NOV 09 - once the lights are out and the last baby has arrived safe and fine, see you here on cloud nine!

[Broodzilla]

I've just realized we're now under the "being a parent" header. I've got stage freight!

Thanks for your reassurances everyone. skorpion, I love your description of the magic of these early days. I know I fall a bit more in love with him each day and that makes all the hard work easier.

My Worry of the Day today is that I'm not going to maintain my milk supply. He's only fed 3 times today since 7 am, though they were hour long feeds and on both boobs each time. Should I be doing something to stimulate more milk? If so, what's best to do? I am taking fenugreek to help, but still feel worried that I'm not going to be able to provide enough for him. DH is thinking I don't have enough milk and that's why the Bean is waking up so much in the night. I'm hoping it's more to do with him being too sleepy to feed properly, so we have to open the midnight snack bar. I think I might feed somewhere other than the bed tonight to wake him up enough to feed well. By the sparkling lights of the Christmas tree, perhaps!

Laugs sorry to hear about the nipple issues. It's so hard to want to do what's best for them but to have be in such pain doing it! I like your short term goal approach. I think I might do the same, then I won't feel under such pressure about long term milk supply.

Under the heading of Small Triumphs - my parents, DH, Bean and I did 4 hours of shopping today! I did a breastfeed in John Lewis, and baby Bean was brilliant, sleeping or just staring at the lights for the rest of the trip. Bless his cotton socks.

sass how old is your DS now? For the first 2/3 weeks you need to make sure he feeds at least every 3 hours, even if you have to wake him up. This will get your supply established. You will stimulate more milk the more he feeds - it's supply and demand. By letting it go too long between feeds your body will think it doesn't need to produce more milk.
He will feed more at night initially to get your supply up too, and yes, also as he's not eaten much in the day.
Can you take a day or two to just chill out with Bean and feed as much as poss? Try spending some time skin to skin too as this will stimulate him to feed. The first few weeks are important as it creates prostglandins which are needed for milk production.
www.kellymom.com is a fantastic site with so much bf info on it, includign the science behind it which can really help you understand what does and doesn't have to happen

Nice to see you back laugs! You sound like you've been having a tough time of it I have been trying rugby ball on the right side too as we have probs there. The weirdest thing she does though is be gasping for milk then, when I get her in 'position' she starts chewing her hands and won't move them to latch on! Rugby is helping a bit.

bbl yeah for snow! none here only ice which i slipped and fell on my backside as we went visit my friends on their canalboat

oh and thanks for the dummy thoughts. will see what it does. claire when i pull her off to see if there's milk she often is kinda snoozing so then won't go back on and then wakes up hungry!

hi all, hope everyone has a lovely christmas. time seems to have gone so fast, cant believe Annabelle is nearly six weeks old already. Am nearly ready for christmas, have done most of the wrapping and have actually managed to get everyone a present which is a miracle. am having a nightmare thinking why did I ask my parents to dinner for christmas day?! this is only my second time of cooking christmas dinner for the family so it should b interesting.

raggie my LO does the same thing with her hands - I just move them out of the way She doesn't realize what she's doing, just wants to suck on something, especially when she's fussy or it's been a while since her last feed.

Sorry for the fly-by, I'm reading along but don't have much time to post!

same here for hands, I tuck his arm underneath his body so he can't suck that. He was trying to feed from the hood on his coat earlier!! DH's nose has been known to be suckled before too

Happy Christmas Eve everyone!!! It is my birthday tomorrow!!! Yeah! We had about 1/8 inch of snow last night but the DSs were so happy. Now it is just very icy and foggy.

We're off to my sister's later for Christmas Eve festivities. DH is like a grumpy old man with man flu today though. Strange, when I had this lurgy I wasn't as bad as him!

For some reason Mumsnet makes my computer or at least firefox to break down if the page is open for too long so just quickly: I hope all problems get solved so that you can all enjoy a wonderful christmas.
We will celebrate tonight (more important for us) here just the three of us, tomorrow we are off to Austria to meet both families.
So Merry Christmas to everyone and, as we would say, "good gliding into the new year"

Morning all

Got the best Christmas present from Ioan last night - sleep from 10:30 to 6:30!!! Doubt it will happen again but I'm grateful for the one night.

