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!

Congrats coolcat :) we had the exact same, after a few days though he did manage to settle in his carrycot.

Congrats coolcat. Another one with a bubba who I can only put down if he's fast asleep. I think they're all like this, gives them comfort to hear our voice and feel us.

Congrats coolcat!
Just back from the docs with Evie, I thought she had a bit of conjunctivitis, the doctor said it might just be sticky tears, so I've got to take a swab in tomorrow to get it checked. Poor love, seen so many doctors in her short time here already!
She's noisy at night too, she sleeps soundly all day but come night time she grunts, snorts, moans & thrashes around, all wide awake! I can't sleep because I'm expecting any minute the moans to turn into wails. I'm also worried she's making all the noise because she's in a bed away from me so I end up picking her up & cuddling her, which makes her stop grunting but then just as I think she's nodded off I put her back & it starts again!
I've ordered a sleepyhead bed guard from john Lewis the reviews seem wonderful I hope it helps! It better do for the price! lol
Also ordered a perfect prep machine which came yestrday, it worked once then broke! I'm exchanging it tomorrow, it is rather wonderful I was just a bit gutted at 2.30 this morning to find it wouldn't chuffing work & had to wait for the sodding kettle again! Does anyone make up formula in advance? I know they say not to, but so many relatives did...

dear we make up enough bottles to last us 24hrs, I cannot be faffing around with the kettle 3-4 times through the night. We were using pre-made bottles but it was getting to expensive. I am also trying to breastfed so offer boob first then bottle. If he doesn't take the boob, I then pump. I do miss using the starter pack.

Ds is doing better sleeping in his bed :) he can't stand being swaddled though it makes him cross and only calms down when he gets his arms out. Looking forward to him getting to the right weight for a gro bag!

I may be naughty but I lay DS on his tummy. Makes such a difference!!

Dinah we are making 2-3 bottles up at a time. Like Cookie, I can not be faffed making them up each time, especially when he is screaming for a feed!

dinah we have the perfect prep machine, we got it when DD2 (now 16 months) was still a baby after our bottle warmer broke, I'd never be without it and would definitely get another one if ours stopped working. Expensive but so much quicker than using a bottle warmer or the kettle, and worth it's weight in gold if it stops the hungry screaming baby waking everyone else up in the middle of the night! But before that we made in advance, just don't store the bottles in the fridge door as it isn't cold enough.

coolcat congratulations, I'm another with a fast labour, 2hours 2 minutes from the first contraction. I've paid the price for it combined with being DC4 though, I think I have a prolapse :(. Seeing MW tomorrow to be discharged so will mention it to her.

Thanks everyone you have put my mind to rest. All the rules they give you terrify me! My sterliser has been working overtime too & I'm not sure it really needs to be, pretty sure my gran wouldn't have sterilised everything to the moon & back! X

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Thanks for that red!

Congrats Ella :) clothes is interesting, everyone said we'd be given do much newborn stuff as gifts and we really haven't, everyone has done the total opposite and bought loads of massive stuff!

I was told today I have a slight infection starting after episiotomy :( had a few tears tonight as I'm in so much pain and really thought after day ten I'd start to feel better. Also seem to have a lot if tummy ache, I've got a fairly sensitive stomach and I've changed my diet massively to cope with anaemia and breastfeeding. Oh dear this is all very wo is me... But it is 3am and I'm tired.

Congrats Ella!!

People got Jessica big clothes too lol. Ah well it'll come in useful eventually.

Transfers to crib have been very long winded tonight. :(

Congrats ella good to hear you are doing well, I hope the restful nights continue! You might be lucky!
Oh no honey sorry you have got an infection, the last thing you need , hope it clears up very soon, lots of water help flush it out.
We're the same re. Clothes. Evie is living in the same few sleep suits I got her, thinking too that everyone would buy first size. She's still quite small so doesn't yet fit newborn. I'm trying to wait it out as she's got tonnes of older clothes! Washers on overtime!
Does any one else have a sicky baby? We changed Evie from sma to cow & gate comfort as she was constipated, it's sorted her poop out now but she still has bouts of bringing the milk up, sometimes on a grand scale! I don't know if it's just normal? She also seems to struggle getting it through the newborn teats, it's very thick. I bought some variflow teats, which she can't get in her mouth! And also tried number 2 teats but she takes the milk too fast & ends up bringing it all back up! Aaargh! I don't know whether to try another thinner formula again, or do you think that would play havoc on her system?
It's also hard to tell if she even likes this milk, she pulls the most disgusted look when the bottle goes in her mouth! Again, not sure if that's just normal baby face?! Lol

honey I got my stitches infected the antibiotics have cleared up all the infection. I lost my stitches to the infection and my wound gapped. They thought I would need stitches but it has healed fine.

ella I have a fissure and it hurts like a bitch, going back to the dr's next week to get something else for it!

