September 08 - Just ladies with babies

[pacita]

I thought I'd start a new thread before we run out of space...

hello everyone!

just got back from the emirates. was in dubai and then abu dhabi. we might be moving over sooner than i thought.

i have to run out to selfridges to pick up a birthday gift for my mil, but am dreading it because i still don't have a coat i can fit into. (i refuse to buy any bigger clothes)!

no idea what to buy her, she's been complaining about hitting menopause so i figured a bottle of nice perfume might cheer her up. i know when i get to be that age i want a giant bottle of chanel number 5. it just screams classy old lady to me. (but i wish i had some of that stuff now, it smells pretty).

my husband has been asking if we could start trying for baby number 2 right now, and i feel very overwhelmed with just Noah. i'm not sure what gives husband the idea that we're ready for number 2.

i ordered a wilkinet but it still hasn't come, my calin bleu wrap is a nightmare. ahhh! i really miss you girls.

enadz so sorry you're having all those BF issues after getting off to such a flying start. I'm sure Foxy or starlight will be along soon with some good advice. Is Noah actually underweight yet? I remember he was quite big, so you might have a bit of time before you really have to top up, iykwim.
And OMG about your husband thinking about number 2 already! DP is still living for the day I allow him more than a quick kiss!

becaroo that's really thoughtful of you to make a donation - I'd be tempted to buy some from you, but T is also a bit of a beast, and I am only just managing to get him into the clothes we have! Maybe if you post on the due in oct/nov boards you might get some take up?

After the day of sleep yesterday, we also had a pretty good night of sleep - I fed T at 10:30, he was settled by 00:15, and then woke at 5:15 for a feed - I'm fairly sure that's the longest sleep he's ever done! He did then make up for it by taking a full 5oz at that feed and taking a barely reduced BF (5 mins shorter) at 8am... Methinks we're not going to be dropping a feed for a wee while!

eandz how about some expensive face cream for MIL? Menopause is when the wrinkles start appearing in earnest. And sorry to hear Noah's losing weight, I'm sure you've had plenty of advice thrown at you - hope you work it out soon.

Not a good night last night. A is poorly. As well as bright red cheeks and chin he's got a blocked nose (but only at night). So he wouldn't sleep longer than an hour at a time, despite us going to bed later than usual to tire him out. He would settle quickly but was too uncomfortable to stay asleep for long. Might co-sleep again tonight to see if that helps.

Today the red patches on his face have started drying out and are looking a bit flaky. Does anyone know what I can put on it to help?
Or should I just leave it alone and hope lots of BFing will eventually sort him out?

welcome back eandz! So sorry to hear about weight worries, but hopefully might have a point about him having been a big baby - maybe things are just levelling out now? Not that I know about these things.

Oh bec I wish I'd known about your clothes earlier! Ds is just at the stage of growing out of newborn clothes (at 8 weeks!) and we've got millions of 0-3 things, but I've spent the last few weeks wanting him in something other than babygrows and your newborn things would have been perfect! Oh well. Hope you find someone who'll get the good use - posting on oct/nov/dec boards is a great idea.

V.tired as the kids took it in turns to be awake from 5 this morning, but they're both asleep now and dh is at the supermarket. Why am I not in bed?!!!!

Just remembered a question I have.

We generally do single sided feeding, and I give ds 5 feeds a day. Being an odd number, this means that I either do two feeds in a row from the same side, or each day I offer different sides at different times (i.e. the 8am feed was from the right today, and would be from the left tomorrow). In terms of supply and demand which is better? The two feeds in a row from the same side would be 7pm and 5am so there's nearly 12 hours between. That's what I'm doing at the moment, but wondered if I ought to be doing alternate sides. Any thoughts?

hopefully Good idea about the oct/nov boards - thanks!

carrieon I think I remember being told to offer both sides at each feed to ensure good supply and protect against blocked ducts/mastitis etc but I am sure Star or Foxy will be along to advise you in a minute.

eandz We missed you too!!!! Baby no 2.....crikey!!!!!!

