March 2008 births

[MarchNowFebMum]

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

am going to make two suggestions that would likely have la leche and hv's after me but desperate times call for desperate measures.

you need sleep or at least a rest so how about propping yourself up on the couch with pillows and letting him sleep on your chest (on his tummy). pillows to support him and you from falling over. you can at least rest your body/eyes worst case scenario if you don't feel comfortable sleeping like that.

it's not necessarily your milk but you could feed through eye dropper (we did this in early days with my mastitis) or cup although that's harder esp with no sleep

no neighbour/friend who could come for an hr today? if you are really desperate call me and we'll come on the train! you have my 'real' number

turtle, maybe just let him sleep on his tummy and don't tell anyone. I'm sure most of us were put to sleep on our fronts.
DD won't take more than 2oz today... won't nurse either. Happy in between feeds though so just trying to ride it out. Will try gripe water MNFM.

Thanks, ladies...DH has just rung to say he's on his way home from Wales and will be back 2-ish. I have sterilised a load of bottles, written instructions and packed a bag. I am leaving him with the baby for at least the afternoon whether he likes it or not. Hopefully will be able to either hide upstairs with earplugs or stay at friend's tonight. Having no sleep is doing my milk supply no good and LO wont go near a bottle if he can see/smell me.
Sorry for moaning so much, I am just soooooo fed up.

turtle, another alternative is letting him sleep on his side - just prop him with rolled up towels. or will he sleep in a sling? when all else fails i walk round the house with him in the baby bjorn until he sleeps and then i can usually get half an hour in a chair with my feet up while he snoozes on my chest, but the big advantage is i don't need to hold him. repeat ad nauseam... good luck!

CHEERS FOR TURTLE'S ESCAPE PLAN

hope you've managed to escape turtle {{{hugs}}}

Feeling accomplished today - managed to defrost the freezer for the first time in ooh, about a year. Couldn't open any of the drawers without almost breaking them so it had to be done

Managed also to get the dog out for a quick walk inbetween torrential downpours, but discovered I have no grip on my comfy shoes and went sliding down a muddy bank and landed on my arse, hip, back and elbow. Think I may be a little sore later if it all stiffens up

DH is off into Cardiff to watch the darts finals, how exciting for him , so plan to get LO to bed and have myself an early night as we're going to attempt to get to the Hay festival tomorrow.

Run Turtle Run!!

MNFM, yes it was me about the Cranial Osteopathy for the flat side of the head. I went here and I can recommend them. Very professional and caring and a beautiful place as well.

Sorry to hear about disturbed nights. It makes me reluctant to tell you that Charlie has now done 3 consecutive nights from 6pm to 7am. MB You asked what we did differently. Well, I have started bathing him nightly, he's found his thumb and has slept well since the Cranial Osteopathy. It could be any, none or all of those factors plus something I'm not aware of. But if it can happen to me it can happen to all of you!!

Bit late for bathtime tonight as Charlie had a late sleep so better go.

Oh, and I've put a few photos on my facebook account. Only friends can see them but I'll put some on mumsnet as soon as I can.

for those with bubs sleeping through, does the nappy last all night or do you boost in some way? Last couple of time I let LO sleep from 6.30 ish to 3.30 or so, he had soaked through nappy, bodysuit, sleepsuit and sleeping bag so we've been waking him up now to change him around midnight and give an extra feed. Still doesn't stop him waking between 3 and 4 but at least he's drier.

oh, turtle, I hope your bid for freedom paid off. The only thing I can say is, b4 DS was born I'd only a nodding acquaintance with the phrase 'a rod for your own back' and suddenly every1 seemed to use it for various decisions about babies I needed to make. Don't feel that any decision or technique is set in stone- do whatever gets you through the day (and night). Time enough to change things when you're not tired and stressed and generally miserable.Slings can be a lifesaver.
I'm reasonably chilled as had my mum down for a week to help out as I had to sort out what is the equivalent of Dorian Gray's picture in the attic- my garage. I got reasonably far in sorting it out but came up against my DH's tightarse streak over far too many things- we have never got rid of anything on ebay and probably never will but we are still not allowed to throw anyting away!
what is facebook? I have only just (I think) got myself a profile and the techies up stakes on me .

