March 2016: the one where Indomitable gives birth...

[vroc81]

I hope I haven't duplicated a new March thread in my sleep deprived state.. Went to reply and found thread was full!..

Oops just realised I've basically said I don't like two of my children... not the case! Hahaha

Thanks beaut.
I just find it hard because I keep saying to my self "enjoy her, you may never have another" and then I remember to have another involves bloody pregnancy/labour/birth again. I'm glad he helps you out- makes the world of difference doesn't it.
My sil has a 4.5 month old and a 4 year old and I can't wait until c is more like the 4.5 month old and smiles/laughs etc and starts to interact more. I guess I don't feel like I'm getting much back at the moment which makes it hard.
I can imagine four keeps you very busy.
How much sleep do you average a night?
I don't mind feeding c at night I can cope with that it's the nights/evenings she won't settle I hate. Still she could be a lot worse I suppose so I can't complain.

Baby woken to feed. Took 20ml so tired fallen asleep on me here we go again. I suspect this will go on until 5pm now

Time can you get out the house for a walk? I know it means you won't be sleeping but maybe the fresh air will knock her out a bit and also it might do you good. I know I would rather be walking the streets tired with crying baby than stuck in the house.

Nixxy I reckon you deserve some sort of medal! Glad your dd is feeding well. E is bottle fed too so I know how you feel about not bf but really it is only important that they are getting fed.

Me well I know how you feel about the sleep or lack of it. I'm planning to sleep when I can but today that hasn't worked out that way!

Well day one of going solo has been ok so far. We got out for a walk and stopped off at a friend who was off work for a coffee. Now I'm at the town hall waiting to register E's birth. This was the first appt we could get!! Then I need to get back to get ds from school Think I'll be letting dh do the last feed and I'll be in bed at 9!

purple the appointments at our local one are crazy, Rory was born on March 19th - the appt to register him isn't until the 22nd of April!
time I hope you've managed to get something sorted with Calais, just a thought but when she falls asleep while feeding could you wake her instead of putting her down? Don't know if its the same but with R when he stops sucking on boob and looks as though he's about to fall asleep I stroke his cheek and he starts sucking again - does that work the same with a bottle fed baby?

Yep very busy!

Nancy probably feeds every 2-3 hours at night, but because she sleeps next to me and is breastfed I don't wake up properly, just help her latch on then fall asleep again.

When I start trying to force her into a routine and into her Next 2 Me crib in a few weeks I expect I'll have a lot less sleep!

I'd also love another baby but really don't want to go through birth/morning sickness again

Hi,
I normally change her nappy half way through if she wakes up- she hates nappy changes/clothing changes. Loves a bath though until she's lifted out of it.
Oh q- 19th march was my original due date haha.
Can't believe she's 8 weeks tomorrow. I just keep telling my self at each night waking is one less I have to do and one day I will sleep through again.
And to think I used to be tired sleeping 10-6:30 for work haha.

Just put Calais in bouncer chair she fell asleep so tried transferring her but I can hear stirring from the carry cot :'( for goodness sake. Why don't babies understand if they sleep they'll feel better? How I'd love to just be able to sleep and she can and won't. I'll have her place haha.
Purple- well done on your first day. It's hard. Very hard but you'll get through it.Havnt gone for a walk. I desperately need a shower but cent have one until oh gets home.

She's awake again now. Seriously she's slept 1hr five since 9am. !? She's so tired I can't have her in bouncer all night such a nightmare

The thing about pregnancy I hated was the restless legs. I'm terrified of having another then them coming back. It was horrible.
Also now everyone has given birth on here I have to say labour was excruciating. I felt like I was dying. It was 10 times worse than I'd ever imagined and I was like that women on one born screaming the place down haha.
People say you forget- I bloody have not. If only oh could do it if theirs a next time haha.

How do you co sleep safely?
I'm so scared I'll roll onto her but if she won't settle tonight I'd love to try.

I also found giving birth excruciating and haven't forgotten the pain!

Touch wood I've co slept with all babies until 8 weeks ish and haven't rolled onto them! Your body should be quite in tune with hers so you 'know' she's there even when asleep. She lays next to me, but never next to DH

Well we didn't have anything planned today so I decided to catch up on sleep. DS went down for a sleep about 2.30 and as soon as he was settled, I lay down on the sofa and have only just woken up, that's an extra 1hr45 minutes in the sleep bank!

Time I know it's hard but I really recommend you try to get out as well. I feel so much more positive on days when we keep busy. Today I had nothing planned and it's raining but I took DS to the supermarket to pick up a few bits just to get out.

