April 2010 - our little bundles are here!

[lineky]

Thought I'd start a Post-Natal thread as there are so many of us now sorry about the uninspired name.
Well I am slowly realising the sleepless nights thing is no myth - VERY tired!

Zeeky, my DD has been so much worse since I stayed with my parents last week. She is now getting a bit better now we are home and settling into a routine.
I think that having all the extra attention from people can be a trigger for playing up.
I would think that once you are settled again it will improve.
It's awful when they are playing up badly, I just about lost it with DD again this morning. I have to keep telling myself to keep cool, she is only a baby too really and its all a huge change for her...... but we are only human and its really hard!

hi ladys put 2 pics of my 2 grandsons on my profile if any one wants to look

Neeko - some breastfed babies refuse to take bottles. I understand the trapped thing. We have given DS2 one bottle of expressed milk (given by DH when DS2 was very hungry) and he drank it... best bet is to try when baby is very hungry (at least 4 hours since last feed) and also squeeze teat a bit so baby knows there is milk in it.

re: pill don't have to wait for a period, can start anytime BUT not covered for contraception for first 7 days.

re: 2 hourly feeding - tell me about it!

Zeeky don't have any good advice for you as am (currently!) not in that particular boat but I would perhaps post in "Behaviour" threads as there is bound to be a lot of brilliant advice from people in there...hope things have improved a bit since your last post

Thanks MumNWLondon Have been persevering yesterday and today with 1oz in a bottle and she has taken it 5 times. It has to be from me though and I have to stand up Going to keep trying and see how it goes, then at least I'll know I've given it my best shot.

I love sprouts - your pics are beautiful! I have posted a few of mine too if anyone wants to look!

I have to try giving Alexander a bottle as I've got a couple of things to go to in the next month that I must do (fun things luckily). We went to a farm park on Sunday and watched a milking demonstration, it all came back to me on Monday as Alexander slept pretty much all day and would't feed at all, I expressed 8 oz in 5 minutes from my huge sore boob, so I've got a freezer full . Just hope he'll take it and it doesn't go down the sink.
sprouts cute photos!
rumple love the one of Valentin in a hat.
Getting weighed at HV's today, can't wait to see what Alex weighs. Lots, I suspect.

rt love your pics too ,will post more on wen i have the time

Bettymum, how old is Alexander? I have been able to express lots aswell, think that I have been really lucky as I can usually express 6 oz every morning.

bettysmum I wonder if Alexander is having the same problem George had a couple of weeks ago when he wouldn't feed properly. For 4 days he was going 8 hrs between feeds & just sleeping a lot. Had to express as boobs were fit to explode, & he took 2 bottles when I was getting really concerned about how little he was eating. Bf clinic at Royal Berks hospital sorted me out (you're in Berks too aren't you?). Showed me a new position to feed in which worked which I did for 2 days & then reverted to the normal position. He's been fine feeding ever since - actually more than fine, as has been feeding every 2-3 hrs!

Got him weighed yesterday - 12lbs 1oz at 5 weeks old!! He'd put on 1lb 3oz in 2 weeks despite not feeding properly for part of that time!

Going to start expressing every day now so that DH can give a bottle for the last feed each night as I'm getting really tired & really need to get some early nights with a decent stretch of sleep before getting up for night feed.

DS1's violent behaviour has improved a bit since we've been back home & back in familiar routines. He still gets a bit rough & threatens to "smack" or "whack" him (really don't know where he's picked those words up from!) & did bite his finger tonight when he was supposedly kissing George's hand! Trying to praise him loads when he has been nice & gentle & just say no & move him away when he is being rough.

Zeeky yes I'm in Berks, the BF clinic at RBH is very good, I went there with DD the dy after she was born as the MWs were concerned she wasn't eating anything. It was just an odd day I think, he was a milk monster the day before and the day after, just that day I think he went from 7 in the morning till 7 at night without feeding . Alexander was 11lbs 13 and a half at 7 weeks old, George is doing well!
harverina Alex is 7 weeks, I normally can't express as much as I did that day, it was just that he hadn't fed. It was so sore! And I was leaking milk all down my top in the middle of Next luckily I had a cardi on so I don't think anyone noticed.

