Graduates of the Due in Aug Thread

[PinkTulips]

thought we should start a post-natal thread before we drive the expectant moms over the edge talking about our gorgeous little babies!

and yes i know i'm technically July thanks to Caleb popping out 2 weeks early but you're stuck with me girls

PreparingFor2 - 14/07/06 Matthew 3.7kg & Sarah 2.29 kg
mojomummy - 19/07/06 Girl 6lb 14 oz
Micku5 - 21/07/06 6lbs Talia
Aussiemamma - 26/07/06 Zachary
Arabica - 27/07//06 Esja (NE London)
PinkTulips - 28/07/06 Caleb 8lb 10oz
Bumble10 - 29/07/06 Dixie Florence
Frodofitz - 03/08/06 Joe 7lb 7.5oz
Snowboo - 02/08/06 Austin 8lb 10z
Pucca - 06/08/06 George Henry 9lb 6oz
2labs - 06/08/06 Fraser 6lb 15oz
Eeny and Sal - 08/08/06 Alexander Duane 6lb 6oz
Boobylicious - 09/08/06 Charlie Jayne 6lb 7oz
Kitegirl - 10/08/06 Miles Eliot 7lb 6oz
Melsy - 16/08/06 Bryce Ella 7lb 8oz (Middlesex, top of!)
Freddysays - 16/08/06 Rafferty 10lb 7oz (South-East London)
Trix1 - 18/08/06 Caitlin 7lb 6oz
Purpleturtle - 18/08/06 Elijah Samuel 8lb 1.5oz
hoppybird - 18/08/06 Julia Kirsty 5lb 2oz
burstingbug - 19/08/06 Joseph Benjamin Samuel 8lb 6oz.
Lockets and Wheresmyfroggy - 19/08/06 Kitty Scout
AGJ - 19/08/06 Alice Rachel 7lb 4oz.
BabiesEverywhere - 20/08/06 Girl
Sarahlou1uk - 21/08/06 Molly Anne May 7lbs 11oz (and 1 tooth!)
BigHotMama - 21/08/06 Jackson Lee 8lbs 11.5oz
YellowFeathers - 23/08/06 Ellis Niall 8lbs 7ozs
Lunavix - 24/08/06 Kiera Meghan 8lbs 2oz
ellanatal - 24/08/06 Christopher Michael 8lbs 6oz
bugpurple - 24/08/06 Thomas 9lbs 5oz
snic - 28/08/06 Leah 8lbs 6oz
olivo - 28/08/06 Holly
katylou25 - 29/08/06 Jack William 8lb 15 1/2oz

I know I'll probably be shot for this, but with ds dh and I loosely followed She Who Must Not Be Named's routines - I do stress loosely though - and he was sleeping through almost immediately after. We started maybe at 5 or 6 weeks. We've been structuring dd's feeds based on the same thing, and we both feel saner for it. Last night dh gave her 3oz of ebm, plus 1.5 of formula (apparently she was starving!) she fell asleep at 12.30 for him, and I had to wake her for a feed at 7am... It might be a fluke, it might be the swaddling blanket, but we feel calmer if we 'know' when she's likely to need a feed. And obviously if she's starving outside the times we do still feed her

I know we can't discuss her 'methods' on here, but all I'm saying is I don't totally believe in solely demand feeding.

i demand feed caleb and he's slept for lots of 6/7 hour stretches at night and generally looks for feeds around the same times (he does cluster feed for 2 hours at a time however). dd was a differant kettle of fish though.... trying to put her in a routine would have broken us.... she couldn't go for more than 20 mins without looking for a feed and would scream til she was in fits if we tried to put her off. it depends on the baby, routines work with some because they're more naturally inclined to them anyway... if i had tried a routine on caleb from early i'probably think he was like this because of it when the fact of the matter is he's just a steadier baby. not trying to argue against routines... just want people who arte going to try them to be aware it might not work and it's not any failing of theirs... it's just how their baby is

Austin has decided his routine for us. Feeds every three hours, breast then bottle, goes to bed at 10:30pm, wakes up at 3:30am for next feed. Now all i have to do is get ds1 into a night routine!!!!

And i'm still bfing!! Am in shock with myself but proud of me. Will give up next week as boobs are still a bit sore.

Congrats Olivo! Will look for your birth announcement....

I demand fed DS1 and found he found his own routine very quickly feeding about 3 hourly, gradually going longer through the night from about 10 days was only waking once and then was sleeping through 12 hours 7 -7 by 8 weeks.

