May 2009 - loved-up new mums and/or sleep-deprived zombies this way please

[pulapula]

Here's a nice new thread for us to share our experiences with our new LOs.

Morning all. Well, I am shattered as a busy morning already with DC all up, breakfasted, dressed, picnic made, emergency gardening done (plants about to die unless planted out!), so I am not sure I have the energy to take the DC to the farm as promised now !

I am sooooo sick of looking bloody awful with my humungous norks. I am wearing a vesty top and look about a size 30 with a nursing bra. Humpf. Makes me want to give up BF completely when I look in the mirror, but then I remember it is using up 500 calories a day. (Except I am eating at least that much and more!!). Must definately not jump up and down as will end up with black eyes at this rate !

MoreDC absolutely no way could I cope with being pg again. 3 is it for us

Llare well done for getting out with 2 DCs. Hope you have a lovely day with them today again

Pula enjoy the (relative) peace and quiet today

Belgian thx for the reminder re pelvic floor. Mine is pretty weak, which is crap given I had a 3 minute 2nd stage, so I need to practice some more.

Well, gotta get DS up again to get to the farm. Hope you all have a lovely day today.x

Morning everyone,

It's an absolutely gorgeous day here today. C is in her most summery outfit and looking incredibly cute . We're about to go to the zoo today. I hope C's skin will tolerate sun screen.

more dc We always wanted 2, big gap and than 2 more. Not so sure now, but not ruling it out completely. It sort of feels like our family isn't quite complete. Will see what they can do to my bach and pelvis first. I'm 31, so have got agood few years left.

Anyway, enjoy the weather everyone and have a lovely day

Morning everyone,

It's an absolutely gorgeous day here today. C is in her most summery outfit and looking incredibly cute . We're about to go to the zoo today. I hope C's skin will tolerate sun screen.

more dc We always wanted 2, big gap and than 2 more. Not so sure now, but not ruling it out completely. It sort of feels like our family isn't quite complete. Will see what they can do to my bach and pelvis first. I'm 31, so have got agood few years left.

Anyway, enjoy the weather everyone and have a lovely day

whoops, double post, sorry. That's 1 handed typing for you

Thanks for reassurances on weight. Will look at that in the red book Jenn!

I ordered 2 bf tops over Internet earlier in the week and they arrived this morning. They've sent me a generic discount code for all orders in May and June. If anyone's interested, the site is BellaMama.co.uk and to get £5 off, the code is Summer5

We had a hellish night last night.. this bf lark is all new to us and I really need some advice... in the evenings from either 8pm or 10pm onwards I think i'm going wrong somewhere??? This may be a long one...

dd for the last 2 nights has had marathon feeding sessions. on wed night she fed on and off from 10pm -2.30pm and last night it kicked off at 8pm which ended up with me sobbing uncontrollably, truly exhausted and us having to give her a bottle of formula at 1.20am. Can you over feed an on demand baby?

The evening started off ok... she woke up at about 8.30pm (previous 1/2 hr feed finished at 4.30pm). She fed for 45 mins on my boob with the nipple shield and seemed contented/full. She had a little wind and when she seemed more settled i popped her into bed. At 22.20 she then started crying and doing what looked like rooting signals... tongue poking out, smacking lips, when picked up she sucked anything that came close to her mouth!

Didn't think it was still wind as she wasn't drawing up her knees etc. So i thought ok still hungry and popped her onto my right boob. This is where it all went 'tits up' to coin a phrase. she fed for 10mins came off, nodded off went back to bed and then complained again, back on for another 10 mins, back to bed for 1/2 an hr and then fed again for 1/2 an hr. She still wouldn't settle and it was mid night by this point. I was convinced she must have had enough to eat but by this time with all the crying in between and after feeds i'm sure she did then have a wind problem. so DH and i tried winding her. Not much came up and even after she'd done a wee and poo explosion she was still crying her heart out (me too by this time also) so at 1am we got out the bottles teats etc to sterilise and at 1.20am she had 3oz of formula before conking out with a cat that got the cream expression on her face.

She then slept through till 6.20 this morning... fed for 20mins & went back to sleep and again woke for her next feeds at 9.20 & 11.20.

during the day she feeds every 3-4 hrs for anywhere from 20-40 mins generally. Any ideas why things are not following the same pattern in the evenings/at night? Did i over feed her do you think and create a feeding/wind/more feeding/creating more wind revolving cycle? She has a tendency to get hiccups after some feeds in the evening too... I don't know if that's connected? Last night she brought up a tiny splodge of milk back up with some of the burps.

