PAIF Graduates - New Mommies - July 2018

persnickity

@mtpbadger i notice a decrease when I'm not drinking enough water. How far postpartum are you again? I know a lot of people who saw a decrease right before their period came back. Could it be related to that?

Hopeful_mom

@persnickity that sounds great can u share the photo u have? (Tried posting this yesterday, baby has me on the go go go   )

@Aera11 sorry in laws were a bit much! Guess it makes me glad mine aren't involved!

@holls214 how r u feeling? I still want to see that film! Not everyone that tackle IF dies a good job. But i hear this has

@mtpbadger  pumping is strange I can make an oz or 3oz for no rhyme or reason. 4/6oz sounds like a dream!!

@MMD1986 5 months is amazing, right now I try to get through each week!! I'd be stoked making it to 5 months!!

Baby kept me up all night and we slept through our breastfeeding class, guess I'll try again next week

persnickity

I've never posted a picture before, so hopefully it's not huge. Tried to put it in a spoiler. @Hopeful_mom if you listen at the start of the cry, you should be able to hear these. The book goes into how the sound is made. It's a short read and fantastic.

persnickity

Also, babies only use 3 words for the first 12 weeks. Makes it easier to learn them.

JWatt5

@mtpbadger - hydration and protein! Drinking and eating is so important. But also, be on the look out for a little clog or milk bleb. Are you massaging for the last 5 mins to really empty? That always helped me!! Around 8-12 wpp you’ll regulate and I noticed a short lived dip in supply when I exclusively pumped around then. 

JWatt5

@MMD1986 - I had a 3 month goal and then a 6 month goal and made it to a week shy of 5 months. It’s exhausting and you’ve done so well!! I really took my time decreasing because with each pump I dropped, life just felt a little easier. Do what you can and then be proud of it all. (And then enjoy the freedom!!) 

mtpbadger

Thanks ladies! @jwatt5 I do massage and then also do hand expression (if I have time) to make sure I’m good and empty. My last pump went a little bit better so I think it was lack of water and exhaustion bc I had a little nap between sessions. I think I also need some new pump parts as I can tell one is stronger than the other. I’m also 8 weeks pp so that might be it too. I read that this is the time when your body starts to regulate so I guess I just gotta keep at it! Pumping is such a time suck that it’s disheartening when I have to spend 20 min away from my baby and not have much to show for it. 

JWatt5

@mtpbadger - yah those parts/valves can make a big difference too! I replaced mine valves on my pump in style almost weekly. With how much it’s used and washed it’s a lot of wear. 

I think towards the 4th Month or so I was getting almost like pumping paranoid haha. I swear. I was tracking like usual but if I dropped even half an ounce a day I’d be beside myself (and I was pumping between 36-40oz a day until I dropped to 3 pumps! He only drank 28oz a day). It drove my anxiety crazy and had to stop looking at my pump output - just pump and fill the bottles. Freeze if I could - Formula was always a back up. At that point I added one formula bottle a day to ease my ridiculous worry. 

mtpbadger

Whoa 36oz! That’s a lot! I’m consistently getting about 24-26oz which is enough for right now but know that’s probably short lived and want to do my best to try and at least keep up!

JWatt5

@mtpbadger - that’s a great pump amount! It’s stressful pumping but I’m still glad I did. I dread the breastfeeding/pumping to hopefully come with a second but you just try to do your best! Lots of perks to pumping though - help with feedings, little extra sleep. Honestly think I’d pump again. 

Aera11

Thanks @Holls214, just happy to be back to just us. I've never heard of that Netflix show but I'm going to check it out!

@cashewchicken unsolicited advice of any kind is annoying but especially parenting. My in laws also like to make comments & in particular about how they wished she looked more like her dad...insert huge eye roll.

@persnickity I think it's especially hard for me because 1. My parents are really great with babies/kids and 2. I already have a strained relationship with my in laws so I'm even more critical of them.  I try to be patient but they drive me crazy & add hormones + sleep deprivation on top of that. 

@mtpbadger I notice a decrease in my supply if I miss a pump during the night or don't eat/drink enough.  Power pumping didn't work for me but I can relate to what you're going through.  I can keep up for now but when she needs more in a few months I'm not going to be able to do that unless I make more.  I have s small stash too but that can be gone in a day or two. My only silver lining is when I'm done breastfeeding/pumping I can freeze my eggs. I have to wait until then & since I don't have frozen embryos I want to freeze my eggs.

cashewchicken

@mtpbadger My supply dropped when I had a kidney infection. I used to pump 4-6 oz per session prior to the infection, but during/immediately after the infection the supply dropped down to 3 oz at most.  I had fever, chills and were in pain, so probably I was dehydrated which caused the supply to drop. Also I wasn't pumping as often as I was catching up on my sleep. After the infection the supply was back to the pre-infection level after making sure to pump more frequently (every 3-4 hours) and stay hydrated. So hopefully it's a temporary dip in the supply for you too!

mbradfo2

@cashewchicken
That disney resort in hawaii does look awesome! I've never been to Hawaii...I've always wanted to see it though. Sorta on the other side of the country from me XD  A wedding there sounds gorgeous. 

