March 09 - The spring babies have sprung

[jollyjoanne]

Thought I'd start us up a post-natal thread for the new mummies of March 09 (or thereabout!)

Corgi You're totally right about the dairy thing. It's impossible to tell. I had a bit of a relapse over the weekend due to being tempted by some delicious chocolate ice-cream. DD2 has seemed slightly more unsettled since, but as you say that could be due to any number of factors. I'm going to stick to it in the hope of one day getting back into my large collection of size 10 trousers (bit optimistic as haven't worn any of them since pregnant with DD1 3 years ago).

Our evenings are still bad. Thought we'd cracked it when she went down at 8.30 two days in a row, but back to normal now. I too am trying to just go with the flow for 3 months, but it goes against the grain - I am such a control freak and long to have a routine. Also, I am tormented by the idea that I am setting up bad sleep habits which I will never be able to break. I was quite strict with DD1 and she has always been a good nighttime sleeper (the day was another matter)but I just can't structure DD2's day when I am so busy with toddler activities, screaming fits, etc. Have forbidden myself to check Mumsnet sleep boards as am then given ideas for a whole new set of sleep problems that I convince myself DD2 will have...

Re. getting back into the swing of things with DH - NO WAY! Both of our DDs were conceived with one attempt and am too tired to think about contraception methods at the mo. He'll have to wait, but think he's too tired to care either.

Lolianja Congratulations! No wonder your morning sickness has been so bad.

OH MY WORD Loli - . You don't do things by halves. Congratulations !

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD LOLI!!!!!!!!! That'll be almost like triplets I guess?

Hope you're ok and getting to grips with the shock of it all. Still, really, on a plus side, at least you are young enough and have the energy to look after them all! I'd be floored at 36 - struggling as it is! All the best to you darlin' and hope the sickness eases for you soon.

Sorry, forgot to say CONGRATULATIONS! (It's the shock)

Wow congratulations Loli!

Slick funny you should say that I have a freind who had a early scan like Loli and was told she was having one, at her 12wks scan was told twins. then when she had her 20wk scan they 'found' a third hidden one .

Loli you probaly didn't want to hear this.

Holy crap, loli -- congratulations! Shock and awe...

wow - loli - amazing news - I'm in shock - hope your shock has worn off by now - wow!

lizzie - eek to your friend's story!

Rosie had one of her good sleeps last night. DH put her down at around midnight and I heard some wee rumblings at 3.30am - next time I woke up it was 5am. I don't actually mind starting my day at 5am. I quite like sitting gazing at Rosie (and getting some wee smiles in return this morning) while dh and dd1 still sleep. And the mornings have been beautiful - clear blue skies - makes me feel really happy!

jolly I am like you and tend to wake up naturally around 3.30am every morning as that is normally when rosie starts fossicking about!

Elsy I know what you mean about struggling to find a routine when you also have a toddler. FWIW i never imposed a daytime routine on dd1 - she sort of found her own one at around 3 or 4 mo. The only one that has stuck is bedtime and amazingly Rosie is fitting in with that one too - though I know it can all go tits up at any time

The sleep threads on here scare me too!

slick - that is rubbich news about your hands - I don't know much about it but hope they can sort you out so that it doesn't hurt.

loli CONGRATULATIONS

Wonderful (if a litte shocking) news x

at your friend slick. Fingers crossed its just the two loli.

Slick - I meant to say about your hand. If worst comes to the worst, I knwo someone who's recently had an operation for it and its v. quick (local anaesthetic) and recovery v. quick. My Mum had the same problem when me and my brothers were born and she never had the operation because at the time it was a difficult op with long recovery and still struggles with it now from time to time. Hopefully though yours will go without the need for it, sometimes wrist support can help.

Lara had her jabs today. She was very cross about it (fair enough - she'd just dropped off to sleep). Not looking forward to the tongue tie snip now although at least that is a one off rather than jab one leg, recover, jab the other. I didn't realise that the 3rd set of this lot is now 3 jabs. At least I didn't blub this time - did with my PFB. Think I might tomorrow.

Wow loli, congratulations!

I just had my implant fitted today, explained it's our stop gap til DH gets the snip, and was a bit at them saying 'well what if one of your children died?'.

Although I have to say two small children and husband on night shifts work very effectively as a contraceptive!

DH took kids while I had my appt, came back 2 hours later to find him absolutely at his wits end as Gabe had refused to take a bottle, settle or stop crying. Looks like any future social outings for me will be taking place between 19.30 and 23.00 when Gabe is asleep.....

loli congratulations!

