Calling all the Pregnant PS''ers

[cara]

Thanks for the zofran support. My husband actually warned me about sticker shock when I left the house, apparently some formulations run $1000 per dose in the hospital

(chemo patients are not in a position to bargain, I guess.) My pharmacy substituted a generic, and the copay was only $10 so that''s fine. For kicks I asked what the brand name would cost (for 30 pills, apx. a 5-10 day supply if taken according to the instructions) and got a 4-digit price back before the decimal.

I have taken two of my generics, so lets hope they work!

Luvinlife, ugh for your experience. I have not actually lost scary amounts of weight as I haven''t actually been throwing up. But the nausea has been pretty incapacitating and making me miserable. I am seriously concerned for my work performance if it keeps up like this, so I''m trying the meds. Even with a few random hours here and there of relief like yesterday afternoon, its not enough to maintain a semblance of reasonable output for the bosses! And ideally things will be better for the baby if I remain employed in some fashion

Mara, little julian is a little love bug, what cheeks!

MP, I am clearly not an expert on the bf, but it seems that many women pass a hump of some kind and it gets much easier for them and then pumping is a pain relative to straight from the tap. Obviously go with whatever works for you, and for some women it never gets easier, but if you are interested in bf it seems that making an effort to get past early difficulties can be rewarding later with an easier time. Also, *one* of the benefits to the baby of breastfeeding is the exercise and aerobic capacity from having to suck the milk out. Clearly there are lots of benefits that come from the milk substance itself that your baby would get if bottle-fed with pumped milk, but just thought I''d throw that out there as another tidbit to consider. Some of the hospitals have LCs that can visit you and the newborn while you are still in the hospital, and maybe you can ask your doc about if there are LCs available for you to visit in the early weeks if needed? So while taking a class ahead of time seems ideal, maybe some reading and rely on LCs after would be sufficient?

 

[Mara]

thanks ladies!! those cheeks are really CRAZY town, we adore them, esp in conjunction with his little rosebud mouth. he's such a little heartbreaker.

re bf'ing...yeah we took the class and did the reading. we were totally like 'breast is best!'. but in practice...the reason we started supplementing was because of the jaundice/bilirubin. he had really high levels at his first test and he had to spend most of our time in the hospital under the tanning bed AND being poked continuously for blood tests. we also had to bring the light blanket home with us and use it during the days. now his levels are evening out and they are happy with them. but as part of the treatment they want the baby's body to really start flushing itself out...which means pee and poo and that doesn't happen as much with just feeding them your colustrum...it can take a few days before you see their first poo with just colustrum and we just didn't have that time.

honestly, we weren't sure about it at first since we wanted to bf, but the hospital didn't push it, they just said this is what we recommend but you can do what you feel is best. also our hospital did ask if we planned to bf and if you do they don't ask if you want to supplement typically so they are pretty good about it.

the thing is that since we started supplementing for the flushing... he is used to eating and wants to eat all the time and gets really PO'd if he doesn't. so i had to do the pumping to try to get the milk faster, we are doing skin to skin and did right after birth and i also gave him the boob right after birth and we give him the boob for about 5 min each time before feeding him formula to try to help make sure he doesn't just expect an easy bottle coming each time. i wait til he is really pissed off with the boob before we feed him. i know that it might be a struggle to transition but we'll figure it out.

at this point i don't care if we EBF. i just want him to be able to take my milk one way or another to give him the benefits. if that is a combo of boob and breast (like a bunch of my friends have done and recommend) then that's the way it'll be. i told his ped that i didn't mind doing what needed to be done for him to just get his nutrients and i said i wouldn't be 'crying in the corner if i couldn't just EBF' and he was like 'a lot of women don't feel that way'.

i figure whatever works for each individual child and parent/family...and i know all the research re: bf'ing and breast milk etc. but i also know a lot of real life examples in the form of adults and kids who had it done all different ways. i don't really know any 'messed up' kids or adults that would blame the bf or lack thereof kind of thing you know?? i was raised on formula, so were my sisters. greg was breastfed. my friends are a combo.

anyway i just wanted to chime in and post this because in our BF class they were pretty militant about boob only and all that, and we WERE more on board with that, but i think that when it comes down to it in PRACTICE for a first time parent, we had to kind of change our thinking and go with what felt right at the time based on the situation. kind of like what i'd said about expectations during pregnancy and how in reality things might have to change.

