pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

the misses has said I can sleep on the couch tonight, as she is breast feeding and I cant drift in and out of sleep like she does, I know its pathetic and believe me I truly hate myself for even asking ...

SJ_Skyline

Pimmo,

There's been some really good advice posted here so when you get the chance, have a look through. Rest assured, little ones cry - sometimes there is no reason, they just do because they are simply expressing themselves in one of the only ways they know how.

Best of luck to you and Mrs Pimmo - grab your sleep when you can and keep yourselves well fed. Look after yourselves and you will be better at looking after the little one.

Remember, the feeds will drop off, he will eventually go through the night and in a few months you'll look back and wonder what all the fuss was about.


...and then you start weaning which is a whole new world of fun...

...and then they start walking and tearing the house apart...

I keep reminding myself that it's fun - my two have just hit 14 months and it's like having a knee-high tag team ganging up on me.

r32

Wife (midwife for 30 plus years) says as he's so newborn ask if the community midwife can call just to make sure everything is sorted.

Whilst the advice on here is good experienced advice it hasnt been made based on seeing your little boy, we dont know why he's crying all the time. Get the midwife to call.

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Shes just been, thank you.

The blood is Jorndis (sp) ? it was only very tiny,

She also sais (as said here) top up his feeds with forumla.. no harm in mixing, and express now, which is conflicting to what the hospital told us, dont express yet and dont mix .. but he advice works out better for us.

Also the hospital told us to wake him for feeds every 2 hours .. she said not to, just dont let him go more than 4 hours without one..

He aint poo'd at all in the last 24 hours but has been sleeping since about 2 .. which is so nice ..

Again thank you everyone

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Oh, shes coming back tomorrow it weight and check him out again, see if he needs to go back in to go under a special light to break down the jorndis .. I dunno if I want that .. I would get to sleep and the professional would be on hand, but then this part will never pass ..

r32

Sounds like you have it sorted. I know lots of new borns are born a little jaundiced (me too). My son was premature and was born with a double hernia which was not sorted until he was six weeks old, nothing but crying and screaming for 6 weeks. I used to go off to work after one or two hours sleep, after his op we thought he was a different baby....................

Enjoy......................

Hysteria1983

Move his moses basket to by the window on a cloudy day as he will still get some uv light through the clouds, but not enough to burn or anything. On a sunny day move him closer to the window but not in direct sunlight and that will help a huge amount. My daughter was jaundice and that was advised by the gp and she was over it in few days.
Going to go and look at your breast pump thread now.
But remember.... do what you feel i right, not all midwives have training to do with breastfeeding, they just go on their own experience, which sometimes can be VERY conflicting.

r32

[QUOTE= not all midwives have training to do with breastfeeding, they just go on their own experience, which sometimes can be VERY conflicting.[/QUOTE]

Wow better not let my wife read that........... after all it is 2009 and they really dont just guess. Its all very scientific and qualification based with constant compulsory training and updating of skills and knowledge. These days they are very well trained, its not Heartbeat you've been watching? Hospital based midwives will be slightly more up to date though.

Hysteria1983

I don't watch heartbeat.
I don't know your wife either. If she has children I trust her 100% more than the fact she is a midwife. Simple.

Matteeboy

Pimmo - phew. Sounds all good. Jaundice is very common.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

What with this thread, baby sitting my 10 month old nephew last Friday who had sickness and the ****s (thanks sis!), my own little'un due in October has really put the bejebus up me!
I look forward to Pimmo's calming words when he posts on my threads later this year having been through it all

r32

Mark, if the photo therapy has been proposed then baby must have it, its not a choice for you to make. His health will suffer without it.

scoob_babe

Hi Pimmo,
I don't post on here very often these days as 14 month twins are very lively! We had initial feeding problem with our little boy and he developed jaundice 2 days after us being discharged from hossie. We were told that this was because he wasn't feeding properly to flush the toxins out and I know he wasn't latching on properly either.
He also became very tired as he wasn't feeding enough to keep him going.
Bottle feeding was also difficult as we later found out he was putting his tongue in the way and therefore not sucking properly!!