Am doing the same with Jack and he is feeding better than DS1 agin going about 3 hourly through day and last night slept from just before 12 till gone 6 - I was awake at 3 through ready to feed him!!

Think babies tend to fall into a pattern that suits them depending on size, how well they feed etc etc and like us they are all individual.

Oh I'm not arguing that it works for everyone

dh and I thought we were very flexible people, but we really needed the routine - perhaps more than ds ever did. I can't say we're sticking hugely by a routine for dd - for example her feed times every day are different, but the gap between them we try and keep the same, and the amount of definite sleep (ie put into moses basket) we try and keep the same too.

She's definately leading it - but having a plan is definately helping us.

Hi everyone.
Cpngratulations to Snic and Olivo!

Sorry I haven't been on much. We're having a few problemos with the laptop and poor dh has been battling with it to get it going!

Well our good sleep routine has well and truly died, lol! Ellis has started to vomit quite badly after feeding and its playing hell with him. He'd obviously had a bad stomach ache a few days ago and since then he virtually thrown up every feed he's had. We were using 4 Dr Browns bottles and 2 Avent but got rid of the Avent in the hope they were the culprit, sadly no such luck.
The MW came yesterday to discharge us and recommended using Enfamil as its meant to be very good for babies with reflux but lo and behold even after a 20 mile drive we can't get the stuff anywhere! So hopefully when the HV comes next week she may be able to help us out. We still can't decide if its the milk thats doing it anyway but time will tell. Ellis was weighed for the first time too and he's lost 7oz so he's gone down to exactly 8lb.
As for the night wakings we've gone from 9:30pm feed through to 5am then 9am to 1:30am, 4:40am and 8:30am, lol. Needless to say dh and I are totally knackered now.

On the plus side of things, physically I feel well. Stitches are good, brusing has disappeared and I've started to take Spatone again for the iron so am on the up and ready to face the world again! (feels like I've been a recluse for years, lol!)

Has anyone managed a big day out yet or trips to the clinics etc?

We keep shocking people when we're out by how young Elijah is - but he's our 3rd and I think we're just a bit more blase about it - plus the bigger ones need the outings! We'd been to Chatsworth twice by the time he was 10 days old.

Eeny and Sal - my only advice is to try to take it in turns with Alex, rather than both of you spending energy at the same time trying to settle him. You may already be doing that. I know it can be tempting to get involved when your OH is already doing their best, and then neither of you gets a break/rest.

I'll second the recommendation for swaddling. Never needed to do it with the first two, but MW suggested it when I moaned on Tuesday that Elijah wouldn't settle in the Moses basket. So, I gave it a go, and wouldn't you know, he's slept in the basket ever since. Wrap him up nice and snug before feeding, then put him down when he's fallen asleep at the breast, and settle down for 3-4 hours shut-eye. Marvellous .

Another thing I forgot to ask,
Ellis has got quite bad dry skin. It started out just in between his toes but has now got worse and is on all creases of his skin, so all over his stomach, wrists, fingers, feet you name it.
I bought some of boots own dry skin oil gel yesterday but it doesn't seem to have done anything yet. I was holding out to get some grapeseed oil as I've heard its really good.

Anyone any advice?

is it all peelig too yellow? dd2 also had this , Ive used the little me range of creams from boots , it seems to be abit better the last 24hrs. Sweet almond oil is good too, but they reccomend grapeseed for baby massag as its fairly inocuous (sp?). Helloooo btw , shame we can chat on msn, missing our grp chats !!!

Hi Melsy!!!
Laptop is being sent away on Tues so no MSN but dh has set up internet on the wonky screened laptop, lol! So can chat on here for now. I miss MSN

I was looking at the Little Me range but couldn't find a scent I liked. I thought the lavender one was quite strong. It is peeling too but not like when your burnt IYSWIM it kind of rubs away when you touch it, if you get me.

His vomiting is getting worse too. Don't have a clue whats causing it.

Sorry, forgot to ask. Hows are your beautiful dd's?

hmmm dd2 lovely , dd1 had turned into a monster,
quite scary at the moment.

Yes dd2's skin was the same , rubbing off everywere , like she was molting. I quite like the smell of those creams and she was knocked out on the lavender one after a bath last week !!

AWWW yuor poor little vomiting , hmmm dont know really, u think its may be reflux??

Id be lost withught me msn !!When will u get it back ?