PLUS...and maybe RPS you can answer this or any mom with multiple kids but honestly in the first few days all they seem to do is sleep and eat. if i was only feeding him colustrum, wouldn't he be screaming bloody murder?? in the newborn club (where they have you come 24 hours after discharge with baby to help you learn latch and bfing and all that) they showed us this little marble thing and they said first day the stomach is a marble, but 2nd day it was larger and 3rd day it was the size of a golf ball. still small but like triple first day. so if milk doesn't come in til 3-5 days which i know is not unheard of for first time moms... how does everyone make it?? our kid would be screaming bloody murder and we'd probably run off!

re: the belly...yeah every day greg says it looks smaller...but to me it still looks the same haha. i am just happy it's smaller and i can eat and heartburn is gone, yay.

oh and RPS i am glad you mentioned that re: the pump. i def wasn't thinking doing it at like week 30 or anything but now that we are kind of in this situ i am like GEE it would have been nice if i had a pump just a few days earlier to just get started--plus stimulating actual labor then would have been what i wanted hahaa. though i am happy with how things have turned out so far. bottom line for us is that we want a happy, healthy kid regardless of how we achieve it.

last nite we went to bed at 10, got up at 12:30 with him to feed, pump, burp (this is also working out nicely for me because i can do the boob time, then greg feeds him while i pump the 15 min and then we can burp and go back to bed within like 45 min); back to bed around 1:15 then up again at 4:30 with him; same routine, then back up at almost 7. so not so bad right now. Knock on wood!!

 

[lover in athens]

Just chiming in on the BF stuff.

Coby was 5lb 14oz when he was born. He was pretty early so had bad jaundice and spent a lot of time under the bili-lights. He was 5lbs even when we brought him home (he lost a LOT of weight!). The only time I supplemented was once overnight in the hospital when I wanted to get some sleep. Instead of using a bottle, I asked that they dropper feed him to avoid nipple confusion. Even though he was TINY, they never made me supplement once we got home...I just had to go back every few days for weight checks. I guess every pediatrician is different!!! So if you are dead set on NOT supplementing, don''t stress!!!

 

[rockpaperscissors67]

Mer, ok, I don''t feel so hopelessly out of it if your class covered the stuff I said. I knew in some situations, like Steph''s with the baby losing more than 10% of his birth weight, doctors will push for supplementing. The 10% guide was what we used at WIC, too. There was one caveat -- if the mom had an IV in labor, that can inflate the baby''s birth weight, so he might lose a little more than 10% with no ill effects. The amount a baby can lose is very much a judgement call between the doc and mom; I''m much more comfortable with a bigger baby losing 10%+ than a teeny baby.

That said, I don''t even know how much Ben ended up losing because I tend to be pretty relaxed about it. He was weighed 24 hours after birth and was 6 lb. 4 oz. Our mw said she expected him to have lost more than that and I was surprised, too, given that he pooped massive quantities! I assume that he did lose more after that 24 hours. I''m also pretty relaxed about my expectations about getting back to birth weight, but only because all of my kids have taken longer than the usual 2 weeks. If Ben were my first, I would probably worry if he wasn''t back in that 2 weeks.

I know it sounds so gross to want to hold your baby immediately after birth, but you might feel differently when the time comes. Newborns are a little bit disgusting, but it''s so awesome to be some of the first hands to touch them! When our mw put Ben up on my stomach, some of my first words were "he''s so slimy!"

I love those first moments when a baby is wide eyed and taking in this brand new world.

We don''t do the eye drops because they blur a baby''s vision and I don''t think they''re necessary. But with the kids that were born in the hospital and had the eye goop, I wanted to get a good look at them with their eyes open before the drops were put in.

The good thing is that if you do skin to skin immediately and let the baby nuzzle at your breast, it will help you deliver the placenta more quickly.

About the bottles: I''ve never used Dr. Brown''s so keep that in mind. I have read that they can leak like crazy, though, so that was enough to turn me off them. BTW, I also had a couple of Avent bottles that leaked, too.

I used the Playtex bottles with the drop ins with Will and will use them again with Ben. They''re very old school, but I loved them. I honestly don''t believe that they''re less work than any other bottles -- I still had to wash bottles, nipples and caps as well as my pump parts every night. And I don''t think they offered any significant benefit over any other bottles -- I still transferred milk from the storage bottles to the drop ins every night. Will went back and forth between breast and bottle happily. The only thing that I was adamant about was using a slow flow nipple the entire time.

If I had to supplement in the first 3 weeks, though, I''d be more inclined to use a syringe than a bottle just to be sure to avoid nipple confusion or preference.

MP, unfortunately, pumping isn''t as good as direct from the tap because a baby is so much more efficient at getting milk. A lot of women have no problems providing all the milk their baby needs -- and the baby is growing like a weed -- but the woman can''t pump very much at all! Pumping is really a learned art; when you start out, you may only get drops, but as you pump more, you''ll teach your body to respond to the pump. This is something that''s really important to keep in mind because when you pump the first time, OMG it can be SO discouraging to get so little. I''ve pumped three times because Ben''s a lazy nurser so he leaves me engorged and uncomfortable and I have ONE OUNCE in the fridge.

