March 2013 - gurgles, giggles and going on holiday (for some of us at least!)

[pudtat]

Will this do? Never started a thread before so hope this works...

previous thread

worse thanks - sorry for being snappy, we had a challenging night here and my measured brain was not on. I have a hard time dealing with people telling me their 'my baby would have died if I had not been in hospital' stories in response to me being happy about my lovely homebirth because its not always necessarily true and deflates my joy at what I achieved especially given what happened to DD1. Ug still sounding a bit snappy I think! Better go tuck in for a nap with my little one!

Worse glad the duct is drained, hope it stays down.

Plonko fingers crossed for the application.

We had a hideous night. 2hrs sleep before first wake then I just couldn't get her down so co slept from 2.30-5 & she woke every 30mins kicking me & chewing at the boob so awful sleep. Back in cot at 5 then awake again at 5.45. By then I was beside myself so fed & gave her to DM while I had a snooze.

Was supposed to be on the road back home by now but planning to stay here for a few hours so I can get a bath & rest before yet another drive.

Hope everyone's having a good day.

morning all. sorry for lack of caps; am on laptop whilst expressing.
thanks for your lovely messages. i hadn't meant that to be a sob-fest but appreciate your comments. hadn't realised it was a bit of an epic either. there was so much to catch up on that i took notes as i read about what i wanted to respond to; now that's a bit geeky committed eh?
worse blocked boobies i can help with. the bf counsellor helped me. all the advice you've been given is great and has obvs worked but in case it happens again.... the 'massage' in a hot shower is a great idea, as is sitting in hot bath with flannels over your boobs. the 'massage' isn't quite what i'd expected though; it's more effective if you use your knuckles and you press very hard stroke from the outer boob towards your nipple. a hot compress (i have special things that heat up and have hole for nipple; available in boots) pre feeding is good too. but my best tip is to get tiddler to feed from the boob in different positions. so, try normal cradle hold, rugby hold and lying down....that way her pumping lips are in different positions and drain ducts in a different way.

rainbow i had a lovely homebirth too; lovely to hear about your positive experience. but it was intensely painful (whilst being in the realm of what i could cope with....i say that because i did it but it was v uncomfotable at the time) and i can appreciate that the majority of people feel safer in hospital. it's just for you and i we felt safer at home. each to their own is a good mantra for pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood i think! as for mess, luckily i had my best girlfriend here too and she dealt with the laundry and bathroom cleaning afterwards :-)
soyo we had one of those nights too. less than 2 hours between each feed. we're at three months though so it could be growth spurt; but this extra hungry at night thing has been going on for a week now and aren't growth spurts supposed only to last for a few days? what were other people's experience of growth spurts? i hope you have a caffeine fulled windows wide open and safe trip home.
dh has just come down proudly announcing that our perfectly content, quiet baby has a dummy in her mouth. nothing against dummies (we tried to get her to take one for those first few weeks) but she's now a self-soothing thumb sucker so why would sticking a dummy in be helpful? ha! he's only been back for 12 hours and i',m already moaning!! plonko maybe you were right about absent dh = doing things as you want to do them!

sormy you would be right BUT most of the women my independent midwives look after and have homebirths are exactly the 'high risk women' (like me) who nhs refuses homebirths too - in that context the intervention figures speak for themselves. As for mess - I didn't go near the bed the whole of my labour and ended up giving birth on the bathroom floor and delivered placenta on the toilet so that may explain lack of mess.

Rainbow I don't think anyone's detracting from your reasons for having a homebirth. If my first time delivering had gone smoothly I'd love to have a homebirth next time, but I'm am so, so glad we were in hospital. When my 2nd waters went they contained heavy meconium, so I was then monitored and started to involuntarily push. The monitor showed that his heart rate dropped with each contraction so it was important that they hauled him our quickly. I dread to think what would have happened had we remained at home.

Oh yeah and we rent too. Although my next door neighbour used to be a midwife

DD is being so lovely today - snuggled up to me while napping and stroked my face with her little hands and now is playing so nicely. Hopefully turning the corner from the screamy little madam we have had the last couple of days! plonko your birth experience sounds hard - I was obviously prepared to transfer the moment something looked like it wasn't right e.g meconium and we are only 5 mins from the hospital. I would much rathered start my labour at home and then transfer than be in hospital from the start with lots of unknwon midwives waving their protocols in my face (which happened before). The rooms at my local are so small and I needed to pace and move and importantly needed access to the toilet and I was categorically told that in hospital I would have to stay in bed on monitors (not that I would have listened but could do without a fight while undergoing childbirth!). I am certain that if I had remained in bed it would have actually been painful and much slower. All in all baring an medical emergency nothing would convince me to give birth in a hospital!

Hey Rainbow no worries. It is obviously an emotive subject for you and you have every right to be sensitive. As for snapping, you didn't really. I once made the mistake of giving my opinion in AIBU.... and boy did people snap.... . I am very grateful to the hospital though, and I don't know, but maybe you could take that as a positive thing. It might help if you ever have to rely on one in future to remember some happy stories.

