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!

Helen I feel for you with the sore nips. When I had DD I got so overenthusiastic with the pump that I ended up with grazes. I don't know if there's a secret, but I found it easier to do it in the bath as your breasts are warm and you're (hopefully) more relaxed. You can also try moving the pump nozzle thing around a little till you find the best position. I posted on the antenatal thread about it already, but I have one boob that you could set up a dairy farm with, and one that I can hardly get a drop out of, but which Alexander seems to manage fine with. Babies can get more out than pumps can .

Betty the tea i've drunk! ohmygawd I must be on about 8 cups a day now. Luckily I drink the Redbush tea which is caffeine free but it seems to be a new addiction - I'm trying to soothe my frazzled nerves I think!

Last night my DP got home at 8.30pm and insisted I went to bed on the blow up mattress in the baby's room. DD was still up and just wouldn't settle at all. I woke this morning at 6am to find he had got up and done feeds at 10.30, 2.30 and 4.45am and then left for work at 5.50! So i've had a great night and now feel able to get through the day but I feel very sorry for him and he wil be on his feet all day .

Am going to try to feel very positive today as yesterday was A Bad One.
Nic tonight i'm going to hit Ebay.

Oh, with expressing Helen the type of pump makes quite the difference. I can't use anything other than a Tommee Tippee manual pump (have some fetching calluses and the start of RSI!) but anything electric doesn't work for me. Also don't even think about pumping when stressed or anxious.

Helen - think milky thoughts! It helps to think of baby, ideally with the cutest pic you have. When you express is important too - milk supply higher in morning. I expressed 250mls yesterday through the day, and this morning got 140mls after baby had fed at 8am. The more you express the more you will get, but do not do it if it hurts, pump really slow too -I watch it coming out and never express past milk flow stopping. A few short pumps should prompt the 'let down' of milk. Start small, and amount will increase. Drink plenty and rest whenever possible.

I use an Avent manual - cannot get on with electric pumps at all.

Would you consider giving a top up of formula (get DH to give it) at 11pm? Just until you are expressing more? Would help baby sleep, and get baby used to bottle.

Billie had her first bottle of expressed at 11pm last night and slept until 4am - I was woken up by mega sore boobies and had to express otherwise she would have been shot off 'em. That was with me expressing fully at 9pm.

Poor baby has a cold, and a sore bum too - put her in washables yesterday, and it seems her skin doesn't like them, or may just be because she has a cold. She also has a sticky eye

AdelaideJo your DH is a star! Hope you have a better day, and happy ebaying.

Helen I also find I get much more milk when expressing in the morning - I try to do it right after her feed when she is gurgling in her bouncy chair or on activity mat, I just sit with her and pump. I also use a munual one (Lassinhol). However I just don't think expressing is much fun and am considering changing to mixed feeds topping up with formula.
Hazel had a much better night last night colic wise. She was still windy but we swaddled her REALLY tightly and this seemed to soothe her a bit. We still had an hour or so of crying and incredible hulk impressions as she tried to escape but eventually she settled and slept well.
Adelaide what a fantastic DH you have!!!

Yes, well done to adelaidejo's dh for realising that you desperately needed a break. I'm sure one sleepless night won't kill him & he no doubt appreciates what you are going through a lot more now!

HI EVERYONE..jUDE Got weighed today and is 11lb 9oz, was really nice as it was the same lady who used to weigh my dd1 and she remembered us. He's 7 weeks old today, can't believe how quickly it's gone, and how much he's changed. Just for all you mummy's of colicky babies, my Jude's starting to really settle down now in the evenings, so fingers crossed for you too. x I started out by giving him a formula feed in the evening, as he was sometimes too upset to feed contently from me, and sometimes I hadn't had the chance to express enough for his night time feed. It hasn't affected my supply at all, now he's more content and alert, I express first thing in morning, and then try to do it another twice if possible. This morning I managed 4 ozs from one side!! I'm using an electric pump and I find massaging my boob with my hand helps send out those final surges..sounds odd, and probably looks it too, but I just cup my hand around the boob, and put gentle but firm (?) pressure using the heel of my hand, and then when no milk comes through, move my hand to the next part and so on. If it helps anyone, then great, if it don't...I look like a wierdo lol
No naps for me either....sometimes I'm up from 5.45 with dd1 (yawn!!), but I'm always in bed by 9pm these days!!!!!! Beginning to forget what dp looks like!!!!!!!!!! I'm first one up, and first to bed.
I also got a swing today, I got the soothing motion glider one second hand from the nearly new board on netmums....I've picked up so many bargains in last few weeks it's great!! Haven't really had the chance to test it out properly yet on settling the wee fella, but time will tell.
DD1 is still being a lil mummy to Jude....and it seems it's all paid off for her...she gets the most smiles from him. It's really cute to see, and when she's trying a bit too hard to help me, and I'm starting to get flustered....I just imagine what it's gonna be like when they're both arguing, and enjoy the moment while it lasts xx

helenwombat, make sure you have a good air tight seal with your pump. Which pump do you have? Do you feel the let down after a few minutes? It is really hard work expressing. Gets easier though if you do it regularly.

