week of 6/24, Life w/Babe check in

[~*max*~]

Hello May Mamas. My goodness how time flies! Another week has gone by.

We have been insanely busy w/end of school year events. We just finished w/out last two biggies, high school graduation for my dn and dance recital for my dd, so life should slow down (and calm down!) now.

We were having a grad party for dn and our new babe had been really overstimulated lately w/all the activities(which turns out to be hell for me, since she will cry for hours in the evening after a lot of activity). I told dh, "No one is going to hold her today except us." He basically said, "Good luck w/that." But I was serious. I used our hotsling most of the time. Between that and NIP, no one bothered us!

Nurse Laurie, I am so out of the loop, please tell about the VS nurse in. I haven't even heard of it.

[dharmama]

Not Laurie but I'm following the VS stuff as it happened somewhat locally...

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=472764

[dharmama]

Erika ~ Hope you got some sleep last night.

MCB ~ I don't know the bikini twist (must look it up). I'm a trifold girl.

BBM ~ Great news about the pouch!!

[ecoteat]

I think this is the first time I've posted on the weekly check-in with 2 hands!

Last night Phoebe ROLLED OVER! Yikes. She was sleeping on her back and as she was waking up for a feeding, she managed to wiggle herself onto her belly. It seems too early for this! She's only 6 weeks today.

This weekend we took her to her first folk festival. It was a very low-key family-friendly event where we parked our chairs and stroller in one place as home base and roamed around with Phoebe in our arms or the front carrier. She was fantastic and we had a wonderful time. The night before we picked up one of the performers at the airport, which is an hour away, and the flight came in at 11:30pm, so we left Phoebe at home for the first time. Her schedule wasn't affected at all and she never knew we were gone; once she fell asleep DH's cousin stayed with her and when we got back she was just waking up to eat. So she didn't mind at all. I, on the other hand, cried when we left the house!

A lot of people had told me that this all gets easier after 6 weeks. I think they were right. Phoebe has a nice, predictable schedule, I feel good and I've adjusted to the lack of sleep, my body has finally returned to some kind of normal...it's all good.

[~*max*~]

Originally Posted by dharmama

Not Laurie but I'm following the VS stuff as it happened somewhat locally...

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=472764

Thank you Erin. Boy, that whole VS scene pisses me off! That's why I like Nordstroms - they have a great Mother's Lounge.

[JayGee]

Max ~ I hear you on the overstimulation = major evening fussies. I bought two of those swaddle me blanket things yesterday and Kirsten seems to like being wrapped up really tight. Helps a lot during those fussy times. I wish she was a comfort nurser like her brother and sister were. She just nurses to eat and then gets pissed off when milk continues to come and she's not hungry.

Overall we're doing well. Kirsten smiled at me for the first time yesterday morning. Melt my heart. The other two children are doing great! They have adjusted so well to the addition of their new sister. I'm absolutely amazed and so happy. Three kids is way easier than I expected, at least so far.

On the VS subject ~ have they even LOOKED at their own window displays recently? You can't nurse there, but they can show their emaciated manequins in thongs and tiny push up bras??? Talk about ironic.

[NYCVeg]

Originally Posted by JayGee

On the VS subject ~ have they even LOOKED at their own window displays recently? You can't nurse there, but they can show their emaciated manequins in thongs and tiny push up bras??? Talk about ironic.

Exactly. "Customers might be offended by your breasts"? It's a LINGERIE STORE...the whole place is about breasts, for crying out loud.

NurseLaurie...I finally checked out the pictures of your babe. What a little cutie pie!

Whew. We're having a rough day. Dd has been having some fussing/screaming/pulling off issues while nursing. We've had good nursing sessions and bad ones, but today was just awful...inconsolable crying for most of the day (after several perfectly fine nursings last night...go figure). At 1 o'clock, she latched on, ate happily for 15 minutes (unusual these days), then fell asleep. Woke up 5 minutes later, spit up, and screamed for an hour until she finally just exhausted herself and passed out. I feel so horrible for her...I don't know anything to do other than holding her while she screams and trying different positions to make her more comfortable (the hair dryer also helps to calm her sometimes). It's absolutely horrible to hear your baby scream and not to be able to do anything about it.

I have a call into her pediatrician, so hopefully we can get to the bottom of this. We took her in last Sunday (yes, we have a really great ped!) and the ped didn't see too much bloating or other signs of tummy trouble, but she's been spitting up a lot more this week and it's always that thick, white, partially digested spit up, rather than just milk. I think we're going to try Hyland's Colic Tablets, and also see if the ped thinks this might be reflux. I really want my contented baby back! Sigh...if it's not one thing, it's another. Just when I fall in love with my baby, after our rocky start, she becomes miserable. Oy.

Oh...a question. Dd gets really pissed off either in the sling or the stroller after about 10 minutes. I'm wondering if that's a sign of tummy problems as well (i.e., that she doesn't like that bent-in-the-middle, sitting position). Haven't yet mastered the Moby Wrap, but it's on my to-do list...like everything else!

