April 2009 - Chapter 3 - Let us round up the stragglers

[PuzzleRocks]

Ta da.

Boff I don't have words for that

Sam went to sleep about 2000 last night, I think he was exhausted. Woke up at 0030, 0230, 0400, 0600 and 0700. I actually got some sleep as I went off soon after he did Am feeling a little better now not looking forward to tonight though!

As for Swine Flu the [[http://www.abm.me.uk/ ABM] are saying if you are breastfeeding carry on. If you get the flu you will start to develop anti-bodies which will be passed to your baby. Here

Information here for our bottle feeders from the USA.
Here from the NCT.

Couldn't find any info for older children sorry

WorriedAboutItAsWellTiggaxx

Schulte - No idea about the diarrhoea. Sorry.

Boff, sorry to hear that.

Schulte, are you sleeping any better?

We still have V in our room - she is not 3 months yet. But when we have no guests we have another room which can be used for one of us to skulk off to, which means that quite often DP gets a full night's sleep and I get the odd one too. Having a sense of somewhere else to escape to makes a big psychological difference, I think.

Swine flu - I am sticking my fingers in my ears and going "la la la"

Springy - where are you? come and tell us how you are.

Tigga - how were things last night? Surely it is just a growth thing or a phase of some sort?

Nutty - sorry you are sick - try to get some rest and some good vitamins - chocolate orange muffins for instance.

Hazel has gone through 5 nappies in the last half hour It's only tiny amounts but she just keeps pooing. Nurse says it's probably nothing to do with the jabs but I am not so sure! We'll do a sample later so they can test her for infections.

Ginger - sleep here is so so, I have some good nights and then some bad ones too - last night DD1 woke me up 3 times, and H needed nappy changes because of the diarrhoea, so it wasn't fun.

Just very quickly - schultes, K had diarrhoea earlier in the week to the point that every time he coughed, cried or giggled it just fell out - I phoned the HV from here (Yes looking forward to that phone bill) and she said just keep feeding him, replenish with boiled water if you are finding it too much as the most important thing is to keep their fluids up. She also said they can get upset tummys from any number of things, so while it may be a side effect from the injections it could be H has picked up some germs from other children of adults or just flying around in the air! Hope she (and you) feel better soon!!

My uncle had swine flu and just said it's like a really really bad bout of flu and knocks you out for 2-3 days. Am not all that worried as I think the general advice is it wont do any lasting damage unless you have underlying complications - this may be a complete head in the sand response and probably a little bit ignorant on my part but hey there are so many things to worry about at the moment I can't be thinking about that too!!!

Hope you are all having a nice day - I burnt my ankles really badly yesterday so am inside nursing my wounds!

Boff big hugs!

One-hand - grrrrrrrrr

WFH - sorry for late response. Hopefully Orbit much better now. Probably 3rd gen cephalosporin i.e. pretty-broad spectrum so likely knock on intestinal flora, yes. I wouldn't really want to give probiotic to infant. Even 'friendly' bacteria cab be pathogenic in right conditions, and what with the open infant gut etc.... Hopefully contd bfing has sorted him.

Schulte - H had multiple nappies for 48 hours post 2nd jabs. I figured it was just part of general systemic upheaval in response to the jabs. All back to normal now.

Weighed in last Thurs - 9lb 6.5oz! That is a whole 4.5oz above his birth weight at 12 WEEKS!!! FFS. I don't know what to do. Have phoned consultant's sec to see if can get more urgent appt. Went visiting folks at the weekend and went out for lunch. Following convo between my Dad, walking H around, and random woman"

Random: Aww, cute baby, how old, around 6 weeks?
Dad: No, 12 weeks.
Random: Goodness, he's tiny, premature?
Dad: No, 2 weeks late, but his Mum's insisting on breastfeeding him.

and

Juwesm, thanks for AB info - Orbit is still suffering from refluxy/colicky/windy pain, a bit better but I guess it takes a while for his gut flora to regenerate. At least he only had one dose of the AB's, so there might be a few left to reproduce from! Continued bf is about right, think he's on a growth spurt as he's pretty much on the boob non stop and has started waking at night (3am and 5am) as well, after sleeping through for about six weeks. Ah well, just ride it out I guess.

