July 2023 babies

[Summermeadowflowers]

Hello everyone! So this is a continuation of the pregnancy thread(s) as we’re almost full.

DD was born by elective section on July 18th. Her older brother was born following an emergency section after a failed induction in December 2020 and I didn’t want to go through that again! It was a lovely chilled experience and I was a bit nervous waiting but felt like I was in good hands. I was also home the next day.

Feeding has been tricky for us. I really wanted to breastfeed but as with DS, DD hasn’t taken easily to it and struggles to latch. Nipple shields help to an extent although are not a cure all but she doesn’t get much milk and ends up frustrated anyway. I’ve mostly been expressing for her but realistically don’t know how long I can keep it up. It’s a shame as I do really want to breastfeed but it isn’t happening!

Oh and my wound is infected … lovely!

How is everyone else?

@Hippomumma I really struggle with expressing. I only manage to get enough for 1 bottle a day which my husband gives before bed.
Which is scaring me as I'm desperately trying to build a freezer supply for when I have to go back to work in April and I'm scared I'm not going to have any milk for him 😭

I don't know how much milk babies drink when they're 9 months, but I'm hoping not much in the time that I will be away from him.

What pump do you have @AnxiousAnnie94 ? Some are definitely better than others!

DD is four months on Saturday 🥰

Things are easier but harder.

Daytime naps are still difficult although she’s asleep now and she had a long nap yesterday so I’m hoping this may be the start of her beginning to consolidate her naps a bit. She smiles so much and laughs too which I love. I’m really enjoying her in a way I didn’t with ds, which I feel so bad about (more on that later.)

Ds is still a bit tricky. He’s absolutely lovely but non stop. I always thought he’d get easier when more verbal and in a way he is but he can’t really reason yet! He’s more used to DD and is kinder with her. The main problem is it’s never him and me any more and I really need it to be. But im not sure how I can make this happen. I feel DD is a bit young for a babysitter or similar and nursery is a no go yet - too expensive anyway until im back at work. Mum guilt is bad this morning!

My tentative plan is to return to work two days at the end of June. I then have the summer holidays in three weeks. So DD can do her two days in nursery and hopefully that will help her adjust and during one of those days ds and I can ‘bond’ a bit. But it seems so far away. I feel like poor ds gets ignored sometimes I also think he’s having ear troubles, which isn’t helping matters.

I am looking forward to Christmas, and then we have a holiday in January and February then after that the weather is hopefully going to be nicer.

Oh and weaning - I have considered doing it a little early as DD seems to have a voracious appetite at the moment, although I was considering for the new year so she’d be 5 and a half months, but I’ll see. She was having six 4oz feeds a day but lately it’s been seven. I’m expressing and struggling to keep up with her, so she has (usually) four breast milk feeds and three formula.

The What Mummy Makes book did the rounds with my NCT group when we weaned our babies and honestly looking back it was madness … huge meals. I’ve joked I wished I’d just chucked some Ella’s kitchen at DS and got on with it! I won’t but I’ll start with a bit of porridge and then some snack foods like banana, pear, rice cake possibly, then the following week introduce some ‘lunch’ - try her with some fish and veg or chicken and scrambled egg. Then try her with dinner. But I’m definitely going to use the time between 6-9 months just to introduce tastes, and from 9-12 months try to have ‘meals.’

@Summermeadowflowers my 19 week old has 4-5 bottles of 6oz formula a day (usually 5). She's 25th centile for weight. Maybe your baby needs a little more in each feed? Although I'm not combo feeding now so not sure how to work out the amounts! My formula tub says babies aged 8 weeks to 5 months should have around five 6oz feeds a day. My baby isn't that big so she's been on 6oz for around 4 weeks now.

Sorry: people’s babies are trying to stand? At like 4 months?

DS definitely is not…

I think people mean pushing down with their legs when held.

What time of day are you expressing @AnxiousAnnie94 ? For ages I was expressing in the evening, and it was taking forever. But if I express in the morning I get the same amount in hardly any time, our bodies have a good amount of milk available for breakfast! Some people also try catching their let down in the morning using a silicone hand pump while baby is on the other breast.

It is wild to me that we’re already discussing weaning! Honestly, it’s taken me most of this time to get my head around breastfeeding. We have a weaning class with our health visitor tomorrow so hopefully will feel more knowledgeable soon. I’m excited to see baby tasting things. He enjoys watching us eat, so he might be ready soon. A health visitor said we might want to wean him early as he’s such a greedy guts!!

