Babies born~November 1st-15th 2009 #1

Hey Tecopa, great to have you in here.
I know what you mean about worrying about what happens after your mum leaves. I realised the other day that we go home in five weeks. It seems like such a short time. When we get back to Vietnam we have to find a place to live. We househunted 18 months ago and it's a complete pain in the bum. We'll have to find someone to mind Poppy, too, because it is a two-person process. DP needs to be involved because I can't speak Vietnamese and I have to be involved to make sure the place meets my standards. Unfortunately once an agent or landlord sees me, the price goes up.
And don't worry about telling little E to shut up. I told Poppy to "effing go to sleep" one night. It didn't make any difference.
Hey everyone else... I am having trouble keeping up with persies.

:clap:Hey Tecopa..glad you popped in :) Was hoping you would join us too! You sound like you are doing a great job with Elliot, normal to have the odd bad night. He generally sounds like a pretty happy baby. Do you still have your home help person? You will find you will click into a good routine when your mum has gone and from memory you have a pretty good support network. Has the MHN arranged a Mum's Group for you yet? That can be a lifesaver if you get a good group, you really only need to click with at least as you get together usually once a week with Mother's or Father's of babies the same age as yours.

Barbara: I started Tess in the bath, breast, bed routine in Hospital. I bath her every day so that's one of her 'signals' of bed time. Sometimes she is awake around the boys dinner time, so I just put her in the bassinette and move her into where we are and she is happy enough to hang about with needing the odd cuddle to keep her going until her bath time. Her bed time is before the boys (they go at 7:30pm). It's a funny thing as the busier I am the more organised I am and she is getting used to her feeds being dragged out to when it suits me :lol: How is Poppy settling for you now? Glad you finally got someone to check out your stitches..wow :o a 10cm tear! No wonder you have been feeling uncomfortable, it also sounds like the stitch up job wasn't that great. All behind you now I hope :pray:

James: Glad things are settling down for you. Have you tried the Aldi nappies? They are quite good and I used them for the boys day and night. That's of course once they fit into them. Up till then I stick with Huggies NB. I went to Costco that has opened in Docklands and got a box of the Huggies Infant so now that she coming upto the 4kg weight she will move into those once I finish of this pack of Huggies NB.

Natty: Violet sounds like she is thriving on your milk :dance: That's an amazing weight gain..

Well, we must be all at the stage of the babies wanting to stay awake a little more during the day. How is everyone going with that and what are you doing to keep them entertained? I have been popping Tess under the play gym we have, she likes to look at herself in the mirror at the moment. I tried some tummy time yesterday and she didn't cry and grunted and groaned to try and manouvre herself..only gave a her a few minutes. I have managed to get hold of a baby born carrier which is going to be a lifesaver when I am out with Ben and Tess..especially when I have to take Oscar swimming as it's much easier than having to move a pram around a small crowded space!

That's another short post from me :rolleyes:

x Heather

Hi Everyone,

Here are some photo's of Tess and my Boys Oscar and Ben. We went and visited Santa today at Myer in the City..boys loved it. Didn't have time to see the Myer windows..next time.

Heather Moore's Photos - Christmas, Boys and Tess | Facebook

I hope the link works :pray:

Tess did well with Santa and slept while we waited in the queue to see him.
How is everyone going?
Tess is still going well. She had a bit of and off night last night. Her tummy was girgling and she was vomitting a little. After we had seen Santa I was taking the boys to the toy section and Tess started to cry..so I picked her up for a cuddle and she had had an explosion..it required a full change of clothes :o Lucky I was prepared enough and DH was with me so he took the boys to his work while I took care of Tess...the clothes are soaking at the moment in nappysan!! She is fine now and sleeping after her usualy bath, breast and bed routine, so I would say she had a pain in the tummy poor little thing.

That's all for now..

x Heather

This last week I'm not sure what has become of my good little sleeper! We've nicknamed him Helliott when he doesn't sleep :wall:. We're now at two hourly night time feeds and since a feed can be anywhere up to an hour by the time he's done I'm not getting much rest! He doesn't seem to cluster feed any more and then have a big sleep at any time of day like he used to. Maybe a 4 hour sleep or so at some point but it moves around now! Add to that the random grunting and vocal noises he's decided to make between about 2.30 and 4 am and I'm getting pretty run down! And he's a vomitty baby so lots of cleaning always!

I don't think it's a matter of mixing night and day cause even for his two hourly night feeds he's half asleep always - just hungry. And I do things like swaddle at night, not talk as much etc and then during the day he's more alert and interactive and doesn't get swaddled etc.

Apart from that really I have no complaints. He's got bad milk rash and a bit of craddle cap I think which is a bit unsightly - more so the milk rash I think! But during the day he's pretty easy to handle and amuse - starting to like his bouncer chair, or just hanging out with me in a baby sling.

My Mum is only here for another week, and my mothers helper quit four days after I got home from hospital!! I think the reality of a newborn hit home. So now I'm going to find a replacement I think - although I have been getting pretty amazing support from my friends still, especially Elliott's "Gunkle" as we call him (stands for Official Gay Uncle and every solo mumma needs one I reckon).. Gunkle cooks, cleans, walks dogs, brings over treats from the outside world a few times a week! Even a bottle of single barrel Jack Daniels when I told him I'd only had about three hours sleep. LOL. I admit I did have a stiff drink between feeds.

Yesterday with the help of Mum and Gunkle I even managed to have a BBQ and Placenta Burial Ceremony which was hilarious fun! Ten of us "sneaking" into the bushland with a native tree, a small bucket with the placenta, a shovel, two dogs, a few kids and nappy bags and cameras galore.

Some updated pics here:

I hope everyone else is doing well - sorry no personal responses as I was just needing a bit of a vent!

Jody - our babies look similar! I also get told CJ is an 'old soul' because of his wide-awake eyes :) I don't have good pics up yet though so you can't really see it... the only ones are still squishy sleepy newborn shots.

Ewwwwww Tecopa! You carried your placenta around? Don't tell me you kept it in the fridge??? Yuk-o-rama. I accidentally looked at the placenta in the birth suite (the midwife sais something while she was checking it) and that was gross enough for me.
Seirously though, the ceremony sounds good. It must be wonderful to have such good friends involved in raising your family. (And gunkle is hot. Why are the spunkiest guys always gay?)
Poppy had a few hellish days last week. This week things seem to have changed, although she does have her moments. I never thought I'd say this -- but the dummy is my new best friend. She really seems to enjoy it. She sucks it so vigorously and complains if she knocks it out of her mouth. Did you have a look at that link to the happy baby website that someone else posted? The shushing worked well when Poppy was getting upset over nothing. DP was quite loud. I would never have tried it that loudly if I hadn't seen it work for him.
Oh, and the pics of Tess and Elliot are just adorable. They've both changed so much in the past few weeks, haven't they?
Heather, all three of your kids have a cheeky look. I bet you have a lot of fun together.
Hi Shades, I had that "only sleeping when held" thing for a while. Thankfully she seems to have grown out of it. I wonder if it was something to do with wind. Last week Poppy was quite wiggly and this week she seems a lot calmer. Maybe it's just part of getting used to being on the outside. I hope your baby settled soon.
PBR - how's things? Are you going to post some of your photos? I would love to get some professional (Ann Geddes type) photos taken while Poppy still has the froggy curl but I just don't know when I will get paid again so I really have to watch the pennies.
Hi to everyone else.
As for us... Poppy seems to be a lot more settled this week. I am still so much happier to be out of pain. It was very tiring.
I think Poppy is set for a political career. She is already making speeches about the indignity of being offered a dummy when she ordered milk. She spends quite a while going "ahm ahm ahm" which roughly translates to "I ordered milk. This is not milk. What is wrong with the service around here. What's the point of being ruler of everything if I can't get milk when I want it? I tell you if I could sack you incompetent people I would."
Heather, it looks like Tess's hair has grown a bit. Poppy's has too but it's growing straight up in the air. She looks like a toothbrush!
We're supposed to be going to Brisbane today for a few nights in a b&b. I'll upload some pics while I wait for DP to finish watering the garden. So they should be here in a few minutes: Picasa Web Albums - GoingtobebiginAsia - Getting bigger

hi! typing one handed while feeding, have been reading updates but havent had the chance to post. Love the photos of Elliot, Poppy and Tess! Very cute bubs. Will have to upload some of Tom soon.
Sounds like everyone is going well. I've had an easier few days after a full on week last week. DH was away all week, I was exhausted by the end of it. Tom decided that he wouldn't sleep in his bassinet during the day so I ended up holding him almost all day every day last week... he just wanted cuddles. As much as I love cuddling him, it meant I couldn't get anything done. I tried to let him cry for a bit in his bed, thinking he would get used to it but I hated hearing him cry like that and in the end it just stressed both of us out. I bought a bjorn thing and that has helped.
The last couple of days he's settled a lot better...he's changing so much and I'm just taking it one day at a time at the moment. On Saturday he gave me a smile and it was the best thing I've ever seen.
Barb, I agree with you about the dummy. It's a lifesaver, especially when he's screaming in the middle of the shops.
will write a proper post when i have both hands free!

