June 2020 Babies - newborn snuggles, recovery, milk and night feeds!

[LillianFullStop]

First post natal thread for June 2020 babies! Looking forward to seeing our birth club thread members here soon!

Random one but what are everyone's favourite go to snacks for providing energy for overnight feeds? I've been eating a lot of flapjack and now sat here munching Jammie dodgers 😬

@Pegase I'm so sorry to hear you're having such a rough time and hope the medication is helping and you feel better soon. Everyone is right though and your mental health is just as important. I understand exactly where you're coming from in feeling like you've failed, even though you haven't. Thrush, unfortunately, seems to be quite common in being a cause for giving up breastfeeding. It was the reason I stopped with my second except it dragged on for weeks as I wasn't treated at first and so I reinfected him and it went back and forth. We went through my supply dropping and working on getting it back up and breast refusal and eventually I just went to the bottle and formula full time as I have another child too and it didn't feel fair to him, me or my now-toddler. I felt like I'd failed, messed up and let him down, but he's thrived on formula in the end so I've had to let go most of those feelings, and my wishing we'd managed lessens every year I see him grow and develop because in the end it hasn't mattered in the grand scheme of things.

Saying that, I was really hoping it would work this time so getting thrush again and so soon is really worrying and disheartening. I'm going to ring infant feeding team tomorrow and get as much advice and support as possible, which is something I didn't do last time. I'm also going to ring the HV as I know my anxiety and mental health will be suffering due to last time and concerns about Charlotte. She is very fussy at the breast, unable to settle outside of our arms (mostly mine) and her feeds have dropped to 2-3 minutes a lot of the time, rather than the 5 of a few days ago. I felt very low yesterday, on top of very tired (despite her sleeping really well at night at the moment). Please think about talking to your breastfeeding support and HV/MW. I know I've heard to try and not give up BF when having a bad day.

@Missgemini Charlotte didn't poo for about 48 hours around day 3/day 4 and then she did a really big one but I was getting worried. The MW and breastfeeding support lady thought it was to do with my milk coming in and changing, so she needed a little bit of time to adjust. I'm glad that he's doing well.

@BabyBird20 I need this info too. So far I've gone through 4 packets of biscuits and some chocolate...

@BabyBird20 so glad to hear things have improved and are going well.

@Zoey92 I should have tagged you in my previous comment re: poo. I hope your poo explosion comes soon lol

@Gigitree and @AndddddHerewegoagain sorry to hear your bf journeys have come to an end but glad your little ones are doing well

@SearchingTheSkies glad to hear your nipples are healing and it's less painful. It makes such a difference! I was so happy when mine healed and it all felt much easier

@Pegase forgot to say I'm sorry to hear about your little girl not feeling well yesterday and having to go to the hospital. I hope she is home now and feeling better.

Is anyone's little one having fun with hiccups? I can't remember who made the comment in the other thread about an unborn baby with the hiccups is a baby with the hiccups but it's definitely true in Charlotte's case. She gets the hiccups pretty much after every feed, and she has wind too, though not as often. Not sure whether I should mention it when I call my HV and the infant feeding team later today or not

@HaichMal my baby is hicupping as much as he did in the womb. I'm not too worried. I assume it'll settle with time. I'll mention it to health Visitor when I next speak to her though.

@HaichMal Ivy hiccuped all the time in the womb and she hiccups all the time out of the womb, normally after feeding! I did mention it to my HV but she did not seem concerned.
I have also noticed she's coughing more and sneezing more last couple of days I'm assuming that's normal and her just getting used to new smells and things.

Thank you @Missgemini and @Busylizzie85. That's reassuring that it's not just Charlotte.

@HaichMal mine hiccups all the time as well- usually as I have got her down for a nap so she wakes herself up again.

Thank you for all the virtual support last night. Am going to keep an eye on mood and see if it improves once I am no longer lactating. I keep crying when on phone to GP / midwife so they are aware things aren't great!

Baby came back from hospital last night. They ran loads of bloods which they will get back to us about but think it is just tummy trouble due to transitioning to formula and also said she is over feeding. Which was a surprise as even with bottle feeding it says to feed on demand but they said based on what we said she she is demanding too much/ not recognising when she has had enough which is weird for a newborn. So we have to try to slow down feeds even more. She does do hunger cues when she is tired which I think hasn't helped matters - if we were still bf obviously she could drift off on the boob but can't do that now!

@Pegase Glad your little one is back home, and sounds likely it's just the transition to formula unsettling her tummy. You've had a really rough time and hopefully, like you say, once you're on a more even keel with feeding your mood will improve. I think all new mums feel emotional and that's without becoming unwell themselves, so it's not surprising you're feeling low. It will get better!

@BabyBird20 @Missgemini Thank you both for sharing your weight gaining experiences. They are giving me hope. Got the mw today and I'm dreading being told she's lost more weight. Hopefully she's going in the right direction now my milk is in. I've decided if she hasn't gained weight I'm going to ask for support from the feeding team, as I am feeding regularly but perhaps her latch is not good enough to get the right amount of milk. That's the only thing I can think of that might be the issue (if there is one).

I need to get better at having healthier snacks to hand. Have been scoffing jelly babies but that can't continue long term!!

@SearchingTheSkies can you hear her swallowing? I found even though we had latch issues due to tongue tie I could tell when she was drinking well as I heard swallows and saw a mouthful of milk when she detached!

