October 2013 - only 3 months to go!

[roxvox]

Baby due dates/sexes/name choices here

Thanks for encouragement legally

yes I'm going to a free bf antenatal workshop in September at my local sure start centre. think that will be good. then then have drop in sessions once a week for when baby is here!! I'm hoping to do it successfully so.determined to find all the support I can before hand!!

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Thanks for info ana will have a look in case of emergencies :)

I aim to be more relaxed with things with this little one as not pfb

thinking back they asked me at my booking in appointment if I was planning to bf and would I like the support team to.contact me so here the support seems good!!

Went to sure start drop ins too roofio and made some friends there too. Was also a good way to get out of the house and practice bf in "public"

As I say though I hope we're all successful with our chosen feeding method.

On booking in I was given an amazing list of antenatal classes my community midwives offer including bf classes. I asked about them on my last appt and was told all there is is "very relaxed" drop in sessions, at 1:30-3:30 in the afternoon on weekdays. Now I'm wondering whether I need to find myself a structured bf class that I have a chance of actually attending, even if I need to pay for it.

Pseudo any news on baby's movements? Hope you are getting lots of reassuring kicks and prods.

Thank-you for all the kind words of support and suggestions re: breastfeeding. I am compiling a list of local helplines, baby cafes etc and plan to attend a LLL meeting in September. I will definitely check out the websites mentioned too.

My NCT breastfeeding session prior to having DD was pretty rubbish - we spent alot of time looking at photos of women breastfeeding around the world (up mountains and in tribal communities etc) and discussing the politics of it all. Then we briefly held a doll to our chests.

I think my refresher course also covers breastfeeding so hopefully that may be better.

GT - I'm so sorry you found it an upsetting experience too. It makes me very cross when breastfeeding is strongly promoted but the support to actually enable women and babies to be successful isn't readily available. Then they scratch their heads and wonder why breastfeeding rates past a few weeks are low.

I also got told a load of shit - for example I was told that I shouldn't be having nipple pain because I don't have ginger hair and they are the only women with sensitive nipples. One midwife also refused to believe me when I said I thought I had the start of mastitis. Two days later I had raging mastitis in both breasts and was on hard core antibiotics and strong painkillers. Even a t-shirt touching them was agony, let alone a hungry baby.

I am very tempted to pay for a private lactation consultant too. It probably sounds OTT but I feel I could do with de-brief before this baby even arrives. I never really got a proper answer as to what the problem was (her latch was meant to be good and yet my nipples were a disaster area - they were bleeding so much that when I tried to express it looked like I was feeding her bottles of strawberry milkshake)

Bit of a personal question but does anyone else have very big areola? I'm already worrying that no baby could possibly get a good mouthful of mine.

Sorry for the epic me, me, me, post - as you can probably tell, I still have breastfeeding 'ishooos' and baggage.

Bridget who the hell was the ginger hair comment from? Bloody stupid!

GT true true, but they could at least give us a chance to keep it sterile.

Wicked topping a bottle with 1oz of water then powder would not sterilise the milk as it has to be at 70 to sterilise.

Baby gap clothes are nice and do wash well. H&M good for cardi's. Though def mothercare for basics like packs of vests and bibs. Asda for jeans and trousers when older as they do them with a jersey waist until 2 or 3years and not hard and crunchy- much more comfy. Sainsburys have some really lovely baby/kids clothes.

Well I felt several movements and a set of hiccups whilst lying down, but still not completely happy. She is always active in the evening so I'm going to see what happens. It doesn't help that dp is being a bit useless as he has a sore back so I'm running around after DS!

Def check out www.llli.org/ LLL, they often have free breastfeeding talks or breastfeeding meets where you can talk with an experienced leader and other pregnant or breastfeeding mums.

Cross post, sorry to hear you are worried badger. I find bubs is very quiet on hot or busy days. A glass of cold OJ usually gets him going. Keep us informed. Thinking of you x

Well I've put DS to bed and sat down with a cool water and some Pringles, and movement seems to be stepping up, as I would expect in the evening. So hopefully all is ok, but I will be keeping an eye out.

Back from a tiring shopping trip, just had a quick nap... For 2 and a half hrs!