I actually fell asleep sorta normally (ok, I might have fallen asleep while playing some stupid game and woke up to my phone smashed up against my face) and slept all night as baby slept. Feel good today! Hopefully that means I'm gradually adjusting back and she's going to continue sleeping well at night. Falling asleep is starting to become difficult for her since she is able to sit up with support now and she just wants to see -EVERYTHING- ALL THE TIME. So, she has trouble calming down to sleep and then gets overtired....we'll get there! I'm excited that she's holding head so well now!

I have a friend who had her first egg retrieval yesterday and I'm just praying and praying she gets good news today on fertilization. I remember what it was like when I was waiting for those calls after my retrieval. Crazy to think that at this time last year, my own baby girl was a little blast on ice! (We retrieved at the end of June, froze on 7/4/17, transferred in August).

persnickity

@Aera11 I'm critical of my in-laws too. Mainly because they made me feel like I wasn't part of the family with having a baby. It was seriously annoying, like they made it seem that DH had carried and delivered the baby and was the only one taking care of her too. They kept telling him he was doing a great job with her. Or telling me what she needed, because they knew better than me.

MMD1986

@mbradfo2 it's crazy to think how quickly the time goes. It was a year ago this month I did our transfer, and now I have an almost 5 month old. Still blows my mind sometimes because I never thought I'd get here. 

Thanks for the kind words on stopping pumping ladies!  I really appreciate it.

doubleblessings1124

I can relate on the low supply just in the last couple days.  Can't figure out why, have done nothing different. My twins are 12 weeks today. They do an ok job breastfeeding but don't transfer a lot based on my lactation appts so I supplement with my milk after. Then pump after some feeds. I pump about 4-5 times a day. Lately I have felt a little drained as I am a constant feeding machine. Usually I am able to contribute to my frozen stash each week but haven't been able to this week. Hard not to stress about it but I am proud of what I have done so far. I have about 450 oz. frozen. I don't like to set goals so I would feel like I fail but 6 months of just my milk would be nice. As for in laws my MIL always asks what their weights are every time I see her. My son has reflux and he has always been 1.5-2 lbs smaller than my daughter since birth. So I hate when people obsess over his weight and how tiny they say he is. My kids are gaining and thriving and there's more to a happy healthy baby than just weight gain! 

persnickity

@doubleblessings1124 completely agree that there's more to a happy and healthy kid than just weight! It's amazing how much everyone focuses on that. My niece was in the 10th percentile for most of the first year, but she very steadily tracked the curve and always met the other developmental milestones. Everyone was always pestering my sister about it. So annoying!

Polythene Pam

Supply issues suck. I’ve heard almond milk helps, overnight oats.. I only made it 6 weeks with my daughter and she’s hilarious, healthy and smart at almost 5 years old having been FF. Baby boy is 8 months and attached to my boob. It’s so different every time- but Fed is best!

i fight insmnia too so no big tips. I’m nervous to take anything with nursing (I fall asleep mid feeding as it is) but moving my phone away /trying not to pop on it during feedings, if I need to I move to a couch to get away from snoring hubby.. it gets better. I had a stretch of just being UP at 3am, then dead tired all day, but it’s better now.

AFM, graham started to crawl today! I’ve never seen my daughter hide her toys so frantically lol. He’s been scooting awhile but it clicked. It’s just flying! My daughter starts 4K this fall, I’m going to miss her terribly, but I’ll also try to do baby things for Graham.. library story times, hikes with him, I don’t know what else. He’s dragged to everything for big sis and today we finally had an afternoon at home and he shot off crawling, so I wonder what else he’ll do when we have time to just be at home, lol.

persnickity

@Polythene Pam that's hilarious that your daughter's now hiding her toys! Too cute!!

At what age do you transition out of sleep sacks and to sheets/blankets? At what age are you guys going to let your little one sleep with a stuffed animal?

Polythene Pam

@persnickity I think we added a toddler pillow at age 1 for my daughter after asking her doc when she had a cold.. she did not understand the concept of blankets until age 3 (slept on top of them or literally she’d take them off her bed) so we did the giant Halo sleepsacks with foot holes till around age 3. I tried adding all the bedding once we converted to a toddler bed (around 2.5 after escaping issues) but she didn’t get it.

note on the stuffed animals... whatever they become attached to might travel EVERYWHERE! We need a suitcase just for the nighttime “necessities.” I was not thinking when I got my daughter a 2.5 foot Elmo pillow, it MUST come everywhere, it’s seen lots of airport securities... as for age, I feel like they all started slowly adding in around 18 months, for sure by 2 she had a small collection of things in her crib. Graham isn’t really a nuk baby so I actually was going to ask when he can sleep with a lovey at his next appt.

