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

Thank you starlight!! I'm feeling quite down about it, but as I'm recovering physically I'm feeling more able to begin to tackle the problem, which I suppose is a positive in a way. Will report back on bfc's advice/comments.

imoscarsmum you mustn't worry yourself about the birth not going the way you wanted or the bf not working out. It is absolutely not your fault and absolutely ok to be ff . You tried your best and that's all that matters. When I had my first child I had an em cs and I tried and tried with the bf and it never really worked out, I was miserable and looking back I should have cut myself some slack. Be nice to yourself!

just spoke to bfc, and while v sympathetic, didn't actually offer any concrete advice. she suggested a latch problem, but agreed that if i wasn't in pain then it probably wasn't that. then suggested he just wanted to be near me, but the fact that he only wants to feed, not just to sleep on me, means it might not b that. and so on...

feeling worse than before, tbh, had thought bfc might improve things.

hopefully if its any consolation, after typing my last post, a bfc came round (she's someone I'd met through a baby group who offered her services regardless of whether or not I was having any problems and I gratefully accepted!) and I'm not doing quite as well as I'd thought. Turns out its not normal for my nips to be as sore as they are - in all honesty the pain of some cracks is so mild compared to the pain of feeding through thrush last time that I hadn't really noticed! Also Finn is probably sleepy coz he's jaundiced rather than entirely because I'm filling his tummy with so much glorious milk! But we're still not doing badly.
Hilariously he only fed for about 3 minutes in front of the bfc before falling totally soundly asleep, I was trying to pursuade her that he does normally have full feeds!
I learned something new too which is that if their poos are tinged green it means they're not getting enough hind milk.

ipanemagirl I can tell you what not to buy which is a monitor with an alarm that tells you when the room is too hot, well, an alarm you can't turn off anyway! Dd's monitor was turned off throughout summer coz the parent unit was bleeping to tell us her room was above 23degrees. Well yes, its summer...
Sometimes now I'd give my right arm to have a video monitor for dd's room to tell whether she's sound asleep, or being very very naughty (reference the removal of sleeping bag and nappy incident!).

Mum arriving soon, shame she'll have to do the washing up before there's any teaspoons to make her a coffee

Oh hopefully I feel so for you. I really hope one of our wonderful bf gurus is along soon, I really don't know what I'm talking about so won't even try to help! But you are not alone x

Hi all, relly tired as Robyn has not slept wellthe last couple of nights. As soon as I think time for bed she wakes up and wants feeding for ages, then winding, and last night she did her first proper poo. She cried for ages before and was pumping away then she exploded so xhanged her nappy as she did another huge poo on my hand. Babies are just so lovely. Slept for about 6 hours after that, wonder why??

Today she has had terrible wind and sobbed all morning whilst I walked around with her, have to make a conscious effort to get her wind up when I am still half asleep and resist the urge to fall asleep.

Have tried co-sleeping a couple of times but only when dp not in bed as he is a heavy sleeper. The early morning feed is done lying down (dp at work) and we just nod off. I cover her with her blanket and tuck the duvet around me so she doesn't get too hot. We have a sleeping bag for her but it is huge, anyone else used them, I'm sure I read she had to be over a certain weight but not sure.

Had her first weight check on Fri and she has lost 11 oz, I thought we were doing well but mw said not to worry she is coming today to have another weigh and see how she is.

birth story here

Thanks for all your supportive comments guys, makes me feel better. Everyone around me is telling me not to stress, that i tried my very best and not let things spoil this wonderful newborn time. i know they're right but cos things didn't go to plan with the birth, I'm having trouble shaking off the thought that i can't do anything right for her. My head says that is daft and I'll regret agonising over it in years to come - I should just love and enjoy her.

Sorry things are hard hopefully, nowt I can say but each of us has problems which feel really bad I know.

on the plus side, Charlotte slept from midnight till 7am, so feeling a bit more human today.

Does anyone have any suggestion for a baby carrier for DP - needs to be manly (ie not 'earth mother' sort) and big enough to fit a 'cuddly' man!!

Phoned HV and she's agreed to come tomorrow, to at least try to set our minds at rest about the weight thing.