Hi all,

Little miss is asleep so I thought I'd drop in for an update. Not sure how long I'll have though, she only stayed awake long enough to feed and get her nappy changed...... Don't think she really wanted to wake up when she did this morning but she was hungry :)

We've been going well. Still having a 5 -6 hour sleep of a nighttime then feeding and going straight back down for 2 -3 hours. It's great. Means I'm not tired and needing to nap through the day. Most days she has 2 - 2 and a half hours about 9 then another hour or 2 from about 1, but that's where we go off track. Hates the afternoon nap thing so then she's up and awake (or snoozing on our chest) till we go to bed. Not bad for 4 weeks though really.

Must have been having her growth spurt this week (all off track I know!) cause she's had 2 nights where she's basically fed for nearly 2 hours straight (and the amazing thing - kept it all down :o).

Gave Mummy a bit of a fright last week cause she decided not to poop. Which I know they can do, but I wasn't expecting it till later and she was wailing in pain for a whole day the first day and nothing would console her. Went from Wednesday morning till Sunday morning.... What a mess!! Of course it was on the change table without her nappy on as well.

Gorgeous photo's everyone. I've got some on facebook - add me if you want to have a look. My email is emco81@hotmail.com

Lou - sounds like you had a busy week!! Don't know what I'd do on my own..... COuld be finding out this weekend though. DH gets his wisdom teeth out and a bone graft on Friday so I'll have 2 babies to deal with ;)

Jody - you must be exhausted!! Alyssa feeds pretty much every 2 hours through the afternoon but must store some up to get through the night sleep. So grateful she does. Like DH said last night I'll have to remember she was such a good baby when she's a teenager and giving me hell.

Heather - the santa photo is so cute. Sounds like Tess is doing really well.

I took Alyssa on Friday but the santa in the centre wasn't nice and by the time we got to the one in DJs she was asleep and I still needed to change her into her xmas dress and didn't want to wake her up. By the time we got back to the mothers rooms she was grumpy and wanted a feed so we decided it was better for everyones sanity to bring her home and feed her and go back next week (mum has Fridays off work and I'm not game to tackle the xmas crowds on my own). I'm getting her hands and feet moulded on Friday as well. Was doing that last Friday too but the lady who does it had a sick child so she didn't show up. My only 2 jobs for Friday and neither one happened :wall:. Did get one xmas present though but it's for ALyssa so I doubt she'll even know. Not sure when I'll get the rest of the shopping done. Only 17 sleeps to go!

Okay. really must go. Got to write a shopping list before she wakes up and I'm trying to get Calendars printed for great grandparents for xmas.

Good Morning :D

Emma: I too had Tess's feet moulded. I have done two things with my kids as newborns and feet and hand moulding is one of them and the other is making sure I have a photographer come to me in hospital and get the newborn photo..used the same company with Tess as with the boys so the photo is the same. I then have it framed the same way. I went to the lady to have Tess's foot & hand done at 11days, hopefully ready in the next couple of weeks. The Santa Photo on FB is the one we took, we also got the official Myer ones as well. It's great they let you take your own as well! We chose Myer as they have activities to keep other siblings occupied. DJ's is across the Rd in the City, they have things too such as the talking tree..is that the same in NSW?

Jody: How did you store the placenta? I grew up in a country town in South Gippsland and there were alot of 'free spirits' in the town or my Dad referred to them as Hippies. It was rumoured that they kept the placenta and cooked it up and ate it :o Not sure if this was the case? Hope Elliot is settling back to be your good sleeper! Being a big boy you may find his growing and just gets hungrier more often. Used to find that with Ben when he a NB as he was a big NB. Not much you can do really. If the grunting and snorts keep you awak, perhaps put the bassinette in another room after that last night feed? I will be doing that with Tess then I will put her in her cot when she starts sleeping through better at night and use a baby monitor.

Barb: Glad Poppy has settled for you. Ah the lovely Dummy! I haven't used one yet although Tess is showing signs that it would it come in handy!! She likes to suck her fingers at the moment. Ben is a thumb sucker and started that around 5weeks old..it was a life saver at night, now I will just have to deal with the orthodontics bill's when he is older :lol: How was your time in Brisbane? You must be looking forward to going back to Vietnam so you can into your own routine.

lou: Oh the first smile!! It's the best isn't it.

Hi to everyone else..look forward to hear how you are all going.

Tess had a grumpy day yesterday. She only cat napped through the day. She has taken to sleeping after the last feed in the early morning to sleeping in to 8am or so and then only naps through the day. She went to bed her usal 6:30-7pm and didn't wake until 1:30am and then 6:30 and is alseep now. I move her around so she doesn't get bored, a little more holding now than earlier. It's that awkard time of in between 3-6weeks where they start to wake up and settle into a definite feed play sleep pattern, and until they find that routine it's a bit all over the place. Tess hasn't had a poo for two days so I am waiting for it :doh: They say Breast Fed babies can go 5days without pooing :o
I have been using my Baby Love book a fair bit these last couple of days! Even though she is awake she hasn't moments where she just likes to look around and hang about in the bassinette, which is good. Well..little Miss is calling and I only have 15mins to finish the boys off before taking them to school and creche..

bye for now (phew, glad I was good at typing at shcool!)

Oh and I love the photo's of your babies Jody and Barb..so cute.

Heather :)
xxx

Gunkle stored the placenta in his freezer - the hospital triple bagged it and then put it in a small white bucket, and gave us a handout on how to bury it and store it - they must be used to people wanting to keep it cause they asked me if I wanted it before I'd even thought to ask them.

It was still frozen when we put it in the ground so no real smell, although we all did have a good look at it when it was out of the plastic. My sister even Facebooked a close-up of it, but she is a paramedic so I'm sure her friends were not too shocked!!

I have heard of people that eat it, and my doula knows a woman who cooks, dries and powders them and grinds them up and makes "vitamin" pills out of it, so you can swallow it like a tablet! I passed on that.

The burial was mostly for the sake of one of my friends who is part Maori and was very adamant that it was the right thing to do to strengthen Elliott's ties to the land. Nice that my friends care so much things are done the "right" way so I agreed.

The feeding frenzy over here is slowing down now a little so maybe it was just a growth spurt few days. But I'm a bit more rested now - not much, but enough not to be going crazy with exhaustion at least! My breastfeeding has been a huge success after initial horrid engorgment and oversupply and cracks and blisters etc etc. Bub put on 850 grams in the 14 days since leaving hospital!! INSANE amount. I have one boob that flows so fast and fills up that when I handle it after a big break between feeds milk shoots about 30 cms across the room and drenches everything, including the kid! The the other boob is much more manageable but Elliott grizzles and grunts a bit at it cause the flow is slower but that's quite the party trick to hear his noises on that side. So the boobs are now named Squirter and Grizzler :D Midwife says he was a little lean and needed filling out at birth since I was overdue and she thinks maybe placenta not working that great at the end. So everyone is pleased with his gain!