Yes mothercare were good, we got a lot there. Painpacksof whitevestswithvarious arm/leg combinationsand a few nice bits. After first looking at baby grows and a £50 Ralph Lauren newborn t shirt in the Bentall centre. Bought our child pretty much all it's clothes for the cost of 3 t shirts! Even if we could afford it I doubt we would buy them, it seems a lot of money for clothes thatare going to be sicked on ona daily basis. (Sorry if offending anyone planning to by buy it... )

Gap didn't have much unisex stuff but bought this cute little set reduced to £12 and it fits our woodland nursery theme too.

Then got most of the stuff for my hospital bag including the bag itself from boots and primark. Eugh I hate primark, can't find anything and so hot and crowded but good and cheap. We bought a small rollable suitcase there for £20 too which we can reuse as a hand luggage bag. It won't be thre best quality but suits our needs better for now than a £120 one, especially as we won't enable to afford any long haul holidays for a while now!

Bit the bullet and bought the next size u in knickers too as my 10-12 are digging ina bit. Unfortunately they don't do a 12-14 so went with 14-16. Probably too big for now but i bet it wont be long. Whoever mentioned yesterday that it makes yiu feel a bit down after always being a size 6 I agree, especially for your bum, my boobs and bump growing are more understandable. I don't look huge though. The lady in mothercare said I had a tiny little bump and so I was pushing it out to look bigger!

Glad baby is moving about more pseudo.

Bridget, my areola have grown a lot since being pregnant. I read they are targets for your baby to see where to go so our babies will have a clear target. I also read that they just need to get most of that area in their mouth so I don't imagine it will bea problem if there is spare?

Bridget I don't think size of areola matters. I was told I have flat nipples and it won't work. I could try nipple shields if I want. But at ante natal class when told about shields but shown shells. Which are totally different. So I sent out dh to buy shells they had shown us. Any way.

Anyway I think with bf time is important. The longer u give a bottle the harder it gets to go bk to bf. and that's where I went wrong.
That's why maybe I'm thinking a private consultant is important to me. As I need someone to come to me (culturally I am under house arrest for 5weeks).

Feeling totally exhausted at the moment, no energy to do anything, is anyone else the same? I have a pile of clothes to hang up and the house looks like a bomb has gone off, I just cannot be bothered though. Starting to feel really uncomfy.

Bridget, I'm appalled at the lack of bf support you had. I'm not hung up about breast feeding if it doesn't work out, but will be disappointed if it's only due to lack of support or understanding.

Our free NhS class was surprisingly good, not that it wasn't without a few bloopers (we were told 'successful breast feeding doesn't hurt at all' and they didn't cover any of the potential problems and how to solve them. They actively blanked one lady who asked how we should use lanolin!). I'll definitely supplement it by reading up and getting as much free after birth support as possible.

Gt ignore the flat nipple comments, mine were totally flat and often inverted, after 2.3 years of breast feeding they arnt any longer. If really having problems you can buy a small sucker which pulls nipple out before latch (I didn't need this). I wouldn't recommend shields unless you really have to as the saliva, temperature and direct stimulation really helps to regulate supply. I'd love to be on house arrest for 5 weeks! OH was dragging me shopping after a week :O boy did I bleed after that.

Glad baby badger is on the move again. Give DH a boot up the butt.

orange ouch, £50 for a newborn Tshirt! What a risk! Often babies come out bigger than newborn and even if not DS was 6lb6 and only fit newborn for 4 weeks and needed aprox 4 outfits a day!! I've bought a few £25 baby grows each time, but the bulk is much cheaper and a Tshirt isn't a whole outfit! Still, I guess names are very important to some people.

I suspect this blue bump will have a few designer items but I certainly don't be footing the bill my cousin has a 3 year old son and her and her other half r really into designer stuff and she has offered to have a sort out as they don't intend to have any more children any time soon which is nice of her. Trouble is when they r very young they grow out of it too quick and as they get older it gets ruined from food stains. Quite nice if someone buys as a gift though for keepsake etc or if its in the sale.

I've for such bad trapped wind this eve its having me doubled over with stomach pains :-(

orange I'm jealous of your hospital bag shopping :-0 I want to but it 28 weeks too early too?

Natalie, It does seem early doesn't it, but several of the pregnancy emails I have got this week have mentioned hospital bag, and also it is quite an easy thing to get sorted and make me feel calm that things are getting ready. We also put aside this weekend to do baby stuff and huse sorting before a few busy weekends, Fingers crossed I won't be needing it for another 3 months but will be glad to have it done.

