Chat Thread 11/6-11/12

[cbeclipse]

Here is a new chat thread for this week.

I *hope* things are finally settling down for me. I have SO much I want to say/comment on from last week's chat thread, but it may take me a while to catch up. I can't wait to write out his birth story and share it. I hope that I can find to write it out soon.  All I can say is, natural childbirth is NO joke, but totally amazing.

Landon came from the hospital Sunday night

He is just so sweet. I can't believe he is mine.

We are having breastfeeding issues over here though. I don't really think my milk has fully come in yet. Tonight it will be 5 days since I gave birth. Landon is finally latching on (the first two days he hated my boobs and wanted nothing to do with them) but he falls asleep almost as soon as he latches on. I do know that he is getting some breastmilk though, because yesterday his poops were "seedy" and different than they had been. We are giving him some formula, about 2-3 times a day, after I nurse him, because sometimes he is just pissed and screaming and doesn't want my boob but is acting like he is starving.

Landon is up.....time to go feed him!

[emmaegbert]

Chelsea- so glad to hear Landon is home! Definitely get an LC on the case asap. now is a good time to get help and make sure breastfeeding gets established and off to a good start. Also you want to have it effortless before you go back to work with the older kids! Your MW may know local people? if not, I know some names in NYC and they might be able to get you in touch with LI LCs, I think you said you aren't far out? LLL also would have resources in that regard.

[StephandOwen]

Not posting much, but always reading!

[not_telling]

Chelsea - so glad Landon is home...and, yes!  you get to keep him!

Breastfeeding - I've decided, based on my experience with both DS and DD that it just sucks that the first days/weeks are so "critical" in terms of babies getting proper nourishment...and, yet, we're all having to sit around, waiting for our milk to come in (i know colostrum is supposed to be enough at first) and trying to teach these babies how to nurse and jumping over all the other hurdles that come our way. 

AFM - Day 1 of just-me-and-the-kids wasn't too bad.  Got DS to school on time...maybe cuz I was already awake with DD for an hour before my alarm went off.  Things got a little dicey during the time between DS coming home and DS going up for nap.  He was pooping on the potty in the living room...and "just thinking about things" on the potty and also looking at a toy catalogue while on the potty..so I took advantage and tried to eat some english muffin pizzas real quick before I had to get him ready for nap.  Then DD got all fussy, so I had my finger in her mouth to suck on, eating pizza with the other hand, encouraging DS to just stay on the potty so I wouldn't have to get him cleaned up just yet...then the doorbell rings and it's this guy from the roofing company (they did work back in august/sept) showing up unannounced to tell us we owe more money and DD is fussing/crying in my arms and DS is stinking up the living room and my pizzas are getting cold and I didn't want to be dealing with the roofing guy cuz I know DH wasn't happy about some things (they broke one of the flagstones on our patio and got roofing gunk on some of the  stones and left nails scattered around).  I kept looking at the guy like, really?  You really want me to deal with this right now?

Then DS took his nap and DD and I watched a couple eps of "Felicity."  Then DS got up and it was kinda overload for me until DH got home.  Oh...the best part...while getting DS ready for nap, I lost my patience and used my loud impatient/annoyed mommy voice.  DD looked up at me with what I interpreted as total recognition...how many times did she hear me use that voice when she was in utero?  She was like, "ohhh...you're that person...I know you!"

[emmaegbert]

Originally Posted by not_telling , I lost my patience and used my loud impatient/annoyed mommy voice.  DD looked up at me with what I interpreted as total recognition...how many times did she hear me use that voice when she was in utero?  She was like, "ohhh...you're that person...I know you!"

HAHA! my baby is #3 so she knows that voice well...

[theboysmama]

Originally Posted by not_telling 

 DD looked up at me with what I interpreted as total recognition...how many times did she hear me use that voice when she was in utero?  She was like, "ohhh...you're that person...I know you!"

