Jan/Feb 2011 Mommies (Nov & Dec 2010 early babes)

Hi ladies

So we survived our first night of sleep training. it took us an hour and listening to Lala CD twice and eventually Thula Thula 4 times before Inge fell asleep and stayed asleep. I picked her up about 6 times where she was crying - walked out of the room to calm her and then back again. She slept until midnight to drink and then again at 02:00; 04:00; 06:00. She has been feeding every two hours today and was very ma-vas the entire morning.

I am reading you posts and while I know it will be a benefit to our household to sleep train her I have this little voice at the back of my head saying "hey, you waited so long for her and now instead of enjoying every moment with her you are doing sleep training" - the mind is wicked. It might be my one and only child and I am so scared that I will be sorry when I am no longer able to put her to sleep. any way, I will see how it goes tonight - even if I only get her to fall asleep on her own at night I will be happy.

Other than that we have had a relaxing day so far - hopefully we will have a better night tonight and hopefully Inge will sleep better from midnight

Chris- I stopped expressing at 6w with enough milk in the freezer to last til 8w. I was also GUTTED because I wanted to BF til 6m but adding expressing into the mix I just wasn't finding the time and it was becoming too much for me. I decided rather to stop while I still had my sanity. I only managed to BF my son til 8w and he has never really been sick so I figured 8w for the boys might just have given them enough antibodies to keep them healthy. Touch wood we've all been sick and the babies still haven't had more than an occasional blocked nose so I didn't beat myself up over it too much. You have done amazingly well to express this long even if it is only once a day. I asked my gynae for a script to dry up the milk, there isn't anything OTC good enough these days. Just phone your gynae or Paed and one of them will write you a script, it'll cost about R300 but it should take away moast of your milk in 24hrs. You might just have a little that will go over time but you should have no engorgement. It's 2 tiny pills you take half twice a day for 2 days.

Colic mix- well I used to have to give Jono every 4hrs from about 2pm until 10pm then again at the night feed, I gave him full doses for about 2 days then it would subside enough for me to just give once or twice a day, when it got bad again I would go back to giving every 4hrs. Eventually I managed to give once every other day and now I just give before the bedtime feed if he's had a bad day and I always keep some close to my bed incase they have a bad night but I probably don't even use one measure a week now. I rather medicate them so they don't have pain but I don't like to give every day out of habbit so then when they start to look better I will 'wean' them off unless the symptoms return then I start giving again. That's pretty much my philosophy for all types of meds. If they were really so dangerous they wouldn't be available for self diagnosis.

I'm so pleased Alessando and Athena have responded well to the Chiro, C was like Alexia it didn't work aswell or as quickly for him either and it ended up costing us R2500 for 1 baby that still had bad colic after which is why I decided not to waste my money this time and I must say Jono's colic has subsided lonhg before C's ever did but I do think that if held and pampered a lot the colic is just replaced with a demanding baby used to all the attention that colic demands. Thankfully having the 2 I could never just give Jono my full attention so once the colic went so did his need for constant attention although I will say he is still way more demanding than Alex.

WRT sleep training/cuddling, to be honest if I just had Alex I would also be cuddling him all the time, he is just so placid and loveable but I just don't have the time and I am way too scared to get him used to the attention because for now I can cope with thwm both because as soon as they getirritable I stick them in their cots and they chill and sleep. I have been a lot softer with the twins when it comes to sleep training than I was with C but mainly because I implemented a feed, burp lay down routine from day 1 it really hasn't been too difficult. Besides not having PND this time makes a huge difference to my tollerance levels.

I actually stopped taking the iron tabs when I ran out about 2 weeks ago and I actually no longer get fuzzy heads without the iron so my body has obviously recovered from the pregnancy and I can now live wirthout the fear of PND!!! It feels good I must say.

Maryke- Hope the boys are better by tomorrow and can come home! No I haven't had a single day snooze since Monday when I managed 30 min. I would love to but like today, as soon as I lay my head when all 3 are finally in bed then one of them will moan or groan for a dummy or for cramps. It's crazy hectic but at least the nights are generally good so I'm surviving.

Meags, I would turn over in the bath onto all fours then slowly let my legs slip back, obviously I couldn't lay flat but I could at least submerge my whole tummy and ribcage and that wouuld relieve some pressure occasionally. O.k actually as I think about it I do have a mahoussive bath. Good luck with the birthing ball tonight/today whatever time zone you're living at the mo. I promise you one thing, the instant that Mattheiu is out you will feel relief in your ribs. Rven through the pain of post C-sec I could lay in my crappy uncomfortable hospital bed and feel happy that I didn't have that incredible burning rib pain.

O.k I must sleep now, will catch up more tomorrow

Hi ladies,

Maryke, hope the boys are doign better.

Mina, my paed said to me to put breast milk in the nose, I did it once, I even put it on Alexia's face for the eczema out of desperation.
Speaking of breastmilk, Vix, how long did you express for? Im thinking of stopping it, can you get somethign otc, or does ithave to be prescribed, you know, Im managing to express, once a day MAYBe twice, but you can only keep the BM for 24hours in the fridge, so its really a waste of time now a bit sad about it, but as the babies are growing there is less time.