DG We had a bit of a rubbish night too as T has a cough and is very mucosy (sp?) I would suggest vaseline for the flaky patches of skin - used it on T and sorted them out in no time.

carrieon I feed from 1 boob at a time, and do alternate each time, I have offered both in the past but elli is very fast at feeding, only 5 mins and hes full, but feeds 2 hourly at best.
yesterday we went to a party where only 1 corner was discreet enough to feed, so ended up feeding from the left boob twice, by the end of the night Ihad a hard, painful lump in my right boob. luckily as soon as i noticed it I forced offered elli another feed and it went away quite quickly. but I have learnt my lesson and will not feed from same side twice.

I offer the second boob but he usually is all done with just the one!

eandz we got pg with no.2 when no.1 was 8mo. Its a great age gap although being pregnant was hard work with such a little one to look after. But if you're not ready then nooooooo don't do it!

carrieon I suspect it doesn't make a difference what you do, as you say, there's a big gap between 2 of the feeds so I'm sure both boobs would be full up by 5am. I would do the same sides then so that I was always feeding from the same side at the same feeds. I do 6 a day so that works out for me but if I do do a bottle feed then I get confused about which side I should be on next time as obviously its out of sync then.

very of carrieon's 5 feeds. I think I do about 12.

thanks for the vaseline tip becaroo I've smeared some on after his bath as it seemed to dry it out even more. he's sleeping very soundly now, think combination of bath and calpol has done the trick (fingers crossed). poor little thing hasn't had a proper nap today, just the odd 20 minutes in my lap or on DH's chest.

Carrieon I'm sure your breasts will adjust to whatever you do. When I had Thrush with dd1 there was only one side I could feed on without crying (she has=d teeth!) and so I'd feed all day on that side, she didn't starve. I also often fed all night n one side for convenience.

Pacita my dd is the same if she's awake in the sling. I have once put her in facing forwards for a short while around the house, but it's not recommended until 3 months. She doesn't like facing my chest at all unless she's feeding.

EandZ good to hear from you, a second - is he mad??

HI all,

also very of 5 and 6 feeds a day, as I do about 10 - is that something that happens after a certain age, or is it more to do with the mum's milk supply?

Foxy the tummy to tummy with the kari-me is the upright position. I do think he is properly placed, just does not fancy the tightness of it, like ninja's DD, unless he's sleeping. Some of the ties in the videos you posted cannot be done with this wrap sling because it's stretchy, but will give it a go with the didymos when I borrow it. I was wondering about alternative positions suitable for a baby this age.

I just put Diego in is cot and he is awake, chilling out on his own. How long before he starts calling?

Digitalgirl like Alfredo, Diego has very dry and flaky skin that my GP said is atopic dermatitis. He prescribed antibiotics for it, as some areas were very red and irritated. I was very against the idea, as D is only 7 weeks, but it did seem to improve his skin a lot. I have also been smearing him with aqueous cream twice a day. Today, however, his skin was extra dry, flaky and red with a rash in some areas, and I think it is to do with the cold weather and central heating. I've got a humidifier in the room and have tried olive oil instead of aqueous cream after his bath. I think he is itching, as he tends to scratch his head when he wakes at night, so he's wearing mittens too... Hope A improves - let me know whether vaseline works for you!

About the London reunion, who would be up for it? Perhaps we could do it somewhere central so that people can travel in from different places. I'm based in north London. Shall we put together a list and suggest dates?

oooo, eandz I was thinking earlier about which ones of us would be first to start planning the next baby. I reckon that by Easter (at the latest) a couple of us are pregnant again.

I had a slightly better day than usual, popped out to the supermarket on my own in the morning and went to the gym in the afternoon. It was good to get some peace for a couple of hours. After that DP confirmed my suspicions that DS plays up for me and is good when he is with his daddy . I'm still bf DD, but really fed up with it, no longer even saving money as I have had to buy new tops that I can bf in and keep buying myself ready meals as I have no time to cook. I'm just doing it for the health benefits now, if it stops DD catching a nasty cold / tunny bug this winter then it will be worth it.

welcome back eandz! OMG at your DH, though if financial situation had been more stable when I had DS, I would have preferred to have no 2 sooner (as after a while it took me some time to get used to the idea of putting on 20+kg again...), though not this soon! think 4 years is a good gap, but I love the relationship DB and I had growing up with 16 months btw us...

