saving my sanity (Tips on Coping)

Member Name: barbie84

Product:	Tips on Coping
Date:	11/10/08 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: love being a mom

Disadvantages: didnt realise how hard it would be

When me and my husband decided we were ready to start a family i thought everything was going to be plain sailing, my brother had had his child 4 years earlier and i had helped out a lot with her when she was a very young baby so didnt think i was going to have any problems and boy was i wrong.

The first thing i hadnt banked on was the fact that after giving birth i was going to be so tired and so drained of energy for days, every bit of my body ached and i was so very in need of sleep but my daughter had other ideas, she was a very difficult feeder she would take one ounce of milk every hour and then want feeding again an hour later so by the time i had gotten one bottle into her, changed her and winded her there was only 30 minutes before the next feed, this went on for 3 days so i was a walking zombie by the end of it and decided weather she liked it or not she was going to drink more and have more gaps inbetween.
The first tip here i was given by a friend, as my daughter started to drop off to sleep with the bottle still in her mouth and stopped drinking i would turn the teat around in her mouth and she would then start to suckle again meaning i could persuade her to take more of the bottle at one time than she had before and we managed to get two ounces of milk in to her in one feed. To get her into a routine of 3 houly feeds i got her a dummy which i said i was not going to do and when she began to stir after two hours gave her her dummy instead to pacify her, she wasnt crying but fidgiting around and grumbling a bit and after the 3 hours were up she drank 3 ounces of formula, that night i got to get some sleep for the first time in days which was great.

Sleeping at night was the next problem we encountered, she would sleep all day in her moses basket but at night she kept rubbing at her face with her hands and pulling her dummy out every 15 minutes or so and crying for me to put it back in, i brought a swaddle blanket which is a stretchy cotton blanket with velcro on that i could put her arms inside the blanket to stop her getting them to her face and she slept perfectly after this only waking for feeds.

My daughter suffered with colic but not constantly so i used infacol for this but didnt want to give it when she was ok but dint realise there was a problem to begin with untill she was crying in pain with her stomach, i soon learnt that when i lay her flat on her back after her feed she would scrunch her legs up towards her chest if she has a tummy ache so new this was the start and got in early with the infacol.

My second child was so much easier to cope with than my first, not because she was any better a sleeper or feeder but because i new what to expect, there are times when every parent needs some help and when you are pulling your hair out and thinking you are rubbish at what you are doing you need reasurance, the best thing is to have friends and family around for advice and reasurance.

Summary: the most rewarding job in the world is being a parent