sept 2014: babies are here (or coming soon!)

[allisgood1]

Even though dc3 is end of August, thought I'd start a sept thread :-)

How are you all doing?

dS1 is 9 dats old. Feeding well and surely sleeping well but it's hard to know as I keep falling asleep at night feeding him!

Ella, my cannula site was v v sore as well. Midwife told me to take arnica for bruising down below and I was shocked to see that a few hours after starting the arnica both cannula sites came out in large black bruises
You may have some deep bruising. I had no sign of bruising other than pain at the site.

hi all. Barney born yesterday via ELCS due to being breech. am quite sore today and have to say I am finding feeding pretty painful. I have nipple ice packs at home so will use them when I get back. Barney is a little character and chunters even when he is sleeping!

Elcs was so much better than I thought. yes am sore now but couldn't fault the docs, midwives, anethatist etc who were all amazing.

Holls congratulations x so haapy you felt ElCS was Ok - normal to feel sore you just had a major operation

If you are still in hospital check to see if breast feeding specialists are available there

Congrats holls! I totally agree about the ELCS being far better than anticipated! I had really wound myself up about the section and recovery, and now I'm just a little disappointed that I spent so much time in my last two weeks of being pregnant in tears and being anxious. No tears now though! Totally in love with our perfect little bundle of joy

Congrats holls! Hope you feel better soon. xx

Baby girl born last night! Very tired but over the moon

Congrats showmethewine! xxx

Showme congrattts x

Ladies ds throughs up so often, normally after each feed he is sick but a couple of times he was sick during the feed ; was crying while on breast but didn't want to let go until I unlatched him and he through up a lot...
He has also started to be really colicky first only a couple of hours of being disturbed but now he screams for a few hours on and off - surely this is not all normal is it?

Congratulations to the new arrivals.

nazly I'd see your GP or HV as it doesn't sound normal. Could be reflux or a possible dairy allergy maybe.

Hello all! I'm finally ready to join the post natal group. My baby girl Molly was born 15 September at 1:46am weighing 7lb 12oz. She's beautiful and i'm besotted!

Hopefully be able to catch up and join in with the discussions soon but as you all know - suddenly life is far busier with baby than those last few weeks of pregnancy!

In the meantime just wanted to check in with my birth story. Have already posted on the antenatal thread so apologies for anyone that has already had to read it:

I'm very much enjoying being mummy - I could just sit and look at and cuddle her forever! Labour was a bit of a saga. From going in at 5pm Saturday to be induced it took until 3am to be moved to delivery to start the drip. They wouldn't do gel or anything as I was already contracting anyway. So I was knackered and hungry before I even got going! Was put on the syntoconin drip which is turned up every half hour until a max of 60. By the time the midwife change at 8am I was at 50 and still contracting but irregular and mild. At examination at 9 it emerged that my waters had not completely broken, so this drip for the last 6 hours had been completely ineffective. Waters were broken then things got going - had about 7 massive contractions in a row because the machine was so high and fell in love with gas and air at this stage. Machine had to be started again at this point. Started to progress in terms of contractions and had epidural at about 6cm at about 6pm. From then things became a bit of a blur and I wasn't progressing in terms of dilation. Coupled with a drop in baby's heart rate and off I went for emergency c section. It was quite scary for some time but thankfully my perfect baby and I are doing very well now. All's well that ends well!

Nazly, no that sounds very reflux. Pop into your chemist and get some infant gaviscon and call GP first thing Monday for something stronger. Dd had silent reflux and took renitidine and domperidone.

Hi Ladies, when is the checkup when both you and your baby get checked generally for final time by gp? Is it 6 weeks or 8 weeks? And should I book it myself?

6 weeks and you have to book yourself. I realised I need to register DS at the GP surgery as well!

Nazly I had to book my own 6 week check myself but I got a letter in the post about Jessica's check.

I've just legged it back to my bedroom with Jessica still attached to boob from the room I feed in a scan massive spider ran in again. Why do they always run towards me? ! I'm terrified they can smell the hormones/mill on me now lol!

Nazly I had to book mine :)

Top they smell your fear :)

Up feeding Eli, I can't believe he was the 2nd baby to arrive here and he is due on Tuesday :)

Right. Help. Nipples total agony. Mw at hospital yesterday suggested I had been taught wrong by another mw but am so bruised putting him on makes me cry. Community mw coming today And I am pretty certain I am going to ask for help with bottle feeding.

