November 2014 - newborn thread!

[Greenstone]

Welcome to all the November 2014 babies! Let all the post partum rejoicing and angst begin...

I agree Moggle. Although DD hadn't got to the screaming stage and was just making noises to let me know. She woke up 3 hours later though to make up for it.

dd making 'feed me' noises for the last 2 hours but carries in sleeping even with a nipple in her face. Has refused left boob last few feeds and won't go down in the cot... I have a diva on my hands here.

Morning all. A more peaceful night here after a few days of feeding frenzy! She is actually having a nap, not on me which is bliss!
Her big sis was playing and singing to her earlier and the mini one let out a big hearty chuckle with a grin. Older sister burst into tears with happiness. Bless.

utopian - my csection scar is healed. It is red but not open or raw, no scabs etc. I'm 4.5 weeks down the line. my wound inside is still giving me pain though. I thought it was well on the way to being healed but have overdone it recently and my lochia is back with a vengeance - a heavy bleed again. Does anyone else have this???
csection recoverers - are you driving yet? Desperate to have my independence back.

Hi all, I've made it over to the other side! I had my DD by c section on 28th Nov. Getting to grips with breast feeding but had awful day yesterday as she was feeding and feeding but not settling at all. Dh thinks that she had trapped wind so have given her some infacol this morning and she seems better. Dh has been giving her a formula feed at night so I can sleep a bit longer and she gulps it down (she's a big baby, 8 pounds 13 at birth)

You may have already covered this earlier in the thread, but is it normal for me to be having night sweats? I wake up dripping with sweat even though it's not very warm in the room. Worried that I might have an infection but I feel fine apart from some pain in my wound.

Morning Ladies,

Had my follow up on Friday and BP is back in the normal range and I've haven't had any heart palpitations. Feeling s lot better in my self although I've had a few emotional moments. DH was brilliant followed everything the 999 handler advised. Still awaiting one more test before I get the okay to drive.

DS is on a cluster feeding frenzy. Averaging every 1-2 hours instead of his 3-4. My boobs can't keep up so I've been topping him up with formula. Despite the midwife's protestations I'm formula feeding solely at night as it means I get bigger chunks of sleep. Another midwife wasn't fussed and said to do what works for our family.

Another thing I just remembered, to ask before he wakes and the relentless feeding and nappy change cycle begins.

Woke up this morning for his 3am feed and got the biggest shock as DS was at the top of the Moses basket. I put him down at the bottom well tucked in and somehow he's managed to wriggle his way out to the top. I put him down after that and took extra care tucking him in and he was out again. Anyone else had this and is there ways to prevent it? There's no way for him to wriggle down under the sheets which are still tucked in but I'm concerned about him being outside the covers and possible being cold.

Workfree I imagine what will happen is that your body learns to produce damn all milk at night, but if you're gonna continue with formula at night it surely doesn't matter. What I don't know is whether it'll tip over into affecting your daytime supply. One MW said to me that it's the nighttime feed that regulates everything? But surely that sounds odd? You may have to do a bit lf Googling there.

We had a rough night. He was fussy from 3.30am on. He keeps falling asleep after only 5 mins on the boob at night and I can't bloody wake him! So then of course he wants another feed too often, and he gets pissed off and starts crying. Then he swallows too much air and starts screaming etc.

At 5.30 DH woke up to me in tears, with screaming back-arching baby at my poor sore boob, and with my milk completely drenching his GroBag from all DS's messing around. DH insisted on giving him the bottle of EBM in the fridge but then of course after all that trouble DS had no interest. And DH took off his GroBag to change his nappy but pulled the zip the wrong way and broke it! I almost started sobbing over the stupid zip!

Then DS started another screaming fit and we fed him dentinox and everything and nothing worked. Around 6.30 DS finally fell asleep with my arm around him but as soon as I pulled my arm away he started to awake. So I didn't really sleep.

Then at 9am DH brought him downstairs and he drank 90ml of the EBM. Its just so much easier to get it into him with bottles!

So lots of hollow-eyed silence in this house this morning. Thank God DH wasn't working today.

Honestly my aim with the breastfeeding now is just getting to 3 months. I honestly don't know how people extend it to 2 years etc. Its too exhausting.

