May 2017 #16 Sleep deprivation, mumnesia and first smiles

[crazyzooo]

New thread to celebrate the small things (like first smiles and eating steak with one hand), commiserate over the less fabulous stuff (poonamies, vomit eruptions and wind spring to mind) and someone to talk to at 4am

We should be ok mixing colief as he's bottle fed. Will try the lying on his side - thanks

Morning ladies

Not been a great start to the day. Got dd all excited about going to a trial ballet class. Got to the venue only to find out that I went to the wrong place and it took too long to get to the correct venue so we missed the class. Now have a disappointed dd and I do actually feel pants as was looking forward to seeing her dancing. Baby nate wasn't that bothered as he slept through the whole thing.

Dh thinks that I should just get over it but I think that's because he didn't have any intention of dd attending regular classes, while I did because I think it will do her good. I had music lessons from age 6-17 and I know I gained my confidence from these lessons. Keeping fingers crossed that I can re-arrange trial lesson for next week.

Hope you are all doing well xx

mighty I'm still here just not great st keeping up!

Loving being a mummy and feel like I/we've turned a corner over the last week. We're out and about a lot and still bf even though it still hurts, it's getting better though. Had a total meltdown yesterday though as I was soooo tired and overwhelmed. Most days are pretty good though :) Carla Rose will be 6 weeks on Monday.

Finding being this in between size annoying and bf friendly clothes are as bad as maternity! Love your scarf idea cox, I'm gonna nick that. Pleased you're gonna get episiotomy situation sorted too.

I also have a crazy wriggler!! She has to be swaddled at night as she goes too crazy and keeps herself awake. It's been too hot to swaddle though so night times have been

Gotta go! Hope all well :) Catch up more during night feeds.

Don't beat yourself too hard @jennymac31 we've nearly missed osteopath appointment due to mixing up the venues hopefully your dd session can be rearranged x

@savagehk @badgerbird walking isn't too comfy, so a fix will be good thank you for the good wishes

At my parents' today enjoying seeing some greenery!

Can't quite believe that Molly Mouse is a month old already! Where's my baby disappearing to?...

We've had a crazy week with lots of trips out for coffee dates, watering the garden at the inlaws while they're on holiday and the Osteopath (fingers crossed this will help!) and to top it off, we've secured a new house so looks like we'll be moving soon too! ☺️

We talked about buying a Ewan or Hunmy, in the end we dug out an old mobile phone and downloaded an MP3 of white noise and womb sounds for free from youtube so it sits near her head - works perfectly!

Good to hear the advice and info re expressing and amounts. I'm getting my bags to 6oz before they go in the freezer, then we can leave to thaw and split into two 3oz feeds or add to if we need more. Molly seems quite happy with it at body temp or cold from the fridge.

With hand expressing in the night now that Molly is generally sleeping through I can get anywhere from 6-9oz a day in total which is great, albeit time consuming!

@Adventuregame We're only using infacol during night feeds now and have switched to colief during the day - it's like liquid gold! As @Rockyroad17 Says - it's a bit of a faff, if your BF but I know your FF. For those who are BF using it, I hand express off a little bit (30ml or so) and pop it in the fridge after every feed ready for the next which seems to make it easier for us.

@newbieho I did exactly the same! Arrived bang on time only to be told we needed to go to the clinic which they don't tell you on the phone!

Hello everyone, we're back from our holiday. We did have Wifi in the end but I got locked out of MN somehow and so was reading but not able to reply. Glad to hear everyone is doing well. BabyTea was 12 weeks on Friday! He is pretty fab, just properly starting sucking his thumb which has led to self settling heaven for sleep and naps. Feeds are very frequent still but shorter so I don't feel I'm attached all the time. I wouldn't have said the holiday was hugely relaxing obviously but my other children had a great time.

@MrsJW15 sorry didn't manage to check Mumsnet for a few days. I'm sure you've figured it out by now but we just play around to see what sounds baby likes best! The timers brilliant because often. We both fall asleep to it and it saves my phone playing all night. Also the sleep tracker bit apparently uses your microphone to detect noise and it will start playing again if baby starts making noise. I haven't used that but my husband does I think.

