In our 30s with Our First Babe - December - Page 2

[Frannyo]

Hiya, I'm new to your group. Maggie is nine months old now, and I'm 39. Her other mother just turned 41 so I guess our average age puts us out of this crowd! We are having a grand time, we had no idea how much fun all this would be. It took us nine months to get pregnant, she was growing inside me for nine months, and later this week she'll be nine months old. Twenty-seven months of adventure!

I look forward to reading this thread and getting to know everyone.

[acp]

Originally Posted by hazieluna

So kinda dumb question, how do you know your breast is empty? My breasts always seem to feel the same except when I haven't breastfed in hours and they get hard and that's pretty rare since Aidan likes to breastfeed every 2 hours or so.

Willa's actually pretty good at emptying my boobs. They'll start out feeling normal and full and by the end of the nursing session they'll feel completely an utterly deflated, and I feel like I've dropped down 3 bra sizes. Comparing that to the way they feel when it's 5 in the morning and she hasn't eaten in 10 hours, and it's amazing to me the range of sizes my breasts go through in a day. A few times (including last night right before bed) I've actually felt like I didn't have enough for her, since they started off sort of empty. It's rare for me since I've always had oversupply, but I think my production has adjusted pretty well to her not-as-often nursing sessions (she likes to eat a LOT at once, but only every 3 1/2-4 hours, and won't comfort nurse), and I also make less milk in the evening than in the morning. Last night I nursed her before bed just 2 hours after the last time, and I felt like there wasn't much there. We were both frustrated! I read on Kelly Mom that it's not a good idea to bring out a supplemental bottle when that happens, though? In the end, she sucked enough to get let down and got quite a bit of milk. I just hate that sense that I might not be feeding my baby enough...

Also what is everyone carrying in your diaper bags - that is aside from diapers?
I've got an extra outfit (I learned the hard way that diapers are not always reliable in containing pee and poop), a blanket, an umbrella, a water bottle for me, wipes, and some chinese prefolds. Just wondering if I'm going to be surprised again and realize I should be carrying around something obvious that I'm not.

I mostly have the same things. The key for us until recently was lots of burp cloths (i use prefolds). I also bring a wet bag for my used CD, some socks, a hat for DD if i think it'll be cold, and sometimes two extra outfits (if I'm traveling and using sposies, which tend to give us more blowouts). And toys. Sadly, I've lost quite a few toys this way, though, since they sometimes don't fit well in the diaper bag. Most recently DD's favorite - and rather pricey - Sophie the Giraffe.

So, I had the scare of my life yesterday. I never leave DD unattended at the changing table, but sometimes when I'm right there and it'll be a quick change I don't strap her in. I was changing her, and looked away for a second - she had developed a bit of a rash and I was looking for some diaper rash cream. All of a sudden I looked back at the changing pad and saw DD halfway to the ground! I reached out and caught her and I don't think she ever knew what a close call she had. But my heart was in my throat for a while after that, and I hugged her extra close. Guess I'll be strapping her in from now on!

[PiePie]

Originally Posted by hazieluna

Also what is everyone carrying in your diaper bags

at present i've got a book for me, 4 books for dd, 3 dipes (probably too few), lotsa wipes, an extra outfit, 3 toys, and a plastic pad to spread out to lay her on to change her, my metro card, my house keys, and my wallet. should have my cell phone but i left it at a girlfriend's house and then her water broke, so won't be seeing that for a while...

[jpiper0430]

De-lurking to say hello to everyone!

Dee- don't worry about supplementing. You need to keep yourself healthy as well, in order to provide for baby, so do what you need to in order to get some sleep!

Emily - love the experiment. Thanks for posting the results. I hope you are able to find a way to safely store your milk!

CJ - LOVE the photos of Ella. She's adorable!

RE: Labor/birth - I didn't have a terrible experience. Maybe I'm the oddball, or just lucky. I was in labor for 15 hours (active labor for only 7.5) and pushed for 1 hour and 10 minutes (not bad for a 10 pound baby). I didn't have any expectation going into labor, and, in fact, didn't want to think about it much beforehand since I figured I would end up scaring myself. My contrax started at only 7 minutes apart and went to 4 minutes apart by 5 hours into labor. I had some impressive contrax (1min 15 seconds with a 30 second rest) for about 2 hours before I started pushing. That was one of the tough parts. DH was great - he rubbed my back for every contrax. Plus, the warm water of the birth tub allowed me to fully relax between contrax (if you can believe it - I actually would doze off between some of the contrax - even if it was only for 10 seconds). My pushing stage was great - I had about 5 minutes rest between each short (30-45 second) contraction. My midwives were impressed at how efficient my body was, and how quickly I recovered.

