Babies born~July 16th-31st 2009 #1

[Jess]

Sorry for the lack of posts - we've had a busy couple of weeks. I've got sick of sitting at home by myself and have been trying to go out every day. But Bridie's still not settling for the night until one in the morning... tiring. I thought they were supposed to cry less after 6 weeks as well, but no signs of that yet! Still feeding every two hours during the day, unless I take her out walking so she has a good sleep, then I get 3 hours. Hope she grows out of this soon, as the attachment is still not perfect so my BBs are often sore after feeding.
For Father's Day we had lunch with some friends who've just announced they are pregnant and due in January - it will be lovely to have another bub in my friendship group.

Lilprecious, congratulations to your sis! Is she on BellyBelly too?

Jasp - over supply sounds like a great problem to have, from the perspective of someone with a two-hourly feeder whose supply is only just keeping up! I hope you're freezing lots. It's such a pity that milk banks don't exist still, you could have helped lots of premmie babies with your extra milk!

Sagres - I haven't heard of Rumparoos, where do you get them from? Bridie's been in flat nappies so far as we live in Melbourne and don't have a dryer. But now the weather's warming up I'd like to try more MCNs.

[Fleur]

Jess hope your little one settles soon. Some of them take a bit longer I think, take heart, it won't be like this forever!
We do have a milk bank here on the coast, I have been in touch with them & am in the process of paperwork etc ready to donate

Lilprecious, congrats on being an Auntie

[lilprecious75]

Hi All,

Not sure how much I'll be in here in the next few weeks.
We have major issues going on at home and had a big blue with my FIL and now we have to move.
The tension in the house is incredible so we pretty much stay out all day long and only sleep here.
We looked at a place this evening that looks promising but isn't available for another 3-4 weeks and I'm not sure we can stand to stay here that long.

The boys are really stressed (James more so then Jeremy) and I'm fairly stressed and anxious as well.

I will keep everyone posted and once we have moved and are settled in and more relaxed I'll be able to pop in here more often.

[Sagres]

lilprecious - congrats on becoming an auntie! Sorry to hear you are having some family difficulties, hope things get smoother soon.

jasp - that is cool that you may be able to donate your milk. We don't have a milk bank in Adelaide....I would donate if I had an over supply but my supply is covering what Alannah needs and not a bit more. No that's not true, I went to a wedding over the weekend and did some extra expressing to leave some milk with nanna and by the end of the reception I reakon I could have donated a bucketful - ouch!

jess - I got the rumparooz from a friend who runs an online store and did a special order for me. She still has some stock left - her store is called borderline hippy (I don't think I can post a link to it). If you google rumparooz you should get to the US website which tells you all about them.

Alannah and I are going ok, we (DH, Alannah and I) all got colds last week which left us all a bit miserable but we are back on track now. It was affecting Alannahs sleeping - only sleeping for 1/2 hour at a time during the day instead of her normal 2 hours - but she is getting back into the swing of things now.

She has started doing the most adorable things, giving us big goofy smiles and we have cooing conversations where we 'oooh' at each other in turn. She looks so happy when I oooh at her and she does it back, she cracks the most excited looking smile - so lovely!

[Fleur]

Lil precious, sorry to hear about the family problems. Hope the move goes smoothly for you.

Sagres, hope you enjoyed the wedding lol at the 'bucketful'... it does get painful, doesn't it! Glad to hear you are getting over your colds & enjoying those smiles, they change & grow so quickly at this age.

AFM i have just come home from 3 days at my mums with the 4 kids, my sister is due any day now with her first baby (I was hoping it would happen while we were there!)
We also have colds, it is Arlea's first & my first this year! but nothing too serious, just a bit snuffly. I donated my first lot of milk last Friday, they will come & do a weekly pickup so that is nice.
Hope everyone else is well

[farmgirl77]

Hi,
Just getting back to BB after 'puter probs and coming to terms with being a mum! Hope to come up to speed soon with everyone here.

