July 2005 babies

[AussieSim]

Welcome all those with fresh new babies. Oh the joys and tribulations. Post the lot here!

I hope I haven't overlooked a previous thread here for us. Anyway, here goes.

DS2 was due 3 July but arrived 29 June, 9lb 6oz. He has been growing nicely and is 4 weeks old today. I am breastfeeding and have already had mastitis and thrush but am pushing on with it. Biggest problem is sometimes he sleeps too long in the day and then wakes up a lot in the night, not that he stays awake for long, just long enough to feed and go back to sleep. The Midwife says that I shouldn't worry about his lack of wakefulness for the moment in the absence of any other issues, and to see how he is going around the 6 week mark. She also said I should wake him up during the day, which I have been reluctant to do, but I think I will have to do. Anyone else got an overly sleepy baby who doesn't seem to be growing out of it quickly enough?

cheers again guys for best wishes for my dad. h2d, dang it we actually did walk a bit over the heath but were already gone by your post. my mother was down from norfolk and loves the heath as it reeks of biodiversity compared to the endless sierras of central norfolk.

got to go and be active to try and avoid eating chocolate after the bath debauchery reports...

flower takes the lead...

thanks for elaborating, mrsd... LOL@your mystic post... The bay area is around San Francisco, right ?

Yeah, I'm thinking basically of lots of walks and a bit of easy hiking... and maybe a few electronic shops for, ahem, family essentials.

mb.. will meet you on the heath one day, LOL.

Yes, north of San Francisco. Silicon Valley area. It's lovely

(Slightly) odd question... from your knowledge of your older babies / other babies / books etc... what's the general 'aim' for sleep for

The routine you describe is just what I'd be aiming for. My boys were doing that from quite early on.

I reckon that if your dd is hungry she'll tell you - don't rock the boat, her routine sounds wonderful! My only proviso to that would be if she's unwell or underweight, or perhaps if the weather is v hot. I don't know at what stage the fact that she was prem ceases to be relevant - have you been advised about that?

I'm of her sleeping through! DD is showing no signs of that. I'm wondering if she's teething. She's pretty shouty and constantly cramming her hands into her mouth and drooling (just like her father then )

LOL at the chicken thing! I hadn't heard of it but will try it.

If you have access to chickens, mrsd, of the live variety, LOL, you definitely want to try it, and google something like chicken hypnosis / sleep etc.... Saw it on telly a few times... it works (poorly) on cats too, stroking / massaging the 'dent' in the back of the neck at the top of the spine IYSWIM (gently).. they love it. Apparently the chickens enter a weird and interesting trance-like state.

I think dd's prematurity is now pretty much irrelevant (maybe apart from the parental paranoi etc. LOL)... They plot her weight and height from her birth at 36 weeks (ie her chart begins to the left of her EDD), so now at 14 weeks her weight / height 'blobs' are plotted on the 10 week line (4 weeks prem), and she is on the 50th centile. I think they say it can be a couple of years ordinarily for prems to catch up, but maybe that is with much more prem babies ?

(Incidentally, head circumference is not quite up to these stellar levels so is something to continue to watch, and sadly, for me at least, worry a tiny bit about... but I'm sure she'll 'balance out' IYSWIM)

I'm sorry mrd has given your dd fine dribbling skills, sadly off the football field, LOL, but am sure she enjoys eating a delicious bit of hand. After discovering her thumb a few weeks back, dd is now rather disinterested... just means I'm on dummy reinsertion more frequently than I might like, but maybe we'll be saved the thumb-sucking teenager ???? LOL

Hope she calms down a bit at night for you. We give ours a double dose of calpol just before bed ... maybe that helps ???

Afternoon, just a quick post as ds2 needs feeding, but I have some pampers vouchers (£3) if anyone wants them, just CAT me your address and I'll send in the post.

Hub, I think that by the 8 month developmental check Camille will have caught up with others her age (my friends twins were a similar level of prematurity and had caught up by that stage). ds2 is on 91st %ile for everything except head circumference which is 75th for some reason, but I'm not bothered as the other two were the same.

Mrsd, ds2 also dribbling like mad. Everyone in the entire world seems obsessed with me giving him baby rice for some unknown reason - very annoying as I don't plan on that for a while yet.

Best dash ds2 getting cross!!

Hello everyone, well I am back! Not been on for ages, partly too busy, partly baby blues. Feel like I am coming out of something now though and much more myself. Think I have given in to the idea that I cant do everything and feel a bit better for it.

