April/May 2008 MOMS (all others are welcomed too)

[woodcliff]

Vlada, your pediatrician will make the call re: whether or not to vaccinate your girl...talk to him about it. My son had a horrid cough, and low grade fever for 14 days...he got his 2 mo vaccinations regardless! I was a bit surprised, but we gave him Tyelnol (doc said to do it) for the 1st 24 hrs to relieve discomfort...

good luck!
re: schedules...just feeding between 3-4.5 hours...they sleep if they are tired (!) but are good sleepers at night...just not ALL night alas.
xxoo

[robinsonpr]

Hi everyone.

Hmm nap schedules...my little monkeys like to doze off all day on and off, with no particular schedule. This is playing havoc with nighttime because I think they are sleeping to much during the day. I've tried keeping them awake more during the day but it's impossible...they just sleep when they want to no matter how much I try to engage them.

They aren't taking much notice of any toys yet., hopefully they will soon and it'll be easier to keep them awake.

Having said that last night wasn't TOO bad on the scale of things...fed at 6.30pm, asleep in cots by 7.30pm. A bit of crying at 10pm but left alone and went back to sleep. Both woke up screaming for food at 12 midnight. Then took FOREVER to go back to sleep...about 2am. Then slept till 4.30am. They wanted feeding but we took a baby each and lay on our chest in bed and they slept till 6am, so managed to drop the night feed again!

Both babies are still constipated, only doing the business every 3-4 days and it's quite hard. The doctor doesn't seem concerned and said it's quite normal for formula fed babies, especially as they've been breastfed for the first 4 weeks. Just said give them a bit of cooled boiled water between feeds which I am doing but they tend to throw it straight back up! How frequently are your little ones going????

Love Hayley xx

[Mandy J]

Re: feeding and napping

Ellie feeds at 5.30am, 7.30am, 12.30pm and then cluster feeds (little and often between 4pm - 6pm, 8.30pm and 11.30pm.

She sleeps all morning between 8am - 12.30pm, in the afternoon she is quite alert with little naps, goes to sleep between 6.30pm - 8.30pm, and then is awake until 12.00pm. Sometimes she comes to bed with us if she doesn't settle for a little while and then I transfer her to the crib.

She was doing a regular 3 poops per day, I was a bit concerned when she didn't go for 2 days, but was told this is quite normal, but then she EXPLODED!!!!! Everywhere, up her back it even got through to my jeans, so from now on Mummy has a change of clothes in the going out bag too!

We went away this weekend, to my brothers leaving party, he is emigrating to canada with his wife and children in August, so organising everything to take with us was like a military operation, but we did okay, I only wish I had expressed more milk to take with us as I ended up in the back seat expressing on the motorway while my husband drove! (Great view for lorry drivers!)

I'm thinking of getting a 'pop up' cot, for when I take Ellie tow work with me, have any of you experienced these? Are they really easy and quick to put up?

Mandy
x

Where's Cocoa?

[woodcliff]

Hayley...my son did not poop for a day and the problem was that it caused him pain...so we put brown sugar (1T) into his feed and it made him poop. Our Ped just said to use water, but that didn't sound effective at all! So my sitter said to do the brown sugar thing and it worked.

That said, now I'm going to experiment with Gentleease today for my boy...Similac makes him fart like a grown man, it is amazing. Afraid to take him on a plane because we might get arrested, they'll think it's a bomb!
My girl is on Neutrimigen...costs 9$ per can, and she goes through one large can every day and a half. ha. the billion dollar girl! It has stopped her spitting up, however, and that's worth it to me. But she'll have to work at McDonald's to get through college now...

Hayley yours sound like they're terrific sleepers!
I'm just letting mine guide me...they really are good sleepers at night, but I just need to adjust the last feed, have it at 11 rather than 7 or so...but even so, they slept long last night, from 8:45 pm to 3:45 a.m....so almost there
Mandy...where in Canada is your brother moving? wow...so far from you.

lots of love...
how is everyone doing?
Cocoa?

[Mandy J]

My brother and family are off to Calgary, so I can feel a skiing holiday coming up next year!

Where he is going is about a 10 hour drive from my sister who is living in the tri cities in Washington, so we would probably do a week with one then drive to the other for a week.

I only see my brother about once a year anyway, so it probably won't feel any different, its an 8 hour drive to him at the moment.

It's my Nan who takes it a bit harder though as she realises this could possibly be the last time she sees them (I think she is daft, she is going to live at least to 120 years, and is only a spring chicken of 85 at the moment!) but she stopped travelling abroad last year.

Mandy
x

[Vlada]

My daughter has not gone pooping for 2 days now, we will see if she does it today. I BF her and give her similac advance, i have also tried organic similac and now i want to try the one that prevents gas and fussiness.

So, i guess it is normal for them not to have that much of a nap schedule yet. Tesa didn't take her nap all day yesterday untill 4 pm and then i decided to wake her up at 6 pm because it was too close to her night schedule. She went to bed at 8 pm again, slept off and on untill 9pm, then completely crashed at 9 pm untill 1 am , ate and then slept untill 4 am, ate again and then slept again untill 7 am. I wish she could start sleeping longer intervals from the time she goes to bed at night to her first night feed.
Vlada

[woodcliff]

Mandy, sounds like you have plenty of places to visit! Poor Nana...since she doesn't travel anymore...

Vlada...Similac Advance is what my boy loves but it has lots of iron in it and I think that sometimes hurts his belly...we tried the Gentlease today, and for the one night feeding I'm using Similac because I don't think the Gentlease is thick enough and it didn't seem to 'fill' him up...oh well.

