August-September 2010 Moms

Girly - I guess it's part of their phases... I hope it settles soon. I feel very down about it sometimes but Im making peace with the fact that we all go through ups and downs with our LOs...

Re: night time routine. I dont have one yet. Because Evan's been restless during the day if he's awake and due for a feed in the early evening anytime from 5 pm I'll bath him and put him down. It's not a set time yet... I think it'll be better when we have a "set" bath time. For now it's when he's awake. Last night I bathed and fed him from 5pm and he went down just after 6pm. He slept till 2:30 am! a total record. Then he slept for 2 hrs and was up till about 8:30!

I dont bath Evan if it's too late at night when he wakes up and I also dont wake him up for a bath because I tried that for 2 nights and I had hell on earth. It was literally at the point where I wanted to run away for a couple of hours.

Cols - daytime sleep is my biggest issue. K fights it with everything. And what works one day doesnt work the next.
I find if I miss her cue's - even by just 5 minutes - it'll take 30mins to get her to sleep. And other days, she'll just snooze for 5 minutes and then be awake again for another hour - but unhappily so which means very little time for mom.
If someone can tell me their secrets of getting baby to sleep without a battle during the day I'd be indebted to you forever!

Babyk's mom sounds like you're doing quite well! I know how it feels to be down - sure we all do. Important that you admit it and dont try be okay when you're not.
Hectic re breastfeeding! I almost got mastitis about a month ago. But spent the day hand expressing, and hot & cold packs and thankfully it went away.
Glad that you kept it up though. I hope it'll get easier for you too. I also have the mini electric breastpump. I need to start expressing once a day so that I have an ongoing build up. On the weekends I get out for a couple hours and leave a bottle for DH - always use the oldest milk first so that my stores stay 'fresh'.

One handed emails - story of my life Its why I hardly type here anymore, I just read mostly while she sleeps in my arms cos it takes so long to reply.

Has everyone done UIF? I went with Tums2Mums and very pleased. Will def use them again. Took 6 weeks for my first payment. And gotten 2 so far, next should be end of Oct.

We get our aircon installed this week, and also going to give the go ahead for kitchen cupboards and bathroom vanity cupboards tomorrow so hopefully they can do that next week. cant wait for it. Esp the kitchen, we've been waiting 3+ years for it. We only have bottom cupboards - and way too many things. This will just help get the house looking neater.

Okay Cape Town ladies who are keen for a get together :
Mommy2monster has said we can meet at her house if we want. She lives in Kraaifontein behind Monument Park High school.
Theres a few ppl who have to go back to work 1 November, so we can try do it this week? Maybe Thursday or Friday?
Otherwise sometime in November? Let me know what you think?

Charnenay your little Emily is just too sweet! Cant believe how much like a lady she looks! And so well behaved! We must keep up the meets

Hubby is out today at a church concert. We could not go cos its live bands and too loud. Its just as well cos I heard the hall is quite cold too. Hes been gone since 12 and will prob only get home around 9. Missing him so much. I cant believe how much I crave weekends.

Have you done dedications / christenings etc for your babies yet? Im arranging for 14th Nov. But still need to find a venue. Our church is quite small and including the church, cant accommodate my big family. Thinking of doing it at the same venue where we got married, as a breakfast. Quite sentimental. But I seriously need to get it organised.

Any of the cape town girls going to the get together on the 13th?

I also need to work on my cv this week cos i need to start applying for jobs. Busy busy!

K is doing well. Except for sleep issues I really cant complain. Love my little girl to bits!
At night we struggling with her sleep after her 4 or 5am feed. She goes back to sleep but very restlessly and doesnt settle so I generally dont get to sleep. But last night it happened after her 2am feed. So I was more or less awake from 1:30 till 4:30am. Thankfully i went to bed at 10, and after a lot of moaning which i feel bad about now geoff took her for about 1hr, and she settled from 5 till 8:30 so i managed to get some sleep.
On the plus side, she went from 7pm till 2am between feeds last night. Thas 7 hrs and the longest stretch yet! Im going to attempt to dream feed her next time so that she can go till 4 or 5am but last time that didnt work out.