Violet continues to grow well and is lovely. Saw the consultant about her ever increasing birthmark last friday. Really pleased we pushed for a referral as GP was wrong to ignore it and she will now be monitored whilst she has it. It is steadily creeping towards her eye which is main concern at the moment. If it interferes they will have to treat it with a large dose of steroids so we hoping that doesnt happen. Reasured that we are being cared for though and that I am not just a worrying mum! For now I can enjoy watching peoples discomfort when they peek at her for the first time and dont know what to say. Its a good job she has the most ridiculous amount of hair as it gives them something to comment on quickly! An old woman went on and on about 'poor us' the other day when she saw it, good job I was in good mood and just laughed, otherwise I mght have punched her!

I am still running, which think has actually helped my mood a lot, although loathed to admit it as would rather cope with feeling fed up by stuffing chocolate down my face. I am really struggling to find clothes to wear though. I am down to 1 pair of jeans and 1 skirt. Jeans are starting to look too big on me, but no way am I close to getting into my pre preg ones and I am not buying anything right now!

Hope you are all ok
x

Glad your consultant reassured you Pinkmama, and I'm really sorry you've been blue. You have a lot on your plate don't you?
x

glad i lured you back pm .

right, well, i've ordered an orange stripey mountain buggy urban. and some slime for the wheels. i suspect dp might notice it in the hall.... but i did tell him i was going to buy it, & he's been in such a bad mood for the last week as he's given up smoking that i deserve it! and so does dd .

Hello all.

MB, sorry to hear about your dad. My FIL had a triple bypass 18 months ago and it has given him a total new lease of life. It has been the best thing that happened to him. Hope everything goes as well for big Vin.

PinkM, sorry you've been feeling down. I hope you're not feeling cross with yourself for being miserable. I've definitely had momemnts of miserableness. I went for a run last night, first in a month and I'm feeling so full of beans today. Lack of sleep and an overactive 3 year old makes it impossible for me to feel like I'm ever achieving anything during the day. I end up feeling quite frustrated at times. I'm normally a very organised person and I can't be at the momemnt which has been getting me down in an irrational way at times.

And, talking of lack of sleep. I'm veyr of you Hub. Maybe I'll try the Calpol tonight! Got 2nd lot of jabs tomorrow so yhings will probably only get worse...

When are you going back to work Harriett? I'm planning on going back in Jan, nursery place allowing.

Don't worry, Belo, it didnt last, last night was a 3:30 AM wake up, and the night befoe 5:30.... still, not bad for a wee thing.

Nice buggy choice, hc. Kewl.

Welcome back pinky, hope the birthmark monitoring / treatment keeps you calm and that the spread slows / stops / diminishes.

Message deleted

Hello everyone again
Glad I'm not the only one struggling with the balancing act of baby and toddler. Ds is still singing to himself in his cot after 45 mins, refusing to go to sleep and I soooo need the break at this time of day. Anyway, as long as he's not upset I think he and I can have a rest. Dd is alsleep and we're trying now to bring her bedtime forward as I will be returning to teaching for 2 evenings a week shortly. She still falls asleep for a 6/7 hour stretch around 12.30 am which is miles better than ds at this age.

Merryberry - hope all goes well with your Dad.
Pinkmama - glad you're feeling happier and that you have the care you were looking for for your dd's birthmark.

Hub2dee - I had 8 months of ds waking every 2/3 hours! I am always most impressed and just a little of any full nights sleep.

Dd was 12 lbs 14 ozs when weighed last week at 12 weeks. Her tummy is beginning to resemble mine! I have now set myself the target of our wedding anniversary in December to fit into something with a non-elastic waistband.

Ds has actually gone to sleep - after an hour of talking and singing - I was beginning to fear he was giving up on daytime naps.

Belo - I too sometimes find it very hard when I can't get things done. The smallest job sometimes seems so important. I always think other Mums are somehow more organised and on top of everything.

Now going to explore ebay - I've never shopped there and from the sounds of things I am missing out!

Sorry for all the green faces directed our way, LOL...

As dd woke up earlier the last two nights, we've kept her up (dancing / looking at stuff etc.) for the last several hours so she is perhaps a little more tired and are about to do a feed and then put her to bed... we try and stay flexible on what we do, and as we don't have any other kids to co-ordinate, it's not a problem if we go out for a meal (ie. she goes to bed v. late) or we have an early night cos we're knackered etc... I guess we're just lucky, and she's just well-behaved... FWIW, we've been demand feeding, running our lives around her schedule (ie she eats when she wants even if it's been 2 hours or 6 IYSWIM between feeds, and (almost always) she sleeps / stays awake whenever she wants. Oh, and she has a dummy whenever she wants it (which appears to be quite a lot of the time, LOL.

lynny: Back up your images to either: an online web server / data back up space, CDs / DVDs, an external 'hard drive in a case' type thing / another computer in the house.

