Hi ladies! Haven't been on much lately, just been enjoying my baby girl(!!!). :) She is 12 days today, and weighs 9lb 14.5oz (was 9lb 2oz at birth). And thanks to her making me feel ill almost the whole pregnancy and being a keen feeder now, I only have two more pounds to lose to get to my pre-pregnancy weight. lol!
To CardiCorgi, if the spots don't get better or she starts to be fussy for no obvious reason, it might be a food sensitivity. My DS1 and DS2 both got a terrible rash around 2 weeks old, and with DS1 I went to the doctor as it started on his face and spread over his head and down his body as time went on. She told me it was baby spots that it would go away. It didn't, and so I quit eating any dairy to see if it was that, and in fact it was. I let the rash clear and then had something with dairy in it and sure enough, he had spots the next day. With my DS2 he couldn't tolerate dairy or soya (we had started having soya instead of dairy because of DS1's probs with dairy, and when I quit dairy with DS2 the rash got worse, it turned out to be because I was having more soya. Then I tried having dairy once the spots were clear because I'd been off soya, and he got spots from dairy too). Thankfully DS3 didn't have problems with dairy or soya, and so far my DD hasn't gotten any spots. May be a little early still though. Anyway, all this to say, if it doesn't clear up on its own it might be a food allergy. Also, you asked about pumps, I have the Avent hand pump and I really like it. The first couple of days when my milk came in I was really uncomfortable and worried about getting an infection as there was no way Skye was cleaning out each boob even though I only used one side per feed, so I pumped more than 36oz over two days and stuck it in the freezer, it only took me 5 minutes each side to get 8oz each time I pumped. It has this let-down cushion that massages the areola while the pump sucks at the same time, it really helps mimic a baby. Part of pumping is getting the hang of it by practice though, same as hand expressing, if you get good at it, you can express as much in the same amount of time with your hand than with a pump.
Hope everyone is surviving the tiredness and general recovery from birth. I'm grateful that so far Skye is sleeping well at night and feeding about twice, and one night this week she even slept from 11pm til 6am! I woke up a few times to check she was ok! I found one thing that has helped hugely (as I know some newborns get confused about day and night and decide to be awake in the middle of the night which is oh-so-unhelpful!) is to never turn lights on to feed or change her during the night. With changing, I use the light on my phone if its a pooey one just to be sure I've done a proper job, but with feeding I don't even do that as I find she'll eat, burp and fall straight back to sleep with no trouble that way. Also, someone mentioned they can't get their baby to settle in the cot as they wake up 10 minutes later screaming, I had this problem with my DS1 and the only thing that helped was to let him sleep in my bed. This time round, she is in my bed every night still and I have avoided worrying about her rolling/me rolling because my Mom sent me this awesome pregnancy pillow a few months ago, it is a big long one that you can use to rest your bump on at night. I have been using it curled up into a circle like a donut, with baby's bottom in the hole in the middle and head on the ring. This way she can sleep right next to me and smell and hear me without me worrying if she's going to be safe in the bed. She also sleeps on it on the sofa during the day, and I use it under my arm while feeding so I don't have to hold her up which wears out my arm. Anyway, I would say the best thing I ever did with my newborns is to keep them as close as possible.
Sorry for the mega post, hope everyone is doing well, glad to hear Einar is putting on some weight finally, Fen!