June 2005 babies

[uwila]

Hi everyone. Thought it was time we have a post-natal thread.

I think she grew her babies in a jar!

oh Bubbs! i've just read your post - poor poor you I've not read further yet, I hope everything's ok. Babies are very tough and resilient though, so I have been told at the hospital xx

evening all,

tea-glad to see its not just my ds growing at a superfast speed.oscar was 9lb2 when born,8lb12 the following week and when they weighed him at the hospital on sunday he was 9lb14.he's also grown 4 1/2cms longer in 3 weeks.

welcome aboard vicky-glad youve de-lurked.

lynny-it was me who asked about jessicas foot.oscar has the same problem but with both feet.he's just got his first appointment through with the specialist for tuesday week so it'll be interesting to see what he has to say-im hoping his will also correct themselves.

trib-ds also doesnt like his moses basket.he'll sleep in it at night(probably because its dark),but not during the day.he's also nearly the same length as the basket-dont know how babies manage to stay in them for 3 months.we're actually going to mothercare on sunday to buy a travel cot for him to sleep in instead,so lets hope he likes that.
he spends most of the day in his fisher price aqua swing and absolutely loves it-must be the best thing we've bought,by a long shot.

coop/charley-nice to see you both back.

went to the doctors tonight and just as i thought,ive broken my tailbone.
cant believe how painful it is.ive been given some super strength pain killers and told to sit on a rubber ring-just my luck i'll burst it!!!!

was told it can take between 6-12 months for it to heal so thats not much fun,but i suppose im lucky i didnt break anything else.

oscar is fine and im sure the bump on his head is shrinking already.i measured it yesterday and i made it 1/2cm less than when we left the hospital so thats good.

Bubbs, your broken tail bone sounds very painful, I hope it heals soon. Make sure you don't get constipated on those painkillers - I imagine that wouldn't be very pleasant! Strong painkillers always make me a bit bumged up. I'm glad Oscar's bump is shrinking, Arlo's ventouse haematoma has caused a little bump on his head which I'm hoping will shrink as he grows. I massage it when I'm feeding him.

Bubbs, your broken tail bone sounds very painful, I hope it heals soon. Make sure you don't get constipated on those painkillers - I imagine that wouldn't be very pleasant! Strong painkillers always make me a bit bumged up. I'm glad Oscar's bump is shrinking, Arlo's ventouse haematoma has caused a little bump on his head which I'm hoping will shrink as he grows. I massage it when I'm feeding him.

Lynny - am I evil? I had to have a little chuckle at your Leona's naked escapades - I am tempted to do the same myself in this weather. Seriously though, I hope her antics aren't doing your head in too much. It sounds like you're doing really well from your posts.

Halle, sorry, Lippy - thanks for passing my message on So you reckon all that water drinking malarky actually works on the old complection then??

KVG - I love the name Anouk! It's lovely and CONGRATULATIONS!! Hope by now you're having more success with the burping thang. I do it half way through a feed then at the end - if sitting him up and patting his back doesn't work, I put him over my shoulder and pat or rub upwards. Or sometimes I have him lying on my chest and that seems to work eventually. Sometimes, whichever method I use it seems to take quite a while. I never thought I'd be pleased that the hot weather would cool down a bit either - I don't feel like I can take ds out anywhere at the moment, although I do because I have to, but feel so paranoid about him overheating.

Trib - did I congratulate you on the arrival of TOBY? I love that name - it was on the shortlist for Arlo actually What a weird health visitor you seem to have - I wonder why she's got such an interest in your and dh's parents? I was left feeling a bit paranoid about mine actually after I'd mentioned I never had a great relationship with my parents then she spent nearly half an hour scribbling notes in her book

Pink - Rofl at your 70ggg neighbour in just her bra!! Oo what class!

Lua - I do stay up late don't I? I stupidly stay up late every night to share a bottle of wine or so with dp then pay for it the following day. I'll have to get to bed earlier though, I'm walking round like a spaced out zombie at the minute.

