New Moms - weekly updates July 13-20 Updates, Issues, Accomplishments

btm013

How was everyone's week? I guess we probably aren't considered "new" moms anymore huh? I should work on the title of this thread.

Ugghhh why do I torture myself with the whole pumping vs formula thing? I was only one pump away from being weaned off completely and exclusively formula feeding but my hormones (or unnecessary mommy guilt?!) reared it's ugly head. All of a sudden I started thinking "Maybe I gave up pumping too quickly? What if I can get baby to latch again (even though he hasn't since the second week of life)?" "Formula is so expensive, maybe I can up my supply? DH get me some Guinness and oatmeal!" I was weaning off b/c I never really made enough to keep up with LO's demand and we pretty much supplemented since week 2. So what did I do? I introduced two more pumps a day (now at a manageable three and no middle of the nights), chugged some Guinness (not a struggle haha), made some lactation cookies and got my supply back up from .5oz if that to 2oz a breast. We are of course still supplementing but for now I'm content. Oh and I did manage to put LO to breast - just out of curiosity - to see if he remembered. He did but he couldn't get much out and boy did it anger him. It was all too reminiscent as to why I started pumping to begin with!

How much are your LO's sleeping through the night? Mine just reached 4.5-5hrs and he's going to be 7 weeks on Thursday. Also how many oz is your LO eating? He's at 4-5oz now.

KarasTwin

DH went back to work today and it's my first day alone with LO for more than a few hours. I was terrified, but we're doing great! I was nervous this morning because he was fussy in his swing, but once I took him out for a few minutes I realized he was pooping and needed to stretch out. I got to eat breakfast, shower, do a little laundry, and have lunch. Also took the trash out and went to the mailbox. Just a few more hours till DH gets home!

Also, in regards to eating and sleeping, LO is 3 weeks today and sleeps about 3 hours or so at night, we usually have to set an alarm to wake up and feed him. We're exclusively feeding formula now and he eats 4 ounces every 2.5 to 3 hours, but will occasionally go 3.5 to 4.

ETA : in between bouts of diarrhea. I had my first PP poop about 3 days after delivery and was still constipated for several days and now for the past week and a half I can't eat without getting an upset stomach

aliciac2008

I started my period today.  ( So not fair!

On the bright side, LO is still only sleeping 3 hour stretches at night. However, I am okay with that because now we can reliably get her back to sleep as soon as she's done eating. I don't mind getting up in the middle of the night as long as I can go right back to bed when she's done.

We are feeding her 3oz of formula every 3 hours (or longer. We wait for her to ask for it) at 5 weeks. I'm always worried we're not feeding her enough after reading everything on the bump, but she seems to be satisfied. Maybe we'll do 3.5 or 4oz and see how she does.

katyertl

Wow! Our LO doesn't eat as much compared to your babies! But I guess our little girl is small. For 6 weeks she hasn't even hit 7 lbs yet. She's eating 2oz every 2 hours and every 3 hours at night. So we're at 3 hour stretches at night. We're exclusively formula feeding and we just switched formula since her old one gave her bad gas and pains. So here's hoping this one works! So far so good! We BF the first 2 weeks bu switched because I was getting so stressed over it and felt like baby girl could feel that. So now happy mom happy baby! I'm still tired but I'm getting used to it. And getting out more and doing more makes me a lot happier as a person even if I'm exhausted at least I get out of the house.

courtyowl427

He's almost three weeks old and he is alive and thriving. That's enough of an accomplishment for me at this point!

aliciaspinnet

LO must be going through a growth spurt as for the last few nights he's been feeding every 2 hours. I'm wrecked! And just when I thought my breasts were starting to regulate, I'm engorged again. Goodbye sweet stomach sleeping! Tonight's a bit better so hopefully it'll. be over soon.

I'm sure he means well but if DH tries to offer anymore suggestions (after being in bed all night) I might cut him.

momtobe613

First full day at home by myself with my 13 day old. DH had off the first week, mom had off the second week and all the sudden I'm all alone!!

Last night DS was ruthless up every 60-90 minutes to eat... Hoping for a better night tonight.

Today I actually managed to eat breakfast, lunch, take care of baby, pump my engorged breast (which I'm getting concerned about) shower and dare I say baby is asleep maybe I should make dinner now?