Holls214

When did your little one start sleeping more at night? Bryson is up every 2 hours and sometimes stays awake for periods of time. Today he was up at 4:30... yawn. Any suggestions on trying to get him to sleep at least 3 hour stretches? Mommy and Daddy are tired. He’s 7 weeks today. Maybe it’s too early but any suggestions are helpful. 

mtpbadger

@holls214 Since Abigail was in the nicu, they had her on 3 hour feedings which thankfully continued once we came home overnight. She was 8 weeks last week and in the past 2-3 nights has started sleeping for 4 hour stretches which is amazing. We started putting her to bed slightly earlier and having somewhat of a “routine” (change diaper, jammies on, eat, snuggle and then put her in her sleep sack in the pack n play with some music on) and that has worked well. We shall see if it continues or not. Since she’s still in our room, we’re not doing any sleep training but we aren’t as quick to pick her up at night...a lot of the time it ends up being just 1-2 quick cries and then she falls back asleep, almost like she had a little extra energy and needed to get it out to get settled. She’s also been good about going back to sleep after her morning bottle around 7am. I put her back in the pack n play and initially she’ll jusy lay there squirming, kicking and fussing a little bit but not much and falls back to sleep for about 1.5 hours. Which has been nice so I can either go back to sleep or eat breakfast, pump and shower before the day gets consumed by her. 

Holls214

What type of sleep sack are you using? Bryson freaks when his arms are confined now and refuses to be swaddled so I think that doesn’t help. He sleeps in our room as well with the pack and play bassinet thing. He mostly won’t go back to sleep in the morning either and will just kick/whine from 6-8am or so which makes me even more exhausted after being up all night with him. What I wouldn’t give for 3-5 hours of straight sleep lol.  

persnickity

@Holls214 we swaddled with her arms out and then moved to a Halo or Ikea sleep sack. We did the same thing as @Polythene Pam with a short routine of change outfit, change diaper, nurse, bed. We also waited a bit for cries at that age. She was across the hall in the nursery, so it was a delay from she cried, I woke up and went across the hall. She started sleeping longer stretches around 6-8 weeks (4-5 hours) then started sleeping 10 hours by 12 weeks. We're now back to 3 hour stretches with teething issues. Sigh. Can't wait for sleep again!

Polythene Pam

@Holls214 it’s coming!! my daughter was a unicorn sleeper, slept 12 hrs no waking by 12 weeks. Graham, 8 months, still wakes 2x and is up by 5:30 everyday, so maybe ignore my advice  

But with both we cluster fed before bed (lots more small feedings). Earlier bedtime around 12 weeks (it’s overnight I swear, they suddenly are so fussy unless asleep by X time - 6pm for both my kids at that age). I wanted both in our room longer but around that age for various reasons they ended up in their cribs... which truly it helped. We weren’t running at every sound, they worked themselves back to sleep, and we could have a bedtime routine. Merlins magic sleepsuit until they could roll (stops startle reflex), read, bottle/nurse in the dark, to bed sleepy but awake if possible so they’re learning to sleep on their own. Now Graham is in a halo sleepsack, arms out. 

You’ll get a stretch here soon, it’s such a hard beginning but suddenly they’ll give you that stretch!!

MMD1986

@Holls214 We ordered the Nested Bean sleep sack for Brooks.  He hated being swaddled with his arms in.  We've been using the sleep sack for 2 weeks and its definitely helping him sleep better.  He still gets up overnight to eat, but I've noticed a decrease in his squirming and fidgeting in bed.  The other night he went to sleep at 8 pm and I woke up at 3 am in a panic thinking I had slept through his cries (he normally wakes for a feeding around 12-1 am) but he was still sound asleep and I checked the event videos on the monitor and there where no cry or movement videos for the whole 7 hours.  I was shocked.  Of course I went back to bed and then he cried 5 minutes later for a bottle, but it was by far his longest stretch of sleep.  Not sure if that is related to the sleep sack or not, but its definitely a product I'd recommend.  He will be 5 months next week, 3.5 months adjusted.  So it sounds like you are getting closer to longer stretches.

mtpbadger

We use halo sleep sack since that’s what she was using in the nicu. Some nights we leave her arms out if she’s fidgeting and will fall asleep right away. Other nights she doesn’t mind them in and sleeps much better that way. 

