Nov 2008 - sleepless nights and exploding poo, dear oh dear now what do we do??

[Dozymare]

Sorry that is soooo crap but we needed a new thread!!!!!

Hello All,

Just a quick "hello" and "thank you" for the birthday wishes on Wednesday. I had such a lovely day. Esme bought me a lovely present (Mike Macintyre DVD) and a lovely card (she is just so clever) and DH bought me an amazing present (oh i just can't hold it in I got a bl**dy ROLEX watch..(sorry not showing off just still in shock YIKES.... I am so excited but keep forgetting ).. anyway that besides, DH took me out for lunch in Lincoln on my birthday, we also registered Esme in the morning and then did some shopping. Then last night he had organised a family dinner party surprise party, it was so lovely and it was great to have my mum, step dad, dad and step mum and my sister from Brighton all be here for me (plus Polly their daughter and a few more).

Breast feeding lady had to cancel on thursday and rearrange to Monday so I will see what happens.

Saw the health visitor on Thurday and i was hoping Esme had hit the big 8lb mark but alas NO she was just under at 7lb 15oz! She is now 5 weeks old and everyday i can see her growing it's just amazing. She is now smiling and I love it.

Not sure if i missed whether someone has said whether we are having a NORTHERN MEET UP OR NOT??????????

Sorry for the ME ME ME BUT i have decided it is now my birthday MONTH (have done with the birthday, then moved to birthday week and now MONTH) hee hee

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.s. Esme slept through from 10.30pm to 7am this morning! BREAK THROUGH!!!!

Good afternoon everyone. Haven't had much chance to mumsnet lately except to look for advice about dd1's asthma and my clogged ducts.
Amy is settling in really well. She is such a different baby than dd1 was - she is a hungry little thing and needs to be fed often. Hence the lack of time to mumsnet. It is great though because although she feeds a lot in the day and evening she has been sleeping very well at night for the last week. Last feed around 12, then waking around 4.30 for a quick feed and sleeping til 7.30ish. Not sure how that compares to the other breastfed babies on here but feels ok to me.
DD1 has been ill this week and ended up very wheezy on Thursday so she is on anti-biotic and steroids. She loves her little sister and shows no sign of being jealous as such but she has been acting up a bit. Her favourite phrase at the moment is 'I won't'.
Thankfully she is sleeping better as she was a nightmare the first couple of weeks after Amy came home from hospital. DH said he thought it was newborns who disrupted your sleep not 2.5 year olds!!!

I hope everyone is doing well and that all the new babies are thriving. I saw on the news that there was a lot of snow in England recently. Have any of you been affected? Our little ones will be tough after arriving to this cold, cold weather.

Breakthrough on James. He's been crying since 6am today and has only just fallen asleep!!!

Saw another emergency doc and he was great. Agreed it would appear to be reflux (which the one yesterday dismissed ) and has prescribed Gaviscon.

Pharmacist warned us though... He saw James crying screaming in the shop and said to try the Gaviscon and if it didn't work to investigate the lactose problem, that he may be sensitive to milk. I hope he's not as I love bf him and don't want to resort to soya but whatever is best for him I guess. Hopefully it wouldn't be that bad anyway and cutting out milk for me could sort it...

Lets be positive - the Gaviscon WILL work

Mummynic, sorry to hear. Cranial oesteopath is vey good for colic. Expensive, but worth it IMO.
Welcome londonboots
WOW Pinkali, is Esme our foist sleep-through-er ? I am so jealous. Our nights are still awful.
Daisy, how are you. You and those poor norks of yuors. You are amazing.
sorry to hear of bad times for hana anh hertmum.
love to merrym
and everone else. excuse one handed short message.
is there a ACRONYM for one handed typing ? like NAK ? how abot OHT ?

Mummynic, sorry to hear. Cranial oesteopath is vey good for colic. Expensive, but worth it IMO.
Welcome londonboots
WOW Pinkali, is Esme our foist sleep-through-er ? I am so jealous. Our nights are still awful.
Daisy, how are you. You and those poor norks of yuors. You are amazing.
sorry to hear of bad times for hana anh hertmum.
love to merrym
and everone else. excuse one handed short message.
is there a ACRONYM for one handed typing ? like NAK ? how abot OHT ?

Obs - it's reflux (or milk intolerance) not colic - which has been my battle, I knew in my gut that it wasn't colic - too many areas didn't fit - the time, the length of episodes and the level of distress.

