February 2007 Post Natal Club

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Hello

I know it's not even February yet, but here is the new thread. Even though Jacob was born in January, I feel he is an honorary Febster!!!

Looking forward to more new bubs coming this way!!!

lol I remember those arguments with DH when we had DS! We both promised not to do it this time. Besides, he acknowledges that I DO have it harder and am definately more tired than he is. He's still getting 8 hours sleep a night!

Isla was weighed again today. She's 3+2 and has put on a whopping 11oz this week. I really didn't think she would have gained much as she had put on 12.5 oz at the previous weigh in. Can you overfeed a breastfed baby? She still feeds every hour or two although not for long each time.

I think the reason I'm offering her lots of feeds is that if she is awake and isn't feeding she's crying and rooting for me. Often windy and has sore tummy. Anyone else have a grumpy baby? DS was like this... but does anyone know what age they will actuall be content for a few moments just staring around? I feel like she feeds, naps on my knee (she wakes when I lay her down!), wakes, cries and goes back to feeding. I feel sort of bad that I'm just feeding her all the time to keep her quiet! But she wants it and take it.

Might have to pop over to the feeding forum...

Moosma, glad you're enjoying Jacob. DH and I haven't had the who's more tired conversation but I'm just not going there. He's rubbish in the mornings anyway so I have to get up at about 7.30 otherwise he wouldn't go to work!! Suzi2, DS is 4+3 today and we're off to the clinic for weighing. I reckon he'll have put on loads but I was assured by a MW that you can't overfeed a breastfed baby and I think she said that they don't put it on as fat????? The last couple of days, DS has been more content when awake and I can put him down to 'play'. He managed about 15 mins on the floor under a baby gym yesterday and I managed to have a shower this morning whilst he was awake (have done other mornings but just left him to scream) and looking around. He also smiled for the first time today so all is rosy in the Smudge house! I'm even going out tonight to meet up with some friends so have expressed two 4oz bottles over the course of this week. Keep persevering everyone with the feeding. They will start to go longer than 1.5 hours eventually!

Suzi2 - back from clinic. DS now weighs 10lb 13oz (that's 12 oz he's put on in a week!). Good job given all the chocolate, cakes etc that I'm eating.
One thing I asked the HV was about little jelly like crystals that I have noticed in DS nappies. They are about the size of sugar grains and tend to be stuck to him. I don't know if they are there when he poos because probably hidden but obvious when nappy is only wet. He has lots of wet nappies so I don't think he's got a problem weeing I just wondered what it was. She thought it might be from the mucus but said best to bring a nappy with evidence. Anyone else noticed this?

Smudgemum - nice to see another weighty baby! I went on the feeding forum last night and also contacted the bf counsellor who taught my peer support and it looks like Islas weight gain might be just one (of many) symptoms of an oversupply of milk. Although oversupply the first few weeks is normal to an extent. So I'm now feeding from one side for 2-3 hours before allowing the other to try and shut down the supply a bit. Isla fed for nearly 2 hours this morning but has been fast asleep for 2 so it might be working.

The crystals... you'll laugh when I tell you... they're the filling of the nappy! They swell up to gel when the baby wees and sometimes they can creep outof the top mesh. I found it only happened with DS when I let his nappy get too wet. So try doing changes more often or perhaps try a different brand.

lovely to see everyone on this thread. I seem to be managing to log in about weekly and not always with time to spare for MN. so apologies that I haven't caught up with all the news.

LO has just started to kick off...will type for a bit to see if he settles himself.

...er that'll be a no then. am now typing with cranky LO in one arm. so frustrating as sometimes he settles just fine and other times he won't go down and then eventually you get him off and then he gets hiccups and then you settle him and then he does a poo and then he settles and then wakes up having soaked through his nappy to his vest and clothes... usually all after the late evening feed!

still, we have started to get smiles now which are magic, and he will sit and watch the world calmly for a little while from his bouncy chair.

right must go and attend properly to LO and get me some lunch.

