September 2006 babies

[Lysettes]

Start of our september 2006 post natal thread!

we kind of did the same thing with the 10pm feed last night, and jacob went through till 2am, which is much better for him, and then through till 6am.

we still haven't used a dummy - we just held out and he's finally found his thumb! at least we know now that if he wakes in the night it's because he is hungry, and not just wanting to suck - it's amazing - he can't keep the thing out of his mouth now. Ithink it just needed to get a bit bigger for him to be able to suck it properly and think it's worth it!

have had a good long chat with DH and told him how utterly fed up I was with what happened. We were supposed to be going out for a nice lunch to celebrate my birthday, and me saying i wanted to cancel it to just forget about this birthday seemed to make him realise how much he's upset me (he knows how i like my food )

Also have done lots of research and used your info (thanks Marls) and also spoke to the GP in passing when I went today who said "well that's a new one on me!"

thanks for all your support everyone - it really helps!

Another good nite with ds. sleep at 9pm to 5am than fed and slept again until 6:45am! Daytimes still higgeldy piggeldy but hey! who's complaining?! Just wanted to share ny good news!

Morning everyone. We were using the dummy with good results but for the last week she's started to rejet it which means more cuddling instead which is a bit of a pain when I want to get things done! Lysettes - tht's fab ds has found his thumb. My ds found his quite early on too and I would be thrilled if dd does the same.
Liquid - great news about the migraines. I'm going to start doing more bottles in December I think. We currently do two, usually in the evening and one at the 2am feed so dh can help me. But I want to have finished breast feeding by Xmas so will probably go cold turkey in December. Would love to be on one of these 7am,11am,3pm, 7pm,11pm with one early am feed if necessary by then but I'm probably living in cloud cuckoo land

we are not having much luck with the dummy either - although it is an orthodontic one, so maybe it's just slipping out rather than him spitting it out, he doesn't seem too bathered though.
We have injections today, DS1 has his pnuemococcal and DS2 has his 1st jabs, the HV thought it would be a good idea to do them together - I am beginning to wonder....
I have got my mum coming with me, so we can take one each. I have the supplies of calpol and chocolate on hand as well.
Ds1 seems to be better with Ds2 this week, he is still suffering with his teeth, so his sleep isn't great, but his behaviour towards DS2 has definately improved thank goodness...

Liquid, thanks for sharing the sleeping tip - I might try it tonight.

Mabel - good luck with the injections today.

MIL has gone home now and it wasn't too stressful, although she was surprised that DH is helping out with nappy changes at night. She was telling me how her DH has never changed a nappy and how my 2 SILs husbands never change nappies or do bottle feeds. She suggested I go into the other room with DS so DH always gets a good sleep. I've realised that I'm very lucky with my DH.

Anyway the night DH got back he came down with food poisoning so yesterday I was rushing round trying to look after both DH and DS and the cats were having huge strops and playing up because we had run out of cat biscuits. One of them was in such a state she came into the bedroom, looked at me and then jumped in DS's cot as she knew that would wind me up! Things are calmer today thank goodness.

Mabel - how did the injections go? Hope they went smoothly! My ds isn't 2 months until the 14th November so 2 weeks still to go! No 6 week check here either, it doesn't happen until ds' injections which seems a bit strange to me.
Myrtle - lol at your MIL. Why do mothers always think dh/dps should get all the sleep!! I know they go to work but it is just as hard (dh says harder!) being with 2 kids all day than being at work. Sometimes I wish I was at work and dh was a SOHD but he admits he would be climbing the walls!!

Myrtle, I remember just after DS was born, DH's father taking him aside and saying, 'Don't you think you're a bit too hands on?' All because DH was changing DS and had mentioned how he'd given hima bottle of EBM in the night. I'm still about it now nearly 2yrs later! Glad your DH is supportive.

