Ooooh once again lots of catching up to do in here!! I'm gonna try to do another "jelr" from third tri and reply to everyone
I like to make everyone feel listened-to!! Hehe...
Sorry in advance for the ridiculous length of this post though: Feel free to jump straight to the bit that has your name on it if you like!!!
MJ... I'm sure the swaddling thing won't be right for every baby, and if Adam is particularly fussy about having covers on him etc. then maybe your mum and Chris are right! I guess you'll know if you try it and he screams blue murder at you, eh?!
Sometimes Vince will randomly be soaking wet too, and it doesn't seem like it's coming from his nappy, but I think it must be if they're not particularly hot... Maybe with boys it's a positioning thing inside the nappy?
do you always make sure his little winkie is poiting downwards?? Glad you've got your mum there for support, mine was invaluable during the first couple of weeks back home, we used her generosity to full extent and let her take full nights of feeding a couple of times to catch up on sleep!! Oh, and of course, Vince is outgrowing soooo many clothes at a rate of knots, so I am constantly doing what you've done and reorganising all of his clothes to see what will fit him this week!! Like you, we have a lot of hand-me-downs etc, and ours are also predominantly blue, which is a bit of a bore but it's great to have so many "back-up" clothes for him!!
Bun: Yes, Vince is awake lots during the day, even when he's had a pretty bad night, I'm amazed that he doesn't seem more tired during the day!! Right now though he is asleep on my lap on his tummy, looks soooo comfy, bless him! Sounds like Brandon-Li is a good weight for his age
GCL: Good idea to roll up arms and legs in 0-3 stuff, but for us it's the opposite problem: When they fit him width-wise (round his tummy) they're almost aslways too short length-wise (cos he isn't very podgy but is VERY long!) So we have to put him in stuff that's a bit baggy round his little waist, but just about long enough for my tall little man!
EEEEP @ going out to Sainsbury's on your own, hope Myles was a good boy for you!
Pips, so glad the breastmilk seemed to work for Sam's eye, hope it stays clear! Don't worry if it seems to flare up again, I think it's very common: One of Vince's eyes has flared up a bit again but we just keep on clearing it out and it hasn't turned to conjunctivitis yet (touch wood!) I hope you manage to calm your brain down enough to get some sleep sweetie, you sound EXACTLY like I felt in the first couple of weeks. It really helped me to keep a little diary of Vincent's feeding, nappy changes and sleeping patterns, so that I felt more able to let my mind relax knowing that I had it covered on paper! Hugs to you honey
Glad you had a good night with him though, and that he's starting to settle in his pram etc. for you!! Little steps in the right direction are all you need, and before you know it he'll be settling nicely for you in his cot!
Shiv: Eeeep
so sorry your nip is still so sore. It must be a bit miserable for you
Glad Sophia is able to feed so well from the good boobie though, and that she's progressing so well!! As for dressing baby, we worry more about Vinnie OVERheating, so we are using all of the summery things most of the time and haven't used much of the warmer stuff (like velour sleepsuits etc)... I think you'll start to get a sort of sixth sense of what she'll be most comfortable in soon!
Kim T: Thanks for the praise honey
It's fun to keep the group going and make the front page all pretty hehe
Is Tyler feeding well for you? Are you getting enough rest / getting a routine going yet? Welcome to the club
xx
elly, I know JUST how you feel with the breast feeding. When I was still in hospital, if I so much as breathed my intentions of combining or switching to formula after we left hospital, the staff came down on me like a ton of bricks, with "that look" on their faces: "Oh, I know YOUR type: You're a lazy, heartless mother and you don't care enough about your baby." UGH. I just hate it when people judge like that. You HAVE to do what works for YOU, and surely it's better that Christian has a calm, happy mummy and plenty to eat (drink!) than a stessed mummy who is trying desperately to get enough milk to feed him?
for you sweetheart, I know that Vince has taken to formula like a dream, and is utterly thriving on it, so please don't let them make you feel like a bad mother!!
tmr: Sorry Lucas has had an unsettled day, Vince has had 3 of them in a row now, but I'll get to that later... Hope Lucas calms down for you soon, maybe he's having another growth spurt?
TTC lady, try what Carter said about your sig: In the instructions I sent you I said to use the add image function, but you don't HAVE to use that: You can just put
around the URL
On the sleeping thing, when Vince was just a week or so old and wouldn't settle, I'm afraid we did the co-sleeping thing too, and it really worked for us for that time. Now that he's a bit bigger he will settle in his cot pretty well in the evenings, and we only bring him to our bed in the wee hours of the morning if he's very fussy. It's not the end of the world to co-sleep, as long as you take precautions to make it safe for Riya and comfortable for you! I'd advise you to give it a go if you're having real trouble with her in her own cot / basket... Good luck honey!
