Babies April 2015

Hello ladies

how is everyone doing.
Gloie@ glad to hear you lo is doing great. How is your big girl doing?
Faffy@ breastfeeding is a trial and error thing,in due time all will be fine, glad to hear eglynol(sp) is working well for you.
Ronelle@ how is you cs scar healing, I hope you taking care of yourself.
Newbie@ how are you doing? You are very quiet.
Starreyed@how is motherhood treating you?
My scar this time is smaller than my last but healed well. The only pro I kept having is my spinal. My life has been busy lately Amara was and still is unwell so had 2 kids to take care of, K is sleeping better but I am still exhausted from this 3 hourly feed. I am not 100% due to the lack of sleep and I seem to be getting worse, my allergies are acting up. Blessedmom@ thanks for your breastfeeding input.
Will try update often but lately I am out of it. Have an awesome day

Yes Gloei, our thoughts are with you and you little girl. I am sure all will be just fine.

Ok. Yes my boy is always choking on the milk. Always have to lift him and pat the back. he battles to always drink enough in the past 3 days. He gets choked and crampy before he empties the breast. Then I burp him and rock him and put him down. But still hungry in half an hour. Can't be good for eestablishing the breastmilk sink with babies needs?

Will try the laid back feeding. Hope it helps.

X

Hi ladies.

Just commenting quickly on Gloei's post. You are describing the Laid-back nursing position. Perfect position if you have a fast letdown. So yes, perfectly fine to use that position to feed.

Glad dr isn't too worried about your lg! Will keep her in my thoughts and prayers!

Hi Ladies,

RonelleB - I think it is a constant learning curve as a mom, at least for me. Having children teaches one a lot...Patience is one of them and learning to trust your gut instinct too. Even now with a second child I am always running through thousands of check lists in my head trying to figure out why baby is crying our how one can improve things - sign of a true mom!
What a milestone to toss out those first babyclothes!!! In our cases we tossed out R2000 of clothing all pre-washed and tags removed that was too small from birth - ouch!! Ha ha ha.

The recovery for the c-section really takes time. I still had pain on the wound for months later still, although not intense pain, but noticeable. One really has to pace yourself and realise that it won't be in babie's best interest if you don't look after yourself first too.

As far as I know the hiccups aren't serious (except in rare cases if it is really persistent) and it is more of a concern to the parents that to the baby. My baby now at 5 weeks are already getting it less and less as time goes on.

Faffymum - So glad your milk is enough now and that baby seems more full. We had some trouble with baby chocking on milk and a week ago I started to feed her in different positions. I would latch her while sitting on the bed (with my back against the wall) in a cradle hold position (horizontally over my tummy) and then I would slowly start to shift down into more lying on my back so that she is lying more on top of my tummy so that gravity basically works against the powerful let down of milk spraying to fast. Don't know if this is advisable (blessedmom might be able to comment). This helped a lot with the choking and reduced winds and cramps significantly. The side lying position also is better and she doesn't choke as easily - but I know this isn't always such an easy position to get right. Perhaps one can also express a tiny bit by hand before a feed (or breast pump) to just reduce the intensity of the milk flow with the let down reflex.

My breasts are going a lot more flabby and soft as blessedmom mentions which I can see can easily be mistaken that your milk is drying up although it just settled. Feedings seem to be going quicker generally now (she drinks 5 - 10 min excluding some winding) and she doesn't even always drink from the second breast (although I do offer).

I can totally understand that you felt vaginal next time is too soon, probably wasn't very funny at that stage. Right after the birth I told my husband "We aren't doing this soon again!!" but hours after that I thought I can do this again pretty soon. Ha ha ha... Childbirth certainly is an experience that is pretty unforgettable even if it was a negative or positive experience. I couldn't understand why Deja told me that she wish she could give birth again as it was such an amazing experience, but she said that while you are giving birth you might not feel like you are having the time of your life. Found it very true in my case although I can think that everyone's birth experience can vary quite a lot.

On our side: The Pead said that we will have to monitor it closely and we must come in again in a months time where her skull will be measured again to determine if she needs to go for a CT scan. So far he says that he is happy that her skull has grown in the average range from birth and that the sutures on the skull are still soft (although raised) which is good at this point. He says in most cases that he evaluates for this condition turns out to be fine and only about 2 cases in his practice per year needs major surgery. So...trying not too worry too much for the next few 4 weeks.

Baby has a hernia on her umbilical cord, apperently very common and she will outgrow it by 6 months. Doesn't sound as if it causes a lot of problems. Otherwise we just have to continue with the Daktarin gel for the thrush and Dr. said I can try the gentian violet on {.}{.} again but not to do it regularly as it can irritate babies mouth. I regret drinking so much of that Berry Elixir and chowing so many granola/energy bars, drinking too much fruit juice in that first week!!