Hi everyone, jut poping on to say hello, will have to catch up with everything later. Charlie George born at home yesterday at 0443 after a quick 3hr 43 min labour, mind you I have had three weeks of on/off contractions prior to it. He feeds well, when not being pushed away by his big sister for her share of milk! and is very windy! Lots of dark hair and looks like a wrinkled prune, weighed in at n ok 8lb 10oz. Feeling a bit fragile myself, bottom end is a nice colour of purple but no tear, my own fault as I got the hugest urge to push and he went from being just a little bit visable to all of him shooting across the pool......not very controled! Hope to catch up with this thread soon and hope you are all well

Thank you for the explanation of the crystals Suzi2, we've had the same show up in LO's nappy and wondered what on earth it was. Now I come to think on it, they only every appeared in a disposable, not in the resuables we have (which are doing very well, thank you very much Snugglebum, so now it makes perfect sense !

Suzi2 - thanks for the info about the crystals. When I think about it, it is only when the nappy is soaked and I've noticed it most in the first change of the morning. I wasn't really worried and HV said she wasn't as he seemed really healthy but it's nice to know what it is. How great is MN! Now I really must get organised to work out whether we're going to go for disposables or not. Suis are you a first timer with them? How is it going? Which ones are you using? I've had a look at the bamboozle (that's not the right name but something like that)
Also DS slept from 10-3 and then 3.30-6 and 6.30 til ? now i just need to try and get that to be happening from about 7.30 instead of 10 and it'd be perfect.
Moosma, hope you're doing ok. I keep thinking of you and all the other fellow sore nipple gang. Mine are slowly getting better - leaked all over the bed last night as DS slept for so long.
Got people coming for coffee and then NCT people coming for lunch. I got everything ready yesterday in case DS was a mare last night/this morning so of course he's being lovely. Now should I wash the kitchen floor or have a cup of tea?

Thanks for asking SmudgeMum, I'm doing much better now as I've stopped trying to bf and am just expressing and topping up with formula when I don't have enough EBM. I may try bfing again one day but at the moment it suits us all this way.

Talking of expressing, does anyone have any experience with electric pumps? I didn't get on with the hand pump and am getting big arm muscles doing it manually!

Moosma, good on you for continuing with the expressing. I've got the medela mini electris pump and it is good, it is very noisy, so if I'm doing it in front of the TV we ahve the subtitles on! YIt takes batteries but you can also plug it in/
I would have liked more than the one bottle supplied with it but it seems you can buy extras so I may look into that.
We are Ok here last night was a bit rough Maya seems to want to feed constantly from 10pm - 1am ish and not settle in the moses basket. DH also slept with us for the first time in a while and he took her out of our bed and put her down as I had fallen asleep. One of my friends came to visit yeatsreday and I got her to take us into town in my car. It was lovely, really refreshed me, I was feeling a bit house bound. We had a lovely lunch and I bought clothes, bra tops for sleeping in and jersey tops from Mand S. 3 for the price of 2!! I got a size bigger as most of my other tops fit but they don't have the 'give' I need to hoist them up to get my boobs out. Maya was greatly admired by many a shopper!! I was so proud.
snugglebum I might contact you regarding nappies too but I'll give you a while settle with charlie, Congratulations

Can you fit normal Avent bottles to the pump or do you have to buy special ones? Also how much did the whole thing cost you?

I use the Medela mini too MoosMa. I was given mine as a present, but it cost about £42 new from a shop on ebay. I have found some bottles that plug into it, but not used avent ones so I can't be sure about those. I've got closer to nature bottles, which definately don't fit. I find it very handy to use with the batteries, so I can express wherever I am, or even as I wander about.

I did use a medela symphony in hospital, a very big fancy bit of kit, no idea what they cost, but suspect it's a lot. The main advantage of that was having two cups, so it took half the time, although it really did make me feel that I was hooked up to a milking machine.

