October 08 - The Here and Now.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

The story so far....

10th Sept (Due 1st Oct) - loulou33 - Boy - Joe Louis David - 6lbs 12oz - Induction due to rhesus sensitivity, G&A.
12th Sept (Due 6th Oct) - iuseantiageingstuff - Boy - Fred William - 8lbs 13.5oz - Induction due to high BP.
14th Sept (Due 14th Oct) - twinklytoes - Boy - Samuel - 7lbs 4.5oz - Em C-Sec due to grade 4 PP.
16th Sept (Due 8th Oct) - Ksal - Girl - Emma Rae - 6lbs - Just beat induction for PE!
20th Sept (Due 8th Oct) - kookiegoddess - Girl - Reya Marie - - Induction due to OC, epidural, 3rd degree tear.
21st Sept (Due 5th Oct) - myjobismum - Girl - Naomi Caitlin - 5lbs 10oz - Fast and furious hospital birth.
22nd Sept (Due 10th Oct) - Lozza70 - Boy - Sander Gene - 7lbs 5oz - Em C-Sec due to raised BP and high ALTs from liver.
27th Sept (Due 1st Oct) - accessorizequeen - Boy twin - Felix - 6lbs 8oz -
27th Sept (Due 1st Oct) - accessorizequeen - Girl twin - Bridget - 7lbs 7oz -
1st Oct (Due 29th Sept) - WombFor1More - Boy - Harvey James - 8lbs 13oz - Homebirth, no pain relief.
2nd Oct (Due 4th Oct) - annwoo - Boy - TBA - 8lbs 7oz - Amazing birth!
2nd Oct (Due 30th Sept) - sambrads - Girl - Brooke - 7lbs 9.5oz -
2nd Oct (Due 12th Oct) - star6 - Boy - Quinlan - 5lbs 15oz - 36hr labour, ventouse and stitches.
2nd Oct (Due 8th Oct) - Alexa808 - Girl - Tienette - - Planned c-sec
3rd Oct (Due 5th Oct) - rosebury - Boy - Austin - 9lbs 2oz - Delivered at home by dh!
3rd Oct (Due 6th Oct) - Bethoo - Girl - Maia - 7lbs -
3rd Oct (Due 6th Oct) - hoff - Boy - Oliver - -
3rd Oct (Due 19th Oct) - MrsTittleMouse - Girl - - -
4th Oct (Due 2nd Oct) - 1sttimer80 - Boy - - -
4th Oct (Due 30th Sept) - Aubergenie - Boy - Stanley - 7lbs 12oz -
5th Oct (Due 29th Sept) - plusonemore - Boy - Alfie Thomas - 8lbs - Induction, epidural
5th Oct (Due 2nd Oct) - MrsBish - Girl - Rachel - 8lbs 8oz -
5th Oct (Due 4th Oct) - hedgepig - Boy - Oliver - 6lbs 3oz -
7th Oct (Due 23rd Oct) - Emmsy1 - Girl - Amy Louise - 5lbs 12oz -
7th Oct (Due 2nd Oct) - snowymum - Boy - Rowan Michael - - Home water birth
8th Oct (Due 6th Oct) - ronshar - Boy - William Dexter - 7lbs 11oz -
8th Oct (Due 20th Oct) - 07mumstheword - Girl - Freya Mae - 7lbs 12oz -
8th Oct (Due 16th Oct) - moodywren - Boy - Hayden - 6lbs 9.5oz - Homebirth
9th Oct (Due 27th Sept) - Pidge - Boy - Arthur - 8lbs 14oz - Homebirth
10th Oct (Due 1st Oct) - CantSleepWontSleep - Boy - Duncan Elliot - 8lbs 4oz - 4 day induction with 1 hour established labour!
11th Oct (Due 3rd Oct) - usuallytooshytochat - Girl - Megan Leah - 8lbs 2oz - Homebirth with ambulance crew!
12th Oct (Due 4th Oct) - pistachio - Boy - Thomas Fraser - 10lbs 2oz - Homebirth.

csws - sorry you've been in the wars so much. Have you tried filling bathroom up with steam + eucalyptus oil to clear noses. It works wonders on my 2 snotty los.
star - I'm not putting her on tummy due to danger of cot death. She just wants to be held thats all and I know this baby time lasts such a relatively short time, I'm getting the cuddles in now before she gets too wriggly. DS now refuses to kiss or wipes them off. says he's saving them all for his bear! He was up a lot in the night. Just as dp starting to lose his patience, ds was sick. 1st in his room, then in our bed, then in the living room. dd slept through the whole thing

was starting

myjob - hope you had a fab evening with dh. if ekka is right and she's gained 3lbs in 10 weeks that's about 5 oz a week which is fine. As you say, she's fine inevery other way and is happy and content (more than could be said for some of the babies here, mine included who are all gaining weight!!) Having said that Joe gained about 1oz this week but i was expecting it as ds1 did teh same at 11 weeks. Apparently its very common for bf babies to have slow downs and no weight gain - its horrible when they don't out ont weight as you have no other way to judge if they are eating enough.

