Key events etc for Ella Sophia...

[jodied]

Well thought I would start noting down any key dates/events for Ella....

Birth

Born on Saturday 2nd April at 11.35pm when she was 35+5 weighing 5lbs 9oz - mum and hubby both there for her birth - admitted to SCBU because she had low blood sugars

Hospital stay

Hubby's parents met Ella in hospital on Sunday 3rd April when she was a day old

My dad, grandma and brother met Ella in hospital on Monday 4th April when she was two days old

When she was four days old she was diagnosed with a listeria infection and started a seven day course of antibiotics. On the same day (Wednesday 6th April) we noticed that she was starting to open her eyes a little

On Thursday 6th April after spending five days on the post natal ward I was discharged home and had to leave Ella in hospital

On day six I was asked to "room in" with Ella so I moved back to hospital and we had our own room just outside SCBU where we were to establish bf on demand before being allowed home

On day seven (Saturday 9th April) Ella's feeding tube was removed from her nose as she was able to feed exclusively via bf. My friend Ellie came to the hospital to meet Ella. Hubby and I celebrated her being one week old with a dominos pizza in my hospital room

My nan met Ella when she was eight days old (Sunday 10th April)

My friend Jennie came to the hospital to meet Ella when she was nine days old (Monday 11th April)

Going home from hospital

On day 11 (Wednesday 13th April) Ella was allowed to come home from hospital. She weighed 5lbs 6.5oz

We had to go back to hospital the next day for Ella to be weighed and she had lost weight (down to 5lbs 6oz) and my milk was drying up Got a plan together to get it back!

Went back to hospital for a weigh in on Sunday 17th April and Ella was 5lbs 10.5oz so over birth weight at 2 weeks 1 day old - discharged from any follow ups at hospital

On Tuesday 19th April health visitor came and Ella weighed 5lbs 13oz (she was 2 weeks 3 days old)

Wednesday 20th April was our first NCT group meeting with two mums/babies - us and Jo/baby Rory and two bumps - Vicki and Catherine

At 3 weeks and 1 day old we celebrated Ella's first Easter with a BBQ at my mum/dads house on Sunday 24th April

On Tuesday 26th April nurse came and Ella weighed 6lbs 6oz (she was 3 weeks 3 days old)

Ella watched/slept through the royal wedding with me and my mum on Friday 29th April

Hubby's bro, girlfriend and baby (Ella's cousin) came to stay for a few days on Saturday 30th April (Ella was 4 weeks old)

Ella was officially registered on Tuesday 3rd May

On Saturday 7th May (5 weeks old) we are pretty sure we saw Ella smile for the first time! She was v awake all morning and hubby says he smiled at him whilst I was out swimming and when me and mum got home we saw her smile too

 

[midnight]

aww what a lovely thing to do

 

[pinkymum]

This is lovely, you really seem to take it all in your stride hun!

 

[jodied]

Thanks midnight and pinky! Midnight - I just thought it would be nice to have it all in one place and Pinky - I'm not sure about that but I'm trying to! x

 

[jodied]

Just realised I haven't said anything about feeding/sleeping...

Generally Ella has been feeding every 3-4 hours for about 25 minutes at a time. She sleeps well sometimes inbetween but at night she often seems to find it difficult lying on her back as she is windy. On occasions we have laid her on our chests (which she loves) or we have tried putting her on her right side (which seems better for her than being on her back) or putting her on her front for a few minutes whilst we watch her and she calms down then turning her onto her back once she is sound asleep.

Last night Ella went longer without feeds for the first time - we have started a little routine - bath at 7pm, sleepsuit on, bf afterwards (offering her regardless of when she was last fed - in last night's case it was about 5.30pm) then putting her down in her moses basket in a dark room (dining room downstairs which is next to lounge so we can hear her). I then went to bed at about 10pm and she woke up a bit later on but after having cuddles with daddy for a bit she didn't want food until 1.15am so she went for over 6 hours! Hubby gave her 90mls of expressed breastmilk but she was still hungry so I topped her up by bf (I happened to be awake anyway). She was then put back in her moses basket (now in our room) but was quite grumbly and spent a fair amount of time on me but didn't feed again until 6.30am (so she lasted over 5 hours this time).

So we managed 6 hours and 5 hours during the night between feeds Just need to work on her staying in her moses basket inbetween at all times!

 

[lea554]

wow - she is doing well lasting that long between feeds - Tia was feeding every 2hrs, and im now experimenting by trying to push it out to 3 to 3 and a half hours now. Same prob as you though, she is much happier being held and cuddled rather than being in her moses basket! She also wont settle on her own, so I can only put her down when she is already fast asleep!
xxx

 

[jodied]

Well I think I jinxed things by reporting that amazing night in my earlier post! Ella hasn't ever gone that long since! Plus we've been a bit slack with the routine implementation. She's still suffering with bad wind and we have been using infacol for the last couple of weeks which seems to be helping a little.

Tonight we have tried putting her down in her nursery after her bath and feed. Her bath was at 7pm and I started trying to put her down after feeding at about 7.45pm. She finally settled at about 8.30pm so we shall have to wait and see how long she goes - hubby is back at work now so really we need to give her a bottle at 11pm so that he is in bed by midnight. Recently she's been going 3-4 hours between feeds anyway so that's probably about right.

Still struggling with putting her down in her moses basket between night feeds - some nights are better than others!

In terms of her progress otherwise, she's more alert for longer periods and is starting to really hold her head up on her own (only for short periods e.g. when on your shoulder she will hold it up for a few seconds to look at you). Plus she's really looking at people and it seems as though she is studying your face

 

[jodied]

We actually ended up having Ella in her room last night! It wasn't really planned but we put her in her Moses basket in her room after her bath and after a bit of winding she fell asleep there at 8.30pm. She was still fast asleep at 11pm when her next feed was due so much to our surprise we managed to dream feed her a bottle of expressed breast milk and it seemed silly to then disturb her and move her back to our room so we just left her in her own room! I put the monitor right next to me so can hear just as well as if she was in with us. So was all going fab and we hoped she would stick to four hour feeding and feed at 3am then 7am. No such luck! She fed at 2.15am and then 4.30am. We did however manage to keep her in her Moses basket until about 5.30am which is an improvement on other nights!

Now we need to keep up the sleeping in her Moses basket rather than on us and try to get back to four hourly feeds!

Not gone quite so smoothly tonight and have only just managed to get her down! We will get there though, and I definitely think she sleeps better on her own in the nursery which is much darker as we have a blind in there.

 

[jodied]

Keep forgetting to update this

Key updates -

Ella has been regularly smiling since about 8 weeks old and doing proper big smiles from about 10 weeks

Still got to extend the time between night feeds but she's happy to stay in her room (been there since she was 7 weeks old) after her bath and feed until at least 6am (trying not to bring her into us until about 7am) - longest shes gone between feeds is 6 hours and usually it's the first gap that's the longest so eg 7pm, 12am, 4am, 6am. Not too worried though as I'm sure she will get better at sleeping longer when she gets a but bigger. Need to check my diary for exact weigh ins but at last check she was 9lbs 8oz (at just under 10 weeks). She's now starting to wear 0-3mth clothes but still fits in some newborn stuff.

Left Ella for the first time this week to go on a hen do and all went well