He likes being held under the arms with his feet planted on the floor taking the majority of his weight. He’ll bounce his knees and attempt a few shuffly steps. Obviously he’s nowhere near having the muscle tone and strength to keep himself upright! If I was to let go he’d hit the floor instantly 😂

My DD is the same. She has enough strength I can hold just her hands to keep her stable. However, she has not yet rolled over🤔 😂

My dd hasn’t rolled yet either

Wow. You have some ambitious / advanced babies! DS1 definitely wasn’t doing that at this age, and DS2 isn’t either.

@Summermeadowflowers thank you, that’s reassuring! Easy to have a small panic when one compares, even when trying to remind oneself always that comparison is the thief of joy…

DS is trying to sit up by himself - when he’s lying down he’s always trying to push his neck up. And good neck strength when he’s sat on my lap too. Which is good, as he has adamantly refused to do ANY tummy time - just lies there on his face trying to counter elevate himself with his bum and legs…

So DD2 and Torvi both have bronchiolitis at the moment. Just keeping a close eye on the wee woman especially as she's not feeding the best atm and wheezing.

@Rutennotou hope all is a bit better now?

I'm having a real time of it with DS' reflux at the moment, was advised to wean off of omeprazole due to him not pooing for 15 days but now he is going through what I think hope is the acid battle when coming off of the meds. I hope this isn't his reflux as it wasn't even this bad before he was on the meds. I feel like the worst mum for doing this to him, super congested, snuffly and what they call a GERD cough which is doing him in and obviously worse when he lies down so stopping him sleeping so I'm getting even less sleep 🤷 he is struggling to feed due to being so bunged up and I have no idea how long this will last.

Also, are any of your babies really clicky/cracky at their joints? Like when our knuckles click/crack? Arthur's joints are super clicky (not his hips) but like his ankles, fingers, shoulders, wrists and it's worrying me. When I mentioned it to the doctor when we were there about something else she didn't seem concerned.

Mine’s quite cracky @AnxiousAnnie94 ! Seems very easy to make things click when wrestling him in and out of sleeves, for example! But it doesn’t seem to bother him.

@BackOfTheMum5net that's how mine is. When wrestling him dressed (and it is a wrestle because he HATES it), his little wrists will crack and when picking him up, I can feel his little shoulders cracking, but it doesn't seem to bother him either.

Hello, everybody! How are your 4/5 months old babies dealing with daytime naps these days? Have they started consolidating in longer stretches yet?

@gingercookiesforever mines just turning 5mo and no, we’re still on 30 min naps (maybe 1 hour if in the sling and constantly being jiggled) 🤪

@gingercookiesforever God no! Still on 4-5 30 minute naps. Sometimes a longer nap can be produced by walking for miles in the pram, but there’s no guarantees!

Glad we’re not the only ones @gg9320 !

We usually have one longer nap a day plus maybe 2 or 3 20-30 minutes as well. The long nap only happens if pushed in pram or worn in sling or driven though. Hes not napped in the cot for about 3 months now 😬

@BackOfTheMum5net this makes me feel SO much better.

DS has 4 to 5 30-45 minute naps during the day and I thought it was wrong and he should be doing longer now!

We are also in what (I hope) is a sleep regression and is waking up every single hour in the night. I don't feel human and hope this is just a phase and will pass.

Mine has around 3 naps a day that are around 30 minutes. She sleeps well at night once I put her in her cot in the evening. She's just turned 5 months.

Every hour is classic sleep regression @AnxiousAnnie94 - there’s nothing you can do but ride it out and get those naps in however you can!

@BackOfTheMum5net thank you! It's hard when he only naps for half an hour at a time, just as I close my eyes, he's awake again 😳

Can I ask options/ advice please.
During this regression , am I wrong to pick him up when he wakes and offer boob? 9 times out of 10 he will drink it and the other time he will just babble away and I will rock him to sleep. If I leave him in his next to me, he will really start to cry and be too awake to get back to sleep quickly. The issue is, when he wakes and feeds, he falls asleep on me and I don't know if this is teaching bad habits? You cry, you get milk?

Being my first, I don't know what's 'right'

Thank you, all, for the replies. We are the same with the scarce exception of a longer nap in the pram.@AnxiousAnnie94 , as others have said, do what works for you and your baby best. They are very young to create longer term habits. The first year is full of so many changes: by the time our babies go through this sleep regression and we think we are back to “whatever normal is” teething will start and we will be back to where - it feels like - square one. Mine wakes up a couple of times in the night and then she is ready to fully wake up at 6. At that time I feed her lying in bed and about an hour later she is back asleep until 8 or 9 am which helps me so much.

Torvi is still doing naps for about 30-40 mins every two hours or so. Sleeps well at night now though- 8pmish until 11/12 then a bottle and asleep until 7 or 8am. Occasionally still one in-between 11 and 7.

She has started rolling and hates it when she ends up on her front 😂😂