Babies don't get schedules till they are ready. Mine have taught me how to be a mom and I'm grateful they're smarter than I am!
xxoo

[rebeccaj]

hello! i had the same problem on the poop front - my little one didn't go for 24 hours and you could see her straining, bless. i tried water and it didn't work - in the end i went on the twins web site and one lady recommeded utting a bit of ky jelly on the thermometer and popping it up her little bum to stimmulate a reaction - within 10 seconds me, her and my bed were covered in a layer of green paste - she grinned, i laughed and everything has been back to normal since. remember to wear protective clothing if you try it!

mine nap on and off all day, we hve no fixed routine but they feed every 2.5 - 3.5 hours and nap in between. they are going anywhere from 4 hours - 7 in one stretch at night. i'm going to separate them for the first time this week as they are waking each other up now and i find them bashing each other in the head when they get out of their swaddles...they are like houdini these days and can get out even the tightest swaddle. shame as i'm convinced they sleep longer when they're wrapped up tightly. any other twin mummy separating them yet?

still BF'ing and doing an enfamil top up when needed - what bottles is everyone using? i'm still using their premie bottles we got in the hospital but we need to graduate so any recomendations would be appreciated.

my girls are 10 weeks today, milly can hold her head up but aoife still doesn't have much head control - she was my little one when born (now nearly 10lbs), is she behind with this milestone?

x

[woodcliff]

Rebecca! Your girls sound perfect and lovely! Forget milestones...
My girl is a HOudini as well...she has a hobby: Trying to suck her thumb...only problem is that she does it with the BINKY in her mouth, causing her to lose the binky, cry, then start the cycle all over again.

Today, she had hte binky in her mouth AND her thumb.
oy.
I did think my swaddles were the tightest until I checked on my bambinis in the morning...and found lose arms and all!

COCOA...where are you?
xxoo
xxoo

[Vlada]

Rebecca, this is the bottle i am using, it was recommended to me by all of the nurses, the nipple is the most similar to a woman's breast and it is also a good bottle to prevet too much air going in.
Playtex Ventaire wide.
Hope this helps
Vlada

[robinsonpr]

I am using Dr Browns bottles...they are widely available and are stocked by most baby shops in the UK.

However...having looked at the Playtex ones Vlada is using I think I would have definitely gone for those instead.

The principle is the same in that they both let air in at the bottom of the bottle rather than around the teat. But the Playtex ones seem neater in the way they are designed, and sound easier to clean. The Dr Brown ones have a number of parts to the vent which have to be cleaned with a little pipe cleaner. It's not too much trouble but just adds a few minutes extra onto cleaning and assembling a bottle.

Looks like the Playtex ones are cheaper too...the Dr Brown ones are expensive in the UK.

Another night without the 3am feed last night! They both fed at 6.30pm, slept from 7pm till 11.30pm, then slept 12.30am till 4.00am, and then came into bed and slept on us until 6.30am. So that was a seriously long stint without a feed. They weren't sleeping the whole time, but hopefully once they get used to the idea of not waking up for a feed in the middle of the night they will sleep through it!

Hope everyone is ok!

Hayley xx

[woodcliff]

My doc said in the big picture, most 'air' is sucked in throughout the day, by crying, or hiccuping, or laughing, or what have you...NOT by feeding!

So the bottles are limited in their help...gas will 'get in' regardless.

I finally got my hands on the BPA free Dr. Brown's bottles...my girl uses DB's, and my son uses Born Free (BPA FREE)...

Hayley, how old are yours again?
We have a similar night schedule...I love getting 3-4 hours of straight sleep, getting up for a 4 or so feeding, then back to bed for 2.5 - 3 more hours (well, love is a strong word, but beats where they were 3 weeks ago!)
xxoo

[woodcliff]

Hayley, do you feed them at 11:30 also? OR do they just get up 'to play'??

Hmmm. Pipe cleaing the Dr. Brown's?
I've never done that!
Bad mommy
bad mommy

[robinsonpr]

Hi woodcliff,

I never realised it wasn't just feeding that filled them up with gas!

I wanted BPA free Dr Brown bottles but they aren't available in the UK yet. Anytime now apparently but I've now spent a fortune on a stash of regular bottles.

My little ones are 10 weeks old today!

And yes they feed at 11-12pm aswell. In fact at this feed I make up 6oz instead of the usual 5oz, hoping it will help them sleep a little longer in the night. They don't always take it but at least it's there if they are a little bit hungry.

So my feeding schedule is pretty much 5oz 5 times a day...

6.30am/11am/3pm/7pm/12pm(6oz)

Well, I'm hoping this is the schedule! It's happened like this 2 nights on the trot now so fingers crossed. Before that there was a feed at 3am aswell.

Speak soon!

Hayley xx

[woodcliff]

Thank you Hayley! I'm impressed with your 'schedule' ...
Do you wake them up for the 11:30?
Around 2 weeks ago, mine dropped the 11:00 - midnight feeding...I wanted to see how long they'd sleep and, alas, it was until 3 or 4 a.m.
Next up is they'll prob. sleep until 5, then hopefully 6...
Mine will be 12 weeks on Thursday...
I think if the babies are healthy, they'll 'get there' on their own...mine sure have.
God forbid if I'd had to 'do' anything about it! They just seem to have natural body clocks and they sleep well at night now...sigh.

OK--I still have a stash of the 4 oz Dr. B's...the BPA free ones were tough to get my hands on, but now they're more available than last month.
Silly thing is this: On the bottom of the 8 oz Similac bottles, there's the triangle sign that is proof there is 'BPA' in the SIMILAC bottles...
I suppose if nothing is heated up in the microwave it's ok...but geesh, all of these worries.

OK, g'night to you!