Babies Born February 16th-28th 2009 #1

Morning ladies and bubs,

Apologies for the absence. DH has had the computer at work the last couple of days, leaving me stranded!!

Possibly wouldn't have been on much anyway, Isabel had a pretty unsettled couple of days. Yesterday she was pretty good though so I'm hoping today she'll be ok as well.

We went to the MCHN on Wednesday and she's put on another 340g so she's now 4.1kg - AJP I think she and Millie are going weight gain for weight gain! :D She hasn't grown much in length though, only half a cm. Oh well!

MCHN said the ABs are definitely what is making her unsettled - apparently they can give bubs belly ache. Poor love. So for me to fix my epi, she's gotta be sick :( I feel like the worst mother ever...

Nurse also said that she'd prob be unsettled until the ABs were finished and through her system, so that's another couple of days. Sigh. The only good thing is that even though she's unsettled, once she goes down around 10-11-midnight, she will sleep for four hours generally so that's great.

How's everyone else going? Holly, how's the feeding?

Hi to Det! Glad to see you :D

Shell -hope you had a good night last night. 3 hrs isn't too bad - Isabel will do her four hour stint but then generally goes 2 hourly. Ah well.

Nai, I know what you mean about being awake and happy for not too long. I think that's ok though? At this age they aren't supposed to be awake and alert for long periods at all. I was reading a handout from the MCHN that says that over the next few weeks they should have at least one period of alertness after a feed that starts to develop the "feed-play-sleep" pattern.

I try to look for that period (even if its only 5 or 10 mins) and put Isabel on her tummy or the play gym or read her a book.

We're demand feeding too - I have just had two days where I felt like she cried or fed the whole day, without sleeping more than 30 mins at a time. I'm supposed to be salt bathing my epi to help it heal and I can't get away from Isabel for long enough to run a bath and sit in it for 10mins :rolleyes:

Unselttled night here. I am buggered. Felt like I was awake all night. She was up every 2 hours. Had really bad wnd. Ended up in bed with me all night.
Mum is still here so she took her and I went backto bed for another 2 hours. Just got up. But I feel like I have been hit by a mack truck.

How are you girls coping that have other siblings? We are doing Ok because mum is here, not suer how I will go when she is gone thoug....

DP is home for another week and hopefully my mum will come and stay once he has gone back to work. DD is in childcare a couple of days a week so hopefully that will save my sanity until I start to get into the swing of things with the new bub!

Also feel like I have been hit bt a truck!! It must be the week for it :D

Meg I don't have another child and I'm also wondering how I'll survive when mum stops bringing me supplies, cleaning up, doing washing and generally keeping me sane...

AJP - just re-read your post, didn't realise you had a PPH! Hope you are ok? Look after yourself! Was it a bad one???

I suppose on the bright side we're all sleep deprived together?
Em always decides to have her unsettled time at around 10pm ish whenever she wakes for a feed and will not resettle til after the next feed so I'm kept awake for that horrible time where you're just ready to fall asleep. I have no idea what to do, I get her to sleep for about 5-10mins before she is awake crying again.

At the moment Df is still home, no idea how I'll go next week, he went to gym before and I got a glimpse of what things will be like, trying to make Ash lunch while Em was screaming and Ash playing with the phone not listening to me to put it down!

Meg- Does she settle alot better in bed with you? I might have to try it out, at moment she is in bassinet next to me, might try getting her out and cuddling.

OP- Yay on weight gain, when do your Abs finish? I don't know where you'd find time for baths either, hard enuff to find time for just a quick shower.

Nai- Em has some nice awake times but I have to get her settled as soon as I see she is getting tired or she will get really cranky.

AJP- I'm not surprised you feel so crappy, I feel so run down from low iron so can only imagine how crappy you must be feeling.

Det- Thats great how the twins adore Levi, got 2 little helpers on hand there for you!

oh very crap!!! soooo tired its not funny, i never needed a nana nap when sophie was born, but this time i feel like i could sleep all day,
op lost 1.5 litres, transfused 2 units of blood the next day, found out that 1.5 litres is around 25% of my blood volume :o scary!!
sounds like our girls are on a par!! must be something about the 18th ;)

shell i had the girls wednesday to myself and had the same issues at lunch time!! thinking i will get sophies lunch ready early in the day.

nai DH is off for another week too!!!

meg i hope you get some rest with your mum around :hug:

millie went :hide: 7 hours last night :hide: pity it was 7-2 and i went to bed at 10.30 thinking she would wake any minute :rolleyes: bet it was a once off too!!