I believe you can also get expressing bras, where the pump is hooked in and held in place leaving your hands free. Not elegant, but leaves you less tied up if you are expressing a lot.

Also, when Sandy and I got home from the hospital our bfing had got to the stage where he was on EBM and formula top ups all by bottle, and I thought that was going to be it for good. But just a couple of weeks later he is now largely back to being bfed directly, so it can still be possible to go back to the breast later if you want to.

Sorry to but in...Moosma, try the Avent IQ UNO electronic pump

Peachy, how are you doing?!

SmudgeMum,

I am a first timer with the reusables ! We are finding it pretty good so far. We used disposables for the first few days, but after that settled into using the re-usables. We've got a variety of the Tots Bots nappies (courtesty of Snugglebum nappies) and the bamboozles are my favourite. They are the soft and slimmest of the nappies, although they do take longer to dry after washing. That said, they dry overnight if hung on a radiator so it's not a problem.
We've also got Fluffles which are wonderfully soft and dry very quickly, but they are bulky, especially as have the bigger size which you make smaller by folding it down to the second row of poppers. We tend to use them at night.
Somewhere in between the two is the tots bots original, which we also use.
I also prefer the aplix (velcro) fixing on the bamboozles and original tots because it's really easy to use. The poppers are a bit fiddly, and the nappy nippas seem quite sharp and easy to lose, but for some reason Fluffles don't come in aplix fixings.
For wraps my only tips so far are to use the correct size of wraps, some of the ones I have are size 1 rather than size 0 and that seems to leave gaps. Also I would recommend the Tots wraps, I've also got Motherease airflows but the Tots ones are a nicer more snug fit, and come with velcro rather than poppers.
Hope all that helps !

I have been trying to get Thomas to sleep for the past half hour - every time I put him down he wakes up! Will have to give him a bottle which he will take 10 sips out of to get him off to sleep!

He has got bad nappy rash at the moment - we are very good at trying to change him as soon as he poos but it has still hurt his bum! It doesn;t bother him - metanium is good and we let him have 10 mins kick nappy free every change during the day, which is also helping.

Not managing to get anything done - up at 7am today and still haven;t managed to have my breakfast - between doing bottles, feedint Thomas, getting dd fed and dressed, and then myself dressed - it is a pain! Weekends are the worst - DH works most weekends and having two on my own all day is hard work. I had to unload the dishwasher, make our bed and then tidy up his mess inthe kitchen from last night - all jobs that take 2 minutes and DH could have done them - will have to have a moan at him tonight! I feel that I am snapping at DD as well who is being a bit whingey - needs her hair doing before we go out dancing in an hour - my mum is the taxi today - so hopefully she will come in half an hour and I can have 5 mins to my self!!

How odd Suis, I think the opposite, I love the poppers on the fluffles and motherease wraps - they're great on wriggly babies!

Hi everyone! I'm glad to join you. Ruth Isabel was born at home in the pool on Monday but I don't seem to have stopped since then for a minute! Like almost everyone else who's been bfeeding I've got the sorest nipples in the world. I'm pretty concerned by this since I had a hell of a time bf DS for the first six months when miraculously the pain stopped and know that I can't go through that again having to look after two of them. Went to the bf support gp yesterday and things have been a bit better today so hopefully it will look up. I would highly recommend the Ameda lactaline personal pump sold by the NCT. Its a bigger piece of kit than the mini medela ones but imo really worth it - double or single pumping, battery or mains, and much quieter than the medela. Fits only the ameda bottles but you can easily decant into a larger bottle or freezing bag. Did you also know that bmilk has natural substances that inhibit bacterial growth so technically you don't need to sterilise equipment - just clean it really well? La Leche league website has hundreds of interesting facts and advice sheets about bf if anyone is interested. I expressed x2 a day when I went back to work and it was wonderful. As for a special expressing bra - get one of your oldest bras or a cheap support top -and put the pump in the right place whilst wearing it and mark two circles where the pump goes then cut a big x shape and push the pump through the holes - magic! Did this with an old sports bra with velcro adjustable straps and it was perfect and much cheaper! Gave DH a kick too when he saw it (might want to keep it hidden for a while then)!
Will try and keep up with the thread but ds likes to bash the laptop when he sees it so I have to keep it hidden upstairs reducing my opportunity to get online. Keep up the good parenting work everyone

It's all gone very quiet around here, does this mean we're all getting 40 winks in our spare time now? Or do we not have spare time between the feeding/changing/feeding/washing/feeding?

