November 2014 - newborn thread!

[Greenstone]

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

A is 100% bf. His brother was a bottle refuser when I tried to express, and we determined to start trying A with expressed breast milk so dh could do a bottle, but what with Christmas it's just not happenned. I'm lucky that bf has never been a challenge so far with either of them though, and although it means that I get it in the neck, sleep wise, I don't get as affected by the tiredness as some I think. We have had some shocking nights, but it still seems less faff to me than bottles/ff would be in our case, so in a sense I'm being lazy rather than anything else.

We offered a bottle of EBM at 3+6 and he happily scoffed it
At 7 weeks he's had 99% breast, with 6 FFs spread across the last 3 weeks for various reasons. I have a breast pump and he's had a couple of expressed feeds. I'd imagined us getting into a routine of DH giving the last bottle of the day so I could go early to bed, but there's not been the need with him sleeping well, and so just to give him the odd feed it seems such a faff to express... Now he's had the formula once, it doesn't seem an issue to give it again. To express a feed takes 2-3 sessions getting 2oz ish each time, then washing & sterilising and reassembling the pump in between times. Or I can peel the top off a bottle of ready mix Aptamil. I think I know which will win out despite the slight guilt!

Spoke too soon with J's sleeping - he's all gripey today, I think his stomach is bugging him, so he's not gone down for more than 90mins

I have my 6 week check at the GPs tomorrow - any idea what to expect?! J's is next Tues with jabs straight after!

I had to go to an event when DD was 2.5 weeks old and DH was going to come with me and look after here for a couple of hours, and so I wanted her to be able to take a bottle by then as it made the logistics of the day much easier. So I tried expressing a tiny bit as a trial run when she was just over 2 weeks, so that if she refused it we could have a plan B. She didn't like the teat of the bottle and tried to pull away, but when she realized milk came out of it, she drank it. She still grimaces a bit when she is first offered the bottle teat, but so far she's been okay. We're using nuk bottles with latex teats, because a friend recommended them as working well for mostly breastfed babies.

By the way, official advice in our area is that you don't need to sterilize if you are using breast milk - you just need to wash and clean everything thoroughly with hot soapy water and make sure your hands are clean before touching the pump.

At my 6 week check the GP basically just asked if I was feeling okay, and we talked about a few specific questions /issues I had. No full examination or anything, but I didn't have any stitches so I guess there was nothing to check. Tbh was a bit of a waste of time, except I had booked a double appointment so DD could be done at the same time, so at least we got that over with.

We have 6 week check followed by first set of jabs on 6th jan when she will be 10 weeks old I remember from DD1 that there was no examination for me just a few questions that were probably partly an assessment for PND and sorting out contraception. That is probably because both were straightforward births with no need for stitches etc.

I managed to get a gp appointments yesterday as they have to see babies n got there 10mins early n as we had just been added in she changed doc we were seeing twice in 3mins so we got seen before allocated time which was kind.

Didn't see own gp described concerns n advised I was a qualified children nurse and maternity night nanny so she didn't just think I was a Google queen!! She was reluctant to do anything as gaining weight well but did prescribe gaviscon til Fri as a trial for when have 6weeks check with own gp.

Anyway for ex bf babies you mix in 15ml water n give mid feed upto max 6 times a day I decided to give 3-4hrly if having a feed as we feed on demand seems. During day he is always feeding.

So first dose = gagging spitting out screaming almost puking. So further doses have been mixed in expressed milk (or 5ml boiling water plus expressed milk of 10no) n gone down really well other than 4am as woke him up to much mid feed n meant didn't settle for over an hr with loads screaming.

Positive being n may be a flux but he feed most early eve n bathed n down to sleep at 8.10pm n slept til 11.50pm which is longest yet. Then with all faff doing gaviscon was back down at 1am n slept til 3.45am. Then had the screaming as Fed for 10mins n fell asleep n I woke to get gaviscon in n more feed settled again at 5.15but not properly n awake again at 6 Fed for 10mins n another 45mins unsettled sleep n feeding again now.

Hopefully gaviscon is helping

It was about 2 weeks we tried bottle with DD. I was worried about the nipple confusion and had my eyes pealed, but it doesn't seem to have caused any probs with BF. She was latching on perfectly from day 1 and nothing changed afterwards. But she takes bottle only from DH, when I tried to give a bottle, she pushed it away with the arm and nodded towards the boob. She has no issue with DH bottle feeding though.

I have expressed on couple occasions when DD has been all day on frenzy feeding causing oversupply afterwards, basically not to cause the boobs explode. Otherwise, it just feels odd to express as any moment DD might ask for more feed and it feels better to feed from boob. We have a ready made infant milk at home for emergency bottle. It's my wild guess but maybe DD doesn't have nipple confusion bcs we keep things separate - in bottle it's always ready mix milk fed by DH and me with boobs?

