💙🩷From Bumps 2 Babies & Beyond!🤰👶🍼🤱🤱

[MummyTo4BoysXXXX]

following on from the Due February 2024 thread 7.. now this shall be thread 8! For us all to continue our pregnancy&postpartum journey together 😊

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 it sounds like my baby has the same sleep schedule as yours… let me know how the dream feeding goes 🤣🤞

@CheeseAndCrackersx my partner tries his best bit but baby won’t really settle with him now, so think it’s knocked his confidence and I just end up doing most of it. It’s hard because I only ever feel completely happy/reassured when I leave baby with my mum.

Im so sorry some of the men aren't stepping up. With a newborn they shouldn't be going to the gym most nights, or not persevering in settling the baby. If they don't push through it like we do, how will they learn to settle them? It takes practice, that's how we can do it.

Honestly I'd be inclined to hand baby over as soon as they got home, and go and have a nice bath with Netflix or a book, a glass of wine, and instructions not to be disturbed for an hour unless it's an emergency.

@RachLeeds I'm half scared to in case it makes the sleep worse! At least I get that good two hours. If I'm brave tonight I'll let you know!

My partner isn't very confident with settling baby but he does take him for a few hours at night so I can go to bed early and sleep a bit, then he'll bring our son when he's hungry for a feed, I'll feed him and then he'll take him again until the next feed and go to sleep himself. It's not a perfect system but baby had a hard night last night and I still got around 4 hours sleep. It's way easier than transferring baby to his own bed, he can just sleep on partners chest. My partner is going back to work next week though, it could all change. 🤣

@A1b2c3d4e5f6g7 I think the same. I’ve tried keeping him up later but he’ll still wake up at midnight… 🫠

My little one gave me their first social big smile at 5 weeks, they’re now 6 weeks but have gone 3 days without a social smile. Has anyone else experienced this?

I am SO stressed/tired/fed up of not being listened to!!!

Without boring you all and to get straight to the point.. those of you who have had CMPA diagnosed.. how on earth did you go about getting this done because I am quite frankly not being listened to and my baby is not right at all. I have tried doctor, even ended up in a&e and just get told I’m tired, my baby hasn’t been ill for long enough etc etc.

I’m sorry they’re been so dismissive. Could you try another GP who might be a bit more sympathetic and take somebody with you? My baby has severe reflux - thankfully he’s doing loads better on Omeprazole. It was the GP who mentioned it could be due to an allergy and we could trial prescription milk if there was no improvement. They seemed quite happy to do this if I wanted, like it wasn’t really a big deal. I think it helped that Charlie looked so distressed at the appointment though 😢 and I went on the weekend because I was desperate.

I massively sympathise with you because it’s awful when you know something is wrong. My partner kept saying he had colic but I knew it wasn’t that. I would just keep going back to the GP, ideally with a crying baby.

@RachLeeds thank you. I’m sorry to hear your baby has been poorly too. Teddy has so many symptoms and both me and my partner asked if we could try the prescription milk but they point blank refused and said to see how he is in 3 weeks time! We have the health visitor coming Monday who was super supportive at our last visit so I’m hoping she may be able to help/advise what to do. It’s been such a stressful couple of weeks and to top things off his birth certificate has been messed up.. TWICE!!

@CharXo if you can afford it you can buy some extensively hydrolysed formulas from online chemists to trial then if see improvements then can take this as evidence to the GP, especially if do trial properly and stop it to see if symptoms return. We ended up doing this with our first as kept getting fobbed off about the CMPA and focusing on me having PNA/PND cos I was always crying... Yeah cos I hated/dreaded each feed and trying to settle a milk allergic refluxy baby on the wrong formula, which is the main part of looking after a baby for the first 6 months!
https://www.chemist-4-u.com/nutramigen-1-with-lgg-400g
We used this company just before 6 months out of desperation, so at least the GP saved themselves about £750 by not prescribing it for months and months still not completed the milk ladder at 3yo either.
Obviously if no improvement whatsoever then could be reflux needs treating or just colic on steroids. Some babies can need amino acid based formulas but typically see some improvement on the extensively hydrolysed though potentially not complete resolution.
Or keep going back to the GP until they prescribe it. Honestly after finishing the trial and realising how truly shit it was compared to what could be like we would have paid for it ourselves.
Also it smells awful by the way but my daughter loved it 🤢

