JULY 2014 - WE HAVE BABIES

[justhayley]

Well it's only mid June but I hear we have our first July 2014 baby - congratulations MrsC, also hear there is one going to be joining us very very soon so thought it was time to start a postnatal thread! Wow can you believe it's that time already!!!

I hope to be joining you on this thread in the next few weeks - have no desire to get to 40 /42 weeks in this heat thank you.

For now congratulations new mummies xxx

nancy - I think I do need to change the bulb in my bedside light, he was engrossed by it last night. There just always seems to be something - last night he was just settling back down to sleep when he pooped, then he got cranky and it took ages to resettle him.

I'm just starting to get hang of being able to (sometimes) put DS down in day when he falls asleep. We haven't bought a baby monitor yet but have just figured we can FaceTime between our iPads for a perfect video monitor!

plate

get a cheap baby monitor on Ebay

I bf in bed, lying on my side and we just fall asleep like that. he wakes up when next hungry.
would you consider trying that?
my boobs get cold sometimes but it's worth the easy falling asleep & staying asleep.

we have a touch lamp that has 3 settings (low, mid, bright) with a 12 W bulb. the lowest setting is quite dark I can't read by it but enough to see to change a nappy quickly. it's on all night.

Grouchy - we are having fast letdown issues too! It's so annoying to have brand new breastfeeding troubles just as I was feeling like we had really got the hang of it. I went to a la leche league meeting and was given a good information sheet - a lot of the information is here - www.llli.org/faq/oversupply.html the other thing that has helped us is trying to feed him before he's super hungry so he is nice and calm and less frantic for milk, which means he gets less eggy when I express off into a muslin to help with the initial let down (I put the muslin over his chest so it's easy to quickly squeeze some off while he is crying about it!)

But he does still get upset about it and then needs lots of winding etc. I'm hoping it settles down soon, it's already better than last weekend. It's real got in the way of trying to pump and give him bottles though!

zing we have the same light that has a 3 settings and often end up sleeping with the lowest setting when he wakes in the night.
I've decided to give up with breastfeeding in the day- ds happily feeds morning, night and evening but during the day just isn't interested so will continue to give him a bottle.

auntie I have exactly the same problem with ds being so clingy- however slight issue in that on saturday we went to grand design live show which was amazing but dh forgot the adaptors for the pushchair so he ended up in the sling all day- which he loved but has done my back in. In so much pain and need to be really careful this week. He just went to sleep in the pushchair very easily so I could have lunch which was amazing

Just caught up with thread - sorry for disappearance again, I find adding to the thread harder since the mobile site redesign so have been sticking to FB. Hope everyone's having a restful night, we're up for the 2nd time already which is making me paranoid about hitting the 4 month sleep regression early. This would be the absolute worst time as DH is working out of the house from 7am to at least 8pm this week and last (got in at 8.45 last night) and I am shattered. Please sleep DS...

Ds has gone from sleeping so well, nearly through the night to waking every hour since 11 with wind for the 2nd night so so tired right now

Ugh the 4 month sleep regression, I remember it well! It seemed to start at 2.5 months with DD1 so I'm waiting for it any day now with DD2.

I have an awful cold at the moment thanks to DD1. Baby girl seems to have avoided it so far thankfully but I'm so drained. There has been a lot of TV watching the last few days.

snow no I haven't tried ds on my back... will have a think about that thanks

ds had got to sleeping for 5-6 hours last week but has another cold so was up after 2 hours last night

rather than think about sleep regression I like to think of it as ds needing extra food to grow and develop iyswim?

Ooh sleep regression. That sounds like something I don't want to know about, but should..

/aside/ They're not feckin kidding about hairloss after pregnancy?! I have long hair so even a couple of hairs looks like a lot but this is way more than two hairs... And it goes feckin everywhere!

Ismarah I'm losing hair too, and as it's long and I'm dark it just seems that there's hair everywhere! It's falling out in clumps!

Ds doesn't seem to need to feed in the night now, but keeps thrashing around in his crib, even though he's still asleep, and it's keeping me awake. Anyone have any ideas what causes this? I'm starting to wonder whether to move him to his own room, even though it seems early to do this, but I didn't get any sleep last night.