DD has a different feeding style during night compared to day. At night she feeds every 3-4 hours, quick feed of 15-20 minutes and then straight back to sleep for another 3-4 hours. She doesn't like to be cuddled etc. during these, all very businesslike. Usually in the morning around 7am, she asks for cuddle after the feed. During the day it's a bit of a chaos, can ask to feed every hour or two, length of feeds can differ wildly as well. I would be over the moon if her day feeds would similar to night ones, but I'd rather not to spit in the well I might have to drink of... It's cool even if it's only during nights...

DD will take a bottle from DH, we started at about 4 weeks and she is now 6 and has half a bottle of expressed milk a day in the theory of keeping her used to the bottle... Whether it works is another question. She won't take a bottle from me though, she prefers to headbutt me in disgust!

The idea had been that DH would do the last feed after her bath so I could go to bed earlier but that hasn't worked as she cluster feeds all evening until she eventually passes out in a milk coma for a few hours~ 4 if we are lucky, 1 if not.

No routine here behind generally going to sleep at around 10ish after a bath and story. Day time feeds are around the clock it feels like but that is maybe just my interpretation!

We've managed to be only bf here too. As others have said it helps a lot that I can express quite a lot quite quickly. I am pleased that I managed to get through the horrible cracked nipples phasebut think there's a lot of luck going on here too!
Routine... Wouldn't call it that as such, but she's fairly predictable apart from the evenings. At night she feeds at about 4, and then at 7 or 8. Has a good long nap after that until about 12 or even 1 if we're out in the car or pushchair, then feeds every 3-4 hrs which usually means 2 more feeds before the witching hour sets in; the evenings are still pretty much anything goes. It might be feeding every hour (less common now), it might be crying and whinging the whole time (like yesterday),it might be sleeping in her bouncer with just one last feed at about 11. Usually she finishes her last feed about 11.30 or midnight - I really want to get that a bit earlier. She goes to sleep ok after night feeds with a dummy but sometimes can be wide a awake for an hour or so.
I do feel very lucky to have a baby like this- could change at any moment though!

I'm only BFing at night till the dairy leaves my system which is apparently another week at least. So its 100% Aptamil Pepti during the day.

I'm a bit conflicted as even though its been a hugely emotional week which has left me quite fragile, I have to concede I've had more freedom than I ever did before. For example going out to buy Xmas presents etc. I was expressing from Week 2 for flexibility, but realistically you're only going to express one feed, and when baby feeds every 1.5 hrs its still a small window to go out, do your business and get home. But with the formula its 2.5/3 hrs, and you don't have to be rushing as there's always more of it in the kitchen.

Even at home DH is doing 50% over the Xmas. This morning he took baby and will happily have him all morning so I have a lie in.

Do I really love BFing so much I want to switch back to me doing it 100%? I'm not sure, we'll see.

One thing is certain, I want to keep BFing at night. Its so easy.

As far as routine, not much! I only have two rules:

If its less than an hour after feeding, no food yet - I pop a dummy in to stretch it as long as I can (I wasn't doing that before Wk 6 as he was too little)

And if its longer than 45 mins after a feed, he needs a nap even if its only 10 mins or he'll get overtired and screamy.

No rules in our house - every need pandered to. He feeds a lot in the evening then sleeps up to 7.5 hrs in the night so whatever's going on I'm not complaining and being tied to the sofa all evening is a small price to pay for loads of sleep. Counting the days til it gets horrendous. Also wish he'd nap more in the daytimes. Can't have it all I suppose.

Hey girls. My second baba born on 26th of October. I'm finding it quite difficult with tiredness and energy. I'm anaemic also but have run out over xmas holidays. Baba born with a tooth too which I think she may be starting to teeth as slabbers and quite unsettled at times.she was 5lb 11oz and now well over 9lbs. Up once in middle of the night. Was also wondering how many oz of bottlemilk are ur babies drinking? Xxx

Welcome! Mine's at about 90ml on average per feed but sometimes is only 60ml. As long as he's gaining weight I'm not that bothered. Not counting up daily amounts or anything.

Hi Louise

My LO is now exclusively bottle fed at just over 6 weeks. He's on 6 feeds a day of 150mls (5ozs) every 4 hours. I'm using Aptamil and that's the amount recommended for his age, based on only 5 feeds a day. He's quite a hungry baby so I had to add in an extra feed to keep him happy.

Poor DH was on the night shift last night and had a terrible time - DD woke at 2, refused to settle till 4, and took that entire 2 hours to drink a single bottle of ebm which she can normally take in one feed if she's hungry, and apparently did a lot of sicking up etc too. When he brought her to me at 6am she was absolutely fine, fed calmly, went straight to sleep, and no vomiting, so I had a pretty good night.