Star my weaning talk this week is soooo early beacuse in this region they have a very high rate of early weaners (ie before 17 weeks). Also a child died here from being given mashed up normal food very early and he died of salt poisoning as his little kidneys couldn't cope with it. It was really sad as the parents weren't being neglectful, they were just very young and had not been told what to wean him on so they naively gave him their food mashed up and it was too salty for him....baby rice is just a filler carbohydrate for hungry babies and is useful if weaning before 26 weeks and don't want to start on proper food. Some babies are 'too' hungry to wait til 26 weeks so hv advise baby rice til they get to 26 weeks iyswim.
csws - hope you and duncan are feeling better

right off to have some me time before bed. was kept awake til 3am by loud party across the road last night - made them feel very bad today about being so selfish when we have two tots at home!!
xxx

And those hvs should be sacked loulou, as baby rice contains less calories than milk, so the hungry baby will be even hungrier if stuffed full of rice instead of milk!
for the poor baby who died of salt poisoning.

for period arriving already 4ano. Am not expecting mine for a loooooooong time yet.

Managed closer to 5 hours sleep last night, and had an hour's nap with ds this afternoon whilst dh and dd were swimming, so feeling a lot brighter at the moment. Dh is now coming down with dry cough, so I expect he'll be the next thing to disturb my sleep overnight!

Really wishing I could get ds to sleep without being on me now. It's going to be hard with dh away this week (leaves 4am on Tues) if I can't put him down at all. Ds much happier again now that I've stopped taking steroids which stupidly contained lactose though.

Oh, have my follow up Glucose Tolerance Test tomorrow morning to check that my diabetes has cleared - fingers crossed! Not looking forward to fasting though (can't eat now until after test, so about 12 noon tomorrow) - it's hungry work feeding 2 children!

thanks for clarification loulou. That poor baby
Good luck today, csws!
anythingbutpink - we use the angelcare monitor that alarms if he stops breathing, so I feel ok with him on his tummy. He won't really sleep on his back, unless in the bouncy chair.
girlwithmouseyhair - lol about ds knowing it was the weekend! I am crap at getting ds to self settle... we've had a few really great times where he has done, but it's not the norm. There are some others on here who are great at it, though. I just keep trying... good luck!

loulou that's so sad about the baby and its parents...

star, our parents put us all on our tummies...I let DS sleep on his if he comes into bed with us just to doze for an hour in the mornings. is Q in a different room to you now, or just the monirot on in his moses basket?

when are people moving their babies to their nurseries? I'm fine at the mo (not as far to get up in the night) but am finding it difficult to nod back off as ds is so flipping noisy in his sleep! also do you reckon it's worth putting him to have his naps in his nursery so he gets used to a different room? at a month old I'm not sure he's particularly aware of different rooms anyway

Star ds sleeps on his tummy if he naps in the day as its the only way I can put him down and have him stay asleep. But he is in the same room as us so I can keep an eye on him. Night times he co-sleeps (something I swore I'd never do!) because its so darn cold I can't feed sitting up. With dd I used to move her to her moses basket when she was asleep, but with ds I'm usually asleep before he finishes his feed, and don't wake up till the next feed .

I can sympathise with those of you who are sick of pink for girls - I was too with dd, though I'm lucky in that my SIL in the US hands down stuff from her dd and we get lots of non-pink stuff from her. Mind you, I'm already getting sick of the boys stuff here too! All brown, blue and grey..... Basically unless you spend a fortune on clothes it seems you have to go for the 'standard' colours for girls & boys....

I'm trying to persuade ds to have a nap. He has been trying to feed non-stop this morning and got to the point where he wants to latch on but when he does he throws himself off in disgust, cos he's not hungry but tired. At present he is lying on a bean bag grunting. Oh well....

girlwith - no in our room... we have a 1 bedroom place that we bought when market was good
i just put the monitor on to make sure he keeps breathing. in the day i use the parent unit when he goes for a nap in bedroom.

ekka i hear you... every day i do something i didnt think id do!

No nursery here either as we've got a one bedroom place too. We've been looking at bedside cots but they're ll aso big I don't think we'd fit one in our bedroom.

