September 2020 7 - babies are arriving!

[sianyflewog]

Just making this ready xx

Anyone else having issues with boob leak?! 😂
Everytime I feed baby girl, her clothes get wet from the other side leaking on her and breast pads never stay put, especially at night! Honestly I leak like a broken tap! Help! I don't have enough nightwear for this 🙈

I have the same problem @Margo34

I've been using flannels or a muslin to catch the leak (as well as using breast pads).

The other option is that breast pump that isn't a pump, it just collects everything that leaks. I can't remember the name but it was £12 on Amazon.

@lattelover12 @margo34 same!
I have one of the silicone breast pumps. I think the haaka is the one you mean, but i have a cheaper little blooms version from amazon. It's amazing how much you can collect just from the let down off the other side - good if you want a stash for the fridge. I get more milk from that then manual pumping (i can't get to grips with the manual pump at all!) get 50ml per feed off the other side! Saves it being wasted in a breast pad. So many times I've had to change J because my other boob has drenched him🤣

I use breast shells. They just sit in your bra and collect the leaks. If you sterilize them you can bag the milk or just get rid.

Hope everyone's doing well ! Haven't had time to catch my breath lately. Kairo has had a few weeks of rough nights and it's been rough as I'm on my own but we've finally settled into a decent routine and he's doing better !!! My section scar is healed nicely and I'm trying to go out everyday for a walk , annoyingly I have one raised stretch mark that is so so itchy !! Anyone else have that ? Can't believe we're into October !

@Margo34 I'm also struggling with leaking milk at night. I've woken up to find I've soaked the bedsheets with my milk but as it's 3am I've put a towel on the mattress and sheet instead of waking up my DH to change the sheet (plus I'm too tired to want the faff). My current solution is to wear a strappy top under my pyjama top to hold my breast pads in place. It's mostly been successful. I didn't realise I'd constantly smell of milk! I'm looking forward to my supply settling down.

@ChipsAreLife have you tried the elvie pump yet? I've bought it too but haven't opened the box yet as I wanted to check my little one would accept a bottle so I've used my haakaa pump a few times instead to check.

@liquoricecravings yes it arrived last week! I LOVE it!! I'm exclusively pumping and it's been a god send for me. I can get so much more done with it on and it's less faff in the night etc. You just can't bend down or leave forward much but I can still get loads more done than being plugged in. Just make sure it's completely dry or else it won't suction properly.

@ChipsAreLife excellent! I'm so pleased it's lived up to the hype. How are you cleaning the parts? Can I put them in the dishwasher before sterilising them? Or is it best to just wash them in the sink? I've got a steriliser I can put on a short cycle. C took another bottle last night so I'm going to get the pump out today to have a go. I can express up to 70ml in one go with the haakaa pump but after my DH has given her that feed she's still wanting the breast so I'm expecting to have to build up a good supply. It's only the later evening feed he'll do day to day but I'm going to a socially distanced hen do soon and will need to leave enough for a few hours whilst I'm gone.

Hi I hope you don’t mind me jumping on this board but I’ve had my LO 2 weeks ago. For everyone who used the haaka and collected the let down, did you still feed the baby from that same breast used on the haaka after the other boob emptied? I want to use the haaka in the nights as that’s when my breast start to leak a lot

Hi @MrsNA congratulations! I've swapped breasts after using the haakaa pump and it's been fine. I think the suction seems to get the 'excess milk' out and once my little one starts suckling the milk comes through fine.

We've got our first jabs tomorrow ! Does anyone have any advice to make it less traumatic (I'll probably hate it more than him )

@Piper1879 - as tough as it is, just try to stay calm yourself. They take a lot of their cues about what should worry them from us apparently. Nurse tells me a lot of the mums do cry though. Obviously he will cry a bit but have your infant calpol ready (I was allowed to give it to him while the nurse wrote up his notes before we even left the room) and lots of mummy cuddles and he’ll be ok. Mine shouts as he’s being injected but settles pretty quickly with cuddles afterwards

Question for you mummies, how are you getting in with tummy time? My DD is 7 weeks and has good head control when in my chest - for example she will lift her head back to look at my face and can hold her head for a good minute to 2 minutes at a time.

But when I put her on her tummy on her play mat she pretty much face plants the mat and stays there. I've tried lying down next to her and calling/speaking to her to encourage her to look around but it doesn't work. I'm still trying every day but was wondering how other babies her age were getting on.

