weekly chat oct 1-7 « Back to Group Discussions

[MadiMamacita]

I know there are still some pregnant mamas out there.. no one else has 2 free typing hands!

so I started my new "job" today.. I am on call to watch my midwife's kids when she gets called to a birth. She has two DDs- a 4y/o and a 7 m/o. My two boys are exactly 6 months younger than her girls. I went over there at 10, she came home at 1, and we are going back later. there are 2 ladies ready to birth today so I'm sure we will go back there for an overnight, which my DS1 is super excited about!
It is a trip having 4 kids all of a sudden, but the bigger two entertain each other very well.

question about pumping: I tried pumping the first few days after my milk came in, but I felt like I was getting too engorged so I wanted to wait until my supply evened out. Now I think I'm ready to start again, at 6 wks pp, but I can't figure out when to do it! Do you need to be pretty full to pump? it seems like i can't get much if DS has just nursed, but if I wait until LONG after he has nursed, he wants to nurse again and I feel like he would be frustrated at not having enough "stored up".. I was never a successful pumper with DS1 and I would really like to work on that for this babe. I mentioned once before that I'd like to pump to donate to a lady who had a double mastectomy- she had her baby over the weekend so I need to get moving!
Edited by MadiMamacita - 10/1/12 at 5:23pm

[evillager]

Hey Madi- I'm trying to figure this out as well! I just starting pumping today, at nearly 4 weeks PP... I have heard it suggested that it can work well to pump in the morning when you may have an oversupply. Didn't do that today but it makes sense, so I think I'll give it a go tomorrow. Otherwise, I figure that anytime she naps for at least an hour during the day I'll pump. Got two sessions in today. The first time she woke up as I was finishing pumping and wanted to eat. I didn't have a ton of milk, but she got something- she was definitely swallowing and all smiles.

I don't want to stress about pumping, but do want to stock up a bit before I have to return to work in December. I figure if I pump at least once per day it will have to be enough. With non-existent sleeping/eating schedule for baby and a preschooler on my hands, it's actually a lot to coordinate! Good luck!
 

[MamanFrancaise]

All I have to say is I am SICK TO DEATH of wearing pads. I hate them. They are starting to irritate my skin and I'm bleeding just enough to still need a thin pad (like really, how much longer is this brownish freakin' blood going to linger??). I miss tampons.

[nukuspot]

Totally there with you MamanF. My skin is so irritated from pads. I love love love my cloth pads but unfortunately I go through them too fast so I have to go back to the itchy Seventh Generation disposables.

[nukuspot]

And...Does anyone else's babe have baby acne? Mora has a terrible terrible case of it, it gets worse each day. It's making me quite sad, it looks so uncomfortable, it's even on her eyelids. DD1 never had this...

[judybean]

I am sooooooo happy that I made plenty of pp cloth pads and have so many normal cloth pads so I have only used my beloved -- and delightfully soft -- cloth! That said, I stil can't wait to just wear nothing extra! But being only 10 days out, I think I still have a while.

nukuspot -- mine doesn't (yet anyway), but dd4 had the worst case I'd probably seen. I'll see if I have any pictures... it looked painful, but eventually went away and she does have fabulous skin now! I just let it be.

[MadiMamacita]

Jude has tiny pimples all over his face that look almost like a heat rash. Doesn't seem to bother him. Is that the same thing? He also has a few bigger zitty looking ones that look like they could have a teeny white head on them.

[katt]

I feel your pain!  Oh man do i ever!

