Sept 08 - newborns, milk, nappies and all the rest ....

[Sassafrass]

Hope noone minds me starting our post natal thread now that the babies are arriving so quickly.

Arrivals!
28-May - Johnworf ? Katherine, 1lb 8oz
30-June ? KashaSarrasin ? Felix, 1.39kg
26-July - Jenbot - DD, 3lb 6oz
11-Aug - Crabby - Lilah 2.34kg
13-Aug - Sassafrass - Katie Rose, 7lb 2oz
20-Aug - Sunshinemummy - Effy Marilyn, 6lb 3oz
22-Aug - Talia1 - Anna, 6lb 2oz
26-Aug - Jenpet - Samuel, 3.166 kilos (about 6lb10oz?)
28-Aug - Potxola - Lorea, 7lb 6oz
31-Aug - Digitalgirl - Alfredo, 7lbs
1-Sept - Debithescot - Andrew, 8lb 10oz

hopefully Can I just say I love the fact you call your DS teddy. It is insanely cute.

I have just had 30 mins in the house on my own .

ive just checked on the outside of my private parts to see exactly whats is stinging me every time i go on the loo or if i passing wee/blood as i thought it was the stitches or sumat but no ive got 3 sweat spots very close to my vagina and its kills!!!

Gotta find a skirt to wear as been wearing jeans with the maternity pad on....ouch!

i graduated today.
Alice Thomasina
4.20 am
8lb 6oz
more details tomorrow.

congrats foxy

Hey guys!
Its taken me a week to find but I belong here now . However, I will keep popping on the due thread as they gave me alot of support.
It was a very fast natural happy birth with gas and air and a couple of stitches- just what I ordered.
I am completely in love with my little bundle. He is so content and absolutley gorgeous
I am sorry I havent had time to catch up with the whole thread yet but I will. I am glad this thread is not moving as fast though.
Congratulations to all you guys too, its such a magical experience. I feel like we have shared it together.
Breast Feeding is going well but euey keeps gulping the milk down and you can hear it. Its making him very windy. I am trying to feed lying down as the let down is not as great and helps a little. I have also started to use infacol. Any advice or tips with this problem?
Well done foxy, fantastic news.
I am so happy at the moment, I am so blessed. xx

congrats foxy!

glad you approve of teddy meglet. He is, naturally, insanely cute in real life as well.

last night was going ok until about 5am, when i fell asleep with teddy on me, and dozed, not realising the time, until 8am. it's not a total disaster, but means i missed out on 2 hours solid sleep, dozing instead, and i am so worried about him sleeping in the bed with me.

notcitrus cosleeping

foxy i accidentally sent you a blank email.
i meant to say congrats, and that I think Alice is a beautiful choice for a name!

Just peeking in to say hello to all you with BABIES!! I am still in complete denial, and planning to stay pregnant at least another week, as I'm rather enjoying myself I must say.

Good to see you're just as chatty on this thread though, and even if it's October before I join you, I'm looking forward to all the baby talk.

Hi Everyone - too much to catch up on, I'll have to try and get here more regularly. Maebh is amazing and wouldn't stop me - it's this having a DH under my feet at home!!

DH now out with DD1 so I've had an hours nap and time to join with this thread - bliss!

Maebh feeding well - especially at night. Last night was better as she managed 1.5 hours between feeds (the first 2 nights she had 3 hour feeding clusters). The next feeding every hour. She goes longer in the day (typical another night bird in the house JUST what we need)

I'm well but DH seems to be suffering from the birth - sore back from me pushing on it, tired (from my disturbed sleep before I gave birth - now he's on sofa or spare bed), I've had to let him have lie-ins, naps in the day and bring him lunch. Anone else's DH suffering??

having a lazy day here today. The inlaws are here for the weekend and have been keeping both ds's entertained. I had a really sore tummy yesterday aft and evening so m-i-l said I was just to be lazy and stay in bed today so I did! Everyone except me went out this morning while I slept until dh came back with ds2 and woke me up at 10.30 to feed him. Then I went back to bed after his feed while everyone else played out in the garden. Didn't sleep that time but it was nice just lying in the peace and quiet cozied into my bed. Still got a bit of a sore tummy but making myself eat as I know I have to since I've got to feed Andrew.
So I think that between 11.30pm last night and 10.30 this morning I got between 8 or 9 hours sleep. So why do i still feel so tired?!?

