@mckjacks I loooooove that!!!! I wanted to do something similar for our nursery but I decided I don’t have the skills and didn’t have the energy to attempt it. 😂
@baseballismyfavoriteseason thank you!!! It turned out way better than I anticipated. I was really nervous it wouldn’t look good because I’ve never done anything like that before. It took DH and I less than 5 hours to paint the whole nursery and the feature wall (and that was with an hour lunch break).
@kalesix3 Apparently one of my nipples is smaller than the other so she would latch great on one side but not great on the other. The nipple shield saved us in that case. I did the same as @baseballismyfavoriteseason and kept Trying without it and eventually it just clicked. I don’t plan on buying any beforehand but if we have the same issue the lactation consultant at the hospital was the one who set us up with one. The side I used the shield never bled or cracked and I’m sure some of that was due to the shield.
@kalesix3 they gave me a shield in the hospital because I had what looked sort of like friction blisters on day 2. I would think lactation most places would have them available if needed! I used it for less than 48 hours and then stopped because I had healed enough and baby was getting better about latching. She always had a pretty good latch, small lip tie but not enough of a tie for me to worry about since she transferred milk fine! By about a week in, I was in much less pain and we were cruising.
@mckjacks so beautiful! We want an accent wall in the kids room but haven't gotten around to deciding on it!
I never used a shield but my son definitely had a lip tie. We had it revised at 5 weeks, I wish we had it done sooner. The hospital didn't think he had one...he was compressing my nipples A LOT. The revision helped but not as much as I thought however around 3 months things got easier. Not gonna lie, I hated nursing. I hope it's a smoother ride with baby girl. I never bled or had severe cracks at all but I remember having a milk blister that was a pain to get rid of. And because I was new and dumb I wasn't nursing on that side...so one of my boobs started to produce less and less and eventually my son didn't even want it anymore! Even now I can tell one is slightly bigger than the other🙄
Speaking of breastfeeding, do we want a thread? Maybe breastfeeding/formula feeding questions and experiences?
@baseballismyfavoriteseason@babycakesday@carrotsandpeas3@morethanamama Thank you ladies for the feedback, literally so helpful hearing about others experiences! My plan currently is to have the baby at a birthing center and they send everyone home within 4 hours.. so I know I can't rely on a lactation consultant to be there to help me like hospitals have, which really worries me. I'm going to have to do a lot more research on the lactation consultant question because it seems collectively that's more beneficial than the shields alone!
@mckjacks that's absolutely gorgeous, I love it! I've been looking at removable wallpaper for an accent wall because I'm not crafty at all! Mountains are such a cool idea!!
@kalesix3 In my area there is a lactation consultant that would come to our home. I went through severe PPD so I never left and she came to us. It was like $120 and she did an initial visit and two follow ups. Maybe see if there’s something like that in your area? Ask the pediatrician you choose? That’s how we found her, our pediatrician recommended her at DD second appt. Also look into La Leche League in your area and they can help you and answer a lot of questions. I will say we had some lactation advising in my birthing prep classes which helped me be a lot more prepared about what a good latch was and what to expect. But yeah, if you’re looking at consultant versus nipple shield, definitely recommend a consultant a thousands over the shield.
@morethanamama I think a thread would be great. I know we’re starting to think about things post delivery. Or at least I am. How are we getting so close to the third trimester.
@kalesix3 I would definitely look into lactation consultant resources ahead of time if you aren't going to have them at the birthing center. That was part of why we picked the pediatrician office we did--they have two in house lactation consultants with their practice. I didn't end up needing to use them, but it was a resource I was very happy to have available. I also attended a weekly breastfeeding group at the hospital where I delivered. It let me do a weighted feed to get an idea of how she was eating, get weekly weights, and talk to and troubleshoot with other women. I know a lot of these resources are a little harder to come by right now with the COVID restrictions, but I'm hoping they may be more back to normal by the time the baby is here.
@kalesix3 I had my son at a birthing center and they made sure that I had an appointment set up with a lactation consultant before I left since my son was not able to successfully latch while I was there. I discharged around 4 hours after he was born and they were very proactive to make sure I had breastfeeding support in place before they let me leave. I also took donor milk with me to use until he was able to latch. I’d ask to see if they have a lactation consultant they recommend. I also think most insurance companies cover lactation consultants, but you often have to submit the paperwork on your own. I paid $135 for 2 sessions and phone support, but I was too lazy/busy to submit it to insurance.
@kalesix3 most hospitals have lactation consultant on staff and you can ask for a consult they will come to the room pretty quickly. I actually saw three lactation consultants when I had DS in the hospital and then followed up with one at the pediatricians office when I was still trying to BF. Mind you some of them were better then others and def had an issue with of thLC at the hospital but they all tried in their way to be helpful.