RE: diaper bag: Depends on the trip. I have a short-trip diaper bag (for walks, trips to the grocery store, dr visits etc) that has a change of clothes for Nora, 3-4 diapers, a wet bag for dirty diapers, breast pads for me (I tend to leak through them if Nora gets fussy), and a changing pad. The larger bag has a few more diapers, a blanket for playing on and a few toys (though those are more for me - Nora's not real interested in toys yet). I also carry a water bottle for me, my wallet, keys and cell phone. I have a very small handbag that just gets tossed into whichever diaper bag I'm using.

Nora is almost 8 weeks old. I can't believe it. I'm thinking she might be hitting a growth spurt because all she's been doing for the past 5 days is nursing - she only gives me a few short breaks during the day, and she's only sleeping for 3 hours at a stretch at night (she had been going 6-7 hours at night). Hopefully, she'll go back to taking longer breaks soon. She's not much of a napper, so she gets fussy if she wakes up to much at night. We've tried everything to get her to nap, and the only thing I can do is get her out of the house - so I take her for a walk twice a day, and she usually sleeps during the walk. I'm going to try and lengthen my walks and see if she'll sleep longer once the growth spurt ends.

I started a blog - click on Eleanor's name in my signature to view it. It's pretty basic (mostly photos right now). Feel free to check it out.

[Grace24]

Jenn... love the pics on your blog... Nora's looking so cute!

Pie... I feel like I've lost touch with all my preggo buddies since they graduated, so give me the update... how's the job search? Any promising leads?

I've already fallen so far behind that I can't personalize more than that... but thanks to all for sharing their birth stories. I've processed a lot since, and meeting with my midwife the other day helped. She confirmed for me that what happened had nothing to do with me... had he not flipped around, the baby would've been born by the early a.m. and I would've done it. I remember reading y'all's birth stories and how hard you were on yourselves... CJ, in particular... I thought, wow, she DID it. Why does she think she failed? It's amazing what we expect from ourselves. Did I think I was supposed to enjoy it? Jeez. So I'm feeling better about what happened... I still don't know what I'll do next time. We're going to do this again in a couple of years, so there's time. I hated being in the hospital, they just kept interfering, and I was there sooo long. I couldn't wait to get home. But DH isn't really comfortable with a VBAC at home... I think he'd feel safer in the hospital if I were going to do that.

Dee... I wondered if you were trying to protect me I appreciate that. It definitely would've freaked me out! I'm sorry you had such a rough time. Are you feeling better? Does Mathilde let you sleep much? Oliver is still so random... sometimes he'll "cluster-feed" and then give us a long 4-hour stretch of sleep later, but I never know if it'll happen during the night or the day. I'm glad I'm off work right now. Don't beat yourself up for supplementing... I had to supplement in the hospital for jaundice (should've read up about possible newborn complications so I could've fought that battle a little better... I'm convinced they got way overinvolved in treatment before it was necessary, but whatever. They caught me off-guard!) Do what works, take care of you, and breastfeed as much as you can however much that turns out to be, which is what it sounds like you're doing. We all do what works for us and all of our situations are different.

Lane, sorry the bottle is back-ordered... I heard they sell it at Babies R Us but I don't know if it's at every branch... it wasn't listed in my state. We're going tomorrow so I'll try to remember to look. What are the other bottles you ordered? We're going to have to do this soon... although our problem wasn't getting him to take the bottle, it was getting him to latch to ME afterwards. It was too soon. Stupid hospital staff. Grr... I think of you often and your super-spraying boobs... not that Ollie gives me much of a chance to build up my milk but every once in a while, I can spray DH pretty good. Fun party tricks!

Ok, that's all the time I have folks! It's waking up!

Later, Julia

[Grace24]

Oh yeah, one more thing... the ped recommended supplementing with Vitamin D. Something called Trivisol. Breast-fed babies who aren't out in the sun (it is winter after all) can supposedly be deficient. Is anyone doing this? Our ped seems pretty mainstream so I'm kind of wary.