We didn't get any newborn stuff, ds is only now reaching that weight 5 weeks after his birth! Got shed loads of older stuff!

Sorry dinah can't help with bottle info. Thank you cookie I'm pretty paranoid about them having to restitch! It's one thing in the hospital on a post delivery high and I don't even remember the anaesthetic but having to go in and have it done now scares me so much!

DS is wearing lots of 0-3 month stuff which is huge on him. I thought it pointless getting smaller stuff after I realised we probably needed more stuff because he gets through it so quick. We bought a bunch of cheap 0 - 3 month sleep and body suits from Morrisons in the end. We have a drawer full of bigger stuff; I'm amazed at how much stuff random people have bought us (I think we have got more because of all the redundacies at DH's work too. His last week is next week, but most people left this week).

DearDinah I thought the point of newborn teats was precisely to make it difficult to get milk through as it minicked breast feeding better. What bottles are you using? We started off on the standard tommy tippee ones but switched to the anti-colic ones and they are miles better at stopping DS getting windy/sick.

Also If your DD is throwing up a lot, I would wonder how much food she is getting and whether its a little too much. I think babies, particularly ff ones don't always know when enough is enough. So sick it back up if they have too much. I'm finding it really difficult to judge how much is right with expressed milk as it is (with the added agony of not wanting to waste a drop as its such a labour to get in the first place) and its supposed to be even harder with formula.

Thanks red perhaps that's the case, she's just always rooting for food, I just thought feed on demand so stick a bottle in! HV's coming Friday, I think a bit of sick is preferable to constipation so I'll persevere with this brand. She's not cross when she pukes so it can't be uncomfortable.

Are you definitely sure its rooting for food? Some signals can look like rooting for food, but are for other things.

DS looks like a bit like he's still rooting for food when he has wind or if he is looking for comfort.

Yes agree with red on that one. I was always putting DS on the breast at the slightest sign of rooting. Midwife told me to try and comfort in other ways if he's not due a feed (roughly every four hours) because otherwise he will always want the breast for comfort which is not sustainable. Of course sometimes he genuinely is just hungry outside of the four hours, and to be honest in the middle of the night I'll do anything to settle him so will just pop him on.

It's really hard though trying to figure out what they want!

Honey I'm not sure why your mw told you that, if you're bf it should be on demand, not to a schedule especially do early on. 4 hours between feeds is too far apart for a bf baby. Schedules can affect milk supply.
Bottle feeding is quite different.

I don't stick to it religiously and if baby is really sucking then I put him on. But when it's only been an hour I give him to DH and he soon settles. I'm sure he just smells milk on me so tries to root. If nothing works I do feed him as he must be hungry. Seems to be working. If I fed every time he was rooting he'd be feeding all day, he's a bit of a Velcro baby. He's fine though, had a weigh in yesterday and he's piling it on. I was really pleased :) midwife didn't mean stick to a routine as such, perhaps I worded it badly. She just said that feeding isn't always the answer so if I think he's fed quite recently then try other ways to settle him before feeding again. We were having a conversation about blood blisters at the time, maybe she was just trying to be nice and give my nipples a break! To be fair it worked, both DS and I are much happier.

Agree with showme honey. Bf babies sometime suck to increase supply during a growth spurt. I feed on demand which means when bouncing, walking, etc doesn't work he gets boob. I don't care if he comfort sucks, it's completely natural for them. Some people give a dummy, I prefer to give boob. They do outgrow it. And 4 hours is far too long for small babies in the day. DS is every 2 in the day and every 4-6 at night.

Dinah, on the subject of dummies have you tried this yet? If baby wants to suck a dummy will really help without over feeding her. If she takes the dummy (after you've introduced it and she's taking to it) then she doesn't need a feed. If she keeps spitting it out then it's probably feeding time.

I agree when bouncing and walking doesn't work then I will feed so I am feeding on demand? And I understand sucking will increase supply. I don't have a supply problem and my baby isn't hungry. Not one healthcare professional has told me that my baby is hungry or going too long between feeds. He is a good weight and very content so I'm not going to wake him every two hours to feed during the day if he's not demanding it. Every baby is different.

I've also been told similar to Honey by a couple of midwives. In practise I don't think its right, as DS wouldn't manage four hours even with expressed breast milk from the bottle. But one of the reasons I've ended up expressing was precisely because DS was using the boob for comfort more than food though and this was causing problems.

At the moment, DS is fed partly when he wants and partly on a schedule (which is really of his own making). So its varying between hour and a hour and 3 and a half between feeds depending on how much he's had. I try not to feed more often, unless he's really screaming for it and we've tried everything else first as he will take one for comfort (and then promptly chuck it up again).