PP Weekly Thread 4/26 - 5/2 - Page 3

[wobblykate]

Originally Posted by AFWife

I don't have a problem with the Vit C (I'm big into getting enough vit C for immune reasons) Is Floradix OTC?

I just pumped my right breast (it's producing more and he doesn't always eat enough on that side so it was staying sore...I was worried about mastitis from milk staying in too long) and tasted the bm. It TASTED acidic. That usually sweet taste wasn't even there.

Ugh, I feel like the worst mom EVER. It doesn't help that one of his eyes is all weepy because he scratched it and it's inflamed. I try to keep it clean and wipe it with BM whenever we nurse (I put bm on my finger or soak a corner of a soft cloth and wipe his eye)


Anyway...sorry, PP Blues mom over here complains a lot

we all feel like the worst mom ever at some point..don't beat yourself up. You're just trying to do the best you can. Are you flushing your system with water? That will help flush out the excess vit c. And Eden has a new scratch on her face daily. At first i put gloves on her, but she loves to try and put her fingers in her mouth and i didn't want to take that away from her.

Michelle, hope those migraines are improving!

[EdnaMarie]

A lot of our issues stem from her refusing to open her mouth wide.

I open my daughter's for her. She doesn't open it herself all the time. But she's getting better since when she sucks the boob in, I take it out and make her re-latch. Cruel but necessary.

Re: Cloth diapers: We change whenever they are wet, or at every feeding at night, and hourly during the day. Never go three hours, as they would be too soaked, except at night when let's be honest, it's all I can do to drag myself out of bed.

Using olive and almond oils (had some of the latter left over...) for preventing rash. Putting them on at every use.

Washing dipes with oxyclean and double-rinse each time, and vinegar 1x / week.

[fairymom]

Funny but the opening your own mouth thing works! I do it automaticly when spoon feeding (of course when older ) but have noticed it works w/bfing newborns too. When I had my 1st dd the MW "taught" her to stick out her tongue the 2nd day of life and she caught on w/in mins. So the mimicing works- we may look funny but when don't we when dealing w/los. I get strange looks daily because of burp rags on shoulders or leak stains I haven't noticed on my boobs, when I go out in public!

Thank you all for the responses to my cd ?. I knew I'd get more answers from you than on the dipe forum (only got 1). You ladies ROCK! I did use a fleece insert last night- thought he was going to poo and their easier to rinse than the whole dipe. And noticed the next time I changed him his skin was much drier (no poo though ) so am putting them in all his dipes now. Am also changing him more often. I am so afraid of rashes because my dcs butts love yeast rashes (dd 7 had one for over a year- till she potty trained). I do have great wraps- just finding I need more.(note: 4 wraps are not enough if poo does leak out) But I LOVE CDING!

As for the sleep ?- Caleb sleeps alot still about 21 hrs/day.That's up an hour since birth. He too had to be undressed to eat the first week but now he's great at letting us know when he's hungry (and since switching to cds- wet or poopy).

We still haven't let ds4 hold lo yet! DS4 is so sctive and doesn't sit still for more than a min. We were waiting for him to show an interest but that came and went more than a week ago. Now I think we're just being over protective. I want to make a big deal over it and get pics when he holds his baby brother for the 1st time. Ok making excuses now- gotta let him do it! Cut the strings momma!

[nancy11]

I sat in a wooden chair today. Previously impossible.

I'm still trying to figure out my supply issues. By the end of the day, if I don't supplement, Zack is starving. He then proceeds to guzzle 3-5 ounces from a bottle.

I was getting 2 oz. total, but it diminished slightly. I don't know why. Bleh.

[bodhitree]

Originally Posted by AFWife

Ugh, I feel like the worst mom EVER. It doesn't help that one of his eyes is all weepy because he scratched it and it's inflamed. I try to keep it clean and wipe it with BM whenever we nurse (I put bm on my finger or soak a corner of a soft cloth and wipe his eye)


Anyway...sorry, PP Blues mom over here complains a lot

You're doing great. Seriously. Taking care of a newborn and trying to take care of yourself at the same time is not easy, and we are all going to make lots of mistakes as we work on figuring it out. Your baby is lucky to have a mom who puts so much effort into taking good care of him.

