September 2014 Babies leave the newborn stage behind. Thread 2

[SeptemberBabies]

New thread because our initial thread is about to max out.

For babies born around September 2014 - or just before for early arrivals and just after for late arrivals.

I did the same red - my mum thought there was a problem with my knees cause I wouldn't crawl on them, I wonder if it will follow on with our LO's

Team these are the things I heard has worked for others: hot water bottle in there for her before you put her down so her place is warm ; sleeping with her sheet or blanket so it smells of you; putting her down when deeply asleep (floppy hands)

The only thing worked for me was putting him on his tummy

With regards to co sleeping it is really not that bad; search online and there are a few new leaflets on the subject helping to make it safe...

Team: White noise - particularly womb noise, has been a massive help for us with getting Jessica to sleep in her moses basket. As has having in her bedding whilst we are cuddling / feeding her before we put her down (I don't think she notices the change in temperature so much when she comes off our chest by doing this). Hope you get some sleep soon. xxx

Team could she be getting too big for it? That can sometimes effect their sleep.
Just a thought!
Got the clinic this afternoon so we shall see just how giant the little one is...was 14 lbs two weeks ago at 6 weeks.
Also had an amazing night last night. He slept from 6:30pm to 4:30am with one tiny stir for his dummy, long may it continue!!
As for tummy time, I'd forgotten about it, will see how we get on as he hasn't got very good head control at the mo but this may help.

Eli loves been on his tummy for sleep and does about 5-10 mins tummy time before it is the worse thing in the world

team Eli went through a phase where he would not sleep in his bed (sleepy head in a next to me crib) it was torture as I only dozed with him in my arms. I've just constantly put him back in.

Eli will not sleep any where but in my arms during the day unless we are out and about and then he will go in the pushchair or car seat.

Here is Eli in the hat I made for him!

Super cute hat cookie! I wish I could knit. A really lovely 90 year old neighbour of mine knitted me two cardigans for DD. At 90 years old! I took some photographs of her in them and took the neighbour a couple of picture in frames as a thank you. She cried. Bless her.

I have similar view to red in that I am dubious about anything that I am told I 'must' do for development.

My eldest (now 10) DD went directly from sitting at 6 months to standing, to cruising. Her first unaided steps were at 8 months and she was walking confidently and fully by 9 months. She never crawled at all.

Both my two boys (now 9 and 5) followed the usual pattern of crawling from about 7 or 8 months and walking by 12 months.

All three had about the same amount of 'tummy time' and it was never a thing for me that I made them do, just normal part of play/activity. So I don't think Tummy time proved to be a magical formula for getting any of my children walking or crawlling.

Once they are rolling (4 months ish?) they do their own tummy time anyway, for fun. I don't feel right forcing it if baby dislikes it, regardless of the 'must dos' a HV might say.

Took ds to doctor and he couldn't say if infection or virus but whatever it is it is mild and will have to just keep an eye that he doesn't get dehydrated...

I have to say I believe tummy time is good for babies, because it gives them a good upper body exercise; ds also pushes up against our chest when he is held by me or dh, but nothing is like when he is on the ground trying to see the lights of his baby gym and pushes himself up as much as he can... Having said that, I would not leave him on his tummy if he didn't like it and I pick him up as soon as he gets unsettled and angry on his tummy

Re: tummy time. September- my Dd was the same. She never crawled and walked at 9 months. It looked so odd as she was so small!!

I did nothing different with her than the others and dd2 crawled at 8 months and walked at 11 months.

Velvet: get your baby to a chiropractor! The neck being out can create so many problems as they get older if it goes untreated. Ds didn't turn his head to the right and after one session he was fully rotating and much much calmer.

Aw Cookie, what a cutie! Well done on the hat making! I couldnt knit a scarf haha
Yes, I will perservere with Tummy time, but it is literally seconds at the moment as he tends to cry as soon as I put him down

b has outgrown his moses basket - we had to get a crib for him. white noise - I can recommend Sleepy Sounds app or ewan the dream sheep!

we are on comfort milk as of today. have noticed that B is fuller quicker and after less plus he doesn't seem as windy. he is now 12 lb 6oz at 7.5 weeks.

allis I dont think its necessary. Its very common in breech babies to be born with head to one side due to muscle problem. Important is that it was only short time. He can turn his head both sides without any problems. He just prefers right side over the left one which is also normal for babies.

