Babies Born December 16th ~ 31st 2008

Well, DS has started sleeping for longer periods during the night since late last week but unfortunately last night he went back to the usual feeding every 2 hours :wall: But i'm fine with that as i can see he's starting to work out day and night. He has 30mins - 1hr playtime after a feed during the day and off to sleep for either 5 mins or an hour. At night he seems to stay asleep during feed times or if he is awake, he seems to settle much easier once he's finished feeding.

So glad to have some improvement, finally! I think i can thank the WCH Rhubarb and Soda mixture i bought to help relieve his colic. We're trying out Losec at the the moment for his reflux but it's a real pain to give as it comes in a tablet form. But we'll keep persisting!

How is everyone else going this week?

I am curious to know how much you other girls manage to do with a newborn baby? Are any of you back at work? Do you get out n about with bubs much?

I wanted to go to the shops this morning but i was hesitant as i don't think i can get the pram in and out of the car - it's pretty heavy. I bought a minimonkey sling to carry him around in for short trips to the shops but my few attempts to get him into it at home has ended up with him screaming and getting stuck in it. I think i wasted $80 for nothing!

Jellybean - Byron doesnt like his sling either, he screams blue murder when i put him in it. I also have an ergo carrier which he loves because he can see everything that's going on i think.

I got out most days, i find i go a little crazy if i stay at home for longer than 2 days in a row. I usually go for a long walk or to Westfield (only 3 min drive away) and we do laps in the air-con if its really hot!

Once you get out a few times by yourself it will get easier. I found it empowering the first time i went shopping with Byron - yes it took me about 20mins to get the pram out and get organised but it was soooo worth it. Now it doesnt take that long and honestly the day goes by much quicker and it doesnt seem so bad if the bub is having an unsettled day.

I don't get out and about a great deal only as it is really hot up here during the summer months...i do have to drop off and pickup DS up from school everyday though so i guess you could count that for getting out and about. Jaxon is definately an outdoors type of bub already, he loves it even if you go for a walk with him around the house and he also cracks a wobbly if he doesn't go for his evening swim each night, it is his and his daddy's (DP's) special time together normally and it also gives me a break for half an hour.
Had is 6-8wk check up yesterday with the CHN, he is such a chubby boy already 5.9kg. It was the first CHN i have seen that hasn't made me feel guilty about doing comp feeding, the other two i have seen make you feel less of a mother for introducing the bottle. Relactating is going well atm, i even got leaking boobs too :dance: who would have ever thought leaking body parts are welcome ;)

Hi All,

DanniM, well done on the relacating- I find it difficult to keep up the milk supply and my little chubba wubba is getting comp feeds too- and much happier for it! He gets weighed again tomorrow (8 weeks) and I think he's about 6kg too, so he has really stacked it on!

Jellybean, i would agree with DanniM, it's worth getting out- in fact I was going out and socialising Jacob every day until I realised he needed more sleep and (admittedly a slack) routine. We try to stay home every second day now, but it makes me feel much more like myself and more capable to be able to take him out. Plus the shopping centres (big ones anyway) have nice parent rooms where you can sit and feed in private, there's microwaves for bottles too. It was great to get out to these places when we had 40+ degree days in Melbourne, our air con was not good enough. Like DanniM, we've done a few laps in lieu of outside walks in the pram!

Being a mumma is hard work, I knew it would be hard, but it's pretty intense- loving it, but not used to how little time you have for yourself. Had my haircut & colored for first time in 10 weeks, which was lovely to sit and not worry about when I had to feed or when he would wake up. His Daddy is good, but this was completely alone time- bliss!

Jgal- if you around, I haven't made any time for craft since before I had Jake- are you able to make time with your 2 around? If so, how do you do it?