Anyway, we put him onto bottle and at least this way we knew he was taking enough. BF is all well and good but if it's not expressed into a bottle, you have no idea how much they've had!

Once he feeds more, the jaundice will go quickly.

Babies do cry, it's their only way of communicating so don't worry. He may also have wind as has been suggested so infacol or gripe water will help. I got the GP to prescribe it as it was free. I felt I've paid enough in my time to not buy it myself Colief is another wind treatment that I've heard works wonders. It's £10 from Boots.

If your wife wishes to continue BF, contact your local NCT for assistance or La Leche League - www.laleche.org.uk/ if you feel your MW has been too quick to go to bottle. The main thing is that he doesn't lose weight. Some BF babies do gain weight more slowly than bottle and it isn't a problem.

I beg to differ on the uv light however. This is WRONG. It is visible blue light that reduces the jaundice NOT ultra violet. This is from a mother of twins who is a research physicist.

I always wake up when they cry/sneeze etc and dad doesn't. I bought some earplugs for myself as I'm no use to them half asleep!!!!!!!!!

spireite

Eat ,****e and sleep thats what the tiny terror will do for the next 3 months .Get out with the pram fresh air seems to knock em out for a while

Hysteria1983

Thanks Scoob baby for putting things straight about the uv light. The last thing I want is to give out the wrong info.
I was just going by the advice my pead and m/w gave me with regards to my daughter. She was born in July and plenty of sunny days then.
I know that the issue with your son's jaundice may be due the the breastfeeding, and in some cases mum is advised to pump to keep up her supply, but then give formula to help baby flush out the jaundice so to speak.
Sometimes in a small % of babies breastfeeding is not well enough established and the baby doesn't get enough breast milk, that can cause jaundice.
If you have been told that he needs to go under the lamp then that may be what has to be done. My daughter was given 5 days to improve and by that time she was well on the path to getting rid of it.
La Leche League GB - mother to mother support for breastfeeding Is a great website, and there is a lot of help on there to do with overcoming the hurdles that breastfeeding can throw at you.

Do not be too fast to give in the the bottle completely, but remember that your baby's health comes first regardless of where the milk comes from.

scoob_babe

Going out with the pram works wonders for sanity (and fitness!!). Cries don't sound as loud outside either!!

Oh and when they get older, it's eat, eat and eat - I have two gannets!!!!!!!!

Hysteria1983

As i think back, I am 100% it was a UV light they were going to put her under that produces the blue light that, and something do do with maybe putting her on a fibre optic blanket, the latter I had not heard of at the time.
That was why she was so easily treated at home.

Hysteria1983

You might know more about the ins and outs of it scooby babe... is it the uv content of the blue light that does the trick?

hodgy0_2

the most important point in all this is trust your instincts re little James, especially the Mums

if you think he is OK then tell the medical professionals so, conversely if you think something is wrong with the little man then don’t be fobbed of by health professionals either, stand you ground and seek a second opinion

even now none know him better than his mum

and remember when they get a little older - Calpol is your friend

scoob_babe

Unfortunately I'm not the scientist, it's my friend that is so I would have to ask her about this.
The jaundice lamps that they are put under in hospital are blue which is why you may have thought it was ultra violet. However uv is invisible and will cause sunburn. Visible blue light does not emit uv and it's of a different wavelength.

And I definitely agree with Hodgy. Mother's gut instinct is spot on and she will be able to tell the difference in cries and knows him better than any health professional.

r32

All I can go on is the advice of my wife who says that if the phototherapy treatment has been suggested then the health of the baby may suffer without it. She also says that daylight can have the same effect but the hospital would advise the right treatment. None of us have seen the wee bairn so I think that Mark and his wife should be taking the health proffessionals advise given by their hospital and not turn scooby net into NHS direct.

T4molie

While I can't give you much advice, cos every baby is different to the next but can appreciate what you're going through - as someone said earlier parenthood is hard at first

I got off the train this evening to the vision of my wife pushing our 6 month old daughter in front of me and saying "baby for sale"

Apparently she's been crying all day (the little un) and as soon as she saw me ... she stopped. One no longer crying baby, one not quite so cheery wife

Andy

Hysteria1983

I agree There R32, but it is nice to have a support network here, just for if you want to let off steam.
Even the 'proffessionals' get it wrong sometimes. And like has been said, nobody knows a baby better than a mother and father.

