Graduated Elderberries

[HazleNutt]

It's time to move to Post-Natal clubs.

hazle and alexandra!!
Too true.
I had a playlist too- two actually. One with active gym type music and another with soft soothing stuff. Listened to the first playlist for a couple of hours. Never made it to the soothing stuff- I was grateful for some silence by the time they injected me with the epidural!
Hazle that's the only reason I am in two minds about another pregnancy, I'm a massive worrier. All the scans, the potential infections and issues, monitoring the movements, whether the baby would come out unscathed by birth, blah blah.
Can't complain about DD's sleep at the moment but we ARE hitting choppy teething waters and she has been waking up progressively earlier each morning to feed so we'll see

Bad times here. Following a monumental row last night,we gave H a bottle of formula to see if it would make a difference to his sleep.

He went down at 10 (late) and slept til 130. Then up again at 4 and 745.

Moderate improvement, but not all that.

I have come to the conclusion that E's eating has virtually no implications on her sleeping. Some days she hardly eats anything and sleeps well, and then others she eats like a horse and we have crap night. It really is a complete lottery.

I completely agree with what others are saying about being a total bitch much more assertive with HCP's if I were to do it for a second time. Starting at booking in, if the MW so much as mentions the MLU she will be told straight that I will not entertain the thought of birthing anywhere that can't give me an epidural, and she had better not give me any spiel about transferring to the CLU if I decide I want more pain relief. Not a fucking chance, I am starting off in the right place and not budging!

Agree about food solid making little difference cavort. The only thing that makes a difference to his night time sleeps is daytime naps. Good naps yday, slept 7-6.15 solid

Snort at Yankee candle shop and actual whale
Hazel dont you know I'm going to be having a sneeze birth, I've got it all planned

ouch sorry for scaring you now merk. Well on the positive side, my labour was 5 hours and when they told me to push, Dh claims he was out in 2 minutes. And recovery was also super-quick.

Just, as others have said, don't forget who is the one giving birth here - whatever you say, goes! Well except in real emergency, of course, but don't let them boss you around for their own convenience or because they areused to doing things a certain way.

Good things about labour- sorry merk about having listed all the negatives!-
-there was my very own scrunched up squiffy baby at the end!
-now I can think of it and laugh
-there was a sense of being a warrior and the body fighting the battle for you (not too grandiose I hope!)
-loved the solicitousness from family!
-stuff was FINALLY happening after waiting months and months

I think we all knew that squeezing a watermelon out of a keyhole wouldnt be particularly enjoyable, but the fact that most of us would, and want to, do it all again shows it cant be too bad merk. You soon forget as you are so focused on the new little life you created

Merk my birth didn't go at all as planned (spent 12 hrs in pool listening to relaxing playlist and eating snacks but not dilating, then broke waters, meconium, transfer to CLU, monitoring, epidural, induction hormone, ventouse and episiotomy; 30 + hrs in labour) BUT I feel pretty positive about it all, and while it was at times really hard, I'd do it all over again! In fact I enjoyed the pregnancy, the birth and the newborn stage - must be a glutton for punishment but I am looking forward to repeating it all.

Argh I've just had the journey from hell - in total contrast to yesterday, S has cried tons today, not feeding well and stressed. Anyway we met a friend for lunch and a walk which was lovely but it was a half hour car journey home after. She started crying in the car as I left so I gave it a few mins, then found a place to stop and calm her down. Drove off again and she started screaming and just didn't stop. By then I'm on the north circular and was so stressed I didn't think it was a good idea to try and leave on roads I didn't know. So I carried on driving, got stuck in traffic and she just screamed and screamed until she was making choking sounds :( Finally I was near home and found a good place to pull in with hazards on to calm her down - she was red and sweaty with tears everywhere. That's basically the same as CC for ages isn't it? At one point I really thought she was choking and nearly had to put my hazards on but it was dangerous on the north circular. Now worried I've scarred her for life and feel sick

Ah babe, she will be fine. You did absolutely the right thing - stopping on the north circular could be potentially SO much worse than a few tears. Occasionally Miles has screamed in the car and there's nothing you can do about it (I know the choking sound you mean). It's not the same as controlled crying as I'm sure you were taking to her and she knew you were there - it's not the same as leaving her alone in the dark. Plus it can't be helped! Don't beat yourself up lovely.xx

Alex I've certainly had that happen in the car and i am not worried in the slightest about E being scarred for life. All babies cry, it's a fact and completely normal. It's not at all like CC and S will be absolutely fine.

