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Dec updates (for Nov 06 DDC)  

post #1 of 27
12/5/06 at 3:24pm
Thread Starter 
So how is everyone doing? How are the babies? Who is still expecting?

Give an update......Happy December!
post #2 of 27
12/5/06 at 3:42pm
Everything is going pretty awesomely here! Darwin will be turning two weeks old tomorrow and I can't believe how quickly and how slowly the time is going by. It feels like we've always had him, I can't imagine my life without him here. And yet I also still have moment where I'm convinced that I'm still pregnant, and then boy is it confusing that there's already a baby here!

Darwin's turning into more of a human being every single day ... showing a serious stubborn streak (just like both of his parents), his eyes are managing to focus really well these days, he's awesome!

I am still very weepy, but it seems to be equally divided between being so happy that I'm crying and feeling like I must be doing something wrong. These hormones are killers, huh? I'm definitely still running on not enough sleep, but I just figured out how to nurse lying down, which has made things significantly easier around here ... last night I went to bed at 11 and didn't get up until 8:30 this morning! It's like a miracle!

And now my biggest concern is trying to find something that I can do to earn money out of the home. I really don't want to put Darwin in daycare but my husband will never earn enough for me to be home without earning some kind of income. Does anybody have any suggestions for things that they know really work? Any help would be appreciated.

And yeah, that's me in a nutshell. Hope you all are doing fabulously.

Super lots of love and hugs from me to all of you.
post #3 of 27
12/5/06 at 8:32pm
I'm still pregnant. And starting to think I will be for the rest of my life. Sheesh.

Babe was due Nov. 25.
post #4 of 27
12/7/06 at 1:53am

We're doing great here! We were nursing laying down from the beginning so we have had more than enough sleep...I go to bed around 12 midnight...and up around 930am...my mom and dad are here so they are handling my 4yrold in the mornings and letting us sleep in! He is a great nurser...at night it seems like he nurses in 4hr increments...on a few occasions I've woken up and checked the clock and actually roused him awake to nurse--he may have slept longer! But I'm not ready for that--I need to make sure this nursing relationship lasts a LONG LONG LONG time! hahahaha

DH is really feeling bummed that he is not here. He was so impressed with the birth--the fact that I had these women really taking care of me--never leaving my side--really 'moved' him. So different from the 'come and go' actions of the nurses in the hospital with dd's birth... I'm very happy with and proud of my homebirth--but I can't say it didn't hurt!

As for me...I only bled for 2 days and then only lochia...I started to worry that maybe it was due to a clot or something...but I started bleeding again after carrying TJ in the car seat...and I've been spotting ever since...mostly just spotting, some days is a little more...

DD is a little mommy and over all she has handled this change well--but she is used to changes--what with daddy always deploying! DS is a sweet baby--and I can't believe that his little voice sounds so male to me! Just precious!

Had our 2wk appt...went well--but a little annoying...Dr was great with her views on breastfeeding...but reminded me to only let baby sleep on his back, in his own bassinet, and I may want to start laying him down only 1/2 asleep so he starts settling himself down to sleep...well, we co-sleep...and I can't imagine putting him down only 1/2 asleep anyways since he nurses to sleep and is OUT...ugh.

Oh--only other thing...I have an umbillical hernia...it sucks...I can feel my intestines thru the hole. I know I should get it fixed, but some say I should wait until I'm done having kids...makes since...oh well...I'll live!
post #5 of 27
12/7/06 at 9:21am
Emerson turned three weeks old on Tuesday and the evening was the worst yet. I was just exhausted and he didn't sleep until after 2 a.m. I ended up calling my parents for help because I was fevering and just at the end of my rope with sleep deprivation. I have been trying to do too much on my own. They took him for a little while I slept.

I was fevering on Tuesday night as in freezing but wearing three layers and under two heavy comforters in bed with the heat cranked up as high as it will go. I am fine now but my right breast is in pain. It started feeling like a stabbing pain but I think it might be a clogged duct. This happened a week ago too. I just pumped faithfully, applied heat and massaged. I am doing the same thing but it is taking longer to go away. It is much better but still hurts. I am wondering if I might have developed mastitis?

