Last week of Sept! chat thread 9/26 - 10/2 - Page 6

[JenInMpls]

Originally Posted by banana girl

could everyone who is struggling with milk supply please bring their babies to my house so I can nurse them???? My freaking breasts are so dang engorged.. it's miserable! If i could just get these dang things empty!

anna, if you were in eau claire instead of madison, i might seriously take you up on that one. my little man has been dropping weight and i'm sure he'd be thrilled to tank up on someone else's ample supply.

and here i am considering taking drugs banned in the usa (not in canada though) to increase my supply. odd how things work out. i suppose in the end that formula would be a safer solution.

[Cuddlemama]

One Month Old today...

We're celebrating Chinese style with the traditional red egg and ginger party. Just like Emily, by the end of the week Anna will have a far greater jewelry collection than her mother. I don't know that I'll ever get used to the Chinese tradition of sending incredibly expensive jewelry to a newborn.

We're having weight issues, too, Jen. Even with formula supplimentation and constant pumping and demand nursing, Anna isn't gaining. She was born at just under 6 pounds and is now a 6 pound 2 ounce 1 month old. I'm considering the same "illegal" medication that you mentioned.

I'd love to have a wetnurse here. It would be worth more to me than a million dollar bank account, actually.

Ok, back to the other children. They're having a difficult weekend for some reason. I think they've grown weary of our constant fixation with Anna's needs. I know there's a transitional period within any family that has a newborn, but ours is extended based on the fact that Anna has never gotten to the point where she can just be integrated into the family like the other kids. She needs almost constant care and handling at the moment.

~L

[cottonwood]

Stacy, I don't know what to say about the swelling (you might PM Pam about that) but I am a big believer in intuition, and if you felt something was wrong, well then it was probably a good idea for you to transfer. I would say, though, that the pain was a good enough reason in itself! I probably would have transferred myself if the back labor had gone on much longer than it did, even knowing how certain management of labor and pain relief could create more problems. Which of course brings us to how your labor was managed once you got there and how that affected the outcome, and what would have happened had you stayed home. It's of course impossilble to know for sure, but since people tend to respond to such stories with comments like, "you're lucky you were at the hospital, since the baby was in distress," I think it's important to keep remembering that certain interventions cause babies to go into distress, and there's no reason to assume that the former was more likely true in your situation than the latter.

I don't say all this to put blame on you from another direction, but to point out that the blame that has already been placed was not appropriate, partly for the reason that Jen said, but also because the people blaming you had a limited enough view of things that they couldn't reasonably pass judgement about why things happened the way they did.

Sometimes it's hard to analyze a situation, being so close to it. With time I'm sure clarity will come and you won't feel so conflicted. Meanwhile, go easy on yourself, and just focus as much as you can on your fine, healthy boy and nurturing yourself. You deserve it!

p.s. Alex is truly beautiful, and you are a beautiful family! (And you look fantastic for having gone through such an ordeal, lol!)

[Jodie]

I have a baby!

Haven't had time to read the other posts,just wanted to let you all know our daughter has been born.

Kaia Morgan was born Sept.25,2004 at 9:01am.

I labored for about 10-12 hours and had her in our bed.
We planned a water birth, but it just didn't work out.

Kaia has jaundice her bili was 22 on Thurs. now its 15.9.
We've been doing phototherapy at home and feeding her as much as she will eat. She got a slow start on the breast because of the way my nipples are. We're doing better and better with it every time we nurse.
I've got so much milk it seems because it just constantly leaks out.
So right now she's asleep so I should be too, I just don't want to. Maybe I will at least lay down.
Hope to read and talk more later.

[hjohnson]

nak

congratulations jodie! kaia is a pretty name.

[MamaAcorn]

Jackson is 2 weeks old today

Just a quick post to check in. My 3-year-old has a cold and hasn't been feeling well since Tuesday night. Jackson, dh, and I have been trying to fight off the starts of it for two days now. Anyway between everyone with a cold and my parents visiting again this weekend, I haven't had much time for anything else. I start back fulltime with work tomorrow, so I suppose I should get used to it. I'll try to post more later.

Pam

[cottonwood]

Jodie, I love the name Kaia, that was on our short list! (Did you know it's the name of the little sister in the movie Princess Mononoke?)