Just popping in to say a very fast g'day to all, my bb are going to explode so I need to express some (or wake a sleeping baby) I will catch up on posts and persies later on I promise .......... might take a few days but I will get there.

Love to all

Nae x x

Ah Jody..I love reading your posts :rofl: They always make me smile..even when you are having a bad run you have a sense of humour! I didn't think it was urban myth re: the eating of the placenta. You have such great friends..I hope the one who got upset at missing the birth calmed down.

Nae: So glad you have popped in..look forward to reading how you are going now.:D

Well Miss Tess is alseep. Her witching hour seems to be after or during lunch! It's been a bit of pattern these last couple of days. She goes into a feeding frenzy and wants to be held where she smiles and almost laughs at me as if to say...I win! She is being sooo cheeky :D After the feeding frenzy she vomits up a bit so perhaps that is why she is hungry all the time during the day?? Still good at night which I am very pleased about. I go to bed at 8:30-9pm most nights so I cope well during the day.

Just a quickie

Heather
xxx

Howdy All,

Still have not yet had a chance to catch up on all the posts but I did read over a few and saw a few of everyones piccies and I have to say Barb - Little Poppy is just beautiful she reminds me of a china doll she is just beautiful.

Jody - Elliott is just gorgeous too, I agree that he looks like he is an old soul in the eyes. I think you are going to be fighting off women when he gets older!! I love the word Gunkle too, very clever. Looks like the burial of the placenta was done in a beautiful location. I also have one boob with a super fast flow and one with a slow flow, I call the fast flow boob "choker" because she always sucks hard then chokes a bit when the mouthful is more then she can handle :lol:


AFM -

I think we are going through a "Wonder Week" Shae has had really bad reflux the last few days and we have been through hell with her. I am going to see if I can get into the Dr's tomorrow and get her checked out properly after being advised to do so from the MCHN. The Pharmacist advised us to give her Mylanta (1ml) but I am not too sure I should be giving that to a little baby. I have to admit that when she gets really bad I have been giving her 0.5ml and after a few minutes it does seem to settle her tummy and she happily goes off to sleep. The poor button has been gurgling whenever she is laid on her back flat and always wants to feed which makes the problem worse.

On a happier note she seems to have grown and changed so much over the last 4 weeks. I have been shopping online like mad before Christmas and ordered a few thank you cards for people who have sent us some gifts. They are a bit pricey but I think they are beautiful, I just hope they arrive in time so I can send them out with Chrissy cards.

I am not sure if the link will work but here they are, I use a program called momento then made up the cards: http://www.momento.com.au/priv_previ...9824-3611-7818 Not sure if it will work -


miss is waking for her feed better go

Nae x x x x

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all coping well.

Nae - I'm SO glad to hear things are improving for you. Even though you're talking about reflux (and I had a cousin who did projectile vomits so I know how much screaming it can produce) you sound relatively chirpy. I know you've had a tough time. Hang in there and make sure you accept any help that's offered.

Heather, Tecopa - How are your little bundles? You both sound like things are going so well.

Everyone else - I can't wait for updates, although I know how precious time is at the moment.

As for me - I'm sitting all alone in a quiet house - what a luxury. DP and Poppy are having a nap. My mum's gone to bowling and dad's out on one of his mysterious errands. I think I got 9 hours sleep last night so I'm feeling quite good. And thinking about how lucky I am to have such wonderful people helping with the baby.

I think I broke through the six week mark over the past few. After weeks of dragging myself around and feeling grumpy and irratable, I suddenly started feeling happy and "with it". I can't believe it's taken so long. I was starting to think this tired and grumpy feeling was going to be with me forever.

I think we're getting into a routine with Poppy. Not so much with times of feeding and sleeping but with getting things done. She seems much calmer now. She has more than the "scream" and "sleep" modes and is quite happy to look around at things for a while. I swear she said "hello" or "eww wo" last night when we were having an after-feed cuddle. She smiled as well and I had a brief fear that it was the start of some horror movie moment. But it was just a random noise, I think.

We all had a lovely two days in Brisbane. The b&b was airconditioned so we spent a bit of time just hanging out there. It was nice to get away from my parents for a bit, even though they've been wonderful. I forgot to pack the hugabub, so we had to carry Poppy in her capsule through the CBD. It was so hot and uncomfortable. We don't have a pram because it won't be practical in Vietnam but no pram in Australia is not very practical either. We also went out to the Vietnamese suburbs and stocked up on fish sauce and dried prawns so DP can cook more dishes. And went up to the lookout. We had so many comments about the baby. Like Nae, many people say Poppy looks like a doll. A few people thought I was carrying a doll around because she was so still. Her hair gets a lot of comments too. It's grown a lot since she was born and it sticks up so high in the air. It's quite funny.

It's coming up to six weeks and a friend, who used to be a midwife, told me I should be booked in to see an obstetrician for a six week apointment. I don't have any bookings, never got told anything like that at the hospital. Does anyone know if I should be trying to see someone? It's a terrible time of year to be trying to make appointments.

Hey GTBIA

Good to hear how it's all going. Think I'll stick with this group cause I know you all here now even though I'm one day over ha ha.

My mum left on Saturday so I've had my first two days of doing everything including cooking and cleaning. But I'm coping I think! Even with at least two night feeds between 7pm and 6am. Mum had a pretty good routine going so I've been just modifying that and including baby when I can or waiting until he sleeps.

My family had Xmas on Saturday and my Nanna flew down too so four generations. Was madness with my sister and her four month old and a hungover brother in law too. But fun. Though it's quite relaxing now not having to discuss all the baby decisions with one or more people like "Oh, I think it's wind." "No,he's hungry" etc etc.

Elliott has bad milk pimples and cradle cap at the moment but lucky doesn't show in photos. I just got sick of the cradle cap and did the olive oil treatment thingo and it worked wonders. He's not looking quite so "special" now ha ha.

Since my mother's helper left and mum has gone I've decided to take advantage of the full backpackers hostels and rent out the two rooms. I've got two 18 year old dutch boys in one room and a married couple in the other - but my house is so big I still have almost my own section of the house so unless we are all in the kitchen it's fine! Renting the rooms means my entire rent is paid and might allow we to stay home a full year with kiddo without working so I think it's worth it - as long as I pick "safe" travellers like kids or couples. Plus I think it's good for Elliott to be used to other people and being held by others too.

I even had my first baby free time yesterday. Gunkle and another friend came over and walked the dogs, cleaned my bathroom, made my bed, cooked dinner and looked after baby for two hours while I went to the pub for one stiff drink haha. I expressed milk for them to give him but it's really too much effort. I had expressed 170 mls over two days and the little bugger drank it ALL one hour after a feed when I left. And I think I'd expressed a bit too much and Elliott was a bit hungry yesterday - feeding all day on and off.

Wow - long post!!

x

Hi.

Jody: Glad to see you sticking with us :dance: Ahh, it's nice to have a stiff drink again :lol: I do enjoy mine at the end of the day :shhh:

Barb: You should have been advised on check out from the Hospital to make an appt for a 6wk post natal check with an OB. My OB prefers 8wks so that's when I am booked in. So perhaps check with the Hospital where you had Poppy and see what they say and what appt's they make for post natal checks. It would be best to have things checked out before you go back to Vietnam especially with the problems you had post natally. At this appt you would normally have a discussion about birth control options and also they may do a pap smear if you are due and generally check out everything and to make sure things have gone back to normal and also be given the all clear for you and DP to make love again if you haven't already :)

Nae: So glad you are back! Have you tried propping Shae up a bit when she sleeps? That is supposed to help with reflux. Would need to register with memento to have a look at your Thankyou's..may do that later. Hope things are settling down for you..they sound like they are.

