'Older Mums' buddies thread!

[Truman]

Seity, I can't believe how much Gabrielle has grown, he looks so cute in the cowboy hat!!

Hope everyone is ok. I am fine, still a bit sore both top and bottom but getting there.

I am finding the breast feeding really difficult though, over the last week she has wanted feeding from every 30mins to every hour (my boobs are so sore despite trying my best to make sure she latches on properly) once she is latched on feeding can last 20mins to 1 hour and the longest she has slept is on her Daddies chest for 2 hours last night but everyone keeps telling me I am making a rod for my own back. Is that possible??, I need to get some sleep sometime and at this rate my boobs will drop off.

Anyone got any pointers? How long does it take for feeding to settle down?

Maybebaby, do you use a dummy, I thought perhaps I could introduce one just to get her settled she seems to use my boob to get her to sleep but once I take her off she wakes up she can't possible still be hungry because my milk is free flowing.

 

[maybebaby3]

yes i have used a dummy from the 1st day. erin was like that with the bf. it can take a few weeks to settle and as for the sleep dont listen to people. as u said u need to sleep!!!

 

[Truman]

Hi, I hope everyone is ok. Not been around for a while and all seems quiet on here?!?!

Anyway, I have had a rough ride of it lately, had my stitches out Monday and then 3 days later my wound burst and got infected. I have a hole in my scar about the size of a 20p piece. I have been in agony ever since and just when I thought things couldn't get any worse on Saturday I started bleeding really heavily and clotting and ended up back in hospital ........ Now I have a womb infection and am house bound yet again. I am consuming so many drugs (8 in total 4 times a day!!!) I am worried they will pass to Scarlett in my breast milk but they have said not, I guess I don't really have a choice if I want to get better I need the antibiotics.

I can't believe it, I feel really sorry myself but I feel more sorry for my OH he has to do everything for me and he can't take Scarlett anywhere on his own or show her off because I'm breast feeding.

I am thinking about expressing so that he can at least have the joy of feeding her once a day. However, everyone (incl. websites) is against it till after 6 weeks. I was also thinking that if I could express one feed he could take her out for a couple of hours safe in the knowledge that if needed he has a feed prepared even if I'm not there.

Well that's my update I have sterilised bottles today but I haven't got round to expressing to be honest my heart isn't in it.

Let me know how you are doing and what you are up to. xx

 

[maybebaby3]

Oh Truman i am so sorry to hear that you are having a crappy time! what an awful experience. hopefully you will be on the men soon. noone seems to be using this thread at the moment! i kept coming in here and wondering where everyone had gone! at least you are back now! maybe we should start a new thread forolder mums in the bnb group section as really we are not pregnant now so i guess we are kind of gatecrashing this thread

i expressed at 3 weeks and got about 4oz i think. if you are not up to it then leave it for now though. bf is hard as we are the only ones that can do it. i am glad to hear that you OH is looking after you though. soon you will feel better and be able to go out and show little scarlett off.

owen had his 8wk check and vaccines today. he did not enjoy them at all and screamed th place down! It's so awful to see them in pain he is snoozing in the pram now, though i can already hear noises again coming from the pram i have just come in from town and have poured myself a quick cup of tea before getting on with the 101 things that i need to do round here. OH taken dylan and erin to the beach with his mum so at least i dont have them under my feet whilst i am trying to clean though i dont think OH really wanted to go anywhere today! oh well hopefully they wont drive him crazy and he'll be in a better mood when they get back - fingers crossed! well i'm going to drink my tea and get on with things before owen demands a feed. xxx

 

[Truman]

Hi maybe thanks for replying. I know what you mean about the thread. We seem to be the only ones using it these days, but I really wanted to keep in touch with people who I have shared this journey with.

Are you on face book or msn? perhaps we could keep updated there if we miss each other in the forums. I keep in touch with Avabear73 - mummy to Finlay on Facebook it's amazing how much he has changed and it's nice to share pics.

Anyway, I've sent you a personal message just in case. xx

 

[Csunshine013]

OMG I leave for a little while come back and everybody has had their babies!




Congratulations!!!!

Truman so sorry you've had such a hard time, hopefully the infection is better now!

BF is hard I expressed from the time DD was 2 weeks old but I had only 2 1/2 weeks off work then went back part time for 2 weeks then full time after that so pretty much had to.

Hello to the rest of you lovely ladies! Hope your all well!

 

[maybebaby3]

wow csunshine you are nearly there only a few more weeks to go. how are you feeling?

truman - i emailed you xxx

 

[Truman]

Wow, how time flies. Csunshine only 29 days and you will meet you lil one. Keep in touch and let us know how you're getting on.

 

[Shining Star]

Hi,

Sorry I haven't been on here for a while... don't know where the time goes! Well, Jessica was born on June 28th, 9 days early by emergency c-section. I had a mw appointment on the day that I went into labour so I still attended and was told that she had turned and was back to back. I ended up starting getting contractions at about 8am and going from them being about 8 minutes apart to 1 minute within about 20 mins! We headed down to hospital pretty quickly and not long after we arrived my waters broke. She had done a poo so they stopped running the water for the borthing pool! They called in a consultant at about 6pm because the baby seemed in distress and they did a fetal blood sample to find that her oxygen levels were low and her heart rate was raised to over 180 so I was rushed into theatre. It was all a bit chaotic and scary but probably worse for DH to be honest as I wasn't completely aware of what was going on! Anyway, she was born at 9.34pm and we couldn't be happier (or more tired!)