MW said yesterday it could be reflux. Hes not vomiting after every feed which makes me think its not the milk or the bottles. I'm at a loss tbh. I'm normally good at working these things out but this has thrown me!

As for the laptop, it goes on Tues and they said its a 5 day turnaround so probably next Tues at the worst.

DD has developed a bit of an attitude problem and is wetting herself again so am with you on the Monster front lol!

Actually might go back for the lavender if it knocks them out lol!

Must go now. If anyone can help with my sicky problem it would be much appreciated!

xxx

hi everyone!! sorry I dont have time to catch up on all the messages - Alex's colic had got much worse the last 48 hrs. We got some colief to try (thanks Luna!) and I was wondering, can we use that at the same time as Infacol?

Also is there any way to give it to a breastfed baby besides putting it in ebm before the feed? It seems really inconvienent to do it that way.

Hope everyone is doing well -

Yellow I dont know what the sick problem is but I hope your LO is alright!

eeny, i think some of them can be given with droppers on the tongue or a in a tiny amount of water but not sure?

Feathers.... pretty sur you don't want to hear this but dd had reflux just like you describe, lots of vomiting and really unsettled and unfortunately it didn't settle til she started on solids and even then it took a long time. she didn't stop vomiting at least once a day til about 10 months sorry, hopefully ellis will be differant though.

been out and about tonnes.... was at registry office in town when he was 2 days old and in town shopping before he was a week. tend to go a bit mental if i'm stuck in the house!

Lockets DS1 had tongue tie and it really screwed up feeding. He had it snipped at the Cromwell Hospital when he was 2 wks old and was feeding like a dream after that. Then, 2 1/2 years ago there were allegedly only 2 paediatricians in the country (one at Cromwell, one in Southampton) who snipped them but I don't know what the case is now - I've heard that even some midwives do it? It was really quick, they don't give a local anesthetic as the injection would be more painful than the cut, and he was fine immediately after that.

YellowF Milo is also bringing up some of his feeds, the HV doubted it was reflux but just a case of his tummy being undeveloped. She advised me to slow the feeds down and it has helped as I noticed that he vomited more if he had been gulping really furiously. I lay him down on his side which helps as often refluxy babies hate being on their backs, prop the moses basket up from his head end so that he is slightly upright, and make sure I keep him upright for a while after feeds. Sami had proper reflux as in pain during feeding and he could only feed upright (requires some acrobatics!), GP prescribed Infant Gaviscon (sachets that you mix in the bottle), that helped for a while after that we had to move on to Ranitidine - more serious stuff, but it helped. You could try get Gaviscon especially as he is losing weight? But now that you are on the night feed schedule more resembling the rest of us, welcome to the club of the sleep deprived.... hope little Ellis gets better. xxx

Pink - glad to see I'm not the only one who was out within days of giving birth! Like you, I go mental if I'm stuck in the house and so does ds. Hope everyone ok this morning. Have we got any more new additions from the August club yet? Anyone heard from dreamy?

Hi!

eeny is that the ebm and teaspoon thing? Sorry have no other idea maybe a bit of water in a bottle??? It's safe to take with infacol but tbh we gave up with the infacol as it was rubbish lol

I'm not used to a diddy baby lol. I know dd is bigger than ds was, but she's only put on 80g since our last weighing and it seems such a small amount for such a hungry baby lol.

We've been out tons too, shopping, grocery shopping, playgroup, going to soft play next week.... don't like staying in. Sadly due to maternity/paternity leave we're broke so we won't be going anywhere too exciting.

Hi all.
Thanks KG for the info. The more I think about it, the more I think it is reflux. Dh is convinced its to do with how quickly Ellis is feeding but that should be minimal now we're using Dr Browns bottles. I'll give the tilting of the carry cot a go too as he's not all that keen on being on his back, well staying in one position for too long is more like it!
He hasn't vomited much in the last 24 hours though so fingers crossed!

Last night was the same too for waking. I sooo hope it doesn't last long. As I remember, dd was 6 weeks when she started to sleep through. Dh is back at work on Thursday so I'll be doing the night feeds on my own from then

I'm with you all on going out. Can't wait to get out there properly IYSWIM. I think when dh goes back to work I'll go off and do something. DD starts pre-school a week tomorrow too so it will be nice to get some time in with her.

Not heard from the others that are left. I really thought dreamy would have been here by now!

oh YF, we got aqueous cream from boots for ds's dry skin.

This time round we're using diprobase on dd, but that's a prescription for ds's excema.