Well...just had Tess's 4wk MHN check. She has put 200grms on so is doing well. She is a clingy baby during the day, still ok at night. I am trying her in her Cot, she would normally sleep in the bassinette as the Cot has been full of her clothers :doh: Managed on the weekend to finally sort her things out and move Ben's out to his room that he shares with Oscar. Tess's wardrobe is bigger than mine!!
She seems to be in a set routine at night of waking between 11pm and midnight and then 3am for feeds. Then after that feed it can be anywhere between 6:30am and 8am before she wakes. She is hungry during the day so I haven't had any time to express yet for mine and Bernie's night out on Saturday..better get onto that!
We had a pretty rough weekend in that Bernie and I both had a 24hr gastro bug. Bernie's was on Friday night with me playing nurse and he was fine on Saturday and mine all day Saturday. Bernie went into work late and came home early so I only had to manage a couple of hours on my own on Saturday and Oscar made Ben's lunch for me and kept Ben entertained!! So he helped out too :) I still had to contend with Miss Tess and praying that I didn't pass it onto her :pray:. I lost 3kilos in the process so I am now trying to make up for lost time :lol:
Tess has been very unsettled today, only cat naps when I hold her and wants to feed constantly. I think my milk supply was affected by the gastro and she hasn't been getting enough from yesterday as well as today as I couldn't even keep water down on Saturday, so now I am trying to rehydrate and eat to try and build it up again. So hopefully a better today tomorrow.

Hope everyone else is doing well..Merry Christmas to everyone !!

x Heather
xx

Howdy all,

Well Shae has Silent reflux - which I had suspected but its all confirmed now. We have everything except the snuggle bed angled as she only sleeps in the snuggle bed between midnight and whenever she decides to get up. She officially HATES the hammock which is such a shame. I s'pose she is basically on her head when we put her in it and we even have her feet right down the very end but still her feet are higher than her head :rolleyes: Still it will be handy when she is big enough for the Jump Jump.

We have two slings and I have no idea how she is meant to sit in them. I have decided the Close Carrier is too much effort and wearing it hurts my back with her in it. We got the new born insert for the Ergo carrier but I have NO IDEA how she is meant to be positioned in it :rolleyes: I really need to be shown how to use these things in person I am useless following instructions.

We FINALLY got our Christmas tree - DH went to a farm to get it and its so lovely its about 7ft and really bushy and has branches all the way to the floor. I have to go out tomorrow to buy some new lights for it and to get DH birthday present.

OH BTW - we got Air conditioning - after all the cuffuffle from the jerk who came out and told us that we couldn't get it installed the way we wanted it we found someone who would.

Thank goodness because its gunna be so hot tomorrow.

Anyways DH is having a nap, Shae is still screaming so probably wants a snack so had better run.

love to all

Nae x

Hi everyone
Been a while since I've posted, it's hard typing one handed and lately DS has been very clingy, so he's constantly needing to be picked up.
Sounds like everyone is going well, love hearing all your updates.

Heather - hope you are feeling better, it must have been awful being sick and looking after 3 kids!! I'm in awe of you - I'm just managing with one, can't imagine having another two as well. Hope Tess is having a good week so far.

Jody - love reading your updates, always get a good laugh :ROFL: about the placenta. Sounds like you have awesome friends, glad to hear you are getting so much help. Hope the room renting works out too, it must be good to have interesting company all the time. Elliot is seriously gorgeous.

Barb - glad you're feeling happy and getting into a routine. I agree that things are starting to feel a bit more under control now at 6 weeks. The last month and a half have been a complete blur. Your trip to Brisbane sounds lovely. How much longer are you in Oz for? Love to pics of Poppy and I agree that she looks like a little doll - so beautiful.

Nae - great to hear from you! Hope Shae's reflux gets sorted out and you get some answers on managing it. :hug: Have been thinking about you.

Emma - glad Alyssa is sleeping well, it sounds like you've got a great routine going.

Hi to everyone else!

AFM - this week has been heaps better, Thomas is 6 and a half weeks old now and a lot more alert. His smile is gorgeous and melts my heart. He's making lots of little cooing noises - seems to like to chat most in the middle of the night...I was trying to avoid eye contact during the 3am feed to help him get back to sleep more quickly but I can't resist him when he makes that cute noise and gives me a big grin. Getting him to sleep is still a big challenge - sometimes I feel like with all the rocking, swaying etc I am doing my own midnight aerobics routine. No need for Zumba here (anyone else sick of 3am home shopping on TV?!)- putting him to sleep is enough work!!
Went Christmas shopping today and ended up with so many things that I had to put the bags in the pram and hold Thomas instead. Also bought a few things to wear as my clothes from pre-pregnancy aren't going anywhere near me...I've gone from a B to a DD cup and a size 10 to a size 14. I have a wedding this weekend and tried on a dress this morning that used to be quite roomy. The zip didn't go anywhere near me...was considering wearing it with zip gaping open and put a cardigan over the top but decided to go shopping instead. Also bought some new board shorts to cover up the thunder thighs that I developed over the past 9 months.
Have been expressing like mad to get enough milk to leave Thomas with mum and dad on Saturday night, looking forward to having a night off with DH at the wedding. Am a little worried about how engorged I will be by the end of the night though - have visions of expressing off over the toilet at the reception...classy!!
As far as routine goes, I sometimes think everything is starting to be more predictable...some days are like text book with 3-4 hourly feeding, but then I have other days/nights that are an absolute nightmare. The other night I don't think I even got half an hour sleep, little Mr Night Owl decided to flip his day and night routines. Then last night was heaps better and he only woke up once at 3am. So I'm just going with the flow at the moment. I'm wondering if I'm doing too much during the days and that is making him unsettled. I go out most days either to catch up with friends for coffee/go to shops/appointments etc...I don't want to just sit around at home and work around his sleeps though as I would go crazy. Things are working out pretty well most days so I'll just stick with being flexible at the moment I think. A couple of friends are using a book called 'Save Our Sleep', so I had a look at it. I don't think I have the discipline to follow a strict routine, although that is possibly why Thomas has such random napping patterns. Anyway, blah blah sorry, what a lot of waffle. I'll put some pics up on my Flickr site now and bbl to share them.
Sending lots of cuddles to all your beautiful bubs!
Lou xx

Hello :D

Nae: I am glad you have worked out what was going on with Shae...at least now you know you can actually do something about her being unsettled. Do you have to give her something like Zantac to help? I have a baby bjorn which I have inherited from Sister inlaw. It works pretty well and seems easy enough to use. Hope you get the carrier sorted out soon! Glad you got you air conditioning..is it refrigerated? You need it today!!

lou: Does Thomas sleep while you are out? If so, that shouldn't make him too unsettled. Although I do find with Tess, the days I tend to stick around home and potter she gets better quality sleeps? I reckon they sleep when they need it at the moment. I am waiting for Tess too to drop a feed at night. She at the moment does around 11:30pm then 3amish, would love her to drop the first one! I go to bed between 8:30 and 9:30 most nights so I cope ok with the night feeds. I also shut my eyes during the night feeds and nod off while she is feeding so the 20mins -1/2 half hour she takes flies :lol:

Barb: So nice to hear you had some you and DH time in Brisbane with Popoy! Does your DH find our food a little too much? We are so lucky in Australia to have so many cultures that you really can find any ingredient you need to cook whatever nationality you want :D And in pretty much every major city. I love Victoria Street in Melbourne, a Vietnamese street solely made up of Vietnamese grocers and restaurants.

AFM: My milk supply was definitely affected by the gastro I had. So I have been giving her extra feeds to build up supply again and it's worked,thankfully. She is much more settled these last two days..back to her normal self. I took her back to the Dr yesterday for her eye as it's still mucky, so now have AB drops for the eye. This weather today really knocks me for 6..I just don't like it :shakehead: School Holiday's starts tomorrow, have been making lists of things to do on odd days to keep Oscar entertained. We always have days at home too planned I just want to make sure we have enough of both so as he doesn't get bored. Christmas will help as him and Ben will have new things to play with. Bernie built the boys a sand pit too and they spend ages in that playing imaginary games with each other and also on the trampoline.

