Babies Born April 1st-15th 2009 #1

[Mad Scientist]

Hello... I'm a new first time Mum to Darcy, born 10th April by emergency CS. I'm stuck at home with not much support around so thought I'd jump online in one of my spare minutes as I heard the forums here were good. I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas about my sleeping issue... Darcy doesn't sleep much at all. In the 24hr period from 5am Tuesday to 5am Wednesday he slept 6.5 hours in total. He's not an unhappy baby, just very wakeful. He's now bottlefed, as I wasn't sure how much he was getting on the breast & thought he may have been hungry, but he's eating far more than most babies his age (150mL per feed, sometimes 180mL) & isn't searching around for it when he's done so I think not. He doesn't cry much, doesn't have "colic", isn't particularly windy, & is generally a happy little boy... he just doesn't sleep! He napped for 1.5 hours yesterday in total (15 mins here, 30 mins there etc) & then only slept 5 hours last night. He wakes most mornings at 2am & is ready to play. We've tried putting him to sleep later at night, but that just means less sleep & then he catches up during the day. I've also tried a "sleepy" baby formula but it made him constipated. My midwife who does home visits says it's normal, as does my doula, but I have read that new babies typically sleep between 16 & 18 hours a day. The longest he has ever slept in a day is 10 hours. Any ideas? My husband & I are rather desperate! Thanks.

Hi all,

Things are going well here, although I think I'm getting mastitis which isn't fun. Have had a really sore boob since yesterday afternoon and started to feel ill mid morning. I just feel like I'm coming down with something. Boo. Apart from that everything is going well. Skye had a frantic feeding day on Monday and then yesterday afternoon settled down and everything is back to normal now (touch wood!). She's waking twice a night, usually about 11 and 3 which I'm very happy about. It varies what time she wakes up in the morning. Amy usually wakes her up at 5am. Gotta love it! All in all, Skye is such a gorgeous baby. I'm so happy. She's pretty easy to settle and feeding quite well. Not piling on the weight but putting on enough so that's a relief. Last time was a struggle.

DM - sleeping...hmmm....Skye has never had the recommended amount. It's a myth with that amount of sleep for newborns! Amy never used to sleep that much either. She naps during the day and doesn't sleep a huuuuge amount during the night. It is normal. If he's happy that's the main thing. I know everyone says that but it's true. The night time thing is different. Sometimes they take a while to get used to day and night. Is his room really dark during the day?

Ok, I have a crying baby. Sorry to miss everyone else. Will try to get on here again soon xxxx Luv Nik

[fallen_angel]

Megan Don't you just love there chubby cheeks!! All the best to kiss hehe! WOW! Well done little Noah, he's doing very well. I'm a c-sectioner... this was my second and oh so much more painful second time around. Part of the reason why I'm just not willing to go for number 3. My scar is looking a little red in areas but i think it's just from the hair growing back from where I had to shave it. I was told it would take a little longer then last time to heal because of scar tissue already there. Apart from that all is well in that area. Do you have the over-hanging skin sitting on top of it? LOL. I do and it's horrible having to lift it up just to see how it's going Oh and i'm also still getting the sore stomach muscles when I over do it and this is 5 weeks on

DarcysMum Hi there! Welcome to parenthood lol. I'm on number two and it still doesn't get any easier working out our little munchkins. Do you swaddle(sp?) him to get him to sleep?? After learning all my mistakes with number one I'm a little bit more switched on to it now... When I want bub to sleep I make sure it's just after a feed...I only give him what he asks for...if he stops crying for it, i stop feeding him. I found with an overfull belly of milk it made him alot more unsettled due to wind and just the uncomfortableness. I change his nappy to make him feel better and then I wrap him up nice and tight in a soft blanket and pop him in his cot, it imitates being in the womb.
I give him the dummy if he's having a little trouble drifting off or I put on his mobile (just a wind up musical mobile) or with #1 i put a little radio in his room and that worked a charm. I don't hear a peep out of him until his next feed. For the early morning feeds, i repeat it over and even if he's still wide awake I put him back in his cot, fed, changed and content and go back to bed myself. I found it helped get #1 in a routine and let him know that these early hours are to not play but to sleep. He's doing well so far with it, I'm only up for an hour during the night and he's back in bed.
Just a few ideas in there. I love working these babies out LOL... For some reason it's a good little challenge for me. HTH hun..hang in there...your doing a great job!
Oh and I formula feed my bub too. He has about 120mls-160mls every 3 hours, during the night it's 4-6 hours.

