Babies Born August 16th - 31st 2008

[Party-of-five]

i have just worked out my daughter doesnt like to leave the house when we stay home all day she sleeps great at night only waking once for a feed but when we venture out even on the shortest outing, she refuses to sleep...its not that she cries or anything just lays there and fusses about. my mum says i should take her out more because it will make her impossible to take anywhere but i need sleep?!
so do i just deal with miss fussy pants or become a hermit for awhile?
my son was easy to take any where cause he didnt sleep anyways
hope everyone is having a fantastic day
oh i think lucy smiled today
tasha

[*charmalea*]

tasha , do what you need to do till you feel confident enoguh to go out ... i went shopping when nix was 5 days old , literally on day 5 we left the hosp and went shopping ... and with gabriella i left hosp when she was 12hrs old and went home had a shower and went to the shops the lady at the newsagency was astonished when asked "when was she born " and my reply was .. "oh about 11:30 last night " hehe

but taking her out to "train her to cope wih outings" probably wont help and make her more unsettled ... all the artificial sunlight and noise of the shops can over stimulate and make them fussy ... do you wear lucy ?? a good sling for her will keep her a bit more settled ...

nix was the same , never slept while we were out but was never fusst .... and now Gab is the same as lucy , gets unsettled when we go out for too long and wants boob alot ..

well speaking of my boobs .. the evil mastitis fariy has visited BOTH boobs .. both are soo tender and sore , i am feeling really fluyey and am reall cold and tired ... and nix is sick as well so tending to him wanting "up" and gab want ing boob , i just feel like a zombie .. luckily DH just got home ( and i will give him a cuddle , when i get up eventually ) and is going to take me to the chemist , because if anything good came from the visit with the estranged LC the other day it was a script for AB if i got mastitis ...


booked nix in to day care for one day a weel today the lady is a friend of one of my good friends and the centre is very new and hardly any kids so i know and felt confident he will get cared for ....

Gabriella smiled today .. it s was beautiful ..

milly did you hear the news about your frined ??

[snowchickie79]

Sounds like everyone is having little bumps in the road.
We hit ours also.
Early this week we had our clinic visit for 2nd weigh in and Chloe had only put on 50g. The clinic nurse was a little concerned and asked about my milk supply which I knew was lacking and I'd already started back on motillium. She advised me to start giving her 2 x 60ml FF per day for the next week to get her weight up again and that i had to come back in a week for another weigh in to see if she gains weight. She is still in 0000 and would be in 00000 if she didn't have the length she has. The 0000 are still large around her upper body.

So I've been taking the motillium as advised and also got some Aktavite as seen on this site. My milk has increased and I can now express 60-80ml (previously would get 40ml and only 20ml when my supply died) but for some reason Chloe is fussing on the BB still so I'm thinking she has figured the bottle is easier and why worry about BB anymore. As she isn't feeding properly I'm giving her BB first, then once she starts fussing or they feel empty I give her EBM, or for 2 feeds per day 60ml FF.

Any suggestions on how I can keep her interested in BB?? Obviously I need to follow the clinic nurse with the FF's to make sure she gains weight this week but don't want this to turn her off the BB if I can avoid it. I've went and bought the Tommee Tippee Breastfeeding bottles that are supposed to mimic the nipple to make moving between BB and bottle easy but I've also got some Avent bottles with a newborn (#1) teat. Any other suggestions??? (I've posted in the BF problems section)

Either way since the additional feeds she is much more settled and has started back sleeping through the night. For about 5 days she was waking anywhere from 3-5am and I'd have to feed her. For 1.5 days I was feeding her every few hours and boy can I admit that it was very tiring and I was completely over the whole thing and being tugged on and was just hoping for someone to say "put her on the bottle, BF is not working for you"..

[*charmalea*]

I was feeding her every few hours and boy can I admit that it was very tiring and I was completely over the whole thing and being tugged on and was just hoping for someone to say "put her on the bottle, BF is not working for you"..

i can totally sympathise with you.... i wish some one could have said it to me yesterday, i was ready to give up .. and is motiillum the same as domperedone??? i cant take maxalon as it give me panic attacks ...

you can supplement feed through a tube thats taped to your boob and the milk is stored in a botte that goes around your neck , the tubing is so small that bub can latch on and bf as normal but is getting the extra supply ... google medela products , they have them ...

