October 2016 #1

[Afreshstartplease]

Don't think we have a thread yet so here we are!

Ds arrived here 18/10 @ 5am one day before due date

It's so awful isn't it, taffeta and eggy?! Just bought some ointment.

So glad yours resolved themselves... I am very hopeful that will happen, eggy!

Nickname I did mean to get some cream when I went to Tesco a couple of times but kept forgetting!! Keep doing your pelvic floor exercises, it will help

Eggy - never heard that before about pelvic floor, will have to start doing them (rather than just nodding when the midwife asked me if I was).

God I'm awful for not doing pelvic floor exercises. After four DC I am clearly asking for trouble

Must try harder

Haha ok literally doing them right now that you've said that!!!

Haha I'm also sat here now clenching my pelvic floor having read that.

Fellow cs ladies - do you have numb skin on your stomach? Everything between my belly button and scar is numb, although it feels awful if I press it or knock it, weirdly over sensitive like it's sunburnt.

Kariana - yes, had an EMCS with DS1 and still had numb patches from that by the time I had my ELCS with DS2 4 years later. It's nerve damage that might or might not last, but the sensitivity does go. My numbness is all around my scar, above and below (which should help bikini waxing immeasurably in the future! ). It's totally normal.

Yes!! Pelvic floor exercises improve circulation "down there", so can help with horrible horrible bum grapes

I never remember to do my pelvic floor exercises either.

Went to the doctors yesterday they have signed me off for driving hurray I won't drive really until Friday when it's been 4 weeks drove round the block earlier and felt fine though scar a little tender now I think the multiple emergency stop practice was a bit keen. Ah freedom can get out a bit more!!

28th of October here. A boy weighing in just over 3 kg. He's snuffy and spitting up. Sleep is not easy to come by. I don't want to worry unnecessarily but it's hard not to when it's your first child.

My DD is three weeks and until a few days ago, has struggled to latch. As a result, I've been trying a combination of bf, expressed bottle and formula until now.

Now she's getting the hang of bf, I'm bf every feed, which I'm delighted with.

I think she's on a growth spurt and so is cluster feeding, with demands every hour. She'll only bf from one side at a time, as she falls fast asleep after a feed.

Is it normal to feed every hour? I'm just worried that she's not getting enough, even though she has plenty of wet nappies (not that many poos, but she is doing them).

Is anyone else experiencing this too?

3.5weeks here tea and DD2 is cluster feeding mornings and evenings. It is physically and emotionally draining. She was up 5 times last night too. Some days are better than others. DD1 was the same. Lots of fussing, latching on and off etc. and it feels like there isn't enough milk but there is! If your DD is gaining weight and giving you lots of nappies then you are making enough. It just takes a few days for your milk supply to adapt to baby's growth. By the time your supply increases, baby has grown again. Stick with it xx

Thanks milkshake, that's reassuring!

Oh wow taffeta, I hope it doesn't take 4 years for this numbness to go away Hopefully the sensitivity will go soon.

Tea I'm trying to increase bf too. I'm producing very little milk though and I'm not convinced ds is draining my boobs each feed, despite being on for ages, so that doesn't help build my milk production. We have to give ds a bottle after every bf as he's still hungry and he can drain nearly 4oz sometimes which is pretty much his maximum feed so shows how little he's getting from me. I know it's genuine hunger as he's really good about stopping on the bottle if he only wants a couple of ounces. It's very depressing and I don't know what to do

kariana, I'm in a very similar position to you. Breast, then he can drain 4oz of formula!

I've been doing loads of reading and posted loads of questions and have found that - apparently - it doesn't take long to build your supply up, but it'll be exhausting. A couple of hard days, it sounds like. So I'm now trying to only offer breasts during the day and only topping up at night (although I know that's not the best as - apparently - they put tomorrow's "milk order" in between 11pm and 6am but I am utterly exhausted!).

Good luck!

Have also ordered some fennel tea and have a hot flannel over my boobs when feeding!

Nightmare night. I'm awake, dh is awake and ds is screaming and screaming Usually I'm asleep by now so I can take over at 1/2am. This is going to be horrendous (and terrible for my milk supply!) Also exhaustion makes me lose control of my body temperature so I'm currently boiling hot even though the room is cold.