Gonna have to festive up my name...

Hi all - hope good weekends all round.

Question to which I know there will be lots of diff answers, but what would you say is the average time it would take a 4 week old to empty one breast?? M seems to be feeding on one breast for max 20-25 mins now before closing his mouth and not letting anymore in. Does this sound ok?? I will take him to be weighed on tuesday but wondered what you thought??

Thanks!!

Should add that it used to take him 45 mins or so.

Hi Choc, not much use but R has always only fed for max 15 - 20 mins never known her to empty the breast though, she has been putting on weight and seems content aart from now when she is giving me hell!!

Sorry for quick post R screaming . . .

Oh and OHT !!

evening all - hope you had a good weekend!!! We had a fab time, feeling very christmassy as all decs up and went out and gbot our tree yesterday.........Had a few drinks as well which was lovely, but forgot how rough you can feel next day! DH been a superstar and has done BOTH nights so I have slept like a baby, and feel refreshed!

choc you have to remember that M will be getting more efficient at BF the older he gets - in the early days you can be BF for hours but then the better you and the baby get, the quicker it becomes. He would only be taking as much as he needs and that sounds fine to me

Tiger is still being a superstar - she is very happy and content and started smiling this weekend - we all melted and I love watching her and the boys interact.....

DH calling - supper ready!!!

DM x

had a trying weekend here. Bumba has been snacking since last night and has wanted feeding every 45mins, then isn't latching on or keeps pushing my boobs away and shouting. He's also only had short 20 minute naps all day and has been full of wind the rest of the time. It's very frustrating as I don't know what he wants and it's making my boobs sore again.

choco, mine have never fed for much longer than 20-25 mins, but if you feel he isn;t getting to the richer milk, then put him back on that side after his natural break in the feed.

mummynic, I hope the gaviscon makes a difference. You can buy the milk called Lactofree from most supermarkets; it's milk, but with added lactase enzyme (Colief for grownups ) and is virtually lactose free. It might be worth a try with that and see if it improves.

Dozy, sounds like a lovely weekend. We are doing the tree and decorations next weekend, but are only having a little tree that can be put up on the sideboard to keep DD away from trashing it.

Pinkali at sleeping through! What is your secret? I would be glad of four straight hours between feeds. Your birthday sounds lovely.

Obs, sorry your nights are still bad. We are the crap nights club.

Can't make sheffield tomorrow . Things with DS2 getting me down and his feeding has been so bad today that we are going to spend the day doing skin to skin and seeing if we can get things to work a bit better.

Thanks DM and coolkat - I figure as long as he's not wanting to feed more frequently then it should be ok but just wondered if such a reduction in time was "normal".

Sorry for not responding to anyone's posts before - was a bit rushed but as DH is watching Top Gear I can catch up!

Pinkali DH loves Michael Macintyre and he only introduced him to me about a week ago so spooky timing - well done Esme on her card and present - what a clever baby!!

MummyNic sorry to hear about James's reflux - good luck with the Gaviscon!

BTW - can you believe we are a quarter of the way through our SECOND PN thread and Gaviscon has only just been mentioned - this would NEVER have happened in AN

Welcome to the thread londonboots - it really is a fantastic group on here. I am doing a GF lite and I try and follow the feeding schedule (by making him feed at the alloted times) but sometimes he wants feeding sooner than the routine. I find this is usually when he's not fully awake when feeding, or has a short feed - I basically try anything to get him to feed for as long as poss each time.

Barb our cat is being shamefully ignored because I just don't have anytime for her . DH has been charged with feeding her as I said "I feed the baby, you feed the cat!" She doesn't seem interested in DS at all - she very quickly leaves the room when he cries and hasn't even been over to look at him, which I suppose is better than sitting on him!

We have had a lovely weekend - it was my work xmas party last night at a hotel in Hertfordshire with partners, so we took M and my sister who babysat for him in the room while we were 1 min walk away in the function room - it was the perfect first night out scenario as I wasn't worried because he/we were so close by. Poor M did have to sleep on the bathroom floor in between the bath and the toilet between 7-10 (in his moses basket, not the floor!) in order to still sleep in the dark a la GF but he didn't seem to mind and didn't wake up!

