May 2017 #15 No sleep, night feeds and the newest arrivals

[Tickyboovicki]

Fingers crossed this works, no idea how to make a thread but giving it my best shot. Let the May babies continue!

Quick catch up, haven't managed to read back through everything I've missed yet 🙈

uptown I started expressing around 4 weeks, most of what I read said 6 but I went to the cinema with my sister as a test run, left milk with husband and he took it fine! Have been expressing when needed since and he's fine with bottles, no confusion. Loving the baby spam too 😍

savage someone else who's mad enough to move with a baby! There's been a few of us, hope all runs smoothly for you 😊

rise 5 hours sounds amazing! We had two blocks of 3.5 hrs last night which I definitely appreciate. Amazing what a difference it makes!
Hope everyone's doing ok, and everyone still waiting is hanging on in there!

Oh and uptown I definitely get way more when I express in the morning!

@uptown8617 like @mightymouse76 baby Rise is definitely getting more of a "routine" (3 weeks in) she rarely feeds for more than 15 minutes during the day (if it's longer I know to expect a Mt Vesuvius style eruption) and they're about 2.5/3hrs apart. She'll stock up in the morning and in the evening and we can usually get through the night on a couple of 5/10 minute feeds. (Love the baby spam!!)

@crazyzooo that's not what I was expecting from a 6 week check... especially not considering how hard the midwives pushed me to book it!!

Question for other c-section ladies I feel like someone has taken a scrubbing brush to my stomach, (can't think how else to describe it) is this my nerves joining back up?

I'm still swallowing paracetamol and ibuprofen, especially before and after car journeys, they sent me home with diclofenic (or however you spell it) but that only lasted 2 weeks 🙁

@uptown8716 lactation consultant showed DH how to tape a sns tube to his finger to feed expressed milk without a bottle, she said that would help avoid nipple confusion.

We have been feeding a little expressed milk since day 1 because of my haemorrhage and infections.

Expressing from week 1 here, MW wasn't bothered about me doing it that soon, and it means DH has been able to feed him from early on. Rupert is happy to take nipple, bottle or nipple guard too! Think he's so greedy he'd lap it up if he had the chance. I'm using the tommee tippee electric pump, really good and gets a lot out with no pain, unlike the mothercare one I had initially which was painful on my nipples.

Very jealous of your sleep Rise, I dream of those days. We're going 2 hours between feeds here, so about 1.5hrs sleep, with a 2.5 hour sleep at the beginning of the evening. He gets boob then bottle from DH at night (3 fl. oz from bottle) so I'm wondering if my boobs can't give him enough to sleep longer throughout the night...

Also have a noisy one here too, no idea how such a small baby can make so much noise, especially when he's eating!

Hope everyone is doing well and still enjoying lots of lovely baby cuddles

@beanturnipandspud this is induction day for you isn't it? Hope all goes well and you get to meet spud soon!

After yesterday night working a treat, the OH had to go back to work yesterday so he came home tired, and went to bed 22.30, last night has Been a slightly rougher night, with miniRustler inconsolable outside of my arms until 3.45am. Our system of Oh waking up at 3 to change didn't work as he either slept through his alarm or it didn't go off (he was very apologetic about it!)
Feeds at 23.30 (1 hour) bottle expressed at 2am,- 2.40 (1 hour) 6 am (30') and 9.30 (45'), then showered and calm down the engorged bunnies, now contemplating
Either pumping some milk to get pressure off before miniRustler wakes up?
Or wake him up, feed then express?
Give me some delightful expert advice please?

Afternoon ladies

Hope you are all well.

Am venturing out with nate in baby carrier today for the first time (have been using the pushchair when doing nursery run for dd). Am going to first baby group with nate so will let you know how it goes. Attempted to attend a mother's coffee club yesterday but the organiser was on holiday.

Went to lots of baby groups with dd when she was little so hoping they'll be as good as they were in the past. I have noticed that there doesn't seem to be as many run by the local children's centre due to government cuts, which is a real shame.

Same here jenny - asked HV about local classes and there are no government / local authority / NHS ones at the moment!

This might be a silly question, but have found a newborn baby sensory class which I could walk to, but what if she is asleep when I get there? Do I wake her up? And won't that make her overtired? I panic about her getting enough sleep as I have to work to get her to drift off!

I am so jealous of people that got discharged with actual painkillers! I was having oromorph and morphine injections in hospital for the pain and then 24 hours after the birth they cut me off and said all I could have was paracetamol and ibuprofen and was in absolute agony. It felt like taking paracetamol for a shark bite and did nothing for me. They didn't want to discharge me because I was in so much pain but I not so politely told them that if all they would give me was over the counter drugs then I'd rather be miserable and in pain at home. 2 weeks on I'm getting better but still feel like I've been kicked in the vagina by a horse. Fell down the stairs 2 nights ago and have managed to bruise my coccyx so the only position I was actually comfortable in is now painful!!

Pumping wise I am alternating between the manual tommee tippee and electric pump. We are formula feeding and topping up with expressed milk. Managing to get between 40-100 ml per session depending on how often I do it. Midwife said I should do it 8x per day but with all the visitors recently I've only been managing about 4/5 times so need to step it up a bit.

@clairesunflower the oramorph was good stuff, I was sorry I wasn't allowed to take any home!

sipper that's the problem with baby classes at this age. You can spend £5 for your baby to sleep or feed through the whole thing. Personally, I wouldn't wake her, but then my first was such a terrible napper I have a bit of a blanket policy against waking babies!

