March 2017 (2)

[purpleviolet1]

Second thread!

We've started on baby rice this week, it's made a huge improvement to daytime naps and nighttime sleep so far. Probably jinxed it now lol.

Mother that's great news! They do say that.

We were advised to stop everything but the neocate as his symptoms were so bad. Going to restart on Sunday though. He will have had 13 days break by then. Starting with millet porridge which is the most hypoallergenic grain... it arrived today hopefully he will take to it.

Meant that for both mother and troodie... I'm so tired today I can't think straight

@purple. Did you go to the clinic? What was ds weight?

Well that's new.....

Was settling DD, getting nice a sleepy when she started moaning and thrashing her arms and legs like she was hit and uncomfortable so I put her in her Moses to calm down and she turned her head to the side (her fav sleeping position) and went to sleep! So I think that was her saying " I'm 5 months now don't baby me " 😂😂

That's hot not hit

Yes blondes, it messed up his naps today

He is 7.69 kilos/ 16.95 lbs - slightly dropped from the 50th percentile (that would have been around 7.85kg). Not worried though he isn't fading away!

Carol that really made me laugh! Good on her!

Haha Carolann8584 dd does seem a bit more sassy must be a 5 month thing

Fingers crossed for millet porridge purpleviolet1 you've not had it easy

Thanks troodie. I do believe the antibiotics I took throughout the pregnancy every single day contributed to ds issues. Couldn't be helped but I can't help but feel a little responsible. Poor soul. He is everything though and totally worth it

Thanks all for the hand holding and suggestions. Last night was pretty bad (woke up about 4 times with the longest stretch of sleep not much more than 2 hours 😱) and this morning he only had a short nap and was clearly still tired when he woke up... rocking back to sleep failed because I was desperate for the loo and had to put him down!! So frustrating. But then amazingly he had a 3 hour nap around lunchtime. He does that out of the blue sometimes. Maybe he needs to catch up. Went down at 7.40pm so we'll see what tonight has in store...

I've ordered a MyHummy (it plays white noise and has a sensor so it turns back on if baby starts to stir), a bit expensive but seems to have great reviews and if it works it will be worth it!

coupester
Hmm yes maybe I could try giving him the bottle, I suspect he might be even less interested if the boobs are right there! But no harm in giving it a go.
Glad your nursery visit went well btw, must be reassuring

purple
Glad he's not far off the 50th percentile, well done! It's no mean feat given the issues you've been dealing with. Hope things continue to improve for you.

Oh purple I can't believe everything you have been through . Good luck with that you poor thing .

17lbs is a good weight. Esp as been poorly and off milk. Dd was 19lbs 2w ago so he isn't that behind her and she's on 3 meals a day

There are a few milk free rice /cereals that ds can have if doesn't like millet porridge ?

Seem to be back to 3 X1 hr sleeps daytime but then sleeping 13hrs at night so can't moan

Need to start thinking about packing for holiday - will be a totally diff holiday then usual as with a 5.5mth old

Hey everyone, a lot to catch up on. I feel like a walking zombie. I will be so glad when dd and ds can sleep more than 3 hours at a stretch. I give them both a bath at night, I started doing it at 7pm so I feed them both at the same time by 7.30 however they are both asleep by the time they finish the bottle, does it mean I should try and bring bath forward?

I had a case of mastitis which I'm just getting over so I'm weak on top of everything. I started making sure that day starts at 7.30, sometimes they nap during the day and other times im lucky if its for more than 30 minutes.

I'm going to start introducing cereal and veg in a couple of weeks hopefully that will help. I've tried increasing the amount of milk they have. Ds was able to finish 6oz at a time and dd 5.5 so maybe they wake so much as they are hungry? HV said I can't use the guidelines on formula since they are exclusively given breast milk through a bottle but she thought no more than 6oz. They both refuse to take a dummy, ds can tolerate it for 10 minutes before he spits it out whilst dd doesn't want one at all.

Finally GP has referred dd to paediatrician her skin is extremely dry and flaky, I was using zerobase but that didn't make a difference, I'm now using balneum which seems to be helping. At the moment, I need to strip her at every nappy change to reapply. I bathe her every day but i use aveeno bath oil and sometimes plain water.

Can't believe they will be 6 months soon, where has the time gone.

Hey Abacha you're doing amazing!

We tried carrots today, dd didn't seem too impressed dh thinks she'd like them better with gravy on, have to agree!

yes i would bring bath forward to 530/6 then fed 630 and bed at 7 x

@Abacha you're doing an amazing job! I hope you're on the mend now.

I had mastitis 3 times and ended up in hospital twice as I had a rather large abscess in my breast. It's actually the reason I had to stop breastfeeding, so I know the pain!

