FEB 2010 Valentines, pancakes and BABIES!!

[InmaculadaConcepcion]

Here it is, then - the post natal thread for the Feb 2010 gang - let the poo/bf/nappy rash/sleeplessness/crying

OMG whatdoIdonow!! conversations commence...

Hah, GF, I know what you mean - the expressions of concentration on DD's face before her grumbly rear end eruptions are priceless!

Well, I ended up breastfeeding DD in the main branch of Lloyds TSB in Madrid today. What can I say? DD got hungry while we were sorting out our new joint account. Typical Spain, no one batted an eyelid when I sat down and plugged her in.

I got some Lilypadz breast pads yesterday after getting fed up of so much disposable waste on the one hand and a damp bra after every let-down with the washable pads on the other. Fantastic things, I'm dead impressed! Anyone else tried them out? Got a Mooncup the other week too - another excellent thing, can't think why it took me this long to get one.

Ahh those raver days, seems like a lifetime ago. My Aunt and Uncle always took my cousins to Glastonbury every year. We just don't have the cash this year (New house) but I really like the idea of it.

Ooo yes I started using a mooncup before I got pregnant. No idea where it is as we've moved house since. Fingers crossed I won't need it for ages yet... As for BFing in public, people really don't notice like we think they might and hey, better than a screaming baby. I love the fact it's your legal right in Scotland too, and anyone who attempts to stop a baby feeding can be prosecuted!

AC could you try just using a raw product. Shea butter, Cocoa Butter or Coconut oil are all good and I'm pretty sure are safe on babies (check first though - I may be wrong). With one ingredient there would be less stuff for her to react to.

Going to be doing Baby Massage soon. Looking forward to it as a fun thing for me and DS and also to get that wind moving!

We are having lots of trouble with wind not coming out, DS needs to be upright a lot of the time which doesn't really mix with getting any sleep. Hopefully he'll grow out of it soon like your DD IC.

GTG DS needs me

AC ds was born with really dry cracked skin as he was 11 days overdue. The pediatrician said to use that oilatum cream. It worked really quickly and only cost a couple of ££'s. Think you can get it in any chemists.

AC like Chinook DD was overdue by 10 days and she was really dry and scaly, and I was told to rub extra virgin olive oil on her skin mixed with warm water. It worked a treat and she loved it! I say this because I always have a bottle in the kitchen cupboard!

I really recommend it. Fill a bowl with warm/hot water and use a teaspoon of olive oil in the palm of your hand, add some warm water and vigorously rub your hands together then on the changing table rub all over your baby as if you were giving a massage. It's very soothing, also great for nappy rash....

Can't believe it's been so long since I've been on here....where do the days go?!

Re routines, we kind of have an evening one of bath / clean babygro / story (I know I know, DS far too young at 7 weeks for bedtime stories but I love reading them to him and sometimes he even looks at the book rather than the curtains / ceiling etc) / feed / into moses basket with mobile on. Timings vary wildly but we seem to normally have him in his moses basket by 8pm ish awake. He falls asleep by himself watching the mobile which projects Winnie the Pooh onto the ceiling! Baby monitor is also proving v useful and now DH and I have something of an evening back to ourselves, lovely.

Daytimes are much less structured, we wake up at 7 sometimes and other times at 10, depends on how tired we all are really! Although DS goes to sleep in his moses basket I put him in bed with us after 1st night feed, which is normally at around 4 and there he stays! It means I can BF while half asleep and DS loves being so close to me (in fact he sometimes shuffles himself closer and puts his head right next to me!)

Only problem I am really having with this is hugely leaky boobs at night. Boob that he is not feeding from soaks through my breastpad and soaks my bra / tshirt / bottom sheet on the bed. Am sure is to do with useless breastpads. Am using disposables at the mo, but have heard someone mention Lilypadz? What are they?

Still having a bit of trouble with the BF, but only on the left nipple whixch is weird, he latches onto the right nipple much better!

Have been expressing fairly successfully for a while now so I can get out of the house for a bit and DH can take over the feeding, and am now starting to freeze some - I'm using the Medela Swing electric expresser, which seems to work for me.

Sorry for very self centred post, am still trying to catch up with all the posts since I was last on MN!!

tinkerbug - have you tried pressing the other breast firmly with the heel of your hand when your milk lets down? It stops the let down on that side and reduces the leaking. At night, I don't wear a bra/pads. Instead I stuff a muslin inside my shirt (an old one of dh's which is perfect for me at night) and use it to do the pressing at let down trick.

