This week has been an amazing week with our little man and I have the sleep clinic we went to on Monday to thank for it. It's astonishing the differing that few hours has made. Bub is happier, I feel one hundred times better, and everything is starting to go much smoother. Of course things are not perfect, nut because there has been such an improvement I'm able to deal with the not so good times so much better. I actually get the time now to take care of myself. Something that I really let slide. And cause he's sleeping during the day he's starting sleeping longer at night! Usually only waking once for a feed at about 1 am. I hope this keeps up!
Friday, May 13, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
It's a miracle!
Yesterday we took our little man to a sleep clinic to try and figure out ways to get him to sleep better during the day. The results have been amazing! Already it's like he is a new baby. He slept in his basinette for long sleeps 3 times today. He is much happier baby for it and today has been so much easier. I'm kicking myself though because I'm thinking he was trying to self settle before, but I was reading him all wrong.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
My First Mothers Day
Today was Mothers Day in Australia, and my very first Mothers Day. It was a lovely day. I woke up to gorgeous smiles from my little man. Then when hubby finally got out of bed (he didn't get to sleep until I woke up at around 6:30am) he made waffles and gave me my presents. A gorgeous silver and amethyst locket with photos of lil man and hubby in it. And a beautiful book that my hubby drew amazing pictures of me and bubs in. It's amazing, and I'll treasure it forever.
Friday, May 6, 2011
The Routine
Establishing a routine with Dexy became an absolute necessity. We quite honestly couldn't do anything away from home before we started it and I was forever forgetting when he was last fed (no idea how I would have coped at all without a notebook and my milkband.) So I started thinking about how we could bring a little more structure, and therefor sanity into our lives.
For about two weeks, I had been writing down all of his feeds, sleeps, and nappy changes in a notebook. Partly to keep a track of all the craziness, but also so I could show it to a nurse that was popping in every now and then. I was reading through the notebook to see if I could recognise any patterns and found one straight away. Dexy was generally feeding every 4 hours, and having a longer sounder sleep after an evening feed. I was so excited when I saw it. And from there I was able to establish our routine.
Daytime
7am - Morning feed and medication (usually accompanied with a dirty nappy not long after the feed)
11am - Lunchtime feed (after this feed we go out if we need to)
3pm - Afternoon feed.
He very rarely sleeps during the day. If he does, it's either in his bouncer, on me in a carrier, or in the pram.
Nighttime:
7pm - Bedtime feed and medication (followed by bedtime routine)
11pm - Midnight Feed
3am - Early morning feed.
It's works okay. And gives us at least some kind or structure to work with. Night times are difficult, because he can difficult to settle. The four hour thing really seems to apply to Dexy. As we found last night he we tried dream feeding...
Dream Feeding;
Last night I tried giving him a "Dream Feed". This is when you give bubby a feed as your going to bed in an attempt to get him to longer between feeds thus giving Mummy and Daddy more sleep. You get them out of bed very gently, being careful not to wake them, then you give them the bottle/breast and hope for the best! (One, that they take the bottle. Two, that they don't wake up!). Well, it didn't work for us. I gave him his dream feed at 10pm, put him back to bed. But then he woke up at 2am very hungry and difficult to settle. Thus throwing everything out of whack. I haven't given up just yet though.
For about two weeks, I had been writing down all of his feeds, sleeps, and nappy changes in a notebook. Partly to keep a track of all the craziness, but also so I could show it to a nurse that was popping in every now and then. I was reading through the notebook to see if I could recognise any patterns and found one straight away. Dexy was generally feeding every 4 hours, and having a longer sounder sleep after an evening feed. I was so excited when I saw it. And from there I was able to establish our routine.
Daytime
7am - Morning feed and medication (usually accompanied with a dirty nappy not long after the feed)
11am - Lunchtime feed (after this feed we go out if we need to)
3pm - Afternoon feed.
He very rarely sleeps during the day. If he does, it's either in his bouncer, on me in a carrier, or in the pram.
Nighttime:
7pm - Bedtime feed and medication (followed by bedtime routine)
- Bath
- Massage
- Nappy change plus pilcher
- Story
- Lullaby
- Sleep
11pm - Midnight Feed
3am - Early morning feed.
It's works okay. And gives us at least some kind or structure to work with. Night times are difficult, because he can difficult to settle. The four hour thing really seems to apply to Dexy. As we found last night he we tried dream feeding...
Dream Feeding;
Last night I tried giving him a "Dream Feed". This is when you give bubby a feed as your going to bed in an attempt to get him to longer between feeds thus giving Mummy and Daddy more sleep. You get them out of bed very gently, being careful not to wake them, then you give them the bottle/breast and hope for the best! (One, that they take the bottle. Two, that they don't wake up!). Well, it didn't work for us. I gave him his dream feed at 10pm, put him back to bed. But then he woke up at 2am very hungry and difficult to settle. Thus throwing everything out of whack. I haven't given up just yet though.
First blog post - HELLO!
Unbelievable! The sun is up and my little man is asleep. Albeit in the bouncer, with the vibrate feature going, and he occasionally stirs requiring me to rock the bouncer with my foot for up to ten minutes. But still, it's a small victory and it means I can FINALLY get a start on this blog that I've been so eager to start.