Middling night here, usual story of overfeeding and reflux and wind and wah wah wah. To settle her before bed I have to feed her til she's full but fussing, then get out of bed myself (sigh) and do the Harvey Karl thing of tight swaddle, turn dd on her side and make loud shushing noises while jiggling her. It takes about 5 mins for her to stop squawking and maybe 5 more to shut her eyes. Then I have to wait 15 more mins from shut eyes before it's safe to put her in the sleepyhead, preferably slightly on her side. It worked 2 out of 3 attempts last night. She's only done a max 3 hour stretch for the last few nights but thems the breaks with a 5 week old I guess.

So, my DD is STILL awake - she's been up since 3:00 and has slept maybe 30 mins since then in short 5 minute bursts here and there. I am knackered. DP, having slept through her howling in the night, woke up and promptly buggered off up to work on the new house so am sitting on the sofa trying desperately not to cry while she fusses and cries and feeds incessantly, only to puke it back up 10 minutes later. She's on the verge of sleep every 20 minutes or so but jerks awake at the last minute.

WorkFree, my DD has done the upwards wriggle since birth. Not much seems to stop her, so I've just taken to putting her to sleep with a long sleeved vest on with built in scratch mitts, so she can't pull them off, and socks on under her sleepsuit to make sure she doesn't get cold out of the blankets even if she gets a bit cooler. You could try a GroBag though? That would be wriggle-proof, if all else fails!

anna what you said about aiming to get to 3 months of breastfeeding sounds a lot like how I felt with DD1. From about this point onwards I was in tears most nights for one reason or another for the first 3 months, saying that I couldn't breastfeed her anymore and was giving up the next day. It is the hardest thing I have ever persevered with, and even getting to 3 months is a great achievement and a great start for your baby. As it happens, it did start to get easier for me that time after the first 3 months and I breastfed her until she was nearly 3. Unfortunately, I can't guarantee the same will happen to you, and I appreciate that 3 months seems like a really long time at the moment, but I wanted to share a hopeful story.

workfree that must have been a very frightening start to your DS's life for you. Hope you are feeling ok soon.

caz- I had terrible night sweats until about 3 weeks. Apparently it's just another way to lose the excess water accumulated during pregnancy. I was losing a pound a day this way!! Not nice though especially when you have to get out of bed into a cold room and start shivering.
Do keep an eye on your temperature though as it can be a sign of mastitis- I had a slight temp for a few days after my milk came in but it wasn't mastitis, phew.

Thanks moggle , I'm definitely losing weight despite needing to eat constantly. I will keep an eye on my temperature, I did have a bit of a lump in my right breast a couple of days ago but it wasn't sore or red and it seems to have gone down now.

Ditto happypotamus's story about BF seeming impossible to do for 3 months then suddenly getting much easier, even enjoyable thereafter. I BF my first two for over a year, but for those early weeks just getting through each day was an achievement.

Night sweats - yes it's a normal way to lose fluids. They don't last very long.

Re: the breastfeeding. The killer is that DS is actually a very very easy baby, sweet and happy. Its just the bfing that seems to upset him with my forceful letdown and oversupply. Its literally the only time he's distressed.

So the worst thing is the little voice in my head that his life would be easier with bottles!

Anyway....I'm not at the point of giving up just yet. I'm starting to try block feeding to calm down my supply. I keep telling myself that we're at one month already, so only two months to go!

twiglet- that sounds really tough. Thinking of you. There have been several times where my nipples have hurt so much and he has been so desperate to latch that I gave been in tears.

OH went our for a couple of hours and after a friend popped in we were on our own for about an hour. It was actually quite lovely to have him to myself for a bit. Helped that he was feeding and happy for most of it. x

Anna - a previous midwife also mentioned the night time feeds regulate it all too but right now it's too much for me to cope with at the moment. The whole sleep when the baby sleeps is balls. After being in hospital for a week I feel my house is in disarray, so I use his sleep time to catch up on post/bills, housework and piles of laundry. If I don't sleep at night I'll be a danger to him and myself.

Today he's pretty much breastfed on the hour every hour which has been so tiring. Around 8 I switched to formula as I couldn't take it anymore and he'd drained them completely. Plus my poor boobs are begging for mercy. I can still fell them filling up so they'll probably be engorged again by the morning.

