August 2009 Welcome to the world all of the little princes and princesses!

[OonaghBhuna]

I would like to say congratulations to everyone that joins us on this thread and I am looking forward to hearing lots of birth stories and interesting developments of about our beautiful babies

Hi Scummy, I can tell you what I'm doing it doesn't work all the time but its survivable iykwim, I can't leave the newt to cry either and the dillemma of which child to run to is too much.

This is what I do every night...

Packed lunches are made up and put in the fridge, ( make one for yourself too)

Book bags are filled with all the appropriate things and put on a high hook so they don't get messed with.

shoes and coats are placed where the kids can reach them.

Put breakfast cereal in bowls and put on the table in the right place for each child. cover with a plate and put out spoons and cups.

Soo, I wake up at 6.30am give newt 30min feed get up at 7am give kids a shake and a bit of help getting dressed.

We all have breakfast together, you can poor milk/ juice and make tea one handed if you need too.

Then its faces, teeth, shoes and brush hair, put on shoes and coats and walk out door.

All children do everything at the same time. The idea is to be ready early enough so that if I need to sit down for 30mins before we leave the house or at any point in the routine, things still flow and we still have time.

The list of dressed -b/fast - faces/teeth/-shoes - hair. Is on the wall and the kids give themselves star stickers for each thing done. Older ones helping younger. Get your stickers for a week without any crossed words or silliness and you get a treat.

I can remember how old your boys are ()but my oldest is 5 and its working.

I don't try to do anything else in the get ready for school section of my day, I do other stuff when I get back.

Same kind of thing for the after school manic section of the day, I try to get potatoes chopped and in the pan or If meat needs dicing I try to do it before I pick the dcs up.

It still doesn't always work perfectly of course, there are days when everything just happens to work on time and days when the timing is off for everything. but being prepared the night before deffo helps me in the mornings...

Hope that helps somehow

Hi everyone... DD is 5 weeks old today and after a fortnight of perseverance, has finally managed to get the hang of drinking a bottle of EBM... She was just flat refusing it before "what's this? It's not a boob, take it away!"

She's a joy, but is suffering quite badly with wind / colic . It's awful watching her obviously in pain, and despite a constant pattern of patting, rubbing, baby massage, colic holds etc, still not getting her wind up...

SM we have the same here at times. DS2 tends to settle to sleep ok during the day although practically all his naps are induced by going out in the sling on the school/nursery runs. But in the late afternoon/evening it can be a nightmare if he gets overtired. Last night was terrible as dh was late home from work and DS2 started screaming just at the time I was trying to get DS1 and DD to bed. Was he tired, was he hungry or windy I just couldn't tell.

Couldn't read the others any stories which was v. tricky as they always have stories before bed. DD at 2.10 didn't understand and was crying but DS at 5 was really lovely and understanding about it. I could feel my stress levels reaching boiling point..

Oh thank you so much you guys. I feel so much better reading your posts and knowing I am not alone! And you are so right that preparing the night before is the way to go, kitkat. Doh at not thinking of that myself. I hate it when I feel the kids' needs are clashing and not knowing what/who to prioritise and some preparation will help with that immensely.

Ironically after our difficult start Marianne has mostly been utterly edibly angelic today as well! We went to see her brother's assembly in the morning and she slept right through it. Then we met a (childfree) friend for lunch in the park and later had her grandparents round and went out for a meal. She coped with it all brilliantly and, more importantly, I coped when she had the odd blip, so I'm feeling all warm and glowing with adequate motherly vibes again instead of thinking I'm a complete failure. Hurrah!

LTJ- I got some probiotic drops today. I read somewhere that babies who've had antibiotics can be particularly prone to gut flora going skew whiff and therefore getting windy/colicky. M was on prophylactic antibs at birth to prevent infection from my waters going and definitely has trouble with windiness at times. Apparently there has been one study suggesting probiotics can help with colic. They are also supposed to help prevent eczema, which runs in our family. So all in all they sound like a wonder drug and even though it's only based on one study so the jury is out I thought I'd give them a go! They are dead pricey though...

kitkat thanks, some good tips there for the mornings especially. At the moment completely reliant on dh who gets up at 6.30, then gets the older ones up, breakfasted and dressed before he leaves around 8am. I feed DS2 around 7am, get dressed myself and arrive downstairs sometime around 7.45 to find mostly everything organised

In fact am so unable to get 3 children out the door by 8.40am that on the morning dh had to leave early for a meeting the rest of us stayed the night at my parents...dh also does the cooking and washing up in the evening and puts out all the breakfast stuff. So despite not wanting no. 3 baby at first, he is now doing brilliantly!!

oh x posted, coonrapids. That sounds like a v difficult evening indeed. Really hope things improved for you and that tonight was better. Your ds1 sounds like a real sweetie. Would it be worth getting some story tapes for emergencies? I know it's not the same as mummy reading a story but it might be better than nothing?