Pls forgive me for saying bad things and having bad thoughts...DH came home...late, but hey...at 3. I said here's baby, I'm off. I have prepared all for roast dinner, you just have to cook. DS can have bath at such a time, bottle(expressed and ready) at such a time, I will be back at 7 to eat and have a bath and we'll see. He says"But I'll have the baby, how am I supposed to cook?" Evil grin from me..."Gosh, I don't know, babe, it's a conundrum, isn't it?" SEE YA!
I have come back to pandemonium, but LO is clean and had 3 oz so who cares.

go turtle, go turtle!
bless'em, it is such a shock to the system for them isn't it?
(I call them the weaker sex because they are).

Had a shocker of a day . DH was looking after Matthew while I did some housework and prepared his bottle.

Rather than putting him in his moses basket while he read the paper, DH put Matthew on an armchair and the inevitable happened - he fell off onto a wooden floor .

We took Matthew to the local minor injuries unit, which referred him to the children's A&E unit at St Mary's Paddington. He was well checked over by a paediatrician, given X-rays and received a clean bill of health.

I could have killed 'DH'. A health visitor is now going to visit me at home to lecture me about how to keep my son safe. I know it's their job but its going to be so galling - especially when it wasn't my fault.

PQ - Glad LO is ok, must have been a real scare for you but apparently it happens to everyone! Your poor DH must feel terrible

fn41 - Thanks for doing the facebook group, have just requested to join, initials LB.

turtle - Sorry to hear that he is being a little pickle! Hope things are better now your DH is back.

BlueDragonfly, lovely to see you around!

Been away for the weekend so will catch up properly tomorrow as am off to bed now!

PQ, how awful for you all. There was a thread on here reecntly about the accidents that have happened to all the precious babies. Puts it into perspective. So far I have managed not to injure DS but when DD was very tiny I whacked her head on the door frame . She also fell of exH's chest on one hideous occasion. I hope you're recovering from the shock and just grit your teeth when the HV comes. Poor you.

turtle {{{{{hugs}}}}}

I have managed to put up a few photos on my profile, not sure why DP comes up top of the list. I'm sure I specified sixth or seventh position.

CHEERING FOR TURTLE!

turtle- hope last night went better (or that it was just as terrible but you managed to pass the buck to dh and he is sympathetic now!) take your pick...

PQ- can you not arrange for dh to meet hv?

fnf1- i need to defrost my fridge somehow it has ice at the back, thanks for the reminder

ds slept all day yesterday (til bedtime at 7 when he was wide awake til 9 ) does anyone else find damp and cr*ppy weather makes baby sleepy?

I keep feeling like winter is coming! Get thoughts like, i should really buy a coat/more jumpers for dc but then remeber it is supposed to be SUMMER coming!

glam - what a cute smile Charlie has! He looks like he would be good fun to hang out with

littleducks - i was just coming on here to say how much my DS slept yesterday! The added benefit was that he went down really well at 7pm and fed easily at 11 (when we wake him) and 3am before going straight back to sleep, so I'm thinking that he is not getting quite enough sleep during the day normally which is why we have really difficult bedtimes. So today's plan is to try and get him to sleep more.

DS was left by us both for the first time yesterday. My in-laws babysat for the afternoon while we went to Wembley - my local team Rochdale were playing in the play-offs and DH had seats in the royal box courtesy of work! Unfortunately the Dale lost but we had a lovely time and my mum saw us on tv . I did miss DS a lot though and gave him a ridiculously big cuddle when I got home. I also had really sore boobs and expressed 8oz after he'd gone down for the night which is more than twice what I've ever been able to manage before and about 8x what I've ever been able to get out in the evenings!!!

PQ and turtle - hugs to you both after your rough weekends. Hope you are both feeling happier today.

pq - glad hes ok, we had a phone call from hv after dd2 hurt her arm whilst rolling around wrestling with dh.

turtle - poor you, theres nothing worse then sleep deprivation and a screaming baby. hopefully he'll settle soon. if i get dh to feed iz i still cant sleep but i do make him get them all up on a morning so i can stay in bed

facebook - ive joined the group and added a few people as friends (initials ej)

dragonfly - im thinking of name changing as well, some people in rl could identify me by my nickname if they did a bit of snooping! if you change does it change your name for all your past posts?

at everyones holidays, i just got back from a few days in the lakes with the girls and the only proper holiday we have planned is a trip to centreparks in the winter. cant wait though

starting to wonder where the hell my proper period is!! have had some spotting but nothing else. its been 9 weeks and i had it at 4/6 weeks with my last 2 dds. definitly not pregnant again thank god! not given dh the chance i wonder who will be first on here to be epecting again

I too am very at you all talking about holidays to exotic locations. Since having dd1 (nearly 8 now) we've not ventured outside of the UK. We've always managed to have fantastic holidays, but wouldn't say there's any wow factor about them. We're thinking of going to NZ when ds is 3 or 4, so that should be WOW!