Now... to work out the mind of a 2 year old ?? LOL!

[Celsie]

Great advice fallen_angel! I was going to suggest swaddling too! Zahley would sleep for 18-20+ hours a day on average. She's so lazy, she doesn't even bother to wake up properly for a feed at night, just sucks with her eyes closed.

Zahley's name came from a little girl I used to care for when I was a child care worker. It's Polish for princess and is a form of Sarah (my name), so it was perfect. She was going to be Ella, but we thought it is just far too popular at the moment.

Megan - great weight gain with Noah. Congratulations!!!

Darcy's_Mum - I truly hope you get some answers soon. Have you read Sleeping Like A Baby by Pinky McKay? It's a brilliant book, well worth the read... and Pinky is a BB member.

Well, Zahley is asleep again... LOL - I could have killed DH today. I jumped in the shower and Zahley woke up about a minute later. I heard DH get her from her cradle. By the time I'd got dressed and walked into the family room, DH had defrosted and was proceeding to give Zahley EBM. What are you doing?!? Is he TRYING to ruin my supply??? He said he was just trying to "help"... some help!!!

[fallen_angel]

Celsie Such a gorgeous little name for a gorgeous little girl. Your little pic of her makes me so clucky for a girl. I'd love to be able to buy pink and everything really girly LOL. My bubby likes to do the dream feed around the 9pm feed. We've now adapted it so we all go to bed at this time. Seth is abit of a comfort sucker. There's been mornings when I've got up, popped the dummy in his mouth to sssh him to not wake up DS #1 and go get his bottle ready and come back to a happily snoozing baby LOL. I don't mind...more sleep for me!

[Mad Scientist]

We officially have our first smiles!!!! Yay!!!!!!! Hope you are all going well. Skye actually lost weight this week after gaining 230g last week. My milk has just decided not to work. I've upped my Fenugreek dose. we'll see if that helps. That's so great to those ladies who are bf and getting such wonderful weight gains. I so wish I could do that. Looks like my body just has trouble with bf as I tried EVERYTHING with Amy and just couldn't last time. Yet again we've tried this time and we almost made it. All is not lost yet though. Am crossing fingers xx Hope you are all well and your little babies are content xx

[Megan]

Nik, I hope the fenugreek works for you. Have you called the ABA? I did that about 3 weeks ago when I thought my supply had dropped. It's just good to talk to someone for some advice and support. I was also on motillium for about 2 weeks which worked wonders.
We had smiles this week too! DH went back to work on Monday and when he got home, Noah was up so I handed him to DH and he got a big grin.
We're having so much fun watching him change everyday. Hard to believe he's over 5 weeks already.

[Mad Scientist]

Hi Megan,

I've been on Fenugreek for a while now and we didn't seem to have probs until I dropped the dose. Am also on a herbal tonic from the naturopath. I tried all the drugs, supply line, pumping until my boobs fell off etc last time with Amy. It ended up that nothing worked because she was premature and jaundiced and my only option was a milk bank which I'm just not comfortable with. This time we got the supply happening but all of sudden she's lost weight. Thanks for the ABA tip but to be honest I probably know everything they would suggest just from last time. Am gonna keep trying though. Fingers crossed the Fenugreek kicks in :-)

[Megan]

I have my fingers crossed for you too. I have a friend who had to stop b/f around 8 weeks. She struggled the whole time with her supply, and like you tried everything. Let us know how you go.

[Celsie]

We officially have our first smiles!!!! Yay!!!!!!! Hope you are all going well. Skye actually lost weight this week after gaining 230g last week. My milk has just decided not to work. I've upped my Fenugreek dose. we'll see if that helps. That's so great to those ladies who are bf and getting such wonderful weight gains. I so wish I could do that. Looks like my body just has trouble with bf as I tried EVERYTHING with Amy and just couldn't last time. Yet again we've tried this time and we almost made it. All is not lost yet though. Am crossing fingers xx Hope you are all well and your little babies are content xx

Have you tried the breastfeeding tea? A friend of mine swears by it. I bought some, had one cup and couldn't stomach it. If you'd like some, I have the entire packet left which I'd gladly post to you.

[Mad Scientist]

Have you tried the breastfeeding tea? A friend of mine swears by it. I bought some, had one cup and couldn't stomach it. If you'd like some, I have the entire packet left which I'd gladly post to you.

