Due september thread 9

[pooka]

Blimey already at No.9

LL - you can express breastmilk as soon as your baby is born.

At first it will be colostrum - which is especially rich in antibodoes & growth factors & then when it will be mature milk when your breastmilk comes in around days 3-5. If a baby is born prem then a mum can express her milk straight away - same for mums of term babies.

Colostrum is produced in a very small amounts but this is fine. If you are able to breastfeed your baby then it can be easier to express your milk once supply & demand have been worked out between your baby & you and you are both confident with the new skill - even if you've bf before every little baby is different! For the breastmilk supply to become established can take around 3-5 weeks - so after this is will be easier - but if you need to express beforehand it is ok as well.

On the pump - it just depends on what your needs are. If you will only express occassionally then a hand pump is cheaper & doesn't require batteries - but is more tiring on the hand at first. The electrical pumps are heavier & make a low noise but they can extract more milk quicker - so if you're returning to work & expressing then this is an advantage.

hello!

LL - I'd strongly advise an electric pump - I did not have the streghten to use my manual one!

And also try to breast feed as soon as you can after baby is born. I expressed milk for 3 weeks - but then dried up! As my son would not take attach to the breast after the hospital staff fed him a bottle after my cs(against my wishes!)

redhelen - I was intending to feed direct from the breast from the start, just wondering if you have to wait a bit before you can express the odd bottle for hubby to do a feed?

oops just saw milwards and fairycakes posts!

Ladylazurus - with DS i was certainly expressing within the first couple of weeks so that DH could give him a bottle(and so that I could indulge in a bit more red wine!) Must admit I had a very easy time with breastfeeding and never had any soreness or difficulties and DS switched easily between breast and bottle but I think I was very lucky. I breastfed for five months but gave up ready for going back to work. If you read the Gina Ford book (dare I mention her on here or will I get booed off!) she is all for expressing to help establishing your milk.

I am going to try breat feeding this time round but couldn't manage it first time round although i did ask for help from the midwives etc but they allways seemed too busy. Have been given an avent manual pump so will hope to get feeding established and be able to express as well.

Speaking to friends who have breastfed - everyone has different approach so guess you just have to play it by ear and see how your body reacts. I hope to breastfeed and also express as soon as I feel comfortable. Just so that others can give feeds - and so I can indulge in a glass of wine or two and occasionally eat things that baby may not like taste of! Have heard that somewhere between 4 - 8 weeks best time. The one thing I am certain of is that I will try not beat myself up if breastfeeding doesnt pan out. I have seen so many women in my job really low or feeling guilty as BF doesnt happen. Usually not helped by busybodies and misguided professionals. As I read somewhere 'Breast may be best but it doesnt go on their CV.'

Have first of two intensive NCT classes tomorrow - 6 hours each!!

Did not beat myself up when I couldn't establish breast feeding with DD, there is no point, just put her on the bottle and got on with it. Have bought a can of SMA Gold just in case and still all have all of my bottles will make sure they get agood wash and sterilize them. Have started buying new teats for them already and have bought my cold water sterilizer and baby carrier all i need to buy now is the matress and bedding for the crib, baby monitor, new rain cover for the travel system and some grow bags. Ohh and if this one turns out to be a boy there will be a mad clothes shopping spree!!!

I think expressing depends on your milk supply to some extent. I had so much milk with ds1 that expressing to start with would have just encouraged even more - he used to get drowned with every feed, then got colic as he had to gulp to keep up!! Just thinking about it fills me with horror, but I'm keeping an open mind and hopefully will manage a bit longer than 3 months this time. I think this is why the advice is to generally wait 6 weeks - until your supply has settled down a bit. As with everything it depends on you and the baby. On the other hand, if you leave it too long, they may refuse to take a bottle...nothing is simple!!
As for the wine, unless baby is very colicky, there is nothing wrong with a glass or two of wine - from memory they say each glass takes an hour to get out of your system, and even then I'm sure the amount that gets into breast milk is tiny. It always amazes me that (to my knowledge) noone has done a study on the composition of breast milk in relation to what you eat or drink and the time lag - it would be quite useful compared with some of the ridiculous studies that do go on!!

It's quite scary talking about feeding, what is left to buy etc, i still haven't got round to packing my bag much to DH's disgust and there are only 8 weeks to go which menans theoretically anything could happen from here on in!!!!!!! Help i need to get my house straight, my bag packed and all my baby stuff down out of the loft will i ever be ready in time. I do not have the energy I had last time round and i am furiousley trying to get everything clean and tidy. My back is causing me huge problems as well which doesn't help, would like to get hold of the guy who ran a red light and the guy who drover into the back of my car and kill the pair of them!!!