However she's back to her normal cheerful self today and seems to have got over whatever bug she had yesterday. She does tend to guzzle and drink too much milk at the breast, and then some of it comes straight back out again. Now that we've stopped sterilising the bottles with the Milton tablets she's a bit less unhappy about taking them, so I think she objected to the smell of the fluid.

Not enforcing any real daytime routine yet - at the moment if we can get through between 11 and 6 at night without too much interruption, that's enough to be focusing on. The good thing is that she really seems to want to sleep at night - settling her at midnight can be a pain, but after that she feeds quickly and goes back into a deep sleep immediately, so I'm optimistic that when her tummy's a bit bigger she'll be a good sleeper. At the moment she seems to think that nighttime starts at about midnight and lasts until whatever time I take her out of her nightclothes (which this morning was 10.30 am, since DH was shopping and I fancied a lie in), which is quite convenient. Part of me feels I ought to be enforcing a baby bedtime of 7pm, but it would be much less convenient than the current arrangement, so I'm persuading myself that she's too young to worry about any of that yet.

She is now sleeping at nights in the Amby baby hammock which was her Christmas present, and that has made a big difference both to the reflux and to the sleep, as if I rock the hammock when she starts to make noises then she often drops off again for another hour. Definitely a worthwhile investment, and she looks super cute in it too.

caravela Sounds much like my lo, generally a bugger to ger to sleep in the evening but then does 11ish to morning on 1 or 2 feeds. I'm trying to get an earlier bedtime (keeping her up in the afternoon, bath, massage, dark rooms) but its not making a jot of difference so perhaps stick with your current plan!

Any of your little ones had their first jabs ?
Had ours today and all was ok but now I have a very sad unsettled bub :(
Had calpol once and thats it so far
Its horrid :(

louise your baby has the same birthday as mine!

She has been strange today: slept ok last night but moaning and snuffling in her sleep enough to keep waking DH and I, barely fed all morning, then fed almost continuously from 4-10ish this evening, cried continuously for the last hour, now asleep but wriggling and moaning and I daren't put her down.

I ate a white sauce based dinner today and a slice of cheese. I guess it is too soon for that to have affected her and made her so upset, but I don't know.

lisa DS had his BCG about a week ago at 3 ish weeks and didn't seem affected at all apart from sleeping a lot that day. The look isle his eyes when they did it though was horrible. "Mum, why would you do this to me?"

Has anyone's LO been prescribed lactulose at all?

I've been feeding Baby Wannabe half the day on anti reflux milk the rest on regular formula as per the Doctors instructions, but he started projectile vomiting as soon as he had the regular formula. It's been 2 days now and it's not getting any better and he seems so uncomfortable after all the vomiting

The plan is to go back to the reflux milk as he feeds perfectly on that, but the downside is constipation. I'm reluctant to give any medication, but hearing him scream when passing a stool is horrible. If you have been prescribed lactulose,how did you find it?

Argh, they just cancelled my 6 week check till Monday.
I was told that the car insurance is invalid if you drive before to 6 weeks post section as it's against medical advice, but do you need to be actually signed off by the doctors?

I've just booked my 6 week check and it's not til 15th January! It'll be 7 weeks +3. Poor DH (and me!!!), I am waiting til after the check to DTD as I want my internal stitches checking. At least I can drive, and there's other ways to ahem, please each other!

Utopian I have been driving since 3.5weeks only school run was told by hospital when I felt well n could press pedals down with no pain. With ds1 4yrs ago had to wait for 6weeks check and didn't drive til about 8weeks as no reason to.

Admittedly school run had been fine, lifting car seat in n out was hardest and wouldn't have done if had a choice. Also wouldn't have driven any further than the 2miles to school.

My 6weeks check for me n baby is fri n will also get reflux reviewed.

Wanabee v2 days on gaviscon we too have constipation n it's due to the thickness of it in gut to stop reflux same with your milk.

Tips I have give 30mls cooled boiled water I had to mix with some expressed milk n syringe in n got maybe 15mls in.

Massage tummy from left hip over belly button to right hip using middle three fingers with light compression easier to do nappyless cover the windy or will be hosed :)

Cycle legs for a min whenever get the chance.

Yesterday afternoon we hadn't had a poo since prev morning and did 10-12 a day before and did all the above between 4+5 n by 6pm he had done the most huge poo poor baby

Still not been today so water with a little milk in Sat here now ready for when he wakes n had tummy massage at last nappy change - he won't have water on own.

utopian were you told that by your insurer? I would double check it. I was under the impression that it made no difference to the insurance but I may be wrong. x

DS has discovered shadows today. Queue half an hour spent walking in front of a brightly lit wall to gurgles and coos. What we do for them hey?