Due in June - Thread 13

[CurryandSnuggle]

Will add tags separately as currently feeding bubba xx

@Letsbekindplease congratulations! Love your post, you've articulated exactly how I felt 💕

@destiEos so cute 🥰 and yes to Medela here

@Octoblockisadick that picture is just so beautiful 😍

Good luck today @InvisibleDragon

@Starbeach - oh yes! What @EarlGreywithLemon said. Don't forget sports call water bottles - sitting up after a c-section is not fun. Still using them in bed now 😉

@Octoblockisadick ohmygod yours looks like ours too! I think I might have problems picking him out of a line up 😂 They are all so cute 💕

@InvisibleDragon good luck for today! Hope it all goes smoothly and you're holding your little one soon 🙏🏻

Quick note on poos - little one has gone from multiple daily to a poo every 2-3 days: a poo that requires 2 people, a couple of nappies, a handful of cotton wool balls and some patience to complete, I might add! Perfectly yellow and thick paste-like (sorry for tmi), so not thinking he's constipated. I'm thinking is because of the formula to breast milk ratio, more of the former than the latter, but as we're off to the hospital for tongue tie snip now, hoping that changes very soon.

Also they're going to cut my baby's tongue, and I am terrified they'll hurt him 🥺😭 Hoping to be back shortly telling you all it was fine, it didn't hurt him a bit and that my nipples are forever grateful 🤞🏻

Oops, nearly forgot - thanks for pump recommendations @MrsTwentyNine, @Octoblockisadick and @fpeg (I think Medela is also closed system btw, and John Lewis have it in stock 😉) also @Octoblockisadick I offer each boob once, then formula, but that's because it's sore. I'm hoping to"re-offer" a couple of times after the op..

Good luck with the tongue tie snipping @destiEos hope it all goes smoothly and means breast feeding becomes comfortable x

On the poo front, my little one also only poos once a day to every other day (didn't have one yesterday), then produces big pasty nappy as you describe. She's at the point where she's EBF (with expressed bottles once a day) so it may not change 🤷‍♀️ I'm also not worried about constipation for the reasons you describe and belly is soft and comfortable. She is also the mother of all farters 🤣 sometimes I have to check if it was her or my OH who let rip when he's having a snuggle 😂

@Octoblockisadick I’d say the contractions started around 3am but appeared more as Braxton hicks. I didn’t think anything of it. By half 7 realised I was in labour and they were pretty painful. Can’t lie about that, but I tried to breath through them and also used a hair brush as pain relief. Gripping it through every contraction.
got to hospital 45 mins before baby arrived. I held off because I didn’t want them to check me and send me home with pain relief haha. How wrong was I! Could have gave birth in the car if I was in traffic.

I think the thing that helped me manage the contractions was speaking to the midwife who helped me breath. It really is so important. I was so tense and sore but when I met the angel midwife, she told me to take a deep breath in and out and breathed with me and it really helped before I got my hands on the gas and air (which is amazing btw didn’t want to give that up lol)

it’s amazing how the pain stops as soon as the baby is here though. Just amazing.

For anyone combi feeding I’m stick in a rut. Hospital said 20 mins of BF followed by 31ml formula. If i express use that.
baby isn’t settling and is still doing hungry queues. We can get all the way up to 80ml formula after 20 mins BF. I have managed to express 31ml but since she seems to need more of a top up then had to give formula on top!
Should I Bf longer? Just feed baby what she needs? I’m worried there’s something wrong or I’m over feeding. 😣 maybe she’s catching up on lost time since she was starved for a week and lost so much weight? We are at -8.6% birth weight now so getting there. We had a good settled night in hospital and the day after where 31ml would make her fed and sleepy, but it’s all out the window now and I’m panicky. 😭

Huge congratulations to everyone who has had their gorgeous babies! They are too cute 😍 Lovely to read everyone's feeding and pooping experiences as well so I know what is normal 😂

I'm booked in for induction on Friday due to BMI, babies size and previous losses but going in today for the balloon. I've been pretty chilled and excited up til this point but yesterday my emotions just went crazy and I haven't stopped worrying about stillbirth since. I just can't get it out of my head so I'm wishing away the next 48 hours so I can have them in my arms. Also, not so much worried about labour but I am not thrilled about delivering a 97th percentile baby in a fricking heatwave 🥵🤦‍♀️

