Babies Born December 16th ~ 31st 2008

[Trillian]

This thread is for parents whose baby was born 16th ~ 31st December 2008

Your moderators for this forum are as follows-
Astrolady ~ Administrator
Trillian ~ Senior Moderator
Dachlostar ~ Senior Moderator
MistyFying

There are many issues that you will encounter as a new parent. We have put together this list of useful articles and threads in order to assist you with some common questions or issues you may have, and to provide you with bit of extra support that we all need as new parents:

Feeding Support:

Breastfeeding General Chatter
Breastfeeding FAQ's
Is My Baby Hungry?
Baby Formula - What Manufacturers Don't Want You To Know
Bottlefeeding FAQ's and Useful Information
Is Feeding Your Baby Taking Too Much Time?
Bottlefeeding General Chatter
Feeding Your Baby
Lactose Intolerance
Starting Solids/Homemade Baby Food
Starting Solids - When Is My Baby Ready?
Starting Solids General Chatter

Please contact the Australian Breastfeeding Association (ABA) or a Lactation Consultant if you are concerned that you may have breastfeeding and/or supply problems, and before the introduction of solids or formula.

Sleeping Support:

Comforted Sleeping & Sleep Issues Forum
Comforting Tools to Aid Restful Sleep
Babies & Sleep
Controlled Crying/Comforting/Sleep Training
The Con of Controlled Crying
The Crying Game
15 Ways To Help Your Baby Sleep

Other Useful Information & Recommended Reading:

Baby Massage
Cuddle Me Mum
Infant-led Feeding & Weaning
Baby Wearing
Recommended Reading List

Got questions?

Post your questions in the forums mentioned above, or in the following forums where you're sure to receive many friendly responses!

General Baby & Toddler Forum
Breastfeeding, Bottlefeeding and Solids
Gentle Parenting Forum

Please note - To receive thread notfications click the "thread tools" button at the top of this post and click "Subscribe to Thread" there is no need to post in order to get notifications.

[MrsB26]

First post is always lucky i guess!

Byron is going well, we all are. His sleeping has improved and he now sleeps longer in the night with quick feeds inbetween and is awake more during the day. I looked at him yesterday and realised that he is no longer a newborn baby. He is only 15 days old but already is changing everday and growing so fast.

I still miss being pregnant - which is weird considering i had such an awful and painful pregnancy during the final months!

Hope yu and yur bubs are all well

Gotta run, hearing some stiring

[plc1805]

Hi there - I'm going to jump in here too as my little April arrived during this time. So glad to see you in here Kristy and glad to hear all is going well with little Byron. April is only 10 days old today and we are basically living around feeds and sleeps but for some reason 2nd time around is a little easier. I think April is a calmer baby and her mum is more relaxed this time too. Hope everyone else is going ok.

[Adelaide Bec]

Jacquie arrived on 22 December, so I'm in this group.
So far we've had a couple of challenges with breast feeding (I don't seem to be producing enough milk), but she's healthy and I know I can't complain.
I don't know about anyone else whose baby arrived around this time, but I can't even remember Xmas. It was such a blur, although I'm now greatful that the family have headed home and we can just relax and start working out our own routine. DH headed back to work this week too, so might find me lurking around BB a little this week as I get used to being home alone (with bubs).
Cheers
Bec

[butterfly_warrior]

Guess I should be settling myself in here, too.

Samuel arrived on the 19th of December, 4 weeks early. We spent Christmas day in hospital and it only stands out because the food was different!

10 days in special care (and they managed to keep me in with him the whole time!), but we never got the BFing thing established - he's fully formula fed, but doing really well and still sticks pretty closely to the 4 hourly feed routine that SCN established.

BW

[DANNIIM]

Hi all you lovely mummy's
I hope it is alright if i join this group although my little boy was born the 15th Dec, as i travelled the pregnancy path with all you girls and it would just feel too weird leaving you all behind.
Jaxon is doing well, we currently have him on the bottle fulltime much to my disappointment, i so wanted Bfeeding to work out this time round he was just so demanding and when i needed the help it was over the Christmas NY period and there just wasn't any local help. I have thought about trying to relactated as it has only been a week off the boob, but i would feel too guilty i think because DP has taken this week off work as well to help me out as i was getting very little sleep and poor Jaxon just wasn't getting what he wanted as he was on there almost 24hrs in a day, after the inital 1.5 wks where it all seemed to be working just fine. Ahhhhh enough of my ramble, i hope everyone else is cruising along just fine.

[ness]

My little girl was born Dec 18. It was a bit of gruelling experience (I was induced and boy was it painful!! - Bring on that Epidural!!)
After 3 days of unsucessful breastfeeding (and my husband getting very stressed that his little girl was not being fed properly) we switched to formula.
The day we left the hospital was horrible. I felt really overwhelmed and part of me wanted to stay in hospital for the security.
We arrived home and I was instantly in tears it was like 'what do i do now...' My husband as kind as he is doesn't understand the whole hormonal thing..so we were quite snappy at each other, then to make matters worse all his family decide to visit. NOT HAPPY. Anyway after a hectic and emotional say 10 days at home (probably won't have another baby around the christmas/new years time) things started to gel. Daniella was more settled and routine followed.
Husband has been back at work now for 1 week and 1/2 and it is strange being at homeby myself with Daniella. Some days are Great and some not so great
I am trying my best and that's all I can do....

[MrsB26]

Congrats Ness on the birth of Daniella. I felt really overwhelmed the day we left the hospital too, i ended up in tears with a screaming baby and no idea. Its gret to get home but also scary to leave all at once
Sounds like you had alot going on when you got home and yes, it is a busy time of year and its stressful to have loads of visitors straight away.
Sounds as if you are doing really well now

Miss_C Same problem with wind here too, i have found that if i lean back when my milk is flowing the fastest it helps slow it down iykwim? That way Byron is not gasping and choking on it.

Have a great weekend everyone

[jgal]

It's about time I came over here. Hi everyone - lovely to "meet" all your new little bundles. Argh back later!

[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!!