Due February 2017 - Thread 8!

[DottyA]

Sorry all - I accidentally used the last message in thread 7. Hope you can find this one!

Evergreen this is the info I have...

Friendly one of my best friends son's refused to take a bottle when she tried to ween at 6 months. The childminder just mixed formula into his food so he was getting some hydration but it drove her mad. He still has never taken a bottle so that's why I am also planning to start mix feeding with breast milk fairly early on.

Good to hear your DD slept through on just breast milk. We'll see what she's like when we meet her in February I guess. Babies are born with their own personalities so I know there isn't too much point in planning how it will go with too much determination :)

Hi can I join please? been lurking since the start but didn't want to tempt fate to join before 20 week scan.
This is my 8th pregnancy I have one ds who's 10 all my others pregnancies have ended in Mmc.
I'm 42 years old and never thought I'd be lucky enough to get pregnant again . I had my 20 week scan today everything looks good and I'm having another boy which we're over the moon with. It hasn't been easy I've been in hospital 3 times on a drip due to hg . Now feeling a lot better

Sorry meant to add due on 13th Feb but told I will be induced at 39 weeks because of my age

Shell that's so sad to hear, I heard almost exactly the same news about a former colleague of mine over the weekend too. I feel so sad for both families, to have got so close and to suddenly have such an awful outcome.

My dd was exclusively breastfed and wasn't a terrible sleeper, she obviously still woke in the night but it wasn't anything g horrendous like every two hours like some of my friends endured! I also have a couple of friends who exclusively breastfed and had their babies sleeping through the night from early on.

My DD never liked a bottle but would take expressed milk from a cup (doidy cups are good)

I've also got the gtt booked for 28 weeks, same reason as you kiki bmi right on the border! I have to fast over night then go for blood test at 9am, drink lucozade and wait around for a couple of hours before they take more blood. Sounds very tedious!

Welcome teabags.

Shell and Kikis - sorry to hear your sad stories. I know more than one person who's been through similar unfortunately. It is more common than most people realise, and very scary. But it's still a small risk thankfully.

Just thought I'd add my experiences on bottles/expressed milk:

1. Re: DH helping, I used to go to bed pretty early (7pm) & DH would give the 10/11pm feed (downstairs) using expressed milk & bring DS up to bed once he was settled in his Moses. I would then do the 3/4am which meant I got a good 6hrs uninterrupted sleep followed by a lighter sleep between the night/morning feed.

1. I know not all babies sleep in such long chunks, but can't help but think the fact I expressed morning milk for the evening feed contributed to the length of time DS could go between feeds. In my experience if you bf for the evening feed you end up 'cluster feeding' which is basically 2/3hrs of on/off feeding as baby tries to get everything they need from ur lower supply (someone who exclusively bf'd may disagree with me here as its not science backed, just what I experienced/noticed compared with friends).

1. Milk supply is much higher in the mornings so you may get uncomfy if you try to skip that.

1. Breast milk is not as 'risky' as formula when it comes to sterilising as its the tiny bits of milk powder that get stuck in teats etc that cause the biggest issue. I just used to use a microwave steriliser & assemble the bottles as soon as I opened it- never bothered with tongs etc & didn't worry too much about how long they'd been sterile for. You only do 1 or 2 bottles at a time anyway. TBH, I will prob just rely on the dishwasher this time (common practice in other countries). When I use formula I will sterilise tho, just to be on the safe side.

1. One of the biggest pro's of expressed milk is the fact you can leave it lying around. I wouldn't chill then let it get to room temp & then put in the fridge tho. Once at room temp if it didn't get used that night it would get chucked.

Hope that's helpful, it probably contradicts some guidelines or other but worked for us!

PS. When people say 'slept through the night' that can mean anything from 6 hour stretches. DS was doing that most nights from week 1 (10-4). Just thought it was worth mentioning in case you had visions of 'sleeping through' for 12hrs solid! I think we were getting 8-9hr stretches from around 2 months.

ready that's a good point. With formula it's really important to wash the bottles and teats really thoroughly, more important than sterilising in my opinion. We got a handy basket thing from Amazon for about £8 that corralled all the smaller bits of the bottles and held the teats upright so they got cleaned really thoroughly in the dishwasher before sterilising.

Welcome tea
Ready I think my dd slept well for two reasons. She was a big baby so I think she could hold more milk in her stomach and she cluster fed between about 7pm and 10pm. Sometimes later! Then we would both go to bed. I have never mastered early bedtimes!
Some people will tell you their baby has slept through with only one wake up/dream feed. I found this spectacularly unhelpful as if they wake up it's not sleeping through is it? I think for a young baby from a couple of months 5-6 hours is a realistic goal and that for most counts as an amazing night. It's so rare for most to sleep longer. Don't beat yourself up if it doesn't happen!

kiki coconut oil is amazing, my mum puts it on her skin and hair every night apparently.. I have not really used it but.. have had a dry nose for weeks and it's getting really painful now.. Dr Google informed me that it is a pregnancy symptom (?!?!) and coconut oil applied with a cotton bud at night can help. Did it last night and slept much better, in fact has been better all day. About to apply it again. Anyone else having dry nose?!

Thanks ready for helpful bf info :)

shell and kikis thats really sad to hear about the ladies you know :( i'd be lying if I said stories like that didn't scare me though I know they are on the whole unlikely to happen.

friendly my DD was also a complete bottle refuser and dummy refuser - most probably because I didn't introduce either for quite a while... probably not until 2 months old.

