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.

here!

Went to Southport Flower show with my mum today. I really enjoyed it and bf every where. Got lots of lovely comments too from old ladies. Ds slept all day so imagine tonight will be wakeful

So sorry to hear about your LO MMN. The hospital sound good though, so swot up on CF and take it one day at a time.

Typhoonsmum, you might be lucky on the sleep front. Except for the odd night, like last night Bryher tends to have a feed sometime between 11-midnight, then again about 2-3am, then wakes about 7-8am, and she's been like that from about 3 days old. For the first 3 days she kept up her pre-birth routine of fidgetting furiously between 11pm and 2am.

Caroline I know how you feel about visitors. I had a rough night last night, I was just about to get some sleep at midday when MIL showed up, she'd phoned yesterday saying she might come up, but DP told her to ring first in case we went out, (he was trying to put her off). She phoned, I was naughty and ignored it but she did the 1 hour drive anyway.
DP is trying to organise a belated birthday party for me next weekend. It's a lovely idea, but I just can't get enthusiastic about having more visitors.

I'm glad someone else mentioned hip pain, I was getting worried. I had my trial attempt at driving long distances yesterday and was hobbling by the evening.

On the clothes front, my pre-pregnancy clothes fit me, (Hurrah!), but I've bought some comfy tracky bottoms for wearing round the house. I feel much more respectable today though as I bought some new feeding bras yesterday. I'm really annoyed that the bras I bought 2 weeks before she was born are huge on me... a total waste of money. I feel like a new woman now I have bras that fit, and my bad back is miraculously cured.

Last night was horrible.

James was well away. Until we took the Moses basket upstairs at 1030. As soon as I got under the covers he woke up. Got him back to sleep at 1100. He woke again at 1200. Took him downstairs and decided he was asleep again by 0145 so went back upstairs. As soon as I got under the covers again he woke up. I gave up and decided to sleep downstairs. I didn't hear him till 0630 this morning.
Since then I have been expressing the breast milk and he has been taking over 4oz every 4 hours. Gave him a bottle at 2300 and he is now asleep. Going to try to get some sleep myself in a minute but last nights antics left me completely drained.
The baby blues picked today to kick in as well. DD was looking at me with genuine concern wondering why I was crying. I tried to tell her I was just very tired and she dried my tears with her dressing gown which just made me cry even more because it was SO SWEET!
Right I'm going to sleep on this really comfy couch (Yeah OK) I offered instead of DP as he works a fair distance away and has to spend about an hour on the motorway every morning. I'd hate him to drop off to sleep whilst driving. Anyway I can always top up James' feeds myself DP can't do that! He said he'd take the couch of the weekend!

LO woke about 7 times last night and at 7am this morning he and DD (21 months) were both bawling. The Daddy did his best to settle them but had to rush off for an early meeting (very apologetic but probably couldn't wait to get out of the house), all I could say was "welcome to my world". Three of us got into the big bed and put cbeebies on and peace was restored. I even managed a shower before coming downstairs.
I am a great believer in demand feeding but did not envisage doing so every hour at 4 weeks. I know I let him sleep for far too long during the day - great big long stretches that I could be benefitting from at night - I let him because it means I get uninterrupted time with my DD who is but a baby herself. Has anyone got any advice?

Typhoonsmum - Im sorry that the baby blues kicked in, I can relate to that as its been happening to me on a regular basis...although I went all day yesterday without crying! I totally understand how you feel and its perfectly normal! I read a great saying yesterday for when things go wrong....THIS TOO SHALL PASS....its great to say over to yourself if you feel stressed.

Caroline - I took the decision to wake my LO for his feeds during the day. I know its a pain but he seems to sleep better at night and since I have been topping him up during the day he seems more settled at night.

I a great believer in swaddling. He seems to sleep for much longer when hes all trussed up like a little sausage.

Bilblio - Im sorry that the visitors have been a pain. I guess my DH having a huge argument with my Mum has prevented anyone turning up announced! It is unreasonable but I think people just either don't realise or they need gently reminding.

Suns out and Im planning a trip out today. Taking every day at a time and hoping that I don't get any panic attacks today!

Big hugs to all.

MMN- So sorry to hear about Mairi's CF- it must have come as a terrible shock especially as you say there were no signs of any problems. I don't know much about CF but I hope you will be able to find out everything you need to know about how to manage it.

Caroline- I know what you mean about appreciating the daytime sleeps, especially when you have another LO to care for, but as they seem to affect nighttime sleeping, I have set some rules which are never to go more than 4 hours between feeds. I will also wake DS after 2.5 hours sleep, and try to keep him up from 5pm onwards so he is ready for bed at 7-7.30pm.