The lacation consultant at the hospital also had a nipple sheild so it something that they could provide you to try and show you how to work before buying one. They may even have one that they like more then another one.
There's also a great nonprofit in DC that has breastfeeding classes i think for free. It's in foggy bottom area. https://www.breastfeedingcenter.org/ I'm not sure what area of the country you're from but this place may have their classes online now. The one main take away from the class I got was that breast feeding isn't supposed to hurt (didn't work that way for me at all haha).
Thank you everyone ❤️ these are some amazing tips and resources for me and I appreciate it so much! I'll definitely bring this up at my next appointment and quiz the midwife on all my options, I normally ask about lactation consultants during the meet and greet but I interviewed so many places I forgot to this time. Definitely going to ask about the breastfeeding classes as well! I feel much more confident now!
I ventured out to Target today (most people were wearing masks! Yay!) because we needed some things that I couldn’t get on a pickup order. I found some ISU shorts and shirt for my husband for his birthday, but a bit ago when I was packing them up in his birthday bag, I noticed the shorts said size large 12/14, as in boys 🙈🙈🙈 I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself.
@carrotsandpeas3@morethanamama thank you!! DH and I are super outdoorsy and love mountains. I’m definitely not into traditional gender colors and all that (plus finding pinks, oranges, or purples that looked good in a paint color was super difficult). My mom even bought us “boy” onesies because I liked the patterns more 😂
I'm FINALLY taking my car to a car was tomorrow!! It's been...6 months??? Goodness. I also on a whim decided to wash the car seat cover of our Nuna. We don't drive much but omg that seat was DIRTY underneath! And my son never had accidents in it, it was mostly crumbles😂 anyways, an annoying task I will be glad to have done.
@morethanamama my car needs a wash too! I actually had my interior detailed last month and it looks amazing.
I can't decide what I want to do for wall nursery decor. I originally had my mind set on this set of classic Winnie the Pooh letters for over his crib from Etsy, but they are $20 per letter and I would need 5 so that's expensive! I also thought about maybe cutting his name out of vinyl with my Cricut and just purchasing an SVG file of classic Pooh and Piglet to cut out as well to put over his crib.
Should I splurge on these adorable letters or do a vinyl cutout? I can't decide!
@mamahosch I would definitely hesitate at $20/letter too. If you can find similar paper or lightweight fabric could you do this yourself? JoAnn’s has 12” letter for $4-5 each and then you could mod podge the paper or fabric over them?
@baseballismyfavoriteseason I thought about that! They have the classic Pooh scrapbooking paper in a pack on Amazon. Otherwise I could find fabric - my mom said Hobby Lobby had some! Maybe I’ll get crafty. Lol
Did any of you play the Sims many years ago? I have thought of the deciding how to help your sim recover when they have more than one ailment, like sleep and hunger, whenever I have more than one ailment needing attention. It happened to me this morning. I really had to go to the bathroom, but also was really hungry to the point of nausea. So which do I take care of first? The struggle is real. 😂😂😂
My sister in law told me there were codes for a free download of the Sims during the shutdown. I decided it was best not to tempt myself because I was addicted when I used to play it. It was definitely tempting though. 😬
@mamahosch get crafty! @animalandplantrescuer I totally played the Sims. I got the Sims 3 the year I had my son but I don't have much time to play games. I got addicted to animal crossing during quarantine but I think I have ADD, the novelty quickly wore out:(
@mamahosch I’m planning to do the same thing. I bought my babies name at Joann’s already. I got some paint. And a bunch of scrap booking stickers. I’m going to do 1 letter and see how it looks. If it looks like trash I may break down and buy the ones off Etsy. This is what I’m hoping to achieve. Or something somewhat close.
I got a HORRIBLE Charley horse that spasmed for 2 minutes at 430 this morning... luckily my husband was already awake and reading because I went from asleep to fully awake and yelling really quick. My calf is still sore. Also... my mom is getting super antsy to start buying baby things... it's adorable.
Sorry I've been MIA this week! I started at my new base on Monday, and have been so exhausted by the time I get home that I just crash for, like, an hour and then I cook dinner, do dishes, wind down, and go to bed, so I don't have much energy for TB. However, one of the higher-ups in my office building tested positive for COVID (I had no interaction with him prior to him going into quarantine), so they sent us all home yesterday to telework for the foreseeable future.
I can definitely tell we're in mercury retrograde, though. It's just all these little things going wrong that are pissing me the hell off. For instance, last night about an hour after I went to bed, the battery died on one of our smoke detectors. I tried ignoring it for a while, but the high-pitched sound was freaking my dogs out (my lab/mastiff was literally laying on my head), so I had to get up and investigate. I checked the ones I could reach, but the one in our upstairs hallway was the one that was going off, and I didn't feel comfortable getting the step-ladder and replacing the battery myself, so I had to wake MH up and ask him to do it. I'm just annoyed that there are now things that I can't do myself now that I'm getting bigger.
