The due in September crew head into the second trimester! :) (Thread 6)

[Treaclepie19]

Hi all! Stats sheet here :)

In the spirit of moving on

Is anyone else CONSTANTLY freezing during pregnancy?! I always read you're supposed to be warmer. I can't wear enough layers. I look like the Michelin Man but even unstylish!

Even more unstylish. I now can't word a post at all!

whatabout that is truly awful. The most important thing is the baby is fed. Did you make a complaint?

Yep, cold ravenous and exhausted! Welcome to the second tri

I will try and bf and I won't drink at all while I am doing. It isn't a massive sacrifice for me as I'm not a big drinker and never have been.
its my personal choice and as long as you aren't drinking in excess I suppose the odd glass might not do too much harm if any.
I personally wouldn't want to drink at all, but would never judge those who did decide to.
We are here to support and help each other out, not judge each others decisions, and so far my experience on this thread has been brill

I'm more worried about the getting my boob out aspect of it! All the other women on dps side of the family have formula fed and I actually got raised eyebrows when I said I wanted to breastfeed! But then dmil also has my nephew every weekend and I can't see that being the case for us, I'd want to spend some weekends if not all with my baby

Trust me snowflake if it'll stop the crying you'll do it ;)

The trick is in how you dress. One doesn't strip, in fact one shows less flesh than wearing a bikini.

You need: nursing bras with clips; vest tops; floaty shirt/top or baggy jumper depending on time of year.

Reach under outer layer with opposite hand to unclip bra and pull down vest (and remove breast pad). Holding baby with the arm of the side you're about to feed from, shove your nipple to their nose and drag the nipple down into their mouth.

Unless someone is leering at you unpleasantly, they won't notice or see anything. 99.9% of people will either think "What a cute baby, isn't mum doing well to cope so marvellously" or "Thank fuck that noise has stopped"

Haha Deladion that's made me laugh! I will definitely be stocking up on all that stuff! And I'm thinking at the start if I do feel uncomfortable I'm just going to go to the bedroom or somewhere private and get on with it! Still in the waiting room for my scan ahhh come on!

On a different BF note, a word of advice to you first time mummies who are planning to BF - dont put too much pressure on yourselves and feel like a failure if it's not working. I felt like a massive failure and the guilt was horrendous, i thought "ive got 2 massive boobs for feeding him, what the hells wrong with me?!" Turns out nothing was wrong with me. My darling little one had (and still has) a tongue tie that prevented him from getting hind milk (the stuff that fills them up) so poor little mite was always hungry and always on the boob. Ill never forgive the health "professionals" who told me his tongue tie wasnt causing problems, indeed a paediatric consultant apologised on behalf of the NHS when DS was 7 mths for the fact we had no help (bless him!).... if it wasn't for a wonderful wonderful midwife who when DS was 10 days old was no longer prepared to see me sobbing for hours on end & noone helping that she made the decision to give him formula (thereby taking the guilt off me and DP for making the same decision). DS was full in minutes and was instantly a happier baby.

Sorry to waffle on but i really to get thru to everyone - it really isnt easy for some women, im a reasonably strong person and it nearly broke me. Please keep asking for help and if it doesn't work - then thats fine! Formula was not my first choice but DS is healthy and happy & that's all that matters x

To all you second timers; if you plan to bf but can't and are still in hospital, what happens? Do they give you formula? are you expected to take any and bottles etc?

misssmilla depends on the Trust. Here they dont supply it, they ask you to bring in the ready made cartons/bottles

My consultant said they provide formula if you struggle to fb as it's quite common. Misssmilla next time you see your mw or consultant I would ask the hospitals policy.

I took a couple of bottles of premade formula with me just in case. My DD had a feed at birth then didn't feed for ages so they would not discharge her. She screamed the ward down on my second night in - a bank nurse told me off and suggested giving her formula. She gave me a little bottle of it but then my midwife came back and managed to get DD to latch on. It only bought me a couple of hours of peace but it was worth it! I am hoping to bf again this time but will probably bring a bit of formula again.

I could be wrong here but don't women also release a hormone that makes you less inhibited whilst breastfeeding? and I think also during labour. When I think back to it now I can't imagine how I was so comfortable breastfeeding everywhere but I know I will be again when the time comes.

I'm a reluctant breastfeeder (not sure that's even a thing) I was glad to stop at 6 months because I wanted my body back and I didn't find it to be an intensely rewarding bonding experience, oh and I expressed so that DH could do a night feed.

Just wanted to share my experience because it's not always black and white. happy mum happy child is my personal mantra :)

Im hoping to bf this time round, will keep going up for colostrum then if/when milk comes thru will just see how it goes. I'll be taking ready made Aptamil First just incase as well as Dr Brown's bottles (lifesaver last time because of long teats).

Baby looked great! So chilled with its long legs up! just waiting for my bloods now - any guesses on sex?

I'd say girl snowflake but I'm crap!
Lovely pic!

Hahaha Deladion I just guffawed out loud in the staff room - oops - a number of people asked me why and I had to cobble together an excuse!!!

YAY snowflake!!!! It's AMEZZIN isn't it xx

snowflake I felt very self conscious at first too. Although my mum breastfed me my family are pretty reserved with showing flesh etc! The first time my parents visited my dad left the room when I fed. By a year he was proudly photographing me feeding her on a busy street on hol!!
It can take a while for people to get used to if it's unusual to them especially like you say as they won't get to look after the baby so much so early on. But plenty of time for them to later! And they can support you by making you lots of cups of tea while you feed! By the way a great tip I was told is there is loads less breast visible than you think. If you try feeding in the mirror (you could practise beforehand with a doll even) you can barely see a thing. A lot of people won't actually realise you're feeding esp after a few weeks once you get very adept at it

Ooh I just remembered a funny story. Me and my friend were out feeding our babies who by then were a few months old so we were feeling a lot more confident. Two middle aged guys had looked over a few times and we were convinced they were ready to tut at us as they left. We were all geared up to challenge them and then one of them came over and said how lovely it was to see two young women breastfeeding their babies in public as they didn't see it very often and what a great job we were doing, our babies looked very happy etc. Eeeeek so so glad we hadn't asked them what they were staring at!

loves I definitely think you do have some calming effect from feeding. I certainly never imagined I'd ever feel that relaxed feeding in public but I was so blasé by the end. I really loved breastfeeding but was surprised I didn't miss it as much as I thought I would when DD stopped. Like you I felt ready to have my body back after over a year of very frequent feeds plus co sleeping plus DD only being happy in the sling for the first ten months or so!