[veganone]

Originally Posted by MajorGroover

Thanks again for all the encouragement on BFing. I met w/ the LC again on Thursday. She saw that both my nipples and I are a wreck so she advised pumping & letting someone else feed the baby so I can get some rest. I'm also sad to report that I've been supplementing w/ formula for the past couple days, just to keep her full b/c I didn't have a BM stash. It's been emotionally gut-wrenching, especially after what I put my nipples through to avoid formula, but it's not bad for her and it's so nice not to tense up with dread every time she wants to eat. There's a little comfort in knowing that I'm mixing my BM in with the formula and that I couldn't have gone on BFing w/o risking long-term nipple damage. Gripe Water is helping with her gassiness too. I can't believe she's 3 weeks old today - it's been such a blur!

Dee - Sorry your labor was so intense! At least I only had about 10 minutes of pushing after laboring down - but they had to get her out so I swear I pushed like no one's pushed before. DH had this look of awe on his face that I got her out that fast... Yeah, begin torn hurt and was very shocking and violating. I realize that it would have been worse if he'd warned me and it was for the best, but OUCH!!!

One suggestion on supplementing - we used formula too to help for a bit for the same reason. I'd suggest giving her probiotics too. It really helps their gut not develop an allergy to the formula. We didn't do that and I think that's part of why we're having allergy issues now with her. I also have a history of food allergies, but still, it can't hurt!

[veganone]

Wow - i'm so behind.

Need some support... Finally had the thrush under control, felt it coming back and went back on Diflucan in time (I think) to catch it really early. Well, last night I felt feverish all night and this morning noticed big red blotches on my boob. Mastitis - lucky me. I'm so scared the ABX will aggravate the thrush. I'm bummed... It seems like as soon as we get a hang of bfing something else goes wrong.

[veganone]

Originally Posted by Grace24

Oh yeah, one more thing... the ped recommended supplementing with Vitamin D. Something called Trivisol. Breast-fed babies who aren't out in the sun (it is winter after all) can supposedly be deficient. Is anyone doing this? Our ped seems pretty mainstream so I'm kind of wary.

I've heard that too - it's not that bm is deficient - it's that in nature babies would get sun exposure.... I'm supplementing myself with 500-1000% daily rec. of Vit. D and hoping it gets to her. She HATES the multivitamin. I wish they'd just do a simple, non gross supplement of just vit. d for babies!

[PiePie]

Originally Posted by Grace24

Oh yeah, one more thing... the ped recommended supplementing with Vitamin D. Something called Trivisol. Breast-fed babies who aren't out in the sun (it is winter after all) can supposedly be deficient. Is anyone doing this? Our ped seems pretty mainstream so I'm kind of wary.

our ped is mainstream but hasn't recommended these. lasy saw her at 2 mos. the erliest rec i've seen for this is 2 mos?

[Grace24]

Elizabeth... sorry you're dealing with thrush.

We gave him his first little dropper of it... we did it in between boobs during a feeding (I try to get him to nurse from both breasts each time, but it doesn't always happen.). He made quite a face but didn't cry. The sponge bath tonight, though, that was another story... oh, the trauma...

Anybody deal with post-partum anxiety? You always hear about the depression, which I don't have, but the anxiety... I just feel so overwhelmed at the thought that this little one is relying on ME... I look at him with such fear sometimes. That, and the fact that I have NO schedule... day is night, and night is day... man, I feel all floaty and nervous and weird. Am I alone in this? Does it get better? Between the anxiety and not having time to eat, the post-partum weight should drop right off...

I'm happy, though, just scared. Happy and scared. It's strange. Just wondering if I'm alone there.

[~minnow~]

Originally Posted by Grace24

That, and the fact that I have NO schedule... day is night, and night is day... man, I feel all floaty and nervous and weird. Am I alone in this? Does it get better?

No. And yes.

[veganone]

Ditto - you're not at all alone and it gets much, much better!

[veganone]

Originally Posted by hazieluna

Oh and while I'm online I've got questions:

Aidan is doing this very annoying thing now where he's breastfeeding and then with my nipple still in his mouth pulls away. What does this mean? Is he not getting enough milk? It's usually at the end so I know it's not him dealing with my letdown.

So kinda dumb question, how do you know your breast is empty? My breasts always seem to feel the same except when I haven't breastfed in hours and they get hard and that's pretty rare since Aidan likes to breastfeed every 2 hours or so.

Also what is everyone carrying in your diaper bags - that is aside from diapers?
I've got an extra outfit (I learned the hard way that diapers are not always reliable in containing pee and poop), a blanket, an umbrella, a water bottle for me, wipes, and some chinese prefolds. Just wondering if I'm going to be surprised again and realize I should be carrying around something obvious that I'm not.

