Breastfeeding Support Thread

[Tina & Gabs]

Hi Skatty.

Poor Leorah; I hope everything goes ok at the doctors. Hope you are feeling better too and that you are keeping warm in the cold weather.
It felt really cold here yesterday, the wind was really icy, not like your temperature though.

Gabriella's colic is so much better, thank goodness.
I have introduced a dummy though and I am really upset that I have had to (they are seen in such a negative light) Gabriella seemed to be constantly at the breast and would not settle for naps or want to be held all the time, it became so tiring and my nipples became so sore, so after looking through my books I read that dummies are a good idea for the first 3 months (as long as they are not misused) as babies have a strong need to suckle. So I introduced it when Gabriella is tired and nothing seems to settle her and so far so good. She suckles on the dummy for about 10 minutes and then spits it out and is fast asleep; she doesn't wake up and cry for it (which shows me she is just using it for that sucking purpose and is not reliant upon it) I feel she is in more of a routine with the feeding now and not constantly attached to me.

What are your views on dummies?

Sorry for the long post.

Hope you are all well today

 

[Lucy]

Brrrr Skatty I feel cold just reading about the snow! We get a lot here in the winter too so it's only a matter of time until I'll be hibernating in my lounge!

Tina - aww honey, don't worry about dummies being seen in negative light etc. I felt the same, I used to take Olivia's dummy out of her mouth if we were going to the clinic or someone saw us in the street and she was in her pram with it! (Like Gabriella, Olivia only had it to go to sleep).

I was going to take the dummy away at 4 months but for one reason or another I didn't get round to doing it until about 8 wks ago. Olivia doesn't miss it at all (but I think it had got to the stage where she would wake up for it which is when I knew the time was right to get rid).

Hope you're all having a good week

Lucy

 

[skatty]

hi tina! as we speak i am holding leorah and she is sucking on her dummy, hence no capitals! she too is a sucky baby and would be constantly at the breast otherwise. i only use it when she needs to wind down, which is virtually after every poo! i think dummies are ok as long as thet atre no put back after they have spat the out. i am reaaly glad you see to have found a solution for gabriella.

i saw the doc who also said leorah's digestive system is probably immature but after no sleep last night i have insisted its checked out so we will be gettting an appointment with a specialist. basically she feeds then half an hour later tries to poo and has so much pain she claws her face and screams. after she's managed to poo she has worked herself up into such a tizzy i have to rock her in the darkness wth a dummy and when she is finally falling asleep she wakes for feeding again and the whole circle starts again! the problem is getting worst not better! i feel so down today, having no sleep at all really takes its toll, some nights are fine but the last few have been hell.

i didn't realise you were in scotland lucy, you must know exactly how it is to have such ciold weather! it hasn't stopped snowing again today.

 

[Tina & Gabs]

Aww Skatty it sounds awful hun, I can imagine it is taking it's toll on you.
I hope you get your appointment soon and get some answers

I had agreat day with Gabriella, she fed practically every 3 hours and was happy to just sit in her chair or lay on her rug in between. The dummy is definitely helping. I don't agree with shoving a dummy back in when it has been spat out either.

Thanks for your views and support Lucy & Skatty.

Take care

 

[skatty]

Tina, sound like gabriella is really content now Hopefully Leorah will follow her lead!

Well last night Leorah slept for over 4½ hours without waking I think she was vertired from the past few days but she has also taken to feeding every 2 hours in the evening which means she'sobviously fuller for longer. She has still semed ill today though, sleepy, ratty, sneezy (sounds like one of the dwarfs!) and also being sick quite a lot. I am just praying for a good night tonight

 

[Tina & Gabs]

Excellent, glad you had a good night and i hope you have a gd night tonight

I hope Leorah feels better.

Gabriella has been a bit whingey today and hard to settle; I think she has a bit of a cold as she woke up with a blocked nose and has been stuffy all day. The feeding has also been a bit erratic today but she is 6 weeks on Monday so may be down to a growth spurt.

I am on a hen night tomorrow night, so I will be leaving her for the first time I am looking forward to a night out on my own , being just me but I am so nervous about leaving her. I know she will be fine with my DH but it's the feeding I am worried about. I worry that I haven't expressed enough for her or that she won't take to the bottle.
Fingers crossed all will be ok.
I better get on and do some more expressing now.

