Babies Born~July 1st-15th 2009 #1

thanks ladies for your support. I am pretty much reconciled to comping Zac now. While it is disappointing, I believe we have given it a really good go and it's obviously just not going to pan out that way. He seems much happier now, although still pretty sleep resistant during the day, but you can't win them all!!

LotusFlower - thanks for telling me what you do with co-sleeping. I hadn't thought of the sleeping bag arrangement. We actually feed through the night so Zac spends the night snuggled up against my BBs :lol: his dad is a bit envious ;-) I wake up quite often and turn over so try to get both sides an even go. Zac seems to like sleeping on his side, so this works quite well as he is so close to me (and my arms around him) that there is no way he can roll over on to his face. The only problem I am having at the moment is that DH has been sleeping in the other room as he wasn't sleeping well, so I don't have anyone to mind Zac if I want to go to the toilet during the night... I have gotten very good at holding on :rolleyes:

My dad flew back home this morning so I'm back on my own again - it was so awesome having him here and he seemed to have a good time.

Jasp - hope your LC visit went well - did she by any chance have a supply of those magic pills? :pray:

hope everyone has a great weekend xxx

yeah i have done yet another b'day party yesterday my older son turns 4 today we had a party yesterday and again i was left to do the clean up by myself. my friend who had come to pick her son up after everyone had left had offered to help me but i had said it was ok ill clean up later my friend also run a party for her 7 yr old but still offered not like the grandparents. over all the party went well and im still cleaning but thats ok. anton n i have our 6 week check up tomorrow then im of to r.c.h with my 2 yr old daughter for her check up

Hi everyone... about to have dinner so just a quick post from me & I will try & get back later.

BFing is still not happening. The LC that came out on Thursday was interesting, she recommended different bottles & teats to what the hospital LCs had and demonstrated how Arlea's suck was 'wrong' - that is the first thing to correct, then she will move us onto shields, then breast. That is what she says & she sounds very confident in herself, I am hoping it is with reason! Hospital LCs are free & this lady charges $60 / visit. DH raised his eyebrows but if she works it will be more than worth it!

Arlea is much more settled than last week, I am thinking maybe she has had her first wonder week... she just settled all of a sudden, no more crying fits between 7 & 9, thank goodness! So that has made things easier. I am notincing a difference too in her alertness... you can see her focusing on things much more now.
She is sleeping well at night, she had 6 hours the other night. I didn't... I got up twice in that time to pump, the rest of the time I kept waking up wondering when she was going to wake up :doh:

Sorry for lack of personals, will try & get back later :) hope you are all doing great

hi everyone
Jasp - hope the LC tips work...you poor thing still having to pump when she is sleeping. though ikwym about still waking - J has done a couple of longish stretches - max 5 hrs - and i am still up watching him, wondering when he will wake and leaking LOL!! glad Miss A is more settled, I am really noticing changes in J more than i did with N - he is soo alert now, i love the smiles he gives me when I 'appear' above his moses basket!
Cate - you could prob go to the loo amd leave him there - maybe just pop him onto his back and make sure the cover arent near his face and he isnt near the edge... glad your dad had a great time, it must have been wonderful fro you to have him there too...

Hi Girls!
Hope you dont mind me joining in im only new to the forum.
I had my baby girl on the 13th of July she weighed in at 7 pound 4 now weighs 5 kilos
she was born 8 minutes after her due date

i look forward to getting to know everyone

Shan

Hi Shan - Welcome and congrates. I see you are aris girl like me

Hi Shan - welcome and congratulations! Look fwd to getting to know you...
Quick q from me - Jacob seems to have developed a flat spot on the left side of his head - any tips how to fix this? I will go ask the nurse but of course 1st hand experience from one of you guys is always better...

Pregagainpan - Sara had a left side flat spot, so much so that she almost had to wear a helment. My suggestions give more tummy time, when you put him down for a sleep switch basinette ends so he is laying on the other side. I went against SIDS guidelines and let her sleep on her tummy during day sleeps so that she was not lying on her flat spot. (I only did this when I could watch and hear her). It is good that you noticed this now as the problem can be recitfied without intervention. hth

Shan - Welcome!

Pregagainpan - go see a chiro or physio. Babies often will keep their head on one side due to a stiff neck or back from being curled up inside us. Grace is seeing a Chiro at the moment as she always curls up to her right. She loves the treatment and it is really helping. My sister put me on to this cause her DS had the same problem. His flat spot was pretty bad but now it is really improving.