Archer was born on the 29th july - a little early - but all ok. Still struggling to adjust to being a mum and not being at work - and having control over things like feeding and sleeping...but we are getting there...i think!

Hope to get my head around those in here so I can be doing personals soon.
FG

[ladybird11]

Oh no, lilprecious I hope everything works out for the best. What a bad thing to have to go thru with a newbie in tow! Hugs hunny!

Farmgirl - when was Archer due? He shares the same birthdate as my son

Jasp - have you managed to shift the colds yet?

AFM - I am stoked that B slept for 7 hrs striaght last night . I have a suspicion it was due to just receiving his 2 mth immunisation on Saturday, but I'm not complaining. I woke up at 6am and thought, OMG - its daylight, what the!!
He's giving us cute smiles quite a bit now which is so rewarding IYKWIM. Other than that I should start planning his baptism before he will be too big to fit into the outfit .

How is everyone travelling themselves?

I'm trying sooo hard to shift this mummy tummy - I absolutely hate it! Although getting a bit more used to co-exsisting with it .

[lilprecious75]

Hi All,

Just popping in here to let you all know that we are still alive AND it is a good way to continue to ignore the pile of dirty dishes in the sink!!

We are still looking for a place to live and things are still tense in the house (FIL isn't speaking to us nor us to him)!

DS1 dissolves into tears whenever we talk about the move because he LOVES this house and doesn't want to live anywhere else so I'm glad the process is going a bit slowly so he can adjust to the whole thing.

Without giving a whole huge story, all four of us are sleeping in one room so when we move DS1 will have his own room for the first time in his life. He informed me the other day that DS2 will be sleeping with him in his room because he is HIS baby! If the rooms are right next to each other I think I will allow that. We shall see!

In other news, Jeremy just had his 2 month needles today. He was fairly unsettled all day (appointment was this morning) but went to bed easily at 8pm and I'm hoping he'll get a very good night sleep tonight. I really should think about going to bed early since he MIGHT sleep for a really long time but I have mastitis again and need to take my antibiotics at midnight! SIGH!! I suppose I could take them when Jeremy wakes for a feed but #1 he MIGHT sleep through the night and #2 I try not to take them just before I feed him!

We are getting smiles and coos and conversation from Jeremy now and it is so sweet to see. My sister-in-law had her first baby on the 28th (that was her due date)! A little boy who they named Thomas and he is just adorable. He is tiny - 2.9kgs which just makes Jeremy look HUGE! At nine weeks of age he weighs 6.6kgs and is 61cms long!!

Okay, need to wash the dishes and take a shower, have a snack and head to bed!

I hope everyone is doing well - it certainly is quiet in here!! I thought I would have heaps to read!!

[Jess]

Lilprecious, that's tough I hope you find a great new place soon.
Jasp, it's wonderful that you can donate your milk! Good on you! I hope your colds get better soon.

Mother's group topic today was sleep. I was complaining about how Bridie will only sleep during the day on a person/in a sling - and this afternoon I put her in her bassinet and she went to sleep without any rocking or patting, and stayed asleep for 50 minutes! Excellent, I should complain more often I really hope that it wasn't just a fluke and she's learning how to sleep by herself
How is everyone else doing on the sleep front?

[Sagres]

We are pretty good on the sleep front, Alannah is definately a good sleeper. She has long stretches of anywhere between 5-7 hours overnight (but some how her 7 hours stretches have started in the early evening so I only get to sleep for half of it ) and her sleeps during the day are around 2 hours long give or take 1/2 an hour. She normally has 2 or 3 sleeps during the day. If she has slept in the morning and afternoon she will stay awake between her feeds in the evening. If she has not slept much in the afternoon sleep she will sleep between the evening feeds.
75% of the time she puts herself to sleep pretty well, we put her in her basket when she is due for a sleep and showing tired signs and she does the rest herself. The other times she is unsettled and we hold/rock/walk her until she calms down and gets to sleep. This is normally in the evening.

