Itty Bitty Babies Club (Slow Gainers)

[cleckner04]

Hey girls!! I'm 23, I am temporarily living with my brother in Indiana while my hubby is out to sea in the Navy. His ship is moving from Virginia to California but is currently in Haiti helping with the rescue efforts. I had Emma on August 11 after 25 hours of labor that resulted in a c-section. I had to be on oxygen throughout the entire thing because the baby's heartrate kept dropping and my blood pressure was skyrocketed. Emma was 7 lb. 14 oz. at birth and dropped down to 7 lb. 3 oz. Over 10 % and it resulted in the doctor making me top her up with formula to get her weight back up. It took her about three weeks to gain back her birthweight. And I spent two weeks feeding her at the breast, topping up with formula, and than pumping to bring up my supply. So she had formula for two weeks but hasn't had a drop since. Which I'm highly proud of. I am also going to do BLW. I start in 2 weeks. I'm excited about it. Oh yeah. Emma is now just a bit over 12 pounds. I don't get her weighed regularly though because it was only freaking me out. I will worry when she stop meeting milestones but as she is, she is the happiest baby I've ever seen. Always smiling and laughing. And she is already army crawling which is a few months before the average baby does it so I'm excited. Although she's making my life a bit more difficult. Being a single mommy and all right now. I am just counting down the days for DH to get back. I'm just sad he's missing it all.

Sorry that was so long.

This is one of my most recent pictures of her. Well there are more recent ones but haven't had the time to put them on the computer yet.
https://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e255/cleckner04/IMG_6252.jpg

 

[cleckner04]

forgot to mention, got max weighed yesterday, 11lbs now, 7 oz since last week. he still doesnt seem much bigger though! lol, i think hes quite stocky, kind of building muscle rather than getting longer or fatter! lol

Awesome hun!! That's excellent!! He's going to catch up with Emma soon.

 

[florabean1981]

emma is stunning! she has a very expressive little face

 

[cleckner04]

emma is stunning! she has a very expressive little face

Thanks hun! You should post some up of baby Harry! We gotta show these itty bitty babies off!

 

[florabean1981]

we just moved house, so all the camera leads are still packed away somewhere in the 'dumping room' upstairs, so i havent got any recent ones of him since xmas, but i have some on my phone I can try to upload to photobucket....

Me & Harry on xmas day '09 in our old flat, 2 months old.
https://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt225/florabean1981/DSC00196.jpg
harry havin tummy time & looking sleepy, 3 months old!
https://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt225/florabean1981/DSC02050.jpg
Harry with his fave monkey toy; I was taking it off him, hence the grumpy look he's giving, 3 mths old!
https://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt225/florabean1981/DSC02053.jpg
having a giggle on the arm chair, 3 mths old
https://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt225/florabean1981/DSC02055.jpg
Harry this weekend in his new door bouncer, which he loved! aged 16 weeks.
https://i614.photobucket.com/albums/tt225/florabean1981/DSC02062.jpg

Okay, photo overload, lol. I already put over 400 on facebook of him, the poor little guy!

 

[cleckner04]

Flora he is SOO gorgeous!! I love the last two with his little smiles. hehe. And you look fab by the way. I still have a major mummy tummy that doesn't seem to want to go away anytime soon. I'm the same overloading facebook with pictures of Emma. I'm sure everyone is sick of looking at her by now.

 

[lyre]

Emma and Harry are so gorgeous! I'll try and upload one of Max, need to take some more of him, he's really changing a lot recently.

cleckner, you must really miss your oh, haiti must be an overwhelming experience, all the devastation. sorry to hear your birth was so stressful, must have been tough, especially the bf at first. can't wait to hear about your blw exploits, i'm so excited about weaning max.

i wasnt keen on getting him weighed every week either, but hv kept calling me if i didnt go one week, which made me feel like i should go every week. quite look forward to it now, as i know a few girls there. max used to always scream when i put him on the scales but this week he just vomited on them! lol.

he seems to get frustrated that he cant move around more so i think it will be hard work when he starts crawling and not too sure what the cats will think of it!

flora, love the pictures of harry, i can see similarities at 3 months between him and max.

how long are you both planning on bf?

