December 2007 - Santa's come early for some of us...

[Housemum]

Thought I'd start off the new thread as I've never started one before - congratulations to those of you who are on here now - hope I'll be joing you in the not-too-distant future!

Good luck for friday MM, hopefully you'll start on your own before the

'then' not the...

Thanks... am really worried about ending up down the CS route as DH is only going to be able to take a few days off (like maybe 2-3) as he has been off most of Xmas and NY as it has been so quiet. My mum is back at work and altho has offered to take some time off I know she wont be able to do more than a week or so, so will have to manage with a 2 year old and newborn and really want to make a success of BF and not sure how I will achieve this with DS1 running around.... and dont even want to think about guests. Really want to not have ILs (parents, bros sis whoever) around without DH being present, but not sure how to broach this with him, without seeming unreasonable.

you poor thing mm! good luck and i hope you manage to keep the dreaded ILs under control. Can they step up looking after DS1 or are you too upset by them to allow it?

why are the new baby groups in the afternoons and all the toddler things in the mornings. DD2 is at nursery in the mornings - ahhhhh. Might ask if she can stay for lunch on Fridays..so I can so something with Evie.

My headache has fiunally gone - I wonder if I was dehydrated!

Can't belive Evie is going to be 4 weeks on Friday - where does the time go???? I must register her birth!

Things have been much better to be honest suey, altho because of me rather than them. They will look after DS1 no problem, just dont want to give too much iykwim and I dont want them taking over this time. I have no problem seeing them now or whatever, just want DH to be present and he is going to be working and I cant deal with them by myself and they just turned up last time alot as well for the first few weeks... I will just not answer the door, but I sort of want to explain that whilst they can see the kids as much as they want (within reason) I dont want them around me with DH being there, just not sure how to explain this to him so he can find a diplomatic way to explain to them.

cazzy - i was wondering about how to do toddler / baby groups. I sort of thought about catering mostly to DS1 as he needs occupying whereas baby will be fine I suppose. I noticed that alot of things were in the morning too, i was wondering how I will get up and get two kids plus me ready and out in time for anything, but I suspect I am running before I can walk here.

Lizzer - I was really lucky in that our sonographer was the same who did the 20 week scan which picked up the kidney dilatation originally. He told me loads and talked me through all the issues. So although I haven't seen a paedeatrician I have a pretty good idea what to expect. I also have a friend who went thru this 10-fold (her LO was 10mm dilated at 20 week scan) and she has talked me through things too.

Basically Bea is now slightly dilated in one kidney only. However its enough that they want her to come back for another scan in 6 weeks. He also seemed to think that since this has been the case for 20 weeks now its likely that it won't resolve itself by 6 weeks in which case she will probably be put into a programme for an annual scan.

No we haven't had any prophelactic (sp?) ABs. From talking to my friend the risk is that they might get a UTI which could be spread back up into the kidney through bladder reflux. So she said the key thing is to keep an eye out for any signs of a UTI - smelly discharge, fever etc. The UTI itself is not dangerous but the kidneys getting infected is not so good.

She also warned that at some stage they might want to check for bladder reflux which involves putting a cathetar up the ureter. She warned me that this is not very pleasant for the parents especially - very undignified for the baby and a bit uncomfortable. She said that if they found this to be an issue they might decide to operate (they did on her child, but she was much more severe as mentioned) but they usually like to wait until the child is at least 3 years old, preferably older still.

My impression is that the annual scan would be to check that somehow the kidneys had become infected through an undetected UTI spreading - i.e. to check for any damage to the kidneys. But of course if the dilatation was no longer apparent that would be good news too and eventually you might no longer need to have the scan.

Hope that info is useful to you! Feel free to ask other Qs, I might be able to answer. Sorry to everyone else for hijacking the thread.

cazzy - The time flies doesnt it, Ethan is 4 weeks tomorrow, i cant believe how quickly its gone over.
We went to register him this morning, he's now all offical!!
Im going to post pics of him and ds1 in a minute if you want to peek

pics on profile

lol clara at you feel you own your DH some sex because he has been so good with your DDs - that is exactly how I fell - well he did get up at 3am and make the dinner last night and let me have a lie in - the least I can do is give him a bit of sex!