That's good SM Funny that sometimes more complicated days go better than run of the mill days!

And x posted again! Glad your dh is being a star.

Story tapes - good plan! Thanks

SM Where on earth did you find probiotic drops??? I have some to dd2 when she was 18mnths at that point she had been on antibiotics since she was 14weeks old - they made a massive difference to her - she's still on the antb's now at nearly 4 yrs and I haven't been able to get the probiotic drops anywhere for ages, am hoping she will be coming off the antib's soon, but would love to dose her up with some good stuff The last bottle I bought was about £10.00 for 5ml, and worth every penny and then some!

please tell me where I can buy them!!!

LTJ dd1 and 2 both went through a spate of colicky problems for a while, infacol helped, but was not a cure all, I would deffo try probiotic drops if in the same situation again, I was told to avoid grapes which also seemed to help, but one day it literally just stopped. It seemed like forever at the time, but in reality it was a matter of weeks, hang in there.

A friend of mind once said that if an adult is in pain they will think about lots of random things to keep their mind occupied to stop them from thinking about the pain, but that babies and small children don't have the experience to do this, I was told that singing to children in pain can help them because it gives them a focus and helps them to relax. I honestly don't know if it helped my girls of not, they did seem to settle more easily and I know it helped me - giving me a sound to focus on aside from the crying, which is not good for your mental health. hope things are getting better.

SM, just a thought, have you tried feeding M until she is about to drop off, winding her, and doing a bum change then feeding her some more? My dd1 used to do exactly what you have described in your post - 5 - 10 mins and awake and whinging again. My b/f consultant reccomend the above because she felt my dd was falling asleep before she'd downed enough hind milk and so kept frequent feeding and not wanting to settle. I also found that however full she was she wouldn't settle if put into a cold pram / cot. Winding her with a blanket swaddling her under her arms so I could put her straight down once she was winded helped.

sorry i'm rambling a bit tonight - I anyone has any ideas on stopping a newt from cluster feeding from 1am -3am please tell me!!!

Hi Kitkat. I got them online from here. Even more expensive than yours were, though- over £17 .

I think that could very well be the case, kk, you wise one, you. She definitely settles better after a really good long feed, that's for sure. Will contemplate ideas re 1-3am cluster feeding tonight during our two hourly night feeds!

Thanks sm only other suggestion I have for you is an underarm feeding position (rugby hold) was v good for filling dd2 up to the eyeballs during the night - actually i'm an idiot why on earth haven't I tried that with newt boy. Will try it tonight, thankyou for helping me think that one through! double doh!!! If you think of anything else tho that might help please say, atm ds1 has been waking at about 4am and dd2 is waking randomly as usual Neither of them take more than 5 mins to get back to bed, but its all broken sleep. Some nights I've been getting 1 or 2 hrs a night between wakings.

my b/f consultant once told me that when you are sitting in the half light in the middle of the night feeding your baby you don't really sit there alone because hundreds of other women are sitting with you feeding their babies. The imagery really helped me with dd1's night feeds, and I often think of the women on this thread in the middle of the night doing the same thing, but a little sleep would be nice .

I've also received some very very bad news tonight. 10 bourbon biscuits contain 670 calories. That would explain the bum then!

REALLY should be in bed...

Mornign kitkat - hope you had a better night. I like the idea of thinking about all the other bf women in the night, might be quite comforting. We were up feeding at 11.45, 3ish and 5.45 last night. Really tough - feel like rubbish now! Anyway, on the night cluster feeding I remember reading a tiktok thread the other day (think she's a bf counsellor?). Maybe not too helpful but as I remember she said that cf at night is part of normal small baby behaviour and that it will change itself given time. So prob not worth trying to change the baby's behavioour but try to think of coping strategies. So feeding lying down/co-sleeping etc etc. Sure you've thought of all that though !!

Hi everyone,

DS is now 5 weeks, seems like a lifetime ago now that he was born! It sounds like we are having a very similar time to most of you with the cluster feeding, refusing to be put down, only sleeping in a sling, i could go on. After really strugglimng with BF and getting a good latch going we resorted to nipple shields which are a royal pain in the bum, but he feeds with them. We keep trying to get a latch working and apart from a breakthrough on Monday with a short feed, we havent managed it since. I do find it really frustrating that he wont latch on properly and hate going out in case he wants feeding.