Same advice to you rustler, leave him to sleep. Has your supply settled down yet? The issue with pumping is that your body will think the baby is demanding more and you could be even more engorged tomorrow.

Anyone got any tips for feeding in a sling? Tried to feed the baby in the Manduca while walking to toddler group. She lasted about 3 mins and then fell asleep.

esmes that's helpful - she isn't a great napper so probably best I leave it for now! You've reassured me I'm not just overworrying!

Don't tolerate the pain @ClaireSunflower ! Get your GP to prescribe something decent if the hospital won't. I can see why they don't want you on the strongest stuff for long but equally in no other major surgery would you be expected to last with just paracetamol and ibuprofen after just 24 hours. That's shocking.

I've had a couple of hours off getting my hair done. It was nice but I'd rather have been sleeping! BabyTea took 100ml expressed milk for my parents and then had a long nap in the pram.

@ClaireSunflower definitely go straight to your GP, they should be able to give you codeine to layer between the doses of para and ibuprofen. I was lucky enough to get discharged with some but chomped my way through it quickly so the Gp gave me more.
That oramorph was lush but I did wonder how capable I was of looking after baby on that cloud! Hope you get some relief asap.

@teainbed it's a tough call isn't it? I've got an hour and a half until some help leaves. Do I sleep, or do I actually make us some dinner that doesn't come out of a packet while I still have the use of both hands?? I'm showered at least so that's one hurdle out the way...

@EsmesBees I just achieved the epic feat of cooking and eating spaghetti bolognese whilst feeding BabyTea in the babasling! Latch was shite but at least he wasn't howling, and DH is away otherwise he would have dealt with dinner for other DC. Getting the strap length right was tricky.

@RasperryInAMelon how are things today? Hope you're well and enjoying little Molly.

Congratulations rasoberry!!! At last Hope you are healing well.

mighty you crack me up!! I've read your Ikea trip to a few people now. For someone who's feeling low you are bloody funny

rise I love the cleansing of the house with appropriate newspapers

fox maybe a sitz bath with lavender oil in? I say this but I haven't tried that yet. Mw gonna check my stitches for first time tomoz.

Good luck with move savage :)

Blimey I get about 10ml per boob in ten mins Too sore to do much longer than that. I spose she is only 9 days old though so I make more as she gets older? I've started taking fenugreek and trying to eat more as wasn't really eating enough. Mw said she prob drinks about 60ml per sitting and I'm to top up with expressed. paige I've been told to squeeze and massage boob as I pump by mw/bf nurse.

tea I'm so jealous of the feeding in a sling!! Well done! Can't do different ways of feeding here till Carla's TT is sorted out bless her....

Feeding-in-a-sling question - is it ok just to put him really low down so he can reach? Because if he's 'close enough to kiss' then his mouth is nowhere near a nipple.

@clairesunflower my GP gave me naproxen as an advance on the ibuprofen, which I've found helpful. Just mentioning it because it hadn't occurred to me that there were stronger anti inflammatories til the dr mentioned it.

@raspberryinamelon big congratulations! Sorry you also joined the Kinda Sucky Birth Club and hope you recover well.

Yeah cox you have to drop em really low down to feed then hoik them back up when they're done. Which is really hard to do without waking them!

Impressed with those feeding in a sling! Might be something to try as baby W specialises in eating when we want to!

@ClaireSunflower just like @CoxsOrangePippin I've been given naproxen which really helped. The antibiotics took a while to kick in and I was not keen on codeine as my sister in laws baby had become very poorly on that, and I was already constipated.

@EsmesBees I didn't pump in the end and also mini rustler woke up soon after that and had a lovely 40 minutes feed (as he is now). My supply is pretty normal for the moment and still varies over 24 hours. His demand is also variable and mornings are painful with a set of balloons, but that's not unusual. The rest of today, he's been feeding for 20-40 minutes at a time and every 2-2.5 hours. I'm thinking that he's catching up to help me get the bravo from health visitors on Saturday to reach his birth weight... nappies are full of wet and poos so I'm still happy!

We are going to bed now. Hoping that daddy will help out at 3.00am this time...

Does anyone else's baby feed lying down and then very deliberately manoeuvre themselves on top of the empty boob to use it as a pillow? Harrison does this when I feed him lying down at night and it's hilarious and very sweet.

I'm surprised to hear what some of you have been discharged with painkiller wise. After c section I was sent home with (sorry re spelling) diclofenic and dyhydracodeine plus an absolutely delicious bottle of laxative and was prescribed a shed load more of each over phone when they ran out. I eased off the codeine asap but nice to know there is more if I need it. Hope you're all finding ways to get what you need to manage.

Mighty things sound like they are improving for you, hope I'm understanding that right as you have been a total trooper.

Uptown gorgeous photo. I've added one of nappy free time as they are dwindling and we all love a baby pic!

Such a busy day today, gardening in sling with mum, visit from friend and 15 month old, visit from friends and screaming 11 week old, massive headache as constant visitors from 10.20am to 9.30pm and poor DP had strimmed nettles into his eyes at work poor thing. Also finished my stockpiling of nursing dresses off eBay which has rather consumed my time each time an auction is ending. Fingers and toes crossed I fit into said dresses now! Otherwise I'm gonna be sooooo grumpy...

Baby spud arrived at 21:35 weighing 8lb 7oz. Not caught up on the thread ...apologies,
I can't wait for bean & Turnip to meet their little brother in the morning.
Off to gaze at the little mite now .... will update you all with birth story in the next couple of days 😘 x

Welcome to the world spud! Well done mummy! X