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Shadow, am loving all that hair on Amelia, so fuzzy!
Jessiebean, Jack isn't 6 weeks yet so don't know his weight gain. Hope she puts on some weight.
Hi everyone else :)
Have a bit of a headache but otherwise feeling ok. Jack slept well last night and fingers cross we have a similar night tonight.
Just had one of the best mummy and baby moments here. Kayden was awake, not crying or feeding, for once he was just awake and looking at me. Now since he was like that and since I was overdue for a shower I figured why not just shower with him! (he was due for a bath as well)
So we hopped into the shower and he started snuggling in (he doesn't snuggle much my boy). And between the sound of shower and of my heartbeat he fell asleep! So peaceful and nearly deep asleep. It was such a pity I had to turn off the shower az the water was just about to run out! Then I bundled him and I in a couple of big fluffy towels and just stood in the bathroom for a few more minutes.
Unfortunately he woke while I was drying him.
Just thought I'd share, it was one of those moments that makes all the other stuff worth it!
awe sounds lovely Chrispe :-)
Naw what a beautiful moment Chrispe!
OMG - J slept 11.30 till 6.30!!! So thrilled! Though am not banking.on it happening again, I sure am praying it does.
Hi ladies! I keep trying to get online long enough to do personals but little miss isn't giving me a chance. Hoping if I try and pop in more often it will be easier.
As with many of you, I think dairy does't agree with A's tummy. I've been avoiding milk as that seems to be what sets her off, as far as I can tell anyway. Her sleeping is a bit all over the place. Last night for instance she was very unsettled. 5 hours between feeds, but she just wouldn't settle, so I ended up having to prop myself up in bed so she could sleep on my chest. The night before, 7 hours straight between feeds and totally settled. She's been a real velcro baby today too so not sure if maybe she's getting sick. Can't be a growth spurt cause she just finished one a few days ago. Df has been fantastic, on his days off he's been taking A at night so I can catch up on sleep. Also means my nipples can get a bit of a rest with is good. Think I need to see someone cause they're still pretty sore, and my left nipple hurts all the time. It's not too bad when she's latched on, but getting her on is so painful and even when she's not feeding it hurts so not sure what's going on.
Hope everyone is well :)
Hi Dee, I hope A isn't getting sick :( and I hope you all get a great rest tonight.
Hello everyone else :)
AFU-Not much happening here, just enjoying A every minute of the day. DH gets up on his days off through the night or will do the dishes or cook tea to take the load off me which is good :)
Hi ladies,
I'm sorry I've been MIA, I have been reading at times. but otherwise just too busy to get on the computer much at all. One day I need to work out how to access BB from my iphone so I can catch up while feeding!
Thor is 6 weeks today, and I think we're finally starting to get things together. The only issue we've had is feeding, but it's been a big one. He wasn't putting weight on at the start, and took a full four weeks to regain his birth weight. For the first month we had hospital or clinic appointments almost every day, seeing lactation consultants, the physiotherapist (for laser on my nipples,) and my godmother the paediatrician. Finally, at 5 weeks, the paed was happy with his rate of weight gain, and although I'm still talking to the LC most days, we seem to be finally getting on top of things. Now it's only 2-3 appointments a week - it feels like a holiday!
Obviously the main problem was low supply stemming from my history of breast reduction. We started to add formula top ps at 13 days, and at 21 days he still was well short of his birth weight. We started 'force feeding' him - or at least that's what it felt like, squeezing milk into him through a supply line, rather than letting him take what he wanted by sucking - but that seemed to make all the difference and he started to gain weight much more quickly. He's now getting just under half of his total milk intake as breast milk, most direct from the boob and the rest as EBM top ups.
We've chopped and changed, god knows how many times, between syringe feeding, bottle, supply line with syringe, and the supplemental nursing system, but finally have settled on the Calma bottle, and it seems to be working well for him, and he is no longer getting mixed up between bottle and boob and sucking on me like the teat, which was why we stopped the bottle the first time. The SNS continued to present issues with the air return valve, and I think, retrospectively, that this is why we *thought* he was getting his fill of milk and not finishing what was offered, but was in fact still hungry and couldn't get any more milk out.
We've been seeing one of Perth's best known LCs, who works with the university Human Lactation Research team, and amongst other things, she has loaned us a set of baby scales, and we weigh Thor before and after each side he feeds from, so we know exactly how much he gets from each boob. It's not something I'll keep doing for ever, but while i'm still trying to build my supply, it really helps to know if whatever we are trying is actually making any difference.
