October 2009 babies - Waving arms and gummy smiles make the sleepless nights worthwhile.

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Here we are on the other side-finally. Well done ladies!

On 2nd lot of AB's and they are suitable for BF so no expressing needed.

HC
x

Hi HT. William is awake in the mornings and at night but less so in the afternoon ... A lot of babies I know are awake loads more in the afternoon/evening - when we have meet ups in the afternoon, William is usually fast asleep!!

Hello everyone, I most definitely should be in bed but wanted to let you know the latest from Mel- they will be in hospital a few days BUT Mel feels a bit happier. F had some nice awake time earlier and has had 3 great feeds. The nurse has taken his drip off!! (that's from her FB status, have been out for the eve and not caught up with her properly)

Will update as soon as I know more, now off to bed before I puke (pg not drunk!)

Saucepanman Thank God for that and thanks for the update so late at night. She's got you well trained .Hope you're not suffering too much with all day/night morning sickness

Saucepanman thanks for the update. Glad its sounding better for poor Freddie, Princessmel must of been in a right state.

HT i had DS & Faith both on Aptamil milk. Had to then change Faith to Cow & Gate for hungry babies as the shop here changed all the formula milk! I did try SMA at start with DS, but i found it caused him problems with pooing, but that was just him. Every baby different. Do a bit of reading the boxes & see what one appeals to you

Hi Willow, welcome to the thread

HSC hope you enjoyed your night out! I love the rocky horror picture show! How did M do with the bottle?

Bella i did laugh when i seen you have wrote about DS being long so will be tall. Only because i was really long when i was born, my mum said the nurse looked at me & told her i would be really tall & be looking down at everyone....im only 5ft 1 !!! LOL.....My little sister is 5ft 11 so something went really wrong for me How are you getting on now with the baby whisperer? I got the book yesterday, so just starting to read it, im a bit worried!

poor Freddie - really hope he is on the mend soon and he is back to full health. Very scary for Mel as well

soooo, on Friday Ruby slept from 6 - 10 pm so no cluster feed and then woke for just one night feed - whoop! However, last nihgt she was back on the cluster feeds and 3 hourly wake ups in the night - hair is going greyer and greyer!

iggly = we have taken Ruby out a lot. At 4 weeks old we had my brother's wedding. Last week i took her on a girls night out in the sling.

HC - how was the night out and did M take a bottle?

Willow - hello!

HT - Ruby is awake in the early - late evenings when she does her mad cluster feeding. Whilst she does wake at night, she feeds and goes back to sleep which i am hugely grateful for so i am up for around 15 mins per feed.

devils - hope Charlie is on the mend soon - coughs are horrid

hope everyone else is ok - nothing planned for today so am still in PJs and plan on staying in them

xx

Just in from mel- Think we should be able to go home today!! Freddie is off oxygen and his sats moniter. Only his canulla left to go

Saucepanman-great news! Thanks for keeping us posted

Feeling v low and close to giving up bf altogether today. After some great feeds in the night, Joseph has decided to wriggle and cry every time I position him to feed from the left breast. I try to gently move him into position but can't hold him like it for very long when he's wriggling. I've broken both of my wrists twice (ex rock climber, clearly not v good at it!and my right wrist aches so much when trying to position him. This has never happened before and I have wept with frustration several times already today.

Its interesting reading about the awake/sleep times. Joseph is very active from around 9-11/12 then has a long sleep of 2 hrs, some dozy awake time, more deep sleep then a bit of until 5pm ish. At that point he wakes up all zingy and is like that till 8ish. He'll then cluster feed till 11. So Iggly-you're not the only one with a baby that sleeps the afternoon azway!

Hi HT, sorry to hear you're feeling low. What position were you feeding him during the night on the left breast? Are you tired from maintaining the position properly during the night, hence aching wrist?

Re sleep - phew! Although William has had some bad nights so he's tired all day now! I hardly see him properly awake as he has to catch up!

tried charlie with a bottle of ebm today and he wouldn't take it.

aaarrrrrrrggghhh.

rubyslippers - have you had any joy with ruby?

