Babies born~April 16th-30th 2010 #1

PPS.

Just realised I had already mentioned the cot thing. I am a double dorkburger and clearly overtired!

LOL Maranui!! Great news about easily moving Louis to the cot.. great that you're enjoying mothers group too, i'd really like to get going to one but our local one doesn't start til mid-july, i do have a couple of friends recommending local pre-school groups etc - won't be all new mums but will be some support, however have to wait to get a car first.

Kirley - glad to see on FB re the big sleeps.. i'm still on small ones but was pretty happy last night that Shea went 4 + 4 so i got about 3 & 3.5 hrs of sleep.. i've just gotta start going back to bed after the early morning 5 or 6 am feed but i find i can get stuff done at this time that i wouldn't otherwise and i'm generally coping on the 6hrs a night at the moment... would love more tho of course :)

Kellie good luck with the osteo. i love cranio-sacral therapy, really seems to be good for so many things & i know a friend doing osteo for her own gut issues & feeling much better :)

Bellamia - glad you're having such a good time with Taz and thank you so much for the support. once i have transport i'll arrange to come down and catch up for a cup of tea ;)

AFM Shea fed much better overnight and this morning, got him on both boobs and when letdown got to strong topped him up with an EBM bottle - i know they say not to use bottles too much at this age but i can't just leave him hungry and screaming & i figure if i'm having to express before feeding to make boobs more manageable for him then i'm better using it than throwing it or i'm only going to boost my milk supply beyond what he needs..

DH update - said last night he was thinking yesterday that i was right about it not being a good time to sell this house and that if he found a room in a shared house cheaply then we can sort out with c/link that we're separated - 'even if he doesn't stay at the other place much' - so it seems like he's calmed down from the weekend and is planning to stick around longer with us after all. but rather than swallow pride and say he's reconsidered he's going with the property market excuse.. i told him about my plan to buy a little place & that i'll need his help with it. didn't say much, probably surprised i'm thinking ahead now!

i have a good friend arriving from sydney tonight til sunday, she's a nanny very experienced with newborns - woohoo! and DH flies out tomorrow first thing to adelaide & sydney, coming back when friend goes so we're going to have a lovely girly few days :D Funny thing, DH has a late meeting and so he may have to pick her up from airport instead of me, bet he's not relishing being in a car with one of my friends for 30 minutes LOL!!!

Shona - sorry to hear there are still flight strikes in uk but you're right, at least you'll be on local soil. hope that the wind problems abate before you go... do try and keep in touch occasionally while you're away and let us all know how you're going :)

Majella - are you out there??

hi to everyone else xx

Shona - you have prolly already said and I missed it, but when are you going to the uk? pretty soon by the sounds of it! Good luck with packing and on the flight - I hope elliot is ok on such a long flight for you!!

HC - Lol about your DH having to sit in a car with your friend :)... im pretty lucky that most of my friends my DH is pretty good friends with too.. however i could imagine a couple of them would drive my DH bonkers! haha.

Yay for me that Will has woken up for his two morning feeds (7am and 10am) and gone straight back to sleep - he went straight back to sleep all night too without any fuss... which is great for me because i have been coughing non stop all night... had about two hours sleep cuz i've been coughing soo much.... I slept on the couch so I wouldn't wake up William (and John although he'd sleep thru anything)....not that i did much sleeping *sigh*....but he has gone back to sleep so i've been able to do work, have a shower, eat breaky, and now type on here. I really hope he is just having a growth spurt and needs sleep... and its not that he's getting sick :(.... will keep an eye on him. Have to wake him up shortly for a bath as we are going to look at his baby photos today :) yay.

Have a good day xxx

hi everyone

we went to the osteopath this morning, and I am crossing my fingers, but at this stage I think it has helped slightly. His first feed after we got home, he actually came off himself after about 5 minutes, so I sat him up and he did a massive burp, this happened 2 more times during the feed. Usually he'll keep drinking until he is completely full. He has now been asleep since about 4, I cant remember the last time he slept this well during the day, he usually wakes up squirming and crying in pain. She wants to see us again next week, so I'm hoping he'll be even better then.

In terms of getting his lower wind out, she suggested laying him flat, pushing his knees towards this chest and rotating the legs clockwise. Apparently this pushes the air out of the bowel, but you have to do it in a clockwise direction.
She also suggested to get burps up, to find where this rib cage finishes, and massage on it and press upwards if that makes sense, I cant explain it. She also suggested I express a little before feeds to help with flow issues, which I think one of you already suggested.