Im also suffering with night sweats and losing weight at the rate of knots and might now be skinnier than I was before I was pregnant . DH thinks it's because I'm not eating enough. Just my flabby mummy tummy to go. Can't wait until I can start some sit ups or go back to aqua aerobics

Hello everyone, I finally made it over here! Had DD at 0016 today (not even 24hrs ago, how quick has today gone!!) at home, no time for waterbirth so just used TENS and stood up over the back of the sofa and she dropped out! Luckily midwife got to us just over 10 mins before she made her appearance.
So, I'm sure I'll be rearing my ugly head on here and the BFing board in the coming days, having a few troubles today but nothing to worry about -yet.
Hope you're all getting on well with your LOs.
Think there's only one left on Ante :-(

Morning all Congrats hotfuzz!
Busy weekend here, thought I was going to die of exhaustion yesterday night but DH managed to get J off to sleep at 1am without me having to do yet another feed, and he slept til 6, so I feel like a new woman!! Hoping J isn't going to cock it up tonite

I can't believe how noisy J is when he's settling off to sleep - he's grunting and squeaking away whilst I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to see if he'll drop off

BFing has suddenly got quite painful in the last couple of days... I don't know if his suck has got stronger, but I feel like there's a lot more pressure on my nipple owchy. Anyone else found this? He's 4 weeks today!

Not yet on the suck nessa, but A is only 3.5 weeks. He has quite a ferocious latch to start anyway though! I find after the first few minutes it seems to calm down quite a bit to a nice fluttering, so am just gritting my teeth at the start. Agree with what others said that after a few months it just gets a lot easier, but we all have to see how we go. I almost stopped at six months with ds1 as when his first two teeth came through we had a week of Biting Issues. Thankfully he sorted it out pretty fast though, so we carried on to a year in the end.

Dh has a horrible cough. I can't think of anything else to try to fix it and it was so bad earlier tonight he decided to move to the spare room as he kept disturbing A. We never sleep apart so I feel a bit [sad, but hopefully it will be gone soon..

Hi! I'm finally here :) DD2 born yesterday at a huge 11lb 2oz. Breastfeeding going well so far, she's feeding a lot to get my milk in, and DD1 is besotted :)

Scary biscuits today. DH has gone back to work so BabyWol and I are working out a routine. Although I messed up by sleeping through the early morning feed alarm again and then managing to choose the point when DD wanted a feed to come downstairs. Currently she's sleeping so I'm catching up on some Guiding stuff on the laptop.

Our friends from Birmingham were up yesterday. So we spent a lovely evening at the Rectory (friends are the ex-curate from church and his wife) talking babies and we got onto slings/wraps and the Rectors daughter has offered to send the wrap her DD has outgrown.

Have also solved 2 cases of squeakiness in the house. Don't think the WD40 will work on DD like it did on the door hinges though.

Hi and well done to all the new arrivals and welcome to the babies!

WorkFree, you've had such a horrific time of it, I'm amazed you're still breastfeeding at all. Hope you're feeling okay now, that must have been so scary.

Shit night here involving lots of sleeping on chest...sigh. She did a really big stringy poo this morning, I wonder has she got a little cold.

I think block feeding is starting to work....I'm not as engorged and though I have plenty of supply I no longer feel like I may as well be sticking a fire hydrant in his mouth.

No screaming overnight, and only one feed, at 4.30. I feel a lot brighter today as a result.

The Dentinox seems to be working well whenever there is a screaming fit too, so thats a relief. It brings up a big burp really fast. Waaaaay better for us than the Infacol.

Course this may mean tonight is a nightmare! Gulp!

Can we talk lochia? I'm down to pantyliners only now (4 weeks tomorrow). Has anyone actually finished bleeding entirely yet?

Not quite done here Anna - I'm using the slim maternity pads from boots. Every day I hope it'll be the last day I need them but there's always just enough that I don't want to go without!

Back at the Drs with DS today, as his cough is no better since last monday, in fact it's worse. This Dr doesn't think it's a viral infection, just that he's still trying to clear mucus from his throat after birth (y'know, the mucus that he didn't actually have!). She asked if he was my first baby, and when I said second, she seemed surprised, and said had I not experienced any of this with my first?