Welcome Cass2 (Ozzihoffy), nice to meet you and happy to share this journery with you. 3 1/2 hour labour sounds a wee bit intense! Glad that you are both doing well. Cuddles must be the prescription for today!

Cass, make the most of the 6-7 hours sleep. Hopefully it lasts for you, but I know from Grace she slept great for the first 2 weeks and has had a few unsettled nights recently which the maternal and child health nurse said was normal and would probably get worse before it gets better! I hope it doesn't get worse that's for sure!

Karina I hope the stinging feeling goes away. SOunds like you are doing the right thing pulling her off, ashame she then fusses though. I occassionally get a stinging/burning feeling which is caused by poor attachment so I have to take her off too. She fusses for a while but then gets back on. Other times I pull her off and if I'm too slow she will try to reattach herself, which is not good as she only ever gets the nipple, owee! We are probably going to get a hug a bub, glad the baby bjorn worked for you. I'm wondering what Catherine had too!

Sarah you must be buggard having to bus it! I couldn't imagine it, I didn't catch the bus before having Grace, lol! We have Grace's grandfather staying with us this weekend, which is great as it is their first meeting, but she has been so unsettled yesterday and today, and I wonder if it is because things are slightly different and there is a 'strange' voice here all the time. Plus DH went back to work today so he wasn't here for the first time either. It is so tiring. I was up almost every 30 minutes last night, not needing to pick her up but it was as if she needed reassurance that we were still here. Today she barely slept and when she did sleep she would only do it if we were cuddling her. I think she has had 45 minutes in her cot today. I finally got her into her cot at 9.30 so fingers crossed that she has a good sleep as I am finding it very exhausting. I think it must be overstimulation, there's so much to see! we tell her that we won't let her miss out on anything if there is anything to see. Gosh, I hope Xander is ok. Lucky they have hard heads and move on pretty quickly, can you imagine if an adult did that, we would be feeling sorry for ourself for days! lol! The giggle would have been weird! but cute. Grace does the elbow thing too - she is getting so strong. Dummy doesn't work in this situation, she is over my shoulder not near my boobs. Sometimes we have tried the other feed and she falls asleep on the boob but then wakes screaming as soon as I try to move her. We'll figure it out. In regards to cloth, we've only used flanalette flats which have been great but we've had to go to disposable at night as she wets too much and the flannies don't last - she hates a wet nappy so she screams! We have 2 pea pods but we haven't used them yet as they are still a wee bit big. If you can keep up with the cloth nappies thread they seem to be in the know, I can't keep up though!!

As I said, father in law over which is nice but having an unsettled daughter makes it very tiring. She was awake for 4 hours straight this afternoon, even a feed didn't knock her out!! lol. Hopefully she will sleep well overnight as she is so tired. Hard to nap when she is awake all afternoon, luckily grandpa was happy to hold her and let her sleep (she didn't want her cot this afternoon, liking cuddles) so mummy could go sleep, felt 100% better afterwards. Got a bit teary this evening when she fed and then wouldn't go to sleep again, just frustrated as to why she wouldn't sleep as she is so exhausted. DH gave her a bath (which she still hates) but settled afterwards with a feed and is finally asleep. yay. DH went back to work today so last night was the first night where I did it all myself as I wanted DH to sleep for work and she had the worst night yet! It was weird not having DH here today. He said it was weird being away as well. I couldn't imagine going to work right now, I couldn't leave her! Hope everyone else is having good nights and days.