February 2017 Moms

The Boob Thread

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Re: The Boob Thread

  • There were weight concerns and We just got over birth weight at this doctor's appointment on Friday. He was 7lb 14oz at both and dropped to 6lbs 15oz. They sent a VNA 3 times in the first week to check weight. The doctor didn't say anything about waking vs not waking. She even asked how often we feed and of we wake him or not haha. So it's probably okay to let him sleep? How long is usually too long to let him go without eating? He is 3 weeks if that matters. Thanks guys!
  • @jlellis603 at night, does he eat quickly all at once? Or does he just nibble a little off and on until he goes to sleep? If he's eating quickly all at once, then depending on how long it took him to lay back down( like an hour or 2? ), I'd set an alarm for 2- 3 hours from the time he went to sleep. If he just nibbles a little at a time, then once he's sleeping, I'd set an alarm for 4 hours. I would think he would wake on his own first, but if not then that's still a pretty big time gap for 3 weeks.
    Pregnancy Ticker
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  • Personally, I would let him sleep. MAYBE wake if we're getting on 4.5 hours, but I'd think he'll wake when he's hungry 
  • I wouldn't wake every 2 or 3 at night to feed.   And we also just got back to birth weight.  Our doctors had just said not to let him go more than 4 or 5 hours.


    Married - 7/29/06
    Ben and Maggie - 4/10/09 
    Mia - 6/16/11
    Surprise! due 2/23/17


    BabyFruit Ticker
  • Unless told otherwise, once babies reach and pass their birth weight you can just let them sleep. 
  • That makes me happy to hear haha! I would love 4 hour stretches. He passed his birth weight as of our appointment Friday so we will try it out this week and see how it goes. @kswiger06 I would say he's somewhere in between. He doesnt guzzle it like during the day but isn't dead asleep and not taking it
  • Question about pump hygiene: I have a manual pump (the medela harmony, if it makes a difference) and I usually pump first thing in the morning. Through the night my breasts get so full that I have to express milk due to a) discomfort or b) save Lachlan from drowning when he begins nursing. Could I pump this milk (beginning at 3 a.m.) chuck the whole pump into the fridge and use it again in the morning (around 7 a.m.). Or do I need to wash it first? I would use a different bottle, because I know mixing milk not at the same temperature is a no no. It just seems so wasteful to express milk into a towel and the pump is much more efficient than hand expressing. 
  • Question about pump hygiene: I have a manual pump (the medela harmony, if it makes a difference) and I usually pump first thing in the morning. Through the night my breasts get so full that I have to express milk due to a) discomfort or b) save Lachlan from drowning when he begins nursing. Could I pump this milk (beginning at 3 a.m.) chuck the whole pump into the fridge and use it again in the morning (around 7 a.m.). Or do I need to wash it first? I would use a different bottle, because I know mixing milk not at the same temperature is a no no. It just seems so wasteful to express milk into a towel and the pump is much more efficient than hand expressing. 
    You can definitely store all the parts and then reuse them. I would use separate bottles but I also mix two different temperatures if I need/want to as well. Usually if I'm mixing though it's going right into the freezer. 
    Me (26) DH (28)
    Married 6.22.13
    Hoping for a Herd Linky
    4/15--TTC #1
    12/15--IF testing
    3/16--Dx Unexplained IF
    Clomid + Ovidrel + IUI + Progesterone cycle
    Cancelled due to cysts. Started 3 weeks of BCP.
    4/16--Cute Ute! Clomid+Ovidrel+IUI+Progesterone TI.
    Cancelled-no response
    5/16--Hemmorhagic cyst and other cyst discovered.
    No medicated cycle. MRI scheduled to rule out
    septate uterus.
    6/16--Septum discovered. Consultation for surgery.
    Surprise BFP 6/8/16--EDD 2/13/17
    Kole David--1.7.17--Tiny but Mighty, born at 34+5 after HELLP syndrome
    Chart Stalk Me

     
  • @floatingelephy I reuse my parts like that all day; I keep them in a ziplock baggie in the fridge and pull them out as needed. I wash and sterilize once a day. I also highly recommend a second set of pump parts. That way if I fall asleep without refrigerating the parts, I have an alternative to a middle of the night part washing. 
  • So Ridley used to eat for about 30 min every 3 hrs. The last 2 days he's been only eating 15 minutes at a time and is then hungry again in 1.5-2 hrs. Has anyone else seen this switch? Should I be worried? He's still producing plenty of diapers. 
    Me: 33 | DH: 34
    Married: October, 19, 2015
    EDD 2/22/17 <3 DS1 born on 3/2/17
    EDD 3/8/20 <3 DS2 born on 3/10/20
    EDD 11/24/23
    (Formerly Marriedhamstermom Feb ‘17)