When you pump to replace a feeding, such as if you''re at work, it''s normal to pump anywhere for .5-3 oz. TOTAL. Some women produce much more, but that''s not the norm.

Most LCs will tell you that if breastfeeding hurts, it''s a latch problem, but I''m not absolutely convinced that''s true. With every one of my kids, I''ve had a brief period (like a couple of days) where it hurt. Luckily, it didn''t last very long! I made sure to take some Advil about 30 minutes before I anticipated the baby wanting to feed and I''m also obsessive about getting a good latch in the beginning. I will unlatch and relatch Ben 20 times if necessary because once the baby learns how to latch right, life is soooo much easier.

To help with any pain, I also recommend using a good nipple cream (I''ve used Lansinoh in the past and like it, but it''s heavy, so this time, I have another one that I got Earth Mama nipple butter and it''s very light) and some type of gel pads, like Soothies. I think these things can make a big difference!

I hope that helps!

 

[Steel]

Congratulations QT; Great job!

Mara, I am swooning at the pic of Greg and son at the morning feed.

So cute.

 

[ChinaCat]

QT- Thanks for the birth story. LOVE that you were laughing through your contractions! JJ is so cute.

Mara- Great name. Will you call him "Julian"? I had a dream last night that you posted on PS that you weren't going to share your name and the preggo thread was all up in arms after waiting so long!

It's so different now that he's here, huh? Like you MADE this tiny creature, how awesome is that????

Mer- I was given the ice packs at the hospital here. They are like huge maxi-pads and you sort of "break" them up and the cold is released. You place them in the pretty mesh undies. Sounds uncomfortable but they were really soothing. As for the pump- I think they had one there but they gave me all of the parts to take home. I had rented the exact same one for at home, so it was an easy transition.

BF- My hospital was very supportive of EBF. In fact, when I asked for the free formula that they give you, my LC was like "why"? I was like it's free and just in case! For some reason I was not stressed at all about how much he was getting. Probably b/c of the BF class which clearly explained that the babies are designed to only need the colostrum until your milk comes in a few days later. Colostrum is really really high in fat- they call it "liquid gold". B/c I had a "flat" nipple, they recommended that I pump for 10 minutes or so before I fed him. By doing that, I actually saw how much colostrum I produced and it was a LOT. So I felt confident he was getting plenty. And he never screamed like he was hungry. In fact, O didn't lose hardly any weight at all b/w his birth and his first ped appointment. Weirdly, he didn't gain enough later, but in the beginning he got plenty. Though I definitely think with jaundice it is recommended to use the formula like Mara said, it does flush the bad stuff out a lot quicker.

Like all of it, everyone is different and you have to do what YOU feel is best for your baby. EBF is great, but if you have to or want to supplement, trust your instincts. But also trust that your body is providing what your baby needs, so if you want to EBF and you have no other issues, don't think you need to supplement in the first few days just b/c you don't have milk yet. Just my two cents!

ETA: RPS- HA!!!! When they first held O up to me and handed to me, I believe my first words were "Oh my god, he looks like Gollum!" Which would be the creepy creature from Lord of the Rings. But he did- he was wrinkly and kinda grey and his arms and legs were all long and intertwined. The nurse got a good laugh out of it, said new moms usually aren't that honest.

Oh- I totally forgot how difficult BF seemed in the beginning. O latched correctly and I was producing milk and didn't have any issues, but just trying to remember how to hold him and hold your boob in just the right way to get them to latch properly. Trying to hold him, hold the boob, get his little head at just the right angle... now it's so easy, he just latches right on and I don't have to hold him or anything. But it's quite complicated in the beginning!

 

[rockpaperscissors67]

Mara, sorry, this is what happens when it takes 90 minutes to write a post, LOL!

About the screaming from hunger...I haven''t had any problems with it. With my kids, the time when they really woke up and wanted to eat and when my milk came in seemed to coincide pretty well.

However -- and you know there had to be a however -- all of them have done cluster feeding in the first few days. This is when they''ll nurse for a bit then nap then nurse then nap, so that it seems that they eat like 20 times in a 2-3 hour period. It''s totally normal for newborns to do this, especially in the early evening. I guess the theory is that they do this to increase your supply.

I think if I hadn''t read about it, I might assume that I didn''t have enough milk, and I''ve heard enough women say this to know that I''m not alone.

But yeah, somehow things have worked out with my kids that even when they cluster feed, we''ve gotten through it pretty quickly. Tuesday, Ben was doing it -- I swear, he nursed for 4 hours straight in the evening and as soon as I put him down, he''d start crying, so I''d nurse him again. Then yesterday, I was the one hounding him to nurse!

