October 2007 - the golden piglets have landed

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I couldn't find a postnatal thread - not sure if I am just missing it with post-childbirth brain! Anyone else around??

nellie - I can sympathise about last night Ben was the same, I changed his formula last night though so am wondering whether this was the reason... He had a feed (4oz) at 10.15 and slept till 1am, then had a feed at 1.15am till 2.10am (6oz) but it was 3am before he settled... then he was awake again at 4.15, making lots of grunting noises and almost crying, sounded like tummy problems, which is ironic since the formula I changed him to is one that is supposed to be digested easier he would only sleep if I held him too, he finally settled again at 5.30 but was awake again at 6.30 so I gave up and got up and fed him again at 7am. He is still struggling now, not sure whether to keep with the new formula or go back to the old one...

hi all, just found you again.

can sympathise with the night times, Shannon still only going about 2 hours a night until she wants feeding, and by the time i've changed her nappy and cleaned up the sick usually, i get about an hour inbetween each one, should get easier though soon girls! feel awful for wishing time to go faster, but its the only way we're going to feel human again! Shannon had reached 9lb on Mon and got mw coming today again, hopefully to sign me off. also saw GP yesterday to get AB's as apparantly i've got an infection in my stitches, was worried they may affect Shannon, but i don't think she could feed any more often than she does.

right, am being screamed for, hope your all ok and will try to catch up again one day...........

I think our babies must have a pact ... I got a grand total of 20 minutes sleep after 2am ... and ds has a strep throat, so is feeling very miserable ... not much fun in our house right now ...

must go - Mairwen is crying (again) - she just won't settle for a nap today!

Hi all, sorry the bad nights seem to be universal. Nellie, I assume you are talking c/s scar? I've just come back from hospital having been sent by my GP for a check on mine. I had v. bad pain last week and gp put me on a/b's and said to come back this week. Pain no better ( 1 area only) so sent to hospital. They took bloods and examined me and doc said no infection but fibrous tissue where I was stitched up is causing the pain. He said it could be a number of months before it feels better and to take lots of super duper pain relief in the meantime. I have to say I was delighted to hear that, as like you, I couldn't face the thought of going back into hospital, with baby, but leaving my other 2 again. I hope that your GP sorts you out. I wish that mine had referred me to hosp last week as I would have saved myself and bub a week of upset tummies from the antibiotics. Might be worth pushing for a referral quickly if your GP is in anyway thinking it's an infection. HOpe it works out ok for you.
Wish there was an "eyes propped open with matchsticks" icon, as I'd be signing off with it

Hello ladies,

Well last night was OK for us - Adam semms (touch wood) to have learnt the diff between night and day. Please don't lynch me as I have just jinxed it I'm sure! He will sleep for 2-3 hours at a time and settles after 30mins to an hour including feed , cjhange and winding. The payoff though is that the daytimes at the mo are v stressful. He has not slept longer than 10mins in a stretch since 9am and as a rexsult is really unhappy. He is now strapped to my chest in the babybjorn which touch wood seems to be working but consequently I feel like I am sitting in a furnace! I guess I would prefer it this way round but I'm dreading the days on my own with them both if Adam won't settle....

Nellie hope you get things sorted with your scar. The pain you describe could be wound healing or a comp;lication like an infection so best to get it checked out. If it requires hospital that would be v stressful but better to get it sorted I think as if that was necessary it would probably only get worse without. Thinking of you...

Thinking of the rest of you too. Hope you all manage to get some rest and hope you are all managing to enjoy your lo's....

Hi all and thanks for your kind thoughts - Eve is back home with us at last, after four days in hospital. She's still weak and coughing, but is definitely on the mend. A great relief.

Like Alice, we have to buck the trend. We had quite a good night last night with the LO. He slept about four hours at one stretch, then fed at 4 am and slept again for a couple of hours (though that was in our bed). I am clearly not sleeping well though, or at least not without unconscious anxieties, have now woken more than once frantically looking under the duvet saying 'where's the baby?', utterly panicked. The last time, DH answered - 'in his pram' - to which I replied 'how did he get there?' - the answer being, of course, I had put him there a couple of hours before!

Hi J20 - not heard from you in a while. Sorry to hear about the infection, and the constant feeding - Huw is like that sometimes, but other times he'll go for much longer, and it's such a blessing when he does. Hope Shannon sees fit to do the same soon.

Oh, now he's woken, and he'll be hungry, so I've got to go ...

Love to all x

Hi all,

Apricott, glad to hear your dd is now home.

Congratulations Hillybilly.

Shula is another good sleeper. Last night she was changed and fed at 11pm and slept then until 4.30am. She does tyhis most nights.

I hope everyone else is well.

J2O, are you still coming to the Birmingham night out on 23rd November?