Anyway, feed time soon and then bath time and then hopefully bed time for her.

Oh yes - anyone got a routine down at night? We get her down usually between 8 & 10pm but she fights it so some nights good, others really bad. But we're trying to stick to a kind of routine for all our sakes. Not easy though.

Oh and he has gone from every nappy a poo nappy to maybe one poo nappy a day, maybe even a day and a half. Is this normal? The one poo is now a bit of a record-breaking event, I have to tell you!

Oh, and ladies, I must mention this because it freaked me out no end until the Paed told me its actually quite common and classed as normal -

did you know that sometimes there can be blood in your breastmilk?

Last Sat night, during the witching hour (about 2h30) , I was feeding John and then I burped him and he vomited up blood. It looked almost like little clots. He seemed absolutely happy though, not niggly or anything. Naturally I freaked out and woke hubby and we were all ready to rush him to hospital. But I had a little suspicion... I have been suffering with lumps and blocked ducts and before this particular feed I had a lump on top of my boob, above a blocked duct in my areola (f***ing sore). I massaged it a little before the feed and after he vomited I noticed that the lump had completely gone and the blocked duct in my areola was alot flatter. So we thought maybe I had a cyst that has burst and he drank it! I was mortified and we had already decided not to ever tell him about it when he's older. But when I spoke to the Paed he said its quite common to have blood in breastmilk and what had probably happened is that I had broken some capilliaries when I massaged the lump and blood had gone into the milk duct. So not a burst cyst or anything equally as disgusting.

So just putting it out there in case this happens to any of you. Of course if it does, I would still check with your doc to make sure all is fine but maybe you don't have to feel like you are poisoning your child with your own breastmilk!

Hellloooo ladies, gosh once again its been ages since I've posted!

John is now 7 and a half weeks old and what a little munchkin. I love him even more now than when he was born.

I must admit I had a bit of a down time last week and round about the whole 6 week mark. Just so tired and always on duty, DH has been away for the weekend and gone out twice with the boys and I felt like I was never going to have a break again. But things are much better now and John is getting one formula feed a day and sometimes 1 or 2 expressed breastmilk feeds so I am not the only feeder anymore. Still sucks ('scuse the cheesy pun) that I have to express even if he's not feeding on the boob, but its still better than constant breastfeeding.
I have had a hard time with the b/f. Another one of my preconceptions flying out the door (I had a caesar after months of being 100% sure I could do it naturally). I know ppl told me that b/f wouldn't be easy and I must persevere but I never knew how tough it would be. I've had it all, thrush, mastitis, blocked ducts and a fighting baby at the nipple but I am happy to say that I am much better and we are still able to have a good breastfeed most times
I am slowly building up a store of breastmilk in the freezer too. I have a Medela mini electric and am very happy with it. The first time I used it I laughed and cried at the same time - for real. It's one of the funniest things I've ever seen but at the same time so tragic that my poor boobs and nipples are being so manipulated, lol.
And we are using MAM bottles and John took to them like a pro and has no problem going from nipple to bottle But he has loved his dummy from day 2 so maybe that helps.

Lately he won't sleep during the day unless he is in the same room as me. And yesterday he wouldn't sleep in his carry cot, so he slept in my arms while I typed emails with one hand. Today I am actually on my laptop in the bedroom and he is stretched out on the bed next to me. He LOVES to sleep with his arms up by his ears/ head.

I watched Great Expectations on tv the other day and discovered we've been swaddling him wrong! We always put his arms straight down by his sides. But now I have been swaddling him with his hands on his chest. He gets his arms out in no time at all though but then he sucks on his fists, which I don't mind cos its a form of self soothing.

He has a cold! We went to the Paed again (after 6 week check-up last week) on Monday cos I was worried cos a friend's child had possible croup and we had visited on Friday. But he only has a cold, although he is very snotty. Poor thing. The paed said to give him saline drops. I have 2 nasal aspirators that are both useless - the pump ones. Apparently you can get one from dischem that has a tube that you put in his nose and suck the gunk out, which is much better. I'll get it if its not too pricey. Anyone have this one?