Hope you all have a lovely Christmas and New Year. We're here with limited visitors so I'll be lurking on mn.
BBL Happy birthday for tomorrow

Laugs I am simply not doing christmas. DP bought DS1's pressies and DS2 has a family that love him, what more could he want?
Don't put yourself under any needless stress, it's only been three weeks.

DS1 has returned safely from Welshpool despite my MIL and DP having to drive and get him then drive through last nights awful weather to bring him back whilst I sat here with Alfie phoning them every 2 mins to check they were ok (took them 9hrs to do the round trip!)

Hope everyone has a HAPPY CHRISTMAS

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY BECKY!

what a brilliant start to christmas, just got back from the dr as ds has hand foot and mouth. why it always christmas when the whole family is ill?

Bleh, Lucy didn't sleep well last night, feeding a lot. And I just ruined three perfectly good chocolate bars trying my hand at truffles, it split horribly.

But it's Christmas Eve! We celebrate the Eve, too, ursi, but it's very low key for us tonight. I hope you get away with no troubles tomorrow.

Merry Christmas everybody!!! May the New Year bring a swift end to sore nipples, sleepless nights and grumpiness and bring lots of joy of healthy, chubby babies that only smile and giggle.

Trikken hope your ds gets better soon

Ninja agree that there's no need to stress about xmas when you've a newborn.

DH has just gone out to do the food shopping - we'll be having whatever is left on the shelves! Nobody is coming to us this year so I'm not bothered what we eat really.

Oh, and happy birthday, becky!!

AGH! It's descended into total chaos here! I've been advised to try expressing milk for every feed until the thrush clears up. Fine - I'm just relieve not to have to put him on my nipple - but I can't keep up! Those who express, how much does your baby take? James had 5oz this morning and was fine. At 12 I'd only managed to express 3oz, so he had that then screamed until I got another 2oz out. Now he seems to be looking around for more? I'm just sterilising a dummy so going to try that instead for the first time. DH is going to buy a hand pump after work (along with the xmas dinner!)

Oh expressing, it's very glamorous isn't it? I am covered in milk. I even had to change my knickers as they were wet through with milk that had dripped down. Nice. And I still haven't made it to the shower yet today so I am in danger of fermenting!

Meanwhile DD is obviously and understandably getting bored of me spending the entire time expressing or feeding and James crying. She's emptied out every toy she has access to on to the sitting room floor. She emptied the craft drawers I made for her, then did a wee on top - not sure if she meant to do that or not... I'm on much better form though - have to laugh or I'd cry.

Merry Christmas everybody and have a fantastic birthday Becky!!

scarlotti we're having what's left on the shelves too. After my great big meltdown yesterday I'm quite looking forward to it now. I just hope DH has bought all the presents etc as I have not really paid any attention.

skorpion and ursi what are your traditions for xmas eve? We may make it to a carol service down the road, but who knows?!

Hi laugs, glad your good humour is back. Hopefully expressing will allow you to heal quickly and with James' treatment all will be much better soon.

We have the main xmas meal on the Eve. There're lots of nice traditions, none are being observed this year, though. You always wait for the first star to be out in the sky before sitting down to the table, you share a special blessed bread (like comunion bread) with everybody exchanging the good wishes to begin with. The table is set with an extra place for anybody - a travelling stranger - that may knock at your door, they will be welcomed to your house. You put a bit of hay under the table cloth to represent the crib. The meal is meat-free, but you get lots and lots of delicious courses. And you get to open your presents at the end! There are soooo many lovely traditions, can you tell I'm a bit sentimental today...? We won't be doing any of that tonight, xmas barely registeres with me tbh. DH is preparing the meal for tomorrow, his family are over, but I'm just sitting on the sofa with Lucy.

