January 08 shiny new - year babys , tired mums and dads!

[lilyloo]

Will that do

hi all

Nathan has had some sort of bug and has been rather unhappy. The night from Wed on Thu we did not sleep until near 5am. It coincided with his first night in his big cot. He refused to be put down. He would sleep on our arms and shoulders and laps, but not on his own. In the end we resorted to the moses basket in the cot and then he slept a bit. Still out of sorts the next day, warm, clingy, screamy and tired and I was beside myself with a ridiculous amount of worry. I guess the whole SCBU time came flooding back and I felt so incapable of protecting him . Spoke to doctor on the phone and saw the health visitor, who said he looked ok, but he was just not feeding well and still not sleeping.And he was moaning whenever you moved him say from shoulder to lap. DH ws great and did what he could to help me keep sane.

Just after 8pm yesterday I came home from the cornershop to find Nathan crashed out blissfully asleep on top of daddy, having done a poo and feeling much cooler. After an hour sleep and a nappy change he was ravenous and fed really well. He is clearly better now and stashed in an extra night feed (making me sleep deprived but happy) and now we are doing fine again. He has slept in his moses basket in the cot and we will try to get him in the cot today, we clearly picked very bad time!

Looks like George had a touch too Ginge, hope you had a snooze in the museum. Is it the one in Coventry?

By the way, his GP said we could try calpol. I go out in the evening to buy it, Calpol says do not use with anti-convulsants and his anti-convulsant says it interacts with paracetamol, so what do we do when he has a fever . I need to see his consultant.

Hi, nice to have DH home for 4 days - 2 weeks til school hols though, then he will be off for 2 weeks with us which will be good. Managed to do lots of housework already today which I haven't for weeks - Typically DS has now slept on in his pram for 2 hours after trip to shops. He doesn't do that when I am home alone v often! NB - loving the Loola pram I won - we go out for at least an hour each day rain or shine...

I feel DS not feeding very well at night ATM - does anyone else BF find this? If I tank him up in the evening he will sleep from say 9 - 12, but then wakes every 2 hours, that means an hour awake trying to feed and settle him each time, but he seems to lose interest and get tired when feeding. Or do they normally not take so much at night? I think if I could get a full feed into him he might sleep on a bit longer after his first stretch.

Worrying about my milk supply in general actually - it feels like he is sometimes getting fed up waiting for subsequent let downs, I don't know if this is just my imagination. My body is still fighting off the reaction to the penicillin - still have the rash and oedema (fat sausage arms)! I took Piriton for 24 hours against drs orders as the itching was driving me half crazy, but I feel guilty about that and Iid read it can interfere with milk supply. He only gained 3 oz last week which is a first, although of course he is still in 91st centile for his age! Ho hum, prob worrying about nothing but I do tend to always have something to worry about as you probably realise by now .

When can you use Calprofen from instead of Calpol, might be able to do that madmouse?

Ange, snap for always worrying! BF may be very good for our babies, but it can make you feel quite vulnerable and worrying about whether they are getting enough. I am lucky at night, Nathan drains one side in 10mins and generally is out by then and does not need settling. He tends to sleep either three or four hours between feeds. One hour every two hours sounds horrendous. Does your HV have any advice?

Afternoon ladies. Have ust got back from the museum. Its the one in Covent Garden madmouse. Its had an 8 million pound face lift. Very nice and had lifts to each floor. We took the double buggy and had lots of help offered up and down stairs in the tube station . Plus we got in for free because dh works on the underground.
All the boys behaved very well except for ds4 running off at one point and we nearly lost him
Had a little look round Covent Garden after too but it started to rain plus ds3 was getting a bit tired so we came home. Im knackered now !!
Well its time to start thinking about some dinner.
Hope you all have better nights tonight . x

angechica - same thing with bf here! Daniel had gone from 2 hourly at night to sleeping 3-4 hours between feeds over the last week, but last 2 nights has been back to waking up every 2 hours like clockwork. He seems sleepy during night feeds and I think he's falling asleep before filling up properly, so he can't last as long till next feed. I'm think I'm going to try to keep him more awake during feeds tonight and use breast compression to get more milk into him at each feed... will let you know how it goes!