AFM - Grace is still sleeping well and DD1's feet have recovered well after surgery. Now the only problem is that DH broke his thumb badly on the weekend and is now in a cast! Seriously, my family is in the wars this year! If he has surgery this month it will mean that all three of us have been under the knife this month! At least we are still laughing about it.

Welcome Shan!

Just a quickone from me...have a little monkey sleeping on my chest who needs to be put in her cot! She is changing so much...bought her a play gym a few days ago and boy has it speeded up her development, or at least I think it has! She has started to try and swat at the dangling toys, and tries to stick her thumb in her mouth. When she has her head on my shoulder she can lift it up and wriggles around lots. When she is lying down or on her tummy she can turn it from side to side and sometimes lifts it up a little when she is on her tummy. She has started "talking" and the noises she makes are so cute!! Is smiling lots too, but can never seem to get one of her big ones on camera!

She is sleeping really well at night too...usually put her to bed at about 9pm and she'll wake at 1 or 2 in the morning (sometimes 3!) for a feed then goes back down until 6 or 7. Although she woke up at 5am a few mornings ago..but gave her a feed and put her in bed with us and she slept until 9. The sleep in was nice! Daytime sleeps are a bit difficult...she doesn't seem to sleep much at all. Will sleep for a bit in her pram when we take the dog for a walk, and after feeds she'll nap for a bit if I'm holding her but will wake up in no time if I put her in her bassinette. She has been having one big sleep (3-4 hours) in the afternoon which is good, but I don't know if she is getting enough sleep during the day or not? She definitely doesn't conform to the "back to bed within 1 - 1 1/2 hours" rule but if I put her down she just wakes up again.

hi shan, welcome!

ryatha - hopefully that is your 'quota' for the year, if not for longer!

ryatha and storm - I have heard good things about chiro for babies. Also supposed to be really good if bubs has problems settling and sleeping as possibly they could be all out of alignment - and we all know how uncomfortable that is!

Storm - isn't it lovely when you can see them learning and growing like that? I have a little rocker/bouncer thing for Zac and he does a bit of 'boxing' with the toys dangling off the bar - very cute! Congrats on getting some good sleeps, but I hear ya on the daytime sleeping. We have some days where he will almost 'obey the rules', but generally he is up for at least 2 hours, sometimes much more :rolleyes: during the day...they're all completely different little people aren't they?

AFM - we've got the 8 week check up with MCHN this arvo. Hoping we will have some good news on the weight today as Zac has been very pleased to be getting more formula on top of BFs and seems to be much happier.

Spending some time with my sister in law as she has just started her maternity leave, so looking forward to some time with her before her life turns completely upside down :clap::clap:

shan - hi & welcome!

cate - good luck today, i had zac has had a good weight gain for you

preagainpan - corey had a flat spot when he was born & it was on one side so the nurse suggested turning his head to the other side during his daytime naps - i did this & it took no time at all to go.

ryatha - i agree with cate - you've definitely had your quoto for quite a long time!

jas - great news on arlea being more settled! i was just reading about wonder weeks. have you seen the LC again? i hope she's able to offer lots of help.

leckert - good to hear from you! sounds like blake is doing really well with some great weight gains! :dance:

bek - how's miss e going? is she still having some good sleeps & self settling?

afm, we had our 8 week MCHN appt on monday - the weight gain had slowed this time & it was only 500g in the 2 weeks :rolleyes: corey also had his needles yesterday morning. he was really good - he guzzled the oral vaccine (no surprises there!) & only a whimper for the needles. he went 6 hours between feeds in the evening & slept for 5 but i think that's just a side effect of the needles!

i've been trying to work on sleep here because i was reading the 'no cry sleep solution' book & realised that he's possibly not getting enough sleep - mostly during the day. he had some great naps on tues & i think that helped him not be so grizly between 4-6 but then he had more feeds than usual overnight. argh! so i'm not sure whether to keep going to consciously get him to sleep more during the day?

Hi everyone, thought I'd get a post in while I pump ;)

H iShan, welcome & congrats on your little girl!

Pre sounds like the others have given good advice, hope that flat spot disappears without too much fuss!

Ryatha.. oh boy you have all been in it! Hope your DH makes a speedy recovery & doesn't need surgery.