I am taking ds1 swimmimg today. Dh is coming and he will look after ds2 while we are in the pool. The plan is that ds2 will sleep in the sling the whole time, but I have expressed some milk just in case. I have no idea if he will take a bottle or not....

Gosh it feels good to be doing normal stuff after so long being laid up. It is something like 16 weeks since I broke my ankle and that is us just returning to every day life now. I still have a long way to go before I can do the highland fling but it's good enough just now for doing the day to day stuff.

Great news that you're almost as good as new, mawbroon!

The Lilypadz work in the same way as mawbroon's old t-shirt trick, they depress the nipple and prevent the let-down - except you don't have to hold them on. I swap one from side to side depending on which boob I'm feeding from. They're ace for wearing under clothes - no bulk at all!

My DD also seems to feed better on one side than the other for a time - not sure why! She's tonnes better at it in general now though. Last night and today she's been feeding every couple of hours - I think she's just showing off her new skill!

Hello all, sounds like we're all doing pretty well and getting our heads above water...

The big news here is that DD2 is sleeping the night! She goes down with DD1 at 7-7:30pm and wakes up at around 6:30-7am. Sometimes she has a bottle and then goes back down for another couple of hours, but other times she is up for the day.

As a result she is now only going 2.5-3 hours between feeds, but these have picked up from 3-4oz per feed to 5-6oz. And she has progressed onto medium flow teats, so it doesn't take too long per feed.

She is not sleeping much during the day (a few 20 minute naps), but I'm always happy to take night-time sleep over daytime!

My only grumble is that my SPD seems to be rearing its head. Although it's not nearly as bad as it was when I was pregnant, my pelvis and hips are definitely grumbling at the end of each day. I'm going to see my physio in a couple of weeks, but if anyone has any tips, I'd be very grateful.

Hope everyone in the UK is having as glorious weather as us!

DS is now having tantrum when he's tired but fights against sleep! So the tantrum exhausts him but he still doesn't want to admit that he's tired. The poor thing...

Watercress I thought I was lucky with DS sleeping from 8pm to 4am (8pm is the last feed and 4am the 1st one) but your DD2 is beating us. I'm impressed! .

With tihs lovely weather, we went for a 2 miles walk yesterday and hopefully will do the same today. The weather is also great for the laundry.

Am I the only one, or do you do more washing machine since your LO was born? I have the machine on at least once a day!

Have a lovely Saturday under the sunshine (let's enjoy it while it lasts!)

GF, we are very lucky with DD2 sleeping so well and for so long. DD1 did the same at a similar age, and we never thought it would happen again!

Someone mentioned dry skin - I use Epaderm (I get it on prescription for DD1 but you can buy it) and that really does the trick. Aveeno is also very good, but I am not a fan of aqueous cream (lots of studies against it nowadays) or E45 (contains lanolin which can be an allergen, and indeed I am allergic to E45).

It's worth mentioning your LO's dry skin if and when you go to the baby clinic as the health visitors and GPs can prescribe emollients in huge tubs that will last ages.

I think DS has starting teething! [panic emocotion}

He has been very grumpy today, plus the drooling and eating of his hands. I gave him some capol at lunch time and now I just put some teething gel on his gum which was not easy as DS was quite happy to 'bite' my finger while I applied it.

So I hope it's teething becaue if not I can't explain who swapped my lovely baby for this little monster grumpy one

Just killing time until the 11 dreamfeed. Ours sleeps to 4am on a good night, but now goes another four hours until the next feed, so have a get up time of 8 a few days, very reasonable. Tried not to the dreamfeed, but she just woke up earlier, maybe try again next week.

I am exhausted. Had a lovely family day out in the peak district (me climbing of course, DH reading, LO largely asleep in the sling). No-one's sunburnt so that's a success as far as I'm concerned. Turns out LO doesn't care how sweaty or smelly I am, she'll still feed. No-one battered an eye lid, at us being there or the outdoor feeding.

GF Our washing machine is on at least twice a day: one for nappies and other 60 degree stuff, other for our clothes, third (if required) towels, bedding etc. I feel that I've turned into a doemstic goddness overnight (well as far as laundry's concerned anyway). Sorry out the teeting, I know a LO who started at 7 weeks.

Hope everyones well, glad the feeding going from strength to strength IC

Cheers CC!

Teething already, yikes!!

And yes, our washing machine is on the go every day now - used to be twice a week! Thankfully the Spanish sun has made its (rather late) debut, so at least everything is drying quickly.

We took DD to an art gallery today - well, they're never too young to start appreciating culture (!) - she seemed to appreciate the modern Turkish art that was being displayed. The gallery security guy was enamoured with her, they spent ages smiling at each other, it was very cute.