Hello everyone and congratulations to all the new arrivals.

Katie is doing well and passed her 6 week check with flying colours. She sleeps for slightly longer stretches in the night now but still only with me. Its the same in the day, she just won't nap unless she's with me. I dont mind though, it's nice and cuddly. She is starting to be awake more in the day now and is smiling properly which is just lovely to see.

Heres my birth announcement - hooray i did it!

Hi all. Sorry for lack of posts - been a bit busy lately

On the bf front, I have to confess I've failed. i feel soooooo guilty about it but have had 2 mws and a bf consultant to the house and they all agree i have done everything I could to succeed and sometimes, it just doesn;t happen for some women. i think the combination of IVantibiotics, severe shortage of milk (despite expressing by pump every 4 hours) and Charlotte simply refusing to latch on at all means it was not meant to be. i do feel bad and we tried everything - skin to skin, co-bathing, nipple shields, cup feeding but it made Charlotte so unhappy and bonding was being affected,
I have compromised by pumping enough milk for one feed per day - at least she gets that from me. rest of the time it is formula. I am learning that it works for us and she is now such a happy, contented baby.
I am convinced that if we'd had more help in hospital things might have been different, or indeed spent les time in hospital, it may have worked out. Sigh... please reassure me that I am not a bad person for doing this. I'm actually scared to read posts in case I'm vilified as a bad person.
I'm also feeling bad as I'm going over the birth in my head and thinking - should I have done things differently? Should I have insisted on a vaginal birth? Should I have tried harder to bring her into the world. i do feel as if i have missed out - we even forgot our tens machine!!!

congratulations carrieon, foxy and big lips - hope haven't left anyone out, not much time to catch up these days! Took 3 whole hours to get baby to sleep, she's always more awake at night, so she either wanted boobs or look around...... she's can't fall asleep without me, which is nice in a way, but when it looks she's finally asleep and try to get out of the room she opens her eyes, looks at me like saying ""where do you think you're going!?"...... tried everything, in the end put her in her rocking crib for the first time (been sleeping between basket and (mainly) in our bed, kind of had to to begin with as I was so badly bruised and cut and we've all got lazy...). no idea when she'll wake up next! so I guess I'd better go and try to get some sleep...

hope you're all having more sleep!!!

For my full birth story seethis link

Morning guys. I ve just uploaded some pics onto my profile x

imoscarsmum you musnt beat yourself up about the birth or feeding. The important thing is that you have a beautiful healthy girl and this time is very precious, you need to try to relax and enjoy it. You have done everything that you thought was best for your babe and that is all you can do- we rely on the advice of professionals so much- they could well have been right in insisting you had a cs. I tried for 3 weeks to bf my ds but he kept losing weight. This time I have done a lot more research and I know a few things I will do differently to try to be successful. (It sounds like you have already tried and tried) HOWEVER I am not necessarily expecting to be successful as I know how hard it can be. I felt guilty for months with ds especially when he rooted towards me. But the health of you and baby is much more important. take care

imoscarsmum just posted on your birth anouncement. I hope you're feeling better {{hugs}}

Mamamufin lovely picture although did you have to taunt us with the fact you can fit into your jeans? I still look several months pregnant and am going to have to go shopping for clothes (oh well there's an upside to it I guess!)

Hello everyone, this is the first time I've had the time to post as well as catch up on news on this thread since posting the birth story!

I am absolutely thrilled to report that, unlike with dd, breastfeeding Finn is going absolutely brilliantly. And that is almost entirely thanks to you guys and all the advice/video links/websites/wise words you've shared over the last 9 months - I've read every word and taken it all on board and what a difference it has made. I've now come to terms with dd not feeding, and seeing how well Finn has taken to it, I can finally understand what went wrong last time and put it behind me.

