September 08 Remember what we were doing this time last year?[wink]

[Debs75goldrings]

So what were we all doing this time last year?

Xmas and Witches put away for another year... well, still have the decorations up at home, might tackle them later...

regarding waking for 10.30 feed. We normally wake M up for that feed and nappy change between 10.30-12, unless she (rarely) wakes up by herself, but during the hols I got a bit lazy and would feed her when she woke up, which was anything between 12 and 3 am. one night she went to bed at 9.30pm and slept through 8.30am , but that was an exception. If I don't wake her, she will eventually wake and it'll take her ages to go back to sleep (it's so much fun to chat to mum and dad at 3am!). In saying that, for the last few nights she's been taking about half the milk (EBM) she used to, so maybe she's getting ready to drop the feed altogether [wishful thinking emotion]

we've been talking about going back to work too... I have a quite flex job, after DS I went back 4 days a week, but 2 from home and DP was a SAHD for a while. then we shared childcare til last march when DP changed job and not sure how it'll work out this time (was working 4 days over 5 but DS was at school nursery so a lot cheaper), but now we 2 one wage would basically go towards paying for childcare. DP's thinkking of going back to old job because he could do shifts, but that'd mean no family time and lose money (plus career wise present job is far better). In any case I should be able to stretch ML til new school year (with un-paid ML and left over annual leave), and so childcare would be a bit cheaper as M would be 1... trying not to think about it for now... though we have to... ( lottery tonight...)

Alice is asleep in a ruck sack carry at the moment. so pleased with rucking her so young. though some extreme mummies ruck them from newborn. it is quite simple to do but the front wrap cross carry was good enough for me. I loved looking at their wee sleeping faces on my front hence no desire to put her on my back till now.

Thanks imoscarsmum, that's really nice of you to say - I harbour secret ambitions of book writing, so things like that are lovely to hear. I always worry I'm boring the lot of you as I'm on here so much due to T's insanely long feeds. Yet another reason to persevere with BF - can't MN while doing a bottle feed!

Woopee, T went down for his morning nap with no problems! First time for about 4 days. I sat next to him on a chair (he was in cot), holding his arms in place and ssssshing, and he moaned and groaned for a bit, grizzled for 30 seconds, stared silently at the ceiling for a while and then zonked out!

Foxy v impressed at you carrying her on your back- one of the mums at my baby group was trying to figure this out last week, and apparently it took her and her DP and a mirror to get it sorted!
I think I'm going to buy my friend's Didymos (sp?) ring sling - she said she's hardly had it any time, and I like the colour. No idea if it's a fantastic or a crap make, but since I don't want it for hours of use every day I figure I'm allowed to pick it purely on the basis that it's pretty and stripy!

a didymos ringsling is expensive to buy new. go for it.

I don't use ringslings myself but I tie a slipknot in a wrap and make a 'ring' sling that way.

I had alice like that earlier today too. will link later

Really? She's selling it to me for £20! It does look lovely. She said the wrap slings by the same company are really nice if I ever decide to buy one...

how i do it

the didysling will have a dvd with it, i believe. if not, search youtube for 'ring sling hip carry' i'd say.

yup, jump at the chance. i'd buy one myself, if i could, methinks. if it doesn't work out for you, i could help you get your money back in full.

didymos sings are called the rolls royce of slings. expensive to buy new and more so now with the devaluation of the pound vs euro.

Brilliant, thanks Foxy. If we have any more clingy sessions like the one over the past few days I can see me getting a fair bit of use out of it! That link's interesting, amazing what you can do with a length of material!

hopefully I am green with envy () at your didysling. Didymos are lovely and very expensive. I've only tried the wrap one (which I borrowed from my cousin) but I bet you the ring one is great.

Ok, I've got sore tits and feel puzzled: When I feed D he seems to never be satisfied. I give him one breast, he latches, sucks, wriggles. I reposition, check that there is milk (by pinching nipple), re-latch, he sucks some more. Half an hour later, that breast is empty (no milk when pinched), i offer the other one. He sucks and wriggles for another half hour. At one point he starts looking up at me and smiling. If then I put him on his chair, buggy or sling, he's fine, but he is equally fine eating some more. Is he getting enough? I put him at the breast whenever asked.

Also, there are currently two night feeds between 7 and 7, generally 11 and 4, which do not seem to be about to disappear. Again, could this be a sign of poor supply?

And to top it all, my expressing success is zilch at the moment. Yesterday I got 40 ml from one breast while he suckled on the other. Today I got NOTHING, when I tried to express after feeding him - perhaps he drank it all. I get slightly worried that i may not be able to produce milk at the rate required. I am also concerned that if I don't succeed expressing, I'll have to give him formula when I go back to work. I rather not.

Starlight, foxy and any other breastfeeding savvy ladies, in your informed opinion, what should I do?

Debi in response to your question, I've never woken D up for a 10:30 feed. It always seemed a shame, plus he did not seem like he would suckle while asleep. He generally wakes himself anytime between 10 and midnight.

normal normal normal pacita

pinching your boobs says nothing about your milk supply.

nothing you say points to poor supply
when you go back to work you'll be expressing full feeds.

Cheers, foxy, normal is good and definitely reassuring.

but how am I going to build up to expressing a full feed? At the moment I can't even manage to express unless he's latched and sucking on the other boob at the same time...

