Babies Born April 2008 #3

[bellelass]

Nettie- on getting to the 2 month mark with EBM. Its hard. How much are you making? I'm averaging 30ish mls an hour per breast. Not that I express that often. I'm trying to get my supply up, so I've been drinking fenugreek/raspberry leaf tea and taking flaxseed capsules. I think its helping. Am trying to get her back on the breast exclusively but its kind of touch and go. Sometimes I get really down and think I just can't do it anymore, but I get stuck in and do it anyway. One week at a time, weeks turn into months. That's my mantra for the feeding. Lila has sniffles, too. I don't know what to do for it other than the saline drops (loosens up the muck and kind of dries it out) followed by a good swab with a cotton bud. And I have her in the bathroom in the steam while I shower.

Zennie- Lila was like that for ages up until about ten days ago. Drove me nuts. I still race to bed every time I have her down for fear I won't get another sleep ever again. I don't know what made it change, but it did and now she sleeps unbroken 7-12 hours a night usually. I got up with her in the early morning once the past week. I just tell myself that it won't always be like this, and try to stay just in the present moment and it kind of helps. That said, I have had times where I cried and nearly threw Lila at her father because I was so tired and out of it and exhausted I couldn't stand her any more. Hang in there, I guess.

Janine- my back hurts too. She never sleeps during the day and is only calm if she's close to me. I can't get anything done unless I sling her, but I can't do it for more than a few hours at a time cause it kills my back. Like you said, persevere. I tell myself it will all pay off eventually, and hey I don't have to listen to her screaming. When I was at my wits end a few weeks ago I did a search and found a study that looked at crying in the first year, and overwhelmingly it showed that how much a baby cries in the first 6 months sets the pattern for how much they cry in the second 6 months. Could be completely off, whatever, but I think of that and it helps. I really don't buy the "manipulation" school of thought, either. Seriously. She can't even hold her head up for more than a few seconds, how is she going to be clever enough to manipulate me? It smacks of projection a little bit. Like how people tend to attribute human characteristics to their pets. When i put her down and she gets upset and cries I think of how she doesn't know she isn't alone and she doesn't know there aren't wild beasts just waiting to pounce on her the second she leaves the protective parental arms. Poor wee thing. Manipulation might start to come into play a few months down the road, but for pete's sake our babies are still womb-fresh. heh, sorry, not preaching, I'm thinking of that nasty woman at the dr's office.

BabyWrangler- we don't have much of a routine either. I couldn't say when she feeds or how much, I just take her as she comes. And you know, I have such a giggly, smiley contented little thing. Routines are overrated. The thing I've found with Lila and the EBM is sometimes she just has a normal feed (90 or so mls) and is happy as larry for hours and hours. Then other times she has one, has another, has another, has another and just when I think there is no way she can cram more milk in her little tummy she'll have another. I doubt it has something to do with your milk not satisfying him, it might be that he just has insatiable periods during the day. The other thing is, I notice my milk is thicker when I'm eating more fatty foods- bacon and eggs with hot buttered toast, that kind of thing. And I try to express regularly, even if she hasn't fed. About every 3-4 hours, more often lately because I'm trying to get my supply up. Maybe that would help?

Lisylee- Lila gets those spots like little ant-bites on her face every now and then. It looks awful but doesn't seem to bother her so I'm not fussed. I think I traced it to my chocolate intake, so I'm a little careful with it now...?

About Af- had a little one about two weeks ago and now a big one. I guess my body just needs some time to work itself out, but it kind of freaks me out having another one so soon, I've been 28 days regular since I was 12. We'll see. Am on the mini-pill.

The past few days I've taken a little sigh of relief mixed with worrying it will all come crashing down soon. But I've been able to get some good sleep at night, have been able to spend a little time being a wife, have been keeping up with the house and washing (mostly) and making dinner almost every night. It feels really good, hope it lasts but don't expect it to. And no sign of pnd, was so worried and prepared for it to raise its ugly head. I just get homesick for my mum in Texas every so often.

[Nettie]

Belle - it vaties a lot, but I usually express anywhere from 50 mls to 150 mls each time (both breasts). I was on meds to help supply, but have finished them and found my supply has dropped dramatically May have to ask the Dr for an ongoing supply... I'm now trying some herbal tea called 'Fenugreek Flow' which has fenugreek, fennel & anise in it. We'll see if it helps! Liam has around 80 mls each feed and I express every time he eats and sometimes I don't get as much as he's used that feed which gets me down a bit. Thanks for the congrats though... At least I've managed to freeze a few batches from when I was on the meds.

