The APRIL 2007 invasion has started

[1becomes3]

Right ladies this is going to be used as a tip's, questions and answers etc thread for those of us who have had our babies and can't keep up with the chat on the other thread. (my word those ladies can talk)

And of course everyone is welcome to post on here the more advice etc the better.

How are you twin mums doing? It must be bloody hard work! So 1B3, did you get things sorted and find some way of 'safe housing' yours? We have a Chicco chair which Leo sit in for all of 30 seconds at a time but the suggestions for a travel cot are good ones. My friend also got one of those hexagonal play pens and she used to lie her babies in there on playmats when they were small, you can also use it to section off areas as the sides come apart, and you can get tent like coverings for them so they can become play houses when the kids are older.

And Ooogs, you just do what is right for you on feeding

Hi Ladies
Just popping my head round the door.CONGRATULATIONS to you all..I have loved reading the birth tales and the names we have chosen[we are an inventive bunch!].
I haven't caught up with all the news but have to say PA has done a fantastic job.
When i had my section i was supposed to be 38+4 like AngeG mentioned but when he was born they said he was like a 36 weeker!I am surprised that my dates were that far out and the scan dates but some of em think he is and some aren't so sure.Anyway he is gorgeous[of course]and has abit of jaundice which i think is fading.I have an infection on one side of my scar [yuck]and have antibiotics.Loved the tweenie fetish AngwG!.
Off now to catch up.Well done ladies hope the others join us soon!

Hi all. Just an update on baby Theo. Well he is doing really well and only gone down to 7lb8 so thats great according to the MW. He should start to gain weight from now on, which always feels good. Last night was my first "proper" baby night, with 3 pooey nappies and about 6 feeds, wonderful! Got to get a lie in though as DP still of for a few weeks only to have MW turn up at 9 so early to bed for us all tonight to try and catch up!!!

I am thinking that I also need antibiotics which like the last time I am trying to put off till the last minute so that I have don't have to have the lovely examinatiion but time will tell. No-one tells you these things when they talk about babies do they .

I am getting past the crab clawing at nipple stage thankfully and hoping for less painful "bosoms" in the next few days oh the joys.

DS1 taking to the baby really well and has soon adapted to his big brother role, however he had yet another poo on the drive moment today, he timed it just right for the MW too for heavens sake.

I am still in broody mode and am really hoping that from a practical point of view it will go away some time soon otherwise I will be joining the ante-natal thread for April next year too .

Hope all the new mums are doing well and look forward to more "baby news"!!!!!!!!

just a quick hi and to say I am so pleased that I can "officially" join this thread

breast feeding going ok so far (bloody hurts though!) can anyone recommend a good nipple cream?

Runny, lansinoh is fab. In the first couple of days dd gave me blisters on my nipples (ouch) but lansinoh really helped. Not cheap at £10 a tube but well worth it. You can get it in boots in bridgend. Congratulations too!!

Hi runny. i am just getting past that stage now thank god - cos it bloody hurts. Have got away without any nipple cream so far. Stick with it, it really only lasts for 2 days max!!!

Its not so much the nipples, its the dolly parton/boobs hard as lumpy rocks if you ask me, but it soon goes..........

For me its more the "down below area" TMI!!!

(Hi mammy jo!!)

Hi all! This is going to be brief as I'd better go and see what mess DD1 is creating downstairs with her plasticine!

Mammyjo - hope you're not still in marathon-feeding mode with Ffion.

Twin-mummies - how are you doing? Hope it's going okay - thinking of you.

All those with sore nipples - hang in there, it def gets better.

Think feeding is going okay here, although sometimes Orla seems to have horrendous problems latching on and then at other times latches first time like a dream. I gave her a bottle the other night to try and get her used to it for the future - she took it fine, but she was dreadful at latching afterwards so I worried that I'd confused her. Now not sure what to do about carrying on offering one from time to time as I really don't want to jeopardise her breastfeeding, but I would like the option to give a bottle occasionally, with a view to stopping breastfeeding at about 4 or 5 months.

