March 2005 babies - we are very quiet

[popsycal]

So how is it going for everyone? Most of us have had our babies so how was the first few weeks?

Hi kerryj, I must say how great cranial osteopathy is - we took Faith to see an osteopath a week or so after she was born. I'd been seeing him for about a year myself after a car accident left me with severe whiplash and also caused SPD during my pregnancy with Faith. He suggested I take "the baby" when it was a week of so old for some "cranial work" just to make sure everything had settled ok after the trauma of birth. He also lent me a book explaining the birth process and the effects on the baby and the bones in the skull and how this can affect sleep, colic and general wellbeing in the child. Faith had a very good labour and birth and when he checked her all over he said she was perfectly semetrical (sp?) (proud mummy moment! ) and only needed very slight cranial work. He was extremely gentle and it looked like he just held her for a few minutes. It really is so very fascinating! I hope all goes well for you and Toby. I know it does really work as my osteopath did some cranial work on me after the accident when I was suffering bad headaches and although it felt like he just held my head in his hands for a while my headaches were cured! Amazing! .

If anyone else wants the name of a good osteopath his name is John Williams and his website is www.atlaspainrelief.com - check out the testimonials, he has helped many famous people and his charges are very reasonable!

Faith is still only pooing once a week, and is still enjoying a little juice each day. I think this is helping as she no longer strains in her sleep! I am so pro BF now I am enjoying it so much, I videoed This Morning today so I could watch the "lactivists". I must say I was pleasantly surprised that Fern and the psychologist were so very pro long term BF and had done so themselves. I am so pleased I am able to BF having had such a dreadful time of it all after DD2, I never realised it could be enjoyable .

Hope everyone is ok, and Grace is getting over her cold now . Sending sleep vibes to all who need them, and wakeful vibes to the (mad!) mums that want those .

it isnt getting any better

Hi everyone.

KerryJ - £50 for the osteopath !!! Mine only charges £15 for babies. Are you in London by any chance? Everything is more expensive there! Agree though with 3mummy that it is well worth it. I had a few sessions when pregnant - was suffering terrible headaches early on and after the first session was cured! Didn't have a single headache for the rest of my pregnancy.

It is possible that the hammocks don't work for everyone, but I reckon you can't put a price on a good night's sleep (I'm a right grouchy cow if I don't get my requisite number of hours !) and we had a good 7 hour stretch again last night. She woke at 5am, fed, and then went back to sleep again until I had to wake her at 8.20am so I could feed her before doing the school run . Her cold is much better thanks!

popsycal - you must be exhausted.

Hope everyone else is doing ok

i want a sleeping baby....
going to keep a record of sleep and feeds for next few days and see if i can work out whether i can adjust anything......
he has slept a lot this morning and not fed much since first thing...

popsy, it might not help but just another suggestion - do you have anything that makes 'sleepy sounds', e.g. a heartbeat? Not sure if that makes sense, but hope you know what I mean. We have a thingie that plays wave sounds / heartbeat and has a little nightlight on it which I always put on when (trying) to lay Toby down, so that he associates it with sleep. Okay, so it's not really working - but I'm sticking with it and can but hope!

If you haven't got anything, I spent £30 on a 'slumberbear' which plays womb sounds (i.e. a heartbeat and lots of swooshing noises). I'd be more than happy to lend you the bit that plays the sound so you could try it before spending any money on the whole kit and kaboodle. Just let me know if you're interested.

3mummy & bonym - thanks for letting me know that the osteopath worked for you both. It's given me renewed hope although I've yet to get an appointment as he's really booked up - although he did promise to try and squeeze Toby in asap. No, I'm not in London so a bit miffed at the £50 fee! £15 sounds far more reasonable! However, it is for a 1 hour session...not sure a baby should take that long though, afterall there isn't much of them. Oh well, I'll go with it as I really hope it helps.

Another suggestion popsy - i read somewhere that babies who are exposed to daylight some time between 12-4pm sleep better at night. We're always out then as I walk to pick dd1 up from school so it's possible that this is helping

Does anyone here express breast milk? I've been expressing for a few feeds a day as Toby is a complete milk monster and would spend all day latched on if I let him. I'm thinking of switching completely to bottles of ebm and in a mad moment have just bid on an Ameda breastpump on eBay. Now having doubts as it was really expensive, I'm just a little too compulsive at times!!! Has anyone used one?