Hi ladies,

Thanks Rainforest, I'm starting the nipple shields tomorrow. The mchn came around yesterday and told me to give my nipples a rest, they are in a very bad condition - cracked, chunks missing. So I had to express yesterday and all day today and give him ebm and tomorrow start bf using nipple shields until they heal. I'm sad about using a bottle and missing skin contact but it's nice to give my nipples a rest and he doesn't seem to mind :) Hope yours are on the mend!

Nai, I hardly get any awake time at all from Leon that isn't feeding or settling time. He has about 10 mins of awake time when changing nappy where he's really content and just stares at us and makes cute baby sounds!

OceanPrincess, that's great about the weight gain! Is everyone bfing here? Since using the bottle I've noticed Leon has about 80mls each feed and could often have more but we don't offer him more than 80, as the mchn said not to overfeed him and 80ml is quite a bit feed. He doesn't mind once it's all gone and goes off to sleep happily but I'd kinda like to let him finish feeding when he's ready and full, not when the bottle is empty :dunno:

Megie & Shellbell, hope you have a better night tonight. Megie, it's good that your mum is there to help so you can have some rest. I don't know how you guys do it with toddlers as well. Like OceanPrincess, I only have the one and don't know how I'd cope without my mum's help right now!

AJP - wow at 7 hours! Must have had a nice feed before!

Well Leon is asleep in my arms, it's taken me ages to do this post, kept having to come back to it :rolleyes: Off to get the nachos from the oven, have a good night all xox

No fair AJP! 7 hours! I have bought some wind drops to try with E. I will see if that helps tonight. Sooooo tired. Went to my Grandma's today. It was good to get out, but really wiped me out. Lying on the couch now while E is asleep. Gee I wish she would sleep like this during the night!

Holly- Ouch! I hope they heal soon, hopefully the nipple sheilds will help alot. Did the mchn give any indication how long they make take to heal?

AJP- 7 hours! Too bad it wasn't thru the night. Thats great tho.

Meg- Good luck with the wind drops I hope they do something.

E slept much better last night. Fed at 11, settled by 12 (including feed time) Slept till 3:30, back in cradle by 4:30, then asleep till 6:30. Then she slept in with us till 9:30 when we all got up. Mum is still here so she was up with J. He got up at 8. Hoping for the same tonight. I bought the wind drops, and they are getting her to do much bigger burps. So maybe they have helped.

Hello all!! Can I join in here?
Grace was born on 1/3/09 at 2.38am so I just missed out on this thread but I wanna stick with all my Belly Buddies!! If I can keep up that is.
Still recovering from c-section.
Learning to breastfeed and OUCH!! Some of you probably read my thread on it before. Anyways, this new mummy stuff is a lot harder than I expected. It seems like nothing went according to plan! Was in labour for 33hrs, never got to fully dialated, she was too big for me to come down far enough into my pelvis they think. Had an epidural, didn't work, so they took it out and put it in a different place. Then when they went to top it up for the cesar it didn't work, i wasn't getting numb. So they took that out and I had a spinal which went wrong and i was numb up to my neck and felt like I couldn't breathe. So not exactly the natural birth I had planned :( And now with the breastfeeding I just feel sore everywhere.
Tell me it gets better!!

Shell, no indication how long it will take...all I keep hearing is how they will be better in no time and it gets easier etc...I can't wait for the magic day when feeding doesn't hurt!

Megie, glad you had a decent night and sleep in!

Hi Heaven :) Wow your labour sounds extreme, so sorry you had to go through all that. I'm with you on the bfing! I am finding it such a depressing and painful task at the moment and I think I get more worked up than Leon when he's hungry coz I know how much it's going to hurt! I'm using nipple shields now and they have made it a lot less painful, still painful but I can at least feed him. Just waiting for my stupid nipples to heal :rolleyes:

Anyway, I have some time to myself as Mum's taken Leon asleep in the HAB to show off to our neighbours. Might have a bath...

Meg, we had better night too last night, just hoping tonight is similar. Glad the wind drops working, might have to get some cause Em been bit unsettled today always looking like she trying to push something out and drawing her legs up.

