Babies Born May 1st ~ 15th 2009

[Trillian]

This thread is for parents who's baby was born May 1st-15th 2009

Your moderators for this forum are as follows-
Astrolady ~ Administrator
Trillian ~ Senior Moderator
Dachlostar ~ Senior Moderator
MistyFying ~ Senior Moderator
AJP
Nelle

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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[Nat :D]

May Babies
All these precious little ones were due between May 1st - 15th


Cindee's little girl Miranda Eva --- Born 10th Feb weighing 760g
Blue Iris's little girl Abigail --- Born 20th April weighing 3050g
Nellnell's little boy K ------- Born 26th April weighing 5lbs 14oz
TooMany's little boy Thomas - Born 28th April weighing 7lb 15oz
Nat's little boy Phillip -------- Born 29th April weighing 8lb 8oz
Meg's little boy Jack ----------- Born 1st May weighing 7lb 10oz
Dee's little boy Ethan Ivan ----- Born 2nd May weighing 7lb 4oz
Kelly C's little boy Liam James -- Born 2nd May weighing 3200g
Krystielove's little boy Kyson ---- Born 2nd May weighing 3925g
Cherie's not so little girl Darcy -- Born 3rd May weighing 4725g
Sarebear's little boy Oliver ---- Born May 5th weighing 7lb 11oz
Rose's big boy Mitchell -------- Born 6th May weighing 9lb 14oz
Butterfly Kiss's big boy Reuben -- Born 8th May weighing 4120g
Sarah's Little girl Emma ---------- Born 8th May weighing 4065g
Tam's little girl Sienna ----------- Born 9th May weighing 3972g
Syran's little girl Lily ------------- Born 9th May weighing 3160g
Oscar's little girl Xanthe ------- Born 10th May weighing 8lb 2oz
Rayray's little boy Oscar ----- Born 13th May weighing 10lb 3oz
JwithJ's little boy James ----------- Born 15th May weighing ?!?
Amazed's little boy Jonah -- Born on May 15th weighing 7lbs 1oz
Nelly's little girl Sophia ------- Born 15th May weighing 8lb 3oz
Tatt Mama's little girl Jade -- Born 18th May weighing 7lb 15 oz

Well done ladies

Please note I'm conveting all weights to Pounds - please post your details so I can update the list - thanks

Hey Girls
I'm hoping to make up a list of everyones baby details, but there's so many posts to go over in the May Bellys thread, and sleep deprivation is making it hard for me to keep up. If you can post your baby details here, I'll collect them all and make us up a list of all our precious babys
Also if I have any of the details wrong, please just let me know.

[Maruschke]

Is Phillip a week old already?

Thanks for doing the list, Nat!

[Nat :D]

Yep I can't believe it... two weeks ago the days would drag, now a whole week has flown by!
Every Wednesday at 2:43pm he clocks over another week

[roses]

hey nat,

this is great, mitchell was born 6th of may. i love weight in pounds but can convert in my head anyway so either way is fine with me.

pleaese excuse spelling - learning to type with bubs on my cheast is new but lovely

[Toomanytoomany]

Thanks for doing this, Nat Thomas was 3.6kg, I made a mistake

[butterfly*kisses]

hey girls! Just a quick post from hossy - today is day 3 already. Reuben is such a sweetie - feeds strongly & ravenously. A bit of a marathon really! I will try to post some photos - but I am not so savvy with that.

Wishing you all lovely baby cuddles!

Xxx

[Cherie]

Can I join? My little (or, rather, big!) girl - Darcy - was born 3rd May weighing 4725g (just a little less than her brother). She is just delicious.

[*Dee*]

welcome Cherie! And congratulations!

Thanks Nat, Ethan now has a middle name... Ethan Ivan. His middle name is after DH's late grandfather, who was married to the nanna that passed the week Ethan was born. Ethan was born on his birthday. So it's quite appropriate!

I have a question... My little one will only feed 15 or so mins at a time but wants a feed every 1-2 hours. When he falls asleep at the breast i change his nappy to wake him and then put him back on but he gets really restless after about 4am for some reason?? Does anyone have any ideas on how i can get him to feed longer to fill him up?

[~ Mylitta ~]

Hi everyone! My gorgeous son Kyson Lucas was born (2.5 weeks early) on May the 2nd at 9.40am weighing 8lbs 10.4oz (3.925kg).

We are both doing extremely well and were back home from the hospital after only 48 hours. Kyson is such a joy and I love him more ad more each passing day. So far I've been really lucky because he is an absolute angel. He's feeding well, and even sleeping quite well. He doesn't cry much and is generally a really placid baby. Fingers crossed that things stay this way

Dee, I love Ethan's name. We had Ethan on our shortlist of names for a while I'm not really sure how to entice Ethan into feeding for longer though. I tend to do the same as you; feed, change nappy, and then feed again. But Kyson tends to have his restless time around 11pm, and his best sleep after about 3-4am. Maybe Ethan's tummy is quite small and he can't fit much in. That might result in the small and frequent feeds you are needing to give him. Hopefully time will stretch his tummy and lengthen his feeds for you.