Honeymoonmummy - I read your birth story. It sounds very traumatic. I had the induction drip too (waters had broken quite a while before, my BP was high and things weren't progressing as baby was back to back) and they were very clear in their recommendation that I should have an epidural BEFORE they induced me as it was so painful.

about you going back to work Star. Have you got a lot of milk in your freezer now?

Hope you're all having a good evening!

myjob hope you are having a lovely eve and that you are not in too much pain! could it be your apendix? That can spread from one side to the other and be twingy.

Trying to settle dd2, she fell asleep after her bath halfway through feeding and now awake and woke go back to sleep so trying to ignore her by leaving her in the bedroom with all lights off! Imagine she will start screaming soon! She eventually went off at 10 ish last night and slept til 3 then through til 730.

honeymoonmummy - me too - they said that I needed epidural before inducing with the drip. But, maybe that's because I had been asking for the epidural for 29 hours already... actually... longer.
I asked for it when I first came in because my waters had broken and I hadn't even had a contraction yet! I said, "I know I absolutely want an epidural. Can you write that down somewhere so as soon as I come in to stay, the anesthesiologist is aware of it?" I thought childbirth was terrifying as well... worth it in the end, but I'm definitely not ready to do it again. Still horrified at the idea of sex.

Aubergenie - I have 7 bags of 120ml in freezer now... I'm just hoping that's enough along with what I'll express during the day...
We've done some serious rearranging to fit a normal cot into our bedroom (including putting the chest of drawers in the closet and moving shoes elsewhere...). What a pain! Trying to decide when to sell... market still looking grim, but an upgrade would be cheaper now.

jenwa - lol at ignoring her with the lights off. I know what you mean - just sounds so funny when talking about a baby. I try that, but I'm horrid at it. DH thinks that when trying to settle Q, it's "stimulating" to look him in the eyes... so he looks anywhere but his eyes on his face and it seems to work... but I can't help but stare into his eyes. I need to get a bit stronger!
Is there some sort of secret thread where you all discuss how to get babies to sleep for lengths of time like that??? Not fair!! I know csws isn't on that thread, either... where is it? What do you do? I want ds to do TWO long stretches in the night and at least one consistently. ANd I want to stop waking up for hte day at 3am! ds is ok with it because he can go back to sleep from 6-8 but that's not going to fly when I go back to work and have to leave hte house by 7am!

myjob - I hope your pains go away! yuck. You should probably mention them to GP even if just on the phone for peace of mind... then again, I'm a bit of a hypochondriac... ha ha... who was it that I told to go immediately to the hospital when waters had broken on antenatal thread... was that you or 07mumstheword? Felt so silly after that when everyone else was so calm

evening all,
went for my 6 week check today, have been given the pill to take, i've not used contraception for 5 years so will be a total pain to start again! must remember to take it, but i'm desparate to get my sex life back and not worry about getting pregnant.
cloth nappies are going well, his little fluffy bum is so cute, still using huggies at night as i don't think the cloth will go all night.
we have a 2 bed house and it's cramped here too, we have a 2 year old and now the baby. we'll prob sell up next year and try and get a 3 bed house. our 2nd bedroom is so small i'll never get a cot plus my DDs bed in there. alex will be in with us for 6 months anyway so we have time yet i hope.

Morning all! Thanks for the messages Star and Aubergenie, I'm going for a review today but I wanted it with the anaesthetists and midwives but its only with the one anaesthetist so I'll have to go back sometime.

I had a brilliant sleep last night! Poppy slept from 2.30am to 6am and then from 8.30 to 10.30...it doesn't sound so good written down but it sure felt nice to be getting that much sleep!! I did my first bath too, DH has done all the other ones, it went well. She is now feeding...

Bought an Avent Isis pump yesterday, god how many bits are there to it??? Am a little nervous about the whole "expressing" thing but I dont have a specific event to express for unlike you Star so no pressure.

There is a measles outbreak in our area thanks to the triple jab scare a few years back, so we are being told not to mix with schoolchildren where we can help it. I had a kids birthday party on Sat and a christening on Sun, which were Poppy's first 2 official social events, but we had to cancel both

She's 4 weeks tomorrow.

God, sorry for the "War and Peace" post! Hope everyone else is OK.

GWTMH - Ideally I'd move ds around 5 or 6 months, but can see it taking at least that long for me to be able to put him down to sleep at all, regardless of whose room he's in! He's currently snoozing contentedly on my chest (tried resting him in car seat but surprise surprise he woke up).

