Babies Born April 2007

This thread is for parents who's baby was born in April 2007

Your moderators for this forum are as follows-
Astrolady - astrolady@bellybelly.com.au ~ Administrator
Lea13 - lea13@bellybelly.com.au
Sherie - sherie@bellybelly.com.au
Christy - christy7@bellybelly.com.au ~ Senior Moderator

There are many issues that you will encounter as a new parent. We have put together this list of useful articles and threads in order to assist you with some common questions or issues you may have, and to provide you with bit of extra support that we all need as new parents:

Feeding Support:

Breastfeeding General Chatter
Breastfeeding FAQ's
Is My Baby Hungry?
Bottlefeeding FAQ's and Useful Information
Is Feeding Your Baby Taking Too Much Time?
Bottlefeeding General Chatter
Feeding Your Baby
Lactose Intolerance
Starting Solids/Homemade Baby Food
Starting Solids - When Is My Baby Ready?
Starting Solids General Chatter

Please contact the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) or a Lactation Consultant if you are concerned that you may have breastfeeding and/or supply problems, and before the introduction of solids.

Sleeping Support:

Comforted Sleeping & Sleep Issues Forum
Comforting Tools to Aid Restful Sleep
Babies & Sleep
Controlled Crying/Comforting/Sleep Training
The Con of Controlled Crying
The Crying Game
15 Ways To Help Your Baby Sleep

Other Useful Information & Recommended Reading:

Baby Massage
Cuddle Me Mum
Infant-led Feeding & Weaning
Baby Wearing
Recommended Reading List

Got questions?

Post your questions in the forums mentioned above, or in the following forums where you're sure to receive many friendly responses!

General Baby & Toddler Forum
Breastfeeding, Bottlefeeding and Solids
Gentle Parenting Forum


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Congratulations Caro on little Michael! What a gorgeous piccy in your ticker!! Hope your going well...sounds like you're getting plenty of sleep (hopefully it stays that way for you!)
Hope to join you in here very soon!

Just thought we should jump in the thread!

Matias (Mat-ee-as) was born on 2 April. He is now 6 days old and doing really really well. He has been the most adorable newborn in the world, we reckon! So far, so good anyway. :-) For the first days before my milk came in he was the most vigorous sucker and I was in a lot of pain when feeding him. But it seems to be much better now I have milk. In fact he got his first breast milk squirt in the face this morning! Happy Easter!!

Thanks Caro! Great that you will be joining the April group.
Hows it all going with Michael? Is he settling in well?
Will be fun to see the girls pop in with news of their babies soon....

Congratulations Deb!!! It's all so exciting!! So glad he's feeding well! Hope you had a great easter!

Hi Girls,
As you know, Olivia Grace was born on Sunday 1st of April at 339pm.
She hasnt been home a week yet and shes really hard to settle, especially at night. She seems to feed for about 2 hours and still be hungry and doesnt stop screaming. The one thin I have found to work is her sleeping with us, which we didnt want to do, but for our own sanity at the moment, its the best thing to do.
Shes also very hard to burp and gets hiccoughs all the time. I ended up giving her some gripe water last night which she hated and so did i! I dont know if that did the trick or if it was the feed or the co sleeping, but she slept for 2 hours.
Am hoping it gets better from here!
Looking forward to seeing you all here.
Love Melissa

Congrats Melissa!! Sorry to hear you're having a rough time. I know something we did in the early days was to put some phone books under one end of Louis cot and that helped with his little tummy a bit! Hope she settles for you soon!

Sorry to hear your having dramas with settling Olivia. I know the story, as it sounds like what we had with Alex. Quite a different baby to the one we have now with Matias - who is (so far) a good eater, burper and sleeper. Do whatever it takes to get some rest, if that means co-sleeping, just do it and don't feel like you're doing the wrong thing. You are doing what it takes to be rested and to have your baby rest as well. Hope things settle soon for you.