Uh oh, I'll have to catch up later. Someone has just hit their post lunch meltdown point....

It sounds as though our labours were pretty similar, Rainbow - I did a lot of pacing about the house and up and down the stairs, and didn't head to the hospital until pretty late. Actually starting labour in hospital and staying there throughout sounds pretty grim. And lounging about in bed certainly wouldn't have helped matters - needed to move constantly! And I suspect being at home for so long helped with pain too, as if I'd just been in a hospital bed all that time there would have been no distractions. Whereas at home, when the man came home from work early and started flapping about going to hospital, I was able to put it off and have a cuppa and watch EastEnders instead.

eco get that dummy away, quick! You don't want to head down the dummy route if thumbs are already doing the trick. The beauty of a thumb is they can't drop it, and they can put it in their mouth all by themselves. I can't wait for DD to figure out sucking hers.

Hi All :-)
Well alls going well here our little boy will be 4 months on Sunday ... where does time go !
I feel I'm needing a PA to organize our diary of baby groups , baby gym , baby massage, baby sing and language , baby and toddler group , and tomorrows outing with our local village baby group is to Butterfly World in Angelsey ... phew I'm needing a day at home
2 days ago we sheared all the sheep , my back was a tad sore from rolling the wool .... but i do have to
beautifuly soft hands and feet from all the lanolin :-)

todays job is dehorning the calves , work on the farms is never done .
my horse are happily munching and wandering the fields and are very intetested in our wee boy who visits them in the field in his pram , the both hirses put their heads into the carrycot for a look ,very cute .
i can't believe how each day our wee boy changes this is all going too fast for me, even though. i do all the childcare 24/7 , yes including all night feeds, as my hubby works sp so hard and long hours running the farms , can't get enough of the wee one :-) :-)
I'm trying to learn Welsh as hes going to be a bilingual
learning the nursery rymes in Welsh ... is not easy , but everyone in the various groups are very patient with me the Scotch Bonnet as all groups are predominantly in Welsh .
I'm wondering when to move wee one into big cot ? Although he will be staying in our room for as long as we can .

love and hugs to you all and extra ones to the ladies who are having a tough time .... just remember there is no right or wrong way we ate All doing a Fabby job :-) :-) xxx

Hi christi - sounds like you're having a whale of a time! My DD hit 4 months on Tuesday and is still in her moses at night but in her cot, in her own room, during the day. We have had some unsettled nights this week but she was better last night and I might try putting her in the cot overnight soon. Just reluctant because I like having her close but don't want her to become reliant on sleeping near me to get through the night when she's a bit older

Thanks worse! Luckily no having any more children - my two girls are my everything and couldn't go through a pregnancy of waiting for things to go wrong again.

stormy with you on finding of the thumb! DD sucks her fists and can ocassionally find a finger but the tumb still is a bit of a mystery to her!

Argh! DS won't take boob at all now!! Just as I was getting more boob feeds in, now we're down to just two snacks in the night and ebm plus formula any tips ladies? He basically continues screaming until a bottle appears. Gah!

Thanks be to whatever. DH is back earlier than I expected from his latest trip, so I will get that bath. I really need that bath. Eco you're a star, I'm making notes, as the misbehaving boob has flared up again and gone a horrible red colour. And it's hot. This does not bode well and will probably necessitate a trip to the GP. Sigh. I hate the GP. I am sure they are all very useful people, but they make me wait for ohhhh like hours before spending a whole 30 secs writing a prescription for the very thing I could have told them I needed. If only there were a way to avoid the hanging about in the bug ridden waiting room. I swear I leave with more ailments than I arrived with.

Chisti I love your life. I want it . I'm in awe of how much you pack into your day though. I have a depressing habit of reaching the end of the day with nothing much to show for it other than a happy, clean, fed tiddler. Sometimes I am also clean and fed. Not always....

Leni sounds like he's taking the easy option. Typical man! That was a joke btw.... don't shoot me anyone . All I can suggest is offering him the boob when he is hungry, but not starving, and relaxed. Here that's the lunchtime feed. Hopefully your little lad has a similar period some time in the day.

A big wave to everyone with thumbs! We have thumbs. Only recently found, but now present a big help. When particularly sad with her lot mini-worse can almost forget her problems with the help of a thumb. Magic.

Right BATH

Leni we're the same here. I'm hoping its temporary, and for the next few days I'm doing the following: 1. Always offering boob first, but always having bottle handy to avoid meltdown. 2. Offering boob after for comfort sucking if nothing else 3. Pumping all the time 4. Only giving size 1 teats. I'm hoping that this will get us back to all bf except dream feed, because that worked well. If not, I'm only keeping it up for a week max because its exhausting, so then I'm chicken ing out and finally working towards eff.

worse, stormy & rainbow we have found the thumb too! After all the sleeping trouble (and the helpful people saying you must try a dummy) she's got the thumb in, although hasn't worked out what to do with her fingers. Mostly in the eye or up the nose but she's had a good ol' sleep this afternoon and every time she stirred I watched from the door while she sucked and went back to slumber town. Wooooo. Will try her in the cot all night as I might be on a winning streak!

