February 2016 - our babies are here!

[IslaMann]

New group for those graduating the ante-natal thread

She finally stopped at half two haquoi, a mere 13 hours after starting. There was one period of 40 mins where DP took her so I could power nap, but other than that it was a feed, detach, doze for five minutes cycle the entire time
...
I am grateful for the fact that my nipples had just about sorted out the day before, so we managed, and that I've been through this before!

And let us know how you get on at the doctor's clumsy, reflux is the pits...

Waiting in line to start the discharge process... Fingers crossed we're breaking out of here this afternoon! DS is much better and they've switched his medication so we could go home and bring him back in once a day til Sunday to get his final course finished. I've been fine for days so it's a waiting game now - they don't have many staff on today and a few of us waiting to be let out of here...

He got weighed today and has lost 40g which seems a tiny amount. He's split between expressed breastmilk and formula. Really pleased after such a challenging few days that he's doing ok. Looks giftware to getting him home!

DS's skin is doing much better, still a few white heads but the horrible green pus has gone. He finished his antibiotics yesterday. Still having diarrhoea today, poosplosions aren't fun! For his conjunctivitis he had chloramphenicol and fucithalmic. Chloramphenicol is in optrex infected eye, so you can get over the counter. Cat still has conjunctivitis, he is now getting DS's eye drops! DH and I both have very sore hands now from all the hand washing, my hands are bleeding. DH finally maned up but still needs reminding occasionally.
handbag hope your little purse gets better soon and you get to go home xxx

Me and bubs are being discharged and getting to go home in about an hour! Can't wait, got a little emotional and cried. What a wally I am lol

Thanks for all the feeding tips, will definitely try them out. Saw the locum Dr who happened to be a paediatrician before she became a gp she said to feed little and often and to completely cut out caffeine from my diet (no more chocolate for me ). She offered to prescribe gaviscon but said there is no evidence that it actually works so we are going to see how he goes. She also said to wear him as much as possible to keep him upright so I get to try out the sling my friend bought round this morning. She checked his stomach and lungs and they are all clear so that's good and he is not dehydrated.

Hope your nipples aren't too sore after the mammoth feeding northern

Glad you are on your way out of there handbag I bet you are relieved!

rufus I have never used so much hand cream in my Life as I had bleeding hands too this week. Glad little one is getting better though and hope the cat improves!

We had a really bad night! DS was wide awake after his feed in the night and thought 4.30am was playtime. He didn't properly go back to sleep. He just fidgeted and squealed. DH finally took him downstairs at 10.30am, I sterilised all the bottles and then went back to bed till 2pm, didn't really sleep as I could hear DS screaming. I came down to carnage!!! DH had given him 3 bottles in 3.5hrs!!! All only partially drunk. There were used wet nappies all over the changing table. Kitchen is literally like a bomb has gone off. DH is now unconcious on the sofa, covered in cats. Dead bird in the hallway but I have a serious bird phobia so until DH gets up it will just have to stay there. To top it off I've got food poisoning from the pub yesterday, veggie quiche is obviously a dangerous option there.

Oh God rufus, that sounds horrendous! How did your DH manage such a stunning display?! Hope your dodgy stomach settles soon, that's all you need.

Are you settled in at home MaryEllen and handbag?

Decent day here: had to call Ikea first thing, as the mattress on the new sofa bed (sold as both firm, and suitable for everyday use) just has a huge dent/depression in the middle where I've been sleeping with DD.
Suffice to say, this should not be the case after a few days' use, and given that we have bought new to ensure we're following the safe sleeping guidelines, I was not a happy bunny. The irony was that the Ikea sofa bed it is replacing had done 12 years of use, being used 3 times a week up to daily, and you'd have never guessed it had been slept on!
Give Ikea their credit, no quibble and a new one will arrive Monday.

Went out to the local farm/play place for the afternoon for DS, so just enjoying a sit down and a G&T

northern hope the new bed is better

Apparently it is my fault that DH just undid the bottle top and emptied 4oz of milk onto him and DS! Think we are both very over tired!

rufus of course that's your fault you must have made him do it with your mind lol

Yes settled at home now it feels good to be home and saw midwife today which was all good had to sign a form for DS for something as his parent and it made me stop and think "wow I am a mum"
Didn't expect to get so worn out by all the visitors coming and going though!

