August 2015 - Jaffa cake wars and many Mugabe greetings to you!

[mzzzf]

New thread ladies - praying for a decent sleep tonight!!

Welcome count
fanby calpol is non drowsy so doesn't actually knock them out.

I'm not well. I was feeling better so got chippy for tea and now I feel awful again

Self indulgent rant alert!!!!!
I'm poorly sick. Vomiting and squidgy bum. Yuck! No fun with a baby to look after. Dh is being fab and ds is a little star.
Please send lots of sympathy?!

Evening, checking in while doing the "supper time" feed (DD2 eats like a Hobbit: breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea etc...)

Sorry to all those suffering from various ailments, (dozy , fatty, frolic) it's grim being poorly while looking after kids.

fatty what! Calpol is now non drowsy!? What sadist thought that was a good idea

siani what position do you feed from when you are pumping? I really like the idea of multitasking pump/baby but can't seem to get in a position where the baby isn't in the way . Any tips would be gratefully received.

Feeling a bit sad this evening, it's baby loss awareness day. We lost two between DD1 and DD2. I am so lucky to have my beautiful daughters now but sometimes can't help wandering what might have been. to anyone on this thread also affected and sorry for posting something sad but can't really mention it anywhere else.

frolic hope you get better soon!
slow obviously some fucker who doesn't have kids!
to those who have suffered such a horrendous loss. I'm very fortunate that I've never had to go through anything as heartbreaking.

Oh frolic! Mucho sympathy inbound to you and your squidgy bum (great phrase!) and ultimately your poor toilet!! Feel better missus!

And you too Fatty! Has the bastard chip shop person given you duff chips?! Feel better soon too!!

Slowife I sit on the sofa with my feet up, baby across my lap on one boob, with the knee on that side up so he's kind of at a diagonal, then wedge the bottle into the space between belly and baby on the other side and squish everything about until I can get the pump onto the boob. Not exactly dignified, but it works!

In other news, we've been in bed since 8pm and between the vomiting, choking on vomit, constipation from the gaviscon, eventual pooping, incessant wees, and me being unable to sleep on cue I've yet to have any sleep at all. Seriously considering buying some formula so I can hand baby to my OH and ACTUALLY SLEEP. Know I'd regret it, though.

Oh siani that's crappola!! I can't offer any advice as I'm a formula feeder but others give one bottle a day with no ill effects. Maybe you could do it just once to get a big old schnooze in?!
Your ds sounds like he has mega reflux, I've been there and it's shit with a capital S, my friend was also in the same boat with her BF son. She ended up using anti reflux formula for his main feeds and giving breast milk as top ups/comfort. He still got breast milk everyday but more importantly her sanity was saved, her son vomited less so was calmer which in turn helped with the reflux too. I'm not saying this is the right solution, only what worked for a mate who was at the end of her tether and needed to catch a break.
I would have loved to have BF but mini mzzzf would have still had reflux so I would have been in your position now. Some kids don't really respond to gaviscon in the way they should, but I can say that anti reflux milk has made the world of difference to her - do you remember initially that I couldn't lay her down flat without her choking and screaming. I even think I wrote a ranty post on her about being desperate to lay flat as she was sleeping on me 24/7!

Btw I can't remember who said about reading back to make yourself feel better but THANKYOU! That was a great advice and made me feel tons better about how far we have all come. I may well print he threw off for her memory box. So the little monster knows what I went through and therefore that I deserve a 5 star retirement home!!

So yup, I'm up at 3am AGAIN! She's dropping off in my arms again after our mandatory 20mins upright post feed and I'll attempt the reverse jewel thief style put down in a mo.

Quick question about first periods after csection/birth - but how blooming heavy should they be?! This is way way waaaaay more heavy than my usual flow. Is that right for the first one after baby?

Mugabes all round, the weekend is sooooo close!!!

