July 2007 - yet starting in June!

[Jamantha]

Well, I can't see a post natal July 2007 thread, so will start this, even though Charlotte, my DD was born 4.5 weeks early in June. I'm sure the other July ladies will be along soon enough.

Have had 2 nights at home now. Yesterday afternoon was fairly distressing as Charlotte wouldn't latch on, and if she did she wouldn't suck. But have got loan of electric pump from hospital, and support from midwives and now managing with comination of breast, expressed and formula milk, sometimes all three in the same feed. Finding it quite emotional, with all the issues associated with feeding one's baby, but trying to stay calm as found out yesterday that getting self into a state doesn't help anyone.

Dh has just gone out to get some things we're still missing, and I'm putting my feet up for a bit. Phil & Ted has just arrived so we might try a stroll down to the ante natal class tonight!

Any how, hope there are lots of lovely birth stories to come from July ladies, and that we can swap advice, give each other moral support etc over the coming weeks and months.

hi all, glad the swaddling has helped, ds tends to cry and wriggle while it's going on but then is calm, and I am sure that's why he's sleeping five - six hours at night (sometimes).

Also one mw said we shouldn't swaddle. So dp looked it up on the internet and the studies show that swaddling DECREASES the risk of SIDS. HV and MW all contradict themselves!

Agree about the crying and the mood swings. I cried every night for the first two weeks, no real reason! Still cry every other night or so.

And I was terrified about leaving the house, that has passed. Now I am just feeling too lazy to do it. Bad mother.

Good to hear the feedback about the books, I was going to read baby whisperer, glad I didn't!

and is everyone picking up their baby when he / she cries? Ds is happy in the vibrating chair, when he cries though I tend to pick him up (Harvey Karp says it's OK!) but hv and mother says that I shouldn't.

(mind you, mum picks him up whenever she see him).

cakehead ds has started to cry n eve too he is 4 weeks also cries a lot generally. crying at mo must go!

for those with evening criers, we had this too. Seems that evenings are the worst time for wind/colic. We've been using Infacol which has helped, and while she still has wind problems we don't get 3 hours of solid crying each evening.

theprecious - we pick DD up when she cries. Gentle grumbling we leave, a one off shriek we ignore, but proper crying, no. HV says we could/should ignore it, as does my mum, but we just feel it's wrong when she's so little. Perhaps at 3 or 4 months, but hey she's not quite 8 weeks yet.

Speaking of which, first jabs tommorow - eek!

I would go with your gut instincts when it comes to a crying baby. For a newborn I would personally always pick them up if they are crying. I am a great believer in swaddling - if you think about it your baby has been for months in an increasingly confined space in your womb which is probably much the same as being swaddled. They tend to jerk themselves awake with those funny reflex twitching limbs/reflex movements that they do and swaddling must feel familiar and therefore comforting. I swaddled last night in a large Harrington (muslin square) because it was such a warm night..... he only woke 5 times for a feed and nappy change. He is such a lovely relaxed baby, I just need to get him to not wake so many times at night!

Well I was the one to mess up last night! I woke up after dreaming he was crying and attempted to feed him. By the time I realised that he wasnt really crying at all I already had my boob in his face! doh!

I have swaddled him from day one and the night that I didn't he was so restless I have done ever since. Last night just left him in a vest and swaddled in a cotton sheet.

I feel more positive today and the HV is coming round (although the message she left on the phone was so hard to understand due to a heavy accent, I'm kind of nervous now!)

Still scared to go out but feel better now that I see others are too and the crying comes and goes...oh well, I guess its just another set of hormones!

big hugs to all and I hope you all slept okay.

Oh Agnes....congrats!

myfairone - i woke uptightly cuddling my teddy bear (! ) and thought I's smothered LO!