@Acorncat I can't recommend paspic enough for babies passport pictures! Someone recommended it on the Fb group and it's brilliant, take a picture of them on a white background and upload it; they will edit it so it meets all the right specifications and post it to you. I've done mine and babies through them and received within about 2 days!

@Adventuregame alternating between cycling legs and rubbing tummy in circles seems to help us!

Growing way too fast over hear! We've progressed from Moses basket to crib already!!
Now we're only 1/2 hr away from my cousins we had both of them as their other halfs over last night. Got to meet my cousins baby whose a month old, so 4/5 weeks younger than Freddie. So lovely that they will be so close in age!

You know those nights where the screaming starts at 4pm for no apparent reason and no matter what you try (music, dancing, cuddles, shushing, looong walk outside in the sling, short walk outside in the pram, feeding, tummytime.....) it's still at frenzy level 6 hours later........? Yep. It's one of those kinds of nights here!! I'm alternating between wanting to tear my hair out and wanting to light a sneaky, secret cigarette in the garden (I quit smoking 5 years ago!!) it can be a bit lonely this "mummy" thing hey. Tried to talk to OH tonight as I'm feeling quite low and he's just not interested in helping with the baby in any way and has made plans after work for the next two nights so will be leaving at 4am and not back til 8/9pm. I'm kind of hoping I'm just a tad hormonal and nothing more worrying than that. At least if I survive the night with any hair left on my head I can celebrate the survival with my awesome little chap.
Hope everyone else is having a slightly more relaxing evening!

Oh god paige that sounds Incredibly difficult and I can't imagine why you'd have to deal with that on your own when your OH is there?? What does he do when you are trying desperately to calm LO down? Is he scared to help or feel useless/not able to help in some way?
I'm sure you guys have talked about his lack of support so I don't mean to sound patronising just trying to understand what his reason is and maybe see if there's a way he can help out......

I'm gonna check out that sleep app and o love the idea of using an old phone raspberry, genius! Also I'm intrigued how your baby sleeps through night so young and don't yiur boobs burst or do you pump in middle of night when she's sleeping?

We have a nightmare with naps here DH keeps saying how she should be able to settle herself.... eeer no, she's not even 6 weeks old, she needs a helping hand bless her! She gets so overtired, I find it sad and horribly stressful.

Thanks for heads up re passport pics!! We're hoping to go away Sept and hadn't even thought of that yet No surprise though as she's only just getting registered tomoz on day 42!! Were struggling with middle names but going for both our mums in the end.

Glad holiday went well tea

cox I haven't even looked down there since birth!! I had episiotomy and double stitches, can feel a small bump so hoping all ok. Do Drs have a look at 6 week check? No ones looked since day after I left hospital....

Badger nobody looked at mine either but the midwife should have on both the visits and the discharge appointment! Hence why I ended up being readmitted to hospital when stitches came loose and I got an infection!
Baby adventure is going 6 hours between last feed at night and next one but writhes about without waking with his trapped wind. We started Colief today and seems to have helped.

@Paige84 that sounds rough! I don't envy you at all!

@Badgerbird we've had a couple of nights where she's woken up after 3-4 hours but last night she fell asleep at 11pm and she's currently still asleep (almost 6 hours) I anticipate a max of another hour until she wakes!

We set a bit of a bed time routine from about two weeks and it seems to have helped settle her...

9.00pm - colief and a small feed
9.30pm - bath with Daddy
10.00pm - cuddles with mummy fresh from the bath and a big feed
10.30pm - nappy and PJs on after a little Massage with some bedtime lotion
11.00pm - put into next2me crib and drifts off on her own generally, but will occasionally have another small feed if she's a tad aggy
5.00-6.00am - awake for a big feed
8.00-9.00am - awake and feeds every 4 hours or so through the day

I've just gotten myself a Naturebond pump which is literally the best thing I've ever bought (amazon) so I can pop it on at around 3/4am for a bit to relieve my boobs - I was getting up to go and express downstairs but this is so much easier and gets so much more milk! (10oz in total yesterday!) I can now pop this on the other boob with every feed!

Spoke too soon... she's awake... god I love that little face! 😋

badger the GP didn't look 'down there' in my check, either time. I imagine they would though if you thought there was an issue.

Paige that's really rubbish of your DH. Those nights can really get to you, especially if you have no one to hand the baby over to. What does he say if you directly ask him for help?