At the moment, I'm feeding both sides, weighing before, between and after, then topping up with either EBM or formula, then pumping after every feed as well. The whole process, if I do it alone, takes the best part of an hour IF he is happy to be put down after the bottle so I can express. Thank God DP is still off work so I can hand Thor over for the bottle feed. Thor is also pretty refluxy, so we also try to keep him upright for 20 minutes after feeds. At the moment we're trialling the effects of cooked vs raw vs no lactation cookies, trying to increase supply, and also with feeding football hold, to increase the proportion of milk he takes straight from the boob, in the hope that I can cut some of the expressing sessions without reducing by much the amount of BM he gets.
So feeding has been a big thing for us, but now that I know he's getting enough milk to grow, I am a lot more relaxed about it, and I'm sure that not being totally stressed about it all is also helping my supply.
My left nipple finally healed up at around 4 1/2 weeks, but my right nipple is still ulcerated, and is painful pretty much all the time, with little sharp, shooty pains interspersed with a burning/itching/aching feeling. The first 10-15 seconds when he latches on is agony, then it's not so bad. I've been swabbed again for bacteria, and will probably go on a second lot of ABs shortly. Everyone thinks his latch is perfect, so the cause has to be poor blood supply, therefore fast tissue breakdown and slow healing. Not fun!
As for things other than feeding, things are going great. He's been regularly going 6-7 hours between feeds at night, usually going straight back to sleep afterwards, and when he cries there's usually a good reason for it, and he settles fast with a feed, a nappy change or a change of position. He loves tummy time, can push up on his elbows and lift and turn his head. He'll happily entertain himself for about 5 minutes on his tummy, or up to 15 minutes on his back, which is great. He's been smiling since about 3 weeks, and is starting to coo and gurgle at us on a regular basis too.
DP has been amazing, and does a lot of the bottle feeds, frequently takes him to sleep on his chest or in the sling in the afternoons so I can have a nap undisturbed, and he's taking on a fair bit of the housework and cooking, too.
Altogether, now that we're on top of the feeding, we're really enjoying him, and finding that life with a baby is good. As I finally stress less and relax a bit more, I should hopefully be able to pop in and post a bit more often. :)
Hi pholi glad you are enjoying thor he sounds like a top baby and you are so patient to continue with the feeding hun. Hopefully your nipples heal.
Have you tried hydro gels? They apparently heal your nipples very very quickly.
Btw you can access BB via your browser on your phone. Thats how ive been doing it hence all the spelling mistakes lol
C doesnt sleep through the night yet so am feeding her now. We cosleep as she wouldnt go to sleep any other way.
She gets seperation anxiety now and no one can look after her at all except me which is a shame because sometimes i really need to do stuff!
Her reflux is also pretty bad and i had to change her clothes at least 3 times a day from the vom and worse is its like she doesnt know when she is full because she keeps drinking and drinkig until she throws up.
Hope everyone else is doing great.
Oh i swear she crawled at least one cm the other day. Got it on video :)
Pholi-You are one amazing mumma! Thor is very lucky to have you and sounds like an amazing baby. Well done for persisting. As for getting on BB, just open up Safari and type in belly belly.
Mum2-Sorry to hear about C's reflux. Poor bubba. I hope it improves soon.
Hello everyone else.
We are all good. A slept for 10 hours last night. It was nice to have a big sleep but I was very full when I woke. We have been getting out and about. I am loving being part of the mum club :)
Pholi good to hear from you! Wow well done on the feeding! As for checking BB, I use the Tapatalk app in the iPhone/iPad.
AFU- well Kayden is 8 weeks old and omg is he hungry the last 2 days! This growth spurt he has been on the boobs 24/7 well it feels like it anyway......
I can see he is bigger than last week.
M2SC, I have been using the hydrogel pads all along... they do help, but not enough for mu liking! Thanks for the suggestion, though. I'll have to have another look at BB on the phone - last time I tried, it was a real pain having zoom in enough to be able to read the tiny letters, then to scroll for miles from side to side to read each sentence. how cool with the crawling! We did baby led attachment for the first few days, and it was just incredible how much Thor could manoeuvre himself, with only the tiniest bit of help.
Thor gets 3 or 4 changes of clothes a day, too. With the top-ups from the bottle, we've found that if we take it out of his mouth and give him a very short break, he keeps looking for it if he's still hungry, but if he's not he is content and ignores it. Maybe you can try the same thing with the boob - detach her, every few minutes, when you think she might be getting to the end, and see if she's still rooting/ making hungry faces/whatever her hungry cues are.
To all those with lactose issues, my sympathies! It must be really hard to exclude dairy from your diet. I'm constantly snacking, even with only 50%BF, and cheese and yoghurt are really big parts of my snack choices!