Gotta go, screaming in background
Carole

Jaxon isn't sleeping the best during the day atm, we get up around 7ish in the morning and then he is awake for a whole 4 hours and then will sleep for probably 3-4 hrs straight during the day and then is awake for another 4 hours before having his last feed at 8pm and probably going to sleep around 8.30-9.00pm. I guess the positive side is that for the last week he has slept right through to either 4.30 or 5am and then i pop him in our bed and he will sleep for another couple of hours. I have been reading these sleep pattern leaflets that the CHN gave me and she said that babies at this age are normally up for 1.5-2hrs before being too tired and wanting to go back to sleep.....not this baby! I was about to write down that he also wants to be cuddled to sleep or breastfed till he falls asleep but i just looked down then and he has finally nodded off to sleep while asleep in his rocker...i did have to be stubborn and persist though. I have been trying to make him self settle and put himself to sleep but sometimes it is just easier to give him and cuddle and put him to sleep like that, it would be interesting to see what everyone else does?

Jgal i have also been wondering where you have been, haven't seen you around for a while, hope everything is alright and your bub is growing big and strong, how much does she weigh now?

Jellybean how are you going...hope everything has been settling down for you.

Fingerscrossed i have cut out two bottles a day and i am still offering the breast at every feed as well. I have been offering more breastfeeds over the last couple of days so i should start to see the difference in the next couple of days i hope :pray: I am still taking the 3 motilium tablets a day as well and i also leak in the mornings...who would have thought leaking from your body bits would be welcome :p

Kristy i hope your doing well also and thankyou for giving me the courage to persist with relactating. For some reason it has been easier to relactate than the breastfeeding journey in the early weeks, i don't get the sore nipples like i did and the cracked nipples didn't return either :dance: and of cause he attaches much better as he has learnt to open his mouth nice and wide.

Hi to Lee, PLC, Miss C and anyone else i may have missed.

Hi Everyone,

Our little babies are all now at 8 weeks- it's hard to remember how little they once were- and how tired we were in those first few weeks!

Would love to hear how everyone is coping, and any little tricks you've learnt and would like to share.

I can recommend the sleep store nz website which has lots of tips for getting babies to sleep.

An update on jacob & my story...

Jacob's smiling and gooing, and we had some prof photos taken on the weekend, and we got some good shots, although he was a bit cranky and doesn't like to smile for the camera. I'll upload some photos to flicker tonight:
Flickr: Photos & Video from smartplastic

He's still having a bottle or 2 of formula a day, because he's put on 300- 500g per week- he's now almost 6kg and 59cm long. So heavy that I think I have early symptoms of carpal tunnel in my wrists.

This week I had a couple of difficult milestones to deal with- he's almost too big for his cradle so now he's sleeping upstairs in his sleigh cot, in his own room at night, whereas his cradle was downstairs near our bedroom- so I'm not getting much sleep due to the worry- he's a silent sleeper, so the baby monitor is of no help to me!
And yesterday he had his 8 week vaccinations- not much fun for either of us.

A good thing this week is our parents group is a lovely group of girls, all with baby boys, and we've had a lunch and a catch-up in the park this week, which has been especially good as my DH has been away in Sydney for most of the week

And the best thing is one of best friends Naomi (Nai on Bellybelly) had a baby girl Juliette Nicola this afternoon.


Hope you are all well, and hope to hear from you all soon

Carole

Well, i took your advice and have started getting out and about a bit more.

DS and i did the grocery shopping together (alone) for the first time yesterday. He was quite interested in everything on the shelves for the first half and then slept for the second half of the shopping. By the time i got home, i realized he'd slept through his usual 2 hourly feed :p I was worried he was going to scream the whole time as he is very loud and goes from a quick sooky cry to hysterical screaming in seconds. He did whimper a little before falling asleep but i just kept the trolley moving. The supermarket doesn't seem to have many trolleys with the baby seats so next time i might end up having to carry him around in my arms while pushing a trolley! (i saw a girl doing this yesterday) The seat straps were way too high too so i didn't strap him in. I didn't take my eyes off him at all so he was fine.

DS also had his vaccinations on Wednesday evening so i think that contributed to him sleeping while doing the grocery shopping the following day. Poor thing was fast asleep and then got the jab in the leg and let out a blood curdling shriek and then another one for the other leg. After that he was just a little sooky in the evening and the following morning. Not nice at all :(

Unfortunately the doctors scales were being repaired so we couldn't weigh him so i'll have to take him to a chemist sometime this weekend to find out. I knows he's a little over 5kg but not sure by how much. His legs and arms are getting chubby now and he's got cute little dimples on his elbows. He's so cute!