I'm glad you said that about probiotics, my instinct is just to keep bf and let him settle down, he was so messed around in hospital that I don't want to add to it by introducing random elements in there too.

at your Dad's comment about H - you need support right now, not daft comments like that. Hope you get to see the consultant soon, some babies just ARE slow to gain, but you know that already. Funny how when you have a whopping great chubster that gains weight like a sumo wrestler, noone bats an eyelid, but noone realises someone has to be at the other end of the scale, or the scale would be nonsense, iyswim!

BB - put Sudocrem on your ankles, it's excellent for sunburn

We think DS1 might have had swine flu, two weeks ago he had a sore throat, temp and cough which are the classic symptoms, but he's fine now.

Boff - so sorry to hear about your lost baby. I would be rather scared of flu in your shoes too

And ear toilet? Could they not think of a better name? I mean really, it's right up there with 'incompetent cervix' and 'failure to progress' for insensitive medical terminology. Hope it's not too much like having your head flushed down the loo.

brett, sorry to hear about PND - hope it gets better soon

ho hum, friends arriving shortly for two day visit, probably ought to make bomb site look a little less explosive!

Hi. Good to hear that Hugo had an upset tummy too after his jabs, so maybe it's not all that unusual. Poor Hazel pooped for England this morning. I scraped some poo off her nappy (nice...) and they are sending it in to test for infections. She's now been asleep for the last 3 hours so I HOPE she's sleeping it off, whatever it is. I hate seeing my baby unwell - she hasn't smiled at me once today.

Juw sorry to hear H's weight is still low - hope you can see the consultant soon. I am sure you're doing the right thing, feeding him!

'Just a very bad form of flu' - I had the most horrendous flu back in 1994 and if this is anything like it, I don't want my girls to get it. Actually, I don't want to get it myself either!

Hi all! Going to try to catch up as Meg watches the TV. Bad mommy suffering from lack of sleep.

If you think of it as 'ear toilette', it seems much nicer!

ok, time for a catch up - Oscar slept a little better last night. I think the horrible night before last was our fault as we thought the infacol wasn't doing anything so went cold turkey - BIG mistake. Never again. He's going to be on infacol now until he's AT LEAST 21.

Boff - I am so sorry about your DC. Swine flu is scary... I'm trying hard not to get paranoid but am finding myself increasingly reluctant to travel on public transport with O. also sorry about your ear, you have got a lot going on at the moment haven't you? but really pleased your DD is on the mend. What sort of cot alarm do you have? I'm thinking about getting the angelcare movement only monitor (we already have a sound monitor) for peace of mind...

dawntigga - I'm with you on not doing CC - I just can't. All my family and the in-laws keep shouting formula and CC at me to solve all O's sleep problems really not helpful.

WFH - lol at your oven door post really hope he stops holding it hostage soon...

Kali - did you see my earlier post? We are clearly the same person. Even in so much as "even my mum would do" is something I would say how was last night?

BB I am of your hols looking forward to retreating to my mum and dad's next week for a bit of r&r (with screamy Oscar - yeah right... oh well, at least i'll get to go for long walks by the sea...)

Auld - glad you're on the mend... at dropping to pre-pregnancy weight... good excuse to eat more cake?!

Swali - good advice re: baby massage - I'm booked onto a course in August... can't wait we already do some of the bicycle legs stuff with O to help him get his wind out and he (usually) loves it...

brettgirl - really sorry to hear about the pnd. what are they going to do for you? x x

Juw - grrrrrrrrrrr at your dad... why are parents so bloody insensitive? mine keep going on about formula being the answer to all O's sleeping problems. does H generally seem well? could it just be that he's going to be a small person? how big are you and your DP?

Right - need to go and feed himself, then off to pace the streets of SW London in attempt to get him some sleep (sadly not me )

x x x

I cannot remember what I've read now... so cannot remember what I wanted to say... Poo

Oh no. H has woken up from her long nap, had a feed and three poos so far. I have already changed about 20 nappies today. This is not good. At this rate we're going to run out of nappies before tomorrow morning

Right I'm trying again...

Boff hopefully the ear toilet goes well and your DD continues to get better

Auld- hopefully you continue your mending too.

Ju never you mind about the bf comments of Dad, sometimes they need a swat across their rears like the used to give us.

Brett- PND do you need some cheesecake? Or some pestering? Where abouts are you again?

As for CC.. like bf..ff..cosleeping..washable nappies.. disposables.. etc. works for some and not for others we've all got to do which makes us as sane/capable of coping as possible. We do small amounts of cc. The times she starts working herself up we stop it and 'save' her from the nasty prison cell which is her cot.