Speaking of which, I feel like a whale. I've only gained about 12-13lbs, but with it now being summer, I feel so puffy and big all over. My RLP remains the same, and now I have pain in the center of my abs, so of course now I'm worried about diastasis recti. I don't think there's much I can do about it if that's what this is.
@babyodo check out Expecting and Empowered on instagram. They have a ton of great tips on preventing/worsening diastasis recti and lots of good post-delivery info for healing and recovering. I have a whole list of DR friendly exercises/fitness gurus that specialize in it! There are definitely some breathing exercises you can do during pregnancy to help.
I hadn't heard of diastatis recti for. Something else to worry about!
Current pregnancy - First BFP on 1/4/22. Due date 9/13/22.
Four prior losses, no living children - 1 first trimester miscarriage, 1 blighted ovum, 1 chemical, and one extreme premature live birth daughter who died at 15 days old.
Just a PSA on diastasis recti, you can't actually prevent your abdominal muscles from seperating to allow baby to grow, as your belly gets bigger it's going to happen and it's completely normal, it happens to everyone! DR is only when the muscles don't knit back together postpartum, that's when you look into fixing them. There's definitely things you can do to prevent so much weakening and bulging as seperation happens in pregnancy, but you can't avoid your belly needing to grow! I only know all this because I go DR when I was younger pre pregnancy and have spent so much time talking to PTs and fitness experts about it!
Current pregnancy - First BFP on 1/4/22. Due date 9/13/22.
Four prior losses, no living children - 1 first trimester miscarriage, 1 blighted ovum, 1 chemical, and one extreme premature live birth daughter who died at 15 days old.
@babyodo I totally feel you about getting frustrated not being able to do things. Just when I feel like maybe my fatigue has waned enough for me to pick up a new chore, it puts me in my place. This morning I tried making a breakfast scramble with peppers and kale, and it totally wiped me out. I shall continue to never make dinner.
@amapa20 that sounds absolutely amazing though! Fatigue is so hard to push through, I'm hoping by increasing iron rich foods I can get my hemoglobin to a better number and start feeling less like a corpse.
I don't know who remembers my saga with looking for a dress for my friends wedding, I found an amazing one and ordered it and just tried it on today.. it fits.. but just barely in the boob area and I'm so bummed, I don't know whether I hold out hope that my boobs won't explode in the next five weeks.. or whether I return it and get a bigger size that fits like a tent for the sake of caution in case I really do grow even more.. 😩 as if shopping isn't already stressful enough, trying to guess how enormous I'm going to get is really bumming me out. What would you guys do in my shoes?
I'm totally with y'all on the surprise fatigue. I'll have a great burst of energy and start a project, by the end I'm ready to collapse. I spent 30 minutes putting away clothes and moving all my 'no longer fits' clothing to one location and by the end I feel like I need a nap....
@kalesix3 could you order one in a size bigger, keep both until the day and then return the one you dont wear?
@aefsparrow I couldn't do it without returning this one first to get a refund, I only have a 28 day window for returns and five weeks till the wedding, so I could return this one.. wait a while, then order two new dresses, and return one of them after the wedding.. but I'd really have to be sure about the size because the measurements are spot on and somehow it's just barely fitting.. 😩
I developed diastasis recti with DS. I actually had it checked when DS was 2 months old and the PT didn’t think it was a big enough gap to be an issue. I didn’t really try very hard to work on it and now the gap is just getting worse due to being pregnant again. It has caused my belly button to already stick out! I will definitely be more diligent on doing exercises to fix the problem after this baby is born!!
I’ve been MIA because we have been cleaning and fixing up (thankfully small) things to list our house this afternoon! We currently live in a townhouse and are so ready for a single family home with a nice yard for the kids.
The townhouse down the street sold in 2 days for over asking so I’m hoping ours does as well! We are also looking at a few houses today, one of which would be a dream, so I hope we love it in person!
Re: June Randoms
Trying without it and eventually it just clicked. I don’t plan on buying any beforehand but if we have the same issue the lactation consultant at the hospital was the one who set us up with one. The side I used the shield never bled or cracked and I’m sure some of that was due to the shield.
I never used a shield but my son definitely had a lip tie. We had it revised at 5 weeks, I wish we had it done sooner. The hospital didn't think he had one...he was compressing my nipples A LOT. The revision helped but not as much as I thought however around 3 months things got easier. Not gonna lie, I hated nursing. I hope it's a smoother ride with baby girl. I never bled or had severe cracks at all but I remember having a milk blister that was a pain to get rid of. And because I was new and dumb I wasn't nursing on that side...so one of my boobs started to produce less and less and eventually my son didn't even want it anymore! Even now I can tell one is slightly bigger than the other🙄
Speaking of breastfeeding, do we want a thread? Maybe breastfeeding/formula feeding questions and experiences?
