July 09 - Sore ladybits and melons for tits! [grin]

[Quiltedrose]

Ok so there's only 2 of us so far but felt duty bound as the first July delivery to start the thread off!

'Pop' in when you're ready!!

Hi Misspaella
I have kind of established a routine, although it's pretty flexible. All my older DC's are back at school so have had to start getting up and out earlier, but then have the rest of the day until school pick up to concentrate on what Jack wants. Timing the morning feed has been a bit tricky so far and I think next week I'm going to risk leaving it until we get back from the school run as he's not very interested before and it's all a bit of a rush.
I try and feed between 3-4 hourly, the closer to 4 I can get the better as he feeds much better. Sometimes in between he gets very cross and I have to try and distract him!
The other thing I'm doing at the moment is putting him down to sleep while he's still awake. It only works in the day as if the other DC's are here they go into see him if he's crying, which is very sweet but a bit annoying too! He now settles within 5-10 minutes and seems to sleep longer too.

hi,thanks for the support, plucked up the courage and spoke to dp. hopefully things will get better. he didnt realise how upset/cross/tired etc i am! he apologised he's struggling in his new job with the crap shifts and 2 hour commute. (works combinations of either 3pm-3am or 7pm-3am)
any whoooo
routine the only routine in our house is 6pm is bath, massage , p.j's dd goes to bed with stories which bill joins us for too of course! then every evening is different sometimes he'll settle sometimes not! past two notes he's cried whenever i try and put him down, which then makes him sick! does anyone else's dc still struggle in the evening? i know he's only 8 weeks so not to expect too mych.
thrush i think has healed up a treat but still using medicine for another few days.
bottleteats activity i use the same as you (when he has a bottle, evey few days at minute) sometimes he struggles sometimes not he's a strange boy!
wanted to introduce a bottle as boobs feel so empty in the evening, and id like him to go to bed with his sister even if he needs feeding 3 hours later. had to give him some formula last night as its still sore to express after the thrush. he had 2oz at 6.30 screamed in between me trying to feed him until he had another 2oz at 11.30 but still woke 2 hours later for literally a 2minute boob job then back to sleep til 3.30 where he screamed til 5.30. he's been a right mardy/windy bum today, could it be the formula?? he's also barely feeding today but i dont feel engorged worried im drying up after one bottle of formula!
sorry for the long post!

Hi Lydia I don't think you're drying up as the milk starts being made more to order as the baby gets older rather than made and stored. Maybe the formula is making him a bit constipated or just he has to get used to the different "food" and his system is adjusting. Plus the bottle will introduce more wind than a boob. All these things may make him more unsettled while he gets used to them. but they're not long-term harmful.
Glad you spoke to yr DP. Sounds like he's having a tough time too. Maybe you can take turns onthe weekend having a lie-in (one morning each) and give baby the bottle in the morning when you're having a sleep rather than in the evening? Just a thought.

Rofl at the lacy coasters activity, it?s really tickled me that someone would do that. I hope you let them use them for a while.

Thanks for the tip on the extra absorbent pads becca I hadn?t noticed them before. I hope the move has gone well!

Lydia ? really glad your dp hadn?t realised and things will improve. We do similar to bonzo?s suggestion ? dp gets up with baby first thing and changes her (sometimes) giving me a little extra sleep before she needs feeding again.

We had the first set of injections today, it was horrible and dd?s been pretty grisly tonight. Another set to look forward to in a months time .

Lydia - hopefully your DP will be more sensitive now. The suggestion to let him bottlefeed while you sleep is a brilliant plan. Thats what my DH does on some mornings when I am too comatose to get up. He will take baby downstairs for a small feed, then a change, and usually that settles him enough to go back to sleep for a bit. Or, if by that time, I have woken up enough, I will pop him on the boob for a top-up and then put him down.

Someone needs to slap me tonight though. I saw my sleeping baby, and decided to wake him to bathe him!! Who told me THAT was a good idea!! Now he is screaming himself silly! I just didn't want him going into such a deep sleep at 10pm, only to have him wake up just as I fall asleep. I was hoping to hold him off until closer to 12, and this way he would sleep til maybe 4am if I was lucky. Sigh... NOw I feel like he wont go down at ALL, and I will be pulling my hair out instead of sleeping!!

Morning
Lydia so glad you chatted to your DP. It seems tough right now but it WILL get better. Lack of sleep does take its toll but our LO's will be sleeping lots before we know it. I am trying to be optimistic for all of us.

Jlo you make the school run not seem so bad thanks. I was umming and ahhing about how to feed DS2 (before or after) so may just do it after. Getting out the door is the most stressful thing with other DC's. I feel like I am constantly shouting "get your shoes on, have you done a wee", etc. And no doubt I will have pooey nappies to contend with. Both DS2 and DD do one right as we need to get out the door. ARGH.

