursery - toddler groups etc will provide the same. One nursery I looked at said they insisted on two sessions a week for continuity. Obviously we don't need two sessions so we opted for elsewhere.

I'm starting to think Faithlet has reflux. She's sick after most feeds, screams if she's laid flat/semi-upright and her breath smells acidic - does that sounds like reflux? She has a check up on Tuesday so I will ask then....

I'm questioning what to do re feeding. DH has been pushing bottles/formula since day 1. Obviously she had cup top ups in hospital but has been EBF since about day 4 when my milk came in. I compromised and introduced a bottle of BM at 3 weeks. Now he's suggesting introducing formula again (regularly but today again especially) so I can rest for longer (we've been out so I haven't had chance to express). I don't want to give her formula at all but I wonder if I'm cutting off my nose to spite my face now? Part of me feels like he'll be winning if I agree to it but then again I've worked so hard to establish BF would it be detrimental to bring in formula? Advice please?

Enjay... I have a fast let down too. W is gulping it down and I hear the air going in too. W sucks so hard on first latch that when the response is fast he gets overwhelmed and splutters. It is easier lying down as he just quaffs and the excess goes on the pad of Muslins I have under us. My let down was fast with B too and always was, she got better at managing it though. Like too says you can let them latch and then when the let down comes in, de latch and let it squirt into a muslin.

Too... Would love to meet up for a coffee... Is street a good idea?

Faith... My BIL did this with his first DC, SIL was firm on DC2 though and didn't and was much happier.

We added one formula bottle at 6 weeks with B as recommended by HV as she was .4th centile, made no ounce of difference. She did get better at feeds and started to go longer. I dropped the formula at 18 weeks and soon after was going 10 hours over night between feeds. Seriously, you may find that the stress is affecting your supply. DD is now 29 months and is still .4th centile. It can be overwhelming when others pressure you, but if you feel things are fine, stick with it. It is still early days.

Just marking place- have caught up reading new thread- just don't get the chance to post much.

P is still divine- but has been very unsettled over the last week- really screaming in pain - people have told me it sounds like colic or silent reflux- could very well just be that he's an unsettled baby. HV is coming next week- guess we can talk about it then.

faith - my DH was keen for me to express a bottle so I could get some rest and he could have a go at feeding the baby. I expressed a bottle one day but it's tAken nearly a week for my supply to settle down again so don't think I'll bother again!

A very random question, but is anyone who had a csection still doing their pelvic floor exercises? Should you be doing them?!

Cheese - I had a section but am no longer doing the exercises! We are supposed to,, though , same as everyone else I think!

Cheese - Didn't have a section but my mum always tells me that all women should do them to prevent 'issues' in later life... Though I often forget to do mine!

Ah I found you all! I did not know the threads had a finite span, was a bit puzzled why no one had posted since yesterday! So here I am marking my place.

Next week is going to be my bf in public week - I was previously convinced I would never do if but have since found its too stressful trying to go out in between feeds if I want to wander around a bit. Oh and have booked into post natal baby friendly Pilates hopefully will help remind me to do pelvic floor exercises

I went to a baby cafe a few days ago, very helpful so hopefully the bf will get easier again now

Kitten- great plan. It is v liberating just to get out and not worry where you're going or when you'll be back! I bf e everywhere now!

Hi folks,wow a new thread already! Mind you there are a lot of April babes!

Dd is 5 weeks today and finally gone past her birth weight of 7:13.. So like yours faith she still looks like a newborn! It's one week since we last topped her up so I feel like bf is working at last. Mind you I don't know how you ladies manage to express so much...dd feeds both sides most feeds and I feel like if I express in between it will reduce her next feed. ( she feeds on demand about every 2-3 hours). Any ideas?

Lola really sorry you're in pain, sounds horrendous, hope it settles down soon.

faith we gave ds1 ebm sometimes for me to have a break, and occasionally used formula instead but not sure how it would affect your supply if doing regularly. Maybe you just need to find a better rhythm to it so expressing gives you the max time off iyswim?

empress thinking of you hopefully coming home with sam.