Thank you ladies for the feedback, literally so helpful hearing about others experiences!
My plan currently is to have the baby at a birthing center and they send everyone home within 4 hours.. so I know I can't rely on a lactation consultant to be there to help me like hospitals have, which really worries me. I'm going to have to do a lot more research on the lactation consultant question because it seems collectively that's more beneficial than the shields alone!
@mckjacks that's absolutely gorgeous, I love it! I've been looking at removable wallpaper for an accent wall because I'm not crafty at all! Mountains are such a cool idea!!
The lacation consultant at the hospital also had a nipple sheild so it something that they could provide you to try and show you how to work before buying one. They may even have one that they like more then another one.
There's also a great nonprofit in DC that has breastfeeding classes i think for free. It's in foggy bottom area. https://www.breastfeedingcenter.org/
I'm not sure what area of the country you're from but this place may have their classes online now. The one main take away from the class I got was that breast feeding isn't supposed to hurt (didn't work that way for me at all haha).
I'll definitely bring this up at my next appointment and quiz the midwife on all my options, I normally ask about lactation consultants during the meet and greet but I interviewed so many places I forgot to this time. Definitely going to ask about the breastfeeding classes as well! I feel much more confident now!
I ventured out to Target today (most people were wearing masks! Yay!) because we needed some things that I couldn’t get on a pickup order. I found some ISU shorts and shirt for my husband for his birthday, but a bit ago when I was packing them up in his birthday bag, I noticed the shorts said size large 12/14, as in boys 🙈🙈🙈 I laughed so hard I nearly peed myself.
I can't decide what I want to do for wall nursery decor. I originally had my mind set on this set of classic Winnie the Pooh letters for over his crib from Etsy, but they are $20 per letter and I would need 5 so that's expensive! I also thought about maybe cutting his name out of vinyl with my Cricut and just purchasing an SVG file of classic Pooh and Piglet to cut out as well to put over his crib.
Should I splurge on these adorable letters or do a vinyl cutout? I can't decide!
I definitely don't have both Sims 3 and Sims 4 installed on laptop that I only bought a year ago 😬😆
@animalandplantrescuer I totally played the Sims. I got the Sims 3 the year I had my son but I don't have much time to play games. I got addicted to animal crossing during quarantine but I think I have ADD, the novelty quickly wore out:(
I can definitely tell we're in mercury retrograde, though. It's just all these little things going wrong that are pissing me the hell off. For instance, last night about an hour after I went to bed, the battery died on one of our smoke detectors. I tried ignoring it for a while, but the high-pitched sound was freaking my dogs out (my lab/mastiff was literally laying on my head), so I had to get up and investigate. I checked the ones I could reach, but the one in our upstairs hallway was the one that was going off, and I didn't feel comfortable getting the step-ladder and replacing the battery myself, so I had to wake MH up and ask him to do it. I'm just annoyed that there are now things that I can't do myself now that I'm getting bigger.
Speaking of which, I feel like a whale. I've only gained about 12-13lbs, but with it now being summer, I feel so puffy and big all over. My RLP remains the same, and now I have pain in the center of my abs, so of course now I'm worried about diastasis recti. I don't think there's much I can do about it if that's what this is.
Due with baby #2: Feb 2022
First BFP on 1/4/22. Due date 9/13/22.
DR is only when the muscles don't knit back together postpartum, that's when you look into fixing them. There's definitely things you can do to prevent so much weakening and bulging as seperation happens in pregnancy, but you can't avoid your belly needing to grow!
I only know all this because I go DR when I was younger pre pregnancy and have spent so much time talking to PTs and fitness experts about it!
First BFP on 1/4/22. Due date 9/13/22.
I don't know who remembers my saga with looking for a dress for my friends wedding, I found an amazing one and ordered it and just tried it on today.. it fits.. but just barely in the boob area and I'm so bummed, I don't know whether I hold out hope that my boobs won't explode in the next five weeks.. or whether I return it and get a bigger size that fits like a tent for the sake of caution in case I really do grow even more.. 😩 as if shopping isn't already stressful enough, trying to guess how enormous I'm going to get is really bumming me out. What would you guys do in my shoes?
@kalesix3 could you order one in a size bigger, keep both until the day and then return the one you dont wear?
The townhouse down the street sold in 2 days for over asking so I’m hoping ours does as well! We are also looking at a few houses today, one of which would be a dream, so I hope we love it in person!