May 2015: Still early but babies already arriving!

[Justyouwaitandsee]

Hi ladies, here is a thread to get us started. The support of other 'Maysters' has been so valuable, would hate to miss out on this once babies arrive. I have a feeling we are still going to have lots of questions and experiences to share!

Thanks Just and Kitty, good to know what the rest of you are doing. I'll stop worrying so much about his chilly extremities then

Oh dear, I clearly never managed to finish my thought but it posted anyway Anyhoo, I meant to say he wears a short-sleeved vest plus a long--sleeved sleepsuit and sometimes a cardigan (and a nappy!) all the time except for skin-to-skin cuddles. Midwife said to dress them in one layer more than you and not to worry about cold extremities.

We haven't got him to sleep in his basket for more than half an hour or so - right now he's on my lap as I sit up in bed and I'm trying to trick him into falling deeply enough asleep that I can move him into his basket without hm realising, and get a little kip myself before he wakes again! Really don't want to cosleep but did try that for a while last night on my own in the spare room (no duvet/pillows/DH, and bed low to the floor so less worry about falling out). It didn't work - he cried every time I laid him down. Now I see people fall asleep on sofas with their babies...

On a non sleep-related note, is anyone else who had a c-section really windy? Any tips from those who have been there and done this before? I'm drinking lots of peppermint tea...

Hormones are all over the place - felt rotten yesterday and cried all over the midwife. Much more 'up' today but still a weepy mess. I just melt when I see DH with the baby, and when he calls him 'son'!

I didn't have a c-section but am also really windy. I did have an epidural - might be related?

The sleep thing is tough. I too have nodded of with Sarsh in my arms (upright but still) so even if I only get 10 minutes or so, I still transfer her shortly after a feed. Every now and then I get lucky any she goes an hour!!

Oh and piglet that is what the midwife is there for, lovely. A crying mess is what we Mums are at the moment (((hugs)))

I'm in the same boat piglet, hadn't intended to cosleep but tried it last night out of sheer desperation to get some kip. I seemed to sleep lighter next to him and didn't wake up with that oh-good-I've-had-a-sleep feeling but at least it's sleep. Still having to sit us both up to feed though as I just can't see what I'm doing lying down in the night.

Oh for breastfeeders, have discovered these hydrogel breast pad things. They stick on to your nipples in between feeds and are AMAZING, really cool and moist and soothing. I've stuck my box in the fridge for extra coldness.

Sorry for the crap link, I'm on my phone: m.boots.com/h5/cat_hub?unCountry=uk&path=/en/Medela-Hydrogel-Pads-1-x-4-Pads_865818/

Also feeling hormonal, cried when we brought Will home from the hospital and our neighbour turned up at the same moment, so had to stand there being a blubbering mess saying 'honestly, I'm just so happy' while she squealed with delight at seeing him. Also resenting all our visitors holding him for ages, he's my baby and I want to cuddle him!!

Thanks for the suggestion of the hold tori I will give it a go. We are using infacol now and changed to dr.brown's bottles and last night was much more settled so fingers crossed it continues. George is 2 weeks today - time is going so fast! He was weighed on Wednesday and was 8lb 8oz so 1 and half oz heavier than birth weight so he has caught up after loosing quite a lot in a short space of time in the early days whilst I attempted bf! Hope everyone is well and hormones settle down soon! :)

oh my god. we couldn't have had a worse first night at home. 1st of all made the rookie mistake of putting Thomas down for a map at 6pm, thought he would only have an hour, at 9.30 he was still asleep. we thought to ourselves well that doesn't matter our body clocks are up the wall as well, so doesn't matter what time we go to bed anyway. I came up to bed at 11.30 with my little man. put him in the bednest, and Did quite a good job of ignoring his cries, which I always said I would do when I had children. no walking round the house, or sleeping with baby like other people do. well I couldn't have been. more wrong. at 3.30am, I was walking around the house with Thomas in my arms sing twinkle twinkle little star. he kept settling then waking as soon as I put him down. so at 4 am I had the idea of giving him a cuddle on the sofa, whilst I laid next to. him. next thing I know it's 4.30. so I. move him upstairs. thankfully he settles in bednest after 15 mins or so. only to wake up 15 minutes ago. he is now in our bed fast asleep laying on my chest ( and I think I'm in charge lol). to make matters worse I think.my milk has finally come in. boobs are so sore, and I have leaked everywhere. also we have the midwife coming today. so will probably be growled at for letting him sleep in bed with us. oh well never mind. I will also get round to posting my birth story on here at some point. sorry about the moan, especially over stuff that is supposed to be a celebration. we will just need to be more organised today I think. Hope everyone else's newborns are behaving ok.

