Babies born~March 1st-15th 2010 #1

[Jandals]

Just a quick vent for now sorry ladies.

thrilled- I know exactly how you felt with your MIL. I have mine here at the moment and while she isn't quite as obvious as yours she still tries to grab Toby off me when he's crying. When she arrived at our place after DH picking her up from the airport she walked in to the lounge and I stood up to give her a hug and say hi and she proceeded to grab Toby and start cooing over him. Not even a 'hello' for me! Not a good start to her stay I've started feeding in my bedroom so she can't whip him away as soon as he's finished feeding. Honestly, the mother lion in me is very close to coming out and whooping her ass. How can these women, who have had children themselves, be so oblivious to the fact that mums need to comfort their baby when they're upset?

We're having a bit of a rough time at the moment. Although not a patch on you M2W, you poor thing. Toby is very unsettled after feeding, which is about 2 hrly. He hasn't slept for more than about 45 mins at a time during the day for days now. He'll drop off to sleep because he's exhausted but I'm pretty sure he's getting tummy pains that wake him and he can't get back off to sleep unless I'm holding him. And even then it's not for long. I'm not sure if it's just bad colic or something more. DD had reflux and an intolerance to the protein found in cows milk, and the screaming and wriggling and taking hours to get a poo through (although they are runny) can be a sign of this intolerance. I've decided to look in to taking Toby to a paed just to get him checked out. We left it way too long before we acted with DD and I'd rather be overly paranoid than have something overlooked that may be easily fixed ie. me going dairy-free or a prescribed formula. I ended up with PND after months of DD not sleeping and I'm so scared of this happening again. I've been a bit teary today and desperately hoping it's just sleep deprivation. It's so heart-breaking to see my wee guy so uncomfortable and in pain all the time

Do any of you know if Medicare will cover part of a consultation with a specialist? And will I need a referral from our GP? I'm an old hand at all of this in NZ but no clue here!

Sorry for the lack of response to everyone else. I'll be back when I have some time without a baby attached.

[Deedles]

Hi Ladies,

I have finally gotten a chance to pop on here for more than a quick read through.
Seems like easter was a bit stressful for some of you. We had a very quiet weekend and just relaxed at home to make the most before DH had to go back to work yesterday.
Would have loved to go home and visit mum and dad but the Blues festival was on down there and we didn't feel like being stuck in horrible traffic for the weekend.

Wow Thrilled it sounds like you MIL was a bit full on. My Grandmother is just like your MIL thinking that she knows what is best. She yells at my 2yr old DS and expects him to do things a 5 yr old would and when he doesn't do what she says she threatens him that she will smack his bum or lock him outside. That just makes me mad.

M2W- poor little Soph and the rest of your family dealing with ghastly colds! It is so hard seeing them so sick when there so tiny. I hope your all on the mend now and getting some sleep.

Cass- I just got my lil man weighed today too. He weighs 3.65kg now and the child health nurse said he was doing great and put on 600grams in 3 weeks. Hope you got to have a nap with bub while watching some dvd's. sounds like bliss. Might give it a go while DS is at daycare tomorrow. Are you both over your colds yet, I hope so.

Breesa- Thats so great that you have been out and about with bub. I still haven't gone out for dinner yet but I am hoping to get out of the house one evening soon. Maybe if I can express enough I can make it to a friends Bday dinner without the 2 boys but we will see.Sounds like you had a lovely easter spent with family as well, how nice!!

Feijoa-How is Peppar and that nasty cough going now? Getting better I hope.

Well today we had the child health nurse come and do a home visit. She weighed Lennox and measured him. He has grown 6 cm and put on good weight which is good.
She also said that he was still a bit jaundice and to take him to the GP for a check up. She said it could be breast milk Jaundice which I had no idea existed so I am not sure if I need to be worried or not?

Sleeping is another issue, from about 2am he is up and feeding till about 4am on and off. I just put him next to me on the bed. Really feeling the sleepless nights now as are some of you I see.
Hopefully bubs will get into a bit more of a routine as he gets older.

[queen bee]

Jandals- We are also going through a similar thing, I was considering changing formula. To answer your questions, yes Medicare will cover part of the consult, and you will need a referal from the GP.

Good luck.

[Jandals]

QB - Gosh it sucks doesn't it?! Not sure what formula you have your little one on but with DD she was hugely improved (as in different child) once I stopped breast-feeding and the paed put her on Pepti Junior. She was 8 mths old then.

