January 09 - 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4......and we're off

[fourlittlestockingedfeet]

Here's a brand new thread for the early party poppers!

EPPM, not wanting to say exactly where it is online iykwim, we are on the Warwickshire/Solihull border, took us about half and hour to get to Tamworth from here. Boy was it busy there today! What a great place to breastfeed - not! I thought the car-park would be a quiet/discreet place to feed, but it was like Piccadilly Circus!

Dog, she is gorgeous. Especially love the little smile in the top photograph.

Can't put any pictures of Elizabeth on because our camera has fallen out with our computer and is refusing to speak to it!

Elizabeth has had us in hysterics tonight, she has been chuckling away at the mooing Early Learning Centre cow that used to belong to DS2. I was playing 'Peek-a-Moo' (yes I do know I've finally lost it ) with her and she was absolutely loving it. Its funny, she reminds me of DS1 in looks and DS2 in personality and how interactive she is.

Well its looking awfully like DD might be starting with reflux. She's been choking up milk into the back of her throat and arching and crying out since her 6.30 feed and was worse after her 8.30 one. She's been kept upright either on a shoulder or in the sling all evening but it doesn't seem to make any difference, she starts choking-up and crying out etc as soon as we lie her down again. I read somewhere that it commonly starts about 5-6 weeks and she is 5 weeks 2 days old. I think I'll have to book her in with the GP asap. Yet another appointment for her, she already has her hearing test, hip scan and the health visitor this week!

Does anyone know if reflux is worse at night though, she seems to be much better all day and then go downhill in the evening. It doesn't seem to fit the pattern for colic though and is nothing like when the boys had colic.

We are off to a Volkswagen show in Staffordshire tomorrow. Being called Dubfreeze its fortunate that the majority of it is held indoors! (I hate standing around in the cold while DH rummages through boxes of old campervan parts.) The boys love going to VW events and we always take veggie sausages, some eggs and bread rolls and cook up breakfast rolls in the van when we get there. Then after we've frozen enough for one day we go back to the van and make hot chocolate before we drive home.

The camper also has several distinct advantages over the car. First of all there's obviously the cooking/hot drinking making facilities, a 3 point seatbelt for every family member (including a double seat up front so Elizabeth can ride alongside DH and I) curtains all round along with comfortable seating for breastfeeding purposes and plenty of room in the back for the three dogs. Now why can't we find a good modern family car that fits all those criteria for less than two and a half grand? (Hmmm I wonder!)

Oooh! Huge post - again! Sorry folks.

Picasso!
Think we're quite close to each other moose
DD's reflux always seemed worse at night- its quieter, they're in bed more, other distractions are at a minimum.
Prop up the end of her cot...
I know other parents who say their lo slept only on their front, but we did'nt go down that route.

hi moose, it does sound like your LO has got reflux. my LO has got it and was diagnosed last week. he now takes infant gaviscon with his feed and also medication called ratinidine and domperidone. it has been 2 days since he started the meds and i tell you it has made a difference. also the gaviscon makes a difference too. he used to arch his back crying refusing to feed. now the feeds are calmer.

i hope that your GP will give you meds cos some docs dont recognise reflux as a medical condition.

it is worse at night because acid production is higher at night. poor little tykes...

it is hard i know...

Love the sound of the camper MM - but sorry to hear of the reflux/ colic. Our LO had a couple of nights like that, where nothing would calm him down, but seems to have passed for now (fingers crossed). Great news that you bit the bullet and ordered the buggy you wanted! Sometimes I don't know why I try to involve OH in decisions like these as I know it will be me using the buggy 90% of the time - so he's now looking at maclarens. Secretly I have fallen in love with the chicco 4 me in sand and may have to buy it...

It's my Mum's 60th birthday today so we are throwing a big surprise lunch for her with all the family and her friends at the lovely hotel where we got married - got LO down for his nap at 10.20am and ran my bath, only to discover OH had turned the hot water off by mistake! So am now praying he stays asleep for more than his usual 45 minutes so I can get ready!

