[gabeyho]

No, I had no IV, which is why I'm surprised by the swelling this time. I've been looking around and it seems to be pretty normal, IV or not, and should go down soon. It's so uncomfortable.

 

[Valerie11]

One nurse told me that the body holds on to fluids after delivery. So even without the IV, it's possible that's what your body is doing with all the food and drink you take in.

 

[cagnew]

My mom commented the other day that I look tired and told me I have double bags under my eyes. Lol...thanks Mom!

This baby has zero consistency in his sleep pattern so I never know what to expect at night. I hope he evens out soon.

I'm not breastfeeding. After 24 hours of skin to skin and all kinds of "tricks", he was still screaming for over an hour before latching. I gave up. I don't have it in me to go any further with it. Another baby, another time... maybe I could push through. Not this time. Once I made the final decision, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted and my life could finally go on. So I am pumping and even though it's incredibly monotonous, it's going well. He has gained 20 ounces in just under 2 weeks! He's a hungry little guy :grin: Since I am not breastfeeding and I am missing out on that particular time of bonding, I am actually enjoying co-sleeping more than usual. I will be happy when he goes in his own space, but...for now, I like having his little body snuggled up with me.

I have more I wanted to say but I better stop here. The lights keep flickering and I am hoping we aren't going to lose power. We got over 8 inches of snow and it's still snowing! It's beautiful and the kids have loved it, but we live in the south and the power lines may not be equipped to hold up under the weight. I really, really don't want to lose power because we'll have no heat source....

 

[Valerie11]

Once I made the final decision, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted and my life could finally go on. So I am pumping and even though it's incredibly monotonous, it's going well. He has gained 20 ounces in just under 2 weeks! He's a hungry little guy :grin:

I'm sorry to hear it didn't work out, but glad that you made your final decision. It's great that you are pumping.

I know that for me, if something happened and I couldn't breastfeed or pump, I would be in a world of trouble because there is an inherited problem on my husband's side with cow's milk, and soy is bad news, so we would have to buy special organic goat's milk formula or make our own. It would not be as easy as pumping. I'm just assuming that this kid has it, too. My last kid I BF for 11 months and then weaned him and put him on organic formula and that's when all his problems started. Before that, he was the healthiest baby I'd ever had.

 

[cagnew]

If my milk runs out, we will look at switching to a homemade organic goats milk formula. I already did the math on it and it would cost about $50-$60 a month. It includes coconut oil, olive oil, blackstrap molasses (a very small amount), raw sugar (again, a small amount), probiotics, and vitamins. Apparently, it comes about as close to mimicking breastmilk as you can get.

I'm kind of hoping it won't be necessary to use it though. I'm getting 6-8 oz every 3 hours and I've got about 200 oz frozen already. I keep two days worth in the fridge.

The power didn't go out and we got 9 inches of snow! The kids are over the moon Unfortunately, one of the cats got in the house this morning and decided to pee on my sons winter coat/clothes, so now they have to wait for them to finish washing. Dumb cat kept peeing when I picked it up and I didn't notice it and it ended up leaving a stream of pee throughout the kitchen. Grrrrr. We have 4 outdoor cats and I am not attached to any of them.

My bleeding had stopped, but yesterday I started to have red spotting again. Guess I am doing too much?

 

[DuchessTergie]

Cagnew, I'm so glad you have peace.
Also, good to know I'm not the only one with fussy kids. Someone told me fussy babies are smart babies and I have no idea if it is really true but I hang on to it. DD1 actually does have a crazy high IQ and she was my fussiest (still is, come to think of it). DS is my most mellow, but he fusses on the high end of normal.

I annoyedmy midwife because I wouldn't let her touch during the pelvic exam yesterday. I've always been anxious but with each birth I get worse. She was so irritated with me. The appointment was kind of a bust because I couldn't cooperate.

 

[luckiest]

I'm glad you've made a decision and are feeling less stress, cagnew! There is a really awesome homemade formula recipe that the Weston A Price Foundation endorses, if it comes to that. I think there are a couple places that sell the ingredients (minus the cow/goat milk) as a kit, so you don't have to go around sourcing some of the more bizarre ingredients.


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[alivewithyou]

Finally got some good sleep last night and feeling a lot better. I was seriously considering if I had postpartum depression yesterday but I am pretty sure I was seriously just low on sleep because I feel awesome today. Granted my longest nap last night was 3 hours but that felt like pure heaven.

