Babies Born April 2008 #3

[Fire]

Holy carp, Bea, I'm SO sorry to hear that. That must be so tough on you, the timing. Have you got real life support?

Taurusa, Ci puts on half a kilo a week. It's perfectly fine. I worried too though, thinking I'd have a heffa. They get fat until about six months and then they gain really slowly. Some, like ours, put it on straight away and it tapers off a bit earlier. I was shocked, too, with his two kilo gain in his first month!

Those wanting to keep AF away, there's a book called "Natural Child Spacing" that lists the six or seven "rules" for keeping it away for as long as you choose. Frequent night feeds, no pacification (ie, dummy), daytime nap/feed every day are some of them. Apparently, prolactin keeps ovulation away, and prolactin has a half hour half life, and it is produced by sucking stimulation. So frequency is the key, plus those other things I mentioned. Sounds like hard work, but I'm already doing it anyway, I hope AF stays gone for the year. Big ask though.

Nettie, I just borrowed a great book from the library called Mother Food. It is written by a woman who had low milk supply and how she got it increased. It's really interesting, and there's some things in there I wouldn't think of, also stuff on creating amazing milk. I have good supply, and I've learned it may be due to my regular diet, which is grain rich and herbal and spice rich also.

Lisa, that's rough. I hate that lost feeling. Maybe he'll start to stretch his sleep now that his body has caught up with his due date. I've heard premmies do that, do their stages from their due date, not their birth date.

I've just added a whack load of coconut to my diet. Coconut is a miracle food at the best of times but I learned that it is great for milk, as it gives the milk a high oleic oil content etc. So in my morning porridge, I put half a cup of coconut milk with my spices and berries YUM.

Well, Ci often sleeps the first night sleep cycle, 7pm to 10pm, but sometimes he decides to spend that cycle awake. This is DH's time with him, while I sleep WITH EARPLUGS but I still feel bad when he does that. Although DH doesn't seem to mind. He's better at settling than me.

[kirsty_lee]

Well, checking in for today. And what a BLOODY long day. Ava's not slept at all today, I did take her to visit my mum so I think she was just a bit restless being somewhere new and having so much noise etc going on. So she's only just gone to sleep now. On top of this my cesar scar has opened up recently and got infected, i've got the flu AND today my doctor informs me that my eardrum is infected so now im on anti biotics. *sigh* Ava-Jayde had her 6 week check up. She's now 4.14 kilo and she was 4 kilo exactly last week. She's grown 3 cms in length and 4 cm in head circum since birth and the doctor was amazed at what a happy baby she was whilst getting poked and prodded and having her clothes taken off, she didnt cry once. So hopefully that means in 2 weeks time when she has her needles she'll be good too. Hope we're all well.. Hugs to you beatrix xoxox

[Sequoia]

Frequent night feeds

My OB told me this as well, so not really worried when I have to get up during the night if it keeps AF away!

[mgm]

beatrix i'm very sorry to hear your news. hope you're managing OK and have lots of support from family and friends.

shoegal and fire - my son was an all-night feeder and i didn't get af for over a year after having him, so there's definitely something in the theory that regular feeding (or 'on demand' both day and night) keeps it away.

all right, must try to get dd to sleep now...

[Fire]

MGM, how long did your son night feed frequently for? A lactation counsellor told me that most bfed babies night feed for at least the first year, usually more. Ci's cluster feed session is between 2am and 6am, I'd love to flip that to pm, or any other time basically. But I'm not forcing a routine on him. Just looking at what I might be up for. Cos to be honest, I'd rather AF than frequent night feeds!

Ci had reflux last night, and he had trouble sleeping. I had icecream yesterday. Last time he acted up I'd had icecream. I introduced dairy back into my diet last week, I'm thinking of taking it back out again for a while, until he's at least 3 months perhaps.

[Taurusa]

I had a long night too... I think Caleb is getting his dad's cold. Really mucusie breathing, and coughing if laying down. DH has a really sore throat with it too... wonder if caleb has it too. He screamed half the night, but a cuddle seemed to help. This is my first cold with caleb... Can anyone suggest what i should do for him??

[mgm]

Taurusa - colds are awful for babies, aren't they. The worst is when their noses get blocked and they can't feed properly. A few things that helped my son through his colds are a humidifier, sleeping propped up (works well if your baby's in a cot or bassinet, you can put something under the mattress to tilt it), and - if nose is blocked - fess. you can buy fess at the chemist, it's a saline solution with a little device for squirting it up the nose. or you can squirt breastmilk. good luck, hope your dh and ds get better soon.

fire ds fed every 1.5 - 2 hours at night til he was 2 (when i weaned him). by then he was really only feeding at night and after two years of it i was a wreck. i have a really good method for nightweaning two-year-olds if anyone ever needs it! yeah i would have taken af over the night feeds too... how long did you go off dairy before you could see an effect?

had a good night after a bad start - dd cried for ages and dh couldn't handle it, said he wanted to return her to the hospital . when i eventually got her to sleep she slept midnight til 5.30, went back to sleep til 6.30, fed, then slept again til 8.30. that's as good as it's ever been around here, so i'm thrilled.

[BabyWrangler]

hi Guys,
My little fella had a great night! (possibly his best yet!)
Fed at 7pm, took a little while to settle, but he was just in his cot making noise, he wasn't requiring one on one!
I didn't bother feeding him at 10, decided to let him dictate the feeds (was finding that even doing a dream feed at 10 or 11, he would still wake for a feed between midnight and 3 anyway), he woke at 12:45, fed, went back to sleep, woke at 6, fed (he would normally stay up then for a couple of hours), went back to sleep and woke at 10 for a feed, has had a feed, and then a little top up and is now laying on the floor with his plug (dummy).
DH and I went to bed at about 11, so I've had lots of sleep and am wide awake, which is good cause its Dh's b'day today.

I have to be brave later, I bought DH and I tickets to Indiana Jones tonight, and organised my boss (the director of a child care centre!) to babysit DS....I really have to mentally prepare for that!

[Fire]

oooh, BW, your first night out! dunno when i'll be brave enough for that.

mgm, that's just scary. i hope my one doesn't stick with this pattern, blech.