Feb-May 2011 Mommies

Lucy, what soap/creams are you using? I use only the pink creamy ones from either J&J or EA for Reuben. The other day I tried the blue and white one from J&J and he got a horrible rash that took days to clear. Also she could be sensitive to the washing powder/staysoft. The clinic sister said to use only that Cetaphil wash if they get rash as it doesnt contain any soap ingredients. Its quite expensive at abou R70 per bottle but works great. Its that blue pump bottle that you get at babyshops.

Mistymom, ah the expressing is really hard work! But sounds like you are doing great work! You can always stretch your expressing a bit to maybe 3 hrs and then express for longer to get a bigger batch at a time. Then you can split it into maybe a feed and a freezer stock. Glad to hear he is almost back at birth weight He is such a cutie !!

Jess, wow what a nice long break you had! Did you camp all the time?? You are a brave women.. I wont ever dare camp with two small kiddies

Meags, hope you and your brother get to a common ground re his trip and your visit!! Once you have decided on a date we can set up a fb message to include all that will meet. Im writing that date in my diary with a khoki!!!! Ag you must be sooo zzzzzzzzzzzzz today If I listen to you saying how he was awake and wakes up as soon as you stand still it reminds me of my oldest boy.. he was the same!! I always say he was a *high-need* baby.. really not the best of experiences for a first child, but thank goodness little R has saved me of that stage.. he is totally different!! So Im sure your 2nd baby will be a breeze

BEtty, how are you doiing??? Any more pains?? Maybe its the start of things? hehe.. or maybe your baby is born already and we just dont know it I think with the gov vacc there is a extra shot because with private its included.. so that means with the first visit on gov route your baby will get 3 shots compared to private's two. And they say the side effects of gov is a bit worse, but really its hard to determine as every single baby reacts differently to the injections.

Schatsie, Ive always had my babies sleep on their sides. Each time he wakes up and goes back to sleep I would turn him to his other side. But sleeping on his back is fine.. R actually turns himself so he basically sleeps most of his naptime on his back

Emsmom, can the clamp be undone? Or are you guys finished ?

ooo R is waking up.. stilllllllll got washing to do. I just cannot believe how much washing a family of 4 can make!!?? I mean seriously.. those 2 boys have a ton of laundry

Hey Betty our last lady standing! How exciting, cow updates? Hope it is going well.

Schatsie my understanding was to rotate the sides, back and tummy. Tummy only during day and supervised. To avoid them getting a flat head. Tessa loves her back with arms above her head. I have am angel monitor on all the time.

Meags I am also exhausted. T put her neck out again yesterday and was am unhappy girl. Chiro managed to see us and I had a sore baba. I held her from 3pm until midnight when she finally fell asleep. Today had gynae which required a trip into durbs. Yuk it hurt. He couldn't see my cervix and had to dig. Grrr I even bled. I wasn't aware that you also had an internal. Double grrr. Anyway a hard and long 2 days with no sleep.
The upside is T is doing better again.

Claire - bleeding for long is normal. He says I will continue to spot.

Howdy ladies!

I really need to stop being too lazy to comment on our thread, then I wouldn't have to type such long replies!

Anyways, rakker hon, how are you doing? Feeling all better now I hope.

Meags, sadly no child sticks to the same sleeping pattern, Em was waking every 2-3 hours till she was 4!! I hope you dont have that with Mat! Hope all comes right with your brother. I really am looking forward to meeting you though! So strange that we've never actually met!

Betty, so glad the Dr is not forcing a c-section on you! I really hope that the pains you have been feeling are the real thing! Good luck, and please sms me your number and BB pin - my number is 0794994763

Lucy, so glad things are going better with T! And such a sweet pic! We did the same with Kate during the wedding:)

Cath, I'm so glad you've found a nanny that you can trust and like! And I'm really happy that Will is all better, so scary to see them sick, esp when they are so tiny!

Claire, how are you doing? I hope the chiro works for Rowan. And lovely that you can stop work!
With the bleeding, I stopped after a week, then 3 days later started again, and I seem to go 3 days without bleeding and then will bleed for a da - but very light, hope it stops soon!

Schatsie, well done on Arnos weight gain! Fantastic! I let Kate lie on her back and on her side, sometimes she prefers sleeping on her back, and I'm in the school of thought that if they want to sleep upside down let them!

Kimika, I hated the mini pill, I bled non-stop on it, and eventually after 2 months gave up and just used condoms. However this time I'm going to see at my follow up appointment if I can have my tubes clamped.

Joli that weight gain is wonderful! And of course it would be if you are breastfeeding. Its all he needs
Ya I'm sorry the private route is just too much for me, so we're going government, we did with Em and never had any problems.

Misty, I'm glad all is going well, sorry about needing to pump, but seems like you are doing wonderfully dispite this!

Well I have been SO busy this week, have not had an afternoon nap once But at least Kate sleeps well!
Took Kate to baby gym and we learned baby massage, Kate loved it, but I felt so bad for the mom next to me who's baby just screamed the entire time.
Had an old varsity friend visit yesterday with her two boys, and gee was I thankfull I had daughters. I know its how you raise your child, but a child who hits and smacks and screams and throws things really grates my nerves!! My head was so sore after it all.
Today I went to Em's school for a mothers day concert, was so cute, and all the little ones singing with "flowers" on their faces.
Got a birthday party tomorrow morning and then tomorrow night. I hope I get to have a nap between the two of them.
So Kate remains an angel, she sleeps so well - a bad night is if she wakes every 4 hours.
I must say I am not looking forward to her shots on monday

ClaireC re the bleeding, I'm on day 23 now and it finally seems to have stopped, but my mom says it is quite early. I've heard 6 weeks is common. So I'm REALLY hoping it's all done now!!

