Babies Born April 2008

[Beatrix]

hi Meg and Nat welcome!!

Nat- with regards to your boys sleeping. MJ is the same. We co sleep atm most nigths cause i know i will get a streach of 3-4 hrs sleep. and she has to fall asleep on the boob as well. And she takes a hr to feed as well.

Meg- hope your nipples heal very quickly.

just wondering can any one actually put there bubs down and they will go to sleep on their own or do you have to boob/bottle/rock to sleep??

[nataliew]

Looks like its just us here!
How are you coping with the boob to sleep thing? At the moment I have a snuggle bed that sits on the bed in the spare room. I feed M while sitting on the bed with the snuggle bed next to me. When he nods off I hold him until I'm sure he's asleep and then gently roll him onto the snuggle bed - it's pretty nerve racking at the moment, waiting to see if he stays asleep! At nights he stays asleep for about 2 hrs, then we start again.
Days are a different story. I'm just trying anything I can to get him to sleep. I just took him out for a drive because that usually works - he's now asleep in his capsule.
I am trying to stay positive and tell myself that things will come right over the next few weeks or so but deep down I'm pretty stressed that I'm setting up bad sleep habbits.
What happened to my dream of a new baby that just loved to sleep!

[Nelle]

Hi guys! Welcome Nat and Meg and Steph! Come on in anyone else!!

Yep Beatrix I've got a self settler, for the most part. Sometimes have to rock. We are using a dummy at times too, which isn't what I wanted, but with a toddler, sometimes I need to buy myself 5 more minutes while I deal with Riv. I'm trying not to use it too much, since I don't think it teaches Si to open his mouth very wide (our main problem with feeding, which is going well, I just often need to break attachment because his mouth isn't open wide enough and reattach). But you do what you gotta do to survive right?

Days I am feeding on demand, but will initiate the feed if Si goes for longer than 3 hours between. I figure feeding more through the day helps him stretch longer at nights - I've got a friend who fed 3 hourly during the day and had her bub sleeping through at 5 weeks! Wow!

Dh had a look at my stitches and thinks that some might have fallen out too early, I'm trying not to worry, he's just going to check every few days for me to see if I look like I'm healing - if he's worried at all I'll go in and get it checked out. Guess I'd rather look like a complete dill and have nothing wrong than heal all weird and need to be sorted out with minor surgery. Sigh.

Anyone else got a windy baby? Si looks like he's in so much pain sometimes. Brauer's colic relief seems to really be helping though.

[Fire]

hi all!

i got milky blues, it happens when the milk comes in and doesn't last too long but is hard to cope with. mine seems to have mostly gone.

re night feedings... most cultures sleep with the babe or it is simply nightmarish raising a baby. they feed constantly (literally) for a few weeks/months to produce a strong milk supply. they also help your milk supply by pacifying at the boob. i thrust him on for everything, gives me a sense of control. i barely wake all night yet ds feeds all through the night, now and again i help him by thrusting a sleepy boob in lol. it's so nice waking with his baby smell right there.

in other news, he gained almost a kilo in a week! had to train him to latch properly and i take my time positioning him against me and now i "think" we're ok... certainly getting enough milk.

nak, sorry if i'm hard to understand.

hmmm... what else? he hasn't been off a body since birth (other than at night when he is beside me), and he has little reason to cry so that's been nice. he does NOT like nappy changes though, and will cry all through them! oh how i wish it was summer so i didn't have to dress him. still want to try EC next month.

isn't it weird? we have babies now... surreal...

[Fire]

But you do what you gotta do to survive right?

totally, Nelle. not all dreams can come to pass but such is life, wanna be perfect but i don't seem to make the grade.

[Nelle]

Wow at the always on the boob Janine! That's so not an option for us, Si drinks and drinks...pulls off...then thinks no actually I want some more...then SPEW! Whoops drank more than I can fit... Then I have to refill him! Little stinker! :P

Stacks of people have popped recently, are you coming in guys? Come play with us!! Haven't a few of the later April people popped early? Where are you? Late April is a huge group isn't it?

[Fire]

I never did look in the late april preg thread. Big is it? All of us should link to our birth stories with a brief update on any specific pregnancy issues, so we can get to know those we haven't known these last months.

I just read a book about natural child spacing with bfing. Not that I want to do that (don't want more kids either!), but I was interested in how natural bfing actually works. Child led, no surprises there, but also it was nice to be let off the hook to pacify with the boob in a bottle culture that kinda looks down on that kind of thing. It has been built into the natural course of things that kids reach for the boob when ill, stressed, or in any other way would seek pacifying/comfort. Anyway, I'm having fun learning as I go. Bfing didn't work out with DD (I gave up on the grounds of oversupply, plus I wanted to sleep at night and found that totally backfired anyway cos she had formula allergies and still woke nights ) So I'm very dedicated this time to fight through all the difficulties of the first six weeks.