I start each day thinking about all of the things I need to get done and get to the end wondering what I actually did!

Csunshine, you are so close now! Exciting stuff... are you all ready for your LO? I hope that you are feeling well, let us know how you are getting on.
Truman, I am sorry to hear that you are having a bad time of it. When I read your post about the bf, it reminded me of myself! Jessica feeds from anywhere between 20 minutes and an hour and a half. Sometimes I get so sore I think I can't carry on! When she was born her blood sugars were really low so the nurses suggested we give her some formula to gove her extra calaries so she had a bottle the day after she was born. Since then, when desperate I have given her formula but I usually give her a bottle of expressed milk once a day too to give my boobs a break! We have been really lucky as she had no problem switching from bf to bottle at all (despite what the midwives have said!). Don't do it until you are ready but I have found it really helps. I often felt like I wasn't producing enough to satisfy her as she always seemed so hungry but I am able to express about 5oz and she seems to be satisfied with the bottle. We also find that she won't settle without being either attatched to me or sleeping on one of us. It is like a military operation to get her from us into the moses basket without waking her up! I think I stop breathing so as not to wake her! We are lucky that she tends to go down between 10 and midnight and sleeps through most nights until between 4 and 6am, I try to make sure that I do the last feed in a dark room (we just have the radio on a talk station quietly going in the background).

My c-section wound isn't healing very well either (although it isn't anywhere near as bad as yours!). I was back at the doctors yesterday and although they have said that they don't think it is infected it isn't right and I am trying really hard to keep it clean and dry. It's really sore sometimes though, a few days ago I got out of the shower to find about 5 inches of what looks like nylon thread hanging out of one end of the wound which freaked me out a bit! The nurse just cut it off and said that it should be fine. Hopefully we will both be feeling better soon.

Maybebaby, sorry to hear that Owen screamed during his jabs. I am dreading Jessica's already and have a few weeks to go yet! I hope the rest of the check up went OK.

I hope you are all well... I will try to pop back on here a bit more often too!

Sorry, it was a bit of a long post - lots to catch up on!

 

[Truman]

Shining Star congratulations on the birth of Lily, how much did she weigh?. I was sorry to hear you didn't have a straightforward birth either. I hope your wound starts to heal soon. Mine is getting better thank goodness. When you were talking about getting Lily from you into her crib whilst she sleeps it reminded me of Scarlett, she will sleep quite happily on me but on her own is another thing when I move she wakes up and when I do get her in her crib alone she only sleeps for 45mins and then has to be resettled which can take another 30 mins!

I am still BF but struggling, I have expressed a couple of times now and get 3-4oz on average but I still worry Scarlett doesn't take enough when she is attached. So I have started to make up a couple of ounces of formula just incase. Her 11pm bottle is also formula and I express that feed and save it as a top up for later. I feel such a fake sometimes like I'm cheating or letting Scarlett down by combination feeding her but somedays I don't think I could cope if I didn't have the fall back.

Well today was day 6 following the "Baby Whisperer" routine. It's still a bit hit and miss but hopefully everything will fall into place soon. At least I know roughly when Scarlett will need feeding so I should be able to start going out and having a life.

Anyway, no rest for the wicked the rountine starts again at 11pm so I had better get ready for dream feeding!

 

[maybebaby3]

truman - good luck with the baby whisperer routine! we have no routine at all

shining star - congrats on the birth of jessica! she sounds like a good little sleeper. owen's not that good at sleep yet. it took me until 2am to get him to sleep and in the end he fell asleep in his swing

we are off to the dr's today as the kids and i have a cold and sore throat so i want to make sure if we need antibiotics we get them.

 

[Shining Star]

Truman, I know what you mean about feeling bad about using some formula. I do too, sometimes I just can't bf anymore! I hurt and worry so much that she isn't getting enough (especially during the day as she never seems satisfied!).

Jessica weighed 8lb 10oz, so she wasn't small but I don't think I needed referring to the hospital like they did! Oh well, better safe than sorry I suppose.

I hope that the Baby Whisperer routine is working for you. I have a friend who swears by it but I struggle with the activity before sleeping part! She will only settle straight after a feed, how do you find it?

Maybebaby, thanks for the congrats! Although I think I may have jinxed it saying she was sleeping well. Sunday night she was wide awake until 5am!

 

[Marleysgirl]

Anyone remember me?

I've just seen a trailer (at last!) for the tellyprog that they filmed my pregnancy for - BBC "Cherry Has a Baby", advertised as Coming Soon (ie September).

When I've got a confirmed transmission date, I'll post back in here to let you all know

PS - Andrew doing fine. First birthday was two weeks ago, and we celebrated by progressing him into size 3-6m clothing!

 

[Marleysgirl]

BBC3 Monday 13 September 9pm - Cherry Has a Baby

 

[Shining Star]

BBC3 Monday 13 September 9pm - Cherry Has a Baby

Hi! I have been offline for ages, it's nice to be back in Cyberland!

I hadn't seen that you were on here but watched the program the other night. I'm glad that your little boy is doing well!

 

[maybebaby3]

ooh marleys i just watched it on iplayer!!! fab to hear andrew is doing so well

shining star - how's things? owen is a big fatty, weighed over 17lbs at 16wks unfortunately he has been really poorly as he got bronchiolitis. i have to give him antibiotics and an inhaler through a spacer with a mask which he hates but thankfully he is on the mend. hasnt helped that i am ill on antibiotics and erin has had ear ache and is also on antibiotics. fingers crossed dylan escapes it all!!!