Oh, about jaundice: Ben has a touch of it, and this weather is ticking me off! Unless it''s really bad, I treat jaundice with nursing a lot and brief exposure to sunshine -- and we are not having any sunshine!! I''m guessing he''ll hold on to a bit longer than if it were later in the year. Oh, well.

 

[MonkeyPie]

THANKS RPS, that really helps a lot! I always wondered why women didn't pump more if it was easier - turns out it isn't! Darn it, I so want to BF. I hope I am one of those lucky producers. I am leaking at night already so maybe it will be easier for me, lol.

 

[curlygirl]

qt, great birth story! Jaron is so adorable!!!

Mara, I LOVE the name Julian!! It was definitely on our list if we had a boy. He is all cheeks--so cute! And I think he looks like you. Sounds like everything is going well--you have the right attitude. Don''t get stuck on what you''re "supposed" to do or what you had expected to do. Just do what works. The first few months are about survival and it sounds like you''re off to a good start.

 

[vespergirl]

Date: 2/4/2010 9:36:46 AM
Author: meresal
Qt and Mara- Congratulations! Your little men are adorable!

Mara- Thanks for explaining the underwear. I will be sure to ask about those!

RPS- I had my BF calss last night and it was pretty interesting to hear all the info about the first few days. She really emphasized all of the skin-2-skin contact you want to have with the baby in the first 24 hours, because it will cause some hormone to help your milk come in. She also emphasized making sure the doctors let you try and feed as soon as possible after the baby is born, and to NOT let them tell you that you ''need'' to supplement if he isn''t eating right away. The baby''s stomach is only 2 ml or so and like you said, they can survive for the first 48 hours on colostrum and body fat.
The other strange thing she told me, is if they tell you that the baby is ''losing'' too much weight and you need to supplement, be sure to ask them how much. Apparently it is perfectly normal for the baby to lose anywhere from 7-8% of thier body weight after being born.

So much info...

. She also recommended asking for the baby right after he comes out, when he is covered in amniotic fluid and before they put the eye drops in, but I think we may pass on that one.

Also, not sure if anyone can give advice on this, but she said that the Dr. Browns''s bottles, though nice, are not great for resembling the breast. She said that the First Year''s Breast Flow, because of the very wide nipple, is a better option if you do have to pump and feed from a bottle or supplement at all. Anyone have any history with this?

DH went with. Unfortunately he forgot about the part where I told him it was a 2.5 hour class. I almost needed help blocking the doorway once we were in.

It was good having him there though. I don''t have to rely on knowing everything myself, which I KNOW would stress me out after the baby is born if we run into any ''road blocks''.

She put on a 20 minute video that I couldn''t even watch. I felt like a teenager again. lol

Aren''t those videos awful? I''m glad that I''m not the only one who cracks up when I have to go to the birthing/BFing classes. The materials are so funny because the photos & video are all from the early 80s, so the clothes/hair are a hoot, plus the instructors are so earnest, I always felt like, isn''t this hilarious to anyone else?

We took our childbirth prep & BFing classes over 3 years ago when we had our first, and whenever I would start cracking up, the nurse would give me a dirty look & then DH would crack up too, then the rest of the couples would give us dirty looks. Apparantly, at ages 30 & 35 we weren''t mature enough to handle the content

We have one "refresher" birthing class for this kiddo that we''re taking next week, and it''s 3 hours long. I''m already practicing my straight face so I don''t embarrass us again this time ...

 

[meresal]

Vesper- I recommend taking reading material to distract you when you feel the urge to laugh. Luckily they gave us a few pamphlets at the beginning, which by the end of the movie I had read almost 2 full times.

Luckily a few of the other couples in the room couldn't help but giggle a few times either. One woman actually snorted in the beginning, so that kind of eased the tension for everyone else.

Our movie was not only from the 80's but it was made by the Australian Breast Feeding Assoc, and at the end of the movie, in the credits, it gave the number to call if you needed help. DH raised his hand to ask if the hospital would cover the long distance charge from our room. I almost peed myself.

Mara- Our instructor was VERY pro "only boob", but DH and I are trying to be very open minded about everything, and have the same approach that you and Greg do. Whatever needs to be done, will be done. No sense in worrying about things like that, when we have our brand new blessing in our arms.

RPS- One thing she told us to do, if we did need to use a bottle, was to use the bigger nipples and to feed the baby sitting up. I don't know if I can explain this right, but she said that we shoudl be in control of the flow. Set the baby on your knee with your hand behind his neck, then tilt the bottle up for a few seconds, and then lower it down so that the baby still feels the need to suck at it. Then to repeat this. Does that make any sense to you?

