February 2005 Mums (if a little early..)

[Hazellnut]

Well as promised I have started this thread but am waiting patiently for February and the rest of you to come and join in !!

hiya princessitalinda... i was supposed to be a jan mum too! but Linus arrived late, on 7th feb.

you and hezellnut shouldn't worry at all about the b/f... especially if you're expressing, because at least your baby is getting the goodness of your milk, which is the main thing.
Linus also refused to latch on at all, and I was doing mixed feeding... expressing and topping up with formula. I was told to try him at the breast before every feed and last week he did it! has been successfully b/fing ever since! So don't give up hope.. it IS possible.
Could you find out about breastfeeding cousellors in your area? they may be able to help you.
I know what a hassle it is with the expressing and sterilising etc etc. Although, it was nice when dp could get up and do one of the night feeds!

angeliz... i'll be looking out on birth announcements to see if your little one arrived on time!

Hi All

dd2 Sasha arrived on 13th Feb but other than posting on the ante-natal board I haven't been able to get up to much on Mumsnet other than read everyone else's posts!

I can't believe she's already 10 days old - it only feels like she was born yesterday. Breastfeeding going ok although she did confuse/worry me by reducing the amount of time feeding. However, I think she has become more proficient at feeding since my milk has come in. Midwife also weighed her today and she is back to her birthweight so obviously something's going right.

I sympathise with the nocturnal baby syndrome - same here. Why do they spend all day sleeping and then as soon as it gets dark they become wakeful?

Hi again! Starlover, you are very lucky! I have tried again and again but Felipe has definitely settled for the bottle . At least he is taking some breastmilk, which makes me feel less guilty...

Any one recommends a formula? I've been highly recommended the Aptamil 1st, any other thought? At the hospital they were topping up the feeds with Farleys, and he quite liked it, but since all my friends have recommended the Aptamil 1st one, I wonder if other mumsnet mums have any special thought? Thanks for all your postings and see you here again soon!

Hi Bunjies - welcome to the postnatal board !! Glad to hear all is going well (apart from the sleep deprivation of course !). DD managed to go 5 hours from the start of one feed to the next last night - it was great....

We're on aptimil first as well Princesitalinda - started on cow and gate as thats what we had in the hospital but swapped due to recommendation. THere's a whole thread on the breast and bottle feeding board about different formulas but most recommend aptimil.

I had a good stretch last night...fed DS at 10.30 and then he slept until 4.15! Was well shocked...BUT then he didn't really settle again (lots of grunting noises!!) until past 6 so still feel knackered today!!

Hi everyone
Just had chance to log on again - first time for a couple of weeks - and discovered this club!! Yippee! DD was born 8th Feb tho she was due 30th Jan.

Can def identify with the tiredness - DD was up all Tue night and up every 2 hours last night. Yawn. Shes now having a little doze before lunch. Will be waking her up soon in the vain attempt to get her to sleep better tonight.

hi all well i was too made up last nite as dd slept from 10.30 til 3.00 am which is a start seems too be a bit more settled now oops1 should i have said that or wait too see how tonite went i do feel as if i am slowly gettin back too normal thou !! x

Morning everybody, a question on formulas again.... Felipe could never latch on my breast so I fed him expressed breast milk since he's born. However, I am expressing every 6 hours, which leaves some topping ups and at least one long feed to be Formula. I am trying the Aptimil 1st. (recommended to me). However, it seems that the formula is far to thick/heavy for him to digest?? Whenever he takes formula, his face changes as he is struggling to get it down the stomach, and he spits up a lot (I can actually see a cheesy-like layer onto his tongue).

Yesterday, I fed him formula before he went to sleep and after 5 minutes of putting him in his moses basket, he vomited a lot so violently that I got the shock of my life! I had to change all the sheets, clothing etc, (that much!) but the point was that it looked like he was struggling to swallog the milk, that it god stucked somewhere in his throat (it even looked like he had trouble breathing!!).

I got into panic mode, wanted even to take him to hospital, but eventually he recovered his breath and was of a nice colour again...

What can be happening? Other mothers seem to have no problems with Formula... Can it be the make? is there any tips from someone here? I will so appreciate any comment/ previous experiences,,,, I am thinking it might be the Aptimil, as I was trying an other make before and it was not so bad...