Hope everyone is doing ok :)

Back in hospital as dd had lost 15%
Gutted and feeling really guilty.
On a cycle of breastfeed/top up with ebm and formula/pump.
They say she looks healthy, latch is fine (not perfect but mostly pretty good) so are fairly confident my milk is just a bit delayed. I really hope so.

troika thinking of you, don't feel guilty though it's not your fault.

I can imagine that it's really stressful for you troika, and hard as it may be, try not to feel guilty. It's just one of those things (my milk didn't come in till around day 5 last time, and I remember how tough I found it). She will stabilise and then she will put the weight back on- it will just take a little while.

troika exactly that happened to us, we had a stay in hospital and a very regimented routine of feeds plus express/formula top ups. He responded to it really quickly and is doing great, but I felt so guilty at not knowing that he'd lost so much of his birth weight- be gentle with yourself. Your milk will come in and she'll go from strength to strength.

troika I'm sorry to hear your news, it must be really stressful. You're doing great to get the help needed and I'm sure the new routine will get you back on track.

We're doing well - better than in hospital! DS has regained birth weight by day six on a diet of ebm and aptamil. We're struggling a bit to get food in him - he prefers to sleep and especially when he's anywhere near me. We're on a pause from breastfeeding as he looks disgusted at my boob and falls asleep. With a bottle he also falls asleep! He seems happy enough though and his weight general health is fine so we're going for little but often and enjoying the fact he doesn't wake us up at night.

We're registering his birth today then taking him into DH's office for a show off - family run business so it's not a huge team. It will be my first trip out in daylight since I went into hospital nearly two weeks ago!

As for me, I'm healing well. My lower tummy (pouch) is quite firm to touc which is a bit weird - I wonder if it's the muscles tightened over it in response to what went on in the c section? Anyone else have this? Midwife came yesterday and wasn't worried and said the scar was healing nicely. Just a bit odd...

Sorry to hear your having a bad time troika but you'll see she will gain weight soon and will be out of hospital soon.

handbag have a good day venturing out in to the open today! I'm hoping I may go out after the midwife has been tomorrow! :)

troika sorry to hear you had to go back to hospital. How are things going today?

I'm still having to give formula top-ups, and tbh I don't know where I am between breastfeeding and formula. I feel constantly on the brink of giving up breastfeeding and then I can't bring myself to make the decision. But the reality is that trying to establish a good supply after the initial disruption of the tongue-tie while having an 18 month old to also look after all day (not to mention DD and DH who still need to be fed and laundered for etc) is not working.

Not sure what to do for best.

mawsy where are you, is all ok?

Hello everyone! Finally made my way over from the ante-natal thread for those who don't yet know, Danny arrived at 5:29am on Thurs 25th weighing 7lb15; delivered in a birthing pool with the help of 2 paracetamol (gas and air was a faff) but suffered a PPH a couple of hours later and lost half my blood volume in a rather dramatic fashion, freaking DH out in the process. Since then, we were released from hospital on Friday night then my narc mother turned up uninvited for a 2-day stay on Saturday; PiL came over yesterday and this morning we're finally rid of them all and alone as a family!

Going to read back and catch up with everything now...

Hi all, Thanks for the shout out maisie! I have been keeping up to date with the thread but not posting as things have been tough going and I didn't want to be too negative.

DS had a tongue-tie too and after an initial improvement from weeks 2-4 things started to get sore again and then I got a horrible dose of mastitis. I was really ill and my supply suffered so I had to introduce some formula. No sooner had I got that cleared than I got another dose in the other breast. We also both got thrush from all the antibiotics I was taking. Anyone who looked at his latch thought it was perfect but for some reason he couldn't clear the milk properly. So in the midst of a fever and exhaustion I moved him to bottles.

He had always been windy /colicky but this increased on the bottles and then he stopped feeding altogether and we ended up in hospital where he was diagnosed with silent reflux. He's been on a high dose of losec nearly a week now and he is feeding thank goodness though not huge amounts and he's still colicky. I'm hoping and praying for a weight gain this week.

The consultant who examined him in hospital also noticed he has an abnormal suck pattern which explains the bf difficulties - instead of sucking back into the mouth he presses the nipple (or consultants finger! ) up against the roof of his mouth with his tongue. We have him on a larger teat than recommended for his age as the vacuum he gets isn't as strong as normal. The consultant also mentioned we may have to consider early weaning but I'll worry about that later.

