June 2005 babies

[uwila]

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

Tough mum? Hmmm... Not sure , Lua, if that was a compliment.

Schedule? Oh, blimey, haven't done a darned thing there. There are a couple of things we do I suppose that might count but they are mostl a matter of habit rather than a conciousl effort to have a chedule. I do try to give a last feed at 11:00 which now carries us for about 4 or 5 hours of sleep (6 weeks old today and not cracking out my Gina books just yet). I found weeks ago the schedule conflicted with promoting milk supply so I have aboned the whole schedule thing (believe it or not!).

But, I have to admit I have been pondering if I ought to be doing them.

Oh, and I am opposed to giving him a dummy to go to sleep with. But, DD is not. Today I noticed he stopped fussing and went to have a peek only to discover some little micshievous toddler had gotten the dummy for him.

Uwila, definetely a cumpliment!! I have been proud to call that myself, but I'm faltering now! so, I'm looking for inspiration!
So, if you do not give a dummy, for how long does your DS whimper before he goes?
Maybe nogger is right, its all about how the babies are and all my fussing won't really change anything.

Pink, did you get your pictures sorted out? Hope so!

MrsW keep meaning to ask this forever... did you crack the potty training, or baby got in the way?

Noggermum, if our babies could swap tips on sleeping at night and sleeping during the day (my DS is hardly awake during daylight hours at the moment) we'd be sorted!

Lua, DS1 decided himself that he didn't want to wear nappies any more so reluctantly I went along with it and he has been brilliant - takes himself off to the toilet when he needs a wee or a poo. If it's the latter he just sits there shouting 'mummeeeeeeeeeeeee, mummeeeeeeeeeee' until I go and wipe his bum. Lovely.

Trib, love the cheese comment - very bizarre. Did she explain why? So pleased your DH is coping with it all so fantastically. It sounds like you are doing a brilliant job too.

Tessiebear, I answered your question on the ante-natal thread. It's made me think though, what are all you co-sleepers dressing your babies in at bedtime? Do you cover them with your duvet or not? So many things to think about.

Hope Charleypops is at home with Arlo tonight.

Have to say, I am tempted to get DS2 a dummy. I held out for a while with DS1 but gave in and he's still got it now . DS2 is a sucky baby and likes sucking on my little finger almost as much as he likes sucking on my nipple

Well he is asleep now so I really should go to bed myself.

Mrs W - thanks!!!! Re: Co sleeping - i always did with mine but NEVER let the duvet go over THEM (just me) and put their usual blankets over them

Tessie, Isaac is living in a combination of vests and sheets or cellular blankets, depending on how stupidly hot my house is that day. He seems to overheat if I put him in much more than that.

DS has been most of the time just on short, all-in-one outfits (i.e. without feet and short sleeves). Everynow and then it has been cool enough for a blanket over him. But when in bed with me definetely no covers, especially the duvet. He is usually glued to me, so I figure he is more likely to overheat than to be cold... I keep remembering welshie's comment: too cold they will complain, too hot they die... So I've been erring on the too cold size .

For the hospital, I used the baby grow for the first hours. Once he was warmed back to T, he went into a vest and a blanket swadle.

Well not so good here I have spent the whole day up at the childrens hospital having tests done as it seems Osiris now has a thyroid disorder. We have to go back on wednesday for further tests and scans before he starts on medication. It was horrible seeing him screaming when he was having the blood tests done. He has to have a line put in on wednesday so they can get an accurite picture of whats wrong with him.

I was really upset about it and was almost in floods of tears waiting for the taxi to go home. However I saw a little bald girl who obviously had cancer and I thought it could be so much worse at least he is very treatable. I am glad they caught it early as it only causes problems if left untreated. It'll be horrid the next little while as he will have to have constant tests to check things and he might end up quite jittery as they work out the level of medication he needs.

Well a good thing - my photo's were saved. I was going to scan them in but it seems my scanner has packed in now hopefully it is just bad contact if I change the cables.

We are just going to chill out the rest of the day and not give any thoughts to routines as I have never had one myself and he seems to fit in with me.

Hope everyone is ok

Oh Pink, so sorry to hear about Osiris. As you say, good they caught it so early but v distressing for you both. Hope he's feeling okay in himself at least? Take good care of you both.