Siani is there a bf support group nearby? I don't have a local one but I'm on a fb support group and its very useful. There's bound to be someone who can help. If not then the bf boards on here are really good. I mix fed dd1 for a long time with no ill effects. If you do it right you can certainly get away with the odd bottle of formula. Dont feel there's nothing to be done. I feed the girls upright- vertical rather than horizontal iyswim- and that's much better for reducing wind and sick.

I had a section last time Mzzf and when my periods came back they were extremely heavy. I was about to take some stuff you get in Boots tram-something or other acid when I got up the stick again. Speak to your dr maybe. I started using a mooncup because I just couldn't rely on tampons. Even the super size were no good.

Sympathy for all the unwell folk. Hope you all feel better today.

Happy birthday Love! Hope you had an ace day and a quiet night.

for anyone affected by baby loss awareness day, I just can't imagine how horrible it is to go through that.

Are we somehow passing illness around through the magic of this thread? Hope you both feel a lot better Fatty and Frolic.

Siani we used to give DS a bottle of formula in the evenings so I could get a decent stretch of sleep. It never did him any harm, and made a big difference to my sanity. What I mean is don't feel guilty if you do end up handing over to OH - happy mummy = happy baby.

Speaking of handing over, I left DS with DP last night and went to Nandos with the girls. Again came home to chaos and a stressed DP telling me he's not sure he can look after DS full time (we're supposed to be doing the shared parental leave thing). Just glad he now appreciates that I don't just drink coffee and eat cake all day (though that is a big part of what I do )

Welcome more newbies! Lovely to have you join us and Mugabe to all. This must be the last night feed... Friday beckons, hurrah.

Mugabe! Thank you for the sympathy, despite my blatant fishing for it!
I feel a lot better today. I think it may have been something I ate rather than a bug. Ds seems fine, which is the most important thing. And at least I now know I can survive being ill with a baby.
I hope you've all had good days and nights.

Welcome cor and count - lovely to see new names on here.

Belated happy birthday loves, I hope you had a great day .

What lily said about feeling like you're babysitting totally sums up a lot of my feelings in recent weeks. I'm finding it hard to accept that ds is actually ours for ever.

I hope everyone is ok after the jabs fanby.

How are you today fatty? All better I hope.

There were many, many pictures of candles on my fb timeline last night slow. Way to many friends have suffered terrible losses. It was very sad to see, but also nice to see the solidarity in remembering all those little angels. I hope you're feeling ok

Oh siani, that's utter shit. I hope you are both ok. I echo everyone else's comments about there being nothing wrong with formula if it helps you all get some sleep.

Yay to a good night out and some appreciation from the OH clstow.

I had 7 hours uninterrupted sleep last night, and was able to get a shower while DS1 played in his room, DD was still asleep and DS2 was in his bouncer in the bathroom.

I feel a bit better but only managed to eat half a crumpet for breakfast. At least it will kick start my diet!

Plan for today is to snuggle up with the babies and keep warm. Then I have DB coming later. He's 13 so will get him to keep an eye on the DCs while I quickly give the house a once over.

Morning all, feeling like a new person this morning thanks to grumpydwarf 2 sleeping from 11:30pm to 5:30am for the first time ever. Suspect it's just a one off, but who cares!

Thanks for the description siani I'll be giving that a go later (with the curtains drawn!) Sorry to hear about your reflux issues, we have awful days were everyone has several changes of clothes and then days were she isn't sick at all. I'm thinking of starting a food diary to see if it is something I'm eating. Worth a punt maybe?

Oh, and mzzzf my periods came back really different after my section. Much heavier but shorter lasting with less cramps, the weirdness of the human body...

Thanks for the sympathy all! After posting that I got up and walked him about burping him for a half hour or so until he did a few more big sicks and a huge poop, and eventually got two two hour stretches of sleep, which is actually pretty good. I'm going to try to limit his massive daytime sleeps today - his worst nights definitely seem to be when he's done an epic four hour sleep in the pram.

