April 2011-kicking back drinking lactulose cocktails and riding the maternity surfboards

[Petalouda]

Post-natal thread for all the antenatal April 2011 Family!

Share the birth stories, the baby blues and everything else.

I'm not sure MrsW, lefty was always the best side and thats where I've got mastitis. It's still quite swolen and sore, so once thats all better hopfully supply will come back. I'm goign with the cabbage leaves in my bra to aid recovery. God they stink if you leave them in too long!

DH is away back out again for football. I need to get an evening based hobby!!

Ali M has been unsettled all evening, worse than usual, but she was virtually awake all day since 10am, jabs were at 2 and she was happily playing and gurgling on the playmat an hour or so later. I really think she's mainly over tired, but the jabs might not have helped. She'll settle a bit then wake herself up and cry. I'm off for another long stint holding and comforting her whole i try to get her into a proper sleep. It could be a long night :( we don't have any calpol either - might i be sending DH to the 24 hour chemist for some?

My tip re jabs - give half a dose (so about 1.25mls i think?) before you go to the docs, then you can give the other half after if they are v grumpy/hot.

Sorry Caramel - yes you do have to go back to the gp. and make sure both of you are being treated at the same time.

well DD crashed out on me earlier, i should have rushed up to bed, could have been asleep for an hour already!! instead i sat on the sofa watching the Queen getting a dead arm
have put her down now and she's still sleeping, so annoying, wish they came with a countdown timer for how long they are going to sleep!

chilli - I would get some before the night gets any older, just in case!

Calpol purchased - I love having a shop within spitting distance :) M is currently sleeping in an upright position being held by DH so gives my arm a rest. Hopefully having purchased it will ward off the need to use it. It worked that way when I bought gaviscon when pregnant :)

Hi ladies,
Had a traumatic couple of days - when weighed at baby clinic on Monday we found Jo had lost weight rapidly - down to well below her birth weight (6lbs11oz compared with 7lbs3oz at nearly 4 weeks, despite having initially regained birthweight in 10 days). She was admitted to hospital and they have her on formula top ups now; seems my milk supply is dwindling and now she seems to be failing to latch to the breast at all - don't know why - so formula 'top up' is basically all she's having. Have started a thread on feeding boards on how I can re-establish BF before it drops off altogethet - would appreciate any advice April ladies could offer (here)

Oh ecuse, you poor thing. I've not got much advice on BFing, but can you try expressing to get your supply going again? You hospital my have a pump you can hire or borrow short term to get it going again. God I sound like a sales rep for Medela!!

Gotta go, B is shreiking!

Ecuse sorry to hear this. If she's taking a bottle but not latching on you could try using breastshields to make feeding from you a bit easier. SHe might have to work less hard with a more rigid 'nipple'. Also, I second the pump. It would be very time consuming for a couple of days but you could try the breastshields and top up with formula where necessary and then after each feed pump off any milk left over. This should boost your production, although I'd say you'd need a good electric pump for the purpose (I second LisaMcA - the Medela Symphony is fantastic and clears all my milk in around 10 minutes) as otherwise you're going to be there for ages and will be exhausted.

I'm no expert on feeding but I reckon that might help boost things. Also, are you eating enough? Try and eat lots of cake, carbs and protein. Oatcakes and flapjacks are great for snacks, as is coconut yoghurt. Fennel tea and/or fenugreek tablets are also good for boosting milk production and you can get these from most health food shops and fennel tea in a lot of supermarkets.

LisaMc sorry to hear about the mastitis. I hope the antibiotics kick in soon. Drink loads of water as this will help flush everything through.

Oh yes, forgot to add I've just been diagnosed with an infection behind my scar. It flared up the other night - rock hard, swollen, red stomach that was boiling hot to touch. I also had a temperature. I spent all night in A&E freezing on a hospital bed before being given antibiotics. THey wanted me to stay in but wouldn't/couldn't bring me a breastpump so I could clear my massively engorged milk (the baby was at home with my husband using my frozen milk) so I went off home. It was a real 'Computer Says No' moment as I stood there in my hospital gown clutching my rock hard breasts and asking for a pump. "No, we can't do that". I pointed out it had a massive maternity unit three floors up but I don't think they could be bothered. So I told them I'd be going home as otherwise my breasts were going to explode all over A&E. I don't think they were particularly bothered although I did have an amusing image of my boobs detonating like two atomic bombs.

