Sept 08 - Is it day or night?

[lollyheart]

Hope no one minds me starting a new thread?

jerund dp is amazing in helping with the housework and trying to calm ds when he's crying and i'm trying to shovel down food quickly or run to the toilet etc. but he does go out on friday nights. kind of the worst night to head out as it's the end of a long week of just me and baby and then he's out late and shite the next morning. it's good for him i suppose. me just being in the end.

FMH haha pretty sure we all need a good 3 days of sleep. i haven't seen mams here so i didn't know they had them outside of the states. you got the 'washing your hair' comment. i got the 'why on earth are you flossing your teeth when the baby is crying and i don't have breasts to feed him?' comment. gosh men are grouchy and insensitive sometimes.

I'm sooooo tired! Ds only wakes once in the night for feeds at the moment, but I can't survive on the 6-7 hours I'm getting when you take both children into account! Dh is amazing at helping but I feel like a total zombie. Have to remind myself I only gave birth 3 weeks ago and need to give myself a break.
I have the problem that ds will barely wake up in the day, but is awake all evening. Oh well, at least we get the 'core' night from 11 til 7(ish!).
Also, does anyone else find their milk letting down at completly random times? I'll suddenly feel that pressure and tingling sensation and hope to goodness that my breastpads haven't slipped. It happened while I was getting dressed the other day and i had fountains of milk squirting in all directions round the bedroom.
Feeling really coz neighbours have complained about our dd waking their dd. Our dd randomly cries out in the night most nights, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong, its just in her sleep. I don't see what we can do. What makes me less than sympathetic is that their dd always used to wake anyone who stayed over at our house coz she wakes at 4am and goes into her parents bed, and I have wondered if its her dd waking ours, rather than the other way round. Grr. Trying to be gracious, dh is moving her bedroom round now so the cot isn't against the party wall.

carrieon gosh those neighbors sure have a lot of nerve to actually say something like that! it's a baby ffs!

carrieon - they should know better!!!

I always sleep with 2 mothercare large breastpads on each side in case they move! the other night I was in the bathroom getting dry, but my boob was actually filling it up wit milk, a real fountain!

mella - got them from boots or mothercare, they both stock mam, if you need

Yes I get lots of let down at randon times, in fact I lert down so easily that DD just waits and doesn't suck until let down as she doesn't have to on the down side if she's not sucking, let down can be REALLY painful, like my breasts are in a vice [ow emotion]

My Dh is out for 2 or 3 (or 4) evenings a week, 2 playing footy and often social ones as well. I find those times can be pretty hard

Thanks ladies for sharing re: sodapop babies and dummies. Diego topped his colicky episode by producing an explosive poo that reached his ankles and required a bath and full change of clothes. Little angel, sigh.

Digitalgirl glad you are feeling better. Hope mastitis clears very soon.

My current ineptitude: DS wets the bed EVERY NIGHT, sometimes twice. I end up having to change vest, pyjamas and sheet. What on earth am I doing wrong? Ok, I know I'm a first time mother, but a nappy shouldn't be rocket science...

Hi all, not getting much chance to log on here. Still being totally spoiled here with dp on paternity leave, plus my parents staying helping out. They'll remain here up until half term when dp is off again.

Arthur has been brilliantly calm until now, but tonight has gone all ratty, crying and crying unless he's feeding, and not sleeping. So maybe we're entering that 'yelling all evening' phase that both my other kids have done up to about 8-12 weeks! Oh joy.

I daren't type it, but he's been pretty good sleeping at night so far ... have probably jinxed myself now haven't I . But the last three nights he's only woken once. Which is a godsend with 2 other kids to race round after during the day.

He's yelling at my dad now though, so I guess I'd better go and feed again. Still very, very sore feeding but I think at least one side is improving a bit.

Mellabella and fullmoonhowler glad to hear your DH's are supportive after all - we all have our off-days I guess! I think I go out more often than my DH - although it's only once every 2 or 3 months for a night out with my NCT friends.

Carrieon yes I find the random let-down thing too and by God is it painful! I have to stop what I'm doing and breath through it, rather like contractions! I don't remember it being that painful first time round! As for the lack of sleep, I'm doing better this week as the in-laws have DD in with them so we get to sleep until DS wakes up at between 8 and 8:30 but I'll be in your shoes once we're home and DH goes back to work. Not looking forward to that!

