The March-ers 2019 - Baby Talk #2

[Angelmiracle]

Thread 2 for all our newborns ❤🤗👣

@cardboard33 thanks for the advice!

Decided I'm going to need a thermometer for the bedroom due to how hot it was last night. At the minute I only have one of those cardboard ones you get free with the grobags. Can anyone recommend a good one thanks.

Oh and a little rant, just put a load of baby's clothes in the wash to hang out and some idiot over the back decides to light a fire!!! A fire at 9.30am in the morning!!!

Does anyone have any advice about mixed feeding? M is so fidgety now, he constantly latches on and off during a feed because he's so distracted all the time. When we were out yesterday, I had to go back to sit in the car to feed him because he wouldn't concentrate outside.

I think he's also got thrush for a second time, I can see some white spots on the inside of his lip today and one side feels a bit tender at the start of the feed. It was such a pain to cure it last time (about 4 weeks ago), I'm drained at the idea of doing it all again.

I'm not sure I want to give up breastfeeding him all together but there's a big part of me that's uncertain about carrying on. I'd like a lie in one day or a night where I don't have to get up to feed him, I'm so tired. I don't want to have to go through thrush again and then have to do it another time if it keeps coming back.

It's much more convenient to not need bottles to go out but on the flip side, I'd be in more of a routine if he formula fed which would help. I'm also worried about his weight gain, he was initially piling it on but dropped under his centile last time. It wasn't enough to be concerned but I've been worrying about getting him weighed next and I don't know if that will ever stop being the case if I keep breastfeeding.

I don't know if it's possible to do bottles during the day and perhaps I feed him myself before bed or something like that. Sorry, basically thinking out loud but I just feel so uncertain and I don't know why.

Thanks everyone for the reassurance regarding milk dodging!
He's had more already today than he had yesterday. Fingers crossed it's just a phase.

Just out of curiosity what nappies is everyone using? We were using pampers and had no complaints. My friend recommended Lidl's as they're ALOT(!!) cheaper but they don't seem to mask the smell of wee at all. Has anyone else found this as well or does my LO just have extra strong elephant piss?

@AssumeItWasSomethingClever we use a mix of Aldi and Pampers. I think the Pampers ones smell awful once he's wee'd in them. Half the time I think he's pooed when he hasn't.

We also have a couple of Nutmeg ones from Sainsbury's that I got off friends at my baby shower because their babies had grown out of them but they're my least favourite so far. They seem to leak every time we've used them - both size 1&2 but I think that might just my babies body shape

@AssumeItWasSomethingClever also how's your milk dodging? Ours has reached a new level. He's literally having less than 10 Oz a day over various feeds and then his middle of the night feed seems to do about 5 or 6 Oz which is good usually but not when he's having so little in the day. Somehow he's still producing wet and dirty nappies but I've no idea where it's coming from. I just wish I could be as happy as he is with so little food because I'd be a size 8 in no time!

@AssumeItWasSomethingClever I've used both pampers and Aldi's and must say Aldi are my favourite, i use them all the time now. Never had any leaks with them.
I did get a free pack of Lidl's and didn't like them at all, they seemed quite small and tacky to me

Also my little one is still in size 2 Aldi ones and for a pack of 44 I think it's about £1.80

Tesco's Fred & Flo and Asda Little Angels are our faves so far. I don't like Pampers but when DS got bigger 8/9 months Pampers were the only ones he wouldn't leak through so will see how DD gets on with supermarket brands for now!

@Jenfur with DS I mix fed from 7 weeks. He got 3 bottles of formula middle part of day and breastfed night and morning including through the night. If you wish to start, drop an afternoon feed start with formula for a few days then the evening feed etc or whatever works for you best times wise. It worked well and he was combi fed until 5 months then fully formula fed. Its definitely possible and if he always takes a mid night feed perhaps DH could give him formula to give you a break.

I have literally noticed white patches in DDs cheeks and lips yesterday but her tongues ok?? Please not thrush its horrible isn't it?!

We are using pampers pure at night they seem really soft and may be a coincidence but she is sleeping better with them so I’m sticking with them.
Daytime we use Aldi.