Thanks for that. I have actually found that co-sleeping works to settle her in the early part of the night, then I put her back to her cot. She actually lost weight and it really upset me coz I had felt like I was feeding and feeding and nothing else. I am supposed to top her up with expressed milk after feeds, but finding it difficult to express enough and my bbs feel empty. What to do!
The nurse is coming back tomorrow to weigh her. I hope it is good, coz I hate crying all the time.
Other than that, all is good.
Hope you are all well
Love Melissa

We've got our first nurse visit tomorrow, so it should be interesting to see if Matias has put on any weight. He sure is eating enough, so I would be surprised if he is less.

Mel have you tried having a dark beer or glass of wine at dinner time to increase your supply? It should also help to relax you a bit, if you're feeling stressed. How much are you expressing? I have been expressing about 60mls a day and freezing it for now, as I seem to have an over-supply..mind you I am allowing myself one glass of wine or beer at dinnertime.

I like the idea of a glass of wine:)
I expressed about 80mls last night and then when it came to the next feed, there was nothing there and she got really upset, so I ended up having to give her the expressed stuff, which is pointless. I'll wait to see what the midwife has to say. At least I got a great sleep last night, 2 lots of three and a half hour stints. It was so good:)
Well Cherie had a boy... all of our April buddies have had boys, except for me!!!! Must have been something in the water......
Have a good day
Love Melissa

Good to hear your got a proper sleep Melissa. Good girl Olivia for those long sleeps overnight!:clap:

The nurse visit went really well. he seems to be a normal functioning little boy, which is always a relief. My DH was concerned there was something wrong with him because he is so placid! Its just such a difference from our older son, who really gave us a hard time. Also Matias weighs 4.1 kgs now, so he has gained 400 grams in the last 10 days. He is going to be a big boy, we think.

wow 400gms in 10 days!!!!
Olivia put on 70gms in 2 days which was great. we got her ultra sound for her hips and it looks like she will need a harness. just waiting for an orthopead appointment next week. Anyone know about harnesses for clicky hips? Also we are off to the lactation clinic on monday to get off the sheild, hopefully. I was also thinking about topping her up with formular....any advice on that too!
This is such a learning curve, at least i am still sane, bar the crying on and off!!!!
Well, i hope you are all well
love melissa

How are you and Olivia going Melissa? Hope alls well - keep us up to date.

Matias is doing fine. So no real news to report. I have been peed and pooed and vomited on a few times so its all as it should be I guess :redface: Nights are spent up and down a fair bit and he sleeps quite a bit during the days. I have managed to accumulate a stock of expressed milk already, so am stopping expressing until I need it again. Seems silly just to pump and throw away.

How is everyone else going with their new babies?

Hey girls!!! It's so exciting to be finally posting in here :)

Our little (well, not so little ;) ) boy Jambin Eli was born last Wednesday, weighing 4860g (10lbs 11.5 oz), via c/section, which was not the original plan, but we have a beautiful healthy boy to show for it! I cried when they pulled him out of my tummy and I heard his first cries - one of the most emotional experiences of my life.

I've had a little hiccup - have popped one of my internal stitches from the c/s which has torn through muscle and is sitting on a nerve. I'm getting around on a wheelchair, and taking morphine for pain relief (sooo worried about what it might be doing to Jambin, even though the obstetrician has reassured me that it's OK, but I think it has to be better than not breastfeeding at all).

Jambin is breastfeeding really well - we have a few problems sometimes interpreting what his cries mean, and when I try to feed him he scratches my breasts and latches really hard, then pushes away - but at other times he feeds beautifully and falls asleep at the breast.

Melissa - we've definitely had quite a few tears here too. So many people had said to me how easy newborns are, how they sleep 18hrs/day (liars!!!), and how you get to spend the first week home from hospital watching DVD's, and it doesn't seem to be happening that way with us. Jambin has periods where he is really unsettled and will scream and scream - sometimes we can figure out quickly how to stop him crying, and other times it takes us over an hour. Please tell me this is normal someone - I'm having a hard time thinking I'm not a terrible mum for not being able to interpret what he wants quickly.