Caz10 - think boobs are just completely off limits and sex shouldn;t occur when your DD is due a feed or there may be some squirting. I remember this happening with my DD which was completely hilarious but kind of puts you off having sex..

Hi MM - good to see you on here. Great to hear you have sorted things out a bit with the ILs. I think it is completely reasonable not to want visitors of any kind shortly after giving birth when you will be exhausted and emotional - even if you loved and adored your ILs I'm sure you wouldn;t want them round all the time - I'm sure your DH will understand that?

Really hope you manage to get some extra help for the first week or so to help you get bf established. I found the first few days really hard as DD was very clingy when I was feeding and would drape herself over me and twiddle my hair - she still does this now but I can cope with it now I am better at latching DS on etc but in the first few days it was a nightmare. If your mum or someone is there to entertain your DS1 I'm sure that will help a lot

clairey - I don;t have any newborn or extra small sizes and find terries to bulky. However DS is now over 10lb and some nappy nippers arrived in the post today so think I will start tomorrow. I am already doing about three washes a day as it is so suppose that will be four now...

thanks for the info on the steiner school wizz - that was my impression as well but will go along and see what it's like. Sorry to hear you're ill - sunds horrid you poor thing, and on top of everything else

claraq - every time DS cries a lot I panic he might have colic too - think it usually kicks in by 2 weeks though so hopefully we are out of the danger zone..

fifi - both your DSs are gorgeous! Mine is 4 weeks on Friday too - feel like the hardest bit is coming to an end now and we can really start enjoying our new babies

LOL about velcro babies. DS is a little that way at the moment. Have bought one of those vibrating bouncy chair things and its the only thing he'll let me put him down on. He's gurgling away on it now. Have been feeding him for 2 hours, he's not let me stop today. I'm letting him feed for ages as I feel sorry for him after his tummy upset (if it was half as bad as mine it would have been misery for him ).

yes, i was really pleased with millie until yesterday when she suddenly wanted to feed much more regularly and is taking in much more. Has started to settle down again this afternoon having been awake the whole of yesterday and this morning and not easy to pacify. Thank goodness for dummies! I am also in the group whose LOs don't like lying on their back. Maybe she is hacing a growth spurt?

Phew survived! Although some silly cow with a huge pram did get on bus and make me move (even though she could've just gone in next to me) so I had to stand sideways hanging onto a pole precariously with one hand and the buggy with the other. Has knackered my shoulder and going round one corner pulled my neck but I made sure I rubbed it and winced lots to make her feel guilty!

MM The wrap sling is absolutely brilliant- don't even notice I am wearing it most of the time (and I DO wear it most of the time!). Havent yet mastered breastfeeding in it but think thats cos ds doesn't like the cradle hold so his head is too high up for breastfeeding. As for pushing the buggy while wearing it, no probs there. I suppose it's a bit like pushing the buggy while pregnant, doesn't feel difficult at all though. Only things I find difficult to do are change dd's nappy, dress her etc and the washing up-have to stand too far from sink and hurts back and arms a bit (oh and balance on buses while holding buggy with one hand and pole with the other...)

Have just realised I have come all the way home from hospital with one breast completely out of bra and half out of top!. Another bonus of the wrap-it covers your front and saves any embarrassment!

Lizzer, completely agree about not stressing about velcro babies this time, remember being in despair when dd wouln't be put down but not really bothered with ds(apart from when I really want a shower!)

Hi folks, sex???!! God is furthest thing from my mind at the mo, still really sore because of forceps and episiotomy and just don't feel sexy at all!

Had great night last night Kaesha slept from 1am to 7am!! Somehow doubt that it will be a regular thing though as she seems to vary daily!

We have a hug-a-bub sling which we're loving, she always settles straight away and sleeps, I need to practice putting it on and off on my own though without my man's help, infact need to start trying to do everything on my own, god I'm gonna miss him next week and all the weeks after that

you'll be absolutely fine, melly. I have actually found it a bit easier sonce DH has gone back to work. I can set the schedule, then millie goes to daddy for daddy love when he gets in and it gives me a break.

Finally got a few mins to catch up with what's happening with you guys.
All quite calm here. Lois is such a sleepy baby that I thought there was something wrong! Ds1 & 2 were (and still are) very vocal and seemed to bring such chaos with their arrival.
Just out of curiosity, am I the only one bottle feeding?