Lippy - Re Touche Eclat - I use it every day, find it ok. It's a reflectant rather than a cover so takes some getting used to - i think it works rather well though. Also, you could try Anusol or Preparation Haemarrhoid stuff) under your eyes to shrink the swelling - that's what the make up artists use apparently! Are you using your sling yet? how you getting along? I'll be getting my Ellaroo Wrap soon!

Bero - love your "quesion mark on his face" re your ds at the osteo

RE bathing your babies - I have a "Tummy Tub" and Arlo LOVES it!! It's so easy to use - you can do it anywhere - it's basically a bucket and he is submerged up to his neck in it - he bounces around in it a bit.

HV came round today- dsis now 7lbs 12oz. He's been so greedy he's been putting on more than an oz a day! Apparently newborns sometimes have a growth spurt like this to reach their "genectic potential" - ie, making up for being in a womb that was too small for them.

Bubbs/Lua - ds is certainly becoming more vocal in his old age (3 weeks). He's still really good though so far. Apart from last night when I coudn't get him to settle in his cot rather than his carrycot. He chuckles in his sleep and makes the cutest baby noises too!

charley-re:the painkillers,my doc said the exact same thing.ive got to take co-drydamol in the evenings and he did say they will make me constipated,but i dont mind too much as with my ibs im used to the opposite.

oscar also makes funny noises in his sleep.dh reckons he's dreaming.sometimes he's really loud-sounds more like nightmares to me and he snores.

your babay bath sounds great.ive actually seen them but thought they looked a bit weird for bathing-obviously a hit with arlo though.
we've a normal looking baby bath and we bought one of those sponge supports to go in the bath.they are also great and make bathing so much easier,as the baby can just sit on the sponge,without slipping and sliding about.

has anyone got one of those therma bags for keeping bottles hot when going out?
i bought one in mothercare and used it when i went out the other day,but the bottle was stone cold and never stayed warm,so wondered if there was a "knack" to keeping it nice and hot.

also took the parasol out wheni was shopping on thursday and it doesnt fit the travel system.i assumed they were universal but obviously not.
didnt matter too much as i just closed up the sun canopies and he did stay nice and cool.the parasol will probably come in handy when i get a buggy instead.

KVG, sending you a massive hug. Sorry you had such a rough night. Please don't think you've done anything wrong - babies are contrary little buggers whose behaviour is completely unpredictable. DS2 had a night like that earlier in the week and the worst thing the next day was that he was overtired and I couldn't get him to settle to have a proper good nap so he was constantly fidgeting and crying. In the end I held him on me until dropped off into a deep sleep and a three hour nap helped enormously (I then had a sleep too). Not sure whether this helps or not really but I just want you to know you're not alone in feeling like this! Have a look at Welshie's windy farty baby thread too, you might be able to pick up a few good tips for her sore tummy. I'll see if I can find the link.

My DH doesn't help in the night unless he's absolutely forced to - usually he's lying next to me, fast asleep with his earplugs in. If your DH doesn't help during the week then he must give you the chance to catch up with sleep at the weekend otherwise you'll be worn out. And during the week, can you sleep when Anouk sleeps? Even half an hour's nap can make all the difference. This won't last forever honest.

Bubb, your broken tailbone sounds extremely painful. Really hope it heals up quickly.

Here you go:

windy farty baby thread

And someone else just posted this link on another thread which seems full of good info:

colicky baby

kvg-sorry to hear of your bad night with your dd.
i think alot of it may have been the heat last night-it was very hot.
ds always finishes his bottle but last night he only drunk half of it and he was a bit grizzly which was so unlike him,as he hardly ever cries.
he seems to be back to normal now and has spent virtually all day asleep and only waking up for his feeds.
re:the night shift,dh and i have decided that i'll get up during the night to feed ds during the week and on a friday and sat dh gets up to see to him.we give him his last feed at about 10.30pm and he sleeps through till about 4am,so really we only have to get up once which isnt too bad.
think i'd be pulling my hair out though if i was up most of the night-must be awful.
ds is also sometimes hard to burp.he tends to fall asleep after a feed which makes it near impossible to burp him and we also get really worried about it.other times he does really loud burps.