[banana girl]

wet nurse

isn't it sad that our society has become so "un-natural" that we no longer have a community that supports mothers and families??? In the past people would turn to their family and friends for help with nursing, birth, etc. but now so few women breastfeed and there is such taboo placed on breasts that the idea of nursing someone else's child is shocking....
Even adoptive mothers are too scared to nurse their new child!
Seriously, i think it would help me to nurse a child that was latching properly, I could then take what I've learned and apply it to nursing Mielle. We are still using a plastic breast sheild, which i find very frustrating. It adds extra steps to the process of feeding my daughter and separates us from one another. My let down is so heavy that sometimes it seems like she hardly has to suck, the plastic nipple just fills with milk and she lets it run down her throat! I have been trying to wean her off it but with all the breast pain I've been having... it's hard to "make myself" go with out it. she gets so mad when we don't use it!
Had a total breakdown yesterday afternoon. My breast pain was so bad in one breast that after nursing on it for 3 feedings to try and clear the block I broke down weeping while Mielle cried her head off next to me. I cried on and off for nearly 2 hours! I had to put my teddy bear between her and i because she would swing her arms and cry bumping into my breasts, which was agonizing. I was running a fever of 101, My head was pounding, i was dizzy and my rash was driving me crazy! Mielle would NOT go to sleep and i just layed there and wept till Jerome came home. The worst thing was wanting to pick her up and comfort her, but not being able to... it hurt too much to have her in contact with my breasts. The whole thing was heartbreaking.

Feeling much better today, Mielle slept in nearly 4 hour long stretches, so i actually got some restorative sleep!

Congratulations Jodie! Welcome Kaia! good luck with the jaundice, just keeping feeding that girl and things will turn around!

Well, i should try and get something accomplished here in my messy, smelly, cluttered house!
Love to all

[indiana ima]

nak. 3 weeks 4 days old.

i just came home from a bris (so glad i had another girl) :. and my midwife was there because she caught that baby also. just for fun she weighed the baby for me. in clothes and a diaper, my baby weighed 10 pounds 15 ounces! she's gained almost 3 pounds since she was born. she really looks it, too. she's got several chins now and chipmunk cheeks. clothes that were swimming on her 3 wks ago now fit correctly.

of course, she also has lots of acne. anyone else wonder if they gave birth to a teenager? her nose, in particular, is covered with bumps. and her skin is so much clearer than it was. yikes!

sheesh my back hurts all day. anyone else in this boat? i can carry her in the "sling" (actually goes over both shoulders and around my waist, the woman who makes it calls it a ring wrap), in my arms, or in the car seat bucket and it doesn't matter - my back still hurts like hell. the only solution i can come up with is sit down with her as much as possible and otherwise just wait for her to grow older. as i recall that is what i did with the older two.

[chrissy]

Lilah is 2 days old!

nak!

hi everybody.

welcome to the world kaia!!

many and lots of love to the mamas struggling right now- anna, leigh, jen...

things are good here. lilah is wonderful and her birth was amazing. it was very healing for me as well, after my traumatic hospital birth with noah. i'm looking forward to writing my birth story when i can find the time. we are having some concern over lilah's breathing- it's pretty fast. she doesn't have any other signs of difficulty breathing or of infection so that's good. we're taking her in to the ped tomorrow. will let you know how that goes....

love to everybody! is anybody out there still waiting for baby to arrive?

[Caroline248]

Jackson has been screaming for two days now...no time to post really. I don't know what is wrong with him, we can just take turns walking him...

Anyway, I sent new pictured to the yahoo group..

Caroline

[banana girl]

I just wanted to share with you guys something that was e-mailed to me recently.... One of my husbands cousins had a baby boy about a week or so ago and listen to what happened at the hospital!

"Cathy called the other night and told me that A. J. had surgery on Wednesday. He seems to be doing fine now. As of yesterday he was nursing and having bowel activity. It seems that he had been vomiting some green bile, so lots of tests were done, including upper GI x-rays with barium, and the tests seemed to indicate some kind of intestinal abnormalities. So, they decided they had to do surgery, which was to include removing his appendix, which was apparently on the left side instead of the right. Anyway, when they were in the midst of surgery, they couldn't find a thing wrong, so they closed him up and sent him to baby ICU. While he was out, they did the circumcision, and while in ICU, the circumcision site continued to bleed, necessitating a visit from the surgeon to cauterize the site with silver nitrate."