Elsy - your post could have been written by me - evenings are a struggle with DD - give her a bath and settle down to feed her while DS has stories, but she then wakes up and cries all evening until we finally manage to settle her, which is usually between 10 and 11.30pm . She went down at 9pm two nights running, end of last week, but not since. Am also going with flow for 3 months, but am v. worried about setting up bad sleep habits. She stays in our room until 6.30/7am though (sometimes her moses basket, sometimes my bed), so hoping she still knows it's sleepy time - despite the 2 (more often) to 3 (much less often) hourly wakings for food and winding (winding more time consuming than feeding ). Also, while DD's lack of sleep is our contraceptive thus far, we will also be v. careful as both DD and DS conceived first try and twins run in my family

Meep - that your DD2 fits in with DD1's bedtime - if DD doesn't feed or sleep when I'm putting DS to bed, she screams and he lies there with his hands over his ears , poor mite!

Does anyone else have wind troubles with their LO? DD does need to be winded after every feed, which is very difficult at bedtime as she falls into deep sleep which I can't wind her from and then she wakes up 30 mins later screaming with wind. Also last night (and has happened before) if I feed her lying down, when she does wake she is struggling with wind and can sound like she's struggling to breathe as though she has a heavy cold (she doesn't) and has very wet burps (not reflux like DS had), but does bring milk back up. Any suggestions?

Hope you're having nice weather today unlike us - is wet and miserable here - feels like first time since DD was born and am finding it's much harder to entertain DS when we can't go in the garden!

starshine - sympathies with most of your post !

L doesn't settle till sometime between 1030 and 1130. We don't actually try now until about 10 but even yesterday when she'd had about an hours sleep in the day she would not settle. Eventually went off about 1130. She too screams usually during dd1s bedtime. I often end up with feeding her whilst reading stories.

Also having wind problems - although she rarely brings stuff up. Am kind of hoping the tongue snip tomorrow might help as this can be one of the symptoms.

It is also raining and miserable and cold here !!

Thanks to everyone for the encouraging words about Rhys? neck ? we?ve got an appointment with the osteopath on Friday, so I?ll hold off on any more panicking until then. I?ll also mention the rolled muslin idea if he doesn?t ? thanks for the tip, meep.

Does anyone else feel like weeping when they make their little ones do tummy time? Rhys just looks so helpless, and when you add his crying in?We?ve done two shifts of 5 minutes today, and I spent the whole time down with him, stroking his back and whispering in his ear that the tummy time thing was really his dad?s idea? slick, I did have to laugh at the image of FB contemplating the oddness of his situation.

Also, slick, would it help to use support wraps/bandages on your wrists? Or would that just mask the real problem?

Good luck with keeping off the dairy, elsy. I think I?m going to start back slowly with some goat?s cheese and see how that goes, as that?s supposed to be less irritating than cow?s milk cheese. Oh, and if you need moral support in the ?I really want a routine but my LO will have none of it and I think I may be going crazy and I?m surrounded by people who have blissfully sleepy babies? quarter, I?m your woman. I didn?t know there were sleep boards on here, and I?m having none of ?em.

Poor little Lara ? hope the tongue tie snip goes well tomorrow, wheely. starshine and wheely, our evenings sound identical. Don?t know what I?ll do when my mum leaves and we don?t have the luxury of a third set of arms for rocking and legs for walking between 6pm and 10pm.

One bright note: Last night, I truly realised the advantage of pumping ? it had been a loooooong day because the previous night Rhys had reverted to waking less than every two hours to feed (which translates into at most an hour of sleep), and I was knackered! We decided to try to capitalise on what seemed to be a trend/routine (HAH!) and wake him for a feed at 10pm, then swaddle him and put him down and hope for the best. Well, he was hugely fussy at the feed, and then woke up screaming at 11.30. The best laid plans. So DP, bless him, took him from me when he finished nursing at midnight, changed him and whisked him out to the living room?and I woke up at 6am when he brought him in to nurse, having given him a bottle feed at 3am. That?s SIX HOURS of sleep! The bliss!

DP, poor man, has bags under his eyes today you could pack a year?s worth of clothes in. I am a very lucky woman.

However ? although Rhys took immediately to the bottle, has anyone had a situation where bottle feeds made a baby less enthusiastic about breastfeeding? I?m thinking Rhys is getting spoiled by the relative ease of the bottle and isn?t inclined to work as hard on the breast ? so today he?s been either drifting off or giving up after 5-10 minutes, which he?s never done before.

