Hello there everyone,
I have been lurking and reading to catch up with you all but I'm still far from being up to date. I just wanted to stick my head in and introduce myself before I get trumped by others in the PALTTTC
I thought that I had a traumatic birth and a bit to work through, having had my little girl Jasmine Lucie on the 29th of October via caesarian. She was breech all the way through the pg so although cs was elective, it could not have been any other way as at the birth it was discovered that not only was the cord wrapped around her neck 3 times, but my placenta was thin and my uterus the wrong shape to have a vb. Owing to all this, she came into the world with a rude shock and it took a bit to get her little life started, which gave us a hell of a scare to say the very least. She was blue and APGARS were a bit sluggish but I can happily report that at 10 minutes, she scored a perfect 10. It really was a terrifying experience for those few minutes of not knowing, but overall my birth experience was actually really good and after debriefing myself, writing it all down and revisiting the scary photos, I have decided I will write my birth story to give something back to those, like me that want to see all sides of the story (especially those with happy outcomes regardless of a bumpy beginning).
Jasmine is turning 6 weeks on Thursday and things are going wonderfully well. I feel guilty reading some of your posts about breast feeding and although I have nothing to add, I really feel for you girls that are struggling and applaud your efforts. I just hope that you don't feel like you have to keep at it if it's not working for you. Like someone said (sorry, can't remember who), but the most important thing is a happy Mummy. You don't need to blame yourselves for anything you can or can't do with your babies. If you love them and care for them and meet their needs in the best way you can, then you can't feel bad. Give yourselves a break, it's bloody hard work and some people's bodies are just physically incompatible. I'm doing it because I can but also because it's free (and we're poor , plus all the other good reasons of bonding etc, but I'm sure that you would bond just as much looking into each others eyes, holding close to the body while feeding from a bottle. I hate any social stigma that surrounds BF vs bottle feeding and have seen women bruised for decades due to their inability to produce milk or whatever reason. Look after yourselves first so you can be the best Mums to your babies.
I'm not sleeping alot, not getting much done, still very sore some days from the cs and today had to practically sleep all day because yesterday Jazzy and I had a big day doing the groceries in town. Three feeds and three nappy changes while out and about makes it a bit awkward to say the least but i live out of town like a lot of you so I have to just adjust. It's only my second time driving since the birth so although I've had to do lots and lots of trips as passenger, I have to get used to now doing it myself. It's such a lovely feeling to drive your little one yourself though(quite surreal). she is a great little traveler, which is so lucky because she is profoundly deaf and we have had to make umpteen trips to Cairns with her (4 hours return) to see specialists of every variety and that won't stop any time soon. Next week we take her to Townsville which is 6 hours away to get hearing aids fitted and then we have to trot back up and down to Carins fortnights to have the hearing aids adjusted due to her growing ...errr. I wont' ever complain about her hearing loss, I certainly haven't shed a tear (yet) but the travel may wear a bit thin especially when we have to go to brisbane to meet the cochlear team. We have a happy, healthy girl and you will hopefully never hear me complain.
Cheers, look forward to meeting you all in time and sharing the ride xoxo
Murph: So good to see you over hear now. I hope your little Jazzy is putting on heaps of weight and fingers crossed will be a little porker before you know it. Good luck getting the hearing aids fitted, do they think it will have any effect on her hearing at all or is it something they are doing to try and get her used to having to wear them??
Miss M: I'm so glad that Trent is doing well, it can be so tiring b/fing and then bottle feeding (plus all the extra work required and time lost) but hopefully you can get some help and maybe the top up's will start to dwindle and you can 100% b/f.
Janie: Wow, Jasmine seems like a very active little girl especially crawling around in her sleep. And already pulling herself up on things, I think you may have an early walker there. Gosh they grow up so fast.
Everyone else a big hello and I hope you are all doing well.