Oh, and Toby had his 6 week check today - he's now 11lbs 4oz so certainly gaining well. He's got a slight 'squint' which he's being referred for, but I thought this was quite normal at this age?

KerryJ I express, but I use my hands.

Kieran is also mixed feeding and has been since about day 2 as he just does not seem to get enough on breast feeding only. He seems to be doing well so far.

I had one of those manual pumps that was a nightmare to use, I express much more effectively using my hands and it does not hurt. I just think it feels so natural.

Have you tried expressing with your hands?

I express totally (had a nightmare b/feeding, too long & boring to go into) using a medela mini electric pump. She gets one formula feed a day, the rest EBM in a bottle. Makes me feel less guilty at giving up breast feeding if she still gets the milk!

I'v given up wiht expressing. its too boring, messy and it made me a lot of work. We give Niklas the occassional bottle of formula so he gets used to taking a bottle and for dh to feed him. Still haven't ventured out long enough for him to get hungry yet though!

Popsycal - if you buy a grow bad make sure its one you can do up in the dark. We got one which ended up being a complete waste of money as it was too fiddly to do the zip up in the dark so I think we used it about twice and Niklas has pretty much grown out of it.

Niklas had a major poo while I was out today. Went all through his clothes, up his back, everywhere! Poor thing had to wait home before I could change him, but after I had cleaned him up we had a bath together which he loves!

Shalaa - I haven't noticed any hair loss, but have noticed that the hair on my legs almost disappeared hwen I was pregnant, but now its growing back thicker than eer, I hate it! !

As for running, I've got a buggy to run with but you aren't supposed to run with them until they can sit up (at about 6 months). I have started going for short runs in the evenings when dh gets home from work. Feels fantastic although really tough!

I don't know about anyone else but even though I am getting more sleep now I seem to be more tired than I was after Niklas was first born. I can sleep late in the morning, for a couple of hours during the day then happily roll into bed at 10 in the evening (I don't often do any of these things though). Could it be hormonal? Is anyone else feeling the same?

Same here Leogaela

Sometimes I think the only reason I have any energy at all is because I don't have to do so much is because my Mum is staying and she does most of the stuff around the house for me.

Hi everyone, hope you are all enjoying good weather too - I really think it helps lift the spirits!

Faith slept well last night, 10:30 - 04:30 ish. Then I fed her in bed and slept again til the alarm went off (06:30 ). And she's asleep now too - been in the car to nursery with DD2 and she always nods off !

I really want a growbag for Faith as I've heard they are brill, and she does sleep better when she is warm enough and doesn't kick the blanket off. But we have all these blankets from DD1 and DD2 that DH thinks it'd be a waste of money so I'm a bit miffed at that ! Ah well, I don't s'pose it matters as long as she sleeps .

Misdee - how are you doing these days? I saw your pic of Serena on the profiles and she bares an uncanny resemblance to Faith (whom we nearly named Serena!!), so much so I had to call DH in to have a look! Needless to say we think Serena is very beautiful !!

Anyway off to my Dads for a cuppa while DH is at the driving range - I will get a day out one day !

Happy BF and sleepy vibes to those who need them - at least we're all over the sore nipple stage eh?!!

Faith was on my original listfor dd2

she is doign well, so sweet and lovely. cantbelive time has gone so quick.

no time to chat as MIL coming today.....

but thanks fir all your suggestions girls....going to guve them all a go

night again tho

Popsy DON'T READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE DEPRESSED

• Grace slept for 8.5 hrs last night - didn't wake up until 6.15!! Don't know if this will last but enjoying the sleep while I can . Mind you, we pay for the good nights by having not-so-good evenings a lot of the time. She gets grumpy from about 6pm and remains that way on and off until she goes down for the night - doesn't seem to know if she's hungry or tired, seems to want to feed but then fusses over it, seems tired but every time her eyes start to close she springs them open again. Not complaining though as I know we are very lucky with nightimes.

Took her to be weighed yesterday - she is now 10lb 10oz so has put on 2lb since she was born - is bang on the 50th percentile.

Sending some of Grace's sleep dust down the wires to those who need it...