I am getting excited and scared for DS1 starting reception on the 14th. We started buying bits for school and it is such a minefield (he's our eldest). I am not sure how I feel about facing the 'mummies at the school gates'. I am that mother that whizzes and and out dropping my son off (when he was at the school nursery) while the others would get there early to chat. I am willing to get a bit involved with school like bake a cake or something for a fete but I just feel like I have so much going on with my 2 year old and baby as well. I guess I am admitting I am NOT a supermum.

Babyblue how was it after you woke your LO. I only every wake mine to feed. I am far too scared of a meltdown....

Speaking of waking LO do you wake them for a feed during the day? DS2 naturally tends to wake every 2-3 hours BUT there has been times he seems he could have gone longer. Do I let him go on longer? He is 9 weeks today BUT a whopper of a baby and been putting on a 1lb a week!

Right everyone must get coffee- been up for 2 hours now and no point getting back to sleep......

Misspaella - I was well rewarded after dealing with the initial outburst! I woke him just after 10pm. He screamed all through his bath, I fed him and soothed him to sleep by 1130pm. He slept til 430am, ate and back to sleep with very little fuss until 830am! I could get used to that routine! Hopefully he will have a good day today. I am taking my lot to the pool today. We are finally getting some decent summer weather. 3 days until the 2 older ones go back to school and DH goes back to work. I am terrified of my first day alone with the 2 babies!

As an afterthought... I usually dont wake my babies for anything... not even feeds... at this age. When they are newborn, I used to wake them only after 4 hours. I figure now, if they are hungry, wet, uncomfortable in some way, they will wake up on their own! I remember when my DCs used to go through major growth spurts, I would put them down for their nap at 2pm, and they would sleep until 7am the next morning. I would check to make sure they were still breathing but thats it!! How horrible of a mum does that make me???

monster post alert!

waking babies: always woke dd1 as she woulds go hours in the day so would squeeze feeds in. with dd2 she wants feeding every 2-3.5 hours. will wake her after 1 hour after morning nap as has decent nap at lunch too otherwise needs to stay awake far to long in afternoon to have a chance of her going to sleep before 10pm and getting over tired. currently only staying awake 1.5 hours after each feed so have to limit day time sleep or she'd spend most of the day asleep! As a result does quite well at night. Goes down 9pm ish. Bottle at 10.30, sleeps till 3am ish but is usually awake a good hour in the night then asleep till the morning whenever dd1 gets up. Have nursery staring week after next. No idea how we will leave the house to get her there for 9am. DD2 has 2 monster feeds in the morning before she'll have her nap.

back pain stupidly lifted v heavy shopping with dd in sling the other day. Have hurt the muscle I used to hurt feeding in a bad position with dd1 (part of the reason a gave up BF) Feel like my back is on fire! Had one of those heat patches on yesterday which seemed to help but each time I feed I can feel it even though sit much better with this LO.

routine had strict routine with dd1 but did my milk supply no good. dd2 is 7weeks and dd1 was on 6oz bottles by now (greedy piggy!) but I can never express more than 3oz in an evening so happy to feed far more frequently as dd2 obviously needs it. Every time I think we've got some sort of a routine, it changes. Was regularly bathing dd1 by this stage and settling in bed at 7pm with EBM but dd2 HATES the bath. dd1 took to it straight away. Decided it's not worth it for now. Just trying to get dd2 to settle on her own for naps now. dd1 gets upset if she's crying but starting to realise it's ok for dd2 to cry sometimes. (or all the time as it sometimes seems!)

illness had to crack the calpol out on dd2 as she had caught dd1's cold and had a temperature. only given 2 doses in 2 days but she's a whopper so body mass ok to take it. Poor thing. Had to get the snot sucker out as well! Yuck!

hols off on monday to north wales. Procrastinating about the packing... I hate it!

NEVER WAKE A SLEEPING BABY

I agree with Phoenix

school run i feed alfie before i go out a sort of half feed which keeps him going till we get back
i dont wake sleeping babies intentionally ever however i do make it difficult for him to go to sleep after 4 as if he sleeps between 4 and 7 hes up all evening and i dont get my much needed peace from them all so maybe thats the same thing!
I put one size up nappies on at night so they dont leak

Hi everyone

Hope you are all ok.
routine - I have been putting Baby to sleepin in her own room since she was 4 wks old. I started by giving her the 6/7/8pm bottle in her room in the low light and putting her down in her cot. I have always put her down awake apart from when she was very young and nodded off feeding. I generally waited till after I had fed her to change her in case she pooed so she woke up again anyway. I feed her when she wants. I am FF have been since she was 2 wks. Anytime she woke up after that I fed he rin her room and didn't change her unles she was dirty. She began with waking again at 8/9/10 ish then again at 3/4 then all of a sudden she would go from the 6/7 feed till 4/5 then 2 wks ago when she was 9 wks she went 6/7 - 6am then started doing till 6.45/7 soemtimes 7/7.30/8! So pleased as I get the whole evening to myself and she's sleeping all night long now. Sometimes like tinight she fussed till 9 butit's no problem. She is tending to feed more in the day I think to compensate but only had 5 bottles a day now. She was on an average of 50x but she will have 8oz in the mornings then 5/6oz through the day and 6oz at bedtime and sometimes if she has this at 6 I keep her downstairs as I know she will want a couple more oz's by about 8 then she goes up.