Originally Posted by fairymom

Thank you all for the responses to my cd ?. I knew I'd get more answers from you than on the dipe forum (only got 1). You ladies ROCK! I did use a fleece insert last night- thought he was going to poo and their easier to rinse than the whole dipe. And noticed the next time I changed him his skin was much drier (no poo though ) so am putting them in all his dipes now. Am also changing him more often. I am so afraid of rashes because my dcs butts love yeast rashes (dd 7 had one for over a year- till she potty trained). I do have great wraps- just finding I need more.(note: 4 wraps are not enough if poo does leak out) But I LOVE CDING!

Okay, your fleece experience is inspiring me. I have a baby blanket someone gave me that is kind of ugly and I don't need it (I ended up with tons of blankets) so maybe I'll cut some liner strips out of it.

Is anyone else a huge fan of the Sears books? I just got their Baby Sleep Book yesterday and some things I read in just the first couple chapters helped us have a better night last night. When River woke in the middle of the night, I did some things differently that had her smiling herself back to sleep instead of getting frustrated. She's still too young for me to use some of their recommendations, but there's lots of stuff that will be helpful now. I : the Searses.

[wobblykate]

Originally Posted by nancy11

I sat in a wooden chair today. Previously impossible.

I'm still trying to figure out my supply issues. By the end of the day, if I don't supplement, Zack is starving. He then proceeds to guzzle 3-5 ounces from a bottle.

I was getting 2 oz. total, but it diminished slightly. I don't know why. Bleh.

i still can't do hard chairs too long. on the supply issue, are you pumping to try and up it? i'm sorry you're having to deal with that.

Originally Posted by bodhitree

Is anyone else a huge fan of the Sears books? I just got their Baby Sleep Book yesterday and some things I read in just the first couple chapters helped us have a better night last night. When River woke in the middle of the night, I did some things differently that had her smiling herself back to sleep instead of getting frustrated. She's still too young for me to use some of their recommendations, but there's lots of stuff that will be helpful now. I : the Searses.

we used the vax book to figure out our vax schedule. very cool about the sleep book. I'll have to look into that one.

Eden actually slept pretty well last night!! She ate non-stop before bed last night for a couple of hours and that kept her asleep for almost a 4 hour stretch!:

Course I woke up this morning and she was just sort of snacking at first...sucking awhile, letting go...and i was literally spraying milk everywhere.

[nancy11]

Originally Posted by wobblykate

i still can't do hard chairs too long. on the supply issue, are you pumping to try and up it? i'm sorry you're having to deal with that.

I just started to pump when he's asleep. I lost ground due to engorgement and jaundice. Both are essentially gone now end my milk is coming in. I just need a routine, I think. The pump is awesome.

I wish Zack would eat from me like he does with the bottle. From me it takes like an hour b/c I have to keep waking him up. The bottle is like 5-10 minutes and is causing minor latch issues.

I wasn't going to introduce a bottle for weeks, but the whole weight-loss/jaundice thing screwed us up. The lactation consultants in the hospital were terrible. I did better just reading on my own. :-/

[wobblykate]

how frustrating...there's nothing worse than a bad lc, and nothing better than a good one!

do you take advantage of diaper changes? Eden had a hard time eating at first, but would latch easier after being upset by a diaper change.

nursing is hard.

[nancy11]

yes. he pees almost every sitting. works very well!

I'm figuring this all out, but sad that I had to supplement so soon.
Oh well, I was raised on formula.
I just hate setbacks and I really do want to give Z the best.
meh.

[bodhitree]

I also had a bad experience with the lc at the hospital. I really needed someone to tell me what I was doing right (lots of things, as it turned out) but she just told me things like "Move her a little to the left" that were totally unhelpful. Also she grabbed my boob without asking. I know boobs are totally old hat to lcs, but I'm not used to people putting their hands there without at least some kind of warning. She was actually the opposite of helpful, since after she left I pretty much felt like I was doing it wrong.

