Babies Born December 16th ~ 31st 2008

[jgal]

Hi again, Madelyn is quite hard to settle between around 5 and 11pm every nigt. It's a bit frustrating as we used to just put Austin down, fed, clean, wrapped and calm and he would nod off on his own, but Madelyn wants to be rocked and held until she's asleep and even then if you put her down too soon she wakes up crying and you have to start all over (change, feed, wrap, rock and cuddle). It's quite exhausting and DH is adamant it's because she's a girl... groan! He's in there with her now as I have given up and still had to clean up the mess from cooking dinner.

She has been a fairly sleepy baby until just these last few days (except for her night time fussing) and would feed and sleep all day long until around 4pm when sh'ed have a little alert time before her fussing started. Today and yesterday she hasn't fallen asleep feeding, which is nice as we get to talk to her and have seen a few first real smiles (mostly when I talk to her and she watches me intensely) but she seems to get overtired really quickly and takes lots of work to get to sleep now, daytimes included! We've tried the rocker, swing and rocking her in the bassinette but most often she just wants to be held... and held.. and held. The sling works wonders but still is a bit hard to do everything DS wants when I am wearing her but it does have advantages.

We went into the cuty the other day on the bus and took the sling instead of a pram and it made things so much easier except I had to carry everything as well as have her in the sling while DH hedl DS's hand. DS also had a run in with the shoe trying on bench - he slipped and fell and gashed his eyebrow. DH was telling him off for being silly (he was pulling down his pants for some strange reason which caused him to slip) and all I wanted to do was cuddle him and stop the bleeding - it looked as though it needed a stitch or two but seems to have healed up okay without them. I couldn't give him a proper cuddle because Madelyn was asleep in the sling and he was crying so hard he wasn't paying attention and nearly squashed her head trying to hug me back. I dashed to the chemist and got a steri strip and sealed the wound with that but it continued to bleed so I stuck a bandaid on top. He's fine now and we are just hoping it won't scar.

Great to see so many of you tryingto breastfeed despite the problems. Persistance is the key, although you know what you can and can't handle too. MAdelyn isn't as good a feeder as Austin was - he would just et down to business, feed and feed and then have a nice alert time, happy and content. Whereas she seems to get a bit of wind, pulls off all the time, chokes on the let down (and yes that is great advice about leaning back when feeding, also helps to feed laying down) and feeds a lot more frequently. Hopefully we will both get it all worked out soon. It was easy feeding DS, but she seems to get frustrated by the whole process so it's about learning what works best for her and still trying to understand her cues.

It's quite normal to feel overwhelmed especially with number one. I think I would have gone insane if Austy had've been like this - I was really doubting my abilities with him and he was a much easier baby. This time I am not blaming myself for her unsettledness, it's just how some babies are. It makes it a lot easier to cope with knowing that it's not my fault she's like this. We'll get it sorted out soon (I hope) and I will get my evenings back with DH again.

Okay, better go and save DH - sounds liek he's getting frustrated with her, so it's time to swap over.

[MrsB26]

Hi again, Madelyn is quite hard to settle between around 5 and 11pm every nigt. It's a bit frustrating as we used to just put Austin down, fed, clean, wrapped and calm and he would nod off on his own, but Madelyn wants to be rocked and held until she's asleep and even then if you put her down too soon she wakes up crying and you have to start all over (change, feed, wrap, rock and cuddle). It's quite exhausting and DH is adamant it's because she's a girl... groan! He's in there with her now as I have given up and still had to clean up the mess from cooking dinner.

She has been a fairly sleepy baby until just these last few days (except for her night time fussing) and would feed and sleep all day long until around 4pm when sh'ed have a little alert time before her fussing started. Today and yesterday she hasn't fallen asleep feeding, which is nice as we get to talk to her and have seen a few first real smiles (mostly when I talk to her and she watches me intensely) but she seems to get overtired really quickly and takes lots of work to get to sleep now, daytimes included! We've tried the rocker, swing and rocking her in the bassinette but most often she just wants to be held... and held.. and held. The sling works wonders but still is a bit hard to do everything DS wants when I am wearing her but it does have advantages.

Aughh, sounds just like Byron - tell dh its not a girl thing lol!
He was/is exactly the same!!