Well, we have tried something different which seems to have worked the last 2 nights. Wehave stopped doing the dreamfeed. It seemed like she slept so well in that first part of the evening and it was taking ages to wake her just enough to feed, then she was taking hardly anything and being unsettled for the rest of the night waking regularly. So,the last 2 nights I have left her to wake on her own. Both nights she's woken between 3 and 4 and then not again until 7. So I've put her down at 7pm, she's slept til 3/4 then again til 7! It's been great! I'll let you know if it continues.

Cruisemum, 9-5 is really good too! Do you dreamfeed him?

Pol, we put central heating in a 2bed house we'd bought to do up 3yrs ago and it cost £3000(with boiler) HTH

Mabel, I'm sure it's 500cals a day on average.
Liquid, glad you've not had a migraine. Hope it continues!

Hi to everyone!

homemama - i don't wake ds for a feed (is that what dreamfeeding is??) He has just fallen into that routine himself. I just hope it continues as we have a big wedding to go to tomorrow in the House of Commons. dd is bridesmaid and i'd love not to look like the living dead!

compo - re: the thumb sucking thing - ds is forever looking for his thumb without success.
When did yours find theirs? If i put it in for him he gags. ds is 8 weeks,

mabel - hope jabs went ok. ds got his monday.

Haven't done any expressing yet. What time day does anyone recommend? Got pump and bottles ready just have not taken teh plunge!

Message withdrawn

Myrtle - LOL at your cats!

Compo - Actually, yes, our jobs are just as hard - thankful DH understands, so haven't had to pester him to do 1/2. He knows I've got his whole family in the backseat at 120 km/h on the freeway every day. He has to deal with some difficult people, and I've got to deal with some dangerous fellow drivers, so best not to be a zombie. SAHM work is serious business and I've got to be awake for it. It's amazing to me that more husbands/MILs don't understand this. (Thankfully my MIL does.)

Good tip Liquid - we may try it As it is, baby's waking at 3:30/4:00am, then again about 5:30/6. We think those two feedings will merge relatively soon. I'm in charge of them, but as long as I get to bed at 7:30pm, don't mind starting the day at 3am!

Have started watching "Jericho" and "Ugly Betty" too; just for some extra nighttime videos. Do y'all receive those shows?

Saw a friend who is due in Dec. at kids' party yesterday; made me SO thankful all that's over!! She's already gained 40 lbs with 6 weeks to go, and is constantly out of breath. We've all been there!!

Wow Homemama at your DD's sleeping! F is having a feed around 11, and still then waking around 3 and 7 - you've got it sussed!! Well done! And Cruisemum, sounds like you have it sorted too. !!

Norms, great to hear from you again, it sounds like you're doing well too. Are you looking forward to going into the office again next week? Today, I dreamt of it...!! I had 5 mums, 5 toddlers and 3 babies under 4 months in my lounge between 3 and 5. It was total and utter CARNAGE. DS1 had had enough by 4.30 and started saying he wanted to go upstairs for a bath. i.e. away from the crowd!

Marls, never heard of Jericho or Ugly Betty.

Cruisemum, re. expressing, I express first thing in the morning - while F feeds on one side, I express the other (about 4-5 oz). And then again in the evening (try to get at least 7 oz), as late as I can bear to stay up for it - usually about 9.30 then! I would hate to have to get that pump out more often...

On thumb sucking, DS1 found his around the 3 month mark, and it was great.. Before that, they just seem to flail about, and I don't think they even realise those things with fingers on that keep hitting them in the face even belong to them... they certainly have no control over their hands anyway!

I have a "dummy" question - Fraser seems to like his, it settled him back to sleep earlier on today when he woke. He hasn't needed it at night at all, or for his first nap of the day, just the one around lunchtime. He didn't spit it out today after I put it in when he woke - does that matter? or should I go in and gently remove it once he's asleep? Wouldn't that wake him up? I am just paranoid about him becoming dependent on the dummy... probably something I shouldn't worry about at all.

Fraser had his jabs last week - it was fine, although he made a horrible squealing noise as they went in, which DS1 found rather disturbing! He did then wake up more that night, but apart from that, and that might not have been related, I don't think he really noticed them.