Hope everyone else is doing well!

[momatheart]

I'm fine, except for the MASTITIS...OUCH!!!

Geez, that came on fast, too. Friday night it started killing to nurse on one side, and not being a very sucessful pumper in the recent past, I just thought, "oh well, I'll figure it out in the morning" and gave up nursing on that side for the night....big, BIG mistake. I awoke to a raging fever ( I usually run about 96-97 degrees so to see 101 and 102 on the thermometer was a shocker : ): and a rock-hard breast. DH had to go to his 2nd job so I waited until he left and then called my mom.

She came and basically took care of the baby (at our house) all day while I got in the shower for a half an hour and worked on massaging out that breast, getting soft enough to pump and then nurse on. I called my clinic and praise the LORD my regular doc was on call that weekend and called in a script for antibiotics. By then I felt good about taking them b/c I was soooooo sick and achy I couldn't even pick up the baby

By 9 saturday night I think my fever finally broke, although I still had a nasty red hot spot on my breast, and I tried to nurse or pump both sides every 2 hours.

Sunday brought more just laying around the house half-naked and nursing...did I mention we're into 99-degree weather and our house has no AC, too? Finally at 5 I said, "I can't take being here anymore, can we go to a movie?" and miracle of miracles, Rosie slept through the whole thing!

So, I'm just trying to rest, eat healthy, take mega-doses of vitamin C and nurse well. Ooops, now she's awake, I'll do personals later.

[momatheart]

Erika-I'm glad you said that about baby nursing more because of heat, it makes me feel better about our 1 3/4 hour nursing sessions !!

All who've weighed in on the CD disscussion-does anyone find that twisting the dipe (a la the "bikini) causes more rash? I just like to get others' experience although I keep having to remind mysef that what's best is what works best for us...I just have to figure out what that is!

Oh shoot, she's up again!!! This babe must not appreciate what MDC does for her mama, she always interupts my posting!

[dharmama]

nak...

corina ~ i had mastitis when ds was a week old. not fun. a little tip someon gave me...a disposable diaper soaked in very hot water makes a great compress.

so i put ds down on his belly to nap today and omg did he sleep....like two hours!!! and i\t was at the same time dd was napping so i actually got some time to myself!!

even though i know there are lots of belly-sleepin' babes around mdc...i still feel a little uncomfortable about it so i stayed in the room with him. (he was on the changing table in our computer room so i was forced to hang out and surf mdc )

[calendulamama]

Thanks for the hint on the bikini twist mamas, I've been using the newspaper fold but babyboy hates all the fabric between his legs, so we'll see how it goes with this new style. I sure hope it doesn't increase the rash- we're battling one too- and it's worse with the heat...

Today seems to have been all about dipers and pee and poop Ari has been filling diapers non-stop and he pooped on my new pants : while i was breastfeeding him (the covers that fit him are in the wash) and then had a huge pee that arced right over the change table and onto a pile of clean dipes! i guess you're not really a mama until you've been covered head to toe in pee and poop and breastmilk and drool!

ecoteat- folkfests and babies are fun huh? we also hit our first folkfest this weekend... Ari was great, mostly conked in the sling despite the music and bussle... and got in a bit of dancing too. It was hard to get from point A to point B though, everyone wanted to admire the baby!

I'm curious how much other people's babies sleep at a time. I keep meeting moms whose babies sleep all night and mine doesn't sleep more than 2 hours at a time- 3 maybe if we're really lucky. this is normal right?

I hope the week is good for all of you...

[KindRedSpirit]

Hey,mama's.Things are going well here.(Other than Eli's congestion : )I'm feeling pretty darn good!This pp is a breeze after the last one!Tandem nursing and #3 was SOOOOOO HARD!!!!!I feel more with the program than I have in years,LITERALLY!Which is a good thing,cos we are trying to sell our house.815 sq ft is officially too small!
Eli is our first baby with any hair,and now he's got a receding hairline to his ears. So cute!He has also already out grown a whole round of clothes!he's snug in the 3-6 mo,but 0-3 is outa here!Not even one month old yet!(Cloth dipes are a factor here).He's chubbing up pretty quick too, which is fun to watch-we need a chubby smilie!

[luckylady]

Soudsn like we all have little chunky babies! DS is also a snug 3-6 - I have been scouring ebay to get him some more for cheap. LOL.

I am having a bit of a tough time with DS NEVER wanting to be put down. and I mean NEVER. Driving is sheer hell. He cries - no matter HOW tired he is - he will NOT sleep unless he's held. CIO is looking pretty tempting these days.: Of course I never could but he is even WORSE than my DD and I didn't think that was possible.

Other than that he's a smiley love-bug! I can't get over how smiley he already is. and yeo - he rolls too and on his tummy commando crawls!!! I gotta keep my eye on him! LOL.

