August/September 2019 Babies (Due in Sept 19)

[IVEgottheDECAF]

Couldnt see a post natal group so have taken it upon myself to start one! Will obviously still keep up on antenatal also until babies have all arrived!

Shall we start a list of arrivals?

IVEgotheDECAF - DC5 - boy - 07/09/19 - 9lb1oz

Ds appears to need to be constantly attached to a nipple for the last few days. Or he will nap on my boob no problem. He can have the occasional sit in his bouncer or chill with dad but if I'm around then really he needs to be attached to a nipple or napping on a boob pillow. Is this normal??

@kyles101 my baby is exactly the same last night/today. I tried a dummy and that worked for 30 mins. I wonder if it's a growth spurt?

HV coming shortly..I get so excited cause it means she will weigh him and measure him and I love knowing he's developing well. I think he's put on loads of weight so let's see he was 8lbs 4oz at last weigh.

Right. I persevered with calling DWP todayjust for anyone's info the hold time was about 1 hour and the woman told me that as of today they are looking at claims from 4th July.

She told me taking 12 weeks at the moment.I suggested she might like to feed up the chain to change the txt message telling us it's 6 or 8 weeks. She said it was 6 then I then 10 but now she can see its 12. I said yes even your recorded message says 8 weeks so that needs updated. I'm trying to tell her it might reduce her workload of calls if the information is up to date and she kept saying how transparent she was being to me by telling me it's 12 weeks. She couldn't understand I was trying to help her and tell her she needs to push whoever it is that's in control of the information to get it up to date! I wouldn't have called if I knew it was 12 weeks waiting time. Oh well. Just thought I'd let you know. Apparently they received ( and scanned in..think thats included in the time it's actually in the system and counted from) mine on 17th july so I have 2ish more weeks to wait. She did go through the documents to make sure everything was correct in case it came to the date they review and find something wrong. Omg I'd be furious if that happened. Waiting 12 weeks to be told they don't have enough info or something! Why isn't that doesn't when they scan the stuff in
Oh my God I hate stuff like this!

@kyles101 I've literally just googled "baby is constantly breastfeeding" because mine is the same!

Constantly attached to me. Just seen the health visitor and she assures me it is normal but considering expressing into a bottle to give me a bit of a break! X

Horehound mine got sorted quite quickly after i had a rant at them on the phone. Not saying it pays to be a pain but sometimes it can help. Maybe yours will now go in the 'fast track cause she gives me a headache' pile like i am sure mine did!

@IVEgottheDECAF ha maybe it will! I'm not actually needing the money yet but I did want to know why it was taking so long and to make sure all was ok.

Arthur now weighs 9lb 7oz and is 56cm long. HV was last here on 13th and he was 54.5cm and 8lb 4oz. So he's ploughing the weight on hehe

@kyles101 yep, some days he has to either be asleep on me or feeding from me. No-one else will do, especially if he realises I am still there. I've lost my shit at DH on more than one occasion for taking him from me and then putting him down almost immediately, he just wakes up and I have to settle him with the millionth fees of the day. It's a phase and it will pass!

Had his 6 week check today. He's gone from 8lbs 6 to 11lbs 2oz (and went down to 7lbs 7 after birth). Just checked DDs red book and she was also 11lbs 2oz at 6 weeks - but she was 10lbs 3oz at birth! I've finally accepted that breastfeeding might actually be working this time round.

Apart from weight, the HV was fine with everything. She's just really hard to engage with - doesn't listen at all and keeps repeating the same stuff that's not relevant. She tried to do my PND test while DS was screaming blue murder and I was trying to get his clothes back on. I couldn't hear a thing she said and she just kept repeating the questions. I miss my old HV who actually listened and advised but I guess I won't be seeing her much now.

Ouf @Stroan why are some health visitors so hopeless?? Can you ask to switch to your old one "for consistency"?
Mine hasn't visited yet- next week apparently. Day 3 today, milk's in and all well so far. I still feel shaky and sick if I'm standing up or walking about for any length of tine though. @decaf I cannot believe you were flying solo on the (uphill) school run by day 3!!!!!!!