Holls, check out a site called breastfeeding basics. I googled nipple soreness when I was having same issue and it really helped me with positioning. I was doing cradle hold but doing it wrong. Plus Nelly was cluster feeding for up to 4 hours in the late evening. I had a ready made bottle of formula standing by in case things didn't improve but I got through that night and things have been steadily improving ever since. Personally I think if you're in agony, give yourself a break for a feed or two with a bottle, then try again with the boob when you feel less sore - I know a lot of people will disagree, but if you're determined to stick with BFing, then you will try it again. For what it's worth, we had to give DD1 a top-up bottle at night from about a week/10 days due to her weight loss after birth, and she never had any issues switching. All her other feeds were BF and I fed her myself until 5.5 months when she started weaning.
Good luck, it is agony, but days 4-5 are the worst and if you make it to 10 days then you'll be through the painful bit!

Totally agree the first few days are the worst, it does get better!

I went to a breastfeeding clinic in the end to get help but I would say the best advice I had from a midwife was stop using all creams. I am actually allergic to lansinoh, I know it is massively praised on here though. I was using another and she told me to stop, and if possible, I.e. You're not leaking milk everywhere then to 'air' your nipples. This really toughened mine up which I found relieved the pain. Not sure this will help with bruising though? I had blood blisters which was the issue.

The clinic really helped with the latch and positioning, is there anyway you can get to one? Or call a La Leche League rep?

Don't feel bad about the bottle, it's really hard. In my head it's logical it should be easy but it's so not!

lilone congratulations, sounds like quite an eventful labour.

Me and the 3 other DCs have had coughs/colds for the last few days, I think Elizabeth might be getting it as she's quite snuffly today and doesn't want to be put down. I'm really worried she'll end up with bronchiolitis, DD1 had it at 6 weeks and it was awful, she would have awful coughing fits where she would just bring up entire feeds :(

Currently debating whether I should phone my mum to ask for help. There's so much washing and housework that needs doing, she told me to call if I need help but I'm stubborn and don't like asking.

theonly, ask for help! why not?.. in some cultures mum gets to cuddle baby for 30 days and does nothing else, no cooking, housework...I think that sounds fab ;)
holls, I think 10-20 secs of pain is normal until nips toughen up, but prolonged pain when feeding is not normal. Good advice from honey re seeing b/f specialist at clinic, they can diagnose why it's hurting (latch, tounge tie etc) & tell u what to do about it. m/w priority and expertise is for baby to gain weight, regardless of whether this is bottle/b/f, so I don't think really sorting out b/f issues is a priority for them, as they are under lots of pressure like all nhs services. kellymom is another good website. like marjal, I combination fed dd1 for 1st week or 2 due to low supply, but after that I was able to exclusively b/f. I think u have 1st 6 weeks to build ur supply and we had no problems swapping from bottle to boob. if b/f is totally doing ur head in, too painful, too tiring, etc, def consider switching to bottle, quite a few people on here have said that's totally been the right decision for them and their babies

Sorry just needed to share my excitement, I think I may have managed to express enough milk for DH to give Jessica a feed tonight. We tried yesterday but could only get out 30mls after a long try and it wasn't enough for her, but I tried expressing today whilst feeding her at the same time and got out 80mls which I'm hoping will be enough for her (she's 9 days old, and I have no idea how much in terms of volume she normally drinks, but I'm hopeful it'll be enough). This could potentially lead to the holy grail - me being able to sleep for several hours in a row because DH will be able to take over some of the feeding! Please let it be so!!! xx

Hols I cracked my left nipple on day 1 of breast-feeding and I bloody sympathise with the pain you are in. It still hurts now but it's getting a bit easier. I firmly believe it's up to you if you decide to continue bf or switch to formula, but if you want to persevere may I recommend taking some regular pain-killers for a bit (paracetamol and ibuprofen are both safe to use whilst breast-feeding). Also get some decent nipple cream. I'm also going to try getting some nipple shields in town today and see if they help, so will let you know. People told me the first week was the hardest and I would agree with that, and a lot of people say that after a couple of weeks your nipples 'toughen up' a bit and feeding is a lot better, so I'm crossing my fingers for that. However if you feel you need to switch to formula then don't beat yourself up about it, just accept that you gave it your best shot and it didn't work out. Hope things get better soon for you. xxx

kitkat that sounds great, well done! I often wonder how I will manage when I decide to express, like you say how do you know how much you need?!

I'm really struggling today :( had a bad night so very very tired and DH finishes pat leave so will be back to work tomorrow. I'm freaking out about it :( also feeling rather rubbish because the antibiotics I've got have given me upset tummy. One midwife says I have an infection and another says I don't. So could all be for nothing. I've spent a significant amount of today on the sofa either in tears or just holding them back. Any words of wisdom anyone? It will be ok when he goes back to work won't it? I'm so scared :(

Aww honey sorry you are feeling down. I'm scared of my DP going back to work too but as a mummy I'm sure you will rise to the challenge and it will all be fine! I think it is a common fear!

I'm another with the breast/bottle feeding dilemmas. Is