Off to catch up on Eastenders now.... Got all this week's episodes to watch. Can someone tell me what happened to Jake, as I missed all last week, and he seems to have disappeared after Johnny Allen said "kill him, Jake" to his cell-mate, which I guess was misinterpreted as him wanting Jake dead rather than Sean. So am presuming Jake is dead?

someone tell me what has happened to jake as well???? i've missed so much of EE, am watching emmerdale instead - is that really sad???

cruise jacob found his thumb properly this week - 15 weeks, before that i think it was just that his fingers were too small, and he was sucking on his knuckles!

a really bad night last night - jacob decided that waking up every hour and 3/4 was a good idea! does anyone else know of a growth spurt around 8 weeks corrected age (16 weeks actual age now), as he was feeding well at each waking - not just waking for attention. he is doing well with his thumb comforting himself, so that is something at least.

hope everyone has a really great weekend

lol
xxx

Morning ladies!

Well, we had our gas switched off on Wednesday & it wont be reconnected as we have a major leak The long & short of it is that we have to have a new boiler & new pipes laid which is going to be approx 3-4 grand...just the money we'd saved to finish the kitchen & allow me so extra breathing space re work. We've been without central heating & hot water so it's been a bit of a nightmare...especially with a 6 week old! Annoyingly Transco wrote to us & said they were carrying out the works in July (when we had plus 30c every day!) but they've faffed around & have only just carried out what they set out to do (which is how we discovered the leak). Anyhow, it's really cold in out house despite using a couple of those fan heaters....not much fun getting up 2-3 times a night to feed Jack!!

J is 7 weeks today...just where has the time gone?!! Still feeding about 11pm, 2ish, 4 or 5 ish...the only set pattern he has is going down at 6.30-7 with DD so at least we have an evening so to speak..well that's until I go to bed at 8.30 -9!!

I don't watch EE but I did happen to catch the end of Emmerdale last night (waiting for Corrie!) & saw good old Madge!!! So, what's the story between her & is it Lily??

Lysettes, F also woke up more often around 8-9 weeks, and I read somewhere that there are usually growth spurts around weeks 3,6,9... F's lasted a couple of nights (and coincided with jabs), and the last 2 nights, he's been back to waking once between 3 and 4 (although last night, 2.30) and then 7ish. So don't worry, normality (what's that??!!) will return!!

Taking DS1 to a soft play party today, he's really excited, mostly about the present we've bought (an Elmer jigsaw) - think he thinks it's for him... oh dear!

Cori - poor you!
cruisemum - I would say express in the morning when you have more milk.
Homemam - that is interesting what you were saying about sleeping. DS really struggles to wake for the late feed which I usually do at 9.30 - 10pm, and he never takes much and goes through til 3.30am - 4ish. Although he's been doing this since day 1 - I did think that he would be going a bit longer now. He is 13lb 7oz now - they weighed him yesterday, so it seems the 12lb thing isn't necessarily true.
Ds2 didn't have injections in the end yesterday - he was only 7 weeks, and the HV decided that it would be best to wait til he's 9 weeks (our clinic is once every 2 weeks), so he just had his medical exam which as fine.
Ds1 had his pneumococcal though - what a trauma!!! For me - not him!!! He starting squealing and I was almost in tears, but as soon as I said to him did he want some chocolate, he stopped crying imediately! The power of chocolate eh?!!

Cori - So sorry to hear about that. What a nightmare.

Homemama, hope that happens for us soon!

Claire - Were you hosting a playgroup?

"Jericho" is too much about US & would bore anyone else so don't think they'll export it - but you might be seeing "Ugly Betty" at some point - it's doing v. well here!

from your & Mabel's descriptions of the squealing I am NOT looking forward to seeing Jameson get his shots.

Liquid - Glad to hear there've been no migraines!! Hope that keeps up.

Cruisemum - How was the wedding?

DS1 and I have had our flu shots - and DH gets his at work - so yay; we're covered!

Just went to try to get a book signed by Paula Deen; she has a Southern Cooking show & I had never heard of her but MIL watches her religiously so thought a signed cookbook would make a great Christmas gift. Anyway, there were 3,000 people in line! Three. thousand. people. We left.