Hope everyone's well and enjoying their little new ones...

What is 'spare time'?? Oh I remember - that is what ladies had before children, or what those ladies with older babies have (tose who are in a feed and then sleep for 2-3 hours and then sleep 7 hours at night!!)

It is hard work with two children - definately more than double the work and that is with a 5 year old. Once I can drive, it will be better, at least we can go to places and the park, etc

Thomas must be on a growth spurt - feeding every 2 hours inj the day, but managed 3 to 3.5 at night. Will see when the HV weighs him on tuesday.

I agree it is hard work, DD1 is 18 months old and has just started to do some really impressive tantrums in the last week - today I have been kicked, pinched and scratched, luckily she hasn't discovered biting yet though!

Tabbie varies with her routine, she's done a few really long nights (nearly 12 hours!) and sometimes wants to feed every 2 hours, it's handy now that I'm expressing though as I can see how much she's had which makes it easier to guess when she cries if she's hungry or just wants company.

Just a quick hello. We've had a lovely weekend and seem to be settling into some kind of routine. DS is good at night, will happily sleep for 3 hours in the middle of the day if we go out in the car or the pushchair but if we're at home he just wants to be held. On an evening he feeds/cries/wants to be held from about 7-10 but then has a big feed and sleeps for about 4 hours. I don't know when you're supposed to start getting them to get themselves to sleep but I've decided it's not yet for us.
Suis/Moosma thanks for the nappy talk. We've ordered 2 different ones (bumble and tots bots bamboothing) to have a look and have gone for one with poppers and one with velcro to see which one fits better. DS seems very good at pooing out of the side of nappies so I think they'll need to be quite snug at the leg.
Hope everyone has good nights with not too much feeding and lots of sleeping.

just wanted to say hi.

hope everyone is happy and enjoying their los and that sore boobs are healing nicely.

all is sunny in the bubble household ds1 is not feeling as left out and ds2 is still an angel all be it a hungry angel.

any of you broody again yet? the look of horror i got from my mum when i told her was really quite comical.

i know its not practial to have another yet but i do really want 1.

some ppl think its because i miss being pregnant but in actual fact i didnt particularly like being pregnant. others think its my hormones. can it not just be because i want another 1?

my aunt and uncle have 11 months between them. and from posts on here i know its not un heard of. just wondered what you thought.

am i crazy???

You are not alone Bubblebell. I am very surprised at myself for already being quite certain that I want another... despite a very tiring pregnancy and long labour ending in an emergency cs. I have already discussed with DP whether I would just go straight for the CS next time or try for a VBAC (the VBAC is preferable if possible). I was quite taken a back when I sort of realised we were having a perfectly rational conversation about having another when ds was less than 3 weeks old. However, due to the section I am told I have to wait at least 12 months before we can think about it. Of course, maybe once we have a few more sleepless nights it won't seem like such a good idea ...

I felt very broody just after having DD1 but it wore off after a couple of months, that said I was pg again by the time DD1 was 9 months old.

Someone at playgroup this morning told me one of her friends is expecting twins, they're due 3 days before her first child's first birthday!

Hi everyone. Not feeling broody as such here but I definitly know I want more than one child.
I finally got on the scales today and have a stone to lose to get back to pre pregnancy weight.
you are were right moosma about it being quiet. we hav had several visitors over the last few days so have been quite busy either entertaining or tidying the house ready for the next lot.!!
I really want to complain about the house sale as it is getting silly now but I think it warrents it's own thread. I shall go an indulge myself