Holls214

I will have to order some of those on amazon. Thanks so much ladies. I know you all feel my pain. I’m thinking we also might move his bassinet to his room across the hall as well even though it will be a pain for me to get up in the night maybe he will sleep better there. 

persnickity

We might be the only ones, but Mackenzie was in her crib in the nursery from the first day she came home. DH slept on the floor for the first two nights, since he was worried (no way with a C-section was I sleeping anywhere but the bed.) She's such a noisy sleeper, that it's the only way we all get rest.

doubleblessings1124

My twins have been in their cribs in their room since day 1 as well. They love being swaddled and currently use the swaddleme brand. I have the Halo ones for when they get bigger. We have a white noise machine in their room we play at night. I used to never let them sleep longer than 4 hours at night but they are gaining well so they sleep anywhere from 5-7 hours. I chalk up their sleepiness to the growing they still are catching up on!

Aera11

@Holls214 I used the halo sleep sacks too; she didn't like the swaddle me ones since she likes her arms out. Sometimes we still force her too but usually it ends up making her freak out even more.  I'm with the others on a routine now before bed, more so for us do we get used to it by the time she really notices/needs it but I think it's helped. She sleeps anywhere from 2-4.5 hours at 6 weeks. I use her crib or dockatot during the day for naps or in the am of she won't go back to sleep in her bassinet. That morning nap is key & hopefully he'll start to give you that so you can catch up on some Zzz's! Hang in there mama right now I'm struggling with her wanting to be held so much. It makes getting anything done at home difficult.  

mtpbadger

@aera11 do you have a wrap to wear her? I found that was a total game changer when Abigail wanted to be held/near me all the time in order to still get anything done. I am terrified of actual wraps bc they look so complicated and bought this one: https://www.babyktan.com/cottonwrap. It’s pretty easy to use and she loves being in it. 

Polythene Pam

@Aera11 agree on a wrap, or a ring sling. I love the snuggles and would love to sit with a sleeping baby, any day... but big sis won’t allow that so Graham was in a ring sling or wrap carrier a lot. At least for both my kids they slept in them too. Even now with him crawling, when he’s fussy I’ll pop him in the ring sling and he’s happy to “help” me prep food or whatever.

persnickity

@Aera11 I second the baby k'tan when they're younger. Then I got a Tula (free to grow) and used that moving forward once she could hold her head up. Love love love the carrier! So much so that we've only used the stroller once. Haha. At almost 11 months, we still use it for vacuuming (Mackenzie seems afraid of the vacuum cleaner unless held) and walks. Up until now, I carried for grocery trips and everything else. 

@doubleblessings1124 it's nice to hear of someone else doing the same thing! 

mtpbadger

@aera11 how’s the breastfeeding going? Any better with the latching? How did the LC appt go? We’re still struggling over here...my parents were in town all last week so we kind of slacked on attempting but are going full force this weekend. 

JWatt5

@persnickity - I can’t believe you’ve only used your stroller once!! No way I could carry Parker for all our walks and stuff. I wore him at the Zoo for half the day but we got so sweaty haha.

I used my boba wrap a lot when he was younger (great for travel) but use the Ergo360 now (mesh one). Glad I got that one because I now have an almost 23lb baby at 10.5m. 

Parker loved being in shopping carts. Holds the bar and smiles at everyone hahaha he was hamming it up again today. 

Day 3 with no DH - k maybe he does help more than I thought haha. The extra chores of feeding the animals, bottle washing, cooking all meals, ensuring the dog gets his two walks...and taking care of Parker 100% alone - I’m wiped. Hehe 

persnickity

@JWatt5 even gone in several hours carrying her. Strap her on and go! The hardest was wearing her when I was picking up sticks in the yard. Talk about a workout! Squatting down to pick up sticks wearing (at the time) a 16 lb weight in front of you for an hour or so is tough! Haha. My thighs ached for days after.

I can just picture Parker smiling at everyone. Mackenzie is the opposite. Sits in the cart with one arm thrown over the back rest part, just dead pan staring at people. Haha.

JWatt5

@persnickity - when Parker is fussy I do my squats while holding him or press him at CrossFit haha so much harder! 

Aera11

@mtpbadger @PolythenePam & @persnickity I've definitely been wearing her! That's the only way I can get dinner ready half the time since that's usually her fussy time.  I have the solly baby wrap which I love & luckily she does too!  I have an ergo omni 360 but I haven't learned how to use it but it seems too bulky to wear around the house. She does like the bjorn now that she's getting bigger! Haha I've tried pretty much everything when she gets fussy & wants to be held 24/7.  

@mtpbadger she still will only latch on my left (which makes less) & usually for only a few minutes.  I'm thinking I have a long future with my pump. How's it going for you this weekend? 

mtpbadger

@aera11 it hasn’t been going great - she’s been going zero to hangry so fast that trying to get her to latch when screaming hasn’t gone well. We’ll keep trying though. She will latch, suck about 4-5 times and then gets super frustrated. I’m trying to catch her before she gets too hungry but it’s hit or miss. Pumping is getting exhausting but I’m determined to keep at it for now.