hello all, I haven't posted for ages.....anyway Ben is now 6 weeks old and weighs a whopping 11lbs 6oz!! So I think its gold top for me too

Ben only wakes once in the night now but feeds like a crazy baby during the day, this week I am going to introduce a bottle of expressed milk during the day, so i can finally hand him to my mother to look after for a few hours during the day, I m finding it hard on my own and I have been doing it for 6 weeks solid!!

I'm glad everyone is doing ok, Ben has starting to smile now and also coo's and gurgles which is really cute!!

Anyway gotta go the little monkey is waking up

Had such a bad night last night. Both DS1 & George were awake & screaming most of the night. DS woke up at 11 as his pyjamas were wet & then because he could George crying downstairs he wouldn't go back to sleep. I made the mistake of letting him come into bed with me which is what he kept asking for, but then wouldn't go to sleep! Eventually DH managed to persuade him to sleep in the spare room with him after a lot screaming by which time it was about 3am! The little tinker was awake at 7 as normal & ready to start the day whereas DH & I were dead on our feet. Can't go through another night like that. We've been managing so far with me doing the night shift with the baby while DH gets some sleep so that he can deal with DS in the morning while I catch up on some sleep.

George is so content and settled in the day, happily going 3 to 4 hrs between feeds & settling quickly after each feed. Until about 9pm when he decides he wants to feed every hr or two & scream the whole time in between! Eventually he calms down about 3 in the morn & then goes through til 7ish. If he would just settle a bit earlier so that I can get a bit extra sleep.

DH is back at work on tues so my mum is coming to stay to help out for a few days. Don't know how I'll cope with the two of them alone after that...

Zeeky you'll surprise yourself. Just take it one crisis moment at a time. Hope you get a nap today.

H is settling down quite well. V difficult to get her to nap during day without the boob but we're working on it. Getting better at taking a bottle of expressed milk too but only since I changed to breastform bottles. Lots and lots of smiles here too and they make my heart melt.

I'm struggling a bit today. DS has not settling without contant feeding and holding over the last couple of days. When he does cry he can get himself very worked up and it sounds like he's in a right temper. DH really can't cope with it so I feel that I have to be the calm one all the time and try to make sure everyone is happy.

It's hard to go from a content wee man to this. I then start thinking I'm getting him into bad habbits by always feeding him and cuddling him.

Hi Misty. Bad days are horrible. Have you tried a dummy/sling/swing/buggy/your worn top in crib?

Tried a dummy - won't take it. In a way I'm glad he doesn't take a dummy as DH and I hate seeing toddlers with dummies so don't want to have to deal with that later.

He will sometimes settle in his bouncer seat with vibrate on and the sound of the sea. He is asleep on the couch now so I should get a few jobs done but instead I'm on the laptop!

I have tried a dummy too Ben will take it when he wants it, going to try him with a bottle of expressed milk today, don't know how he will tke it but fingers crossed, i'm so tired and hopefully my mother will take him for a few hours........

kacie had her last feed at 7.30 last night, went to sleep about 9 and didnt wake for another feed until 3.30! its put me in a very good mood today even though i remember from ajay that its probably a one off at this age. she went back to sleep fine after the 3.30 feed till 6.30 but i couldnt get back to sleep, typical! she is settling well at night now but she's a devil through the day nothing seems to make her happy and she's constantly grunting and groaning and thrashing about. she only has little cat naps in the day too but i can deal with it as long as she stays good at night.

got her appointment for her jabs through today for 27th, poor little thing.

Matilda had a good night too! She slept 8:00 til 4:00, had a 30 minute feed, then back to sleep and I had to wake her at 7:00. I feel much more human today, hope she can do it again tonight.