Can you believe that! I would be so pissed!!!! That poor little baby! Makes me grateful I chose to give birth at home and have avoided the doctors office so thouroughly!!!

Anyway, just had to share that tidbit with you guys. Anything to distract me from my rash, which now covers about a third of my body and is driving me insane! Going back to the doctor tomorrow, man I hope they have some new ideas for me!

Anyway it is the middle of the night and I am missing out on prime sleeping time, better go to bed!

[plantmommy]

caroline, i hope you've figured out what's bothering jackson and that he's all better by now! i'll be worrying until we hear from you again.

congrats to all the new mommies and beautiful babies!

i'm so lousy at nak... reading all the posts but not easy to type.

anna, if you're not using all the stored milk, have you thought of donating it? i'm pumping for a mom near me with pcos who doesn't make enough milk for her babe.

[Boobalicious]

Welcome new babies and congratulations mamas!!! Is there anyone out there who has not had theirs yet?

Anna, I just about cried reading your post about not being able to comfort Mielle b/c your breasts hurt so badly. I don't have anything near your pain, but I also wince everytime Oz's finger even brushes my skin. I really hope your pain goes away soon!

StacyL, your story was really intense. You have a healthy baby and can move on now. I hope you don't try to process this too much right now while you are probably super fragile. Give yourself a gift of finding zero blame in any of it--for yourself or anyone else. This is the advice I would try to give myself...I promised myself I would not keep reliving the birth and that I would slowly let the story unfold when there was some distance between me and it. So far it is working, but the first few days post partum, I just went through it over and over in my mind, looking for what I did wrong and which nurse I was most pissed off with. Now I've decided to like the beginning and the end plus one ironic moment in between--and the rest of the story can just go down in history.

Rhoids are gone. Oz has not gotten any baby acne, but I have! I am covered in zits and have never had this many in my entire life. At least I renewed my new Pat Benetar haircut yesterday!

[plantmommy]

Reid's baby acne is gone, but i'm a pimple-field, myself. yuck.

[JenInMpls]

nak of course!!

steph hooray for rhoids being gone!! can you believe i didn't have a vaginal birth and mine are still there : at least they don't hurt. did the remedy help or did they just go away on their own?

anna i couldn't believe your story. we were irate as it is that they drew a bilirubin on tristan without our permission. imagine all that unnecessary surgery!!! poor babe!

today tristan has his 2-wk well baby visit. cross your fingers for some weight gain. he has been pooping regularly for the last 5 days!!! and getting sated enough to have some awake non-eating baby time. like right now!!!

our shower yesterday was nice, fun, tristan got lots of nice gifts.

time to nurse the other side! bye!!

[Pixi]

I haven't posted here much, but let me say I'm so envious of those of you who have your babies! I was due on the 28th & the baby is still hanging out in there.
I can't wait for her to get here...sometime soon I hope

[MamaAcorn]

So I just found out that we're going to be without water until Wednesday afternoon "if all goes well." We're on a community well, and right before we moved, I guess a crack in the tank was discovered, so 2.5 months later, they're draining the tank and shutting off the water to fix things. Supposedly, our landlord left a message about the water situation this morning, but I haven't left home for days now, and trust me, the phone did not ring this morning. So now, I have a sink full of dirty dishes and a dishwasher full of dirty dishes, a sick 3-year-old with a snot covered face that needs a bath, and a diaper pail half full of dirty diapers. And the idea of me not showering two days in a row (especially with my 2-week postpartum appt being tomorrow) isn't settling well.

And I thought I was stressed out with starting back to work today!

Pam

[mum2tori]

1 Week 1 day old!!

Anna-
I have no real ideas about your rash. But have you tried cabbage leaves for your engorgement? It really does work. Stick a head of cabbage in the fridge. Take a leaf and place one on each breast (like a pad). Leave it there until the leaf gets warm and "wilty". It will help, and it you do it often enough, it will decrease your supply some. Which sounds like it might be a good thing for you since you have an over-abundance. I know the antibodics don't seem to be helping but at least finish the entire script. You don't want to stop before the cycle is done. You'll end up with a worse problem if whatever it is becomes resistant to the antibodics because the cycle wasn't finish.