Also colicy-type crying last night for an hour or so - I think mainly because she was tired, but it was quite a shock to think that she's coming out of that newborn phase when all you need to do if she cries is stick a nipple in her mouth!!

Right, off to do good parenting now - or try not to lose my rag with DD1 for about half an hour . Finding her very demanding at the mo . . .

Hi all. My ds is being more demanding than usual at the moment too. Shouldnt really complain as he has been really good with Ffion. I think my main problem is that I seem to spend so much of my time feeding Ffion that there isnt much time left for him. Do feel guilty about it but not sure what I can do. Ffion still feeding very regularly and I am knackered so gold stars for you oooggs and 1b3, dont know how you are still standing!

Spoke to an NCT BF counsellor this morning who basically said that what is happening is normal and to go with it. Reassuring, but not much help when I feel like a dairy cow with child continuously hanging off nipple!!

Good to see you Bramshott and Pinions. Hope things are good with you. Anyone heard from Smole, just wondered how little Jesse is getting on. Think about them regularly.

Mammyjo - hope it gets less frequent for you soon. I know some people swear by those slings you can use to feed in, so that you can do other stuff while you're feeding. Is she very frequent at night too? Is your DS back at school/pre-school next week?

Had great health visitor type conversation about bottles this morning - I said basically what I've said here, that I'd offered a bottle of EBM, and she'd taken it well, but had been tricky to latch on for breastfeed afterwards and I was worried about jeopardising breastfeeding if I continued to offer a bottle, say once a week. The HV proceeded to give me advice on (a) offering a bottle once a day so she gets more used to taking a bottle; and (b) expressing enought milk - NEITHER of which were the problem I was trying to ask her about!! Think I will try a bottle again at the weekend, and if it seems to cause problems again, ring the NCT breastfeeding counsellor. And will make sure I offer it in the morning this time, as last time I offered it in the evening, and then the time she wouldn't latch and was screaming uncontrollably was between 2.30 and 3.30 am.

Hi Bramshott. I have got one of those slings but havent even tried it yet so maybe I need to get it out of the cupboard! Last night she fed every 1.5 hours so by this morning I was absolutely knackered. My milk production has definitely increased as on one side I am now quite uncomfortable again the way it is when the milk first comes in. Cant bloody win!

I think its probably a good idea to try the bottle in the morning, at least then you have all day to sort out any latching problems. Which teat did you use? Only wondered as I went on the kellymom site and it said if you are going to use a bottle then to use the smallest teat so that the baby still has to work hard to get the milk. According to the site if you use a fast flowing teat then they can get lazy when put back to the breast as getting milk is too much hard work for them! Your HV sounds like mine. Dont particularly like her as her advice has always been either useless or non existent.

Leo seemed to go into mammoth feeding mode when he was a week old but is now settlign down. They do have frequent growth spurts in the first few weeks Bramshott and it will settle down.

Leo has had his first cold and now has a cough, poor love. He was roasting the other night so I stripped him off into a vest and opened the window and he would only settle lying on my chest so I lay there freezing with a hot baby on me and felt terrible in the morning! Love him though, he probably felt pretty bad himself with streaming eyes, snotty nose and hacking cough - he was only 2.5 weeks old!!!

Hi girls - can't believe we have a postnatal thread already seems like yesterday that we were all fed up of being pregnant!!

Evelyn is doing brill = she is breast feeding great.. is anyone else breast feeding???

Ds is not fazed that he has to share mummy and daddy which is nice...

hope everyone else is well

twinkle183

HUGE POST
Hello everyone didn't want to post bad things on the other thread.

I haven't really been feeling that great recently my head has been all over the place, mainly due to the lack of sleep. I did try and post the other day but couldn't remember how to spell so had to delete it.