Good vibes to you and Osiris, Pink

Thanks He seems ok now that he has been hanging off my boobs for hours as a comfort. Now the shock has passed its ok, Its just horrible seeing needles sticking out of your dinky baby

pink-sorry to hear about your ordeal at the hospital.i know its heartbreaking watching them have blood tests when they're so small-oscar has had 5 already and he screamed the place down.
the good thing is that at least if they find these problems early on,there's more chance they can be sorted out.

wonder if charlie and arlo are home yet.

Pink,
Sorry to hear about Osiris' thyroid. What does this mean? Is it serious? Will he outgrow it?

Lua,
I'm afraid you may have given me more credit than is due. I do give a dummy sometimes, just not when I put him down for the night. But if he's fussing during the day I may stick a dummy in his nouth. Or if I want hime to hold off eating until 11:00 I may give him a dummy to suck on for a while. (althought this strategy can backfire if the dummy makes him tired of sucking and then he doesn't want bottle/breast).

Anyway, I hadn't really thought about until this conversation, but I am definately more laid back this time. I'm not really worried about schedules.

My next hurdle is the toddler and potty training. Been avoiding this one. And part of me thinks, hey I caould just leave it to the nanny. But then that really wouldn't be very nice of me. So I have ordered Gina's potty training book on amazon and I guess that when it arrives, I will have to conquer the inevitable. Oh joy.

Regarding co-sleeping (which incedentally I am opposed to but have become a bit of a hypocrite on this front). No duvet! That's way too scary. He always goes down in his moses basket at 11:00ish. Then he wakes around 4:20 or so and I bring him into the bed for feeding. But inevitably I fall asleep there and so does he so he ends up in the bed with me.

morning all

how is everyone?

this is probably the kiss of death to her good sleeping but DD2 is a really good sleeper! which now is turning into a bit of a dilema. She goes down at about 8-8.30pm and will then sleep for 5-6hrs this is getting longer each night, last night she went for 6.5hrs, now ik've been instructed by the midwife to not let her go for more than 6hrs between feeds, so do i wak her to feed her (will have to set an alarm clock) or do i leave her. my instincts say don't wake a sleeping baby!!!! Should also add when she does wake up she feed for about 10mins and falls staright back to sleep for a further 3hrs.

I think I would wake her if either:
1- she isn't eating enough and therefore needs to be encouraged to eat more.
2- You are breastfeeding and need to encourage milk production. In fact if this is the case, you should be waking her sooner than six hours.

Uwila - They think it is probably congenital hypothyroidism which is present at birth and will need to be treated forever but they will confirm with scans on Wednesday.

The thyroid is the main factor in keeping the metabolism functioning. Hence the reason he has put on so much weight He has gained too fast because his metabolism isn't running effectively. If left untreated it can lead to serious mental and physical developmental problems but treated early it is highly effective and he'll be no different from other children. His levels must however be checked regularly which will involved lots of tests Once things are settled and he is on a good dose he won't have to be check more than once every 6 months. At the beginning though he'll have tests at the hospital every 2 weeks Also as they find the dose he may become unsettled as ultimately the results will effect metabolism. I'm glad he's put on weight in a way because if the dose goes a little high for a fortnight he'll be sure to loose weight and be very over alert and not able to sleep properly and things.

I'm glad they found it now as in the old days there wouldn't be any symptoms until 2 or 3 years or so and then you would have a mentally disabled child which could have been treated effectively.

Anyway I'm off the little chap is hungry

Pink do soryy to hear about Osiris problems. It does break my heart to see them taking blood of young babies. But it looks like is agood think they found out so fast!
BTW, how did they found out? My DS is also gaining weight really fast (1lb/week). Is there anything else i should be looking out for?

anyone up?

hope you got my message that ds had arrived!

had nt posted as baby not sleeping at all due to wind so spare moments are for grabbing sleep!!!

can t type much got babe jn arms!!

Pink, sorry to hear about Osiris?s thyroid problem. I hope it?s a small consolation that at least its treatable.

Hi Redhead, congratulations and glad you could join us. I am getting used to this one hand typing now ?.

Katz, I am so to hear about DS2?s great sleeping. I had got Isaac into a lovely 3 hour routine, but for the past 2 days, he has been feeding much more frequently and not settling between feeds. The MW came round this morning to weigh him. Apparently, in the time period where the average weight gain is 11ozs, my little greedy guts has put on 21ozs!!! She thinks that this is due to a growth spurt. I thought this happened at 3 weeks, but apparently, it can happen earlier than this. Still, explains why is getting markedly heavier every day .