A quick question..did everyone get the whooping imm? The MHN mentioned it and booked in next week to have it after I spoke to my GP about it. If you had it did you feel ok afterwards?

Hope everyone else pops back in soon..would love to know how you are all going.

bye for now..enjoy your bubs first Christmas's

x Heather

Just a quicky before bub wakes up as I have to get ready to go shopping by myself for DH birthday present.

Heather - DH and I both had our whooping cough vaccine done when Shae was 2 weeks old. It was combined with tetanus and diphtheria (I think). Dh was fine after his, My arm ached for a few days but that was due to the tetanus component of the injection and is a common reaction that I have.

Shae will be having hers done but I figured even if just a small amount of coverage came through the BM then anything is better than nothing. We also asked about the Swine flu vaccine but decided to wait as my GP suspects that it will be part of next years standard vaccine (which I have done anyway).

Must run and get showered.

Love to all

Nae x

hi everyone

thought I'd pop in and say hi to everyone - sounds like everyone is enjoying their new bundles of joy and delight

Nae - hugs to you with Shae's reflux our DS #1 was a happy little vomiter and it looks like DS #2 will be going down the same path, I tried a few different remedies and none really helped but its horrible to see them in so much pain right

Someone asked ages ago about hearing that some kiwis (NZ ers) eating the placenta - its not something that we as a family do but a lot of maori famiies will take the placenta and bury it, its to do with returning the body to the land. I remember seeing a documentary on ABC about women in some african civilisations who eat the placenta but it certainly wasn't something I would consider

Tecopa - love the term Gunkle - so cute glad to hear you had some mummy time

AFM - Ty is still waking every 3 hours at night, we need to start getting into more of a night time routine but DH has just started a new job and has shifts all over the place making it a bit tricky, sometimes we do get a 4 hour stretch from 9-1am but that is usually followed by Ty being awake every 2 hours so we don't win
he also looks like he's got the beginning of cradle cap so I'll pull out the moogoo cream I got for DS #1 as that cleared it up straight away and has the horrible milk rash just like his big brother did - just hoping that its all cleared up by christmas fingers crossed
other than that he is a pretty happy little boy starting to get some gorgeous smiles now which no matter how tired I am melt my heart

sorry for not many personals the master of the house is waking up

love and christmas hugs to all
M

Hi all,

I've started typig this everyday for the last week and just as I get started little miss gets the vibes that Mummy's busy and wakes up!!! Let's see how we go this time.....

We're still in a great night time sleep routine. Getting 5 -6 hours straight from 9/ 10 to about 3/4 then feed and straight back to bed till 7/8. Feel sort of guilty really not being sleep deprved like so many other new mums ;). She actualy scared me the other day. She fed at 6 and DH managed to get her to go to sleep at 7:15 (unheard of in this house) thinking we'd have time for tea but not much else. When we went to bed at 9:30 I debated waking her and feeding her but decided not to wake a sleeping baby so went to bed sure that I'd be awake in an hour or so. Next thing I knew my boobs were so sore they woke me up so I checked the time and it was nearly 3. I jumped out of bed in a panic and rushed to the bassinet to check she was still alive in there (which of course she was) and unwrapped her cause I figured she must have needed a feed!!!!

She's still not in a routine of sleeps through the day but she has about 3 a day and one usually lasts 2-3 hours and it's working so i'm not going to try and fix it!!! Lets just hope it stays this way :pray:

Apart from that everything's pretty normal around here. Rushing around getting last minute christmas things done. We're hoping we don't see the inside of a hospital again for a while though. Last Friday DH had his wisdom teeth out and that night I was rushing around trying to get too much done before Alyssa woke up and tripped down the stairs. Managed to dislocate (mangle) my little finger pretty bad so that was a trip to emergency with my mum while my dad stayed with hubby cause he wasn't meant to be on his own after the op. makes life interesting looking after a baby with a splint and fingers taped together!!!! Got an appointment on Tuesday so I'm hoping they tell me I can take it off by chrissy!!

I've put a link to photos of Alyssa. Hope it works..... Emma Haigh's Photos - Alyssa Maree | Facebook

Lou - I had a look at save our sleep too but i decided she's a baby not a robot and if she doesn't want to sleep at 8:15 in the morning for an hour and a half it wouldn't work anyway and i'd spend that time trying to settle her instead of giving her an extra 20 minutes awake time and having her go down easily. too much fuss and bother really!!!

Heather - We bpth got the whooping cough injection. Didn't even feel it or have the numb arm i was expecting. DH had it not long after i found out i was pregnant.

i'll be back later. got to try and cook tea before missy wakes up!!! don't like my chances though - hubby might have to do it if i can wake him up. poor darling got to sleep through last night but astill acts like his world is falling apart cause he's tired!!! so know why men don't have babies now!! :rolleyes:

Ooooh, it's gone quiet in here :o

Nae: Hope Shae has settled down for you now and you are into the swing of things.

Emma: How is your finger? How are you coping with the lifting and feeding with your finger out of action? I agree on the Save our Sleep. I like routine, but at this age it's the best time to get out and about when you want rather than when you can.

Jody: How are you house guests going? You sound like you are coping nicely!

Mel: I have never heard of moogoo cream? Must remember that if Tess ever gets cradle cap.

Barb: You must be on the countdown to going back to Vietnam?

lou: How was your night out? Did Thomas need the bottle at all? I find that my size is ok except for the boobs! Tops need to be a size bigger to accommodate :redface:

AFM: All is well here. Had a horror night that day we had the 39deg day here in Melbourne. Tess slept all day( so did my husband :lol:)and went to bed as normal. She woke at midnight for a feed and was awake until 3am then slept till 8am, she wasn't grumpy, just awake! I can't complain as that's only one bad night in her short 5weeks :) The other night she did a 7pm-4am then slept till 8am waking up happy, so that was a great one. Now she is back to her usual midnight and then a 4amish then awake at 8amish still all smiles.
We had our night out on Saturday and she was very good. Didn't wake so didn't need to use the bottle. I still haven't tried her on a bottle as yet..
Tess is having alot more awake time during the day so have been making use of the play mat and bouncer. We are getting lots of smiles and sort of giggles. She gets excited as she is about to feed which is funny. She also will muck around sometimes with feeding..plays with the nipple rather than suck and give you a smile in the process, the little devil :)
I am booked in next week for the whooping cough imm. Was going to do it this week but didn't want to risk having a sore arm or reaction on Christmas Day.

Well..Merry Christmas and Safe New Year everyone, will catch up again after :hug:

x Heather

Hey!

I am still here - just been too busying with kiddo to write about kiddo lol. My family has already done Xmas - had my Nanna visit from Brisbane as well as Mum and went to my sister's house - she has a four month old. It was chaos. I did crack it at one point to my Mum and tell her that to be honest, even though my grandmother looks all sweet and innocent that she was a c*nt. Ha. Ha. Sleep deprivation equals honesty.

Mum has been gone about 10 days now and I'm coping - some days JUST with a bit of tears and frustration and other days I think I'm really getting the hang of it all and enjoying it. Even made it to a Mum's and Bubs movie!

Elliott is smiling now and laughing a bit and I'm loving that. We sort of have a routine of sleep at 7pm, and up at 7 am with feeds at 10.30, 1.30, 4.30ish so it's pretty crazy to be a solo mum coping with all of that but I'm determined to feed on demand so whenever he wants he he gets it. The main issue is the noise he makes from 1.30 till 6 am or so - grunts, moans, squeals, sleep cries even. But after a week of trying everything I realised he is happy and content and asleep - just LOUD. So it's ear plugs for me since there is no where else to put him except his nursery which joins my room.

I am doing okay I think but I tend to forget to eat, and my puppies are a bit neglected. But the house is clean and I now have four backpackers in the spare rooms - pays the rent for the whole house LOL. I ask them to do the odd chore so that helps too.

I'm a bit frustrated with my body - back still sore so can't wear Elliott in my ergo too much which is hard cause it's great. Plus still got the last bits of bleeding from birth. And I think I have thrush on my nipples - went from being expert breastfeeder to massive pain and shiny pink nipples and me crying etc. But using a cream for that now and seems to be working.

