January 2016 - Hello babies!

[Nousername2015]

Thread to share our experiences and also have a chat to someone also dealing with lively babies at 3am!

I'm trying not to get frustrated with breastfeeding tonight/this morning: he just doesn't seem to be latching on. He has his mouth wide open like a bird and clearly wants feeding, but he just doesn't seem to take to the boob well. When does latch on he's only attached for 5 mins before he gets tired but everytime I put him down he want feeding again. This only happens a night. I wondered whether I'm too slouched for him so try leaving forward (a position I don't find sustainable when you are tired at 3 in the morning. I'm guessing he is just really tired and that's why we aren't connecting well bf-wise. He def doesn't have tongue tie or anything like that. I am going to percervere with bf for sure, but I can see why women give up or chose to bottle feed as it would be so much easier for night feeds.

DS has not been to sleep yet. At this moment in time he is not my favourite person.

elvi having a similar night, he's being very fussy and fighting against my boobs instead of latching on properly.

You must be knackered as well nousername! Hope he sleeps eventually so you can too...

Elvi I agree on the BF front.. I find it generally tough and the latch is so important.. Hannah seems to be getting it mostly, but it goes through patches. It's annoying when she sucks her cheeks in as you know it's gonna make you sore..

The only bonus is I don't mind the midwives coming to help- they literally grab the boob, squeeze it and shove it in! Childbirth leaves no room for modesty!!

With visitors I started to put a limit on it and have days woth none. Not sure what happened with feeding last night. I nodded of with bab in my arms at one point. Hate doing thst but she did go down a couple of times. Great stuff.i put her down and she stirred. We need to get up now anyway

Hope everyone else is ok.

DS finally settled... At 6:45am.

Glad we aren't the only ones who are a bit hit and miss with our breastfeeding. Not sure if it's me or him playing silly buggers - I think possibly the latter and likely because he's tired and half heartedly wants to feed.

lily I forgot to say that I feel a bit blue in the evenings. I think in the morning my battery feels recharged, but come the evening I'm running on empty again and that along with the uncertainty of the night ahead makes me feel down.

Feel like punching DH a little bit this morning. He's really chirpy saying 'ooh you've had a good nights sleep - he's been really good', as he's rolling around all suggly in bed and I'm sitting up uncomfortably for yet another feed. I told him that 4.5 hours broken sleep with a long stretch of being awake in between isn't 'good' (although on here we would a agree it could be worse!) As soon as baby stops eating I'm handing him over so he can change him and settle him back down, and then I'm going to sleep for a couple of hours!

Like firsttimemum we don't have visitors every day and I have postponed visits if feeling too tired, or if feel too many people are coming over. Our next visitors are coming Saturday evening.

DH's parents are on their way now. They promised it'd be afternoon but it'll now be 11.30/12.

By 7am I was so tired I didn't even have the energy to get up and change my wet, smelly baby so for the first time just lay down with him in bed next to me so I could get a little bit more sleep. I think we went way over 3 hours between feeds and I feel awful but I just couldn't do it! I maybe snoozed for an hour and a half so have had a total of 3.5/4 hours' broken sleep. Definitely not feeling overly positive thus morning! And DS is still being very fussy and taking ages to latch

Hi everyone I was on the antenatal thread. Dd2 was born on the 7th so rapidly approaching 3 weeks she is a greedy bugger so thankfully has taken well to breastfeeding. Dd1 was a nightmare so I was quite worried about this one.

I'm finding the evenings and nighttime are hard too. Dp can't do much really what with not having boobs so I just let him sleep but it is bloody lonely at 4 am! My 5yo has been a bit unsettled too (understandably) so I'm often trying to feed with me, dp, gangly 5yo and baby all in bed

lily - once in a 24hour period I feed my baby way more than 3 hours apart, more like 4 hours apart and always after a long night of cluster feeding when we all fall asleep. I don't feel bad about it at he feeds regularly the rest of the time and It's so important for our santity to get some sleep when we can. im up for most of the night, and during the day when he sleeps we gently wake him up for feeding, so we only go over once a day. I have found that some midwifes will tell you to set an alarm, but I've asked a couple of different midwives if this technique is ok and they said it was. Don't feel guilty!

oi - yeah night times are pretty lonely. The period between 2 - 5am
is the worse.

