May 2017 #9 3rd trimester!

[Rustler74]

Hello all! Now to find a way to guide you to the new thread...

McBaby, with a mother support course under your belt I want you on speed dial come may! I'm so desperate for it to work out this time around.

What mcbaby said, and we'll all be up at all sorts of hours of the night when the newborns are here ready to give support / advice / point anyone struggling in the right direction.

What you need to know is lots of feeding is normal at first as baby has a tiny, tiny tummy, and is also helping regulate your supply; but if it hurts or there are any other issues (such as low weight gain) you need decent help. Find the local support phoneline in your area (NCT if you're signed up, look for a La Leche Group near you, ask if there are any peer supporters, find out when drop in breastfeeding support groups are on where you can go for help/assistance if needed); stick all that info somewhere sensible (on the fridge!?).

And you will need to eat / drink LOTS to keep your calorie intake high enough to make the milk and keep hydrated especially at first. Partners can help by bringing liquids and snacks to you as you're trapped under a feeding baby (later on you'll be adept at wandering around with a baby attached, but at first your muscles are all still coming back together and you have no core strength at all, so best to sit still and well propped up!).

I have a question. Is it not possible to express as soon as your milk comes in then ? I have to go back on medication pretty quickly after birth so plan to breastfeed for a week, maybe a bit longer. I was hoping to express as much as possible to then freeze so that even when I'm back on medication I still have a bit of breast milk stored up for use. Is this not even doable ? Sorry for ignorance !

The bfeeding NCT session we had was rubbish too. She said if you've got the latch right it doesn't hurt, this lead me to be convinced I was doing it wrong despite being told by various midwives and bfeeding support groups I was doing fine. As a gazillion mumsnet threads testify, it can hurt at the start, but only for a short time. This would be far more useful information rather than the all 'sunshine and lollypops' message I was given. I loved bfeeding but the early days were an endurance test. I think a bit of realism and setting expectations would go a long way in increasing breastfeeding rates.

Esme exactly, realism and practical advice and more of "it's ok to find it hard" would do wonders.

Thanks mcbaby off to find all those websites now and I agree you have to be on speed dial come may

I think the power of support groups shouldn't be underestimated (look at what this thread has done for all of us!) so I need to find one near me

Adventure nothing is impossible but that sounds hard. It can take weeks to establish breastfeeding and you might not be able to get much extra from expressing during that time. If you had a premature baby they would encourage you to express even with a hospital grade pump you might only get a few mls at each pumping session.

Best get some specialist advice maybe? Have you looked up the medicine on the Breastfeeding Network? Can you definitely not take it and breastfeed?

adventure it'd be possible but hard. If you are intending to try, it's worth asking specialist advice from someone like la leche league. The main problem with expressing from the start (aside from finding the time, those first two weeks are tough!!) is that you can overstimulate supply. Still worth trying though. Also worth looking into whether the hospital will hire you a pump, it's cheaper than buying especially if you only need it a short time. Personally i only ever fed one side at a time, so if i were you I'd try pump from the other breast while feeding. That'd be easier if you had a "milking bra" as i called it (hands free pumping bra), see (eg) simple wishes. Might be difficult to latch baby on though, i never tried. You might also need a plan to keep pumping after you are back on the medication, even though you'd "pump and dump" to ensure you didn't get engorged or mastitis.

Claire were the 29th in Wilmington, looking forward to them!

Hi everyone! So pleased I found this thread. I'm due May 22 with a little boy. He's my first :)

Thanks yellow. Got through parents evening with lots of tea and biscuits and about a hundred loo breaks - which the parents found highly amusing. Seems to be mild panic about the fact they haven't been told about my replacement yet - I kept having to reassure them there wouldn't just be a string of random teachers for the whole of next term! Just a short one to do on Thursday now.

Sanity our NCT classes are around £200 for the signature course. We're in Yorkshire. Have been interesting so far - hopefully BF will be useful.

Welcome nurse!