Morning all. What a difference a day makes

Well I had the best night with Ben so far he is now taking 4-5 ounces of milk every feed now and back up to practically every 4 hours and sometimes more. Last night he had a bottle at 5.30 and I then had to wake him up at 10.30 for a feed as I was knackered and wanted to go to bed He then woke at 1.45 but settled much quicker than he has done before now (maybe the new formula is agreeing with him?) he is still asleep now after waking me up at 6am, I have got his bottle all ready and the little bugger has gone back to sleep He seems to have the biggest deepest sleep from about 5pm in the evenings, I could do with it being from 10ish ideally, hopefully we'll get there soon

hello all! i am sure one day soon i will find the time to post again properly, but at the moment it seems nearly impossible!! i am finding 3 kids 4 and under VERY time consuming!! maybe once ds starts at school in jan and i only have 2 of them at home i will get a bit more time!

had a quick scan of posts and saw that lots of babies seem to havenight and day confused! my little Marcy does too!!! she has slept virtually all day today despite me stripping her off and prodding her!!! so i am expecting a bad night tonight!!!
some nights she is fab and then other nights she is a devilchild!!!

my dd1 had tonsilitis last week which meant we were up all night with her sponging her down cos her temp was over 39 degrees. and then marcy got a cold too i was a bit of a zombie last week cos of the sleep deprivation!

anyway..on the plus side..........marcy smiled at me yesterday, so i can forgive her anything!!! although she is screaming again now!!!! (i'm trying to pretend she isn't!!!)

anyone else with other dc.........does it amaze you how they seem completely unfazed by a screaming baby? i think my big 2 are so used to noise that they dont even notice when marcy is right next to them screaming her lungs out!!!

gotta go!

Well Adam is one month old now! Where has the time gone? Can't believe he is a month old already!

Well that will teach me to say he sleeps well at night - not great last night. But more settled today.... Oh well!

is this thread always this quiet?!!! guess it is something to do with us all having small babies to look after!!! bit of a change from the antenatal thread though hey?!!!

can i ask how much everyones babies are sleeping during the day? marcy seems to sleep loads! much more than my other two did, so i was just wondering how she compared to other similar age babies. she is 3 1/2 wks

hello - ggg, I'm in a very similar situation to you. Madeleine sleeps really well during the day (have to wake her to feed) and then not so great at night. Last night she was waking up every 40 mins and feeding for less than 10 mins, despite every possible trick I had for keeping her awake! Not good. She's 2 weeks today; I;d put it down to the usual confusion with night and day and the fact that she was a bit early and so small. Exhausting though, and I think I made thngs worse by just feeding her (in my comotosed state)and then she got wind from the excess milk. aagghhh!

The worst bit about it all though is that I found that eating a bit of chocolate was the only thing that got me awake enough to deal with the million feeds and no sleep - this has now turned into a massive habit!! I've eaten a famiy pack of minstrels over the last 2 nights - please someone reassure me and tell me that's acceptable and that's on top of the endless cake and
biscuits. No wonder I still look full term!

anyway, hope everyone else is ok and managing on what little sleep they're getting. hope tonight is a good night for us all.

so glad I'm not the only one ... Mairwen has never managed to stay awake during the day for more than about 1 1/2 hours - today she's been asleep within about 20 minutes of waking up ... I feel like a really mean mammy waking her to feed!

I was looking for threads about sleepy babies eariler, as I was getting concerned! Found this one and this one - reassured me at any rate that the sleepiness is normal ... ds was very awake from an early age!

but ... usually (and I'm whispering this, as I don't want her to change it on me) once she's asleep, she has a dream feed at 11 (ebm - means dh can do some of the feeding too - and I can get some sleep!), then she wakes at about 2am, then again at about 5am ... I don't think that's too bad ...

Right, dh has just woken her by giving her a bath ... I think I can hear my cue!

Well Adam's night pattern is similar to Mairwen's but I am having a nightmare during the day. Feeling pretty upset about it actually. He just will not settle and gets really worked up and distressed - you can see the panic in his eyes. Most of the time he is awake he is screaming his head off. The only thing that works (and only sometimes) is to carry him in a sling. Other than that have kept making sure he is warm (but not too warm), fed, dry etc and it makes no difference. Even bf which used to be a sure fire way to settle Sam doesn't work. I think he's knackered but he just won't sleep and then if he does he wakes after about 5 mins and it all starts again. Just finding it really upsetting as he seems so distressed and I just don't seem to be able o do anything about it. Swaddling and shushing and stuff that worked with Sam don't help either. Dummy / finger sucking somtiumes works for a short time then he goes ballistic again.

Any tips? Just want my little boy to be happy again....

oh alice - I really feel for you - Rhydian was like that for a while too - and it's absolutely soul-destroying! He just didn't seem to enjoy being a small baby at all - he wanted to sit up and look around, but could only cope with it for a short time as he got very over-stimulated very quickly!

I spent a lot of time nursing him when small ... mind you, friends who have had babies who are similar have sworn by cranial osteopathy ... might be worth a try!