What else? Can't believe how fast our little ones are growing up already. On Monday (7 weeks) John weighed 4.8kg, was 58cms tall and head was 39.7cm.

We're going for 8 week vaccinations next week thursday (in Jozi they have them at 8, 12 and 16 weeks now, not sure why). Not really looking forward to that, hope he is ok. But will give him calpol if need be.

Hi Moms

Just a quick ??

Are any of you struggling to get your LO to sleep during the day. I've tried everything, even driving him around in the car. It's almost impossible to get him to nod off!

I'm exhausted...

Kerry youre very lucky. K doesnt take a dummy so she has no self soothing method yet so she wriggles her arms out of the receiver and wakes herself up. Btw do you do this during the day too or just after her bath?

Lol K is 4.6 at almost 10 weeks
Wow on the dirty nappy?
K has a very active bowel - at least 8 a day are dirty!!!

Charnenay so glad its getting better again. You're almost at that ever promising 12w mark.

Shame the vacs are nasty, esp when they wail out a cry. I need to take k again next week or so for hers.
Cant you look on her clinic card for the height? K was 55cm at 8 weeks. I think it's quite tall but then a girl was with her baby at 6w checkup and this baby was already 60cm!

So are we going to get together? Everyone been so scarce. It's a bit unpredictable with K though, but I"d do my best to be there.

Ladies I feel a bit lost sometimes. I really struggle to get her down to sleep, no matter what time of day or night. Every time its sleep time she screams and cries, until she is so exhausted she just falls asleep. I think I'm getting her in time before she becomes overstimulated, but maybe I'm not. I rock or sway her but the second she is lying in my arms she starts crying. This goes on for 5 - 10 minutes, some days even more and then she passes out. But generally in the day once I put her down she'll stay asleep for max 30minutes, usually less before she's awake again. So she is generally already / still tired when she wakes up and only in a calm state for a short while before we must put her down again. It feels like all I ever do is fight the sleep issue.
It's now 10:30pm and she is not interested in sleep. Went to granny tonight while I was at pilates, and she was nicely behaved. Not 5 minutes after arriving home she woke up, I fed her, hoping it'd lull her back to sleep. She dosed in my arms for all of 10 minutes and now she's awake again. I dont have the energy for this, I still have to sort out washing for the maid tomorrow

Sorry for my mope but this is really getting to me. I'm trying to get her to sleep on her own, but we sometimes sit for 30minutes singing and patting her nappy and she'll still not fall asleep even though she's drowsy when we put her down.

Feeding every 2 - 3 hours (usually closer to 2) during the day. She's now skipping her 10pm feed, and will go 7 hrs till her next feed around 1 or 2am, and then up 3 or 4 hours later for a feed.
But after her 5am feed, she is very niggly and even though she's asleep she moves around a lot and sleeps very lightly which means I dont sleep after 5am. Sometimes she'll settle again after 7am feed but only for an hour or so and then the day starts again.

Can y'all hear how sleep deprived I am
And then friend or mil looks after her and they have no issue getting her to sleep. Rather depressing for me.

Anyway, I better get the washing folded so that I can try go to bed. Hopefully DH gets her down before then...

Girly - we forced her to.... tuff luv method... after her bath put her in her crib tuck her in and put dummy in mouth... maybe stroke her face till her eyes close, then walk away... when she cries go back in tuck her back in, put the dummy bach in stay there till the eyes close stroking her face... then i used to restock the nappy stacker or fold the baby clothes just sort of hover in room for a bit and leave... go back every time she cries till she doesnt...

I promise, maybe a few nights on and your baby will soothe herself. and yes you have to stay in the room a bit after you put them to bed... but its so much better and calmer.

I tried the tea... but babys not interested...she eats three hourly so i am not stressed about it... I keep a bottle of cooled boiled water in the fridge... then make the tea in a third boiling water ant top up to full with cooled water. and use a glass feeding bottle for the tea... it will stain the plastic ones. Pigeon make glass bottles. Hope that helps?

Charnenay, kaylin was 4.6kg at 7 weeks... were catching up to you... :-0

going to the paediatrician for a late 6 week checkup today oh did i mention i get one poo nappy a day? always right before bath time?