Newborn support group anyone?

[CupCupGoose]

Anyone else want to join me for a bit of moral support?

DC3 was born on the 28th February (so pleased he wasn't born on the leap year day!)

He doesn't like being put down so I'm pretty exhausted. DH and I are taking turns to sit up with him at night but as I'm breastfeeding, I'm having to do more. I know it's not forever though.

Milk has just come in so I'm feeling pretty emotional at the moment. Again, I know it will pass!

I'm just about to attempt to put him down in the crib, wish me luck!

Hi everyone
I had my little boy on 11th Feb (ds2) - emergency section and he was in neonatal for over a week and was tube fed for a lot of that time. First 10 days home were good, he ate and slept really well but the last few days has been absolute torture. He refuses to sleep for more than 10 minutes at a time during the day and then ends up over tired and crying constantly. He's reaching the point of wanting to feed roughly every 2.5 hours (120ml formula). I've tried giving him 150ml in the hope he'll go a bit longer but he stops at 120ml so it's starting to feel like I'm stuck in a never ending cycle of feeding and screaming. Finding it hard as the past few days my bleeding has returned with a vengeance along with pain in the section wound and I'm just bloody knackered. Ds1 was such an easy baby so maybe subconsciously I'd set myself up thinking this one would be too. If anyone has any suggestions for the feeding and sleeping I'd be really grateful x

Hello!
My little boy (DS2) was born on Friday morning.
We came home Friday evening and are doing well.
DS1 is 3.5 and loves his brother.
I'm exhausted but happy.
He does have a tongue tie which is making feeling so painful it's really upsetting. I fed DS1 until he was nearly 3 and I was pregnant with this one so I wasn't really expecting any problems.
Also I haven't had any contact from midwife or Health Visitor. I'm sure someone came to visit when we first got home last time. Is this normal?

Thanks @cupcupgoose I will take DD to pharmacy in the morning- hopefully they'll have calpol- local shop was sold out of hand gel & calpol so annoying!
Yes she was born EMCS with extra uterine incisions so this time round has been much better. She was also in NICU for 10 days so I feel your pain @ifeeltheneedtheneedforsleep. Sounds like you should maybe get the HV to check him over if there's been a sudden change though. @hiimmumma you should have been seen today if you got out on Friday, call your midwife in the morning and ask!

@cliare

@ifeeltheneedtheneedforsleep My son (DS2) is also a very awake baby during the day. Who said newborns just sleep and eat!

I've found the age old recommendations of a walk in the pram or a car ride really help. Can your DH take your little one out for a couple of hours and give you a break? Or hold/rock your baby to sleep? Sometimes my LO will fall asleep on someone (ie spend 30min sleeping) then is in a deep sleep so we can transfer him to his crib.
It's tough - my DD1 was also much happier to be put down!

Hello 👋, my little girl is three weeks old, born on the 15th and is my first 😊

It's been great and tiring so far! She's had reflux which has been hard to see her so uncomfortable but think that infacol has helped with that. The other problem is she is sick so much 😩 not just little bits but will throw up whole feeds (she's breastfed). Sometimes it's fine and she'll have good days/ nights but we took her to the GP on Wednesday because she had thrown up three feeds completely and it was exhausting because she would be hungry again and it just kept happening! Anyone else have this? We were prescribed baby Gaviscon which I think I'll pick up tomorrow and try that instead of Gaviscon to see if it helps her keep it down.

Hello to all the other newborns 😊 thanks @LolaLollypop for tagging me 👍

*instead of infacol! (Not Gaviscon)

@lovesT did your GP suggest anything about a dairy intolerance? Might be worth having a look into what you're eating and seeing if it affects your LO reflux?

@LolaLollypop no she didn't and I forgot to ask if it might be anything I'm eating. Anytime we have mentioned it to health visitors or GP they talk about it as something that's normal as her digestive system is still developing etc .. maybe that's something I could give a go though, give up dairy for a while and see if it helps. Would be interested to know if anyone else has experience of this too.

@lovesT - my DD is coming up for 5 weeks old on tuesday. Although she wasnt necessarily showing signs of reflux in terms of vomiting, she had a fair few unsettled days and wasnt really settling between feeds. My eldest daughter had severe reflux and failure to thrive so was on prescription milk and ranitidine. Because of my experience and probs my anxiety, i felt it was important to trial a dairy free diet as I'm exclusively breastfeeding this time round. Its coming up for two weeks now without dairy and shes a content wee soul most of the time - has her unsettled times, but what baby doesnt?! Im not entirely sure if its down to dairy but im going to reintroduce little bits of it in the next week to see if it unsettles her again. It can take 10days to 3 weeks for dairy to entirely come out your system so if you do try it, dont be disheartened if you dont see immediate improvements!

My boy is struggling with constipation. He desperately tries to go to no avail. It's been 48 hrs now and I've not been able to put him down all day as he's grumpy. Any tips?