I'm now down to two regular support people which sucks - all of those dozens of offers for help from my friends and it's fallen off pretty quick - from maybe 10 or more visitors in hospital down to Gunkle and another girl. I may have to look at hiring someone but at the moment I don't know what days or what time of day would help the most.

Elliott is now massive too - over five kilos at five weeks old lol. That's like almost 1.7 kg gain since birth! WOW.

Well that's me updated. Love to hear from everyone else!!

Hi all,
Not sure I will have time for personals... several storm fronts on the horizon, in the sky and with Poppy.

I loved reading the updates, have been offair for several days. For some unknown reason dad's acceptance of a Bigpond offer to upgrade his ADSL meant the internet didn't work. He spent a frustrating two days of the phone, poor bugger.

Poppy is still growing. She's not really giggling and smiling yet. She does a little hahaha occasionally but it's not really a proper smile. The last few days she's also stopped sleeping in the day and has been demanding a feed every two hours or so. Last night at 11pm she was still awake, after about three 10 minute naps through the day. She wasn't unsettled, just awake, kicking and squriming on the bed next to me. I know if I put her in the hammock before she's asleep she'll start crying. It had cooled down a bit so I wrapped her up and within seconds she was asleep. I tried it again this morning and she slept for two hours. But it's been too hot this afternoon to wrap her. Now it's raining and one of mum's dogs is barking at the thunder so she's not going to get to sleep, wrapped or unwrapped. Mum is now saying I should start feeding her solids if she's that hungry. But I think she's just having a growth spurt. I also think now she's more aware of her surroundings more things wake her up. Maybe her hearing's improved or something too.

We are on the countdown to returning to Vietnam. We haven't worked out where we're going to stay. That's making me feel a bit unsettled. I'm really going to miss mum and dad and having DP at home. He's just fantastic. He doesn't need so much sleep and because I've been so tired he's been doing most of the night feeds and taking her for extended periods during the day. I've just got back from the hairdresser! And I went and got a facial on Saturday with a voucher one of my friends gave me. It was bliss but far too short.

I'm going to get some blood tests done before I go back. I really don't think I should be so tired after seven weeks. I'm getting enough sleep and eating well and I don't feel so stressed but I feel so run down.

Anyway... there goes Poppy again. Time to "change actors" as DP says. I hope everyone has a wonderful first Christmas with their bubs. :D

Hi all......

Heather - Alyssa is awake more through the day now too. hard to keep her occupied somedays but a walk outside usually does the trick. she just loves looking at everything happening around her. so bright and alert. my grandparents are here for chrissy and can't believe her. think they were expecting the sleepy little thing they saw when she was a week old :) and she does the same thing playing around when she's feeding then smiles and all the milk she's got in her mouth dribbles down mum. she also makes a fist and punches my boobs though and i can see that's going to get painful as she gets bigger!!

Tecopa - sounds ike you're doing a lot of nighttime feeds...... hopefully he'll drop one for you soon so you can have a bit of a longer sleep in the night somewhere!! Alyssa is a really loud sleeper for the second half of the night as well. usually after her night feed so from about 3 - 6. sounds like you're doing a great job!! if i was on my own i think i'd be living on toast and i hate to think what the house would look like. most days i've just got enough time to do a load of washing!! did clean my wardrobe out though. took 3 days and in the process every piece of clothing i owned was in the loungeroom!!!

GTBBIA - some days they just won't sleep will they!!! We had one sleep yesterday (it was a nice 3 hour one though so it meant mum could clean up a little bit before we have everyone here for chrissy) and then dozed on my grandmother while i was at mums for tea last night. it's amazing as they get more aware of where they are isn't it. i keep forgetting it's the first time they've seen things.. lucky you on the hair cut and facial. i'm planning a facial in january with my mum to say thankyou for how amazing she was through my labour and the first couple of weeks after the birth (and still is of course). DH can have a little bit of daddy daughter time. your iron levels might be down if you're really tired. mine still haven't come back to anywhere near the level they were while i was pregnant let alone before (that's thanks to me hemoraging after the birth thoug) and i know it's affecting my tiredness. mhy GPs just mointoring them and i'm on iron tablets and eating plenty of red meat.

AFM - we had our 6 week checks on monday. everything all good with mummy and daughter. Alyssa had her 8 week needles early (we've got a whooping cough outbreak so they're doing the needles at 6 weeks instead) and only screamed for a minute when they went in but she must have realised a couple of hours later that they were sore and then the wailing started. her poor little legs came up all red and hot. i gave her some baby panadol (which i was glad i went and got after she had her needles) and she calmed down pretty quickly and we managed to get her to bed. she was clingy all afternoon though so i held her from about 4 to 9 while she cryed. very stressful afternoon!!! she pretty much slept through last night. cause i wasn't home until nearly 10 by the time i gave her her last feed, changed her and put her down it was nearly 11 (lucky she'd been dozing on people while i ewas out) and she didn't wake up till 540 this morning which was pretty good.

Can i have some opinions - i want to know if i'm being over sensitive and should just get over it........ my inlaws are difficult about where we have christmas every year and won't budge on them doing lunch. if we can't make it (cause we want to spend some of them with my family) we get to go in the afternoon and see them but they won't even save dessert for us (offered to one year but we were 20 minutes late so they ate it and opened all the presents including the ones we'd bought them without us) which means my family who are more easy going usually get the raw end of the deal....... just a bit of background.. This year being Alyssa first we wanted to have both familys here to celebrate together. easier for us and we don't spend the day in and out of cars. they are refusing to come because there's too many people - there's 9 of my relatives and would be 6 of his making 18 with us. my mil lost her mum 3 days before alyssa was born and she says she's not ready for crowds. i'm just a little hurt that they don't want to share her first christmas and such a special time has to be all about her when to me christmas is all about being with family and especially the kids (alyssa is the only grandchild on both sides). they are going to come around but not till 4 or 5 and i don't want to feel like i should kick everyone else out just cause they show up. my grandparents have travelled down from grafton and it's a big trip for them when they're in their 80's and my uncle has come from brisbane so i don't want them to feel guilty about the inlaws not coming either...... such a mess!! but i guess christmas always is with familys (especially DH's) :wall:

anyway, must go and have a shower before she wakes up again. my best friend had a little boy yesterday so i'm going to try and get to the hospital today and visit Alyssas new boyfriend and still have to finish cleaning 9or as much as i can with a finger in a splint (not that i'm playing on it or anything ;)) so the house looks decent for chrissy.... thankyou for listening to my vent/whinge!!!

Enjoy your first christmas's everyone!!

hey everyone

MERRY CHRISTMAS

just a quicky -

Emma - familes are difficult aren't they. I can completely understand how you are feeling and also understand how your MIL feels. Last Christmas I was in no mood for celebrating etc after losing Nikita six months earlier and I was by no means ready for big social gatherings. You do not have to kick anyone out, if your PIL decide to come late maybe just explain (or not and just leave it) that maybe some people would have left by the time they get there but you cannot promise them that. Its so so hard when you are missing a family member at this time of year - even though we have Shae, I barely feel like celebrating because we are missing our first born and quite frankly Shae is a constant reminder of what we don't have and all we have missed out on.
:hug: I am sure it will work out, maybe don't say anything to MIL and just let the day pan out as its meant too :dunno:

Just wanted to quickly share, I took a piccie of Shae infront of our first family christmas tree Login | Facebook she screamed just after I took it :lol:

love to all

Nae x x x

That's a tough one Emma. If you have family coming from alomg way it sounds reasonable espec with a new baby to stick around home on Xmas Day amd perhaps catchup with DH'S family on boxing day...especially since DH's family don't save any Christmas festivities for you anyway. (Hope that doesn't sound too harsh).