Hi ladies, how is everyone.. havent read through the posts sorry.
Have read the top few.. when Lee cries we generally pick him up.
he eventually latched on the other nihgt.. but only seems to go on when it suits him.. so he is still blttle fed.. with as much ebm as poss then formula.
he had as of thursday (day 16)put on a pound (7lb 11oz) so he is gaining well.
DS1 is being alittle mischief maker making sure we dont have 5 mins peace!! DD still on hols with my mum.

lee slept from 11.30pm last night till 6.45am would have been a great sleep for me if we hadnt been at friends house till 3am..so by the time I had washed the bottles sterilied made a feed up and got to sleep it was 4am.. havent managed to get back to bed yet.. am starting to drop now though, will try and grab an hour on the sofa..

Take care all.#x

On the crying front, I picked up DD1 every time she cried, despite MIL telling me not to, and she's a happy, independent little thing now. Doesn't mean you have to grab them at the slightest moan, but certainly don't think you can spoil them by doing so at this age.

Felt guilty that I had to leave LO to bawl last night while rushing a quick bath, then read in one baby book that I wasn't 'making' her cry; I was 'allowing' her to cry instead!! LOL. Whatever it was, it certainly shredded my nerves and made my ears ring... But she did conk out straight after on her bottle...

thanks for the picking up comments, esp Cakeheads assertion from "the other side" of babyhood that it's OK.

Next question.......bed time. Am thinking about a bedtime routine, mainly so when we travel ds knows it's time for bed when not in familiar surroundings.

Is anyone doing this yet? Everyone says bath then bed kind of thing.

So is that bath before the last feed or after? And can you really be bothered to bath lo every night? However is it time well spent as then you have a baby that goes to bed?

as you can see it is exercising my mind!

Sorry I didn't say much when I flew through the other day.

The boychild arrived on Wednesday, and after a sedate twelve days of making me think he was there for the duration he chose to make a rather hurried entrance into the world.

Had contractions all night Tuesday. Gradual increase in strength but very little organisation, with anything from four to ten minutes between them.

Half seven Wednesday morning saw me on phone to friend asking her to come get my daughter as my waters had just broken. Contractions increased in intensity and started coming in clusters.

Eight o clock friend arrives with her boys, and helps me bundle things together.

Ambulance arrives at about quarter past eight, while I'm being interrogated by on duty midwife at the maternity ward (are you sure you're in labour?). Paramedic takes a look, takes phone off me, tells them we're on our way and they had best get ready, and we leave five minutes later.

Half past, arrive in L&D. Contractions two minutes apart and hurt like hell. Entonox is my friend. Only 2cm dilated. Use the entonox for a while, lying on side to ease pain in hips.

Have a bath. Feel like I'm being scalded as I get in, suspect it was shock of the water helping me dilate more. Decide baths are the spawn of satan about ten minutes later and get out of the water and have a couple of nasty contractions while swearing at the wall in the bathroom. I'm glad they have monkey bars on the bathroom walls. They were useful for hanging off and insisting that I wasn't having any more of this and demanding that they make it all stop now thank you.

Student midwife suggests I have a go on the space hopper. At this point I would do anything, so space hopper was dutifully positioned at side of bed and sheet draped on it so I don't slide off because I'm still wet from the bath.

Bounce for a minute and get hit by a killer contraction. However, this is comfiest have been, leaning against bed with my entonox mouthpiece for company. Braced for another contraction, another killer, and got the urge to push. Student said would be the baby passing the bowel, and not to worry and just to ride it out. Rode it out, just. Next one comes, urge is even worse. Student says to ride it if I can and that they'd check me after it passed. Again, just managed to ride it out, and crawled onto bed as the registered midwife came back in.

They just managed to get me to open my legs before the next contraction hit, and they told me to go for it if I wanted as I'd managed to fully dilate in just over twenty minutes! Bless them, I think they were in shock. They let me dictate my own pace, but it was my body that dictated it, it had obviously had enough. It took me a mere nine minutes to push the boychild out, and the placenta was sent packing six after that.

Total labour time: two hours nineteen minutes from waters going to birth.

Pain relief: Entonox all the way. There were a couple of co-codamol at some point, but they didn't kick in until lunchtime >_<

I got my skin to skin contact as soon as they had checked he was breathing, and managed to feed him within about twenty minutes of birth. It was so hectic, and rather scary as well, as it was all done on my own with just the midwife. Had a quiet couple of hours in the delivery room, then they shipped me to post-natal, from whence I escaped at eight in the evening.