 

[SianMA]

Hello ladies - thanks fleur for pointing me in this direction, love the idea of itty bitty babies club!

Well my gorgeous boy Ryan Oscar was born 40wks +1 on 09.09.09 at home after just 3 hours in established labour and 20 minutes pushing, only 15hrs total from first twinge to baby in my arms! He was 6lb 11oz.

Anyway we had Bf issues from the start, poor little guy couldn't open his mouth wide enough to get my enourmous flat nipples in so he was nipple feeding for the first 6 weeks and I was in agony. Ryan lost just over 10% of his birthweight and didn't regain any until 5 weeks so has been bobbing along just beneath the 0.4%ile line on the chart since then .

As soon as we sorted his latch out at 7 weeks he got reflux and has found feeding difficult ever since despite the gaviscon although he doesn't seem to be in a lot of pain with the reflux, he is just sick a lot, so we feed little and often (still every 2 hours day and night). We've also had feeding strikes and some serious boob preference since then but have got through it (just)

I've also had problems with my supply recently due to 3 horrific colds in the space of 3 months and a lack of sleep due to 2-hourly night feeding. So Ryan has a formula top up after his evening BF as this is when he is hungriest.

For the last 3 weeks I've been expressing to try to up my evening supply but my boobs just don't respond well to pumping and i haven't seen any increase yet so I guess we're stuck with supplementing for now! I've just started taking a herbal milk remedy - called more milk wth fennel, blessed thistle, nettle etc. so I'm hoping that will help.

Well that is my long story so far, heres a pic of my small but perfectly formed little guy!

https://www.babyandbump.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=59717&stc=1&d=1264716720
https://www.babyandbump.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=59718&stc=1&d=1264716735

 

[cleckner04]

Emma and Harry are so gorgeous! I'll try and upload one of Max, need to take some more of him, he's really changing a lot recently.

cleckner, you must really miss your oh, haiti must be an overwhelming experience, all the devastation. sorry to hear your birth was so stressful, must have been tough, especially the bf at first. can't wait to hear about your blw exploits, i'm so excited about weaning max.

i wasnt keen on getting him weighed every week either, but hv kept calling me if i didnt go one week, which made me feel like i should go every week. quite look forward to it now, as i know a few girls there. max used to always scream when i put him on the scales but this week he just vomited on them! lol.

he seems to get frustrated that he cant move around more so i think it will be hard work when he starts crawling and not too sure what the cats will think of it!

flora, love the pictures of harry, i can see similarities at 3 months between him and max.

how long are you both planning on bf?

at vomiting on them! Aww haha. I'm in the US so don't have HV's. I'm pretty much on my own about taking her in to the doctor to get checked. I've been keeping up on her immunizations of course but the other stuff will have to wait until I get settled over in California. Our insurance only covers us on military bases and I'm not near one here unfortunately.

Is Max rolling yet? I know Emma rolled front to back at 2 months and was pretty much a pro at that right from the start but I think she was 3 months when she started back to front and even than it was only once or twice until she got better at it. Once she got the hang of rolling, the frustration mostly disappeared because she was realizing she could get where she wanted to go. Now her frustration is coming from me taking things away from her that she shouldn't have.

I plan on breastfeeding at the very least one year. After that I think I'll let her decide. I have a feeling it will be harder on me than it will on her when it comes time to stop. I just love the closeness of it so far.

 

[cleckner04]

SianMa- He is an absolute doll! Very gorgeous little man. So what does he weigh now hun? I'm sorry you are having such issues with the BFing. They never seem to tell us how hard it will be beforehand do they..

Also, Welcome to the group!!

 

[cleckner04]

I also wanted to ask. What size are everyone's LOs wearing? Emma is still in her 3 month clothes. Although I just had to pack away her 3 month sleepsuits because she is too tall. Everything else still fits pretty well though. In a way, it's nice because she's getting her use out of them all. She didn't outgrow newborn until around 3 months exactly. It was sad packing them away. I'm a bit nostalgic about it.

