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Hey guys! I'm joining here too.
Everyone seems to be going well.
Lisa, it's good that you said they just feed all the time in the beginning!
Arthur did 3-4 hr feeds for the first week or so. Now we are at a glorious 1-2 hrs!
Unreal.
Just hanging in there!
More soon
hi to all I haven't met!
hi all
Yeah I'm on the 1-2 hour feeds as well.
I've been in hossy with Matteo for the past couple of days, just got home.
He had cold and breathing issues, and gastro on top of that. Still got a dodgy bottom but the cold is clearing up.
He has just started smiling in the past few days, few and far between but still there. I thought he would probably wait until his corrected age but I guess he has had 10 weeks of us grinning at him.
He got weighed yesterday, 4.5kg or 10lb :o Little Chubba!
Take care all
DM - Thats great that Daytona isnt as jealous of Lilli :) RE the boobies, mine are the same. Fill quick and get sore. I'm just glad they dont get hard anymore lol.
BF - I hope Matteo feels better soon, poor little guy. Thats great his started smiling! Xavier gives us some big cheesy ones, but we know its just wind/gas lol. Still cute though.
Afm, Had our first visit from the MCHN yesterday and she seems nice enough. I got Xavier weighed and his put on 155grms in 6 days! Little fatty. So he's now 4260kgs (9lb6).
We are also feeding every 1-2 hours during the day. At night he's every 3-4 hours. Its been suggested to me to use a dummy during the day to try and space his feeds out longer, but I'm not too keen on that. He'll figure his own routine out. I have used the dummy for the first time today though to get him off to sleep. He wanted boobie not even half hour after his 10am feed so I gave him to dummy and got him to sleep that way. Idk if I'll keep it going, I dont want him to learn when the dummy falls out he wakes and cries until its back in (which happened just before). He's been self-settling really well on his own so I would love for that to continue.
We also had our first full night of co-sleeping last night. Xavier usually sleeps in his cot in his own room, but he wet his sheets and I'd forgotten to wash the 2nd set earlier this week. So he had to sleep with us ... not that I wasnt thrilled :lol: It was SO nice ... I may just have to do it again >=D
And with that his now awake and wanting boobie lol :)
Hi Ladies been stalking but now am ready to post.
How have you all been hope you are all doing well.
As for feeding times I think it takes some time for them to get into a pattern and these can change with growth spurts etc. My boy e had to wake him every 3 hours as he was born early and a sleepy baby and he was just taking his quota now he is to 31/2 to 4 hourly feeds so that isnt too bad he is putting on weight which is the main thing.
Afm: I am recovering from the csec and am getting back to normal only for the numbness in my butt which is a pain but will go over time. feeling a little useless atm but will get there. Feeling tired more than anything.
well better go bubs has woken take care ladies post more soon
Hi ladies, just subbing. I've had an interesting time since my little man was born. He was born on the 08th Feb at 11.09am via emergency c-sect at 34+1 weeks. I only saw him for a couple of seconds when he was born then he was whisked off to the special care nursery for the remainder of my surgery. I was pushed in to see him in the SCN where I got to hold him for 5 mins before he had to go back into the incubator as he had been breathing quickly. He has been in the SCN all this time and today is the day he was finally discharged now that he is gaining weight and BFing at every feed. Felt like a long road. He weighed 2.66kg when he was born which the nurses said was a good effort for a premmie.
For feeding time the nurses have me waking him up every 3 hours and I have to pull off all his clothes to wake him up properly, then change his nappy and then if he still needs coaxing I do some physiotherapy with him. On getting him to sleep once he has finished eating I put his suit back on, burp him over my shoulder by patting his back and then rubbing his back up and down. After that I pat his bum lightly for a little bit and once I know he is asleep on my shoulder I ease him into the bassinett and then run away! LOL Today however he has been a little mixed around and is feeding every 2 hours but I don't mind. If I see him awake I check the nappy, give a cuddle and if he looks for the boob I give it to him. My main thing is him gaining weight.
For those who had c-sect, does it feel uncomfortable when you pee? Whenever I go to pee it feels like a huge tight pressure right near my left hip, sometimes its there, sometimes its barely noticeable.
DM: As strange as it sounds I'm glad my boobs feel sore LOL For a couple of days I lost my milk supply, be it stress or whatever, so i had to go on some tablets to get it back. So if my boobs are sore I know my milk is still there :)
BF: I can't wait to get smiles from him that aren't directly connected to the sounds emitting from his nappy LOL I just wanted to ask how you work out the corrected age? I thought I figured it out but then...blank...
