July 2018 babies. It's a learning curve!

[WomanFormerlyKnownAsKarateGirl]

I couldn't see a post-natal group, so I've started a new one - sorry if there already is one!

KarateBaby is now 9 weeks old. This evening, I've finally got round to starting the bath, book, boob, bed routine. I put her in her crib in our room at 6:30, and haven't heard a peep since. Although I keep going up to check on her as we don't have a monitor (should I get one...?) Remind me, what did I used to do with my evenings before I had her?!

Given that Mr Karate is at work (and hence, quality time as a couple is out of the question), I know I ought to do some housework but I absolutely cannot be arsed... I feel like a right lazy cow

Cup of tea and some crochet it is!!

How's everyone getting on?

Really struggling, and it's all feeding related. She is breastfed and gets expressed milk. She is on ranitidine for reflux. She struggles very badly with wind. No OTC remedies have helped. We have literally tried every single one. She only poos once every few days and therefore gets extremely uncomfortable and writhes around all night. I basically haven't slept in 4 days. She hasn't been in 4 days, and she's beside herself. GP advised me to give up dairy, and her skin has improved a lot, but her tummy issues remain the same. I haven't been able to take her to any groups as she is just always uncomfortable and unsettled. I feel like my milk is poison to her little body. I've tried combination feeding to restore my sanity, but she reacted very badly to formula. All these issues started at 4 weeks. She was a dream the first 4 weeks, then literally changed overnight. I admitted to my DH that because of her digestive problems, I'm not enjoying being a Mum. If I could sort those I'd be so happy, as on the rare occasion she's comfortable, she's an absolute joy. I love her, but I'm not sure if I can do this any more. I have sought help from many healthcare professionals, but nobody knows why her digestive system just can't cope. Oh, she doesn't sleep during the day either, so is always overtired. I'm well and truly at my wits end.

Sorry to hear that @flatwhite. No words of wisdom im afraid but hoping things get better for you

DS is also 9 weeks and is an absolute chunk. He's doing well though does have a bit of reflux but a change onto anti reflux formula has sorted that. Also tounge tie but a referral is going to take 3 months so looking at private care. We try and put him down at about 8. He stays with us downstairs then we take him up when we go to bed. He usually only wakes twice in the night but seems to be going through a fussy stage so was a lot more often last night

Thanks @Winterfellismyhome. I mega regret breastfeeding, and I'm stuck with it now her body can't cope with formula. If I ever have another, there's no way I'm BF'ing.

flatwhite there's a good facebook group called 'Living with Reflux' where you'll get lots of advice, support and solidarity from mothers in same boat. Sometimes it's just a matter of changing the meds

We had colic and reflux issues initially but changed to Hipp Organic formula which made a massive difference.

OP that's great she's going down so early! I would recommend a monitor with a screen though if possible. Ours goes down about 8pm (in the next room with door open- we live in an apartment) but the monitor is great as you can turn it up loud to hear her breathing. She sleeps till 1am and then feeds every 2hrs

Thanks for setting up Karate. Also nice to see another cloth nappy user! How have you got in with the fit on a very little baby?

That sounds so difficult flat white. I guess you have tried different bottles to help with the wind. How long have you been excluding dairy? I hope things improve for her soon. Massive sympathy on the non sleeping too, my first never napped during the day and it was exhausting as it does make them so fractious.

Am very jealous of those with bed time routines already, DS currently spends the evening grumbling and dozing before coming to bed with us. He had his 8week jabs on Monday which had made him quite unsettled although he seems quite cheerful again this morning.

@RaspberryBlonde we've only gone into her BTPs this week. Up to now (and still a bit) we've been using muslins and wraps, which to be honest have been fab - I'm glad I know how to fold a nappy in an emergency in case I run out! So far she's not worn any disposables, and I'm glad we started from birth as we don't know any different now. For the most part we're using Bumgenius Freetimes during the day and Bamboozle Stretchies at night. Which do you use?

