Due February 2024 Thread 7!!🤰🩷💙

[AllAboardTootToot]

Cannot believe we are on the 7th iteration and the babies are starting to arrive 😭❤️

@RachLeeds I get lots of abdominal cramps still! They hurt more than period pain. Also some random side back pain that's stabby ? Around the kidney area.

My baby is also one week old today ❤️

@undercoverhero74 ive been drinking and taking the capsules for weeks. I’m 40+4 now so seems a bunch of bs lol 😩

@Hawk901 aww man! I have bought some from Amazon so will give it a try. Hopefully baby Hawk will make their appearance soon, tea or no tea 😂😂
I shall let you know if it works for me

@undercoverhero74 apparently they really help with post bleeding and helping the uterus so defo worth taking. People use them to treat endometriosis x

Yep I’ve been on the raspberry leaf tea since 32 weeks I think 🤔 don’t think it’s done much but I got one with hibiscus in it aswell and I add a bit of honey to ease my throat (persistent cough since new year!! 🙄) so I’m quite enjoying it 👌🏼

got middle back ache and twinges and tightness around the sides and front of my rib cage…. definitely some different feels but I reckon it’s wishful thinking on my part 🤣🤣

Hi ladies 👋 haven't been on here since maybe Thursday I believe but what a crazy weekend it's been.. well just an update for you all, thursday went to midwifes for my 3rd s&s when I got told still was only 2cm dilated, cervix soft & stretchy so wasn't any changes since my last one, well I thought f*ck this may aswell try it (had been awhile aswell for both me & my partner) but early hours of Friday morning I woke up just before 4am was in abit of a frisky mood so we had sex!.. well ladies you can imagine what happened next.. At precisely 6:40am contractions started 🤣 well ended up going to hospital for 8:30am, got examined and was 7cm dilated 😁 to cut a long funny story short though, our girl, Nigella-Rose was born into this world at 2:07pm in the afternoon weighing 7pounds&12ounces on Friday the 16th February 🩷 4days past her due date! All is well with both me & baby (been home since yesterday teatime) & today just been sorting things out ready for 3 of the boys to go back to school tomorrow 👍 so I am now an officially mum to 5 now! 💙💙💙💙🩷

Congratulations to the rest of you who have had your babies aswell 🥰
& goodluck to those who are still awaiting for their babies to enter this world i reallt do hope all goes well for the rest of you 😊
honestly ladies for those that are getting fed up, take a leaf out of my book & after your stretch & sweeps (if their not doing much) just grab a hold of your fellas & get down to it.. because in my case, having sex does work! 👉👌💦🤰- 👶👍😂 💕

@Ebonythoughts I had a csection on Friday and had the exact same yesterday evening for our 2nd night. Baby would not settle unless lying on my breast, and she was screaming and cluster feeding from around 10pm until 6am. I didn’t get a wink of sleep I felt delirious! I eventually agreed to top her up with formula which seemed to fill her tummy properly and soothe her so we could get a few hours sleep. Midwives said its super common for the second night, I had no idea! I’ve continued with BF but
my nipples are in bits and hoping milk comes in but going to use formula as and when if need a break. Hope you have a more restful night tonight 💜

@MummyTo4BoysXXXX Congratulations on your new arrival, she's beautiful 💕

@RachLeeds - yeah I’ve been getting the same pains. Often when breastfeeding too.

@CalFairy - /hugs - the first few days waiting for the milk to come in are hard at least they were for me. I had to pump to encourage mine to start producing. I hope your nipples heal up soon and baby has a good latch so they hurt less.

I was discharged today and had to add some formula yesterday and today because my nipples were in bits too. I don’t think I had enough colostrum and my milk hasn’t come in yet. She would latch perfectly and feed for 10-15 mins in the first couple of days and then because she wanted to contact sleep she would keep my breath in her mouth and use my nipple as a dummy. Today the pain was just too much so I put on nipple cream and relied more on formula because she was still hungry after an hour on the breast so I didn’t feel like much was coming out. I really want to exclusively breastfeed but until my milk comes in I’m using formula so she doesn’t get too hungry.

