Born August 2013 - the heatwave babies!

[FoofFighter]

I have had a look and cannot see another thread is the last few pages but if there is someone please tell me and will get MNHQ to delete this one!

[Ditsy79]

I've been looking for a thread for a few days (and didn't know how to set one up). Thanks for sorting it out foof
Hope you and sophie are doing well.
My DD francesca is now 12 days old, loving being a mum, although exhausted and overly emotional. Finding BF quite difficult especially at night, but went to a BF group today which was a help.

[FoofFighter]

I'm going to start going to our one next week as having trouble with big boobs and positioning, and a lot of pain although getting slightly better, hopefully when the milk comes in it will help my one stubborn nipple that's suddenly decided to be shy to come out to play too!
Nights are always the worst aren't they? Figuring out feeding lying down which got us through last night in the end.

Don't feel too exhausted tbh as getting at least as much sleep as when preg as suffered with bad insomnia.

[Ditsy79]

my prob is also big boobs and postitioning - am currently doing the 'rugby ball' hold, which is fine in the comfort of my own home but I can't face doing it in public. I tried BF lying down, but had an EMCS in the end, and it hurts the stitches.
Think the BF groups are a fab idea, although I was a bit daunted by it all today and burst into tears... Hoping the hormones calm down sometime soon!

[FoofFighter]

day 3 tomorrow so fully expecting the hormone drop eek, have warned OH to just realise it's baby blues, I will prob cry over nothing, just hug me and feed me cups of tea and chocolate!

hoping mw comes early on tomorrow as would like to get out of the house in the afternoon for a walk, stretch my legs and get some fresh air and sunshine and show off Sophie a bit too

[RuckAndRoll]

Checking in. Ds was born 28/7, we've had a tough start with tongue tie, infected stitches, and pnd. Settling down slowly but surely.
We're mix feeding with formula and expressed breastmilk as he couldn't breastfeed with his tongue tie.

[PixieBaby]

Checking in - thanks for creating the new thread Foof.

DD born 7th Aug and settling in slowly. BF has been a bit bumpy but feel like I may be winning. I also struggle with the big boobs issue!

Lady bits are not in good shape... Midwife is coming on Monday as my episiotomy stitches seem to have developed a new tear and it is rather painful. ouchy

[RuckAndRoll]

Pixie, ouch, I can sympathise with bad stitches. I tore both ways, dangerously close to urethra, bloody painful.
Rest rest rest and painkillers!

[IJustWoreMyTrenchcoat]

Joining the post-natal thread!

Still feeling like I'm in a constant haze... Have been on the breastfeeding board and got some good advice but still can't believe how hard it is. He never settles, just wants fed constantly and I'm not sure if he's feeding or just comforting. If my nipples weren't so sore from the poor latch I wouldn't mind but dread feeding sometimes.

I keep dwelling on the birth too, I narrowly avoided an instrumental delivery because of an episiotomy. The tear to my urethra was horrendous. One of the Midwives said he was a tight fit, my mum thinks I was too small and they shoud never have let me push so long. I don't know if I could do it again!

[Ditsy79]

IJust - am also still a bit traumatised about my delivery. 3 days of them trying to induce me with the horrible Prostin stuff, then they finally broke my waters and put me on Syntocin drip. Had an epidural, which was fab - got to being fully dilated and thought all was going well. Then the head was slightly at the wrong angle and I got rushed off to theatre as they thought she wasn't getting enough oxygen. So I had an emergency C-section, but then lost a lot of blood, reacted badly to some of the drugs, spiked a temperature and they wouldn't let me off recovery for 4 hours - didn't see the baby for all that time. It was so upsetting, and even thinking about it now makes me sad. But the main thing is that we are both ok.
Didn't realise BF would be so difficult and exhausting, although I am not quite as tired today as I was yesterday so maybe things are getting better?
Hang on in there ladies, surely things must get easier soon....

[MsFiremanSam]

Checking in too. DD born on the 13th and I can't get enough of her! Feel like I want to constantly dissect the birth, it was all so overwhelming. Deluged by visitors and really just want them all to go away so I can cuddle her in peace!

[FoofFighter]

I've given up on breastfeeding after spending every day in pain, feeds shrieking in agony and in tears, finally today was the last straw, milk came in and she fed four times between 2am and 8,30am and again like that this afternoon, nipples in shreds, oozing blood, stuck to my bra at one point and I had to soak it off in hot water, immense pain despite the mw all saying latch is fine?

so she's taken a formula feed, settled straight away, is zonked out, I was in floods of tears feeding her, thining about how I'll never see her wee hungry face that she does when she's trying to latch on,

feel like shit

[yellowsnownoteatwillyou]

Hey can I join? ds born 30/7 by c section.

