March 2008 births

[MarchNowFebMum]

Welcome March Mums (and late Feb/early April Mums!) from the March 2008 threads.

brief precis of mine and DD and DS shopping trip:
DS: why are we going there?i want to go to the toys i don't want to go there mummy where are the toys i want to go to the toys ehay are we going there mummy? mummy?? mummeee?
Me: they've moved the toys, we have to go up in the lift now.
DS: why are we going up in the lift? I don't want to go up in the lift mummy why are we in the lift ? can I press the red button?
OOh,toys can we go there? not there mummy I want something mummy take me over there now mummy mummy come here mummny (in long double buggy so is a good 6 ft away from me at the handlebars) mummy come here come here NOW mummeee?
I want something, can I have something? OOh can I have that?
Me: what is that?
DS I know what it is,I want it ooh can I have that oh look a thomas something can I have it please can I have it I want it Mummy I want it can I have now mummy I want it I want the Thomas something? I want to go home now please can I have the thomas something?
Me: no
DS: OOOOh PLease can I have the Thomas something. (repeat all the way home. If I could have put him on a bus to Milton Keynes I would have. I was contemplating buying a phil and ted to make going out easier but I'm not so sure now.
I hope Charlie is better soon.

wow loads to catch up on and ds4 is demanding a feed so i dont have the chance at the moment.

hope everyone is well and the babies are thriving?

ds4 is now fifteen pounds and five ounces and having to wear some 6-9mth clothes and he is only 6 wks old, he is going to be tall like his dad and brothers

life with 4 is fun but HARD work, i have had some tear my hair out days, esp as ds4 likes to be held whilst he sleeps.

gonna have to dash but will add this to threads i am watching so i can catch upa nd see how you are all doing xxx

wearehips - that sounds like my shopping trips, but i didnt bother getting a double buggy (bit of a mistake) add to that throw on the floor tantrums every time we go past one of those ride on trains/cars/boats and you get the picture.

3mad- wow thats massive, is he long as well?

he is long yes, he has to wear 6-9mth baby grows as 3-6mth squash his toes

his head circumference is now 43cm and is also on the 99th percentile line, so he is going to be a big boy

i am feeling incredibly blessed and lucky at the mo, had some diff times since ds4 was born, he is quite hard work and likes to be held ALL the time, even when asleep, anyway just read that one of the mums on bmc is very poorly, her cancer (breast cancer) has come back and spread, in her lungs, liver and bones she is the same as age me 29 and has a little boy of 6, very sad, makes me realise how lucky i am to be healthy and have my boys xxxxxx

metastizing cancer at 29

Hero is getting CHUBBY. She probably still has a bit more weight to catch up (ie. still has a bit of loose skin on legs, but nothing like before!) but is on 25th percentile at a whopping 4.11kg! Mix feeding has been a miracle for us, I don't know how long it will go on, or what will happen to breastfeeding, but it's good right now.

Question for bottlefeeders- how do you make up the feeds? I was putting boiled water into bottles, into fridge and then adding powder as I needed it (as it was a bit unpredictable how much I would need) but now see recommendations to make each individual feed up hot and cool to right temp. How do you do it? I could of course ask this on the feeding threads, but they tend to get out of hand! And we're all friends here

It's the weekend! And my birthday is on Tuesday and DH has taken the day off! I might get a lie in- wahey!

e14mum - that's wonderful! I'm so pleased for you and Hero and I really hope mixed feeding works well for you long term as you've worked so hard to get bf established.

I've heard that one option is to make a flask of boiled water and then use that to make up your feeds as you need them - so a bit less faff than having to heat the water each time. I do get confused with all the issues around how sterile things are - part of the reason I'm sticking with ready-mixed for now (only one ff per day so less hassle and not so expensive). Anyone got any links on formula feeding around keeping things sterile etc.?

e14- when I formula fed DS 3 years ago I sterilised the days bottles first thing, added boiled water and stuck them in the fridge. then after 1 feed I'd get the next one out to come up to room temp and add the formula when DS was hungry. that didn't seem to cause any problems for him and was the easiest way for me to do it.
Now however I think the recommendation is to add water that's at about 70 degrees to the powder because they can't guarantee that the powder is sterile and there may be bacteria in it. Then you cool down the bottle before giving it to your baby. This does of course mean that you need to know 45 minutes beforehand that you'll need the bottle. DD not at that level of regularity yet for me so I'm sticking to the old method.
There was a thread in the feeding forums about keeping water in a thermos and using a couple of oz to mix formula and then adding to pre-boiled cooled water but I can't remember what the thread was called. The formula threads tend to be less controversial than the B/f ones so it might be safe!

e4 - DD is on 5oz bottles at the moment, when she is hungry I boil a kettle, put in 2oz of boiling hot water, add formula, give a little shake and fill up with previously cooled boiled water to 5oz. Temperature is perfect and all bacteria killed! If Hero is on more or less oz's though you will obviously need to alter it via trial and error.

When going out I buy ready made cartons or take a flask of hot water and some cooled boiled water in sterile container things I have. Hope that helps!

Hope Charlie is better soon. Tilly and I had this bug a couple of weeks ago and narrowly escaped the hospital visit. I had it too, was horrible - hugs to both!