Have a good weekend everyone and heres to lots of sleep

 

[Jadie]

Tina, I would try her with a bottle before you go. Get some one eles to give it too her. So she wont smell you and your milk. I would hate for you to go and and get called back as the little one wont have the bottle.

jade

 

[Tina & Gabs]

Tina, I would try her with a bottle before you go. Get some one eles to give it too her. So she wont smell you and your milk. I would hate for you to go and and get called back as the little one wont have the bottle.

jade

DH is going to giver her a bottle tonight, fingers crossed she is ok with it.

Thanks Jadie

 

[Daggers]

Evening ladies, just catching up on the last few posts as I haven't been online much recently - been a bit lazy and tired!!! Skatty so sorry to hear Leorah is still having problems I do hope that it is down to her 'immature digestive system' rather than something more cronic! I know what you mean about the sleepless night - not that I've had any recently, more so in the beginning it's horrible, you feel so miserable and on edge. A couple of times I've burst out in tears just cause I was so knackered that someone would just have say boo and I'd turn on the water works - just as well you've told all family & friends to postpone their visits.
Tina, how was your hen do? Did all go okay with the bottle feeding? I must say I think introducing the bottle at two wks was probably one of the best things I've done as Otis drinks from anything now (well between baby bottles and boob!!).
Also reading your previous posts re dummies, personaly I was so against them however my husband has a different view and as he is Otis's dad I guess I also had to respect his opinion especially when Otis would be screaming his head off!!! So now my new theory is 'plug it in'!!!
Otherwise Otis seems to be doing okay, had his 6wk check on Thursday (eventhough he is now 7wks!!) and he is fine, I'm not so concerned about BFing as it seems to be going fine and I have now changed my routine so I express milk twice a day once at around 7pm after Otis has been put down for the evening and then again at around 11:30pm.
Skatty hope the weather is warming up a bit for you! Got some folk here outside shooting of some fireworks I'm keeping my fingers crossed they won't wake up Otis cause they're soooo bloody noisey!!!!

 

[Daggers]

ohh yes Skatty re excerising I did ask the doctor this week and she said it was fine to start my running again just as long as I make sure to drink extra fluids ensure I replace what I've lost during the run. Problem is when can I go running? I can't wait to go out - besides my jelly belly is starting to get on my nerves!!!! I'm gonna have to see how he gets on with his afternoon naps and maybe I can nip out then - obviously my OH will be at home to look after him !
In the mean time I might see if I can find my yoga and other excerise vids (still packed in boxes in the garage , not sure if I can be arsed to go through the gsillion boxes to find them!).

 

[Jadie]

weaning problems and breast feeding...

i cant get oliver to eat much solids. i went to hv last week and she said to leave him longer after having milk before feeding him solids. it worked for a week but now he wont eat again! is it harder to wean hin because he likes his mummy milk to much. or is it just hard to wean babies. he is nearly 8 months now. i thought he would be eating loads by now.

sorry for the moan, just thrown yet more uneaten food away.

jade

 

[skatty]

Hi Ladies, I just thought I'd say hi but am having a terrible time with Leorah's bowel problem and have been in the hospital again and they are hopeless, full, long boring rant in Ask a Mum section. Seeing a specialist tomorrow with any luck. Anyway I hope all the babies are doing fine and letting their mummy's get some rest! The only good thing to come out the last few days is I'm getting quite good at breastfeeding discreetly in front of other people.

Jadie my friend had a similar problem with her daughter and weaning. She took her to the docs and he said its fine but I think its because she was on formula. He said there are enough nutrients in formula to make up most of her diet until a year. Not sure about breastmilk though because it lacks iron doesn't it??

Daggers I can't wait to get back into running too but by the time I'll be able to it will probably be really bad weatehr here, snow and ice. I think I'll be doing more walking than running at fiirst anyway I spoke to my doc (I do have bloody thrush!!Its painful!!) and she said I can strat pilates at 6 weeks but thinks I should put of running for a few more months to give the ligaments that have been cut time to strengthen. I hate my jelly belly! I was so happy that the weight is coming off well without having to do anything but I am so out of shape and wobbley and its depressing!

 

[Jadie]

I hope your little one gets sorted soon. You are doing well feeding her with all the extra stress your under! I am not sure about the Iron in breast milk. they say there in not enough iron in the milk, I learned the other day breastmilk was tested for iron levels but they only tested the fore milk so the iron could be in the hind milk. In formula too much iron is added to the milk so it just sits in the babys tummy!

jade

 

[Tina & Gabs]

Hello Ladies

Hope you are all doing well.