I'm currently wearing a happy baby in my Moby Wrap. She's so snuggly. :

[quasar]

Finally have my hands free for more than a second.

We had a horrible time in the hospital trying to figure out the whole breastfeeding thing. He wasn't latching right, and I was only producing a few drops of colostrum. I had the lc's there try to help out, but I got the feeling they just weren't listening to me. Ray ended up losing about 10% of his body weight those first couple days and they were threatening keeping him there another day to help clear up his jaundice and get him eating better. Luckily that didn't happen. But I did end up supplementing him after feedings with about an ounce of formula with one of those little cup things. I sucked at doing that and most of the time he would end up spitting it up an hour later... Luckily, he's exclusively being bf'ed now. But it's been a bit of a struggle. First I had no supply, then he wasn't latching properly, then I got cracked nipples, then one breast wasn't really producing as much as the other, then one of my montgomery glands got blocked, then I got mastitis. Finally we are on the mend. My one breast ended up getting an abcess that drained last Friday, and now I am able to nurse on both sides without too much discomfort. And I also got new flanges today for my breast pump so I can pump and not have the nipple rub against the side. Things are definitely looking up!

Ray's doing great now. He seems a lot more interactive with us and as of several days ago, his vision seems better and he seems to be taking in his surroundings more. He is pretty good at night actually. He will sleep several hours at a time, wake up to nurse, and then go back to sleep. During the day when I've been home by myself, I hardly ever put him down and he nurses fairly long and frequently.

My recovery's been pretty OK. I had a 2nd degree tear and a ton of stitches. I actually thought that was going to be more uncomfortable than it turned out to be. Healing from that hasn't given me many problems at all. The problem I'm having now though is with constipation. It totally sucks! : I'm taking a prenatal with iron and have been on colace, but it doesn't seem to be working at all. The pain from trying to go is worse than my labor was (of course, I didn't go natural either, so I can't really compare how it would have been ). I need to talk to the doctor about maybe switching things up because I'm not sure how much more of that I can take.

[michanders4]

I'm sorry to hear about all of the breastfeeding issues. I have to admit that I've lucked out in that department. I've def had plenty of other issues to deal with but I pretty much taught myself how to nurse and of course it helps that Cooper has a great latch.

We walked to the park today with the dogs. It was so nice out :

[MelW]

Hey mamas, I'm putting in another plug for JenMidwife's plan to collaborate on gifts for MI_Dawn and mischevium. Could anyone who wants to contribute please PM her?

AFWife, floradix is OTC. Usually in health/natural food stores. And you're doing a great job

Nancy, perhaps you're getting less pumping because Zack is taking more from your breasts now?

I had an unexpected French collect call this morning- my husband had an unexpected stopover in Montreal. I hate Air Canada. Supposedly he's getting home later this afternoon, but I reached the end of my super-single-parenting skills yesterday afternoon. And Neela woke up at 5 this morning. It was a looong morning.

[wobblykate]

Ok, quasar, I'm gonna stop complaining now. Your nursing experience sounds harrowing. Kudos to you for keeping it up.

On the constipation, I got that for the first time yesterday, mostly I think b/c I stopped eating my oatmeal for breakfast. But, in your case, can you talk to your doc about the floradix everyine's talking about? It's supposed to be non constipating

[nancy11]

Originally Posted by quasar

We had a horrible time in the hospital trying to figure out the whole breastfeeding thing. He wasn't latching right, and I was only producing a few drops of colostrum. I had the lc's there try to help out, but I got the feeling they just weren't listening to me. Ray ended up losing about 10% of his body weight those first couple days and they were threatening keeping him there another day to help clear up his jaundice and get him eating better. Luckily that didn't happen. But I did end up supplementing him after feedings with about an ounce of formula with one of those little cup things. I sucked at doing that and most of the time he would end up spitting it up an hour later... Luckily, he's exclusively being bf'ed now. But it's been a bit of a struggle. First I had no supply, then he wasn't latching properly, then I got cracked nipples, then one breast wasn't really producing as much as the other, then one of my montgomery glands got blocked, then I got mastitis. Finally we are on the mend. My one breast ended up getting an abcess that drained last Friday, and now I am able to nurse on both sides without too much discomfort. And I also got new flanges today for my breast pump so I can pump and not have the nipple rub against the side. Things are definitely looking up!

