May 2005 babies

[fisil]

thought I'd start this up - apologies if anyone already has - for everyone from the dyue May 05 thread to graduate to.

profiles:

me: 31, SW London
baby: Murray (ds2) born 8/5/5 7lb 11oz
family: dp & ds1 (2 1/4)

Just popped in to say Hello CAM believe you had your baby on May 4th, which was DD's first birthday

and if you believe in astrology at all, you're in for a fabulous year - DD is the nicest most placid baby ever in the whole wide world

Congratulations all

(can't believe i've been bumped to the May Toddlers thread )

claudi2 - that's brilliant - 6am counts as daytime, so that's only one night feed! Mine were 12:30 and 4, and both very efficient 30mins and straight back to sleep. Nightmare evening though, we failed on the 7 o'clock rule too!

I love it when ds2 gets so worked up that he's punching his little fists around. He reminds me of the "it is but a flesh wound" scene in Monty Python (from Holy Grail, I think). It looks like he's cruising for a fight, and I always think "yeah, you and whose army?"

Depressing thought. I'm intending to return to work part-time, but for various reasons need a new job in order to do so. I was offered a job yesterday teaching maths in a London secondary, so a professional, challenging job in a shortage area - and I've just worked out that I will get £10 a day after childcare (and that's only if I walk there, wear old clothes and don't eat lunch!)

And while we're on the subject of depressing ... anyone else with a toddler suddenly started obsessing about their weight? I haven't dared mention it to anyone because I'm sure it is actually just that ds1 is so huge compared to ds2. But maybe he is getting a bit chunky and I ought to think about what he eats & does. Am I alone, or do your toddlers seem grotesquely big?

Hi fisil, I think the toddlers do look amazingly big and germy when you bring the newborn home. Ds looked so tiny before but I am sure he's doubled in size in the last week. Actually, I have the opposite problem. Ds is thin and small and we have to continually coax him to eat.

Fisil, I feel for you ... did some science teaching myself, though not for long in secondary ...I dont know wether I'd do it for 10£ in a London sec. If you do, you are very brave ...dont worry about ds1 ... my dd1 looked like a little buddah for the first 4 years of her life ... it didnt help that we lived in France, and she looked huge compared to the French toddlers, but she is a tall, slim teenager now

Hi everyone. I've just realised that there's a post natal thread in action... I'm a bit slow these days.

Oh, I am so happy not to be pregnant anymore. Now if I could just shed all this fat and wear my normal clothes.

Regarding the staples /stiches, no staples for me. I had a long sort of string with a beag at each end. The midwife just clipped the bead at one end and pulled it through. I had the same thing last time. And I must say if I had been offered to keep this icky string thing I think I'd have declined.

DS is doing well but still has a very mild case of jaundice. I just learned that formula is actually better for getting over the jaundice than breastmilk. So we are now topping him up with a bit of formula. He gets one bottle of formula at night and one during the day.

Out of curiosity I wondered if anyone is doing Gina Ford (or variation of) routines? Or are you guys feeding on demand?

Uwila, dd is really demanding regarding milk. I have got her down to about every 3 hours, up to 5 at night but if she is obviously hungry then I will top-up. I don't want to do a strict GF style routine but if I don't set some guidelines then I will be feeding her all day!

uwila, same here...dd usually feeds between 20 min to 40 min on the breast,then is awake for 20min and then sleeps for about 2hours (or at least thats how it was yesterday, today has already gone pear shaped)... starting the day at 7 (as Gina recomends) hasnt happened recently, and often in the evening she feeds more often ....

i can't believe alice is finally here and how beautiful she is, all the sickness and stretchmarks were definately worth it!!

is anyone else finding bfing a real struggle? i seem to spend all day with her attached and i'm so sore i've been using nipple shields. she is so big that she just wants to feed all the time! have been cheating and topping up with formula to have a rest, which is something i really didn't want to do. i'm sure i'll get the hang of it, i suppose you just have to persevere.

yes hollya, I guess you're right to say you need to persevere, BUT ... I thought that with ds1 and so put up with all sorts of pain and problems and so ended up giving up. This time I have been very demanding in two ways ... I've never allowed ds2 to feed if it is hurting even a little tiny bit and I've bugged every form of professional for help and advice. Do not put up with pain. I am convinced that the reason why I failed first time round was because people told me "it hurts but it's worth it." It shouldn't hurt, and shouldn't be difficult, so do everything you can to stop it hurting!

hollya, I had exactly the same with ds. I did persevere and after 2 months the pain went away. This time I wanted to bf but I decided that I wasn't going to be a martyr to it. That kind of pain isn't worth it IMO. It's not you, it's the baby. She has to co-operate or it's not going to work. Lansinoh cream is fantastic. It's quite expensive but really stops you getting sore.

It's amazing being a mother isn't it?

