May 2009 - This too shall pass.. from leg warmers to pennies

[Momino]

this too shall pass!

jennster- yes i flatten the nipple and press down quite hard to make sure they are as airtight as possible. Sometimes they work fine, sometimes not, which is annoying as not sure why.

pula do they still have plenty of stick? mine don't work so well when they need refreshing..

Yes - gin, angustura bitters , tonic and lemonade - yummy! A friend introduced me to it at a recent wedding - he had had something similar when in Zimbabwe or somewhere similar and it was called a rock shandy...think there was a dash of cider or something else in it then though? It is a refreshing long drink - tho slightly (!!)alcoholic...

Forgot to say - DS2 is in 3-6 month clothes and has been for a few weeks now - he will have outgrown some of those soon too! Waiting for new car seat to be delivered today.....he's outgrown the M&P infant carrier!

Oh - have accepted FB invite Fi - so hope to see you all on FB soon!

Speak later...

x

Momino thanks for the new thread. Missed out on cocktails last night but perhaps a bucks fizz for breakfast?

Fi glad the penny has dropped so to speak. Are you going to save it for DS?

Ses good news on the weight gain!

euromum hope T is better this morning.

I have a dilemma. Am going to be a bridesmaid at step-sis's wedding next week, so thought I had better get round to expressing some milk in case H gets hungry during having hair done/ceremony etc (also fancy a couple of glasses of champagne ) BUT I tried yesterday and the day before and couldn't get any more than a few ml. In the past I've got 4oz out of one side in 20 min with my hand pump. I'm also quite busy over the next few days so will have limited time to keep trying.

However I do have a few cartons of formula I had DH buy while in a hormonal panic in hospital. I'm going to keep trying to express, but if it's not happening, I just wondered if there are any benefits to excl bf-ing that it's worth trying to preserve? It's only one day, though I guess I'll need to try him with it first to check his reaction - do some bf babies not take to formula?

Oh and I meant to ask if anyone has any tips for increasing the yield when expressing? I tried once in the morning and once in the evening but no joy.

Morning Spangle - sorry no advice here as have Formula fed both DSs. Hope someone else will be of more help!

x

spangle i'm not having much luck with expressing decent amounts either so not sure what to suggest there. but re formula and bm g didn't mind either but if you replace one of your bf with an all formula feed i was told it would affect my milk supply. so if doing mixed feeding they said to bf first then top up.. so not sure how replacing a couple of feeds might affect you?

Spangle I'm having trouble xpressing too. I popped into bf group on Tuesday and the counsellor suggested trying to express while feeding. Haven't tried it yet tho as not quite worked out how to do it with a hand pump!

brownieb just sent fb invite :-)

just having my 1st cuppa.. been busy this am.. fed g twice & ds, changed bottoms, i'm washed and dressed, washing sorted and first load in machine, lounge hoovered & tidied , ds still in pj's and g having a snooze.. so far so good and sainsburys should be delivering by 10..

Spangle- i would say morning and evening were good times to express, but also worth trying whilst feeding off the other boob. Do you know if you get a letdown when you express- when the milk suddenly comes out in jets rather than dribbles? I find if i don't get a letdown i only get a few ml too - tips for getting a letdown are to either think about H or do something very removed from thinking about him (e.g. watch TV)! I find the latter works for me.

I would also advise you to take your pump to the wedding, as you may find if you skip a feed or 2 you will get very full so might need to expresss some off.

And my DS2 has had the odd carton of formula and don't see a problem doing it for emergencies and i don't think it should affect supply if it's only occassional.

Fi- my lilypadz are only about a week old and were bought on ebay as "new" although am starting to wonder if they were . But like i said, they do work well sometimes so it is probably only when i'm very leaky that they can't cope. I know i can leak up to 90ml a time (as i collect milk in shells) then i guess if the pressure isn't there, then they soon fill up and burst the banks!

