Martians 2014 (and the February early arrivals)

[LyraSilvertongue]

I expect it will be quiet in here for a while with only four Martians born so far and it not even being March yet

Those who have popped so far:
Coolhand
Dabarai
LyraSilvertongue
Wuxiapian

I am eating like a beast - the amount of chocolate and cake that I'm getting through is indecent. I'm trying to justify it by telling myself that BF, walking with the pram and chasing a toddler round will burn all the nasty calories away

Hi everyone, my little girl is a week old today. Perfect calm hypno waterbirth to begin with, followed by several hours of pushing and eventually she was dragged out - exhausting, and agony. Not the birth I wanted, particularly after it started so well, but trying to forget it.

Getting to grips (slowly) with bfing although she lost too much weight so the mw wants me to top up with EBM. Going to try that today but worried it will set the latching back when we're only just starting to get the hang of it.

Twentieth that sounds accurate to me! I had a paradise slice today (almond, cherry, coconut thing - delightful!), this bf lark is a good excuse to try new cakes!

Magpie, congratulations on the birth of your daughter, sorry it wasn't quite as you'd hoped. How are you feeling in yourself? Are you recovering ok? The baby blues hit me pretty hard a few days in but luckily only lasted a few weeks. Not saying you have these but if you need to talk here is a good place!
Easy for me to say but I wouldn't overthink the confusion it may cause. There's nothing to say that she wouldn't be fine with both! I think we're preached to a lot about EBF being best but the early days are so hard. Ultimately you should do what you think is best, clearly you have her best interests at heart. Do you have BF support workers? We have them where I live, they may be able to help with the latch if it does impact. Hope all goes well.

magpie my son lost too much weight to start with, I was advised to express a bit and cup feed it. This won't affect the latch at all. He didn't really want it tbh, but I was much more comfortable with that. He put on weight after a couple of days so I could stop expressingthen. Good luck, hope she starts gaining soon.

Hi all can I join in? (Think I may have posted ages ago in the antenatal group but failed to continue!)
Ds2 arrived 18 days ago - an unexpected 9Ib 10oz!! Normal delivery, although I wasn't nearly as calm and collected as I had hoped and still cringe with embarrassment when I think about me begging for pain relief and asking to go home!! But we have a healthy baby which is the main thing!
I've been breastfeeding until now but for health reasons I am sadly going to have to stop so that I can start some medication. I could in theory continue to bf whilst taking the meds but I'm not comfortable doing that. Both dh and I do not want to take any risks and I think I would just worry about it. So...we started giving one bottle a day a couple of days back. I feel incredibly sad and guilty about stopping (this is not a judgement on anyone who has chosen to ff, it's just a personal thing) but I'm not well at the moment (mental health issues) and need to get better for mine and my family's sake.
So ds has taken the bottle well. Only problem is he doesn't seem to get the same sleepiness that he does with a breastfeed. We have started given a bottle around 11pm but he takes ages to settle afterwards - unlike a bf when he would fall asleep on the breast. I guess it's just early days and things will get into some sort of routine. The positive side of starting to ff is that I had 7 hours uninterrupted sleep last night - dh gave him his bottle - which is the longest stretch I've had for months with all the nocturnal wees when pregnant!
Sorry this is such a long post. Will look forward to following everyone's progress .

ive really been struggling with baby blues and lack of sleep and baby's lack of feeding ability. he takes a little milk then sleeps I try and wake him up he takes a little more and then appears not to want more then when I try and sleep he gives me lots of eye contact and cues he's hungry this happens all night and so not sleeping

Vikki try stripping him down to his nappy when feeding in the day to keep him a bit more awake. How old is he?

Things like blowing in his face or tickling his feet might also work Vikki.

I was also hit pretty darn hard by the baby blues. For several days I just felt utterly useless and cried at the drop of a hat. It does get better as the days go by so hang on in there (((hugs)))

Oh the baby blues was horrible! I cried from tea time to midnight every day for the whole of week 2. It's normal and will pass!

Week 3 has been so much better - I can do this!

thanks guys he was born 24th March so a week and a day today. I under estimated how lack of sleep would affect me alongside the hormones and feeding issues. I di generally have him mostly undressed for feeding and have to tickle feet. its always a worry though

Now he won't stay asleep in his basket. This is not a good performance. I've hardly had a wink.

ds was weighed today and has gained 2lb in 2.5 weeks!! HV thinks my breastmilk must be heavy duty!! No wonder he's in 0-3 month clothes already. Took a bottle again last night and again was wide awake until I managed to rock him to sleep 2 hours later! HV has advised not allowing him to sleep immediately after a bf so that he learns to self settle, and then will hopefully also do this with a bottle feed.
Hope you've all had a good day.