Lady_neon, I really hope you get your 7 hours sleep again! Doesn't it make you feel amazingly good?!?
Chrispe, what a gorgeous moment in the shower! We had our first shared shower today, and T was really befuddled. He loves his bath, but he just looked a bit worried all the time in the shower, sticking out his tongue to taste the spray, and blinking at the mist landing in his eyes. Perhaps it won't be so strange next time.
Shadow, what a gorgeous pic! i love all the hair, too.
thank lady's for all comments re Amelia's picture. Got to agree she is Gorgeous :D
Amelia, I'm pretty sure (well she better be lol) is going through a growth spurt. Yesterday she fed every hour and through the night I was up at 2 then 4 then 6. Oh the fun :) feeding every hour again this morning though we did just manage 2 hours. What drives me bonkers is not the lack of sleep (will soon though ha ha) but the fact sometimes (thankfully not much) she wants it and I try give it to her and she has her mouth open but will she latch on? nooooooooooo she does a Stevie Wonder (move head about)and screams her head off, have to end up giving her dummy to calm her down then I take it from her and she latches on. She sleeping now :-) I should lay down aswell. Half expecting her to wake though with wind as she never burped after a big feed.
Needles Thursday, she should be right :-)
I suppose next the teeth will start coming.
Well I think I may go lay down I'm very tired.
Hey all,
Kidlets both sleeping at the moment, so we'll see how far I get.
Jessie - In regards to growth, I just got back from A's 6 week check up, and the paed seemed to think anything over 1kg was a massive weight gain. I also know the CHN's at the clinic I take A to like to see at least 150g/wk, or an average there of. So if they put on a lot one week and not so much the next they're not concerened as long as it averages out to 150g a week ITMS? Hope that helps some.
Kirley - haven't heard from you in a while. I hope everything is going well for you and little J.
Pholi - Sounds like you're doing really good with T now and have the feeding thing all sorted. And I think it's fantastic that he's nearly 50% breastfed. You've really persisted through some difficult times (his growth, your nipples). T is really lucky to have you as a mum!
Mum2c's - I second Pholi's suggestion of detaching C part way through feeds and see if she does hungry cues. DS use to gorge himself too and do massive chucks after every feed. I ended up doing that with him and it really cut the spewing down. He still did spew but not where near as much. And I know if he was still hungry he'd boob bop and root away until I popped him on for more, but most of the time he'd be quite content with what he'd gotten before I detached him.
Miss D - Sorry to hear that A's sleeping is still all over the place. It really makes it hard. My A's the same, some nights she will sleep great (although most of the time on those nights DS doesn't so I still don't get a decent sleep) and other nights she'll be up every 1 1/2 - 2 hrs. IT's fantastic that your DP takes her at night for you so you can get a break. That certianly helps.
DDB - Glad to hear that A is doing great. IT is a fantastic thing/feeling being a mum isn't it? It's still just as fantastic the second time around as well :D IT's great that your DH is so helpful as well with chores and looking after her.
Crispe - what a beautiful mummy/baby moment you and K had.
Shadow - that you for sharing the picture of A. She's a beautiful little baby. I still can't get over how much hair she has!
Lady N - that's great that J slept so long for you. I hope that his sleeping pattern has finally started to sort itself out and that you get lots more of that long sleep through the night.
:hello: to everyone else. and anyone I might have missed.
AFU - Had A at the paed for her 6wk check up. She's up to 5120g from a birth weight of 3920 is 56cm long up from 51 and a head circumference of 37.7 (was 34) so he was very happy with her growth.
He was very concerened about her cough though. And he's not convinced he agrees with the GP's diagnosis of asthma. His concern hadn't even occured to me, and I am now praying that it actually is asthma. DH has a heart condition. Quite a bad one...he's had a couple heart attacks and has been rushed to the hospital more times then I can count. Apparenlty the condition can be heredetary. And apparently coughing can be a sign of issues with the heart. So the paed has referred us to a heart specialist and called up himself and got us an appointment so it would be ASAP. We've got an appointment with him next monday. They'll go over DH's history then give her an ECG and other stuff. Never thought I'd say this but I'm actually praying now that it is 'just' asthma.
Oh dr tal i hope its just minor asthma too :hug:
Fingers crossed it's just asthma Tal. Goes to show sometimes good to get a 2nd opinion though.
Dr Tal, I am crossing my fingers it's minor asthma too. That must be so scary. If you ever need to talk please feel free to pm me.
Crikey Tal! Thinking of you, and hope its 'just' the asthma.
Thanks everyone for your thoughts and wishes.
This week has been crawling by so slowly. I just want it to be Monday so I can find out what is wrong with my baby girl :(