PQ - glad to hear your LO is ok. I bet your dh feels awful. I managed to draw blood yesterday - felt it was time for a manicure and forgot how easy it is to get a little bit of skin in the clippers. I think he quickly forgave me, but I'm not sure that DH has yet! We've also had the head nearly whacked on door frames with all of them. They get to that point where there necks are strong, but a momentarily lapse in muscle control always seems to happen when close to door frame.

Has anybody got strange crust behind ears? It seems as though LO has, we need to fold his ear forward as much as possible to see it, and its quite red and oozy, but doesn't smell. I'm off to baby clinic this pm if it stops bloody raining so will ask HV.

How are things today turtle? I really feel for you, dd1 was a constant feeder, fortunately dh would come home from work and take her off my hands so I could relax. If your LO is still the same, could you muster up the energy to go for a long walk just as you think a feed might be due. It sounds slightly crazy but it is best if it is raining. The raincover mutes the screaming. I would walk miles and miles (rain or shine) with a screaming baby who would eventually fall asleep to stretch out feeds slightly. Then it would seem as though she would take a bigger feed and go slightly longer until the next one too. I also feel better coping with tiredness if I'm physically tired rather than just drained iyswim, which would also help me fall asleep much faster when I had the chance to nap.

hmmmm very suspicious - I posted a rant about dh last night and it seems to have disappeared! seems he has caught stupid man disease and had been spouting winners like 'I'm bored - I've got nothing to do over this long weekend' and 'I'm tired'. Will spare you the details but my responses weren't pretty. Why are men so vacant sometimes?

ear crust - had it in spades and hv gave me prescription for something called epaderm which also works nicely on the cradle cap

pq, not to make light of lo's fall (and glad he's ok) but apparently the dirty little secret of motherhood is it happens to all babies once. we were all probably dropped at some point! i think it's a wonder it doesn't happen every night given sleep deprivation!

MFKAG, your LO is so darling! What a smiler.

Turtle, hope your afternoon off helped a bit. It's quite brave of you, as your DH sounds like mine.

G is waking more frequently in the early morning hours, too. Not sure he really needs a feed everytime, though. Have you tried soothing/rocking/patting before feeding? I do it for a minute or two, just to see if he's really awake and hungry or just fussing. Mostly he still feeds, but hey, worth trying. FWIW, G slept on his side for most of the first three weeks of his life, without incident. I would second trying his side first, if you are worried about front sleeping.

Re: not enough milk. I notice a difference in supply in the evening (G likes to cluster feed) if I have a nice big lunch and a good snack in the afternoon. Not great for trying to lose weight, but definitely good for my milk.

And can I just say, you made a roast dinner?? You deserve a medal.

MB, I hear you about the long stretches of sleep making you feel worse. G did a 6 hour stretch one night and when he did wake up, I felt like I'd come out of a coma. I guess I had fallen into a much deeper sleep than normal, so when I woke up it was more of a shock to the system.

Morning, all. We had another pants night, but due to a few hours off had strength to not give in and feed when he woke every 90 minutes between 11 and 7. Argh. You didn't think DH was going to do the night as well, now, did you?
I have convinced him to bottle feed with EBM all day today so I can get an idea of how much LO is actually having. It isn't much. Don't understand how he manages to grow so much! He seems to have grown 4 cm and gained over a pound in last two weeks. Even when he goes3-4 hours he only ever seems to want about 3-4 oz. How do I get him to have more in the evening?

Should say...I did feed him every other time in the night...didn't starve him!

we have crusty ears over here as well seems to smell a bit too!!

have just ordered a hula hoop, apparently its brilliant for toning up bellys and burns 100 cals in 10 mins. my friends been doing it for a while and her tums definitly flatter.