I've brought tonnes of baby stuff and stuffed it all in a wardrobe but I really need to spend a morning sorting n through what I do and don't have and make a sensible list of what else I need and make a start of hospital bags. It will soon come round won't it :-) how exciting!!!

This may come across as a smug BF success story, but it's not meant to, it's meant to show that even if it seems bleak things can work out.

When DS was born (by emcs) he was with me for a few hours and fed once in this time. He was then moved to NICU in the middle of the night and I didn't see him for 36 hours as I also became unwell.
I tried expressing and got about 2ml of colostrum! I went to see him as soon as I could and we did kangaroo care and would put him to the breast if possible.

He came back to me after 3 days and we were left alone in our post natal room. I had 3 awful nights where I couldn't latch him on or if so it was pretty bloody awful. We had a few successful feeds but most were shite. He was developing jaundice by this stage (which was also a side effect of his condition).

When we got home feeding was awful and difficult. I used to cry at every feed and scream with pain at the latch. I was under terrible pressure from the community midwife as DS was no where near his birthweight so I hated feeding even more. I dreaded feeding my little baby so much :(

I was convinced (and still am) that DS has an undiagnosef posterior tongue tie, but no medical professional would take me seriously.

Somehow I gritted my teeth and got through feed by feed, minute by minute of each feed. I can't remember timescales as it's a real blur tbh but I think by 3 months everything was so so much better. It was really shit for 6 weeks and then gradually improved I think.

I don't know how we got through it but we did, and I fed him until 3 months ago. I'd love to do some BF counselling or similar in the future.

Omg all these bf experiences are not warming me to the idea. I really enjoyed bottle feeding ds but as my boobs look like they might work this time was going to try. I had so much relaxed cuddles time I would hate to hurt and struggle and resent those lovely early moments. I know that prob sounds selfish but I am only coming from ff a very healthy intelligent,happy,chilled out 4 year old. Not sure I would go through the pain

Not Smug at all pseudo. A lovely encouraging story for those of us who are worried. I've always given up on breastfeeding after a few weeks as all 4 of my dc's lost more than the usual 10% of their birth weight and I was told to top up with formula. Even after seemingly feeding at the breast well they would still manage 4oz of formula so obviously I wasn't producing enough milk.
I really want it to work this time as little Eliana is going to need all the help she can get but I know that babies with heart conditions often struggle with feeding.

We spent the day at a local event called " The Glasgow Show" but the heat was so exhausting. Desperate Dan is badly sunburned but doesn't get any sympathy from me because he refuses to use sun cream. The highlight for the dc's was seeing Rylan Clarke of xfactor fame perform though they were all pretending that they weren't fussed.

MoN to avoid formula top ups I topped up with expressed milk. Those were also bleak times as expressing after a feed was the last thing I wanted to do! But it did improve my supply and I did it as little as possible tbh.

I second pseudo and caz's posts. Persevere and ask for help. My NCT class was very good but I found it very difficult the first few days. I stayed in the hospital overnight and like Caz I called them every time I needed to feed. I made them stay with me until it worked. They weren't super pleased but I insisted. Then, at home, sometimes it would take me 30-40 min for him to latch on properly. It was hard work also because one of my nipples was flat, almost inverted (but like tarlia said they suck it out eventually). It was hard work for about a week but totally worth it and it was so easy afterwards. I just didn't consider bottle feeding an option so persevered. I also had mastitis 4 times - it's incredibly painful, like someone slashing your boobs with a razor... but, as I was advised, the best and quickest way to get over it is to keep feeding. It gets better after a couple of days. Plus don't panic if you lose your milk - if you react quickly, you can get it back. I lost it completely for a few day when DS started sleeping through the night and in dropped the night feed. I was told too late that you are not supposed to drop the night feed - this is what regulates your milk supply. I loved BF and found it so easy once established. So don't give up and there are lots of us here to keep you motivated!

pseudo glad you are feeling movement. I have some much quieter days too but try not to worry as long as I feel something.

And I love Baby Gap! Great quality and so cute.

So glad it's cooler today! I feel like a new person. MIL is visiting this weekend but she is one of those lovely MILs so it's really nice.