"Life w/Babe" check in, week of 5/29 - Page 3

[waterbaby9503]

Oh yeah I am so glad I am not the only one drowning in milk...well ok, I'm not drowning in it, I'm drenching in it. My Joshua is drowning and choking every time he tries to feed. But after it lets down, he can get a handle on it and can get a good meal.
He is two days away from being one month old! Wow, where did that go? I have just gotten into the swing of it: I can go somewhere in the car with less than an hour spent getting ready, nipples aren't chewed, the dishes are caught up, and dh is getting better at understanding me when I try to talk in gibberish while half asleep about some errand that needs to be done today.
yay! and we're snapping away on the pictures. So so many pictures...and still I have definitely not taken enough. He is my little angel! a true gift.

[Happypants]

hi everybody! glad to hear how everyone is doing. we're doing pretty well here, ourselves.

for about a week we have been nursing without the nipple shield, which seems to have helped calm ds's gassiness. but i think i got a little too excited trying to wean off the shield and the pump all at once and have ended up with milk blisters and thrush and, obviously, incredibly sore, burning nipples. so i'm trying to pump more and have started on b6 supps & gse tablets, lotrimin 2X a day & cider vinegar after nursing. this i started yesterday & already i feel better. i resorted to the shield this am and that backfired--he doesn't like it so doesn't stay latched on, and ended up swallowing a ton of air and has been gassy and uncomfortable all day, so he's been nursing more than usual.

anyway, all those treatments are for my end of things, and i'm looking for options for treating him. he only has a white streak on either side of his tongue. i'd rather not get an rx, and i don't want to use gentian violet. any ideas? could it go away on its own if i attack from my side?

other than that, things are going great. i am so humbled and awed every day. not to mention in love.

[nitareality]

Originally Posted by tie-dyed

So, a question for the experienced mamas here, bc I'm embarrassed to post this in the life w a babe forum: What sort of baby skin care products to y'all use?

I figured I'd use water and a bit of olive oil for moisturizing, but Ellie has some flaky skin on her neck/face and I hate to put oil on it bc she also has a bit of baby acne. Dunno if oil makes a difference for baby acne. She's also had a bit of a red butt a couple of days. And I'm not sure how long plain water is gonna be sufficient for keeping her clean, especially with al the milk that seems to run everywhere.

Any suggestions for natural diaper rash stuff/baby wash/moisturizer? Should I just use plain cornstarch on the diaper area to absorb wetness, or should I use an actual cream of some kind?

The acne is hormonal IIRC, so I don't think that oil/lotion on the skin would be an issue. I use olive oil for just about everything, especially flaky baby skin.

Max I wish I had something for you. I'm starting to fear some superthrush has gotten hold of us and I'm not sure what to do. If diflucan doesn't work, I really don't know what will. At this point I'm cycling treatments, GV and GSE, lotrimin on my nipples one time, nystatin cream the other. Olive oil on them to soothe. I'm *this* close to laying outside topless if it's sunny today. (RUN children...RUN!!! )

[~*max*~]

nitareality, believe me, if I thought laying out in the sun topless would do the trick, I would be out there!

[dshields]

Hi mamas!
So much to say but I don't know if I have the energy to get it all down! Congrats to all those with new babes and hugs to those who are struggling...I've been there now and am just starting to feel like myself again, though I just found out that I have a UTI!:

Rosa is 3 weeks old today! I can't believe it's been that long. She had a ped appointment today and has gained 20 oz in 2 weeks (ped wants to see 14) so I'm thrilled that she's growing so well...especially bc I've been block feeding and had no idea how that would work. Today Dh went into work for a few hours and it's our first time alone. I'm amazed at how good it feels to have her all to myself! He sometimes reads my posts and he'll be pissed when he reads this . Really though, I feel such a closeness to her today as the only one caring for her...it's great.

I have yet to write our birth story but have to mention how awed I am by our experience. My labor was the best thing that has ever happened to me...even though she had meconium when my water broke and that changed our birth plan considerably. We still had a totally natural, staff suported hospital birth with no vaxs and not even mention of signing waivers. She had some hr decelerations and they still allowed me to labor wherever I wanted (the toilet) with little doppler monitoring. Even with 4 hours of pushing no one mentioned meds or c-section. Ok enough! I'll save the rest for the story!

Hope all is well with everyone...Amanda, I'm thinking of you and hoping that things are going better today!