 

[Valerie11]

Getting up about 2-3 times a night to feed him, but other than that he just sleeps with me all night. It's actually less times than I got up to use the bathroom when pregnant. Love co-sleeping. Why didn't I do this with my other kids!?

 

[alivewithyou]

I will admit that co sleeping is the only reason I am getting sleep now and it's totally worth it.


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[luckiest]

Wow, last night was rough. My milk came in, and I got a clogged duct. Gus did not appreciate being suddenly drowned in milk, and was really wanting to suck without eating. Around 1 he was rooting furiously on my chest, sucking his fists, but crying if I put him to the breast ((and I really wanted him to nurse to help clear the duct). I dug out a pacifier and handed him off to DH and was able to sleep for a while. The rest of the night went better.

This guy has super sense and will only sleep if in contact with a human being. He will startle at the slightest shift, so just getting up to pee means he wakes up and cries, then he'll want to nurse to get back to sleep, then he'll poop, then want to nurse again to get back to sleep after the diaper change, then suddenly it's been an hour or more just because I had to pee! DS1 was an awful sleeper but even he wasn't this bad. Fortunately I knew what I was getting myself into this time and I haven't had any meltdowns yet. But it's only been three nights and I've had lots of help...so we'll see!

The best news is that DS1 transitioned into his own room without any fanfare at all, and is totally fine with DH coming in instead of me if he needs anything. Phew.


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[alivewithyou]

Baby girl was a dream last night. Only had to wake up twice to feed her and I had to wake her up. She was super alert but didn't even cry when I changed her diaper. I hope we are starting to turn a corner cause I could totally handle this ha ha.


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[heatbrown]

I can't believe what I've got with this one so far, and as a pessimist I'm not assuming this will last but definitely enjoying it for the moment! Dulcie just sleeps all the time- then she wakes up, hangs out for a while, then nurses back to sleep! She has had a couple nights of not pooping till morning (which eliminates the nighttime diaper changes) and gives me 3-5 hours at night between feedings which she has just started doing from a side lying position, so I barely have to wake up! It is glorious!! I've heard tell of babies like this, but I thought they were fairytales! Maybe she figures I've paid my dues with my three sons (and continue to)!

 

[Valerie11]

This guy has super sense and will only sleep if in contact with a human being. He will startle at the slightest shift, so just getting up to pee means he wakes up and cries, then he'll want to nurse to get back to sleep, then he'll poop, then want to nurse again to get back to sleep after the diaper change, then suddenly it's been an hour or more just because I had to pee!

This made me laugh! I am in the same boat some nights. And especially in the hospital, but we have good days and bad days, as far as him needing to be with someone at all moments in time. Some days I get nothing done (and no sleep), and some days he sleeps all alone all day and I get a ton of things done. It changes often. Hopefully yours will, too. Just for little bits of relief and sanity.

 

[gabeyho]

How long did your bleeding last and when did it at least noticeably slow down? I just absolutely hate this part more than everything else. My bleeding is just so steady and borderline heavy, more and longer than I remember in the past. I thought that just past a week it would have at least slowed down a little. It's probably within the range of normal, but I hate it and i cant wait for it to slow down and then stop. Sorry for all the TMI! It's late, and I'm nursing, and then I'll have to go to the bathroom just to change again so it's what I'm thinking about right now.

 

[cagnew]

I'm three weeks out and my bleeding/lochia have been inconsistent. I started bleeding red again two days ago after not having any for awhile. Not a ton, but enough to need a full pad. I googled "postpartum bleeding and too much activity", and I think I'm doing too much. An explanation on MDC said to think of the inside of your uterus as trying to scab over and heal. When you do too much, it's like pulling off the scab, which prolongs healing and causes more bleeding. Not sure how accurate that is, but it made sense to me.

gabey- They told us at the hospital that if you have bleeding so heavy that you soak a pad every hour, you need to get checked out.

Nights suck here right now. This baby is an awful sleeper- the first one I've had like this. He eats every 1 1/2- 2 hours and doesn't always go back to sleep. Although DH can help feed him since we aren't nursing, it really isn't an advantage. By the time I realize he is up and wants to eat, I have to go warm a bottle of breastmilk. That takes about 3-4 minutes. In that time period, he wakes up fully and gets mad. And then I have to go pump if my breasts feel full. When you nurse, all you have to do is whip out the boob and feed the kid, and that can usually be done before he fully wakes up.