Gabriella is still very fussy , instead on 30min feeds shes stretched it out to 45-hourly feeds ... but in the arvos its when ever she feels like it .. generally after a 20min cat nap ..

yesterday after i came back from a walk and had the full blown mastitis symptoms , i needed to rest but everytime i put her in her swing , she would cry and fuss ... i told my mum i had mastitis and she said " put her on the bottle" ( she is very pushy about bottle feeding and i suspect its because both me and my sister BF our babies, and she didnt BF us , so there my be some feelings of guilt and wants us to put babes on the bottle to make HER feel better ... kwim )

Anyway , i just kept feeding from both sides to drain the bbs but i havent put a pump near them as im too chicken ....

i am on AB's for mastitis and panadiene and today i feel heaps better , i hope i dont over work myself as i am busy planning the party , ordering cakes etc ... and i also have to do a bit of work ...

how many times does those babes with reflux poop ... the doc has suspected reflux in G and is try infant gaviscon .. so far its calmed her chronic pain but leaves her extra fussy ... she poops alot , like up to 3 times per hour .. (not 3 times each hour , but ykwim..) and its dark green , not yellow like it used to be ...

anyway gotta run , have to work at 10.. and i havent even been for a shower yet ....

[*charmalea*]

ps ...Kristi , im so sorry to hear about your trip to hossy ... i hate taking nixon to the GH as its full of feral ppl who cough and splutter everywhere ... i take nix to the childerns hosp if its not a life threatening emergency , once the ambos rused nix to hospital , his fever was 41.5 and was vomiting and hadnt peed since 5 am that morning ... the ambos wanted him to be seen asap ... ( it was 11pm at night) BUT the triage decided that we could wait till 5AM to be seen .....6 hrs with a really sick bub and no one gave a **** ... luckily he was ok in the end .. .but man i hat the ER at my GH

i hope Chardonnay recovers soon ..

[kristi14]

Had to take C to the hospital last night with suspected bronchiolitis after i took her to the GP and they said take her to the hospital to be proparly assessed. I couldnt wait to get her out of there, so many kids with viruses around and all i was thinking was my baby hasnt been immunised yet. So i was so happy when they said she wasnt at a stage where they needed to treat her yet so i could take her home but have to keep a close eye on her cos if she gets worse it will happen very quickly so i have to take her back straight away if she does. Shes been stable today, hasnt gotten much better but hasnt gotten worse, which is the main thing. Dr said last night that she has reflux, which i suspected, i didnt think it was colic.

My GP put me back on my reflux meds too thank goodness, so the pain is starting to ease, which is excellent.

So many of our little ones starting to smile now, its gorgeous It doesnt matter how crappy things might seem, they smile at you and it just melts your heart

I hope you are all well and those that arent the best, i hope you feel better soon

[MrsFabuloso]

Hi girls,

Lea, sorry to hear you have mastitis hun. That sucks. I hope it clears up quickly. And I hope Nixon wasn't too sick last night. Yay @ getting childcare for nixon. I wish we could afford it for Lily. She'd absolutely love playing with other kids. And yay that Gabriella smiled! Liam has too, it's the best when they smile at you huh?

Belinda, re you're milk supply, the best thing you can do for it is to feed feed feed. If you really want to exclusively bf, then stopping the formula would be a good idea too, slowly of course, maybe 10mls a day or so, and just lay in bed with Chloe and feed her all day for a few days. Your supply will get better that way. Liam and I had a night like that last night. He was literally on the boob from 7pm- midnight. Then again from 5am til about 7am. My nipples are sooo sore, but my supply is great, my bb's are huge, LOL!! But he obviously must be going through a growth spurt. I had alot of trouble with feeding DD so I know how frustrating it is. We never did manage to acheive fully bfing for her, I was on motilium and having activite, oats, you name it if someone said it increased milk supply I took it!! If you really want to fully bf, it will be tough for a few weeks, but you can do it!!! Good luck hun, I hope you can sort it out.

Kristi, I hope Chardonnay is on the mend poor little monkey, how scary for you. That's excellent that the dr has diagnosed reflux for her, at least you know now and can try to fix it. And yay you got your meds again, glad to hear the pain is easing.

As for us, we had a very unsettled and sleepless night. Liam fed all night, hardly sleeping much at all. He screamed for a few hours too I have no idea why. Then he did a monster poo this morning at 6.30am, so I had to bath him cause there was poo everywhere. Luckily I had him wrapped or I would have had it all over the bed too! As it is I'm changing the bed every 2 or 3 days from him vomiting in it, or my bb's leaking!
We are having a quiet weekend, just a birthday party tomorrow and dinner at mums tonight. That's it, we might go to the park or something later, though it's meant to be fairly hot here today...anyeay, that's it. I'm going to try to catch up on the washing, it's never ending!
Have a great weekend everyone.