I also refuse to skip showers etc if I need them! I bring DS into the bathroom in his bouncy chair, have you tried that? Usually he will sit in it without crying for the length of a shower, as long as he can see me and I talk or sing to him while I'm there. Like I said he did fuss this morning while I was trying to get ready so I do have to keep stopping to pick him up but at least I still get clean! I'd go mad if I had to wait for DH to get home.

Beaut i love 3-5 yrs, it's the age I teach too so send them over!

Time you aren't alone in looking forward to when your dd is more interactive. These first weeks/months are hard. Once you can play silly pee-bo games etc it's much more rewarding. I had a shower today with E moaning in her Moses basket in the bathroom. Not ideal but I thought tough it's five mins.

Q are you London as well? It's crazy here. I was so worried I'd be late and miss the appt because who knows when I'd get another. Not within the 42 days of whatever it is. All registered now though, she officially exists

Sorry you're finding things tough time. I agree with the others about getting out, even if it's just a walk round the supermarket, you might find the baby sleeps for longer while out. My ds always slept better in the pram/sling, I think I went to Sainsbury's every day when he was tiny, and sometimes I could come home, bump the pram up the stairs (we're on the first floor) and leave him sleeping in the hall while I made a cup of tea and chilled out, or even got forty winks. S seems to be the same, as soon as we're out she's asleep - just need to time it so she's got a clean nappy and full tummy. Get yourself dressed and your bag together, then change and feed her and go straight out.

I'm suffering with the lack of sleep too, it really hits me at about 3pm every day for some reason, I suddenly struggle to keep my eyes open! I can't even sleep when the baby does as I've got ds to look after too.

The part of the day I'm finding hardest is now, 4-6ish. The witching hour! S has been cluster feeding at this time, making it really hard to get ds sorted with some dinner (he goes to bed at 7 so too early for us to all eat together) and give him a bath. I've been giving her one boob, starting dinner, another boob and finishing dinner, another one and helping him down from the table, etc etc. But it does mean leaving her crying on her playmat (which she actually seems to like, thankfully, ds hated it but she's quite interested in the dangly animals) for a few minutes while I'm doing things, and ds is having to wait for things.

Sorry your struggling time, I'm sure your DPs colleagues meant nothing personal with their comments, they are probably poking a bit of fun to DP?! But tiredness can result in buying when at other times we'd take a deep breath and forget it!!

I agree with others suggestions re getting out for a bit, could clear your head and some fresh air may knock your dd out?!

Suz the witching hour is a bloody pain isn't it. It's between 6.30-8 here and has me climbing the walls!! I've served up toast and crudités (flipping toast ffs) for my Dds tea (we did have a proper dinner luckily) as DS decided to do anything else would be impossible!! DP still not home from work either so unable to lessen the screams!!

Beautiful you sound so calm and composed for someone not only breastfeeding 1 but also having another 3 to look after!!!!

I'm actually finding things really tough right now. DS is 5 weeks old and I'm feeling really trapped by bfing. Selfish I know. Ironically I'm happy feeding during the night, the sleep deprivation I can cope with. What I'm finding suffocating is the fact I can't go anywhere without DS, he doesn't really settle for it others as more often than not it's the boob he wants?! I've tried introducing a dummy as he's increasingly whingy, totally refused this, as has he refused formula from a bottle to top up or start mix feeding ,he's hit and miss taking ebm from a bottle also this last week. I keep trying to tell myself it will soon pass....but how can it if he will only feed from me?!

My Dd deserves more of my time too...making me sad!!

Hiya,
I didn't get out today but oh took her out in the pram for an hour- he said she only slept for 15 minutes and cried the rest of the way :(
She's has about 1 hour 45 since 9am this morning and still won't settle down :'(.
We are in for a long night I think. So stressed out. Tomorrow I will be def be going out if she is like this.
It's so hard. All she needs is some sleep and she's struggling to eat she's so tired. It's horrible when you know what the issue is and you can't help them :(

Checking in after a night feed. How can a baby with such a tiny tummy guzzle 4oz of milk at 11.45pm and be wide awake starving less than 3 hours later? I'm sure she needs more winding too but I can't get her to burp and we've been up nearly an hour. Attempting for us both to get back to sleep now.

Hi purple. I'm up too! And we only got him properly to sleep at midnight, thanks to a ginorma poo. He did do 3 hours in his cot though, so that's good. Just need another few stints of that...

Argh I can hear his big sister stirring now. I need sleeeeeep.

I'm up too! DS was an absolute nightmare yesterday evening. He napped all afternoon, then woke up and had a feed at 5.30. He didn't settle after that until 11.30! Had another bottle at 8.30 but got increasingly more agitated - a couple of times I thought I'd got him off in his Moses basket but he'd only stay asleep for 5 minutes. DH and I were both getting frazzled and the only thing that would stop him from screaming was me giving him my little finger to suck. I've been letting him suck it fairly regularly as I have a real aversion to dummies, I don't know why. But last night at DH's urging I cracked and we gave him one. He settled and went to sleep almost instantly.

