Babies Born July 2007 #7

[Megan76]

Thanks Mel! I think i will just have to keep persisting and put him in it everyday. Its such a bugger when its a nice day and he will only last 10 minutes in the pram. I will have to try him in it to sleep at mum and dads or somewhere where it doesn't matter if he sooks for awhile! Might try a pram liner too. He is a fussy boy!

Well done Relle on becoming a doula!!

[Megan76]

Jem and Rebecca - sorry we were posting at the same time. I am not wrapping Lucas anymore cos he loves his hands too much so not sure that that would make a difference. I think i probably have just given up too quickly and need to do it more often. He has his moments in the car but is getting better!

Glad (well not really) that i am not the only one with a cat napper. I hear of these babies who sleep for 3 hours at a time during the day----unheard of! He has been in bed for an hour and a half now and that is HUGE!!

Another question...if your babies wake at night do you just automatically feed them?

[mrscricket]

Hi girls - thanks for your lovely welcomes. It is great being able to chat to girls with bubs the same age. I am in a mums group, but we are still all abit shy and pretending that our babies are perfect and sleeping 28 hours a day and changing their own nappies. Hopefully that will change once we all become a bit more comfortable with each other.

Mel - Tom is on Losec which he started about 6 wks ago and i have noticed such an improvement. You just feel so sorry for them and helpless!

Megan - Tom hated going in his pram until we raised the back up a little so he could see out more. He will now go in it awake and look around before falling asleep, whereas before he would just scream blue murder. Although he wakes up very quickly if you stand still for too long - makes it hard to look at things when shopping etc. He also was (is?) a catnapper until about the last week, where something seems to have happened but not sure what. He sleeps 2-3 hours for his morning nap and roughly 1-2 hours for other naps. It was around the time that i put him into the cot in his room, instead of the cradle in our room. I think his room may be darker than ours, because he isnt waking up as soon as it is daylight. I also took away the mobile above his bed (mean mummy, i know) because he thought it was playtime when he open his eyes. Now he just has a music box that plays a bit of a light show on the ceiling for 5 minutes and music. He still wakes up after about 30-40 mins but i just pop his dummy back in and put his music box on, and hopefully he goes back to sleep. I am waiting for this nice sleeping pattern to change again though because i have learned that nothing ever stays the same with a baby!

Tom is asleep now so i am relaxing after rushing around doing the housework. When he wakes up, i will start getting prepared to go to my parents-in-law for tea (doesnt it just take forever to leave the house with a baby!). Looking forward to a lovely home cooked meal, but not looking forward to the endless 1950's parenting advice my MIL dishes out, like honey on dummies, sugar in bottles and starting solids at 3months . My husband spends the whole time shouting 'Mum things are different nowdays!'.
Hope you all enjoy the rest of your day. Em x

[DoulaRelle]

Thanks for all of your woohoos girls, I am pretty excited in case you can't tell! lol

Megan, I do not necessarily feed him, depending on the time, I would try and plug him with a dummy for a couple of turns if it is before 5.30am to feed him, but after 5.30am my other kids are awake so I would feed him, so he can go back to sleep around 7am. I also found that Angus is not great in the pram all of the time, but I just have to keep doing it as I have 3 littlies, I am not able to hold him cause I have to chase after the 3yo as well whiel the 18mo is in the toddler seat.

[jemima]

Megan - re your question on feeding the baby if they wake during the night - I usually try and put the dummy in and see what happens. Sometimes Charlotte goes back to sleep other times she wants to be fed.

Em - I hear you on how ridiculously long it takes to leave the house with a baby - it is frightening LOL!! I also hear you on the "helpful" 1950's advice!!
Some of the classics I have had are "jus let him cry - crying helps the babys lungs develop" and "try feeding him vegemite soup" and "give him some water with sugar in it"!! Ahhhh - I just count to ten and take a deep breath!! HAve fun!

[Megan76]

Em - i think we have the same music box! I was also a mean mummy and took his mobile down...there is nothing worse than playtime at 3am! I agree about the routines forever changing! Just when you get used to something they go and change!

Relle - I admire anyone with more than one child at the moment! I have no idea how you do it!!

Lucas must have known i was whinging about the catnapping as he has been in bed 2 hours...woo hoo!

[Megan76]

3 hour sleep this afternoon - very funny!!!

[Meluchja]

Hey just quickly popping in ladies,
Megan, I currently use the Steelcraft pram liner, you can buy it from Tartget, KMart, anywhere. It's very soft and cushiony, and for the price I think it was about $20-$30 you can't go wrong. Yey for the big sleep!

Em, hope you have a yummy dinner, don't you agree they always taste better when you don't have to cook them?

