October 2013: Growing bumps and the second trrimester glowing begins!

[OrangeBlossom2]

Welcome to thread six of the October bus. how long will this one last us?!

Old thread here

Stats thread here

No judgement here either we all have to do what's right. I expressed with DC1 for 6 weeks as she couldn't suck at all, think I had enough milk to feed the whole of the baby unit and could get a 6oz bottle in about 5 mins. Had to give up as baby was ill and needed prescription milk.

With DC2 I Breastfed for 2 weeks but switched to formula as Dc2 was a lazy feeder and wouldn't suck long enough to get the fatty milk so lost loads of weight

Will try Breastfeeding ageing this time but if it doesn't work out will happily bottle feed.

Anybody else getting Braxton Hicks?

Woah Braxton hicks already?! I didn't know they came that early!

I agree I am sure everyone on here respects the decisions others make about their children and their bodies.

I presumed breastfeeding would be a breeze too until my sister and best friend both had a really tough time of it in the last year or so. They both stuck at it and were pleased they did but it certainly wasn't easy. My sister trained to be a breastfeeding support worker and both got a lot of help at various support groups that I am hoping to have passed on to me. At least now I know it will probably be hard so am a bit more prepared.

My best friend (who is my most recent source of information about babies) has recently introduced formula as well for her daughter at 11 months but it seems a real faff to me, sterilising, measuring, heating, having to use it within two hours etc. I would also probably have to go for dairy free formula, which I don't know much about, if I went down that route as most of my family including me and my niece can't have cows milk.

Has anyone read "French children don't throw food"? I am at the moment. The culture in France seems to be to bottle feed for most women, and pretty much all women do by 3 months even if they start off bf which I thought was interesting. I wonder what % of people choose each way in this country?

I know some of you have been chatting away for some months, now - but can I just say how glad I am I found my way here?
You're asking/talking about all the stuff that's been buzzing around in my head for ages!

I too like the concept of bf, but there is something about it, having never done it (obviously!) that just seems a bit odd, no matter how natural it is. And the difficulties/horror stories do make me nervous that I'll be useless at it.

We're just back from the inlaws too, so I am very empathetic about the advice overload. Also, I find being centre of attention/public property quite challenging and have to stop myself being defensive/retreating.
I suppose I'd better get used to it as it's being announced at work this week, prior to my maternity cover being advertised.
It's making everything rather real

Very pleased to have your company shirehobbit.

OrangeBlossom I've not read that book, but I did read somewhere (NCT book, maybe) that said some countries didn't have babies that cried as much as there was more of a culture of carrying babies everywhere in slings?!

X-post

Nice to have you here shirehobbit

This is why I love this thread it's a lovely non judgemental corner of MN

I have been tempted by loads of stuff but DH is starting work tomorrow I'm sure I'll spend a fair amount on some second hand stuff and stocking up on wipes and milk stuff like that

Baby stuff wise I've brought some tommee tippee bottles (was a bargain) paid deposit on buggy and today I brought a Hilda size wardrobe off a local Facebook selling site for £25 so that's currently in dd's room and she is enjoying hiding her teddies in it lol. Most things will be sorted from loft (from dd) or brought when we no the sex.

How r u feeling MoN? Xxx

And u also haylebop? Xxxx

HILDA SIZE WARDROBE.... Don't u just love auto correct lol I meant children's size wardrobe xx

Haha Natalie I thought a Hilda size wardrobe was just another one of these fancy baby things I'd never heard of!!

Good evening ladies. Haven't yet said welcome to the newbies who have joined us recently.
We were very lucky to be given a bugaboo, which we use for dd. she'll be 2y4m with baby arrives and I have been debating about getting a buggy board and using a combo of single buggy and sling or whether to go for a double buggy. Dd loves walking but I sometimes walk long distances and am not sure what to do for the best.
As for bf - I did it for 7 months with dd. expressed a bit in the early days but couldn't get much milk.
If you find that you have an oversupply of breast milk, there are some hospitals where you can donate your expressed milk to for the neonatal unit. I think it's a lovely idea but didn't have an over supply.
Btw - the best breast pads I found were lansinoh - they're individually wrapped, thin and really absorbent.

I was also meant to add that feeding is a very personal thing and it's important not to get too wound up about things if it doesn't go right straight away. If you're having a hard time bf-ing, there's lots of help out there. It's worth checking that your baby isn't tongue tied as that can affect the latch.
If you prefer to bottle feed then don't get bullied into persisting/trying to bf if that's not what you want to do.
We should all be looking out for no 1.
Those with sleeping babies - I'm jealous. Dd is nearly 2 and doesn't reliably sleep though. I'm hoping this means that that no 2 baby will be a dream!

Whilst I would absolutely agree mums should stick to their guns if they've decided on ff, I also think that if you're determined to bf, you should seek help before thinking it's impossible. Most bf mums I know seem to have had problems in the beginning and needed help. One of my plans to help me start bf is to find out about all the support available in my area before I have the baby. I want to hear all the horror stories and how people overcame them. One of my colleagues has quite a supply of bf horror stories that make me go and still says it was worth doing in the end.

