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

TreadmillMomWell done mummy!!!! Congratulations!!!!!

Thank you star you have made me feel better...i'm going to stop reading everything on the internet and listening to others (who generally have contradicting advice!) and go with what jessica wants and obviously needs at the mo...it's reasuring to know that other bf babes out there also need winding. i need to just chill out and enjoy this time with my daughter as she's never going to be like this again.

debi i hope andrew sleeps tonight, he sounds like a dream to have!!

sorry also...congratulations treadmillmom

Thanks for the reassurance on the weight gain. HV wasn't entirely discouraging, but it's nice to have people reassure me too! Her only mistake was telling me we might have to consider formula top ups if he doesn't start to sleep. I think the look I gave her may have been sufficient to put her off mentioning it again. She even admitted it may well spell the beginning of the end for BF if I do.

Teddy fell asleep in his basket earlier sucking my finger (am I the only person slightly grossed out by this?), so DP and I took him for a drive to boots where we bought every single dummy in the shop, in the hope he'll take one of them! We tried one a few days ago, but he couldn't seem to get the hang of it. Any tips for making it more palateable?

DebitheScot Thanks for telling me it works.
Lorea does big po.s and I could not leave her because she hates being dirty and would end up waking up asking to be change(her brother could not care less when he was a baby)
Good luck with Andrew! Lorea is a month old and still feeds on demand.

LOL hopefully - I like the finger in the mouth! Tho knackering if they decide they must have it at all times. I even love the smell of baby saliva on my finger afterwards - so sweet and clean!

Thanks for kellymom link foxy - I now know I def have fast flow...

Hopefully I was always against dummies, but I gave up with Lorea and like you I bought all the ones available for newborns. Everynight I have them ready to use them, but she rejects each one of them.

Just wanted to add my support hopefully to what everyone has said. If you can keep going with the BF it WILL get easier, and you just have to do whatever you can to get through the hour/day/week...if you really feel you it's time to try formula, then that's ok too - you have tried and tried. I'm not sure I would have had your stamina.

On that note, BF with Samuel is going OK, sleeping, like most of you is a bit all over the place - last night not so good [sleepy emoticon] but I noticed during the night that my left boob is quite sore & kind of "lumpy" - the nipple is fine, & he seems to be getting plenty to drink, it's no worse today, but it is very tender all over. Anyone else had this? Am I thinking a blocked milk duct? (not really sure what this is but I read it somewhere I think) I've kept feeding on that side all day - is this the right thing to do? ANy advice would be welcome!

And congratulations *Treadmillmom" too, lovely birth story xx

I really fel for everyone who LO is constantly feeding or crying. It won't help, but be assured that a settled, quiet baby still causes me to worry. i still feel guilty about ff (those of you who left kind comments will know i have tried everything I could but DD will simply not go anywhere near the breast) and feel quite tearful when i read bout bf dilemmas - i wish i had them!
DD just sleeps and sleeps - she wakes and cries when she's hungry (about every 4 hours during the day) or her nappy needs a change but apart from that she's an angel. Daft womean that i am, I am now worrying that she's sleeping too much and not getting enough stimulation - my head tells me I'm being silly and i should be grateful.
HV came today (Charlotte is 2 weeks old today) and she's lost weight - from 7lb 15oz she's now 7lb 7oz. HV didn;t seem worried but she expects to see her back to birth weight by next week.

hopefully we bought the tommy tippee newborn soothers for Charlotte. She doesn't settle very well in the evening and seems to need a bit of comfort. She falls asleep on DP's shoulder with one in. It might be a good idea to try one with Teddy as he may find them comforting. I do feel for you - I feel awful when Charlote cries, and she doesn;t do it very often. Can't offer advice but hang in there - it will get better.

Everynight I prepared 2 bottles, 4oz each just in case and everynight around 10 Lorea screams of hunger, I don't seem to have enough (she feeds on demand), so she takes 1 or 2 oz and falls asleep. I then put her in the crib and wakes up 1 hr later, by then I have milk.
The HV advised me to do that. I haven't expressed yet. I tried with my ds and because he too fed constantly I could not get much at all.
What do you think? First thing in the morning could be an option because so far she only feeds from one breast.
On th other hand she is very windy and I noticed the bottle really makes her worst.
I might try to feed her from both breast every time. It is just difficult to sit down for ages to BF when you have a 4 yr old around.

waah.
NrNC thinks i'm depressed. i think i'm just exhausted and sore. it's normal to cry a dozen times a day and burst into tears in the supermarket when your lo starts crying and you know you're 10 min from home and a nice lady tells you to go first because you clearly need it, isn't it?
i thought my nipples were better but last night was a nightmare - started well with a sleep from 12.15 to 3.25 but i haven't slept since except an hour this morning. tried a feed lyimg down and got him to take some but i think that made my nipple wose.

mrnc called bf helplines today and after 30 min one answered - talked to her for ages and got details of someone local whomay help, but the rest i all seem to be doimg right. when does it get better? i just need some sleep!