Re the dummy at night, I wish in someways, Jack had taken to a dummy, for that same reason I can try plugging him up with it when he wakes at night, rather than a feed. I try every now and then to see if he has changed his mind, but he still hates it. Even Charlee tries to give him hers, which is so cute. Does anyone have any other ideas on how I could settle him over night when he wakes?

Better get back to this packing, got a far bit done today, just trying to make the most of our time alone without Charlee being here to help.

Jem, Mum did come get her, and she is staying the night with her. I feel horrible for it, especially because she is sick. Yummy ice cream, you are naughty, but I must admit I polished of DH other Gaytime last night, it was divine.

Relle, BTW another congrats for the BF I missed that one originally, good on you!!!!!

BBL ladies, take care all.

[Enchanted]

Hi everyone!

I always say I will get around to doing personals and never do! Sorry guys!

Well WOO HOO to you Relle! How very very exciting!!

Just to make this a selfish post and whinge about me... a few of you may have seen my very confused posts around BB the past few days trying to figure out this whole bfing thing and whether or not I should continue. I really want to keep bfing, I am emotionally attached to it I think and I feel guilty not doing it (I have been ffing DS for the past 3 days). So after some great advice from a BB member I am going to try and continue bfing and when I go out will ff if I have no expressed milk. (I am shy about feeding infront of quite a few friends and won't bf in public. I hate making people feel uncomfortable). So I think I am a bit happier now.

For some exciting news.... I put Oscar on the floor last night (on his belly) and he rolled straight over onto his back! I thought "No way!" so I put him back and he kept doing it and doing it! WHat a clever little cookie! So it must be the week for it Tracey!!

I better go and get dinner organised (still have no idea what we are having). Hope everyone else is going well and I will really try to post in here more often!

xx

[Ngala]

hey everyone!

Welcome to all the newbies. I havent really got time to do personals tonight cause I still got to feed Avaleigh, make dinner and get to a gym class. And thats all to be done in the next 2 hours!!

I've just got a little bit of a dilema that I want some help with. As you all know my wedding is coming closer and closer (YAY) but I am really unsure of how I am going to be feeding Avaleigh. My first thought was to express enough milk out to last all weekend but that is going to be a heck of a lot of milk, probably 4 days worth!! I was then thinking today that maybe I should put Avaleigh on formula for the weekend and then I will just express my milk and dump it. But then I was thinking that I only want to be feeding Avaleigh up until 5 or 6 months and our wedding is before she turns 5 months. So I really dont know what to do!! My way of thinking at the moment is to get her on to formula before then cause its just going to be easier....

What do you all think??? To those that are BFing, how long you planning to BF for??

AHHHH better go, got a hngry baby that is now crying cause her mummy is on the computer and not feeding!!

Would really appreciate to know what all your thoughts are

[Enchanted]

V- I have just found that there are plenty of people who ff and bf their bubs all the time or even for just a day or week. If you decide to ff over your wedding weekend you can always give Avaleigh the expressed bm or you could freeze it for another time.

[Ngala]

Danielle - Yeh I was thinking of FF Avaleigh over the weekend but then was worried that she wouldnt take the breast milk anymore..

[Meluchja]

Veronica, I'm thinking about FF Jack while I go into hospital for some ankle surgery next month. I was really worried about him then not taking the boob again. But I'm sure he will, if he is hungry enough. Another idea is maybe give Avaleigh a bottle or two of formula before the wedding to make sure she will drink it, and then she might get used to BB then FF, BB then FF IYKWIM, then maybe breast refusal won't be a worry, just a thought. Have fun at the gym, I can't wait to start back up after my surgery.

Oh and I plan to BB as long as possible this time around. Once Charlee went onto formula we had all sort of problems start up. I was planning to feed her for 6 months then just see what happened but we didn't get that far, I think it was around 5 months.

[CrystalBoo]

Hi everyone It's really getting busy in here! I haven't been able to keep up with things this last week or so. Autumn (after always being a champion night sleeper) has now decided to wake every 2 hrs. Couple that with 3 30-40 daytime naps and I've got a bad case of the eye burns. I was worried I might be losing my milk, but she was weighed today and is still gaining. Doing a quick check, I notice that a few other bubs are having sleep issues too so maybe it's a growth thing?

Mel, Autie won't take a dummy either - I spent a fortune trying every different kind and still try it now and then, she thinks it's a game. The frustrating thing is, she took it no problem when born, but then she got sick and went to the special care nursery and they passively discouraged it by just not giving it to her. The only other way I get her off to sleep in the night without feeding is to turn her on her side slightly and jiggle her bum while rubbing her tummy with the other hand - takes more effort than I've got 6 times a night... Hope things are seeming a bit cheerier for you BTW

Jo - Hi, I put Autumn's first needles off for two weeks until DH was home to help me cope if she got sick (also to hold her so I wouldn't seem like the baddie) and there was no problem. I'll be doing the same for the 4m ones as well.

