Jan 2012 - Higgs Boson Gang pt1

[Oeisha]

Link to antenatal thread for convenience

Not a very good title, but it will suffice 'til we fill this one in record time!

Congratulations to all that have popped so far!

Finding it easier to formula feed although just expressed 8oz in 1 hour (2 feeds for William!). MW say formula is stressful and time consuming but for me it is a hell of a lot easier - especially as my mum (staying for 2 weeks) and DH can make up bottles and feed too.

What is 'current' advice on switching to formula exclusively in terms of preparing the breasts to give up the 'cow job'?? Friends have said to go cold turkey and it takes a couple of days (how many they think a 'couple' is I do not know!) and some have said to bandage up the breasts.

Thanks supa, its a shame someone has to suffer like you did for people to find out about these things. Hope this time round is better for you x
I'm taking the weekend to think things over properly re feeding. Dp wants to put Charlie on formula exclusively. Dd was ff from day 1 as she refuses to latch on and she's had good health.

Hopefully you and your princess will get home today ghost

Xpost m2b
Today I haven't been.able to express any more than 3oz. Ds takes a full 4oz every feed. If he was exclusive on the breadth like mw wants then he would be starving today.

Iv been wondering the same re coming off the cow...

Thanks sho. Am not going home. In their wisdom, docs have decided to take me off the meds col turkey to see how my BP responds before deciding when I can go home. BP went from a safe 100/60 to 144/80 in a few hours so think it's safe to say I won't be getting low readings overnight. if I don't get discharged tomorrow I will be spending my birthday in hospital instead of at home with my wonderful girl

Sorry ghost, you must be itching to get her home. Hope your bp calms soon fx

m2b going cold turkey from breastfeeding gives a risk of developing mastitis. The best way to wind down breastfeeding is to give up one feed every 3 days.

Happy birthday Ghost . Hope the doctors let you go home soon.

m2b have you started to wean baby off the breast yet?

Hello just checking in. Had my baby boy at 4.31am on Saturday after a 5 and a half hour labour. Had my waters broken late Friday evening due to suspected hind water leak. I have a small tear and the stitches are quite sore. Been having lots of baths with salt in.

Congratulations Frilly

hello Higg bosun girls, i'm sort of here. bit wibbly still, birthing a 13lb boy will do that to ya-told you all I was HUGE!!! :)

lost a lot of blood and had to have a transfusion and extra day in hospital. and I seem to have picked up some sort of sicky virus thing on top-not sure if it's that or jusr generally very depleted. have sickness and runs. i have not had much chance to stay upright for very long-blood count is still low but were getting there by degrees so will red back over the threads over the next few days. congrats to all the new mummies xxxx

Congrats frilly and good to hear from you fish!

WE ARE ON THE WAY HOME NOW!!!

So happy...

Feel better soon fish!

Yaaaay ghost!!! go home and have a lovely cuppa

13lb ! Oh my! Congrats to all the new babies

i think my boy is the biggest? not a single member of staff i talked to said they had ever seen bigger. were quite the celeb

anyone heard from peanuts?

Congrats Frilly and Fish. Great news. Hope you both recover speedily.

My stitches are painless now, 2 weeks later. Pgp seems to be going away but get stiff in evenings. Sometimes I can hear the bones rubbing off each other when I try to get out of bed but it's discomfort rather than pain.

How are other pgp sufferers faring?

hi all finally posting on here!

just a quick question, how long does the stump take to sort its self out and is it normal for it to be a little pussy when its falling off?

Oh mz I miss read your post! It normally takes about 10days on average. Dd was on day 10 and Ds was day 5. Get your mw to check it if your concerned.

Congrats frilly

Fantastic news ghost , so happy for you!

Take care of yourself fish and Congrats! I told my gran about your 13pounder to be told of a very distant cousin who naturally gave birth to a 14lbs 10oz girl a few years ago. Bet she's never walked right since!

pgp I'm still quite stiff and can't lift my left leg higher than the height of 1step. It was actually easier to roll about in the bed when I was pregnant.

dirty nappies how many should baby be producing in a day? Ds hasn't had a dirty today, loads of wet but no dirty

Hi can I join? My baby was born 5th January, 16 days overdue. We're home and doing ok ish... I'm express bf for him and feel like I haven't slept for the last week.

