June 08 babies - I know there's a few of us about!

[isaidno]

Thought I'd start a thread inbetween breastfeeding, laundry and bossing DH about tyo do stuff!

Let's make a list of members!

ISAIDNO - baby girl; Poppy Elizabeth; born 18 / 6/ 08; 6lb 4oz

Just checking in... the colic shift has started so DH has taken S for a walk.

TGF - S slept from his 9am ish feed till 4pm with only a brief feed at lunchtime. If only he'd do the same this evening...

Hello sophie! Interesting to hear that you and sponge both making up in advance. Am torn between current guidelines and the idea of making it up in advance... Ah, too much to think about!

Was just what my MW told me she also said the imprtant part was the original sterilising of powder with hot water.

urgh, storm has been wailing for half an hour and am already going nuts. she's too hot, and crying for food to cool her down, but of course breastfeeding is difficult to do without transferring body heat...
on top of that she seems to have bad wind and the two things combined are making her scream. DH has just taken her to lie on the grass in the garden to cool down (on a sheet).
i hate evenings like this. don't know how you guys who get it every night cope at all.

oh, and have tried the cooled water trick before but she just spat it out.

Thanks paro - it's amazing what different guidelines exist in different places. Here water needs to be boiled and mixed with formula at plus 70C - current guidelines say make as needed and dont make in advance and store in the fridge to reheat later. What's a new mum to do .

TGF - could you express some breastmilk and feed it to her in a cup?

Hi everyone, finally getting a chance to catch up and post! Sorry to hear about people leaving us, but hope they can pop in from time to time.

It is hard to keep up/catch up, so sending general good wishes to everyone. It really helps to read about what everyone else is dealing with - makes me feel much better knowing that I'm not the only one who struggles. And yes, I am a slummy mummy too, I will remember the tip about using breast pads to remove make up (love that one!).

Everything is fine with us. Bf getting better - still have sore nips, but not nearly as bad - whoever posted about breast shells and Sudocrem - thank you! I tried it, and it's really helped.

I have a totally bonkers health visitor, can't believe I have to see her every week for the next 6 weeks... Where do these people come from??? Mars???

DQ - the rules for everything and anything to do with babies seem to change every few years or so. You're right, what are we supposed to do?! Hope you find a solution soon.

Well, I'm off to bed. Milk and cookies coming too, must keep my strength up - have to say the pain of bf is almost worth the weight loss/ability to eat anything and everything.

Take care everyone, will make a bigger effort to keep up with you all.

hi everyone, have been lurking, but so busy with visitors and so on not had time to post! will endeavour to try and catch up now!

whinegums our health visitor was also slightly bonkers, but decided that at her first visit that she didn't need to come and see us again unless I phoned, so we're free of checks etc until 6 weeks!

Hi everyone

Egocentric post coming up.

Dorothy continues to be sick. It's so disappointing when she is to see half the feed reappear, so I spoke to the breastfeeding counsellor who thinks D has reflux. Off to doctors tomorrow to see what they say. I don't think she has it very severely - some babies are apparently sick (the whole feed!) 5-7 times day. Do any of you have any experience of it? We used lots of strategies like feeding her upright, and feeding her little and often and she wasn't sick yesterday, so that may be the solution. Makes me realise how easy DS was!

Ooh, been away from my computer for a day and it's been packed here! Oh, thanks to all about the reassuring comments (and aren't we all coming out of the woodwork with carelessness now?! ) and despite regular checking of eyes (for dilation!) Iestyn is fine. Hedgehog no idea why I needed to emphasise exactly what catalogue it was. Would it be better if it was Mothercare? Or Littlewoods?

paro careful with the invitations there, I could be booking my flight right now...

Umm, can't remember other posts. I have a query for cloth nappy users now, and I'm off to post on the nappy board, but here it is for you guys too.