Copied and pasted from an entry of mine on Nove 12th on the old thread:

alright you lot who are insisting om expressing. i think it is madness. this from a woman who expressed for a year after returning to work.

to me it is another chore when you may as well have a lie down and leave your dc attached and let them cluster feed be it 5pm or 5 am. (dd2 cluster feeds from about 4/5am till about 6/7) but then she has a good spell in the bouncy chair / rug and i can get in the shower or start bkfast.

if there is a time your baby reliably sleeps, you can 'build in' a feed. say, an hour after your baby has had his last feed, and is asleep, you can express.

it takes about a week to build it up.

the first night express for 30 mins even if you only get 10mls.

the second night, the same.

by the third night you should get an appreciable amount in about 20 mins. keep expressing for another 10 mins though for the extra stimulation.

by the fifth night you should get 2 letdowns. the second one may only be say 1/2 an oz but it will look different from the first letdown. (thicker and slightly different colour, the so-called hindmilk.)

by the 7th night you will probably get as much as you will get in any given pump session but in about 10 mins or less in my experience.

also, after the flow stops, go around your breast massaging out the last of the milk from your ducts. you can collect appreciable amts like this.

don 't worry if your dc wakes up during or shortly after pumping. just feed for a bit longer. breasts are never empty. honest. they'll make milk as long as they are being stimulated.

another strategy is to express while your baby is feeding from one side and you express simultaneously from the other. it means you are building a feed for the pump on one side and keep your lo feeding for longer on the other side so the body starts to increase production on the other side.

If you wait 10 mins or so after one pump session then pump again, you can get another let down I used an Ameda Lactaline which is reasonably priced and very efficient and quiet.

I bought it from expressyourselfmums and used it the entire time I expressed for dd1 (from 4 months till 16 months old.)

pacita Actually D is doing really well. He is only waking once during YOUR night, which some mothers can only dream of at his age.

There ARE times when your supply won't equal demand but this will always resolve itself withing a couple of days, provided you don't interefere with the relationship between your baby and your boobs .

You have to be relaxed and practised to express. Anxiety can inhibit let-down. If D ever seems to go a long time without feeding, have a go at expressing ONE boob then, just to practise.

I think what foxy means is that your boobs will fill up when you are away from your baby and so you'll be able to express off loads i.e. a whole missed feed, - which will then feed the baby the next day for a whole feed iyswim.

When are you planning to return to work? If it is some time away then all kinds of things can happen and change so there is no point worrying or planning for it just yet.

Okay, - I have a couple of moans:

Moan one:

Baby Starlight hasn't even given me 2 consecutive hours sleep in the last 3 nights. I'm shattered. She's hungry. She feeds for looooong periods.

My DH giving BS TWO 8 oz feeds of ebm when I was in bed 2 nights ago shivering with some mild flu type thing, - may not have helped my supply keep up with her perhaps - who knows . Who cares even, - I just needs sleep!!! She was 16 weeks yesterday. Please god let this be over quickly!

foxy, Starlight, thanks for the wise words.

I guess I'll be back at work sometime in April for 3 days a week. We'll see how we do.

Star I'm really sorry to hear about BS mammoth hunger. Puts my concerns into perspective, given that yes, D does wake once during my night. Here's to a speedy end to the 16 weeks growth spurt. xxx

Slings:

tbh, although I love them. I find it very hard to be as physical as necessary with a insolent 2yr old that throws himself on the floor in a puddle, or can only have me put his shoes on when sitting on the floor, who won't get in his pram when approaching a busy road etc. - when wearing baby Starlight. However it is invaluable for the twice weekly short hop to the toddler group at the church or when there is another adult with me (rarely though).

But, - that wasn't my moan......

Gotta change my name to. 12th day has gone I think.

Slings:

tbh, although I love them. I find it very hard to be as physical as necessary with a insolent 2yr old that throws himself on the floor in a puddle, or can only have me put his shoes on when sitting on the floor, who won't get in his pram when approaching a busy road etc. - when wearing baby Starlight. However it is invaluable for the twice weekly short hop to the toddler group at the church or when there is another adult with me (rarely though).

But, - that wasn't my moan......

Gotta change my name to. 12th day has gone I think.

thanks for your thoughts on the night feeds, I also found that if he was left a bit later when we were away over Christmas that he was worse. Last night he slept through after that feed till 6.30 which was obviously good although I think I got less sleep in total than usual as I got 1 7hr sleep when I usually get a 4.5 hour sleep then another 3 hours.
I think I'll keep waking him just now until we see if last night was a fluke. He generally sleep from about 8pm till I wake him but last night he didnt go to sleep till 9 so that could be why.

He's just had his 3rd set of jabs- 3 of them, poor thing. Seems fine though, didn't really cry at all after them.

starlight there's a head banging thread here. There's not many posts on it at the moment but when I saw it I remembered you'd asked about it the other day so might be worth keeping an eye on it.

why can't HVs across the country give same advice?!?! feel pretty lucky, the HV who ran our post-natal group told us we will be invited to a weaning workshop, but the only thing baby needs is milk for first 6 months, nothing else because of possible link to allergies and mature gut etc, a part in some cases. maybe it's becouse she also works at the bf support group too...
LOL though at the row!!

you could always ask them advice on CC next time you see them and see what they've agreed!!

HVs are wonderful aren't they . I have avoided seeing any since 7 weeks. Might get him weighed on fri though.

Ha, turns out the lady I met up with at the cinema is an MNer! My thought was right! I wonder if we are all so easily identifiable, and what is it about a person that makes me think, 'hmm, bet she uses MN'.

Starlight poor old you with the night waking - T is goiing 2.5-3 hours between feeds in the night, which means I get one long stretch (about 4 hours) sleep while DP does bottle feed, then one or two more stretches of an hour or so. It ain't fun! Hope that both of us get out the other side of the growth spurt soon.

Pacita I did as Foxy instructed when I wanted to express, and although I didn't get loads (didn't persevere for that long either though) I did manage to increase my output to about 2.5oz in total after 4 days expressing at the same time every day.