Hi again ladies ? good to read all the recent posts, sounds like we?re all well and truly immersed in babyland following the joys and tribulations of pregnancy-and-birthland!
Just a quick catch up post as I?m back online at long last ? hurrah! [rant alert]? Sorry for the long silence, my Orange broadband (formerly Wanadoo) line has been down since 1 AUGUST due to a ?speed upgrade? (ha). After many painful and stressful hours on the phone to ?customer services? I?ve closed our account ? so now it will take a mere 3 weeks to disconnect from them and re-connect to another supplier ? aaaaargh! Have managed to set up a dial-up service in the meantime with someone else, so have a connection to the outside world today, thank the lord.
Emma?s 7 weeks tomorrow and doing well, still not terribly big (6 lbs 8 when born, was 9lbs 5 when weighed a week ago) but very pretty (well I think so anyway, of course)!
Am BF which is generally going okay, except that she is v greedy ? will root and feed anytime, anywhere, and scream if she is denied for more than a millisecond. Big sympathy with those of you exhausted with feeding ? during the day it can be a constant and literally draining round of feeding, trying to settle her, crying then more feeding as it's the only thing that keeps her quiet. Feeds have to be at least every 2 hours during the day unless she?s having a (rare) long nap. My mother and MIL spent many patient hours attempting to wind her, convinced that the grizzling was down to ?a pain in her tummy? but the only thing that ever really works is more milk.
Have tried expressing twice when I was out for a few hours. The first try was a bit of a disaster as my mother managed to partially unscrew the teat from the bottle when taking the cap off, so the painstakingly expressed (and fairly miniscule) portion of milk poured all down Emma?s front. (DP managed the second expressed feed a couple of weeks later without incident though, hurrah.) Am using Avent anti colic bottles which she accepted without question, probably due to the greediness.
Almost without exception she?s very lively during the evening though, and it?s quite spooky how often she cries the second that dinner gets put on the table, and I end up covering her with a napkin while simultaneously BF and eating over the top of her. Probably not what they advise in the baby books.
We?ve been lucky with her at night though ? she usually wakes up about 4 for a feed, then sleeps until anytime between 6-9am. No doubt she?ll spend the tonight screaming now I?ve put this in writing.
I have noticed though that there does seem to be a relationship between how much she has fed and been awake during the evening (from 6pm to midnight) and how long and well she sleeps at night. If she sleeps a lot between 6 and midnight she tends to be more wakeful during the night, so I try and feed at about 6.30, 8.30 and 10pm (waking her up if necessary), then give her another feed when I get into bed at 11ish to knock her out. Not ideal in terms of a peaceful evening but hoping she?ll start to sleep for longer periods at some point.
Sorry ? this has turned into a very long post, so will stop now! Great to be back in the civilised environs of mumsnet
PS sympathy HC re sick on the carpet. Heard the dog throwing up in another room yesterday while immobilised by BF ? hoped that the sound was coming from the kitchen (tiled) rather than dining room (carpeted) but no?