@Angelmiracle Thanks, that's good advice. I feel a bit out of my depth at the idea of mixed feeding and then yesterday he fed beautifully all day so I didn't have any concerns. Bit hit and miss again today, keeps unlatching either to smile at me (cute but unhelpful) or just has a fidget, sticks his hand in his mouth, fidgets some more then latches again. Maybe he's teething (very chewy and drooly) but seems to have been going on ages and I'm just getting nervy about his weight and things.

Weirdly there were white patches on his top and bottom lips yesterday but they've disappeared today. I didn't think thrush did that but they looked exactly like last time he had it. We had such a faff taking him to the doctor's last time and then ran out of Daktarin after 2 days when he was supposed to have it for 7 days after it cleared up (I don't know who could get that much out of that tiny tube!) That we then bought some more over the counter. DH went to 2 or 3 pharmacies yesterday and they said they can't give it without a prescription?! Anyway now the patches have gone, I don't think the doctor will give me the time of day, although it sort of feels like burning when I feed him. I have cream from last time for me but if DS has it then that won't help.

When DS did have it for sure, there was a patch quite far back on his inner cheek but nothing on his tongue until about 2 days later.

@AssumeItWasSomethingClever we're on size 3 Lidl just because we started to buy DS1s bedtime nappies from there when the Aldi ones started leaking. DS1 always had aldi nappies until then. We tried Asda ones with him but found they leaked.

Haven't tried the Aldi ones. I'll pop in tomorrow. Thank you!
@WhatALearningCurve milk dodging is continuing! He had 20oz yesterday but so far today he's only had 9oz. Have you spoke to your health visitor about it? I went to the baby clinic today but it wasn't running ☹️

@AssumeItWasSomethingClever he had his 3rd lot of jabs today so I asked the nurse. She said as long as wet and dirty nappies are still happening then there no issue. He actually seems to be pooing more than normal

@WhatALearningCurve that's good. Glad she thinks it's alright. My LO seems to be pooing more than normal too. Makes me think it's all linked to his teething

Hope his injections went well too.

@AssumeItWasSomethingClever I definitely think it's teething - I just wish I could see a tooth to confirm it!

Jabs went okay - he's a bit fussy but I'm just using calpol and hoping he sleeps it off tonight

I've got a very sleepy little one today. Is there a growth spurt or something around 14/15 weeks?

He's been feeding to sleep which he hasn't done in ages and just staying awake long enough to feed then nodding off again. Interestingly though, we walked to pick DS1 up from nursery which took us the best part of an hour to get there and back and he stayed awake the whole way 🤨 I think my eldest used to fall asleep just at the thought of lying in the pram so this is very new to me!

@melissa112 thank you for your supportive words (days ago now - you've probably forgotten!). Regarding the anxiety it does sound like it is getting too much. I would try to get referred for 1:1 therapy. I found the perinatal anxiety group course helpful generally but it did not target my specific needs - however, 1:1 completely sorted me out. Funnily enough I was reflecting today on how much less anxious I am.with J than I was with R. I went on an art course today that involved wearing gloves because we had to handle chemicals. MIL came to the course with me and hung out in a different room for hours with baby J so I could feed him when needed (my MIL is an actual saint). Anyway with R i would have freaked out about the chemical and probably wouldnt have been able to do the course - or if I did I would have then stayed up all night afterwards googling and worrying myself sick that I could have absorbed something through my skin that could now be in my milk. But today I just spoke to the course leader about the fact that I'm feeding and if there was anything I needed to be careful of, she showed me the chemical that is an irritant but said we would use gloves anyway, and I cracked on. I washed my hands before I held J but nothing more than that. I can't tell you how different this is to how I would have behaved two and a half years ago! There is hope. Please get help because you don't have to live with these worries - you really don't. X

@AssumeItWasSomethingClever We started off with Kit and Kin but they cost a lot. Moved on to Rascal and Friends at Tesco. I really like them because they don't smell of chemicals!