DH was away at first light this morning so I'm on my own for next 6 days .
He is starting up a side business and we have been doing some advertising and today we got our first call so thats good news. Hopefully more will come along.
I think we are going to have a picnic at the park today with friends so hope the weather holds for us.

sainsburys just delivered :-) now lots of yummy food..

ah pula could be the lilypadz are not so new.. mine came in a plastic lidded box inside a sealed cardboard outer display one. good advice with expressing which i'll try.. i've not managed a let down while expressing just when bf so that may make a huge difference

pula, you sound like a BF expert , some good advice. spangle, I can't add but will say personally I get more in the morning but do have a problem expressing a good amount. I'm going to try the advice of expressing whilst feeding as I get a strong letdown.

girls are at nursery, Harper is having a short nap and, after a beautiful early morning, it's just clouded up and started to rain . i'm sick of this summer weather. i knew the met office wasn't right when they told us in the spring that we'd have a hot scortching summer. never mind.

going shopping for bday gift for 2year old friend. think I'll also pick up a copy of Dr Seuss' Cat in the Hat as inspired by llare on FB.

hope everyone is well today.

Spangle I meant to say, one or 2 FF will not hurt your supply but you will probably get uncomfortable and want to express at the wedding.
I went to a friends 30th when DD was 5 months and had been exclusively BF and I left her with expressed milk but my friend gave her one feed of EBM and another of formula even though I had left her with 3 EBM feeds . I realised that it really doesn't matter and if I have to leave DS before I stop feeding him I have decided that I'm not going to bother expressing before hand and will give him FF. Make sure you wear heavy duty breast pads as you will get a big let down if you are due a feed and you miss him and think about him. I did that and had a major flood .

spangle the most overlooked disadvantage of giving formula to a bf baby is that if you miss feeds, then you get full and uncomfortable (but perhaps get a fabulous cleavage) and will disrupt your milk supply if you're not expressing. Formula milk is much harder to digest than bm and so that feed then might delay when you would expect to give the next bf and compound the discomfort. Having said that if it's just one feed then it's unlikely to make much of a difference to your supply. The other disadvantage could be lo isn't willing to accept it.

Hmm...might join SPANGLE with that breakfast bucks fizz. Can't help re expressing dilemma though.

MOMINO it's just absolutely chucked it down here. Must have arrived from your neck of the woods! My feet are freezing. Oh, and ta for the new thread.

FEBES hope the next 6 days () go well.

FI are you going to save the coin for when your ds is older, and produce it on his 18th birthday?

LLARE urgh to the sausages. I once got the worst food poisoning ever thanks to a chip shop sausage.

BROWNIE a belated welcome from me. I am a lazy infrequent poster....

Well, someone came at the weekend and swapped my child. I now have a non colicky, happy, sleeping child . Someone flicked that 3-month switch. He's still a little windy but since Monday has settled into three sleeps a day (long one late morning); bed asleep by 6pm, dreamfeed at 10.30pm, then awake c 6am . Fingers crossed this continues.

Don't know what to do today. FI I should be following your lead. The house needs hoovering but before I do that I need to check it as it seems clogged up, but can't quite muster up the energy . Just managed one load of washing and clearing up the breakfast pots, then writing my 'to do' list for August. Better go motivate myself - please feel free to kick me off here....

spangle Sorry I wrote all that without posting and then walked away and so all the other advice came in the mean time sorry! Have you tried hand expressing though? I used an electric pump at work, and when the pump had finished doing it's business and nothing more came out, I could always get at least another ounce by hand. It's far more efficient and more like a baby feeding.

This gives a good description of where to get your fingers and what you should be feeling when hand expressing

The Marmet technique is a good explanation. There is a video of it on Ask.com but it doesn't actually show the milk shooting across the room like it does if you've got it right!

Morning!

Wedding planning went well last night. My friend is having "crushed raspberry" and silver as a colour scheme. We made decorations for the church and reception venue.

I have suddenly realised though that I have a wedding to go to and need to find something to wear! Does anyone have any suggestions of a nice BFing dress? I hope to still be exclusively BFing and should be able to find a quiet corner but at the same time would like "easy access" to make it as "uneventful" and straightforward as poss. Oh, would be good to look a little stylish too

Expressing - I definitely find I get more in the mornings but even then it's never more than 100ml.

Let down - I still don't reaaly ever feel this but guess it's not a pronlem all the while DS is gaining 1lb a fortnight?