It has been quite hard the past week or so Lola is not a happy baby, infact she is a complete miserable cow, if she is awake she cry's, I can do all the checks like nappy, feeding, wind etc but the fact remains that she just doesn't like being awake. She has been sleeping all day and then been awake all night which is really hard work for both DH and I, infact at one point I was contimplating running away and leaving DH with all 3 kids to see how he would bloody like it.

I have help during the day which comes in the shape of my mum and dad Which I need so much at the moment cause I can't cope with DD (who I will now refer to as a TT= terrible toddler) at all at the moment as she is having HUGE TANTRUMS and not being able to pick her up is really hard for me and her as she see's me holding the DT's and doesn't understand why I can't hold her.

It is great having the help with TT but she is getting spoilt so much that I'm worried that when the help goes and I am left to cope on my it is going to make thigs really hard for me and I wont be able to cope, it is so hard to find a happy medium.
I want things back to the way were before I went into hospital and my TT turned into a little horror.

DH has been trying his hardest but us being so tired is really putting a strain on our relationship, and he doesn't know how to deal with a TT.
When he come home in the afternoon she is a tired TT so that is even harder. So I am left with 2 of them having bloody tantrums.
Dh hasn't stuck to end of the deal with the DT and TT he said that when the DT's were born that he would come home and help me not go and work on the house, but he has been doing the complete opposite of that, he leave's me to do dinner and deal with the DT's, (which isn't that bad) but he keeps taking TT out to the garden with him so he can get on with his building she on the other hand has no intrest in building and keeps running off he ends up spending most of his time chasing her round and getting pisseed off that he can't do what he wants to do cause he has to look after her.
I have told him to give it a rest till I have my six week check up and they tell me I can do TT by myself. (Have some damage to my inside lady bits after the section that will take a while to heal up properly so it may be longer than six weeks)
BUT does he listen NO he comes in ranting and raving and pissing me off it's not her fault she doesn't want to do what he wants, after all she is a toddler!

I have lost track of where I am in all this so if i am repeating myself just ignore it.

So to say the least things are not easy round here, my cleaner has fucked off can't get hold of her, so now I need to find another one as our hpuse is a tip, I keep asking DH to hoover and he is to busy out doing the garden to do it, so my poor mother has to come round and do it which isn't really fair on her as he is capable of doing it, she leaves our hopuse goes home has her dinner and falls asleep the poor love, that makes me feel bad cause she works hard enough without having to come over to mine and get dragged into all our shit.
I don't really understand where my DH is coming from, we have so many thinsg to do with the kids who are top of my list of priorities for me having healthy happy children is more important than anything and his main priority is that we get the house finished no matter what it takes
He so is fucking selfish.

If things carry on like this Zed and i are gooing to divorce the rest of them.

Funny this post was really supposed to be about how crappy i am feeling about the kids and dh but it seems to have turned into a rant about DH, iguess he must be my biggest problem.
There is so much more i wanted to chat about but i just don't seem to have the time.

Hi Girls, I am sure I´m not the only one lurking on here to keep up with your baby news.. hope you don´t mind

1b3 obviously I wouldn´t have the foggiest of how to advise you but I just wanted to know we are here to hear your rants and sympathise, even if that´s not really that helpful. I am sure your hands are even fuller than even your post can convey and I completely understand if you sometimes feel like you are barely keeping your head above water.

I´m afraid even trying to advise would come across as a bit trite seeing as I still don´t know what´s it´s like to deal with 1 baby let alone 2 plus a toddler!!! Maybe the multiples board would have some parents that have been where you are and could give you some more practical help??

I´m sure you are doing a million times better than you give yourself credit for, hope things settle soon xxxx

Hello lurker!!