3 oz of gold bm down the drain

devils - sorry to hear that you had to chuck your BM. RUby is still a bottle refuser but we are trying in earnest this week and on Saturday she is going to MILs with DH for a while so she will have to take a bottle

have got a breastflow bottle which is meant to be the best for switching - has a double teat

HT - you have done brilliantly with the feeding - Ruby favours the right breast so it can make feeding frustrating

x

devils, you probably know but it might be worth getting DH or someone else to try the bottle with you out of the room? We did that with William on advice of our midwife which worked.

iggly, tried that today.

having scowered the mn archives i have made a new plan based on the advice i found (god love mn):

1 express an oz or two a day and give to dh to feed to him at the same time each day

2 will try a 'closer to nature' teat that i have

3 make sure it is quite warm but not hot

4 if that doesn't work try feeding him when he is asleep (apparently this works and eventually they will take it when awake)

exhausting wkend. wkends are pretty much like week days at the mo. i am so in need of a few hours time out. i hadn't realised how much the milk in my freezer had represented freedom and peace of mind to me. like, if i had really wanted to go out, i could as there is milk there iykwim. now it just feels like all the responsibility is on me again. ho hum it's not that bad but i just really don't wanna spend my night feeling terrible that charlie is hungry and upset.

ok grumble over. positive mental attitude now.

charlie will have a bottle. i have two weeks...

ruby, my mil is a consultant paed and she said to me today that if he's hungry enough, he'll take it. also i read some threads on mn where people said that they had to go back to work and the baby took the bottle on the first day after months of trying and failing, they won't starve themselves.

i just can stand to see bm being wasted though.

ok, i'm really going to stop it now.

devils I know exactly what you mean re freedom! Having the option of giving William expressed milk is a relief even though I've only had DH do it when I'm at home.

I really hope Charlie takes the bottle, fingers crossed. I know what you mean about wasted milk - I spilt half a bottle of expressed milk after finding time to finally do it today and felt sick!

nooooooo. i bet you almost cried!!

Just another quickie at the end of my mega hectic weekend

Much better news about Freddie, am so pleased.

Off to bed in a mo but Rocky Horror was fab and mum said Matthew drank a 7 oz bottle of EBM with no complaints. So relieved. He is extremely sick tonight though.

Love to all.

HC
x

devils yep! It was like something out of a movie - I watched it fall in slow motion, mouth open and too slow to catch it.....

HC glad you enjoyed the show and I hope M gets better soon.

It's half 1, I'm feeding W and desperately hoping he'll stay asleep after several bad nights.....

Morning all, I've been away for the weekend at my mums.

princessmael I'm thinking of you and little Freddie, must have been very scery. Glad he's on the mend.

Willow welcome, love the name. My dd1 is Poppy

devils I tried the feeding a little bit every evening for about a week before a night out with ds and it worked, fingers crossed.

hc glad to hear you had a good night out.

Just wanted to say again for all those worried about slow weight gain. try not to worry about it. The graph shows an average weight gain and inevitably with averages there will be some babies who will be above average in their gain and some that will be below... this is how it works and it is completely normal. As long as your babies are not losing weight and are happy and alert, and meeting all their milestones, they are fine. Don't let anyone tell you different. There's absolutely no reason why you should be trying to fatten them up, if they are naturally petite. I really feel for you and I know it's very hard not to worry about it if health proffessionals are sticking their oar in, but remember, they are there to offer advice/opinions, they cannot 'make' you do anything you are not happy about, it is your baby not theirs. (sorry for the rant! i just get so fustrated for you all!!! in a few years they'll be moaning about obesity and them putting on too much weight... you can't win )

Hello, we're home!

Will post more when F is not lying on my other arm!