We now take it in turns..as in 1yr Bernies family for lunch and the next mine and don't usally do both in one day. Unless it's with my family and we will see DH's family for dinner as it tends to be a very speedy visit if we can (my family don't all get along together well).
In fact this year we are at my Sister's and last year we had them here. My Mum suggested DH & I don't come down for Christmas as my Sister who I and my other Sister dont get along with will be down at her house for Christmas. I am the youngest of 6 and not many of us get along really.
I took a hard line a couple of years ago and we both decided to do what suits us..everyone is fine with it and understands as we all have kids and that's what Christmas is all about these days.

Perhaps Emma you could do something similar...as in take it in turns where lunch is? It sounds like your DH's family is not very easy going??

Good luck Emma!

Nae: Your words sound very sad :comfort:...hope you and your DH have a lovely first Christmas with Shae and make some beautiful memories for the years to come. I couldn't view your pic of Shae..she looks sooo cheeky on your ticker :lol:

bye for now..Miss Tess is calling :D

x Heather

:

---

Nae: Your words sound very sad :comfort:...hope you and your DH have a lovely first Christmas with Shae and make some beautiful memories for the years to come. I couldn't view your pic of Shae..she looks sooo cheeky on your ticker :lol:

---

becoming a mum after a loss has been pretty hard emotionally, lots of things come to the surface plus its a difficult time of year and people (family) seem to forget about Nikita or expect that because we have Shae that we are no longer saddened by her passing.Its a wonderful christmas because its our first as a real family but its difficult as well because I miss Nikita.

Caught between a happy and sad place ;) it will get easier with time

Oh Nae - my heart goes out to you. I can imagine it would be hard. Family gatherings are always difficult when someone is missing. Rather than having forgotten her, maybe your friends and family are not mentioning Nikita because they don't want to upset you. Since reading your post I've been thinking about one lovely post you wrote about your little wombat. I hope you can make your way through the next few weeks without too much pain.

Emma - It's a difficult one. I think for your own peace of mind, just do what's best for you. Alyssa is going to pretty oblivious, so its still about you and your feelings. I've really been amazed at the range of reactions people have to a baby. I've always been quite disinterested in babies, although I made an effort to cluck over my sister's kids when they were younger. So I think a disinterested reaction to a baby is quite normal. I find my mum's ultra-eagerness a bit weird. She's had a cold for the last few days and so she hasn't held the baby. So she stands at the door with her arms open and a tragic look on her face and talks about how terrible it is to have had empy arms for days. What I'm trying to say is that you should try not to take it personally if grandparents are not centering their Christmas plans on the baby. Unless they're being complete cows about it, of course.

Oh, and I loved the Sanda photo with Alyssa. It's adorable.

Tecopa, I'm glad you've decided to stick with us. How's the lodgers going? I think we might open our house up when we get back to Vietnam as a kind of homestay. You've inspired me!

Hi Mel, looking forward to an update.

And Heatherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! I love reading your posts. We're suffering with the heat here on the Sunshine Coast too. That's one of the sleeping problems we have. Shutting the bedroom door turns the room into an oven so we leave the door open for the breeze and then get blasted with noise.

So... learner plate mum just got told today that the baby is supposed to be asleep for 16 hours out of ever 24. THAT's going to make life a bit easier (and less boring). We were both getting sick of "entertaining" Poppy, who just didn't seem to get the hang of hanging out on her own. I mentioned sleep patterns to the midwife today at the newborn clinic and she told me were we'd been going wrong. So Poppy's asleep now, wrapped up tightly. And the little miss will be doing a lot more sleeping from now on so DP and I can get on with doing other stuff. It sounds a bit mean, doesn't it. I just thought she'd fall asleep when she was tired.

So ... Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have a fun day with the new "toy".

It was the night before Christmas and all over the house
Nothing was stirring, not even a mouse
Well, except for Poppy May who just WILL NOT GO TO SLEEP.

So much for 16 hours a day. Grrrr. I'm on my second glass of wine, wondering what I'm going to do without my mum and suddenly so thankful I'm not BFing!! Things might seem better after another glass. Although I can hear Mum running out of patience too.

Tomorrow we're off to see if my lovely Nannan remembers who I am. If she does we're going to introduce Poppy. Merry Christmas.

Don't feel bad about things not going to plan. I ended up at the midwife drop in centre in tears today thinking I had some breast infection since my nipples so sore - only to be told I've been doing BF wrong. My nipples are skinned and raw with some nerve damage! So I'm up trying to teach Elliott to get out of his new lazy habit of bad attachment. Also cause of my super fast flow he's been bloated with gas and I just thought he was fussy. And his vomitting all the time also related. Bloody hell. So been taught how to massage his belly. Side effect of the lots of milk thing is also he is 5.5 kilos already!!

Gunkle came over and we had a couple of bourbon while I just let it all out how I'd been feeling about how hard feeding is!

Oh Jody, big hugs! It sounds like you've been incredibly brave persevering through the pain. I can't believe Elliot is so big! Poppy was 4.45kg on Wednesday and I think she's looking like someone's pumped her up with a bicycle pump.
After all the pain of NOT SLEEPING yesterday, the little darling slept from 10pm til 6am, sucked down a bottle then went back to sleep. Now we're waiting for her to wake up so we can get going. I don't know how anything ever gets done when babies are involved.

Hey Jody: Hope Elliott is getting the hang of the breastfeeding after your visit and your boobs are getting back to some sort of healthy state. It's great you had Gunkle to vent too..always makes things better (not to meniton a couple of beverages!) Breastfeeding is a learned thing for little ones and since you have great milk flow he probably only has to open his mouth and it literally squirts straight in hence why he hasn't got the hang of what to do when he needs to latch on. I too had a few Chrissy drinks or 2 and thankfully little Miss did one of her long sleeps at night so no worries about the feeding part :dance: Although I tend not to worry too much about it and have a drink anyway just not too many. He is a big boy (sounds like Ben when he was Elliott's age).

Barb: Glad Poppy had a long sleep (eventually)..that would be counted as sleeping through :D 16hrs out of 24 sounds like alot but if you take into account the nights when they are only awake usually for the feed and then straight back down that would normally account for 10-12hrs or so then a couple of sleeps through the day. It's probably a little harder for you and DP to 'entertain' Poppy as I assume you wouldn't have many toys for her to be amused by as yet knowing you will be settling back to Vietnam soon. My bouncer and play mat/gym is a lifesaver and she likes to try and focus on the toys.

Emma: Hope you got your Christmas day sorted.

Nae: Hope you made some nice Christmas memories and were able to include a nice 'Nikita" tradition that will continue for years to come :hug:

AFM: Things are still good..Tess is smiling and after a very busy christmas day slept from 7pm-3:30am and then back down till 7:30am :clap: I am getting one of those 'sleeping throughs' about once a week now which is just fantastic :dance:
I am always amazed at what MW and MHN's say what babies should do.I often wonder if they have kids or remember what it was like when their kids were babies. I usually take what they say on board but don't always follow it as our babies are not robots..they are semi programmable little people when and if they feel inclined :lol: I have no choice quite often through the day to have to drag a sleeping Tess out if I have to do school or creche pickup or just get things done and she seems to keep sleeping when I do this, well most of the time anyway. She is so strong that she can hold her head up now..the boys were at least 3mths before they could do this successfully!
We had a busy Christmas Day with lots of new faces for Tess to try and focus on (she goes a little cross eyed when she tries too hard). The boys got very spoilt by various relatives and are now suffering a little bit of a kiddie post Christmas hangover.
We went to my Sister's and had a great lunch. My niece who is 16 (and very spoilt) has decided to she wants to work till she is 25 then settle down and have babies!! So she took Tess most of the time we were there to see what 'it's like'..Tess was not a very good example of what it will be lilke as she didn't cry one bit and was quite well behaved..thankfully my niece realised this.

Well yet another long post :redface: Can't help myself really!! Look forward to hearing form you all soon :)

x Heather

Howdy everyone,

hope you all had a fantastic christmas - Em how did you go hun?