How do you do it ? Well, each one has a different method.. the online services would allow upload via a browser, or they would allow you to download a little back up application IYSWIM.

Re: CDs / DVDs: just insert them and use either File Explorer or a dedicated 'CD authoring program' to drag the original files to the blank disks and burn them. Assuming you have a CD or DVD burner (not just a reader IYSWIM), buy a box of blank CDs (they're called CD-Rs) or blank DVDs (they're called DVD-R or DVD-RW or DVD+R or some other conconction of letters I can never remember. You can buy them from Smiths / Rymans / PC shops.

An external hard drive is connected via a USB or firewire port, and again you would just drag files across from your PC to this external drive, so you have a backup...

If you're backing up to another computer in the house, once you've created your network, just use the Network Explorer / File Explorer to dump files to a shared directory on the other user's PC...

Hope that was vaguely intelligible.

Message deleted

She was well behaved, BTW too... was passed around for a while like a high-end, luxury pass-the-parcel, so a few lucky people had a cuddle and some dribble, then we put her in a carrycot and on a bench seat and she was out for the rest of the evening.

I do wonder what has made her so easy - no brothers / sisters to compete for attention / time with ? Having us both at home ? Feeding on demand instead of timetabling ? Her 'genetic nature' ? It is a v. interesting topic...

Glad the tech crap was some help. A popular PC package for burning is Roxio Easy-CD.

We've been using 'B-free' bottles, and dw just bought some 'Dr Brown's' (v. v. similar design but not quite the same), and from the last couple of feeds I reckon they might not be quite as fantastically 'anti-collic'... anyone tried both and agree / disagree ?

Hmm, personally didn't get on with the Dr Brown's/B free bottles at all (I think that B free is the new re-branded version of Dr Brown's so may have been modified Hub). Seemed to leak all over the place and dd would not take them at all (but then she wouldn't take any bottle really). We are using Avent at the moment and they seem fine but ds2 is generally a very windy/possety baby I think and nothing seems to make a difference - we go through muslin squares like they are going out of fashion.

I have tried to add an extra bottle feed to ds2's routine and have failed miserably. I'm feeling rather down about the whole bf thing and am not sure whether to continue or not. I think its lack of sleep that is leading me to feel this way though - oh I would so like a full night's sleep atm .

Hi PM, glad to see you are getting looked after with dd's birth mark . How are you finding the school run these days - I feel like its groundhog day every day from about 6-9 am and will be glad for half term next week to break the monotony.

Belo, sympathies with you re: never getting anything done. It will get easier when the baby is older but until then I still have to remind myself that dust is a protective coating .

Where is HC I wonder? I hope you are out testing your new buggy - it sounds really nice.

Right, must go and do a few jobs whilst dd and ds2 are quiet. I may go shopping this afternoon provided I can get on top of the mountain of washing now .

i am here bagpuss! damn buggy hasn't arrived yet, though apparently it's in a van about to be delivered. we're getting a bit cabin-fevery here waiting, ds is desperate to go to the park. still haven't told dp...

i've had 2 easy babies, hub, i think it's just luck of the draw! though obviously it's due to being fabulous parents .

Gawd, HC, DH would probably divorce me if I bought an MB without telling him! You would not believe the amount of negotiations we had before I got my E3 (which saves me from cabin fever etc on an almost daily basis). Its just taken me three days to tell him that I've bought some more nappies . Good luck and enjoy testing it once it arrives!

If I even buy as much as a pack of nappies without discussing it with DH there are seriously raised voices (ok, maybe I'm alowed nappies..). I admire you HC!

ha ha, you've all scared me now . we did discuss it in theory, & he knew i was likely to do it. but the bloody thing STILL isn't here, & ds is now chipping varnish off the floor & my parents are on the way over. at least dd is asleep....

Snort! Belo . The sad thing is that I wasn't joking - have ordered some lovely hemp nappies with red fleece lining (well, a girl's gotta have a hobby....)

linky linky please, Bagpuss ?

Might try and return those Doc B's and track down some B Frees... might be rather tricky cos we just stuck em all in the steri...