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!

Misty I use the freezerbags, I think some came with the pump (my sister's old Avent manual one) but I bought some more in Boots, I seal them with some clip things I got in IKEA and freeze them. Most bags have about 5oz in.
I am slightly tired today as I was in A&E till finally being seen by a doctor at 3 this morning...Alexander had his first jabs at 3pm , by 7pm he had a purply red rash that didn't fade under a glass. I called NHS direct and they said to get him to hospital, so we went to our community hospital who had a look and wrote a letter for me to take to A&E at the big hospital where I gave birth. Got there at about 10.30 I think, and sat on a chair till about 2am, when we got taken up to the children's ward and given another chair to sit on. Got seen at 3 and they took some bloods (ouch), then managed to get a couple of hour's sleep at last. Blood tests all came back fine, they think it's just one of those viral reactions and certainly not meningitis. I didn't think it was, as he was fine otherwise, but everyone took the rash very seriously so I'm glad he's OK. We are sheltering in the kitchen now from all this rain! Managed to get nursery to take DD for the day so I didn't have to look after a very chatty two year old in my sleepless zombie state .

glad everything is ok bettymum

Glad everything's ok Bettymum x
Jude's chuckles in his sleep, usually while he's on the boob, but no giggles while he's awake yet. I'm trying though!! ;)
Misty, I haven't froze my milk yet, but I what I express gets expressed either in 20z pots with lids, (for the top up feeds), or just bottles with flat caps, and kept in my fridge. I got hrough the bottles by the end of the day, so have no need to freeze the milk for Jude. x
Things are well this end..he's getting better at self-settling..he does have a dummy, but isn't dependant on it. Most times in the day he doesn't take it, most sleep times he hasn't got it in, but we do use it if he's struggling to calm down, or wanting the boob, but not the milk!! DD1 had a dummy, and we took it off her by 1 year old...it's your personal choice at what age to take it away, you don't have to keep it untill your child's a todddler if that's something that you dislike about them. We stopped letting her have it during the day, only giving it at nap times, so she was almost weaned off it.
Saw a picture of Jude at 3 days old on my sister's phone yesterday, and fell in love all over again. He's changed so much in 10 weeks already..still my milk monster though lol xxx

Hi all, haven't been on here for ages! Our PC is dying and we can't afford a new one so I don't get much of chance to mumsnet these days.

Glad to hear everyone is doing well. Bettymum what a worry for you, I am glad to hear that Alexander is well.

Rory is now 7 weeks and doing really well, he has the most gorgeous smile and is now laughing and cooing at us. Breastfeeding never really got established so he is now fully formula fed.

I joined weightwatchers last week to shed all the post baby weight. I am only a few pounds heavier than my pre pregnancy weight even though I put on nearly 4 stone! I think this time most of my weight gain was down to water retention. I still have nearly 3 stone to lose though as I want to get back to the weight I was before ds1. Lost half a stone this week so heading in the right direction.

My periods haven't returned yet but they took 4 months to return after ds1 so I'm not too worried, not actually looking forward to them returning have enjoyed the break from them.

Hello
I haven't been on here since I was about 2 months pregnant because pastel colours gave me really bad morning sickness, but I just thought I'd return and say hi. I gave birth to a little girl 6.5 weeks ago so may start joining in your discussions. Hope all is well with all your little bundles. x

Glad Alex is ok Bettysmum - must have been awful. George is due his jabs the day we go on hol. Does anyone know how strict you have to be re timing of the 8 week jabs as would rather he had them either a few days early or after holiday when he would be 9/10 weeks.

George is much more settled these days. Seems to be that as long as he has a couple of huge dirty nappies during the day he is really happy & will go 3ish hours between feeds & generally go to asleep by himself. If he hasn't done a big poo then he keeps waking up after 10 mins, acts hungry trying to eat my arm/shoulder etc or needs lots of help falling asleep. I've started leaving him on his changing mat without a nappy on fir a while until he has a big poo purge & then he's really content. He loves having his nappy off and having a good old kick & sometimes even dozes off!