How are others finding sleeping?

[lilprecious75]

Hmmmm... sleeping...

Well, generally during the day Jeremy takes most of his sleeps in the Hug-a-Bub especially now that I try to only be in this house for dinner and sleeping. But even when we do stay here during the day, I will try to settle him into the cradle, but if he doesn't settle the 2nd time I just put him in the Hug-a-Bub and go about whatever I need to do. I figure he needs the sleep more then I need him to sleep in his cradle right now. The stress and tension is too high in the house at the moment to add any more.

At night he settles into his cradle just fine but I do feed him to sleep. Then he will sleep anywhere from 2-6 hours so no real routine yet. But again, due to the stress and tension of the situation in the house I take what I can get. Once we are moved and the stress reduces for DH and myself the boys will settle down as well and then we'll see what happens.

James is so unpredictable. Tonight we left the bedroom to go find his grandfather to say goodnight to him and all of a sudden he called out for me and was crying hysterically. He couldn't tell us what was wrong even after he calmed down. His nerves are just raw and we really need to get out of this place!

Anyone have babies with goopy eyes? James and Jeremy both had conjunctivitis a few weeks ago and I treated it with antibiotic drops from the chemist but Jeremy has it again and I'm loath to use them as they hurt him so I'm treating it with breast milk for the time being! I'm googled using breast milk on the web but not finding a lot so might post something on here in a separate thread and see what I can learn.

I hope everyone has a nice holiday weekend. We were supposed to go to Bundanoon but that fell through so I think we are just hanging out here and enduring the house of stress and tension! But we really should spend the weekend inspecting places to live anyway!!

[ladybird11]

B sleeps well thru the night - about 5 -7 hrs in one stretch, so I can't complain either - although he only has short naps thru the day. I'm starting to feel he likes to be held to nod off to sleep - and I'm not getting into that habit too much!! I will hold him until he's settled, but he will just have to learn to to the rest himself. DD got herself off to sleep no worries and still does.
I've heard too many horror stories of babies who only sleep on their parents chests - and then end up co-sleeping (not knocking it if you want to do that), but it really doesn't suit our lifestyle....then before you know it parents are posting about their four yr old kids who refuse to sleep in their own beds / rooms....I ain't going down that line . I have a lot on my plate at the moment, and I'm not giving in to the little man just yet, otherwise the habit will form and I'll have myself to blame - consistency is the key...I hope this hasn't offended anyone, remember its just my two cents worth! .
At the end of the day I think ppl know their own situations best and what does and doesn't suit them.

Lil - B had a blocked tear duct, which we initially thought was conjunctivitis - we treated it with drops which helped a bit, but it kept on happening (thats when we figured it was the tear duct) so we just wipe it with a clean, damp cloth and it seems to have sorted the problem - I think the duct is no longer blocked.

I hope all are doing well!! Enjoy the long weekend!

[Jess]

There's a long weekend? Not in Melbourne, alas!
Well, after sleeping brilliantly this week, Bridie last night decided to wake up and demand food at three-hour intervals. She has been going to sleep in her bassinet more though, so I guess I should be grateful for that and hope she goes back to having a longer sleep at night tonight.
I've been trying to settle her in the bassinet each time I spot the tired signs, but if she's having trouble getting to sleep I'll put her in the sling and walk around. Now I know that she can do it sometimes I'm not so worried about her learning to sleep by herself - she'll do it more when she can, and in the meantime I'd rather have a sleeping baby in a sling than an overtired screaming baby in a bassinet!
It's frustrating how there's so much different advice on sleeping, and when they are developmentally able to self-settle, and when they need to be given the opportunity to self-settle or they'll lose the ability... and what age they should be sleeping through, or should they still wake for night feeds to make sure they continue growing properly... so confusing. I guess it's because babies are all different?