Chelsea- I am glad he is home! I would highly recommend stopping the supplementation as your body wont realize he needs that milk and it will screw up your supply. Dd does a similar thing about fussing like crazy before a feed/ during a feed/ after a feed. It drives me nuts. I usually find that she is wet or needs to pee or poop and then it is a little better. She has a terrible time latching on and I find that it works best when I dangle my breast and nipple down into her mouth and squeeze my nipple and with the other hand shove her head onto the breast. It may take a few tries but she gets it eventually. As long as he has plenty of output I wouldn't worry about his fits, just get the boob into his mouth.  It sure is frustrating but sounds like he is on the right track.

AFM- Saphira is 3 wks, it is so hard to believe. She is a great sleeper (day and night) and the only issue we are having is her pissiness with nursing. She acts like she doesn't like it.... well I have news for her, it is the only option :). She is gaining great and looks healthy so seems to be working. She is making almost all of her poops into the potty which totally blows me away. She is dry most nights too. I know she is going to "wake up" soon so am trying to really enjoy this extended sleep period.

Dd1 is nursing like crazy and I am going to need to cut her back before I go insane.

I am already out of freezer meals (totally didn't get my act together) and we only had 2 meals brought to us. Must get off my hiney and figure out what we are having for dinner before the kids eat all of the halloween candy.

[~pi]

Chelsea, hooray!! He is home!!!

Originally Posted by not_telling 
Oh...the best part...while getting DS ready for nap, I lost my patience and used my loud impatient/annoyed mommy voice.  DD looked up at me with what I interpreted as total recognition...how many times did she hear me use that voice when she was in utero?  She was like, "ohhh...you're that person...I know you!"

For the past two years, I worked at a university 5 hours from where I live. I had a special arrangement where I telecommuted some of the time and the rest of the time, I made regular trips to the university, usually for a week at a time. So I had many 5 hour drives while pregnant. I often used loud, obnoxious pop music to keep me alert while driving. You can see where this is heading ... DS2 now falls asleep to loud, obnoxious pop music.

[lifeguard]

not_telling - people are incredible sometimes. When ds was just a couple weeks old I had a guy show up at my gate to cut off my water (turns out our landlady had not paid the bill in several weeks) & wasn't willing to give me even an hour to sort things out. Seriously, I'm standing here looking like hell with exhaustion & a brand new baby & you want something from me?! Insane. Hope your dh gives him whatfor.

Stupid dog tried to burn down our house tonight. I fell asleep in bed with dd & ds while putting ds to sleep (very unusual for me to lie with him but we were having a really nice cuddle) when I wake up to hear this strange, loud clicking. Dh had gone outside & the dog had jumped up on the stove to try to get the frying pan & had turned on one burner & bumped another one to light (which was the clicking). I HATE that the stupid gas stove has all the controls right on the front & this is the just the topper. Thank goodness I was home & heard it right away. But now I don't know how to solve the problem - when we bought the stove we tried to find one with the knobs elsewhere but there wasn't one that wasn't triple our budget. Sigh.

[~pi]

lifeguard, can you pull the knobs off? That's what we did with our gas stove during the toddler years. When we needed to use the stove, we would just pop a knob back on to use that burner.

SO GLAD you heard the noise. Yikes.

[theboysmama]

lifeguard- we use these and they work well.  how  scary! good thing u woke up.

[lifeguard]

Thanks for the ideas - dh doesn't seem nearly as bothered by it as I am - sigh.

[Katico]

nak 

supplemented poop:  question for those who have/are supp.  I would say DD is currently getting 3/4 formula and 1/4 bmilk,...so how come all of her poops are definitely bf poops - mustard yellow/seedy??  I expected them to look more like formula poops since that's the majority of her feeds.  Is there one massive formula poop lurking in there??

decreasing supp:  I know that  I need to decrease supp to increase supply  but I'm not sure how to decrease supp when she is mostly f-fed at this point, without running into dehydration etc again?  I'm also worried about night feedings - she only wakes once or twice but I'm having trouble bf'ing at night - She will feed for ages and then still need supp - I'm having trouble staying awake and I'm not comfortable side laying etc and falling back asleep while she feeds - my breasts are large/soft and I'm afraid of suffocating her   Wisdom?  I guess I should pull out the sns again, I've just been avoiding it....maybe I'll order a lact-aid.  I'm just not sure how much effort I'm willing to put in when it's not clear if we'll have any significant supply...I know that sounds terrible, esp. when I'm so excited to have ANY supply...but I refuse to turn into a crazy mess over it this time  

