@wildtot@TalesOfASocialIntrovert you got this!! Breastfeeding is soooo exhausting in the beginning. And @wildtot it’s totally normal to be engorged when your milk first comes in. If you just nurse your body should eventually regulate to what your baby needs. Can you talk to a hospital lactation consultant before discharge today? In my opinion pumping will give you temporary engorgement relief but will increase your supply in the long run. I’d wait til your supply regulates in a few weeks before pumping if baby is latching and transferring milk well. Take a nice warm/hot shower and ibuprofen to help with the engorgement.
@zande2016 I’ll be talking to one before i leave. I definitely don’t want to ruin the process I’ve made so far in comparison to DS. I had an over supply last time so i wouldn’t be surprised if i did again. I’m also starting to feel the letdown anxiety which i hope my meds will help once they kick in.
@wildtot I think I remember my lactation consultant telling me to drink peppermint tea when I had over supply but that was only after making sure my son was gaining weight. Another thing you can do for oversupply is block feeding, which is basically only feeding on one side for a few hours then switching. Definitely take advantage of the lactation consultant.
@runsomewhere LOL I didn't even notice you gave the same vaseline advice. Man, I'm not even up in the middle of the night with a newborn yet, that was a midday, over tired pregnancy faux pas.
@wildtot You could also do some hand expression to relieve the fullness. This should help prevent your body from produce more milk since you're not emptying the breasts, just relieving some pressure.
Day 3 and already getting painfully engorged. Debating in asking to pump before discharge and donating. Collin wasn’t able to fully empty me out earlier. Nurse is surprised with my supply and all the milk feelings/letdowns. My poor boobs and nipples. If i can survive another week with EBF i will be super proud of myself since I never went past one week with DS. Taking it one feeding at a time. I did feed him some from a bottle earlier and he did great!
I'm with you!!! My boobs are ROCK HARD. And it's funny that 24 hours ago I was stressed he wasn't waking up to feed and had a bad latch. Now he wants the boob at every fuss which is good but I'm also so sore like you say. Since I had to pump at the hospital when he wasn't latching for more than a minute, I'll say without shame I've given him a bottle once a day because my nipples need a break. I'm still pumping so looks like hopefully supply will be ok. I think you should take the pump personally even though I wanted to EBF he needed a boost and I'm totally ok with that.
You guys... DH totally just surprised me by coming home for the weekend. I'm a huge ball of tears I am so happy, and I cant wait to see DS reaction when his daddy wakes him up in the morning!!
@kbernal2021 that is so great!! @wildtot could you pump and have your husband take it home and freeze? I had some painful engagement the last two nights. The first I ended up leakinf through my shirt. last night when i couldn't get Bella to take my right breast which was super full I should have pumped but I didn't because I was lazy and ended up leaking some again. this kid just eats all the time so I'm not getting engorged too often but the let downs sting.
I feel horrible and guilty I have done terrible about changing her diaper at night because im so tired and its hard to tell through the swaddle. this morning her diaper was so full her jammies were wet. ugh mom guilt was terrible. I still feek bad about it.
I have been using the haakaa to collect the letdown while i feed from the other. Let downs are so painful and fast i can hear Collin trying to keep up. I’m to tired and I’m pain to use it right now so nursing pad it is. If my parents weren’t here I’d be kicking out H from the room. He was super against staying another night at the hospital which i kinda agree had not much of a point but he said he would do everything so i can relax and heal. Well once i got in bed, he decided to stay up with my parents. About an hour later he comes to bed wanting to cuddle and i reject him because I’m tired and sore. He then of course proceeds to fall asleep taking over the bed. I wake him to ask to push the bassinet closer to me because anxiety. He does but gets bothered by the request that he doesn’t think to move the step stool either. Now it’s time to take meds and feed, I’m having a hard time moving in bed and getting off. When i wake him to help he says “i just want to get one hour of sleep!” Um wtf?! He got to sleep more this whole week regardless of baby! Sorry to be such a bother, i should of just staying at the hospital. Sorry for midnight drama
@lindsayleigh1989 I was lazy about diaper changes tonight, even four hours seems to be too long but I really want to sleep! My littles are bundled too so unless it’s poo it’s hard to tell how soaked they are. @wildtot having painful let downs here too. I had an oversupply last time and would notice ds1 Trying to keep up too. I’m thinking pumping is stopping that this time maybe for me. Ugh dhs can be so wimpy about sleep and it’s hard to be sympathetic when you’re exhausted and have been caring for lo, sorry
i was up pumping while bottle feeding a twin and wasn’t sitting up enough so a ton of milk came out from the flange and onto my shirt/ pumping bra, what a waste!