Hi everyone, baby girl arrived at 16pm on Tuesday 14th.
My birth story has turned into quite an essay - apologies!
Had a very long latent labour Sunday morning through to Tuesday. I’m a 40 min drive from hospital and every time we drove in the contractions tailed off. Because of how tired I was after two nights without sleep they admitted me Tuesday morning and gave me a pessary to speed things up. My contractions became much more regular every 3 min pretty much straight away. I’d been 2cm fully effaced for 24hrs at this point without progress. I asked for an epidural at this point too as I was struggling, but the anaesthetist was about to go into do a c-section so agreed to wait until I’d dilated a bit more and they could break my waters and started on gas and air instead.
The midwife re-examined me after 4hrs and I was still only 2cm dilated. Another 30 minutes and I was really begging for an epidural I honestly felt like I was panicking with the pain, so midwife went to get the registrar as I think she was worried about how much pain I was in. Turns out I was actually in transition as by the time the registrar examined me I’d gone from 2cm to 8-9cm in the space of about 45 minutes. At this point (around 2pm) they broke my waters and rushed the anaesthetist in.
It took 3 attempts to site the epidural due to the pressure from the baby being so low, but it ultimately failed as I could still feel the cold spray all the way up after 40min on the pump.
The gas and air was making me woozy so I gave that up too to focus on the pushing and our little girl arrived after 1hr 48 minutes of pushing at 4pm Tuesday afternoon, need a few stitches for a small second degree tear and had a local anaesthetic for this, ibuprofen is all I’ve needed since.
In my experience, the early labour/transition phases were so much worse than the pushing phase, but our little girl was totally worth it, 7lb 8oz of pure cuteness and she has been a delight, I already can’t imagine life without her ❤️ My husband actually cried and he didn’t even cry at our wedding so she’s already his favourite!

I am finding breastfeeding quite sore though. The midwives checked my latch twice before discharge and say it’s deep, but my nipples are so sore! I think because I have quite large nipples and baby Jammy only has a little mouth she’s not taking enough breast tissue, plus she pretty much fed hourly from 10pm - 3am last night. Got a home visit today so hoping the midwife will have some answers, but have you guys got any suggestions or found anything that works? I’m wondering if nipple shields might help me?

@Jammymare congratulations on the arrival of your little one! Nipple shields were the game changer for me. My nipples cracked early on due to my not getting the latch quite right initially, damage done within 24 hours. The nipple shields made it all so much more bearable though. I can now feed her off my "naked" boob but when she gets tired or my boob is very full then she prefers having the shield there.

Congrats on all the new babies 😍😍😍

I'm still in hospital after a week because of the preeclampsia I have developed. Booked for an induction on Sunday, when I'll be 38w4d. I hope it works 🤞🤞🤞 On the bright side, both baby and I are doing good 😊

@Lostintranslatio hope you’re doing okay and not going stir crazy!! Sunday should roll around fast, just hope hospital food is good for you and you can get some sleep!!

@GrowBabyGrow Any progress? I think I've was having braxton hicks on Monday and had a little gush of clear fluid. I really thought things were kicking in to action, but nah. He's too comfortable.

I've been trying to enjoy the sun but.... how does one tan your back when so heavily pregnant? Been sitting upright on bistro chair with my legs up.

@Junebaby22 no progress here either! I got a bit excited and thought my waters had started trickling on Monday but I think it was just discharge. Rang triage and they told me to put a maternity pad in and see whether that got soaked... It didn't. Oh well. I'm not fed up... Yet. But can't imagine another 3 and a bit weeks feeling this pregnant.

I've been avoiding the sun today! Kind of dreading it if we get more of this when baby has arrived, it gets so so hot in the house. How is everyone else doing with the heat?

So much to catch up on I'm not sure I'll manage to get through it all. Congratulations to all the new mummies!x

@Prema112 I hope Jesse is doing ok? He's absolutely gorgeous. 😍😍

Grateful to all the BF mummies sharing their experiences, the ups and downs etc, it's really useful for those of us still waiting and now I have much more of an idea on what to expect.

Has anyone else developed HORRENDOUS cellulite on their thighs and ass whilst pregnant? I really hope this isn't here to stay, especially as I'm not a gym goer so if it's going it will have to be naturally.....🙄

Still not due for 10 days 😢 discharge has picked up big time. So so so much. Did this happen to you all when you go closer to the end?

@Vimto1991 Sounds similar to us, he's meant to be on 20 mins bf then 45ml formula. He was awake for about 4/5 hours crying this afternoon doing all the hunger cues and whenever I breastfed him he'd fall asleep with 5 mins. But then wake up again when we put him down. We figured he wasn't actually hungry just massively overtired as when we did finally get him down he slept for 5 hours and I've just had to wake him for a feed. So hard to know and so stressful when they just cry and cry even though you fed them, I feel your pain xx

@beansprout55 thank you! Jesse is good, he's back up to birth weight and doing lots of poos and wees so we're not worried anymore. Excited for you as your birth gets closer!

@Letsbekindplease & @Jammymare congrats!! I agree I found dilation much worse than pushing, at least with pushing you have something to do!

@destiEos good luck with op and hope it really helps with feeding! It sounds scary but it's a very common op so they must be used to doing it well so baby feels minimal pain

@RoseValleyRambles hope all has gone well for you, thinking of you!!