Thats it really, I don't have a routinr in the day, I just feed her when she wants and try to play with her whenever I am not busy.

illness she's starting with a cold but nothing like when she had suspected swine flu. I bought a snot sucker too! She's also just be diagnosed with excema, it's all over and looks so sore, got cream off docs so hopefullyit will calm down.

DD1 is back at nursery just to do her pre-school hrs there so she is doing 3 morings a wk, could have her in for 5 sessions but will probably miss her, can't believe I have 1 yr left till she's at school!

hols had a great time camping but we have decided we are defo going abroad next year, we have sat and worked evrything out and reckon we can save up enough to go to Menorca, 4 star hotel half board, got to pay for DD1 now so we're looking at about £1800/2000 before spending money. I haven't been abroad for 7 yrs and DP about 10 so very excited!

My ds has started school he loves it it is just me who wants to go in and drag him out saying he is to little. unfortunately or fortunately depends on how you look at it his school is down the bottom of a mammoth hill that takes 20mins to walk down and 30mins to walk up so I am now walking for 1hr 40mins a day v tiring but I guess the baby pounds will soon drop off.

DD is still bf without problems only problem is I am so god damn tired she still only lets me have between 4 and 6 hours a night I nearly gave the formula last night but I stayed strong thanks to dp reminding me that ds was just like this and I am so close to the age where bf gets easier than ff just need to hang on a little longer.

DD seems to find it hilarious to have a poo particularly if you are trying to change her bum at the time she smiles away while having a poo looking very smug.

DD also does not cry she gives a shout and waves her fists more and that is it it is quite funny to hear anyone else?

hello, quick wave
Older school back to school which is bliss, but requiring monumental organisation!
Ds1 Gone to secondary school he looks so grown up, he has to leave at 7.15am and catch 2 buses, but seams to be coping ok.
The dts are doing well Stan still has colic but getting slightly better.
Could just do with more sleep

Hi everyone, well I survived the inlaws just, they have gone now thank goodness and hopefully wont be back for a while (what I cow I am!!)

Had a good night last night, Max only woke onve at 3.20 for a feed and then went till 6.40. Not bad as I had to be up at 7am to get the dc up for school.

We are in a really good routine at night. Bath at 7pm, followed by bottle and bed by 8. TBH he has dictated the bed by 8 as he just can't go any longer bless him. We then wake him for a ff at 11pm and he then goes till 3ish. Hope he is going to drop the 5am feed now!

Day time routine is a bit hit and miss. Mostly miss!! Think thats because of the holidays and being out and about so much with the dc. Today I was determined to try to get the routine going and he has done well. He had a sleep in his cot at 10ish and I put him down at 12.30 for a lunch time sleep. It took a while for him to go and he cried a bit but finally went off at about 1. Poor chappy I now need to wake him up to take him for his jabs.

My gp has prescribed him Gaviscon for reflux which he has been taking since friday. I am not sure it is working as he was quite distressed at the weekend and still sick a lot, (maybe he didn't like his grandparents!), but today seems a bit better. Do any of you know if it is like infacol and takes a while to build up in their system?

Anyway, must go and wake that sleeping baby....can't believe I have to wake him when it was so hard to get him to sleep!!

Gillyan I got oilatum cream and bath emolient for Max from gp and he looks almost totally better now. Just a few nasty patches but it excellent stuff. Hopeit clears up soon.

ActivityApple glad you have sorted out the bottle now. Hoorah formore sleep!!!

i had tried E45 which seemed to aggrivate it so the GP gave me some cream, Bio cream or something, it seems to be flaking off abit now.

hi all, i have to say i am guilty of waking a sleeping baby, although yesterday and today itwas a case of keeping a tired baby awake! have discovered if he sleeps later than 4.30 he wont go down at all until gone 10! past two nights he's been in bed at 7.30, then i just go up to him when he wants feeding. since the thrush in my boobies expressing has come to a complete halt it still hurts and i dont get muh off so have now started giving formula in the evenings for a bottle. not that appears to make much difference, he only took 2oz last night at 11 and still woke at 1.30!
this weekend has been lovely dp has really helped out. i went to bed at 8 last night (shamefully confess to watching miss marple til i fell asleep!) and he took over, he also got up this morning with me at half 7!
he's taking us all for a day out at drayton manor on thursday, dd loves thomas and you can get parent and children passes for £15 bargain!
activity glad you've got the night time bottle feeding sorted very jealous you got all that sleep! my RL friend has a 5 week old who she BF during the day and 1 bottle ff at 11pm, she sleeps until 5-6am!
slushy bill is all smiles when having his bum changed and his bits cleaned. at first it seemed to be the only time he'd smile but now he is a really smiley baby! he nakes funny noises too almost mooing sounds!
gillyan we were looking at going to majorca too next year! though holiday plans are now on hold for a bit until we know for def if i am going to find another job now im un-employed!
anyway toddler groups start this week so im going to get everything ready yippee!