Any ideas? I am truly shattered today and dh had just taken ds off into town. dd is asleep and i'm heading off to bed myself. BF will be going out the window if i can't get this sorted as i was distraught last night

Fi I don't know the answer but wanted to offer you my sympathies, you've had a difficult time... it's so hard when you're not sure what's up with them.

My thoughts, fwiw - I don't think you over-fed her, she'd be bringing up more milk if that was the case. I think there's something in your revolving-cycle theory, maybe add over-tiredness in there too. I had a wierd night with H a while ago that was a bit like that - fed loads in the evening & wouldn't sleep properly, then about 9pm got really distraught. I took him to the (dimly lit) bedroom to try to calm him down and he had the longest and most frenzied feed ever, practically chewed my nipples off! He carried on being grouchy for a bit, then I picked him up to soothe him and he suddenly went out like a light. My theory is he was windy, which kept him awake, then overtired, and that he wanted to feed to try to settle his stomach and to suck to calm down.

H does feed a lot in the evening (every 1-2 hours). I don't know why that is, if it's for the same reasons colicky babies are bad in the evening or if he's tanking up for the night.

It might just be that she wants to feed that often at the moment, rather than that there's a problem with bfing. I don't know what else you can do other than try to ensure she's had as much as possible at every feed. Perhaps you could express so your DH could do some of the feeding?

Remember it's only temporary, it will pass, and there is nothing wrong at all with giving her formula if it keeps you sane!

oh Fi, sorry you had such had a bad night.I wish I had some good advice for you but am no expert so hoping someone else on here will be able to give you some good tips.

I've got a similar prob with slightly diff timing: Harper was awake from about 2.30 then on/off until about 5am. she'd feed about 10 min then fall asleep so I'd put her back in the basket but she'd wake up again minutes later and yell. after a few bouts of this, i changed her nappy, tried rocking, tried a dummy, even left her to cry for a bit. so just cuddled her in bed where eventually we both fell asleep.

Big prob is that now she's exhausted so is very sleepy and i'm having trouble keeping her awake for feeds. i've tried changing her, taking a layer of clothes off, etc but there is no waking her. looks like it will be another long night then, sigh.

Fi, hope you get a nap to regain some energy. sorry I don't have any miracle advice.

fikelly- i'm not sure you are doing anything wrong- sounds like you are doing a great job. BF is knackering when they go on feeding marathons but i think its just what babies do unfortunately. My DS2 will have times when he just wants more and more milk, and sometimes its just to boost supply (he's now got so much he doesnt't know what to do so opens his mouth and lets it run down my top ). Therefore in a day or 2 your DD may calm down a bit. Otherwise the only thing I can suggest is to feed every 3 hours in the day (ie 3 hours between the start of each feed not the end)- i found my DS2 fed a lot in the night when he had a 4 hour gap between some feeds in the day. I think you said the other day that you found feeding lying down difficult (apologies if it was someone else), but if you can get used to this, i find its great as it means LO may fall asleep more easily and you get to rest too.

Fi- I know its exhasting but it is completely normal. Rueben is doing the same to me but at the slighty more respectable time for 4.30pmish -10pmish he just feeds constantly one side then the other. I feel really empty but surprisingly he still comes off my boob witha milky dribble everytime so they are working. She is building up your supply and hopefully you may find she will have a more settle evening/night tonight or tomorrow because your supply will be more plentiful.

Things that have helped me during feeding frenzies-
Last night mum gave Rueben a bath at 8pm after 3 hours of feeding to try and knacker relax him. I still feed him after that but then he finally settled at about 9.
Feed her and then let DH sit with her over his shoulders to get rid of all the wind and help her to fall asleep away from your miky smell.
Lots of lanisoh for your poor nips.
If feeding in bed I have R lying beside me so he falls asleep at the breast and then I transfer him to the moses basket so I can have a better sleep.

I promise it gets better and the cluster feeds will be more like once a week soon rather than every night. Hope that helps. I'm bloody knackered too and its especially hard with other Dcs to get up to the next day. Hugs.

oh and fi- another thought- i'm sure i've read that your milk supply (quantity and quality) replenishes overnight ie when you are resting, and therefore by the evening babies may fuss more as there isn't as much there (and you are tired too) so therefore they need to feed for longer and aren't as satisfied. Sounds like your DD was trying to "tank up" too, as she then had a 5 hour stretch after all that, which is actually "sleeping through" so well done you- my DS tends to feed every 2-3 hours around the clock , and still only goes 3 hours even after a mammoth feeding session.