Huge congratulations to all the new mummies! I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday!!!

Oh, is anyone else co-sleeping or baby-wearing?

[Toomanytoomany]

Welcome Cherie! Goodness me Darcy was a good size!! How are you recovering?

Krystie, . I sort of half co-sleep - Tom starts off in his cot at the end of our bed at night, and then after his first feed stays in bed with me. It's taken me a while to get used to it as I'm afraid of rolling on him but if we are tummy to tummy, it seems to be okay. I must have put him back in his cot without waking properly the other night because I woke up and couldn't find him next to me and freaked out!! I've just got him used to his sling, now, so the baby-wearing thing can kick off properly. He spends most of the day in arms except for the afternoon sleep. I have to watch my back and shoulder as I have an injury that flares up a fair bit.

Dee, it's pretty normal at this stage for a breastfed baby to feed every one to two hours, unfortunately! Their little stomachs are only about the size of their fist, and the breastmilk is digested quite quickly. It's also quite normal for them to want to feed a lot in the wee hours of the morning - your hormones mean that your body responds really well to nighttime stimulation and your milk production is at its peak. This kind of nighttime feeding often settles down by about four weeks and then ramps up again at six weeks when they have their growth spurt and are telling your breasts to produce more milk!

Unfortunately we live in a culture where we are being told that they "should" be feeding only every three or four hours, so when they demand it more frequently we think there's something wrong with our supply, or we're doing something wrong. And so we delay feeding or supplement, not realising that we're interrupting that amazing hormonal and behavioural relationship between the baby and our bodies, and it's often a slippery slope to thinking we aren't producing enough milk, and then giving up.

One way of encouraging a longer sleep is to only offer one side at each feeding, but to offer it for as long a time as you would offer both, that is, offer him the same side after you've changed his nappy. This encourages more let downs in one breast which means the baby gets much more of the fatty "hindmilk" rather than the watery foremilk, and this might help settle them a little better. One encouraging thing I heard today from my excellent MCHN was that if you feed a baby absolutely on demand in those first weeks, they are more likely to put on a good deal of weight and reach the weight earlier where they have more reserves to help them sleep longer. So demand feeding now might cost you something in the short term, but may help with sleeping better later!

[Toomanytoomany]

Oh, forgot to say, Tom put on 400g in a week. I thought he was getting heavy!!

[*Dee*]

Thanks TM. I do only give one breast then change and offer the same one again. He feeds every 2hrs or so during the day, but almost hourly at night. Tho the other night he slept from 1-4 am but was up every hour after that. He gets a bit of wind too.
That makes sense tho that he feeds more at night. He was back upto 3.1 kg last week when the midwife weighed him so I kno he.s feeding ok, i didn't realise it's normal to have more frequent night feeds. ds2 slept right thru and i had to wake him up and ds1 had bad colic so i was up with him all night due to that.
I wasn't sure as my breasts have settled now and not getting rock hard as they were. I worried my milk was slowing. now I know! Thanks! Haha funny I feel like a first time mum with some things, it's been so long and he's different to the other 2.

He gets more beautiful everyday! I'm so in love with him. He's so alert and happily lays on his play mat for an hour and a half 3 times a day just looking around. It's the cutest thing!

welcome Krystie! Congrats on ur baby boy! I kno wat u mean by loving him more every day! I wish my little Ethan never had to grow up!

[KellyC]

Hi all,
Liam and I are doing well, he's a beautiful, placid baby. The last 2 days have been a bit troublesome at feed time though - up until yesterday I had no problems with attachment, however since yesterday morning he is really struggling to attach, and twice now I've had to express and bottle feed becuase he just wouldn't latch on (after a VERY long time trying). My boobs are like rocks at the moment, do you think this could be causing the problem? Once they've let down a bit and are softer he is getting on, but this takes 20 mins or longer of him suckling and screaming!! Does anyone have any suggestions? I called the breastfeeding australia helpline this morning and everything she suggested I've been doing! Any help would be greatly appreciated xx

[Toomanytoomany]

Hi all,
Liam and I are doing well, he's a beautiful, placid baby. The last 2 days have been a bit troublesome at feed time though - up until yesterday I had no problems with attachment, however since yesterday morning he is really struggling to attach, and twice now I've had to express and bottle feed becuase he just wouldn't latch on (after a VERY long time trying). My boobs are like rocks at the moment, do you think this could be causing the problem? Once they've let down a bit and are softer he is getting on, but this takes 20 mins or longer of him suckling and screaming!! Does anyone have any suggestions? I called the breastfeeding australia helpline this morning and everything she suggested I've been doing! Any help would be greatly appreciated xx