Gillyan - You've got it cracked with dd's sleep

We're getting nowhere with any sort of routine. Noah just seems like he's asleep or crying most of the day. Occasionally he does seem to be crying in pain (like after a bottle) but not all the time so we don't know what, if anything, is wrong with him . He can be smiling one minute then he gets bored and cries. He goes to sleep on one of us (mostly me cos he cries more when dh has him) and when we try to put him down he wakes up a few minutes later. He won't go down in his cot until at least 11pm. Once he's down he sleeps for 3hrs max. then has a bottle and then he won't always go back down in his cot and will only sleep with me. We really need to try keep him awake through the day but it's so hard. I ended up buying a Moby Wrap for when dh is at work cos i just can't put him down so can't get much done unless it's something i can do one-handed. He's so different to ds1.

He had his 1st set of injections today and seems ok but Calpol is at the ready.

Ds1 was back to pre school today. He's started 4 mornings now instead of 2. I haven't got to do the school run on my own yet but will have to on Thursday. But only for 1 day cos we go to Cornwall for a week on Friday, i can't wait.

Will have to go Noah's crying again now.

Hope everyone's ok

hi all, everything is sounding very familiar!

Gillyanam very envious of all your sleep! i'm giving a bottle of fomula sometime between 1030-12 and then we have one night time feed however my little grunting limpet wakes up more often and although will sometimes settle with dummy often needs to come into bed and snuggle with me to sleep. so i think about 3hrs consecutive sleep is my maximum.
millie also has eczema on her face and i'm slathering it with emolient.

my ds had his second birthday yesterday and we had a great day. this afternoon however he didn't nap, and i was releying on that so i could sleep, so by 4pm we were at loggerheads and i felt so tired so i ended up putting him in his cot as he was clearly tired as well and letting him shout until he finally fell asleep abou 1/2 hr later. i felt a very bad mummy. its difficult isn't it.

ds is with the cm tomorrow and millie has her first swimming lesson aged 8 weeks! i did the same with ds and it was lovely.

sleep wishes to everyone x

Activity - I haven't tryied the bottle again with DS - really must get some milk pumped and get going with it before it's too late again. Gld you've sorted out your feeding.

Phoenix my boy was just like yours sounds for the last 4 weeks - I had the health visitor out (twice) and was sent to the Dr to show the gummy looking navel (given antibiotic cream) and his rash ... given Oilatum for eczma and went and hired a sling to keep him in (as couldn't put him down for more than 10 mins) ... but since then the boy has completely changed and become calm - like a different child. It is amazing. The health visitor thinks it was the rash or cord but I can't see either of those. I think it is pure coincidence and something has just sorted itself out. I hope it works for you too soon.

Hello all, haven't been on here since Jessica has arrived, what with school holidays plus newborn I haen't had chance to keep up. Will have a good read through the thread when I get chance.

DS1 went back to school yesterday and DD1 is in nursery this morning so this is my first time of freedom as DS2 is asleep in bed and Jessica is asleep on my shoulder. DD1 is only in nursery 3 mornings (wed - fri) so these are the only times I get to feel semi normal.

Had a bit of a wobble yesterday afternoon. The middle 2 had been getting at each other all day, including all through a supermarket trip, the house was a complete state, Jess was crying and the middle 2 were arguing. I put the middle 2 on separate steps and stropped around tidying stuff up whilst going on (to no one in particuar) about what a state the house was, how fed up I was and generally fighting back tears. Jess is 6 weeks now though so am quite pleased to have gotten to 6 weeks before having my first moments of thinking that I may not be able to cope with 4.

Really ought to get on and do something productive while the yongest 2 are asleep. Am thinking I'll cook a couple of meals, one for tonight and one for another night in the week then hopefully it'll make things a bit easier on a day when things are feeling too much again.

Mornin'!
1st jabs yesterday - me more upset than Hetty I think DP did the "holding down". So also 1st taste of Calpol (the strawberry flavour very much foxed the child) and the poo nappy today has been bloody horrendous, but she's fine in herself.
We're baby-mooning today all snuggly and nice in bed - Hetty is having the Boob of Love and I'm watching QVC