I've now switched, and I find Iestyn is wetter in them. Do I need to do anything to combat this, and any soreness which might result?
Secondly, at night, what do people do? He was wet at 3am, but as you can imagine, changing a nappy then was painful (for me...). How long can I leave him wet (slummy! [shame]) or should I put him in pampers etc overnight? What do others do?

hi all ...just quick skim read as away for weekend so no chance to catch up... sponge/sophie/bdq I do the same (ie make up feed and put in fridge to use within 12 hours)..asked mw if this ok... I agree that advice on this very confusing but can only assume that taken the cautious approach as so many people do leave stuff too long, put back in fridge etc (you know the same kind of mentality that means they put "caution filling hot" on macdonalds apple pies). And whoever thought of this guidance clearly never had a baby on their hands wailing like a war siren for food (how do they go from silent to nuclear alert in 3 seconds?)

TGF hope storm settled... the heat is an absolute killer as had same issue here (am in France) on friday night and was no settling edie as obviously anything you did involving picking her up just made her hotter/more upset. am now hoping for a cool summer...

UDC massive sympathies re reflux.. I hope get some proper advice from GP.. think that they can do various things /use medecine that are helpful here (I know that friend of mine had nightmare with ds and reflux until got proper medecine which sorted it)

essie think issue with nappies is when they are dirty rather than just wet ... that is if you can leave iestyn in wet nappies ..for some reson sitting in her own filth is no bother to edie but a wet nappy is apparently grounds for calling childline round here.

TGF hope your night wasn't too bad. The heat is hard with such young babies. I think A is constantly thirsty

Laura nice to see you back!

UDC sympathies re. the reflux. We've been trying Gaviscon and it seems to be working so far, fingers crossed

I have a question re. expressed breast milk and wondered if anyone on here can help - if I have taken milk out of the fridge and want to bring it out with me (e.g. if shopping), should I be keeping it in a cooler bag of some sort, or should it be ok for a few hours? Are any of you using a small cooller bag and where would I get one?

UDC - this sounds very similar to my dd who also would bring back half of her feed at every sitting, sometimes in two or three small vomits, so as to maximise the amount of clean clothes she wore in a day! My hv agreed that it was slight reflux but bascially said it would go with time and we just had to get on with it. It took about 5 months but eventually it stopped as she got older and matured. I'm sure this is not what you wanted to hear, and hopefully you will get more constructive help. The main point I am making is that it will get better, even if only with time.

SOOOOOOOOOO hot here. Jamie is steaming and either asleep or screaming. HE really doesn't want me to feed him as I am too hot and yesterday evening he was alternatively screaming for milk or screaming because I was trying to feed him and he was overheated. We ended up doing that little screaming dance where you gig the screaming baby and then try to latch in one swift movement whenever there is a pause. At which point screaming generally commences again. Please god let this be the only hot spell of the summer...

Allnew I use a small cooler bag, or rather an insulated bag - i.e. one that goes with my TT bottles (other brands available!). www.tommeetippee.co.uk/product/closer_to_nature_insulated_bottle_carriers_x_2/

Mind you, my milk went off on Thursday in one of those. It was very hot that day. But 100ml of the finest!!

Hello, ah, only a few posts to catch up on today.

Laura, obviously our health visitor feels the need to protect our son from his parents! I thought she was rude, stupid and patronising. I may just forget when she's next coming round and go out instead....

UDC - my niece had reflux - she eventually grew out of it - but the advice was to keep her upright, not let her play on her tummy for too long, and she was prescribed baby Gaviscon or something similar. Sounds like you're doing the right thing.

Allnew, I have insulated bottle bags too, but sometimes stick a gel cool pack in the bag with them.

Thanks Sybil, Allnew and Poppy. Sybil, what you said is exactly what I expect the doctor to say - I think I'd rather try and manage it than use medication unless it is likely to damage her oesophagus. The breastfeeding counsellor rather put the wind up me with talk of barium pills and oesophagitis, but when I went online, there were people who were chuffed because Gaviscon reduced the sickness from 7 to 5 times a day! and that made me realise that she doesn't have a severe case! Did you start your DD on solids before 6 months?

Essie, your milk going off!

Essie I dont change S at night unless nappy dirty... Haven't switched to my cloth nappies yet, but I was advised to use fleece boosters at night time - this might help?