I'm thankful there are so many mamas here who have had experience with low supply...it can feel so isolating when you're surrounded by people who have no idea what a struggle it is.  I pumped an ounce yesterday and I was so thrilled at that huge amount (haha)  and all I could think about was how most mamas probably leak that much several times a day!  It's a whole different experience.  

freezer meals: all I can say is THANK YOU, CRAZY NESTING PAST ME...I'm so glad to have a freezer full of good food...DH would feed us frozen pizza for every meal if I hadn't stocked the deep freeze!  This week's menu includes meatloaf, stuffed shells, enchiladas, muffins and cookies and strawberry shortcake!  And a frozen pizza 

Stoves:  Um, terrifying!!  We just bought a new stove and thank heavens I took DD1 with me to shop for it - I was about to buy a stove with front knobs when I noticed her walking down the row of stoves turning all the knobs!!  It would never have occurred to me until I got it home that it was perfect toddler height to turn on!!  Duh!!  It's wierd that it's more expensive to get the knobs on the back, eh?  My Dh wouldn't have been as freaked out either - he'd say something like "well, no point worrying about it, the house DIDN'T burn down"....

Chelsea: Yay!!  He's home!!!  I'm so happy for you!!  I know what you mean - it's hard to believe they're ours...it's too wonderful to believe!

Mambera:   I am also thrilled when my boobs start to ache - it means there's something there for her!!! Totally weird ;)

Rosemary: I've been thinking about you and hoping your friend is doing better?  So sad!    I want more pictures of Iona- because she is adooorable and looks so much like her mama!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by not_telling 

AFM - Day 1 of just-me-and-the-kids wasn't too bad.  Got DS to school on time...maybe cuz I was already awake with DD for an hour before my alarm went off.  Things got a little dicey during the time between DS coming home and DS going up for nap.  He was pooping on the potty in the living room...and "just thinking about things" on the potty and also looking at a toy catalogue while on the potty..so I took advantage and tried to eat some english muffin pizzas real quick before I had to get him ready for nap.  Then DD got all fussy, so I had my finger in her mouth to suck on, eating pizza with the other hand, encouraging DS to just stay on the potty so I wouldn't have to get him cleaned up just yet...then the doorbell rings and it's this guy from the roofing company (they did work back in august/sept) showing up unannounced to tell us we owe more money and DD is fussing/crying in my arms and DS is stinking up the living room and my pizzas are getting cold and I didn't want to be dealing with the roofing guy cuz I know DH wasn't happy about some things (they broke one of the flagstones on our patio and got roofing gunk on some of the  stones and left nails scattered around).  I kept looking at the guy like, really?  You really want me to deal with this right now?

This made me laaaaaugh (in a sympathetic way, of course )  

DH and I were in the middle of utter chaos last night with two kids and supper, and we just looked at each other and started laughing.  It was a wonderful chaos.

[cbeclipse]

Katico- I could have written just about the same thing that you wrote about poop and decreasing supply. I really feel lost and don't know what to do.

I can't write too much because I have to feed Landon soon, but we are still having breastfeeding/supply issues. I don't want to supplement, but I also don't want to starve my little guy. He is only getting 8 oz of formula a day, spread out throughout the day. He does latch on and nurse, but falls asleep after 5 minutes. He also has times where he is looking for something to latch onto and getting so mad, but when I try to get him to latch on he wants nothing to do with my boob, and it makes him even more mad. Seems to happen more in the evenings. I feel so bad/helpless when that happens. I've been trying to pump a few times a day, hardly get anything out when I do pump though. I'm thinking about taking some supplements to see if they can get my supply up.

Off to feed Landon......