[Marylizah]

max, nitareality and happypants, sorry to hear about the thrush! How frustrating... Knock on wood, that's one thing we haven't dealt with yet.

Things are still a little rough on our end-- at three weeks old, George will still only sleep ON dh or me at night and now that he weighs 10+ pounds and squirms ALOT we are not sleeping enough at all... Last night was particularly bad, with four feedings on top of all the squirminess. I know this will pass, but DH and I are like total zombies and I feel sort of like things will never be in control again.

Plus, I think I have hemmorhoids. It hurts like heck to poop, so I haven't really gone since yesterday. I sent DH to the pharmacy for some cream, but the pharmacist didn't know what to give me since I'm bfing. Any home remedies? This is just adding to the general no-sleep misery.

It's funny, the first two weeks were easier-- the third week he started to wake up a bit and that's when the fussiness and crying and sleep issues really began. Sometimes it takes me up to an hour to soothe him to sleep after a feeding, then we're right back nursing again 1.5 hours later. Other times, he drops right off and I have a 3.5 hour stretch before we nurse.

Any words of encouragement or advice are welcome... And I hear the boy whimpering, so I'm off to play moo-cow!

[UCmamaToMany]

BF is not goin as according to plan. She is not able to latch onto my left nipple at all since my milk came in. She's only able to latch onto my right and then I have to give her a bottle of EBM to top her off.

I am so not liking the double duty of pumping and BF. I'd rather do one or the other so I have been praying that she'll one day just "get it" and latch onto both breasts without a problem soon.

She is still clicking too which isn't helping. It totally sucks that she's healthy and there is no thrush issues and I know she is capable of nursing on tap but all of these latch problems have come up which make it feel impossible.

[mamacatsbaby]

I'm sorry so many May Mamas are dealing with thrush. Hugs to you ladies , I hope things get better soon.

Danielle, the time sure flies doesn't it? DS will be 6 weeks old on Wednesday.

Ouch, that's no good about the hemmorhoids Marylizah. I was having my own, ahem, issues a few weeks ago but now things are fine. Whew!

UCMama, I hope your little one gets those latch issues worked out.

Ugh, WTF is this? I thought I'd stopped bleeding around 3.5 weeks now for the last 3 days I've been bleeding red again. : Not very much but still. Is that common? It's not like I've been running marathons or anything.

[Marylizah]

Grrr. Turns out it isn't hemmorrhoids. I have an *ahem* anal fissure.

Just sent DH off to the pharmacy with a huge list of things to buy. Thank god in France doctors still make house calls, even on Sunday! I haven't been able to poop in three days and I'm DYIN' over here. Especially since Ms Intelligent (that would be me) suggested we order in Thai the other night.

Sigh.

Between this and sore boobs and bleeding and breastmilk and tears I feel like EVERY orifice in my body is giving me trouble these days.

Hope everyone else is having a happier time than I am...

[luckylady]

marylizah - when it rains it pours huh?: I hope you feel better soon!!!

I can't believe that we are already almost 4 weeks old over here! He is turning into quite the little chunk! I have a picture of my DD when she was 4 weeks and man do they look identical! If she wasn't wearing a dress in a few years I would have a hard time telling who is who in the photos!

He still sleeps great and can be ROCKED TO SLEEP by DH!: This is a pleasure I NEVER had with my DD, who was a nurser all the way. DS seems to be more of a movement baby than a sucking baby. The other night I was so tired and for the first time ever DS decided to stay up at midnight so I just went and got DH - crawled into bed with DD and slept sooooooooo good.

Experiencing a wee little touch of the baby blues - I would not call it PPD - just more of a feeling of overwhelm sometimes and wanting to just be left alone - even for just an hour. Not liking my post partum body (I never do) not enjoying nursing - just leaking milk and stuff - gross! and just a general feeling of...blue. It will pass. It's not near what it was with my DD, thank God. Hopefully it won't get any worse.:

[KatSG]

Hi, everyone. This is my first post since having Iris last Tuesday AM. It was an amazing birth--very fast, but not "furious" like I've heard 2nd+ babies can be. I was never overwhelmed by the pain and had lots of breaks in-between contractions. I'm just now starting to feel a little sad that I won't be birthing again (we're committed to just 2 kids) as it was such a wonderful experience. However, I don't think I'll miss being pregnant. I just don't do pregnancy well.