[kristi14]

Belinda- I am bottle feeding Chardonnay and breastfeeding her when i have time (as horrible as that sounds, but with 6 kids sometimes i dont have the time to sit down and BF), i feed her at least once a day, i try to aim for 3 times a day. She doesnt get a full feed, i have to top her up, but at least shes getting something, which to me is a success. I can express about 60mls. I cant take the motilium cos i am allergic to maxalon and i cant take the fenugreek or similar yet until they sort out my reflux issues. Anyway, the point of what im getting to is it sounds like you are doing everything you possibly can to keep her interested. I feed Chardonnay with the tommee tippee bottles when shes not on the boob and i offer her the boob before i give her a formula top up. I would try and stick to the tommee tippee bottles over the Avent ones though, the TT teats are more like the breast. How much does Chloe weigh? My last two babies have had issues with not putting on weight so i know how stressful it is, if you need to talk im here.

Lea- Your mastitis sounds painful, i hope it clears up really really soon for you. Chardonnay poops anywhere from 1 to 3 times a day, but she's mainly formula fed. Thanks for your well wishes for C, i did take her to the childrens hospital, thats where the GP sent us. I thought about taking her to our GH but the letter the dr wrote was addressed to the childrens hospital so i thought i had better take her there, and it was full of kids with all these viruses, i started to get highly strung up about all these germs and got to the point i didnt know where to sit, i was so releived when they said go home. She hasnt improved much but she hasnt gotten any worse, so as long as she doesnt get worse thats a good sign. I cant beleive you have started doing some work again, i take my hat off to you.

Kell- I keep getting confused when i see your new username and not realising its you. You talk to me like you know me and then i go Ohhhhhh its Kell of course she knows me. Chardonnay hasnt gotten better yet but shes not getting any worse so thats good. Sorry to hear you had a sleepless night, C kept us up most of the night crying too. I hope you can get some sleep soon. Oh yes, i love my meds, thank goodness they gave them back to me, after weeks of pain im finally getting some releif. Would be nice if they could completely fix the problem though. I thought when i gave birth it would go away but its not.

Do any of you have insomnia?

Have a good w/e all

[*charmalea*]

hi kristi, yes i get nights of insomnia , is usually when i have a million things to do and havent done them , so i stress about when they should get done and then think of more things to put on the to do list ... it never ends . yesterday afternoon i had a cup of tea and i kept me awake for hours . i knew i was sensative to cafffiene and usually have a cup of tea in the morning then decaff coffe if im out , but i felt like a cuppa , but i will never do that again unless its decaff ...

and yes , im back at "work" i am a contractor/demonstrater for a major modern cloth nappy company and i do demos at homes and markets and do baby showers for those who want to get a heap of nappies , and i said i wanted the month of september off and not do anything, but i was getting so many emails from women who wanted demos an to get a whole heap of nappies , so i couldnt say no , otherwise id be overwhelemed in Oct..

plus its my own business with an abn number so i like to keep motivated and do a little something for me .. it pays pretty well (but thats not the point to me .. ) and i really love doing it, i met a great couple yesterday that i will be keeping in contact with as we all (dh included ) got along so well .. DH comes with me sometimes coz he loves the nappies too .... but the commission is all mine

Kellie , love your ticker ... do you get FTB ?? if you do , you have probably heard about the CCB ..( child care benefit) we get 54% and up to 50 hours a week on the ccb .. so what ever the day care charges we only pay 54% of it or get 54% off ( cant remember) but the centre nix is going to is $55 a day and we only have to pay $28 a day .. and that includes food so for $28 he gets looked after and fed and i get a break ... well worth it ... and at tax time you get 30% of whatever you have paid to the centre .... so it does work out ok ... and the 54% is based on a income of $70 000 so if the earnings are less the ccb is more .. kwim

gabriellas doing well atm , nothing really going on as such .....
we have been soo lazy and there is no food in the house ..not even bread , or chocolate .. nothing and poor nix is hungry .. dh had to cook an egg for him .. at least its healthy . going shopping today to replenish the stocks ...

[Tegam]

Lea: we eat eggs often LOL, food shopping with three kids........ Do have to go today so shouldnt think about it too much not or i wont end up going LOL.. What nappies do you sell?? My bumgenious are only 14months old and the elastic has gone in most of them...am going to need new ones.... can you buy samples?