Thanks Marls - me too! Had the warning signs for one last night after going out with DH for an indian and red wine but as it was his turn to do the night feed I just went back to sleep and woke up fine at 7am! great!

Christmas shopping! doesn't feel like it should have come around so quickly - I braved the trafford centre today to try on some bridesmaid dresses and beieve me, next time, baby is staying at home - it was heaving! We had DS2's 2nd birthday today too which was lovely - he's in love with his new 'Cranky' for his wooden railway. We were at my folks today and got home pretty late so he's getting more presents tomorrow - lucky boy! He's so obsessed with thomas the tank at the moment, it's been really easy to shop for him this year - all you ladies with your first DS's have all this to look forward to - much more fun than barbie!

Cori - hope it's not too cold! We had the same thing happen to us when we bought our first house and all the money we'd put by to do it up disappeared all in one go. It's so frustrating, hope it works out for you.

Marls - wow that was some book signing!!! A few more people than Paul Burrell then!!! (princess di's ex butler - in case you didn't know) his picture was in Heat a couple of weeks ago - with him sitting at a desk waiting for his adoring fans to turn up at his book signing - I guess they must have got the wrong day - hee hee!
Well Ds1 has been awake now since about 3.30pm - he has just dropped off, so almost 5 hours with only a couple of little 10 minute naps. The reason being - he was hungry....
I have tried to BF exclusively, but quite honestly he is such a big bruiser I just don't know how I am going to manage it - tonight I had to give im 6oz of formula, which he polished off and then was back on the boob again after that! If I hadn't given him that formula he would have been clamped on my boob all night getting more and more frustarted and me getting more and more sore.

Mabel - that's exactly why we started giving a couple of bottles of formula in the evening and night. It's just too much to cope all on your own.
I've been feeling really down the last couple of days and crying on dh. And guess what, AF returned this morning so I'm putting it down to that!! Think it must be because i'm not feeding that much at night now because of the bottles. Dd will be 8 weeks on Thursday. Settling in the evenings is still taking it's time. We decided to introduce a bath into the routine last night. So bath at 6.30pm, bottle at 7pmish, in cot and 7.30pm, out of cot at 7.45pm (!) and so it went on until about 9pm with a couple of top up breast feeds. Before we were able to use the dummy as we knew she was tired, but she refuses it now so we have to rock her, wind her etc etc. Does nay one have this trouble? I'm sure ds was much more easy going at this stage. The days are the same. Feed her, wind her, she falls asleep or looks sleepy, put her in bouncy chair and then she's wide awake, yelling again and so the cycle begins again. She doesn't like the play gym as well which is such a shame as ds loved it by this time and sometimes I think she's bored in her chair when I'm trying to make ds his dinner etc etc
Marls - 3,000 people Was she going to stay signing all night?!! lol at Paul Burrell. Can't stand the man!

lysettes and marls, - re: frantic feeding - ds had a bout of extreme hunger a couple of days ago at just 8wks. I guess the 9week growth spurt has come early! Fortunately he seemed to have filled up enough during the day so it didn't disturb his night .

clairmow - 12 weeks for thumb location then? Only 4 weeks to go hopefully!

Mabel and clairmow - Re expressing - I am a bit worried as we tried ds with a bottle yesterday (formula)and he WOULD NOT take it. He became quite hysterical just like he does with a dummy. I'm glad I hadn't spent hours expressing it only to chuck it away! Will he get used to bottle eventually I wonder. dd had no prob with dummy or bottle.
marls - re wedding, it was lovely. dd did fantastic job as bridesmaid but ds not at all impressed with the pomp and pageantry of the whole occasion!

lysettes - was jacob premature?

Cruisemum - so pleased the wedding went well. Persevere with trying the bottle, it'll probably take a while for him to get used to. Our DS1 'found' his thumb about 12-13 weeks last time too so you're not far off.