Mairwen loves to have a massage - it seems to soothe her - and, she's quite windy (don't need an iron to press your trousers, put it that way , I find that massaging her stomach seems to help her settle.

I really hope he settles soon.

Hey all I am new to this group - my DS will be 2 weeks tomorrow. Anyone else finding it really hard? I am having so many problems feeding. My nipples are badly cracked and it is very painful. I dread each feed. I have had four people watch me feed and I still can't seem to get things right. I am tired, fed up and in pain and I hate that I am missing out on enjoying my baby.

Hi ladies,

Ejt thanks for your support. Adam seems happier today - maybe he realised I was upset! Plus dh did the late feed last night and everything is easier to cope with when you are less sleep deprived isn't it? Will certainly consider cranial ostepathy if he doesn't settle... I had thought though that that was more help for babies born by vaginal delivery esp with forceps? Not calm and civilised elective sections? Anyway will try anything if we need it...

Stefka - welcome and congratulations on the birth of your ds. Is he your first? I had a very similar experience with ds1 (Sam). Have just had ds2 (Adam). Bf does seem to be painful to start with but does get better with time. If you are cracked and sore why not try nipple shields until they heal? They have been my saviours with both boys! Another thing to check is that your ds doesn't have a tongue tie - ask your mw or hv to have a look. Its a fairly common and easily correctable problem where the tongue is attached to the floor of their mouth with a band that can be cut with no problem at this age and without upsetting them. In all probability this is not the case but I mention it because Sam had this and it can easily be sorted out if its the case and make things easier for you. There is more chat about bf further back in this thread if you scroll back and have a read. Good luck! And don't feel alone - most of us are having easy times and difficult times with different aspects of parenting! It DOES get better and fairly quickly too....

alice - found this thread about cranial osteopathy for c section babies ...

glad things are better today!

Mairwen hasn't slept as much today - law of sod - I went to the Creative Stitches exhibition in Cardiff - we lasted less than an hour before she first wanted feeding, then decided that everything was too much for her! Well, I've got a free ticket to return tomorrow if I want ...

Going to have a snooze myself now (if I can get myself off MN ... addicted? me?)

just popping in very briefly to say hello to you all - we made it on the other side - never thought I would!!!

I have 2 hands free for the first time - but it's never very long, so I will return when lo is giving me a bit more time.

Hope all well... not really had time to read up on posts though.
Am doing ok here - got through the first week (just about) second week is less manic/frantic, and breastfeeding is going much better thank goodness.

Very tired.. but that's no surprise!
Will catch up with you all soon hopefully.

Hope all is well xxx

Stefka - have you got/tried lanisol cream? It really helped me in the first week.

You must be feeling knackered it can be really awful I know. Has the midwife checked the 'latch' is correct position?

The thing that helped me as inititially (I was in real pain as lo has a very powerful suck) was to keep putting him to the breast -virtually all the time - first week was a blur of continually pain/feeding.

Hopefully it has worked as breasts have got much better now, and no real pain.

good luck xx

I have had 4 ppl look at my latch. Sometimes I feel ok on one side but I don't know why! He hasn't stopped feeding all afternoon and he's still awake. I really need my nipples to heal. At the moment I can't go out or even have visitors.

stefka - when I had bf problems early on, I ended up not feeding dd for 24 hours to give my nips time to heal - I expressed (I have an electric pump from last time) and then syringe fed dd ... it made a huge difference ...

Have you had a proper bf counsellor check positioning and such? If it's just the midwives / health visitor who's doen it, they are not necessarily trained as bf counsellors!

Some useful numbers for you:

NCT bf ehlpline: 0870 444 8707
La leche league: 0845 120 2918

Hang on in there - once I'd healed (lanisoh is wonderful!) - do moist healing otherwise your nips will scab over - the bf then became magically pain-free - something I never managed in the early days with ds!

just had a text from inzi

* 14 hour labour emergency c section, baby Jane, healthy 10lb 15 oz. mum and baby doin well10lb 15 oz* bloody hell was my initial reaction!

right gotta go before dd1 drops dd2 but well done and congrats Inzi

Ejt - thanks for that link honey it looks really interesting. Adam seems much happier but will def check it out if we revert to the hell of the last couple of days...

Unicorn glad to hear all getting better honey.

And finally..... CONGRATS INZI!!!! No wonder you needed a section with such a huge baby! Really chuffed for you and your family xxx

Well Adam has continued to be much happier today. Not really sure why or what we have done differently but long may it last!!

I have had the NCT out already - I might call them again tomorrow depending on how the night goes. Sometimes it seems to be ok other times not. I just haven't quite got the nack yet plus I have had an infection which hasn't helped. I am using loads of the Lanisoh - I should have got shares in the company! Also using jelonet. The last two feeds were ok - I hope that the night ones go well too and that I have finally turned a corner. I seem to do a couple of good ones then a couple of bad ones. It's all very traumatic.

He seems pretty well though so that is a good thing Glad that your baby was happier today alice - it is horrid when they cry and you don't know why.