DS is feeding less while he is sick - should I be pumping? Don't want the supply to die when he gets better

Nazly

Your supply will soon recover when he's better, but you may have a couple of days of mega feeding to get there.

If you are engorged and you have the time, expressing would be a good idea. But if you don't get change then wouldn't worry about it.

Offer him the breast as much as possible while he's ill though. I am sure the doctor already told you this. He could easily dehydrate.

DS is driving me crazy with feeding. Its started to become a battle ground. He's clearly hungry but doesn't want to eat. He starts waving his arms around and knocking the bottle out of my hand or arching his back. I try and wind him and nothing happens. Eventually he might calm down and take some, with there being no apparent reason why he won't eat.

If I try breast feeding him, I get the same issue only worse. If he does feed from breast, he'll feed for no more than 5 minutes before going absolutely nuts. I assume this is because my flow is too fast for him. I really struggle with breast feeding him, because of the pain and because he goes crazy as it is, so I only manage it once a day if I'm lucky. He mainly is fed from the bottle. He doesn't seem to have an aversion to one more than the other.

I went for weigh in yesterday, and he's dropped just below the 25th centile again. Not much, but its worried me. At 4 weeks old he was eating 900mls. At 10 weeks I'm lucky if I can get 750mls into him. The HVs are useless and have no idea how much I should be giving him as he's fed breast milk by the bottle. They have told me his intake should increase but online I've seen information that suggests his hunger plateaus off. They have told me he should be eating quantities that seem to be wildly off and based on formula (apparently 450ml at 4 weeks for example). I'm totally in the dark about what I should be doing, and it just seems like something is wrong.

He had 140mls at 7.30am. Then I managed to get 60mls into him at 10am before he puked up most of that. I got another 60mls into him at about 11am. So he's had about 210 - 220ml today (after sleeping from 11pm so no night feed). At 4-5 weeks old, he would have had 100ml night feed, 100mls at 7.00am, 100mls at about 9.00am and about 100mls at 11am. So about 400mls.

He's happy and smiley 95% of the time including feeding time, but he is repeatedly just refusing to. I'm barely eating any dairy (tried alternatives), so its not that. The only bottle of the day he is taking without protest is the first one in the morning.

There is nothing wrong with him at all, so it doesn't merit a visit to the doctor as there is bugger all they will do or say. He's not dropped far enough off his centile to raise any concerns (yet - but if this continues he will do - but I effectively have to wait until there is 'something to worry about'). He doesn't have wind. He's puking a bit, which is stressing me out even more as its taken so much effort to get food in him in the first place. But I don't think he his being sick more than what is 'normal'. I just can't feed him. Force feeding or of his free will.

I am just so stressed out about it. I burst into tears this morning about it. DH does not understand at all. He doesn't think there is anything wrong. DS is happy. He is telling me to stop stressing as DS will pick up on it otherwise. Why won't DS just eat? What am I doing wrong?

Red - sounds a little like what has been happening with my little one. She's been on colief for 10 days and that has made a big difference. The doctors also think she has reflux and she started on ranitidine yesterday. How many weeks is he?

Red: if he's happy just follow his cues. Feed him when he's hungry and forget clock watching and measuring. Each baby is different.

Red I can feel the stress from your post! I completely agree with allis. Your post is full of times and measurements but babies change all the time, it's never going to be the same from one week to the next. If he's happy, try to go with it. Of course if he is still dropping centiles then perhaps a small concern but if the hv's aren't worried then don't worry. Your baby will tell you if he's not happy.

Is there a reason you've cut dairy?

I hope the rest of your day has been better red.

What was your DS doing in between 7.30am, 10am and 11am? Was he sleeping? I mention because my DD gets frantic at the breast like you describe not when she is hungry, but when she is over tired.