Am still knackered, but have managed a couple of jaunts out, once with daughter and boychild, and once just me and the boychild as the daughter was with her dad.

So... Sorry for the waffling. Needed to get it all out of my system.

Hope everyone is doing well. I shall be back tomorrow no doubt, probably to complain that I hate breastfeeding. I really do hate it, but it's so easy, and good for them. I just. Hate. It.

I like my packet of chocolate biscuits though, so the trade off is okay. For as long as the packet of chocolate biscuits lasts

Take care everyone

Agnes

congrats angesnitt - that is a very quick birth!

What is boychild's name?

What a day! DD was troubled all day. Bedtime took 2 hours from starting the bath to getting her settled - assuming of course she stays settled now. DH and I didn't even manage to eat fish finger sandwiches together

Hello all and congrats to newbies! Don't have time to read through everyone's news- am only managing to get on here about once a week! I find a new baby and a suddenly clingy four year old hard work - how on earth do those of you with more than two manage...?!
I have a question, maybe I should put it on the sleep thread, but would rather run it past you lovely ladies first. DD has a feed at seven, I put her upstairs in her basket at seven thirty, and it takes me about an hour to settle her. From then she sleeps solidly till about 1.30am, which I know is pretty good for her age (nearly 6 wks) but how do I get this one long sleep to happen slightly later? After the one long one she goes back to about three hrs, so I am up again at 4.30am. If we feed her at 11 she is awake again at 3; so no better really.

Hi Berrysmum,

I'm also interested in whether you can change baby's nighttime feeding patterns, or whether its just something they change once they can hold more food in their bellies. We seem to have settled into a routine which is last bottle (5oz) at 6.45 before bed (usually settled by 8pm). Then dreamfeed (5oz bottle) at 11pm, then he wakes 2-2.30 for a breastfeed, wakes again 5.30-6 but I just bring him into bed for a cuddle and he goes back to sleep til 7 or sometimes 8am!. I think this is really good for a 6-week old, but would love the 2am wakening to start to move a bit later, as I would expect the long period of sleep to be in the middle of the night. But I know I shouldn't complain really, as I am getting a few hours shut-eye between each wakening.

I really recommend a bed-time routine to others. We only started it properly a week ago (at 5 weeks), but generally start bath/wash at 6.20, changed and ready for bottle at 6.45, whilst playing a CD designed to calm babies (it masks his noisy big sister!) then down in basket swaddled with dummy by 7.15/7.30. We might have to pop in a couple of times if he's unsettled, but he definitely knows its time for bed when we do all this. He has started to smack his lips when the CD starts (like Pavlov's dog!). We now get the evening to ourselves, which is great.

Congrats to all the new mums and welcome to their lo's. I hope everyone is doing ok.

Thanks for the info on what's in a bounty pack - sounds like it didn't miss much really then!

I can't remember who suggested it but I have tried boots for a cold water steriliser and whilst they do do them, they never have any stock in our local store. I will try a larger store when I manage to get out to the big smoke! My aim is to make it this afternoon, but I'm not confident. It will be the first time I have taken her in the car on my own.

I too am finding it really difficult to get out on my own with DD. I get really fearful - I don't know what I think it going to happen. Worst case she needs feeding and changing. As I'm bf'ing, I don't have to worry about bottles and even if I run out of nappies (we're using reuseables) I have a couple of disposables in the changing bag.

Hi All, Hope I can join in. I've been meaning to join you since Isabelle was born on 16th July but have only just got around to it now that I am 'on my own' (DH was on paternty leave for 2 wks then my mum was here for a week - paternity leave was great, mum a little more stressful). All is going OK so far though she's getting more diffcult to settle at night.

I've read through some of the messages and saw peopel talking about dummies. We had some success with them for a few nights though she's now rejecting them. I was a bit worried about using them but did you know that that the FSID is now recommending the use of dummies as they seem to be linked to a decreased risk of cot death? I was surprised but glad to have an excuse to use them!

