sept 2014: babies are here (or coming soon!)

[allisgood1]

Even though dc3 is end of August, thought I'd start a sept thread :-)

How are you all doing?

dS1 is 9 dats old. Feeding well and surely sleeping well but it's hard to know as I keep falling asleep at night feeding him!

I didn't realise there was advice that you should set an alarm? I've never heard of this! I'm BF and baby wakes me by kicking and snuffling and snorting rather loudly in his bed nest for a feed. Every time he stirs I wake, and like someone else said my body wakes me every the hours anyway. Not that he often goes the full three hours without a feed! Although to be honest I was getting in such a stress about the frequency of feeds I often don't bother looking at the time now. I'm feeding on demand anyway so thought I might as well give up trying to figure out a pattern! I think maybe once we reach six weeks I might consider it again. I also want to introduce a bed time routine at this point, is that a good age to do it? What time are others putting their baby down? Tbh I just take DS up with me at about nine/ten ish and put him in the bed nest but this is obviously too late! He sleeps at all random times anyway, any kind of routine seems a bit mad at the moment!

I'm not bothering with a proper routine for a while yet. I don't want to go to bed myself at 6/7pm which is what I'd have to do as I don't fancy leaving her asleep upstairs alone yet. I'm going to start reading her a book though, those black and white ones, as I've not done that yet.

He didnt wake at all last night. Haf last feed at 11.30 and then 6.30am!!

No alarms here. Feeding on demand and co sleeping. DS is 6 weeks and no routine. I think it's senseless to implement one before 8-12 weeks because of all the growth spurts and changes that take place. I seem to remember doing bath boob bed from 12 weeks before. I have got a TV for our room, just need DH to set it up!

Ds still has a cold. Bless him his nose was so stopped up last night that I had to hold him upright after his first 4 hour stretch because the second I put him down he really got snotty. Will put reflex pillow in bed tonight and see if that helps.

I have to say, the putting to bed after bath and feed has worked well for the last two nights. I just felt b was very unsettled. Last night he slept 7-9.30, 10.15-12.30, 1.15-3.30, 4-7. Means I get some sleep too! Have stopped setting alarm as it was just stressing me out! He lets me know when food is needed!

Our routine used to be bath feed cuddle and bed but now its getting cool bath time is in the morning so its top and tailed, changed feed cuddle and bed. Same for ds2 and ds1 is a little differe t due to his health problems.

I don't think I've ever been so tired - seriously running on empty. P won't settle in Moses basket at night due to wind/silent reflux, so I spend most nights bolt upright holding her and am getting 2.5 hrs sleep on average between 11.30 and 2.30, then a half hour to an hour later if I'm lucky. I got 3.5 hrs one evening while MIL cuddled her, and felt like I'd been on holiday. No naps during day for me due to 3 yr old and her hectic schedule...
Then in addition we're all dosed with the cold, including baby, who now can't lie flat without choking on her own mucus! DH has been given directions to the expressed milk and I'm off to bed before the nightshift!
Sorry for the moan but I can't go on about it in RL as DH suffers from competitive tiredness etc so has been saying he's knackered all day and came home sick from work!

i am setting the alarm, as lewis will sleep for longer than I am comfortable with letting him go without a feed . I try to get one 4 hr stretch of sleep at night and then 3 hr stretches. I try not to let him sleep for more than 2 hrs in the day, but am either busy with chores/eating/sleeping, so usually he does sleep a bit longer than 2hrs. if he's been cluster feeding, I would let him sleep 4.5hrs at night and maybe 3 hrs in the day. no routine implemented here yet, although he seems to naturally feed to sleep around 8/9pm. I am so tired I am happy to go to bed then. marjal, that sounds really tough, my toddler is in nursery, thk god, so I can nap when baby naps, although I only got 1 long nap out of him today

marjal I partly know how you feel but I don't have another child or colds to deal with! I also spend the night holding DS upright for his reflux, luckily expressing enough for DH to do one feed so I can hopefully sleep for a couple of hours. Feels relentless

will mostly switch to feeding on demand at 6 weeks, but may gradually build up the long night sleep so boobs can adapt

Oh my word. B has been getting a bit of a sore tummy after night time formula feeds - not day time ones. However, he was crying and I just turned on a white noise app - he went straight to sleep. It was like he had been knocked out. Completely bizarre. Bless him.

Anyone else got a baby who gets sore tum after formula at night? Any ideas?

Hope you had a good time ella
I think it was quite due to mn being down most of the day

baby doing ok

Hello all :)

Eli, suffered from projectile vomiting on Fri night which was a real worry he couldn't keep two bottles down so I was panicked all night. Luckily he has kept everything down since. Oddly he has also had his best sleep at night, he woke up at 2.20 for his bottle drank only 3oz then slept till 8. Tonight he woke at 1.20 and has slept till 5.50 for his bottle. And thankfully taken a bit more.