I plan on trying to introduce a bottle of EBM much earlier this time within the first month for OH to give a probably late evening feed. I've heard lots of people do this with great success at getting baby into a routine of sleeping a decent stretch! DD didn't sleep for any decent stretch until well over a year old.

ready thats really interesting what you said about giving morning milk for the evening bottle. I'm really confused about the evening bottle replacing the cluster feeding though - I thought the cluster feeding in the early evening is important to build up supply and also important when they have that growth spurt around 4 months if I remember correctly? I guess I could always give extra milk if baby was extra hungry but I'd worry my boobs wouldn't get the message that they need to make extra. DD used to do 6pm to 9pm, maybe even longer cluster feeding. I'm not sure how that'd work with a toddler to put to bed though, especially if OH was working (he works shifts)... eeek

I also have the gtt at 28 weeks, mines coz of previous large babies. Here if baby was born above the 95th centile you habe to have it, I had one on the 95th and one the 98th. I'll be taking a book with me as I was.there from 9am until 1pm last time. Was bloody starving when I came out!

I have bottle fed both my children and although its.gone well I'm giving breastfeeding a go thus time. I had no regrets about using formula with my first and it all went so well. With my second she fed so often, sometimes big feeds, sometimes little and I remember sitting there almost in tears wishing I'd at least tried to breastfeed. If it doesn't work out I'm fine with that, I know where I'm at with bottles and my girls have thrived from formula, I just want to know I tried this time and if it does.work out then fantastic.

DS was a big baby too friendly so that may well have been a factor in the longer sleep routine.

I hated cluster feeding so was glad to not have to do it once we introduced the bottle, I think if I'd had to spend every eve chained to the sofa for hours on end it may have pushed me to quit bf'ing- just a personal thing but independence is really important to me! I think your milk supply just adjusts accordingly, by expressing every morning I encouraged my body to produce more at that time so my supply adjusted to meet demand. I do have a friend who used to express after the 3am feed as that's when she found it easiest

DS took to bf'ing very easily so we introduced a (MAM) bottle from 1 week old & it caused no nipple confusion/bottle refusal issues.

Actually DS was quite big too, so maybe that does have something to do with being a good sleeper!

Ladies I am spiralling a bit at the moment.

I think I mentioned before that I have a low lying placenta within . Well I had another scan today (not my anomaly scan which is next week) and its not gone away. Looking at the stats on the NHS I have a 1 in 10 chance of its not resolving itself and needing a cesarian.

I've got no issue with a cesarian but the increased risk of placenta arreta both this time and if I have a cesarian for my subsequent pregnancies has me in a mild panic. Reading guidance that makes mentions the possibility of needing a hysterectomy in addition to life threatening bleeding etc makes me feel sick and scared.

Finally managed to read through a weeks worth of missed posts!

My two were ebf. They slept 8 hour stretches by 8 and 9 weeks. We tried giving dc2 a bottle of expressed milk in the evening but he wouldn't have it, so I just stuck to the boob. I wouldn't have been able to go to bed early anyway as am a v light sleeper so if awake may as well feed. He used to cluster feed between 5-7pm ie dinner and bedtime for dc1. Bloody stressful! Dc2 eventually accepted the odd bottle - we finally found success with the cheap Boots ones.

Thank you Carly! And best of luck for your results.
Shell that is awful. Worried sick I am now Poor thing
London thanks. My grandma was diabetic so maybe that is why they are checking...
Ah! Friendly when were you given the form?
Because I just have notes from midwife saying that I will need the test but no form. Should I ask at the 25th weeks apptment?
Will finish reading messages tomorrow morning because it is sleepy time
Bubba just did a big kick

What is a GTT? How do I know if I need one?

I didn't mind cluster feeding too much I guess - well I didn't think I had any choice in the matter really so just used to watch TV quite a bit while feeding! I would definitely enjoy a bit of time to myself im the evening though that's for sure. That makes sense with pumping in the morning helping to increase supply rather than the cluster feeding ready getting my head around it now

The only bottles I tried with DD was the avent one that came with my pump and also a dr browns. I think I'll get a couple more brands to try and hope baby gets on with one of them. I've heard NUK bottles are good for bf babies apparently. Will have to try MAM too.

Deep breaths London and step away from Google if at all possible. Wait and see what they say at your scan next week. There is still time for your placenta to move - didn't you say your bump isn't that obvious yet? I don't really know much about it but in my head it makes sense that if your bump is still quite small your placenta won't have had chance to move up much yet.

London, I don't know much about placenta previa but if they're saying 9/10 chance of it resolving itself I'd say that's pretty good odds....and even if you were the unlucky 1/10 then the chances of you experiencing the worst complications must be pretty tiny.

There are all sorts of risks during pg/childbirth, but in my opinion it's far better if potential problems are picked up at this stage so that the risks can be properly managed. Try to focus on the fact that you will now get extra special care to ensure that this doesn't cause a bigger issue for you or the baby.

Ready and topmamy of course you are right. 90% chance it will resolve and even if it doesn't the chance of serious complication with this pregnancy is very low. I just need to take it one step at a time. I need to stop googling!

London you have a 90% chance your placenta will move. Pretty good odds. Even if it doesn't then the likelihood of any complications are minimal. The important thing at the moment is that it's been picked up and you're being monitored. It's hard to say don't worry because it's only natural to but stay away from Google!
Evergreen I got the forms at my 16 week appointment but I now don't have another one until 28 weeks as it's my second baby so I expect you'll get yours at your 24 week appointment. At least you know to ask now.
Chozzleops it's the glucose tolerance test to check for diabetes. You only need it if there are risk factors. For me it was a previous giant baby. Can also be family history of diabetes or high bmi.
I didn't mind cluster feeding with dd but it's going to be tricky with her bedtime this time around. A friend has recommended Minbie bottles if you have a bottle refuser. I'm not sure if I'll bother with bottles or not because I find it hard to express and I can't be bothered with sterilising. Will have to see how it goes.