We still have a generator outside, which means we have light and heating (and TV and internet ), but also lots of noise and neighbours complaining about the noise. EDF will not give us an estimate of when they'll fix the fault - anyone have any experience of how long it can take to get them out to dig up the road?

glad it not just me then, had a really unsettled day here too ! Hoping not to have unsettled night.
It snowing here so dc's very excited I on other hand hoping it will melt as we are suppose to be going to il's for easter and am looking forward to the break !

One thing after another here, feeling like I am coming down with a cold. Off to bed with a paracetamol. Luckily Nathan is having a settled evening.

re the bf thing and reducing the time between feeds, could be either a growth spurt (dreaded words as they seem to crop up all the time!) or a problem with 'input' - are you all eating/drinking enough?
as barristermum brilliantly put it to me the other day, be 'calorie-neutral', so are you losing weight? i'm of the bf-doesn't-make-me-lose-weight-until-i-start-dropping-feeds club
plus lots of water to keep your fluid levels up.
hth.
best of luck for tonight.

gingeme - you and dh are v good getting out and about with 3 dcs. my first brother always used to run off and get lost whenever we went anywhere - museums, airports, etc. drove my mum crazy. did you see a reason for the road being closed the other day? well done david
i'm up for the V&A, never been. is it near the science museum? may look it up on the net.

madmouse - hope both you and nathan feel better soon, just take it easy as you can for the weekend and leave jobs for now. i have heard that some babies do prefer to start off in their cot in the moses basket as it feels too big and scary otherwise?

lilyloo - wish we could have your snow think ds1 would love it! sorry if it messes up your break tho. re size 10!

mamachris - bad luck re the neighbours complaining, tho it's not your fault is it. hope it gets sorted soon but can't imagine anything will happen over the long weekend?

ange - not sure about the age thing on calprofen but i never found it worked with ds1, a combination of baby neurofen and calpol seemed better. the doc said to alternate them every 4 hours.

nicky - i SO find that dh affects our routine at the weekend, even now he still doesn't really 'get' ds1's timetable for the day; will sometimes take him out for the morning and not come back til way after his lunchtime/naptime. or leave his tea til far too late so he won't eat anything. feels like i have to nag him. and ds1 needs to get out really at least once a day but dh can be a bit too relaxed over the weekend until 4.30ish when ds1 has gone stir crazy but it's a bit late to take him anywhere! ah well at least he does nappies no i shouldn't complain really, he's very good.

naetha - will remember that re the fennel if i feel my supply is dropping too quickly.

ds2 had a sleepy day today, not sure if that means bad things for the night...dh too, drives me slightly mad as i am the sleep deprived one!
in-laws doing lots of lovely cooking so eating well no real plans for easter, an egg hunt with ds1 if the weather holds up.
right, best get on..

Katy1 Don't know if you know the long tunnel you go under to get to all the museums? The V&A is I think the third one on the left. Think it will have to wait till May though as we have a pretty full April what with my big boys coming down from Scotland and ds3's birhtday.
I had a couple of glasses of wine with my dinner this evening. Not usualy a drinker I feel quite sloshed hic.....was nice though
Well off for a bath then Eastenders at 10 then off to bed.
Night all xxx

Yippee no cold after all and Nathan really seems to like his big cot, spreads himself all over it as far as that is possible at his current size . He did get quite colicky later on but by 11.30 was asleep in his cot. I predicted to DH that he had managed to eat enough for about two hours sleep and lo and behold he woke me at 1.50, ravenous. To be fair he then went until 6.30. At 7 he had tummy cramps, at 8.15 again, at 9 he wanted to feed and at 9.30 cuddle, at 10.15 a snack and then I decided to get up . I think I slept .

Ange I was thinking about nurofen for Nathan, but all brands say from 3 months. Will check with his consultant which is the lesser of two evils.

madmouse - ibuprofen is good for inflammation (so can be good for teething) but otherwise paracetamol is the safest and most effective thing for pain and fever relief

Anyone else's LOs wake up early with wind/bad poos? Ben generally sleeps well, but doesn't usually sleep properly from about 4-5am due to struggling to get his farts out. Any suggestions? Does this pass? Ben has also been hitting himself in the face loads recently - unfortunately I can't tell if it's his nose, mouth or ears he's flailing at. It seems to really bother him though, seems like it may be itchy...he has lots of dry skin but it's not inflamed...