This is a good site that gives some simple ins an outs about jaundice and how it is treated. I think that will clear things up about the UV light treatment. ''UV light is defined as the invisible rays of the violet-end of the spectrum. Another way to define UV light is to say it is a short wavelength found naturally in sunlight.''

Pimmo it mentions something there about the blankets, and the the fibre optic blankets can be available for home use, so maybe that may be something to look into?

Mikee

Hi Pimmo. Sorry to hear you're having a hard time of things, I'm pretty sure you never expected it to be this hard this early. Ben is a week old today and is doing great with both feeding and sleeping. Now I'm not saying that to rub it in your face but it's just to say every baby is different- once James has settled down he'll get into the swing of things and it will seem easier I'm sure ( I hope).

Ben had a touch of jaundice too, not enough for lamp treatment but enough for the MW to say put him next to a window to get some natural light (but not in direct sunlight). If lamps are recommended then go for it, they are harmless and will make him better. I'm up at all hours too at the moment so if you need to PM me or chat then give us a shout!

Hang on in there bud!

jameswrx

iTrader: (4)

It's really a case of just getting into the swing of it, it's all new and you'll soon get to grips of what keeps them happy.

My boy would do a similar thing but it turned out he just wasn't getting enough food. He'd wake all the time during the night and feed and would exhaust my mrs. We went and got formula as a 'top up' in the end and he'd cane it and the boob! Basically just a hungry beggar.

Hysteria1983

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-...43515_7810.jpg
This was my girly when she was jaundice. After a few days by the window, she was fine.

mart360

Sounds like what my small one was like ..

Feed (breast) 5- 10 mins on.... off for 5-10 mins, then crying constantly ...

feed off..... crying...... etc... near on no sleep either

we tried expressing milk, no joy.... very little after 15 mins of pumping..

in the end, we suggested a formula feed.

Got serious grief from the HV, not the done thing etc, if you go to bottle that it etc, no going back to breast... despite it really only being a trial


Bought and prepped a bottle --15mls of hungry baby formula later.. one fat, full, content burped baby who slept for 2 hrs solid

never looked back, it was bottles all the way..


It turned out the other halfs milk had not come through, and all he was

getting was front milk, and not back milk, ( if that makes sense) , whilts it

satisfys the thirst, it didnt give him any nourishment, and the poor sod

was screaming through hunger..


Hang in there mate, the first 3 months are near on a vertical learning curve...

Mart

mamoon2

Mate, I know they say breast is best but consider putting him on formula as it sounds just like what happened with my son. After we did that it was a massive relief.

If not, try shifts with your wife.

Hysteria1983

Like the previous few have said, if formula helps then give it a go, and just get your wife to keep putting him to the breast. That will keep her milk coming in and he will still know how to latch on and she can continue to express for a bit.
I found expressing hard going, and you never get the same amount out when you express as what the baby gets in the same time as a feed.
All three of you are learning new things everyday, and we all take to parenthood differently.
Looks like ther are plenty people here who have 'got your back'!

SCOsazOBY

Just remember that the breasts have to learn when your baby needs a feed and how much to give him. Your wifes breasts will eventually settle down and in a few weeks when James is sleeping longer your wife will be saying he is due a feed because the breasts start throbbing for release.

Just wait for the days when he drinks more because of growth spurt! It confuses the hell out the breasts because all of a sudden they are constantly on demand then a few days later they start producing more to meet the extra demand but baby doesnt need it as it was a one off.

The thing with contradicting advice is things change all the time, a few years ago it was recommended you make formula feeds up and stick them in the fridge. Whereas now they recommend you make each one up fresh as and when you need it. Very confusing because you start thinking well the first option didnt do me any harm so why the change.

My babys dad is deaf in one ear so guess which one he would fall asleep on! The thing is you may be exhausted but something inside you keeps you going.

I never once woke my son up because if he was hungry then he would wake up himself. He is 1yr now and sleeps for 12 hours plus has a morning and afternoon nap and has done from 3 months old

Hysteria - your little one is such a cutie, love the photo