Hi Kelly, unfortunately offering the bottle will make his attachment worse because he may get confused by the difference between your breast and the bottle teat. If your breasts are engorged (a common problem for attaching a new baby) try hand expressing off just enough to make the nipple soft again, and then try to get him on. Or use your pump and freeze a little milk for another day when you really need it. Don't express too much off or your oversupply will get worse. Ideally, if he is having attachment problems, the only sucking he should be allowed to is at the breast - if you *must* comp feed him (for instance, if he stops having wet nappies) then you can give it to him off a spoon or out of a cup or a syringe.

[KellyC]

Thanks TMTM - it's so hard to know what to do. I didn't realise breastfeeding would be so difficult!! Hopefully we'll work it out soon because it's very frustrating, especially when I know he can do it!

[*Dee*]

Kelly - I was going to suggest the same as TM. I kno Ethan has trouble latching on when my breasts are engorged, but just him licking and playing with my nipple lets enough out for him to latch on, but I agree, hand express a little or try offering it before he is hungry maybe, before they get engorged. Might save u some pain then too if he takes to it. We went shopping today and when we got there i sat in the backseat in the carpark and fed him for 10mins eventho he wasn't due for a feed for another half hr or longer. But it was enough to tie him over till we finished shopping and i fed him in the carpark again before we left, all in all a very successful shopping trip! Lol now my precious little angel is asleep on my lap so Daddy is getting dinner ready.
With the co-sleeping thing, we have Ethan in his basinett next to me by the bed. But 7.30 thismorning I was still so so tired after a restless night I brought him to bed with us for cuddles and was able to sleep till 9.30. He doesn't cry thru the night he just gets frustrated and grunts and squeels. I bought him some wind drops today, see if that might help him.

[Nat :D]

Kelly - I'm with you hun. I find the whole thing quite challenging! I have actually spent 2 days with Mastitus .... again Thank God I was able to unblock the troublesome duct and not start the antibiotics (which really hurt DD's tummy when I had to take them when I was BFeeding her) But yeah, be very carefull, if you start getting a temp or fevering or a headache/migraine, then you might be headng into a bout of Mastitus.
If mine get engorged, I go straight for a hot shower and get hand express til I feel comfortable. I don't try to save it because its mainly just the forewater stuff and I'm more interested in saving that good fatty hindmilk stuff. I also never let it go more then 4 hours between emptying each side. So if Phil is asleep for a longer period of time and I haven't fed from one side for a while, I express. This just stops me getting too full and then I have my top up bottle for the middle of the night.

Cherie & Krystie Nice to have you in the group. Two lovely big healthy babies too! Well done girls

Dee - I just asked the child health nurse the very same thing. She said there really isn't a lot you can do. She did say tho, that they can take a while to register that they are full, and since she spyed a dummy in his cradle swing, she suggest after a feed (which is noramally about 15-25 mins on each side til its striped for me... and I offer him both most times) she suggested that I give him his dummy and hold him close to my chest so he can still enjoy the closeness and the sucking while his tummy sends the message to his head that he's actually full.
Phillip often feeds til he spills... typical little wog boy, just loves his Mamas food and can't help himself
I know many people worry about nipple confusion with dummys or bottle teats, but he seems to have absolutly no issuses latching on still, so I think its a trial and error to find what works. I use Medela bottles for feeding and NUK ortho newborn dummys to pacify him... works for me
Oh and Infacol drops for the wind are great, but they don't suggest using it before 4 weeks.
Also I love Ethans photos - he's so so so cute! And I thin Ivan is a sweet choice for his middle name, esspecially since it has such a good sentimental meanign too

Toomany - Thanks for your help the other day. I have started taking the Fengreek... not sure if its made a differance yet. How long does it take to kick in? Phil just eats and eats and eats! Its nothing for him to take both sides (which can take 50mins all up) then have an expressed bottle of 60-70mls!!!

Feeding wise here, I've started offering him some formula after his night feed now as I know he's completely drained me by 9 pm. I let him have each side for a good 20 mins each for that last feed and he's sucking madly and making the cutest little grizzley sookie noises... then he pulls off and whinges. All gone So I offer him a top up and he gets all content and snoozey.
I was really hoping I wouldn't have to resort to topping up for Phil, but hey, if his hungrey and I have nothing left, then well, I just have to deal with it.
Other then that, BFeeding is doing wonders for my waistline (YES I have one again!!!!) I'm back into most of my regular clothes! Still have about 7kg to lose tho to get back to my pre prego weight... but with the help of some very tight spanx I'm feeling almost like my normal self again!