[Mum2Willie]

Howdy...just wanted to check in with some good news for a change...

We had a peaceful night last night! Yeah! Toddler slept through!! No coughing fit to keep him up.

Sophie slept in her basinett until 4am!! She fed at 8.30pm, 12.30 and 4 and 7!!! Good sleeping space in between. I didn't get her to sleep until around ten pm but then she was very settled until 4am. She was awake from 6pm to 10pm but was lovely...no crying!!!!

Just wanted to celebrate a successful night!

Cass - Gr8 news on weight gains.

Jandals - Feel for you...

Deedles - Get sleep anyway you can!!

[Mum2Willie]

Howdy...just wanted to check in with some good news for a change...

We had a peaceful night last night! Yeah! Toddler slept through!! No coughing fit to keep him up.

Sophie slept in her basinett until 4am!! She fed at 8.30pm, 12.30 and 4 and 7!!! Good sleeping space in between. I didn't get her to sleep until around ten pm but then she was very settled until 4am. She was awake from 6pm to 10pm but was lovely...no crying!!!!

Just wanted to celebrate a successful night!

Cass - Gr8 news on weight gains.

Jandals - Feel for you...

Deedles - Get sleep anyway you can!!

[Cass72]

Lucky you M2W!! I had a not so restful night. Bubs slept well until 12.30 - from then until 2 (when I gave in and ventured to the couch) he just couldn't settle. Just before 4 I ended up having a nice warm shower with him. It must have been good because he started to fall asleep in my arms, guess he could finally breathe properly in the steam! He slept then from about 445 for an hour then I gave him a bit more of a feed. He hasn't been feeding properly just little bits and often. Thank goodness he's done some great weight gain. I'm going to ring the paed this morning, he's a lovely man, to see if there's anything else I can do for him. After the screaming fit yesterday when we tried the fess drops I really don't want to try them again, I think I'd rather a doctor do that.

[Jandals]

After the screaming fit yesterday when we tried the fess drops I really don't want to try them again, I think I'd rather a doctor do that.

My GP said to make sure you only do one nostril at a time and have a few minutes break in between otherwise they can feel suffocated. Not sure if you tried that but it may make it a bit easier?

[CinderToriella]

Cass was it the spray pack u used? i found it ok when we used it with the spray then the bulb

we had a terriable night last night,Hannah had her normal routine ,feed, bath, song on the rocking chair with a top up feed..she went down for about 15 mins then started screaming

we changed her, fed her , burped her ,checked her temp, gave her medicine , even tried boiled water which she vomited straight back up..all we could do was walka round the house bouncing her on our shoulders .

at 4 this morning after being up all night we took her in the car ,she fell asleep. DF was getting her out of the car and the taking the seat belt of the car capsule and the belt made a loud clip noise..Hannah woke up started screaming again

i sent DF to bed i stayed up with her eneed up getting her to fall asleep on me and then popped her down which she slept for an hour and a half before waking to feed again.

she has been in the close carrier sleeping on me most of the day,just woke up for a feed..

poor little pet..she has it bad atm but they say colic gets at its worse during 4-6 weeks which we are in now..she is feeding at night something shock be growth spurt?

Going to a mums and bubs group run byt the local nurse centre,anyone been to one yet?

[Mum2Willie]

Shell and Cass - so sorry to hear you both had rotten nights!! Fingers crossed for you for tonight.

Shell - I am hoping you are right that wind is at its worse from 4-6 weeks....Sophie is 6 weeks on Monday...but my son got shocking wind/colic from 8 weeks to about 4 months! Hoping you are right and he was just an anomoly.

[thrilled82]

Hi Everyone,

Not too much to report. Feels a little like groundhog day at our place ... change, feed, play, cry, sleep and then REPEAT. But we are slowly but surely edging our way closer to 6 weeks and a hopefully more settled baby.

MIL has settled down thankgod.
Not sure if it was SIL or DH who told her to pull her head in. She is actually coming around and helping without the added criticisms. Although my new tactic of dealing with her is to busy myself when she visits. I usually hand over the baby so she can have cuddles and then I go clean the kitchen, put a load of washing on, hang a load out or just busy myself in another room.
It gives her nice time with Willow and I don't get so upset or uptight about her being there and being her usually nutty self.
Anyway, it's my coping strategy at the moment.