 

[snlee]

Mara, sounds like things are going as well as they can be. The first few days are SO hectic. You don''t know what you''re supposed to be doing -feed baby, eat, sleep, shower, feed baby????...ahhh!

Just wanted to say don''t worry about having to supplement and bottle feed. If you do want to only BF it''s very doable to make the switch. What level was Julian''s BR at? At 4 days old D had to be hospitalized because of crazy high levels. It was up into the mid-twenties, which is transfusion level, time to worry high. So scary as a first time mom! Of course I wanted them to do anything they could to make him better. Right after we checked into the hospital they gave him formula in a bottle, with our consent. They wanted him to eat as much as he could so he could pee and poop that BR out. We were in the hospital for 2 days and I pumped that entire time and also BF him. They would give him the bottle of either my BF milk or formula. He was in the incubator under a ton of light for most of that time. Thank god his number went down so no transfusion was needed and he''s as healthy as can be now! When we got home, I just BF him. Once your milk fully comes in, you will probably find it easier to just BF him so you don''t have to worry about the pumping and washing bottles. I''m glad to hear Julian is doing well and his BR level is going down.

 

[ChinaCat]

Mer- My DH referred to it as making him watch a "snuff film". He was horrified.

Plus he was the only guy in the class for some reason. AND his blackberry service was out so he was stuck the whole time. I would have felt sorry for him except for the fact that I actually had to go through labor and he didn''t.

 

[meresal]

Date: 2/4/2010 1:02:47 PM
Author: ChinaCat
Mer- My DH referred to it as making him watch a ''snuff film''. He was horrified.

Plus he was the only guy in the class for some reason. AND his blackberry service was out so he was stuck the whole time. I would have felt sorry for him except for the fact that I actually had to go through labor and he didn''t.

LOL! DH actually made the comment about why the women in these "instructional" videos always seem so, umm, masculine... and the only answer I could come up with, was that if they were attractive, it could possibly be considered ****.

 

[ChinaCat]

Mer- Ummm, if you like your **** to be sprinkled with blood and gore!

ETA: Oh sorry, you were talking about the BF video! I thought you were talking about the labor video. Our BF video featured some weirdo French couple. The instructor kept talking about how beautiful and perfect the woman's breasts were. I will just say that people have different tastes. It must have been from the 80's as well, cause she had this crazy 80's swimsuit tan line. The point of our video was that babies have an instinctual urge to root for the nipple. They put the baby on her chest near her boob, but far enough away so that the baby had to try and find it. We spent 45 minutes watching the woman jiggle her boob at the baby, who couldn't move. I was like PUT THE BABY ON YOUR BOOB and let's move on!!! Cool in theory, but come on.

 

[meresal]

Date: 2/4/2010 1:09:08 PM
Author: ChinaCat
Mer- Ummm, if you like your **** to be sprinkled with blood and gore!

Ohh, this was the breastfeeding class. LOL! Two different wave lenghts!

Do they show birthing videos in the childbirth classes?

 

[Mara]

snlee... well they accidentally tested him at 3 hours of age, and got a level of 4. which apparently is really high in an alarming kind of way, but he was 3 hours old. i kind of was like...umm within 3 hours of age, do anyone's organs REALLY work that well? hehee. so they were worried. at 15 hours of age he was 6.4 which was photo treatment. at 24 hours he was 6.2 so they were happier. our doctor said he was being conservative because the original level was so high AND my family has a history of it (all 3 of us girls had to get the light treatment), but we were ok with being conservative honestly. he just didn't want us to have to bring him BACK 2 days later with higher levels, he was also talking about a transfusion originally.

and then yesterday at about 3 days of age it was 10 which apparently is normal range for that age. so we have the light still and can use it at home a little bit, but as soon as my milk comes in i plan to try to wean him off. i am getting a little milk each time now so hopefully it's very close!

re: types of nipples for bottles, one thing we noticed is we have the avent and the born free, both of which are kind of too biggie for the baby right now even though they are newborn size, and they feed him too much milk at a time for my taste. so we are using these cheapie little gerber plastic bpa free bottle nipples with just a tiny hole so it doesn't overdose him in 2 seconds. just a note for anyone thinking of trying diff types, i wouldn't 'stock up' on a bunch of one brand at first, just get one or two of each and see what you like.

re: the baby on skin after birth... we did the skin to skin immediately and they just swabbed him off with a towel while he was on my body. honestly at the time you don't even care about the fact he has goo on him...and he was not that slimy either hehe. it's not like he would slide off if they didn't clean him lol...and i think most hospitals will put them on you then just do a quick wipe down while you hold him. he got his bath, checkup, drops etc later after i was all stitched up etc.

re: the 10%, yes our hospital also has that same gauge, they don't want to see more than 10% loss after birth weight. because we did the formula, our guy is only at like 5-6%.

