October 2006

[Bronze]

Am I the first one here or have I completely missed the thread? If this is the only thread please come and join me
Bron

congratulations

cautiously pops head round door to say hi....

just us guys for the minute I think. no doubt will be inundated soon as they all pop out...

aha! just found it - had been slightly confused about idea of postnatal thread and couldn't see where it was...

Anyway, somewhere else to whinge and moan - and so much to moan about - lets start with:

1. Looking after 2 children - ohmigod what a bloody nightmare, feel like one of those circus acts trying to keep all the plates spinning and simultaneously feel guilty about not spending time nurturing and bonding with new LO and equally ruining my DD's life by having another baby
2. Maternity pads. They are just vile.
3. Fat post preg tummy. Still look PG. First thing my DD said ' why is your tummy still fat mummy? Are you going to have another baby? Can you have a girl baby this time?' Cheers poppet!
4. Sore, swollen, rock hard boobs.
5. Sore girly bits.
6. Baby blues - why do I currently feel like I am solely responsible for everything that is wrong with the world? Crying my eyes out each evening over NOTHING at all. Does it help that I know its just hormones and will pass? - NO.
7. Knowing that I am going to have to leave them both to go back to work in the not so distant future and knowing that it is going to break my heart to do so.

That'll do for now.
Good things: cuddling my LO in to my chest in the middle of the night and stroking his lovely soft hair. Cute little sighs he makes while BFing. Lovely silky baby skin. Waiting for that first smile. Seeing my DD give him a kiss.

It's very quiet on here, hope no one minds if I stay with you October mums to have my moan, dd is 3 and a half weeks old now and dh still hasn't changed a nappy yet. He says she is still too small, but she's nearly 5lb now and she isnt our 1st baby.
sallyrosie, agree with everything, especially how special those cuddles are and seem to make up for all the other difficult times. They do grow so quickly, we should all make the most of our babies whilst they are little.

Hi, dipping my toe on the postnatal waters...

Bensmum, can see that your DH is worried, but he has to do it some time. DH changed DS's nappy for the first time the other day and is now more or less resigned. Could you kind of coach him through it?

Sallierosie: worst thing is sleeplessness. Not sure what we're doing wrong, but DS is placid durng the day but feeding constantly and needing cuddles at night. Won't go o sleep in his crib until the morning. Any ideas?

I wonder if any of you may be able to help me.

My name is Leila and as well as working at Great Ormond Street Hospital I am beginning my child psychotherapy training at the Tavistock Clinic. A requirement of this NHS training course is to observe a baby and mother (or father) for 1 hour per week for 2 years. The purpose is to observe the development of the baby and to train me in observation skills.

It is important that I observe a very new-born baby, which means that I am looking for a baby due in October or November and living in North London.

If anyone would be interested or has any questions they can contact me on: [email protected] or I can give you my phone number.

Thank you
Leila

Hi all,

Thought I should swap over to this thread now that Samantha has been born.

Be nice once all October babies are born and we can meet up in here.

Ans sallyrosie, I like your little list of feelings it exactly mirrors the way I feel. Especially the baby blues one, exactly how I am feeling.

Hi pmoore - not many of us yet amd we have less time online for some reason ... William snoozing now so I'm catching up. How are you getting on?

Hi everyone - congrats to all! Bit overwhelming isn't it? I have a huge list of moans but don't have time to post just now! All I can say is thank the Lordy for parents!! Mine are truly a Godsend! Talk later.x

hey everyone. Justa quick hi to everyone. Hannah still seems to be struggling to get over her incubator experience - she's three weeks old now but screams when she isn't being cuddled and wakes up and screams as soon as you try to put her down whne she is asleep....would be quite funny if not so exhausting - she was held in my arms from 5am yesterday morning until 3.30 am this morning without a break (!) thank heavens for wilkinet slings . Hope no-one else going through similar.

LeileB - I think most of the London mums still haven't given birth yet - why not post on the ante-natel thread? Otherwise come back and post again next week, as it looks as if quite a few of 'the gang' are in the process of havihg babies this week...

Bensmum - know exactly how you feel but I do think they are genuinely scared sometimes. DH finally changed a nappy yesterday then welled up in tears and admitted he'd been terrified of handling her because the last time had been in the operating room when she'd just been born and he was holding her when she suddenly turned blue from head to foot. I think sometimes these husbands of ours aren't as strong as they like to think they are....

Whiffy: William also hates being put down - he's just about used to sleeping between us in bed now, but the crib is another matter. Tried swaddling which seems to help, but he still hasn't gone for more than 1/2 hr without startling himself awake. Odd as he was fine with the hospital cot,

Know what you mean about DHs - he was the one who knew what was gooing on when the alarm went off as the baby's heartbeat dropped and saw him come out with the cord round his neck - everyone was telling me everrything was fine and not to worry. Hormonal tears welling up at the thought...

Whiffy,
thank you for your message. Will re-send next week or so. Am getting slightly worried about finding someone in time...
Was very touched by the image of your baby, Hannah, wanting to be held close after her incubator experience... suppose it makes perfect sense.
Good luck with it!

hi everyone!

