berni, what do you dress kyle in for bed? what do you swaddle with?
we use daysuits (short sleeves, no legs) and swaddled with cotton blankies, not the waffle ones, just a thin cotton cover, from morrisons, a winnie the pooh one, it's in a set with some bootees. with a fleece blanket tucked over, you should be good to go.
stace, i hated pregnancy, just miss the little baby stage, chloe is so big now! when we have our own place i might apply to foster babies short term.
mand x
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
I AM A PROUD PLUMERIA SISTER
owh, i'm really worried about this weekend(going on a hen thing) it's going to be the longest time i've ever been away from Esmé and she's staying with my sisters boyfriend. I'm sure she'll be fine, i'm just getting myself worried about it.
I'm not going to see her from 10am tomorrow morning, til Sunday evening =[
oh is anyone doing baby signs?
i was messing around with Esmé the other day, just playing around with signs, and she has picked up please. Dunno, if i'll try and teach her some more or not, but just wondered if anyone else has taught there little one any signs?
It's so easy to get lost in constantly having to present
whatever face you believe a person wants to see rather than your own
I've started signing with Oliver but I'm not expecting anything back for a month or two, and I'm not very good at being consistent. So far I'm just doing milk and more - children's centres usually run courses though if you're really interested in it.
try getting a cotton blanket or a flat sheet to swaddle him in with a daysuit then if it's cold put a fleecey blanket over him.
does he kick his covers off? chloe is sleeping really well in her sleeping bag in her cot. she used to get herself into the top corner of the cot and pull the bumper down on herself to chew it, so we have tied the bottom of her sleeping bag to the end of her cot with a shoelace through the hanging loop.
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
I AM A PROUD PLUMERIA SISTER
I don't know how anyone can bite toenails *CRINGE* haha.
I never ever had a problem with fingernails/toenails up until about 10 years ago! I think it was because i was in the living room having some morning cereal, and my mum was pampering my grandma's feet and "cutting" her toenails, and it's that..clipping sound..*cringe*..and then i kept thinking they were going to land in my cereal haha.
Strange but oh so true!
I have to get mum to cut my toenails now..! I don't even like the touch of them. Eurgh. You know when people like..cringe at fingers going down a blackboard? I cringe at toenails, and on occasion, gag!
Lol weird thing to have a phobia of!
Berni - give it a bit more time, if he has colic that might be unsettling him anyway, once he gets a bit older he'll hopefully settle into a better routine of things!
If you can, keep putting him to bed at around the same time, his body clock will adjust to it and then he'll think "oh, it's bedtime now!"
Has he had his first bath yet?
I know it's not good to bath newborns often as it can dry out there skin, but every few nights give him a bath/feed then put him to bed, that will also help with him thinking 8pm (or whatever time you usually put him down) is "bedtime".
That moses basket idea (with settling him on the mattress) is a really good idea. Have you tried it yet? Or did i miss that bit of the thread where you replied to that? lol! Try wrapping one of your t-shirts/tops around the mattress as well, it'll have your smell on so he'll think you're close by.
And i think you mentioned somewhere how he wasn't settling well with you - that's because he associates you with food, my niece was the same when she was Kyle's age. Many a time my sister in law said "Right, you're having her!" and passed her to me and she settled right away. It's the "smell" that gets them i think! So it is completely normal - don't feel rejected or anything.
Although i'm assuming he's settled down alot more now? If so, that's good! *huggles*
Sorry, rambled for england there! <3
Stace - I'm glad you're both doing well. I do often think of you even if i am absent from here at the moment! I sympathise with you with the lack of sleep - it must be frustrating and exhausting, but it will all be so worth it. You should really be proud of yourself for persevering with the breastfeeding to 6 months *big hugs* not many people i know will stick it out - so you really should be proud of your achievements hun! :) Give Freyja a big squish and kiss from me! And tell her not to play her mummy up too much!! :P <3
Oh and my niece will be ok. In my side of the family we have sinus problems. Richard (my brother - Elana's dad) & I have whats called a "low bridge nose" - our noses aren't misshappen or anything (lol can just imagine having a really wonky nose!), it's just the sinus tubes don't open properly in the nose passage. Elana bless her has been snoring/grunting since she was a baby! Richard and Sam (my sister in law/Elana's mum) have both had there adenoids out, so it's likely Elana may have hers out.
At the moment though she needs an operation on her ear. Poor thing had a perferated eardrum last year, and it's been gunked up/gooey since. Sam was fed up of being pawned off by the doctors, so finally got an ENT appointment where they have noticed theres a hole in Elana's eardrum with a polyp growing through it - which would explain the specks of blood when Sam cleans her ears, as it irritates it everytime they use cotton buds. Usually they'd just take it out there and then but because of Elana's age (she's 6) they didn't want to distress her, and they also don't know how deep the polyp goes, so it may damage her hearing if they just took it out.
Poor thing :( I've had sinus/ear problems all my life as well, and had a big polyp removed from my own sinus tube last year. Sam is also deaf in one ear, and Richard had to have his adenoids removed/had gromits put in as a child - so poor Elana didn't stand much chance of getting away with it!! Bless her. <3 She'll be ok. But at the moment it's a case of SHOUTING and repeating yourself a hundred times to her because she's gone partly deaf lol! Bless. So no point shouting at her when she's naughty because she won't know no different :P
Anyway sorry for rambling on!