[emmaegbert]

Originally Posted by ~pi 

lifeguard, can you pull the knobs off? That's what we did with our gas stove during the toddler years. When we needed to use the stove, we would just pop a knob back on to use that burner.

that is what we do too. in the size stove we have space for (the smallest 4-burner stove you can get) there were no models with back burner knobs. At least not in the USA where apparently everyone has gigantic kitchens except me (I have heard rumors from friends that they make high quality SMALL appliances in europe...)

[StephandOwen]

Chelsea- have you tried massaging your breast while he's latched on, when he starts to fall asleep? This should get milk flowing, forcing him to swallow/suck again. I had to do this at almost every feed with Kai for the first couple weeks. Today he's 4 weeks old and doing much better about staying awake for a feed.

[emmaegbert]

Chelsea:

http://www.nylca.org/parents/services/home_visits/

this lets you search for LCs who do home visits in the tri-state area. I saw the link when I was looking up the breasfeeding store where I want to go when baby wakes up from naptime to get a decent nursing bra. Anyway, maybe helpful?

[saoirse2007]

Originally Posted by StephandOwen 

Chelsea- have you tried massaging your breast while he's latched on, when he starts to fall asleep? This should get milk flowing, forcing him to swallow/suck again. I had to do this at almost every feed with Kai for the first couple weeks. Today he's 4 weeks old and doing much better about staying awake for a feed.

when i had my first baby the nurse at the hospital in Newfoundland called this the "drown the bugger" technique -we used it with great success for all 3 kiddos at the newborn stage:)

[Katico]

Originally Posted by saoirse2007 

when i had my first baby the nurse at the hospital in Newfoundland called this the "drown the bugger" technique -we used it with great success for all 3 kiddos at the newborn stage:)

*snicker*   ahh, Newfoundland  

[Trinket90]

Katico - I have large, soft breasts too and I've actually found side laying to be a lot easier than sitting up for night feedings (don't have to hold the boob up). I just lay my boob out in a way that DS can latch on without his nose being buried. And if necessary I keep a hand on my breast pushing down a little to keep the flesh away from his nose, although that's not usually an issue. And while I don't purposefully fall asleep like that, it's happened and it's nice. Also, IME, DS is really good at unlatching and complaining if I accidentally start to suffocate him (which happens a lot more sitting up than side laying). Maybe play around with side laying a little (even during the day so you're more alert) and see if you can find a position that's more comfortable and less worrisome?

cbeclipse - I have the same falling asleep after a couple minutes problem with DS. It can be frustrating, even though I'm not supplementing, because he wants to eat again minutes later. I've tried changing his diaper, which works great, and burping him, which just puts him further to sleep. The most effective technique I've found is, the moment you see those eyes start to drift, tickle his neck or cheek, or rub his feet, or something else that mildly irritates him or wakes him up. I don't know if that'll work for you but that's what worked with my lazy, sleepy baby!

lifeguard - wow, that's terrifying. I second all the "take the knobs off" people. Our knobs are on the range top and I think we had to do that a couple times when my sister had learned to climb the counters and wanted to make her "apple juice with tea in it" (apple juice cut with hot water from the teapot) all by herself.

[Katico]

Can I just vent for a minute? (Like I've ever hesitated to vent....)

So, a 'friend' (more an acquaintance) called and asked if she could stop in last night to drop off some hand-me-downs for DD1, a care package of food for us and a quick peek at DD2....I was tired but it was very kind of her so I said sure, come on over.

So, 'stopping in' apparently meant coming over with her two kids (3 and 7) and staying for an hour and half while they ran screaming circles around the house, winding up DD1 right before bedtime.  And her 3 yo kept grabbing toys from DD1 (2yo) and then running to tattle  every 5 minutes, that "Lila won't share!!" when DD protested......Oh, and she told her 7yo that he was to keep an eye on the little girls and make sure they "behaved", so I hear him in the other room "correcting" DD for not "sharing".......gah!!!

OMG.  The noise.  The mess,  What the hell???

DD is still talking about it today, how the little girl and little boy were soooo noisy and didn't listen to their mommy and broke a toy

Wouldn't you think that having BTDT with newborns, people might think twice and realize they're being CRAZY?!