  • So Ridley used to eat for about 30 min every 3 hrs. The last 2 days he's been only eating 15 minutes at a time and is then hungry again in 1.5-2 hrs. Has anyone else seen this switch? Should I be worried? He's still producing plenty of diapers. 
    Yes I've seen this the last few days too. Wyatt used to BF for about 30 mins then take formula to supplement. He'd eat every 2-3 hours. Now its like he's getting less milk from me or something but still not finishing his bottle. Then an hour later he's hungry again. He still has plenty of diapers too. He's also battling some gas and spitting up - I dont know if Ridley is doing anything similar 
  • So Ridley used to eat for about 30 min every 3 hrs. The last 2 days he's been only eating 15 minutes at a time and is then hungry again in 1.5-2 hrs. Has anyone else seen this switch? Should I be worried? He's still producing plenty of diapers. 
    Yes I've seen this the last few days too. Wyatt used to BF for about 30 mins then take formula to supplement. He'd eat every 2-3 hours. Now its like he's getting less milk from me or something but still not finishing his bottle. Then an hour later he's hungry again. He still has plenty of diapers too. He's also battling some gas and spitting up - I dont know if Ridley is doing anything similar 
    Yes Ridley is battling gas pretty bad and has some spit up too. Maybe eating less but more often is their way to try and reduce that. 

    Last night i found alternating between doing bicycles with his legs and gently rubbing his tummy helped soothe his gas. 
    Me: 33 | DH: 34
    Married: October, 19, 2015
    EDD 2/22/17 <3 DS1 born on 3/2/17
    EDD 3/8/20 <3 DS2 born on 3/10/20
    EDD 11/24/23
    (Formerly Marriedhamstermom Feb ‘17)


  • @SawyerRichardson thanks for passing that info along!! That must have been miserable suffering through it for a week. Also did you get your moby tighter yet?
    Pregnancy Ticker
  • Can anyone recommend a good manual pump? My electric needs to be plugged in, and I just learned I'm taking high schoolers on a field trip to the woods for 5 hours my first week back at work...
  • pickle-chipspickle-chips member
    edited March 2017
    @Xstatic3333 I have the medela harmony and I really like it. I had to get a different size PersonalFit breast shield (it comes with 24mm), and since doing so it has worked very well! I use it every morning. The handle is comfortable to use and it seems very efficient. It doesn't have a lot of parts and it's easy to clean. Disclaimer: it's the first and only pump I've ever tried. 
  • kswiger06kswiger06 member
    edited March 2017
    @Xstatic3333 I've used the medela one in the past, and it worked great. Since I had to wait until after I delivered this time to get my pump through the insurance, we bought a manual hand pump, and we got the lansinoh one. It works great also. The lansinoh one has a small adjustment that needs made to the squeeze part of the handle to switch from the let down function to the express function. It's easy to do, but the medela one you only switch from squeezing the front for letdown, to the back for expressing. It's technically easier to use. Either way, both those manual pumps work well and are simple to use. In my personal order of recommendation, just due to ease of use, I'd put the medela pump first, then the lansinoh pump (but again both are simple and easy to understand) 

    Edit: also the lansinoh breast shield is more comfortable. It has a softer feel to it, it's not quite as hard as the shields for medela, I'm not sure that's a make it or break it factor but thought I'd let you know in case.
    Pregnancy Ticker
  • Thanks guys! Looks like the Medela is cheapest anyway. Not looking to go fancy since I'll be using this thing hidden behind a tree in the woods! But hey, if I can also get some milk out of it all the better. 
  • I also use a Medela manual pump. I prefer it to my electric hospital grade hygeia actually. I used it when I was pumping from home while Harrison was in the NICU  and after we got home and I was still pumping 4x per day to fortify the breast milk till he reached 10 lbs. 
  • @kswiger06 Yes it works so much better now, thank you!
  • If one boob is larger and always producing more milk than the other, is there any way to fix that? Or is that just how it will always be?
  • lfrank12 said:
    If one boob is larger and always producing more milk than the other, is there any way to fix that? Or is that just how it will always be?
    I have one that produces less.   Nurse more on that side first,  add pumps on that side, or hand express that side after pumping are the things I have heard.  

    This is the 4th kid I am breastfeeding,  and have tried things like that.  I still have Mighty Righty, Leftie has made consistently less with every baby!
    Married - 7/29/06
    Ben and Maggie - 4/10/09 
    Mia - 6/16/11
    Surprise! due 2/23/17


    BabyFruit Ticker
  • @lfrank12 when I saw a LC she said it's really common to have one breast that produces more milk than the other. I'm sure some of the advice above may help even it out some but idk if you can ever make it perfectly even. 
    Me: 33 | DH: 34
    Married: October, 19, 2015
    EDD 2/22/17 <3 DS1 born on 3/2/17
    EDD 3/8/20 <3 DS2 born on 3/10/20
    EDD 11/24/23
    (Formerly Marriedhamstermom Feb ‘17)


  • @lfrank12 I have been unsuccessful at evening them out with any of my kids. Actually right now though, I've been trying to get my supply back up so I have been pumping both sides every hour to 2 hours. They are starting evened out size wise now, but not milk production. I think maybe because they are both kept empty so the bigger one isn't having time to completely fill up so they are looking similar again in size. 