Got the baby gym out of the loft today and dd loves it! DS would barely be put down so we didn't use it at this stage with him, so it's awesome seeing a tiny baby kicking and smiling and gurgling at a shiny elephant bum! :-)

faith it's up to you really what you do re formula. If you regularly give a bottle of formula at a particular time of day then your supply will adjust accordingly, same as when lo naturally drops feeds as they grow. Its just up to you whether you want to give it or not. Why does your DH feel so keen to give it? Is it so he can feel more involved with faithlet, or is he seeing that youre knackered and want to give you a break? Those symptoms definitely sound like reflux too, so definitely ask your GP.

looby if you express in between feeds there will still be plenty for dd when she wants some. Your boobs are never empty, but if you've just expressed before she feeds the let down might be slower. I don't express every day, but when I do I do it in the morning as that's when by boobs are fullest. If I do it late afternoon/early evening the let down and flow of milk is much slower and it's more effort to get a feed full in one go

cheese everyone should do pelvic floor exercises all the time. The aging process weakens it whether or not you've ever had a baby, so unless you want to pee when you laugh once you're post menopausal get clenching I do them every time I see a tena lady advert on tv, which when you're at home during the day seems to be quite a lot!

I've finally got properly back into exercising. I've started a couch to 10k programme this week, tried a couple of weeks ago but I think it was a bit soon post cs as ended up with loads of pain in my scar, today's run was really enjoyable. DD has had a wonder week this week, Monday and Tuesday she only slept 40mins at a time in the sling, then on Thursday she settled down and now is going 4 hrs between feeds in the day, with lovely 2 hour naps in between, and she went 7pm-4am last night, even after I forgot her dream feed. And DS finally cracked potty training this week.....only took us three days to go from complete potty refusal to completely dry in the day. I feel like super mum

Found you!

Bunny - out of curiosity, how old is DS? My DS is 26 months, but I think he's probably still not ready... And running! Most impressive!

And sex

Not sex! Was trying to say seconded on the pelvic floors! They need to be done for the rest of our lives - you'll notice it with a second/later pregnancy if you don't, as it's pregnancy itself that does a lot of the damage.

oh-my-god.

the boys are 10wks now and suddenly they wake up at least every 2hrs at night.. they are like a demon tag team in the night and gorgeous angels in the day. has anybody else experienced this regression???

oh and trish we tried hungry baby milk on hv suggestion when W wanted 7oz every 3hrs... it gave him really bad tummy ache. maybe we will try again when he is a bit bigger??

Thanks for that Nic x

Hubby didn't think it was a good idea yet ESP as it was to get him to sleep longer! He said I should be grateful he sleeps for 5 hours and I should be I know!

Maybe will try it as a bedtime drink eventually!

Need all the tips you have ladies! My LO is sleeping better at night going from around 8-12 and then waking at around 4am. However, it is taking up to 2 hours to get her back off to sleep after a feed. We have a slumber bear and use the white noise on it, try a dummy which she doesn't always take and try rocking and shushing. I am tearing my hair out! She falls asleep instantly in the pram/ car during the day but I have to go through the whole 2 hour thing if she needs to nap in the house. Any hints would be greatly appreciated!

Sorry emmie - no great advice at all. My DH would suggest going for a drive if it works but I expect you're looking for a more practical solution!

Quick straw poll for those breast-feeding- how long does your little one go between feeds? P manages about 2 hours in the day and 2 1/2 hours at night- is that normal for 5 weeks? it just feels like I'm feeding all the time!!

Also- what do your babies play in/ on? P is 5 weeks today and getting more and more alert. He doesn't respond to / reach out for toys yet, but it won't be long. At the moment when we're not holding him he goes in his carry cot or bouncy chair but i presume he'll need some sort of play mat thing. Only problem is we have stone floors downstairs so it'll need to be padded or something. Any ideas? What do you have?

Also, has anyone heard from jacquelinehyde? She was a regular on the ante-natal thread but I don't recall seeing her birth announcement and she hasn't made it here. I'm sure she's fine, just busy with newborn

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