Afternoon all, just taking a break from my Potter marathon to check in Toby, a very well-brought-up boy (if I say so myself) obligingly went off into a 4 hour slumber literally just as the postman arrived with my copy of the new book at lunchtime. They have 750 copies to deliver in our town alone, and are desperate to get rid of as many as possible today so as not to have them taking up space in the sorting office!

Charley - wouldn't it have been funny if our kids had the same name as well as the same birthday?!

KVG - masses of sympathy to you. Dh and I share the nightwork as of course we are both at home during the day (he does more, because it's easier for him to sleep during the day so he can catch up then). However, I don't know if this is ultra-controversial, but I'm not convinced the working dh cannot help out during the week, even if they don't want to. Enduring broken sleep is a matter of practice I think, so much better that they not get a chance to get out of the habit Plus I think emotionally it's a lot easier to cope at night if you know you have backup you can call on.

At the very least, I'd suggest dh needs to be prepared to take an evening shift when he gets in from work, to give you a much-needed rest. Plus as bubba and MrsW say, take the night shift at the weekends.

Obviously I shall reverse all of this once I have gone back to work and act like a 'dh' and sleep through the night (Although equally obviously this will be impossible as I am already programmed to wake as soon as ds cries). At the mo, ds co-sleeps with dh and I sleep next door, so that when he isn't feeding I'm not disturbed by every little noise and cry. I have co-slept with him a few times but find it very difficult to nod off.

Btw, we use Infacol on ds, it certainly seems to help.

Bubba, sorry to hear about your injury, hope you can take it easy. I have a parasol from Mothercare, just wish we didn't have to dismantle it every time we fold the travel system up to put in the car very irriating.

Charley, I've been looking at the Tummy Tub but decided not to bother now ds has taken to the bath, they are also meant to help with colic ...

MrsW - forgot to say, aim is to move up north sometime in October/November, so as to be settled by the time I go back to work in December. I guess we'll be coming north a few times in September looking at places, I will be in touch for your expert guidance! Actually I guess sooner would be better than later, as I haven't yet got into the mum and baby circuit here, but would really like to have some real life company as well as you lovely online Junies

Hi everyone. I have nothing much to report, just wanted to say "hello".

My little darling is now sleeping for 6 or so hours in the night -- ah bliss. It seems to be the sun coming up waking him rather than hunger. It's just a pity the sun comes up so bloody early.

#i'm still breast feed ing (well, sort of). I still have to top up quite a lot with formula so I'm considering throwing in the towel soon. The only thing that has helped is the domperidone, but it's too bloody expensive and I probably shouldn't take it for too long. BTW, I'm not complaining. DS is now 8 weeks old so if breast feeding doesn't go any further I don;t really mind -- I've gone long enough.

My mum arrives on Thursday. Then I have a 4 day break before the new nanny arrives. We'll hang out for a week and then I'm back to work on 15 August. Gosh this last month is really gonna fly by.

So, has anyone else given up breast feeding yet?

