Newborn - 1 Month, July '05

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My nanna said to me that my BM might not be good enough quality for her and thats why she kept waking up unsatisfied, crying hysterically etc...not sure but will see how things go all the same

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I really hope you ladies don't mind me popping in... my pregnancy is fast drawing to a close & because it is my first I have started reading this thread regularly just to get a feel for what you are all dealing with & how you are coping with different aspects of this big change day to day. It helps a lot.

I always go straight to the web pages & your little angels are all so beautiful! :D

Brookey I just wanted to add a thought to the dilemma you have had regarding feeding & BM. I mean no disrespect to your Nanna but I would suggest speaking to a Lactation Consultant before making decisions... there really is no such thing as poor quality BM. We are designed so perfectly in this regard that, short of drug addiction & outside pollutants, our BM is beyond reproach. Air intake, latching, sleeping & general well being are more likely at the heart of the problem. I hope you dont mind my input but I hate the thought of you doubting your ability to produce quality milk. Please forgive me if I have spoken out of turn but my intentions are good :)

Brookey I am soooo glad to hear that it all worked out for the best! :D

I'm the last of my siblings to have children & my two sisters were at totally opposite ends of the feeding spectrum. One had a succesful/wonderful breast feeding experience & the other didn't (no weight gain/poor sleeping/poor settling resulting in a really stressed out mum etc) so made the decision to switch to formula, quickly, for both her baby & her benefit. As a result I am lucky to have a really open mind & lots of info about both.

I'm really happy for you Brookey & all the ladies in here.... you are doing a fabulous job! Please keep updating the photo's, they are such a treat for me :D

Hi guys
No time for personals today just a little de-stress.

We had a shocker of a night last night and the night before cause Hendrix has a cold and when i put him down to sleep he falls asleep for about an hour but wakes as he is so snuffly and cant breathe. He has also been taking so much longer to settle as he is obviously really uncomfortable. I also am feeling like s#$t so that doesnt help the situation. Due to this we have gone backwards and he is waking every 3 hours i hope that we return to normal when he gets better.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Just a quick pop in..how are you all doing?

Heather - have you been using saline drops in his nose? There is not much you can really do as far as medicines etc for him but when Kenzie had a really blocked up nose my GP suggested saline drops and this helps clear their nose and also usually makes them sneeze as well to help clear it. You can buy saline drops at the chemist but my GP just said to make my own at home - about 1 teaspoon of salt to a cup of cooled, boiled water. Just use a dropper/syringe and put a drop in each nostril - just have him laying down and sort of drop it just on the inside - don't stick the syringe way up his nose or anything lol.

That's the only suggestion I have.

Anyway, back to the one month thread. I've been so busy the last several days - my sister arrived Monday night and so she's been over etc and the boys are back at school/pre-school etc. So much to do, so little time lol.

Thanks so much lisa, ill get some saline drops today. Mum came over this morning and took hendrix out for a couple of hours so ive caught up on some sleep but my throat is yuck!

Aww Heather - sorry to hear about little Hendrix....Finlay is just getting over quite a bad cold and here is what the paedatrician and GP had to say...

Saline drops (as Lisa suggested - but these didn't really work)
Humidifier/steamer in his room under his bassinette
Dimetapp infant drops (which I used sparingly - but they did make him sleep well which gave him the chance to recover)
We also had Finlay on ventalin (which was totally scary) due to his cough....i would see your GP if you think it is bad. I have been back 3 times in one week..

Hope that you are all feeing better soon

Megan

Thanks megan - i dont think that hendrix is as bad as poor little finlay (fingers crossed). But will definately go to the GP tomorrow if things are worse. Glad to hear that Finlay is getting better.

xx

Hi all,

jumping into this forum now! Have read some of the past posts and I am VERY glad to see that the crying at a drop of a hat thing is normal!! I thought I was going a bit mad. I mean, I am aware about baby blues and PND, but thought I should be over the blues and not bad enough for PND! Phew, glad this site is here!

Thomas arrived 2 weeks ago today, so I should have been in here a bit sooner. He has been a bit of an angel really, sleeping mostly 4 hurs between feeds and waking only because he can't stand his wet/dirty nappy. During the day, I have to wake him to feed him, otherwise he won't get ernough feeds in over a 24hr period. We had a couple of quite unsettled periods after feeds a few nights ago, where Thomas thought that after his 11pm (ish) feed that it was awake time. Like some of you, he doesn't really cry too much, but does grizzle. If I put him in his cot before he is ready to go to sleep, he screams, so i have to have him dropping off before I can lay him down at nighttime. Although at nighttime, he is sleeping 5 - 6 hours through which is good.

However, I think that I really need to get more sleeps in the afternoon, and like a couple of you, have seemed to have people visiting during these times which has prevented me from snoozing.

A new mum's group is starting up in our town this Friday and I must admit to being a bit anxious about going as I really don't have any rythym with Thomas yet in respects to his feeding/sleeping/awake but not crying periods yet. I just don't know what he'll be like between 2 and 4pm in the afternoon. Every day can take on a new routine. I might just see how we're going come 1.30pm on Friday!!

