December 2007 Mummies

emz I hated everything about b/f, I hated showing my boobs to everyone, the fact that b/f is very messy in the first few weeks cause it squirts everywhere and I basically felt really stupid doing it! I thought it was so gross to be honest!!

I just persevered (sp?) and made it my challenge to be able to do it, it was my goal every day to try and get her to atleast latch. After many tears, frustrated feeds and bleating to DH that I was useless and HATED b/f that one day Lauren and I just clicked, I can't even say what happened, one day it just felt good, she was happy on the boob and from then it has been an amazing experience! I do highly recommend nipple shields, Advent ones to be particular. They were a godsend and helped my let down, are easy for bubs to suck on and the milk flows nicely through them. So I basically went from expressing/bottle feeding to using nipple shields and then slowly weaned off the nipple shields, by doing one feed with them and then one feed without them to now where I am sure I could b/f while standing on my head!!

Lauren took to the boob straight away after exclusively bottle feeding for 3 weeks with no problems at all. I still give her one bottle of EBM every day so she will still take a bottle if needed when I am out!

We did a feed with no shield last night It was only 10 mins but yay! small victories (given the MW said I may never be able to do it without a shield).

On the down side Rowan is not liking the heat and is waking hourly for a feed and getting overtired in the process . Last night and tonight are not fun! I'm thinking we may have to resort to putting her bassinet in the bathroom as it's the coolest room in the house!

I haven't been near scales since New Years eve and I had lost 5kg then (which I'm sure was baby and placenta and fluid). Still have about 10kg to go

Well done Bobbie! You are on your way to painless breastfeeding. I found that because they are trying to suck out the colustrum they suck so hard and fast which makes nipples rather sore. Once they start healing they shouldnt be that sore again (well for me anyway).

Thats a great weight gain Emz. Have you thought about doing some daytime feeds on the boob? I do a combination of both BF and EBM and it means that she stays being used to both. It seems to work well if only she wouldnt comfort suck and be a lazy feeder!

Well I have had two really good nights. She has slept from 9.30pm-2.00am then 3.00am-7.am. Long may it continue! It does mean that she has decided to not sleep very much during the day though

Edited by Topsy

Definitly not a cop-out Emz. Sometimes I want to give up and yes it is stressful! EBM is just as good anyway and once he has had those antibdies then formula will be a good idea.

Hey guys just thought i'd pop my head in, I was in the January thread for expectant mothers but Sarah was born on teh 19th of December weighing 5 pound 12 oz, we are gfetting her weighed again today she is 4 weeks 1 day old and i hopeing over 7 pounds now. She is a pretty good sleeper but we have to feed her at leasst every 4 hours so i am getting 2-3 hour blocks of sleep. not as bad as i thought it was going to be though. Sarah was born by c section as she was breech so i still cannot do much about weight loss. i only put on 10 kilos for the pregnancy though so i'm not too worried.

Emz the best thing you can do for yoiur baby is be a relaxed mother and it sounds like you need to stop brest feeding for you sanity and health, your baby will benifit from that change in you. and formulae is not the lazy way, you will have to prepare all your bottles etc, so don't beat yourself up, only you know what is best for you and your baby.

right must check my e-mails. i can only get on the internet on thursdays at the mo.

sorry about the long post, spelling mistakes and typos!!!

Topsy yay for the long sleeps at night. Glad that all that feeding is obviously paying off.

Emz I don't think it's a cop out at all. Everyone feeds their baby differently and it's important that both of you are happy. With that awesome weight gain it sounds like you're doing the right thing anyway.

I've been having a few feeds without shields (just 5-10 mins in the middle of a feed). I'm doing it mainly because I'm paranoid about my milk drying up - although the MW said it was pretty unlikely in my case. But it hurts quite a bit. My nipples are so short that she can't get them to the back of the mouth so they end up squished and triangular shaped and hurt for quite a while afterwards. I don't know how you girls managed with that kind of pain for every feed - I must be a gigantic wuss.

Lizzy it's so funny how similar our situations are (especially since we started out with the same EDD). We have been able to move to demand feeds with Rowan but they end up roughly every 3 hours anyway. She was weighed by the MW yesterday (at her discharge visit ) and she was 3.4 kgs - don't know what that is in pounds.

LL I know what you mean about the heat. The last two nights we have not had any luck settling Rowan and she was feeding hourly last night for about 4 hours I don't think she's having a growth spurt either. Scary about the mastitis - I'd never heard of that. Love how things are 'common' but no one thinks to let the poor mums know.

We had a very unromantic wedding anniversary yesterday - windy baby and we were both tired so we had pizza in bed. And in 1 hour I will be 31

Edited by Bobbie

Happy Birthday Bobbie!!!!

Our lil man was better yesterday, he even slept from 1.20pm til 7.00am. Those larger night feeds are a godsend.

Finding he has quite dry skin, I know the skin dries up drastically as he was in the womb for 41 weeks having a swim, but wow. I just make sure he is moisturised and whatnot, but still, pretty peely.

PJ is having a squirm on his change mat, I think it's a number twos! Be back on later on.

P.S. Pretty funny watching him take his orange flavoured antibiotics through a syringe. That whole moment when he realises it's not milk or a dummy, pure confusion. So so cute!

Hi ladies and babies, hope you have all had a good weekend of good feeding and sleeping. I find it so hard to find the time to get on here at the moment as there is always something to do!

Bella has been such an angel at feeding for the past few days. I feels like it has just suddenly clicked which makes me glad I perservered through the very tough times. Now we just need to get the night time sleeps sorted. Thje longest we get is 4hrs but I can handle that.

Bella has gone very bald on top I am wondering how long it will take to grow back. It seems like the new growth will be blonde like her mama. She also has a bit of dry skin but not nearly as much when she had her full body peel at 2weeks old.

Does anyone elses babies kick off all their blankets? I think I will start to look at sleeping bags for the winter. The peke moe ones look good as they keep little hands warm aswell.

Hi all

Sorry I havn't posted much everytime I go to someone starts crying or filling there nappy or something comes up, I have been reading all the other posts tho.

Good work on your BF everyone you are doing so well it is such a hard thing to master and Emz dnt feel bad about formula feeding I have done it with all my lot and they are healthy & happy.

Not much happening with my lot we are getting up 1 most nights to feed sometimes not at all which is excellent!!
Hubby has been in Dunedin for a week for work and comes home tonight so we are pretty excited!

I weigh less now then I did before I got preggy so trying to look after 3 kids is doing my waist line good!


As for swaddling we are still doing it as Noah won't sleep without it, Lola isn't so worried but sleeps better when done.

Maybe that's Jackson's problem today? He's hardly slept and has been feeding every 2 hours. Or maybe a growth spurt? Driving me nuts! That plus it being D's first day back at work made me want to cry! But all is well now... except DH has just come in and told me that one of the mags on our car is cracked and can't be driven on, and our runabout car that he goes to work in could possibly need the CV joints done.. argh money money. Really bad timing!