We have introduced a comp feed (formula) of an afternoon for Willow.
Was hard to do, I am really pro-breastfeeding, however DH and I were at our wits end.
We tried everything ... rocking, patting, walking, glider chair, sling, car ride, pram ride ... the only thing we hadn't tried to assist with settling was a comp feed.
It took all my effort to put the bottle into Willow's mouth and low and behold the little bugger took the bottle straight away and we've not looked back.
She has two comp feeds a day - the afternoon and evening feed - when my milk production is at it's lowest and Willow is usually at her hungriest. I am still breastfeeding as much as I did (around every 3-4 hours) but just following up the two late in the day feeds with a 60ml bottle.
Not sure if it is the comp feed, the fact I am settling into Motherhood or maybe Willow is growing and settling herself, but we have had a reasonable 4 days.

It's only been these last 3 or so days that I can say I am happy to be a Mum ... I have really struggled getting through these first 4 weeks. Would never want to repeat them, but looking forward now.

Hope everyone is doing OK and settling into our new roles.

[Mum2Willie]

Thrilled - Glad to hear that you have had a good last few days. And my biggest advice from my first son is - do whatever you need to do to keep you, bubs and your family sane and happy. The fact that you are feeling good at 4 weeks is great! I think I was in a complete daze for at least 8 weeks with my son. In fact, I don't think I could say I felt good really until he was 4 months old!!!! So you are doing really well!!!

Poor Sophie is very upset as she has not done a poo since Tuesday (now Sunday). My son did not poo until 7-10days and I had to give him prune juice on day 7, 8 ad 9 for him to poo. He did this for 6 months!! Sophie was going multiple times a day early on, so I was hoping we would not have this issue! As it makes for a very unsettled baby as each day passes. But looks like we have a windy baby with bowel issues again!!! At least I know what to do this time - as last time I was in a panic when she didn't poo for a day and went to the doctor after a few days. Dr said up to ten days is fine! She recommended the prune juice dose of 5ml day 7, 10ml day 8 and 15ml day 9. Then come to Dr if no action on day 10 but there always was. So this time I at least have a strategy. However, Sophie is so unhappy that I going to give her 5ml of prune juice today.

We also have a projectile vomit issue with Sophie (which never happened with Will). She does it about twice a week. She did it last night and in the day on Thursday, which actually hit the wall 1m away and the amount is huge!! Think I will make Dr appointment this week and ask about it - I think she is just greedy as it seems to happen when she has had a few feeds quite close together eg 2 hours apart.

On a brighter note - generally she is extending out to 3-4 hourly feeds mostly. A couple still closer together each day, so gone from 10 or 11 feeds a day to more like 8-9. It would be great if she dropped feeds this early as my son was still have 10 feeds a day at 6 months!!!

She and toddler seem to be nearly over the flu!!! Just a little cough left...finally!!!

[lou76]

Hi everyone,

I apologise for not writing any personals - have been keeping eye on posts but haven't had much time to sit and write. It is good to see that most of you are having a great time and have settled into good routines.

I just thought I'd let you know that we have Sophie in hospital at moment. She was really grizzly Fri arvo and wanting to be held. I thought she was just colicy so gave her boiled water and some Colic relief. Then at 10pm I noticed she had temp (38.4), so gave her more water and put cold flannel on forehead. She had terrible night and wouldn't settle, still with high temp. Temp was up to 38.8 on sat morn so decided to ring Parent Helpline for advice and they told me to bring her straight to hospital. Bought her to A & E and after a number of hours of tests (some which they had to do 5 times in order to get enough blood - only for it to clot before test could be done!!!) and numerous consults, they admitted her to Paed's for observation and to await results. Since we have been here she has improved and temps generally down, but having the occassional temp spike which worries them, as wells as still grizzle for no reason. Her belly is somewhat distended which makes them think she may have stomach bug like what DH and I had after she was born. She also had bleed from naval which was somewhat worrying but better now. Thought we may have been able to go home today, but as she had temp spike again last night and is still grizzly, the Paediatrician this morn wants to do another round of tests, including Lumbar Puncture, just to rule out Meningitis. Fortunately we were moved from 4 bed High Dependency room yest into single HD room, so at least it isn't too bad (apart from sleeping in a fold out chair!!!) Hardest part is being away from DS again, but my mum and dad are still here from Easter so they are spoiling him rotten!! It is horrible seeing her unwell but I am conscious that it could be so much worse and that she is better off being in here with lots of care, than at home with a stressed mum!!

Will update again when I get a chance.