[AnyaRose]

Holy croakers...Babymoon central over here. I never EVER would have guessed myself to disappear from here or not write my birth story and post pics like, right away.... But he is soooooooooooo cute. Ohhhh my gosh. So a quick checkin will suffice... ^^;;;

[Jend1002]

Oh my is this baby kicking my butt! Does anyone have experience with this? He seems uncomfortable all night but yet does well pretty much all day. He grunts and strains from about 9 pm until 5 am and is visibly uncomfortable. He is super gassy and gurgly yet not much at all during the day. Our nights consist of him wanting to nurse every 2 hours for about 15 minutes then me taking about another 45 to settle him. I can eventually swaddle him and lay him down but it's about 25% chance he will fall asleep. I get about 2 hours total, completely broken up, per night. Any ideas about what bothers him only at night? Daytime naps are fine! I'm dying here- and stressed because DS1 was (is) the worst sleeper ever and the thought of a repeat is terrifying to me. Not another 4 years...maybe I am being overly dramatic but MAN I need some sleep!!!

Good thing he is the cutest thing! Some day when I can keep my eyes open I will post a photo. AFM (and I mean my actual body), I have an incision check today but feel pretty good. Today is my birthday too maybe having a baby at 39 is what's wiping me out I've lost 20 lbs now and can't believe that- didn't happen with DS1. I wonder if I can get below prepregnancy weight, because I really should!

[MIrandaM]

Jend, is that 15 minutes all on the same boob? Maybe he's getting a lot of foremilk - I've read that if babies are nursing for short periods (and maybe for you two 15 minutes is plenty long, in which case disregard this ) get lots of high lactose, low fat foremilk that can cause gassy fussy babies. Does he normally feed longer during the day?

Judybean, thank you for the very sweet and supportive response <3 I've been nursing in the other room for comfort mainly- it's where I could sit most comfortably and with the best posture while I was fighting lingering breast soreness Since my LC confirmed that my latch is good and I should be using a laid back position to slow the milk flow that opens up more rooms in the house as possible nursing locations! Which means less isolation! I breastfed in a very open and busy coffee shop today with my 70-something year old, super conservative old school in-laws today, it was liberating love your approach of nursing wherever the family is, you sound like such a great mom.

Nursing in public question for the NIP pros I don't mind showing a bit of boob while DS is latched on and nursing, but how do you handle the significantly greater amount of exposure while the undoing the bra, adjusting your clothes, putting baby to the breast, taking him off, putting the breast pad back on, making sure your nipples are roughly lined up with each other, applying some nipple cream etc? I tried it today and that part was tough for me - it felt kind of like putting on make-up or picking my teeth at the table. I just threw things back on and fixed it later in the ladies room.

Random note about having houseguests, somehow my cat ended up locked in the storage closet all night until I was up at 4am feeding the baby and heard her meowing desperately. It took me forever to find her, I even left the baby in bed and went searching outside! Then this morning my FIL said 'yeah we heard her meowing ALL NIGHT but we thought that was normal.' haha what??!! They even have a cat at home and she certainly doesn't meow desperately all night!!

[MIrandaM]

Jend, just thought of one more thing, are you sidelying to nurse at night? I feed DS the bulk of his meal sitting up, then burp and diaper him and sidelie to get him to sleep - he nurses super softly until he falls asleep and just falls off the boob. This works especially well if he seems wide awake and I feel that he'll be tough to get settled. I would love to hear what works if you find something!

[WindyCityMom]

I'm 2 weeks postpartum today and time is flying by!
Nova is a great sleeper... She cluster feeds every morning though which is a pain. Otherwise it's every three hours.. I've never had such an UNdemanding baby before! She did give me a scare though.. She went 48 hours without pooping! Not sure why but shes back to normal now!

AFM, Ihad a CBC drawn on Friday and am anxious to hear the results. I feel great so I halved both my prenatal dose and floradix dose over the weekend. I couldn't poop! I've been eating quite a bit of spinach though. If my hemoglobin hasn't raised to at least 9.5 (discharge was 8.8) its back on the no-poop pills for me! I called he office this morning, hoping they get back to me soon.

[MissE]

Aaawwww Anya: Nico is all yours, enjoy him.