That would be fantastic Celsie! Another thing that is worth a go :-) I will pm you my address. How much would postage be? Is there any way that I can reimburse you?
x Nik

[Celsie]

Oh, don't worry about the postage. If it helps, then it's well worth sending it to you. Us b/f Mums have to stick together.

I bought it from a health food store. It was really expensive... about $18 and it only has 20 teabags (well, 19 now... ) in it! I think it tastes like boiled thistles or something similar, but you might like the taste!

Will post it off to you tomorrow.

[cocobambino]

Hi guys,
All is going well here, recovered from my ceaser %100 have been since about a week post C/S even DTD at 10 days post C/S
Had to stop BF at 4 weeks, I just struggled too much with my supply, Harrison is on S26 soy formula.
He still feeds 2 hourly, all day,all night, im so exausted im doing silly things and forgettiing stuff ALL the time.

[Megan]

Coco, I feel for you on the 2 hourly feeds. DS did that for a couple of days and I was beside myself. Falling asleep in all strange places. Thankfully he is now at 3-4 hourly feeds and it's much better.

How is everyone going with their bubs sleeps during the day? When do they usually start to stay awake a lot longer? DS refuses to sleep during the day if I put him in his cot, but will sleep for an hour, sometimes two if I put him in his pram bassinette in the lounge with me. After I feed him, we have a play on the floor and some tummy time and I put him down once he is showing signs of being tired. I was hoping some kind of routine like that would help, but it hasn't. Night time is better. It takes a while to get him to sleep when he goes down after his 6-7pm feed, but every feed after that he goes straight back to sleep in his cot until it's daylight again.

[Ozziehoffy]

Just wanted to say hi... I am borderline on this buddy group and the late April one... so I thought that maybe I'd hang around both as my belly buddies are in both... is that ok with you guys? I have been meaning to pop in a say hi but every time I try well let's just say that one of the kiddies wants me..lol. Elijah was born 15th - came 3 days early so really wasn't expecting him and didn't know if it was really labour starting up. However, it was and I have my little man. Will get around to finishing my birth story soon hopefully. There's so much in my head that I want to make sure I'm not just prattling on with it when it's written down. I have written part of it.

Will try to read up a bit if I get a chance. Otherwise I'll just slowly intergrate and try to catch up

[Megan]

Very quiet in here!
How is everyone going with their bubs?

[Celsie]

Funny Megan... we must be in-tune with each other. I was JUST thinking about posting in this thread when the notification came through.

Update from Miss Zahley land... my little girl with the snuffly nose apparently has narrow nasal passages. So, the whole time we thought she still had a cold, she didn't. We've been assured that she'll grow out of it. She's growing like a weed, but that's not surprising... she's a little piggy.

I've put 2 kilo back on. My own fault though, after not being able to eat chocolate for 3 months whilst having GD later in the pregnancy, I've gone a little silly in the chocolate department...

So... have promised myself that I'm now back to healthy eating and I've started taking both kids out for walks in the pram. Yummy Mummy here I come!

How's everyone else going?

[Megan]

Celsie, funny you should mention the chocolate thing because I have been exactly the same. I have had bad sugar cravings and I really have to stop. I have to make an appt this week to have my follow up GTT done and I am dreading it.
Good to hear Zahley hasnt been sick all this time. Noah gets really snuffly too and last week I thought he might have been coming down with something but the next day he was fine.
We have a weigh in this week but we weighed him here the other day and he was 4.9kg. He's getting so big and is so much more alert and smiling all the time. There are hard days but mostly he is just a joy and my bubble still hasn't burst.

[Mad Scientist]

Hi all,

we are going well here too. No real updates. We are comp feeding here and our little girl is so much happier. I didn't realise how little food she was getting. She's putting on just enough weight but is just so much happier. We actually have play time now! Lots of smiles and all that.

Celsie - hahah I've been the same with the sweet tooth. I had my follow up GTT at 6 weeks and everything is back to normal which is a relief. I had impaired glucose tolerance after Amy. Glad that Zahley doesn't have a long term cold. Do the narrow nasal passages resolve themselves?

Megan - Skye is 4.9kg too as of last Friday. She was 3.9 born. Love the pic of your little man. Gorgeous.

well best be off cos my little girl is stirring. Chat soon xxx