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!

Princess Sorry to hear about your sister's stepdaughter. Hope she's on the road to recovery now.

Harverina Glad you had a good night and yay to the tooth.

Mistmoo Glad the pox is clearing up.

Sayitwithme Seems like your cooking's taking off

Sleepywombat Sorry things are so stressful. Hope things look up soon.

Stinkypinky Hope work's improving.

Yay to all those getting sleep. We had 11 uninterrupted hours last night for the first time ever

Harverina We use a vest, babygro, fleecy sleepsuit and sleeping bag.

11 hours sleep Neeko, thats brilliant! I'll keep my fingers and toes crossed or you tonight.

Eilidh seemed cosier with her blanket on last night. She was up for 15 minutes at 2.15am and had a quick feed then back to bed

We seem to have sored out napping here - 2 naps every day for about a week . 2 hours this morning and so far half an hour this afternoon. Seems to be helping Eilidh sleep better at night. Unfortunately when we are out and about she doesnt sleep as well...makes me feel like I should stay in more????

I was looking at Eilidh this morning and thinking "I cannot believe that you are mine"...does anyone else feel like this? I still can't believe I am a mummy after all this time!!

Oh and the tooth is through the gum...I could hear it against the spoon when Eilidh was eating lunch today! It feels quite jaggy just now

I wish I could say that we are getting more sleep here. Sunday night I got about 4 hrs in total. DH was stressing about work so couldn't sleep so kept me awake too. Then DS1 was coughing loads so got up to get him a drink. Then George woke and I fed him but but then wouldn't settle so had to keep going in to him. DH took the day off work yesterday as he was so tired & proceeded to sleep all day - no such luck for me!

Last night went to bed at 9.30 as was falling asleep on sofa & literally 10mins after getting into bed George starts crying. He then grizzled & screamed until midnight but then was awake again at 2.30 & did the whole unsettled crying thing again until 5am. Then DH woke me up at 6 getting ready for work. Aaaaargghhhh I NEED SOME SLEEP!!!!!!!! Not sure if it is George's teeth or constipation affecting. He seems fine today other than being tired. But he is doing lots of grunting & going bright red while he's squeezing out a lump of poo. I try to get him to drink water with each meal but he only takes a few sips.

So so tired [yawning icon]

Ahh zeeky I hear you. DD has got awful cough at the moment and has had it for weeks now. She tends to have a little coughing fit just as I'm going to bed and then when I'm getting up to feed DS in the night. Hope your night tonight is better.

And, as I predicted, the luck I had Sunday night was indeed short lived. DS woke at 4.30 for a bottle and then wouldn't go straight back to sleep. And talking of cold rooms, DD was up crying at 10pm as her room was too cold so we kept the heating on all night. She'd rejected our little portable thermostat controlled radiator recently so we took it out of her room but I think we need to be firm with her tonight and reinstate it. DS's room seemed to stay at 18 so he was fine in his 2.5 tog sleeping bag, long sleeved bodysuit and sleepsuit. He having some decent naps today as well.

How exciting haverina about Eilidh's tooth! I was convinced DS had his first ones coming through a month ago but I was mistaken as still nothing coming through.

mistymoo glad to hear you're off the self-imposed quarantine. You must have felt like a caged tiger!

Re chickenpox... what are people's opinions about paying for a vaccine? We've considered it for DD (DS is still too young) and know friends who have done it for their children but I'd be interested to hear if anyone's got any considered opinions about it. I know it's generally quite a mild childhood disease but the prospect of the self-imposed quarantine and the chances of DCs getting it more severely make me think 'why not save them the discomfort'? Dunno.

Congrats Eilidh on your first tooth!

DS1 had chickenpox when he was 14mths old. I purposefully got him infected by going to a friend's house whose children had it. I thought it would be better to get it out of the way when there were no events/holidays that it could spoil. It was horrific when he had it though. He got it really badly - in his eyes, mouth and even inside his little willy! It was awful for about 3 days but now I'm glad he had it then when he was too young to scratch or understand.

zeeky so sorry about your lack of sleep, hope you get some soon. Kacie can be quite constipated sometimes and i have been told fruit is the best to relieve it so i mix some pureed fruit in with her porridge in the morning and with her yoghurt at lunch and tea puddings. she has always drank loads of water so that definitely wasn't the problem for us.

harverina i used to think that ALL the time with Ajay. now with Kacie i look at her or them both and just think i cant believe how lucky i am to have such a perfect little family.

sayitwithme no sign of movement here either. Kacie also hates being on her tummy and cant even sit up properly for too long yet as she is constantly leaning trying to grab things. she is sooooooo nosy!
Ajay never did any crawling or bum shuffling he just went straight to walking so i think Kacie might be going down the same road. i hope not though as my friend has a bum shuffler and i saw him doing it the other day and it's the cutest thing i've ever seen. i couldnt help but laugh at how funny he looked though thrusting his hips to make himself move. he was very speedy too!