Other than that, life is grand. Loving the easter break - went to the Bingley fine food fair yersterday and met James Martin the chef - he's HUGE!!!Much taller than on TV!

Naetha, Nathan has that too. No real solutions, sometimes he even cries. I am hoping that it fits in with his colic thing and that it will pass at about three months. He does seem generally happier if he can fart like a trooper

I know Calpol is generally safer, but not for babies on anti-convulsants...

charlie being very good and sleeping quite well, she goes down quite quickly after bath and top up as i typed that there is a little cry on the monitor.

getting nearly 2 5-6 hour stretches during the night but so typical for the first night in ages she has not settled and has woken up, dh has gone up - do you ever feel like you have just jinxed things.

Charlies weight gain is bang on every week on 50th centile so dont need to worry there i dont think.

have not lost any weight since week 2 very annoying.

Doctors said that it is not epesiotomy scar but a barfoliyns cyst so now back on very strong anti biotics what a pain but i have to say i really would like it to start feeling a bit more normal down there and not hurt. Anyway if this doesnt work i am just going to go private - I have private healthcare so i might as well. i think 8 weeks is long enough to be patient.

Well I think we're having another growth spurt - he's eaten normally this morning, then slept from 11am until 4pm, and had 6oz when he woke. He then had another 8oz!!!! at 6pm, and has just taken another 5oz. I just don't know where he's putting it all!

Found you all! Glad to see not everyone has the hang of this sleeping lark - I was reading somewhere today that if babies are 11lb or more they have generally got the ability to sleep longer - oh well, at least at night she feeds and goes straight back down. We've twice had a 5 hour stretch but normally it's 3 day and night.

Think she's going to be a shot-putter or a hod carrier - she's cetainly got muscles. OPut her on her tummy yesterday and she was pushing up - managed to get on her side before the weight of her bum/legs pulled her back down. She does the same on her back sometimes too - gets to her side. Looked in the other girls' books and they were between 20 - 27 weeks before they rolled all the way - will be surprised if this one doesn't do it in the next month!

Will catch up on the posts (in between sorting out DD1's b'day, my b'day, DD3's christening, DD2's b'day on the next 4 consecutive weekends...)

Nighty night

hello Housemum! happy easter all.

Alek slept a lot better last night, he was knackered as we had friends for tea and he had a lot of stimulation, but surprisingly did not have a meltdown! Thinking about it there were gales howling round the house last few nights which may well have disturbed him, last night it was that muffled silence as it was snowing though!

Naetha re wind we found gripe water really helped, I give 2 ml dropper after each breast not the whole 5 ml after feed. It seems to soothe his tum but to be honest he really seems to have grown out of the painful wind although he still farts a lot.

He also duffs himslf in the face and wants to chew his hand even when not hungry, I still swaddle him but he wriggles out of it a lot more now.

He really is growing up and starting to notice mobile, toys etc... it has been a marked change in him last few days. Mum sent me some money for his easter present so went to Mothercare yesterday and got a fab Tiny Love mobile which runs for 20 minutes.

well have a nice day all - we'll be out walking in winter wonderland up here.

Happy Easter everyone!

Naetha I use gripe water too as I have a little farter, I usually give her a 5ml dropper of it at her 6am feed and her 6pm feed to stop the wind, but I am positive it has started to regulate her poos, she now goes once a day and seems a lot more settled for it.

I keeping on having the nagging feeling of wanting to formula feed, guilt is stopping me but one of my other friends who has a baby a few weeks older than Ruby said that her lo slept better and she started to get some kind of order back in her life.. I know it sounds terrible but I went out to a restaurant today and Ruby needed to be fed she refused the ebm I had with me so it was suggested by one of the people I was with that I should feed her in the toilet and to be honest I don't want to do that (they didn't have a parents rooms by the way) so in a selfish way I wouldn't of had to rush home to feed a screaming 9 wk old like I did- although I didn't really mind but the choice would have stopped the countdfown style clock going off in my head, I am now so stressed by bthe whole afternoon I could cry, me and dh are now arguing.

