Anyone due May 2004 .. new thread

[twiglett]

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LOL Georgina - maybe should have used brackets there . Just had this urge to buy some things. Feel like I've not bought much for this baby. I won't be cutting the baby's nails though. I cut DS's when he was newborn and nicked his thumb, causing a minute amount of bleeding and was devestated that I'd damaged by perfect baby. So its been DH's job ever since.

You seem very organised though. DH has promised to go into the loft and get some more stuff down this week (after I threatened to do it). Got the 0-3 month clothes out but have realised I will need the 3-6 boxes because no bibs have appeared.

I don't feel organised, but I'm sort of panicking because I was initially viewing it as due the end of May, and now it's more the beginning of May which isn't that far away!!!

I got the 0-3 clothing out and that's now stored under the bed because we'll need that fairly soon - just washing all the newborn stuff, blankets, pram seat covers etc. Seems to be neverending even so!

Got the cot up, the chest of drawers up, the moses basket. Bought new mattresses for cot, moses basket and pram. Haven't LOOKED at other equipment like sterilizer (it's SOMEWHERE in a box in the garage, god knows where), bottles, breast pads, kamilosan etc... really need to do that soon. Need to dig out the old rattles, baby playmat, mobile etc too.

I know what you mean about hardly buying anything for the new one, or the things you do buy end up being "boring" stuff - we need to get a couple of new blankets because we've realised that ds completely shredded them as a baby so we didn't keep them. I wanna buy some cute outfits, but dh won't let me (and he's right of course!)

I think DH's are a bit like that in general.

We've still got the pram, cot and mattress, all bedding, baby gym, bouncy chair, changing mat, toys, baby gym etc in the loft. In fact the only things we've got out are the car seat, sling and breast pump. The 0-3 stuff is mixed up with the newborn stuff which didn't last long because DS was big. I've washed most of it but not the knitted stuff which I was going to hand wash. Have put some stuff to one side for SIL who is due in October (eg can't imagine this babe getting much use out of 0-3 month snow suit). I keep telling myself I will get organised once I finish work...

It won't happen Bozza, beleve me. I've been off work for 3 weeks now and am no more organised. Having said that, I am moving house on Friday, so will have to empty all the cupboards.

So glad I'm not moving prufrock. It makes working seem bearable. Actually I feel better about that now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Only 5 working days to go - well 4.5 because I've got the midwife appt on Thurs...

hi all
where did you buy the raspberry leaf tea from Linnet? when is it we can start?
Can't believe I have under 7 weeks to go - how come it has come around SO quickly?! remind me please someone - what is vitaminK for? isnt there some controversy surroudning it?

Vitamin K is given to babies when they are born to stop bleeding. Lack of vit K in their bodies can prevent blood clotting properly, as far as I understand it.

I need vitamin K because my liver isn't working properly so my blood clotting becomes an issue - can be responsible for post-birth haemoraging.

Can't remember what the exact controversy was. I remember looking into it first time around with ds and thinking that it was A Good Thing [tm] to have the vit K injected from the start. I suppose I ought to go and look at the pros and cons again though

Meant to say that the issue was that my liver isn't absorbing the vitamin k properly (well, probably - they're giving me the vit just in case basically).

Here's a link re: babies & vit K

Vit K and the Newborn

a better vit k link which mentions the safety studies

Egypt, I just went along to the health food shop in town and asked for raspberry leaf tea. the lady asked if I was more than 32 weeks and that was it. My one is Apple, wild raspberry and raspberry leaf and I think it's really nice. Not sure if there were other kinds as the lady in the shop went and got it for me, will have a proper look next time as I'll need to buy more soon.

When our dd was born we didn't give her Vitamin K as there was a lot of controversy about the injection of Vit K leading to childhood luekaemia, I think that has gone unproven though. This time I'm not sure if we'll let them give it to the baby. Because my platelets are low my blood isn't clotting properly but isn't causing any problems at the moment but it could do during birth if the platelets get very low. So, I'm not sure how this will affect the baby, if at all, going to ask the midwife about it when I see her next week. Also going to go and read those links about Vit K as I don't have any leaflets yet, I suppose the midwife will give me one next week but I may as well read up about it just now.

Started reading Gina Ford last night. Was shocked at the expressing guidelines - Days 1-3 express x amount at y time. Although do think that she has some points that made me think re DS who was pretty awful as a small baby, colicy and crying all evening and snacking through the evening/night.

That's trying to express when building up supply though isn't it? The Day 1-3 thing I mean. Was handy after low supply after I had mastitis that (although it was a pain).