Mummyhill - if you do have probs getting going with bf then it can be helpful to talk it over with a bf counsellor. The nct has a helpline. All counsellors will respect your parenting style & how you choose to feed your baby.
In the first weeks probs are mainly due to difficulty with latching baby on & worries about milk supply. On the milk supply - the more you bf the more you will produce & for the latching on (& avoiding sore nipples!) a good bf postion is best in the early days when the baby is learning to bf as well. Baby's nose to nipple to encourage wide open mouth with head back slightly (just like we would drink), tummy to mummy & spine in line so ensure head doesn't have to turn to bf.
Hope your back is soon feeling better

I expressed right from the first week. DD was having difficulty latching on becuase my boobs were so full she simply couldn't get a grip. I used an electric medula pump which does have a very annoying humming sound that I can only imagine is similar to that of a milking machine!! So not good if you are trying to do it discreetly, also found that the power was very low when using batteries and had to use the mains adaptor meaning that I could move around much while expressing. Still I managed to express every day - apparently best to do it in the morning - and think a handheld pump might give me a bit of RSI!
I actually discarded any milk I expressed for about 24 hours after I'd been drinking. I know the alcohol goes out of your system but once it's in your breastmilk, doesn't it stay there until you've pumped it out?

OOps, should mention that I did BF DD for 5 months, just found that expressing sometines gave her a better grip on a very full boob. Gosh that sounds very strange. Also was good to let DH feed sometimes and have some milk in store for babysitters,etc.

Thanks for all the BF advice, very interesting to hear different people's points of view.

Mummyhill - don't panic about not being organised. I will be 31 weeks next week, I haven't bought half the stuff for my hospital / labour bag, haven't got the cot yet either. All we have bought is the pushchair + baby monitor, baby change mat, some clothes, + a few little bits + bobs. Still have TONS of stuff to get through on my list!! Hoping to get cracking next week and get a bit more shopping done! I don't even have a dressing gown or pyjamas to wear in hospital yet! Saying that, I have a friend who is 37 weeks and she 'hasn't quite finished' her hospital bag yet, so don't know what we're worrying about!!

As far as I am aware alcohol levels decrease in breastmilk as body clears it so doesnt 'stay in your breasts' This is true of all meds. I know some friends who seemed to have very fussy babies with regards to tastes ie refused milk/screamed if mums ate strong cheese, tomatoes, broccoli or anything vaguely spicy etc - is this due to colic or taste? Any experience of this anyone? Im tired of dietary restictions - esp as cant have sugar at the moment!

can't eat strong cheese? that's the only thing keeping me going for after the baby is born!

Boompi - that is part of why I found bf so stressful. Both babies had bad colic - ds1 worst and I got fed up with analysing whether it was something I had eaten and got so many conflicting stories about the time lag from eating to breast milk. Having said that, I'm not convinced that what you eat makes much difference - how do asian babies cope with all that spicy food? I think if you 'dumb down' your diet too much, they will never have a taste for anything other than bland baby food!
Just to contradict myself again, a good friend breastfed for a year, mainly because her baby had such bad eczema and she didn't want to risk introducing something else. When she stopped, his eczema improved as he had a dairy intolerance and had effectively been 'poisoning' him (iykwim) with her own diet!! So much to worry about!

I think you can eat whatever flavours you want while bf tbh. DD never objected to hot curries or anything strongly-flavoured, and I don't know if there's any connection but she's now one of the most unfussy 18mo's I know I'm not sure how you'd draw an accurate connection between what you ate and your baby's reaction to it anyway - as andif says, no one's done any research on the exact timing of all that, to my knowledge.

BTW motherinferior wrote a great article reviewing all the different breastpumps - anyone who'd like a copy, just email/CAT me

I'm very excited!

I bought a ceiling fan durring the last hot snap 3 weeks ago - it has sat in the corner ever since - but DH has just fixed it up (as it's been really warm here today)and is quiet (unlike the fans & air conditioners I've tried )and cooling too! Ok so the bedroom looks like a Texan saloon but as long as I'm cool!!!

Hello - fan does its best - had a bad nights sleep though! Too hot and too uncomfortable!!

Sorry - haven't had a chance to read all posts since last time I was here so apologies for going completely off topic but - Has anyone had a sudden INCREASE in movement, mine has been absolutely mad since last night, hardly got any sleep because loads of kicking in every position I tried. Thought it might mean that he/she would be sleeping today but still loads of wriggling around - just worried that it might mean baby is in distress or something??? Any advice greatly appreciated. Thanks

elasticated - I have felt much more movement in the last few days but I think it's because the baby has moved into a different position, and I'm now feeling every single poke and prod. Also think he's running out of space so I will feel him more from now on in - my bump is very solid.
Still haven't bought anything for my bag (in case I need one). Pretty sure I don't have to buy anything for the baby but haven't got stuff out of the loft yet to check. Dh is away this week so I might try and sort some stuff out, but between working and looking after the kids I might wait till he's back and send him up to the loft instead!
I'm 32 weeks now so have to have more blood taken this week at my appointment. Still doesn't feel that close though, but thats probably because the builders haven't even started yet!

My baby was very active last night - I put it down to the heat - very hot here yesterday/today!

Would love some cold rain!

Thanks Zubb - sounds like a good explanation, my bump is also very hard (feels like my skin is v tightly stretched!). Seems to have calmed down a bit since I've been at work this morning but still more movement than normal. I'm going to put it down to new position and just try and relax...
Think you should definitely wait for d/h to go up in the loft!