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...

Just trying to catch up with the thread.

I can't believe M is now six weeks old. I am getting on a little better with the BF now altho still topping up twice a day with formula . I think my production has got a bit better tho so will try expressing.

M is sleeping for england at night - is this normal?
Tue - 10 till 4am
Wed - 10 till 4.10am
Last night - 9.30 till 4.30am!!!
Great to have extra sleep but the bed is getting soaked with dripping breastmilk!! have been sleeping on a folded towel but its going straight thro - waking up painfully engorged too.

Morning?? I mean Afternoon, oh god I've still got baby brain!!

looby- sounds good to me, apart from you getting leaky. I think (from memory) this should calm down in a bit but otherwise if you wake you could always express a bit to get more comfortable.

Afternoon everyone,

How exciting that both grumpy and runningmonkey have had their babies. I'm looking forward to seeing them on here soon.

C was v. unsettled last night and finally settled to sleep at 11pm. Then, bliss, 3 hourly stretches between feeds. Lovely. I feel so much more rested today. Yesterday I had a feeling she had been overfeeding (2 hourly, bringing up milk for up to an hour after a feed), anyway, I think she must have been, because she's been going 3 hours, rather than 2 hours all day so far and last feed she only had 1 boob, so my right boob is ready to explode, but she's still asleep. I'm contemplating getting my breastpump out to express some, as there must be more than enough for her, but at the same time I keep thinking she might wake up any minute, because she last fed at 10.

I'm not sure how long between feeds and baby being unsettled. I never experienced it myself. Like tummum said, it is rare, but it can happen.

fi how are you today. Have the hives settled now?

I really need a lie down and can't because DD1 jumped onto my bed this morning and her nappy exploded so my sheets are in the washing.

Here's a dilemma for you lovely lot! Greer just pooed then immediately fell asleep. Would you wake her to change her or wait until she complains?

blotted- i always leave S in that situation and he has never developed nappy rash (or complained)

belgian my hives are a tiny bit better but not by much.. last time i got them the doc gave me non drowsy anti histamines but i still got tired and grumpy so trying to cope without them. worst areas today are the palms of my hands, scalp and boobs really trying not scratch but so hard to resist..

lovely day outside today and we're stuck in waiting on cmw for g's next weigh

blotted i'd only change nappy if it was exploding out of the nappy onto everything else

fi Hope they get better soon, must be horrible to be so itchy.

blotted I'm afraid I tend to follow pula's strategy. I'm always a bit worried about waking a sleeping baby. Don't want to provoke anyting, IYKWIM.

Of course C woke just as I had sterilised the pump. Still the R boob was so full I decided to empty the left one. I got 60ml off with the pump, but stopped because C started crying. Tried her on the L one, but wasn't interested. Then she did a poo, so I suppose that was the cause of the crying

What do you think of this T-shirt? I'm quite tempted to get one for C, I think it's funny. A bit expensive though.

Oh well, I need to sort out the caravan now because DH is going to take it away to Kent for it never to return to the Midlands again, unless on holiday. He wants me to put everything that's big in there that we'll need on holiday in France. The problem is that most big things will be baby things that I need at home too. I'll have a look anyway, but not sure how to go about it.

belgian love the t-shirt great fun.

lathered myself in calamine lotion so bit less itchy now

Aargh, I'm still trying to take a good passport pic of C. The Jessops in our area has closed, so I've got to do it myself. I found a good website that makes passport pics and has a good tutorial about how to take passport pictures of your baby, but it's just not working. For starters, I don't seem to have a plain off-white/cream/light grey sheet to put her on. I've got a light grey blanket and that's all everything else is either coloured or white, not off white. I tried the light grey blanket, but it's got all bobbly and you can see it in the picture. All I want to do is get a passport for C. Everyone at home is starting to get impatient and keeps asking when I'm going, but without a passport picture I can't go anywhere.

OK, I'll stop moaning now. Sorry.

great t shirt belgian

emmabemma No idea about food affecting you milk or timescales, BUT definitely carry on BF if you have food poisoning. The BM will protect lo.

I love the T-shirt Belgian I was considering getting one of the baby at the breast Tshirts. Oh boll....covered in puke. Need to wash my sling.

jenn Great T-shirt too.

looby Lucky you for M sleeping so long.Your boddy will soon adjust to M sleeping yhrough the night. In the mean time I'd say use the opportunity to express in the morning. You'll get loads off

Well I've finally found a cream background: a jacket of mine and now C is fed up with posing, so still no pic. I wish you could just add the baby to your passport like in the past. It would make life much more easier.

We've got a nappy mystery here. C's trousers are wet at the waist, but her vest is dry. The nappy is soaked, so clearly it leaked. But how on earth can it miss the back of her vest and soak her trousers. I real mystery.

Oh, a knock on the door. Gotta go.

Belgian & Jenn - great t-shirts

Blotted - I'd leave her if she's sleeping tbh.

Fi - were the non-drowsy antihistamines zirtek or cetirizine? It's just that they do cause drowsiness in about 5% of people so you could always talk to GP about an alternative that will be properly non-drowsy.

Having a better day here I think it helps having nothing else on for a change so we've had some definite sleep time and definite feed time. He slept for 2hrs on my mum this morning and managed 35 mins in his moses basket this afternoon! Little steps and all that, but it's all progress!