RPS one Q on the medela freestyle you got... did it come with the standard size flanges or can you order it with the larger size flange for biggie nipples? i have the rental hospital pump and now that things are happening, my nipples are larger than yesterday and are touching the side of the pump which apparently is a no no and how they get sore. the gal told me to get bigger flanges so just wondering on what my options are for when i buy the freestyle. at this point i wonder if i should just get it since the hospital pump flanges are like $30 for bigger size.

btw RPS are you posting/reading the newborn thread? i guess i should defect the preggos and move over there any minute now...hehee.

 

[ChinaCat]

Mer- Yes, sorry, just realized that was editing my post for you!!! Well, they did in my class. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but I still couldn't watch the whole thing. That's the one my DH referred to as a snuff film.

ETA: Mara, RPS, QT come on over!!! Steph has already made her appearance.

 

[Burk]

Mara~Julian is adorable. LOVE the cheeks. Sounds like you are doing great!!

I have my 38 week appt today (I''ll be 39 weeks Sunday). Hopefully I am making some progress because I''m ready to meet this little guy!!

 

[qtiekiki]

Mara
Julian is so cute, and I do see a lot of you in him. I find it so interesting that some babies show resemblances to their parents so early on, and others not so much. Meena and Jaron both doesn''t look like either of us as newborns, and some people still say they don''t know who Meena looks like.

I love your attitude with BFing and supplementing. Every mom has to make the decision that works best for their situations.

BFing
Nature has a way of working things out. For Meena, the first couple days before the milk came in, she was so tired and would barely wake up to feed. So we have to wake her up every 3 hrs to nurse to make sure she is getting enough colostrum, and sometimes she''ll just do 5 mins or so. Once the milk came in, we just nursed on demand. With Jaron, so far, he''s been nursing pretty frequently, every 2 hrs or so, and he will suck for over 15 mins on each breasts. My breasts are feeling engorged today, so my milk is probably coming in. I didn''t feel the let down when he nursed this morning, but I could hear him swallowing.
My hospital had become more supportive of BF since I had Meena. The nurse was constantly asking us to supplement with Meena when she didn''t pee. We said no and waited, and she finally peed right before the 24 hours mark. The thing was she didn''t even lose weights at the hospital. She was still 7lbs 1oz when we left the hospital. With Jaron, they didn''t even mentioned supplement once. And they were now offering BFing class daily at 10am for the new moms.

Pumping
I am kind of wary of pumping before my milk comes in, only b/c I don''t want to be overly engorged when the milk does come in. Though I would do it if the baby wasn''t nursing regularly.
I think the pumps only come with the standard size flanges, and you''ll have to order the larger size ones. I''ve heard about people calling Medela customer services, and getting the larger size flanges for free.

Mer
I was also given ice pads to help with swelling. At my hospital, the nurse said to use it only for a 12 hour period. Don''t know the reason, but I wasn''t really swollen anyways.

 

[TravelingGal]

Date: 2/4/2010 1:17:00 PM
Author: Mara
snlee... well they accidentally tested him at 3 hours of age, and got a level of 4. which apparently is really high in an alarming kind of way, but he was 3 hours old. i kind of was like...umm within 3 hours of age, do anyone''s organs REALLY work that well? hehee. so they were worried. at 15 hours of age he was 6.4 which was photo treatment. at 24 hours he was 6.2 so they were happier. our doctor said he was being conservative because the original level was so high AND my family has a history of it (all 3 of us girls had to get the light treatment), but we were ok with being conservative honestly. he just didn''t want us to have to bring him BACK 2 days later with higher levels, he was also talking about a transfusion originally.

and then yesterday at about 3 days of age it was 10 which apparently is normal range for that age. so we have the light still and can use it at home a little bit, but as soon as my milk comes in i plan to try to wean him off. i am getting a little milk each time now so hopefully it''s very close!

re: types of nipples for bottles, one thing we noticed is we have the avent and the born free, both of which are kind of too biggie for the baby right now even though they are newborn size, and they feed him too much milk at a time for my taste. so we are using these cheapie little gerber plastic bpa free bottle nipples with just a tiny hole so it doesn''t overdose him in 2 seconds. just a note for anyone thinking of trying diff types, i wouldn''t ''stock up'' on a bunch of one brand at first, just get one or two of each and see what you like.

re: the baby on skin after birth... we did the skin to skin immediately and they just swabbed him off with a towel while he was on my body. honestly at the time you don''t even care about the fact he has goo on him...and he was not that slimy either hehe. it''s not like he would slide off if they didn''t clean him lol...and i think most hospitals will put them on you then just do a quick wipe down while you hold him. he got his bath, checkup, drops etc later after i was all stitched up etc.

re: the 10%, yes our hospital also has that same gauge, they don''t want to see more than 10% loss after birth weight. because we did the formula, our guy is only at like 5-6%.