    And there was a couple weeks when I refused to wear any shirt normal sized because the size difference was so dramatic I thought it was embarrassing. I'm not sure it's worth it though, pumping so often just to keep even breasts.
    Pregnancy Ticker
  • I have a slacker boob, but haven't noticed a significant size difference. Sometimes I think it's starting to even put, but it never makes as,much as the other. I've read it may be due to an uneven number of milk ducts. 

    I also think know of them as the good boob and the bad boob, then feel guilty because they're both working really hard. So I've basically anthropomorphized my boobs. 

    @SawyerRichardson how's it going? Did you end up having mastitis? Feeling better?
  • I think it's the norm to have differently producing boobs. My left is much better 
  • @lemieuxk I call mine the good boob and the bad boob too lol
  • @lemieuxk My doctor never called me back so I called my husband to come take me to urgent care after his lunch (car seat doesn't fit in my car. Long story.). By the time he got home I was feeling much better so I took my temp again and it was back to normal. So I decided to wait it out a day and see how I was feeling and I've been fine ever since. I probably should have still gone in just in case, I know. I have a check up with my doc on Monday so I'll have her double check me then. Thanks for checking in on me!
  • You can try double feeding from the under producer to make it produce more and even out the size a little, my left was dramatically bigger then my right but a few sessions of doubling up and they're not longer grossly disproportionate 
     Me: 27 | DH: 28
    TTC since January 2016

    BFP - 3/12/16 - MC 4/5/16
    BFP - 6/11/16



    Pregnancy Ticker
  • Any advice on getting them to take a bottle? I have been EBF and didn't try pumping until about 2 weeks ago. My husband and I are hoping to go to Florida in 2 weeks without the babe so I decided I needed to start pumping for when we are gone. No issues with pumping but I've tried giving her a bottle and she absolutely refuses. I've tried several different bottle/nipple combos and she just screams but will latch on to the boob immediately so I know she's hungry. I don't mind constantly having a baby attached to my body but it would be nice to get away for a day or two..
  • @SawyerRichardson have you tried having your H give her the bottle and actually leaving the house while he does so?
  • @Xstatic3333 I have not tried that yet but will give it a shot tonight. I actually just got get to take a bottle by laying her on the Boppy like I was going to breastfeed but gave the bottle instead. Maybe the position is what was bothering her?
  • @SawyerRichardson my husband usually uses the baby-led bottle feeding techniques (sitting up, watching baby's hands and body language) but if the baby is really fussy, he'll be more likely to take the bottle if he is lying across my husband's body like he does with me in the cradle hold. So I definitely think mimicking breastfeeding holds might help!
  • Mine won't take a bottle if I'm around. No problem if I'm out of the house, but if I'm there...absolutely not. Try leaving for a bit and see how things go. Good luck!
  • @kswiger06 did you try those nursing cups?
  • kswiger06kswiger06 member
    edited March 2017
    MommaBean said:
    @kswiger06 did you try those nursing cups?
    No, I had them saved to order with some stuff my H was getting, but then my supply dropped real low and when he ordered I told him not to get them because I didn't think my supply was coming back. I got it back for almost a week, but now I've been dealing with clogged ducts and low supply again. I'm still hoping to get it up again, but it's been a fight!

    Did you try them yet?
    Pregnancy Ticker
  • Yeah, did this morning for the first time bc LO slept through a MOTN feed and I was full and leaky. Caught a few mouthfuls in it from one side...
  •     @kswiger06 You exclusively pump, am I right (or am I mixing you up with someone else?!)? I'm thinking about starting to do that, but wondering how MOTN feedings work when exclusively pumping. Do you pump and then leave the milk at room temperature until your LO wakes up? Or do you heat a bottle? I haven't been able to find any concrete information about this and that's what confuses me the most about it...
  • @die frau I pump and leave the milk sit at room temperature. Right now my LO gets up every 3-4 hours so the milk is ok. I've always been told, fresh milk can be out 6-8 hours. It's not as warm as freshly expressed milk, but we've never had a problem with any of our kids taking it. I actually do it like that all the time, even during the day. And when I get to where I know my LO won't eat the milk before that time is up because I have more out than he needs until my next pumping session, I just take my fresh milk he won't get to and stick it in the fridge, then when I get however much saved I want (I use 6 oz bags) then I freeze it.
    Pregnancy Ticker
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