Fingerscrosssed - i love those photo's! They are so cute! That's a great idea having photo's taken in his room. I too desperately need my hair coloured (& waxing done)! Funny how these things just get put on the back burner after having a baby.

DS is also smiling lots now and talking to us. I smother him in kisses and he opens his mouth up so wide - i think he's trying to kiss me back :loveshower: We have big animal stickers on his wall next to his change table - he's loving them so much right now. He smiles and talks to them too.

I'm curiuos to know what 'comp' feeding means? I guess it has something to do with formula feeds...

Hi All,

My chubby boy is sleeping at the mo- I think he is a little bit sick, and he has had conjunctivitis- I have wiped out the gunk with warm wet cotton wool balls, and need to squirt some more breast milk in there to hopefully clear it up. :redface:

We are seeing the paedatrician (sp) tomorrow anyway for a checkup, so if it gets worse, he can give him so drops or ointment- joy to apply either way.

Jellybean, glad you have made it out- I have attempted a proper supermarket shop with him- just our local IGA which is tiny but has enough selections to be able to make dinner! We are doing our big shops via coles online which is pretty handy.
Comp feeds are formula feeds- I think it's short for complimentary feed

DanniM, sounds like you are going really well with feeding.I also got a good sleep post vaccination, and for a few days he would sleep all through the morning after his morning feed, but he has been fighting me for the past 3 days as he doesn't want to be in bed ALL day. As he's a bit sick he fell asleep after a bottle today, so I'm loving a break.

I am back on the motillium, and have been giving 2 half formula bottles a day (half a full size feed as per the can), but think he's on another growth spurt- at this rate he'll be obese!

Better go have a shower while I can!

Carole

Fingerscrossed i know what you mean about the obese thingy....i had the nurse at the vaccinations think he was in for the 4 month ones instead. He is in the 75th percentile for his weight and length, i would be a bit concerned if it were only his weight though. We had a fabbo day yesterday for sleep, he even self settled and put himself to sleep and then today that just went out the window when i tried to do the same thing, but i did drop another bottle today as well, so we are down to three formula feeds and the rest breastfeeding....so proud of myself, maybe that is why but i needed to take the next step cause we had been a bit stagnant for a couple of weeks now! BB's are feeling a bit tender tonight as we have been doing lots of breastfeeding tonight, but he is in bed now after his last bottle of night....hoping he goes through a fair way. I think i forgot to take my Motillium tablet last night as well cause i didn't wake up as full as i had been.

Talk later

Hi DanniM,

well done- Jaxon seems to be responding very well- self settled- excellent. We've done that once or twice, but it seems to be luck rather than planning or skill....

We had an appointment at the paedatrician, and since last week, Jake has moved from 75th to 90th percentile for weight- OMG! He didn't measure his height, but my boy has chins on his chins! But the Dr is very happy with him, and said he won't become obese from this, and I'm doing a great job- he's a lovely man.

he even said that with such a big baby, it's harder on me to keep up the milk supply, and that I should be comfortable giving him formula once or twice a day, esp last feed at night so we both get a longer sleep! Didn't do that, but as he was overtired, we got from 9ish to 4am sleep - yay!

Jakey's been cranky for a few days, clingy and over-tired, he's either got sticky eye or conjunctivitis, we've got ointment yesterday, but he clamps his eyes shut so I don't think we've got any in there yet!

I've got New parents Group this arvo, so hopefully Mat Nurse will help get the ointment in!

Have a great day/ week

Carole

FIngerscrossed i remember with DS1 it took two of us to start with to get ointment into his eyes for the conjunctivitis and then i just become a pro after a couple of cases, he was in daycare at the time and they pick up everything that goes around!

Shouldn't our supply just establish to there needs?? I am hoping by the time solids are introduced that the bottle won't really be needed! We have a big camping trip planned for the middle of the yr up to the Kimberley's up the top of WA and i really don't want to worry about bottles, that would be a huge pain in the butt to be honest.

Ok i know, i'm slack lol!!

I havent posted here in over a month BUT i am stalking you all, i honestly just havent had the will to actually type. I am forgoing my afternoon nap to get my butt into gear and catch you all up.