I then cried as I really wanted to avoid dummies and felt like a failure that I couldn't settle DS on my own. I know that's ridiculous. I don't plan to give it to him all the time and hopefully I will just resort to it when we are all desperate.

On the positive side DS went from 8.30 to 3.30am between feeds. That's an impressively long stretch and if I can shift it back a few hours then we are close to sleeping through the night! Probably a fluke though!

Another one who needs sleep here! Last night DD2 was up for feeding at 12, 2, 4 and 6 and DD1 was up several times as well so me and DP were stretched thin. Tonight its been 12, 2.30 and now 3.45. Zzzzzz. She does only feed for 10-15 minutes or so, so its not too bad but I really wish I could get at least a 2 hour block of sleep in the middle of the night... Good news is the past few nights she has been quite happy to settle in her cot, hoping it stays that way!

Sorry to hear you're struggling time. Like others have said I definitely recommend getting out and about. With DD1 she was a sleep refuser and during the day would only ever sleep with motion - I used to take her for a walk in the buggy and she'd sleep longer. You could try that and then hopefully get some sleep yourself.

Poppins sorry you're feeling so restricted. The constant wanting to feed does pass though! I don't have any tips for bottle refusing however as DD1 was a complete bottle refuser which was a nightmare as I went back to work at 6 months (she did accept drinking from a cup eventually!). Unfortunately it just means if you do want to go anywhere, whoever is left looking after baby has to accept they might be grumpy the whole time I remember I went to a gig in London when DD1 was 3 months old and DP had a rough evening with screamo baby who refused all the ebm we'd prepared!

Had E's hospital check up yesterday about her boil, all fine and its healing well. But the antibs she is on have given her diarhhea and she's got terrible nappy rash. Anyone got any recommendations for how to treat it? We've been putting on sudocream to no effect.

Another night feeder here, only an hour since the last one. That'll teach me for putting her down after ten minutes on one side!

Sorry to hear about the nappy rash marmite, have you tried Drapolene? That always worked for us.

marmite rory had awful nappy rash - went up a size in nappies and also let him have an hour of naked time every morning and it's cleared completely!

Another one up! Eleanor woke me up so have duly prepared a feed only for her to have about 20 mls then fall asleep on me I suspect it was probably wind more than hunger that woke her up as she was writhing around the whole time and is still at it slightly in her sleep. Roll on next week when she's a month old and I can crack open the gripe water!
Have been using the Glow app that someone (sorry, can't remember who) had recommended, to get an idea if there's any patterns and the answer is no! Generally she'll feed every couple of hours or so, day and night, but that sometimes stretches out for 3/4 hours (even got 5 hours last night!). She's also been bringing milk back up again in the past couple of days, which she hadn't done for a few days. Not every feed, but a couple a day and the amount that comes back up is awful! I can also hear her gulping away occasionally when she's been put back down, like some is coming up slightly but not enough to make an appearance. So we all have a faint smell of baby sick about us at the moment
to everyone who needs them- sorry my brain is a bit fried and haven't been able to keep track properly. Will attempt to later on today!

She slept! She slept!
After my post I left her with oh at 9:30 and went to bed. She woke at 2am for a feed which he did. He said she was a bit hard to settle after but nothing terrible and has now woken for me at 5am took 30ml and got hiccups and she still looks shattered. Bless her.
Sorry to all those having bad nights. Hope you all got some sleep

Wow me and time that's a good chunk of sleep right there, well done And Me I felt similar about a dummy with Dd but actually seeing the comfort it gave her reassured me I was doing the right thing. Just wish DS would take one now... Gosh I'm so fickle!! Haha

Thanks marmite, DS has previously taken ebm in a bottle so I think I should persevere with that again, maybe then trying formula once the bottles not so strange to DS?!

Great news about the boil but nappy rash is awful isn't it. Metanium in the yellow tube worked absolute wonders for us with Dd as she would suffer terribly with a sore bum when teething, and I think it was called Zinc & Castor Oil cream, we tried this after a Dr recommended it to us. Hope it clears up soon.

Another vote for metanium to fix nappy rash, just be warned that a little goes a very long way otherwise you will end up with it everywhere!

Metanium is brill!

Ha thanks Poppins! I do enjoy breastfeeding but as you say it's very restricting. All mine were bottle refusers so I cba to express milk this time round.

marmite the boil on E sounds scary! Glad she's on the mend.

Zzzz. Nancy woke up for a loooottt of feeds last night and now I'm back to getting up at 6:50am to get the other children to school and nursery. And as of yesterday our front door will not lock. Aagghh!