@kersh33 - mine is about the same corrected age - due to his prematurity we see a physio. Her advice is that at this age not to worry too much about tummy time on the floor, you’re better doing it on your chest and gradually flattening the angle of your body so you gradually increase the difficulty for them and to aim for tummy time properly on the floor by around 3months. Her argument was it’s obviously easier on our chests because of the more upright angle helping them (same as press ups being easier against the wall rather than on the floor) and that babies like a win as much as the rest of us so if tummy time on the floor is too difficult still it’s not unusual for them to not even try.
Hope that makes sense!

@Sara7455 Thank you very much for your reply. That makes perfect sense. She's fine on my chest so will focus on that for now. That's exactly what my DD does - she doesn't even try! Good to know it's not unusual. 😊

@kersh33 our little girl is 6 weeks tomorrow.
Her hands are still in a fist! Occasionally she opens her hand! When I put her on
Play mat she just falls flat on her face and fists so tight! I'd say give it another week and try again.

@ShiningStarz my boy is 6 weeks tomorrow too. I take the opportunity when he unclenches his fist to try and get the fluff that he's gathering from having his hands like that all the time 😂

[quote Roxy8203]@ShiningStarz my boy is 6 weeks tomorrow too. I take the opportunity when he unclenches his fist to try and get the fluff that he's gathering from having his hands like that all the time 😂[/quote]
Ah yes - the fluff! I do the same!😂

Haha @Roxy8203 the only time I get the opportunity is post bath massage!! Thankfully thats daily now 😂

I have a question on sleep routine! Iv been googling!! Apparently from 6-& weeks it's a good idea to start some kind of routine.

One thing Iv read is setting a time for bedtime, at this stage should be no later than 830 and by 2-3 months should be around 6.30.

My question is do we put them to bed in the dark bedroom and once asleep we go back downstairs until our bedtime? I always thought we should be with them until 6 months old for all sleep?

At the moment I sleep from around 10pm-1am and as my DP is a night owl he takes her while I sleep and does the 2 late feeds and brings her up to me asleep meaning I do the feeds from 3am ish through the night.

Ah the hand fluff 😂 I find they smell weird too from being all clenched up and covered by mitts all day! I've also had to bite his fingernails so much as they grow into little boob scratching claws so fast!
J entertains about 2 mins of tummy time on the playmat at a time before faceplanting and just waiting for me to turn him!

@ShiningStarz that's what im planning on doing. I've got a breathing monitor for peace of mind. On the very rare occasion she sleeps on in the morning, ill leave her in my room on her own and keep an eye on the monitor

Thanks @Lilice this thread has gone quiet as I guess most others are on Facebook pages. I chose not to as I'm afraid of opening up on the unsafe world of social media.

Good luck everyone and stay safe 😊

@ShiningStarz we go up with him at 2030 at the moment - or he sleeps in his Moses basket until we’re ready to go up as he still doesn’t wake when we transfer him upstairs so we haven’t stressed too much about it. DH gets up for work at 0600 anyway so we’ve always gone to bed around half 9 anyway in the week. By the time he’s down and we’ve brushed our teeth and got ourselves ready for bed it’s not too far off and we just have the bedside lamps on instead of the main one so it’s dimmed lighting rather than total darkness. He’s a pretty good sleeper once he’s out though so if we decide to watch tv in bed or whatever it doesn’t bother him. We were out for lunch yesterday and the waitress said she was trying to be super quiet not to wake him (the entire cafe was full of screaming kids he was sleeping through) we told her it was a lovely thought but not to worry!

@shiningstarz the idea of having an evening with a sleeping baby in a few weeks fills me with joy but at the moment it seems like a very far off dream! Seeing 1am twice last night was tough!!
I've not got a baby monitor yet, have asked my parents for one for Christmas though my mum has said I can have it before if needed! I think I'd probably try get him sleeping in the moses basket in the living room first though. Even when he's in the next to me I keep the lamp on so I can watch him breathing 🤭
I asked my friend with a 1yo when that stops and she says she's still doing it!!

@MooseWL I used to keep the nightlight on his snuzcloud on so I could check him but then he wouldn’t go to sleep as he’s obsessed with lights and was busy trying to get at it 🙈 such a monkey! The bedside table lamp lights the room more but the source is out of his field of vision so less distracting!