@wildtot sorry for your DH being wimpy about sleep. Mine is the same, not looking forward to the grumpy bear he is in the MOTN when LO is finally here! I'm excited the haakkaa is working for you! Is that the one that also pumps? I don't think I get a manual at the hospital this time so I am looking to buying one because it just occured to me I'll be the only person working at the library on fri and sat when I'm there so I think I'll have to secret pump with a cover and a manual.
Finally put Milo down, i must say the Snoo is pretty cool - although I don't like the crazy shakimsof certain levels of "comforting baby" so I turn it down and my husband gets annoyed that I'm not letting it do its thing!
I have a BF question. DS has been good nursing on both sides, his latch is still not perfect but hopefully I can fix that with my doula on Monday (she is an LC too). Anyways, hospital discharged me saying to start with 15 min on each breast so I was doing that and since my milk came in and it was a lot I also pumped a couple of times a day because I felt safe having some extra milk aside and it was relieving some of the pressure.
Now, one night I realized it was easier for me to nurse baby on one side for 30 min vs.switching sides, it felt like less hustle to burp in between sides and then calm him down if he got annoyed that I was giving him another side. It was working well for me as I basically had a milk drunk baby every time and he was always ready to sleep. I was alternating sides every feeding.
Today I decided to call the hospital baby line to get some insight and see if what I was doing was ok. The LC on the phone told me a)not to pump or my body will think I have twins and overproduce 2) let baby drain all the milk instead of pumping and have him be the one regulating my flow 3) she didn't think baby was sucking well for 30 minutes on one side and that he probably was doing a lot of pacifier sucks. She suggested I switch side every time he stops sucking even if it means 5 min back and forth on sides. (Note: the hospital had told me since he is so tiny and also it's so early that I could gently squeeze my boob if he stopped sucking and keep going)
Tbh it's been a lot of work and all afternoon today he hasn't liked it, it takes me 45 min to get him to sleep and that's pretty much an hour we close to rest. He gets fussy if he is at the breast for less than 20 min.
I'm a bit at a loss! Sorry for the novel...ok off to sleep 1.5 hours now (hopefully!)
@kissableviv I agree with them on pumping, you will definitely create an oversupply. But if you want to really build a stash you can keep pumping, you just have to really keep up with it. Only feeding on one side per feeding should actually lower your supply, look up block feeding. What I found worked best in the beginning is to do 15-20 mins on the first side, switch do baby wakes up and that ensures he gets enough milk and also that you keep your supply up, and then let him go as long as he wants on the 2nd side, hopefully he falls asleep on side 2 and then you can put him right down as long as diaper doesn’t need to be changed. I suggest having your LC over and doing a weighted feed, you can even weigh after each side to try to figure out what the best thing is. Figuring it all out in the beginning is so hard and there’s always gknna be a million people telling you it’s best to do a million different things but in the end as long as youve Got the milk and the baby is gaining weight that’s the most important thing.
@kissableviv I was NOT a successful breastfeeder at all the first time around so take this with a grain of salt I guess, but I fully intend on going by @zande2016 's final words in that post...if you have the milk and the baby is gaining weight (and I'm going to add you have a system going that works) then do it. I feel like eventually you'll feel comfortable enough to drop a pump or something down the line, but in these early days if you have something that works and babe's getting fed, high five to you, as long as its not giving you too little milk.