All of this will be wrecked when baby wakes up to cluster feed from 9 to midnight. Oh how I hate the nighttime.

JessHeppell

today i noticed i can shoot milk out of my right breast )

LO is almost 6 days old (ill consider him 6 days when its 8 pm :P)
and we're still struggling on the left side. gonna look into getting a nipple shield or something later today cause he just cant get that nipple far back enough. he sleeps in 2-3 hours stretches at night. and idk how much he is eating. feels like a lot though.

dancegurl1118

I think her first leap is finally complete. I feel confident in what she needs when she cries now. I'm still working at being better responding to her in the early AM though...it's really hard for me to get up and she kind of just whines in her sleep for hours before she really wakes up and cries.

aligons

@dancegurl1118 I struggle too in the early morning hours as he seems to wake up earlier each day. He grunts and whines while sleeping in his rock n play and I'm going in and out of sleep trying to ignore the noises lol. I used to say I was a morning person but screw that, I need my sleep!

dancegurl1118

@aligons that is EXACTLY what LO does. I feel like I fall back asleep for 5 minutes, she whines and I wake up, and rinse & repeat.

Sammy K

We're at 4 weeks and I'm lucky to get a 3 hour stretch out of LO sleeping. She'll eat 4 oz out of a bottle but doesn't have that kind of attention span on the boob.

KonaCoffeeBean

I got out a really big booger with the suction bulb this morning, and I'm strangely proud.

heidiiwa

3 weeks old. This week has been really hard on me. Lots of cluster feelings, going to sleep on the breast but waking up fully and wanting more boob time as soon as he is put down. I never have enough time to sleep, go to the bathroom, fix myself a meal/snack or take care of anything else; seems like ALL my time is spent breastfeeding. I vetoed DH giving him formula, which caused some issues between DH and me because he thinks a little formula is not a big deal. Also DH is not getting much time to bond with our little guy since LO is always glommed onto me. I felt bad about that and handed LO over to DH for about an hour this morning when he was relatively satisfied...it was great to hear DH talking baby talk and kissing LO from the other room while I was able to get something done on the computer--a rare occurrence!

Although LO's weight gain is good and my nipples rarely hurt anymore even with prolonged use, I'm still concerned about breastfeeding. Mainly I'm worried that the efficiency of his eating is poor. It seems to take him far longer than it should to get a full meal. Time is running out for him to become more efficient--I'm supposed to go back to work next month, pending recovery of my ability to walk. Lately I haven't had any time to pump so I have zero stash. I never get an uninterrupted block of time when I'm not utterly exhausted and need to sleep, so pumping has fallen by the wayside. (Yes, LO is eating as I write this.)

The pediatrician never got back to me with the LC referral he promised, so I made an appointment with an LC in a neighboring town for tomorrow. Actually it was really hard to wait all week last week and all weekend after deciding I needed help. I called first thing this morning and got the earliest appointment I could. I need to sleep again...even being able to take some naps during the day would be awesome! I really hope she can help us.

aliciaspinnet

In the past 8 hours, LO has peed, pooped and vomited on me. Ahh, the joys of motherhood!

house86

My husband leaves for work tomorrow for 3 weeks and I'm home with a 5 week old, 6 year old, and 9 year old...

janat1717

That blows my mind right now as a FTM @house86 . Good luck!!!

Jconsilio23

LO is 11 days old and she sleeps between 3-4 hours a night and eats 2-3 times by the time we go to bed and wake up. During the day she eats more frequently and closer to bed time she clusters. I'm dreading her growth spurt. Can't wait to start pumping but will be waiting until 4 weeks old.

kkdb14

I've not been on in several days and I'm feeling so detatched!! HUGE accomplishment (imo); 7 week LO (6 weeks at the time) on 7/10 did not make one single peep through our local airport, through a 2.5 hr flight, through a 2 hr layover, another 3.5 hour flight, slept a 6 hour night, and then a 3.5 hour drive the next morning. I'm feeling like I have the best baby ever. On top of that, the last week-ish, we've dropped to one 4:30 am feeding, from which she promptly konks back out. That's a full 6-8 hrs, followed by another 3-4. I'm in heaven right now :x

beckyk9109

Today was the fourth time I've taken the twins to target, and not kidding they are 4/4 when it comes to causing a scene and pooping in target. I'm convincing myself that they get so excited to be there they can't help it

dancegurl1118

@kkdb14 thank you for making me hate my life. I can't through two hours without a peep.