Thanks for the support starlight and everyone. I know we're all suffering various problems, and in a way it's so reassuring to read that I'm not alone.

DP and I have also been talking about whether we're being too impatient about teddy settling, and whether we need to give him a few minutes longer trying to chill him out before giving up and sticking him back on the breast. Although we say that every afternoon at about this time, as he tends to go down for a nap, so we begin to suddenly feel more confident.

Am also getting increasingly worried about the various ways we're settling him to sleep - feeding to sleep, rocking etc - but I think we just need to pick our battles at the moment, and worry about how he's settling himself once we've actually got him sleeping every now and again.

yes hopefully, phone another bfc. good luck. can't write more at the mo.

and starlight is right about surviving et al. spot on in fact.

see link below about my birth story.

think i'll phone another bfc in the morning - not up to it just now! maybe i'll try LLL, NCT were this morning.

starlight i read your post, you're right, i will concentrate on surviving and sussing bf, and worry about the rest later.

foxy will read you birth story now - am trapped again by the amazing feeding baby.

Grrrr my nipples are sore again. They seem to be really really sensitive and are sore whenever they rub on the breast pad in my bra. So basically everytime I roll over in bed or twist my body. And when ds2 latches onto the left side it kills for the first few sucks. I don't know what the problem is but getting him to keep his mouth in a position that feels right is quite hard. And he has a habit of trying to come off without opening his mouth which obviously hurts.
Last night and this morning he was fussing a lot with his feeding too, coming off and on a lot which didn't help. I wonder if that was becasue my milk wasn't as good due to not eating much all weekend. carrieon made a comment earlier that also makes me think that could have been the case as he had green poo this morning and I thought "oh, must ask on mn why it's green" So thanks carrieon for answering my question before I'd even asked it!

foxy your birth story is amazing, well done you and your dh. Is your dd1 in plaster? poor little thing.

thanks carrieon re baby alarm!

Empathy to you DebitheScot. My nipples are very sore too, they are sore for the first maybe 10 seconds of feed, dd's latch is just small, I've tried everything but the size of her mouth bears no relationship to the size of my nipples and she latches on so sharply arghh. No broken skin yet which is something though. I 've just started using that lanolin special nipple stuff which I think is helping.

dd also does about 6 nappies in a row around midnight with loads of agonised screaming.

But the general thing is feed for an hourish sleep for 2 to 4 hours. which is ok but dh goes back to work next week!

I'd forgotten how tiring this is!

all the best to everyone with everything they're dealing with and lots of empathy too!

Hopefully, could it be that Teddy wants to feed so often for comfort? Sucking is very enjoyable and comforting for babies so he might not be hungry even though he is asking to be fed.

thanks for that starlight, it's good to know that my milk was still good quality yesterday. He's been feeding better today, has been having bigger than usual feeds and hasn't been fussing. he's feeding on my left now and it wasn't as sore getting him on (maybe i need to always be sat at comp to get good latch )
i do have 1 crack on left side of nipple and put lansinoh on it earlier, will try to remember to do it every feed.

meant to say earlier that i sympathise with you
notcitrus about going between carrying on and giving up. i haven't let myself think seriously about giving up- i shout at myself everytime the thought pops into my head as it's going quite well really, could be a lot worse

meant to say going between thinking about carrying on and giving up

oh and we had an explosive nappy earlier that wasn't green, just as dh arrived home from work in time to change it, heehee

DD just threw up what I can only assume was the whole contents of her stomach, she'd fed about 5mins before. I can't believe how much came out, it was everywhere, i'm still in shock at the volume that came out, and the fact that it looked all lumpy. I am really worried that she has something that's really hurting her.

Re winding - how long should I be patting and rubbing her back? I do it for about 5mins but nothing ever comes out, well I think I've managed to get her to burp twice in two weeks. Am I doing it wrong?

lolli - its all normal of a project vomit to dart out of their little mouths....same here.

sometimes its be 2 mins or 5 mins to wind my windy and hiccuppy baby...with my DD1 i used to sometimes be winding her for 20 mins....

Well as ive got stitches as well bruises between my legs...ive also got a graze too - ouch! so ive been slapping on loads of sudacrem on it to soothe it, otherwise without the graze...it feels perfect...aahh well