Re: topping up with formula, I'm certainly no expert, but the reading I've done, you will need to make sure that you don't reduce your own supply by topping up (since breastmilk is produced on a supply and demand basis). Hopefully the lactation consultant will be able to give you some good ideas.

Anyway, time is precious when Jambin is asleep (as he is now) ... so I'm off to spend some quality time with DH.

Hey Cherie, congrats. Sorry to hear you are in pain, hopefully you will get better soon. I know what you mean, it is not easy when they cry all the time and you cant work it out. I went to the lactation day stay yesterday and I was in tears for most of the time. Olivia wont latch on properly and she chomps down on my nipple when she does latch on and it hurts really bad. I have scabby nipples, they get stuck to the nipple pads i wear:(
So we decided that I will express every 3 hours and feed her that way, BUT I dont have enough supply for the amount they want me to give her, so Adam and I decided to give her formula evry 3rd or 4th feed, a chance for me to get ahead in expressing. The only thing is she throws a fair bit of it up. So I dont know what to do. I see the MCH nurse tomorrow, hopefully she will help me out a bit better.
The midwife yesterday thought i was depressed... i dont think so, just tired and frustrated and upset that I cant seem to satisfy Olivia and also feel like a bit of a failure not being able to breast feed so easily.
Today I feel much better coz I got sleep... its amazing what lack of it can do to your emotions!!!!
Anyway, am going to look up some info on the feeding stuff. Take care all and looking forward to seeing some of our newest mums in here.
Love Melissa

Yeouch @ chomping on your nipple Melissa!!!!! How is the expressing going? Are you planning on hand expressing or using a pump? I hope your appt with the MCHN went OK yesterday. You are NOT a failure ... we are all just learning to get to know our little babes, and they are getting to know us. None of us are going to be able to do everything perfectly after only a few short weeks, so be nice to yourself :hug:

We are having sleeping issues ..... not during the day, but during the night. During the day, we have feed/cry/play time, then he'll go down for naps of a couple of hours. But during the night it's a totally different story. Two nights ago, he was awake continuously from 12midnight - 4am, and then last night was awake from 12midnight - 3am. I anticipated that I would be awoken regularly during the night with a newborn baby, but I honestly never thought I would be spending 4 hours continuously awake. By the time I settle him to sleep, the sun is just about coming up :wall: Last night, we finally managed to get him to sleep using a dummy, which I have been trying to avoid since we used one at the hospital and I noticed that we started having latching problems with breastfeeding. When I stopped the dummy for a few days, the latching improved. I honestly don't know what to do about it :(

On a more positive note, DH and I took Jambin on his first outing today. We went to the library to return some books, and then to the park for a quick walk around. DH carried him in the Hug-A-Bub, which was really cute. We went for a walk this afternoon, using the pram for the first time too. Hopefully we'll have tired him out a little bit and we might get some more sleep tonight.

Melissa - ouch! your poor nipples. Are you finding the formula is helping at all with settling Olivia? Hope things are okay over there. As Cherie said, don't be hard on yourself. This is such a new experience and something that no-one can ever really prepare you for. You're doing really well!

Cherie - if it makes you feel any better we've had a few nights like that where Matias has been awake between 12-4. When I spoke with the MCHN about it, she said everyone reports the same thing, and not to worry about it. I hope you're able to rest at other times.

DH has gone back to work this week, so I'm on my own again. Getting some rest is difficult, as there are always tonnes of things to do eg I am washing and washing! But TBH I am so used to sleep deprivation, I don't really notice any difference.

Matias has been quite clingy today and feeding pretty much all morning without a break! Thankfully he is resting now, so I hope he can sleep for a couple of hours and give his poor tummy a rest (and mummy too)