Oops - I just coughed and woke him - better go!

ohhh def getting the vax now! How scary! I've scheduled them for the 22nd instead of today as Q was very, very congested and drowsy. He's now smiling away at daddy... he smiles constantly at him!! He sees me and just CRIES for food! not fair.

oh csws poor you! Sometimes Q will settle on his own easier if I lay him down and pat his back like I'm winding him... then he's sort of tricked into thinking he's on me then I make the pats lighter and lighter until i'm barley touching and take it away slowly...

I'd like to hear exactly what your 6-8 weeks old did last night. My ds had looked like things were getting better (though settling for the night is impossible still) but last night after looking like he'd settle at 7 after a lovely feed, after I tried baby carrier, dad's shouldner in the dark, downstairs watching a film with us, another feed in the dark etc he eventually settled at 11. Woke at 1, stayed awake until 2. Then only slept fitfully on me until 4 then was up (lots of crying) untill 5:30 (woke older sister). Now sounds like he is waking up again. People with older children forget what they were like age and when you ask what their babies did at this age you can tell they can't rememebr the specifics (of course not). I think the biggest problem for me is the settling. I just wish it didn'[t take every night 3 or 4 hours of crying on and off for no reason. Why!! I guess I just want reminding this is normal

This will make you feel better nws. Ds (7 weeks) came up to bed with me at 8, already soundly asleep. He went in crib whilst I got ready for bed, but woke 10 mins after I got into bed, at 8:30. We then spent several hours trying swaddling or sleeping bag, trying in crib, in bed next to me, in bed lying over my arm, in bed sitting up against my arm/shoulder, interspersed with feeds, all to no avail. It was nearly 2am by the time we got to sleep. We then slept fitfully til about 4, when we fed then continued to sleep fitfully til about 6:30.
I feel like shit today.

my baby does similar a lot but I just feed him when he cries... so I dont ever get hours of crying... wonder if this is a good idea... I wonder if I'm over feeding?? Hes 9 weeks now and at our check up yesterday weighed 11 lbs! he came home at 5 1/2 so that's double!
MIL does say i prob dont let him cry enough...
I guess that if i didnt shove my boob in his mouth each time, then I'd say its similar.
Im the wrong person to give advice on settling without a feed although I know thats what you're supposed to do.

csws
I wish there was a "baby boot camp" for him

ds is 7 weeks tomorrow, he went down at 9pm, woke at 12, went down at 12:30, slept till 4:30, fed and then went down till 8am.
he's very big though i guess around 13lb maybe more, he's in 3-6 month sleepsuits but he is very long and wearing cloth nappies!

both kids ill today, both really snotty and coughing. yesterday they both threw up, dd all over dh and ds over me and the bed. today he then peed all over it as well! poor things, i hate them being ill.

csws-good old mumsnet-that did make me feel better!

star-my problem is if he isn't hungry he won't feed. with my dd I'd shove a boob in her mouth at any sign of a grump and she'd be quiet, with him if I try to feed him most ofthe time it results in lots of thrashing around and crying. I am hoping its his tongue tie which is getting cut next week but maybe its just him at this specific stage and he'll just grow out of it. he is a good size (>12 lbs) so not starving. Good to hear yours is growing, I wouolnd't worry to anyone telling you he is too big-health professionals are always telling us they are too big or too small! They just want to feel useful

I think its just the wy babies are; but I wanted reassurance. They get there eventually and this is SUCH a short phase. I keep reminding myself that dd daughter was a nightmare for the first 2 months and then slept through and has bearly woken at night since. Its just when you are in the thick of it you feel so awful and it feels that it must be wrong. Thanks for the quick support. I do read your thread but often have nothing to add

csws gosh, I dont know how you are coping, I would be insane!

star lol re secret thread...I wish!!!

DD did not settle great last night but then once asleep woke at 1:30 and then 4:30 and that is hard enough for me to handle! I want her to go back to the 3:30 and 6:30!

Ok, now this here is a question and I am scared of the answers!!! When I had dd1 my mum told me she used to put half a teaspoon of baby rice in our last bottle when we were about 5weeks and my inlaws said they put weetabix in their childrens and made the hole bigger in the teat! Anyway, going on my mums advice I did this with DD1 (tiny amount of baby rice in bottle) when she was 5 weeks and she slept through the night from then on,but I never knew if it was a really bad thing to do (as was not mumsnetting then ) just followed mums instructions. After talking to a friend she told me her HV secretly suggested this to her ds when he fed every 2 hours at 12 weeks. Now why was it ok to do it years ago and not now? Please dont shout at me I just want to know an I know it worked with DD1 but am a little scared now as think maybe it is dangerous!!!!!