MSE Newborn to 1 year Baby Club 1

Elelyn

Hi all,

Having a bit of stress here at the moment. Little man is four weeks (and 2 days) old and I find myself worrying about feeding once again. We are formula feeding (BF didn't work out for us, unfortunately) and I really don't know whether I'm feeding him too much or not enough. I'm making 4oz of formula at a time and at the moment he's having 6, sometimes 7, bottles per 24 hours. He usually drains the bottle, although occasionaly will leave up to half of it. The problem is that he tends to fall asleep whilst feeding. If I try and take the bottle away (thinking maybe he's had enough) he'll grunt and groan until I give it back to him and he'll usually finish the lot. But I don't know whether he is actually hungry or just comfort feeding as he seems to be asleep. There is no pattern to how often he wants to feed either - sometimes it's only a couple of hours since the last bottle and then sometimes I actually have to wake him as he's been asleep for four hours without waking for food. I'm not sure I'm recognising his feeding cues properly either. I'm obviously don't want him to go hungry, but comments that have been made to me by the breastfeeding advisors re formula feeding have made me paranoid about overfeeding.

At night, he'll sleep for several hours and then he doesn't actually wake up but starts grunting and growling and tossing and turning. The health visitor told me to leave him and see if he settles back down as I will want to encourage him to sleep through the night, but I think I should be getting him up to feed? I don't know, I get different advice everywhere

Sorry for the long rant, I think I just needed to get that out. I'm sleep deprived as well which doesn't help as he woke up crying at 4 this morning and I couldn't get him to settle back down until 7am (after he had a feed of 4oz at 4am and then a further 2oz at 6.30am as he was hungry again). Feel free to ignore me. I'm sure I'll figure things out eventually and we'll be going to baby clinic to get him weighed on Tuesday so hopefully I'll be able to get some reassurance there.

Sammie_03

emmylou83 wrote: »

*waves hello* how is everyone? I haven't been on MSE for months now. just don't seem to have time!

Hello Sammie, how are you finding 3 boys?!

Will make more of an effort to come on here now Flynn is able to entertain himself for more than 30 seconds!

Xxx

:j hi emmylou!!

Having 3 boys is great (most of the time!! )

How is your tribe? I can't believe how old our babies are now!! I used to love the laughs we had on the pregnant thread!!

How is Flynn getting on? I bet your girls love having a baby bro!!
Xx

sunshine_1988

mozzyc wrote: »

Charlie has had a cough for about 7/8wks now, and we have finally been given a hospital appointment. Have seen 3 different docs, but they all say the same things - lungs are clear (thank goodness), but its the way his milk etc is going down, its irritating his throat. He spends ages at night coughing poor thing x

Poor Charlie Aiden coughs worse at night too - its what woke him up the last few times. How do you know if its the milk? Could that be what is making Aiden cough?

Docs said it was croup last time and it would pass but it seems worse and its awful when he heaves

Nice to see you back mozzy hope you enjoyed your parents visiting x

Sammie_03

sunshine_1988 wrote: »

Poor Charlie Aiden coughs worse at night too - its what woke him up the last few times. How do you know if its the milk? Could that be what is making Aiden cough?

Docs said it was croup last time and it would pass but it seems worse and its awful when he heaves

Nice to see you back mozzy hope you enjoyed your parents visiting x

Oh dear poor Aiden sorry I thought you meant he had a regular cough.

Xx

Gemmzie

Not a baby expert but wandered over to see if there were any tips for a newbie mum that I could pass onto SIL for my wee niece.

Don't know how old your baby is mozzy, but the coughing when having milk sounds like an intolerance. If it's powered, try dairy free powder. If it's real milk, try Lactofree.
I had this as a baby and no-one picked it up until I was 16 and got very poorly with tonsillitis for months

jediquigley

finding it hard to keep up on the board, as tend to check on ipad when feeding but with expressing at the same time cant do most of the time lol

DH has niall in sling so sleeping soundly, cant imagine it will last long.

niall slept for 6 and a half hours last night, the longest he has gone, he did tank up before bedtime though with 3 feeds within a couple of hours. still working on getting off the nipple sheild, feels quite sore feeding sometimes, had latch checked which is fine so think nipples just need to toughen up.

still in a quandry about what to do with nappies, wanted to do a reusable nappy trial which i organised but had to cancel as i was unwell with mastitis and a cold ....now lady has called me to say she cant do the trial for next few weeks as she is feeling very unwell in early pregnancy.

wondered what reusable nappies people use for a long, thin baby?....thats my worry buying a certain brand and finding out it doesnt fit him.

have an NCT sale here a week on saturday, will be intersting to see if there are any reusable nappies there.

hope everyone is well as well as LOs,

Laura

katiechoc_2

Hello ladies, hope everyone's ok. Hugs to poorly babies

Elelyn - I have no experience with formula I'm afraid but I hope your hv can give you some decent advice when you see her.

Not been on until now today as I've been poorly and busy working. Woke up not long after going to bed last night and barely made it to the loo before being sick everywhere . Was up and down pretty much all night after that, and either I was disturbing George by dashing to the loo or I'd just got to sleep and then he wanted feeding. Was worried it was norovirus earlier, but it seems to have eased off a bit so hopefully its something less contagious.

Anyway, sorry if tmi! But trust me, I could have gone into MUCH more detail :rotfl:

Gillyx

Jedi i will send you a pm about nappies or even if you have fb pm me your name and o can message you on there. had a day from hell and i need.to get dinnrr etc xxx

*Nutella*

Elelyn, hope you're OK hun - please feel free to rant/worry/think aloud on here, we're all here to listen and support.

Having him weighed should hopefully put your mind at rest, but what you're describing sounds very similar to what my LO was doing at that age. She too would have seven bottles of 4oz per 24 hours and sometimes want feeding within 1.5 - 2 hours, and sometimes go much longer (but on average every 3 hours during the day). Two different HVs told me to not worry about overfeeding - they'll let you know when they've had enough. If he's putting on weight and otherwise seems happy, I also wouldn't worry about feeding at night - he'll definitely let you know if he's hungry!

Depending on how he's doing weight-wise, you may want to discuss giving water with your HV. Formula is less watery than breastmilk, and especially if the weather's hot (as if right now!) or your home is hot, it's possible that he's thirsty rather than hungry if he wants feeding very soon after the last feed. My HV, once she'd established that my LO was putting on weight the way she should, advised giving up to 1 oz of cool, boiled water twice a day - we did this, and still give her sips of water between feeds. But having said that - he probably has hungry days and less hungry days, and might also settle into a pattern - my LO now wants feeding every 3 hours, apart from her mid-morning feed, when she's always hungry after 2 and a half.

One other thing - do you use a dummy at all? I'm not going to suggest that you do, as I know some people are strongly against them, but if you do, once he starts to fall asleep and seems full, you could try giving him a dummy - if he's hungry he'll refuse it, but if he's just comfort feeding, he'll probably happily take the dummy and continue sleeping.

What you're describing sounds very normal to me, as does worrying about whether he's getting too much or too little milk, but I hope getting him weighed and having a chat with a HV will help put your mind at rest. Hope you get some more sleep soon too - the first few weeks are so exhausting, but things should improve soon, and you'll also get your first smile soon, which will make you melt and temporarily forget just how tired you are

Sammie_03

Sunshine - did you get the nappies? They weren't on offer at my asda it was only the smaller packs that were £2 for £20. I'm not sure if they were advertised wrong.

Xx