Hope all you ladies are well.

jonah-oscar is doing exactly the same.
we were feeding him every 4 hours but he's now wanting a bottle about every 2 hours.
he's also not sleeping much in between which is a bit frustrating-he seems to lay there grizzling to himself.
the midwife came last week and has now discharged us.she said the health visitor will now phone me this week and come and see us,so i'm going to mention it to her.
also i dont know if anyone else has the same "problem" but sometimes oscars eyes look a bit boss-eyed to me.i know a baby doesnt actually focus properly for a few weeks so maybe thats why-i dont know.has anyone else noticed that with their babies? just wondered if that was the norm.

hope everyone is well-it's very quiet on here.

Redhead, yup, we got the message about Fox, congratulations to you! He shares a birthday with my ds, Charley's ds and Coop's little girl, I think 22nd June was our most productive day so far! If he has a middle name, do tell and I will update the birth stats accordingly

I've had the midwife out today as ds has oral thrush Somehow I feel this is all my fault and I should have alerted them sooner. He's still feeding quite happily (mostly formula, sigh) so hopefully the medicine will kick in soon to clear up his poor little tongue.

hi again
pink sorry to hear about little O.

Trib - how did you know it was thrush? white tongue? Fox has a white tongue and I was kinda wondering if he had it....what's the treatment? btw middle name is Tyler

anyone know how soon you can give a breastfed baby a dummy???

must go babes screaming now...

Hi there,

Internet link failed for a few days after power cut still all up and working now

Can't remember who asked, but yes when we put dd up in our room about 6/7 she sleeps quite happily, but tbh we've been lucky cos she always has slept in the moses basket...ds hated it . And I did jinx it colic has been real bad this last few days, 3 days now it's taken from 7-9 to settle her, bless. DS had a lactose sensitivity when little, and I really hope dd doesn't have the same...he had colic til he was 7 months and we put him on soya, then it stopped over night...now I read lots of horrid things about soya and the hv is against it (not that that alone would stop me!) so here we go again...has anyone used dentinox before?? didn't try this one with ds so may do so now...

Pink - so sorry to read about little Osiris' hospital visits and expected treatment...as you say good job they've diagnosed early tho...fingers crossed all goes well for you

Oh oh - think that's the herald of the 10 oclock feed I hear...will catch up more later, x

RHM, yes, white tongue. For the first few days I thought 'hmm, wonder if that's just the milk residue', it was today when I really thought 'no, that's something that's not right'. If in doubt, I would get your midwife to have a look. Although you may have been signed off by now - we haven't purely cos they like to have the mw who delivered you come to do the final visit and she's not on til Wednesday. I only phoned today because I wanted a visit tomorrow - now feel horrendous that I was so lacksadaisacal about it

Treatment is an anti-fungal called Nystatin given with a dropper or (in our case) with a tiny spoon. Ds doesn't seem wild about the notion but he's taking it.

Well DS won't settle at all tonight so I thought I'd practice my one-handed typing on here

Pink, I'm so sorry to hear about Osiris. Is this something they spotted when he had the heel prick test? Sounds like something my health visitor mentioned, and she did say that with treatment it was completely manageable. The whole hospital experience is awful with babies isn't it? I really hope they get his medication sorted quickly and that he doesn't have to have too many more blood tests.

Katz, why did your midwife say your DD shouldn't go more than 6 hours between feeds? If she's worried about weight gain I suppose you should wake her, but if everything is ok on that front, half an hour here or there won't make much difference.

Redheadmum, I've been out today and bought some dummies for DS2 (he's 4 weeks today and is breastfed at the mo) but he still prefers to suck on my finger. Not sure what the official guidelines are though.

Tea, sorry to hear about the colic. Is your DD going to be tested for the lactose intolerance? Fingers crossed it isn't that.

Trib, you've got no reason to feel guilty, you're not a doctor! That's the one problem with parenthood...you spend most of your time feeling guilty about one thing or another.

Jonah, feeding is all over the place here too. Great news about the weight gain though.

Right, going to try and give DS2 a feed, see if that will settle him a bit. Nothing is working tonight and it's very frustrating.

Morning All,

Bubb, thanks so much for your message and that its not only my DS lulling me into a false sense of security. Oh, and Isaac is still quite boss-eyed as well. DH keeps looking at him in a concerned manner, worrying that it?s going to stay, but I?m pretty sure it will go. Not sure when though.

Mrs Wed, my empathy with you and your unsettled DS2. Hope you managed to get some sleep last night. I am reaching the realisation that everything I will do for the next two years is going to be one-handed