I realised yesterday that the reason Liam might be waking up so often is that he might be cold. So we've begun wrapping him warmly and he's sleeping a lot longer! It worries me that he's too hot though and I have no idea how to judge this - does anyone have any suggestions? He's like both me and DH and sweats when he sleeps so it's hard to tell if he's overly warm or if it's just the sleep-sweats (does that make any sense???).

Here's wishing everyone a good restful night.

[Fire]

Nettie, that pic is SO cute, of jungle boy. Cracked me up. About temperature, you can get sleeping bags (grobag) that come with a temp thingy on them, to check the temp of the room. You get grobags of 0.5, 1 or 2.5 TOG. 2.5 would be for winter, and I think it's for room temps of 16 - 20. 20 - 24 is the 1 TOG. Ebay sells them cheaply, otherwise they can fetch $70. I want one, all I know who use them say their babies love them. You can also get a grobag egg, which is a room temp thingy. I had read that babies like the air temp to be 25 degrees, or wrapped to that temp. Others say sleeping in 16 degrees is ideal. Maybe it's both. I keep Ci pretty warm anyway.

We had a routine, we didn't make it, Ci did, but now not so much. Because I'm feeding him on waking and then again on sleep, he has two feeds in one hour sometimes because of it. This has thrown me all out of whack. Also trying to get him to nap in the cot means he keeps waking, and has about six naps a day cos we can't get him to settle until the next half hour. It sucks. I like routine, I like knowing what's coming next. Not before I had kids, but since kids, definitely.

Steph, I'm really over slinging, not slinging so much as him napping in the sling. I've found a few threads on BB with women desperate to get the kid out of the sling for naps, so it's common. I try and comfort myself with the good bits, like I did when starting out with all those probs bfing. Unlike Bfing which got better, sling naps are wearing thin!

It's suddenly really cold these days and our heater is broken. Yay.

[Beatrix]

Hmmm I think i am the only who is is not getting huge amounts of sleep!!!

We have had a few nights of 6hrs but she does that from like 6-12 so doesnt really help with sleep. Other then that of late she has been feeding every 3- 4 hrs.

I felt so drained the other night i tired to give her some forumla caus ei was sure she was hungry and she wouldnt take it at all. But she ended up going to sleep fine so mustnt have been hungry

I am so so disappointed in my weight atm though. Im not losing anything (if anything am gaining) I try so hard to eat healthy but i get so so starving and sometimes with all 3 kids i just dont have the time to make something so i snack

Ok now they are fighting again better be off

[mgm]

beatrix i sympathise on all counts. let me assure you that there's at least one other person not getting much sleep! plus dd has the most awful cold and is now waking more than ever, even in the sling. every little cough and sneeze wakes her up and it's so sad to hear her trying to cry when she's just about lost her voice. as for losing weight - i really need to do something about this, but it's hard to exercise when you have little ones, isn't it! i could do postnatal classes and take the kids but they're so expensive. let me know if you find any magical weight-loss solutions! i guess with snacks the thing to do is try to keep healthy ones on hand (carrots, fruit etc). not that i'm much good at that...

nettie brillliant work with your expressing. i've had to express a bit with both kids (a month with ds, a few days with dd) and can imagine what an effort your two months represents. well done.

fire there's not long to go til the 'magical' three-month mark - maybe things will start to fall into a better routine then. how long have you been putting ci in the cot? they say to allow a couple of weeks when introducing changes; i hope he'll soon start to sleep longer in there. unfortunately dd's cold has made me put my attempts to settle her out of the sling on hold. she did fall asleep in her swing once, but that was only because she was exhausted after a horrendous night of coughing.

today's whinge: i am SO tired. when dh woke up i asked him to take dd so i could have a sleep but it turned out he'd been woken up at 5 by ds and wasn't in any mood to take the baby for me. i'm not too impressed since i have so far done all the nighttime parenting of this baby and have never once woken him up to help. he's been great in other ways but doesn't seem to realise how sleep-deprived i am.

[MistyFying]

Time for a new thread everyone. Here you go