Welcome ayearoverdue just had my first midwife home appt. all ok so far I think my milk has just come in this afternoon , so I expect to start blubbing later.

It's quite amazing when you have a relatively small baby. People are quite scared to touch her. She's very strong though.

I thought I had ruined our chances of successful bf last night. I tried to de-latch her sucking colostrum by just pulling her off. I had to pull her off in the end as there was nothing left and she wouldn't stop. Never experienced nipple pain like it. I had to use the emergency formula for the next feed. Luckily I also discovered how well the lanisoh cream works for the following feed, unluckily I did it to both nipples before getting the right way to do it from the MW today.

Lanisoh is brilliant!
We were at the doctors this morning and an old lady was cooing at the babies. She asked what aged Charlie was, expecting me to say 3months like the similar sized baby next to us. Her face was a picture when I said he was only 1 and a half weeks old! I couldn't help but laugh at her when she asked if I was sure

Welcome and Congrats ayearoverdue

We have started to reduce the breast feeds now. There is just no way I can compete with a baby that wants 4oz every 2hours.

Hope everyone is well x

Ouch Parsley, did you literally pull her off? Finger in the mouth to break suction first was what I was told. My eyes are watering just thinking about it, you poor thing

Ouch parsley!! Be careful of those nipples

I love my lanisoh but the MW reckons the 99p tins of Vaseline are just as good! Might try that next. My MW is due to visit any minute and I could really do with a nap sometime soon...

My milk has come in and my boobs are huge!! They are really warm and tender. Cameron likes to feed every 4 hours so I have way too much milk in. I hand expressed some out to relieve it before. Please tell me this will settle in next few days?

Hi all, just popping in to say hello and hoping I'll have time to post regularly! Our beautiful baby boy Rafe was born last Monday 16th Jan at 01.11 after a very swift induced labour (15 days overdue!), weighing in at 8lb 10oz. Went from 2cm - 10cm and needing to push in about an hour so no time to even consider any pain relief as it went so fast (had been planning a home birth so was hoping not to need any anyway) and he was born after 2 hours of pushing. His cord was wrapped around his neck twice and very thick, midwife told us that a cord around the neck is often the case for overdue babies as it acts as a sort of "bungee" holding the up and stopping their head from decending and applying pressure to the cervix. Hadn't heard of that before so thought I'd share!

He is 8 days old now and we still can't take our eyes of our beautiful boy, we seem to lose hours just looking at him and snuggling him! I'm breasts feeding and it's going ok so far, though I'm having all the usual worried thoughts about frequency/length of feeds and if he is getting enough. At day 5 check he had only lost 2oz of his birth weight so that was a good sign, next weigh in is on thursday so fingers crossed he'll have regained his birthweight and maybe a little more.

Feeding patterns are ever changing it seems, he sleeps a lot during the day with a short-ish feed every 2-4 hours, then really goes for it between about 8pm and 1am, feeding almost constantly. He then settles to sleep in his crib and wakes every 2-3 hours for a feed until about 9am, though last night he went to sleep at 1.30 and DP and I both woke in a panic at 5.30 as he hadn't woken! We changed his bum which woke him up a little and he took a quick feed before going back to sleep until 8am.

I'm trying really hard to trust my instincts and take the approach that if he is feeding on demand, coming off the breast of his own accord and producing lots of wet nappies and pooing well then he must be getting enough grub. Hopefully this will be born out at his next weigh in. It is so hard to know!

Congrats to everyone that has had their babies, I've loved reading your birth stories and look forward to sharing the post natal journey with you all! I'm a first timer so it's all new to me and your advice and experiences are so valuable to share.

Right Rafey is sleeping so might take the opportunity to get some supper on the go before he wakes up! X

Frilly mine were like rocks when my milk came in! They settled after about 48hours, one tip someone gave me was to hand express off a little before each feed so the nipple was soft enough to get a good latch. When they are really full I found it difficult to get anything other than the nipple in Rafey's mouth, rather than a good mouthful of areola, and that is a recipe for nipple disaster! A minute or two expressing of the first bit of milk did soften them up enough to get a good latch. I did have a slightly knackered left nipple from an over enthusiastic sucking when first engorged but as soon as I tried the method above it was fine and its all healed up now. Hope that helps!