Firstly, wow, our little babes arent so little anymore. 2+ months old :cheer:

Dannimm - good on you, the breast feeding is going so well, i am still reading your other thread and am proud of your acheivement! :clap: Our babes could be identical re: sleep pattern. Bryon usually goes down at night for 61/2 hours then wakes for a feed, back down for another 90 mins then i put him into bed with us and we can get upto another 2 hours if we are lucky. He sleeps so well snuggled in my arm! Oh, and the extra sleep is a bonus for mummy lol

Had our immunisations last friday and boy did we cry. He was then pretty unsettled for about 4 days but fri night, saturday was the worst. I think i got a total of 3 hours sleep on friday night and he was glued to my side for the whole 4 days. He is much better now though - poor little things

Byron went for his first swim onthe weekend and he loved it. Cried a little at the start cause it was pretty cold but then he didnt seem to care, he was just splashing about. It was so much fun. DH had him in thewater and i so wanted to get in too but my swimmers dont fit me anymore! I tried them on and my boobies are soooo huge that i looked like a porn star :o It was a family friendly day so wasnt even going to contemplate wearing them.............

Byron is still a boobie boy, he is 10 weeks tomorrow and i am proud of our journey so far. My goal was to get to 12 weeks and go from there but i cant see us stopping anytime soon.

I hope everyone is happy and well, i'll try to get back for personals soon (he he he he sorry i m so slack)

Mwah

Good to see you posting Kristy.....your not slack just busy feeding your bub, not to mention trying to keep everything else going at the same time....mmmm housework! I make it my morning thing most of the time to do the BB posting and the girls in the other thread have kept me going with the relactating aswell. I didn't even bother going back to my LC...she was no help and TBH the girls on here have given me more advice than the LC anyway.
Oh i have to get up and moving reasonably early anyway cause i have to get DS1 ready for school and drive him down there, that is good in a way as it forces you to be organised. I swear if i wasn't taking my probiotic i would be sooooo lethargic all the time....i call it my energy drink.
Jaxon is doing so well this last week, he has self settled and put himself to sleep for the past 5 nights without crying and most days he has been pretty good except Wednesday when he didn't want to have his day sleep, but that was because of ppl talking in the house. He was really unsettled all last week though after his vaccinations.
He is doing real well on the breast aswell and i know when he has emptied me because he fusses at the breast alot and does alot pulling and tugging at me. Sometimes he dives straight at me like a little bull....he definately didn't need any encouragement in relactating which was a real good thing.

Hi girls,

Sorry it's been a while - I can't believe how fast these first 12w have flown by. I am constantly trying to lap up the time I have as I know the year will be over before we know it and I will be back at work and hating being away from my beautiful children.

Madelyn is absolutely thriving - off the charts for both weight and height and got confused for a 4 monther at the shots too. I'm not worried about her chubbiness - Austin was the same and he's just over average (70th percentile) fro both weight and height now, he hardly put on any weight since he turned 2 (he's 3 now) so it all sorts itself out in the end. He is only offered healthy foods, and he eats no more or less than other kids his age. I figure if babies want milk (breastfed) then give it to them - it makes for a happy baby, happy mum and a little bit of extra baby fat doesn't hurt - helps them when they do get sick anyway.

Madelyn is also an a delightful baby, so good to have her around. She giggles and smiles 90% of the time she is awake, and easy to get to sleep now that she no longer has colic issues. Such a dream child. She sleeps REALLY well at night (usually no later than 9:30pm to bed and awake around 7:30am) and gets at least two good naps in during the day. She's really started to become interractive too, chatting, singing (or squeeling in delight!) and starting to grab toys and put them in her mouth to explore. So everything is going beautifully. It's hard to keep myself from just sitting and talking to her somedays, as it's so enjoyable hearing her chat back. But there's washing, cooking and cleaning to do, and I have two children so have to make sure I save time for Austy too.

There are some close-up shots of her in my blog that I took just this week if you girls want to check out what she looks like now. She is a real little chubber with soft squishy arms, cute kissable chin and cheeks and about a dozen rolls on each leg! Too cute!!

Well, we aren't the chattiest buddy groups, are we! I guess we are all VERY busy with our little ones.