Right - thats probably long enough - gotta pump and then off to bed, partying till 1am doesn't mix well with a 4 week old baby!!

daisy you can tell me to bugger orf and I promise I won't take offence, but have you ever contemplated a sort of routine? As you know I do GF lite and for the past 3 weeks, Tiger has been a dream - only waking 1x in the night, happy, content and thriving. She is up at 7am and is asleep by 7pm every night. It means DH and I get time to relax together, but also more importantly, Tiger is getting structured sleep. She has slept for 4 hours today between 7am-7pm and rarely cries.

We have had the odd blip, but honestly, hand on heart it has been as much as a revelation with Tiger as it was with DS1 and ds2. (You always think it may just be coincidence)

Your post tonight reminds me so much of DS1 and I can remember feeling so tired/miserable and overwhelmed as I couldn't fathom what was the matter with him.......

On the other hand, I know that routine isn't for everyone but with school runs etc it may be beneficial???

DMxx

choc can't believe you did the bathroom floor in the end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glad you had a good time though! |

dozy.....bugger off

seriously though, I'm at the stage where I'll try anything! We need to get into some sort of routine as DH is starting his new job on the 15th so we have a week to get ourselves organised.

I'll have a read through the GF routine for his age tonight and see how we go for a few days.

DS1 and DD were such easy babies and got into their own grove pretty quickly. Maybe high maintenance babies need the extra help?

We are definately going to get some cherry dummies tomorrow as we found an old one of DDs and he likes it much better. A lot of his fussing is that he just has wind and wants to suck, but when he gets a mouthful of milk he gets annoyed. If only they could talk!!!!

My cat is still the clingy pest she was before the baby was born....

Mummynic glad you got the Gaviscon - all you can do is give it a try and if it doesn't work, at least you can rule out reflux. Poor James (and you) - I know from my friend that watching her DS in pain and not know what it was was the worst thing

Choc wow, am impressed that you managed a night out so soon - but the circumstances sound perfect!! Lol, me and DH have still not had a night out since DS1 was born 2.5 years ago

Daisy for you - I really hope the skin to skin works for you and you can crack this feeding! You have been an absolute star to get this far so I can imagine how upset you are about all this. Lol at your Xmas tree - tbh, DS1 was your DD's age last Xmas and we just made sure that all the unbreakable baubles etc were at the bottom and resigned ourselves to rehanging them every night once he was in bed Who knows what will happen this year as he can reach much higher

Well, today at 5, Sam actually finished a 4oz bottle and then was screaming for more before 8 - when he drunk another 3oz again!! Is this a growth spurt?? Since his last bottle, he has had a massive poo (he only has one every 3 days!) and then led on the changing mat on the floor watching Strictly Come Dancing very contentedly!! (btw, did anyone else watch it? How much plastic surgery has Barry Manilow had????)

Daisy just read your last post. Tbh, Sam really struggles to keep the orthodontic dummies in his mouth - iirc from DS1, I am sure he took to a cherry teat like a duck to water so I need to get some for Sam. As DS1 still has his for nap and bedtimes, I don't really want to use them as he will spot it straight away and pinch it back - have only avoided this so far by making sure Sam's are completely different

Glad you didn't take offence daisy would have been very upset if you had! Definaely worth a read...

I do the following and works for us:

1. Always start the day at 7am - this way you will get in enough feeds to only have 1 wake up at night (plus will fit in with family life so a good one to star twith!)

2. I let Tiger sleep when she wants at this stage and wake her if necessary for a feed - I follow the feeding patterns that GF recommends and results in only 1 night feed

3. If Tiger has slept lots in the day, then I always make sure she is awake from 5pm-7pm and follow a bedtime routine as bath, play, feed and bed

4. Tiger does not sleep in her room through the night but I do put her down in her cot in a grobag during the day.

It will taker a few days to get some sort of structure, but I promise you it will happen - just ask chocorange

off to watch louis theroux now¬!

hgs to those that need it

I was at Barry Manilow. He looks younger than he did in the 1970s! why do people do it; they aren't fooling anyone!!

Will hunt down some more cherry soothers tomorrow.

Oh, and since DD did her two nights in her princess bed.......she refuses to go in it and screams if we put her anywhere near it. she had such a tantrum the other night and got so upset, that DH put her in the cot. Now she knows she has won and won't budge on the issue. We are thinking that we might have to admit defeat and buy another cot!

LOL Ceebee at Barry Manilow - he is indeed plastic man!!
Happy belated birthday pinkali and congrats on getting a ROLEX!!! You are a lucky lady indeed!