Anyway, just thought I'd let you know how I went, for others in a similar position, it is probably worth giving an osteo a try. Hopefully the improvement continues.

Hi Kellie - am so glad the osteo went well for you. Fingers crossed it works. I am going to try the clockwise leg thingo on Louis.

I'm off to an Australian Breastfeeding Association thing this morning. Hopefully Louis is in a better mood than he was yesterday as he was FOUL and feeding every 2 hours. Last night he screamed (not cried) before we finally got him down - he was a very overtired strung out wee boy!

xx to the rest of you :)

Kellie: such good news on the osteo, hopefully your little man will get some relief. We had another bad night, squirmed and cried intermittently throughout the night, didn't finally pass the wind until his 6am feed :( Seems to be more of a problem at night for some reason, perhaps beacuse he is laid flat. Will be trying to do clockwise legs and see if it helps.

Maranui: I have often wondered how many of our "issues" are caused by us being new parents too, you certainly learn on the job and there are no hard and fast rules! I always seem to end up using the breast as a solution to most things and sometimes not sure whether it is the right thing to do but when we've exhausted all the other options and still have a screaming baby I don't know what else to do! Hope the ABA thing went well, I did consider going to one locally but chickened out! We are talking about number 2 as well so musn't be as bad as it sometimes seems and sure we will be much better prepared and equipped!

We are off to UK on 7th June, non stop Sydney to London but thankfully have a bassinet seat so fingers crossed we will get through 24 hours on the plane!! I am taking some formula as I have a major fear of something happening to my milk en route and him starving before we touch down again! Have to admit i'm a little unsure about 24 hours of BF in front of other people, there's not much room to move on those seats! I am still at the stage where I need to look at Elliot for successful attachment and may end up with my head stuck under a blanket! I think that my G size boobs may scare the other passengers or at least put them off their meal!! Well must go, lots of packing still to do!

Shona - ABA thing was really nice. Hosted by one of the trained counsellors at her place and it was nice to talk to some experienced mums and not feel pressure to come up with another topic (ie baby centric was totally acceptable). Anyway - a girlfriend of mine recently flew from NZ to London with a 4month old. It went really well as the white noise from the engine was like a tranquilliser - had you thought of that - I certainly hadnt but it makes sense :) When L is revolting I often put him the the laundry with the dryer on on his bouncer and it calms him right down. But she did have a tip - which is that you should remember to drink plenty of water (double what you normally would) as you need to combat dehydration for two rather than one. She also fed slightly more often to keep fluids up so kept an eye out for those non sleep related hungry signals like lip licking ;) So as soon as you are on the right side of the security barrier I would buy some big water bottles if I were you :). I am sure you will be fine. It's all about mum being confident right ....lol, this is from the woman whose son has an aversion to outings in the pram.

Wow 7th June, Shona that is sooo close!! You must be excited!! :)I'm sure everyone will love looking at boobies for 24hours :) lol.... Im also a watcher to see how William attaches... he is getting much better on the right side and pretty much does it himself... its the otherside that causes the trouble and also has a faster flow.

I had a very overtired baby by 6pm last night so he was into screaming also... worked himself into a sweaty state!! Gave him a bath to calm him down after we all had dinner and discovered he had huge rashes on both his arms around his elbow. Still there today so it mustn't have been a sweat rash... just keeping an eye on him... He seems to be ok today though which is good.
Still wakes when i put him downthough for a sleep so off i go to go an get him again. He has to be totally out of it to stay asleep when put down *doh*

maranui: thanks for the tips, all help greatly received! We have bought the formula today, just for my piece of mind. Just bought a couple of cartons of the ready made stuff, fingers crossed I won't have to use it, will make sure I drink heaps of water.

kirley: hope this evening has been better than last, overtired babies are such hard work! Tried to settle Elliot without dummy tonight, every time I put him in bassinet he would go from almost asleep to wide awake, DOH! Went for a hour and then succumbed to dummy and he has gone straight to sleep, oh well whatever works!

Our little man has been awake most of the day today and interactive which is lovely. Hoping for a good night.