Hope everyone else has woken up to this glorious sunshine!

no glorious sunshine here today - in london

So sorry for those of you with LOs with Reflux. Esme's bottom and seeing her crying so hard is horrible enough, the idea of reflux - your poor babies and you. Hope your GPs are helpful.

Esmes bottom, i'm not sure if its getting any better? The front seems better, but the back between her cheeks is still really sore! I've given her LOTS of nappy free time today, hoping that will help!

no sunshine here either.

chef there is no outstanding requests for Facebook group. if you aren't on it, try adding again.

Hi all, bit of a nightmare couple of days here, think I've hit 6 week growth spurt. Pinned down feeding and nips hurt! If I can get through this one then next one is 4 months ish so would be lovely to think I have made it through the worst. So glad I was expressing to up supply though, that has saved me really.

Hope things improving with the reflux and the nappy rash. Good luck with the car hunting MM. Hope you had a good day with your Mum MissJ - go for the buggy you want . Pics lovely Dog.

Hi all

Sorry to hear lots of us are struggling. Hope it gets easier for all. Generally, most things improved for me after a few months last time.

We made our second trip out with both kids today, but yesterday was just the local park, today was Wood Green, a longer walk or short bus ride away. We walked there and I got a bus back with C while dp and ds1 walked home, probably a mistake as the bus journey was horrible and I had to stand for most of it, and we only got home minutes before dp.

I'm reluctantly mix feeding on the instructions of the hospital to feed C back to birth weight, and we decided we should buy some new bottles plus cleaning and sterilising stuff. We also bought a few books (shhh don't tell my mum, she thinks I have far too many already for some reason!), a couple of unusually colourful nursing bras and matching knickers from Mothercare (this is more impressive than it sounds as finding items that match there is usually hard) and a couple of toy Teletubbies for ds1.

Tomorrow we have to go back to the f*ing hospital yet again for another weigh in, hoping he will be above birth weight and that they'll let us have Tuesday/Wednesday without having to go up there (they've already got us booked in for most of Thursday afternoon). I'm getting quite cross about it now. dp has taken some extra annual leave which he had available, but will go back to work on 2 March so I really want some time in his last week.

Monday morning again!

Sounds like you did some good shopping elkie; fingers crossed that C is up to birth weight today and you get a break from the hospital.

Can anyone give me instructions on how to use an avent isis steriliser? It's an inherited one without instructions! Do I simply pour 90ml of water into the bottom and plug it in? Am trying to get going on the expressing!

LO was very well behaved at my mum's 60th lunch after being a nightmare all morning! Maybe we are on a growth spurt too because I seem to be feeding every 90 minutes during the day.

rray hope the new cream is working - have you tried good old sudocrem?

morning

dd2 is 5 weeks old today
she is just starting to love lying under her activity gym.
she is a real smiler

Have found owner's manual online so no need for instructions anymore. Now just need to persuade LO to go to sleep for a bit so that I can work out how to use this expressing machine!

Update on my LO's reflux. Looks like adding infant gaviscon to his feed, plus the medication is helping because the night feeds are infinitely better. he lasts 3 1/2 to 4 hours at night now. and it is not a struggle to get him to feed. thing is, it makes breastfeeding hard because he can only empty one breast before feeling the heartburn. nevermind, i am expressing anyway.

also, LO is now eating so much per feed - around 5 ounces, that my milk production cant keep up. i am not too upset because i am still able to produce expressed milk for 2-3 of his daily feed. and the main thing is that he is growing really well! he weighed 5.5kgs at 5weeks + 2 days.

LO has not smiled yet!

hope you are all well!

elkie, hope all ok. books sorry about mastitis. having duvet day as DD at nursery. lovely.

hi books, so sorry to hear about your mastitis. i think it is due to blocked ducts? i hope you are feeling better !

Hi all

Had a nightmare day, literally.