Hollya, they gave me some stuff called hydrosorb at the hospital, whichis a gel like pad that you put on your nipples ... works really well . Also I dont know wether you have bf counselers or something in your area, but I have been told that bleeding nipples is due to the baby not latching on properly ... I think the first 3 month are the worst, after that its great ... and I would not worry about topping up ...I have one of those sucky babies, and have been giving her a bottle once in a while just because I'm paranoid she is not getting enough ... which she is cause she is gaining weight, but when you are bf you have to have a lot of confidence in your abilities (which I find hard sometimes)

I was read my Gina Ford book (Please no one shoot me for liking her), but she talks about how yes breast is best and yes feeding often in the early days is very important to establishing breast feeding... BUT she is totally against feeding on demand (hurray!!). She says that you should feed every three hours, but that if you feed all the time you will end up with sore boobs that often lead to you giving up all together. I WISH someone had given me this advice with DD because this is exactly what happened. I fed all the time in the first week, didn't seems to be anything there. Then, the bloody things hurt so much I couldn't bear it and gave it a rest for a couple of days and then the milk was gone I was so frustrated and unhappy that I decided happy mummy = happy baby was more important than the bloody breast milk.

As for sore nipple being a result of latching on incorrectly... uh, I'm a skeptic. I think they can be sore even if latch is fine. Mine are. Theough, because I'm not allowing him to feed all the time and suck forever on a dry boob, it's bearable.

So my plan is to feed often (every 2 - 3 hours) but in moderationg. I'm not sure but I think frequency of feed is more important than duration.

I'm just back from the hospital - I went to the breastfeeding clinic there and it was amazing. I got really good advice about ds2's latch. It's incredible that his latch can be so good on one breast and so crap on the other. But as soon as the adviser showed me how to do it the feed was just a million times better. And he got loads more milk too! Feeling really positive now - ready to take on the world with my milky bazoomers!

Hi, can I join your thread please? I lurked on the ante-natal thread but only discovered it a little while before DS1 Daniel was born on 17th so didn't get round to posting. Congratulations on your arrivals!

Me 34 Somerset
Baby Daniel born 17/5/05
Family DH

So far everything seems to be going well, stiches still hurt but are slowly getting better. Everything else is great, he is a little star. Feeding every 2 1/2 to 3 hours in the day and waking up twice in the night for a feed.

I wanted to follow the Gina Ford routines but I am just too disorganised. I also read Tracey Hogg's The Baby Whisperer" which advocates a more flexible routine of Eat, Activity, Sleep which I'm aiming for. I'm trying to get the bedtime routine sorted this week (and DH to take control of supper!)

Welcome Booge. Of course you can join.

welcome Booge and baby Daniel ... we obviously read the same books ... the theory is always great, practice is a bit more difficult
Uwila ... have you managed to put DS on a Gina scedule yet? DD seems to be waking at 6, so it trows the Gina scedule somewhat

Hi booge & Daniel

Hi Claudi, I haven;t really tried yet because ds has a mild case of jaundice which makes it rather difficult to feed because the jaundice makes him very sleepy so he doesn't eat much before he falls back asleep. and, the best thing to help him get over the jaundice is to get him to eat so it's a bit of double edge sword. So, I'm basically just trying to get him to eat whenever he wakes up. When he is awake for nore of the day,I'll try to get him on a routine -- which is mostly to be a modified version of Gina.

Speaking of sleeping pattern, I'm questioning whether my lovely boy perhaps sleeps too much for a newborn -- is there such a thing as a newborn who sleeps too much? He Just wakes for feeds, but I think he only takes maybe half a feed. If it's formula he has anywhere between 10 and 60 mL. Is this normal? How much do the rest of the new babies sleep.

He has a slight case of jaundice so this may explain all the sleeping, but it is starting to worry me... but then maybe I'm overreacting. Wonder if the 30 deg C temp today is a factor? But he's been like this since he was born, so the heat probably has nothing to do with it.

Hi Booge! Lovely choice of name

Re: sleeping, a few days ago dd started sleeping through the night and most of the day. She seems to have a daily screaming hour and spends a couple of hours alert and looking at things but apart from that, she sleeps and feeds.

uwila feed feed feed feed feed
if he goes longer than two hours wakew him and feed
would hate him to go through what my ds1 did

Uwila, I found that DD slept a lot the first week or so but by the end of the second week was becoming more alert ... woke DD up at 7 this morning, Gina, here we go

Hello everyone
Sorry for my late arrival - I haven't been on mumsnet too much recently, so I've only just found this thread! Its really to good to hear how everyone else is getting on with their new babies.

Matilda is doing well - can't believe she's a month old already - the time is just flying by! She is eating loads and is now weighing 8lb6oz. Breastfeeding is going ok apart from the leaking - I keep meaning to pack spare clothes/bra for me when we go out but somehow, in the confusion of trying to get little M and all her belongings organised I always forget my stuff and then have to walk round town hoping that no one notices the wet patchs. New mums must stand out a mile - wet tops, greasy hair, huge bags under the eyes, one shoulder with drool/sick on it.... the odd thing is that I no longer care whether I look like a mess, I'm just pleased if the baby is clean/fed/asleep .

Off into town today to get some passport photos done for Matilda - according to the form, she has to be awake, looking directly at the camera, with a neutral expression on her face. I have a feeling that it might take a few attempts to get it right....wish us luck .

uwila DS seems to be just feeding and sleeping too, everybody keeps saying to me "Enjoy this time, it won't last!" so I have assumed it is normal. I am looking forward to when he gets more alert though.

His skin seems rather dry and a bit flakey and I'm only bathing him with cotton wool and water. Also I 'm not sure if I'm over dressing him now the weather is getting warmer. I've read to put as many layers on as I would feel comfortable in but then I'm running around so bound to be hotter than him just eating and sleeping.