This is almost exactly what happened to me!!

[Peony]

Julian is starting to look like a normal baby today! His face and neck were covered in broken blood vessels from emerging rather quickly. They were still bright red yesterday, but today I can barely see them. One eye is still really red, he had broken blood vessels in it as well.


to those having problems bfing.

[secondimpression]

Xander is a month old today, I don't know where the time went

I've learned the hard way that soda is completely off-limits now. Even the caffiene free stuff! I'd cut it out for a week then had a coke yesterday...and paid dearly for it early this morning, he was non-stop wiggling and thrashing about for 4 hours.

I don't know how long 2nd degree tears take to heal, but mine seem to not be healing all that quickly. I think I might've managed to tear out the outer layer of stitches on my perineal tear, it's just not looking right at all My labial tear is incredibly tender, but looks like it's healed up for the most part. Ugh, I can't wait to feel back to normal down there again

[wobblykate]

I was wondering how long the stitches take to heal. I had a 1st degree, 5 stitches. Eden's almost 3 weeks old (!) but I don't feel like I'm totally healed in the tear...I haven't looked, tho.

[quasar]

Originally Posted by wobblykate

Ok, quasar, I'm gonna stop complaining now. Your nursing experience sounds harrowing. Kudos to you for keeping it up.

Yeah, let's just say it wasn't the greatest experience ever, but I was determined. I was so upset in the hospital because they kept telling me that things were going fine, but that I needed to nurse him more. I told them I try, but he keeps popping off. When they'd ask how long he was nursing for, I'd tell them he nurses for about an hour and a half, but most of that is him popping on and off, and falling asleep. Then they'd basically yell at me and tell me that he needed to be nursing for at least 10-15 minutes straight and that I needed to wake him up if he was n't doing it properly. Well, if he wasn't doing that, what the heck was I supposed to do? So I'd get frustrated and sad that I was doing it all wrong. They kept saying not to worry about the colostrum being a small supply because he still is getting about a teaspoon per time he'd nurse. Well, I really doubted he was getting more than a couple drops with the way I was producing and the way he was suckling. It really made me sad and I just felt horrible that I was failing at it.

Once coming home though and having my milk come in, things got better. It also helps that he's a little bigger now because he wasn't able to open his mouth up enough to take the nipple in properly (which caused the cracking). I'm just happy that things are going well now and that I no longer have pus coming out of my boob. I'm hoping that I've gotten the majority of the problems out of the way in the beginning here and it will be smooth sailing from now on. i'm just trying to work on increasing my supply now.

For my stitches I would say it took about a week to be pretty normal. The first few days were a bit sore walking and sitting. I sort of walked slowly and a little hunched. I would say mine was a fairly uncomplicated and quick recovery.

Thanks for the info on the floridix. I'll have to ask about it.

[bodhitree]

quasar, nancy11, wobblykate, everyone else who has persisted bfing through struggles: you mamas rock

Anyone else getting tired of being spit up on? River woke up to nurse at 4:30 this morning, nursed for 40 minutes, acted like she was done, then begged to nurse again. After she nursed some more, she spat up an impressive amount of milk all over me. After I changed my shirt, I took her out into the living room and discovered that one of my cats had yakked on the carpet. Man, my life contains way too much in the way of regurgitated stomach contents lately. Yuck. And I'm not even including all the puking I did when I was pregnant. I know I shouldn't complain, and I'm so happy to have this baby. But still, I can't help but remember how little puking my life used to involve.