Oops, crying baby so have to go...

essie I just use disposables at night - you can put a booster pad in, but it does mean iestyn will be sat in wet for hours - not great for nappy rash.,.. fleece pads are drier, but still, the saturation point is higher than with a disposable.

and am using disposables 24/7 in this heat as sitting in a wet hot towel can't be v cooling!

we ended up giving storm a massive bottle of formula and she drank 5oz last night, as was so sick of the 5 hour bf marathon.

please let the weather break soon!

essie from what I remember a La Redout catalogue is not as hefty as an Argos catalogue, although correct me if I am wrong. Re Cloth nappies - I use bamboozles over night with a fleece booster and they do remain wetter as the whole of the nappy absorbs rather than the 'gel' in a disposable. I only change Isaac if he is dirty and have been doing this since he was 5 days old and have had no nappy rash yet (he is 5 weeks on tuesday)

TGF totally with you on the weather, I never thought I would be looking forward to the cooler weather!!

allnew I too have insulated bottle bags, and an insulated section in my changing bag. My bottle bags are avent ones but I have not taken EBM out yet, only DH has. Do people heat it up before they take it out or heat it up when they are out?

UDC my HV also said Isaac had a 'little' reflux but not to bother the gp unless he started to bring up more than 4 feeds a day. She did show me how to massage his stomach/bowel area to reduce the impact and this appears to have reduced it. Basically you massage small circles between the belly button and groin in a clockwise motion and then stroke downwards from the belly button towards the groin. this appears to work, his screaming now is due to the heat when he approaches the breast like sybil

Now sitting here hoping that DH managed to get to M&S during work for dinner and a much needed glass of wine to go with the heat. (he is still at work now

essie and whinegums thanks, I'll go look for some insulator bags

Thanks ladies.

Re the heat, if I feed Dorothy lying down (lousy for reflux but anyway), we are barely touching, so neither of us get too hot and sweaty - unlike the more traditional positions. It is 26 degrees in her room - we've had the curtain closed all day - she is in a nappy and 0.5 Grobag. what are others doing to keep cool?

I've got my two in just babygros, no vests or sheets. Their nursery is 24 degrees. They are not liking the heat in the day much but...

...Theo slept through the night last night!!! 10.30pm-6.30am!!! I was so chuffed.

Unfortunately Esther is still suffering with her hernia - she has her op on thursday this week - so we are still sleeping together, but i am getting better at it so i am getting much more rest than before.

LOL rolf just seen your post from last Thursday! We were at Alder Hey anyway with Esther - my pointy elbows got us in to see a consultant. The first appt they gave me was Aug 12! Way too long to wait. I rang the consultant's secretary and pleaded with her. The consultant then rang me himself to go through Esther's symptoms... then he said come in to see me tomorrow. Good job we did - he says her ovary is sticking through her groin and that it is quite urgent.. so she is being operated on on Thursday. There will be no long term damage to the ovary though thankfully.

neenz thats good news about both theo and Esthers op. Will be thinking of you both

UDC I have not managed to master the feeding lying down, I end up with lovebites all over my boobs and nothing near the nipple. At least it shows he loves me suppose

I have Isaac lying on his playgym in just a nappy at the moment and he is still really hot and red all over. is NCIS a good thing for him to be interested in?

hedgehog and allnew - I take EBM out chilled and then warm it up when out. Usually just get a bowl of hot water and plonk it in that. I've also got the tommee tippee insulated bottle holders as they seemed a bit more substantial than the one that came with my changing bag.

Re: the heat - S has just been in a short sleeved body suit at night, no gro-bag. Our room is also reaching 26 degrees at night despite the windows being open all day.

S on the colic shift now - been screaming since his (first ) bath at 6pm. DH has taken him for a walk so I could finally eat my tea. Sigh. He did calm down for a bit while sucking my finger. Now trying to decide whether to give in and use a dummy in evening to help him settle. Are other people using dummies at all, any thoughts?

I know it sounds daft, but first S & I couldn't manage bf and now I'm thinking about resorting to dummy to soothe crying baby - starting to feel like a bit of a failure..