Thanks starlight will give it a try - it's not getting any worse, so I don't want to make too much fuss.

Alfredo is one month today!

He's still feeding erratically through the night, but I'm trying to establish a semi-routine whereby we go to bed at the same time at night and around 6-7am he gets up with dh or my mum to continue sleeping on them for a couple of hours so I can get 2 hours on my own.

Still co-sleeping. But would like to know at what point we can start trying to put him back in the basket...my back is beginning to ache from contorting myself around him and making my breast easily accessible for him while he lies next to me. It is lovely being able to open my eyes and see him there sleeping peacefully, although I'm more likely to open my eyes to see him fussing at my boob - bobbing his head around trying to find the nipple!

I had a very blue day on Monday. Had a terrible night, where Alfredo fussed/cried/fed constantly and then continued to feed throughout the day pausing only for short naps and nappy changes. But yesterday was much better where I managed to get out to a mother and baby group. Feel ok today despite him feeding hourly last night.

Thanks starlight - I really wanted (expected?) to bf and as it hasn't worked out i am quite gutted. But your words help me to give myself a break - they echo what DP tells me.
I am also very aware that things could be much much harder. I don't think the guilt will go overnight but hopefully it'll ease with time.

Charitygirl a friend of mine had fast flow and the advice she was given (which worked) was to express a bit off straight before each feed. The reason was that her baby was choking/ panicking at the speed the milk came out but if she expressed the first bit off it wasn't quite so violent and the baby could cope.

potxola hello! I haven't been able to bring myself to co-sleep. I'm tempted but like you I am terrified of squashing or suffocating Dougie (with the duvet/ pillow). I've also tried a dummy. He liked it but it didn't help him to go to sleep!

Mumiyumi Dougie is also suffering badly with wind and he's entirely breast-fed. We never had this with DD. I've tried giving him infacol before feeds, which may or may not help, but he finds it very difficult to latch on then as his mouth is full of slippery stuff. It's the same when I put on Lansinoh (invariably he wants feeding as soon as I do it!!)

I'm quite frankly struggling. We seem to alternate a bad night with a not-so-bad night. Last night was a bad one. I fed him at 10 and settled him at about 10:30. He woke up for a feed at 12:45, after a change and 2 breasts we finally put him back down at 2am (which is when DH went to the spare room - he normally goes at the beginning of the feed but I begged him to stay and settle Dougie for me). He started crying as soon as DH left but did eventually settle after more winding. Then he woke again at 3:15. 2 boobs and another change - bowl of cereal for me, he starts crying as I'm downstairs getting it but as soon as I come back in the room and put the light on he stops. 5am I finally get him to settle again. Up again at 7....two boobs and a change. 7:30 DD and DH get up, I go down and get tea and toast. 8:30 I leave Dougie with DH and go back to bed, sleep until DD comes up for her nap at 11 (Dougie seems to manage to sleep for longer this time of day and in fact he'd slept for 5 hours by the time I came down and fed him at 12:30). Well I've been a wreck all afternoon. I was feeling very down and crying earlier (it's purely tiredness, not PND) - a phone call to my mum helped as DH was also tired after his 5 hours sleep and had run out of sympathy! I just think if I'm struggling now while DH is here to look after DD how the hell am I going to cope when he goes back to work? Dougie will be 6 weeks by then so I can only hope he's sleeping for a bit longer between feeds by then. How are the rest of you coping when your DHs/ DPs are back at work? (especially those with a baby and a toddler who's around during the day!). DH keeps helpfully suggesting I formula feed so he will sleep a bit longer and also DH could then do one of the night feeds but I will absolutely not do that! I fed DD for a year, she is the healthiest little girl around and I'm not giving up on DS just because I'm finding the nights hard at the moment. Especially as the feeding is going well. I might try expressing after the breakfast time feed but it used to take me ages to express a feed, much longer than actually feeding, so it will delay my getting back to sleep if I do.....