That sounds really nice Skorpion Just think, next year you can do it all properly with your lovely little Lucy crawling/ toddling around you. We have been sofa bound for the whole day too. I have no idea how I'm going to express enough milk, so I'm just trying to do it all the time with little breaks. Apparently, to encourage let down, after you massage you should stand up and shake your boobs, so I'm sure the neighbours will have had a good eyeful I think I preferred the belly dancing...

Christmas is a funny version of itself for us this year as well. DH is very homesick for Christmas at his Mum's, my parents are here in our flat trying to make a go of Christmas dinner, we've not done well with organising gifts this year and all the baby chaos means I haven't heard Fairytale of New York City ONCE!!! Still we are very lucky to have our health and each other and friends far and wide. What's a little sleep deprivation when you have all that to be thankful for...

skorpion I love the sound of your Christmas traditions. I love Christmas, normally, but haven't even unpacked all my decorations this year. Ah well, it nay matters.

I echo the wishes for a most festive and peaceful Chrismtas for all of you and for a fulfilling 2010. I'll be around all the hols so see you here...

And happy birthday, BBL! laugs I have tried expressing a couple of times, but little seems to come out. Sounds like you are doing very well. Put on a good film, shake what you need to shake and enjoy an excuse to sit around for a change!

sass here you go
I love it! I had to find it though as I hadn't heard it once either.

"I could have been someone"
"Well so could anyone"

Off for a good old sob

Merry christmas!

laugs I slash baby had thrush with dd1 (and now again but haven't gone to the doc yet) and they just gave me an ointment for baby's mouth slash my nipples....no expressing? Worked fine, too.
I have a fancy pump and still get most and fastest expressed by hand. Maybe try that? Also works much better if baby has a couple suckles first.

Eame sleeps 4 h in a row!! we have to run the humidifier, dress her just right an swaddle her, then she sleeps like an angel, just waking to feed. there is a longer wake around 3 am, when i change her, but thart's when i wake up anyway, so no problem. and yes, crying peaks week 5 and 6. there is a book that tells the weeks throughout the first year when you may expect trouble. highly useful.

Season's Greetings ladies . Sorry to have been away so long, and I haven't even been keeping up . I hope that all your bundles bring joy and happiness, and don't keep you up too late tonight so that Santa gets a chance to come! Are they all doing ok?

An update on Isla - well our placid wee thing hasn't been so happy recently. She has runs of 3 or 4 days where she is really upset and unsettled and doesn't sleep, followed by a couple of better days where she appears to catch up. So most of the time she is stuck to me feeding/comfort sucking (drives me nuts - it tickles too much!)/sleeping (briefly)/winding/waking/crying (repeat). Her nappies are still mucousy and explosive once a day, rather than with every feed. We were at the GPs on Mon, and now have reflux medicine with the HV reviewing things on Tues next week to see if I need to give up dairy. I think I do. Her tummy is constantly bothering her, her 'baby acne' started at 2 weeks and is continuing to spread over her head and torso, and her reflux is stopping her sleeping. Wee thing. I need to get my head around not having cereal for breakfast again. I can't even remember what I had last time. Baby brain strikes again

But the great thing about Isla is that she likes to sleep at least from 2am to 630am .

Thank goodness for the snow. If it wasn't for 6 days of sledging, I think DH and DD1 may have wound each other into oblivion!

Hi everyone. Hope you're having a lovely xmas eve. We had a trip up north last weekend. The journey there on Saturday was a nightmare. 7 hours in car with tiny baby, gears stopped working about 30 miles away and DH had to get out and fiddle under bonnet on the hard shoulder of the motorway using the light from his mobile cos apparently we didn't have a torch (we do now!). He managed to fix it but then it started snowing so much it was so dangerous. Was so happy to get there! The journey back was much better thank goodness.

My mum was a bit weird while we were there. She kept telling everyone who came to visit that we were cosleeping and how dangerous she thought it was. Fortunately everyone she told admitted they had done the same at some point! There was criticism of some other stuff as well. Oh well we're back now and looking forward to our first xmas as a married couple and with our lovely baby.

Hope everyone has a great xmas eve and xmas day tomorrow. x

I've just written a long post and it got deleted so I'm just going to say .... MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!