Lily I've missed alarms and changing nappies and felt so guilty but you wake up and tomorrow's another day you do your best and that's fine. Xxxxx

Hello all
Baby girl is 1 week old. After 7 years since my ds was born everything is a shock. Kind of feels like my first baby again even though she's #3.
Everything takes 4X as long now
Congratulations all

The health visitor came round today and diagnosed DS with a tongue tie, which explains a lot of the extreme windiness and constant fussy feeding at night. Having said that we had a much better night last night last night as he actually spent some of the night (two 1.5hr sessions) in his Moses basket and settled my much more quickly after feeds. I think he finally getting his days and nights the right way around.

Mumfairy I feel a bit like that too! My dd1 is coming up for 6 so it does weirdly feel like the first time again. But less of a shock! I want to have more and can't decide if I should aim for a small age gap or go for another big one.

Cheese my dd has tounge tie too, we're awaiting the appointment to get it snipped. Definitely makes her swallow more air but luckily she seems to be taking in enough milk.

I want more too but I think I can only have 1 more as I've now had 2 sections (ds1 and dd3) and any future kids would be elective section and I've read you can only have 3. I think a bigger gap is better for me so I can really enjoy having a baby. I'd have loads if I could.
How mad are we talking about having more when we're going through sleepless nights
Having a girl after 2 boys is so different, even at this age.

I know! It seems crazy to be talking about more. My labour this time was quite horrific but it only took me a few days to say 'I could do that again'

Having problems with my dd1 today. She came home from school in a total strop and has basically tantrummed for an hour. Ugh.

I can't imagine how people manage with more than two children. The logistics of feeding a baby and doing tge school run are quite enough for me, and I haven't even done the school run since ds2 was born but I'll have to when dh goes back to work next week. It took four years for me to feel ready for another, this is definitely my last.

Thanks elvi and firsttime, I've had a very teary day all round and it's good to know I'm not the only one not always able to keep up with the schedule! DH took DS out for a walk in the sling earlier after his parents had left so I could get an hour's nap which helped a bit.

I have NO idea how those of you with children already are doing this!!

I've had my ds1 who's 8 off school with a flu type thing. Last night I'd fed and settled baby at 3am and was just nodding back off when he came in with a burning temp.
Reading this thread I have been quite lucky so far, baby sleeps for 4 hours at night usually 12-4 and then every 2 after but I'm up at 7 anyway and it's in the moses. Hoping it lasts but I won't hold my breath. It's still very early days. Everyone keeps asking if she's in a routine but I think it's a little too early to even think about that. She's got herself into a pattern but it's definitely not forced. How old would you say is best for starting a routine

Glad you got a sleep lily. Everything seems a bit better when your not so exhausted.

I'm quite lucky because my dd1 is from a previous relationship so she goes to her dad's a few nights a week. Having the routine of doing the school run is actually quite nice though, baby falls asleep in the pram and I get to have a chat with friends a few times a day. My dp goes back to work tomorrow and I'm hoping the little bit of adult company keeps me sane.

We are managing a routine of me sleeping from about 7-9. Wrecks the evenings and I feel I don't get to spend any time with DH but I've got to remember that it is temporary.

Not sure who posted about feeling down in the evenings but I get a feeling of dread from about 5pm onwards that we are heading into another night. I find them incredibly lonely as me and DH are in separate rooms. I don't see the point in him getting woken up as he can't feed him so may as well sleep.

Those of you with more than 1 child - I don't know how you do it!!

I don't know how people with more than one child do it.

My little one was asleep tonight in moses basket from 12-3 ish. I've given up on the bedside crib for now.

Hope everyone is ok. Those of u getting babies down at such a young age are doing well. Mine was attached to me permanently for 3 weeks.

I live doing skin to skin though. We went to bed yesterday afternoon and just did some if that. X

Better night here, cluster feeding from roughly 9pm-1am then I managed to get him down for about 1.5-2 hours until 3-ish and until now. Tired but feeling much better about it. Going to call the bf helpline later today as I don't think his latch is right and he's also fighting quite a lot and struggling to take the breast, especially on one side. Hoping they can suggest some home help as I'm not sure I'm ready for a trip out to a café or centre yet...

firsttime well done on the skin to skin, we remembered to do some yesterday as well!

I'm struggling to get my baby in moses basket after 2nd night feed as I tend to nod off.

Any tips

DS goes down easiest if I stick him straight in after a feed. I run the risk of posseting but keeping him out of the basket after the feed ends usually results in him refusing to go in it.

Better night here last night but only because I sank to a new low and gave a dummy. I swear I'm only going to use it in extreme circumstances but I feel like an awful mother. It was either that or sending DH out for formula, and it did really work and ds then fed fine when he woke up 3 hours later for more food. This nighttime cluster feeding may be the end of me.