Glad to be joining you on this thread, hopefully it won't be too long till everyone has crossed over to us!

I'm also worried that my tummy will never go in. DH helpfully said it looked like I was a very nice Vietnamese pot-bellied pig. Well, at least it made me laugh.

How are you all doing with the babies? Darius had real stomach ache last night and cried loads after a mammoth feed.. spose it takes them a while to get used to the milk coming in. I'm staying with the inlaws here in Belgium, and my mum and other MIL are here this weekend so it's the granny onslaught. But inlaws are so great and just keep feeding me and DH and looking after us.

Before I became a mum I scoffed at friends who said 'I just don't have time to do things like condition my hair'.

Suddenly it all becomes clear why!

whiffy, I would give swaddling a try; works on ours as he struggles a bit and feels as if he's being held and then relaxes.. I also put a little heated pad beside him just to give him a feeling of warmth and comfort.

You get very funny once you're a mother: we decided not to do co-sleeping etc and to have a routine etc etc, but suddenly I felt very sad in the hospital watching him in his little perspex cot and thinking he had to be gradually trained to sleep alone and be alone to fit in with our particular culture and our lifestyle, when your instinct as a mother is to make a big nest and just lie in it with the baby for about 6 months! Hmmm..

W also hada bit of an upset tummy last night - feeding loads then throwing up, then feeding every hr / hr and a half all night - spent most of today in bed with DH dealing with nappies etc Just bathed him for the first time - v stressful!

W is in with us, as he is really not getting on with his cot and it'seasier for feeds. Will try and introduce cot gradually and see how we get on.

Message withdrawn

Milliee: tough, isn't it? Sanity was saved today by staying in bed - DH bringing W along for his feeds then letting me go back to sleep. Prob not practical for every day, but a good interim measure!

I know what you mean about co-sleeping. I'm pretty paranoid as well, but there isn't another option at the moment. At least I cen feel him breathing at night - if he were in the crib (ha!) I'd be checking him every 5 mins so wouldn't sleep anyway. Aim is to get him into that crib eventually, but I want to get the feeding routine sorted first. It's about every 2 hours at the moment, sometimes less. He has a quiet period in the morning when he sleeps for about 3 hours - why can't this be at nght??

Hope you get a bit of sleep tonight.

I think we're all in the same boat? I'm co-sleeping too - so much easier - especially as I have burst some of my internal stitches - had GP round last night - didn't think they did home visits any more but fortunately my GP lives at the end of the road so he popped in on way home... Very very painful (the stitches, not the GP)

However am in very good mood as just saw my mate Ben sail through X factor. Oh yeah, I know all the celebs, me Had him singing at me wedding, I did (really really). If he does become the next Rod Stewart will be very very bizarre as he's just one of our mates down the pub to us.

Have just left Hannah and she is in tears within 5 mins so best get back to her. Have a good night everyone..

xx

just popping in to say hi and congratulations to everyone now joining this thread.
I'm just back from a 3 day trip to the dentist with dd1,ds1, ds2 and dd2 (now 4 weeks old) and despite my worries about coping with dd2 away from home without dh it all went well. Spent a fortune buying hot chocolate for the other children whilst I sat in every cafe in town feeding dd2. And I apologise to anyone in the same travel inn as us on friday night, I think she had a touch of colic.
I would definately recommend a sling or carrier though, especially if you have other children as most of the toilets seem to be up or down stairs, we abandoned the pushchair for my huggababy after the first day.

whiffy, hope the pain eases soon, dd1 thinks Ben is the bees knees.
swizzler, we co slept with ds2, they seem to move into the right positions to keep safe naturally, he is 3 now and still sneaks in in the middle of the night occasionally if we let him.

Hi ladies,am floating around in sleep deprived haze,even though Lexie is fab and spent 7 hrs asleep last night!! i couldnt relax,kept checking she was breathing,warm enough etc etc.Plus my stitches are very uncomfortable,im scared to bend over in case they give,and going to the loo?well the less said about that the better

totally, I'm another sleep deprived one, though he did sleep 2.30 to 6.30 am last night which was great!

Does anyone know how you actually heat expressed breast milk once it's been in the fridge? I'm thinking of starting just one bottle a day of EBM for the 10 pm feed to give DH some bonding time with the baby (but not looking forward to the faff of sterilising etc)...

Gemmity - I'm expressing and fridging milk so I can add lactolase to it (DD is veering on the colicky) - I just zap it for 20 seconds in microwave which seems to get it to the right temperature...

hi ladies, have no right to be here - just having a nosy to see how you're all getting on.
whiffy, I always microwaved EBM for dd but nearly got lynched on mumsnet the other day when I posted about it. - apparently you should NEVER microwave EBM as it changes the composition of it. Each to his own, I say. I shall be doing the same for lo WHEN HE/SHE DEIGNS TO TURN UP!!!

Another way to warm EBM is to put the sterilised bottle of milk in a saucepan or container of hot water for a few minutes until it is warm enough.