Melissa, try going short distances at 1st, perhaps 30-60 mins out, timed just after a change and feed so you'll be back before the next one. Build up to full days out. I've only managed mid-morn to mid-afternoon out with her so far, but it can be done.

I too have found trips out with the baby a bit daunting, but I agree with Jamantha's advice to set off with a full belly and a clean bum! OH has another 2 weeks off work which is really good, but today we went for a walk into town together and he set off home while I carried on to pay a visit to my workmates. Coming home on my own with the pram was scary but it was a good way to ease myself into it. I also made sure our first trip out in the car was to my parents' house - only 20 minutes away and somewhere I had no reservations about feeding/changing. I'm also practising breastfeeding whenever we have visitors so I get brave enough to go for it out of the house - small steps!

You have all made me feel so much better! I don't seem to be able to bath him every night and felt so guilty just washing him over! But I guess we can't do it all right?

I pushed the pushchair on my own today to the end of the road! I broke out in a sweat too! I have no idea why I am being so ridiculous. My job involves travel and I went all sorts of places on my own with no fear....and now look at me! Maybe I'm expecting too much I dont know.

DH has talked me into going to get my hair done tomorrow...Already dreading it!

Still no joy with my parents. After the argument they went away and as far as I know they are back today. I'm kind of over it now but wish people would be less selfish at a time like this!

Big hugs to all and congrats to the new joiners

MFO - we don't do bathnight every night either.

My first trip out with LO in the pushchair was a 10 min walk to the library. I had to stop and check half way there and decide if I was brave enough to continue!

And going to the hairdressers was first trip out without her - felt SO weird. When she asked how I wanted it dried I wanted to say "however you can get it done most quickly so I can get home to my baby!" Glad I went though.

you're scaring me with your impressive talk of routines!! And babies sleeping for hours and hours. DD is 3 weeks and longest is maybe 3.5 hours.

You're all scaring me too with this talk of routines!! I don't bath DD more often than once a week unless she has managed to leak poo everywhere (so sometimes bathed far more often...though usually in the kitchen sink !). We all suffer from dry skin & DS developed quite bad eczema when he was one so avoid bathing!!

DD has kind of developed a routine of her own but I know with DS this changed frequently until he was a lot older so I'm not really trying to expect DD's routine to be all that constant! She has a bit of mad feeding frenzy in the eves starting around 6 or 7pm...the whole feed..poo...feed again thing... and then conks out anytime between 10:30 & midnight sometimes for 4-5 hrs! And I'm beginning to be able to predict when she'll feed in the daytime, but sometimes she opts for extra snacks... Saying that last night she fed every 2 hrs...not fun

Feeds are taking ages at the mo...at least 20 mins each side, and she takes both sides at each feed...plus winding = 1.5hrs!! Anyone else feel like they are sitting on their backsides feeding baba all day?!!

Getting braver with trips out...took DS & DD to the beach on my own for 2 hrs this afternoon. It felt great & DD slept the whole time! Go for it ladies... the worst that can happen rarely does...although once when DS was tiny he managed to do an explosive poo which not only went through all his clothes but onto mine too..so now I take a spare top along for me as well!!

Hugs to you all gotta run she wants another top up! xxx

Hi All

Well I managed a trip out in the car yesterday with DD and whilst she didn't sleep the whole time, she was very good and only cried when I first put her in the car seat at home. She stops pretty much as soon as you pick it up - strange.

Thanks for your tips though on getting out and about. It really helps to know that other people are anxious too.

I've got a hair appointment next week but I don't think there is anyone I can get to look after her for an hour. My mil was going to, but she has just been promoted at work which means instead of working 2 days she's working 5 days a week. I am sure they won't mind me taking her and if she sticks to her usual pattern she will be sleeping anyway.

Feeding DD takes ages too - at least 20 mins each side. This morning breakfast took 3 hrs on and off as she kept falling back to sleep. Oh well. Time for the next one I think.

Hope you all have good days. Going to try to make it to the supermarket in a bit as am desperate for some food. I had to have cereal for lunch yesterday as DH finished the bread for his sarnies and didn't buy anymore