Sara - Autumn has loved poking her tongue out right from the start - now she mainly does it when hungry. She sleeps on her side quite often but I have her in a Safe and Sound snuggler so she can't roll onto her tummy.

Rebecca - I'm jealous of your hair cut! I look like crap at the moment, but I do have appointments next week to do something about it - had to split the colour and cut into 2 sessions in case DD decides to demand a feed.

Megan - 8-5am sounds like pure heaven to me!

Relle - Congratulations, that's an awesome achievement

Ngala - I hope to be able to bf exclusively until at least 6m then add it in with solids, but Autumn is big for her age and I'm not sure I'll be enough for her so may need to supplement with formula. I must admit, I'm trying to put that off as long as she is still gaining something. I'm a big BF fan so I would encourage the expressed milk but I can't express at all so I understand it's not always the realistic option. Another thought is that you could get someone else to always give the bottle so she knows you = boob.

Whew! It's like writing an essay keeping up with everything! Hope everyone has a sunshine and rainbows week.

PS. Anyone else got a baby who turns their head away to sneakily lick the bath water...?

[Starfish]

V - I am pretty sure that if you want to give Avaleigh formula over the weekend and then going beck to breastfeeding, it should be fine. Has she had EBM from a bottle? If so, you shouldn't have any problems. Having said that, if you have enough frozen EBM it might just be easier to give her that... I am planning to breastfeed Diana until she's about 2 (if she wants to that is).

Danielle - yay re Oscar rolling! Diana has rolled from her back to her tummy a couple of times a few weeks ago, but hasn't really done it since.

Megan - if Diana wakes at night, I automatically offer her the boob. We co-sleep, so I just bring her over and put the breast in her mouth and hopefully go back to sleep.

Em - welcome back.

Hi to everyone else.

I have decided today that I am going to look for another job as my current one is not working out. Fingers crossed that I get something that I can do well in, enjoy, that fits into our life and that pays decently soon.

[CrystalBoo]

Has anyone ever tried drinking Guinness to help increase bm?

[Ben's Mum]

Megan - I am hearing you re the pram and the cat napping! Ben is ok in the pram when we are just going out and about, but lately when I have been taking him for a walk and he is due to sleep he just cries and cries and I end up carrying him and pushing the pram!
At the moment too he won't sleep any where but in my arms. Very tiring as it means I get no break from him during the day. He sleeps anywhere from 20 mins to 45 mins. He seems happy enough though so I am not really worried too much about that. I just need to persevere with putting him in his cot for sleeps. I hope he 'changes' soon and sleeps more!
Good on Lucas for a 3 hour sleep! Were his ears burning!
And yep, when he wakes during the night I just feed him. I am not up to rocking him for ages and him crying. Much happier night for both of us if I just give him a feed. (BTW Ben doesn't have a dummy)

Congrats Zyon on rolling over!

Congratulations Relle on becoming a Doula!

Mel - good luck with the packing! It is the worst thing about moving!

Daniel - I know what you mean about feeling guilty about the FF. I had to comp feed Ben for a few weeks when he was born as my milk took a few weeks to come. I felt bad too, but in the end realised the most important thing was he was getting a good feed and both of us were happy. You have to do what is right for you!
Yay for Oscar on rolling over! I am doing tummy time with Ben now when he has his boots off each day and hoping he will roll for me soon!

Veronica - Congrats on your upcoming wedding! I really have no advice re the BFing. I am hoping to BF Ben for at least a year, although by then I imagine we will be down to just one or two BF's a day. I plan on introducing solids at 6 months.

Sacha - I always think I am loosing my milk! Am having Ben weighed this week so am looking forward to the reassurance I am not! I drank stout when I was still in the hospital with Ben - the midwives told me to, to help my milk come. I don't really think it helped, but there are worse things you could do i guess!

Starfish - Good luck with the job hunting

We have had an interesting day. Ben slept for a total of 1.5 hours for the whole day! And he wasn't grumpy either! When ever he seemed to be getting tired I would offer him a feed and then he would be revived and ready to go again! I hope this doesn't affect his night sleep (except if it is in a good way!)

Mel

[jemima]

Sacha - I havent tried drinking guiness to increase BM but I like the sound of it LOL!!! I am sure Autumns sleeping or lack thereof is just short term - just the 12 week heebee geebees!!

Zofia - best of luck with finding a new job. I am sure you will find something that suits all of your needs and will make you feel happy and fulfilled.

Mel - I sometimes feel guilty when the kids have gone to my parents for the night but I always remind myself that they will be getting all this extra attention and spoilt rotten. Isnt it weird when you have one less child than normal - seems so quiet doesnt it!

Gotta run as Jesse has just woken up. I will BBL to say hi to everyone else.

BTW I feel sick from eating sooooo much icecream today. I have been a real piggy.

I had a mirena put in this afternoon so no more surprises for us!!