Post section recovery is also really hard, getting in a out of bed to pick her up is so painful and she’s a big baby so even holding her and having some of her weight on my belly is quite painful. Midwife is coming for the first home visit in the morning so I’ll see what advice she offers.

Congratulations @MummyTo4BoysXXXX she’s
lovely!
our baby boy arrived last night after a very short and magical labour, he was a surprise and everyone apart from me was convinced he was a girl. He’s feeding so well and it’s all been so much easier this time around! Good luck to any mamas still waiting xxx

Baby Love is here born 4pm yesterday 💖💖💖 it’s a long story I’ll tell one day, I went from 4cm to 10cm in under an hour 😂😅💖

Congratulations to all mamas 💙💖💙💖

@mummylove24 that's great news! Congratulations! You progressed super quick!

@MummyTo4BoysXXXX a huge congratulations too! Baby is beautiful

Just seen your baby is here too @Thewildthingsarewithme! What wonderful news! Congratulations! Sooo many babies 🥰🥰🥰🥰

Congrats @MummyTo4BoysXXXX 🩷
You were right about our babies being the same weight 😄xx

Congratulations to @MummyTo4BoysXXXX! She’s beautiful and all that hair - gorgeous 🥰

@novamama mine is like strong periods cramps, and the belly has gone down a lot so you’ve reassured me it’s all normal.

@Hawk901 - I kept taking the raspberry leaf tea tablets and really think it did help with the bleeding postpartum as it’s nearly stopped now. I think I’m going to take them when I have my first period too because my periods are usually really heavy/anaemic inducing, so will be interesting to see if they lesson the blood loss.

Had our day 10 review today and 70g/2oz over birth weight 🙌🏻 so happy as been questioning myself so much and I've even been weighing nappies 🙈 my little boy only feeds 6 times in 24h so was worried, but been signed off to follow his lead as I had tried waking early to feed and it just didn't work.

To those breastfeeding and struggling please get checked for tongue tie as getting his snipped on day 3 was such a game changer for us. Managed to get through engorgement with minimal extra nipple damage with just 2 short pump sessions to help ease things.
I also made loads of lactation energy bites and froze them, and I eat them to get through the night feeds.

Still need to work on latch, which I hope will help with his windiness. It sounds like a farmyard when he's sleeping, so many grunts, sighs, straining noises, chirps, etc. Hopefully will get used to it as he's a good sleeper but I can't sleep much through the noises. My first had newborn grunting syndrome as well so obvs how I make them 😴

Congrats on the new arrivals! Crazy that already 2/3 way through February.

Has anyone switched to formula only feeding? I was breastfeeding but because of weight drop post section and slow weight gain since the big drop I’ve been asked to do top up formula feeds. He’s 12 days old today but still 8% under birth weight. It’s really hard to know if my breast milk has the right calories, and quantity wise whether he’s getting what he needs. I’m breast feeding,
expressing and formula feeding. I’m thinking of just swapping to formula only so I know for sure what he’s getting. And I’m not pumping enough because of sleep and anxiety issues so thinking I just let it dry up 😢

@redxlondon Triple feeding (breastfeeding, formula top up and expressing) is the absolute worst.
I gave up after 11 days with my first and that was after an uncomplicated vaginal delivery. I can't even imagine triple feeding after a C section, especially a complicated one, so you are doing so well to be continuing at this point.

If you're eating and drinking well I wouldn't worry about your milk though, therein lies the madness of overthinking. I did so much googling when I should have been sleeping with my first.

Are you getting support from your local infant feeding team? And do you have support at home so you can facilitate building your supply and weaning off top ups? This would factor in to my decision.