AFU: Off to get weigh in today so am excited to see how much Tara now weighs. I'm thinking she has got to be close to the 5kg mark now (little porker) and considering she had 920mls of formula yesterday she will be stacking on the weight before my eyes. Girls I don't want to rub it in but I didn't tell that when Tara goes down for the night she will have her 7-8 hour sleep and depending on when she wakes for a feed (all depends on when she went down for the night) I can then pop her back into bed and she will sleep for a further 3-5 hours. So we are getting fantastic night sleeps it just means that she is awake most of the day now as she will only have cat naps of between 20-40 minutes to recharge her batteries. But I can't complain as she has already learnt the difference between night and day.
Still trying to get her into a feeding routine, but it is hard to predict as she varies with what she will take at each feed. Generally it is between 150mls - 230mls, but sometimes she just wants little snack feeds of 70mls - 80mls depending on how she feels. So I have to be prepared everyday for any possibility which makes it hard when we go out as I have no idea when she will want feeding next and how much. I'm off to the hairdressers tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how she goes for the 1 1/2 hours I will be there.
Anyway, I will drop back in later to update on how big my little girl is.
Kelly - well done on the sleeping. They all get into their own little routines and we just learn to live around them, and trust that we know our babies the best.
Murph - you sound very positive and happy, even after all you have been through. But hey, don't feel you can't ever complain! We all need to some days!
queenh - congrats on your twins. What an amazing double blessing. It must be very hard work some days - I hope you are getting some help and support. I don't know how Shannon does it
Janie - funny about your 'NZ time/Aus time' struggles. DS has been to NZ a few times with me, and I have to sheepishly admit that he sleeps better there...I am convinced it's all the attention he gets that tires him out. But you can guarantee he does not sleep on the plane or during the travelling, which makes me one of those parents that no-one want to sit beside!!
Shanon - I'm sorry that you have had these disappointments. I'm sure it's in no way easy to deal with when you have the twins to take care of too. Especially contemplating another stim cycle.
I don't think that i have said yet, but this bub is breech too. I'm a bit annoyed as he was head down (not engaged though) from about 27 weeks. Then he went and did a big flip. So, keep your fingers crossed for me that he decides to do another big flip...and stays that way.
O.K back from weigh in.... and my little girl has put on a massive 600 grams in 2 weeks and now weighs in at 4.8kgs. So she has now gone from being in the 25th percentile to being in the perfect weigh range, but to me that is such a huge gain. And her length has now gone from being in the normal range to now being longer than average, so I'm thinking we are going to end up with a tall girl here.
Everything else was perfect and we are having an extra visit next month for another weigh in just to see how much more she can grow. Oh, my baby is going to grow up too fast.. I forgot to mention that she also did her first front to back roll on Sunday afternoon . She hasn't wanted to do another one since but she will turn onto her side if she is put on her tummy now.
Kelly - well done Tara on the great weight gain and also on the first roll! I know when Jasmine first did it she took a while to figure out how to do it again. Jasmine hated tummy time, so she tried so hard to figure out how to get out of that position! Oh, and by the way I'm not talking to you any more (just kidding) - can not believe how great Tara is sleeping all ready - seriously Jasmine is in need of some of that!
Lenny - fingers crossed for another flip. Hopefully bubs will do it just in time.
Murph and Jasmine - welcome to the thread. Glad to hear things are still going well and hope all goes well with the hearing aid fitting.
Queen - great to see you back! I know how hard it is with one baby, so you must be run off your feet!
Hi Marcellus, Mako, Tania, Shannon and anyone else I have missed.
AFU - all is well here, still in NZ with a sleep crawling baby I forgot to say that she is now also saying Mumma - not 100% sure that she knows that word means me, but I would like to think that she does. She says it a lot and often says it when she is upset so I think she is getting the idea!
Hey there,
thanks for welcoming me on board, I do look forward to catching up but for now I am just moving forward with you and will take time later for all the personals.