You've done nothing wrong feeling!! Sounds like my first night with Asarah, if that makes you feel any better? I have a breastfeeding pillow (horsehoe shaped thing) what I put around me when feeding Sarah and have nodded of when she is sucking or just unmatched herself for a snooze. At 3 in the morning-you do anything!
Sarah will only go in her Moses basket for any reasonable length of time, if we have warned it up first. We have one of those microwaveable hot discs and have it on rotation - heat it up when she comes out so by the time we ant her back in, it's toasty warm for her!

I can spell my own daughter's name, really I can!!!! stupid iPhone

Kitty

Well here's my birth story for anyone that's interested.

After a mw appt on Monday with signs of pre eclampsia-spent three days back and forth to assessment unit for monitoring. Bloods confirmed pre eclampsia so booked in for induction on the Thursday. Arrived at pre natal ward at 2pm with a room to myself -bonus! Had first pessary at 3pm and me and OH had a wander about the hospital for 5 hours until he was chucked out (hospital policy). Felt cramps bu then but ok. Had 2nd pessary at 11pm while watching big brother! Got more cramps but managed to sleep on and off till about 3. By half 3 i could tell there was pattern so started timing contractions (although I still wasn't sure they were proper contractions). They were lasting 1 minute and 4 mins apart. Went to toilet and had a little bit of blood. Pressed for mw to let her know and ask for paracetamol. By the times she came back with them I was making noises like a braying animal and saying I really want to push-he was coming! She was like 'you weren't dilated at last pessary but I can examine you if you want'. She examined me and said 'Yep your baby's coming' handed me my phone to get OH's number. Phoned him at 3.55am got wheeled to the labour suite and using gas and air pushed him out at 4.35am! He had the cord wrapped round his neck twice and a Dr was getting ready to use forceps if I didn't push him out quickly enough. Did it though and he's here and perfect! Not what I had planned (water birth) but at least no drugs which was what I wanted although if she had told me at that exam I was only 3cm I would've taken everything on offer!

Painful but I honestly feel like I'd do it all again for him! Hope this might help anyone being induced. Can still have quite a 'natural' labour and doesn't have to be 20 odd hours!

Wow Scottish, I take it DH got there on time?

Well done you pushing star Scottish - you did a great job!!!!

Congrats scottish - great birth story!

feeling - don't be hard on yourself. On the first couple of nights they are still getting used to being outside the womb. E wouldnt settle at all in her Bednest and only wanted to sleep on us. When the midwife finally came on day 2, she said this was perfectly normal. From day 3 onwards she got into a good pattern (sleeping downstairs all evening before settling upstairs around 00:25, sleeping through till 3/4 and then 6, then 9) although it all went out the window last night (day 10) but again the midwife said this was a normal time to expect to see a growth spurt...

Yeah apple he arrived just in time cheer me on to push out his head!

Hello ladies. right as promised my birth story. hopefully I get to the end b4 my little man wakes up. on Tuesday I had an mw appointment. she'd said at the last appointment that if all was well she would offer me a sweep. I got there and my BP was high, after the 3rd attempt was still high and because My face was swollen and I had itchy feet, she said I needed to go to the hospital. got there at about 4 pm. hooked up to foetal monitor at 6pm. fetal heart rate kept going up then down again, at 1 stage was 175bpm. at 10pm the Dr came round and I was admitted to be induced. got to ward and was induced at 11 pm. DF was there by 6 so had seen all the to and fro from the fhb. mw who induced me performed sweep at same time I had the pessary. woke a few times during the night with pains, nothing serious. 6am mw came round to put me on monitor again. found the hb with the doppler machine, but couldn't find it with the ctg. DF had gone home to get some sleep ( we only live 15 minutes walk from hospital). I had to ring him and say to get there now I was being transferred to delivery suite. rushed through to delivery suite on bed. first time I've ever been on bed with people running to get me somewhere( really scary). in delivery suite they got me back on the ctg, and found baby's hr. so all good. DF got there about 15 mins before Dr came in. she said that she had 2 options for us. 1. emcs. 2. rehydrate me and see what happens. at that time because of how scared we both were we went for emcs. she came back in after talking to her consultant and said they were going for number 2. so they got me and baby stabilised, and tried the 6 hr gel to induce me, that started working really well. I was contracting and everything else. so I was told to go and have a walk and some lunch and come back at 3. to be monitored again. went back everything fine with monitoring. they did another examination, only to find I was only between 1 and 2cm dilated. they decided to leave the next dose of gel, gave me some pethidine for the pain. and told me to get some rest, which I did. at 6pm they came back in and set up the drip, this made my contractions worsen, and Thomas 's hr went through the floor. b4 the drip was set up they attempted to break my waters. 3 attempts were made at this. very painful by the way. after his hr went down again they offered me an epidural, to which I said yes please. at 9am this was all set up. not painful in the slightest, and it only took him about a minute to sort it out. whilst he was doing this the rest of the Dr's came in and they all agreed that baby needed to come out now. so was wheeled into theatres for lscs. little Thomas was born at 22:41 on 13th may. weight 6lb 10oz. he is absolutely beautiful, will post photos when I get a chance.