I am so grateful to have little Emerson in my life though. He is such a calm baby. He makes everything so worth it.
post #6 of 27
12/7/06 at 6:59pm
Oh man mama...that may be mastitis...I would get it checked! Have you been to the breastfeeding board?
post #7 of 27
12/8/06 at 7:06pm
Talia is three weeks old today. She is wonderful, and sleeps like a champ, though she has a 5-8 pm fuss/cry/scream (in that order) pattern, nightly... not the best time of day for that!!! It is exhausting! dd 1 never did anything like that! Talia also has to be burped very frequently and gets hiccups, which really upset her, if she gets a little bit agitated... I am wearing her constantly, and she sleeps on me at night... which is getting to be hard on my lower back... does anyone have suggestions for how to get her to sleep on the mattress next to me? I try and try to move her when she is in deep sleep, and she wakes up every time... and though I do nurse with her in the crook of my arm, and me on my back, I can't figure out how to put her on the mattress and nurse her on my side.... she loses the nipple and then can't find it and I can't get it to her fast enough before she starts wailing without turning the light on and keeping it on until she's out again... I remember I never could nurse dd1 on my side until she was old enough to control her head... anyway, those are my challenges, but things are great otherwise... I am so much more emotionally stable and happy than I was with dd1 postpartum, which is wonderful!
post #8 of 27
12/8/06 at 11:23pm

7 weeks

William is seven weeks... where has the time gone?? I had my last post-partum midwife appointment yesterday and everything is looking really good. William is breastfeeding wonderfully. He has always had a really good latch, so I've not experienced the soreness and nipple trauma a lot of new mamas go through.

However, his sleep schedule is all wacky, so I am running on little sleep most of the time. He doesn't nurse to sleep like most babies. It takes a lot of bouncing and rocking and turning on the bath water for him to go down at night (and often it is 2 a.m. before he will!) We are co-sleeping, and thankfully my husband helps me as much as he can at night. Still, I can't wait till William is sleeping better at night... (suggestions are welcome!)

Other than that, he is a really good baby, and I feel blessed.
post #9 of 27
12/8/06 at 11:35pm
EmilyRose - Here are some suggestions I am using with my 3 week old DD.

First - see if you can find a lantern at a sports/camping shop. We have a couple of Coleman battery operated lanterns with a dimmer knob and which can be dimmed really really low (Model 5310). I use one of these for the middle of the night feeds - dimmed really low so I can get nipple into mouth, but not enough for it to light the bed and have her gaze around. You might try raising her on something while you lie next to her and feed her (folded up towel?) or feed her sitting up in bed. When my DD moves her head and body back and forth, I move a quilt next to her back to brace her in one place. My DD would BF off and on for several hours in the middle of the night. My postpartum doula said she was pacifying herself on me, so she had a few suggestions, which seem to have worked. One is give her a pacifier if she is not really sucking, but unable to go to sleep. This has worked. The other is to rock her fairly forcefully as apparently babies have something in the back of their neck which when stimulated by rocking sends them to sleep. I put her in a bouncy chair, hold my hand on her head so it doesn't move too much and rock that chair. This also works. Prior to this, DD - sound asleep for a long time - would pop open her eyes a few minutes after we put her down on our bed. Now she is really out and doesn't wake up.

Hope this helps! You're not alone! Good luck.
post #10 of 27
12/9/06 at 11:01am
Hi Mamas!

Things are going pretty well for us with our sweet baby Zeb, especially now that the anxiety level has been taken down a notch in regards to his breathing stuff. He is truly the biggest newborn I've ever seen (13 pounds at 3.5 weeks), but he still acts like a newborn even if he doesn't look like one. He got a pretty horrible case of baby acne (I think because of the different medications and the barium he was given), but it's clearing up super quickly, and I can't wait for him to have smooth skin again. Kissing his cheeks feels a bit like kissing sandpaper right now, lol.

It's very weird for me to have a baby who can't really comfort nurse (due to my huge oversupply). My first babies NEVER came off the boob on their own, I'd always have to pop them off (I'd let them nurse for 20 minutes at night, and 45 minutes during the day). And they NEVER refused the breast when offered. They would have nursed all day if I could have tolerated it (and this lasted way into toddlerhood). Zeben, on the other hand, will only nurse for about 5 minutes every two hours (refuses the breast all the time if I offer too soon), and unless it's the middle of the night, he rarely falls asleep nursing. So, we are LOVING the sling since it's the best way to get him to sleep quickly. We have the Kangaroo Korner Fleece Pouch and that's his favorite (we also have several other slings that are mostly being neglected at the moment).

One other product that I'm finding very helpful is the Nurse N glow pillow (www.belababy.com). Since our "big" kids also sleep with us at night, it's nice to not have to turn on a big light for diaper changes or latch on. I haven't really used it as a positioning device past the first week or so. Zeb is pretty good at staying on his side now.

Zeben was born way too big for all the newborn cloth dipes, and I'm finding myself not as in love with my prefolds and wool system as I hoped to be. I'm really liking the bumgenius onesize pocket diapers, though. I may have to get some more. What are others liking on their babies' bottoms?

Time to bounce the babe in the sling!



Lex
post #11 of 27
12/9/06 at 5:04pm
We're doing okay. Mikki is gaining weight lke crazy (10 lbs, .5 oz at the post office at 20 days - up from 8 lbs, 6 oz at 5 days). She's not a slow nurser like her brother - she's on, she's off - but does comfort nurse now and then. We're going through the first growth spurt right now, so I'm not sleeping a whole lot with all the nursing, diaper changes, and grunting - to get back on, to change positions, to get a new diaper, to burp, to poop... she grunts a lot.