Will catch up with the other posts later but really need to scream. DS will not sleep grrrrr! He definitely is tired though.

Right, how do I teach Miss Madam to find a thumb? It sounds like the answer to all my woes!!

Rainbow I hope you're ok. I think you did brilliantly having a homebirth when you must have had so much worry & uncertainty after last time. Everyone should have their baby where is the most comfortable & reassuring for them if possible. For me a hospital was always going to be right because for me it's a place of comfort and reassurance, just like home for you! Nobody will ever know what would have happened with any birth given a different situation or lack of monitoring etc & the important thing is to do what's right at the time. We're all so lucky to have our beautiful babies here safely and in our arms, however and wherever they got there.

Stormy I know what you mean about the rooms after birth, mine looked like a massacre had occurred! We even managed to get blood on the lights!!!

Christi you're a legend fitting all that and helping run a farm in, some days I can't even manage to brush my teeth! You're exposing me for the slummy mummy I'm fast becoming!

Madam has been lovely all day after last nights evil escapades. She had her baby swimming today & this week we had to do an underwater swim where we put them under then let go and leave them floating under for a few seconds, it goes against all good parenting instincts but little miss daredevil came up grinning and gave a massive giggle, very worrying!

She's finally seen DH again after nearly a week away and has treated him by peeing on his leg just before her bath! Hilarious!

Right, somebody get their baby to get on that BabiesNet and tell DD about thumbs and long sleeps for tonight!

As usual, you lot can talk so tons for me to catch up on!

eco, you brought tears to my eyes about your mum. Being a parent really brings it home what our own parents did for us, doesn't it?

I'm another homebirth convert here. Would recommend it to anyone, but really for second time onwards and low risk, historically easy labouring ladies.

DD is also a thumb-sucker. it's been two weeks now since she found it and has really made a difference to the nights (I'm asking for trouble at 4 months, aren't I?!). Bless :)

Oh and I can add to the 'odd places I have bfed DD' list - in the queue at the Antiques Roadshow! We were actually fast-tracked to the front of the queue with the people who were in wheelchairs or otherwise couldn't queue, and a couple of other people with babies. It meant we saw a generalist valuer who we thought was rubbish, didn't seem that bothered about what we had and frankly gave us rubbish advice/valuations because he didn't know what he was talking about Never mind, it was a fun day out anyway and DD slept through most of it.

I think she's reacting to the jabs this afternoon/evening though. I tried to drip 2.5ml of child nurofen down her mouth from a medicine spoon and was wondering to myself how I ever gave DS medicine when he was this young Perhaps I used the 'syringe' thing (which we still used until fairly recently)?

Anyway, I'm knackered so am off to wake her for her feed and then hopefully a good night for all...

soyo - rest assured that if my DD is doing it, yours will be too any day now. Thumb was found only yesterday but is a revelation and I have a different baby
On another note - how do people feel about piercing a DC's ears at this age? I only ask as I went to a 'messy play' today and two of the babies had gold, dangly earrings that were just asking to be ripped out.... Why would you do that??

Personally? And I hope this isn't too controversial... I think putting a hole in the earlobe of a person who cannot agree to it, who will probably be caused pain by it, and who doesn't understand what's happening, is tantamount to child abuse. I don't like to see ear piercings on any pre-teen (and I'm not anti piercing, I have 14 myself!) but if they are old enough to ask for it and understand what they're doing, then fair enough. But babies? Cruel.

On a lighter note, in our house, only dummies, bottles, (and occasionally, if the mood takes her, boobs) are for sucking. Thumbs are strictly a toy. They may be sucked, but only while giggling like a thing possessed. Mainly they are chewed, accompanied by the weirdest humming noises you can imagine. I wish she'd find thumbs soothing, I feel the dummy is becoming more and more of a problem now. I'm vaguely considering going through the week or so of hell that would be getting rid. Eek...

Doh! Just changed sides and realised forgot to insert muslin between us, so have just had to change DS out of a soaked sleep suit before doing other side...sigh.

Thanks vj - glad it's not just me then!

Oh my word no, it's just plain wrong. It's hurting a baby and opening it up to potential infections or being pulled out with no benefit to them whatsoever, never mind the initial pain of having a needle and foreign object pushed through a perfect little baby ear.

We had the usual bedtime battle here which wasn't won until 10.15, then another wake at 10.45 but now that I'm home DH took care of those and madam has just slept for 5.5hrs!!! Get in! That might be us for the night now but even so she's done well plus I'll be doing everything possible to persuade her back to sleep so I can get more snooze

Hope everyone else is having a good night.

Baby ear piercing = wrong. :(

vj I'd love to hear that weird humming noise of your DD. I bet it's actually extremely cute to the rest of us! :)

Yep totally agree re earrings!