So DH and I hate the nighttime even though we are both exhausted. I know this phase will pass soon- but not soon enough!!!

My electric pump doesn't empty my breast very well and kind of hurts when I use it. I think my shield size is wrong, so I have another size ordered. I just realized that the sizes go according to NIPPLE size- not breast size or areola size. So all this time I've thought maybe I need a bigger size, when in fact I need the small size.

 

[Valerie11]

I'm still bleeding (2.5 weeks out) whenever I have a contraction or after I do too much around the house. Just for that I have to keep wearing pads. I guess that's why six weeks is the magic number, because it takes that long when you can't sit still.

I have other kids and don't have a choice but to lift slightly over ten pounds (kid in a car seat) when we need to leave the house. If only I could just sit around all day. But actually, I wouldn't want that either. I got enough of that in the third trimester. I'm ready to get up and go.

 

[cagnew]

I have other kids and don't have a choice but to lift slightly over ten pounds (kid in a car seat) when we need to leave the house. If only I could just sit around all day. But actually, I wouldn't want that either. I got enough of that in the third trimester. I'm ready to get up and go.

I hear ya!

 

[luckiest]

Do any of you mamas have babies with lip/tongue ties?

Gus looks like he has both, although neither is severe and he does seem to have good mobility. He can stick his tongue out of his mouth, and his lip *will* flange, just not on its own. His latch is a bit shallow and I'm sore, but honestly nothing unusual for being five days postpartum. My mom (an LC) looked at them and sort of shrugged - it's definitely nothing severe or urgent, but they're there.

I'm still thinking of getting them snipped (likely lasered) or at least evaluated by a knowledgable pediatric dentist.

DS had a lip tie for sure, probably a tongue tie as well, and we didn't discover it until he was a bit older and the procedure to release would've been more complicated. He also wasn't having issues then, but issues cropped up later (tooth decay, delayed speech) that made me wish we'd found it and fixed it when he was an infant. So even if it isn't causing major problems now, I'm tempted to revise anyway while it's still a minor procedure.


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[jodieanneanton]

Do any of you mamas have babies with lip/tongue ties?

YUP! We dealt with that with Olive! Just had the revision done on Wednesday! Things are so. much. better!!!!

I was having sustained pain for entire nursing sessions, nipple damage, Olive was having gas, and more. I knew something was wrong right away. I had been through this road before and it was a long one with DS because no one recognized he had TT! So, this time, I got right on it and called a LC I knew had experience in diagnosing TT, particularly Posterior tongue tie (hidden tingue tie, as it is called by some), which is easily missed by many professionals, even! She was diagnosed at 3 days old by a LC with posterior tongue tie (she has a very small visible frenulum, but that means nothing when diagnosing tongue tie if there is posterior tongue tie, so it is often missed by many!) and lip tie.

We went in for the initial consult with the dentist when she was 5 days old. He agreed with the diagnosis, but suggested doing a week of craniosacral therapy before revision because he felt that the severity of my pain was more than the ties would normally cause. He was very clear that if i was going to give up nursing because of the pain, he would do the procedure right away. But, I agreed to do three CST treatments before doing the revision and I am so glad I did! Because with a week of time and 3 CST appts, things improved greatly! For me, there was over 50% improvement in pain, healing of the nipple damage, and more! Olive was finally able to be put down for more than a literal 30 seconds at a time! At birth, she had overlapping sutures on the top of her head (This is actually a "sign" of tongue tie, I have learned.) that went into place. So, there is no longer a ridge of the top of her head! (My DS had this, too. He also had tongue tie. For him, we did the revision at 2 months -it took that long and several HCP to get it diagnosed- and then the CST, so I attributed all of the improvements he experienced to the revision!) She began to be able to ride in the car without screaming!

After all of these improvements, I was still having significant pain while latching and the first few minutes of a feed. And Olive was dealing with what was more than normal amounts of gas. So, we went through with the revision and it was like the final puzzle piece was put into place! NO MORE PAIN for me! NO MORE GAS for her! Yeay!

That's our story, I hope it helps you.

I actually know a dentist in tx who exclusively does laser revisions and is a Mothering mom! She was in my last DDC! She is in Corpus Christi if u need a name and that location works (I know TX is a BIG state)!