Shan: I'm not too keen on the dummy either although I do have a stash of them just in case. The hospital gave me one that is supposed to help him BF but I just prefer letting him settle himself like you said. That said he was very unsettled earlier today and took us both a long time to settle so I'm not sure if my approach is working as well as I thought LOL
Hello to anyone I missed. It's been a big day for me, Chase is home for the first time and I have alot of laundry to do including many items that have been pooed/weed on during nappy changes LOL
Its nice to meet you all and looking forward to getting to know you!
Kitty K: As for your ceaser op the docs/nurses kept asking if I had any burning when I weed but never mentioned pressure if it comes and goes it doesnt sound nasty but it always pays to get it checked. I still have numbness in my butt and its driving me batty I hope it goes away soon. I can never recall having this sort of reaction with my first ceaser.
I have a question for you ladies my boy who is 2 weeks old is suffering from reflux doesnt seem to matter how much I burp him nearly every time I put him down he always brings up some milk he falls asleep towards the end of his bottle so Im wondering is it because he goes to sleep. We have doc appointments next week so will mention it then. He is on S26 but only till this can runs out and putting him on NAN formula could it be the formula. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
hi all
shan - xavier is doing well, you sound like to are doing great too.
cakestar - lucky you on the 3-4 hourly feeds, enjoy. You'll soon be over the c-section.
Kittyk - NICU is a difficult journey isn't it, but well done you. The corrected age is confusing. His actual age is from the day he was born and the corrected age is from his gestation. So today my son would have been 1 week and 5 days since his due date, but his actual age would be 11 Weeks on Wednesday (from the day he was born). If you go to Lillpie for your ticker, it has a premmie one that you can use, easier to count then.
afm - He is grumpy lately, from the cold and wind probs I think, but now settling on his own on a night at about 8pm. He does wake 3-4 times during the night though.
take care all
Wow am I slow! Ive been trying to find this thread but using my phone makes it hard til I realized it was a sticky thread! Lol! :redface:
Here I was wondering why our belly buddies group wen quiet so quickly :p
Well my little porkchop only ended up losing 20g off her original body weight, and has also put on 200g in one week! :pinkcheer: yay!! I was getting so worried because of all our feeding issues (see BF'ing chatter thread and a separate thread I posted)
But were going downhill with feeding again :( even using the shield! She will attach fine, and suck a few times and swallow once, then she pulls off and cries and whinges an just wont feed! If I let her, it will keep going on and on for hours! Last night she was feeding over 2 hours, and was STILL hungry, so we had to give her a bottle of EBM, which had around 65mL, and she gulped that down so quickly the poor thing!!! :( then slept so well afterwards :(
I don't know what to do?? Were seeing an ABA consultant shortly, and if that doesn't work, seeing the LC that recommended her, but I'm beginning to think that maybe we should go with EBM in a bottle as she seems so much happier, but I want to BF, I love the cuddles and closeness... :(
Gahh.. Why does it have to be so hard!??
xxhope; I know your struggle and the wanting to BF I just found it too draining in the end my milk wasnt coming in huge amounts and with DS in hosp the only way he ws coming home was if he put on weight and was feeding so I ended up going on formula it was the best move I made though I wished I had BF in the end I had to think of my son and that was the main thing the decsion is yours in the end so take your time and speak to the professionals and weigh it up from there hope all goes well for you love and take care
Thanks cakestar.
We saw the ABA consultant, and the only thing she could suggest to us was that perhaps my nipple is too short, and that's why she can't attach without the shield, that and her mouth it too small because shes so small.
Other than that she couldn't help and just suggested that we cup feed til she's bigger, but we still don't know when/if that will happen and knowing how easily frustrated she gets, she won't like cup feeding, she HATED syringe feeding too, which they say is much the same. So well, yeah... I don't think we will be going with that :/
So unless this LC can help us, I think we will be feeding her with EBM in a bottle much to my utter disappointment. I feel like despite her putting on weight like a champ, she's so unhappy and unsettled when she feeds from me..
I just feel like such a failure; my baby cant feed from me, for whatever reason, and she's just so much happier and just a much more settled baby when she's fed from the bottle with my milk... What can I do!?
I wanted to occasionally give her EBM from a bottle, like when we wanted to go out, but not all the time, but I can't stand to see my baby screaming and so upset and frustrated, and then I can't sleep because she is CONSTANTLY, like she will feed for over TWO hours, and still be crying for more, so that means I can't sleep, neither can DH, and we are all just tired upset and frustrated...
Anyway, rant over..
Oh and, btw I should introduce myself to the people I don't know,
I had my baby girl on the 7th Feb at 7.18pm, and she weighed 7lb 3oz (3.24kg) after a 14hr natural labor and birth only using gas while pushing! (which I only found out the other day I was only pushing for 8mins! :O how crazy! Lol...)