I would say don't make yourself ill trying to breastfeed, if it's best for you mentally and physically to switch then I would. I did with my first and looking back it never would have worked and I'm glad I didn't pursue it to my own detriment. I felt like I couldn't enjoy or relax spending time with my first baby as it was always in the back of my mind when I next needed to pump. She had a missed tongue tie too - I know I bang on about them but they make such a difference to breastfeeding ime so if continuing is something important to you then consider looking into it?

So ladies I had a sweep today followed by a wander round Matalan and then Asda. Will the supermarket magic work for me? 😂
I've had back ache and some cramps low down this evening with some looser bowel movements (sorry tmi) 🙈
Midwife said I was 1cm dilated and my cervix is soft and favourable but was still quite far back. She could feel babies head and said my waters are bulging too 🤞🏼

@redxlondon Congratulations darling.
I'm nearly at three weeks and I have a similar story to you re: feeding.
We were advised at day 4 to start using formula for top ups + expressing until baby girl reached her birth weight. Reached this by day 14 but my milk supply still hasn't come through. I've continued giving expressed (if available) and formula after both breasts at each feed until she's satisfied.

I've been told to pump 10-12 times a day (an hour after each feed) to get my supply up but this just doesn't seem feasible!! She wakes every 2.5h, it takes around an hour-hour and half do a feed, burp and settle her . For me to then pump would mean I get about an hour or less in between each feeding session - this is much harder than it sounds, especially at night! I just found it impossible and can only manage to pump 5-6 times per day whilst maintaining some sort of sanity.

Absolutely shattered all the time from the constant anxiety and worry about trying to move to EBF and it seems to be getting further away. Not sure what I want to do moving forwards... I like the fact she's still getting some breast milk but I can't see this as a long term solution 😥

On top of this; I introduced nipple shields at around day 7 because she just couldn't latch properly (hosp docs said she doesn't have tongue tie). Now she's super used to the shields / bottle teats and won't latch onto the breast whatsoever!!
I'm sorry you're struggling too - it's easy to say you should do whatever feels right for you because I know it isn't that easy to give up on BF! Hope you manage to find your path soon 💕

@anony1111 I have everything crossed for you! Unfortunately the supermarket magic did not happen for me despite wandering around at least 3 today! That said I too have had looser bowel movements and have felt like I have needed to use the loo all day! I have also had a dull period pain like ache the past couple of days but it hasn't led to anything at all. I'm just second guessing every slight movement or twinge right now.
I have just collected the last few syringes of colostrum and it's triggered some Brixton hicks so maybe give that a go? You never know it might be the final push you need.
I have resigned myself to the fact the baby is far too comfy and is going to make me wait! I just hope she arrives by the end of the month.

@undercoverhero74 thank you, I'm sure it won't work for me either but we can hope! That's the thing isn't it, every slight little twinge or sign makes you hopeful that labour is on the way! That's my plan, gonna get a nice bath and then try to collect some colostrum. Although I must say I have been struggling to get a decent amount out.
I'm hopeful for the both of us it won't be too much longer 🙏🏼💕

@anony1111 and @undercoverhero74 i feel your pain!! I’ve been nesting like crazy today and kept so busy doing things in the hope it would kick it off but nothing yet 😐 my bump literally hurts and the fanny daggers are off the scale but nothing more than tightenings!
Sweep tomorrow 😵‍💫 I’m hoping things are further on than my last unsuccessful one!
What are your actual due dates?
mine is Thursday and im booked for induction (IVF and geriatric mum 🙄) so really desperate for things to kick off naturally before that! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

@Kelb79 I'm not due until Monday. I was initially offered an induction at 37 weeks due to restricted growth but then baby had a massive growth spurt and caught up and I have not been offered so much as a sweep since! I have my next midwife app at 40+1 so if no sign I may enquire about a sweep. I had three in my first pregnancy and it seemed to do the trick 😂😂
At least you know you only have a few more days to wait! Hopefully baby will show their face over the next couple of days to avoid any intervention. I have everything crossed for you.