1b3, give yourself some credit lady. I am struggling with one baby and my ds and you have twins to cope with. Know what you mean about struggling with the other one, am finding it incredibly difficult myself and I dont have any of the physical problems that you have got now. Ds was a very miserable baby who cried the whole time he was awake. I used to find that he would settle in a baby carrier which I wore with him facing me. Dont know if one of these would be an option for you due to your section but just thought it might be an idea for lola. The only other way I could settle him was with one of those mechanical swings. Not ideal but it worked a treat and gave me a bit of time back. Dont know whether either of these would be of any use to you but just thought I would share what worked for me last time.
I think that problems with dh always seem much worse when you are tired. I dont think men sometimes understand how hard it is to be home and look after the children. Not sure what to suggest about that one, but know what you mean. Just remember we are all here to support you and listen so come back and rant whenever you need to xxx

Better day here for me as Ffion's feeding frenzy seems to have calmed down today! She has been much more settled and happy when awake too which has been lovely. Hope all mums are doing ok xxx

Ib3 - sympathies! I think many have problems with dh's at the same time as a new baby, never mind dt's as well!! I think they actually don't know how to cope and just can't see what they should be doing. I'll never forget dh suddenly needing to put a fence round our garden when dd was born. It took him days. I mean did he think she was going to get up and run away at three days old ? By the time I had ds he was having real problems and basically spent a lot of the day in bed, leaving me with dd, ds and all the housework etc. I remember how hard that was, and feeling so trapped with him. That was with no health probs for me, only one easy new baby and dd behaving pretty well! So don't be hard on yourself, I'm sure you'll get through it.

Also my friend who had twins seriously considered leaving them outside a shop when they were a couple of weeks old. I believe she really honestly meant it, she was so tired and had had enough. But by six weeks or so they slept most of the night and it was a bit easier or at least less tiring, and not long before she could feed them both at once (bottles in their chairs) which helped. I hope it gets easier for you too soon xx

Hello girls.... well I am now an official member of the POST natal club. Hurrah.

Things here are fine. Our daughter's had a name change from Laura Ruby to Ruby Laura, so we are getting used to the new name. She's 3 days old. Bf is, as ever, bloomin painful to establish. You would think by number four I would be an old hand, but my nipples always semm to take a week or so to toughen up, poor things. And I am just entering the engorged stage so have that horrid swollen feeling too.

DH went back to the UK yesterday for his FINAL two weeks ever. It was really hard. We were both in denial until I dropped him at the station. I caught him just staring at Ruby when he went to get his case out the boot. So sweet. Am v tearful now but I know it's just the milk-coming-in baby blues hormones, so am just trying to get through today.

My mum has just taken the other three DC to the station to collect my dad, who's just flown over (having spent this week looking after my brothers' children in the Easter holiday - aren't grandparents brilliant?)

1b3 - I hope you're having a better day today. I imagine you are doing a fab job in very difficult circumstances. Not feeling 100% yourself physically makes everything so much harder, and then add to that the tiredness and the emotional strain that one, let alone two babies, bring with them. I guess you just have to focus on getting through each day.

Hello all, thought I'd come over now I'm in the club!

Have sent an email with a link to some pics of Erin. Posted birth story on a/n club thread! Erin is sleeping at the moment so thought I'd pop on. Haven't really had chance to catch up on anything. I'm still very tired.

1b3 - there was a girl with a baby on my ward who sounds just like Lola...in fact this morning she got the mws to put the baby in a separate just so she could catch up on sleep. I think you're doing a great job and to your husband...sounds like he needs a kick up the backside. (Or maybe we could shove a couple of melons up there and see how he likes carrying that around for a few months????? )

Well DH is putting the tea on now...what's the bets that Erin will wake up for a feed just as it's ready????

hi all

1b3 - don't really have any words of advice at your dh, sometimes they really don't have a clue.

nutty - William has the same "sixth sense" when it comes to my dinner too

CB - both combinations are lovely (but my personal favourite is Ruby) I agree, my mum and dad have been fab (and are generally fab anyway ) although not too sure about pil, thats another story.

Thank you for the tip about Lansinoh - got some yesterday, and I swear I can already feel it working. Still sore, but bearable until they toughen up. We had a few problems the other night because one side flows really fast compared to the other, so William gets confused, then upset because he's got too much milk running into his mouth. We've just learnt that when he's on the faster side, we "stop/start" feed. Bit of a pita, but its working.

