4th Trimester Check-In 1/12

virginiaham · January 12

How are *you* doing?

Wins/Losses this week?

thatbaintforbetty · January 13

I kinda want to scream and cry but mostly
just curl into a ball and take a nap.

I got into a car accident Friday morning. Thankfully minor and it was just me in the car. It wasn’t my fault and my car is still completely drive able while I wait for insurance to get all the things sorted. But we absolutely did not need another thing to deal with.

DH has been taking “the night shift” which is from like 1-2am to about 4-5am and then I’m up to help with Ollie, get the girls up for school and pump. I do the school drop off, leaving at about 7:45 and back home about 8:30, at which point I take over. Sometimes I’ll get an hour or 2 cat nap in the living room chair but it’s not enough. I honestly don’t even know how I can/would get more sleep when I have to pump every couple of hours.

Also my boobs are killing me. Mostly my nipples, and pumping is freaking uncomfortable. Am I doing it wrong? Or is this normal? I’ve never made it this long before.

Ollie is doing fantastic per the pediatrician and also apparently you cannot have too many poopy diapers. 🫠

Win…I got a good amount of laundry done? The girls have been helpful and also we’ve been getting them to bed at a better time on school nights? I got a real good smile out of this kid? He smiles a lot for DH but he’s also freaking nocturnal so he sees him awake more than me.

I have eaten eggs twice in the last 10 days! That aversion is such a PITA and I eagerly await when I can make breakfast burritos.

Lose.. see above.

caffeinatedandtired · January 13

Glad you are okay @thatbaintforbetty !!

Win: I feel like I’m getting better at soothing LO and knowing what her cries mean…sometimes anyways

Not really a lose, but this is really freakin hard yall. We have had a couple decent nights where she will give us two to three hour stretches of sleep, but the last few nights she only wants to sleep while being held. I feel lucky I am able to breastfeed but it is rough having to wake up multiple times throughout the night to get feed and get her back to sleep. Leaning heavily into this is just a phase and appreciating the newborn snuggles, but we both cry a lot and have a lot of learning and growing to do together.

She’s really cute though and I love her more than anything 💕

nopegoat · January 13

I'm freaking beat. Baby has actually been sleeping decent but I haven't. My other sister has been visiting this week, just left today, and my boys have been overstimulated messes. My big kids are burnt out by guests and trying to help with the little kids and the house. My husband worked 86hrs last week and left yesterday for a week or two for work.

Jumping right in to adjusting to solo parenting 😅🫠

One of our neighbors is supposed to come over tomorrow then hopefully no more visitors for a while. 🙏

aisleofviewtwo · January 15

@thatbaintforbetty The lactation specialists I’ve been working with are adamant that breastfeeding and pumping should not be uncomfortable. Can you lower the suction level on your pump? When mine switches from the letdown to the expression phase it always ramps up to something painful and I have to manually crank it back down to a more comfortable level.
Re: nipple soreness, I’ve found lanolin cream really helpful. I’ve been using free samples of Medela’s Purelan that I got from the hospital, but my impression is that any lanolin will be more or less interchangeable.

thatbaintforbetty · January 15

@aisleofviewtwo I actually had a call with one today to try to figure it out. I have adjusted the suction on mine to make sure that I am in the “enough but not too much” spot. My pump
was initially set low and I wasn’t getting anything at all in the beginning till I started upping it.

She said she thinks I might need to adjust my flange size…again, 😶; the downside to my pump is that I can’t actually see my nipple or the fit very well so it’s hard to tell it’s fitting correctly. I don’t have any other symptoms of a size/fit issue though. She also said it’s very likely I have ligament/nerve pain in my breast, which I can use old/hot compresses to help but it didn’t sound it’s something that goes away as long as I’m pumping/BF. I honestly am so over it. Every single thing has been over the top extra difficult and I’m still not making hardly anything. I also just realized it’s past 5 pm and all I've had today as far as sustenance is 2 cups of coffee because I’d rather (try, it doesn’t always happen) to get more sleep then make myself food.

dogmom5 · January 16

Hey girls!

wins….baby girl is finally to birth weight after 4 weeks! We have been at the Dr every other day, they took her blood, tried to get a urine sample with a catheter…..I had to start giving bottles of my milk with a fortifier in it to gain, and we finally made it! It has been stressful and I don’t even know if I have shared any of this with you girls!

Losses….i don’t know if I can even count anything as a loss. I’ve actually slowed down this postpartum season not worrying about the house so much, letting my husband do more bc he is around with a job at home (usually he is on the road doing construction work). I wish I could just freeze time in this season of life!

hang in there pumping moms. It’s a job to breastfeed let alone pumping! Is there a lactation consultant you can meet with to get fitted for the correct flange size? We have a weekly breastfeeding support group at the hospital and the LC’s were fitting some women this past week.

Hope everyone has a good weekend

rebecksah · January 17

We had a snow day on Thursday, and today was already a scheduled PD day, so we're having a 4-day weekend with all 3 kiddos. Exhausted is an understatement.

Charlotte is a WONDERFUL night sleeper, but she's terrible at napping, which is preferable to the other way around. Day sleep only happens on me or in the wrap baby carrier, and I'm exhausted from holding/carrying her constantly. I need to get things done around the house sometimes!

Since getting her fully on formula, she's happier after her feeds, but she still starts getting hungry 2.5 hrs later, when she should be able to go 4-5 hrs between bottles. During the night, she'll go almost 6 hrs, but during the day, forget it.

Today I escaped the madness for a 40 min appt. I got my first session of dolphin neurostim therapy on my c-section scar (which is healing SO beautifully, I'm really pleased with it). Hoping for good results after 4 sessions.

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