MSE Parent Club

purplepatch

Hi Rachel, welcome and congratulations!

Both of mine had sticky eyes. With DD1 I followed the HV advice and used to bathe it with cooled boiled water and lots of cotton wool pads, one wipe per pad from inside corner of eye outwards. By the time DD2 came along, the HVs were advising to leave it alone as much as possible. Both times they lingered for about 6 weeks. Apparently it is usually due to a blocked tear duct which will eventually clear itself. Very rarely they do an operation to unblock it, but not until they are a lot older... in most cases, including my two, they cleared on their own. I do recall when i googled it at the time, there is some sort of massage you can do to encourage the duct to unblock, and I tried it a bit, but not convinced it made any difference lol.

But don't worry about it - difficult I know as you just want your baby to look perfect - and don't be tempted to use eyedrops etc, just let it take it's course. Obviously if the eye is red or inflamed, refer to the HV/GP as that indicates an infection, but if just watery and a bit gunky, it's just a case of sitting it out.

System

Thanks Susan and purplepatch, booked him in for tomorrow. Don't want to be a paranoid mum but obviously don't want him to come to any harm either . Thought it would be easier second time round, guess I was wrong. still loving every minute of it though!

Quite agree about the bringing up baby programme. I sat open mouthed watching it, couldn't believe what i was seeing. No way would my little boy be brought up like that!

Js_Other_Half

DS had antibiotic eye drops at different times for both eyes in the first couple of months. If you do get prescribed them, make sure you use them as often as required, and I seem to remember we had to keep them in the fridge.

Lu_T

Snaggles wrote: »

OMG if I left Natasha in the back garden someone would steal her pram - they obviously don't live where I live....lol....well, not lol really, more like :eek:

Snaggles! That comment made me laugh out loud :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Re changing in the middle of the night. Imogen often pooed during night breastfeeds, so I tended to feed her until she did, get up and change her, then finish the feed. This meant she wasn't screaming for milk while I changed her and we both got warm and cosy while she finished the feed, ready for falling back to sleep quickly.

Re moses baskets. I haven't heard the one about the wall either! Imogen was in her moses basket until about 16 weeks. There was enough room between the wall and my bed to balance it on 2 dining chairs (am NOT paying for a stand when chairs will do :money: ) She seemed fine and we only moved her when she broke out of her swaddling and woke herself up windmilling her arms around and bashing them on the sides of the moses basket, bless!

jenpoptab

Hi guys

I watched the bringing up baby with interest. I guess I'm a bit like the mums from the 70's however I'm sure she was the one moaning about breast feeding in public!

Hayden woke at 3.17am for 20 min feed and again at 6.20am but settled quickly. He is still in basket but will have to move him in next few weeks as he only has couple of inches left at top now, he seems so long! I haven't got a stand either, it sits firmly on a storage thing next to me. I was passed it by SIL who had it passed to her, so has done really well.

Anyway have a good day

Jen

Dormouse

Hi Rachel :wave:

Alex (5 weeks) still has one sticky eye - the other one has cleared up. My DS1 had them as well, and both times I was told by HVs to clean them with cooled boiled water and also to put breastmilk in as it has antiseptic properties.

I've been doing the breastmilk thing a bit half-heartedly (like when do I find the time to faff about with my boobs :rolleyes: - and I'm not very good at expressing anyway ) but I'm sure that's what helped clear up the other eye.

But anyway, I agree with Purple that they will clear up by themselves, as long as there's no redness or inflammation.

Dormouse

The baby programme, well what can I say... I guess each method does have its good sides (not so many in the mad Nazi woman method :rotfl: , although don't kill me but I also believe in leaving the baby to sleep in the garden - provided it's safe and I leave the door open! :cool:)

I could never imagine just closing the door at 7pm and leaving the poor babe to it :eek:, but I also couldn't imagine carrying the big lump of a baby around all day, especially with my boobs out for him to snack on whenever he feels like it.

Re: middle-of-the-night changes... Alex pooped after every feed in the first month, so had to be changed once or twice during the night at least. He's slowed down a bit now. TBH I didn't mind changing him so much as it gave me a chance to wake him up and then he'd have a bit more milk afterwards, which is a good thing.