My mum was telling me the other day that when my brother was born he never took to the breast either.
She ended up using formula and started with sma, which resulted in a similar problem to the one you have described.
She tried all different kinds and eventually found he liked the cheapest brand (which then was cow and gate), because it seemed to be a bit more watery and he could stomach it better. The other brands were just too rich for him.

I don't have any first hand experience I'm afraid, but as far as I can tell from other threads on formula, no one milk is better than another... so just try him on a few different ones to see how he gets on.
I know sma do little cartons of milk ready made up... Not sure if other brands do a similar thing, but that would be cheaper to try than buying a whole tin... just in case he doesn't like it!

Hello - DD has a similar reaction to aptimil - she has a layer of it on her tongue as we type and she does seem to regurgitate it quite a bit. Having said that though she has just been weighed and has put on 10 ounces in a week (from 6 lbs 1 to 6 lbs 11) so she is obviously digesting it ok ! She did start on c & g which she didn't regurgitate as much but didn't seem to like it as much. At the hv clinic they just said to me that aptimil and another (had never heard of it - think it began with o) were the closest to breast milk.
I have heard a lot of people say sma causes constipation but then others seem fine on it.

hope that helps ??

there was a thread about formula a while ago, I forget what it was called though, but mears and tiktok both said that no formula was closer to breastmilk than another...
will see if i can find it

it's right here

Thank you so much starlover, i just read the other thread it is very interesting. I guess I'll just try Farleys first (purely because it was the first formula he tried and he quite liked it) but if it doesn't work, then I'll just keep trying until we find something he likes (and better, that suits him). I think so far the problem is the thickness of the formula, maybe the best one will be the one that is less thick so he can digest it better. Thanks a lot!

I can!
Not that I am past the 6 week stage... coming up for 3 weeks on monday.
But I am SURE that it'll get better. Your milk supply should sort itself out in time. At least ds is being good about it! Mine is being a bit of a monkey with the boobs at the moment!
I know what you mean about everything taking so much effort. We have actually been out quite a lot in the last week or so, and each time it does seem to be a teeny bit easier as we get used to what we need to take with us etc etc.
It's especially hard when you're tired with lack of sleep and stuff though.

Once our boobs and babes get into a nice routine I am sure it'll all seem much easier and we'll wonder what the problem was!

It definitely does get better I promise but unfortunately you have to accept that for the first few weeks things will be crap . Feeding and sleeping times will be erratic and your boobs will either ache like billy-o and be rock hard or be as saggy as an empty plastic bag! This is my 3rd baby and I'm still as shocked at how hard life is with a newborn as I was with my first. In a vain attempt to introduce some order into proceedings we are going to try some of Gina Ford's principles, i.e. getting more feeds in and limiting naps during the day so that we cn have better sleep and less feeds at night. Well that's the theory anyway, whether it works or not is another question. I know she has her critics but with 2 other children (one who needs to be taken to school and another to nursery by a certain time each day) I have to find some kind of routine for us all so I'm willing to give it a go. I seem to remember trying something similar with dd1 (I wish I could remember these things) and it worked quite well. I won't be following her plan to the letter though - can't be arsed with all that expressing, black out blinds etc.

Anyway, keep repeating the mantra - it's only a phase - and it will get better. I think the 6 week mark is definitely a watershed so it won't be long now.

gone a bit quiet on here... all these naughty little babies keeping us all away from MN!
Linus and I are off to the osteopath this afternoon to see if we can get his breathing/colic sorted out... he's quite excited about it, but I think he'll be a bit cross when he finds out he has to get undressed!

He is asleep right now, and I am supposed to be doing some housework... but never mind!

Hi everyone - finally feel up to logging on and say hello. Baby Jessica is 9 days old now and can feel the lack of sleep catching up on me.

Starlover - let me know how you get on with the osteopath - dd has been suffering terribly from trapped wind since my milk came in and I'm running out of ideas to try and help. Thats next on my list. At the moment we are going down the Infacol route and I do admit that whilst it seems to be helping (on day 2 of it) it does make me feel like a 'Bad Mummy'

Hi again, now baby Felipe is asleep I should be doing the same, but it gives me some free time, so here I am!

Starlover, did you get referred to the osteopath by a GP or are you consulting privately? I am interested to know, as now that Felipe is taking more formula our honeymoon is ending, as it seems like he's got much more wind now (I heard this is normal with formula). I also bought Infacol, which admitedly, does help but makes me also feel not so good with myself.