Well, enough from me. I'll have to scan back and read a few more back posts.

My details (thanks mods) are:

Name: Hayseed
State: Vic (country)
Baby's DOB: 6th July, 2005
Stats: 6lb 13oz, 48cm long, 35cm head circumf
Gender: male
Name(s): Thomas Mark
Website: www.babiesonline.com/babies/p/pup7
Health concerns: none
Notes: Born at 38 wks 4 days via c-section because of a breech presentation and mild pre-eclampsia

Hayseed

Hi everyone,

Little boy Blake is fast asleep after a busy morning out. We had our first check up with the MCHN which went great. Blake is thriving, having put on 390g in one week. He's also grown 2.5cm in length (now 56cm) since birth. No wonder he's grown out of his 000 Bonds suits. The 00's look so much better on him.

We had a dreadful day on Tuesday with Blake only sleeping 1 hour in the morning and 35 mins in the afternoon. He was also feeding 3 hourly instead of 4. This was until I decided to take him for a drive to my Mum's who lives 40 minutes away. It was great cause he slept all the way and then for another 45 minutes or so once we were there. He had a good feed and slept well all evening/night until his 2pm feed when it took him until 4pm to get back to sleep. Since then he's had two great days, feeding back to 4 hours and sleeping up to about 5 hours. I gotta say though, feeding 3 hourly in Tuesday has certainly increased my milk supply!

I do have to confess to giving Blake a dummy. I was finding that sometimes he just wouldn't settle unless he was sucking on my finger. Well my finger was getting quite sore around the cuticle as that's where he was gumming it. And yesterday in Target I was trying to shop until he started crying so I had to stop and give him my finger until he fell asleep. Well when we got home (I'd bought a dummy just in case whilst still pg) I sterilised it and then gave it to him when he was grizzling and it worked a treat. He dropped off to sleep for 5 hours! He's good too as he spits it out once he's settled and doesn't seem to want it again. Hopefully he wont get too dependant on it.

Heather, how is Hendrix's cold going? I hope he's getting over it now.

Megan, I hope Finlay is over his too.

Hayseed, I know what you mean about not knowing how Thomas is going to be on any particular day at any particular time. Blake's a bit the same, but I'm being a bit more relaxed about things now. Perhaps it's because he's my second or perhaps it's because I still have to pick my DD up from school so Blake has to fit in around her and I can't change that. He's just gotta cope, which he is. I'm lucky he's such an easy baby.

My DH is home today as he pulled a muscle in his lower back/side last night taking off his slippers. Don't as me how he did it, but he's sitting around watching Titanic on DVD and keeping it warm. I'm tempted to go and have a little nap before Blake wakes for his feed. Then we might go walk back up to school to pick up Vivienne. I love having her at school as it encourages me to do some walking which I'm sure I would do if we didn't have the school pick up/drop off.

Enjoy this sunny afternoon. I hear it's going to be blah tomorrow.

Hey Guys
Rach thanks for asking about Hendrix he is actually doing much better today still sick but coping with it much better. He slept so well last night thank god!! But typically as DH has today off and i said i would feed last night and then he could settle but of course he needed no settling at all he just nod off and go straigth into his bassinet without any fuss. He is su ch a good boy though im sure the night before was horrible as he was feeling so bad.

I also use a dummy!! I dont really have any problems with them at all. When i used to nanny the girls had dummies and grew out of them quite easily and i had dummy growing up and had no probs. We bought some before he was born and had them just in case. We only give it to him when we want to settle him when he is grouchy and he also like blake spits it out when he is done with it.

Hope you are all having a nice day.

Rach, Thomas is still in 0000's, so 00's seems huge to me!!!

We had a little hiccup with settling last night, which made me realise that it is not going to be all smooth sailing. At 7.30pm, I fed the boy and thought that I would be able to get him down by 8.30pm and then he'll be back up at around midnight and then would prbably sleep until 5 or 6am. Not so! He was awake until 11pm and then finally dropped off (it was like he was fighting it) after suckling for about 1.25 hrs (! - on both boobs!). However, he was awake again just 2.5hrs later for a 15min feed and then again at 5am for another 15 min feed. This morning he seems to be ok. (ooo, just heard a squeal....better type faster!!)

Maternal nurse advised about letting them get into habit of small feeds regular, but not really sure if 15mins at least 2hrs apart counts? And he falls asleep and I can't rouse him to keep feeding. So what can I do but let him sleep?

Ohh, gotta go, squeals have turned to screams!! Check back later.

Hayseed

Hey everyone :)

Sorry I haven't been around much lately, been too sleep deprived to be able to post LOL. Don't have time for personals now either as it's Adara's turn for a grizzly day. She's getting her molars still and in a lot of pain, poor thing.

Ryan had been very colic-y and hard to settle at night so I took the babies to a baby chiro on Wed. When I had him I had trouble getting his shoulders out & panicked when they were stuck so screamed for the MW just to get him out. When she turned him & pulled him out it KILLED me, I reckon it was the most painful thing about the whole labour & delivery & really hurt all that night. So it made me think that if it hurt me that much, it couldn't have been good for him either. They don't crack them like they would for us, it's a lot of massage for the nerves that are bunched up and they use this clicky thing which taps the joints if needed.