(DS1 sleeps through DS2 screaming his head off - and vice versa, e.g. last night when DS1 had a nightmare. I know there's a big age gap, but just wanted to say things will be fine, Bailey )

Re: moses baskets, ours is by the bed next to the wall, so no idea what the wall thing is all about. Can't see him staying in it very much longer though, as he's a long baby.

jo_b_2

I watched Bringing up Baby. Looks like I'm a Dr Spock mum - I just want to have a happy, healthy baby rather than a child that I can set my watch by! :rolleyes:

Having said that I do leave mine out in pram in the back garden when we get in from a walk. Not for 3 hours though! :rolleyes: I've also got elements from that 'hippy' style - we're co-sleeping - but I couldn't be doing with baby slings 24/7!

Bailey - try not to worry too much about the new baby waking Jack up. Our eldest sleeps through the baby's cries. If you do breastfeed the new baby, s/he won't be crying for a feed for great lengths of time, anyway. One definite advantage there, as you haven't got to faff about fetching bottles and heating them up etc - you can just feed straightaway.

jenpoptab

I had 12 wk visit from HV today. Didn't have that with other two kids. She says she won't see us 'til he's nearly one, how scary. Obviously I can go to clinic if I need any help. He weighed 6.26Kilos which I believe is 13.13lb so just over average. She says he's doing great. Told me to be careful with diet, although I do get extra points on WW for BF, I do struggle to use 29 points a day so do get lots of treats that I wouldn't get if I wasn't BF. Anyway better go, lil man waking for feed now.

Jen

[Deleted User]

Jen good news about the WW, I hadn't realised you get extra points if you bf, makes sense though.

I didn't realise it is possible to feel more tired than I already did, but I do. Another bad night and today i spoke to my HV about it. We did over 7 dummy runs and then we've been up since 5am, he would not go back to sleep.

HV is coming to see me properly on Monday afternoon, as I took him to clinic this am and there wasn't too much time for long deep and meaningfuls. He weighs 19lb 11oz, which puts him just under the 25th centile where he was born. I was slightly concerned as he's only gained 5 oz in over a month, but she said he is extremely active and he's starting to lose his baby fat and grow a toddler shape "Look at him, he'll be walking soon" she said. So i will not worry about that one.

She has suggested we lose the dummy and gave me a few ideas to start to restrict its use and then on monday she will show me lavendar massages and we will discuss its final dissappearnce more. She also suggested the calpol i've been using for teething and his cold may be making him hyper due to the colourings. Suggested I try disprol instead. The chemist said she keeps it in especially for children who go hyper on calpol, makes sense as i've been giving it to him before his morning nap and he won't settle, but doing the same thing in the evening and he mostly does......so maybe there is a connection? A change won't hurt though. I am stopping it today anyway and just using snufflebabe and karvol until our colds have gone, he is not in pain just runny nose and coldy like me.

He was getting whingy at the clinic as he was so tired, he dozed off in the car on the way hom at half ten and i lifted him out, put him to bed and he didn't murmur, now he must have been tired. Went to bed myself and could not switch off, after half hour he woke up as he didn't go down with his dummy! I can't bloomin' win. So then I couldn't settle as I kept thinking he'll wake up in a minute and listening for him. Eventually got up, packed the car up as we are supposed to be going out this afternoon, had my lunch and still waiting for him to wake up. Should have just switched off and gone to sleep, but I couldn't. Even now I thinking if I just lie on the sofa, as soon as I get comfy he'll wake up, he's had nearly 2.5 hours. Think he's making up for last night, yesterday and all the other cutbacks on sleep he's had lately.

Spoke to HV about lack of routine with sleeps and how its affecting his bedtime etc. She has suggested that maybe his routine needs to change and to watch for tired signs at different parts of the day, we might need to completely revise it. One thing I don't want to change unless I really have to is the 7pm bedtime, I really need that and by 6pm I am counting down. As you know I am on my own with him and I don't want him up past 7-7.30pm latest when I still have our tea to get and I need to be in bed myself by 9-9.30pm.

I don't think things will change overnight but I have a bit more hope now. I mentioned I thought my PND was returning as I feel low a lot and crying when its just me and Jack on our own, but she thinks it is just lack of sleep at the moment. If I still feel like that once we have him cracked then we'll revise that too.

I currently have a muslin stuffed under my top to get my scent on it, hoping to make that a new cuddly for Jack and a dummy replacement over time.

He's never slept this long during the day, i hope he's alright up there. I have been tempted to check but don't want to disturb him to find out.......catch 22.

Sod it i'm going to put my feet up on the sofa, that should be enough to wake him up.