My HV told me not to get DS weighed anymore but I am interested to know how much he weighs. I'd imagine he's only about 14lb. He hasn't been having as much of his milk as normal today, it's most unlike him. He doesn't seem to be in any pain so I'm not sure if it's his gums.

Does anyone else dislike their OH sometimes?! I'm feeling quite low at the moment and I feel like DH has a part to play in that but can't articulate this to him

Abacha I am in awe of you looking after two babies ! I struggle with one !

I haven't had DD weighed for a long time either coupester . She's gaining weight and eats lots so I have no concerns . I am curious now though so may take her Monday . Sorry to hear about your feelings towards DH. Do you think it's to do with baby arriving ? It's so hard .

DD has been high pitched squealing for much of the day lately . I think it's her teeth bless her . I do find it hard .

Thanks, that means a lot. I am on the mend but I have no idea how I'm going to wean, I was too tired to pump last night and this morning was able to extract 50 ounces in 35 minutes was in a lot of pain though so will not be doing t hat again.
troodie did you puree the carrot or give whole?

Blondie thank you for your help. I will try that tomorrow.

coupester can you weigh him yourself? I just put a basin on the scale, zero it out and put baby in. I know all scales are different so reading might be slightly different to HV one. I hope you are ok, do you feel oh is not helping as much as you would like or is it something different?

thanks

We are doing purees first, I plan to give her whole bits to play with when she's at least six months.

If you have scales at home you could weigh yourself holding baby, then again without and subtract the difference.

Sorry had trouble keeping up.

I think we're all doing brilliantly, no matter what we've had to cope with our gorgeous girls and boys are nearly 6 months and we have all survived this far!

Name my DD is a regular nap refuser but I'm just going with doing whatever it takes to get her to nap, as at this point it's more important they get the sleep. Once she's 6/7 months old and more likely to be able to manage biologically then I'll start on more of the routine stuff but for now I'm focusing on getting the room dark and quiet/white noise, rocking or patting, stroking her nose/face/ears and dummy in, or snuggling up with her for her afternoon nap. Or any combination thereof! And I don't mind feeding her to sleep at this point either.

DD has also been a bottle refuser from birth - she will have very small amounts from a bottle, and will drink from the cups they sent us home with from the hospital. I'm going to be trying sippy cups soon and if that doesn't work we'll try doidy cups. I know what you mean about worrying about work, even though I'm not due back for a while, I'm already worrying but as someone said, they'll be on solids and gradually reducing daytime feeds as time goes on. However, for now, I would give yoga a try as I have found that I can leave DD for much longer stretches than I thought - due to unavoidable delays at hospital appointments when dh has had DD and she's been totally fine, just had an epic feed as soon as I got back!

That's a good idea about weighing babies ! I don't keep scales in the house (my mum never did when we were girls growing up ) but I bet I can use someone's .

Oh after lots of problems with my eldest skin as a baby , I finally found that minimal baths and olive oil worked ! I have been using on lo cradle cap also and it's naturally coming away.

My eldest is 10 now and the only things which work on her skin are cocoa butter or olive oil . We tried coconut oil , as many natural lotions and potions as you can name but nothing worked .

Abacha
I'm not surprised you feel exhausted, I've had mastitis and it was horrible, plus you are working twice as hard to look after twins! Hope your partner can give you a bit of a break this weekend

Hugh
DS has started teething again, and he loves his teething ring that we put in the fridge. He also likes my teething jewellery (I have a necklace and bracelet, and he will chew both for ages!)

coupester
Yes I get very angry with DH sometimes. I don't know if it's hormones or exhaustion or resentment - or maybe a mix of all three! Usually I do manage to calm down and realise I'm probably being a bit unreasonable, but it can be hard. I read the book "What Mothers Do" and there is a whole chapter about getting angry with your partner - apparently it's a thing. So you're not alone

100years
Yes we have a similar approach when it comes to naps, just get him to sleep!! Although we have managed to establish a bit of a routine (but not a schedule) with taking him into the bedroom, curtains closed and white noise on, then rocking him to sleep. I do still feed him back to sleep for night wakings but he sort of naturally stopped feeding to sleep during the day so I'm sticking to that. Like you I am waiting until 6 months before doing any sleep training, we will away when he turns 6 months anyway, so it's sensible to wait until we get back. I want to try gentle methods first although we'll see how desperate we get! I'm feeling awful atm after several nightmare nights in a row
I'd be interested to know which cups you have from the hospital too.
Maybe I will try going to yoga anyway, it's just that I'll be gone for a while because the location means there's a bit of travel time... I can't stand the thought of him screaming for milk while I'm gona and DH not being able to settle him, but i guess they would survive!