Iris is a sweet, easy baby, mainly because I know the drill, I suppose. Nurse and sleep, all day, sometimes all night. She does sleep for much longer stretches than dd1 ever did, though I'm having a hard time sleeping during those times. I keep checking her to make sure she's still breathing b/c I can't believe she's sleeping so well. Then some nights she's up until 1 AM and up again every few hours. No rhyme or reason to it all yet. And I'm just going with the flow.

Woke up this am with the beginnings of a plugged duct but was able to pump it out. Now I'm feeling that burning/tingling like thrush. UGH!! I didn't have much of a problem with this last time and was able to nip it with Cadidase and acidopholis so I'll start that today. I wonder if the plugged duct contributed to this? I take so much Vit C I'm pretty surprised, but instead of living in denial and being REALLY sorry later I'll just treat it like thrush for the next week and hope we're ok. Iris has a white tongue, but it just looks like milk to me, no spots.

Things are a little tougher with dd1. The grands (dh's parents) are here, and my mom lives here, so she's getting lots of attention. But I MISS her! They've been taking her on outings and she's very attached to them now, which is great. But today we're going to do a mama & daddy day, even if it just means sitting around and playing in her room, which is really her favorite thing to do anyway. I gave her a bath last night and washed and combed out her hair and was just so happy to have those few minutes to just do our normal routine.

Ok. Back to bed before everyone wakes up. Maybe I can squeeze in an hour of sleep...

ETA: We also are CDing this babe and so far so good! It's much easier than I thought, but we also haven't been out much yet. We'll see how her skinny hiney deals with real poops in the middle of Target...

[nitareality]

The damage from the thrush seems to have led to mastitis for me. Be careful yeasty mamas!!

[newmainer]

Originally Posted by KatSG

I was never overwhelmed by the pain and had lots of breaks in-between contractions. I'm just now starting to feel a little sad that I won't be birthing again (we're committed to just 2 kids) as it was such a wonderful experience. However, I don't think I'll miss being pregnant. I just don't do pregnancy well.

Things are a little tougher with dd1. The grands (dh's parents) are here, and my mom lives here, so she's getting lots of attention. But I MISS her! They've been taking her on outings and she's very attached to them now, which is great.

Both of these things resonate with me... my birth was similar (not sure how long yours was... mine was fast but i also didn't feel totally overwhelmed and had breaks) and i swear, in the few days immediately after i was longing to do it again! birth for me carries and emotional and spiritual high that is not found anywhere else and it is sad to think of never having that experience again. Though now that we are just past 3 weeks into this, 2 is feeling more like its' the right thing, though i won't allow dh to get snipped for at least 3 years... just in case.

i hear you about your older dd... today mine spent the entire day with both sets of grandparents. my IL's are here and staying with my mom and stepdad. i haven't seen her since this morning while its' nice to have the break and the alone time with the baby, i miss my girl. i keep reminding myself that dh's parents are only here for the week and then it's a long open summer of me and dd and ds, so we'll get our time. but still, it's an adjustment, having to divide the attention.

oh, and luckylady- i hear you on the pp body. ugh. maternity clothes make me look like a tent and i am no where *near* close to getting into pre-preggy clothes. i think pp is the hardest time to dress for.

anyway, i'm off to pick up a bit before dd returns and ds needs to be walked!

[Peppamint]

on the mastitis Anita!


I'm sad too about not birthing again. Dh is pretty insistent that three is it, I had to campaign for #3 so unless we have a birth control failure down the road we're done (neither of us will do anything permanent). Even though it was a very fast, intense, painful labor (back labor and nuchal hand) I would do again in a heartbeat. I don't even feel like I just gave birth less than three weeks ago and it it wasn't for the huge flap of loose belly skin hanging over my jeans (I can squeeze into my sized up jeans but it ain't pretty ) I'd look exactly as I did last summer. I shudder at the thought of a bathing suit though : and I'm a bit nervous about being fitted for that matron of honor dress. I totally need one of those body slimmer things to wear under that dress or else my torso is gonna be awful lumpy!

[KatSG]

Originally Posted by newmainer

oh, and luckylady- i hear you on the pp body. ugh. maternity clothes make me look like a tent and i am no where *near* close to getting into pre-preggy clothes. i think pp is the hardest time to dress for.

i just ordered more maternity clothes since it's getting hot here and all i've got are cold weather stuff. it's gonna be a while before this belly goes down.