Don't worry popsy, still every 2-2.5 hours even at night here

Talking to a friend today who bf her ds, she said she introduced a night bottle of formula at around 3 months to get him to sleep. Conversations like that do little for my resolve to exclusively bf I have to say.

Gonna plod on though me thinks. Sleep? Who needs sleep?!!

Hope everyone has had a good day. The weather here has been really sunny but quite windy, so not exactly short sleeves weather, but just seeing the sun makes me feel happier!

THanks everyone for sharing your thoughts on expressing. I have tried doing it by hand, Norash, but it seemed to take me ages to get a measly amount, so I obviously didn't have the technique quite right. Hopefully if I win the Ameda pump on eBay I'll get on well with it - but I can always resell it if not, as they seem to go pretty well on there.

Talking of eBay, I got 'got' by a spoof email claiming to be from them. I can usually spot them a mile off, but this one was quite cunning and basically said I could become a 'Powerseller' (extra e-mail support, etc) as I've sold a fair bit on there. So beware if you use eBay frequently as you may receive the same message!!

Toby has been okay today, we've been out and about alot and he's pretty much guaranteed to settle in his car seat once we're on the move. Took over an hour to settle him to sleep, but I hope he'll now give me some peace and quiet for 5 hours or so. He's still not brilliant at night and I invariably end up having him in bed with me, but must admit I've not really tried putting him back in his cot (in our room) with any resolve. I'm very, very jealous of those of you whose baby's sleep for long stretches...at the moment I find it hard to believe Toby will EVER sleep for longer that 4-5 hours at a time.

I decided to stay at home today (have a quiet day), I just walked to the post office and back. I feel that I need a rest but Niklas seems to be much harder work and needs much more entertaining when we spend the day at home.
He's now settling down to sleep (slowly) and now I can start doing the things I should have started this morning. He is adorable though .

Bonym - wow! that's very impressive! Did you not spend the whole night waking up and going to check she was OK?

We had a funny night last night. I think Niklas had a big empty space to fill up after his huge poo and woke up several times for huge feeds! Hopefully he will do better again tonight!

Hi all, Hi Leogaela

I havent been posting on here because I dont manage to keep up with everyone's posts and just feel a bit of a spare part!!

I know your all lovely but I feel that way sometimes

Further on from my ranting thread yesterday I have managed to make an appointment (in person) for tomorrow, so i'll do that.

I hope your all okay and babes are doing well, i'm going to bed now - not to sleep, obviously

serena should be having a kidney and bladder scan soon. am a bit scared. why is my life so complicated

Oh misdee, I'm not surprised you are scared. I really hope everything's ok . It's funny that we like the same names and we both have 3 DDs!! How old are your other two? Mine are 5yrs and 4yrs old.

Faith has been really sleepy today, but the times she's been awake she has been really smiley . She's soooo lovely!

Well I'm off to bed, having just cleaned my cooker (annual treat ) I am shattered!

Goodnight all x

Hi, my name's Sarah, I'm 19 (20 next month) and have a little girl called Ashli Morgan who was born on the 17th March. I'm engaged to Ashli's daddy who's called Steve, who's 26, and we're getting married next year.
I've only just discovered mumsnet so I thought I'd check it out!
Ashli's got her first jabs on wedsnesday and I'm offically bricking it!

Sarah + Ashli
8 weeks +1 day old.

Welcome Sarah, I hope you enjoy mumsnet and find it as useful as I do.

Welcome Ashli

Hi Sarah and Ashli - welcome to Mumsnet! My name's Kerry, I'm 31 and am married to Steve. We live in Aylesbury, Bucks, and had our second son, Toby, on 27th March. Our eldest, Rowan, is 3 and will be 4 in August. Us in a nutshell!!

I'm sure her jabs will be fine. I've read that giving the recommended dose of Calpol before the jabs can help minimise any discomfort afterwards (may be worth checking this out with your health visitor first, though). Toby has his in a couple of weeks and I can't say I'm looking forward to it either - it's one in each leg nowadays - ouch!!

Hi girls (and welcome to new girls)

I had the night from hell last night - it is starting to get to me now. Had a little lonely cry at about 4am this morning. Not sure what to try next.....can't afford the hammock, try 'whooshing' sounds, tried the afternoon walk, trying to limit day time time (which is a disaster as he gets sooooo grouchy)

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