Joskar how do you physically arrange things so you feed vertically? I don't know if it's because I'm so little and Fergus is now so big, but I can't figure out how to get him on the boob upright. I feed sitting up in bed with my back to the headboard, but if I sit him up on my lap his mouth is up at my face. I am trying to keep him as upright as I can, but my back is fucking agony if I'm sitting straight up and holding his whole weight upright with my arms, so I'm ending up with him sort of diagonal with his bum/hip on one thigh and the other knee raised up to brace the arm holding his upper half up at boob height. When I'm shattered this all kind of slumps down and he ends up horizontal, which I'm sure doesn't help.

I haven't looked for a breastfeeding group here, but I'm sure there must be one. The HV has asked me if I'll volunteer as a breastfeeding support volunteer because I've been managing to stick to it and grow a big healthy baby despite the spectacular reflux and a really rough start. I was all "but I have no idea what I'm doing, I just keep putting a boob in him and cleaning up gallons of sick" but apparently you get training!

I've spoken to my OH about the reflux and I'm going to go back to the doctors and see if they can try Fergus on ranitidine - it really helps me with my reflux, and he is my son, it kind of makes sense that he might have an actual reflux problem on top of baby reflux, given that I do...

Speaking of doctors, he has his jabs on Monday. Bracing myself for extreme guilt if he cries. The bloody doctors never actually contacted me or scheduled his vaccinations, I had to ring up and ask what had happened. He was meant to be referred for an ultrasound on his hips as well, so I need to chase that up, too. :/

lily and frolic I know just what you mean about feeling like you are babysitting! I feel a bit like the image attached, too.

Clstow I'm quite horribly jealous of you being able to hand off to your DP and have him admit it's hard. I'd kill for a night out!

Welcome newbies! Mugabe!

Slowife that's actually a really good idea about the food diary. If it's dairy I may kill myself, mind - life without cheese is not worth living!

Thanks for the welcome everyone! I hope you all had a good night :) my night wasn't too bad, until the 5am feed. DD was drifting off on the boob and then was sick everywhere. Soaked us both and the bed. In the end dh took over, because I'm ashamed to say I had a mini breakdown :(

Does anyone have any nice plans for today?

siani I know what you mean. I am rather ashamed to admit that is why I have held off starting one until now

Thank you for all the birthday wishes - had a fab day. DH must have felt guilty (I have been moaning constantly about tiredness and doing everything!) and for the first time ever he took 5DCs out on his own without me so I could have peace - took them to Edinburgh for the day. I cleaned the house (I know it was my birthday but I am cleaning obsessed and it was a 'treat' to sit in the shiny cleanness!!), went for a massive walk with DD then came home and snuggled on sofa with DD and my huge birthday bar of Galaxy. DH and DCs came home with a giant birthday cake and we all went out for tea - back to reality today - DH at work, 6 DCs and house a mess!!

frolic, fatty and siani - hope you are feeling much better today - bad enough being ill but feels 100% worse when you have a baby to look after too.

Mugabe and welcome to all Newbies

siani your breastfeeding and pumping technique made me lol - well done you!

Mugabe!

7 hours sleep and an uninterrupted shower sound like heaven fatty. Glad you're feeling a bit better. Yesterday's sickness won't be doing anything for my diet as I binged on digestives and lemonade as soon as I could stomach anything .

slo and siani, ds had a bad week of vomiting and wind / colic when he was 3 weeks. At the same time I'd been eating buckets of Greek yogurt. I stopped the yogurt and ds has been fine since. The only other dairy I have is cheese, but that seems ok. My lovely friend who is a hv explained that it doesn't necessarily mean an allergy or intolerance, just that dairy can be hard for their new little systems to digest. It might be worth keeping that food diary.

That picture is bang on siani. I feel like I'm playing at being a grown up.

We've had a few of those epic sicks all over the boob count. I find that the crop top I wear to contain my boobs at night holds a shockingly large amount of liquid. Definitely breakdown inducing stuff. Aftet the most recent incident ds did the biggest smile and I was laughing and crying simultaneously while trying to clean us up. He looked so pleased to have got it all out.

Cleaning on your birthday loves? You are one crazy lady! Glad you had a lovely day.