Thanks @Smashjam and @zande2016 I feel like I know some.of these things because I've talked about and researched BF but my brain is so blank atm and as you said the flow of information is crazy. I was still doing the other side at the next feeding and he seemed fine with that but I like @zande2016's suggestion and I'll definitely try that. I stopped pumping and I don't mind because it is extra work, and I gave milk for a few feedings that I can freeze for a rainy day. BF is hard, yo! I'm seeing my doulas on Monday so I'm pretty sure things are still fixable, so far LO is happy and peeing and pooping so he is getting nutrients, on Thursday at the pediatrician we found out he had not dropped any more weight since birth (he dropped 4% which is totally fine), so he is still 6 lbs (he was 6lbs 4oz at birth) at least he is maintaining! Thanks so much for the support!
@kissableviv definitely second everything @zande2016 said. In between getting your baby weighed I would say your best indicator of are they getting enough is output of diapers. My baby was small too (5 lb 6 oz) and hasn't quite established a solid nursing routine yet at 10 days old. First it was every 2 hours then cluster feeding now every 3 hours but still wanting to cluster feed at times. She went a couple of days of only wanting 5 minutes on one side per feeding them back up to her usual 3 hour time frame. I would say feed on demand and if you can try to stick out the engorgement period with massages, warm water etc. I also have found with my baby that I can nurse on one side and let her go as long as she wants (whether 5 or 20 minutes) until she falls off the breast, then before offering her the other side I burp and change her diaper so it wakes her up enough to nurse on the other side. Hang in there mama.. it gets easier!
Almost 4am, debating if i should wake LO to feed since it been about 4hrs. My boobs are huge! I need to do something but I’d hate to interrupt the opportunity for LO to start sleeping longer between feedings at night.
@wildtot what did your pedi say? Mine told me not to let more than 3 hours go. But as you know my LO is tiny. I've gone maybe a little over 3 but not 4 and it sucks because especially in the am he could easily go 4 hours.
2nd night feeding here and it was a success with no fusses, let's see how the next one goes...
@kbernal2021 thank you! And yes that is kind of what I do. Nurse on one side for 20, then DH burps and potentially changes , then we switch. Whole thing takes about an hour but I think it is what it is and these first few weeks we'll just have to be on this wild ride!
Night two... Slept a solid 30 minutes last night. LO wanted the boob or to be held (standing up) All. Night. Long. Shes got some seriously SMELLY gas, I hope she doesn’t have an intolerance/allergy.
@kissableviv hospital and pedi told me 3 hrs. Personally i wouldn’t want to go more than 4/5 hrs anyways because i still got diapers to change. We’ll see what the pedi says tomorrow. I know there are some guidelines on when this would be acceptable to start doing. Fx pedi says it’s ok.
@wildtot I think once baby gets back to birth weight and is gaining steadily the doctor is usually okay with following baby’s cue for feeding but if not they’ll tell you to wake every 2/3/4 hours depending on their size. We woke to feed for a week or two until we were told we no longer had to. It really sucks having to wake a sleeping baby!!
@wildtot I think once baby gets back to birth weight and is gaining steadily the doctor is usually okay with following baby’s cue for feeding but if not they’ll tell you to wake every 2/3/4 hours depending on their size. We woke to feed for a week or two until we were told we no longer had to. It really sucks having to wake a sleeping baby!!
Yes same here that is what he told me. Milo is tiny so I'm trying to really stick to the recommendations but he sleeps sooooooooo well sometimes I'm like CAN I JUST GET 30 MORE MINUTES!!
@zande2016 I do 1 cup of Oats to 2 cups of liquid ( I like half almond milk and half 2% milk). This time I added 2 bananas, a mix of chia, flaxseeds and hemp hearts, a few chopped dates. So yummy!!!
Ugh so tired and baby was even asleep but can i sleep?! Nope! sciatica is acting up, I blame not walking today and sitting too much. Also i have a weird stomach ache that I blame on not eating enough dinner. My left boob has been hurting on and off today which sucks too.
tldr: I'm tired and crabbg that I can't sleep when baby is.
@lindsayleigh1989 Im sorry you're not getting sleep even though baby is. And Im right there with ya on not eating enough today. It seems like my baby weight is falling off a little too fast because Im adjusting to life with a toddler and newborn. It feels like I dont have time to do anything anymore.
