Sept 08 - Is it day or night?

[lollyheart]

Hope no one minds me starting a new thread?

Well... after a few bad evenings we now have ready made formula in the house - although I haven't used it yet. DD has been really grumpy the last few evenings so I decided to cut myself some slack and have some formula on standby. Last night she grizzled on and off for 2 hours and I had chance to express 3floz which she had at 9 and slept until 3:30.

I am being a mean mummy today, both of them are on a strict GF routine, it's working so far.

plusonemore the bicycling legs trick always worked for my DS. I could get him to poo before we went out most of the time .

oh... and I am now getting to a very dopey sleep deprived stage. I keep forgetting why I have walked into a room and have to keep checking the calendar so I know what day it is and what we're doing.

I know that theoretically i'll keep producing, but i'm loathe to alter the balance of my supply very much in case it disrupts T. i'm thinking that if i pump regularly around the 7:30pm mark eventually i'll get more at that time without risking compromising the 10:30pm feed.

Meglet i too am contemplating getting some formula. i feel exactly the same as you - even though T's on a good routine and i'm getting a lot more sleep than i was, i feel perpetually slightly dozy and headachey. sleep deprivation is definitely cumulative!

i only know what day it is by posting on here and the reading the day at the top.

DS2 has a cough (the one ds1 had last week) and its been waking him up everytime he's almost asleep for the past 2 hours so he's now exhausted. Poor baby.

For those thinking of getting the Baby Einstein DVD's, Amazon are the cheapest at the moment. 6 DVD box set £33, Play is £45! Am telling MIL to buy these for Christmas. Think I'm a mean mummy not letting her buy toys.

Katie is sleeping in her cot! I got a huge book about children's sleep habits and strategies which I read through today and decided to use some of the strategies. I realised that Katie is usually really overtired when I try to get her to sleep so I put her down earlier and she is asleep! Sorry to ramble,I'm just feeling very pleased with myself =)

On another happy note, my inlaws have agreed to come babysit at our house for my birthday so we can go out and play rockband with our friends. Can't wait to be out of the house for a few hours and have a drink or two.

hi all, hope you & babies are ok, haven't much time so not gone through the last pages...

went to first post-natal meeting today, quite nice actually as only a small number run by hv I like. and met new mum who lives just down the road, so quite pleased. but felt I was the worst there, they all seemed to be back in their pre-pg clothes, and I'm still in my baggy tracksuit bottoms........ miss my skinny and my boy-cut jeans....

Sass glad you've had joy with sleeping. I've started putting T down before he really even gives any sleep cues (I just start settling him around 1 hr 45 mins after he wakes up), and it almost always means he's asleep within 10 minutes with no grumbles. If I wait till he's done more than one yawn, or been staring vacantly for more than a couple of minutes, he gets fractious the minute I try to put him down, ending in total hysterics.

Sunflower the only pre pregnancy clothes I fit into are a couple of t-shirts and a pair of joggers!. I'm sure most of us are in the same boat! I'm consoling myself with thoughts of a new wardrobe when I lose some more weight.

Now you've got me worried about jabs - is it dangerous to give them too early? Should I be questioning the doctor? I am going back to work in April but would always get time off for her jabs!

I am also racked with guilt as I am looking for ways to keep C entertained when I think I should be doing it myself. She hates the baby gym as she hates being on her back and she can't focus or grab anything else. I feel guilty as today she has watched coronation st with me on sky+ - only way to keep her quiet. Bad mother. I feel i should be reading books etc with her!

On a +ve note - MIL is baby sitting from midday to 5pm on Saturday so DP and I can go to the cinema and for lunch. Our first trip out in 2 months! Can't do an evening - would be too cruel to ask anyone else to deal with her from 7pm onwards! (Though may ask DP's 18yr old DD1 - would be good contraception methinks )

I'm so tired and worn out I have just splurged and ordered Dominoes pizza for my tea . My weight is falling fast as I am always on the go and I have a cold coming so felt the need for some serious pigging out.