I used to be really smug thinking my mom bf me until 12 months but I now know she supplemented with fresh, diluted cow's milk from her parents' farm (ie unpasteurised) and she introduced purée foods after about two or three months because the babies get too hungry to be satisfied by milk!

Just want to add I hope I don't come across as judgemental of anyone else.

I think what i was trying to say is I'm planning to bf and I'm worried that some people, including my mother, will be encouraging me to do the "easier thing" and I want to prepare myself to stick to bf as long as possible.

Hello!

Can I join? Just got my dates confirmed at 28th Oct! I waited until the scan because we were borderline November by our dates!

Very excited and I have a DD already who is nearly 14 months.

I'm going to jump right into the debate and say we are ff because bf and my anxiety issues didn't really gel last time, and DD is the healthiest child I know. I felt guilty for a while and then I realised that we were both happy and thriving.

Stick to your guns I say, whatever they may be and never apologise to anyone :)

Pushchair wise e have an icandy strawberry and will be keeping it even though it doesn't convert. It is SO AMAZING I love the one handed fold and rain cover in the seat storage. We will probably be using slings with new baby to accommodate this. Just need to research now!

I'm waiting to ring out the sex before buying anything as we kept everything from DD as we knew we wanted two close together.

This is our last baby for financial (read: holiday!) Reasons :P

whispers plus I've for 34J boobs, I couldn't take it lol

Welcome, notyomomma!

Falcon we can be the ff crew x

Yey notyomomma and welcome :) I think there are a few of us not Bf on here. I think people should feed how they want to and are comfortable as long as you and baby are healthy and happy thats all that should matter!

I breastfed my DS for 9 weeks. I have big boobs (32HH) and it was a difficult two handed job, I could never do it in public unfortunately and I was always so jealous of my friends who could. The final straw came when my DH told me he was worried as DS was still waking every 90 minutes and we were both totally miserable and exhausted! I had always expressed using a medela electric pump which was great, and got my little one used to bottles early on so DH could help feed too. We combination fed for a while, but at about 12 weeks we were fully on formula (aptamil). Maybe a coincidence but my DS went from waking every 90 minutes, to sleeping 10, then 12 hours at night. He was clearly starving and I just wasn't giving him what he needed. I still feel guilty about that one...

He is a perfectly healthy (touch wood) little boy, who has just as few ailments as his purely breastfed NCT buddies, so I know I did the right thing in the end. Also ff enabled me to see exactly how much little one was consuming, and we got into a great routine from about 12 weeks (I swear by the Baby Whisperer - if any new mums are thinking of schedules/routines advice check out her forum online).

With this baby I fully intend to breastfeed again for the initial weeks, but if baby is as miserable and hungry as DS and I were last time, I won't hesitate to switch to ff at any stage if that's right for baby and mum ;-)

I'm so relieved that I'm not the only one!

I also forgot to say what type of birth I'm planning.
I had dd in the birthing pool at the mlu last time
I was planning the same again! BUT the midwife said I was too fat (bmi 35.1!)

So I've cut out the chocolate and cola (still eating well!) knd I've lost 8lb in 3 weeks! So now I can have my pool birth again if I just keep it off!

It'll be tough when the bump arrives! I swear it's here already, much quicker than last time :/ eek!

Orangeblossom you asked about breastfeeding rates in the UK:

According to the most recent infant feeding survey (2010) the rate of babies being bf at birth is 81%, at three months 17% are exclusively bf, 12% at four months and by six months 1% are exclusively bf. These figures showed an small but marked increase on the previous study from 2005. Not sure what the stats on mixed feeding are but it is interesting.

Thanks for looking that up Irish, I am interested to see what other people do. My only frame of reference was my family and they all breastfeed for a year or more so I presumed it was really widespread. I hope to feed for maybe 6 months to a year.

Thanks to whoever mentioned checking tongue tie, my goddaughter had one and that really affected her feeding at the beginning and it was a really simple little cut to fix it that healed up really quickly and made a huge difference to feeding and her mum's pain feeding!

Morning notyomama and welcome!

Back to work this morning and had a third really bad nights sleep in a row with crazy dreams when I did doze off . hopefully the children will be really tired after two weeks of late nights and chocolate gobbling too and we can all just have a chilled out morning...

Thanks Irish, that's really interesting to see.

Yes re tongue tie, two of my friends recently have had problems with this. I thought babies were all meant to be checked before leaving hospital, so if you don't think yours has then double check. Such an avoidable issue.

Sorry about the sleep, Orange. I'm having crazy dreams still also. Expecting a good night's sleep tonight though as I have my first swimming lesson this evening and if I remember from my childhood, they totally knacker you out!

Hello notyomamma

I'm a bit on and off with sleep too, at the moment. And last night woke with a nosebleed, which I've never had before!

Good luck with the swimming lesson pinksky. I learnt to swim last year and it was indeed knackering