Lenny, ahh, if I never complained, what would I have to talk about? I just meant I won't complain about Jasmine's hearing loss like it's a burden to us, because we feel so thoroughly blessed and of course she is just perfect to us. we spent 15 years on this little mission and were told we had zero chance of ever conceiving, so like lots of you ladies, this is our miracle and we are still pinching ourselves.
Hi Janie, your gorgeous girl sounds cuter every time we hear from you and it sounds like a lovely time in your lives. Thanks for sharing, I can really feel the love in your voice and I know just what you mean about not having the words to describe it. My DH and I (as I'm sure you all are) are just smitten and just look at her for ages amazed at what life has given us and how wonderful it's all working.
Kelly, hello there, I finally moved over next door. It's hard leaving our old thread with our old friends after sharing the journey all the way through, but I'm sure this thread will feel like home and I'll cut the apron strings soon.
As for Tara Rose (fatty boomba) as my Mum is calling Jasmine after making it to a hefty 3.2 kilos at 6 weeks today. I have followed in your footsteps all through my pg and even our babies are progressing the same, but two weeks from now, I don't want Jazzy to be at 4.5 kilos. Not yet, I have just bought the last of her nappy system and we are still on extra small bum genius with smalls all set to go next, but have got her in gorgeous Itty bitty d'lish which are just edible (at least when they go on). Wow though, you must be so happy to see her that healthy. Yay
AFU today another trip down to Cairns, for hip scans ( a routine thing at 6 weeks for breech babies) and we had her weighed and measured. when the GP said Jasmine is now above the line, I thought she meant the thick black line (the median in the growth charts), but when I checked it all with DH we worked out she is now just not so off the radar and is now just over the lowest lines on the growth charts. I hope you know what I'm talking about Anyway, it's all progress and she is a long way from being tiny and fragile so we have no worries. I can't believe how chubby she feels at this weight compared to two weeks ago.
Count down is on to Operation tiny pink hearing aids. Oh it will be so cute. We don't expect they will work but it's a first step to finding out if she will benefit before going down the track of invasive procedures like CAT scans and MRIs and the whole cochlear investigation which we find a bit scary on one so little as they have to be under general. anyway, tiny baby steps and first things first is our trip to townsville for our hot pink hearing aids on Wednesday. yay!
Hope you are all well.
P.S, by the way, guess what Kelly, I'm not jealous cos Jazzy is doing the same sleep routine now too, (exactly...tooo funny).
Hi Murph! Welcome to you and Jasmine. Sounds like she's doing so well after her bumpy start. Well done to you!
wow Janie, getting "mummas" already! That's wonderful. We'll be in NZ soon.... visiting the in-laws. Not looking forward to the flights. Given his track record, I would give A a 0.2% probability of sleeping on the plane...
FLIP little baby, FLIP!!! Your mummy is getting worried. Come on, please don't leave it till the last minute.
. Owing to all this, she came into the world with a rude shock and it took a bit to get her little life started, which gave us a hell of a scare to say the very least. She was blue and APGARS were a bit sluggish but I can happily report that at 10 minutes, she scored a perfect 10. It really was a terrifying experience for those few minutes of not knowing, but overall my birth experience was actually really good and after debriefing myself, writing it all down and revisiting the scary photos, I have decided I will write my birth story to give something back to those, like me that want to see all sides of the story (especially those with happy outcomes regardless of a bumpy beginning).
, plus all the other good reasons of bonding etc, but I'm sure that you would bond just as much looking into each others eyes, holding close to the body while feeding from a bottle. I hate any social stigma that surrounds BF vs bottle feeding and have seen women bruised for decades due to their inability to produce milk or whatever reason. Look after yourselves first so you can be the best Mums to your babies.
So, keep your fingers crossed for me that he decides to do another big flip...and stays that way.
. She hasn't wanted to do another one since but she will turn onto her side if she is put on her tummy now.
(just kidding) - can not believe how great Tara is sleeping all ready - seriously Jasmine is in need of some of that!
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