Hello, wondered if I could join you? I had a little baby girl on 3rd May and looking for some support from other mums who gave birth at roughly the same time. I popped into the April thread but they're a lot further on than me which made me feel a bit left behind!
I won't post my birth story as it was severely traumatic (I had complications that only happen to 1 in 100,000 people and spent 4 days in intensive care). I don't want to scare anyone who might be lurking who hasn't given birth yet with all my gory details!
Baby Emmie is healthy and happy though. Regained birth weight in 10 days and is now packing on the ounces. She is diddy though at just 5lbs 7oz at birth.
Anyone else finding breastfeeding demanding? I have a milk blister which is pretty sore atm.

Hi minimooo - of cours you can join us! This Is such a supportive group. There is also a postnatal thread if you'd prefer to share your story there with those of us who have already had our babies - and a facebook group which is which is perfect for requesting specific support on particular issues (as well as sharing cute baby pics!) if you pm me the email address you use for fb then I will try to add you!

Hi just, thanks for the lovely welcome. Is there another postnatal thread for the maysters? I can't find it
Yes please do add me to the fb group, I'll pm you now

Hi minimoo, this is the postnatal thread for the maysters. The other thread is the antenatal thread, we all chat away on both x

Wow what a birth story feeling!! I know what you mean about being wheeled on a bed! Feels very surreal and like you're part of a hospital drama! None of it matters once they're here tho eh?

Welcome minimoo! Wow hopefully we can hear your birth story at some point but I get what you're saying!

Oops sorry! I blame sleep deprivation! Thought you had posted in the antenatal thread. Doh.
Have tried to add you to the fb group - did it work?!

Hi minimooo, welcome! Love your dd's name hope you're recovering from the birth and bonding well with the little one.

No milk blisters here (argh that sounds like agony?!) but did have to go back to the ward a couple of days ago and whip my boobs out for loads of people to poke and prod because one had gone red and sore and lumpy thankfully avoided having to stay in for 48hrs on IV abx (I was when this option got brought up) and got sent home on oral ones which have been doing the trick.

I don't think so just. Would I get a notification/message? Or just be added to the group? Either way, I don't think I have access to it.

Wow, that was a close call ginger. I absolutely hated the postnatal ward and would be gutted if I'd had to go back! Hope the antibiotics kick in soon.

I've made the heartwrenching decision to stop breastfeeding and switch to formula. I'm absolutely gutted, but I think it's the right decision to make. I've only been bf for 2 weeks
Has anyone else made the same decision?

hi ladies posted a few times on the antenatal thread but thought I'd pop over here too. Iris is doing great, big sis is still smitten with her, is always cuddling and kissing her. Ava recently celebrated her 5th birthday too and she had fun showing off her new sister at her birthday party x

Iris has been diagnosed with MCADD which means she cant break down medium-chain fats so she can't use her own body fat for energy. she will always need food in her stomach or she could have a metabolic crisis (fatigue, fever, vomiting, coma etc..) so if she ever gets sick and can't eat then she could go into metabolic crisis. so whenever she's sick and can't eat she'll have to be hospitalised until she can eat again. It was overwhelming to get the diagnosis but it's something that we can deal with and it will get easier as she gets older. I am just feeding her constantly now!!! She's almost a month old too... growing so quick!