Pacita maybe try a different brand/ size of nappy? Or fasten it differently - you can angle the tapes down or up according to how tight the nappy is if that makes sense.

Pacita I think lots of squirming and wind before a big poo is par for the course. It's hard to ignore it though isn't it?

Do you change lo's nappies in the night? Maebh only poos every few days, so they're not soiled and I haven't changed them - just hoping that a nappy staying on for so many hours (I don't want to confess how many isn't going to increase my bad mother status.

Also, I think someone else brought this up. Are any of you playing with your lo's? If Maebh's awake and content she's probably in her pram/on the sofa/being carried about while I do other things. I can't remember at what age I specifically tried to play with DD1 (probably way too early as she was my pfb). Is there anything I can/should be doing with dd2? Music, reading her the newspaper, teaching her times tables.......

i'm using advent dummies as we have found that jess is needing comfort suckling. we try to limit use to nights though and its helping us all get some sleep.

jess has a very sodapop tummy you can hear it. giving infacol has helped and the dummy has helped too as she use to suck on her hands taking in loads of air while doing so.

whenever i BF jess i tend to feel very nausious and often feel a bit blue. then when i stop i feel fine again. this happened with DD1 too. anyone else ever felt like this - or am i just wired wrong?

i'm using advent dummies as we have found that jess is needing comfort suckling. we try to limit use to nights though and its helping us all get some sleep.

jess has a very sodapop tummy you can hear it. giving infacol has helped and the dummy has helped too as she use to suck on her hands taking in loads of air while doing so.

whenever i BF jess i tend to feel very nausious and often feel a bit blue. then when i stop i feel fine again. this happened with DD1 too. anyone else ever felt like this - or am i just wired wrong?

Pacita, it could well be the size of the nappy. I find that it helps to change to one where your baby's weight is in the middle of the weight range given on the packet. I usually change Katie's nappy at 11ish before I go to bed and then once in the night. Our biggest leaking problem is me We'll both fall asleep as she's feeding and then I leak everywhere!

We've had good progress today. Katie slept in her cot for two hours and is asleep in there again now. I don't know what to do with myself without a baby in my arms. If she keeps this up and starts sleeping reliably we might even go over to my friend's house for my birthday in november and get sil to babysit. Rockband 2 is coming out so we all want to play.

sagecat i get a bit down when i bf too. I thought it was supposed to release happy, relaxed hormones, but it doesn't work for me. DD feeds fast though (10 mins max) so I can grin and bear it.

meglet jess is getting better at feeding so its not too bad, plus not had baby blues this time (so far) so all in all doing fine. just interested really as i, like you, expected happy hormones

ninja - I've started to put ds on a playgym as he has started to make an effort to grab things. It was only because he initiated the grabbing that I remembered that they get to a point when they start to play

The weight gain is going well after such a slow start. DS2 has put on 11oz in 14 days - yipee!

We're off out for lunch with dh's brother and sil. No doubt ds2 will be asleep until the point my meal is put on the table, he'll then wake and screamm for a feed - sound familiar?!

Thanks ILikeToScareYouScareYou (like the namw change by the way - I can't think of one!). TBH she mainly sleeps, feeds at the mo, I just don't want to feel that I lavished attention on DD1 and ignored DD2 (Maybe that's why second children are happier?)

sagecat I get the nauseous feeling too when BF, although don't necessarily feel down - just feel like I've completely lost my appetite.

pacita we went through a phase of DS wetting the bed everynight, the record was three full bed changes in one night (not helped by the fact that we're co-sleeping so not as quick as changing a moses basket!). I don't know if we've just got better at putting the nappies on or if DS has just stopped doing monster pees at 3am. How do they manage to wee up their back?

ninja sometimes I play with DS when he's having a happy alert moment (sing nursery rhymes or shake a rattle at him), sometimes I take advantage of his mood and leave him either in his bouncer or on the playmat and let him amuse himself while I tidy up or make some food. He seems perfectly content when I do that. Usually stares intently out the window or at the ceiling lights or swings for one of the hanging toys while gurgling/squeaking to himself. Very cute!