Anybody else have terrible boob memory? I am never confident in remembering which boob I started on during my last feeding, and for all I know Ive started out on the same side 3 times in a row.
It's close to 1am my time and I can't sleep, probably due to the 2 naps I took today. I'm also thinking about what other clothes I need to pack in my hospital bag and what else I should get done.
DH is out and DD is in our bed asleep. She sleeps with us sometimes which I'm fine with, she's typically a good calm sleeper. Tonight she kept on rolling towards me and alternating pressing her legs against my belly and kicking my belly in her sleep. It wasn't hard but each time the she did it the inside baby would move and kick back. While it definitely wasn't helping me get to sleep it was pretty cute/funny.
I hope all you new mamas are getting more sleep than I am right now.
@emsnedds i use the app Glow Baby to track feedings and it tells you what boob you last used. It’s helpful but i only use it for tracking. The rest of the community stuff is weird to me with how it functions.
@emsnedds I used an app to track feeds and diapers with DS when he was teeny, with this one I’ve been putting a hair tie on my wrist and switching it to whichever side she nursed last on.
It’s so much nicer being home. My milk even started coming in already, two days earlier than it did with DS which is a freaking miracle for this LO’s sleep tonight. But RIP my nipples.
We are still trying to do figure out this whole sleeping thing, so husband and I are currently taking 2-3 hr shifts at night with the baby since we haven’t found a way to let her sleep while we’re both sleeping that were comfortable with yet. I have a Halo bassinet, but if she’s swaddled with her arms in, she rolls to her side which scares me, on top of the fact that she gets fussy very quickly. If I leave her in a sleep sack with her arms out, she wakes herself up. She will sleep fine if one of us is holding her, of course. I just bought the Halo newborn insert for the bassinet to see if that helps, but until then we are just getting very short stretches of sleep
@ckmb_knottie Have you tried leaving one arm out? Or putting both hands at LOs face/chin then swaddling arms down?
FWIW, both DD and DS would roll into their sides as young littles and neither actually rolled to their belly. At that age, both also scooch(ed) sideways and end up 90-180° from the position I laid them down.
@emsnedds I used an app to track feeds and diapers with DS when he was teeny, with this one I’ve been putting a hair tie on my wrist and switching it to whichever side she nursed last on.
It’s so much nicer being home. My milk even started coming in already, two days earlier than it did with DS which is a freaking miracle for this LO’s sleep tonight. But RIP my nipples.
I also use Glow and while I hate the interface, it's been super helpful to track things.
Also so much ditto on the nipples, @acunamatada! Thankfully mine aren't cracked or bleeding but I think LO is going through the first growth spurt (5-7 days old, he'll be a week today) and he is just AGGRESSIVE when he starts breastfeeding!
@ckmb_knottie rolling onto their sides is a reflex at that age and is totally normal (and it’s safe to swaddle still). It’ll disappear over the next couple weeks!
@TalesOfASocialIntrovert@comealongponds part of my issue with swaddling is our hospital newborn care class suggested only swaddling with arms out, never in for unsupervised sleep. But everyone ive talked to has swaddled with arms in. I think I’m going to try the rock n play tonight, with a sleep sack with arms out and see how it goes. We have our first pediatrician appt tomorrow morning & interested in their opinion.
@ckmb_knottie our DSs were usually swaddled with arms in the hospital but we have Houdinis for newborns and always managed to break out lol. DS2 seems to do better at night with a slightly loose swaddle in the arms region. We mentioned to the pedi that he tends to lean to one side and she said that it can happen especially if they are lifting their legs and weighting then to one side.
Re: MOTN 7/2
@wildtot could you pump and have your husband take it home and freeze? I had some painful engagement the last two nights. The first I ended up leakinf through my shirt. last night when i couldn't get Bella to take my right breast which was super full I should have pumped but I didn't because I was lazy and ended up leaking some again. this kid just eats all the time so I'm not getting engorged too often but the let downs sting.
I feel horrible and guilty I have done terrible about changing her diaper at night because im so tired and its hard to tell through the swaddle. this morning her diaper was so full her jammies were wet. ugh mom guilt was terrible. I still feek bad about it.