Now on Flucloxacillin for five days so no doubt I'll get thrush, the baby will get thrush and so we begin all over again...I'm pretty fed up. Six weeks post op and I'm back to square one again. My stomach is really sore today and still very red but I think it takes a couple of days for the antibiotics to kick in and do their thing. ANyone else have any experience of this or tips on what to do?

Oh kits my wound infection was paltry in comparrison to your problems. It sucks. If it makes you feel any better I didn't get thrush with my first antiBs anhdm hoping the same for this course. I have yakult every morning which may have had something to do with it.

Hope you feel better soon. :)

Aww, kits hope you're feeling better soon and ecuse hope you get supply and latch sorted :)
Well, after lots of evening crying we went to bed about 10.45, after a last feed and once the ligth was out she settled down as usual. DH and I spent some time snuggled up and quietly laughing at the cute baby noises coming from the crib. It was lovely. She (as usual) slept til 3, change and feed and back to sleep til 7. I'll be trying to ensure she doesn't spend all day awake in future.

That sounds horrendous Kits, what idiots to deny you a breast pump! I really hope you're better soon.

I have no time to pump at the moment and H is continually hungry. We had a couple of rocky nights but he did 10-2.30 last night and I had to wake him to change and feed him (bitter experience has taught me that if he sleeps more than that in one go he won't go back to sleep after waking), took a while to get him back into the cot but he then slept until 6.30.

On the downside, I'm still in France and DP has announced that he can't come over because work is too busy. I'm so disappointed H hasn't seen him for two weeks apart from a single day when he came back from tour and he was working then too. My parents are helpful but I feel like H won't even know who his dad is when we get back.am working on a plan to get home but I don't drive, we've got loads of stuff and everything is logistically tricky with a baby. Aaaaaargh!

Thanks for all the advice on thrush, I saw the nurse today and have got myself a supply of fluconazole so hope that clears things up.

Nothing in comparison to what you two have been going through ecuse and kits .

Cycle that sounds a bit rubbish about your DH. I hope you & H can get back to see him soon.

BF group today was productive - made some mummy friends & a group of us went back to a lady's house for a cuppa after. Her house is so beautiful & clean/tidy it's like a showhome. Made me feel like ours is student digs. But they were lovely ladies, and it felt good to make friends.

Well tonight F will be sleeping in the big cot in his room. He's almost too big for the crib, & the cot won't fit in our room. I think it might be cooler without us too (about 23C in our room at the mo). I know they say babies should sleep in the parents room till 6mo, but ...

I need reassurance that this is going to be ok! (not moving the crib just yet tho!)

I typed a huge post about my first big solo adventure today but lost it :(. Heres the shortened version:-

B and I went to the BF support group, had to walk witht he pram, I'm v unfit and it rained!! HV at support group tried to tell me to switch to cup feeding or B will never take the breast again, peer supporter told her to naff off (not literally but was along those lines). Got home was weed and pooed on, had to feed B constantly between 1.30 and 5, he fell asleep, DH came home.

In better news, supply seems to be increasing again! Yay!

Petal DS moved into his own room and cot at 12weeks for the same reasons you mentioned. We put the moses basket in the cot bed for the first night, he was fine and when we took the basket out he didn't seem bothered at all.

If you're anything like I was with my first DC though, you'll lie in bed trying to get to sleep but be jumping up and checking every little snuffle you hear over the baby monitor.

Kits They wouldn't get you a breastpump. Pardon the language but what a bunch of tossers

ecuse I hope you manage to get in touch with a good BF councillor who can help.

P is doing well, is putting on about half a pound a week with the 2 formula top-up's and last night slept in her moses basket 12.30-7.30am (well I assume she slept as she was awake when I put her in the basket and she was awake when I woke up at half seven, she's obviously taking after her mother and likes her bed)

I walked to my bf group yesterday, lovely sunshine though luckily. But spd kicked in yesterday evening and i've been achy today still, ouch.

And, the thrush is re-surfacing :( Must try and get a docs appt tomorrow for more drugs. Was warned by friends that one course may not be enough. Warning to others, the 7 days x 50mg really is not the recommended dose for breast thrush. You should be on much more and for longer.
I'm back on the neurofen for now.

DD been a real milk monster since about 4.30, not much in the way of breaks, though she is sitting on DH's lap for now but is building up to complaint-level.

Remembered what i kept forgetting!:
someone was talking about tips for a friend?
and said about 'tongue being up means they still have wind' or something like that, what did you mean?

Oh yes i moved DS1 out at 10 weeks - and then he slept through the night (a bf baby and was told that would never happen), DS2 i moved out about 6 weeks, though i can't imagine doing that with DD next week, we haven't even got her to sleep in the crib yet!