@Flatwhite sorry to hear things are so tough for you and your baby I had a huge struggle to feed at the start, as she'd latch well but then not suck, so wasn't putting on weight. I've found a local breastfeeding support group on Facebook which has been really good - and the members have a wealth of knowledge on all sorts of feeding related topics. Might be worth seeing if there's something similar where you are? A lot of the ladies on there talk about giving up soy as well as dairy - I'm not sure whether that's something which might help? Lots of the babies on the group seem to have digestive issues, and there seems to be so much trial and error to get something which works.

Funnily enough we have more or less the same nappies Karate, although we have some Little Lambs for daytime as well. I've also used some terry squares when he was very little. He's too wriggly now to get them on easily now, goodness knows how people used to do it with bigger babies and pins! Well done on starting from birth, we did disposables for the first week as DH was adamant we could not have cloth in hospital. As it turned out we were there less than 8 hours but it seemed less wasteful to user them up then!

Hoping for the rain to stop soon here as was planning a walk today, am trying to get out somewhere other than the school run each day but not looking promising today!

I have to say, Mr Karate was fantastic whilst we were in hospital - he'd take the wet bag home each evening to wash, and return with a lovely fresh stash of nappies :) The midwives had obviously been talking about us, as they kept coming up to my bed and saying "Oh you're the lady with the cloth nappies!" It did amuse me how fascinated some people were.

We've been to a baby group this morning and did footprints. Think I might go for a drive in a minute just for a change of scenery. I get so bored staying in the town where I live the whole time!

Yes I've always found people are quite surprised about the cloth nappies.

DS finally seems back to himself after 8 week jabs earlier this week. He was great having them and calmed down really quickly but then spent the evening screaming.

DH was out last night so tried an earlier bedtime which meant I was child free by 830. Needless to say I celebrated this freedom in style by tackling my gigantic pike of ironing!

How are things going today flatwhite? Hope it is getting a bit easier.

@RaspberryBlonde Touch wood I'm feeling better than I was. She slept well last night which has made a massive difference. It's amazing how sleep deprivation can have such an impact on your mental wellbeing!

That's good news flatwhite, it does make a massive difference when you get a few uninterrupted hours.

Nights aren't too bad here but daytime is going to pieces, DS has decided that 40 minutes is long enough for a nap so is getting to be very grumpy by the evening! He spent all of yesterday evening fussing, dozing off then waking up as soon as I moved.

@RaspberryBlonde Thank you. My DD is a nightmare in terms of sleep during the day too. Miraculously, she's currently asleep in her cot, but that's SO rare. We haven't done anything differently today, so I'm not getting complacent. Yesterday, however, she sleep fought all day, and was grumpy for the entire day. I wish they just realised that being tired means they need to sleep! 😂

Hello can i join my little girl is 7 weeks born on the 31st of July i was breastfeeding but gave it up 2 weeks ago as we suspected a CMA and the doctor agreed with me that thats what it sounded like gave us apatmil pepti and infant gavison to try and to come back in 2 weeks but she was on holiday so had someone else (a stand in who went tk get advice from a other doc) and according to then there is nothing wrong with her she just has colic now i know my child dose not have colic but they kept her on the formula and gavison why since there is 'nothing wrong' with her i dont know?! So ive decided to cut out dairy and try bfing again if i can thought id share abit about us 😊

Welcome lmx0. Good luck with reintroducing BF, have you got some support as can be tricky after s couple of weeks off I think. Have you noticed an improvement on the formula?

DS had disgraced himself today by doing the biggest ever duty nappy at a friend's house. Have had ones which go up the back before but somehow he got this one up his front so even if usually super reliable wraps couldn't cope! At least I did have spare clothes that fired as I suddenly realised the other day I was still carrying around newborn size!

Ooh Raspberry that's grim! We've been very lucky so far, with minimal nappy leakage - and only ever through the legs due to Karatebaby's skinny little legs (although they are now chunking up a bit). But I do regularly have to change entire outfits anyway, because of the sheer volumes of vomit which she can produce... I have learned to carry a change of clothes for myself around in her changing bag too. I was very grateful for the clean dress I was able to put on in a café toilet the other day. Would have been grim to have to stay in my sicky clothes for another 3 hours before I could get home...