We had some lovely skin to skin times in the first few days, where he's just nuzzled about and after about 20mins found the nipple and what its for all by himself. I swear he's read all the literature - he doesn't fight me for the breast but does the tummy-to-mummy and nipple-to-nose then I stroke his top lip, he opens his mouth...and off we go. I am toe-curlingly sore at the start of feeds though - actually I'm a bit annoyed coz yesterday my milk came in and I put breastpads on and they stuck to my nipples and pulled the skin off when I took them off so now I'm bleeding, which I wasn't before. Grr. I've now got washable breastpads, which don't stick and are waaaay more comfy.

I can't remember who else was raving about the Baby Whisperer, but I've found that really helpful too. Using the breast compression technique that someone here pointed us to, we've pretty much managed 'every feed a full feed' so he's going about 3 hours between feeds, and sleeping really well. In the night when I hear him snaffling about I put him to the breast when he's rooting but before he's crying and so we have a lovely peaceful feed. I'm just so happy

DH is knackered however from chasing round after dd, they're at sing and sign right now, then asda. Poor sleepy boy!

My mum is coming today, and dh's parents are coming tomorrow so Finn will finally meet some family. Our friends have been totally amazing, bringing food and running errands for us. I don't want this special newborn time to end!

Sorry if that seems like a really smug post, it isn't meant to be at all, but every prayer I had about this birth and and breastfeeding has been answered and life is good

Hello everyone here, I've had family here since LO's birth last Saturday, never get a chance to get to the computer, still haven't caught up with this thread at all feel bad - can I still visit?!

imoscarsmum wow, that is an amazing post, you tried so hard, I really feel for you. I sometimes think the pressure to bf is too great, it seems so unfair to lay that on new mothers somehow doesn't it? FWIW I know so many big 7 yr olds who are massive and strapping and were exclusively bottle fed unlike ds who has always been rather slight! But you shouldn't feel guilty about the birth. My LO's birth was a car crash but I'd tried my best. The moment you're in a medical context intervention just rains down on you, and they do it for the best motivations, they have to come from a point of view of risk. You sound such a loving and caring mum, that's more important than anything else!

carrieon that sounds really lovely and natural! I didn't pull off that natural thing, birth was so fast and traumatic that bf didn't start til 8 hrs after she was born and I just crossed my fingers it would work without the AGONY of nipple slaying that ds had done.

Re bf LO, my nipples are getting pretty sore, she feeds lravenously and so often I'm pretty exhausted. Also I'm finding it hard once she's fed to put her in her moses basket because she wants to be nexct to me in bed (where I feed her) but I'm scared of squashing her or dh rolling on her. Thank God for the changing table a friend lent me, it's helping my back loads!

Any advice on baby monitors? We haven't got one yet. I don't need one of those £70 quid ones do I?!?! I don't even understand the functions on those...

Yawn. Squirmy has finally grasped the concept of feeding every 2-3 hours and sleeping in between - turned out that when he was arching his back and yowling and headbutting me, claiming that he needed burping, in fact he needed holding securely in place and feeding. He's now hardly crying except to say 'oi! More food/new nappy! NOW!' ... which at least makes me feel better about being exhausted.

HV gave me some Lansinoh lanolin samples and applying it to my nipples has helped a lot - although Squirmy is now finding new ways to latch on not quite right. I'm taking this bf thing day by day - I swing from thinking I can't do it any more to being ecstatic when he's happily slurping away.

imoscarsmum - our antenatal teacher took great pains to explain that pretty much all women can breastfeed with the right support. And that support, ie having seen women breastfeed a couple times on every single day of your life, so that it's a completely normal thing to see and do and you grow up knowing how to do it and having all your friends and family knowing and ready to help, doesn't exist in this society.
So it's society's fault not yours if you take the help that is available and it's not sufficient.

It's making me feel better, anyway.

ipanema - BIL recommends the cheap baby monitor from Argos.

foxy thanks for the cosleeping link, it's most reassuring.

OK, how the hell do you fit so much poo inside one small baby???

Yes, one of those nappy-changing moments...

carrieon I am . Phoning bfc again this afternoon, as we are still definitely having issues. really not sure why, but teddy is definitely not taking anything like a full feed each time. think lack of poo and constant feeding is a sign of this, but he won't be weighed until wednesday (9 days since last weighing) so don't know the effects of this. getting a bit down that the problem isn't resolving, but hope i can get a bfc out to see us and solve the problem.