I don't know how to put onto formula, which is the best brand, do I just give it to her and let me breast milk drip away, please help me!

btw, my knockers are so massive that I can't do the secluded feeding like expert moms do in starbucks, it all too exposive and Ruby likes to unlatch during feeds and laugh for a bit, plus I was dining with mil and fil who aren't fans of bf.

hi Bluebell, sorry you're having such a stressful day. firstly, shame on inlaws/others for suggesting toilet, they should have been supporting you. i can't help re questions about formula sorry but i would recommend a gradual switch tho i think it was gingeme who went cold turkey? sure others who have switched will be on to share their tips.
just to remind you tho that it doesn't always mean better sleep....
and henry loves to unlatch just after my letdown and make drowning noises whilst i spray anything nearby
(including FIL earlier tho i don't think he noticed )

hi housemum - you've got a busy time coming up sounds like LO is a strong lass

ange - wish we had winter wonderland, we did have snow but it didn't settle ds1 still managed to get excited tho and we had a little walk with boots, coats, etc.

naetha - does sound like a growth spurt, good luck

nicky - not heard of that cyst thingie. think you have been more than patient so far, would def try anything that might get you sorted asap.

madmouse - glad nathan likes his cot, henry has certainly slept better since we moved him. went from 7-1, then 5 last night. wouldn't sleep after that but that is pretty much morning time in our house anyway

gingeme - have been in that tunnel but can't picture which one is the v&a, not to worry the general area is enough info for now. bet you can't wait for a full house with your big boys may is good for me i think.

in-laws been cooking up a storm, just had a lovely roast and apple crumble, yum.
space left for some chocolate later too
and dh made a fire today too, almost christmassy really. another day 'off' tomorrow, got to get some loft stuff sorted.
right, best let someone else have a say

Hi Bluebell. I so know that guilty feeling and realy don't feel guilty its what makes a happy Mummy that matters. Ill probablt get slated for this but yes I realy felt like I got my life back a bit once I started formula feeding with all my boys. I did go cold turkey too basicaly because it meant a clean break. It hurt like hell for about ten days and there is a big risk of mastitis but all my boys I formula fed after bf for roughly 5-7 weeks and theyre all doing brilliantly. I have only ever used Cow & Gate formula and found it to be fine but if someone recomends something else thats up to you to use it. May I ask why this is causing your dh and you to argue? Does he think you should carry on bf? If so it isn't realy up to him is it? I hope you can decide but please don't feel guilty of your not happy the baby isn't happy. Good luck with whatever you decide

Bluebell - sleep deprivation often making me feel likewise. My aim has always been 16 weeks and am now just about half way. After talking to mums at BF group, loads of whom are mix feeding or have given up BF but still come anyway (luckily the group is not led by BF purists and they realise it's the only mother and baby group in our town to speak of), their talk of 6 hour stretches makes me so . If I could express I would go on longer . The other night it seemed DS feeding really half heartedly so I gave him 4 oz of my precious EBM in a bottle, he wolfed it down and slept for nearly 4 hours. Maybe you could try that occasionally? I won't feel guilty for not doing 6 months, I did my best and i just don't think I am one of those women who find it easy or 100 percent enjoyable, there are many women like this on MN BF threads. Babycentre.co.uk website tells you how to wean off BF by dropping a feed a day.

Bluebell, hugs to you hon, that must be so stressful. Can't believe that the people you are dining with make such suggestions.

Have big knockers too (mahosive) and a baby who heep-heeps, squeaks and teeters his way though feeding half the time but I just don't care. Fed him in church this morning, people can think what they like. But that attitude is not for everyone and I did ask DH to shield me from a 15 year old lad, more for his sake really, hormones and all that. Think together with your DH what you really want to do and what makes you happy. You have given your lo the best start by feeding and it would be good for her to continue for a while but not at the expense of a stressed out mum who is reluctant to go places. FF is nothing to be ashamed of and your lo will no doubt thrive on it.

bluebell - the most important thing for your baby is a happy mummy! if FF is what it takes, then that's what it is. but if BF has been important to you, have you considered mixed feeding?

angechica - am alek is sleeping better. well done! daniel was up every hour the last 2 nights and has been spectacularly cranky last couple of days too. don't know what's wrong or how to fix it

Afternoon ladies.
Bluebell how are you feeling today?
George slept lovely last night. He seems to be setteling into a routine of 8pm bottle and bed 2.45am bottle and sleep then wake at 6.30am. Bet its different tonight because Ive told you all that
Oh I have put pics of the North London meet up. Only two I'm afraid. These were the best ones.
Hope you are all well and had a lovely Easter