Is there anything that you've been putting on Mielle (lotion, soap or such) that you've never used before? Maybe you are having a reaction to something that's on her? Hope you figure it out quickly. Slather on that Aloe Vera if it works.

If you ever get rid of that rash (of course you WILL!) and you still have such an "abundant" milksuppy, maybe think about donating to your local Milk Bank. They are always in desperate need of Breastmilk for preemies and sick babies. I'm hoping to be able to get my supply up to a point where I'll be able to donate to the milk bank in Austin (especially since we'd be local to it soon). I can't get the link to the
Human Milk Bank of America to work but here's the one to the Austin Mother's Milk bank. It's the closest thing to being a 'wet nurse' now a days.

Chrissy-
: :
Welcome Lilah!! Can't wait to hear her birth story! (need to finish writing Aidan's :LOL)

Caroline-
Hope Jackson is feeling better.

Pam-
ACK! No water!! That is awful. I just *love* how they say... "I called and left you a message..." Do you have a friend's shower you could borrow? Hope everyone is still figthing off that cold.

Jen-
Come on Tristan... show us that weight gain!

Jodie-
Congratulations! " to Kaia!

Things have been busy busy here. David had to go out of town Thursday night and came back late Saturday. He did take Jack with him which did make things a little easier. Thursday night Aidan slept pretty good, Tori was up at the crack of dawn. My mom came by Friday to help out. Friday night was VERY LONG... Aidan was up every 30-45 minutes all night long. I tried the bassinet, the swing, him sleeping next to me... ON me... it was a very long night.

Aidan is nursing like a champ. Wish he would nurse for a little longer each time and not as often... but at this point I'm just happy he's latching well. Thankfully I'm not having much soreness now. My right breast was REALLY sensitive that first week, thankfully its just that inital latch and vacuum suction that's still a bit ouchie. :LOL He's great about opening his mouth nice and wide... unlike his siblings with their little pursed mouths. :LOL Yep, the boy's got a BIG mouth. :LOL He knows as soon as he gets swaddled (got to restain those arms for that inital latch on!!) his mouth goes wide open. :LOL

We had his first check up with our Ped on day 3 (since we only stayed 24 hours at the hospital). I love our Ped, I don't care for one of his nurses too much. And we usually get her too, old Battle-Ax. : Aidan had lost about 5 ounces from birth when we left the hospital and when she said he was only 7 pound 14 ounces (he hadn't lost almost pound in 3 days!) when she weighted him and that maybe we should be giving him formula. Hello, my milk hadn't come in yet back off lady! She thought his 'bulky' cloth diaper was at least 8 ounces... uh no it's only 3 ounces. (David weighted one after she'd left the room :LOL) So he'd only lost 9 ounces. I haven't weight him yet, I will when he wakes up but he's definitely putting on weight because he's looking 'fuller' especially those 'chicken legs'. :LOL

I pumped for the first time yesterday. Got 5 ounces total! Not bad for a first time pump. I'm going to try to pump as often as I can to built a good back up supply. Besides, David really missed out on feeding Jack. He wouldn't take a bottle at all. And David loved feeding Tori. Hopefully he'll be able to feed Aidan occasionally. That was so hard with Jack, I couldn't leave him for more than an hour for the first 6+ months, which meant... I didn't leave him.

Okay the Postpartum break out is here!! Ugh! : : : My face is splotchy red. I hate this, I'm 33 not a 15 year old teenager!!!

My pelvis still hurts. Not as bad as before but a few times it's felt like I've been kicked right in the center front. OUCH!

[JenInMpls]

well, no go with the weight gain, he lost another ounce so we are using the SNS and formula until we get word from my doc about drug use or figure out how to import Anna's breast milk I don't love the idea of sending Jo away for 10 hours on the weekend but there's got to be some way to ship it considering we're not that far apart.

Jo is at work and I have lain Tristan down for a nap in his co-sleeper, all by himself, for the first time. It's a bit of a late start for his afternoon nap but there's no way I'm keeping him awake until bedtime. I tried to take a nap too but I wasn't getting anywhere.

Amazing how I swear every 5 seconds I can hear him crying. It's all in my head.

OK, no, that cry wasn't in my head. ciao, j