Hope: you guys must have all been from the same bellybuddies group I just realised :) Well nice to meet you and kudos for doing labour au natural it was a long time but obviously well worth it :) hope you get some answers from the LC. It sucks so much that you can't feed your baby the way you want.
Well right now I can hear him dirtying the clean nappy I just put on him so I'm off to go brave the nappy change :) Is it so wrong that I love and hate doing this part? LOL
Kitty. I'm hearing ya! Especially after you've been wee'd on twice through out the night time ones and farted at constantly! Awesome.
Hope, that sucks about the BF. Hopefully there is something you can do. Just don't beat yourself up over it. I think itsgreat that even if you can't feed him from your own breast thatyou willstill give him breast milk.
You are a champ.
I have bought the smallest Decor containers (for single serve salad dressing) and hand expressedfor 10 mins and did not even get 1/2 the container filled prob 20mls.
I gave my wife the bottle with my 3 container worth in it and he devoured it in 20 seconds flat! I was hoping for a nice long,inimate feed for her. Nope! He was back on the boob in 40 seconds.
So I would love any tips on expressing. I have the advent manual pump too. But after 30 secs. I get fed up.
Any advice.
Most say to wait till after 6 weeks when milk is more abundant.....
We are going to see Billy connelly at the opera house next Tuesday and my mum is watching him. I bought that ready mixed formula if I can't express enough but would like to keep him exclusively on boob juice. Tips??? Lisa?
I have the Avent Isis manual pump and I freaking HATE it. I was lucky to get 20mls when I pumped using it. The BEST thing is the Medela Swing pump. I haven't had to pump for Lucy yet as she is a brilliant feeder, but I pumped for Anelise as she had a tongue tie and it was painful for me to feed her. I was able to express up to 240mls when she was only needing 120mls at a time. I had an abundance of frozen EBM and it really came in handy. I only left Anelise once when feeding her and my sister fed her my frozen EBM. I definitely advise getting an electric breast pump, or at least hiring one - most chemists and some hospitals hire them out. I think you can also hire them through the ABA?
Hi everyone :)
Just another quick one from me. Lucinda is going so well. She feeds pretty much constantly! She also doesn't like sleeping in her cradle, so she co sleeps with DH & I. I don't mind but I find I don't get a good nights sleep when she is in the bed with us.
Foxtel IQ has become my best friend and I am constantly setting things to record so that I have something to watch during those horrid 2am feeds. Malcolm in the middle has become a feeding favourite! lol
Here I go for a second time trying to reply. I replied last night and then accidentally closed my window. Lol so 2nd time lucky?
KittyK, Hi! Nice to meet you! Your little guy sounds amazing!! Bf-ing and home already, what a champ! You must be so proud. And what a gorgeous name as well.
And I hear you on the nappies lol. Xavier is the same, clean one goes on and within minutes he's rivaling his daddies farts LOL.
Cakester, Being a newbie to all this I unfortunately dont have an suggestions, but I hope you can get some answers at your doc appointment next week. Good luck :)
Hope, I'm sorry your having feeding issues hun :hug: Its fantastic that your trying to find a solution, I hope the LC can give you some great advice. And I agree with M+M, dont beat yourself up too much. Your doing everything you can to continue BF, its not like your just easily giving up on it. And if you do need to bottle feed, its great that you can still give her breastmilk :hug:
M+M, I suck at hand expressing haha. I got about 20mls the other day doing it, but I think I lost about the same running down my boob because I couldnt position the bottle properly lol. I have a cheap manual pump from kmart now, and yesterday I was able to get almost 50mls from one breast after a feed from that side. Its pretty awesome for a manual, I wish I could afford an electric though lol.
Lisa, Great to hear Lucy is doing well :D I find the same with co-sleeping, I dont get such a great sleep from having to stay on the one side all night. I do love it though lol
Afm, Xavier had such an awesome sleep last night. He went down about 9.30 after a small feed, and didnt wake until 2.30! Quick feed, then he was down again until 6. He had a massive feed then and came back to bed with me as he got the hiccups and was getting a little annoyed with them lol. We then slept in until 8.30. I feel great this morning lol.
His starting to get a little fussy in the evenings. Its nothing bad, he just **** farts around when feeding. Goes on, then off, and on, then off etc lol. He'll get frustrated and annoyed, and then suddenly he's on properly and fine lol. Last night at the 2am feed he would not attach properly and was starting to get really upset so I had to put him in the football hold. Worked a charm lol.
And he'll have periods where he wants to comfort suck. Which I've tried to give him a dummy for but he wont take it LOL! He'll spit it out or gag on it. I dont know why he suddenly wont take one (his had one twice now and took them fine then), but I'm not going to force it. Offer every now and then, he may take it when he gets a bit older. It'd just be a little handy when he wants to comfort suck.