Hello all
Bubb - You poor thing. A broken tailbone sounds like agony. What a nightmare for you. I hope that the painkillers work for you. Fingers crossed for the docs and your ds's feet too. How annoying about the parasol. We have a thing called a shade-a-babe which looks a bit dramatic but is excellent for us out in Cyprus. It has also been brilliant at putting over the buggy at night if we want dd to fall asleep so we can go out for a meal (when we are away for weekends etc) as it works like tinted windows and if it is dark/dull outside it seems dark to them. If it is bright outside they can see out fine. DD used to yell if we ever went out without it as the sun was too bright for her and she spent the whole time with her eyes shut. I know the sun hurts my eyes if I don't wear my sunglasses. Could you try to take the parasol back? I think those thermo things are designed to keep milk cold when out and about not hot. I could be wrong there though so wait to be corrected. Have you tried ds with room temp milk. In this weather he may prefer it not warmed and this would be brill for if you were out and about as then you wouldn't have to worry about finding somewhere to heat it up. My friend used to do this and I thought it was a good idea at the time. It may not work in practice though. I know dd used to eat cold vegetables (she loved them straight from the fridge at one point) and this was great for when we were out as she would just eat chunks of sweet potato and carrots straight from a pot. She wouldn't touch jars though which was a pain at times. I would also say don't buy a travel cot for full time sleep use. I have had to use one a lot with dd when we are back in the UK or away for weekends and the mattresses are crap and very thin. They are fab for what they are for, travel etc and I used ours as a playpen for a while but dd has never slept though properly in one. My mum caved in and bought a cot second hand for this trip for dd1 and she has slept through every night despite dh, dd2 and me making loads of noise when we go to bed (we are all in together). I don't want to sound like a patronising second time mum (I haven't got a clue really and can't see how I will cope with two without dh at home) but this is the experience we have had.... I mean it to help so hope you don't mind.....
Uwila - Hi there, have a great time with your Mum. Time flies doesn't it.
Trib - Hope you are enjoying Harry Potter.
KVG - Poor you. It is exhausting having a new baby there is no denying. Hope you have a better night. It will pass and get better I promise.
Charley - Glad Arlo is thriving so well and you sound upbeat too
My dh does nothing at night this time. He actually sleeps through and has done since day 2. This is the luxury of a second time dad. He woke at every sound with dd1. I did get him up with dd1 when I didn't know what else to do and he is actually much better at settling dd2 than I am so I can see myself having to wake him to help at some point in the future but touch wood we have been VERY lucky so far.
Mrs W - Thanks for the windy baby threads. I am off to read them. Poor DD2 does suffer. So far it is our only problem though so I can't complain. I just hate seeing her so uncomfortable. She isn't screaming with it though thankfully so I know it isn't too serious.
Have to run as mum is home with guests so must be sociable.
Had the Flower Show in the village today. Great fun. Mum won for her cabbages hee hee.
Take care all xxx

hi coop-well im sitting here on my so called rubber ring which is actually made of foam and it's not helping at all.
that shade-a-babe sounds great-wonder if they do them over here.the therma bag is meant to keep milk/food either hot or cold,apparently.what a waste of money.maybe next time i'll heat it up really hot and by the time he goes to drink it,it may still be warm.actually ds isnt that fussy-he'll drink his milk providing the chill has been taken off it.
thanks for the travel cot info.the reason we thought it might be a good idea is because he definately needs something else to sleep in,and although he has a lovely cot,i dont want to banish him to his room just yet,but at the same time i dont want a great big cot in our room.we havent got the space for it anyway!
i think i'll have a shop about now you've mentioned the mattresses and see if i can find one which is fairly thick,so thanks for that-thats really helpfull.
glad your'e enjoying yourself with your mum and her cabbages-ha ha!!

Hi everyone

Having a lovely weekend here. Great weather and just relaxing, going on a picnic tomorrow. Dd feeding a lot during thday and I am exhausted, it's so draining I forgot about that part

Time for ice cream then bed.

Oh Bubb... I missed the broken tailbone bit (apologies for my gross negligence as a junie). How did thi happen? Is it from the fall downstairs? or childbirth? Oh gis. That's terrible. My deepest sympathies. Wishing you a speddy recovery!!

uwila-i did it when i fell down the stairs.i suppose i should be lucky i never broke anything else.

lippy-a picnic sounds perfect,especially as the weathers so nice.

we're off to sainsburys then have mum,dad and FIL coming over to see us,while dh mows the lawn!!!

Morning all,

KVG, so glad you had a better night. It really is hard going at times, I know how you feel, we've had a few of those. I left a message for my HV the other day as we were at our wits end, and she called back 3 days later!!! Could have done myslef or dh some serious damage by then!! I'm using a mixture of infacol and gripe water, which seems to ease things, but not a complete cure by any means.
Coop, glad you're enjoying the uk, it must be great to see your folks again. That shade a babe thing sounds good, where do you get them from?
Bubb, hope the tail bone is easing for you. Ouch!
I'm sure you're right about the heat, it really unsettles babies. Very different from having a winter baby.
Got a family barbieque to go to this afternoon, which should be good, and a chance to introduce Esmee to everyone. Must go and try and make myself reasonably presentable, try and get rid of bags, and find some clothes without snot marks at Ds level.
Hope you all have a lovely sunday, xx

Morning all. Restless night for us last night, not exactly helped by two of my neighbours thoroughly pissing me off. First we had the boy from the ground floor, who had his mates round. They all stood about outside on the street with music blaring out through his open windows, which no doubt the entire neighbourhood found particularly pleasant.