Welcome Londonboots! This is a great thread and a great source of advice from the second and third timers.
barbs our poor dog is definitely a bit neglected - she still gets 2 walks a day, but is often ignored inbetween. Perversely, she does appear to love our LO and wants to lick her fingers all the time!

Lacks well done on persevering with your sore bosoms. I don't know how you do it. Stern stuff you are made of.
I feel blessed that my nips aren't suffering, Mini-Margot is a good little latcher thankfully. However, she appears to be entering a growth spurt as she has been feeding pretty much non-stop this weekend in the daytime.
Last night she slept for 4.5 hours from 11:45pm til 3:15am, which was great, but then didn't settle back down properly until around 7:30am. Since it was Sunday, we all went back to sleep from then until 11am - a lovely lazy family morning.

hana it is frustrating when they start banging fists against your bosoms instead of latching on. C.P does this when she's cross and hungry and I have to be quite forceful in removing her fists. Her favourite position is to dig her little claws into the flesh of my bosom either side of the nip - ouch!! !

dozy your DH sounds fantastic, cooking you dinner every night. Somehow, I find I'm still cooking every night - whilst DH settles C.P before putting her down. Tonight though she wouldn't settle til 8:30pm so we did shifts eating.

Choc I'm impressed by you going to your xmas do! Good on you!!
We managed dinner with our neighbours on Tuesday, they only live next door. It was lovely, C.P was angelic and slept from 7 - 9:30pm which was enough time for champagne, starters and mains, then settled back to sleep ready for pud and coffee

Hello to everyone else!

P.S. Love the name suggestion Lacks - done!

Trying to catch up as not been on since Thursday ...

ladybuzz - hope your DS better.
daisy - hope you are feeling better and on the mend. Also daisy you said you need to eat more fruit and veg ... i need to stop thinking on an evening "s**t i've had nothing to eat today and only a cup of tea to drink!".

Heels - WOW! I'm in a complete panic because I really do have NO decent clothes and got my xmas work do with the lads (only woman in the team) on Thurs and a girly xmas meal week on Tues . Looking forward to both in terms of meeting people and adult conversation (lads from work ) but just got no clothes and cant completely relax on the nights as got night feed to do still . Only got a couple of crappy pairs of jeans and t shirts after i decided to have a clear out but cant find the time to shop for clothes. Anyone else find it had to shop between feeds for baby and if applicable dealing with a toddler also?

merrym - congrats to your sister.

fairy - Things will work out. Just keep talking about how you feel. Dont bottle it up.

heartmum - i know what it is like with the screaming. I had 4 hours of it with A one day last week (not sure which they blur into one). In the end got DH out of his sick bed to help as I didnt know what to do and she fell asleep minutes later so I didnt need DH after all.

londonboots - welcome.

mummynic - fingers crossed for Gaviscon.

NORTHERN MEET UP - Is it meant to be happening tomorrow AM or going to do it another day? Also who would be coming? Will check 1st thing in the morning to see if anyone has said anything. Otherwise I will assume it's not happening.

QUICK SUMMARY for since Thurs. DS varies with his behaviour. A is good the majority of the time but keeps having screaming fits (colic maybe). Me and DH since early pregnancy have been having probs but been getting worse and basically dont seem to like each other much. The other day we had such a bad arguement that DH nearly didnt come home and I honestly thought this is it, the end. Dont like crying and arguing everyday and I dont want my kids being fetched up in this. I did something i am ashamed of ... after i have been hurt i get angry so i went and got DH x-mas presents gave them to him and said "merry xmas" in a nasty way. i was angry and also thought wont be with him at this rate so might as well give him them now . now i have ruined that for x-mas. I'm such a stupid cow and catn blame it all on the "ginger" temper.

Me and DH are just getting on with the day to day things at the moment. Had a nice family time of DH taking DS swimming and me and A watching yesterday afternoon once DH had a long lie in. Today me and DS went to Lincoln x-mas market with my parents and sis. Loved it . DH had A for the day.

ooh - how does one name change?

V.tempted to try a routine - is GF best and is there a specific book that I need to consult?

What is a cherry dummy? Do they stay in better?

My cat went to the emergency vet and they think she has a kidney problem so she has to stay in and it's costing £300

leaky hope you get the bfing sorted. I still find it painful - maybe I need to check his latching on. I just thought he had a strong suck - it can be sooo painful at times.

mummynic hope the gaviscon works

Right, better pop the little fella to bed - he is asleep on dh's lap at mo (am I bad mother keeping him up? )