DD has fed less today, but has had bigger feeds (all of 10 mins!) so far she has settled better this evening. I just hope she sleeps until 10ish then I'll give her a dream feed for the night. She is more alert in the daytime and always perks up when I am at toddler group with DS.

thanks for the info on the milk yesterday, i have only just managed to look up replies, i'm ok, and been trying to post for the past 3 weeks, but everytime i get near the computer elli, has a tummy episode, and then begins the walking/rocking/comefort sucking anything to try to settle him.
but thanks for thinking of me. so much has happened hes had his 6 week injections and spent 48 hours being even more grumpy than usual, but hes ok now.
he manages to drink me dry most nights, and ends up with ff bottle on a night to keep him settled.
just as I was begining to feel a bit more confident with the co sleeping, MIL phoned me up to tell me about someones poor child who died whilr sleeping on his mum.
Elli sleeps in my bed with DH on floor he has his own blanket and his own space, he wakes me up when he starts sucking on my arm or when is aim is good, on the side of my boob, not managed to find the nipple as yet but sure he'll get there.
Elli is still not getting weighted as much as I like but 2 weeks ago he put on 3oz in 2 days, so proud of him. was 6lb 7oz
physio have given us some exercises to do and consultant was impressed with his progress, but said 'its still early days'
Hes still demand feeding which is every 2 hours through the day but only for about 10 minutes at a time, and 3-4 hours on a night for about 20 mins. still using the colief, which is ok, but has started grunting when trying to pass poo, also looks to be straining, but managng to go about 4-5 times a day. sometimes is bright green, which I've been told is the trapped wind.
had 6 week check up (at 8 weeks)dr more concerned about what contraception i was using than anythong else. not interested in the traumatic birth and its affect on me, but if i feel worse then i should make another appointment to see them again, {{{useless}}}
have started going to a breast feeding group on a friday, turns out i used to work with someone there. they also do baby massage, which i keep meaning to sigh up for but forgetting. hoping everyone else is ok, right going to catch up on the last 10 pages

xxx

HI ladies, I am shattered - I'm sure you know the feeling.

Last night, D was feeding every 2 hours. Today he is lethargic, falling asleep in the middle of a feed. He's had a really long sleep during the day (4.5 hours) from which I could not wake him up because I was at the Spanish consulate trying to sort out a passport. He had a good long feed when we came back, but despite his long nap has been falling asleep on every feed since, so deeply that I could not wake him up.

Is this normal?

So of course, now that I have put him down in his cot for the night, he is wide awake and protesting loudly.

All I can think is that I NEED to get some sleep tonight. It's not looking like it's going to happen though, and I feel like I've got a knot in my stomach just pre-empting another sleepless night. Sigh.

Hi guys

Just popped on to say hello but am totally out of date with the thread.

pacita it sound perfectly normal. I always find the worrying about the lack of sleep is worse thing you can do. Good luck xx

My little tomarto is now 11lb 15 oz at 6 weeks. A pudding and completely BF. Hope I am not over feeding the little chap as he is always throwing it up. Imagine his weight if he kept it all down .

Hello all.

Toby still very unsettled due to wind/colic. Tried infacol and dentinox all to no avail..think we are just going to have to ride it out (sigh)

My six week check tomorrow....still anaemic unfortunately...how long will they let me go on like this???????

poxtola Got the wrap today, thanks! Will have a look at it when I get 10 mins (probably the weekend!!)

pacita funny you should say that alfie has slept loads today and also keeps falling asleep whilst feeding. i have put it down to his cold and so feeling under the weather.

anyone know bout mice? have found something has nibbled the top off a fabric softener bottle and alsi chewed throuigh all the free bounty sachets- do mice do that??!!

Becaroo if it makes you feel any better, I was resigned to riding out T's colic till 3 months (and getting v depressed about it), but it's improved about 50% in the past 4 days - he's barely bringing his knees up at all during the day, and only seems to be suffering in the evening about every other day.