@cardboard33 Yes it is sucky! How is all your stuff going? My first consultation has been postponed AGAIN - it's not till August now. So I have a little longer of not needing to make any actual decisions! It also means that he will be at least 6 months by the time I stop feeding him as it will take me a few weeks to wean him off, so as you say it will be nice to reach that milestone. From what I've found out from other mastectomy patients locally (god bless Facebook and it's miraculous powers of connecting strangers with weird things in common - such as having the same mastectomy surgeon!) it's likely my surgery will be in Jan/Feb next year, so working backwards I think stopping feeding in Sept/Oct should give enough time for all the tests they need to do in between. Just to warn you, my eldest son didn't drop feeds at 6 months because he wasn't actually taking on much solid food. It took quite a while for his milk feeds to reduce. I hadn't realised that would be the case and was a bit gutted at the time as I was struggling with feeding (bleeding nipple - oh it was awful!) and I had hoped that at 6 months he would immediately cut out some milk!

Regarding the microwave bags, I use them for the Haaka and I love them! Used them for the electronic pump and bottles with my eldest too. Really easy to use. X

That it's was supposed to be an its. Someone needs to give my autocorrect a grammar lesson.

Doing my first KIT day today. Little man was still asleep when I left so I cried hysterical ugly tears as I was leaving. I am not a crier by any means so my poor mum didn't know what to do with me. Could really do with that lottery win about now so I don't have to do this work malarkey!

@jenfur we do mixed feeding and have done since week 3/4. We usually do 1 bottle of formula plus 1 bottle of expressed per day then the rest from me. The formula is at 8ish and I give my last feed around 6pm then normally nothing until 3/4am. It took a while (longer I suspect as my supply was still establishing) but now I don't leak whereas if I went that long at other times of the day when I normally feed him then I would do. I've also read things on here/online that basically say whatever you want to do your body will respond, so when people start back at work they do the days when they're at work on formula and then the days when they're off work with breasts and it seems to work.

@AssumeItWasSomethingClever we use Aldi primarily although have also used Asda, Sainsburys, Tesco and Pampers as we were given them. Mine will be in size 3 at Aldi the next time we buy some, but he's just big enough for size 2 Pampers as their max weight is 8kg. Tbh we've found all of them to be ok - Sainsburys and Tesco leaked when we tried them initially but then once he got bigger (and we were more skilled at nappy changing?) they were fine.

To all those who are pooing and teething... we ended up at the doctors this week (week 17) and I mentioned that he was teething and also had a cold, and the doctor was like "he's not teething ,he's way way too young!!" and I didn't say anything but was thinking well how come he is chewing everything in sight and the teething gel we have clearly comforts him.... hmm! We were there due to the pooing as it got a bit ridiculous (it felt we went through more nappies than when he was first born) even though it wasn't diarrhoea.

@BadBadBeans so annoying your appointment has been put back again although as you say it means you get more time to remain in ignorant bliss of the upcoming decisions. We're also counting backwards - I'll start chemo in the new year so breast feeding is obviously a definite no no from then but we've found out that when I do the radio from September that I can still breast feed, so we're now hoping to do a transition period from 6-9 months where we drop the feeds from me and get him fully onto formula. We've also got to make some big decisions in the next few weeks about what we want to do about fertility preservation (for me) so that's what we've had appointments primarily about recently as it's not a given that it will go, so it's the weighing up of whether to do it now anyway or see what happens and leave it to chance. It just feels way too early to decide if we want to have another one as we don't know how we will feel in 2-4 years time when everyone is presumably on the second or third baby... and also it's not as if even if we do take them up now on the preservation that it's a guarantee that it would work. If it were guaranteed to work then it'd be different but we could go though even more emotional agony to still end up with just the one child we've got now. Ho hum.

I bought some microwavable bags so I hope they're good! :)

@cardboard33 my best friends a doctor and she thinks teething.....however she also thinks he's about to start walking any day so I think she may over excited at the fact it's the first baby in our friendship group 😂😂

@cardboard33 whew, that's a lot to consider and deal with. Would the preservation delay your treatment? I guess as you are breastfeeding you're not ovulating so does that mean you would need to do the preservation after your periods come back, or can ovulation just be stimulated artificially? I suppose there is no guarantee that even if you were in full health and wanted another one naturally that you would be able to - would it help to think of it like that? That it would just be preserving a chance, rather than thinking of it as a second or third baby? Anyway it's great news that you can feed longer than expected. By 10 months my son was in nursery for a half day and he was just having one feed at 3pm.

@WhatALearningCurve that's hilarious 😂 Yes of course it can be teething! My eldest started getting red cheeks and dribbling at about this age and then his tooth popped through a few weeks later at 5 months.