I really want to follow her advice though from week 1 - 6 re: expressing even if I don't end up using the other feed/sleep timings - would have made the 6 week hunger spurt a lot easier to deal with (I didn't start expressing until about week 7 last time around, by which time it was hard work)

Thanks Georgina. Was secretly wondering if you might reply because wasn't sure if I had the energy to start a full-blown Gina thread. I've read the rest of the book and am not sure if I'm going to go with it or not. But DS was very colicy and used to do the feeding and snacking through the evening/night thing which prompted me to take steps not to repeat this scenario. Never really got the hang of expressing very well with DS either. And most of what I did express he wasted by refusing to take a bottle.... So I also wanted to start expressing earlier this time.

Bozza the GF expresing advice was the one thing I didn't follow to the letter. Instead I used to express after feeds, especially the 7am as dd would just happily lie on the bed gurgling at me whilst I pumped.

I was going to play the GF thing by ear this time around... I'm still not 100% sure how it'll fit in with ds social life!!!!

Want to do the expressing thing (as I've already said, it makes the 6 week growth spurt more bearable), and I think I'll try and do the feed/sleeps roughly as she does, but see if this baby "needs" it.

Ds definitely needed a routine, he was a dreadful sleeper otherwise - am hoping this next child is a bit more laid back! Well, one can hope...

I've got a feeling that would have helped with my DS too. We had a really hard time with him at first, feeding a minimum of 12 times a day. It was only really after he started nursery at 15 weeks that we managed any sort of sleep routine with him because at that point he was going to bed at 10 pm. But once we got a routine (not as strict as Gina) he has been a loveable, easily-managed, happy child. But he still needs a lot of sleep. Of course, this baby could be totally different so I need to be careful in assuming it will be the same.

It's difficult to get out of the trap of assuming they're going to be a carbon copy, isn't it? I just can't imagine what this baby is going to be like at all... every time I close my eyes and try and visualise the baby, it just appears as a newborn version of ds!

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No - if you have a pregnancy from hell you have to have an angel child. That's the law. Isn't it. Please. Somebody tell me I haven't just made that up.......

Seems only fair to me, prufrock...

thanks georgina for the vitK info and linnet for the raspberry tea - sorry only just checked the boards. all this expressing stuff is making me confused?!? (First baby naivety). want to breastfeed, but will i need to express too? to relieve pressure ?? would love dh to feed it too, but is bottle and breast a bad idea at first? have heard that the baby can go off the breast if given a bottle

No, you absolutely do not need to express to breastfeed! However, you may like to so someone else can give your baby the occasional bottle and you can escape out somewhere sans sproglett!

GF's theory is that you should express a few ounces a day between weeks 1-6 ish (haven't got the book handy as it's still in a box - could you check the details Bozza and post them please?) and not actually "use" them (maybe freeze them for times you want to go out?) so that when they hit the 6 week growth spurt you can just stop expressing and they instantly have the extra supply they need, rather than it take 3 days afterwards of constant feeding before supply evens out.

I found the 6 week growth spurt pretty stressful last time around, even knowing why all of a sudden ds was constantly feeding - so personally I will be expressing just for this purpose if nothing else.

Im glad you asked the question egypt. I was also getting very confused with the bottle/ breast bit.

Finish work tomorrow hUUURRRAYYYYY :0

Absolutely no need to express - but it does give you a break, lets dh help out. I used to do a feed at 7pm, then leave a bottle of ebm for dh to do a 10pm feed, then I'd do the night feeds. But it meant I could go to bed at 8pm and would normally not be woken until 2am. Belive me- in 2 months you too will be so thankful for an unbroken stretch of 6 hours.
DD had breast and botle from 7 days to 11 months. There were some occasions when she refused a bottle, but she never refused a breast. The two sucking mechanisms are so different that I really don't think they get confused. You do need to be careful not to miss too many feeds in the early weeks as this can interfere with establishing a good supply of milk.

Not wanting to put anybody off here but this is my little story about expressing. I breastfed last time and I had theatre tickets for when dd was 3 weeks old so I bought a breast pump so I could express some milk for dh to give dd while I was out.

Well, the tiny amount that I managed to express I wasn't sure would be enough but left it anyway and when I got home the poor little mite was crying her eyes out as dh had given her the whole bottle without winding her in the middle and the whole lot came straight back up. this had happened minutes before I walked in the door so she had a nice feed with mum and then was settled.
Thinking back to it now the scene when I walked in the door was of dh stripping off his milk soaked clothes with a look of "what on earth just happened here" on his face is actually quite funny. Sorry weird sense of humour maybe but brings a smile to my face when I think of it. I was only gone 2 hours but it was dh's first 2 hours alone with dd.

Never did get the hang of expressing, after a feed dd always needed a lot of winding and nappy changes etc so by the time I'd got her organised the expressing never worked. Haven't decided if I'm going to try it this time, don't have the breast pump anymore and don't want to buy another one just to find that I'm still not any good at it.

You are lucky people finishing work tomorrow. I finish 4 weeks tomorrow, not that I'm counting. It seems so long but I know that it will go quite fast.