Just ran into my neighbour's husband (quickly wiped my tears!) who was really reassuring and said they once had to leave theirs crying for ages and she's now a lovely toddler. Maybe I shouldn't go on car journeys alone while she's still small. I tried talking and singing to her but she just screamed over it To be fair my singing is bloody awful

I'm glad your neighbour has put your mind at ease Alex. After a bit of trial and error we realised most of E's in-car unhappiness was caused by her being too hot in her synthetic car seat. Putting her in the car wearing less clothes sorted it out immediately. Might be worth a try with S? Even now on the coldest days E just goes into the car with no coat on, just her normal clothes with a blanket over her to get her from the house to the car and we take the blanket off once in the car.

Agreed cavort, Miles gets hot too. Also read on mumsnet that the padding on big coats is misleading as you think they're strapped in tightly, but in case of (god forbid) accident the padding all compresses meaning the baby could come free . So Miles is practically put in naked now

Today will have made no difference Alex, she will be fine. Have some and try not to stress. I honestly think that a crying baby in the car is actually much worse for the parent than for the baby!

Yep it happened to me too. And I cried more than her in the car!!!! Sometimes it can be helped so don't beat yourself up!! For me it was on the M40 coming back from Bicester village so you can imagine the guilt!!!
On other news L has pooed 5 times today!!!! 5!!! And really smelly too!! Is it teeth? Argh.

I've had a similar thing alex and think it upset me more than H, you did all you could and she knew you were their which is the main thing.

After moaning about Harveys lack of sleep I now feel awful. While bathing him his bcg scar burst and lots of green puss came out, we cleaned it and squeezed the rest of the puss out. H was fine and didnt seem bothered but as he sleeps on his side I wonder if this is what was bothering him last night? God I feel terrible. I'm also a bit pissed off as I took him to be weighed on Monday and showed it to 2 hv's who said it looked fine....shows what they know!

Also, though of another apres birth plus for merk......the ability to only pee a few times a day, rather than a few times an hour! That was one of my favourite realisations in the first few days

Oh Alex how horrible. I agree it can't have harmed her though. W had a meltdown in her pram yesterday and I ended up trying to walk down the road with a screaming baby under one arm and pushing the pram with the other as I couldn't cope with watching her cry...of course it then meant it took an age to get anywhere and in the end I put her back in, crying, and she went to sleep. It is horrid though.

We have been having bedtime meltdowns here. She is clearly really tired but ends up clawing her face and flapping arms getting really unhappy and overwrought. Even if I get her to stop crying she will lie in her cot flailing and rubbing her face and waking herself up every few seconds. Anyone got any ideas why? Or is this just part of a 'leap'? She has recently started discovering how to use her hands to rub her face and suck her fist so I wonder if it's connected. I've tried getting her to sleep earlier but the only thing that's working to get her off currently is scratch mitts on and me lying beside her with a hand on her tummy (and occasionally restraining flailing arms) shushing her for ages to get her to drop off. It also means we can't put her to bed anywhere other than her bed at the moment in the evening as it takes so long to get her off and if she wakes up it means repeating the process...

Quod some babies (E being one of them) just don't like the feeling of going to sleep and will fight it with all their might, even if they are completely knackered. It sounds like W is starting to do this. I think you are doing the right thing in comforting W to sleep and making getting to sleep a pleasant experience for her and if she is like E she will just get better as she gets older.

Ah, I also remember the days of walking with a crying E in one arm while pushing the empty pram with the other. It didn't last long, I think she had grown out of it by a few months old.

quod I can't help as I still have to feed S to sleep or use a dummy, so I think it sounds good that W will be shushed and comforted to sleep if you see what I mean. Hopefully she'll be good at self settling eventually even if she's struggling now. Does she like being swaddled? S doesn't but some do and that's meant to help control their arms.

As I'd been told some babies sleep through after their vaccs, I really got my hopes up about tonight. S was sleeping really well after a very fussy evening - DH on the other hand woke me up going to the loo at 3am and then woke all of us up at 4.30am when his phone slipped from wherever he'd put it and fell on the wooden floor. Really snapped at him, lack of sleep must be turning me into a bitch but it was annoying! He was sent to the spare room but we've made up with nice texts since, feel a bit bad though still a bit unreasonably pissed off

every sodding hour and sometimes also half-hourly. Awake. Last night. Not funny. Can't form coherent sentences.

Oh hazel that sucks!!! Beyond gutted for you. Why do these little sleep stealers do it to us?!? Thankfully H had a better night, down at 11, up at 3, 5.20, 7 an 8.30.

Hazle does he have any teeth yet? I'm told babies become a lot better once they cut through. I don't actually believe it though!
Over here dh had her until 2 am so I had 4 hours sleep. Then had her in bed with us and she had boob on tap. The little monster is now asleep so breakfast will be delayed as I'm going to have a nap too!

H has his 2nd jabs today, hope the oral one doesnt mess up his tummy again! Also have my first post natal class today, no idea what to expect!