carrieon - same here, dd barely feeds at 7-730am because she's been emptying both sides lately around 4-4.30am, so mornings have been a bit of a chaos...

sunflower will dd take less at 4am and still go back to sleep? I had the same problem as you and carrieon but have managed to convince ds2 to only feed for 5 minutes in the middle of the night and then go back to sleep without complaining (he normally does about 20 so i reckon allowing for faster flow at start he prob has pretty much half a normal feed then)
He then generally takes a full feed at 7.45ish.
Saying that for the last few nights he's woken at 3.30 so I've been letting him have a bit more otherwise he was waking at 6.30.
I know I'm lucky here though as ds1 would never agree to have anything but a full lonnngggg feed everytime.

Debi - that was the case til about a week ago, s.times she'd just suck for 1 min max only and asleep and that's, but typically, the night I thought I'd try not feeding her at all, this started and will wolf it down both sides, screaming if I try to take her off! hopefully it's just a phase...

Morning everyone

Good morning! Hoe about this? The Diego fed at 7, 12, 4:25 and 8 this morning! A definite improvement for me. I think it is down to the fact that I let him finish one boob and then give him the other even if I have to wake him a bit...

I've been toying with the idea of offering a smaller feed in the night, but the trouble is if T goes a longer stretch and makes it to 5am, he's so bloody hungry he needs a full feed, and if he feeds earlier, I like to give him a full feed so he makes it to 7:30! Think I'm stuck with that for a while...
I also do 5 feeds a day (plus one bottle feed in the night), but T takes 1 full side (25 mins) and 'half' the other (10-15 mins), so I just alternate which side I start from ever feed. I feel he ought to be cutting down on feed times, but he doesn't seem to be as happy to go the length of time between feeds if I give him less. Think he's just a lazy feeder!

T is a very happy baby this morning, having spent 15 mins in the poo bouncy chair and produced some vile smelling efforts. He was straining so hard he threw up, which was horrendous!

Regarding length of feeds, I would imagine it's probably best for your lo's to feed for as long as they want to. BF babies self regulate their appetites and will take as much or as little as they want. IMO this is a good thing, something that may stop overeating in later life - I believe that's the theory anyway.

It's true that feeds tend to get shorter as your baby gets more efficient, however the quantity they take doesn't change a great deal from now on, it's the composition of your breastmilk that changes. That's the reason why ff babies have more and more milk as they get older, because the composition of the milk doesn't change.

And of course each baby is different. Some like to have a big feed and be full to the brim, some like to have little and often. Just like adults, they're all different, so trying to compare our lo's is like setting ourselves up for failure (much like the majority of parenting books!)

hurrah Alfie slept from 12 til 5.30! I did have a few glasses of champagne last night...

i'm confused- is it best to feed from both breasts at eachfeed or just one? Have been doing both

Go Alfie! He obviously liked the bubbles

I believe 'they' say it is best to offer both breasts at each feed. However if you have stablished feeding with one breast per feed and your lo is happy with that, then that's fine.

so did his mummyILTMIMI! It was pink bubbly btw incase anyone wants to try it

I'm confused about the one boob/two boobs issue. Some experts have told me to give him one boob per feed so that he gets the hind milk, but I have also heard that you have to offer both boobs to stimulate milk production. Which is right?

I suppose sometimes one boob will have to do, as after a long feed D is so sleepy that it's impossible to wake him to take the other. However, sometimes he does seem to need both...

dd2 had thrush in her mouth for a while now as treating her with Daktarin. How long do i carry on? (she is on formula now but was mixed feed). Ive had thrush since i was 7 months pg so still abit there but treating myself anyway. Think DD2 caught thrush off me. Also im still not 100% recovered as either got an infection or the graze is taking a long time to heal! ...

pacita - im doing about 9 feeds a day on 6oz...sometimes 7oz.

plusonemore - huurah about Alfie having a good sleep .

Mine had been sleeping thru since she was 6 weeks old as she is already in a routine which it wasnt as bad as when i had dd1 as she was always hungry!!