Weirdly I was going to ask about the NCT BF class. I'm still totally clueless of how I'm going to feed this baby. I'm not comfortable with BF in public, and I want DH involved. I have a pump but I'm scared of when and how to use it! I'm so worried!

Adventure do what you can, for as long as you can but your health comes first 😘

Thanks all ! I guess all I can do is try but I've always known it'll be a switch to formula pretty quick for my little one.

Oh sam I feel your piles pain!! I wouldn't mind but I naturally have a high fibre water rich diet and am def not constipated! It's horrid!!

sanity eeeeeek!! How exciting! Congrats I love a wedding.

Feel better soon vanilla

Glad work went ok grow. Thank god for and !!

shini

Ooh blimey shirley not long for you then!!

Lots of clockwise circling of the hips apparently helps to get babies head in position according to my Pilates teacher who's had active birth training.

Yay gurtie I agree!!

raspberry I hope tomorrow goes as well as it can

savage thanks for the bf snack tips, read out to DH :)

Welcome nurse :) exciting times ahead!

Hiya Nurse -I'm a first timer too. Exciting times!!

Thanks for the tip on spinning babies Cinnamon - defo one to check out!

yellow - glad I'm not the only one who's fuse is shortening!! Seem to have spent today saying no and fighting to get my way ... and not even on mat leave yet! Internal dialogue says that my team are calling me Preg-zilla!

Rasperry - hope tomorrow isn't too tough for you and OH. Thinking of you.

Walker - the mothercare store we went in recently offered the 10%voucher they'd given at their parents eve once we were giving clear buying signals and asking about discounts. Absolutely the right thing to do - this baby Karl is expensive so every penny counts!

Sanity I think our NCT course was around £300. Again, probably reflects London prices more than anything! & congrats from me too!!

peasandquiet - excellent advice

RasperryInAMelon - It’s interesting.. for sure. Proper shotgun job! Ha! Sounds like to have a tough day tomorrow though. The full circle of life. My thoughts and best wishes are with you and your family.

Badgerbird - thanks for the congrats. Hopefully it’ll be okay!

This thread is lovely. Thank you everyone!

sanity glad you can try both together, I had no idea if they interfered with each other. Also hope the wedding goes well!

rise such a shame the bf session lady was dismissive of partners and practicalities around expressing. This is the kind of unhelpful bullshit that prevents women who want to breastfeed from doing so for as long as they would like.

nurse welcome!

Hello nurse!
*
Rasperry* 💐

Hi nurse welcome to the group!

Re: spinning babies around my yoga teacher told me practicing the cat and cow position (google it if you're not familiar, but it's really easy) is good for getting babies in the right position. I don't know how much truth there is to it but my baby has been head down since at least 26 weeks when we had the last scan and at my midwife appointment last week he still was. Just hoping he stays there and doesn't do some massive flip when he's about to be born!

Welcome nurse!
Guys I really don't know how you're able to remember who to reply to. Once I'm in this 'window' to write my reply, everything becomes a blur about who said what. I definitely have a baby brain, and this morning particularly on sobriety I'll have some holes in my Memory . I may get into depth later on after I have the lovely drink and am waiting 2 hours on an uncomfortable chair to have the GTT done.

Welcome Nurse!

It looks like there's a lot of variation in NCT antenatal course pricing. I was told our North London NCT courses was £344 for 4 sessions (2 Saturday 10-4 sessions, 1 women only 2 hour morning session and 1 3 hour evening B/F session). By the time I enquired the course was fully booked, so we're on a wait list. It's crazy how expensive it is!

Rustler, snap! I went awol for a few days and am now daunted by the catch up!

I also have GTT (in an hour). Plan on spending the wait catching up on this (off my face on the lucozade). Who needs to take a book?

Oh and I dreamt I kept accidentally eating breakfast. Over and over...

Rasperry for today, hope it goes as well as it can

Welcome nurse!

Good luck with GTT tests today Rustler & Mighty!

Sanity you realise we're expecting pictures of your first exciting day

On keeping up with who said what, I use the iPhone talk app which lets you start a reply and saves it if you close without posting so I can go back and scroll through.... no way I'd keep up otherwise!