That went on til 11, and then at 3 in the morning (we had finally got Toby off at 2, and I was expecting to be up with him again at 4) my downstairs neighbours came home and started playing music really loudly In that case I went into the kitchen and banged on the floor, I was getting ready to go down to the meter cupboard and shut their power off I was that pissed off.

Anyway. ARGH. Downstairs neighbours are already up again and watching telly (fortunately not that loudly).

KVG, glad you got a bit more sleep, it does make a tremendous difference, doesn't it?

Uwila, well done on persevering with breastfeeding for so long. I have given up hope; I found expressing and not being able to get anything out just too distressing

Does anyone else have a baby who won't go to sleep in the car? The problem is, Toby hates to have to lie flat. Ironically having splashed out on a lie-flat car seat I can now see us having to put it into its 'sit up' configuration even though that should be less comfy for him.

Trib, My darling DS loves the car. And DD didn't mind it too much, but she HATED lying flat. We had to sit her up (reclined) in the pram at about 2 weeks old. I'm sure this would have horrified the heath visitor. But, hey, gotta to give my little queesn what she wants. So, perhaps it's the lying flat that he hates, and not the car ride.

Though when DD was 3 months old we went over to Brugge. And on the way back she decided she didn't like being strapped in and screamed the whole way through France. Right from the Belgian border to the ferry terminal.

Thank God DS seems to like the car (of course he's only 2 months so there's time yet for a change of heart).

Hi all,

My ds also doesn't like the car much. Sometimes he sort of goes to sleep (not really proper sleep somehow) but often he just screams. I hate it because there's not much you can do to comfort him when you're on the motorway and he is stuck in his car seat.

How are sleep patterns going? We normally get one four hour slot, provided we go to bed at the same time as ds (glamourous lifestyle), but then it's usually every two hours, sometimes every one hour for the rest of the night. I think the problem is that he is too sleepy to feed properly but short of getting him up and playing with him (not an option at 3 am) I'm not sure how to stop him falling asleep when feeding.

Anyone had this and found a solution?

Hope all are well, especially Bubbaloo - must be tough to deal with a tiny one and convalescing.

Also tribpot - would have been so cross if in you position last night. Is there anything you can do to try to stop it happening again, or would you just be getting into a row?

Morning all,
Not a bad day here - not too cold, not too hot....

Lummox, you described my DS sleep pattern to a tee!
With my DD I managed to stretch her sleep intervals slowly by giving her a dummy whe she woke up after an hour. I think I started when she was 2 months olds, so I know she wasn't startving. It worked well, but later I had to tackle the dummy problem - which BTW wasn't very hard...

I will probably will do the same with DS. I have learn though that sometime a little bit of shhhs and tummy rubs get him back to sleep without a feed - I am cosleeping with him though....
There is probably better advice out there, but I figure we will climb the mountain one step at a time. First teach him to go for longer without a feed, than be away from me and finally sleep on his own. But if you figure out a way to do all at once I am most interested!

Afternoon All,

Bubb, sorry to hear about your tailbone. Poor you, backache is so horrendous.

Uwila, just a suggestion, but something I am using at the moment is a black-out curtain. It may prevent DS waking up with the sun. I know you aren?t allowed to mention the dreaded Gina here, but she recommended it strongly. You can buy blackout curtain fabric from John Lewis quite cheaply.

KVG, glad you got some more sleep. It does make such a difference, doesn?t it? You can cope with anything the day brings if you?ve had a decent night.

While my DH is still working full time, I do all the night work and leave DH to sleep though it. In return and to be fair to him, he is really good in the daytime with DS. As some of his working days finish by 3pm, this is actually a real help. We both feel that this is a fair trade off. He?s also v. much in the good books today as we had a birthday barbie for DH last night. I left them to it at about midnight and when I went downstairs this am, the house was virtually spotless. Deciding he was too drunk to sleep after everyone went home, DH cleaned and tidied everything away. I was so impressed! Lots of brownie points to him. Off to eat some birthday carrot cake now....