I had to buy a new breast pump yesterday. I kind of ruined the first one I bought, by boiling a piece I wasnt suppose to and it bent all out of shape :redface: Hahaha. I need to express a little for comfort atm. Does anyone know if you can mix breastmilk expressed at different times? Like can I put some that I've expressed today with the amount I expressed yesterday? Lol thats probably a stupid question, but I will play the NEWBIE card :p
Oooooooooo DP's family have annoyed the crap out of us. MIL is in a mental health hospital as she has bad depression, and we're expected to drive over 3hrs (its 3hrs WITHOUT a baby in tow) to see her for her birthday this wed or thurs. We werent even asked! Just told we were going. SIL rang DP "Can you make it to where mum is for her birthday?" DP: "I dont think so" SIL:"Well you have to as FIL told her you were coming and she's now told everybody".
SO PO'ed! We're not going though. I am not comfortable taking my 2week old newborn to a place where I dont know who could be sick and have to have a bunch of random strangers goo-ing and gaa-ing over him. Luckily DP feels the same. MIL wont take the news well that we aren't going. But if they cant understand that its a lot to ask of a 2 week old baby to travel over 6 hours in a car in ONE day and be fine with being smothered by MIL and her random friends, then that isnt my problem.
Haha sorry for the rant, they have just really bugged me!
And wow. Sorry for the novel! :p :p
Hi, just popping in quickly as Im off the the MW to see about attachment issue.. Seems just on one side LouLou isn't attaching properly and my nipple sorry bit too much info, is so so sore :(
Anyhoo, I just wanted to add about the expressing. My first DD was born at 31 wks and so this was the only way I could provide her BM, so I became really efficient at it.. I have the Advent manual. I found that initially there wont be any milk coming out but if you keep pumping for a couple of minutes it does come in. Then I will give a few quick pumps (gently don't want too much suction!) and then long drawn out pumps. You can see the milk coming out and when it stops pump again. Basically it's one of those things that you have to keep up with.
I express from the breast Im not going to feed from b/f I get her up to b/f her. Im doing about 90 ml at various times of the day, try first thing in the morning, around 6ish as this is when breasts are apparently at their fullest. Also around 11am and maybe before night feed 9ish.
I am following the Tizzy Hall, Save our Sleep and whilst she doesn't sleep as well as Xavier through the night (Im very jealous lol) she is good, wakes about 1am & then 5am... I would rather 2am & 6 or 7am but still happy with what she's doing..
Shan - You can mix BM expressed at different times no worries at all... Just have to make sure you store it properly in the fridge & then throw out what's left once heated etc.
Hope you all have a great day with lots of sleep :)
Shan- Yep, you can definitely mix the EBM. I used to store in bottles to freeze and would have stickers on the sides with dates on it so I would use the older stuff first. If you're planning to freeze it, just leave it out on the bench to defrost and only heat it in a cup of hot water rather than the microwave as the microwave zaps out loads of nutrients.
Thought this might be of help for breast milk:
Storage suggestions
Breast milk must be stored correctly to reduce the potential for bacterial growth.
Suggestions include:
Use fresh breast milk whenever possible.
Express into clean and sterilised containers. These may be glass, plastic or sealable plastic bags.
Label each container with the time and date the breast milk was expressed.
Refrigerate the breast milk within one hour of expressing.
Store breast milk in the back of the fridge where it is coolest (4°C or lower), not in the fridge door, if you are going to use it within the next three to five days.
Freeze excess breast milk if you produce more milk than your baby requires.
Freeze refrigerated breast milk immediately if you are not going to use it in the next few days.
Do not top up refrigerated or frozen breast milk with fresh breast milk unless it has been chilled first.
The shelf life of frozen breast milk depends on your freezer. If your freezer is inside the fridge, storage time is two weeks. If your freezer is separate from the fridge with its own door, storage time is up to three months. Breast milk can be stored for six to 12 months in a deep freezer (-18°C or lower).
Thawing and heating of breast milk
Breast milk must be thawed and heated correctly to reduce the potential for bacterial growth.
Thaw frozen breast milk by moving it from the freezer to the fridge for slow thawing over 24 hours.
You can also run cold water over the container and gradually increase the temperature of the water. Do not overheat the milk as it will destroy some of the nutrients and may burn the baby’s mouth.
Never use the microwave. It is a potentially dangerous practice as it can cause ‘hot spots’ in the milk that may burn your baby’s mouth.
Frozen breast milk that is thawed in the fridge (but not heated) will last 24 hours in the fridge and four hours at room temperature. It cannot be refrozen.
If milk has been thawed outside the fridge, using warm water, it will last for four hours in the fridge, but cannot be refrozen.