Weekly chat thread April first week

[Snapdragon]

HOw is everyone else doing?

[NicoleS]

Let's see, Caleb turned 2 months on Monday. Physically I'm doing good - the c/s incision doesn't bother me at all anymore, though the scar still looks "fresh"...I suppose that will fade over time. I do still get some spotting on the days I overdo it, which is a little strange. Not at all pleased with my PP body - let's just say 4 kids, the last being nearly 10 pounds, have not been kind to my midsection! Not to mention I'm still about 50 pounds over the weight I was 5 years ago...I've entered in a "Biggest Loser" competition with some other mom friends - today is the second weigh in so I'm interested to see if I've lost any weight.

Caleb is doing great most of the time. Still trying to figure out his poop - a week ago they were yellow mustard seedy and now they are yellow green and not seedy at all. I'm not sure if that is from me cutting back on fats or one of the vitamins I'm taking because I haven't added anything new into my diet really. Evenings are the roughest for us...he can take hours to go to bed and is rarely in bed before 11 PM despite our best efforts. Some nights he will just scream and scream unless you hold him a certain way, and others he just acts "wired" and will sit there and grin and squeak at you.

The other kids seem to have adjusted ok. My second youngest just turned 2 on Wednesday, and is still a bit prone to whining and temper tantrums - but not sure how much of that I can blame on the baby coming and how much of that is just the age...

[Nicole730]

We are still doing well. Elsa is 4 weeeks old today. Not too much going on with her, she still just sleeps and sleeps and sleeps. Today we were out and about and visited my parents for a bit so she only got little naps in the afternoon instead of a super long one like usual. I'm curious to see if this creates better sleep tonight or worse. She's usually alseep for the night by 8pm and then nurses around 10-11pm if I wake her, otherwise between 1 and 2am and then again around 6am. After the 6am feeding she'll got back to sleep until almost 9, sometimes later. Not too shabby IMO. What's weird though, is on the nights I don't nurse her at 10/11pm, she sleeps even longer before waking up to nurse...so maybe that first wake up around 1am is because she needs to burp or poo or something... I'll have to figure that out.

[JustSimplicity]

Katie, I know what you mean about dates. I have no idea what day it is anymore. Today I am exhausted. We are travelling over the weekend for a friend's wedding and getting to the airport (wearing baby, hauling 2 suitcases and the carseat to the train and then through the airport) and the plane ride wore me out! Luckily Isaiah still slept well except on the plane when he was wide awake. He was screaming because his ears were popping. I tried to nurse him. We eventually worked it out and he did a lot of comfort sucking. I'm thinking of getting a pacifier just for plane rides. The sucking definitely helped, but this little guy does not latch or stay latched very well and it's such chaos to try to nurse him in the little space of plane when he is already upset by his ears and then even more upset because my milk is choking him.

I'm going to a LLL meeting next week to see if they can help me with the latch issue because sometimes it's just such a battle to feed him.

Earlier this week I was really overwhelmed because Ze was not sleeping - up every 45-60 minutes. And so I was really getting no sleep as I have a hard time going back to sleep between feedings. Two days ago things just clicked and now I'm able to better read his sleepy cues and get him down before he's overtired. I'm surprised that even with the travelling he only took an hour to really get to sleep tonight and most of that was him laying in the crib looking around. He gets so interested in his surroundings that he doesn't want to go to sleep. Hopefully he'll sleep at least 4 hours now.

Oh, and he does this weird shouting thing - making this loud (like he's pooping) noise every 5 minutes. He does it in his sleep so he's not waking up but it wakes DH and me up. He does it more and more as night goes on. I have no idea why but I'm hoping he grows out of it soon. The ped said "it's probably just something he does" - not to helpful.

[Snapdragon]

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[NicoleS]

I can feel you on that one Katie! My MIL hired a mother's helper for a few hours a day to care for the older three, but it was still tough - and while I loved the help I still hated having her there - it is MY home, and having to sit there and watch her while I could barely get in and out of the chair without help was hard. And she was only there 4 days...so by the time Caleb was 10 days old I had to care for all 4 alone! Not an experience I'd choose to repeat!

[jul511riv]

[flavorfull1]

JustSimplicity- wow the lack of sleep would do me in for sure. We had run of getting up every two hours for a week and a half and I thought it was horrible! I agree, the noise sounds like maybe gas? Malachi "talks" in his sleep though, like whining but not, I don't know. But the shouting seems like more than just noises in his sleep right? Tough that it is interrupting sleep, hopefully it will stop soon!

NicoleS- Malachi does the wired thing at night some times. It is kind of cute at 9pm or 10pm but I am not a fan at 2am! It is hard because he is all hyper mode with his legs kicking and smiling a ton so it is cute but I don't want to encourage it at 2 in the morning! Luckily, those early morning times are really few and far in between. However, the not going down to sleep before 10, 11 or 12 at night is pretty much daily here no matter what I do to help him sleep.

Katie- it has been fun to read about your name quest! Hope you find the one soon! I think all of the names you have come up with so far are cool! Sucks about the lack of deep friends and then recovering on top of that. Totally take it as slow as possible, it is easy to push it too far as soon as you feel somewhat close to normal.