Thanks for thinking of us.
xx

Morning! twinkle, hope you had a good weekend as did everyone else?

princess, Glad to hear Freddie is getting better

I'm feeling tired but a bit chirpier as William didn't get overtired last night and stay awake for six hours (phew!) but he was feeding every 2-2.5 hours and taking at least half hour to settle after feeds as he was straining/grunting and would cry until I gave him a rub. Although no burps just a massive poo at 8am! So very little sleep for me.

On the plus side, our Xmas tree should arrive on weds so hopefully will get time (!) to decorate. We've also ordered a turkey for our first family Xmas

princessmel-give Freddie a big hug from me and Matthew.

So, M woke at 6-40am yesterday but thought it must be to do with the bottle but he woke at 5-30am this morning so can't be the bottle. I had to throw away the 4oz of EBM that M didn't want and I felt like crying considering how many hours it took to express. Need some more for next week when I go Xmas shopping with my dad.

Iggly-ordered my turkey from M&S again.

Agree with the stupid obsession about weight gain as I was always overweight as a child and adult and permanently have to diet. DD1 now wants to eat DD2's leftovers and I have to be so careful not to let her eat too much so that she doesn't suffer cruel comments at school like I did.

Is it just me that has the most terrible backache ever? It is bringing tears to my eyes.

Must do some ironing.

Laters!

HC
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Hi Ladies,

I hope you all had a nice weekend.

Wow what a busy thread struggling to keep up!

Felixis - did your lo have any reactions to the 1st jabs? Poppy screamed when she had them but settled straight after and was fine. I was soooo dreading them, originally told OH he would have to take her on his own. At the last minute I decided to go to, but let OH hold her while I stood in the corner looking at the wall. Then after all was done I gave her a big cuddle and said bad daddy lol.

Igglybuff - yes HV has given me list of groups, it is so daunting though going on my own so am going to try the rhymetimes first at the local library before christmas.

I think most embarrasing moment must go to me at the moment as on Friday Poppy was very snuffly and was really worried about her, so phoned dr for emergency appointment, few mins later had to phone them back to cancel and explain she is fine now that she had sneezed and a huge bogey had flown out and voila snuffles gone ....Thank god that she didn't sneeze it out when we at the doctors I would have been the colour of a radish.

Poppy has an appointment with the neo-natal specialst today, hoping they say good things. She is still below the lowest centile on the graph, but has been putting on 4-6 oz's a week so hope they are pleased with her (it is first appointment since we came home). My HV is pretty rubbish and knows nothing about premature babies which is so frustrating, so be great to talk to someone who knows about premmies!

Just wondering what you ladies think my chances of starting bf Poppy? I did try in SCBU with no success (she screamed and screamed at the sight of my nipple ) and would like to try again.

Well must get Poppy fed and ready for our appointment.
x

morning everyone - just in quickly while Maia's asleep (she usually wakes when either the computer goes on or I make a cup of tea...) Sorry to hear about those of you who aren't having a good time.

Re spilling BM - I remember crying over spilt Breast milk with DD1 - it took me ages to express any milk and I spilt about 1 and half ounces when I was taking the top of my pump. Expressing this time round is SO much easier - I am feeling very smug and proud of myself as I have about 7 bags of 3-4 oz in the freezer....

Maia has her first immunisations on Wed - stocked up on Calpol just in case. Also got some infacol - she's very crabby in the evenings, so hope this will help.

HC - I can sympathise with the sore back - with me I think its down to poor posture and the constant bending over to lift baby/change baby etc.

Evening everyone princesmel so glad to hear Freddie is better.Must have been a nightmare for you.

HT sorry to hear youre having problems with BF can you see a BF counsellor or go to a BF cafe.Dont give up just yet we`re all hear for you and know how hard it is.

Devils how is the EBM in a bottle going is Charlie taking it again.Am going to mums night out with mums from dds nursery so hoping Nathaniel will take EBM,did manage to express 5ozs over last two days.

lal have the same here soon as I open laptop or book Nathaniel cries,he just started again so have to go.xx