@Jend: I have a grunter over here too. DS was a grunter too and it stopped at exactly 3 months old. Still hoping Audrie will stop a bit earlier than that. She usually goes down fine but once the 2am feeding comes around, she'll grunt and strain like crazy. What helps for us is - what Miranda suggested - first feed sitting up and then sidelaying and she'll just fall off the boob. I have to admit that I usually just leave her laying next to me, I won't put her back in her crib (which is only sidecarred to our bed, so it wouldn't be THAT far away). With DS helped only swaddeling him and putting him on my belly. As long as we stayed that way (either me on my back or both of us on the side) he slept all night and at 3 months it was over.

Oh and during the day she's perfectly fine. It's usually the poop part that she hasn't quite mastered yet, so once that is out in the morning she's fine. I have also started giving her gripe water, like three times a day which seems to calm her down a bit.

[MissE]

@WCM: From what I heard breastfed babies can go without pooping for a bit, since the milk can be completely digested, no waste left over. DD1 was a baby that didn't poop very much, maybe twice or three times a week, which totally took me by surprise since DS pooped before, during and after every feeding in the beginning (just like baby does now LOL).

[activealli]

Jend- I deal with the same thing some night. DD is very sensitive stomached, like her momma. I ate a tostada on Sunday and she was up all Sunday night with gas. Ive had to work super hard at figuring out my diet with things that will trigger her tummy. Cant do my 100 calorie protein shakes. Cant take iron supplements. Low to no dairy or wheat. Easy on teh bean-age. So, Im not left at much since Im a vegetarian but Im figuring it out and hopefully her tummy will get better as she gets older. 

I agree on the sidelying position. The problem is that I tend to fall asleep before she does and it scares the living daylights out of me. I have co-slept with my son in bed from about 8 months onward, when he was bigger, but with her being so little and immobile, it scares me, so I tend not to do it. I drag myself out of our bedroom and into the living room a million times a night. Our bedroom is too dark at night to get her latched anyways.

[Ava's Mama]

I agree on pads! I feel like I have a diaper rash! If I don't shower every day it is even more irritated!!

[WindyCityMom]

Originally Posted by MissE 

@WCM: From what I heard breastfed babies can go without pooping for a bit, since the milk can be completely digested, no waste left over. DD1 was a baby that didn't poop very much, maybe twice or three times a week, which totally took me by surprise since DS pooped before, during and after every feeding in the beginning (just like baby does now LOL).

Maybe! But I tthink she was just holding back on me.. She had three HUGE poop explosions in the past half hour!



Pads- I cant wait until they're a thing of my past! 2 weeks pp and still having red-brown lochia though it is slowing down and turning more brown.... Ack... I had three packs of overnight pads from when I had my miscarriage before I became pregnant with Nova... DH didn't know which brand I wanted. well, I've burned through that stash! And I didn't come home from the hospital until day 4 pp!

[WindyCityMom]

Question... how much "awake" time do your LOs have?  

Nova (2wks) has been wide awake for FOUR hours now.  Just hanging out.  She usually has about 2hrs awake time right after we eat dinner as well.  It seems like so much.. I feel like my other two were so sleepy at this age!

[ascher21]

I can't wait until I can finish with the pads, too!!! I've got some chafing going on, which isn't too fun. Although today was the first time I didn't need a squirt bottle when I pee, so yay, small victory!! The other night I just laid on a chux pad to air things out. It seemed to help a little.

Here's an interesting question: when the heck do you change the diaper? I'm cloth diapering, so when he wets, the whole thing is soaked. He also poops during his feedings, and at night, if I change him after, he doesn't pass into deep sleep like he needs (and I do) to get his 1-3 hrs. If I change him before, he's sitting in poop while he sleeps. If I change him between breasts he spits up from laying down too quickly. No rashes or anything so far, but just wondering what makes for the smoothest transition from diaper to breast to sleep?

And also, do you switch breasts during a feeding, or do you let the baby stay on one until he's done? Towards the end of one breast he sucks harder and it hurts, so I take him off, and I'll offer the other side, but he isn't always interested.