Heaven- yes it gets better! Altho at this stage its sometimes hard to believe, sounds like quite a long, traumatic labour for you, have you got your partner or anyine around to help you out so you can recover?

Holly- Glad the nipple sheilds are helping somewhat. My nipples are no where near yours from the sounds of things and I'm finding feeding painful so I do feel for you. Hope you got that bath in.

I'm just feeling bit blue today, exhausted even tho we had a better night, just Em been unsettled alot of the day and I get sore and tired having her on and off the boob constantly. I give her a dummy sometimes just to give my breasts a break but as soon as it falls out she starts screaming.

Morning all

Well my ABs have finished, my epi is feeling better and we've had a few good days with Isabel. She's been more settled, have been out and about during the day and she sleeps in the pram and car and doesn't scream all day.

Here's hoping it continues...

She is still punching out one four hour sleep at night and then will be up and down around that. Its not too bad I think... but DH gets really frustrated with her when she's unsettled. This morning she fed at about 5.30am and has been pretty much awake since then. We can't put her down as she cries, so we try to settle her, she'll calm down but we can't put her down again. Sigh!

I've been told by the MCHN not to try the wind drops just yet, but to give it more time.

Shell, I know what you mean about feeling a bit blue. :hug: Its tough isn't it, not being able to do more?

Holly, well done for persisting with the feeding. It does sound like most of us in here are breast feeding. Also, the ABA says that you cannot overfeed a breast fed baby. Formula, yes, but b/f no. Someone also told me not to worry about how much goes in, but to worry about how much comes out.

SJ, hello!! Welcome! Sounds like your labour was pretty full on. Hope you are recovering ok. Yes, it does get better!

Hi to everyone else!

OP - You poor thing. I hope things improve soon. it is hard. My ds (J) was just the same, but it only lasted till he was about 7 weeks. I just used to put him in a sling.

Also I have learnt from last time to go with what I want to do and not let the health nurse upset me with telling me what i am doing wrong. This time last time I was just about to be admitted to the mother/baby unit at North Park (Melbourne) with PND. I was shattered and beside myself. So far I seem alright, but I am keepoing a close eye on my feelings, and if I get even and inkling, I am going to go back to North Park as they were just brilliant. Also for anyone in Melb with Private Health insurance, if you have troubles down the track with feeding, sleep or weaning problems, North park is awesome. They are a bit like sleep school, but you get to go in for 4 nights for any of thise issues. If you are there for PND, you stay as long as you need to be there.

Had an alright night. E fed at 12:30, then straight back down till 3am, then up again at 5am, 7am and 8am. She was SO hungry. *sigh* as bad as this sounds, I am wishing the next couple of months away. I am just not that in to newborns, but I adore them once they are a bit of character.

Oh it sounds like everyone is having the same dramas!! Breastfeeding is feeling a little better today. I'm trying to get her on as soon as she wakes up so she's not screaming and vicious!! lol.

Funny poo explosion story. We were awoken to a huge noise in her nappy!! lol. So DH goes to change her and I went to see the damage. As he's lifting her legs to put the new nappy on she's not quite finished and poo goes everywhere and hits me standing 2 metres away!!!!!!!!!!!! It was all down my front. I think it would have hit the other side of the room if I wasn't standing there!! Unbelieveable.

I can't believe how much Grace is feeding today, it seriously feels like she has been on the boob more than off!! How will my nipples ever have time to heal!!

Heaven- LOL, that happened to me when Ash was 3 weeks old, not much fun! I'm finding the more I feed the tougher my nipples are getting, or maybe they've just gone numb from feeding so much.

Meg- Yep I'm with you, just doing what works and what I feel comfortable with. Think 2nd time around I just feel alot more confident with what I am doing and don't care what others think.

OP- That sounds like my story, every time I put Em down 10mins later she is upset again. Get her all settled try again and same thing just goes on from one feed til next.

So we didn't have best night either, Em was pretty unsettled from 2am til 5am think I got like 10min naps in here and there. This lack sleep makes me so teary. She is quite different from Ash alot harder to settle and keep asleep.

We went and had photos done today, got a nice family one and one of the 2 girls together. Of course Em slept right thru and was so well behaved then bet tonight she'll decide its awake time.

Shell - sounds like you are having a tough time. How do you go getting up to Ash? I find that the biggest killer is getting up with the toddler.

Heaven - the poo story is so funny, but I am betting it will happen a few more times in her lifetime yet!! :)