Thanks Shona, he was a bit easier tonight. Was still overtired today (hadn't slept since morning!) and DH tried to put him to sleep... but mummy's got the milky ;) lol. once he had another feed (althought he'd already had three in two hours!!) he went to sleep pretty quick after. He is still sound asleep nearly three hours later.... atm doing some washing so hoping he'll wake up in about an hour and a half when the dryer is all done :) then i can feed him and go to bed!! Nothing to do tomorrow, so hopefully he will let me sleep in!! *fingers crossed*

Maranui - glad the aBA meeting was good, how did you come across that, are you an ABA member?

Kirley - hope you had a good night last night..overtired bubs are SUCH hard work. I'm tempted to think turning to the boob isn't such a bad thing, fed and sleepy seems so much healthier than possibly hungry and screaming! i try to feed whenever he's hungry though i must admit to occasionally refusing too if he's fed a billion times in a few hours - it just makes you so tired!

Shona - hopefully the plane does knock him out. I know my sister always gave her little one calpol before a flight and she would be out the whole way.. mind you that was european flights not 24 hours - may be worth picking some up over there though ;)
Kellie - great news on osteo :) I'll try and remember that clockwise cycling thing too...

We've had a challenging few days - either heaps of sleep and not enough feeding or heaps of feeding and not enough sleep. There seem to be the two issues: the thrush means he can get a sore mouth during a long feed and often even if i switch breast to bottle he'll keep screaming. he's saying neh that he's hungry but he won't feed and it's really difficult. i just have to try and get him to sleep which is an issue in itself right now (like your boys he wakes up every time he goes from arms to hammock!! have just popped dummy in and thankfully that seemed to do the trick). the second issue is too forceful a letdown - the only solution has been to express milk before feeding, he then manages about 5 mins or so on each boob before it gets too strong - but then he'll scream so i'll end up giving him the bottle i expressed to finish him off.. i'm just getting concerned about him starting to prefer the bottle to the breast - wondering if he's just getting lazy at the breast mid feed and taking the bottle as an easier option. I'm thinking i may have to try and just bf for a day or so and when he starts screaming just stop feeding even if he's still hungry - the hard thing is i then have a day of screaming and holdinghim in my arms and getting nothing done & no rest (i.e. wed from 11am til 8pm it was constant and i was exhausted!)

good thing is my friend is here and she has been able to hold, bottle feed & settle him too, so we actually have managed showers, cooking & some tidying up ;) took our first trip out somewhere yesterday - went to a shopping centre and he had his first pram ride - fell asleep the whole time as he loves movement.. i felt like a proper mummy with a pram etc :D then i expressed plenty of milk & my gorgeous, gorgeous friend had shea in the lounge with her & did the two night feeds and i slept from 10pm-6am only waking once when i heard her heating up a bottle about 3am.. i feel human today :dance: we're going to try and get house all tidied this morning and then head up into the mountains for a nice lunch... really enjoying having her here and girly weekend..

seems dh is on best behaviour too as he headed away yesterday moning but i got a phonecall at the end of the working day to ask how shea was etc, been a long time since heard from him when away..

OOOOhhhh..other bit of news, i told my dad (in UK) what's going on at home with DH and he obviously got all worried about me.. he booked a flight and arrives on sunday night!! staying til thurs morning.. flying visit but be great to see him as it's been 2 years. DH won't know what's hit him.. i won't tell him til i collect from airport (he'll be tired and hungover after a sat night with big drinking buddy in sydney) and have to tell him my dad arriving in about 4 hours...ah ha ha ha ha.. means he'll stay in bed with me for a few nights which i still like ;) think he may work long hours - he was apparently very chatty with my friend on the airport journey wed but think he'll be a bit more worried about spending time with my dad in case of a 'chat'...

hope you all have a lovely sleep filled weekend with limited gas :pray:

Take two of trying to put William down for a sleep. He woke up the first time after ten minutes again *sigh*

Shona - prehaps you should take a manual breast pump onto the plane also in case the noise does make him sleep for a while!! Then you won't have super painful boobs & a fussy baby when it comes to feed time cuz it will prolly be fast flow - cuz 24hours is a long time in a confined space!! Good luck when you get there also, because i'm pretty sure Elliot will suffer Jet Lag also from the time difference. Everything he and you will have gotten used to will change!! But i'm sure you guys will adjust really quickly! :)

HC - how do you know Shea's mouth is sore from the Thrush?? I haven't noticed that William is in any pain :S.... it doesn't really seem to affect him, nor does the rash on his bottom...however I did use a Lanolin nappy cream on the rash yesterday morning and this morning and even just using it yesterday it seems to have taken a majority of it away!!I have noticed that he doesn't like the taste of it in his mouth though. He does this little 'chew' motion and pulls a disgusted look quite often.