Jody - BF can be so hard, you poor thing i feel your pain. Shae had attachment issues early on now she is doing this weird thing which cause pain again because she has got this lazy attachment and doesn't need to suck coz the flow just pours out. the ABA suggested laying back so bub sucks uphill which helps stop the choking/gulping down the milk and burping every couple of minutes to help with the wind. Also a bit of infacol helps too .... ust throwing some ideas out there for you :hug:

Heather - i am so ealous that tess is smiling already, your christmas sounded nice, if your neice wants send her around here at about 5pm then she can get a taste of what its like to have an inconsolable baby for 4 hours.

Barb - OMG what a sleep!!!!

we'll all soon be coming up to the next development leap soon so no doubt there will be lots of posts about bubs being grumpy again (between 7-9 weeks in age) i have the best book called "wonder weeks" and its very interesting!!!

Christmas was pretty good, i lit some candles next to Niki's photo's which is what i do for all the special dates, and picked some flowers out of her memorial garden for her. Shae was quite well behaved but was so over stimulated, yesterday was rotten though which is what happens following a day of high activity.

Mum gave Shae a cute dress that was mine when i was a baby, my nan made it and i cannot wait for her to grow just a bit bigger so i can get her in it to wear and get some piccies. Nan would have loved to see her in one of the "nanny robb masterpieces"

more later i gotta run x x x

Hi lovely ladies and gents
Me here but only briefly! Would love to read all your posts but cannot see it happening or joining you very often. Little Hugh is just gorgeous and Catherine is learning to adapt and so am I but crikey I so do not have a spare moment. The house looks like a bomb site and DH is sleeping on the swag next to C's cot (her sleep has gone haywire since Hugh's birth)and I just got Hugh to sleep (it's nearly 10pm) but he will be awake in 2 hours for a feed as he does 24/7. My dinner- slice swiss roll, marshmallows, slice of pannettone. You get me? But very happy and satisfied.
Hope you all had a lovely Christmas with your new babies and families. Will do my very best to pop in and see how you are all going- even to read posts and not respond!
Love D

Hi everyone

glad you all had a great chrsitmas!!! thankyou for all your support. christmas was good here. DH and i both know we're not in the good books (MIL acts like a spoilt little child when she has the poops and won't talk to you) but we've been there before (usually around this time of year) and know she'll come around. i really can't be bothered treating her like a child with temper tantrums anymore! it's not like we didn't try and include her so i'm not going to feel guilty. my family were still here when they came - but they knew that because she rang and asked if we were done and i said we'd had lunch and were about to have pudding and the response was we've had ours so we'll be there soon. and seeing as they live 5 minutes away we both missed out on dessert.... anyway, shouldn't whinge and com,plain too much. just put a bit of a downer on what was otherwise such a great day (she did have a go at both of us about different things on the afternoon - one of which was complaining to me that DH didn't come to the door to greet them when he was in the loo at the time!!).

Alyssa was totally spoilt for christmas. first grandchild and great grandchild in both families!! we got her a play gym/mat which wasn't really too over the top but nanny and poppy spoilt her badly. i'm guessing next year will only get worse as she gets older......

Nae - I can't even say i know what you're going through........ but i understand how hard it can be. i have a friend who's little boy would have been 2 on the 20th of december. christmas is always hard for her as they lost him on the 8th january and he spent the whole time in nicu on a ventilator so every year is reliving what was happening this time that year. she dreads christmas for months leading up to it and hasn;t put a christmas tree up since that year. people expect her to move on as well even though she hasn't been blessed to fall pregnant again. it's so hard to make people understand that they will always be a huge part of you and your family. my heart goes out to you - i'm glad you had a nice day with shae and remembered nikita in your own special way :hug:

Jody - you poor thing!!!! that must have been absolute agony!!! my little miss has gotten lazy in the attachment department as well so that was a little wake up call to make sure i don't let her for too long!!! Alyssa guzzles as well and usually throws up a far bit after a feed. thinking of trying the lying down thing to make her feed uphill - especially after the projectile vomit that just ended up all over my lounge ;)

AFM - i can't believe that our little bubs are growing up so quickly!!! a friend of mine had a baby last tuesdasy and came to visit last night. he is so tiny!!!! and feels so breakable! he is 600grams smaller than Alyssa ever was (and 7 cms shorter!!) but i never remember her feeling like that!!! Alyssa has been smiling for around 3 weeks now (best thing when she wakes up is to see the smile the first thing when you pur your head over the top of the bassinet :)) and is pretty good with her head control too, but one of the first things she did when she was put on my chest when she was born was lift her head to look around. such a little sticky beak!!! she has pretty good control over her arms as well and loves playing on her gym reaching out for the toys!!! We also bought a glider - which is the best thing to settle her during the witching hour!!! 5 minutes and she's asleep :dance:
She's still s great sleeper of a night doing 930 - 4 then 430 - at least 7 most days (she falls back to sleep while she's feeding so i put her straight back to bed)!! boxing day night she slept 930 - 530 which was just heaven (except i wole up at about 330 anyway cause my boobs told me it was time grrr..

anyway, dh has just informed me she's tirring from her nap (and i thought she was in for her one long daytime sleep not a one hour nap!!!) be back later!!

Hi,

Emma: Glad you had a nice Christmas (even with odd the bad moment). Much easier if you just go with your own plan. I love the first smile of the day when I peak at her in the bassinette! What sort of glider did you get? I had a look and like the wing chair ones :)

Nae: Your Christmas sounds nice too...sounds like your Mum may have behaved herself. Look forward to seeing pic's of Shae in the outfit you wore as a little one..they are such wonderful traditions to have.

D: Nice to see you pop in! You sound very happy and content even when you are busy :lol:

AFM: Well we used the last of the NB nappies last night and Tess is now in the next size up Huggies, she also doesn't fit in her baby bath anymore and I just gave her a bath in our bath with one of those seats you lie them in (an absolute lifesaver on the back). So she is so grown up already :shakehead: Time flies. She tries to giggle..makes the face and a sort of grunt noise which is cute. I can see the smile in her eyes which is sooo nice..I forgot how adorable a little baby can be and are absolutely smitten with Little Miss Tess..so is the rest of the family.

Just a quick pop in today Tess is ready for feed and bed...look forward to hearing how everyone else is going.

x Heather

Hi Everyone :)


Barb: Has poppy had her Imm's yet? Pretty sure you were going to get them done before you headed back to Vietnam? Have you got a place to live yet when you get back? A tip the MW's gave in hospital to lessen the reaction while bubs is having the imm's is to give them a feed while it is being done..perhaps try and give her a bottle while the imm's are being done?? I was feeding Tess when they did the Hep B and heel ***** in hsopital and she didn't cry one bit :clap:

Jody: Just an after thought as I would say your Thrush on the nipples has settled down by now? What do you wear to bed? Is it a bra every night with breast pads? I wear a booby bib which is excellent as I don't have to wear a bra and breast pads and it absorbs any milk leakage. I have two and worth every cent I paid for them as I wear it every night. It allows the breasts to have a breather and little bit of freedom..just a thought :) How is Elliott's attachment going?

I can't believe six weeks has gone already!
I went and finally had the whooping cough Immunisation yesterday. It's been years since I have had a jab other than blood tests while pregnant. Oscar was with me (school hols') and watched my reaction intently! My Dr who the locals with kids call the happy stabber was brilliant and I didn't feel a thing and have no after effects. He also suggested I have the swine flu one which I will do at a later date.
We have a very quiet New Years planned..I will probably be in bed by 9pm! I have bought a nice bottle of bubbles for me to celebrate the decade!
I was listening to the radio the other day and they asked people to call in with what changes have occurred for them over 10yrs...when I thought about it I was amazed at how much we have done!

Hi to everyone else...hope you all have a lovely and Safe New Year :D

x Heather

hi everyone,

i have bub on boob as i type so i will make it short. here are some piccies from chrissy, they are in photobucket so not sure if the link will work - more in the new year .........

Happy New Year hope your not all sweltering in the heat like we are

nae x

Shae pictures by Nae76 - Photobucket