It started with the Angelcare Monitor breathing alarm going off at 5.50 this morning. DH was sleeping on the side of the bed attached to the crib so went to pick her up and she wasn't breathing!!!! Picked her up, called her name, rubbed her chest and back and she started to breathe, but not normally, sort of taking a breath holding it then stopping again.

DH passed her to me and she was dark blue around her mouth and both eyes but started to breathe more normally. However she wouldn't wake up or open her eyes and wasn't rooting or crying for a feed despite it being 7 hours since her last feed. Decided to loosen her clothes and take off her nappy and she woke up and started rooting and sucking her hands so fed her and she was fine after that.

DH wanted to rush her to wait outside GPs for when they opened, but I thought for the sake of 20 mins he should drop the boys at school while I rang the docs then go straight there.

Receptionist tried to put us on the triage list but I insisted it was an emergency so she reluctantly went to speak to the on call doctor who said we should dial 999! I explained that she was fine now and had been chuckling and playing with her brothers just two minutes ago, but the doctor said we had to dial 999 in case it happened again and we were en-route to the doctors.

Paramedic arrived within 3 minutes, was happy with her condition and that we were confident experience parents that didn't panic or call 999 unnecessarily, but said they don't carry equipment small enough for tiny babies so she would have to go to Heartlands hospital by ambulance to be checked out.

I went in the ambulance and DH followed behind. We were checked over in A&E then transferred to the ward where Edward was in December! The worst part was when then tried to take bloods and DH had to hold her while she screamed and screamed, it was like a repeat performance of Edward and really traumatic. They sent the bloods off but the sample was too small to analyse so they didn't get any results in the end anyway! We were admitted to the ward and told we would have to stay overnight for observation, but luckily the lovely doctor we had said that as she was so fit and healthy and all her obs were perfect and we had a breathing monitor at home he felt it was unnecessary for us to stay, so we just had to stay till 6pm with her attached to an apnoea monitor instead.

In the end they said that it was an apnoea episode of which the cause was unknown and that it can just happen sometimes as occasionally babies just sort of forget to breathe. We have a follow up appointment in 6 weeks to make sure she is still thriving and hasn't had any more episodes (which is daft because they said if it happens again we should just call 999 immediately and be taken back there anyway).

There is every chance that had we not had the Angelcare Monitor she would have just taken a huge breath and started breathing again on her own without any stimulation from us, but if she hadn't it doesn't bear thinking about! Am so relieved we have the monitor, we bought it for DS1 so its 7 years old, we used it with DS2 then lent in to my SIL for her little boy so its on child number 4 and has never gone off before!

We are home now and all is well, but I don't think we will relax around her while she is asleep for a very long time! Doubt we will get much sleep tonight either.

It has been a totally exhausting and stressful day. I feel nauseaus, have a major headache and am totally knackered.

We haven't told the boys exactly what happened, just that she was a bit poorly and the doctors sent an ambulance because they are always very careful when tiny babies are poorly. We had to tell them about the ambulance as we had the ambulance and paramedic vans on the drive at school run time so half the school will know by now and its bound to get back to them.

Oh yes, they weighed her and she is now 9lb 6oz so has put on a pound and half in a week and a half.

Biggest post yet I think!

oh my gosh moose, how scary.
Has made me go and sort out our breathing monitor, as to be honest i hadnt even been using it. how awful is that - i just hadn't had it switched on..... As it made a funny noise before. Am off to sort it out right now!

gosh, thats a shocker of a day. no wonder you have a headache! really glad that all is ok, and I hope you guys can have a nice bath and a glass of wine to try and relax as much as possible. I'm impressed with how well you handled it! I'd have been a dithering wreck.

Thanks guys.

Am usually calm in a crisis but then collapse afterwards! I think I just go into automatic mode and then think about it later.

Fortunately I watched a programe on Discovery Health last week which covered what to do if you find your baby non-responsive or not breathing and it must've sunk in because I just sort of knew what to do. Don't know how I would have coped if she hadn't responded to intitial stimulation though.