Marci is now solely on the bottle with FF. At about 8 weeks he started rejecting my boobies, i think he was unwell and i may have offered the bottle (ebm) a few too many times while he wasn't feeling well so looks like he got confused between bottle and nipple. I kept trying until about week 10 but was stressing us both out. I'd try to breastfeed him which he would either scream like hell the first sight of my nipple or he would suck for a few seconds and then scream. It would take about 15 mins to calm him down, sometimes i'd try to put him back on again but he'd just start screaming again so i had to either express if he gave me 10 mins, sometimes he would fall asleep cos of all the screaming or he'd scream until i stuck the bottle in his mouth. So sometimes i'd just give him Formula as that was the quickest way to calm him down. I couldn't let him go hungry as he was dehydrated from being sick so i had to keep up his fluids. Because of all that mucking around, my milk supply slowed down no matter how much i pumped and last week i was so stressed out i was not getting the let down, so i was only getting a few mls out. Now that he is 13 weeks i have decided to give up expressing has i was having to stay up until 1am every night pumping away, sterilising the pump and same again about 6am all whilst getting up for feeds in between, it was killing me. I feel bad for stopping and not being able to breastfeed anymore :crying: but at the same time Marci and i are much happier now as feeding times are much more enjoyable.

He's had a cold the past week poor thing so he's been up a bit more at night and can't breath very well either. GP says nothing he can do unless he gets worse. I hope it passes soon he's so sooky at the moment.

I tried giving him rice cereal a few times over the past week but he doesn't seem to like it, not sure whether it's the spoon or the taste.

The colic has seemed to calm down immensely but the reflux is at an all time peak, vomiting all day long, and lots. I changed my outfit (yes pants as well) about 2 or 3 times a day. So much for losec!

Anywho, how is everyone else travelling?

Jellybean i'm still here! No i don't think we are an overly chatty bunch.

At least you little one got some boobie milk and that is the main thing! Also go with what works and what makes you comfortable. Maybe leave the solids a little longer for him or add a little pureed apples to the rice cereal mix...they tend to like the sweeter taste apples adds to the mix. I had a phone call from my LC and she said to start Jaxon on solids at 4 months only mainly because he is on the 90th percentile at 2.5 months "BIGBOY", he is quite demanding for my milk....i could literally sit and feed him boob all day long and he would still want more and he is putting on plenty of weight so it isn't as though i am starving him or anything! I started this week on just rice cereal and he tends to go a little longer between feeding maybe the 3hrs if i am lucky. I really think when they are talking about allergies and starting solids to early you are best to keep to a very plain type diet until the 5-6months at least...well that is what i am going to do anyway, rice cereal is a very plain solid food and you are only adding breastmilk or formula to it so i think you would be pretty safe. The main reason i have started is that i have had problems for quite a while to get him to sleep during the day but he was sleeping all night so i was fine with that, then he stated waking through the night again and this went on for a week and he was demanding more milk from me which is fine and i know that is normal but it was just real draining and he obviously wanted and needed more and has been much happier since!

Hey girls! :hello:

Just wanted to come in and see how everyone is doing now!
What's everyone up to? and how cute are these bubbas now?!

We are going well. Gosh I am so in love with our little man it's not funny! He is truly such a delight, and our DD (almost 2) acts like a little mummy towards him which is so gorgeous.
I have to have some surgery this week which is a bit yucky. I'm not quite sure how our breastfeeding will be interupted by that, but hopefully we'll manage our way around it somehow. Otherwise, our little man is cruising along nicely (except for the feeding about 50 billion times a night! :rolleyes:)

Love

Another household of sickness here... I'm sick, Sam's sick, DH is over it as he was first cab off the rank. Sam's still a happy little boy, even when he's not well. If we keep him dosed up on panadol he's fine... but you can tell when it's worn off and he starts getting feverish and his throat hurts again... Poor little man, I'm as miserable as all hell with it.

Still not really sleeping through (we can go from putting him to bed around 7:30 after his 6pm feed through to 10 or 11 when we get him up for another if he hasn't already woken and then we'll generally get through to 4am at worst 6am at best so not too bad). Still not rolling over, but he's so much stronger when he's on his tummy... And his new trick is to laugh like a loon when we're changing his nappy - it's bizarre, but so much fun!

BW