I thought we might have had problems with ds1 (feels weird typing that), but tbh its dh thats being a being a pita, although its only today that its got to me, and think the baby blues have kicked in a little bit. He's just acting without thinking, iyswim. Like playing with a washing peg, and putting it in his mouth in front of ds1 and making a game out of it. What does ds1 do? Put it in his mouth, because thats what his daddy has done. Dh tries to tell ds1 off, but he can't because dh is the one in the wrong Sounds so petty, esp when dh is great in so many other ways, but its so infuriating, and I just haven't got the energy to be patient with him, seeing as he should know better.

Anyway, dh has taken ds1 out for a walk to wear him out, William is asleep, so I'm going to put my feet up.

x

Just off to bed again. Sterilising nipple shields before I go....oh the joys.

NG - saw your birth story and am at the treatment you received from your MW. Sounds like you did really well despite her.

RH - glad you're getting the bf sorted. God, it's hard work at the beginning, isn't it. Worth it once it's going well, but awful at the start.

Wishing you all sleep filled nights. Night night

1b3 - don't worry about ranting posting here - this is after all the place for it, and you have twice or three times as much to rant about as most!!

I think it can be such a difficult time with DHs as it's so difficult to feel like you're sharing the parenting in the early days, especially if you're breastfeeding, and you can both end up resenting the other. Your DH probably thinks in some ways he's being helpful by getting the house finished (like Nellyhel's DH and his fence), and in some ways it's probably his way of dealing with the stress of new parenthood. My DH is being pretty good, but does seem to think that the way he can contribute best is by cooking gourmet meals and digging the vegetable patch, when sometimes I wish he'd just sit down and spend time with us, even if that means we end up eating toast!

I know what you mean about wanting your DD back - I am convinced that DD1's temperament changed overnight when I had DD2, and she has gone from a fairly self-sufficient child to a moody, whiney, tantrummy one, needing constant input. DH thinks it's just me being super-sensitive, but it's probably a mixture of both. And my DD is 4, so I can't imagine what it must be like with an 18 month old, especially when you're not feeling up to much physically.

Mammyjo - glad Ffion is feeding a little less, and that you got to school on time - hurray! I'm currently wrestling with how I am going to get DD1 to her swimming lesson for 5.00 without going insane. Orla fed at 1.30 so will probably want to feed again at 4.30, just as we have to leave . . . And then we'll get back at 6.00 with them both (and me!) tired and hungry - ho hum!

I guess just remember that it's early days, try not to do anything that's not absolutely vital, and come on here and rant as much as you like!!

Just going to add a very quick post now and then catch up later (promise!). Seems like you have to make the most of every second at the moment, does anyone else feel like that.

Seems like my memory from DS1 has failed me once again cos I totally forgot the sleepless nights durr!

The problem is, that although BF now going well and milk supply ok (as far as I can tell) he seems to feed every hour or so and then will only feed for about 5 mins at the most. Is anyone else having this at all?
I mentioned this to the MW and she said that you have to try and "make them wait" so to speak between feeds but this TBH is easier said than done. He fed about 9 times during the night!!!

I'm also going to try and substitute feeds with water to see if that helps.

Will be scouring the BF threads later I think, all advice much appreciated.

I hope all the "mums" are ok, I don't about anyone else but the ante-natal thread now feels like a lifetime ago very strange! (But hi to anyone lurking around, I know Maveta and Katy are definite lurkers lol).

Bb making the piggy noise again so feeding time, catch up later x

1b3 sorry haven't had chance to read your post but will do later promise!!!

.....And in an attempt to cheer myself up its my birthday to today! 34 today,34 today!

Happy Birthday Pinions! I know what you mean about the time - I have been trying to write an email since last Wed, and still haven't found time!! All I have managed to do today is come on here briefly and wash one blanket - and it's 3.30pm!!