Hi

Zeeky Hope you're getting more sleep. Sleep deprivation is the pits.

sayitwithme DD1 has had the chickenpox (when I was 37 weeks). It was not pleasant at the time but I'm glad she's had it now. H won't be having a vaccine because the vaccine is only viable for 10 years so you'd have to keep getting it. I wouldn't have it done cos they'd probably forget to have a booster as adults and catching it then means it's likely to be more severe. HTH.

Harverina The first tooth is so exciting. We were back to one wake up last night but compared to the hell unsettled nights of a few weeks ago, I'm happy with that. DD1 was up 3 times
I'm totally loved up with my kids tooo

Nicnac in a few weeks you'll probably be running to keep up with her

neeko - yes, that is a concern. Especially for DDs where it could be a nightmare if they then get it they're pregnant (looking WAY ahead here). However, the younger you have chicken pox, the higher the risks of losing your immunity. I had it when I was 5 and when I got pregnant with DD, I asked for my rubella immunity to be checked. For reasons I will never know, they also tested my CP immunity and discovered I was not immune, much to my horror as DH and I were already trying. I've been doing a lot of reading on this subject since and I think that if you get it after you're 14 or 16 or something, you've got a strong chance of staying immune indefinitely. If you're younger than that, you may well lose it. So you'd kinda be in the same boat as if you'd had a vaccine when you were little...

And haverina, I was meant to comment on my previous post that, yes, I soak up every last little second with the darling DCs as often as I can. They also drive me bonkers sometimes but, to coin a cliche, I love them so much it hurts. I am sooooo squishy about them at the moment and every now and then I look at DH and say "I STILL can't believe we made them. Aren't we clever?"!

P.S. I guess the biggest question mark for me over the whole CP vaccine issue is "Is it just another vaccine, in their already highly vaccinated little bodies? Is it too much and not necessary?". Dunno....

sayitwithme I've never heard of losing your immunity. I have heard that if you get a mild case then you can get it again. I've got a feeling this may happen to ds as he definately only had a mild dose.

The poor wee man has been sick twice today and not eaten very much. He hasn't had very wet nappies either and his fontanelle is sunken so will have to make sure he doesn't dehydrate. If his nappy is still quite dry in the morning I think I'll have to phone the doctor.

He seems to have quite a low immune system just now. I was wondering if it is to do with the antibiotics he is on. He's been on them since he was 6 weeks old.

mistymoo so sorry to hear your DS isn't very well. Hope the situation improves by morning but even if it does, it sounds like you have concerns about the anti-bs so may be worth a trip to the GP anyway. Can't hurt to talk things through, you know, err on the side of caution as it were. Good luck, thinking of you.

Sorry to crash your thread, but I was looking for feedback on NCT classes if you have a minute. Many thanks

sleepywombat You sound like you've a lot on your plate with the move and sleep deprivation. I hope the constipation doesn't become too bad.

My ds is on antibiotics as he had a UTI at 6 weeks and because his ultrasound showed a problem with his kidney they wanted to do more tests, which have been done, and now I'm waiting for consultant to get in touch.

Well, not much sleep here either last night. DD vomiting from about 2am until 5am, got thru all her bedding and so I'm now making a dent in the mountain of washing. Both DS and DD napping.... for now....

Why doesn't MN have an emoticon for sleepy? You'd think it'd be popular enough!

P.S. Re discussion on overwhelming feelings for our kids, had a similar discussion on another thread about this and another MNer recommended reading the following two books: Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born, and Torn in Two: Maternal Ambivilance by R.Parker. I've bought them both but haven't had a chance to look at them yet. Will report back.

sleepywombat good luck with the house move, hope everything goes to plan and you manage to get some rest over your hectic weekend.