As my milk is drying up, I guess Felipe will have to be purely on formula . I am a bit worried as it seems more difficult for him to digest it, has more wind and his breething sometimes concerns me (sometimes it sounds like he is having his airways blocked or something? like heavy breathing..... ) any one experiencing something similar and you think is because of formula or the baby itself needs to be checked? Only happens when he sleeps by the way...

Linus has that same breathing thing! and he is being b/f so i don't think it's the formula... have you tried other brands?

He gets very snuffly, sounds like he has loads of mucus in his throat, and sometimes he makes snorting grunting noises and can't breathe.
It actually matches symptoms of reflux, where the stomach acid is coming back up and irritating the throat which makes the breathing sound very rough.

I am seeing the osteopath privately, she is my friends aunt, which is great as she doesn't charge me to see Linus!
I know it is becoming more widely accepted by doctors though so it might be worth trying to get a referral through your GP.

He seems a bit more settled today, she said that his neck muscles were very tight, as was his diaphragm... we're going back next week for another treatment. The struggling to breathe hasn't got any better though... but we'll see how it goes.
Also trying to get a referral to a paediatrician about it... but knowing the NHS that'll be forever!

We are also using Infacol, and I hate it... why does it have to have sugar and orange flavour in it?????????? The other day I didn't give him any and he got very upset by the evening time, grumpy and cross and crying... i am sure it was because of sugar withdrawal!

The symptoms sound the same... it seems like he's got loads of mucus in his throat. It happens only when he sleeps though, as i don't hear him breathing like that when awake (on the other hand they don't spend much time awake...) I can actually hear like a whisle coming from his lunghs... poor thing. I think I'll try the GP route first and if not, I'll have to see someone privately.

Let us know if the osteopathy treatments work, I'll be following Linus treatment and I hope he gets better! On the top of not sleeping much, I think the fact that they are having this issues with their breathing doesn't help with the quality of the little sleep we get, does it? I spent a lot of time "on guard" monitoring his sleep...

yeah Linus whistles too... he will sometimes not take a breath for ages, then suck in a big mouthful of air with a whistly noise...

I went to the GP twice already, first time they said it was probably a loose voicebox, second time said something was irritating his throat and to bring him back in 2 weeks!
We are due b ack on Tues and going to push to see a paediatrician, because if anything it's getting worse.

He actually is generally quieter when he is asleep, and noisier after a feed.
Will keep you updated on if the osteopath improves it at all though!

same here with katy think it is a norm newborn thing still bf too goin well well she seems a bit more settled now and she is in the crib now didnt say at first but she has been in bed with me most nites only cos i found it easier everyone was saying ooh dont do that she wont go in her own bed but she has we went too bed last nite at 10.30 she slept til 2.30 then i got her out of crib fed changed her put her back down woke at 6.30 then fed changed but i must admit left her in bed for cuddle then woke at 9.3o feed time topped her up after washed and dressed at 10ish she now fast asleep in pram i am just gonna express some milk while i got chance speak soon xx hope your all well not too tiredxx

Hello all,
thought i'd pop on and say hi.
Amelia is 10 days old now and adorable. I have her in a little sling at the moment, i'm just testing it out and she's fast asleep listening to my heart i think and looks comfy. It will be handy to take her out with dd1 with.
Am about to go and do my first big shop since baby arrived and feeling slightly nervous and panicky!!Had forgotten how long it takes to get out.
Jolly4, i have been having her in bed when i'm too tired to wait for her to go sound, the other night though i woke up and she was snuggled in to me and RED with heat!! Gave me a queer shock, how do you make sure they stay cool as i do love those cuddles too.
She's been having a bottle at around 10.30, then 2.30 ish and then 6 ish so she's doing really well touch wood.
Quick ALL TOUCH WOOD

I am still swinging from feeling on top of the world to feeling really down and cryed all day yesterday and bit poor dd1's head off for nothing. Realy am missing my time with her.

early daze angeliz as far as her cuddling in bed i dont think it does harm if you think that she was too warm just let her sleep in vest an nappy i mean when katy is in bed with me i literally fall asleep with her in my arms but we dont have heating on at nite so quite cold outside the sheets i just sleep in middle of bed with pillows an make sre that she has sheets by waist i think instictively we wake any way too check hope your feeling ok life is gettin a bit more normal for me i am just off too trip too town cant get used too all the walkin as had a section cant drive well hopefully it will do wonders for the figure happy shopping xx