I hope everyone is having a happy Friday. Not much going on here. Ds and I are having a lovely snuggly sofa day whilst I binge watch pretty little liars on Netflix.

Hello. Thank you for the friendly welcome. Sorry I don't 'know' everyone yet. Hopefully I will get to :)

loveandsmiles - happy birthday and I am seriously impressed by 6 children. Two feels like a handful here!

Edward had his 8 week vaccs this afternoon. Hope he doesn't get a fever! Have given the first dose of calpol as suggested.

I was breastfeeding but found it hard to trust that it was working and never felt we got the latch right. So I reduced breast feeds with the aim of stopping gradually and got down to 2 breast feeds a day and was dithering about stopping completely. Then yesterday he slept through the evening breast feed so I have taken the plunge and haven't done a breast feed today. I suppose I could still change my mind but I think this is it. My boobs are a big uncomfortable! But as I was only doing 2 feeds a day I think it should be manageable with some expressing for comfort.

Slowwife- wow I am jealous of you LO sleeping all that time! Do you think you could get them to have a word with DS? Lol! I shouldn't complain he was very good last night- after crying when my dad got here whenever him or my stepmom held him he had his bath and bottle and was a happy little chappy very contentedly snuggling with stepmum whilst she sang adelweiss to him (must have been a nice change to have someone sing in tune to him!) and then sitting watching us eat tea in his bouncy! He then fell asleep and I took him upstairs where he stayed asleep from being laid in his Moses at 9pm until 0050 when I was going to make him a bottle as he was awake and I presumed hungry but he fell back asleep whilst I was in the loo and only woke for it at 3am! Then went back to sleep till 0730 for bottle and again from 8 till 830 so I managed to grab a quick shower and get dressed!

Glad others aren't doing well with the diets- awful to say I know as we are supposed to be supporting each other but I forgot my dad was such a feeder! He turned up we 2 beautiful loaves of bread- one they helped me eat this morning the other I've frozen! Also cookies, a ginger cake and Parkin cake! Had pizza for tea last night- 4 from m&s with extra toppings on and went out for lunch today where I had salad......chicken and chorizo and it also had potatoes in- probably the most unhealthy salad I've ever eaten but it was delish!! I'm clearly going to end up eating all the Parkin as its my fave (reminds me of my birthday on bonfire night) and DH doesn't like it! Looks like I'm writing the diet off till Monday AGAIN!!

Siani- bracing for jabs here too, second lot on Tuesday and apparently they say not to do the pre emptive calpol with these as no men B and that's the one they say to do it for so in thinking I'm going to have a cranky DS! He seems to have been less cranky today after he last few days but has slept loads- currently 2 hours into a 'nap'! Thinking I'm going to have more clothes to add to the 'too small' pile soon

Mzzf- love the idea of including print offs of the thread in memory box and happy someone else is sentimental re memories! I have a beautiful one from tkmaxx for DS so far it has all his hospital stuff in, first baby grow, hat and scratch mitts, birth certificate, baby book of firsts, cord clamp and my pregnancy book that I filled in each week! I love keepsakes we have a jar in the kitchen with champagne/prosecco corks in with the date and occasion written on each!

Right off to gobble Parkin cake before DS wakes and DH gets home! oink oink!!!

CorBlimey- I did similar to you when stopping bf although more of a conscious decision rather than DS sleeping through one as it made me a crazy person and found for a few days after stopping completely I had to keep expressing a little for comfort- mainly in the shower of a morning and rather unglamorously/ grossly into the bathroom sink just before bed ! I don't know how you feel about stopping but just incase thought I'd say don't let yourself feel guilty at all- I only did a little bit as it made such a big improvement in my mental wellbeing and bonding with DS that I knew it was the right decision, but occasionally I would feel like I took the easy/lazy way out so wanted to say just incase don't beat yourself up! Sorry if that's totally irrelevant!

Thank you Lily I think there is a risk I might feel guilty later but I will try to remember the reasons I decided to stop.