Speaking of diapers... 2 kids in cloth - oh the laundry! I'm doing diapers every 1-1.5 days because the pail fills so quickly!

Other than during this growth spurt, though, she's a great sleeper. She usually goes 3-4 hour stretches at night, and has occasionally "slept through the night" with 5 hour stretches. We've only had one day with both kids napping at the same time, so once that happens more regularly, I'll have absolutely no reason to complain about being tired. We really have been very blessed!
post #12 of 27
12/9/06 at 5:38pm

Lillie is 1 month old!

Things are great with Lillie. She turned one month old on Dec 7th. Wow where has the time gone.
She also has a bad case of baby acne. I have been longing for her skin to return to the smoothness it was before. But i know it will clear up soon.
The only thing we are having a problem with now is her sleep patterns.
She is mixed up-sleeps super amounts in the day and then at night she has a hard time going to sleep. She refuses to lay in the bassinette more than 30 mins at a time. She will be in a deep sleep and then all of a sudden she realizes she is on her back and she wakes up crying. We tried many things. ie. swaddling, turning her 360 degrees, keeping it dark in the room. But nothing works. Sooo as she grows older I am hoping she will learn to sleep in a bed or something. I have been glued to the recliner day and night. And its getting hard on the neck. Heh.
But Lillie must be around 11 or 12 lbs now. We have our 6 week checkup next month--dr office is very busy.
Glad to hear those who updated are doing great too.
Keep in touch!
post #13 of 27
12/10/06 at 9:23pm
I'm checking in...Yarrow is great...she is gaining weight like crazy, around 2 oz per day so she is near 10 lbs already!! She is way bigger than my other two where at this point. I am feeling better, I am ready to feel like myself again. It looks like I will not have much of a scar and I am very happy about that. I am healing from my traumatic experience a little bit everyday, though I still mourn for Yarrows first minutes after birth. I really wish I had been awake to see them, be with her...

On the sleeping front, I decided before Yarrow was born that I was going to be much more relaxed about the sleeping thing than I was with my ds at the same age. In lots of ways they are very similar, don't like to lay on their backs, don't like to sleep in their bed, lots of night-time nursing so I am being way more go with the flow with Yarrow. This issue caused me more stress at the time and now more than two years hind sight has shown me that really it wasn't worth it...at least for me! It just goes by so fast!
post #14 of 27
12/10/06 at 10:52pm
Hi! Amy is 8 weeks old now. She was in the NICU for 11 days after being born at 34 weeks. They discharged her reluctanctly because she had yet to gain weight, but since coming home she has been gaining and growing like a weed! She was discharged at 5 pounds 8 ounces and is now about 9 pounds.

She is exclusively breastfed and has only gotten a teaspoon of formula, once in the NICU (I read the nurse the riot act since she had a ton of breastmilk available but the nurse was too lazy to use it : ). We were using a nipple shield for about 3 weeks, but weaned from it pretty easily when she was about 4 weeks old and reached her actual due date.

She was a great sleeper, but now not so much LOL! She's gotten progressively fussier and I think she may have mild reflux. I tried dairy elimination but that didn't really seem to help, so I gave that up.

But all in all, Amy is doing very well, is happy and healthy, and I couldn't ask for more. My older DD has adjusted very smoothly and I really couldn't have asked for an easier transition from her.
post #15 of 27
12/12/06 at 7:19pm
Jove had a check up w/the midwife today and he now weighs 9lbs 14oz , up from 6lbs 4oz at birth!!! He is 7 weeks & 4 days old now. He is sleeping one 4 hr stretch at night which is just heavenly!! He's still pretty gassy and I'm ready for that to be over, I'm sure he is too. I need to really buckle down and eliminate dairy and see if it helps. He has also started smiling soo big and cooing (so sweet)!!
Just when I think he can't get any more cute he goes and does just that!
I can't believe he's almost 2 mths old , time has really flown by.
post #16 of 27
12/13/06 at 1:09am
Miriam will be one month old on Friday. Wow.
At her last appointment she weighed 9 pounds (was 7lbs. 10 oz at birth), and my midwife said I must be making cream instead of milk in my breasts! She's a cluster feeder, nursing every half an hour to an hour during the day, but for short times. In the night, she wakes up every 3 hours or so to nurse.
We start the night off with her in her basinette beside the bed, and after the first feeding she stays in bed with me, until morning. DH is sleeping in another bed since he's gets woken up by every sigh and noise she makes.

She looks more like a little girl now than a newborn, and she's lovelier every day. She's a feisty, spirited little creature, who insists on being held every moment of the day. Babywearing is a bit of a challenge, since the padded sling is too big for her and she can't breathe in there, the standard baby carrier (Snugli) is only tolerated for a few minutes, and my pouch hasn't arrived in the mail yet! So for now, DH and I are getting a good upper arm workout, just carrying her in our arms all day.