I'm going into work for KIT days on 4 and 11 October. I have a huge stash of expressed milk in the freezer (there must be at least 5 litres now) so from that perspective, we're good to go. Of course, just to keep us on our toes, she's recently started to refuse bottles, having happily gone between bottle and boob in the early weeks when we were having to top her up with expressed... I'm having a practice baby-free day on Saturday. Fingers crossed she gets the right idea again before then

That's so organized having KIT days in the diary already karate. Not sure when I will go in; I'm planning to be on maternity leave until next summer so it's not too urgent, plus I don't have a boss at the moment as they left and haven't been replaced yet. One of my colleagues lives near me so am keeping in touch via her at the moment!

You may find she takes a bottle fine if you're not around at all...hope the trial run goes well on Saturday!

Thanks Raspberry I'm back to work in January (Mr Karate is taking over for the next 6 months from there with shared parental leave), and we have a couple of important conferences over the next couple of weeks, so thought I'd better keep my foot in. It does seem ludicrously early though. It's mad to think that my mat leave is half over already...

Mat leave does seem to go so quickly! I'm hoping to take the full year as DH earns more than me so shared leave doesn't make financial sense for us.

Have had a bit of luck introducing an earlier bedtime this week and DS had been going into his cot around 830. However all we seem to have achieved is an extra night wake up plus a nappy change as they're soaked by 4am.

Thats good about the earlier bedtime not so good about the extra wake up though!! We have also achieved an earlier bedtime we found last week after bedtime bottle she was very unsettled downstairs and i think we kept wakening her so we tried after bottle up to bed no success but then we tried bedtime bottle upstairs before bed and seems to be working thankfully!! (Fingers crossed it stays that way!) but instead of sleeping from 10/11-7ish she is also back to wakening around 5 again but goes back over so i cant complain

We're probably in a relatively unusual position in that I earn significantly more than my husband, so I need to go back to work in order to pay the mortgage. He's thrilled to be having so much time with her though, so it's great that we can share the leave (although I'm slightly annoyed that he gets the 'fun' six months, when she'll be doing a bit more!!)

It's really difficult to know what to do with bedtimes when they're this age, isn't it? We're really lucky in that Karatebaby has settled into the bedtime routine really easily, but I'm just waiting for her to change again!! Just when you think you've got it sussed, they always find a way to keep you on your toes don't they?

You could look at it as he gets the 6 months where you spend most of the tone cleaning the kitchen floor as they fling food left right and centre!

Tiredmoma we've also doing going upstairs seems to work as a good cue to go to sleep. Still working on timing although we've had some longer stretches at the beginning of the night this week. Sally I'm just as tired though because my older DD is waking me up instead.

Thats one way to look at it!! Aww no way thats always the way you get one settled and the other is up

How's everyone doing?

We had round 2 of jabs yesterday. Nut quite as bad as the first set but still plenty of screaming in the evening. Not looking forward to the third set, poor DS had a fever even with the calpol.

Other than that we are fine, DS is staying too take an interest if what's going on and is very smiley at the moment which is nice. He is by far the most cheerful person in the house in the mornings!

@RaspberryBlonde awww my little girl has her 2nd round next wed after the first set she was a lottle upset in the afternoon but from around 3pm she went off her food and went to bed very early that night but was back to normal the next day we are starting to get into a little bit of a rountine up around 9-9.30 in the morning but come 11/12 shes ready for a nap the after noon is sit up in the air but cant win them all!!

Good luck tiredmoma. Second set definitely not as bad.

Having a peaceful coffee for once this morning as DH did the school run so DS is having his nap at home for once. We're off to a baby first aid course later so am hoping he's sleepy again for that so I can actually hear some of it!

How did your KIT go @WomanFormerlyKnownAsKarateGirl? I'm planning to go on soon just to say hello. I'm due to have a new manager and was waiting for them to be in post so I could introduce myself but they still haven't appointed someone. It's taken 7 months so far!

How are things @Flatwhite32? Hope it's got a bit easier in the last couple of weeks.

Hello to everyone else.