Kell: i got confused about your new name too LOL...none of us have had enough sleeps for you to go and do something that confusing LOL

Kristi: glad to hear C is ok and not getting worse. Glad you are still feeding her, it was something you really wanted to do before she was born. And this way hopefully the 3 feeds you do are stress free/special time rather than a stressful time juggling the other 5 kids!

Snowchickie: I think it was Lea who said if you want to wean off formula then do it slowly... its not a one way road to weaning off breast. You can do it, you just need to find the "right" support. Stick with it

Us: Thomas weighs 5.1kg or 11pounds! he is getting so big and he started to smile at me today, very cute. I cant believe he is 5weeks old Thomas still poo's by every nappy change. Its the right colour but its a little funny, its watery and clumpy. My mum said it was over feeding, which id believe as the poor man gets huge feeds off me. A midwife friend is coming to stay tomorrow for two nights so i was just going to get her to have a look, he is putting on weight and its been like that since he was born so i am not worried. I have two flights to sydney planned in the next three weeks. Grace and eve are flowergirls and i am brides maid. Still dont know if matt will be able to come to the wedding....wonder if i will be the 1st bridesmaid to hold a baby rather than flowers...will have to think of a plan B soon. better go, amelia

[snowchickie79]

Belinda, re you're milk supply, the best thing you can do for it is to feed feed feed. If you really want to exclusively bf, then stopping the formula would be a good idea too, slowly of course, maybe 10mls a day or so, and just lay in bed with Chloe and feed her all day for a few days. Your supply will get better that way. Liam and I had a night like that last night. He was literally on the boob from 7pm- midnight. Then again from 5am til about 7am. My nipples are sooo sore, but my supply is great, my bb's are huge, LOL!! But he obviously must be going through a growth spurt. I had alot of trouble with feeding DD so I know how frustrating it is. We never did manage to acheive fully bfing for her, I was on motilium and having activite, oats, you name it if someone said it increased milk supply I took it!! If you really want to fully bf, it will be tough for a few weeks, but you can do it!!! Good luck hun, I hope you can sort it out.

Lilias - Unfortunately the problem is more than just supply.. Chloe is not interested in sucking anymore than she really has to which means once she is past the free flowing milk that she doesn't have to work for she is just pulling off and screaming her lungs out. I've spoken to an ABA consultant this morning who was very sympathetic and unfortunately if I cannot get Chloe back interested in BF'ing then no matter what supply I try to achieve she won't drink. Essentially she has discovered that the bottle is easier to drink so she is not interested in having to suck for longer than about 2 minutes or she screams blo00dy murder. She pulls off goes on pulls off goes on and the pattern continues. I have milk. Those first few minutes it leaks out the sides of her mouth. I can express up to 80ml but she just doesn't want to suck it out.
I asked the ABA consultant about just feeding constantly but she said that all it will achieve is upsetting the both of us and that if Chloe was happy to suck for a normal length of a BF then problem would just be supply, but it's not as I have supply just no child that wants to suck anymore. Give her a bottle and she is milk drunk quicker than you can blink an eye and sucks it down quicker than she can swallow it.

Belinda- I am bottle feeding Chardonnay and breastfeeding her when i have time (as horrible as that sounds, but with 6 kids sometimes i dont have the time to sit down and BF), i feed her at least once a day, i try to aim for 3 times a day. She doesnt get a full feed, i have to top her up, but at least shes getting something, which to me is a success. I can express about 60mls. I cant take the motilium cos i am allergic to maxalon and i cant take the fenugreek or similar yet until they sort out my reflux issues. Anyway, the point of what im getting to is it sounds like you are doing everything you possibly can to keep her interested. I feed Chardonnay with the tommee tippee bottles when shes not on the boob and i offer her the boob before i give her a formula top up. I would try and stick to the tommee tippee bottles over the Avent ones though, the TT teats are more like the breast. How much does Chloe weigh? My last two babies have had issues with not putting on weight so i know how stressful it is, if you need to talk im here.

kristie14 Chloe weighs 3.4kg and she is 6 weeks old tomorrow.

Snowchickie: I think it was Lea who said if you want to wean off formula then do it slowly... its not a one way road to weaning off breast. You can do it, you just need to find the "right" support. Stick with it

Milly - Thanks for the encouragement. I just wish it was simple and the problem wasn't her willingness to attach and stay attached..