Storm... it is lovely to see them developing, so rewarding to get those smiles isn't it! Great to hear she is sleeping well at night. Arlea doesn't always sleep well during the day either, I wonder if it might be that we can have one or the other, but not both?

Cate GL with the appt this afternoon. Good to hear Zac is happy & doing well :)

Sloane - I definitely notice a difference when Arlea hasn't had much sleep,she is much crankier. I guess it depends what you cope with better? Cranky baby or lots of night feeds? Hard choice and i'm not sure which is the right one, hope you find a solution! :hug:

AFM ... appt with the LC on Monday went well, she pronounced Arlea's suck much improved & we tried her on a shield. A wasn't too impressed but did have a few sucks, enough to draw some milk down & LC said this was encouraging, to keep trying for at least 5 days & then again at 6 weeks if it's still not happening. Whether we keep trying in between is up to us.
The next day she had one feed of about 5 minutes on the shield & on Wednesday one feed about 10 minutes! - so I was getting all excited & then the last 2 days we have gone backwards again & she doesn't wwant to know about it :rolleyes: - but now I know what I'm looking for & I can see her suck has gone backwards also. So we keep trying.
:pray:

Apart from that she is still sleeping well at night, in her own kind of routine, she sleeps from about 9 - 9:30 till 2:30 -3am. Her last 'good' feed in the evening is at around 6:30, after that she jsut fusses. I have tried & tried to get her to have a later feed, also tried a dreamfeed - I wonder if she sleeps so well now how long would she go if she had that later feed? But she won't do it, I think she might be too tired - & she IS a lazy feeder! ;) so we might have to wait till she's a bit older.

She is smiling now & all the other kids are absolutely delighted by it it's very sweet to see.
I have my mum down this week helping out which is great...much needed...what will I do when she goes home?

Hope everyone else is well :)

Hi Jas - good to hear that you've made some great progress! I reckon it's often one step forwards and then one backwards, but how wonderful to know now that it can happen and what you need to look for! You will love having your mum there - my dad was here for ten days and I felt quite lost when he went home again!

Sarah - would you recommend the 'no cry sleep solution' then? I have problems getting Zac to sleep during the day without intervention (walks, drives, etc), especially towards the end of the day... as if 'arsenic hour' needs any help!

AFM - had our MCHN today. Zac has put on 280gms over ten days, so we're definitely heading down the right track now. So he is now 4.64kg, 59.2 cm long!! So I feel good about what we're doing :dance:

jas - i think i'd prefer the less cranky baby!! :lol: i figure that the night feeds will settle down at some point - whether in the short term or slightly longer term but a cranky baby will stay just that as long as they're not getting sleep! well, that's what i'm thinking today :p that's great news about arlea doing some feeds with the shield...i guess it's often a case of steps forward & then back before going forward again. you're doing an amazing job though - i hope it all just falls into place very soon.

cate - it has some interesting info & suggestions in there. i thought it was too early for any of that sort of thing for DS but there is a section for babies under 3 months. apparently there is also a no cry nap solution book as well that might be good? i'd say that it might not be for everyone but it's def worth a look - maybe even borrow it from the library first?

boy i cant beleive my little boy is almost 7 weeks he has grown out of 000 and is now in 00. i think my milk is ruuning out i was and still am hoping to feed him a little longer. am happy that today im getting my 8 seater wagon on the rd yeah for no more sharing a 5 seater car with the kids dad

so annoyed took my car to vic roads to get it registate find out that the r.w.c had the wrong year of manufactuered n 1 number wrong on the vin n engine number get the numbers all sorted to then find out i now have to get it registed in ballarat as the engine is classed as a ride off which is something we were not told when we brought the car. i still have to use kids dads car until monday now

Hi Everyone,
I haven't written for a while but just saw lots of comments on sleeping during the day! Sam has always not slept that well during the day but sleeps really well at night. A lady from the Breastfeeding association said to me to at least get him to sleep even if it is 20 minutes before his next feed as otherwise he will be be restless and not sleep well after the next feed either. It seems to keep making it worse as the day goes on. Some days he goes to sleep well - with intervention from me, but other days just doesn't want to drop off. I leave him to grizzle but if he starts crying then I get him and help him to relax again.
Sam had two days of being all over the place with his feeding and sleeping, I think it was the 6 week growth spurt? He was very grizzly as well but this morning seems much happier.
Well have had Sam down for an hour and he is grizzling again, wonder if he will get himself back to sleep?? Probably not!! Sometimes he does and other times he takes ages!!