 

[florabean1981]

i plan to bf till 6 mths at least, then play it by ear after that for as long as harry wants it basically; i'll follow his lead!
harry is in 0-3 now, however, all the newborn jumpers still fit him nicely & some of the newborn jeans n t-shirts too, but mainly most of it is 0-3mths. he has enough clothes to kit him out for years as my sister has 2boys & gave me everything, lol. it's saved me a fortune!!!

welcomev to the group sian & ryan! he is gorgeous!!! harry had that same outfit at xmas; it looked so cute!

clerkner; harry can roll side to side, but not over yet. he's in the blowing raspberries for england phase atm & kicking everything n running material through his fingers- think he's gonna be a touchy-feely boy.

my hv says to get harry weighed every 2 weeks. he seems to average a lb a mth, however i've really noticed his face & thighs chunking up over the last week, lol, hich i assume is to do with him waking up for snack feeds every 2-3 hrs at night atm instead of sleeping 8hrs thru like he used to.

have any of you had probs with green poo? harry pood green for 16 days, then suddenly went back to normal; i didnt change anything, so no idea what caused it...

 

[lyre]

welcome Sian and Ryan, he's adorable! just a quick update to upload a pic...think I've finally figured out how to reduce the size...

oh dear...think I've reduced it a bit too much! he's not overly impressed in this one but its the most recent I have (last weekend), going to take some more this weekend. Will update more later, going to try to get some breakfast now, while he's asleep x

 

[lyre]

Also, found the link to the "ask a mum - slow gainers" thread, if anyone is interested.

https://www.babyandbump.com/baby-club/218586-baby-slow-weight-gainer.html

 

[cleckner04]

Flora- Emma does have the occasional green poo! I think it's a foremilk and hindmilk imbalance. Which I am thinking this is what my problem is. I started block feeding for a little while and the green poos disappeared. I should probably get back to the block feeding but she starts solids soon so I really don't think it will matter because different foods make her poo change too. It's a poo mystery. Emma averages a pound a month as well. Although two months ago she gained 2 pounds in a month. But this was after not gaining or losing for a long time. So she seemed to have a growth spurt after staying the same for a while. It's odd. I try my best not to worry about it. Which is hard to do with all the women on her saying 'a big baby is a healthy baby'.

 

[cleckner04]

Lyre he is adorable!! Just kicked back and relaxing.

Thanks for the link too BTW!!

 

[lyre]

cleckner, max doesn't roll much, i think it might be because i still swaddle him at night, i'd like to stop but he won't sleep more than an hour without it. I'm going to start phasing it out gradually. I've just ordered him a cot, so will get more organised in the next few weeks. It's just so hard when I know it's going to cause upset for him while he gets used to it.....

I'm planning to bf for at least 6 months and probably until a year, not sure after that, will have to see how it goes. At the beginning I was always counting down until 6 months, when I could give up, never thought I would enjoy it, but now I love it and would really miss it.

Actually yesterday I was saying to OH, that right now, he needs us more than he will ever need us and gradually over time, he will need us less and less until he becomes an adult, strange/sad to think about....can't imagine him as an adult, to be honest, can't even imagine him as a toddler!


On another note, we haven't experienced any green poo yet. he's still in newborn we are nearly at 0-3 month clothes!

Flora, max sleeps a max of 5/6 hours in one stretch at night but usually still feeds every 3-4 at night and 2-3 hrs during the day, which is why I'm always on BnB! I thought it might space out by now, but I'm coping ok. This week he's been making lots of new sounds and blowing bubbles, its great and much easier to understand than the crying!

Sian, 09.09.09! no-one will ever have any excuses for missing his birthday! he's going to love that when he's older! I don't have much luck with expressing, don't get much milk, so I've given up for now. To up my supply, I just start eating/drinking loads more than usual and feeding Max as often as possible, not sure it that works for everyone though, heard the herbs are good.