Fi to give you hope my DD had the same cluster feeding, screaming, windy, over tired nights that you are describing when she was 1-3 weeks old and suddenly when she was 4 weeks she started sleeping from 7 till 2 or 3am then feeding and going till 7am and then by about 10 weeks was going 7-7 so it is worth sticking at it and it will all seem a distant memory soon.

Fi I think pula has a good point there. BTW 5 hours is great, the most i've got out of H ever is 4 hours.

I guess you could try to influence the timings a bit, encouraging the feeds slighly earlier then a bath late evening with a last quiet feed in the bedroom. This has worked with H, and in fact the last few nights he's caught us out by falling asleep for the night at 10pm, missing his bath. Must clean the grubby little thing tonight

Hello all again,

Nice and quiet here - DH has taken DD for her sleepover, DS1 is asleep upstairs and DS2 is asleep in his sling on me. SO WHY AM I SAT HERE WITH CBEEBIES ON THE TELLY?! Only just realised after 15 mins. However, I can't see the remote, and don't want to disturb DS2 by moving- he managed 30 mins in his moses basket before trumping himself awake, so i patted/swayed him back to sleep in the sling as i don't want to stretch his feeds out to 3 hours. However, for the first time ever, he did 3 hours in his moses basket from 11pm-2am so i had the bed to myself for a bit. Getting there slowly...

Should read my waffle before posting- that should say i WANT to stretch his feeds out to every 3 hours, as sometimes its only 2.

pula, lol at not wanting to stretch feeds to 3 hrs. I knew what you were trying to say .

anyone else have a really sleepy baby? harper is 4 weeks old tomorrow and does seem to sleep alot. it's odd because inside before she was born she was such an active baby and in the real world, she so lethargic. she's defn healthy and feeding fine (atleast before she falls asleep on the job ) so not really worried.

Pula - I do that, end up watching childrens tv when I don't need to!!

Fi, all the others have said much of what I was going to say, but you're doing a great job and it won't last forever. I find if ds2 keeps feeding or wanting to feed, I give him to dh cos he doesn't smell of milk. Mum (she was a midwife), said for some reason babies tend to feed more in the evenings.

ds1 is doing my head in today as he keeps making so much noise, which is disturbing ds2 and he's really unsettled now. We've also been to see my grandmother, which was nice. Got to go now and find some meat for my brothers bbq tonight!

Hi Ladies.

Just thought Id drop in.

Hope you and your new bubbas are ok.

Im still pregnant, have had two un-successful sweeps and being induced on Monday now.

As shitting it about induction but needs must, if any of you have any advice/tips it would be much appreciated!

Chocobunnies

chocbunnies- good luck for the induction if it comes to that. I haven't been induced before so can't offer any words of wisdom.

Hello ladies. Dripping in sweat here (hmm, nice picture !) but have nothing apart from one pair of jeans that fit ! I feel some shopping coming on.

Fi everyone has already imparted the advice I was going to give which is that this cluster feeding is normal and is what G has been doing for the last 2 weeks (eek) although it is getting easier. I have given in and given formula for the first couple of days (after about 5 hours of guzzling) that it started and it didn't affect my supply in the slightest so don't feel bad about doing this. Hugs to you because it is completely knackering and makes it really difficult that onlt you can provide the milk and can't take a break from it.

Chocolate you are still pregnant. Quick advice is that I was induced with my 1st and it was actually fine. It may be that your body doesn't take that much persuading to get going. It's nice to think you might be meeting your LO on Monday... if not before as I have heard that some women go into Labour once induction is booked !! Good luck.x

girls thank you I don't know what i'd do without you all. all your advice is very much appreciated and it's nice to know that this is normal for bf. just got to look forward to things settling down..

btw the 10sec toe curler when she latches on goes in the end?! how long did it take for everyone's nips to toughen up?

in the end i only got a nap of 45mins.. between the postman and phone ringing just before dh & ds got home.

fi- the 10 sec toe-curler has pretty much ended for me (DS2 is 2.3 weeks old) but whenever i get it i put a bit on lansinoh on and havent needed to do that for a few days now. I do however get a painful letdown that i sometimes have to hold my breath through! And i get a few random letdowns in the day (usually when DS2 is due a feed or crying) so i need to remember to wear my breast pads.

pula so glad to hear the toe curler does go i haven't felt a let down yet.. another thing to come?!

fi- i've read not everyone feels a letdown, so you might not notice it. i can feel mine building up and i have to rush for a breast pad/tissue before i end up with wet circles.

ah ha pula i'll wait and see then.

you know.. they say bf is the best option for baby but it's really hard at first to get established isn't it? no one really mentions this bit..