[DANNIIM]

Hi girls
I'm certainly no Bfeeding expert but my sister had the same problem with her little girl choking etc. in the early days and the LC said to express the first bit just to release that huge rush of milk....it worked for her anyway as she was choking....poor little thing!

Woohoo i got 20ml out of the right boobie before after expressing for only 5mins before i was rudely interupted by a visitor.

Talk later.

[Acacia]

Things are a little more settled here with Emily - yay! She's generally sleeping at night for two long stretches now - from about 10-11pm until 4-5am and again until around 9am or so. We've managed this for the last 5-6 days now. We have also got to a point where she can go into her crib without waking up and crying almost immediately too! Like Byron, Kristy, and Madelyn, jgal - she won't go into the crib awake though without fussing. I do have to rock/cuddle her to sleep first (daytime included, usually), but it's great that we can at least get her to stay in there now, and she usually does it on the first go, with sometimes only a few minutes to get to sleep in my arms. The big thing is that I'm now able to just cuddle her instead of her needing to comfort suck on the breast to sleep - that was tiring me so much at night when it went on for hours.

I found the key to having her sleep more at night was to encourage her to feed more during the day. Sometimes she was going for 4-5 hours stretches during the day without feeding, so I'm encouraging her to feed every 3 hours or so during the day now, and she seems to be liking that. It also means we can have smaller feeds, which is better for the posseting and wind, in general.

Her wind is still there, and can be bad at times, but she is much much better at getting burps up (often on her own) and she's getting heaps better at getting wind out of her bottom on her own too! I think the cranial osteopathy appointments have really helped, and I think she's handling the flow of milk a lot better as she grows. I have found that feeding her lying down on my side is really pretty good for that, and relaxing too! I've tried eliminating soy and dairy from my diet, and that may also be helping too, but I really don't know for sure - just been trying things.

Had our first little smiles in the last few days, and can't wait for them to happen more often and bigger. She's now studying everything! She's more keen on looking about at everything else than studying our faces, very often - such a curious little girl!

Hope everything is going well for everyone, and that as babies mature things are becoming more and more settled for you all.

[MrsB26]

Quick selfish post - I think Byron might be having a growth spurt. He has started feeding during the day ever 1 1/2 - 2 hours instead of 2 1/2-3 hours! Now. i dont mind this as i love feeding him but the problem lies with my supply. I feel as if it hasnt caught up to his demand yet and its like i cant make it quick enough. He is fussing and pulling at the breast after 5 mins as if trying to get more out and he is still crying for more after each feed. I have started to comp feed him with ebm in the late afternoon and evening when i feel like my supply is at its lowest.

I am doing everything possible to help increase my supply but i am worried, what if it doesnt work?
Anyone else's baby feeding more often than usual (ha ha, whats usual for a 5 week old baby?!?)

[Acacia]

Hi Kristy,

Firstly, It's hard!

Emily did this on Sunday. She went from 3 hourly feeds to 1-1.5 feeds and it lasted from 9pm to 1am, and some of the feeds were lasting an hour (which is normal anyway, but it meant 15-30mins before she was wanting another feed)! My milk couldn't keep up, and we had a terrible day as she was always crying for more. She spent the whole day either feeding, sucking or crying, with no sleeping!

The next day, my supply had caught up and she went back to normal 3-3.5 hourly feeds on Monday.

The best thing I can suggest is to keep Byron sucking as much as possible, even though you may be empty. The sucking is what is going to stimulate your supply to increase, and it's why Byron has gone back to 1-1.5 hourly feeds - to increase your supply again to meet his growing needs and growing appetite. It's better to have him suck than pumping/expressing as it's the way he naturally sucks that sends the signal to your brain to make more milk the best. It's really hard, as you have a hungry baby that is stressed and trying to get more milk off you, but if you keep him sucking heaps (where he's pretty much at your breast most of the time), your supply should catch up in a day or so, and then he'll go back to his regular feeding pattern.

I don't know if I'm telling you stuff you already are doing or already know (sorry!) but hang in there, hun. I know how hard it is!

[butterfly_warrior]

It seems that around 5 weeks must be growth spurt time... Even Samuel on formula has been hungrier than usual lately and it's completely random as to whether we'll get 3 hours or 4 hours before the next feed (I'm hanging out for a couple of 5 hours to get him back to a suitable overnight pattern!), and sometimes very little sleep for him in between... I think I might increase his formula again and see how we go.

BW