She was too hot to sleep in the sling happily, though, so missed her afternoon nap. It meant she got thoroughly overwrought when we got home, which gave me a sinking feeling that it was going to be a nightmare settling her down - but as soon as she was prone with the dummy in her mouth, the crying stopped inside two minutes and she just zonked, even without a proper feed. She'll wake up soonish feeling hungry, I imagine (after going down about 1820), but hopefully (fingers and everything else crossed) she'll then do her four-hour stretch of sleep.

I've realised that tinkering even slightly with her sleeping routine causes her to go postal - last night it took until 2100 until she finally went off (but the good part about that was that she didn't wake up until after 0100 - usually it's midnight or even 11.30... which meant I grabbed an hour or two before she decided she was hungry...)

Ah, yes - she's just woken up.... with me luck...

WISH me luck, that was...

Well, she went straight back to sleep, obviously more tired than hungry.

Is this becoming a live sleep thread?!

IC I hope you had a good night sleep.

DS still wakes up once during the night (usually at 2am ) but fall straight back to sleep once he has the dummy. I'm sure he's testing me to see if I'll feed him! Last night for his last feed of the day, I've increased the amount he drinks and it seems to have settle him down better for the night (during the day he takes 160ml and for the 8pm feed 180ml)

We had a lovely afternoon at the pub yesterday even if DS was grumpy. It did DH and me good to have a few pints and to chat with friends.

Have a lovely Monday.

Happy Monday everyone! The sun is trying to poke its way out from behind the clouds here, and if it does I'm going to take DD out for a lovely walk in the sunshine . And if not, we'll take a walk below the clouds I guess .

I've decided that a daily walk is the way forwards seeing as I can't seem to give up the s. My sister came round for lunch on Friday bearing a tin full of cakes and biscuits that she'd baked specially, I could hardly tell her to take them all back home again could I?!

We had a lovely time at a friend's wedding on Saturday, the weather was AMAZING, they were so lucky. DD was as good as gold . Slept right through the speeches, not a peep out of her. I'd expressed enough for three evening feeds and so had a few glasses of wine. A few more than I thought I had, evidently, as I spent yesterday feeling very rough indeed . Ugh, first hangover in nearly a year and it was HORRID. I'm determined not to do that again.

Hi tinkerbug, do you find it's getting easier about now? I thought we turned a corner at about 6 weeks and I started to feel more 'normal' again and in control, and that I suddenly had more time to do things. Things like washing and cooking mind you ,but still...!

Great to hear you're almost back to normal mawbroon!

watercress I am at your DD's sleep! How old is she?

As for washing, I feel like a washerwoman, I do two loads a day most days and if I don't (like when I was too hungover tired yesterday), I pay for it the next day by doing three. Thank goodness for the sun and quicker drying times! It's great not to have it festooned all over the radiators any more.

Hah, she slept for a 4.5 hour stretch, despite the lack of a proper feed. I was hopeful that the big feed she then took from my engorged boobs would see her through another longer stretch after that, but no. She went back to her usual diminishing returns pattern: 3h15, 2, 2... The last two she wasn't really settled, so I was awake or half awake through it all, encouraging her to stay asleep or at least sleepy....

Ah well.

Still, she went to the pediatrician today and got a thumbs up for her weight and measurements - in fact, the pediatrician was surprised she was still being exclusively breastfed (well, more or less - the odd few mls of formula here or there, but hardly any) because her weight gain is so far very consistent (touch wood). Anyway, she's now 4.5kg, which makes her a shade under 10lb and means she's almost doubled her birth weight, so I'm pleased about that.

Think I'm going to go to bed earlier tonight, mind.

Mmm, fizi, home-baked cakes and biscuits!! Rude not to...

I'm typing quickly with two hands to say that today I feel like a new person! DD slept for an hour in the garden in her pram and I was able to plant out some lettuces and swiss chard and did loads of gardening - hooray!

PLUS and this is the best news for me, I gave her a bath at 5.30 (almost felt like a routine)... and she stopped wailing once she was in the water and really loved it! Usually she screams the whole way through - yippee!

AND now she has slept well for another hour and I've had a nice relaxing dinner before the next feed...

I don't want to get my expectations up about having a good stretch of sleep tonight but I've actually thought about writing a list of things I want to achieve for the first time in 7 weeks!!!

Here is wishing everyone a good night's sleep, serene smiley babies and attentive DPs/DHs!