Sorry for the long ramble! Have added another pic (taken this afternoon) now that I've figured it out, I can't stop! x

ps. check out his bald patches!

 

[SianMA]

Emma, Harry and Max are adorable!

Ryan weighed 11lb 6oz - a massive 7oz gain this time following a tiny 1oz last week. Until recently he was a steady 3oz a week. Still on weekly weigh-ins for the consultants.

Ryan has always been really strong so has been rolling since about 3 months but doesn't seem very interested in it any more. He has also been able to hold his own weight on his legs since 3 months, just can't balance quite right yet although he will 'walk' across the room if I hold his hands. He learned a new trick today - sucking his own feet while I'm trying to change his nappy! I think he'll be a cruiser rather than a crawler.

As for poo colour Ryan has had green nappies pretty much constantly since about 3 weeks when his reflux appeared. they are mostly a slightly green mustardy colour but since he started teething last month we have had a lot of different shades of green! I think that I just have a rubbish fore/hindmilk balance - it doesn't help that he is a very distracted feeder and we have a different feeding battle every week! I have found that we have a greater number of normal coloured poos since introducing a night time formula top-up. The greeeny poos don't seem to bother him though.

Ryan is still in 0-3months clothes atm, he is starting to get a bit long for some of the babygrows, not helped by the fact that he has massive feet! I found a cool thing for making vests fit though - the vest extenders from cloth nappy companies. I find that even the 0-3 vests are too wide across the neck and baggy around his body but the newborn ones are too short, with an extender on he still fits into his newborn vests though. The extenders only cost a few quid but I think I'll get another month at least out of his small vests and they can be used again on the next size up so he'll proabbly fit into his 0-3 vests until he's 6 months or more.

I'm planning to do a bit of BFing for as long as possible, I was counting down the days to 6 months until I had a supply problem recently. Facing the thought of not being able to BF was horrible! I think we'll gradually phase it out by adding more formula feeds once we're well into stage 2 of the weaning process so he's ready for child care at 10 months but I'll keep on doing the last night feed (7pm ish) and first morning feed with the bbs as a comfort thing - for me and him - until he doesn't want it but I need to get some decent sleep before going back to work otherwise I'll never get a promotion!

 

[kirsten1985]

Just found this group, Freya has always been a bit of a slow gainer, and I know how you all feel with the 'wow isn't she small' comments. The first thing people say after they have asked her age is how small she is, I get a lot of people saying she looks about 4/5 months (she is nearly 9). I haven't had her weighed for a while as she looks healthy enough to me and the HV always just tells me to feed her silly foods and purees (we are BLW). So I keep away! Last time I weighed her she was 16lb a couple of weeks ago. She is on the 9th centile (for height and weight) at the moment but that's the highest she has been so far. She was 6lb 6oz at birth.

We FF but Freya is on soya formula, this is another thing, I constantly get told that a FFed baby should be fatter than what she is I think that most of you if not all are mostly BFing, you are doing a fab job.

She is in a combination of 3-6 and 6-9 clothes (mostly to compensate for cloth nappies, lol).

Nice to find some people with similar issues and lovely perfect maybe a bit smaller than average babies!

Always here if anyone wants to chat or ask any questions

 

[cleckner04]

Hey girls! Haven't checked in here for a few days. Welcome Kristen!!

I started Emma a bit early with the BLW this week. We are on day four today. Since I'm a bit early doing it, I have only been having her eat a bit of lunch with me at noon every day. I am one of those mommies that never does a routine because it never seemed to work but so far she has eaten at noon and I let her play/eat as long as she wants, than she goes straight into the tub for a bath, than she naps. I am most surprised about the nap part because every time she is asleep within minutes. And she won't nap without me beside her so here we are. It's nice to have somewhat of a predictable routine with it though. I always assumed I'd start a routine once she gets food and that is how it has played out. She was too tiny to sit in a highchair so I had to run out and buy a tray for her Bumbo. Which works amazingly well. I just stick her in her Bumbo and she is up on the table. So any pieces she drops can be easily put back on her tray.

How have you girls been doing? Anything new with your LOs?!