Dusty i did get some school runs covered by grandparents this time around as i was warned over doing it would increase bleeding and after the PPH threat i was keen not to go there! I have been back to 90% of school runs since day 5 though!

You are a woman of steel Decaf!

@boodles101 at night it’s ok not to wake them, they should wake up. Mine will usually go 5 hours at one point in the night. In the day I try wait for him to wake which is usually 3.5 hours
I just set alarms for every 4 hours in case he doesn’t wake then I wake at 4.
Started stretching to 4 hours at 3oz and can do one 5 hour shift at night on 4oz. I have just started to occasionally offer 5oz as the last one before bed

BabyDECAF (3 weeks tomorrow) takes up to 5oz every 3ish hours the big pig!

Baby DB is waking every 3 hours (occasionally stretches to 4 at night) and takes between 2-4 oz. massive improvement from the 1/2 oz every hour when we first came home! Glad he's not the only one taking quite a bit.

Due to be weighed again next Friday. He was 6lb4 at birth and up to 6lb8 by day 11. Still looks so small and barely fitting in his tiny baby clothes though.

Our health visitor is also useless. Focused heavily on her views on first time mums attending mum and baby groups (very very pushy) than giving any real and helpful advice. Thankfully won't be seeing her again u til our 8 week review.

Still so surreal that baby is here! Very much enjoying the newborn snuggles though could do with some more sleep 😬

I'm going to start mooing!! Nice to know it's normal though!!

When did cluster feeding start for other people!? LO is less than a week old but has been on and off all evening! Am hoping she gives up and goes to sleep soon!!

Cluster feeding started Day 3 for me, but picked up hugely at Day 5 and 6 and then again Day 10-11. Less so far today

Yeah we've had days on and off with cluster feeding up until now, the last few days have been unreal through, cluster feeding all day, literally!! Although I was rewarded for yesterday's efforts with sleeping through from 10pm - 3am! Magic!

Mine started with the cluster feeding as soon as her cord was cut- she was on the boob for over 2 hours before she was even weighed!

@Megan2018 I keep meaning to ask- have you gone straight in with the washable nappies? I'm halfway through our one packet of disposables and trying to decide whether I have the energy to get going with the washables or whether to give it another packet or two first...

@DustyDoorframes yes we are using cloth but don’t have quite enough newborn size for full time, so still using a couple of disposable each night. Felicity too small for the Birth to Potty ones, but I have more of those.
Been easy so far though

How's everyone's post baby bodies going? I could have cried a couple of days after birth as my belly was just awful, but it's looking better now.. I don't want to cry looking at it at least! I reckon I could pass for 12 weeks pregnant!!

I am back in my jeans, slight muffin top! Dont think i have any hope of being toned again after 5 pregnancies lol

Is there any hope of toning this up at all?? Only 1 baby but mid thirties and just not sure what's achievable. Going to ask dh to get my old jeans down tomorrow so I can assess the damage... I do weigh less that booking in, I'm not sure how though 🤷‍♀️ my back must be skinnier or something.

@kyles101 there is lots of hope - I had my first in my mid thirties and was confident in a bikini a year later. After the second the skin hasn't recovered as much but the rest did. We shall see what happens after the third... HOWEVER don't rush it. Do excercise that makes you feel good once you feel up to it (ie- after 6-12 weeks from giving birth at the earliest), give yourself plenty of time and be kind to yourself. Unless your job is to be on the cover of hello, nobody cares how your middle looks bar you, so don't be mean to yourself about it!

Oops, sorry, pressed send too soon. Thanks @Megan2018 ! I'm just being a wimp, I can't remember when we got DC2 into cloth, I think it was about now. I've never bothered with newborn sizes, and just used a folded muslin in a wrap until the birth to potties look less huge. But I do have big babies. Hmmm. Need to find the nappy bucket too...

I'm about to start cloth nappies soon. He was far too small for them when born and we also decided to just get used to a baby first!

The weight seems to be falling off me at the mo. After birth I was I think 96kg and im now 83.5kg
I've not trI'd jeans yet but may do tomorrow if I feel brave. I think i need to get to about 75kg really but can't remember the last time I was lol