Oh no poor you I hope the night got better! kariana!

For those combination feeding, can I ask which bottles you use? I was using mam anti colic but I think they're too "easy" and also make my baby windy. He's kind of has an aggressively hard suck! So that's why breastfeeding is quite painful. I'd like to sort of retain him with a better bottle/ not have him refuse the breast... tried the mega pricey medela calma last night and he screamed with anger for ages!

Morning all

Hope you got some sleep Kariana

I can't comment with regards to breastfeeding but I have previously used Avent bottles with my older DC and never had any problems with those

I'm using mam this time though as liked the self sterilising feature

kariana that's interesting re temperature. I'm the same but opposite. Freezing cold so I've had hot water bottles, dressing gowns, fluffy socks etc while DH sits in a T-shirt.

Tiring couple of days here. DD2 has been feeding loads and my body is trying to keep up with her. It took 4 hours last night for her to get enough to fall asleep but then she slept for 5 hours!

I'm using mam anti colic. I think they are helping a bit. My friend recommended Dr Brown if you want to try an alternative.

Dh finally got ds to sleep around 2am then brought him up to our room at 4am. Ds slept till 5 when I fed him but afterwards he grunted and moaned so much in his sleep we couldn't sleep. I was too exhausted to go down and sit with him so in a terrible mummy moment we stuck him in the nursery and left him to it. He slept till 9am and we actually got some sleep too, together in our actual bed! I did spend 15 minutes panicking and checked him twice when he first went in there before sheer exhaustion made me drop off. Feel terrible for risking it but I think we all slept better for it, including ds.

Kariana can I recommend an angel care movement monitor to help with anxiety if you think you will all sleep better in separate rooms?

I had one with my last baby and it helped my anxiety so much! I was very anxious with her looking back although I'm not really sure why but I even used to use it in the Moses basket in the bedroom with us!

Basically if it doesn't detect movement in twenty seconds it sounds an alarm, it also does almost a tick noise every few seconds which I found reassuring as I knew it was working and she was breathing.

Kariana we are the same offer breast every feed he's never satisfied and expressing doesn't even produce 10mls so so on 4oz top ups of formula. His tie was clipped 2 weeks ago I'm taking fenugreek and domperidone from gp there's nothing more I can do and am resigned to stopping soon want to get him to his immunisations if I can as he does get some comfort from it even if little milk. It was the same with ds1 so expected this some days I'm still verging on crying over it others I think fuck it but it is really hard.

Fresh we actually have one of those monitors but I'm not sure how to get it to work in a Moses basket. The instructions are for a cot and I'm not sure how to get the right surface for it to work with the Moses. How did you set it up?

Figgy I'm the same. Sometimes I think fuck it, I'll just stop and then other times I either break down crying because I desperately want to do it or stubbornly put my foot down with myself and refuse to give up. I get barely 10ml from both breasts when expressing when a couple of weeks ago I was getting 60ml at least per breast. I wish I'd pumped and fed more in the early days, feel like this is totally my fault for being selfish about sleeping and not liking sore nipples

kariana - I know exactly how you feel. I did the same. The sore nipples made me slow down. Don't feel bad, it's awful when they hurt. I was dreading each feed! Dreading him waking up! I posted here and got good advice:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/breast_and_bottle_feeding/2777351-I-think-Ive-lost-my-supply-baby-2-weeks-Is-it-over-or-can-I-get-it-back

I'm now feeding with nipple shields and am going to go to a bf group this week. I am going to persevere with the medela calma bottle, too, as I swear the mam bottles are making his latch worse! (Prob overthinking it.)

I have upped my supply slightly since using the shields because I'm not so scared to feed. Just sat on the sofa feeding most of the day today! Baby got a bit frustrated but he was quite sleepy so happy to just feed for longer.

But I not know if bf'ing will work for us or not either.

We used a very thin piece of "wood" under the sensor, it was actually the base of a drawer from a flatpack bedside table! And then ran the wires under the fabric of the basket and out of the foot end.