So 2 nights in hospital on day 2, I was struggling with breast feeding as boobs are now a k cup or more. Was told I need to get on with it as I would give my baby jaundice if i couldnt make him feed for more than 5 mins at a time. this being said 5 minutes before pils and mum arrived. So was in a crying mess for them arriving,luckily he latched on and fed for 1 hr 30 after they left, so thought I was on to a winner.

Came home, fed for a similar amount of time lying down and stupidly fell asleep. Woke up to bleeding bruised nipples, next day milk came in, never been in so much pain. Could barely move crying mess, baby screaming couldn't even touch boobs let alone get baby to feed. DH bought formula baby feed went to sleep happy, I cried as felt like a failure and was in so much pain and temp over 40.

Thank god for google, hot and cold compresses and manual expressing and boobs not like rock, but bruised and bleeding nipples. Loads of lansinoh applied and Savoy cabbage bought.

So baby now is mixed fed with expressed milk and formula, I'm happy, babies happy, DH helps.

Apart from the feeding disaster at first I'm loving every minute. Will be sad when DH goes back to work next week.

[IJustWoreMyTrenchcoat]

Oh Foof I am so sorry, I am on the verge, in so much pain and so so tired. Baby wants fed again virtually as soon as he is finished. I am staying stubborn for the time being, going to try expressing again, and will bother the BF councillor some more. Never ever thought something so natural could be so hard!

Oh Ditsy it sounds awful, hope you are feeling better. Is this your first baby? I hope you are getting some support as it sounds like a lot to cope with.

I am just trying to figure out how things spiralled out of control. I got to 8-9cm on my own at home baby was back to back when I was examined but must have turned at some point at the hospital. I then used the pool with gas and air. When my contractions stopped they wanted to give me a drip but I refused (did have to have it later), when baby was out they said he needed oxygen but I can't remember him having any.

It went from me, my partner and one Midwife to staff all over the place telling me how distressed my baby was. I wanted to look at my notes but wasn't allowed. A Midwife just answered questions from them regarding how long a pushing stage I had etc.

[Ditsy79]

foof You poor thing, please don't beat yourself up about it. The main thing is that your DD is getting fed and is happy.
Sounds like you've had one hell of a time. Please get some professional advice about your nipples - like yellow snow you may be able to express.
You need to look after yourself now, and give yourself time to recover.
[Cake]

[Ditsy79]

foof You poor thing, please don't beat yourself up about it. The main thing is that your DD is getting fed and is happy.
Sounds like you've had one hell of a time. Please get some professional advice about your nipples - like yellow snow you may be able to express.
You need to look after yourself now, and give yourself time to recover.

[MrsPennyapple]

Hello everyone, checking in. DS is ten days old now, and doing great, mw is very happy with him, he's gaining weight (although not back to birth weight yet), and his jaundice has cleared nicely.

Sorry to hear about bf troubles. It is unbelievably hard, isn't it? I struggled so much when DD was born, I must have read every website in existence, but that meant that this time around, I had a head start, having read loads as well as having done it before. Luckily DS latched on well and fed well from the start. At this stage, it is absolutely normal for baby to just feed, feed and feed some more. It is frustrating, when your backside is numb, you've taken root on the sofa, and you've watched all the TV stuff you had recorded, and then you think they've had a decent feed and they want more a few minutes later.

Yellowsnow if your baby has a bit of jaundice, it will not be because you have "caused" it. Babies are born with more blood cells than they need, and they are expelled in the urine, which is why lots of feeding = lots of weeing = blood cells expelled. Sometimes the body can't expel them quick enough, and they come out in the skin, to be shed as the body renews skin cells. Vitamin D helps the process, so getting baby into the daylight helps. I put DS in his bouncy chair by the window, and it cleared in a couple of days.

[yellowsnownoteatwillyou]

Hi mrs penny apple, he didn't ha e jaundice this was what I was told would happen if I didn't wake him up and feed him for longer than 5 minutes. I was already stressed as visitors were coming in and hadn't had a good night and was in a lot of pain from my section. It was also 3 nurses came in one after the other and effectively told me I was starving him.

He just fed lots of small amounts but this wasn't good enough for them, I also got a huge cot death lecture for co sleeping.