Lou xx

[Feijoa Mum]

Oh Lou I can totally sympathize with you. It is so horrible isnt it? Your poor wee baby having to go through all those nasty tests.
Im sure Sophie will be just fine but as they said to me being so little they have to rule out everything.
Sending you loads of to get you through though.
Get well soon Sophie

[Mum2Willie]

Lou - Sending all the best wishes for little Sophie and strength for you! Keep strong! I am sure Sophie will be her old self before you know it, but comforting to know she is in the right place for help.

Just wanted to report the prune juice certainly worked and then Soph went for 5 hours between feeds for the first time at night!! Yeah!!

[Cass72]

Lou, sorry to hear about Sophie. I hope all is going well and the tests turn up nothing too horrid.

I took Robert to the doctors on Thursday. He listened to bubs chest, had a look down his throat and in his ears. Everything looked good. He said just to give him a saline spray not the drops which don’t go very far up the nasal passage. Also he said a vaporiser is a good idea but so is giving him nice warm showers to get things (the snot) moving. Other than that he looks nice and healthy.

Over the last few days he’s also learnt a new trick....how to projectile vomit! Instead of his normal little up chuck, he decided to ramp it up a bit and shoot it out!

On Sunday Robert had his first trip to the beach. He slept the entire way there in the pram only waking up when I took him onto the beach. I don’t think he was that impressed, except when I gave him a feed (he’s first picnic at the beach!). It was perfect weather. Nice and sunny, but not too hot and no wind.

The last couple of nights Robert has slept in his cot. Until now he’s been in the bassinet. He seems to settle back down after a feed pretty quickly, so I guess he doesn’t mind it. Last night though he decided to feed every 2 hours... I guess he’s going through another growth spurt. I'm going to keep up his feeds today every 2 hours in the hope that he gets enough calorie intake today to have longer sleep stretches tonight. I wish I knew about cluster feeding with DS1 - I assumed that I wasn't producing enough milk and put him on formula.

Oh, yesterday I bought a bouncer online at Gumtree for $17 (rrp$75). It’s a Fisher Price calming vibrations. I put him in it when we got home and he was gooing and gaaing... I think it was a good investment. Okay, so some might criticize and say it’s a “babysitter” but if it gives me time to put dinner on or do a quick tidy up while he dozes I think it’s wonderful!

[Mum2Willie]

Cass - Gr8 price for rocker!!! Nice work - do whatever it takes!!

Cluster feeding is a strange thing! DS1 did it early evening and 1st thing in morning. Sophie is doing it early evening at the minute too.

Last night Sophie was shocking - feeding like crazy and very windy. Windy today too.

Isn't 6-8 weeks growth spurt time and they feed like crazy again!! Was just thinking that yesterday as Sophie was 6 weeks on Monday and she has started feeding every 2 hours again!!! Will definitely try to feed as much as possible in the day.

Are others suffering the 6-8 week feeding frenzy?

Argh - the 6 week check up...with my toddler I went to a private paed for the 6 week check up and he look him over, said he was healthy, never needs to be weighed again (fatty boomba) and had dry skin so put some sorbelene on. Wow! And it cost $270!

So this time, I have decided to go to a GP (Paed speciality) and see if they think Sophie needs to go to specialist or not! Cost $55.

Where are others going or have been for the 6 week check up???

Sophie has her needles next week - NSW are doing them at 6 weeks due to the whooping cough epidemic in the north of the state. Soph will be 7 weeks...hope she isn't too whingey afterwards...the first needle didn't effect my son at all...fingers crossed.

[thrilled82]

I've found it really confusing where to go for the 6 week check-up ... it sounds as though we have several options.

The child health nurse lady that came out to our house and did the 1-4 wk check said we can go back to the baby health clinic for the check up and then go to one of their 'immunisation days' to get the 6 week needles, or we can go back to the paed who saw Willow in hospital for the 6 week check up but will need to go elsewhere for needles or we can go to the GP for the 6 week check up and get needles at same time.

We originally booked in with the private paed, but have now decided to go to the GP as we can get everything done in the one spot and unlike the 'immunisation day' run by the baby health clinic (where you just turn up and wait your turn), at the Drs we can have an appointment time for the needles.

And yeah, we were told the same thing with the 8 week needles being moved forward to 6 weeks to avoid the whooping cough epidemic. DH and I actually just had our flu shots and whooping cough booster - they are free in NSW at the moment if you are a new parent, carer or grandparent.

When are the next check ups - do I have to take Willow to the baby health centre or can my GP just do the checkups in the blue book?