RPS one Q on the medela freestyle you got... did it come with the standard size flanges or can you order it with the larger size flange for biggie nipples? i have the rental hospital pump and now that things are happening, my nipples are larger than yesterday and are touching the side of the pump which apparently is a no no and how they get sore. the gal told me to get bigger flanges so just wondering on what my options are for when i buy the freestyle. at this point i wonder if i should just get it since the hospital pump flanges are like $30 for bigger size.

btw RPS are you posting/reading the newborn thread? i guess i should defect the preggos and move over there any minute now...hehee.

Mara, I gave Amelia a bottle at a few weeks old and was shocked at how fast it goes down. I''m talking about 3 minutes vs 45 minutes when I had her on my boob with the SNS. I think I came on to PS and freaked out over it...it didn''t seem healthy for it to go down so fast. And I use the little ones they give you at the hospital, which had a slightly slower flow than the born free.

For anyone who wants to try BFing without giving the bottle, but needs to supplement, again, I totally recommend a SNS (Supplemental Nutritional System). Nothing gets your milk flowing better than a baby sucking - pumps are not as good. This way, your baby sucks for some time, and is getting something so the crap doesn''t hit the fan when colostrum isn''t enough. So my PSA of the day to the preggos is to check it out and be aware it exists BEFORE you go to the hospital so you can ask for it. This way, if you are really dead set on EBFing, you don''t have to introduce a bottle and will spare yourself a bit of grief when your baby gets really upset.

Speaking of baby getting upset, I can vouch for colostrum not being enough. My milk never came in. I gave birth on Tuesday morning and the LC confirmed I had colostrum and checked in daily after that and said the colostrum was enough. Amelia did well with the latch, and I thought things were fine. She suckled for good amounts of time, etc. On Thursday night, I let my husband go home to sleep and then had the worst night of my life still to this day. Amelia was ANGRY. She just could not be consoled. I had not sent her to the nursery until that point, but caved sometime in the middle of the night and begged them to take her away for an hour. The nurse actually refused as she said Amelia was distraught enough that they couldn''t do anything for her. So there I was, holding my child because that was the ONLY way she would stop screaming (and even then, she cried anyway) and trying my hardest not to fall asleep because the nurses would not let me hold her or have her near me if I was asleep. I''ve never felt as alone and despairing as I did on that one night.

The next morning, the LC came and said my daugher was starving and really angry. No duh. She finger fed her with a SNS and it was like the devil left my child. I WISH I had known about that SNS sooner...it would have spared me so much grief.

In most women''s cases, the milk will come in within a few days. Do yourself a favor and don''t be afraid to supplement with formula via SNS until it does (assuming your baby is showing signs of hunger). If all goes well, you won''t need it within a few days and your baby will still have not touched a bottle.

 

[fieryred33143]

Mara

He's gorgeous and I'm soooo in love with his name

Que amor!

I wanted to ask, is there a reason why they had you supplement because of the jaundice? Sophia was also jaundice but we were encouraged to keep her at the breast as much as possible to correct. Her bili was *11 (correcting) at the hospital, went down to about a 10 when we left, was about a 7 a few days after and then went away with her blanket (she was my glow worm for 10 days heehee)

Eta: Oh and also don't be alarmed Mara because the levels DO go up around day 5/6. It is totally normal and happens to ALL babies even if they are not jaundice. Just wanted to make sure you knew so that when you hear it went up, you aren't alarmed!

Also to the other moms I would not pump while pregnant

but definitely get used to it! The first time I pumped I thought it looked simple enough and then the thing started moving and it sucked up my boob but stuff started pouring out of the wrong end and it was a huge disaster lmao Good times.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Mara Such a cutie, ALJ is right, he has your nose for sure. I have a couple suggestions from the trenches, obviously take or leave as you see fit