Maggie - that's a good way to look at it!

Ismarah - no they are definitely not kidding! I have thick wavy hair so always had quite a bit of shedding but I seriously feel like I'm moulding at the moment. It isn't helped by DS' propensity to grab clumps of my hair when I'm feeding him!

Shedding hair here too - I've had short hair for 5 years and have been growing it and now it's shoulder length I remember it used to do this when it was long before but not as bad as this!

Also seem to be shedding lots of hair here. Well actually its kind of normal but I didn't lose as much during the pregnancy so now I am noticing it more.

Also DD pulling and sucking it when nestling in my shoulders does not help.

The hair loss is something else - if I run my fingers through my hair I take a clump out. It's also gone straw-like. I've spent the last seven years growing out a short crop and I'm tempted to go back.

In positive news: DS has been extremely difficult to put down and has been sleeping face down on my chest most nights, but seems to have turned a corner and is currently sleeping happily in his 'sleepyhead' pillow next to me - this is the first time I've risked putting him down without keeping an arm curled round him, and he is sound asleep. Last night was the first time I've not ended up bringing him back onto me at some point in the night. I've discovered white noise makes a big difference so we have the sound of crashing waves in the bedroom all night - luckily DH seems to find it sophorific too!

plate white noise helps a lot here too. Dh has stopped waking up and staring round asking what the noise is now!

becky ds also trashes because of wind- sadly it wakes him up hence little sleep for us both. Slightly concerned fed already that may have repeat performance tonight. I came to bed at 8 30 just in case!

Another white noise user here. And we're still swaddling as well.

At the moment (10 weeks) she's going to bed at 7 and feeds at around 1am and 5am then up at 7.30/8am. Sometimes she only feeds once at 2ish then up at 7 but it really varies. Naps are in co-sleeper cot with white noise & swaddle as many as 5 times a day for 30-45 mins. If we're out and about she sleeps in sling, pram or in the car. I tend to stay home on days it's just me and her so I can get a few bits done. On the days I have DD1 at home too we go out. Or at least we do when I don't have a stinking cold. I'm feeling horrible, hope it's better tomorrow :(.

The worst time of day is early evening when I'm trying to make dinner and they're both grouchy. They don't call it the "witching hour" for nothing.

I wish I had cracked swaddling (given how much he loves wrap slings) but however tight I swaddled he still managed to kick it off within minutes!

Plate - we are using the woombie big baby (brought on eBay). DS doesn't love being put in it but his wild windmilling wakes him up otherwise! X

What time do you ladies start to put babies to bed? And what is your routine? I think we're a bit too grown-up with our timings..

We don't have a routine yet, and she doesn't have a bedtime as such. She doesn't tend to settle till 11pm, which is a pain.

I'm trying to get into more of a routine, but we're taking it very slowly. I'm thinking there's not much point until her reflux symptoms settle.

Around 7pm or about 1.5 hours from his last nap we do a bath (but only every other night) and then I take DS upstairs, put some classical music on my iPhone (I know, very pfb of me but I swear it's because he finds it calming not because I'm trying to make him a genius no do a little baby massage, swaddle him then feed him to sleep. I'm working on putting him down drowsy but awake but chicken out every night!

I start about 6.30 as she gets increasingly fussy as the evening goes on. Bath when I can be bothered and when DD1 is in a good mood or DH is home in time. Otherwise it's nappy change, sleep suit on, fan on (for white noise), breastfeed, swaddle, cuddle and sing, put down in co-sleeper awake, say night night. Sometimes I have to pop back in for another cuddle but usually all is quiet until she wants feeding somewhere between 12 and 2am. I used to wake her at 10 for a feed but decided to let her wake naturally instead.
Today she did two good 1.5 hour naps for the first time (and a short evening cat nap) so I actually had both girls asleep at the same time for a whole hour. Bliss.
And she rolled front to back for the first time today (10 weeks)!

Ds goes to sleep really well normally start bedtime about 6 as starts to get sleepy- bath every other night otherwise change, feed, story, white noise and down asleep until 12. Previously had fed until 5.30 but at the moment awake every hour but not hungry I'm shattered!