Welcome back tea. Glad the kids had fun. Currently debating whether to go away somewhere. Concerned it may just be more work and less sleep.

Baby Bees is 6 weeks and just wonderful. She is still snuffly from her cold, and not sleeping as long as some of the other babies on here, but she has fitted in so well.

Doctor didn't look at me at all last time, just ran though a set of questions really. I expect similar this time. If anything doesn't feel right though it's worth asking for a check. (No one's checked my stitches at all this time that I can remember but they feel much better than last time so I've not asked)

I raised an issue at my 6 week check so they checked 'down there' for me. Unfortunately found small prolapses so have to get hardcore on my pelvic floor. Defo worth asking for a check if any unusual sensations etc. They get very little info from hospital discharge - mine wasn't aware I'd had to go to theatre for stitches!

Those of you with babies who sleep long stretches at night, any tips to improve what we do?

Last nap finishes around 7 ish usually. DH and I have dinner rocking his basket with a toe to keep him happy and so he can see our faces.
Bath time 8pm, we bathe him together with lullabies on in the background.
Swaddle with one arm out (we have tried both out but it doesn't soothe him, both in and he breaks free!)
Make the room dark
As big a feed as I can get into him after the bath (8.40 ish) he occasionally falls asleep on the breast but not often.
Into his cosydream nest in the side sleeper crib, womb noise on. A finger or dummy to suck. 20-30 mins to go to sleep.

He is 7 weeks. We have had a couple of 5-6 hour first sleeps so I know he can do them sometimes. But they are mostly eg 4 hours and his second and third sleeps are shorter.

Argh!

Maybe it's nothing to do with what we do though. He doesn't cry much and if any of you with colicky/crying babies asked what I do I would say there is NOTHING but dumb luck!

@Paige84 that's rubbish. Does he literally do nothing to help whilst the baby is crying? Bit crap booking after work activities with such a small baby and wife at home.

@CoxsOrangePippin I don't know the answer other than it just happens in their own time. What you're doing sounds great.

@EsmesBees yes it was hard work and not relaxing but nice to get away. I just didn't want the kids to miss out on a decent holiday as we didn't want to go abroad. The packing alone took a full week, and then there was food shopping, organising activities.

I'm a bit surprised that the doctor doesn't check stitches etc at the 8 week check. I've got mine next week and was hoping they'd have a look as I've looked with a mirror myself and it certainly doesn't look normal!

Claire I'm sure they will if you mention it feels odd or if you ask them to.
Re nighttime sleep, it sounds like you have it better than most ;)
How long are awake periods when the waking up happens? Baby savage sleeps around 10pm to 3am, 5am, 8am if I'm lucky (and very approximately). But it's usually a quick nom and back to sleep immediately so I'm very happy with that. The 5am wake-up she's more awake and we normally do a quick nappy change as she objects to being wet if she's aware of it, but often goes back to sleep after a bit of smiling.

@savagehk @teainbed I'm glad there isn't a big rookie error I'm making at least
I think it would be easier if I could fall asleep with him at 9 and get four hours myself but that doesn't happen!
Night wakings are randomly either a quick feed and almost asleep while nursing, or more often around 30-60 mins of post-feed burping and shushing. I can't get him to take a big feed at night even if I try and wake him up so that contributes to the second and third sleeps being shorter til morning (aka giving-up time )

@CoxsOrangePippin we have similar routine but we start later so it feels like we get a longer sleep ourselves if that makes sense?

@Paige84 It's not spoken about much and you may know already, but it is possible for new fathers to get postpartum depression. Hope things turn around soon!

Hi all!
Welcome back @teainbed

Am in rush to get a nap in after a morning of working on two nights in the trot of 4 hours sleep (pass those matchsticks please!) and have quick question...

Do any of you allow your baby to nap on front in daytime, whilst being watched?
All official advice says not to, although one HV said fine, and I've met other mums who have said it's good for wind...
I ask because I have one severely cranky baby (hence no sleep) and was advised to try it to help stop the incessant crying!! (Him this time, not me, although I'm close to it 😭😂)

If I get a feed later that doesn't involve a constant squealing, crying, rigid, red faced baby I'll catch up properly! So far it's needed all hands on deck...