[Fleur]

Wow, it has been very quiet here... hope everyone is doing ok.

Arlea had her hip uSS on Tuesday.. all looks good so that's a relief.
She is doing great, not rolling yet but doing a kind of bum-hump where she pushes up with her legs & plonks her bum down again - she moves all around her rug like this & usually has to be rescued when she runs into the furniture!
She has her fists in her mouth a lot these days, too.

I am wondering if it is a good idea keeping her in our room... I have been wanting to move the cot in as she is waaay too big for her bassinette now, but I have noticed twice in the last two nights, she was stirring & instead of going to her as I usually would I let her go (once when I had no choice - I was busy expressing!) and she ended up self-settl;ing back to sleep.
It makes me wonder, I thought being able to get to her before she woke fully was a good thing, but maybe I should be leaving her more?
Problem is, with her right next to me, I hear every little movement & murmer... hmmm

Hope everyone is doing well.

Leesa

[belinda_76]

First to post!

Arlea Rose was born on Friday the 24th at 6:39pm, weighing 4770g (10lb8).
We had a few extra days in hosp in SCN due to her blood sugar being a bit low, apparently is not unusual in larger babies.
We arrived home yesterday & are settling in very nicely apart from feeding hiccups, I have severe oedema in my breasts which will hopefully sort itself out in a few days...

looking forward to seeing who else will join me...

hi jasp how is it all goin? i was with you in the thread with our pregnancys.....hope you remember me, belinda from coomera i had my baby girl on the 15th july.....how you feeling. joined any mothers groups yet??? talk soon x

[Tam83]

Hi, I am new to this forum. Our Son, Maison was born on the 16th July, 2009 at 12.11pm and a tiny 2.8kgs. I decided to come back onto BB as I am worried about our sons development and was curious what other babies the same age were doing.

Maison had his 3 month check up at the baby clinic and the nurse noticed that his head still lags quite a bit. She said not to worry yet but if it hasn't improved by 4 months then he will need to see a specialist. Maison is cooing, smiling (not laughing yet), he watches me with his eyes and turns his head when I am walking around the room, bats at his toys, kicks his legs, puts his hands in his mouth. But hates tummy time he can only hold his head up for a few seconds at a time before burrowing it into the carpert and starts crying.

I am so worried that he may have a developmental delay.

[Fleur]

Hi Tam

JMO - I'm no expert - but from what you have said I wouldn't be too worried right now. All babies are different, and an average by definition means that some will do it earlier & some later, kwim?

Sounds to me like he is pretty much where Arlea is...she is 12 weeks today.
She doesn't roll yet but shifts around by humping her butt
She is smiling but not laughing yet - although it is very close, we had one chuckle last night
She is cooing, chatting, batting at toys & putting her hands in her mouth - she hasn't quite got the idea yet that she can use her hands to grab things, but it is growing I think.
Her head & neck strength is very good but them it has been from birth & she was a big baby.
She doesn't really llike tummy time too much although she is getting better at it.

- I've just re-read your post & noticed how little he was! I think this can have a bit to do with it. All my babies were big & all did things just slightly earlier than 'normal'. Give him time to grow a bit & I'm sure he'll be fine!

I really don't think he's behind where he should be anyhow, he sounds as though he's doing just fine

Hi Belinda! I had been wondering about you & how you were. how is your baby girl going? What did you name her? Nice to see you in the thread

[Tam83]

Hi Jasp,

Your little girl Arlea is gorgeous and what a beautiful name. Thank you so much for replying to my post. Maison is doing all the things that you stated that Arlea is doing. He also humps the floor when doing tummy time . Last night he almost fliped himself over he was lifting his butt up so high it almost when over his head the only thing that stopped it was that he face planted his face into the ground.

The Dr made it sound like such a big deal that he did not have much head control so it totally freaked me out. I am thinking of taking him to a physical therapist to see what they think.

Thank you again