MSE Parent Club

Becles

Lu_T wrote: »

We had a scare last week when I took Imogen to the docs. She often gets very cold feet and the even go blue, one more than the other. We're tried to find a pattern to when it happens (nappy on, sitting, tight socks etc) but there was nothing.

Have a word about Raynauds. I've got that!

When I get cold my hands and feet go so cold, stiff purple and it takes ages to warm me back up. I just have to take care not to get cold and I'm usually ok. It just means wrapping up well when it's cold outside, and sometimes I have to put gloves on if I'm doing things like sorting the freezer out.

It's a niggly thing to have but easily managed if you have plenty hats, gloves and wooly socks, and I have to have the heating on at home.

Hope they find out what is wrong with her.

Snaggles

I was wondering about Raynauds too, but I couldn't remember what it was called. A friend of mine has is, and she always carries those little hand warmers that look like soft ice packs, and you click a little disc inside them to get them to warm up. Lidl had them for 99p each the other day if they're any good to you Becles?

heather38

thanks everyone, my friends daughter went to the hospital on an urgent referal on thursday and they can help the baby!!
bit grim, but basically they are going to replace the lenses in his eyes with new ones. like built in contact lenses. he will still be legally blind and unable to drive, but he will be able to see shapes and bright colours.
he will have the op at about 12-18 months when his eyes get bigger.
so things are lookin hopeful for them

Snaggles

Heather I'm glad there's some positive news at least. It must be such a shock to them though. I think sometimes when you find out something is 'wrong' with your child, you have to grieve for the child you expected to have before you can fully accept how they acually are. They will be letting go of some of their hopes and dreams for the child's future, but in time will replace those with other hopes and dreams, which will be, if anything, even more rewarding when they are achieved. Not sure if that makes sense?

Curious_George_2

hi girls,
wondering if you could help me...

is there any bottle feeders here that know what their newborn took from the bottle (and how often) in the very early days?
I was breast feeding but after spending 3 days in hospital with him thanks to him needing photo therapy for jaundice, and him being practucally force fed bottles (as they have a required amount that baby *HAS* to drink as the UV lamp dehydrates them) and so they could see what he was drinking and now he is totally confused...

meanwhile i started expressing and got used to him not biting! so i thought we should carry on, but now i can see how much he is having it doesnt seem quite enough,
does anyone know roughly what a newborn (10 days old) should be taking and how often? im just not sure as i breast fed my DD for months and of course the jaundice can make babies lethargic and uninterested in feeding,

i would like him to have my milk, but he just doesnt seem to care and to be honest hasnt really been @rsed about feeding since birth.... maybe i will have to switch to formula?

help?!

Agutka

Hey CG.
I had problems with BF at the beginning, more of a mental block really I think. J had lots of mucous, so wasn't that keen on food, so they said he should be topped up with formula. Which was 20mls. But within a day or so, he was taking 60mls every 3-4 hours. I was expressing for a while, but again that has eluded me due to laziness (reminds me I have to send the medela pump back - excellent machine). I think I managed to get about 50mls per 'session' and although it was enough for a meal, it didn't keep him going for any amount of time (unlike the 4 hours on formula).
They say you can't compare formula with breast milk, as the quality is different, so quantities are different (these people are so vague). But formula is 150mls per kg of weight per day ( I think?).
At the NCT class last week we were discussing expressing milk for baby when you're going back to work. Turned out to be soooo complicated due to the fact that the more you express the more you produce and if there isn't a baby controlling the quantities it gets a bit silly.
Anyway, I am so glad to be bottle feeding, as it is much more controlled and I have (fingers crossed) a month old sleeping through the night.
I was happy in the knowledge, however misguided, that babies will eat what they need, until I was overfeeding him a few weeks ago and now underfeeding him apparently:rolleyes:. So really I suggest you get lots of advice, take the average and go with your instincts. Oh and stick with the breastmilk of course

Lu_T

Hey CG

Take a look on the back of your formula tin, it will give you a rough guide. However, remember that the figures are for the "average baby" and I don't think they've discovered one of those yet! It's perfectly normal for them to have a big feed, then some smaller ones or vice versa. Are you starving at every meal?!

On the bottle vs breast issue. Do what is right for both of you. Bottles are a faff 'cos you have all the sterilising and making up to do. Breast is so much easier at 3am. But then you are the only one who can feed bubba, so you don't get much time to yourself.

I mix-fed Imogen for about 5 weeks as I had to go back to work (draw-back of working for yourself) and MIL looked after her. She had bottles of formula during the day, I fed her myself when she got home, before bed and in the night and she had an expressed milk bottle from daddy at about 11pm. This worked okay for a few weeks until she figured out that feeding from bottles is way easier than taking it from the breast and made her own mind up!

Not sure if this has helped, but you should just do what suits you both and don't carry any guilt around whatever you choose. If you are going back to breastfeeding after a time when baby has mostly been on bottles just remember it takes a while for your milk to come back so he/she will feed like [EMAIL="b@ggery"]b@ggery[/EMAIL] for a few days until you're back on an even keel.

Aguta - really hope that your little one does continue sleeping through, but seem to remember Imogen did that for a few days at around 5 weeks before getting back into a 11pm, 3am, 7am routine. Will keep my fingers crossed!

HTH

Agutka

Lu_T wrote: »

Aguta - really hope that your little one does continue sleeping through, but seem to remember Imogen did that for a few days at around 5 weeks before getting back into a 11pm, 3am, 7am routine. Will keep my fingers crossed!

Everyone is warning me of that! But I've been so lucky for nearly two weeks now, apart from the odd deviation, that it's hard not to get used to it! But hey, the 12, 4, 8 routine wouldn't be bad either, as long as he went straight back to sleep at the 4am feed :rolleyes:. I'm taking it for granted though, he's been asleep since 10 pm and I'm still faffing about, rather than sleeping with him. It helps mend your sanity though, I might do a little crossword now... what a wild life I lead

SusanCarter

Although I think it varies from person to person, in general you won't get as much out with expressing as the baby would have (i.e. baby is more effective at getting the milk out) therefore chances are your milk supply will drop over time if you just express. However, I did read an article about breastfeeding on e-Bay (quite random I know) and this person had to express when her son was in hospital for five days being fed by a tube and she could only express about a third of what he needed so he was topped up with formula and she said she went straight back to exclusive breastfeeding by offering food every hour during the day until the supply went back up. I also read about someone else who gave expressed bottles (and not a drop of formula) for a whole year. All sorts of things are possible but at the end of the day I guess you've just got to decide what's best for you and your baby.

Becles

I think it just depends on what you feel happiest with for you and your baby. Everyone is different and different combinations of b/f, bottles and expressing will work for different people.

We've had some "firsts" over the weekend!

On Saturday night, Charlotte started slapping the water violently with her hands and giggling at the splashing (I got soaked!).

She did it again last night, so I called hubby upstairs so he could watch. He then waved bye bye at her and she waved back. She hasn't done it again though, so I'm not sure if she meant the wave or if she was just flapping her arm in a wave like motion.