Okay, so I should try and make this first blog post worthy, so here goes. I'm Bini (not my real name, of course, but this is what most people on the internet know me as) and eight weeks and one day ago I gave birth to my amazing and long awaited son Dexy. It wasn't a regular birth, and was far from being the kind of experience that I thought it was going to be. There should be tab that takes you to his birth story near the top of this page. It hasn't exactly been smooth sailing for us. I was back in hospital two weeks after having him due to a staph infection in my c-section incision. Hubby and I have also had a lot of adjusting to do and we're still far from living a "normal" life. Don't get me wrong, I know that things are never going to be like they were. But at the moment things are just totally crazy and not very functional so we're trying to work on this for the benefit of all three of us.
Dexy himself is a pretty high maintenance baby. Although he is healthy, and got through the ordeal of childbirth much better than I did. He very rarely sleeps during the day (Oh, and by the way spoke to soon at the beginning of this post. He is now awake and I'm back to rocking the bouncer with my foot), and at night he causes problems too. Mainly for his Daddy cause at the moment, I have the day shift while he has the night shift. Dex also has reflux which we are treating with a liquid Zantac and at least one feed of thickened formula a day. He's also a purple crier which drives me and hubby insane. He'll just randomly cry and scream even though all his needs have been attended too and he'll keep it up for some time. An extremely hard to settle baby, there are days and nights when the three of us get barely any sleep and we're all left tired, frustrated, and yes... crying. It's been hard. And I really do mean that. Not just a little bit, but extremely hard. I have issues with mental illness and sometimes my limits are totally pushed to the edge. However, I have been told several times to not pin it on my mental health issues, but to accept that most new mothers feel the way that I do. Does that help? Only a little. At least I can say that hubby and I aren't without support. Between eachother, our family's, and government services that have been made available to us we have a fantastic network of help. A huge help for me also has been a group of girls I met online through a pregnancy website. All with bubbies around the same age as Dexy. They're amazing. And it's astonishing how much we care for eachother when we haven't actually met in person.
It's not all bad though. Infact, alot of the time it's brilliant. Especially now that he's learnt to smile. Oh my God, that smile. It's a powerful thing. I can feeling absolutely dreadful, but then he'll smile at me and everything is better. His baby talk has a pretty similar effect. Even through all the trouble we're going through, I can look at him and just be in absolute awe. My hubby and I made this! This gorgeous although loud little boy. And after years and years of wanting to have a baby, he's finally here and he's the most beautiful thing in my life.
Okay, so I should try and make this first blog post worthy, so here goes. I'm Bini (not my real name, of course, but this is what most people on the internet know me as) and eight weeks and one day ago I gave birth to my amazing and long awaited son Dexy. It wasn't a regular birth, and was far from being the kind of experience that I thought it was going to be. There should be tab that takes you to his birth story near the top of this page. It hasn't exactly been smooth sailing for us. I was back in hospital two weeks after having him due to a staph infection in my c-section incision. Hubby and I have also had a lot of adjusting to do and we're still far from living a "normal" life. Don't get me wrong, I know that things are never going to be like they were. But at the moment things are just totally crazy and not very functional so we're trying to work on this for the benefit of all three of us.
Dexy himself is a pretty high maintenance baby. Although he is healthy, and got through the ordeal of childbirth much better than I did. He very rarely sleeps during the day (Oh, and by the way spoke to soon at the beginning of this post. He is now awake and I'm back to rocking the bouncer with my foot), and at night he causes problems too. Mainly for his Daddy cause at the moment, I have the day shift while he has the night shift. Dex also has reflux which we are treating with a liquid Zantac and at least one feed of thickened formula a day. He's also a purple crier which drives me and hubby insane. He'll just randomly cry and scream even though all his needs have been attended too and he'll keep it up for some time. An extremely hard to settle baby, there are days and nights when the three of us get barely any sleep and we're all left tired, frustrated, and yes... crying. It's been hard. And I really do mean that. Not just a little bit, but extremely hard. I have issues with mental illness and sometimes my limits are totally pushed to the edge. However, I have been told several times to not pin it on my mental health issues, but to accept that most new mothers feel the way that I do. Does that help? Only a little. At least I can say that hubby and I aren't without support. Between eachother, our family's, and government services that have been made available to us we have a fantastic network of help. A huge help for me also has been a group of girls I met online through a pregnancy website. All with bubbies around the same age as Dexy. They're amazing. And it's astonishing how much we care for eachother when we haven't actually met in person.
It's not all bad though. Infact, alot of the time it's brilliant. Especially now that he's learnt to smile. Oh my God, that smile. It's a powerful thing. I can feeling absolutely dreadful, but then he'll smile at me and everything is better. His baby talk has a pretty similar effect. Even through all the trouble we're going through, I can look at him and just be in absolute awe. My hubby and I made this! This gorgeous although loud little boy. And after years and years of wanting to have a baby, he's finally here and he's the most beautiful thing in my life.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Yet another New Blog
I've lost count with how many blogs I've had in the past. During my pregnancy I think I even had 3 separate blogs!!! Now my son is almost 8 weeks old, I'm blogging yet again. I don't expect that any body will read this. It's really just a way for me vent, have some me time, and reflect on what being a mother is like for me. I can't imagine I'll be able to blog very often. My son, gorgeous as he is, he quite a high maintenance baby and I rarely find time for myself. But you never know, he may just cut me a break and I'll be back to blogging at least once a day like I used to! :D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)