That was useful. Our visitor mentioned a photographer in the area who does passport pics. I might cut out the whole trying it myself thing and go there. DH hasn't been any help and it's so difficult to get a newborn to look at the camera and off course there's the background thing too.

ses nice to hear you've had a better day. I think doing nothing is just what we need in the early days. And that's what I've done today too . I was supposed to sort the caravan, but it's 16.30 and it's still not done. Oh well, there's always tomorrow... or the day after...

Has anyone ever heard of a breastfeeding necklace? It's a bit early for us still. At first I thought it's a silly idea (a bit like the b/f bibs and hats), but the more I think about it the better it seems. They're supposed to keep nosy/active babies occupied while feeding. Both of mine went through a stage like that and I'm sure C will follow. A long strong necklace to keep her occupied might do the trick while bf, especially in public.

hi everyone,

think Baby L is having a growth spurt as he has gone from feeding every 4hrs about 3oz to feeding every 2-3hrs and drinking about 4oz of milk. he also woke up last night for a feed after sleeping through for 2 nights. but he is still being very good so cant complain. he woke at 4.30am for the feed but was asleep again by 5.30am. he is also very good at sleeping in his crib once he's alseep sometimes takes a little while to settle him but not too long. he seems more unsettled in the evenings and is awake more after each feed now.

play group went fine yesterday. ds1 is playing up abit the last few days attention seeking and being very whingy and hard work, were trying to include him and give him as much attention as we can taking him out when we can and playing with him while L sleeps. but i spose no matter how good you are with them there always still gonna feel abit left out and attention seek. hopefully it wont continune for too long or get too much worse (fingers crossed)

Hi all.
Belgian/Ses, glad to hear others not doing anything today. I intended to get to the park for a lunchtime picnic but dd2 has a dodgy tum so have been changing nappies; as soon as I finished changing her, dd3 exploded! during changing, dd1 started acting up so i had to send her into another room. then dd3 started yelling through changing which set ddd2 off... etc, etc. so we got nowhere! i felt badly about it, like i accomplished nothing. then

our washing machine broke as well and repairman not coming till monday so I had to wash the pooey baby and toddler clothes by hand (lots of fun). tumble drier broke as well so running out of space to hang things.

oh, like the tshirts by the way .

looby, Harper sleeps a lot as well and I wondered if anyone else had a sleepy baby - looks like you do as well . Some babies are just sleepy I suppose(yawn). Harper seems to sleep a lot during the day as well with her main wake up period between 6-9pm. i'm sure with age she'll start being more wakeful during the day. Before night, she cluster feeds to tank up for the night and then fusses a bit before settling down by 930pm. sometimes she sleeps till 5.30 or other days will wake for a sleepy 2ish am feed.

M&Bsmummy, ds1 will prob settle down as he gets used to sibling. How old is he again? my dd1 also got better as she got older and could communicate better.

off to get tea on the table before feeding H. may be back on later. hope all are well this evening and looking forward to a cold glass of something to celebrate end of the week .

ses yes it was cetirizine and one beginning with L too. I'll make an app with doc on mon if i'm still crazily itchy..

I should have achieved a lot today. C has been ever so good. I've never had her so well behaved yet. But instead I wasted spent most of my time on eBay, MN and various other websites . I really can't believe what's going on with C today. She's doing 3-4 hourly feeds today, feeding and settling straight back to sleep in her pram! It's like someone came in the night and swapped my baby for another one!

Momino a broken washing machine and tumble drier. Nightmare with a baby in the house. I hope they fix it soon. We seem to have self fixing household appliances. Honestly. This winter our dryer broke down, then after a few months my mum came to visit, didn't realise it was broken, put laundry in it, pressed the button and it worked! It's still working now. Same happened with the dishwasher 3 weeks ago: it broke down and then after a few weeks started working again. Odd...

Momino - doesn't sound to me like you haven't done anything, more just not what you had planned! Boo for washing machine not being fixed until Monday!

Belgian - that sounds like a v productive day to me!!

Belgian, would love a self fixing appliance. maybe we'll try ours again on sun before repairman comes .
Ses, glad you had a better day .

DH just reminded me Harper is only 5 wks old so lots of attn, lots of days when things will be difficult/tedious but it's all for good. (he's wise). all our situations and babies are different and we're all doing great jobs .

i've had one of those days - really yelled at dd1 who's only 3, then as this morning, dd2 and dd3 chimed in with crying. i'm so sick of crying/yelling/whingeing. so just needed to remind myself/us what a great task we have.

yeah im hoping he will be ok soon momino he is going to be 4 on sunday so he's not really that young, but spose he's had more years with it just being him, and he's old enough to know what buttons to press!

Momino We all have days like that. Especially after bad nights. It must be even more hard work for those of you with young toddlers as well as a baby. It's all a big adjustment for toddlers too, so no wonder they're a bit more clingy and whiny than normally, but it doesn't make it easier to cope with. Just think of the future and what great friends they'll all be (hopefully).

On a totally different subject, I've just gone through our drinks cupboard and the fridge and I've realised we haven't got wine or cider in the house. Only beer, which I don't like and Champagne (4 bottles, presents from when we got married last year). I really fancied a drink tonight too. Champagne is a bit too posh to just drink like that. I suppose a cup of redbush tea will have to do for tonight. Tomorrow I'll get myself something a bit stronger