Question from my side: are all of you letting your babies sleep on their sides, i.e. with the wedge thingy? Arno really doesn't seem to like sleeping on his back and DH saw that the US Paediatric soceity says babies should sleep on their backs as they get sore when sleeping on their sides. Also they say there is no evidence that there is a higher incidence of SID with babies sleeping on their backs.

Your thoughts/experience?

Hi Ladies

Well the gynae visit was good - all still well with baby, amniotic fluid getting less, but still pools of 4cm. Gynae is still happy with my health and that of baby. Placenta is still in tact - black spots appearing apparently showing signs of a mature placenta, but no calcification. He is unable to get a measurement on baby - but estimates 3.8kg.
Baby has still not engaged and seems to be following the same route as Matthew did. He never engaged, my waters broke, no contractions so they induced and labour never progressed.

Anyhow gynae has booked me in for a c section on Tuesday, I will be just short of 42 weeks then and he would prefer to "manage" risks. I am happy with that decision.

This evening I started getting pains in my lower back - almost period type. I never said anything to DH as I had similar pains the other night. I went to bed at about 10pm and woke up at 12 from the pain. I started monitoring the back pains which were rather irregular at first but seem to be comming every 5/6 or so minutes for the last half an hour. The pain is not unbearable and I feel fine.
Think this could be the first stage of labour. ? I will continue to monitore the pains - hopefully I can hold out until a more appropriate hour so I don't need to wake Matthew up to take him to my Mom. I am hoping to just drop him off at school at 7am.

Joli - the shop sounds wonderful, with great products! Pitty that you can't change the vaccines. What were the major differences between the private and the government route? I remember with Matthew they left certain ones out in the government route, but are these included now?

Cath - glad William is all better now and sleeping well. Still quite a while left of ML!

Kimika - will you have a 3rd child? At the moment I say that I would like to ...but I'm not having sleepless nights yet.
Glad you got a chance to do some household chores.
Where is the lion cake? On FB? I must go and have a look.

Lucy - shame poor T. Hope the rash goes away soon.

Hi Jessica - hopefully baby will be here soon!

Meags - not so great that you may not get to see your brother in Cape Town... Can Understand both points of view - but I too would be peeved with him. Hope you sort something out.

Claire - my bleeding slowed down somewhat after a few weeks - but I still got the occasional spotting for quite some time.

MistyMom - glad you are doing well and enjoying baby!

Will try to keep you updated on any progress.. DH got me a BB yesterday so I will try and figure out how to use it!

ok exhaustion is an understatement today!!

Matt has hardly slept (well compared to the normal days)
He was awake from 05:30-11:30!!!!! (I was about to seriously freak because he wasn't just awake and happy - he was miserable)
He then slept from 11:30-3 which was good (he needed it and so did i!!!!)

but now since 3 he has only slept for about 40 minutes!
Surely he must be tired?!?!
He is now in the sling partly asleep (its 7pm) and I cant sit down as he senses it....so got the laptop on kitchen counter and I'm bouncing....man I am so so so tired and wish someone could take over for the night.

Kimika and Cath - we still have no answers from my brother about the friggin trip. beginning to wish I never suggested it!!!
I will speak to him tomorrow and he must make a final decision. now he suddenly is saying he should be in CT while I am there. He needs to decide though. If he will be in CT then I'll only spend 3 nights in JHB. If he isnt in CT then I will rather spend 6 nights in JHB.
Kimika once I have dates we need to arrange a meeting with everyone

HI Girls

Oh my do I feel so bad for neglecting you all! How you all find teh time to be here with a new born is beyond me!

Had my staples taken out on Tuesday adn cant beleive how small and neat and hidden my scar is...also cant beleive how good I feel afetr the C sectuion. I really thought that I would be sore, not able to bend over, have baby on my chest etc! I am not even sore! Bleeding is minumal as well which is a huge bonus! I even am driving (although it has only been once today to PnP!)

I think that I am struggling as I am pumping milk every 2 hours. We tried BF at hospital but Ryan has a problem with his soft pallet at the back of his throat and cant get the suction going propoerly (i think the lactation specialist said its a negeitive suction which he cant get). He latches for about 5 seconds has 2 sucks then looses it. I was a bit disaponted about not been able to feed from teh breast, and we really did try fro 3 days...but we were getting no where! So I am bottle feeding with a special teat with my breast milk. It does have advantages (ie Dh can help with feeds) but there are disadvantages (llike having to pump every 2 hours). Besides that all is well and great! Ryan had his 1 week check up yesterday with Paed who is happy with everything. He weighed 4.355 at birth, when we left hospital he was 3.9 something and yesteday was back up again to 4.155. She said that he should be back to birth weight in 10 to 14 days.

It is so nice having DH at home...I have him for 2 weeks and we are just spending all our time with Ryan. We have already had 2 trips to the shops for lunch etc and Ryan has behaved really well! Sure this bliss cant wait fro ever tho!

The weather has been cold today in CT...so we had a nice excuse to have teh fire on this evening! It was so cosy and warm adn I releised how lucky i was when i looked abouit the lounge and had 4 men (Ryan, DH and the 2 cats) in my company!

Anyway Sorry no time for personals...gotta go feed RYan, then pump (know how you feel Meags) and then try squeeze in some sleep before anouther pump. I am pumping on ly on ce at night so it is not too bad!

ALso was thinking how clever we all are having our babies just before mothers day!

hugs to all!!