Yes Heffa, last week at work - yay!!
Peanut, you really must be missing family at this time - have they been over at all? Mine are coming over in a couple of weeks so should be here for the birth. Mum staying on until mid-August to help out. We're heading back in Sept for good I think, I have a job lined up in Auckland starting Feb. (Current company is setting up an office over there next year so perfect timing!) Really looking forward to getting back there now with a little one. Is your DH English?
Below is the info from MIL - how handy is she at the moment??!! She is sending me a whole lot of literature so will let you know any further pearls of wisdom I glean...
"Knowing how to handle first 24 ? 48 hrs in important. The most important thing to be aware of, and I don?t know what the English midwives advise, is not to leave baby on breast for too long in the 1st 24 ? 36 hours as that can lead to 2 problems:
1: sore nipples
2: baby learns a nipple sleep assoc
In the first 12 ? 24 hrs the amount of colostrum baby receives is so important but it is minimal ?have put some printouts in mail for you that goes through 24 hr volume.
It is better to offer baby freq (even hrly short feeds maybe 3/4mins of obvious suckling) than leaving baby to sleep for hours and then being on breast for 30mins or so. (You are fairskinned so will need to monitor sucking time to protect your nipples. Purchase some Purelan or Lanisoh and use couple times daily in last month to prepare nipples.)
On the info I?ve sent you is a list of cues baby shows you that she is waking up and maybe ready for feed. If she is a sleepy baby in first couple of days you need to be proactive so as she comes to breast often so you can establish lactation asap. That prevents lots of uncomfortable engorgement.
Learning to identify ?effective or nutritive? suckling is important.
1: NUTRITIVE FEEDING: You have established a good latch and can hear baby swallowing after each suck, you can see the jaw movement right up to ear
2: NON NUTRITIVE FEEDING: If after 4/5 mins the sucking behaviour changes from above, she is pausing between sucks and the suck is shallow fluttery, no swallowing audible, no jaw movement, eyes closed etc put back to bed.
Main thing to remember: SEPARATE FEEDING FROM SLEEPING ALWAYS by
1: not feeding baby to sleep and
2: always put baby to bed awake
Obviously in the first few weeks you have to be flexible and the first 3 months for baby are almost like the 4th trimester as she learns to sleep independently."
HTH.