Pacita you poor thing, it's so awful when you just feel you need sleep, but there's nothing you can do about it. At least you got to queue at the passport place without being accompanied by 4 hours of screaming, although that's probably not much of a consolation now. Just try to think, tomorrow is another day, and you might manage to persuade him into a little more awake time!

Barnpot I also felt my birth (just the tear, no problems with T) was completely glossed over in the early days, but I've been lucky enough to have one or two sympathetic MWs/doc more recently, and it's made me feel better to talk through it. Hope you can talk to someone about it/get medical attention, or do whatever's necessary to recover from it.

Can I ask a question that will make me seem (a) lazy) and (b) not committed to BF? Those of you who formula feed or add a formula feed or EBM top up last thing at night, how long do you get after the feed, for what age baby?
T is 7 weeks tomorrow, and goes till 4am-4:30am like clockwork after his 10:30pm feed (and has been doing so for over a week). Although this seems a good stretch, by the time he's fed for an hour, it's actually only around 4 hours sleep for me, even if DP settles him, and he tends not to go down that well after his 4am feed, so I'm basically getting one 4 hour chunk a night. I know that's not terrible at all, but I'm getting a bit low from sleep deprivation, and snapping at poor DP every 5 minutes. I'm contemplating either topping up with formula (trying EBM in the first instance) or replacing that last feed with formula, but I won't bother if you all tell me that I'll only get an extra 15 minutes sleep.

Hi. Ponysmum My dh sleeps in another room, so I use the bedside table at his side of the bed. It is difficult to get to the cot, but so far so good, she sleeps and so do I.

Jearund nice to hear from you. Sorry it is difficult at the moment. I promise yoy it gets easier. I still feel I am abandoning my ds, but it is all in my mind. Keep it up, you are doing a brilliant job
We are all in the same boat.

Becaroo The dentinox didn't work for me, but the Infacol yes, only if I give it her everytime I feed her. I am pleased you got the Close.

wraps I have 2 Grobag "jungle friends" swaddling wraps and also a miracle blanket swaddling that I want to sell because Lorea is already in her grobag sleeping bag. Let me know if you need one

plusone - Sorry, that's definitely mice. We had one last year that regularly visited under the sink. Its tastes extended to plastic tops of woolwash bottles, soft packets of cleaning wipes, and all manner of other cleaning product packaging.

Plusonemore I have to agree you have mice. We got infested with them a couple of years back. They got in the cupboard under the sink and feasted on the leftover hamster and budgie food. By time we noticed they were loads. Our council do a 4 week service where they come out and lay bait traps then come and check and rebait every week. cOSTS 40 but it does help.
The worst thing with mice is the poo they leave behind, apparently they can poo about 30 times a day.
Since getting our pyscho/babysitter cat the only ones we have seen are the ones she brings in as presents for us.

Had my postnatal check at the hospital today, Robyn was great and got cooed over by the expectant mums. My GTT showed I don't have diabetes. Thankgod, I just have to keep an eye on what I eat and loase weight. Already lost 2 and a half stone this year so hoping to do that again over the next year and I should be in the 'healthy' weight range for my height

ok, i don't want to lose this thread again.

it's good to see how all of you are getting on. you all make me very proud, and keep me going when some of this stuff starts to get tough.

Obama is President!

Wahey!

Young A wasn't impressed.
Back to bed now...

thanks for the mice advice, am too scared to look this morning though! dh duck-taped up any holes last night- maybe the mice were inside when he did it though and so now trapped...aaarghhhh!

hopefully someone was asking my hv this the other day at post natal group. she suggested 'switching'- taking them off the breast after 5 mins to swap to other side and repeating a few times. she says this encourages more production of the fatty hindmilk type stuff although maybe foxy will know better?

imoscarsmum just keep up a running commentry while you're watching Corrie and that counts as amusing your lo - especially if you gaze into her face. If you read to her it could be the newspapr/Hello/your book. I've got a CD of kids songs that I sing along to while I'm on Mumsnet - it allays the guilt!

EandZ - good to see you here. I hope that you're feeling better about yourself

NC I know - I can't believe it. I never really trusted that the Americans would vote him in