Climberchick very jealous of the sleeping in till 8a.m! Our DS(2) now feeds sometime between 5a.m and 6a.m. and the day starts at that point as DS1 then hears us and starts asking for the potty/milk/cuddles etc!
Abs - so pleased for you - it's lovely when you have a breakthrough or even a glimpse of how you want life to be again! I managed to get both DSs out of the house before 8:30a.m. this morning (and they only woke at 7:15a.m after a late night for DS1) so I feel like I've really begun to get the hang of the morning routine.
Fizi I aim to do a daily walk but it seems really hard to fit it in with all the chores (which as a second time mum I seem strangely compelled to try and do)/baby gazing/feeding etc.. Hope you manage to keep it up and that the weather stays fine (and I would eat the cakes anyway!!)
Finally managed to restart 'relations' with DH last night as my graze has finally healed (after 10 weeks!) He went to work with a big grin and I'm not walking like John Wayne - a result I reckon!

took DS to Plunket yesterday - he's now 8.5wks and 13lb? bearing in mind he was 8lb10 when born, dropped to 8lb3, and didn't gain anything at all for first 3 weeks, I don't think that's too bad! He also slept 19.15-4.45 last night, and happily went down awake and settled himself? am categorically not counting any chickens though!!!!! (he also settled himself at bedtime tonight?..)

If I'd been in bed at 9 rather than staying up late (til 10!!! gasp), and DD hadn't needed a wee at 3.30 and I hadn't had such a busy head with stuff we still need to sort out, i might have had a decent nights sleep!

ho hum

I don't have a lot to report. DS2 is just fitting in beautifully with everything. I have no idea how often he feeds or how long he sleeps for!! He gets cosied into the sling and off we go. And I have no clue how often he feeds at night. DS1 comes through around 6am, and usually I feel like I have had enough sleep (note that says "enough", which is not the same as "as much as I would like").

We are heading off to the zoo this afternoon after I pick ds1 up from nursery. The weather here is nice and I have packed some lunch. I managed to walk 2 miles one night last week, and did the mile and a half to nursery yesterday with ds2 in the sling. It took me around the same length of time to walk as it used to when I was 30weeks pg which was the last time I did it. I have to watch not to overdo it though because my ankle gets very achey by night time if I have done too much.

Well done on the weight gains and the longer sleeps And on the relations too ;)

We had a very grumbly evening and DS was feeding non stop til 10.30pm when we made an EBM bottle which he glugged and then slept 11 til 4.30am, then again after a feed til 8.30am. Yay! Bit worried about my evening milk supply though so off to read the Feeding forums.

Trying a daily walk here too, and have found out the sports centre has a creche so going to investigate that today.

Oh and refusing cakes would be very rude

How come DS who doesn't feed between 8pm and 4am always wakes up for nearly one hour every nights between 12am and 2am??? This is driving me nuts! I'm up for longer than when he was feeding!

Sorry rant over!

Weather is still lovely over here, I've already done my gardening and I'm aiming to go for a nice walk along the coast this afternoon.

I'm of all of you gardening! That's one facet of normality which has eluded me so far. Maybe this evening, when DP gets in from work...

Congratulations on the relations bethylou! And on the walking mawbroon, good going.

Quick question, how did your DCs react to their 8 week jabs? DD has slept pretty much all night (until 6.45!!! ) and all day so far. Not normal for her... She also seems very windy, or at least keeps 'fighting' my boobs while she feeds .

DD was also very sleepy after her jabs - woke for feeds, but slept soundly between them and for longer than usual. It's a very normal reaction, don't worry fizi. Like you, I was a bit worried initially, but she didn't get a high temperature (slightly raised, but not enough to need medicating) and had no other reaction apart from one hour of inconsolable crying a few hours after, then the sleep. She was back to normal less than two days later (part of me was slightly regretful..!!)

Well, today we had our first sling disaster with DD not settling in it at all and me aborting our planned playgroup outing as a result. I think she was too hot as the Spanish Spring has kicked in properly now. It's a Calin Bleu gauze wrap, which are meant to be cooler, but obviously not cool enough. I'm hoping I can find something else - maybe a Mai Tai? - that will be cooler. I don't want to have to resort to the pram to go everywhere, it's a royal PITA, especially on public transport. Must say, today knocked my confidence somewhat though.

Also, we keep getting leaks from the washable nappies - pee only, thankfully - but it's a pain as overnight changes are involving clothes as well as nappy and sometimes sleepsack too, not what I need. I think it's because DD tends to sleep on her side and the absorbent parts of the nappy are back and front.

Dammit, my attempts to be a hippy mum are being frustrated all over the shop. When we got back from our aborted expedition, I put her down in the pram for a moment while I got myself organised and she stopped crying almost immediately. She's such a traitor to the cause!!