Babies are such worries!

Emily does that sometimes cookie, normally when my dh has fed her as he gets her overexcited

She has quite impressive range when she does it and manages to cover everything within range creating me a lot of washing. The HV said not to worry unless she seems distressed by it (which she isn't at all, in fact by the time I have cleaned her up she's normally asking for another bottle ) or is having less wet and dirty nappies than usual, fingers crossed it was just a wind bubble trapped for Eli too and nothing to worry about.

I have had a good weekend so far, got back on my horse for the first time since I was about 6 months pregnant, was really nice to be back in the saddle.

Is anyone mix feeding?

I've been solely breast feeding but he is so hungry it's literally draining! He's feeding around every hour at 3 weeks old, night and day. Sometimes he's barely off the boob!
I'm shattered, I can't put him down at night so he sleeps on me, which means I don't really sleep.

Thinking of giving him formula at night - he's a big baby, born at over 9lbs, so maybe he just isn't getting enough. He also vomits a lot, although most of the time it's only a small amount rather than projectile, so perhaps that's adding to the problem.

Advice welcome!! x

Sorry LH, nothing useful from me - just that ds did that a couple of times due to growth spurt and even now he sometimes sleep on boob and wakes up hungry in less than an hour.
I just wanted to say whenever I am really really tired my milk production goes down a lot, I know cause suddenly my breast feel softer and no leak and then ds wants to be feeding more often and I know he may not be getting enough - as soon as I manage 3-4 hours sleep after drinking lots of water then more milk is there... You may want to give yourself a rest somehow?
Just remember if you think it is growth spurt and your aim is to exclusively bf, then you have to let him continue bf which helps in generating more milk...

is he on for long enough, lh, like 15 -20 mins on the 1st side, or is he dropping off on the breast before then? ie, is he not taking enough to sleep for longer? yes, in theory, he should remain solely on the boob to increase ur supply, but practically u can't continue with so little sleep. I would give formula early evening so u can try and get some sleep & then b/f between 12am-6 am as u can boost ur supply most at this time. getting some sleep will boost ur supply

Thanks Nazly, I appreciate it! I will persevere with the bf, as I don't really want the hassle of formula plus not knowing what effect it might have on his tummy. We have a trip to Australia in December and bf will be so much easier it would be great to continue. Just feels never-ending at the moment!

It's good to know others are experiencing the same and it's nothing unusual xx

Oh LH that sounds really difficult. Hoping you get some rest soon. xx

DD still seems to be getting trapped wind / colic a lot at night. This is getting very draining for both of us as it means she wakes for a feed and it's just a nightmare to settle her to sleep again. Last night for example she woke at 3am and I couldn't get her back to sleep until 6.45am. I have a horrible cold today as well and was really struggling to keep going by then. Not much more I can do either than to give infacol and wind her lots.

Oh, and thought I'd repost the link to the weight loss thread for us in case anyone missed the previous link I posted. xxx

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/postnatal_clubs/2199364-September-mummas-weight-loss-thread?pg=1

Kitkat - Emily was really suffering with a windy belly and colic and the health visitor suggested I try colief which is an enzyme you add to their milk, it reduces the lactose level to help their digestion. I think it has made a difference to her as she is more settled at night now. It is a pain as you have to add to the bottles a certain length of time before feeding (you can use if bf, you have to add to some expressed milk and feed that before feeding as normal) but it is worth the hassle for us so far. It is expensive though but I'm going to ask the GP if he will write her a prescription for it to save me a few quid, but if not I will still buy it anyway.

The HV did suggest I try infacol first but that just made her throw up every time I gave it to her.

Sorry to those with collicky/refluxy babies, that must be tough. Not sure whether ds has it mildly or not as throws up quite a bit at feeds, but he doesn't seem to be in pain. Remember ds1 had it and used to scream and go rigid and all I could do was hold him and pace the floor for hours! Hope all your little ones are feeling better soon! x

LH - keep going with the breastfeeding, lots of things I've read have said lots of mums are tempted to supplement formula as they don't think baby is getting enough, but actually it's just baby growth spurting or comfort feeding or something.... My head is a bit of a fuzz right now. DD is four weeks tomorrow, and she was feeding so regularly I bought an app to track her feeds just to try and make some sense of it - she averages 90mins between feeds (that's from start if one to start of another), but she often has a 5 hour block of sleep at night. Sometimes she's only 30 mins between feeds. It can be exhausting!

Had a round night last night. Baby started wailing at 9pm and didn't stop till 3am. Is that normal?