Hi everyone, have a quick query. Eilidh's Fontanelle sometimes appears sunken in warm days, even when she is eating well and she has dirty and wet nappies. Is this normal?

harverina, I don't think a sunken fontanelle is good but if she's got wet and dirty nappies she's probably absolutely fine. Maybe a question for your HV? Must admit I don't pay too much attention to Alex's fontanelle.

zeeky glad your ds is getting better, i have to say im a very strict parent and to me any naughty behaviour gets told off im not a believer in the ignore technique, harsh telling offs explaining how naughty the behaviour is and being told to never do it again has always worked for me. but then every child is different. you could try threatening to take a toy of his away, i did this when ajay was really bad and it worked a treat i never even had to remove one i just took one and showed him the high up cupboard where i would put it if he repeated the behaviour and he always stopped. dont worry the naughty behaviour passes, i now have a very good 4 year old, i really cant explain how well behaved he is, he makes it so much easier for me looking after kacie.

i have come on my period again!!! had a gap of about 3/4 days and then came on again and its really heavy too. anyone else had any experience of this? not sure if i should go to the docs or not.

kacie is all smiles all the time now which is lovely cant get her to laugh or coo properly yet though. she's 9 weeks. it took her a bit longer than normal to smile though so i think she just might be a bit behind on doing things.

have to admit i dont pay much attention to the fontanelle either but i seem to remember from ds that it sometime looks a little sunken

Hi - I was told that a sunken fontanelle means baby is dehydrated. I check Valentin's all the time as it's mega hot here and he is sometimes sweaty, and I give him loads of water to drink (I don't breastfeed). He gets a lil' constipated too so water helps that also.
haverina you got wet nappies though, so I dunno, that's a good thing!

Ok thanks! Will check with Hv. I mentioned it at 6 week check and gp didn't really seem bothered.
Nic i'm afraid i'm not sure about your period as I have not started mine again yet. I'm bf so hope its a while yet. I suppose it may be because your body and hormones are readjusting but i'd mention it to hv or gp just in case

Thanks for advice on fontanelle.
Re. Daytime naps, my dd will usually manage to settle herself so long as she is very tired. I'll look for cues before putting her in her basket though. If she is yawning and fidgeting she will usually self settle. If she appears wide awake I put her in her vibrating chair to encourage her to sleep as sometimes she will go for hours without napping. If she falls asleep in her chair I let her nap there. Some days she will settle well in her basket, other days she doesn't and will usually fall asleep in her pram. Again, if she has shown cues that she is sleepy she will usually self settle. Dd doesn't have a dummy. Have never liked dummies as hate seeing toddlers running about with them but have recently started to consider using one due to sids research? A bit unsure. I used to stress out during day if dd didn't nap but now I don't worry. I've found that some days she will nap every 2 hours and on other days she will be awake most of the day. Sorry, prob not been much help with this!

Dwayne Hazel settles well at night but needs help during the day. Sometimes she naps in her chair for a bit buut I always try and put her in her cot for an afternoon nap. My weapon of choice is white noise- just bought her herown radio so we tune it 'out' turn it up and she 99% of the time drifts off. Sometimes feel a bit guilty as it sounds so loud but she really likes it.

She is doing well now - also cooing and smiling. Her latest thing is sucking her whole hand like it is going out of fashion. This makes a remarkable and loud noise

Dwayne I don't put Alex down for naps as such, he mostly just drops off in the pram when we're out or after a feed. I put him down in his cot the other day to try and clean my filthy slightly grubby house, every time I checked on him he was waving his feet in the air and looking around, he never slept but he was happy enough for an hour or two, it was very cute.
harverina I asked all the midwives in hospital about the SIDS/dummy thing, apparently research has shown that it does lower the incidence but noone knows quite why. Most of them said not to use a dummy for that reason only if you didn't want or need to use one. I think the other things that you can do (specially the not overheating them) are more important). But I'm not a health professional so check with your HV .

Bettymum, thanks for this - my HV said that current NHS advice is not to use dummy if you dont need one. My DD settles no bother and only cries when hungry so I really have no reason to use one. My HV said exactly what you said - that there are other, more important things i.e not overheating, sleeping feet to foot and on back etc.

lineky Kacie does the very loud fist sucking too, i give her a dummy and she seems to knock it out on purpose so she can suck her hand instead. i would rather she had the dummy though as at least i can take that off her, it worked fine for ds.

Kacie usually drifts off herself in her bouncer in the day when i leave her to do other stuff. she doesnt seem fussy about where she sleeps though. i had her on ds's bedroom floor yesterday whilst i was building some shelves for him and she started falling asleep on the floor, bless. i only give her the dummy when she is whiny, she falls asleep without it most of the time.

she is now sleeping 8/9 until 4 at night then back until 7 when my husband gets up for work after her 4 o'clock feed.

was hoping for a nice day today to walk the kids to a play group a bit away so i could burn off some baby fat but its peeing down here might do it anyway, i have a raincover after all but somehow the car just looks too tempting when its raining

All you bfing mums could you tell me what you store your expressed milk in especially if you are going to freeze it.

I'm hoping to start expressing some soon and just wanted some ideas from others about suitable containers and how much to freeze in one batch.

My ds is 6wks and over 12lbs if that makes a difference.