DH has been giving him a bottle for the last feed for the last few days. It means I have been able to go to bed at a reasonable time as the tiredness has really started to kick in. I have been expressing but yesterday didn't get around to it in tbd morning (when I have most milk) so gave him formula. DH said he guzzled it straight down. Was feeling guilty about giving formula instead of ebm even though I know that forma is fine! Worried that giving formula at that last feed & not expressing will affect my milk supply? Had to express thus morning anyway as right breast was too full after going a long time between feeds. Generally, if George can get through until 3am before waking, he then gets through until 7 which means only having to get up once in the night.

zeeky at our doctors they only do the jab clinics 1 day a week (a thursday at ours) so if you cant make an appointment it would have to be a week before or after. not sure if they are all like this or just ours.

Not sure about immunisations. My dd seems to have similar sleep pattern to yours zeeky...how old is george? Dd usually asleep by 8, wakes between 2 and 4 and goes back to sleep till between 7 and 8. Its so much more manageable only having to get up once. I was expressing to let dh do 11pm feed but dd so sleepy at that time that we have now cut out the 11pm feed altogether. She seems to be fine without it. I feed her before and after her bath and this seems to work. Last week my dh was on hol and he did the first feed in the morning. One day, after going back to bed around 6am I slept till 10am! Bliss!
Did anyone else have a section? Just wondering how wounds are doing? 9 weeks on I still have a hole in my wound and its getting packed and dressed every day.

haeverina - George is 6 weeks old. Still def needs that 11 o'clock feed at the moment.

Routine for this week was going well until tonight. DH gave George the bottle of 4oz of ebm at 11.30 which he drank all of but has not settled at aldodo he came and got me just now (12.45) as he thought he was still hungry. So now bfing him. He'd drunk all the bottle ( previously struggled to drink all 4oz) & is now guzzling away! Not sure if he just hadn't had enough during the day (he'd been happily going 3 to 3.5 hrs between feeds which I was pleased about) or if he is starting the 6 week growth spurt? Will have to try leaving 5oz for his bottle tomorrow night.

Zeeky how old is George now? Hazel is nearly 11 weeks and seems to have had a bit of a growth spurt as her feeding went all crazy - just after I thought we were getting some routine - and she was/is guzzling everything!! We give her 1 formula bottle at night and it has not affected my milk supply at all. I just couldn't hack exspressing .
We gave up trying to give the bottle at 11 - if she is awake we will if not we wont wake her as she doesn't take it well. She can have her bottle any time from 7-12 depending on when she wakes up.
What i am finding really frustrating is that she has a 6-8 hour sleep but always early on in evening.
Welcome back cucumbersandwich

harverina Kacie has the same sleeping pattern, bottle at 8ish then asleep til 3/4 then asleep til 7. i think most babies seem to cut out the late evening feed first, not a problem for me though as we go to sleep at about 9 anyway!

Nic, I should be going to bed early but always think of all the things needing done in the house! I need to start making most of dd going to bed early as i'm really tired this week.
Lineky my dd was struggling with 4oz at 6 weeks then all of a sudden one day when my dd was feeding her expressed bottle she took 8oz. Luckily I had extra in the fridge! I asked about this on another thread and apparantly its common for bf babies to take more when getting a bottle feed.
Dd is now 9 weeks and think she Is having growth spurt this week. She Is staying up later and wanting to feed. Find my milk supply is quite low at night though. Anyone else experienced this?

harverina - a feeling of 'low milk' in evenings is normal - flow is slower due to hormones, so better to express in morning, and just be patient with baby needing to feed longer in the evenings - you have enough milk, but if you worry you haven't, baby may pick up on your stress and get wound up him/herself. Best to just accept that your evenings are not your own for a while, and plan your day accordingly. I have started feeding DD (7 weeks) in bed in the evening, lying down, as she frets otherwise - tired but hungry poor thing.

My scar is fine - sorry you are having trouble with yours - life is hard enough without that. Hope you heal soon.

My DD took 9oz when she was 3 weeks old - of expressed - amount varies due to weather (fluid requirements) and fat levels in expressed milk, as this varies.