Wow Once!!! That's amazing; well done you two..DS having his weight checked again on Friday. He's grown out of lots of clothes in the past week & my arms are aching after long feeds so I think he'll have gained a good bit. Hope everyone has had a good day. Been on my own since 3 with all four DC & DS decided that 5 o'clock was the Witching Hour today. So I've made dinner, arranged lifts for the older DD's dance class & put the toddler to bed with DS either attached to me or in his pram screaming. It's been a loooong evening.

Well done on the weight gain Once

I had DD weighed at the drop in clinic today too. She's now up to 9lb4oz, which is 5oz above her birthweight and 1lb5oz above her lowest point at her 4 day weigh in. I've been told she doesn't need to be weighed again for a fortnight so I'm happy

Yay for all weight gain that's going on . I think that you guys have got the green light to be stuffing yourself with cake and chocolate now!

And hats off to you for managing to do bedtime for four DCs Jelly. Trying to deal with two is pushing me over the edge, so goodness knows how you're doing it!

Was already stuffing myself with cake and chocolate anyway!!
He's fed constantly all morning. Had planned to spend a nice morning playing with ds1 but baby had other ideas. He's either been feeding, crying or having his nappy changed all morning! But he's finally asleep, and ds1 has been taken out by grandparents so I'm going to have a nap!!

Hey all, mind if I ask your advice?

I'm not sure if DS is sleeping correctly for his age... 5 weeks, weighs 8lb 1oz, usually only sleeps for 2 or 3 hours at a time. Mum isn't sure if he's getting enough nutrition from the Aptamil 1st he's on...

We do struggle with wind (he's reluctant to let it go) so he's on Infacol, with gripe water - given in 1oz of water - if he's really struggling.

Em how much is he taking per feed? It sounds completely normal to me but give your HV a ring if you're concerned. Have you looked into the Dr Brown bottles? They're fantastic for windy/colicky babies. As long as he's gaining weight and doing enough wet/dirty nappies then I'd try not to worry too much, all babies are so different with sleep!

Has anyone got any tips for engorgement? We've decided to switch to exclusive FF and my boobs are agony! How long does it last?

Hi commsgirl I've just started switching to ff so not too uncomfortable at the moment. But I think the advice for engorgement is to express enough to make you more comfortable - but not too much as obviously this will stimulate your milk supply. How old is your baby? And have you been dropping bf gradually or just stopped in one go? I've only introduced one ff at the moment, adding in another one tomorrow.

Have you tried chilled cabbage leaves in your bras to help with the engorgement? They work wonders when the milk comes in and it's the same principle.

Em No experience of FF but I think that sleep pattern sounds pretty normal. Babies are all so different at this stage but lots are waking that often. We've had one five hour sleep and a couple of four hour stretches but she tends to go for no longer than three hours at the mo.

Wind is really troubling DD today. We must have changed 6 dirty nappies since 7am - some no more than wet farts - but she's howling every time she goes and it's waking her up every time I manage to get her down

ds also has loads of wind - possibly due to the curry I had last night! What do you all do if baby is asleep but has a dirty nappy? ds has a tendency to poo in his sleep - often just a wet fart as described above!! But if I change him he will obviously wake and then invariably wants to feed again! So am tending to leave him (unlike with ds1 when I was a bit pfb and NEVER left him with a dirty nappy) until he wakes. Is this being a bad mummy (or the opposite to pfb??!)??

Thanks Comms he usually takes around 3oz but has just started pushing the 4oz boundary. I'm currently using Mothercare's 'InnoSense' as they're supposed to be designed to reduce wind! But am gonna try other brands now... have indeed heard of Dr Brown's, will see what DH thinks about re-investing! Shame to waste money buying more bottles when half the set is unused, but it'd be worth it as poor Ben is an uncomfortable bunny half the time!

Hope you get on ok with the ff-switch and that the pain goes soon xxx.

Once, it's not the worst thing, IMHO. I've done it once as DS was shattered after a wakeful afternoon! He was quite smelly but only slept a further hour before he woke and I could change him. Would've been screaming-grumpy if I'd woken him! Sometimes best left alone

My opinion is if they're happy to stay asleep with a dirty nappy at night then leave them be. They will wake up if they're uncomfortable.

James stays in a dirty nappy as he doesn't always wake up with it. I would keep an eye out if his bum starts to look sore as I used to work with a baby who got horrible nappy rash if he wasn't changed asap

Hello there everyone. I've just posted on the Martian thread about James' birth, so I'm checking in here. He's making whiffling noises now so I'm off to make up a bottle. My milk dried up so much I haven't even felt even slight discomfort after switching to ff but was told to pump a small amount to relieve any pressure but not so much as to stimulate my milk ducts. Have been giving the girls a gentle massage under a hot shower, but they don't feel lumpy or full at all now.