Past 2/3 days haven't been so great, Athena is now on the Novalac AR (as mentioned) and we have now got Alexia on it too as she also seems to be complaining and often has a little spit up. Iv been reading up on Silent reflux as its not often that Athena vomits (prjectile), but all the symptoms for silent reflux is what she does, and she really suffers, my poor baby, the paed said there is nothing that can help the vomiting, just to keep her on the formula The chiro is so happy with Alessandro, he is a champion she says, it has helped him loads, Alexia too, but Athena is still very stiff in her upper back, she wants to see us again in 10 days.

Vix, how often did you give the boys the colic mix? Did you give it everyday?

Oh yes, the night nurse gave us notice this week, she is working til month end, oh well, we interviewing 2 ladies tomorrow, but we will see.

Maryke, are you still using Christine? If so, by any chance did she comment anythign about me? lol, she told dh that I was rude, long story, well there is no story, I didn't even chat to her.

I started reading the sleep training, but I also said that I will hold my babies whenever they want to as I wont have this ever again, I'll read it anyway and see how it goes, but Alexia is a problem, she likes to be rocked, but during the night, you feed her and put her down and she sleeps, problem is if she wakes up all bright eyed during the night feed.

Ok, 10 mins til next feed , we're alone tonight and its gonna take longer than 10mins to get dh up.

Chat soon

Oh yes (again), dh and mil looking after babies tomorrow so I can go out for a bit, curious to see what fashion is out now at the shops, haha

Vix - how the hell do you like face down in the bath?? Where do u put your legs?!
and yip, I got the birthing ball. will try arc my back like you said. I have tried to lie over the side of the couch, chairs etc to try get it to click cos it feels like thats what it needs...but that just never happens. so gonna try the ball!
I find though that after sitting on the ball (to open the pelvis) my lower back is so sore?! now surely that's not the point of it?!

hi ladies

I am so tired of being tired.. he he...

Vix yep it's like you said every pead has his own idea sometimes I think they just go with mom's flow, but it's true at 2/3 years who cares who done what when they where babies then there's new problems to worry about like Frances-Jane wants to wee like a boy now....oi....and she wants to drink coffee so we give her milo and call it coffee every stage has it's ups and downs and you forget what it was like having babies in the house

How's Jono and the colic going?

Chris did you have a good day?

Ster 3 cheers for the sleep training...

The nurses has given the boys new names cause they cant pronounce there names so Llewellyn is leonel and aiden is erick or one nurse just calls him valentine

Binks and we will do it 10 x over

Boys are waking up had a nice snooz

Chat later

O no dont get me wrong Vix i walked Arwen for the 1st 3 months, then we went to rocking on our lap, then she just sat and drank then we went to cot and then her own bed. You just miss your baby that needed you just that littlr bit more, now she just cheecky and demands things.

I hope you all going to have a super weekend,

Vix enjoy the make over!!!

Maryke- I'm soooooo sorry to hear your ordeal with Francis- Jane! Mainly because I know EXACTLY how that feels, I went through the same with C when we bought the babies home and it is HEARTBREAKING to see your 1st born so sad because they think you don't love them anymore. I'm glad you got to spend a little quality time with her last night though, I need to start taking private one on one time with C because I can see he's suffering with the jealousy!

I hope the boys are on the mend soon!

As for Paeds advice re honey and porridge, they all differ from one to the next, your paed says no honey at all but porridge now is fine, my Paed says radurised honey is fine but solids too soon is a no no, it's all swings and roundabouts and It's the same for each mommy too, we all do what we feel is best and at the end of the day when they're 2/3 years old you wouldn't know the difference anyways.

Meags- I'm desperately trying to think what I used to do to relieve that rib and back pain, have you got a birthing ball? It used to help briefly if I laid my back on the ball and rocked forwards and backwards, I even sometimes laid on the ball like that to watch TV. Oh and laying face down in a hot bathwas quite relieving.

Binks & Mina- maybe you just have really calm babies but trust me you soon get sick and tired of holding and rocking a colic baby to sleep! With a colic baby you spend practicaly every waking second on the move with the child to keep it from screaming and even then it doesn't always help so by the time the colic starts to subside you're suddenly desperate for 'freedom' from that child even if only for 10min.

I was still rocking C to sleep at 6m and believe me that was flippin hard work, then he would wake every 2hrs throughout the night until I did the sleep training on Dr's orders and suddenly he slept through the night once I stopped rockong him. Again it's different strokes for different folks but I honestly don't know anyone who had a serious colic baby who didn't long to be able to just put baby in the cot to fall asleep.

We have an afternoon thunder storm going on but no rain, it's been going on for an hour like this now.

Oh and the money for the new kitchen came through so I am super freakin excited!!!! We're going to organize a date tomorrow!