We've been using cloth diapers, but not as much as I expected (only during the day, not at night). It seems she needs to be changed every hour when she's wearing cloth, so it's just not practical at night for us...does anyone have any suggestions about how to extend this time to 2-3 hours, so I don't have to wake her up to change her? I'd really like to keep using cloth, but it's getting difficult!

Other than that, we're enjoying every minute of parenthood, and feel so much richer and happier with Miriam in our lives.
post #17 of 27
12/13/06 at 4:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by atpeace View Post
Miriam will be one month old on Friday. Wow.
At her last appointment she weighed 9 pounds (was 7lbs. 10 oz at birth), and my midwife said I must be making cream instead of milk in my breasts! She's a cluster feeder, nursing every half an hour to an hour during the day, but for short times. In the night, she wakes up every 3 hours or so to nurse.
We start the night off with her in her basinette beside the bed, and after the first feeding she stays in bed with me, until morning. DH is sleeping in another bed since he's gets woken up by every sigh and noise she makes.

She looks more like a little girl now than a newborn, and she's lovelier every day. She's a feisty, spirited little creature, who insists on being held every moment of the day.
Replace Miriam with Mikaela and change some weight details, and this could be about my daughter - even the 1 month on Friday

Quote:
Originally Posted by atpeace View Post
does anyone have any suggestions about how to extend this time to 2-3 hours, so I don't have to wake her up to change her? I'd really like to keep using cloth, but it's getting difficult!
With my son, we discovered that prefolds weren't cutting it overnight. My best friend uses prefolds overnight with a special doubler insert (2-3 layers microfiber towel with a layer of fleece on top - closest to baby) and her daughter iwas good all night at 5 months. Personally, what worked for us was a FuzziBunz stuffed with a trifolded microfiber towel... and as he got older and slept longer, we addded a hemp soaker to the mix - works better than a sposie for us, actually!

With Mikki, we do a small FB stuffed with a quad folded micro towel (it needed to be folded differently to fit the smaller diaper - but it's still just one towel). We usually change into that between 11 and 12 for the night... then again around 5. A couple times we've gone longer, and only once was there a noticible leak.
post #18 of 27
12/13/06 at 2:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gen_here View Post
With Mikki, we do a small FB stuffed with a quad folded micro towel (it needed to be folded differently to fit the smaller diaper - but it's still just one towel). We usually change into that between 11 and 12 for the night... then again around 5. A couple times we've gone longer, and only once was there a noticible leak.
We also use Fuzzi Bunz on our nearly 4 week old (!) - and have sice day 1! We just overlap the wings and snap it tightly so it fits. We change it before midnight and again in the morning...no overnight leaks usually.
post #19 of 27
12/13/06 at 5:04pm
Quote:
We also use Fuzzi Bunz on our nearly 4 week old (!) - and have sice day 1! We just overlap the wings and snap it tightly so it fits. We change it before midnight and again in the morning...no overnight leaks usually.
LOL! Zeben is such a chub that he's already outgrown the small fuzzi bunz at 4 weeks. He's in mediums now, and not even on the tightest snaps (so the image of overlapping the wings made me laugh)! We've been using bumgenius at night pretty happily. I usually change him around midnight (unfortunately, that's when we've been going to bed), and then not until 5 or so unless I hear him poop before then. But he doesn't usually poop in the night.

We went to the pedi. today for follow-up on the breathing issues, and Zeb now weighs 13.5 pounds!! I remember thinking my other ds was huge when he weighed 13 pounds at 8 weeks! I have to bring the baby for weekly weight checks at the breastfeeding clinic because his weight gain is how we know that the breathing issue isn't a big deal (so we have to be watching for a sudden lack of gain or something). Most of the moms who go to the clinic are struggling with low supply and have these teensy little babies. I always feel a little bad to be showing off my big chunkeroo who takes up the whole scale and is just all rolls. But I do like the reassurance of the weight checks since Zeben will only nurse for AT MOST 5 minutes (sometimes more like 3 minutes) every 2 hours and it's just so hard to believe that he's getting enough. But obviously, he is! It's a whole new kind of mothering for me to not just be able to soothe him with my breast (since he won't comfort nurse). We never had to do the bouncing, walking, singing thing with our other boys.

We seem to have reached the balding stage here. . . so sad to see the beautiful red hair go. I hope it comes back in the same color.



Lex
post #20 of 27
12/14/06 at 2:01pm
Lex, I just looked at Zeben's pics in your sig. He is freakin adorable and SO VERY chub!!!!!
It's take a whlie for my babies to get chub like that, I can't wait until Jove gets there. I love fat rolls!!
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