3madboys - i know someone in a very similar situation and shes just found yet another lump. same age aswell

e14 - bottles drive me mad, after stressing about it for weeks when she was first born and trying to make them as and when she wanted them i gave in and now do it the way i did with my other 2 dds. boil kettle make up bottles for 24 hrs after water has cooled for 15/30 mins. stick them in cold water to cool them down and then stick them in the fridge. when i want one i whack it in the microwave (remove teat first) give it a good shake and bobs your uncle totally against advice but it works. if i go out i take boiled water in sterile bottle and add powder out of shaker thing when i need it, either that or a carton.

sitting here with mouth open and 1 eye trying to stick back down due to unscheduled i can't believe it never to be repeated 2 hour afternoon nap - toddler, baby and me all out for count at same time. that'll happen again in 2010, i expect.

wow

maybe i will feel energised rather than knocked sidewise soon? but please, can someone make us medals and send them along.

wow

you should have seen that post before i went back and corrected the typos.

medal for merry berry! i shudder to think of having a toddler and a LO. all of you with more than 1 got medals from me a long time ago.

have just come out of three day feeding frenzy which have indeed left my boobs as dishcloths (excellent image mb!).

will write more when they dry out and i've caught up on posts....hello to all and hope everyone is well. thinking of charlie.

Anyone had experience with reflux? I'm wondering if Griffin has it.
He has been suffering from bad wind this last week and lots of spit-up and projectile vomiting. Tonight was the worst, with him very screechy and wimpery and inconsolable. He sounds a bit raspy, too. Feeds quite frequently and comes off boob fussing and won't go back on.

Suppose it could be colic, but it's really only been the last week/10 days (he's 6 weeks old) and I had thought colic starts sooner than that.

Will now try infacol, but wondered if anyone knows anything about reflux. Jay I came across an old thread of yours - what was the outcome for your DD?

e14mum I put cooled boiled water in 4 sterilised bottles at a time and leave them at room temperature. I also measure out the formula into little Tupperware pots and add them to the bottles when I need to feed Matthew.
I found trying to make bottles fresh too impractical especially when you've got a baby screaming for food at 3am

It was so much easier in the days when you were allwoed to just mix cooled water and formula and not heat it. I am seriously considering giving up BF as LO is just boob-obsessed and since we came back from hospital doesn't seem to be able to do more than3 hours even at night. Yawn.

Turtle - it's really tough isn't it? Leo (similar age to Pascal) needs food at least every 3 hours - every 90 mins to 2 hours in the evening. We give one bottle of formula at 11pm as mentally I find it so much easier knowing I have a break where he is not completely dependent on me from about 9pm until whenever he wakes for his night feed. I'm also expressing when I can and use that in the bottle so it's sometimes half formula half EBM. Not sure if that would work for you but may be worth a try before you decide to stop completely. It's definitely saved breastfeeding for me.

Exciting day today - I'm off to the hairdressers and leaving DH in charge so DS may be getting his first daytime bottle today if he needs it while I'm gone. I've got enough EBM in the freezer for about 3 feeds and I'm cashing in one of my chips today I really need to feel like yummy mummy rather than slummy mummy for a day, so we're then going shopping so I can buy a couple of new tops!

turtle - glad pascal is ok. echo hq on wxpressing.i use the morning surplus for the evening when i don't seem to have much milk left. bf is such hard work isn't it, my dd is 9 weeks now and still feeding ever 3 hrs for an hour, but less at night (due to ebm las thing, i think). i just keep setting targets, 'another week then i'll think again' etc.

Oh believe me have been expressing for ages!! I just find that the pump makes my nipples sore and he doesn't. Cant really justify buying another pump at this stage...anyone really like theirs? I have the medela swing and it just doesn't seem to get enough in to make it comfy.
As for hand expressing...that just boggles me!

turtle - i'm finding the swing not really big enough as well - for some reason i think you can buy bigger nipple shield things for it so maybe check that out. do think about mixed feeding before you think about stopping completely though - i do it one bottle per day and i know MMH has found it works really well for her, and e14mum has found it is going well too. any bm is better than none and it may be you just need a bit of a break each day from bf/expressing rather than stopping completely.

turtle - different size medela shields here

HQ- you are a genius. i had no idea there were different sizes! Hurrah! Thank you!

Jfly - your LO sounds just like mine. I got infant gaviscon prescribed by the doctor last week and it has totally stopped the projectile vomiting. He is still very windy and thrashes on and off when feeding particularly in the evening and usually has a good scream - which I've put down to colic. Have tried infacol, gripe water and colosinth crystals but haven't found any magic cures yet...hoping he will grow out of it

If you are bf'ing giving the gaviscon is a bit of a faff (at the moment I express 1oz into a bottle to mix with the powder and give it before feeding).

HTH

Hi all, my bf ds is also feeding at least every 3 hours if not more, particularly in the evenings when he pretty much feeds from 6.30 - 9! .

I've expressed this morning and saved it for tonight for the first time so fingers crossed that sees us through a bit longer tonight.

This afternoon I was having a low moment and thinking how much I dislike bf (dd was mix fed)and how maybe I'll try mixed feeding, but hearing that you are all having similar issues and so it seems normal, somehow makes me feel like I can cope a bit longer. Hope that makes sense - typing with 1 hand due to afore mentioned cluster feeding

JFLY just another thought re griffin as he sounds similar to Rudi, that part of the problem when they are windy and posseting lots can actually be that you have an ove rgenerous supply of breastmilk and or a strong letdown reflex, this often causes behaviour like you are describing and is def part of the problem with Rudi.

interestingly Rudi really doesnt like lying down, much prefers being upright so i guess that could be due to a bit of reflux as well, i think they tend to grow out of it by the time they are sitting up, so by 5-6mths, the time will fly by..........

Rudi has been a star today, fed and slept well, i have been able to make a cake for dp as its his bday tomorrow and the boys and i have made crispie cakes too