Why I don’t like disposables

This weekend O has been wearing disposable nappies/diapers.  I now remember why I hate them.

Let me first explain why he was wearing them.  With Ff being really poorly and developing this rash over her face I thought it best to be prepared for the worst and buy some disposables on Saturday morning just so I knew no matter where O was and who he was with there would be something clean for him to wear, specially as we were on wash day and there were barely any clean nappies left.

It took me ages to figure out what brand and size to buy, I settled on the Pampers size 4. Of course I also bought some wetwipes too, these were Pampers sensitive.  I know I was buying from a local shop but the prices just made me want to cry and I almost didn’t get them at all.

I put him in one before I left for the hospital and the first thing I didn’t like was how skinny he looked! He is on the small side still, barely creeping his way up to the 25th centile line in his charts.  Also the only trousers he owns, apart from wool longies,  are leggings and they are all really loose on him.  There’s no big butt to make him feel solid to hold onto and to keep him in the sling, it kept sliding up over his bum.  Maybe this is why some mums don’t get on with ringslings if they don’t use cloth?  Maybe just those with slimmer babies? I’ve never really thought of it before.

So I took him with us, obviously he’s still breastfed so there was no other option.  By the time we got there I took him out of the carseat and all I could smell was urine mixed with chemicals.  This was after 20 minutes. He isn’t a heavy wetter and you couldn’t even tell he had peed, the nappy was still bone dry and didn’t even feel like it had absorbed any liquid. In all it took us 2 hours to get home and I changed him as soon as we got here.  The smell of the chemicals was quite bad by this point.  Then I cracked open the wetwipes.  I remember wetwipes smelling clean and fresh but these ones don’t. I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s almost as if they have taken out the fragrance to make them ‘sensitive’ but left them smelling rather unpleasant.

Even though Ff was home she was still very ill and being as we had these nappies open I decided it was easier to use them for a few days(dh doesn’t like my Disana tie on nappies and all the pockets had been used already) plus it meant I could give the nappies an extra good wash and an extra vinegar/bicarbonate of soda wash too. Over only three days using disposable nappies we have had:

• One case of poo up the back and getting on his vest resulting in a two man job to remove said vest without smearing it everywhere.
• One case of poo leaking out the leg hole and down the inside of his trousers, I hadn’t realised when I pulled them down and managed to get it over his legs and socks, and all over me!
• Two cases of dampness by the leg holes.
• Numerous attempts to pull the nappy off
• a bin full of stinky nappies, even though they were tied up in scented bags(even more icky chemical smells!)

In all I am so glad I use cloth. I use wool covers exclusively and I haven’t had a leak or a blow out since he was tiny and exclusively breastfed, not even had so much as a case of compression wicking.  I used disposables on my first three and I can honestly say I would never go back to using them daily, but I am grateful to know I can just pick up a pack in an emergency, even if they seem like more work lol.

Do you use cloth or disposables, or maybe a bit of both? Let me know how you get on with them.

Such an annoying question!

Now before I get flack for dissing formula feeding mothers let me just make a few things clear. I have no issues with how a mother feeds their child. I have had to formula feed 3 of my children from different ages and for various reasons, which I will go into more detail at a later date.  I fully understand and support that some women choose to bottle feed from the start, that is their right. Nobody should ever be shamed or made to feel guilty for not wanting to breastfeed, or wanting to for that matter!  Okay enough of my disclaimer and onto the actual post

One of the most annoying questions I seem to be getting a lot at the moment, actually since O was born is:

‘Is he sleeping through the night yet?’

Why are people so obsessed with if my child is sleeping 12 solid hours at night? But it isn’t even the question that annoys me the most. It is the fact that when I say he wakes a couple of times to feed people automatically feel the right to presume that it is because I am still breastfeeding and if I gave him formula milk he would sleep.

Yes he probably would, but they never seem to realise that they also ask this same question to bottle feeding mothers and their only reply to if their child still wakes is usually something along the lines of:

‘Well… it will come eventually’

or

‘It’s just one of those things’

I have even heard the same woman who, a few weeks earlier had advised that I switched to bottle feeding, then have complete sympathy with a sleep deprived formula feeding mother of a 6 month old and stating that their own child still wakes up at 5am every morning for a bottle and refused to go back to sleep at the age of two!

What they don’t seem to realise (and mostly don’t give me chance to explain)  is that yes, my nine month old child wakes at 1am then again at between 4 and 5am. But he also goes straight back to sleep. I don’t mean I feed him, then we go back to sleep. I mean I pop a boob in his mouth and within a minute we are both flat out again.  In the early morning I can usually lull him back to sleep till after 7am by keeping him snuggled up close to me, feeding if he wants.

I don’t have to wake up fully, get out of bed, make a bottle, give that bottle, burp baby then try and go back to sleep.  If he is already in bed with me I don’t even have to sit up. Just turn over with him on my tummy then pop him on the other side.  Obviously if he is in his cot I have to sit up and he has stirred more but he still goes off easily.

We have our bad nights of course, as does everyone else, but I actually feel that I have the better end of the deal!