I don't know how you all cope with more than one child, we are barely in any kind of routine with one, let alone some of you with 4! You definitley shouldn't be hard on yourselves, i think you are doing amazingly.

Oh I like the idea of thinking of everyone else feeding at the sametime Coonrapids, my times are exactly the same as yours last night. They do vary but I am defo on the 3 feed a night camp, unsure when that stops and reduces a bit. I don;t mind that much as I often snooze myself during them and look down and find DS2 snoozing too (but no longer suckling)

JosiJo79 you are doing really well with the feeding, keep it up. I found it really hard with DS1 (had thrush undiagnosed) and hated feeding in public as I had to really focus on my latch which is not easy discreetly. It does get easier.

Had a good day today, went to the beach with DS1 &2 and DH and was lovely and sunny. All behaved impeccably and DS2 napped beautifully and is still snoozing now (why oh why does that not happen at home).

DS2 now has conjunctivitis is one eye! Anyone know whether he would get eye drops on prescription or whether it's a case of cool boiled water and waiting for it to clear?

Think it might be because he has a cold. Or it could be that the other children have been prodding him in the eyes. DS1 had a thing where he thought it was a good idea to try and open DS2's eyes for him(sigh)....

Think this cold is affecting feeding as well. Seems to feed for less time than usual, only wants one side and leaves me feeling engorged and leaking everywhere....

Hope everyone else had a good day.

My sister arrives from Oz tomorrow morning . She moved there a yr ago and have really missed her so it's very exciting. DS1 has gone to stay in the hotel near Heathrow with his grandparents so that he can be at the arrivals gate... he was getting v. confused and kept asking if he was going to Australia...

It is a lovely idea, thinking of all the other night breastfeeders, and particularly the ones on this thread, isn't it? We had an astounding night of only 2 feeds last night. It was great- previous record was 4/5 on a good night! Not counting my chickens that this sort of luck is here to stay but I feel pretty recharged, temporarily at least. Hope the rugby ball feeding helped with the boy newt's night feeding, kitkat.

And today has been a bit of a respite from the dreaded school run as well. We did go to the park for one of the boys' football training but that's just a matter of slinging M and going so no problems. It's been a lovely day weather wise here too so great to be out and about. I bet the beach was fab, cairns.

JosieJo- you sound like you are doing a brilliant job. I remember one of my best mates successfully moving on from nipple shields by doing exactly what you're doing and keeping on practising the latch. One day her boy was ready and they never looked back.

Josijo - continued good luck with feeding, sounds like you're doing well. With DS1 I failed to bf and had to express and use EBM in bottles for 11 wks so know what it;s like for it not to go totally smoothly... then with DD bf worked out fine partly cos we had a better birth I think and she latched on quickly after the birth.

With DS2 again it's going ok but I still not so comfortable feeding out and about. I hate the latching on bit esp when he fusses and flaps before he goes on and I'm fumbling around worrying about being discrete whilst at the same time making sure there's no bits of bra/t-shirt in the way of his mouth...

How exciting that your sister's coming, cr.I'm sure I heard somewhere that wiping sticky eyes with breast milk was a good plan. Not sure if that applies to conjunctivitis specifically though...

Hi coonrapids, I know what you mean about waiting for them to grow a bit and the behaviour will change naturally, and simply put I've not known tiktok to be wrong on here with her feeding advice, she good, there was a funny thread on here yesterday where someone decided to pick a fight with her and came out of it looking like a twunt! The trouble is with the other 3 kids needing a rational mummy I really need mre sleep. I also have the nagging feeling that isaacthe newt is falling asleep before he's had a proper feed, I've had a couple of hgreeny nappies which suggests too much formilk.

Well for what its worth I tried rugby holding him last night and he only woke once in the night and only about 45mins feeding before sleeping through til 6am.

Will try it again tonight and see if it helps

As for eye infection have you tried bathing the eye in saline? I use saline for contact lenses, to clean gunky eyes - cleans them much better than boiled water. squirt on cotton wool.

Hope shes better soon

That's fabulous, kkq.

Thanks SM, How are you doing?

coon ds2 had a gunked up eye when he was about a week old and my midwife suggested that once I'd cleaned it to gently rub some breast milk on it as the anti bodies in the milk should help, and it cleared it up in no time. Hope this helps