: My milk took a while to come in, 7 days actually, and I might suggest you try for 10 minutes on the boob before giving him the bottle so you get lots of stim and he gets practice. His suck is the best stimulation to get the milk started, pumping really isn''t the same thing, so it helps to let him suck as much as possible. Letting him suck isn''t so much for him as it is for you and your milk production. I found that when Hunter was fussy about the milk not coming in, I would switch him to the other one and he would be patient for another minute or so, and then I would switch him again. Anyways, the back and forth until the milk started coming worked for us. Also, you can try letting him just comfort suck after he has his bottle, it helps too.. Also re screaming if no milk Yes, he will let you know if he is hungry. We EBF for the first 4 days and my milk actually took 7 to come in. By day 4 he was basically crying and wanting to nurse all the time. He simply was not getting enough. But J is still very young. You cannot trust a 3 day old baby''s cues completely because they are not "awake" yet, if you KWIM. But poopy diapers tell the story. If his poops are changing color from black to brown and then to brownish/yellow (depending on how much formula he gets) then you know he is doing great.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Pumps I would also like to add another perspective, which is that you do not NEED to pump if you don't want to. I never did, except the first week when my milk was slow, and I rented one then. I just didn't have let down for the pump and I found it annoying. And I still nurse Hunter exclusively at 12 months (ETA I mean, he eats solids, but not bottles or formula or cows milk). It is just easier for me, and I like doing it. Just wanted to throw that out there lest women get the impression that you must have a pump to EBF. It is sort of a US thing, I think, the pumping phenomenon, most likely due to the short mat leave you all get. In Canada pumping is less common I suspect.

 

[fieryred33143]

Date: 2/4/2010 10:58:41 AM
Author: MonkeyPie
RPS, if you pump only, does it make it harder for your milk to come in than if you actually nurse? I am BENT on nursing, but I know it's really hard and I don't want to give up when it hurts really bad, so I thought maybe I could (almost) exclusively pump. Is that a bad idea?

Exclusively pumping is, IMVVVHO (very, very, very honest), sooo demanding. It is a lot easier to just nurse.

Some take-aways that I had during my breast feeding experience if you ladies don't mind:

-Nipples heal fast. If you find in those first few days that your nipples are sore and you can't take the pain, stop and pump. Within a few hours they should heal. My nipples were bleeding and looked horrible but it only took about 12 hours to get back to "normal" and not hurt anymore. The pump helped a lot. ETA: Wanted to add that you do NOT have to pump to get your nipples to heal. If you see a LC and they help you with your latch, your nipples can heal while the baby is latching. But there was no way in heck that I was going to continue to nurse when my nipples felt like they had been run over by a truck. No.stinkin.way.

-Nursing shouldn't hurt. If it does hurt, see your LC. If your LC sucks, find a better one. Something as simple as lifting the baby's head just a few more inches can make a world of difference in terms of latching. And sometimes you can go a long time thinking that it hurts because it's supposed to and when you finally get help, you realize its something more serious like mastitis or a tongue-tied baby. By the time you have your baby, the embarrassement of pulling out your boob in front of a stranger and saying "please fix this" goes away so don't hesitate to visit the LCs

.

-I mentioned before that there is a 2 day wakeful where all they want to do is be on the boob. I remember that evening and shudder because all she did was cry and nothing made her feel better but my boob. The nurses kept coming in (because the lady next to us was complaining

) and suggested we supplement but I was really stubborn and kept her on all.night.long. My milk came in at the end of day 3 and I really believe it was due to the 12 hour boobfest.

-Don't think that comfort sucking creates a bad habit, especially in months 1 through 3. Robbie and I talked about this before on another forum. If we weren't in a rush to do something, we'd let our LOs hang out at the breast. All of that comfort sucking helps your body to produce more.

And I think my most important take-away:

-Formula is NOT poison. If you find that you are really unhappy, things aren't going well, and you'd feel much happier supplementing or even going to full time FF then do it without an ounce (pun intended

) of guilt. Those baby hormones hit you like a ton of bricks and adding in the guilt of doing what you feel is right for you will only make those feelings worse.

 

[ChinaCat]

Ditto to Fiery re: pumping. Monkey Pie, nursing is soooo much easier. Pumping sucks. (Said as I am hooked up and pumping from work!)

 

[jcrow]

ugh. just got a call back from my doc. i failed the 1 hour glucose testing

and i''m anemic.

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 2/4/2010 4:35:59 PM
Author: jcrow
ugh. just got a call back from my doc. i failed the 1 hour glucose testing

and i'm anemic.

So sorry jcrow. What did he/she say you need to do??

 

[E B]

Date: 2/4/2010 3:21:33 PM
Author: ChinaCat
Ditto to Fiery re: pumping. Monkey Pie, nursing is soooo much easier. Pumping sucks. (Said as I am hooked up and pumping from work!)

Ditto to Dreamer, fiery, and China. I can''t believe how much faster/more effective Henry is at ''extracting'' milk than the pump is.

 

[jcrow]

Date: 2/4/2010 4:41:57 PM
Author: Kaleigh

Date: 2/4/2010 4:35:59 PM

Author: jcrow

ugh. just got a call back from my doc. i failed the 1 hour glucose testing

and i'm anemic.

So sorry jcrow. What did he/she say you need to do??

i have to schedule a 3 three hour glucose test at a clinic. this involves another fasting + drinking the sugary drink + 4 blood draws in a 3 hour period.

for the anemia, they are prescribing something for me to up my iron levels.