Oct. Mommies how is nursing and nightime going? - Page 2

[Marcimama]

Hugs ladies! Just remember it WILL get easier! Nursing will get easier, they will sleep more and you won't always feel so dead tired. This is a temporary season of your life. Try to see the beauty and specialness in it.
This being my 3rd, I am savoring the night feedings more. They end and believe it or not you will kind of be sad to see them go. I know, it feels like all you do is get sucked on, rock a baby endlessly and wipe up poop. But, instead savor the sweet smell of your babies head, the feel of their sleepy breath on your neck and the cuteness of their rolly legs. Those things end too...

Hugs! and hang in there!

[~Stephanie~]

Charlotte is waking every two hours to nurse, but goes back to sleep. I nurse her in bed with me in the side lying position so it isn't *too* bad.

My 18 month old is having a difficult time adjusting to the baby. He is waking and crying 4-5-6 times/night so between the two of them I am exhausted. DH has moved out to the couch temporarily so that he can get some sleep. He has to be up for work at 5am every day. I am up at 6:00 to nurse Charlotte and then I have to get the oldest three up and fed and ready for the bus that comes at 7:30.

We have had a round of flu/sore throat/cold come through the house in the last two weeks so that has also made things challenging. I still can feel the blood clots in my legs which are painful and bother me at night. I should go back and get my hemoglobin tested again. It was just below 6 when I was last in the emergency room 10 days ago and I am still just exhausted and look like death warmed over.

Other than that, everything is great.

[Baby_Cakes]

Originally Posted by Marcimama

Hugs ladies! Just remember it WILL get easier! Nursing will get easier, they will sleep more and you won't always feel so dead tired. This is a temporary season of your life. Try to see the beauty and specialness in it.
This being my 3rd, I am savoring the night feedings more. They end and believe it or not you will kind of be sad to see them go. I know, it feels like all you do is get sucked on, rock a baby endlessly and wipe up poop. But, instead savor the sweet smell of your babies head, the feel of their sleepy breath on your neck and the cuteness of their rolly legs. Those things end too...

Hugs! and hang in there!

Thanks for this. I love how you put it all in perspective. This is so tough, but there is definitely a specialness and beauty to it all.

Can I ask a few naive and ignorant questions? Eventually, does this all even out so the side she isn't nursing on doesn't leak? Or is it going to be like this for our entire nursing relationship? Also, if she sleeps for 3-4 hours, my breasts turn into ginormous bowling balls and it's so painful - I almost want to wake her up just to eat, even though it took so much effort to get her to sleep in the first place. Does this eventually even out?

I'm getting so tuckered out. Last night was really rough.

[Bee21]

Originally Posted by Faerieshadow

Curious, moms who nursed through pregnancy or weaned recently, did you leak? Just wondering, ds weaned himself last October and I got pregnant in January, could my boobs have remembered or something? Maybe I'm so tired right now I'm grasping at silly straws, lol...

My dd1 weaned in June, and I am constantly leaking everywhere. I think all my boobs remember is how to make truckloads of milk!!!

Originally Posted by Baby_Cakes

Thanks for this. I love how you put it all in perspective. This is so tough, but there is definitely a specialness and beauty to it all.

Can I ask a few naive and ignorant questions? Eventually, does this all even out so the side she isn't nursing on doesn't leak? Or is it going to be like this for our entire nursing relationship? Also, if she sleeps for 3-4 hours, my breasts turn into ginormous bowling balls and it's so painful - I almost want to wake her up just to eat, even though it took so much effort to get her to sleep in the first place. Does this eventually even out?

I'm getting so tuckered out. Last night was really rough.

I stopped leaking around 10 weeks w/ dd1, at least in the daytime. The nighttime leaking/engorgement lasted a bit longer, but it all evened out eventually.

[Changed]

Depends on the person. I leaked with my last until about 1 year and then stopped but most people stop leaking within a few months I think.