Despite DS having a painful windy evening we managed to settle him to bed about 10:30pm and he only woke at 1:30 and 3:30. In between feeds he sleeps quite happily on his back and allows me to sleep on my back. I think I rolled over to allow him to latched himself on around 6am but he didn't start complaining till 7am when we realised he needed a poo-ey nappy change. What a good boy!

We gave Dougie a balloon yesterday (put the string in his hand) and watched as he batted it around by moving his hand. Simple entertainment!

LOLLY I have very similar emotions re: bf as you. However, my ds2 is much happoer on fornmula than he ever was on the breast, so its better for him and for me as I am not feeding (or trying to) for 20 hours out of 24.

I still have milk too, but with my ds1 to look after too and my anaemia I just couldnt express 8-10 times a day to keep my milk supply up.....dont think ds2 woould have ever gone back on the breast anyway...he actually used to grimace and screw his face up in disgust when I tried to latch him on

Glad to hear your LO is happy now too.

becaroo I am managing to express once every 3 days. I keep putting the stereliser on, but then something happens and I can't express for a bit- repeat 4-5 times a day. You'd have to be VERY determined to bf to express 10 times a day. Prolly meaning DH taking 4 weeks leave and having my in-laws move in too

phhheeewww! i stay busy with the kiddies for a couple days and the thread goes crazy with posts! finally able to catch up.

seems to be alot of unsettled tumtums and feeding issues going on. ds2 is barely just over 2 weeks now and i can't help but wonder if i should start putting some sort of schedule in place ((or more realistically, attempt to)).

i should do a bit of research on it, as i didn't have one for ds1 at all until he was about 7 months old. and if i can remember correctly, by then, we had formed a few really terrible habits that were hell to break him out of.

really, am i being silly in trying with ds2 being so young still? or am i way behind on it already?

Hi all,

thanks for the advice re: wet nappies. Digitalgirl how do they wee up their back indeed? And when did your DS stop doing monster pees at 3AM? I think yours is a bit older than mine, so here's me hoping.

As suggested by several ladies I've tried 3 different types of nappies in 3 different sizes: moltex biodegradable 3-6, Nature 3-6, pampers 2-5. He pees up them all! Tonight I had only one full change of clothes and bedding in the middle of the night instead of two though.

Re; expressing, I've been told not to do it till I reach 6 weeks, but you all seem to be doing it quite successfully. When did you start?

And finally (TMI alert), today as MIL cooed over DS downstairs, I attempted to do the deed with DP. It failed for various reasons, including screaming baby, but I have to report that it was quite sore. I am pretty sure that my internal stitches had dissolved, but I did have a 2nd degree episiotomy and gave birth 19 days ago. It is still a bit sore. Do you think I may have torn something?

Hope you're all having a fab Sunday.

When do they stop waking every 3 hours for feeding? This being up 3 times in the night (1,4,7am) is killing me. Feeding lying down isn't hugely comfortable and seeing as I then have to spend an hour burping/distracting him back to sleep, it's not the 'dreamfeed' people go on about. My dad claims it all gets better from 6 weeks (5 days to go...) but as I'm an only child and he didn't know there were any health advantages to bf until last week, I'm not trusting him much!

on the other hand the HV said don't bother trying to introduce a routine until 12 weeks... argh, another 6 weeks of this!

expresing is helping but this morning only 30ml came out before drying up... of course I went back to bed and woke up with soggy breast pad, shirt, sheets, everywhere. And MrNC has now used allthe milk from the fridge, so it's back to me.

Is it really that difficult to introduce a couple formula feeds a day and keep bfing the rest of the time?

Because I can't take much more of this exhaustion and lightheadedness, and now I can't eat fat or sugar again (pregnancy fixed that so I could eat icream and pizza for first time in years - was fab!), so getting enough calories in me is a major problem.

Notcitrus, unfortunately there is no telling. Katie is almost ten weeks now and still wakes up every 2-3 hours most nights.

Pacita, when I had dd1 (c-section) it was really really sore when we tried to have sex the first time. Worse when when I was a virgin really and I had not even had to squeeze a baby out. Take it slow and use lots of lube.