There was more..but my mind is swiss cheese... sorry ladies

Bicnod - Hopefully you're right, and H is just built small, but I'm 5' 10" and DH is 6' 2", neither of us slight! He still seems fine in himself, and the only time I tend to be worried is for the day following a visit to the baby clinic. To be fair to my dear old Dad, I don't think he has a problem with bfing, was just a poor choice of words. Though for the whole weekend from both parents I had an awful lot of 'he's not feeding again/ still is he?'.

Schulte - How is H apart from the pooing? Does she seem dehydrated?

So DH as finally come to realise what I mean about needing to plan and Meg...He wanted to go on a race again this weekend and.. It's long to explain but basically he realised that he needed to start planning more/preparing more so that we could leave on time (directly after a feed or leave early enough that I can feed on the way) or else it would throw the whole day for Meg and me out of whack, making us both rather grumpy. (He's a rather absent minded scientist type who will potter around with bikes and cars for what he says will only be 5min, but ends up being 1hr or more which constantly makes us late)

Hopefully things get a little easier in the house now.

Also, I found out (I think) that if I leave Meggy alone after her lunchtime nap (she had only been taking a 15 minute nap then waking up) she'll squawk a bit, call for me a bit, then slowly go back to sleep. 2days in a row I've done this and got a little more time to do things in the afternoon.

I managed to make and send out some offical thank yous yesterday. I'm making some more today, but not getting as far because Meg's being a little needy today.

Juw - not dehydrated, she is very sleepy today but I have seen her wee and it's a clear colour. I am not even sure it is 'proper' diarrhoea now - isn't that supposed to be green? Her poos are the normal yellow colour, just very frequent and mixed with mucus. Really don't know what to make of all this but am a bit worried.

Meg's were just the same after her jabs... still a bit more than usual... but they've slowed after a week

I also noticed that I've been feeding my tiredness with sugar. not good Not sure how to fix it.

Thanks for all the good wishes - I think I DH noticed the signs pretty quickly which is good. I haven't been given meds yet as mild/moderate, but have been told to contact HV for some more support and go back to docs in a month or earlier if I feel worse. Also got told to get out, exercise, eat healthily etc all of which I am doing already. TBH I feel better than I did last week atm, so hopefully it will continue that way. DH is also trying really hard to be supportive, which I don't think is easy as I'm not the best person to live with right now!

I am worried about Hannah getting swine flu and also DH who has asthma. It does say somewhere on one of Dawn's links that babies can have tamiflu if they are over 2 months. Boff I'm not surprised you are more worried than most.

I couldn't agree more with bleu about different things working for different people. I think that the other thing with Hannah is that she is a very independent baby - she likes to lie on her mat kicking and playing on her own and will often cry if you pick her up . I'm not convinced that is entirely normal!

Juwes the weight gain thing must be so hard and at your dad's sensitivity. I hope this doesn't come over as insensitive but Hannah didn't put any weight on when I was bfing and nearly got admitted to special care (as she was much smaller than H at birth). FWIW I think I gave up too quickly and hating formula feeding her is something that has contributed quite significantly to my pnd. However, when I gave her formula she went straight back to her birth line and has stayed there since. She is still a skinny baby and likes to feed until she isn't hungry any more. Therefore she was stopping before she had had enough I think. Or it could be coincidence, I guess I will never know.

Have just bravely read half of that site on pg and infants and H1N1, and realised that if I had been given anti-virals, as I asked for at the time, DC would probably be with us now. I would hate Dr X for this, but his wife has just died, so I won't bother.

I believe he used the words 'worried well' in the consultation.

Worried dying more like.

Bet it was the girl we badly wanted.

Anyway, moving swiftly on, WFH, you did make me laugh with references to medical insensitivity and the thought of my ear being flushed down the lav. They were all medical students once, we must remember that.

Bicnod, we have the entry level John Lewis digital baby alarm and I have to say I have been very impressed.

re: Diarrhoea, if they are otherwise looking and behaving OK, don't worry too much. Just keep an eye on it.

Juwes, I am glad you are seeing the consultant about Hugo's weight. Something seems a bit odd there from the sound of things.

BTW Juwes, I am supposed to have gentomycin ear drops but the pharmacy can't get hold of them and just told me to keep taking the old ones. Does that sound appropriate to you? Bear in mind I am toiletting my ear, so to speak, on Thursday ...