So, today I got a mei tai and I am in love! I have a moby and an ergo but when I wear him in the moby, my breasts would swell/get really sore and I would be hot. He still can't straddle his legs wide enough for the ergo and he is too long for the infant insert, sigh. We broke down and put up the money for a mei tai. Seriously, it is all of the good qualities of an ergo and a moby combined! I love love love it! Since my Birthday is Tuesday, I told DH to just look at it as my b-day present. We got it nearly for free since we took some clothes and items to a second hand baby store for some money. The weather here is great and I am realizing just how much it matters to me to be able to get out in the sun. My mood is a billion times better. Unfortunately, I am also realizing just how not ok my body was right after birth. Seems that pushing 5hours really does a number on the body. I am still spotting some at almost 11 weeks and I still have pain with sitting bc of my tail bone. For such a fast labor, this recovery sucks! I feel like I can say that now since I am starting to feel better I know that I probably set myself back in recovery a few times with trying to get out to do things and having over SOOOO many people right after the birth (of whom only some were invited). Next time, my formula for easy recovery is: shorter pushing time, less visitors, more rest. LOL, you know, since all of that is in my control Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

[Snapdragon]

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[AustinKate]

Speaking of funny baby sounds, Alex does this thing when he's nursing sometimes, it sounds like a gasping, wheezing breath. I asked a lactation consultant about it when he was two weeks old, and she said it's normal. He doesn't seem to have trouble breathing, even when he's making that noise, but it still sounds kind of scary. Anyone else experience this?

Alex is 6 weeks old now, and growing fast! We've been able to get outside for lots of walks since the weather is so gorgeous, and I've really enjoyed that. I agree that getting out in the sunshine can make a big difference.

I thought I was done spotting as of about a week ago, but today I had what looked like a little bit. Or could it be my period? Could it come back this early?

[flavorfull1]

Malachi does that sound too. Someone said it happens while they are falling asleep? At first I was worried but he was breathing and swallowing fine so I figured it is just one of those baby sounds. He sounds like a high pitched donkey sometimes!

[Nicole730]

Katie - when you look for new mommy friends, don't be tied down to just people with tiny babies (which is what I tried to do at first). My best new mommy friend had a daughter who just turned 2 and I started having playdates with her when my son was 4 months. Now the two kids play together beautifully and we both have new babies - hers is 7 months, mine 1 month.

[flavorfull1]

So, baby born 1/18/10. Still bleeding now. It tapered off to spotting every day but I still had to wear a liner around 9 weeks. Now at almost 11 weeks, still spotting and then some bleeding today. Is this something that is normal? If so, when the heck will it stop???

[jul511riv]

nak
flav: normal, i guess, but not good imho. have you tried red raspberry leaf tea/tincture. there is a tribe on here.

baby 2 months and 1 week today. Boxed up 0-3 months clothes. Now in 3-6. Still need bra. ordered from the uk, havent arrived yet... arg!!!

[Snapdragon]

why is nursing at computer nak and not nac?

[Sri Radha]

It's nak=nursing at keyboard.

[Snapdragon]

Sri Radha I Was just re reading another post and realized you said you also had a c section. How is your healing going from that?

[Ambystoma]

Aengus turned 6 weeks on Friday. His belly issues are finally gone since I've cut out dairy, and he is as happy as a clam most of the time. He's "talking" nonstop (which he gets from his mom ), and is determined to roll over (can get about 1/2way there). Basically, he's just alert all day-I feel like he should sleep more-but he's sleeping well at night, so I'm not complaining.

I am getting back into the swing of things. Aengus has been coming with me to do research and absolutely HATES one of the labs. Not sure what it is-there isn't a smell (no chemicals--he wouldn't be going otherwise). The other lab is no problem.

flavorfull1-I totally feel you on the Moby. DH likes it, but it suffocates me it gets so hot. And it's already in the 80s here, so there's no way either of us can handle it anymore.

[Ninetales]

Elsa has the green, non-seedy poops overnight. It has to be because she doesn't nurse a lot in the first part of the night. She sleeps great - we go down between 9:30 and 10:30, she'll sleep through to around 4:30, sometimes she's up for thirty minutes or so, then it's back down until between 7:30 and 9:30. It's so much easier now that she's learned to nurse side-lying.

We're getting better with he Moby, which I'm happy about. We've been trying to get out and about more these days. Especially for walks, since I'd like to start getting rid of this extra weight. I want to go to a movie with my sister this week, so we're going to try the bottle. Hopefully she'll take to it, but if not I won't be long. It took four binkies to find one she liked for the car but I hope the bottle is easier.

We had to move her into her 6 month clothes yesterday. It was weird how sad I was to put away her first outfits. She was still only at her birth weight two weeks ago, and if I had to guess I'd say she's close to 14 lbs. But she's actually further ahead in height than weight now. At her checkup two weeks ago she was 24 inches long already - 2 inches in three weeks!

[hapersmion]

Ben makes terrible noises while he's nursing, especially lying down at night - I have a really fast let-down, but he's fine. I try not to worry about it.

He's getting huge! He didn't even get to wear some of his newborn clothes at all.

I'm doing well too, bleeding has finally stopped! If my four-year-old would quit waking up at night with one problem or another, we'd be perfect.

I'm not looking forward to the age of shots, though. Two months isn't far away, and I've had to redo all my vaccine research, because I didn't become educated with my first until he was almost a year old, so I have all new decisions to make. The DTaP is the hardest one for me, but I guess that's a discussion for the vaccine boards... Luckily I have a good doctor who's never given me trouble about our selective/delayed schedule with Seth, but I'm still a little nervous to be telling him we won't be getting any shots yet.