Do not take my word as gospel though - I am no expert!

zeeky re jabs I know our surgery won't do them early, they have to be 8 weeks or more. But maybe other doctors are different. I am going to ensure that I get his 12-week jabs at 9 o'clock in the morning so if he develops that rash again I can get back to the doctors in daylight hours instead of sitting in hospital in the middle of the night! HOpefully next time he'll be OK.
He is absolutely fine, but has developed a really annoying habbit of biting/gumming my nipples, it's soooooo sore. Don't know why he's doing it as he latches on and feeds perfectly, I'm hoping it's just a phase.
Had my neice (4) and nephew (3) staying last night, they've gone now and all is strangely quiet...

Hi All. I haven't been around for a while as my wee man has been ill. We were admitted to the childen's ward on Thursday as he had a temp of 40. It turned out he had a UTI and had to have iv antibiotics. We came home this afternoon but have to go back first thing in the morning to have a scan and if everything is ok we'll be officially discharged.

Misty what a nightmare hope the wee man is ok and all goes well tomorrow.

Misty, hope you DS is ok.

Stinkypinky, thanks for this - think DD has had a growth spurt this week, plus isnt getting the milk fast enough in the evenings so she has been quite unsettled during feeds. DD is usually in bed for 7.3/8pm every night, but we were away last weekend and it got her out of her routine so she has been up later. Dont think my body is used to her feeding so late at night so thats prob added to me feeling as though milk supply is low/slow. She is sleeping really well when she finally gets to sleep so this reassures me a bit that she is getting enough milk. Thanks for the advice about keeping calm...I had been getting a little stressed but mainly because I was so worried that she wasnt getting enough to eat, so your post has been really reassuring.

DD is in her big cot for the first time tonight. 9 weeks old and already too big for her moses basket. She is very long! She seems to have settled realy well in her bed!

Hi all - was wondering if anyone is having problems with colic/constipation?
Hazel has always been windy but since we started her on a formula bottle at night she only Poos once every 4 days HV says its fine and babies can go up to 10 days!!! She said we shouldn't worry as she's not really in pain. BUT she is obviously in pain.
Previously she was only waking for a couple of feeds but now she sleeps for 6-8 hours after bottle but then I am up every 40-60 mins just to comfort her as she is so sore.
I am struggling with the lack of sleep and she is obviously not happy. Considering changing her formula 9on Hipp just now), have stopped infacol. She is also dribbling loads (a new thing) and munching on her fists.
Any advice welcome.

Hi Lineky...Jude is 11 weeks now, and poos roughly every 3-4 days, but he's ok & doesn't seem to be in pain..only occasionally when he will pull his little legs up to his belly...I find that holding him in a position where I am supporting/holding his legs up to his stomach helps ease out any gas o poos that may be stuck. Also, I've just started a baby massage group where next week we are focusing on tummies and help with constipation/wind. One position they showed us this week was to hold your baby in the crook of your arm, with his back against your belly (almost a backwards way of how you would hold your baby anyway), and have your hand rub his tummy in a clockwise direction. That may have cofused you totally, but maybe there is a massage group near you that you could pop along to if you felt it was something that might help you x
Also, Jude has also started dribbling, and munching his fists, he caught onto my finger yesterday and started clamping down on it..(I don't put my fingers in his mouth usually...he just caught me by surprise!!) I'm keeping a lookout now to see if he might be on the start of teething xx

In the earlier days, i also changed Jude's formula..he was on a bottle of sma in the evening, but I found him to be quite upset and windy still...not sure if it was the sma (as I know this is a rich formula milk, and some babies find it hard to digest), or whether it was just a case of him not getting enough 'full fat goodness' from me in the late afternoons due to calorie intake. Either way, I changed to Aptamil, and found him to be more restful. Maybe a coincidence though. DD1 was always fine on sma x

i remember with ds he started teething at about 3 months even though he didnt actually get one until 7 months. it can be a very long process

Lineky a good way to relieve constipation (in our experience with DS) is to do this:

Lie them on their backs on the change mat, take nappy off and then holding their calves/ankles, gently "cycle" their legs, alternating each leg. Make sure the thigh reaches the tummy. This tends to move things along and even if not, tends to relieve the horrible cramps they may be feeling.

We also did clockwise massaging on the lower abdomen with oil, but the cycling was more effective.

Thanks for advice folks will give them a go!