[mommysaurus]

Greyson is 2 weeks 3 days today. As of last weekend he has fallen into sort of a "schedule". He sleeps about 2 1/2 to 3 hrs at night. Before that it was every hour on the hour! I'm glad to be getting some sleep now. We've also worked out side lying and nursing....only way I get sleep! I never really got engorged this time around (then again this is number eight that I've nursed), he nursed so much and so often, but I do have plenty of milk. I only leak when I have let down too.

[Dahlea]

I had too much milk so I woke Zanthias up every 2-3 hours to nurse, I didn't let it go much longer or it would be too painful. Now, at almost 3 weeks, the milk and his sleep seem to be working out on their own (lik he sleeps 2-3 hours w/o my boobs feeling like they'll explode) =)
Zanthias is a snacker during the day and a super long feeder at night. Poor little guy gets the hiccups all the time.

[TaraRae82]

Nighttime is when Ally Rae wants to marathon nurse and it's normally 2-3 hours around 9-11. Lately, she's been up at about 12:45, 2, and up at 3. She will NOT go back to sleep then until around 9:30am and then she only sleeps for an hour or so and is up again to eat at around 10:45am. It's really wearing on me. I can wake up every hour to feed her but staying up for 6 hours at 3am is just not working for me. I find myself feeling very impatient and grumpy. I will say that I don't have any thoughts of abandoning BF'ing because it'd be way worse to have to get out of bed and prepare a bottle! BF'ing is way easy. I just wish her schedule would go back to what it was (marathon nursing 10-12, BF @ 3am, 6am, 9am, sleep until noon)!!

My milk seems to have regulated itself for the most part. I notice that my breasts get really full if she happens to go 4 hours between feedings but my leaking has really been very minimal. Although, she tends to pull away when I let down (really forceful, it chokes her a lot) and she ends up getting sprayed. If I weren't so cold at night, I'd sleep with my boobs exposed so nursing would be easier but I'm just too cold! I need clothes!

Our latest issue is thrush. Ugh. I think we've both got it. We're going to the pharmacy today to get some Gentian Violet at the advice of my doula. Wish us luck that it goes away quickly since the treatment is so messy and inconvenient. :

[mommysaurus]

Tara,

I've battled thrush with my last 3 babies. So far G and I are ok, but i'm on the look out for it! What worked best was using Grapefruit Seed Extract. 5 drops per ounce of water (up it to 10 drops if thrush isn't going away after afew days), swab your nipples and baby's mouth frequently (do this for at least 2 weeks), it's bitter tasting! I also took it per bottle recommendation too (glass of oj makes it easier to get down). Then I got some bifidobacteria for nursing moms and babies. Take per recommendations for you and baby. If you are using any bottles or pacifiers, they must be boiled. Cloth nursing pads too and bras. If you are eating sweets, cut back on them...yeast makes you crave sugar. If your nipples are in pain from thrush, for immediate relief use OTC Lotrimin. Just wipe off before nursing, but it's ok if you forget to do so, it's not toxic to baby.
More info. here.
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/concerns/...resources.html

[TaraRae82]

^thx! I have GSE already so I'll start using it again.

[Amber Lion]

I'm actually quite surprised how well nighttime is going for us. At 5 days old my milk has regulated and I'm 90% sure we're through with the engorgement. It wasn't even that big of a deal for us either, just needed to use my LC's pump twice to relieve the pressure so she could latch correctly.

My LC has saved my life though! I've had her on speed dial 24/7 and have not hesitated to call for reassurance or help and she's come right over. I attribute my easy nursing transition to her help, that Addie had a great suck/latch from the very beginning, AND that I did skin to skin in bed for the first 3 days exclusively. I feel very lucky! I got a little bit of irritation from trying to figure out the best positions and have settled on cross cradle for the left boob and football for the right. As long as we do those we're golden.

That makes nights interesting though, cause I have to sit up with all my pillows. She's nursing pretty consistently every 2 hours, so I'm just nudging Dh to turn on the light, getting situated and nursing, then laying back down and Dh turns out the light. If there's a diaper change in there Dh does that for me. So my sleep is definitely interrupted, but at least I'm getting to sleep those stretches and getting morning/afternoon naps to make up for it.