Breast feeding help out of hospital has been fantastic and have been given an electric pump from the nhs for as long as I need it, and am slowly increasing the amounts I can get so he's less formula more breast milk and will try actually feeding him when I can get my head around it as it was quite traumatising.

[IJustWoreMyTrenchcoat]

I have had the Midwife round again to weigh baby at day 10. He has lost another 20g which while she did say isn't a lot was enough to push him into 10% of birth weigh loss category.

She has instigated another feeding plan completely contradicting what I was told by the NCT breastfeeding councillor. I told her I didn't want to give formula, yet I have and I feel like a failure . She asked my partner to go and buy cartons so she could give him a top up while she was here. I don't know where I go from here, feels like I am losing control.

[Ditsy79]

Ijust - you are NOT a failure. While I was in hospital, I had to give formula top ups on several occasions, and felt awful for doing it. I also had to get the midwives on the ward to take the baby away a couple of times overnight for formula cup feeds as I was completely exhausted, in tears and could not BF her. I had seriously been considering mixed feeding, especially at night, although I haven't needed to so far. We have got a few cartons in the cupboard, in case we do need them.
As long as the baby is healthy and happy, you shouldn't beat yourself up about not being able to EBF at the moment.
I have had so much conflicting advice about BF from the health professionals I've seen, it can be really confusing. 'Luckily' I live in an area with one of the lowest BF stats in the country, so there is a lot of support being funded locally. I have a peer advisor who comes the house once a week, a 24 hour helpline, and a weekly drop-in group.
I also thought that BF would be a lot easier than it is. Feel like my life is revolving around 2-3 hour blocks of time. Yesterday I thought I was getting used to sleep deprivation, but today I'm not so sure :-)

[Nightwish]

Checking in.
DS2 born 12/08/2013.
Still breastfeeding but DS was born with a tooth and it was covered with a bit of gum at first, now it isn't and is digging into me on some feeds.

Cannot believe he is a week old.

For those of you who are struggling with breastfeeding do not feel you are a failure! If your child is being fed whichever way then you are doing your job as a mum. I stopped BF DS1 at 9 days because I was in agony each feed, at the time it felt like the end of the world but he is the liveliest 4 year old you could meet.

[FoofFighter]

trenchcoat we aren't failures, far from it, please don't think that you are tries to heed own words are they giving you any idea of what they think is "wrong"? Was what the bf counsellor told you working?

Nightwish ouch a tooth already?!

[Gonnabmummy]

Marking place for when ds eventually rocks up!
all these breast feeding posts are very daunting. I read that they feed about every two hours, but a feed can last for well over an hour so is it usually two hours from beginning or end of last feed? Because if its beginning you might only get 20 mins!
I think you are all fab and have done great, can't wait til ds rocks up
38+5 so maybe a while yet, think he will be an early sept but I'm sticking to this thread as I love keeping up with everyone

[IJustWoreMyTrenchcoat]

Foof I know, just motherly guilt I think. Also partly mourning the fact BF might not work and thinking about the faff of bottle feeding/sterilising etc.

He has actually put 40g on today so I am just concentrating on that and the fact top ups are working. That seems more important than stubbornly carrying on no matter what. The Midwife says it is just a feeding problem and nothing else.

He seemed a bit better with BF councillor said, but top ups have really settled him, he obviously needed it.

[Ditsy79]

Ijust I'm so glad the top-ups are doing the trick, and that your baby is putting on weight.
nightwish congrats on the arrival of your little one.
gonnab not long for you to wait now - make the most of whatever time you have to rest before baby arrives.
All not too bad here, although had a pretty sleepless night last night as baby wanted to feed almost constantly and wouldn't settle. Will be getting her weighed on wed, so hope she has put something on with the constant feeding.

[FoofFighter]

Day 5 weigh in, DD has lost just 4oz
Spoke to MW about trying bfing again, if it was possible, how to go about it etc, they advised to use nipple shield, put her to breast every feed then top up with formula if necessary. Helped us to do a feed on the least sore boob with the shield, it was fab actually, no pain, DD remembered what to do, she did get some milk out but then polished off 4.5oz formula after the piggy, there was no pain and felt the positioning was way better, they said the longer break between feeds will help nipples heal faster as will shields, got the breastfeeding specialist MW coming out tomorrow, they said if nec she will stop with us for hours.

Slightly worried about trying the other boob, but we are going for a walk in a bit to get some fresh air and blow away the cobwebs.

trench that's a really good sign :) well done!