Sorry for long post - it's been a bad day!

imoscarsmum I read your posts after posting my moans! Hope my comments about not wanting to FF didn't sound too insensitive - I agree with the others that you shouldn't beat yourself up - you really did try your best and you couldn't get her to latch on. Better formula than no milk! But I'm not in your situation, he is feeding well and my nipples aren't even as bad as last time. If I stopped BF just in the hope of getting a bit more sleep when I know that in a few weeks this will get better then I really would feel guilty as I'd feel I'd let Dougie (and myself) down. Knowing my luck it would probably just make his wind worse and we'd still have rotten nights anyway!

it is my dd1's 4th bday so i spent the whole afternoon with her at the playgroup that played Jo Jingles (music group)....had a lovely day despite a bad start this morning as was sobbing in the shower with my fanjo painfully on fire and my breasts were soooo full as i didnt expressed them last nite. i thought i was heading for the loo to be sick! i expressed them this morning - aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh bliss!!

thanks starlight. MrNC hasn't stopped running around in the last week, wrangling all manner of builder types, trying to get a roof back on the house. At least people are working, but there's been people needing phoning/talking to every day but one since I went into labour, and today there's been guys turning up since 7am, and the plumber's just come back to fix a leak. So he's possibly more exhausted than me, as I've just left it all to be his problem. However they've started tiling so we should be watertight by early next week (when all builders can sod off for a while...)

Squirmy has been disconsolate all day except when attached to a nipple - is he too young for a dummy? Have houseguest holding him for a but, and other friends turning up tomorrow, one to provide brief sympathy and cake, the other to do a shift of care. Have got my lightbox out given it is October.

HV basically said see you at the 8 week check - so I asked the midwife yesterday if that was right and apparently if I register Squirmy with the local GP I can then go to Lambeth HV clinics and stuff, so I think I'll do that so I can have him weighed etc.

Starlight Robyn went from 7lb15oz to 7lb3oz so almost 10% of birthweight. MW was quite optimistic she would put the weight back on as she is feeding quite a lot, she is getting some whenever she wants,usually every couple of hours. She slept for 2 31/2 hour chunks last night so for the first time don't feel like a zombie. I am definitely gona stick with bf tho, I know it's hard but it is the best thing and she deserves the best. All you other bf's you have my full support and just keep going with it.

We have been giving her a dummy on a night as she frets a bit for something to suck. She loses it loads but settles well with it. Why is it they say you shouldn't use one when bf.

Tried her grobag today and it is way too big, the shoulder straps look like they could slip off and she would wriggle inside, she did look cute in it tho.

Sorry about the spelling last night had Robyn on my knee and was one handed tying.

Must go she is awake and I can feel my boobs leaking so she must be hungry. Again!!

Jearund My dp went back to work last week and my mum has beem helpinh out every morning until the end of this week. Will be on my own then, kids are 12 and 9(disabled) so we are trying to train Robyn to sleep between 7 and 8.30 so I will be able to cope by myself. Am dreading it, but I think when you have to do it you can. Good luck when dh goeas back to work

Hi sorry hijack I just want to leave a message for ipanemagirl saw you had a little girl congratulations, do pop into the sparkley 40's when you have a moment - we may even have some cake

Imoscarsmum, I'm sorry you're feeling upset about the breastfeeding. Remember, your child doesn't judge you, he loves you no matter what and formula feeding doesn't make you a bad mother, it makes you a mother who does the best she can for her baby.

Speaking of wind, Katie is quite windy but it's all at the bottom end. She'll grimace and contort until she manages a loud fart. She is getting quite active in the day now and is trying very hard to roll over when she is on her back. She managed to get onto her side today but not enough to roll over properly. It seems to really frustrate her.

jearund - sounds like I'm feeling too!! Mum's here til saturady (my parents live in Italy and in-laws in Yorks - we're in London) and no friends nearby either, so not sure how I'll cope come next week with 4yo in his 3rd week at school and 3 hrs sleep a night... baby's taking hours to settle every night, she doesn't want to sleep beetwen 7 and 10pm - an angel during the day, so getting very depressed atm, but can't break down in front of mum or she'll get all worried and tbh she's got enough on her plate already, plus I' too proud I guess... never felt this bad with DS and huge pile and still not "right" down below doesn't help... sorry, feeling sorry for myself tonight... off to express...