Skatty I hope all goes ok tomorrow with the specialist hun, poor little Leorah. Keep us updated on her progress. Hope you are keeping strong too.

Daggers, glad that the breast feeding is going well and that everything went well at your 6 week check.

I had my 6 week check yesterday; I was in and out in 2 minutes, had blood pressure checked and asked a few questions and that was about it. Gabriella has an 8 week check and not a 6 week check.

The hen night went really well. Gabriella took to the bottle and enjoyed having a night with her daddy. It was so lovely getting back to her.

Take care all

 

[skatty]

Glad you had fun at your hen night Tina. Its great that Gabriella took to the bottle. Leorah takes a bottle from my DH but when I give it to her she spits it out and goes for the boob, its actually really funny

I a so tired as I haven't been sleepimng but have a feeling I'm going to have a rough night because I'm so anxious about tomorrow. I'll let you know how it went

 

[Tina & Gabs]

Easy for me to say Skatty but try and get some rest hun.
I'll be thinking of you tomorrow.

How funny that Leorah spits it out when you give it to her

I just noticed from your ticker that she is a month old already; where does the time go???

Take care

 

[Lucy]

Hi everyone

Really nice reading how you're all getting on, you're all doing brilliantly.

Jadie - Olivia still doesn't eat a huge amount of solids. She prefers finger foods to being spoonfed so I whip in the spoon to her mouth when she has these. Milk is the most important part of their diet until they are a year old, if your boy is putting on weight (even if it's slow weight gain) and is reaching his milestones and is alert then he's getting everything he needs. The importance of having foods is to develop the muscles in their mouth that they need for speech development.

Although breastmilk doesn't have as much iron as formula, the baby is able to absorb more iron from breastmilk than formula. That's why often babies on formula are consitpated on the follow on milk as the extra iron cannot be digested easily.

Lucy

 

[Daggers]

Evening all! Skatty I'm so sorry I didn't realise how bad things were for Leorah - I read your post on Ask A Mum. I really hope things start getting better for you soon . I'll keep my fingers crossed for you tomorrow in hopes of some kind of resolution, I wish I could suggest something but I have no experince with what Leorah is going through. In terms of getting some rest can't you get your OH or someone else to help out with some of the feeds so that you can catch up on your sleep - if not even for just the one day so you can start feeling a little sane again ?
Tina, glad all went well re the bottle feeding, yes the 6wks check for mothers isn't much of a much is it! Otis has his first injections next week Thursday, my mom is coming over that day from Holland for the weekend and I'm worried that Otis might be cranky from the injections! Hope it doesn't affect him to much.
Lucy I know it's been said already but thanks for all your advise, it sure is handy having someone who knows what their talking about!

 

[xSuzx]

Hi girls sorry I've not been on the forum much, and am trying to catch up with this thread.

Hope you are all doing well and that all you problems have inmproved.

xSuzx

 

[skatty]

Evening all!!

Well I posted in ask a mum about Leorah and am so happy she will be ok! I am FURIOUS with the nurses at the hospital though! I can't believe I have spent three days and 3 nights in all being supposedly observed when I could have just seen this consultant for 5 minutes!

After seeing the consultant I went and celebrated by buying a pair of jeans! They are a size bigger than I usually wear but my old jeans fit now but are tighter than before and I just can't bring myself to wear them like that. It is psycologically really nice to stop waering my maternity jeans though. Now I know Leorah is going to be ok I am going to start thinking about eating a healthy diet again and I can start doing some gentle pilates next week. I have given myself the aim of toning up a bit before Xmas.

Have any of you ladies that have had thrush had a blister on your nipple? I keep getting a white patch that looks like a blister and is painful and after feeding it goes pink again. Could this be trapped milk? The shooting pains are not as bad anymore though so hopefully the cream is working.

I do have to say I am so glad I persevered with the BF, Leorah now only takes 10 mins a feed and I am getting used to doing it in front of other people. Also she want feeding less frequently now and sometimes goes 4-5 hours at night. Is anyone else going to try and BF exclusively for 6 months? I'd like to as it gives your LO's digestive system time to mature and prevents food intolerences.

Fingers crossed for a good night for all