Re: naps, EIlidh used to be really bad at napping - sometimes not napping at all. Initially she seemed fine with this but as she got older she was getting overtired and irritable through lack of daytime sleep. She then started to take a morning nap most days but not every day.

My problem is that most of the time Eilidh feeds herself to sleep, so when she started weaning she was often not hunry for milk and couldn't self settle, despite being exhausted. I started to put her into her cot when she showed that she was tired - she rubs her eyes and yawns. Some days she would scream, other days she managed to self settle. I let her cry which I found hard but was surprised to find that she fell asleep quite quickly. If she was really upset I would pick her up and offer to feed her again, then go through the routine again. I have to say that after a few days she mostly managed to self settle if she was tired enough - if she was too tired then I had no chance though! We are now back to her feeding herself to sleep but we are in a good routine with it now - she will always start to get sleep roughly 1.5 hours after her morning nap so I offer her a breastfeed. I used to wait till 2 hours but this seemed to be too late and she would be overtired and wouldnt sleep. She will now normally be asleep in her cot within 2 hours of wakening and her morning nap is usually around 1-1.5hours. In the afternoon we have a similar pattern. I keep her awake to have her lunch , a bit of a play and then offer a breastfeed around 1.30pm. She has been sleeping for up to 2 hours in the afternoon for over a week. I have stopped going into check her so often. I have a movement and sound monitor on anyway but I used to disurb her by checking on her. If she wakens after 45 minutes I dont go in, and she has been going back to sleep. We don't have anything in the cot except for Eilidh so she has nothing to play with.

It has definetely helped the nightime sleeping getting the naps sorted. Eilidh is now in bed for 8pm most nights and hasn't been waking till between 2am and 5am for a quick feed. Its early days though! Last night she was up at 1am and 4am, but she was constipated. She was straining to do a poo and going red, when I changed her nappy it was a tiny hard poo! There was a bigger softer poo later on this morning though so she must feel better. She didnt drink alot of water with meals yesterday, usually she does so think that this contributed to it.

Wow sorry for the long post - your probably all asleep by now.

sayitwithme hope your DD is feeling better today.

zeeky hope your not too tired.

Eilidh was sitting up herself last night for the first time. Her balanace is great. She sat for about 5 minutes before toppling over. I was over the moon again!

haverina - congrats to Eilidh for her sitting up abilities! DS is quite good too, but I often put him in his inflatable play ring as I'm pottering about doing stuff so he doesn't get the opportunity to show off to us much, poor little mite. Sounds like you have a sleeping/napping routine that mostly works for all concerned, which is good.

Thanks for asking after DD. We kept her on plain dry foods yesterday until evening when she had beans on plain toast and only gave her water all day as a drink. She kept everything down and seemed to be on the mend. She slept right through last night so when she asked for milk this morning, I gave it to her. Came straight back up! Silly Mummy. But she wasn't upset about it or anything so I reckon she's definitely over it. She's eaten fairly well today and kept everything down again and we've stuck to water after this morning's debacle. She's now in bed so fingers crossed again for tonight.

DS, on the other hand... up from 2 till 5 last night. Ugh. No good reason either, just grumpy and crying. Nothing was right - didn't want milk, didn't want water, didn't want to be held, didn't want to be in his cot... was tearing my hair out and felt rubbish this morning as it was the second night on the trot with little sleep. However, we ALL had a sleep this lunchtime so tempers were much better this afternoon! He went to bed OK this evening so hopefully we won't have a repeat performance...

Again, fingers crossed for tonight.

RIght, I'm off to eat my TV dinner in front of Eastenders.

sayitwithme Glad your DD is feeling better.

My oldest boy made me well up today. I've written about it on another thread, here. He's such a sweetie. Unfortunately he seems to be coming down with the V&D bug that DS2 has poor thing.

mistymoo that is really sweet of DS1! What a lovely lad he must be. Well done you for having done such an obviously brill job raising such a thoughtful one. Nightmare about D&V bug. I hate this about winter. And I'm sure when I was little, there wasn't half of this sh*t around. This is the second bout DD has had since the weather turned colder. It's just horrible. I'm just dreading coming down with it myself. DH has been off sick today but although he's shown no outward signs, he feels rotten, wiped out and can't face food.