Mabel - my LO's a bit of a bruiser too now and I just wasn't keeping up and last night I did formula too. Part of me felt a bit sad but I managed nearly 6 weeks exclusively which is nearly 6 weeks more than DS1 ever had and he's just fine! Mum didn't help with the 'you know now you've BF him you'll feel like you're poisoning him if you give him formula' - huh?! She should join the MN mafia! I'm still battling with the BF thrush too so I think I'm doing well to be carrying on at all, though I am mainly expressing at te moment to give my nipples a break!

Compo - we got to that point wth DS1, in between when he refused the dummy and found his thumb. I'm afraid that was the point at which we decided he was old enough to learn about dark, sleep, and that when mummy and daddy put you down that's it. We went back into the room every ten minutes, stroked his head and said 'sleep time'. First night took 1h30mins, 2nd night about an hour, 3rd night 30mins and then every night for a while he'd cry for 5-10mins before dropping off. I know what I've just described is controlled crying but it worked for us and the results were worth the heartache on the 1st and 2nd night - but we're also the sort of (horrible) people who would stick to it, and I know a lot of people don't want to put themselves through it let alone the baby. BUT (as I'm sure I keep saying) DS also had reflux and cried almost constantly when awake anyway - and we knew reflux was made worse by not getting enough sleep so it had to be done really. I have a friend who was in a similar situation and did exactly the opposite of me and cuddled constantly - 2 years down the line both the children are happy and sleep well, she just came the long way round. All this stuff you hear about sleep associations and bad habits can be corrected at any point as long as you put some effort in IMO so if for now you're happier doing the rocking and cuddling then keep going with it.

About being bored in her chair - as we couldn't really lie DS1 down we couln't use the play gym much either - I found putting the chair in front of flashing christmas lights or windows media player fractals kept him amused. Also we had a car seat travel arch that clipped on. He also like to watch things on the television - I'm sure you can get secular stuff but I had a 'praise baby' DVD which is just full of images of happy smiling faces, bright coloured flowers etc and there's music in the background - simple but effective!

to add to Liquid's ideas about things on the TV, the Baby Einstein DVDs are great. We had Baby Mozart for DS1 and he adored it from about 3 months to at least a year.

Also, Cruisemum, DS1 fought the bottle for a while too and it was heart-wrenching seeing him scream. I gave in a lot and BF instead, but kept trying to get him to take it. Eventually, he went back to it. Now I'm having a bit of a problem with DS2 who seems to prefer a bottle of EBM, which he takes no hassle whatsoever, while he sqeals and squirms a lot on my (right in particular) breast.

Compo, poor you. I don't really know what to suggest, apart from I did find with F's screaming a couple of weeks ago, now that I'm much stricter about making sure he feeds for a good time each time rather than constant snacking, the wind has definitely got less. I don't know if that really is what you're DD has got though. I did find lots of little feeds just exhausting though, and now F's on 4 big feeds a day and 1 late night one, he has less wind and seems happier in between them.

Jacob was born mid July instead of September - I think Lysettes was 32 or 34 weeks and had pre-eclampsia? I hope that's right, from my fuggy memory banks! It sounds like he's doing really fantastically now!

Liquid - LOL; DS1 loves Thomas so much Jameson's nickname is officially "James The Baby" (as opposed to James the Train! ) We have the takealongs, the tiny metal ones.

LOL at Paul Burrell & empty signing - wouldn't have known his name; had heard her butler had written something, but that's about it!

I think Paula Deen could only stay for 2 hours, not sure what happened to everyone else! Read today in papers that 1st one in line was there at 5am!! Her story is kind of neat; MIL told me when husband left her with two young boys, all she knew how to do was cook ...

To add to Claire's & Liquid's suggestions - we also loved HBO's "Classic Baby" series. (Link )

Wow, Liquid, at your Mum! You don't seem bothered in the least. Good for you!! I think you've done fine even getting to 6 weeks.

Know many in my playgroups whose babies aren't sleeping through the night yet at 6 months, 7 months ... I keep my mouth shut but honestly can't fathom putting up with that!