If my parents weren’t here I’d be kicking out H from the room. He was super against staying another night at the hospital which i kinda agree had not much of a point but he said he would do everything so i can relax and heal. Well once i got in bed, he decided to stay up with my parents. About an hour later he comes to bed wanting to cuddle and i reject him because I’m tired and sore. He then of course proceeds to fall asleep taking over the bed. I wake him to ask to push the bassinet closer to me because anxiety. He does but gets bothered by the request that he doesn’t think to move the step stool either. Now it’s time to take meds and feed, I’m having a hard time moving in bed and getting off. When i wake him to help he says “i just want to get one hour of sleep!” Um wtf?! He got to sleep more this whole week regardless of baby! Sorry to be such a bother, i should of just staying at the hospital.
Sorry for midnight drama
i was up pumping while bottle feeding a twin and wasn’t sitting up enough so a ton of milk came out from the flange and onto my shirt/ pumping bra, what a waste!
I have a BF question. DS has been good nursing on both sides, his latch is still not perfect but hopefully I can fix that with my doula on Monday (she is an LC too). Anyways, hospital discharged me saying to start with 15 min on each breast so I was doing that and since my milk came in and it was a lot I also pumped a couple of times a day because I felt safe having some extra milk aside and it was relieving some of the pressure.
Now, one night I realized it was easier for me to nurse baby on one side for 30 min vs.switching sides, it felt like less hustle to burp in between sides and then calm him down if he got annoyed that I was giving him another side. It was working well for me as I basically had a milk drunk baby every time and he was always ready to sleep. I was alternating sides every feeding.
Today I decided to call the hospital baby line to get some insight and see if what I was doing was ok. The LC on the phone told me a)not to pump or my body will think I have twins and overproduce 2) let baby drain all the milk instead of pumping and have him be the one regulating my flow 3) she didn't think baby was sucking well for 30 minutes on one side and that he probably was doing a lot of pacifier sucks. She suggested I switch side every time he stops sucking even if it means 5 min back and forth on sides. (Note: the hospital had told me since he is so tiny and also it's so early that I could gently squeeze my boob if he stopped sucking and keep going)
Tbh it's been a lot of work and all afternoon today he hasn't liked it, it takes me 45 min to get him to sleep and that's pretty much an hour we close to rest. He gets fussy if he is at the breast for less than 20 min.
I'm a bit at a loss!
Sorry for the novel...ok off to sleep 1.5 hours now (hopefully!)
I was still doing the other side at the next feeding and he seemed fine with that but I like @zande2016's suggestion and I'll definitely try that. I stopped pumping and I don't mind because it is extra work, and I gave milk for a few feedings that I can freeze for a rainy day. BF is hard, yo! I'm seeing
my doulas on Monday so I'm pretty sure things are still fixable, so far LO is happy and peeing and pooping so he is getting nutrients, on Thursday at the pediatrician we found out he had not dropped any more weight since birth (he dropped 4% which is totally fine), so he is still 6 lbs (he was 6lbs 4oz at birth) at least he is maintaining! Thanks so much for the support!
2nd night feeding here and it was a success with no fusses, let's see how the next one goes...
Shes got some seriously SMELLY gas, I hope she doesn’t have an intolerance/allergy.
tldr: I'm tired and crabbg that I can't sleep when baby is.
Anybody else have terrible boob memory? I am never confident in remembering which boob I started on during my last feeding, and for all I know Ive started out on the same side 3 times in a row.
It’s so much nicer being home. My milk even started coming in already, two days earlier than it did with DS which is a freaking miracle for this LO’s sleep tonight.
But RIP my nipples.
FWIW, both DD and DS would roll into their sides as young littles and neither actually rolled to their belly. At that age, both also scooch(ed) sideways and end up 90-180° from the position I laid them down.
Also so much ditto on the nipples, @acunamatada! Thankfully mine aren't cracked or bleeding but I think LO is going through the first growth spurt (5-7 days old, he'll be a week today) and he is just AGGRESSIVE when he starts breastfeeding!