If we happen to get hungry and over tired at the same time (as happens most early evenings) then it becomes a massive screaming battle. She can't sleep because she's hungry, she can't feed because she's too tired. I just keep trying to settle and trying to feed until one wins out.

Could your DS be tired rather than hungry? That might be why he didn't want much milk at that time.

All babies are different but my DD feeds very little in morning compared to afternoons and evenings. She has her biggest daytime nap in the morning and so naturally feeds less in the morning.

We also feed loads more in the afternoon and evening than the morning. In fact I get hardly anything done in the afternoons because DS won't settle, and is generally just a pain! Also gets quite frantic at the breast and if I can just get enough milk in him he will often conk out. Even if only for half hour. Biggest sleep is around 11/12 ish though for an hour or more. And if he doesn't get this our afternoon is guaranteed to be difficult!

DS is 10 weeks old

I have to go by measurements and times because he's feed by expressed milk. I simply can't afford to waste it, so guestimating how much he will need is crucial. I can't give him a 100ml feed and he only has 40mls as that means I waste 60mls. The whole thing is so stressful because its such a balancing act.

He lost quite a lot of weight after he was born because I was having so many problems breast feeding, which is why I ended up expressing in the first place. The HVs were advised to keep an eye on him as it took nearly a month before he regained his birth weight (but he's been doing fine since). The midwife made a big thing when he was a month old when she was questioning me about how much he was eating and said I wasn't giving him enough. She suggested 120mls a feed. He didn't manage this once for weeks after and only really started having the odd 120ml feed two weeks ago. For the most part he had been putting away exactly 100mls every single feed no matter how much I offered him. So although he wouldn't take 100ml, I was feeding him more frequently. You could set your watch by him, and know exactly how much he would have when.

He's been sleeping well the last two weeks. He's slept thought every night except one 11pm until 7am. Then goes for another nap. Today he slept until nearly 10. So I don't think it can be tiredness.

He's generally an easy baby who just seems to have routines and be predictable from the word go. I think that him suddenly changing plus the fact all the babies at the clinic yesterday were huge has just set me off panicking even more than I was. He's dinky. 11lb 4. I know someone has to be small, but I feel like I'm doing everything wrong. Expressing was the best thing I could do, and now I'm in this endless cycle with it desperately trying to meet his demand and I can't stop even if I wanted to, because I get blocked ducts really easily.

I feel totally unsupported and with no where to turn for advice as no one feeds like this. All the information and advice I've had so far just seems to have been an utter crock of shit.

I can understand your stress Red and why you need to know how much he drinks in order to prepare feeds. The one thing I would say though is that if he was feeding from your breast you would have no idea how much he was taking and would just go by if he seems content and is having plenty of wet / dirty nappies. So by this measure, and given that you are saying that he seems happy, I wouldn't get too anxious just yet. I think sometimes those centile charts just stress people out unnecessarily. Babies do grow at very different rates and he may just be a small baby with not a huge appetite (at the moment - it may well change)!

I've also been told milk gets more 'calorie contentrated' as babies get older, so a smaller volume of milk in later months may have exactly the same number of calories as a larger volume of milk in the earlier months. Interestingly Jessica has expressed feeds too (so DH can help me out sometimes) and she also now drinks less per feed than she used to, so I've started dividing what I express into smaller portions, to try and reduce waste, but as long as she seems satisfied I'm not worried. xxx

Red - ask your HV if there is a breastfeeding support group locally.

They are brilliant and will be able to offer you loads of feel-good support with your expressing.

Have you thought about re-trying breastfeeding again? Now DS is 10 weeks things might be better. The downside for you might be that you can't chart and measure breastfeeding. But it's a whole lot less stressful in that way.

Also just to add Jessica isn't much younger than your DS (8 and a half weeks) and she generally is only having 50-60mls in an expressed feed (she seems to like to feed little and often, which is a PITA to be honest, especially at night)! x

On a different issue, what time is everyone trying to put their babies down to sleep of an evening? We've been trying to put Jessica down at about 9pm-ish but we are (again) having hysterics and she is screaming. Is she over-tired? Do you guys put your babies down earlier than this? x