yay! I find with William the only time he refuses (and its not total refusal - he tries and then pulls off or fusses around and stays latched but pulls my boob all sorts of ways and his hands go crazy with grabbing me!!) is when the flow is too fast; and if so he usually comes off himself and i just letdown (or hand express) into the nappy. I don't even save it. Sometimes its still really fast for him after letdown for a while. so i take just a few squeezes out and then give him another go. My left boob is funny how its faster than my right - i have this one stream of milk that seriously squirts 10cm!! He can never drink it - poor little fella and when he comes off it squirts him in the face!! lol quite funny really to see. The other time he gets like that is when he needs to burp. And usually if he hasn't attched and stayed attached first go - he will always need to burp not long into the feed. So sometimes i might have to burp him every two minutes until the flow gets enough for him to handle and he doesnt have air gulpy feeds.
When he gets tired and he's already had a feed and i know hes not hungry (cuz he will search for boob; i give it to him and then he spits milk back out everywhere again).. then i hold him like i'm feeding him and pop the dummy in. Cuz he doesn' tlike the dummy all that much it takes a couple go's but usually he will take it and then eventually go to sleep.
Even if you just try bf for the day - don't worry about doing everything.... at least its a process of elimination and you know if he does just want the bottle cuz its easier.
Yay for seeing your dad....

*doh* will is awake again *sigh* be back later!

Third time lucky prehaps??
This is usually what happens all day - I put him to sleep, put him down in his bed and he wakes up about five or ten minutes later:wall:

On the breast as a solution topic: I always do that - i figured i'd rather him be happy and comforted (and i suppose babies would take it as a feeling of love) than be lying in a room screaming via controlled crying. *shrugs* but thats just my take on it. I think yes if there is absolutely nothing i can do and he's chucking a tantrum (which so far Will hasn't) then yes there is a place for controlled crying - but I just can't do it.
Usually he will take at least a small portion of milk from me - then if he really is full and we've tried it a couple times and he keeps spitting it out; then he will welcome a cuddle. But i know when he is overtired he always looks for breast (whether it be on me or DH) for comfort - so i figure he wants it so i'll let him.

Um there was something else i was guna type about but now i have no idea what it was!! oh well....

Oh yeh... i remember now!!
Does anyone else's bub choke alot?? Will seems to choke on milk (if he keeps too much in his mouth) or even on his dummy if he doesn't want it in and he can't spit it right out.... It's like he has a weird gag reflex and man he goes blue sooo quickly it scares the crap out of me!! I have to belt him on the back to get him to breathe. Very scary!

Maranui - Just a quick post to you about when Louis won't take the breast because he's overtired. Maybe try giving him about 10 to 15mls in the bottle to knock the top off his hunger then offer the breast. I have had to do this from day 1 cause I had such a hungry baby.. It hasn't caused any on going issues with breast confusion and you then don't have to give him whole bottles but in saying that.. i wouldn't worry too much about the bottle thing as I feed Ethan on the breast 15mins both sides then top him up with formula after that every feed and he happily does both.. Good luck..
Sorry no persies but I hope you are all well..

Helllloooooooo
Where is everyone?

For those of you with bubs with wind issues, I definitely recommend the osteo. Lewis is like a different baby! Still has wind but heaps bettr, no more inconsolable pain cries! And so many smiles now!!

kellie: we have been doing clockwise legs and it really works HUGE THANKS X

HC: have a great time with your Dad, I hope he gives your DH heaps, he definitely deserves it!

Now just a growth spurt to contend with, feeding every 2-3 hours just in time for our 24 hour flight!!

Got to go last minute packing to do x

Kellie - ditto from me.. legs = lots of farts!!

SL - dad has promised to say nothing tho wants a man chat.. dh away over wknd and got calls and textx every day even when out with boys.. go figure!! then huge row last night but shared bed cos dad here and then cuddles & dtd this morning.. no idea where his head is.. i'm not complaining about this morning tho LOL!!! good luck with growth spurt & big feeds.. so glad u guys have a bassinet seat! doing first solo flight next wk but just to sydney.. taking shea for a week and leaving dh home alone..

great wknd with friend.. like having my own wife, looked after shea, cooked and helped me tidy and clean who;e house :-)

kirley-no choking probs here. how's william doing?