Kits & Ecuse, sorry to see you are having tough times. I hope that ab's kick in and that the milk supply increases and baby starts regaining.

Took Finn for his jabs today and he was sooo brave. Just a little squeak when they jabbed and then nothing. Fingers crossed he doesnt have a bad night as a result.

With Ds1 he went in his own room at 2wks as we couldnt sleep through all the grunting and snuffling. dd1 was in her room at 8wks, dd2 at 3wks. ds2 is 8wks and 3days and although in his room he is not on his own as i am sleeping in with him until he gets used to being in his cot and can do 4-5hr stretches. Hopefully it wont be much longer as I havent slept in my bed for 12wks! Dh is loving the peace and quiet :)

Thanks for your support! F is finally settled in there, and I'm off to bed to listen to the monitor! He's 8wks 2days.

JKS I've had similar issues at BF group. Got wee'd on today. And today was the first time we weren't late!

April good-o for Finn's jabs, I hope F is just as calm next Tuesday.

Weigh-in tomorrow, my money's on 14+lbs!

Thanks for the kind words, everyone, and for the advice. I'm starting to feel less guilty, although I still well up every time I think of the phrase 'failure to thrive' or of her constantly being hungry for a couple of weeks . Hopefully I will be able to get supply back up. Am going to a breastfeeding support group tomorrow morning, then back to the hospital tomorrow afternoon to have Joanna weighed to see how she's faring after a couple of days of top up feeding.

kits I'd like to say I can't believe they wouldn't get you a pump, but I do believe it. On the paediatric ward I was in with J the other night they looked blank at me when I asked for a pump, even though we'd been admitted partly to check my milk supply by expressing it. I had to insist they go and look for one - they were going to send my DP on an hour-long round trip to get our poxy little battery powered one from home.

Hugs ecuse, kits and cycle

S has a cold and we both have upset tums. Mine has lasted two days already, triggered by pasta and garlic bread, won't do that again, and, tmi, my piles are making it painful to go as I'm so sore. Nothing compared to what some of you are going through though and I hope you, and your babies get well soon.

Seriously, I'm to hear about the "pump" refusals in hospitals. When i was in my room looked into the breastfeeding room there were 4 medela symphonys in there the only time i saw anyone near them was when I asked for one on my last day aftershredded B my nipple. What a waste. At my bf support group yesterday a girl there hadn't got her supply going in hospital so had given her Lo formula while there, sahe said if she knew there were pumps on the ward she would have used them as she was hand expressing. She is bfing now only because of our lovely peer supporter.

Oh Kitty, you poor thing. The piles were the worst thing I suffered from the birth frankly so I really hope yours improve. My mum bought me Anusol suppositories and they really helped xx

Hello everyone. Sorry to hear some of you are having a really tough time at the moment.
Nipple and even worse breast thrush does seem really common. I am lucky that I've not had it (yet) but can remember the pain from nipple thrush with dd and I didn't even have full blown breast thrush!

It staggers me sometimes that we are bombarded with breast is best etc but some of the professionals you turn to when you are having problems give poor advice or even wrong advice. And Kits a hospital not even being able or being bothered to find a breast pump is really crap! And we as mothers end up feeling guilty for failure to feed successfully when I think its a failure of the system of support, advice, and help which is available postnatally! I have not had any difficulties breast feeding but really feel for those of you struggling. Ecuse
Having said that I haven't had G weighed for over 2 weeks and am not seeing the health visitor for another week and a half so it will be a month between his weight being checked. He is definitely growing in length as now out of newborn babygros and into 0-3months. He wees and poos a lot and often possets up a bit of milk after a good feed so I think he is fine. He will be 6 weeks old on saturday and he has only been weighed 4 times since birth.

How often are you all getting your babies weighed? Should I be getting G weighed more often?

Petal dd went into her own room at 12 weeks, as I couldn't sleep with all of her grunting and snuffling. At the moment I end up going to sleep for a few hours in our spare room after feeding him at about 3-4 am leaving G in the room with Dh. I wake as soon as his snuffling/grunting gets louder as I can hear him from there. I am a really light sleeper and seem to have some super Mummy radar that wakes at the slightest noise from G so I think he will be in his own room at about 12 weeks too, or whenever he grows out of the moses basket if that is sooner. I know the advise is to have them in with you for 6 months, but I think you have to do what is best for you. Anyway we also cannot fit a cot in our bedroom!