taraperez04

LO is 5 weeks now and eating 4-5 ounces and is finally starting to sleep longer stretches through the night! She slept 12:30am-6am last night, it was heavenly

klkonwi

I just want to brag that I swept and mopped the floor today. Life is complete. Lol
Then after I got that done my baby can't poop and is miserable. Should be a long night!

KaLikeAWind

So, I live in such a small town that after every birth the department of health / social services calls you and arranges a home visit to come out and talk to you about how its going, give you some educational materials (recommended vaccine schedule, local bf resources, PPD pamphlet), and they bring a baby scale and weigh baby. Little dude was half an ounce away from birth weight! And he has a peds appt tomorrow, so hopefully he gains that extra half an ounce so that the Dr will give us the OK to stop feeding on a schedule. That would be sweet.

Also, the scabs on my nipples have finally gone away. I finally have healed nipples. That's pretty fine.

JessHeppell

mellymar said:

So, I live in such a small town that after every birth the department of health / social services calls you and arranges a home visit to come out and talk to you about how its going, give you some educational materials (recommended vaccine schedule, local bf resources, PPD pamphlet), and they bring a baby scale and weigh baby. Little dude was half an ounce away from birth weight! And he has a peds appt tomorrow, so hopefully he gains that extra half an ounce so that the Dr will give us the OK to stop feeding on a schedule. That would be sweet.

Also, the scabs on my nipples have finally gone away. I finally have healed nipples. That's pretty fine.

yeah my health clinic in town does that too, the population is like 5000 people. how long did the nipple healing take?

Edit: struggling with words today

btm013

Wow @mellymar really! I had never heard of a town doing that?

KaLikeAWind

@JessHeppell LO is 3 weeks old tomorrow. I saw your other post, yours are scabbed, I'm sorry. Good news is, despite the scabbing, nursing got easier / less painful as we both adjusted. I just kept applying lanolin (I use the medela tender care) to keep them supple and moisturized and the scabs didn't bother me or LO after a while. I applied it after pretty much every feeding at first but by this week was down to applying it before bed and being ok during the day. And both of them were scabbed like, on pretty much the whole front. Also, for boob care - when in the shower I would have the water warm (not hot, oh hell no) and press the heels of my hands into my nipples to kinda get them to stop standing at attention for a while. It hurt some, but in a good way, like poking a sore tooth with your tongue. I'd press and let the warm water run over my chest and hands and try to relax. I used my cream face wash (yes to carrots) to wash them gently, again with the heels of my hands. My fingers and palms just seems to catch them at their points and jolt me.

@btm013 yeah neither had I. My suspicions were totally up - I mean, social services? The nurse at the hospital had to reassure me they weren't coming to make sure I wasn't a bad parent or whatever. And then I found brochures about the visit in the hospital, so yeah, its just something they do. It was pretty cool, actually. She was nice and seemed genuinely interested in LO and I and that we were doing well.

katyqv

Took the LO and fur baby out for a walk today by myself for the first time. The weather today is glorious. And we're all still alive. Yay.

krystleshel

Just wanted to share this quote - congrats to us for making it through pregnancy & surviving (or trying to survive ha) this newborn time. I feel like it is flying by so fast. A coworker told me today that she feels like she just brought her DS home from the hospital & next week she registers him for senior year. Even though the days (& nights!) are LONG the weeks, months, & years are short! Keep up the awesome jobs of being amazing moms!

aj1327

@krystleshel I love that. Today was a good day. Yesterday was rough. LO was 5 weeks on Monday and I'm starting to feel more comfortable taking him places, so we've been going on quick outings. LO slept in about 4 hour stretches last night which would've been awesome if my milk had gotten the memo. I woke up at six in pain. Didn't know if I should pump because I want to adjust to his feeding schedule. I massaged and expressed a little and tried to go back to sleep. Any advice on this?