@Prema112 oh Gosh, it’s kinda nice to know someone’s in the same boat as us, this happened to us last night as well, so atleast there’s some solace my baby isn’t abnormal.
she woke at 11 after an hour and a half, we gave her formula then breast milk as I noticed it conked her out, we lay her in her cot and she was unsettled - turns out she had done a pee, I breastfed again as she was doing hunger queues, laid her back down, unsettled, then she did a poo, more breast feeding but by this point it was like 2am and she still hadn’t slept and I was feeling like she hadn’t got enough breast milk from me, so we laid her down and fed her more formula (I also thought maybe this had crossed into her next feed just without sleep in the middle), and she eventually settled.
we’ve tried this method this morning, I BF for 30 mins then laid down, 31ml of formula and she’s wide awake (not unsettled but not sleepy). as you said, it’s so frustrating and upsetting as I feel like she’s not getting enough food or I’m doing something wrong. Is she hungry, is she tired, is she both? Is she windy? Etc. 😭

I do love her being newborn but looking forward to stages where she can communicate a bit better.

Hi guys! We're back at the ranch and gradually recovering. BabyRambles is an absolute darling. C section (planned) at 38+3, which went well although I found it pretty terrifying until I realised I wasn't going to feel the cuts at all. Big tears when baby emerged, 3.25kg and plenty of baby chub.

We spent two nights in hospital to get as much feeding advice as possible, which paid off as - although we're largely bottle feeding for now - he's able to latch and stuck a bit, and I've got the hang of hand expressing. Hoping when my full milk comes in he'll be up for giving it a go, and for now I can get some of the colostrum goodness into him.

How are other post c section mums feeling? I still have a big bump, and feel like I've got the kitchen sink stored in there. Thankfully the pain relief is doing a good job, but it looks and feels really weird. Getting up from bed is a bit of a pain and I'm not moving very fast at all, but it does seem to be gently improving.

I also have 7 days of anti clotting injections to take, which I was not expecting. Thankfully husband is less squeamish than me, but we still had to call triage at midnight last night to work out what the heck to do.

BabyR happily snoozes in his crib, grobag is going down a storm, so we're getting some good time to properly relax when he snoozes - or do laundry!

Today we are focusing on getting a rough 3hr rhythm going, and sleeping. I think I'm running on about 8hrs sleep from the last 3 days, so definitely need topping up.

Well done to everyone soldiering on in the run up to, or aftermath of, birth. What an adventure!

Anyone struggling with wee up the back with nappies ?! Constantly changing babygrows as he soaks through :( pampers size 1 is meant to be right for his weight!

@RoseValleyRambles am 15 days post c section now and all I can say is after about 7 days I turned a corner and started to feel and then by 10 days I felt some what ok to do everything still have the odd time I’ll get up and think of god I am still tender I have only took 2 paracetamol in the last 4 days for pain and that’s because I was going for a walk so I just took them so I was loaded up abit. My stomach has gone down a lot it did immediately but at the very bottom it feels lumpy and bumpy like there’s a ball in there. Am still seeing the midwife she’s coming back out next week to check my wound as I got a little infection as a stitch was missed when they was removed but it didn’t cause me any more pain or anything just abit weepy and needed anti biotics. I thought c section was easy was out but major surgery then having a newborn is hard hard going and I have tonnes of help. Nothing on earth prepares you for having a baby does it 😂😂

@MrsTwentyNine i am finding this with pampers size 2. I’ve been in size 1’s for 2 weeks and have been fine but when they come to an end I thought go to size 2 as he is over 10lb but I feel they are really big. People do swere by Aldi nappies but I haven’t tried.

@flowerbug1994 That's super useful, thanks. Agree with the lumpy bumpy stuff! It just feels so unnatural, but consultant said as long as I'm feeling better day by day vs the alternative it is probably going in the right direction.

We're using Aldi nappies and have only had one leak where I think I did it up too loose. Going to give reusables a go when we're offering organised enough...

@RoseValleyRambles yes each day you feel better is a win isn’t it !! I didn’t realise how hard the recovery would be I had a breakdown about being so physically unable to do things on day 3 which I think come with the hormone crash and baby hadnt slept. I then had a rough 4 or 5 days looking back now that seems a million years ago and I just realise it was sleep deprivation, hormone crash and getting to know baby. I managed a solo walk yesterday so I know I am getting there xxx

@RoseValleyRambles yes each day you feel better is a win isn’t it !! I didn’t realise how hard the recovery would be I had a breakdown about being so physically unable to do things on day 3 which I think come with the hormone crash and baby hadnt slept. I then had a rough 4 or 5 days looking back now that seems a million years ago and I just realise it was sleep deprivation, hormone crash and getting to know baby. I managed a solo walk yesterday so I know I am getting there xxx

Hi all, loving the pictures of your gorgeous babies and hope those of you who have had them are doing well! I'm 40+4 today and getting a bit fed up...I had an attempted sweep on Wednesday and she said that my outer cervix was soft and down to 2cm but the inner one was still closed. I'm booked in for another attempt on Sunday and I think induction will be booked for the end of next week, but I'm really hoping that isn't necessary. I've had some mild cramps today that I hope is the start of something but that may be being overly optimistic...come on baby!