Lily is so good and big sis DD1 is being a star but doing this alone is the hardest thing I have ever done...went out with best mate today (first trip out at day 12) and now my scar is aching and feel quite shattered luckily DD2 is asleep and am about to go to bed after I settle DD1 ...hope everyoone is doing ok

Been to gp today and found out we do have thrush (suspected it for a few days now) so can completely sympathise beanster ? are you taking meds now? Both ds2 and I have stuff to take, I really hope it clears up soon as bfeeding is still painful, at least I know its not my latch on or anything else tho

Skid ? yes had sex 4 days after ds was born couldn?t wait to have it without my belly getting in the way think not having any stitches this time also helped me get back in the saddle quickly (so to speak) as well
Re nappies ? we have ds2 to muslins with bambino wraps but he?s almost out of them then we?ll be using popollini easy fix all in ones which ds1 had (he?s in the larger sizes now)

Wiz ? hope you feel better soon x

Clairey ? it is a tricky one to work out if we should be putting him on his front ? he?s on his front again tonight but won?t go down on front after 1am feed or after that till 11am ish nap today so I?m not sure what he prefers ? like with your dd we had to put ds1 on front otherwise we got no sleep
Also the colief website said that expressing an amount and using that rather than expressing before each feed was ok (do check though had a few sleep deprived nights between then and now) let me know how you get on we?re persisting with infacol for moment and I took ds2 to chiropractor to be checked to see if that would help his feeding as he arches his back all the time (might not have any affect but made me feel better that I was trying to do something!)
also which wrap sling do you have? I'm thinking of ebaying the baba sling and trying something else as its not working for us

Macdoodle ? glad you had a nice day, did you bf out and about? Everyone keeps saying that they have maximum respect for us doing the baby thing with toddlers but I think doing it on your own is a lot tougher x

I am at those of you whose babies will settle themselves, we did try putting ds in his Moses basket awake but he just screamed and screamed
He has been really fractious and constantly feeding today and it has been getting me down. I've expressed a couple of ozs of milk for dh to give him later. He has been sick loads as well after feeds today. Hoping he'll be so tired he'll sleep well tonight...

curlygirly - Your not alone, i am too

We've just now put ds on his side and he seems to be settling... unless I've spoken too soon!
He does seem much more comfortable, especially as he was sick on himself lying on his back!

Hiya, quick nod from me (Birthday Girl) before I collapse into bed. Knackered from traipsing round the trafford centre for hours today - Louise slept through it all - I had to wake her to feed and change her. They have good feeding rooms there so not really public bf yet unless you count once in the car.

On the Sex front, am gagging for it too, feel like I've healed pretty well, but like wizz am still bleeding so a bit frustrated as would like to get into it asap. DH has commented that he's interested, so that's a bonus that i'm not post partum repellant.

Night all, fingers crossed for a good nights sleep for us all (skid- we have the same night feed schedule, Feed at 10/11pm, then 2/3am then 5/6am it doesn't usually vary too much and she will go straight down unless she needs the toilet in which she'll grumble for about 30mins until we hear the explosion! then off to sleep, i suppose we're quite lucky with the night wakes)

Curlygirl we are 100% bottle fed but with a mixture of EBM and formula.

Today it seems like she has been on a continous poo marathon! I assume this is normal?? Am a bit worried that the milk seems to be passing straight through her without stopping. She also seems to be continously hungry. I will check with MW tomorrow.

Macdoodle sympathies. We are getting on surprisingly well but with quite a lot of support from my Mum. Also helps that I have no emotional attachment to the father I suspect. Actually he showed up the other night after 8 months of nothing which was a bit weird. I did find it very painful watching him hold her - I don't want to share her now!!

Buzzy - similar issues with Daniel, producing lots of poo and constantly hungry!
I did speak to soon, we went to bed at 10:30, and he woke up 10mins later! Lots of feeds, wouldn't settle, dh took him into spare room in the end, gave him some ebm but he didn't go down until 3.30! An hour later I woke up, moved ds back into our room into the moses basket. He woke up twice wanting a feed, 2nd time around 7am so got up and have left dh to sleep.