MFO- I hope you enjoy your trip out today, and that you can keep the panic attacks at bay. The sun isn't shining here, but I am planning to go out myself later- to aquanatal. It's run by midwives, and they have trainee nursery nurses on the poolside to look after the babies. I am feeling a bit nervous about it myself- I went a couple of times with DD but found it too stressful in the end as I spent all my time watching her or waiting to hear her cry! But I'll give it a go (if DS isn't too grumpy) as I want to do more exercise. As he takes a dummy and a bottle, I'm sure they will be able to pacify him for an hour!

My other 3 children were into a four hourly routine within two or three weeks which just goes to show that it was good luck rather than good management on my part! And there was me thinking I had this new baby thing cracked . Thank you all for your sensible input, I know I should wake him more for feeding during the day but it seems all wrong to wake a sleeping baby somehow plus I like it when he is asleep as I can do other things.
JAM - Glad you are enjoying your new house, I wish you lots of happiness there.
Oh well, off to wake Oscar and feed him.

hope your trip went ok myfairone.

well James has cried virtually non stop for the past 3 days and wanted feeding every hour or hour half. I think hes got the coldvirus we have had he sounds croaky today so ive given him half a teaspoon of calpol to see if that helps. im finding it very hard because he wont be left at all, and before this he seemed to be getting better at being left in his chair etc.

he also seems to be quite a sweaty baby even before the virus does anyone else have this?

hi all

i have finally managed to get five minutes spare to jump onto the post natal thread!

Chloe is doing well, she had put on 9oz at her 12 day check which we were thrilled at. I had a couple of days that i found feeding her quite hard because my boobs were so full of milk that she couldnt latch on properly until i expressed some out, seems to have settled down ok now though. At the moment Chloe is sleeping from 8pm till about 1am, having a feed then going back off till 6ish so i cant complain at all really!

We went to my work and met a friend for coffee yesterday and it was so nice to get out of the house, even though i did have to feed her in the front of my car as i'm not very good at dicrete feeding as yet! I have to flop everything out to get it right!

anyway hubby is going away for the weekend tonight and back monday morning so this will be quite a test i think! a 2.5 year old, a 2 week old and 3 of the worlds naughtiest dogs! oh well i'll let u know how we get on.

Hope everyone is getting on ok. I really hope that you get all of the support and information you need madmum, i'm sure there are people on here that will be able to give advice x

myfairone - it's funny you say about your lo sleeping best when trussed up like a like sausgae - that's exactly what we do to ds, and called him "little sausage". He looks SO cute.

Best wishes to all - good luck MMN, I hope that you get the support you need for the CF.

huskygirl - what a good choice of girl's name , I used to be the only one.

JAM - SO nice to see you back online. Thank you for the reassuring words. As Caroline said yesterday, you wouldn't expect to know it al in a new job after 3 weeks!

I'm sorry to hear the bad news about your father. My thoughts are with you and your family.

Well my trip out was okay. Im taking it slowly and found that after 2 hours I wanted desperately to come home. But I did manage to feed LO while I was out so thats a huge step for me. Perhaps now I can feel more confident. Baby steps!

I hope that everyone is feeling well and that LO's are going to let us rest tonight!

Big hugs to all and thanks again for the encouragement.

Had a long, tiring day, where LO hardly slept, so got very grumpy. But she slept really well last night so maybe I shouldn't grumble. Just was a very hard day, trying to look after her when she was tired but wouldn't sleep. Tried to go for a long walk, thinking it would at least make her sleep, but for various reasons didn't work out, so was a long afternoon of rocking on the sofa instead. Good news is that her weight is up again - up to 10lb 4oz now. Hope things get better soon though, am feeling rather downhearted at the moment. And first everyine said it gets better after the first 6 weeks, that they're the hardest, then it was 8 weeks, now we're at 9.5 weeks and it's no better and someone said 12 weeks to me the other day as the "gets better" mark, and I feel this magical age is just constantly expandable to about 2 or 3 weeks beyond wherever you are at the moment like a shiny prize to dangle in front of new mums, but that will never quite be within reach.

Bryher is 4 weeks old today and it's co-incided with 3 big events.
First, I don't know what I did differently last night but Bryher slept for 7 hours straight!
I put her in her carrycot at 8:30, we have it downstairs during the day, I went to bed at 10:30 and took her up too. She normally wakes between 12 and 2, but she didn't wake till 3:45. I felt like Dolly Parton so tried to get her eat loads, I put her back down about 4:30, she settled almost straight away then woke at 7:30 this morning.
Oh if only every night could be like that.

Second we went to get her birth registered, so she's all official now. I'm just a little bit sad that she doesn't have my surname anymore, but we've given it her as a middle name so it's not gone completely... she just has a strange middle name to go with her strange first name

Third, she's definitely been smiling at me today, they were real, and quite different to the wind induced ones.