[mom2nat&will]

well not as much sleep as I would have liked last night and looks like tonight is going for a similar pattern....I really do believe its this intense heat, got up to 106 today, I think he sleeps during the day to avoid movement in the heat and then awakes when it starts to cool down, its only 88 now after all.....aw hes up and ready to eat again, ill get back later

[Peppamint]

(trying again to post)

Max- on the inconsolable babe. That's no fun at all.

Erin- thanks for the link on the VS stuff, I'm headed to read that next. What a shame, having to browse on MDC all afternoon.

Amy- congrats to Phoebe on her first roll-over. It's over now mama, she's mobile!

Kristina- We just got our first smiles too! I got two big smiles yesterday afternoon and dd1 got a smile this afternoon. Lovin' it! She's cooing more too. Enjoy the grins!

Amanda- to you, you've had a rough start! I hope you can figure out what is bothering poor dd's tummy. Did you check out the reflux thread at Life w/a Babe? (I'm : about the search feature being disabled, it's a real pain )

Corina- I'm glad you're on the mend. That sounds just awful. I haven't found more rash with the bikini twist, actually less because we've sized up to infant PFs and she doesn't get as sopping wet most of the time.

KRS- glad to hear the adjustment to 4 is going well. Gh swears we're done, but I admit that I'm not so sure just yet. We'll give it some time, no hurry for sure because the idea of anything less than a 2-3 year spacing is : for me.

Cheryl- many ... it's tiring when you have a little one that just won't be settled most of the time. Enjoy your little chunker.

Audrey has prickly heat rash most of the time these days because it's so hot usually. And wouldn't you know it, the A/C died in the minivan and I want to barf just thinking about charging the $700 repair so we're trying to hold off until next spring when we get our tax refund.

As for sleeping, we get a couple of 2-3 hour naps, otherwise it's only catnaps. She sleeps great at night though, I'm wondering how that will end up affecting the return of PPAF.

So far, Audrey is really a lot like dd1 was, she's not quite as laid back as dd1 was but definitely easier than ds was. Ds was a real mama's boy for so long, and for the longest time dh couldn't really comfort him at all. I think she's going to be a lil peanut like dd1...

[Peppamint]

oh no Erika! I hope you get some sleep tonight.

[mamacatsbaby]

I'm love, love, loving the Moby! Just got it today. I'll be back to catch up with everyone. I hope the week's starting off well for you ladies!

[~*max*~]

Good morning May Mamas.

TaiMarie, 2-3 hour stretches of sleep at this point are definately normal. We usually get one 4 hour stretch, then a 2, then 1. : Of all my babes, this one sleeps the best. (I have never had a baby sleep through the night until weaned.)

KindRedSpirit, I hope Eli is feeling better soon! That sounds really exhausting. If I lived nearby, I'd come hold him for you so you could take a nice, long nap. Regarding allergies, have you read "Is This Your Child?" by Doris Rapp? It is an excellent resource on food allergies, even in BF infants. It truly changed my ds's life.

LuckyLady, I hear ya on the screaming infant in the car. My babe has just started doing that, and it is nerve racking!

Has anyone heard from HappyPants? I hope Finn is doing well.

And how are you NYCVeg? I hope things are settling down for you also.

[ecoteat]

Kristina: I cried when Phoebe really smiled at me last week. Now she wakes up every morning all happy and smiles.

Amanda: I think I read somewhere that bending in the middle relaxes the baby's muscles and helps their little tummies. I could be completely wrong on this, but it does seem to relax Phoebe when she's fussy. I'll admit, though, that I'm not dealing with fussiness anything like you are.

Corina: Ugh, mastitis sounds miserable! Take care of yourself! And I'm hesitant to try the diaper twist, too. I don't see how it can hold poop. Maybe at night when she only pees... ?

Taisa: So true about people stopping you to see the baby. I was trying to get up to the front to see my students sing and we couldn't go 10 steps without running into someone I knew that wanted to peek inside the Bjorn!

Cheryl: It's awful to listen to crying in the car when you can't do much about it!

Max: That sounds just like Phoebe. But last night she did a SIX hour stretch, then 2, then 1. It took an hour to get her back to sleep at 3:30am, but we are pretty well rested this morning.

[*andiflipping*]

Oh Mamas...I need some hugs or something...

I think I have ppd...Last night dh went back into work for 2 hours and Judah would not settle down for me....Nothing I tried worked..He is usually like this for me...I just started bawling to and I ended up putting him in his bouncy seat so I could take a break or I felt like things might get ugly....When dh got home...he was able to put Judah right to sleep...I just started bawling again about how I didn't want the baby no more...He hates me...He never goes to sleep for him...He never ever wants to be put down...He hates carriers when he is at home ....I feel like an awful Mama...I miss my ds#1 so much...I feel like I never have time for him anymore...Me and him used to be best friends...: ....

On a better note...Judah then slept for 6 hours so I was able to get some sleep and I feel better today...I am worried though...I don't think I felt like this with ds#1....I don't know whether to say it is ppd or just lack of sleep and the baby wouldn't settle down...

Ok...enough rambling here...