Let's hope the weekend brings better fortunes for all.

mistymoo, your DS1 sounds like a lovely wee boy. He'll make a great boyfriend one day! You have obviously taught him to be kind and to notice how other people are feeling

We had a lovely day today. Eilidh and I went to he shops as I was looking for something to wear. Have a night out tomorrow night with the girls...I know, I know, I was out last weekend too...pure coincidence honestly, I am never usually out! Anyway, I worked hard at trying to keep to our new wee routine while out. Left the house after E's morning nap. Gave her lunch as normal then a breastfeed in the feeding room about half an hour later and she went for her nap! I felt so smug that I phoned my mum and DH to tell them! She only slept for about 40 minutes and was too nosey to go back to sleep but I was still pleased with myself (am I sad??!)

sayitwithme glad your DD is feeling better today and hope your enjoying the telly! We have Avatar on but I just cant get into it.

I'm away to run a hot bubbly bath and read my book...Eilidh was up at 2.30, 4.30 then 7am last night. I only got to sleep at 1am as DH and I had a bit of an argument so I was shattered...

The argument...on Wednesday night I went to weight watchers. I normally leave some expressed milk but had no time to express on Wednesday so decided just to go along and feed DD when I got back. I left at 6.50pm and was due back just after 7.30pm. The meeting was running late and I didn't get home till 7.50pm. DD was sitting on her Dads knee quite happy but he had a face like thunder and accused me of having my priorities all wrong...he said that I should have left the meeting and come home to feed DD as I knew that she would be needing fed after her bath. He was so rude to me in front of my sister and I was just so upset and embarassed. He said my priorities are all wrong as I was more concerned about going out than feeding Eilidh. I was stunned. I am very rarely away from Eilidh. I spend every day with her and have been totally commited to breastfeeding her. I really was so upset and angry. I mean I was only 20 minutes later than planned and she was fine! I was away for an hour in total and fed her before I left...I even ran her bath, left out her PJ's and towel for my DH to make things easier for him!

Rant over, we are ok now but last night I challenged him about it and was really upset so took ages to get to sleep and then EIlidh was up twice for a while.

Hopefully she will sleep better tonight...I think it was teething pains as she was frantically rubbing at her jaw/ear before bed and when she was up. Poor wee baby.

Anyway, sorry for long post, off to run my bath and out the kettle on.

Hope your all having a nice Friday night

Men eh Haverina! They really don't appreciate how committed we are to our babies do they. And when we need a tiny bit of "me" time they get on their high horses about us having our priorities wrong! I think I posted last week about to the theatre. I was gone for 3 hours & G decided not to nap for daddy. By the time I got back DH was in a foul mood & it was all apparently my fault - I shouldn't have gone out. This was the first time that I have left G for more than about 20mins in the daytime ever.

Sayitwithme we're having the same sleep problems. Last couple of nights G has woken, been fed but then won't settle for a couple of hours. I'm shattered & have gone down with a horrid cold now which isn't helping either. DH has been taking turns in trying to settle him which he never did with DS1 so I should be grateful for that.

Sorry to hear of all the v&d about. I really hope we don't get it.

DS1 is going to be a sheep in his preschool nativity play! His first school play! I can't wait. We're off to look at crimbo decorations today - I love Christmas stuff!

Aww Mistymoo, that's soo sweet of him. Well done you for raising such a lovely natured lad..wanna send some tips my way. ;) Maybe you could tell him that a lot of people think that was a really kind and thoughtful thing for him to have done, seeing as a lot of us do x
I absolutely LOVE christmas too Zeeky, I also have my birthday and anniversary to look forward to in December as well..can't wait. I'm resisting the urge to put the decs up every day..they normally go up the weekend around my birthday (16th), but I justy think DD is going to love all the lights and decs so much more this year..I will hang on til Dec actually hits tho lol
Glad you're ok now Harverina..they can be so thoughtless with their comments sometimes without even noticing exactly every little thing we do for our kids as mummies xx
Well done Eilidh..Jude's just started sitting for a chunk of time too..he much preferred his tummy, and can't crawl, but skydives (so funny to watch..his arms and legs flapping about alongside him without him actually doing anything!!), and he can rotate himself in a full circle at speed to get to his toys, or have anose around the room. Makenzi was better at sitting (5-6 months), but hated her tummy, Jude is the opposite, and only the other day I wondered when he would actually sit without me sitting behind him, and now he can..so impressed. He's still a bit of a weeble though