(Sorry for these marathon posts -- I get so excited when I have time to read and respond that I get a bit carried away!)

hey ladies
i haven't been on here for AGES!
i was a 'member' of march the antenatal club but haven't been on here so long that i haven't even posted my birth announcement yet!
i had a baby boy - francesco - on 24th march, he was 13 days late so went in for an induction and had to wait so long my waters broke in the hospital!
a good thing in the end because it meant i could have a waterbirth in the birth centre. it was a very positive experience (despite the fact that he was-a rather large-4.1kgs/9lbs!!). all i can say is thank goodness for gas and air
it looks like a lot has happened in the interim, congrats on all the new babies...and new pregnancies (blimey, you're brave!).
not sure i'll have time to read all that has happened but hope everyone is well and enjoying motherhood

p.s. laumiere noticed you have a baby sling up for sale (or did have!), if you're still selling, would be interested in buying - looking for sth to make on-the-go breastfeeding a bit easier!
thanks! a x

Starshine My DD's wind problems sound identical to yours. It's so frustrating when she drops off to sleep and then wakes screaming after half an hour. The GP suggested reflux but she won't take the medication (just gags and vomits it up) and to be honest I don't think she has reflux. She does burp a lot and seems to be swallowing and 'chewing' on nothing. She only throws up occasionally though and she doesn't seem to be in pain when she's feeding, just uncomfortable sometimes which is much more likely to be wind in my opinion. I'm sure it'll pass when her digestive system matures a bit.

Wheely Don't worry about the tongue tie. DD had hers cut when she was 3 weeks and it wasn't too bad. She howled of course but fed straight away and soon calmed down. It didn't seem to hurt at all afterwards either. Didn't make much difference to her feeding though - she still bobs on and off which I think is down to wind or her floppy larynx (sometimes hard to breathe).

By the way, do any of you watch Jon and Kate Plus 8? It's a reality TV show about Jon and Kate and how they cope with their 7 year old twins and 3 year old sextuplets Whenever I'm feeling sorry for myself for having to cope with two under three, I watch an episode to put things in perspective - it could be so much harder!

Thanks for that info Elsy - did you have dd's cut at Kingston (you're around me aren't you) ?

Thanks Wheely for the info (that does reassure me a bit) and Corgi for the advice (and meep for kind thoughts ) - I went and got some bandages last night to support my wrists a bit although DH thought I looked like I was going boxing - especially as I was about to put a mouthguard in for the teeth clenching at night.... Honest to God, I'm such a freak.

Am seeing the HV tomorrow so will mention it to her and if she doesn't say that it's very common, then I'll make an appt with the GP. Again. Sigh.

Wheely Hope Little Lara is ok after her jabs and I know, the 3 jabs is a shocker - Carla (DD2) had it done last year and I felt like a right b*stard. Re: getting tongue tie cut - I totally wish I had had DD1's cut as a baby - I wish we even KNEW she had a tongue tie as a baby. When we did find out I had to take her to a speech therapist to check he speech was developing as it should and it actually took until last June for her to get it cut (aged 7) and it was quite traumatic (well, for me, I nearly fainted cos I was so tense. But I didn't know I had just got pregnant with FB at the time...) just watching her go under, urgh! She was absolutely fine and after, she bravely croaked "I did it!" and then promptly scoffed a whole bowl of rice crispies! But, I wish it had been done as a bubba as it is so much easier and quick, so you're def doing the right thing. Let us know how you all get on.

Corgi I completely forgot about 'Tummy Time' today (I can hear FB from his cot saying, "Thank you, God") But now you've reminded me, I'll try to do it more. I put it off with DD2 because every time I lay her down on her front she puked, but she didn't learn to crawl until 9 months whereas her sister was off at 7 months. FB is a big puker too, but I will just have to have wipes at the ready.

Laumiere I cannot BELIEVE that the doctor or whoever gave you the implant said that. I think that's an awful thing to say. And what an awful thought. And would you ever be able to 'replace' that child anyway. Oh, it doesn't even bear thinking about. DH is getting the snip done, so if we are asked that I may be a bit more prepared. Urgh. Just awful.

Welcome back AmyO and congratulations on the birth of your wee boy (great name btw).
Haven't seen that prog your talking about. we have a crap amount of channels so there's a good chance we don't even get it. Just haven't had the time or inclination to sort all that out.

Urgh Meep I feel ill if my day starts at 5am, but I get a feeling you go to bed earlier and are a better sleeper - so it sounds like you actually sleep when you are there - like a normal person!!

God, can this post BE any longer???

Laumiere

I also shocked at your doctor when having your implant. DH went for his consultation for the 'snip' and was told he could have it a week on friday. Unfortunly he can't do that day as he has a big project going live at work that day so he will probaly have it done next month.

Lizzie That's interesting to know that it can happen quite quickly. We keep meaning to call the family planning clinic, but I think I have it in my head it will take months to get an appointment. I guess it varies from region to region. I think we could definitely both do with some, er, light relief.

Have posted a few piccies of the little trouble makers if anyone is interested. I think they should come up ok, but a few of the pics are sidey-ways so, sorry about that.