@Ihatewinding thank you so so much

@CharXo forgot to say it's only a 400g tin so make sure you get enough to do at least a week, they say 2 weeks to know for sure but we could see some difference in couple of days, significant improvement within 5 days. Think they do 3 tins for a cheaper price per tin but depends on how much your little one is taking. Saying that we ran out just before a bank holiday so had to wait longer to get more and hated enduring the return of symptoms for any longer than we had to! Bare in mind even when get prescribed by GP the pharmacy normally need to order it in and is an extended BH holiday weekend coming up (if you're in UK). My top tip is waiting until they are very hungry to try it so less likely to reject it as imo it smells like dog food, you need cooled boiled water as made with room temp water as well. Good luck🤞🏻

@RachLeeds I tried it last night, and it worked! I know that means tonight it most likely won't 🙄 but I woke her at 10pm, big feed on both sides, and she slept until 4.15am. My partner still didn't get great sleep, as he woke up anyway at the time she normally does 🤣

Breast feeding mamas please help! I was wondering if anyone's babies are having longer sleep stretches yet. Mine is nearly 8w and he's started sleeping a lot longer at night - his longest was 7 hours but we've had a good number of 5 & 6 hours as well, although it's very inconsistent and we do still have nights where he wakes every 2-3 hours.

The problem is me - I am waking up before him in quite a lot of pain as boobs are so full. Not too mention the mess from leakage. To make matters worse when he does feed there's so much milk he only either needs one side or I put him on both for a little bit but then I find I'm back to overfull and pain on both within two hours. I'm starting to get blocked ducts from this. I'm not sure what to do because I'm worried if I pump I'm going to increase supply and make it worse, equally I'm worried if I do anything to reduce night time supply it'll reduce supply in the day as well which would be a disaster as I'm only just keeping up with baby in the day!

How does everyone else manage this?

@LavenderSweetPea I'm going through the same thing! Coming up to 8 weeks too.

Baby girl has been having 5-6h stretches at night and then gets full from one boob! I haven't been that engorged yet though so I've not really needed to worry.

If it's super painful, I would definitely pump! And then if that replaces one of baby's feeds during the day - that would help with the lesser supply during the day / reduce one session of being on the boob. So this shouldn't create an over supply? If this makes sense (it does in my head!)

For those at the 7-8 week mark, how awake are your babies throughout the day? I'm finding that she's still quite sleepy most of the time, maybe has 3-4h total where she's fully awake and alert. Then drifts in and out of sleep / longer periods of deep sleep.

@msp2023 little man is 7 weeks and has a couple of very alert wake windows in the day where we do tummy time, play on his mat, read and practice chatting. The rest if the day he is napping or having sleepy feeds.

Well that dreaded first needles appointment has come through 🙈 at least he'll get to experience the delight that is calpol from then 😂

@msp2023 my little guy isn't that sleepy in the day any more. From 7am-7pm He'll probably only nap 3 hours, another 3 hours spent on the boob. Of the remaining 6 hours 2 might be spent alert awake so we can be on the playmat, or we just hang out doing bits and bobs. Unfortunately that means approx 4 hours are spent with him crying and me having to actively try and stop the crying by bouncing him around, rocking, putting him in the bouncer etc

Ahhhh this makes me worry :(
I might properly time her tomorrow and get an accurate measure of how long she's awake for. Might stress me out more but feel like I need to know!

Have you been to your local infant feeding clinic or know where your nearest lactation specialists are? I’d recommend getting some professional advice so you can carefully manage. Good luck!

Omg! That’s amazing! Fingers crossed it works for you again 🤞I’m tempted to try it but feel like because he’s so reflux-y I might just make him sick and I daren’t disturb him 🙈 Hopefully he’ll just start going a bit longer in time wishful thinking 🤣

What time did you put little one down beforehand @A1b2c3d4e5f6g7? X

What do you all do when baby is overtired? Our baby girl hasn’t been having many nap
during the day this week because she just wants to stay awake but then so is quite restless when we take her upstairs in the evening for her first sleep at night. She then sleeps a good 3 hours and then goes back to bed fine for the next sleep, it’s just the first evening sleep that’s been difficult this week. It’s really hard to get her to settle when she’s over tired and can take up to two hours of her crying and refusing bottle and breast before she eventually falls asleep. If there are any strategies that work for anyone please let me know, I’m willing to try anything.

@CharXo I'm so sorry you're not getting the help you need. We were prescribed the milk that @Ihatewinding suggested and symptoms went away almost immediately. We've also been referred to allergy and dietitian services and received a letter for the allergy appointment already. It definitely sounds as though they're not doing enough, judging by my experience and I would go back to A&E if I were you and tell them you want a prescription.