Hi all,
I have not posted for ages so have been catching up with your posts. really relieved to hear that I am not the only one who has a baby who has gone from content to being unsettled during the day, I felt like I did not put her down once yesterday....she was wanting fed or held all day.....knackering and I feel so helpless when I cant get anything else done, had to cook dinner with her in the sling with a muslin over her head!
She is generally not too bad during the night though, feeding about 2 am and then 5 30 am, thats from from 9 pm ish so I know it could be worse......saying that Friday night was up every 2 hours with her....then she snores....
This is peak time for them being unsettled I read.....after 6 - 7 weeks they supposedly start to go down a bit earlier and become a bit easier......supposedly.....!!!
I am trying to pump when I have time using the medela swing pump....I can get 3 oz from one side and about half an ounce from the other...very odd.
we will all get through this!!
xx

well good mood has evaporated, she's just had projectile vomit all over me and her. there was loads of it, poor little thing. the health visitor had told us to put her on sma staydown for her reflux which we started on sat and she had not been sick until now. health visitor had just been round this morning asking if the new milk was working, and i told her i thought it was as she hadnt been sick and was drinking full 5oz bottles a lot of the time so was feeling confident and now she's spewed everywhere, typical.
on the plus side its not affecting her weight she's at 9lb5 now perfectly following the 25th centile.

Hi All,
After a week from hell last week (I have a 3 week old who is behaving much like all the posts above!), a HV who isn't returning our calls despite us needing advice on "hungry baby" milk, and tears (mine) every day, this week as so far been successful!

Nic I went and bought a vibrating chair which has been such a great move - Erin settles literally in seconds so thanks for that tip.

We also had a brilliant product with DS which is a plastic tape recorder, a bit like a walkman, which came with 3 tapes of white noise, with names like "colic stop" .
I bought it from a company called "perfectly happy people". The tape player is small enough to put in the top of a cot or also to clip onto the straps of a bouncing cradle. We swore by it with DS and are using it again!

Zeeky my week was much like yours sounds and culminated in my DP moving from 5 days work to 4 per week until I can get myself together a bit more. Don't know if anyone else has problems with this but for me, its the constant low-level anxiety - I was the same with DS.

Oh, the only design flaw with the white noise tape recorder is when the tape finishes, the 'play' button clicks off and, i'm not joking, its like a bloody gunshot in the air! I have to get to it before the 30 minute tape finishes or each of my kids has jumped into the air and woken up .

hi all just popping in quick as havent had time. well dd2 has gone back down to having 2-3oz per bottle health visitor told me to change her to aptimal but still only taking that amount. hv doesnt seem to concerened because she still putting weight on but doesnt seem right to me well she sleeps well which is good goes from 10.30/11pm to 5/5.30am but that because she seems to stay awake most of the day now.

we also had to get her a vibrating chair as she was only going to sleep in my arms and its a life saver lol she also loves going on her tummy in her playgym!

hope everyones dc is getting on ok. going to have read through thread missed a bit

Dani I have the opposite problem! My DD is what I would call 'over hungry'. She was draining 3oz of Aptimil at week 2 and wanting 2.5 hours later - it was very weird.

We tried to consult HV but they never return our calls (!), so we put her on hungry baby Aptimil. I'm a bit worried myself about her though because even on this she still wants a feed every 2 and a half, 3 hours. She was 7lb 11oz at birth.

Has anyone any experience of a hungrier than usual baby? my DS was not this way.

Hi ladies, we are now back in Bulgaria. The flight and travelling went well and it's lovely and hot here.
Dp is back to work, but not every day, so it was strange being on my own for the first time with Valentin but we're coping ok. I never realised before how many steps there are in our town, so difficult with the pram, I fell on my arse the other day when I was trying to bump pram up some slippery steps, no damage but was embarrassing ans stressful as nobody offered help or even asked if we were ok, just stood looking. I felt like a terrible mother and it shook my confidence a bit. I got some great friends though who took us out shopping yesterday so feel a bit better now!
Valentin is 4 weeks now and he sleeps quite well so far (touch wood) but doesn't like to settle during the day on his own without being picked up/rocked/cuddled etc. Got him a bouncy chair, they're not as good as UK ones, no vibrating or music and I've had to put the head hugging thing out of the car seat onto it so he doesn't flop about but he seems to like it, just sitting there looking at everything. He really likes to see what's going on around him, he doesn't like laying flat or being in the pram if he can't see everything! Nosy devil, like mum!
The old biddies here haven't stressed me out too much so far, I've only been told once to bandage his legs together and that he's cold (in 30degrees, fully dressed, with cellular blanket on him).
There's a Bulgarian tradition where people have to put a coin in the pram when they first meet the new baby, for luck and good health, I'm loving it - we've accumulated over 50leva so far (about £25) and we've only been back 4 days!!