I feel bad because I HATE Aidan crying and then I think that other Moms have it worse and seem more capable of handling the stress. Me I just feel like running away and crying too. I'm trying to be kind in my head to myself but why do others make being a Mom looks so easy? HOW?

DD does the pulling thing - ouch. I think it's partly when they want more milk. She also just seems to do it for fun, because she'll do it when I know there's milk. Mine only feel hard/full in the morning. During the day and evening they feel the same all the time. I figure as long as she's gaining she's doing fine.

You pretty much have what I have in the diaper bag, but I also have burp rags because she's a bit of a spitter! I don't carry a purse, so I also have my wallet and little make-up bag.

I hated when Isabella cried at first. Like, couldn't handle it and would do ANYTHING to help her stop. It broke my heart. Now as long as she's not in pain I can deal with it. I guess I got used to it and learned better how to interpret her cries. She also cries so much less than she used to! It's normal I think to have it be overwhelming. Mommas have a biological response to their LOs crying...

[PiePie]

i still get all freaked out -- like a hrmonal response -- when dd cries. dh is much better at dealing.

[veganone]

Well, I still hate it, but I can handle it better. I'm much less likely to start crying myself - and the one where she's frustrated or annoyed (like if I take too long to feed her and she's mad, but not really crying) is super cute. I'm definitely bothers me more than dh.

[dctexan]

My Breast Milk Experiment - continued

RESULTS SO FAR
Control milk (freshly pumped, no treatment): Ended up being gross fter 72 hours. Conclusion, fresh milk should be used within 24 hrs of pumping. Can push it to 48hrs in a milk emergency.

Immediately scalded milk (160 degrees for 15s): Still tastes/smells almost exactly like freshly pumped milk 6 days later. Will continue testing until milk turns or 10 days have elapsed.

Scalded after 8 hours milk (160 degrees for 15s): Same as above. I maybe able to tell the two apart at this point, but I have no done a blind tasting to investigate this.

Scalded after 24 hours milk (160 degrees for 15s): Finally tossed after 6 days. I was still OK, but was definitely starting to go down hill. I couldn't stand the idea of tasting it again today, so I tossed. Conclusion, can scald milk up to 24 hours later if used within 6 days of being pumped.

Scalded after 48 hours (160 degrees for 15s): Sample spilled! Need to redo experiment.

I haven't defrosted any of the frozen milk yet, but I will do so tonight (7 days after pumping).

[veganone]

Originally Posted by jpiper0430

Nora is almost 8 weeks old. I can't believe it. I'm thinking she might be hitting a growth spurt because all she's been doing for the past 5 days is nursing - she only gives me a few short breaks during the day, and she's only sleeping for 3 hours at a stretch at night (she had been going 6-7 hours at night). Hopefully, she'll go back to taking longer breaks soon. She's not much of a napper, so she gets fussy if she wakes up to much at night. We've tried everything to get her to nap, and the only thing I can do is get her out of the house - so I take her for a walk twice a day, and she usually sleeps during the walk. I'm going to try and lengthen my walks and see if she'll sleep longer once the growth spurt ends.
.

DD had growth spurts at 8 weeks and 9 weeks. Her's last longer than the day or two they tell you, too. They seem to last several days. We're in a growth spurt too - and this one is visible!!! DD went from fitting well in most of her 0-3s to not fitting into hardly any of them in like 2 days! They're all too short for her now - guess that explains why she's been waking up every 2-3 hours again. Hopefully she'll sleep longer soon. Last night she was frustrating because she'd wake up hungry and then fall into a coma like sleep as soon as I got her nursing. Then she'd wake up again hungry. Ugh. Anyway, on Friday she was up to 11 lbs, so she'll be double her birth weight in no time!

Trying to get into the doc early today go get more abx for the mastitis, luckily I had some left over from my last bout - oh please thrush stay away!!!

[dctexan]

Frannyo! I added you to the first page

[veganone]

Originally Posted by Grace24

The sponge bath tonight, though, that was another story... oh, the trauma...
.

DD hated baths at first, now she LOVES them!!! She doesn't really smile or anything, but she seems incredibly peaceful. She moves her legs constantly (almost like swimming) and seems completely enthralled with the water. Very cute. I almost hate to take her out - we leave her in until the water cools down and I worry she's getting cold.

Speaking of baths, DH is so paranoid about having the water too hot that he has it almost cool! It's cold out - she needs a warm (not hot) bath!