Much love to you all
xx
for the dummy, buy some teething gel suitable from birth, put a tiny amount on either side of the dummy and then give it to him, he'll either spit it out coz he doesn't like it, or you'll have found a good trick, at night chloe has either bonjela, bonjela teething gel, dentinox teething gel or calgel on her dummy. whichever is nearest. she loves it. only use a teeny amount, like a smearing of the stuff.
mand x
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
I AM A PROUD PLUMERIA SISTER
chloe has been v snuffly/grunty since birth, it never cleared - her nose at the top is almost non-existant, where glasses would sit... she has none, looks like she's been hit hard in the nose. i dont know if its something that will develop with time... or if she will always have snuffly problems. mand x
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
I AM A PROUD PLUMERIA SISTER
It's always worth keeping an eye on Mandi.
Elana developed an ear infection at around 4-5 months, she was screaming non stop for 2 days. My mother told Sam to take her to the doctors as she knew that Elana had an ear infection. Sam at this point was one of those "anti-drug" mothers who refuses to use antibiotics on babies, and wanted it to clear up "on it's own". Well my brother Richard - Elana's Dad - had constant ear infections as a baby, and ended up hospitalised as a doctor told mum to leave it for 2 days without treating it hoping it would "clear up on it's own", but the infection spread to his blood stream which made him very very poorly.
It DID end up being a bad ear infection and took 2 weeks of antibiotics to clear up - i think Sam felt a bit **** then because she really shouldn't have let Elana suffer - it does make me wonder if her ear problems now could have been prevented if Sam had actually sorted her infection out the moment Elana started suffering with it.
Some babies are generally quite snuffly/congested/snorey anyway for the first year or two.
Just keep an eye on it really. If you notice any differences as she gets older in regards to her developing alot of ear/sinus/throat infections, it might be worth getting it checked out.
Berni, when are you going to bed? If Kyle's sleeping from 8pm til 2am, then that's actually brilliant, and to make the most of those six hours, then ideally you could go to bed at the same time as Kyle. That way you could be assured some decent sleep. You wont always be going to be at 8pm, but it could be worth it.
18.11 28.4 6.5 22.31
My heart just needs his smile, that i can't forget, like so melancholy a kiss.
Oliver used to scream from 10 til 1 or 2 in the morning as well, if it's happening at the same time each day it could well be colic - not much consolation I know, but he will very likely have grown out of it by 3 months. Does he act like he has wind? I don't know if it just builds up during the day, but they always seem to suffer from it more in the evening/night.
chloe still cries when farting, can be scary for them.
ask your midwife/health visitor if they think it is colic, there are colic reliefs out there, infacol, colief, gripe water etc - if it helps him settle and be out of pain then try it.
mand x
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
I AM A PROUD PLUMERIA SISTER
laura, thank you :) i am learning gradually to deal with the sleep deprivation. she sleeps so much better when she is bottle fed which is frustrating! whenever she stays with my friend like she did last night she is only bottle fed there is no boob available obviously and she sleeps for longer periods. last night she had a 6oz bottle, was asleep by 5.30, back up at 11.45 for another 6oz, then again at 4.30 for the same amount and that was her until 9ish when she got up properly. when shes at home with me she just gets the one bottle about 6, shes usually up btwn 12 and 2am and will normally be up every couple of hours after then wants to get up around 6 or 7am. some nights shes up every hour after her first night feed. i have just got a bottle warmer for the side of the bed, which also doubles as a food warmer when shes on solids so i can start giving her bottles only during the night and breastfeeding during the day. i dont feel ready to give up breastfeeding her yet, she still enjoys it and i guess i do too!
i really hope elana is ok, sounds pretty sore and scary for a little one to go through that. keep us posted!
berni...you able to put him in the pram and roll it back and forward in the house? then you dont have the problem of him waking up as soon as you are home, because you are home. might not work, didnt do it for freyja, but others have had success with that.
freyjas farts are pretty deadly sometimes and sometimes she cries so much she farts lol. i used to think she was crying cos she had trapped wind, but figured out it was just the force of crying that was forcing some out. shes such a windy baby, i wind her every couple of mins when shes feeding but she still gets trapped wind. tried all the stuff like infacol, gripe water etc and sometimes she did big burps but it didnt stop some wind getting trapped still.
"When I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you" - Dr Samuel Loomis
chloe tends to cry because she is going to fart or poo - then silence hen a bigt grin like 'guess what i've just done?'
i'm really disappointed i couldnt breastfeed, because we were in hospital for 4 days, by the time i was out my supply was seriously knocked, i could express 40-80ml twice a day, but expressing isnt the same as proper feeding and very soon my supply dwindled. then i got bad mastitis and ended up straight bottlefeeding.
i'm angry that i wasnt given more support to breastfeed. i know she needed fluids because she got jaundice, but it is possible to exclusively breastfeed through jaundice.
i wonder what aids there are out there that coud help me, i've heard of nipplette, which permanantley sucks the nipple into the correct shape, which i believe was our problem.
before and after having chloe the cold does the trick, but we tried ice in hospital and i think it was the fullness of the milk kinda pulled my nipples flat again??
ok tmi i know....
just feeling like i have missed out.
mand x
Mand, South Wales, Full-time working, single mother to 2 scarily independent girls.
I AM A PROUD PLUMERIA SISTER
Madeleine had colic for the first 3 months. She used to cry from 6 or 7pm, till 11pm. Nothing worked, but it went away on it's own. Now she goes to bed at 7pm.
i can understand you feeling disappointed mand, but dont beat yourself up about it hun. you really didnt get the support you needed in hospital, whereas i did. i was only in 2 days, but she was having problems feeding too and wouldnt latch on so midwifes were literally milking me with their hands and feeding her with a syringe. definately when you are engorged, your nipples get pulled flat and its harder for baby to latch on. freyja still has problems latching on if im engorged. you ever considered giving the hospital feedback about this or making a complaint? because really they should be doing all they can to support women who want to breastfeed but are having problems for whatever reason.
"When I want your opinion, I'll beat it out of you" - Dr Samuel Loomis