@BabyBird20 thank you for the link, found you all 🙂 for night time snacks I really like Trek bars, sugar free, protein, and quite filling. With DD1 I ate loooads of "rubbish" because DH was away for work all week so it was just me. I'd getting a shopping delivery on a Monday and eat crisps, ready meals and sweet things all week before he got home on Friday night and he never knew. This time he is home and bringing me all food; not able to use breastfeeding calories as an excuse this time I'm "not allowed" junk food 🥺 celery and cream cheese anyone?... 😒

Will try and catch up on the rest of the thread now whilst DD2 having fitful sleep. I'm back working on Friday so trying to anticipate the longer naps so I know when it's worth logging in!

I have Eat Natural bars which are fruit and nuts mainly and sweetened naturally with honey etc. I find one bar does me through the night as they are quite substantial. I just take a bite each time I wake up.

@Pegase yes I think I can hear her swallowing. She must be taking in a fair amount of milk as she produces plenty of wet and dirty nappies.

Saw the mw this afternoon and baby has gained some weight. I'm so relieved that things seem to be improving. Crossing my fingers that it continues.

I'm so behind with this 😩, haven't been checking it at all which I miss! Was a my go to app when pregnant. My little Freddie is a month old now and doing great. Piling the weight on. I hope everyone and their little ones are doing well! Xx

Reading back on a few of your comments, glad I'm not alone in the fact Freddie won't sleep in his crib at all! He will go in for 10 mins max and wakes up screaming. Only way I've been getting sleep is letting him sleep on my chest but it's so nerve wracking!

How can I co sleep safely? Any tips and advice would be great xx

@newbyxx I'm mixing co-sleeping with the next 2 me cot. She does increasingly well with the latter at the moment. Bizarrely she will not tolerate her Moses basket for more than 90 seconds! You'd think that'd be more appealing as it's cosier...

Anyway, I think either La Leche League or NCT has a good list of safe co-sleeping guidance if I remember rightly. There's a list of risk factors, then a list of things you can do to make it as safe as possible. We have no risk factors at all, so after the first sleepless night home I set up the bed to allow co-sleeping in the event that it "just happened". I keep the bed clear of bedding wherever I have DD (just a paper thin duvet on my side), she does have a 1 tog sleeping bag though. We use the C Curl position which comes very naturally! Also don't have hubby in bed, he's in the spare room getting some shut eye to keep up with the terrible toddler! Lullaby Trust may have guidance, but it's probably just "don't do it"

@newbyxx we're having our worst night yet, he just won't be put down and it's basically impossible to stay awake with him! I've dozed with him on my chest a few times which like you said is really nerve wracking but I felt safer propped up with him on my chest than I did when I tried consleeping as felt like my boob was going to suffocate him and couldn't sleep for fear of rolling into him!! I've come to dread nighttime now which doesn't help either as he can probably sense my stress 😢😢 Currently watching Netflix and eating chocolate cornflake cakes to try and cheer myself up while he feeds for the umpteenth time 😬

@BabyBird20 you've got this x
Do you have other children?

Hi everyone, first time posting, FTM and a little late to the party! Baby is going to be three weeks this weekend.
We’ve been discharged from the community midwife and had a health visitor over WhatsApp and feeling a little disconnected from her check ins. Baby was weighed at birth, 5 days and 12 days - does anyone have ideas/suggestions about how to get baby weighed when clinics aren’t running?

@BabyBird20 we had similar last night - DH woke up to find me crying at dawn

I feel you @BabyBird20 and @Pegase
Now that she’s on formula Grace is so much more settled in the daytime, but for some reason between around 8pm and 2/3am she will not settle at all. Last night she had 70mls of formula at 9pm and then wouldn’t settle for ages, around about 11pm she was mouthing/rooting like she was hungry, so we gave her some more milk, she took about 10mls or so and then stopped and while I was burning her she vomited up what felt like both of her feeds. She was then upset for ages (probably hungry) but we didn’t want to feed her again too soon as she had just been sick a lot. She then had 40ml of formula at 12pm as she was getting so upset. She then would only settle on me and as soon as i put her down she would wake up. Eventually at 1.30am she had 70mls formula and settled in her cot into her cot for a couple of hours.

Every night since being home from hospital (after being readmitted on day 5) she’s been like this until 2/3am but it’s only been the last 2 nights she’s been sick.

Anyone got any clue as to why she would be so unsettled during this timeframe, but the rest of the time she’s ok?

Burping!!! Not burning!! Oof what a horrible typo 😔😔😔

@Gigitree could be Colic? My HV advised me to try Colief yesterday as Freddie has been so unsettled in the nights. He just wants to feed and comfort all the time. So I got some yesterday and we've slept! 8.30-7.15 with 4 feeds. But he was peaceful during his feeds and only had a screaming fit once at about 3am. It's faffy to administer when breastfeeding but I've come up with a system but if you're bottle feeding its be much easier. I'm going to ask my GP to prescribe it as it's really expensive. HV said they will do that. I'm so happy I've slept. Must've got between 6-7 hours in total!

Wow that sounds incredible @APD1981
The midwife who we saw yesterday recommended infacol (is that the same as colief?) so we tried that last night for a couple of feeds, but I think one dose was before the feed that she threw up, so no idea if she actually ingested it or not.

Is it normal for colic to be worse at night then? ♥️

No infacol is different. Colief breaks down the lactose in milk which, when so young, can be hard for some babies to digest. It needs to be added to warm milk, not put straight in the mouth. My HV said we could try infacol but Colief is better. And I believe colic/wind can be worse at night, yes, although happy to be corrected on this. So far so good for us though. I have a happy baby again!x