Mr twoplusone here, ds was taken back into hospital yestreday due to the pv. They operated first thing this morning. Operation was a complete sucess and both ds and 2+1 are doing fine.

Mr 2+1, Thank you for letting us know that all is well. Please pass on lots of love to 2+1 and hope all goes well from here on in. Take care and big hugs for a speedy recovery.

Jamantha, try not to be so hard on yourself. You are doing a grand job! I understand only too well how it feels when it seems like nothing is going right. But as people keep saying to me, 'they don't come with a manual and there is no right or wrong way to do something with your own child'. Just take it one step at a time and celebrate the small miracles.
I hope that the weekend brings calmness and enjoyment to your household!

Bilblio - OMG at the 7 hours! Well done! Don't worry about the names too much...shes your baby no matter which surname she has!

Well Harley woke at 3.30 and didn't want to go back down again. Seemed like I spent the entire night feeding him. I woke DH up out of desperation and told him I needed sleep so he took over and managed to get him to sleep at 7am! I slept from 6-8.30...better than nothing I suppose.

Lets hope we all have a great weekend and that our LO's can somehow communicate to each other that they need to be well behaved!

2+1, that's a relief for you - I hope he makes a swift recovery. And I'm sorry to hear about your Dad being unwell Justaboutmanaging but pleased that he's doing OK for now.

LO has been much more settled recently - wahey! - but has decided for the last 2 nights to get himself wideywakey for his middle-of-the-night feed. His Dad is just so much better at settling him to sleep than I am, so I'm dreading tomorrow night as OH is starting back at work this week coming . Never mind, it's time I got myself steeled for managing this being a Mum thing without help.

Speaking of OH, he's really down this last day or two. Maybe it's just the thought of having to leave LO through the day after the luxury of 4 weeks off. I can't seem to cheer him up and I know he's a bit sad about being unable to do anything for LO if he's hungry. A friend is taking me for lunch today so he'll be babysitting - they can have some 'boy time' together, and maybe I'll get him a pressie for being such a great Dad.

Have a good day, all.

So sorry to hear your news MMN. I don't know that much about CF to comment. Thinking of you!

OMG, I wish I'd never said anything about DS being good. He woke up at 17.30 last night and didn't go back to sleep till 0200. He seemed to have wind. He on infacol before his feeds but still doesn't seem to settle. We tried everything to shift it but nothing worked. He wasn't like this when I fed him myself but has been since I started to use the expressed breast milk.
I now have a dilemma. Do I go back to feeding him myself every two hours and no one can help me out with the feeds so that he sleeps well with no wind or keep on with the expressed milk and be able to get afternoon naps when others help me and put up with restless/sleepless nights.
Any ideas?

Hi all - i just can't keep up with this thread... sorry!

MMN - sorry to hear the news about Mairi, but really glad you have faith in the hospital team. Hope you get all the info and support you need. Thinking of you.

Typhoonsmum - I am a firsttimer, so can't even believe I'm attempting to offer some ideas here, but I express for my LO and use the Dr Brown bottles, which have a tube that's supposed to take the air bubbles away She doesn't seem to suffer with wind any worse than normal with these. I haven't used any others though.. Hope you manage to find a solution as expressing is a godsend for me too and I'd hate to have to give it up.

I can relate to everyone's feelings of being overwhelmed and the frustration of not knowing whether what I'm doing is right. In some ways I actually miss my job... I think I am just longing for that feeling of competence!

As if having a baby wasn't enough, we volunteered to host out NCT reunion. So think of me today with 18 parents and 8 babies... oh and my aunt is popping in beforehand as well. ARGH! I can't believe I ever thought this was a good idea!

Take care everyone x

Typhoonsmum - Just as an experiment why dont you try feeding him yourself and see if he settles better, then you have your answer. It may just be a coincidence.
Good luck!

chubbyscotsburd - My Dh was really down when he had to go back to work. He said that the thought of leaving us after being with us made him sad and when he was at work all he did was think about being at home. I guess after all we have been through we dont really have time to consider the effect it has on them. Why not get him a framed pic of the LO so he can take it to work?

Hope he feels better soon..

Well after the feuding between my DH and my parents I am now the one in the middle that has to make time to take Lo to see them (feel guilty that he wont be seeing his grandparents)...so I offered to take him over this afternoon and they are going out! I can't win! But my Mum had to say that they had waited in all morning becuase they thought I would go over then! I specifically told her yesterday I cant get out the house till the afternoon! grrrrrrr.....

JAM - really sorry to hear the news about your Dad. Hope the treatment regime gives you all some more good quality time together.

Twoplusone - glad the op went ok - thanks Mr2+1 for letting us know.

I know there are more posts I'd like to acknowledge... Hugs to everyone who needs them.

Quick question to those of you who express:how much do you give your LO as a feed?