In fact, far from looking down on bottle feeding mothers, I pity them having to go down to the freezing cold kitchen to make up a bottle.  I applaud them for being sleep deprived yet managing to get on with their day even after being woken at 3am but not able to go back to sleep until 5.30am knowing that baby will probably be awake again at 6am.

To all those formula feeding mothers who wish to suggest that I, or anyone else, stop breastfeeding just to get a full nights sleep, how about you don’t? If you would still like to know if my child wakes at night ask away but please, unless you have breastfed a baby yourself, don’t offer me advice, just give me the same sympathy as you would have liked to be given yourself.

Do/did you get asked this question a lot?  Did you also get the same advice as me or similar? Or maybe you’ve had your own annoying questions or advice? I’d love to know.

Baby’s got bite

At the grand old age of (almost) nine months O finally has a tooth! The photo isn’t the best as I was trying to hold him and take it but you should just be able to see it.

Out of all of my babies he is the oldest to be getting his first tooth and you have even been able to see them inside his gums for weeks just hanging around, not in any rush to come through.

I should have realised something wasn’t quite right with him earlier in the week, he’s had slightly pink cheeks and has been chewing extra hard on his thumb. But he has been pretty good, and believe me I have had some horrendous teethers! E used to get a blood blister on her gum with every single new tooth that was about to pop out 😦

So fingers crossed, if this one is anything to go by , we shouldn’t have too bad a time at least with these first front ones anyway. Although by saying that I have now jinxed myself and he will scream for a week straight on the next one, guess I’d better get the cooling teething toys in the fridge pronto!

I have actually been dreading his teeth coming though. He isn’t the gentlest of feeders at the best of times and has often bitten my nipple with his gums hard enough to make me squeal, then him cry because I squealed. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he has gone past that stage, the last few days he has been blowing raspberries and trying to chat with the boob still in his mouth, very messy with the splashing milk but much less biting involved.

What ages have your babies had their first teeth? Or are you still waiting for them to arrive? Let me know your teething stories 🙂

Our Reflux Story – part 1

So we are still going through the hell that is infant reflux but I would be here all day typing our journey so far. I have decided instead to break it down into smaller more manageable chunks so this is the first part of the story:

With all of the other issues we dealt with during the first few weeks of O’s life, vomiting was one thing that happened very rarely. Now let me tell you that I have had some really sicky babies in the past and it was pleasant not to have to change him 3 times before breakfast or to need a never ending supply of bibs/muslin cloths.

But alas at 9 weeks out lives took on a more sicky smelling aroma when out of the blue, one day he started to be sick. All. The. Time. Now a lot of reflux babies projectile vomit but this wasn’t how it was with O. It would literally dribble out of his mouth continuously. I remember sitting waiting in baby clinic for an hour and I went through 3 muslin cloths drenched in foul, cheesy smelling liquid before he even got weighed.

He started doing the usual spitting up that babies get when they are winded but we also had feeds where he was still attached to my boob and he would be getting sick just because he fidgeted a little.  It would come pumping out around his mouth and we would both get drenched.  He would then get hungry quickly as he’d lost most of his feed and so the vicious circle would continue.

It was after he had been vomiting for a few days that the crying started. It wasn’t colic, even though the doctors insisted that it was. If you have never had a colicky baby you should really count your blessings.  Babies with colic will scream, for hours on end (usually in the early evening) it doesn’t matter what you do, you can hold them, change them, sing to them, lay them down in their bed alone. Nothing will soothe them.  But this child could be distracted, even if only for a few moments sometimes.  He was consolable.

We had tried many things help ease his pain including:

Infacol, this is an orange flavour liquid that helps all of the little bubbles in baby’s tummy collect into one big bubble which is easier to burp up

Gripe Water, which is a clear liquid made with dill and fennel among other ingredients which warms a baby’s tummy and is quite soothing.

Colief, with is a really expensive yet teeny tiny bottle containing the enzyme lactase.  This is sometimes given to colicky babies who may be suffering a temporary form of lactose intolerance.  It helps them break down the lactose until their immature tummy can take over, this is usually around 3 months old.  LV was lactose intolerant until he was 5 or 6 years old, so it made sense that his brother may be getting it too.

We had positive results for a few days with each of these products, the crying and writhing pain eased but the vomiting continued) but they soon came back with a vengeance. The only thing we introduced that really helped us all a lot? A dummy (pacifier).  I had been adamant that he wasn’t going to have a dummy, we hadn’t needed one on LV, we wouldn’t need one now.  But after 3 weeks of what felt like constant crying we were all willing to try anything.

He was 12 weeks old and he never had anything other than boob in his mouth so at first he would gag on it, but it kept him distracted trying to figure out what the hell this thing was.  after a week or so he got the hang of it and if nothing else it helped us to get him to sleep a little easier.

I will carry on our story soon but have you and your family dealt with reflux?  I would love to hear from others who are going through this problem.  Also has your loved one grown out of reflux? What helps/helped you deal with it or what tips do you have?