@lovesT my first son had reflux and puked constantly. He wasn't distressed by it and put on weight etc but my god it was exhausting. Had to constantly change all of our clothes and everything smelt of puke. Just wanted to say I really sympathise with you and you have to just keep going and have faith you are doing the best job you can. You will meet other mums who manage on 2 muslins a day whilst you are drowning in the things! Touch wood we have a daughter who doesn't seem to vom half as much so think it doesn't always affect subsequent babies! Stay strong!!

@cliare that's exactly what's happening with her! It is so exhausting isn't it. How long did it last with your son? Did you find anything that helped?

She's definitely having a growth spurt at the moment as she has been constantly feeding today. But yes we are drowning in muslins at the moment and they're the most valuable gift anyone has got us so far 😅 might need to get some more .. it's just so frustrating when she's feeding all the time anyway and then it feels wasted because she's sick and then wants feeding again. I feel like I've been in the sofa all day! Thankfully she hasn't been as bad today but still quite sick and sometimes it's all the time.

@Lcw29 is your LO breast or bottle fed? My son only poos about once every 2-3 days At the moment. I think this can be normal for BF babies as there is less waste with breast milk.

Mind you, he does always have bad wind - especially in the bottom department. I'm going to get some Infacol tomorrow and see if it helps him digest better.

He is bottle fed. Just hate seing him scrunch up in pain 😔

@lovesT I have to say, it went on til weaning established. My advice would be to trust yourself and your instincts. I had a few surprised looks and comments when people saw me feeding my son immediately after he'd puked up an entire feed, as if to say well he's clearly full.... But it was clear to me he had just emptied his stomach and needed to be fed again! Get yourself a little breastfeeding box of essential bits... TV remote. Water. Lansinoh.... and keep hydrated! We had some success with gaviscon but gave him weird jelly poos and getting it down him was annoying so in the end we just put up with the puke and had faith he was happy enough and not in any distress! All the best, hope I haven't depressed you too much, not my intention at all!

@lovesT I had the exact same thing with my first baby. She would throw up entire feeds (also breastfed) and we would both need to change our clothes multiple times a day. Luckily we had hard flooring at that house! I tried everything from cutting out dairy to gaviscon but nothing worked. Luckily she still put on weight and was perfectly healthy in every other way. She did eventually grow out of it and is a healthy 8 year old now. Have you tried ringing a breastfeeding helpline? They might have some ideas. I've always found GPs a bit rubbish when it comes to breastfeeding.

@anotherexhaustedpidgeon did you get to the pharmacy? How's your ds?

@hiimmumma you definitely should have been seen by today! Sorry to hear about the tongue tie, are you getting it snipped?

@Lcw29 your poor ds, its horrible seeing them in pain. I'd maybe ring the gp tomorrow if you've been discharged from your midwife.

@cliare thank you, it's good to know what we might expect! Hopefully it will get better soon but I suppose it could be a while yet then .. yeah she gets hungry pretty much straight afterwards so I'll feed her again. She has been putting on weight so I'm not too worried about her in that way but it's horrible it keeps happening and having to change her clothes (which she doesn't like) and change mine so often is a pain but all part of it I guess.

@CupCupGoose we've been to a breastfeeding drop in which was good but that was very early on and was more about her latching on etc so maybe I could go back there and ask for any advice. Thank you both for your replies though, good to know it's not too abnormal and she'll eventually be okay 😊

@CupCupGoose we were seen today.
I'm in two minds about getting it cut. It's really small (apparently) and it's less painful today than it was yesterday. Midwife said as his mouth gets bigger it will get less painful and he is transferring plenty of milk.
My milk came in today too which helped.
I can get it done privately at any time this week for £220 but that's not ideal. NHS waiting list is weeks though!

@hiimmumma we had similar with my DD - it's ridiculous the midwives can't just do it like they used to. It took 4 months with my DD but she was tiny and a slow grower.

@cupcupgoose thanks for checking! DD has chickenpox so we're trying to keep her away from DS so he doesn't get sick 😭 supposed to be registering him today and going for fancy lunch to celebrate but DD covered in horrible blisters!!

@anotherexhaustedpigeon
It's still painful but I think I just need to persevere. I'll give it to the end of the week and if I'm still suffering I'll try and get an NGS cancellation (apparently they come up a lot) or go privately. It's so ridiculous they can't just sort it straight away. The amount of people suffering or babies not getting breastfed now because of that is such a shame.

Argh I was so worried about DS1 getting chicken pox as it was going round his nursery a couple of weeks ago. How is she coping? How are you managing to keep them separate? DS1 is obsessed with his new brother I think it would be really hard to keep him away!

@hiimmumma totally agree and UK bf rates are terrible anyway. Not really surprising.

DD is ok, she's 2.5 so old enough to understand but she has the odd upset moment where she wants to cuddle the baby and can't. We've said she's got a grown-up sickness and the baby's too little and she seems happy with that explanation!

@anotherexhaustedpigeon
Aww bless her she sounds so sensible and understanding.
This might sound nuts but have you tried putting breastmilk on her spots? Or even expressing some for her to drink. It will be full of antibodies to fight the chicken pox as you will have been exposed.
Might speed up her recovery and elevate the itchy ness