Boothh, sounds like you have a really good routine going there, well done you!! I wouldn't worry much about how much Jesse is taking each feed; if it works for him, then heobviously needs it! Vince went up to 180ml very quickly (that's about 6oz) and he has that every 3 hours or so, so quite a lot! We have tried SMA white for hungry babies too, but it seems to make him constipated (which makes the pooey nappies very easy to change
but gives him pain and makes him fussy
) More on our new plan with formula and feeding later...
gwiff, yes we have Vince in his cotbed in his own room now, and he has taken very well to it when we first put him down to sleep. Once he is sleeping right through from the first time we put him down, I think he will be very very happy, but at the moment he still wakes in the night and sometimes has trouble going back down in his cot after that... You'll feel it when the time's right to put Tomos in his own room! Do you have a movement monitor for his cot? They give real peace of mind
As for stretching out his feeds, just give him as much as he will take each feed (if he finishes one bottle, make up another one, and give him as much as he will take: That's what our HV told us!) in time his little body will just start to need feeds less often and you'll get a bit of a break!! LOL @ "this is a long post" ... I don't think you have anything to worry about there my love
Vici, I'll be off to read your birth story in a sec honey, well done for getting it out!! Feels good to put it all "on paper" doesn't it? It helped me to deal with it a bit better to write it all out
OK, that's everyone!! Now on to
me and Vince...
We had the third terrible night in a row last night: Went down at 8:30, no probs, slept till 1:30 (bliss!) but after that was NOT happy, screamed the neighbourhood down for hours and would NOT be consoled, I'm sure it was wind again... Finally had him in our bed again from about 3:30, and I was in so much pain (joints: need a new mattress and it was v. uncomfy to try to give Vince some room and not squash him...) and was soooo exhausted from trying desperately to wind him that I had to go and sleep in the spare room again and I let OH keep watch over Vince in our bed... He then wen till 6:30 (which is amazing really: 5 hours between feeds!!) and we all got up after that. So although it doesn't seem like too bad a night, it was totally exhausting and a bit depressing and after 3 nights like that I'm now feeling pretty spaced out and very tired!! Also, because of the massive flare up of joint pain and because every time I lift Vince or try to wind him or anything I'm causing myself more pain in my hands and arms, I'm on loads of stupid meds to try to enable me to function and take care of him, and I'm now experiencing some nasty side effects (nausea especially
) which is a bummer. But we've made a new plan now, as we are almost at our wits' end with this wind problem: We've just bought a couple of the Dr Brown bottles and we've switched Vince to Cow and Gate (as I've heard that it can sometimes keep babies satisfied a bit better than SMA gold, and we don't really want to use SMA white any more cos of the constipation issues...) so we're gonna try these things out and see whether he can get over this nasty little colic spell (sooo much screaming and crying, it's not fun!!) When he's content (i.e. not in pain from the wind) he's really lovely, though: I keep getting hundreds of cooing comments when we go out and I have him in the sling with me in my wheelchair, OH gets a bit protective over us but I don't mind it hehe
So all in all, we're doing ok, but could be better!! Our spirits are still high though, we're helping each other through this rough patch and trying to laugh it off during the day (harder to do this at night!!) and all the while Vince is growing into a proper little boy
He's holding his head up reeeally well on his own now (only a little bit wobbly!) and he's definitely starting to focus on our eyes and our faces, sometimes will even look right into my eyes and then spontaneously smile at me!! I'm loving him sooo much now, I feel like after a rocky start we're properly bonded now and I'd do anything for him, I just love him sooo much
OK, this post is getting into the realms of stupidity now, so I'll stop....
Where is
Nutty, do any of you flumpies know how she's getting on? Haven't seen her post in here in a while... Loving her pictures in the gallery though
Oh, speaking of which, those of you who haven't done so yet and would like to share some gorgeous Lion Cubs pics with us, do check out the gallery (link on the front page in here)
Ok, off to retch into a bowl for a bit! (Sorry, TMI, bloody pills!)
Love to you all and your gorgeous little ones
Shadow x x x x
One small step in the right direction!
Welcome to Kim T and baby Tyler!! 
?
. I ended up calling the midwife at midnight and she told me to give him a bottle. Which i was glad about as i had roadkill nipples from an inproper latch in the hospital 
yay!
!