So things have been tough and there has been very little sleep over the past 8 weeks, but hopefully things start looking up soon. Hope everyone else is doing well x

Hi monk congratulations! Glad you have got rid of the visitors and you are all ok now I hope.

mawsy that sounds rough, I hope things get sorted for you soon.

handbag we are going to make DS official today too

Does anyone know who to ask if you have a question about you when you have been discharged from midwife? I have started bleeding again today after having stopped for a week. DS is 5 weeks tomorrow but as ebf didn't think my periods would start yet, most of the info I can find says 3months and 5-6weeks if ff.

DS officially exists - we have the paperwork to prove it! Had a good couple of hours actually, even managing coffee and lunch before coming back home. He was good as gold and I was really pleased with the pram we bought (Oyster 2) having finally got to take it out.

Spoke to the midwife earlier - despite telling them we'd be out they turned up and I missed them. She's told us to relax a bit about feeding and pumping and drop it to 3-4 hours instead of 2. He's just not hungry most of the time and we're fighting to wake him up to force food into him. So we're going to see how it goes. I'm really lucky so far - he's 8 days old and has yet to wake me up in the night!

Welcome to the other side monkerina and congratulations!

Mawsy don't worry about sharing the negative - it's what we're all here for, and there's no point in pretending it's all easy and fun all the time! That's what Instagram is for, not mumsnet!!

handbag I have a pouch that overhangs my scar. It is tight and flat under it. I can't feel anything an inch above the scar, then it starts getting painful and then lessens up towards my belly button. I'm sure if I could feel my scar it would hurt.

mawsy could you tell me your DS's silent reflux symptoms and how it was diagnosed? My DS has gone from being a right piggy on aptamil and having 4-5ozs every 4 hrs and being a really happy baby to screaming when he gets put down after feeding and then getting a horrible rancid milk smell on his breath. He then started wanting more frequent feeding but smaller volumes. Today he has only had 1-2oz feeds, he hasn't been waking up on his own to feed and I'm getting worried. We have propped his cot up, changing him before his feed and holding him upright after feeding and burping him lots. 4 weeks old tomorrow.

Congratulations monkerina hope you're recovering well

Sorry to hear of all the difficulties with feeding, reflix and weight gain mawsy, troika, clumsy hope i haven't missed anyone? These babies can be so tricky but hopefully will get better as they grow and we get the hang of them..

This should be a place for support so agree that we need to post the difficult stuff as well as the good things.

We're doing pretty well. Managed a family trip to a farm on Saturday which ds1 loved. After a dreadful day of toiletting Accidents on Friday he's been clean and dry since so hoping we're making progress...

we had a trip.to the prolonged jaundice clinic yesterday. Ds2 isn't jaundiced any more so wasn't really necessary but he got the once over and weigh in which saves us a trip to the baby clinic as gaining well. I need to put away the newborn clothes today which makes me sad that we're finished with tiny babies and wish we could do it all again. Madness!

I must remember to sort out registration for ds2... plan was to go with dh but his work is crazy at the moment so no idea when he might be able to take the rest of his leave just having him home before 9pm would be appreciated. Hope your dh is pulling his weight rufus

Best get showered and dressed for nursery run! Hope you all have a good day...

Thank you for all the support and sorry to hear of everyone else's difficult times as well. Mawsy sounds difficult but I'm glad the consultant was able to give you some answers.

Good news here, we were discharged yesterday late afternoon as dd had regained 6% taking us to within the normal limits. The paediatrician was well impressed that she'd gained 200g in 36 hours. Only had to give a couple of formula top ups before the pumping increased milk enough to be able to top up with expressed milk only. I definitely have milk now! (Ouch)

Dd is spending much of her time in a complete milk coma. I messed up a bit last night due to extreme tiredness and after she'd had bf/top up then a bit more bf to settle her she slept for 1.5 hours, woke up windy and wanting a little drink. Didn't settle well so propped her on my chest but then fell asleep with her there She then slept for another 3.5 hours before I woke up in a panic. Honestly only felt like I'd dozed off . Had to wake her then as had messed up her feed schedule - 6 hours between big feeds with 2 snacks rather than big feed after 3 hours. The midwife in hospital did say that as long as she continues to gain weight today, tomorrow, and at 10 days that we can move onto more demand style feeding, just not letting her go more than three hours in the day but letting her sleep at night. Fingers crossed it hasn't done her harm not sticking to it last night...

Ah mawsy I wish you had come on for support when you were going through that What an ordeal. I hope your DS2 has gained well this week.

cud I am impressed by your farm trip! We went for a walk for about an hour on Sunday afternoon with the double buggy and it felt like an achievement!