Anyway, he showed me how Ryan couldn't turn his head to the left very far at all and they both had their pelvis & backs out. Ryan is sooo much happier now, much easier to burp and sleeps more soundly. Last night he slept for 5hrs straight & had a 6hr gap btn feeds (it had been a struggle not to feed him any sooner than every 3hrs & usually woke every 2hrs anyway) WOOHOO!! \:D/ I'm so glad I took them! Would've had a great night except Adara was up in the middle of his big sleep in pain :(

We've been pretty good overall although we have had a couple of shocking nights when I've had to get DH up out of bed to help me with 2 screaming babies when he has to get up at 5.30am #-o Oh well, I knew there'd be times like this with the 2 of them.. Other than that things are going great! I love my little man!! O:)

I'll come back on when Adara has her sleep to catch up with you guys.

Brooke and Mel - i forgot to post that i took Hendrix to the chiro on Tuesday and he too is sleeping for longer periods than previously. Very impressed!! Hope your appointment is as successful Brooke.

xx

Morning Ladies

Well i dont want to jinx ourselves but we have had two fabulous nights in a row. Hendrix went to sleep last night at 9:30 and slept till 2:30 this morning then was up till 4 but slept till 7. So i got 8 hours sleep last night and the night before was the same - loving it!!

He still sleeps most of the day as well - i think he is like his mum and loves his zzzzz's. He is definately more aware though when he is awake and is smiling at me and DH quite a bit.

Where is everyone?? Hope all is ok. Have a lovely weekend

Hi can I please be added here,
Forum Name: Mumofbundlezofjoy
State: Victoria
Baby's DOB: 19/07/05
Stats: 4625gms, 52.5cm, 36cm head circumfrence
Gender: Boy
Name: Dion Michael
Website: Not yet
Health concerns: a little bit of jaundice
Notes: Born at 39weeks 4 days, natural delivery

Will read up and talk soon, Dion needs a drink, and Rianna needs a cuddle!!

Welcome Vanita and Dion!! :)

Hi

Hope Hendrix is feeling better! And welcome Vanita!

Evan is doing great, we are all settling into this new life quite well actually. I make a point of getting out everyday even if it's just a walk around the block. Evan loves it (pram and baby carrier thing) and it does me a world of good to get some fresh air too. Hope you girls are all managing to get out because it does make such a difference when it's all getting hard! We've ventured into Adelaide, been to the shopping centre and lots of walks around. Oh, and also we had dinner at mum's house last week and he was an angel.

and the other thing i was going to mention was that DH and I went out for dinner on our own last week at my mum's orders while she babysat. I wasn't sure i was ready to leave him, but it really did us good to have just a couple of hours on our own again and to talk about something other than sleeping, bowel movements and other baby stuff! Anyway, I really recommend it.

Evan is feeding well and sleeping far better than i had dared to hope for. His night routine works well, usually sleeping for 5-6hrs first and then a feed (I'm up for an hour) and then a 3-4hr sleep. It means I usually have to go to bed at about 8pm, and get up at 5 or 6am but if it means i get 8hrs sleep then i'm all for it!!

I was interested to read that some of you have turned to dummies because Evan is a total sucker too during the day (at night he is asleep as soon as he's off the breast!), and i have desperately been trying to avoid the dummy as everyone keeps telling me they are bad. But my finger is getting rather worse for ware with all the sucking!!

I can't believe we are coming up for the 4 week mark on Thursday! Are you girls finding that your little ones are awake HEAPS more and so much more alert?! It was a shock the first couple of days that he decided he didn't want to sleep all day! I am trying to find something he likes to keep him amused while I get on with doing a few things! Any suggestions?! Because he just won't settle unless I'm holding him. I have put him in the carrier sling thing and got some things done around the place but it would be great to have him amuse himself for awhile! He sat on the playmat for about 15mins this morning while i wrote some emails but that was the most success i've had. He likes rocking and i'm wondering whether he might like those swinging cradle things with things to keep baby stimulated (music, colours etc) but they are so expensive for something i'm not sure he'd actually use. What do your babe's do??

Also, who has been brave enough to make the transition from sleeping in your rooms in a crib to their own room in cot? I was thinking we might wait until 6weeks. Any thoughts on this? The cot seems so big!!

DH starts back at work again tonight (he works night duty) so it will be our first night alone!! Scary!! Then i'll have to get into finding something to keep Evan amused during the days so he doesn't wake daddy!

That turned out to be a rather longer post than i'd expected to write. Sorry if it's rambly.. i just thought i'd take the opportunity to ask everything i've been thinking while my boy is sleeping!

Linds

Yay Vanita - congratulations!

Linds - we moved Finlay at 4 weeks into his own room and cot as he is a VERY noisy sleeper. He managed the move well and we don't regret it at all!!

We also use a dummy - he uses it to comfort himself and then spits it out. He also uses it to get to sleep sometimes....I was like you, anti - dummy - but now I love them and Finlay likes them as well so no harm done yet!

Megan