Tomorrow seeing apparently best specialist for pelvic floor dysfunction in SA - hope she can give me some hope for my "low lying cervix...etc"

Gloei, hope all goes well the the 6 weeks check up. Will be thinking of you and your little one. Happy birthday hope it was great. I really can't wait until my boy smiles at me...and isn't pushing gas. Lol
My emergency was quite a controlled operation because baby had very strong vitals. Doctor said it was more for my safety than babies. So my cut is just big enough for the head to come through. She did a great job putting me back together and said I could do vaginally next time around....at that point I just looked at her and said 'next time...too soon!'

My boy also gets hiccups a lot. He also got it in the womb, at least once a day. I try to distract him, change nappy and put dummy in until it's gone, then feed.
My milk is great now..But I think it flows fast because he always chokes. Also we are dealing with gas and tummy cramp issues. I have some Bennett colic mixture which seems to help. I jus don't know why he is suffering. I'm not eating anything weird or gassy. I burp him. He battles to sleep at night and finish eating. I feel so sorry for him whining and cramping up. Breaks my heart. He sleeps Ok when he is on the chest...I guess mommy and ddaddy cuddles make the aches less intense.

Glad the milk is there for him though. And he is putting on weight. He weighed 3.7 at 2 weeks (3.5kg at birth). Apparently they pick up faster from week 3?

Blessedmom and Gloei thank you so much for your feedback. Though i have changed my mind and method since...i have changed from a 'parent led' schedule to demand feeding. I think LOs sleepiness was because our schedules kept clashing...its going better now she feeds better as she's more awake when waking up by herself. And all in all our duration of sleep vs feed and awake has not really changed our times have just moved out by an hour.

I need some advice on how to prevent / help with hiccups? She gets a terrible bout of hiccups sometimes during and sometimes after a feed...it causes havoc. Any suggestions?

So proud otherwise...she has now officially outgrown her first babygro. Wore it in hospital and few times since...now its too small...yeah go boobies go!

Recovering well but slow. Ive realised how impatient i am...expecting too much of baby and myself too soon. Need to relax about things but its hard not wanting everything to happen at my will!

Gloei...let us know what pead and pelpelvic drs have in mind. Hoping both you and baby can be sorted without hassle soon. I agree with changing to babies april 2015...lets keep in touch!

Faffy....hows your milk monster?

Hi Ladies,

Sorry for not updating sooner and not posting on everyone's questions etc...Still a bit of a crazy circus show here at times.

RonelleB - You have it waxed lady! It is only now at 5 weeks that I "might" be seeing some kind of pattern or routine naturally developing. Hope your wound is healing well and that you didn't have any problems again (albeit pain I guess...).

Sho, I feel so much for all you ladies with the pain you are having with the recovery of the emergency c-sections. I don't know fully how you must feel but I know that it is hard to pick up things (and baby) for a long time still. Did you all have the hip to hip cut with your emergency operations or was it just Ronelle? You are all really in my thoughts and I know how tough things are at the moment for you ladies. My recovery is different from yours, I guess I am more concerned that things are not going to go back to normal "down there" as much as I am in a lot of pain although my cocyx still feels as if I horse kicked me in the butt...
Will be seeing a pelvic floor specialist tomorrow and hopefully she will be able to give me good news about recovery long term regarding my pelvic floor.

Going for the 6 week checkup for baby at the Pead this morning. We are concerned that baby's fontanelle is too small and closing too fast. The sutures between the skull plates are raised too which could be a sign of a very serious condition and requires major surgery (saw the skull open type of surgery...). We are hoping and praying that this might not be the case. Strange how with my first LG at 6 weeks she got very sick and was hospitalised for a bladder abnormality. Hoping that this baby will be healthy and fine.

On the bright side, it was my birthday yesterday - yeah - and my baby smiled for the first time (it was a proper smile where her whole face and eyes lit up while she looked at me). It was absolutely priceless!! Can't wait for all of you to experience this magic moment too - makes all the hard word so worth it.

The Oral thrush has returned with a vengeance. Hopefully the pead can give some more advice today. Might do the painting of gentian violet (.)(.) again! What a sight!!! Not to speak about poor madams purple lipstick around the mouth...

Hope you all manage to feed our lazy sleepy baby's - Mine is especially sleepy at night with feedings and she does a 6 min. feed and then NOTHING can wake her up. At least she seems to be able to sleep for a 2,5 stretch after that once we rock her for about 20 minutes or sometimes an hour...

Blessedmom, thank you once again - I am always looking forward to your words of wisdom!! Will be asking you a question about the Medela Calma bottles on the breastfeeding thread soon.

LASTLY...would you ladies like to rename this thread to something like "Babies born April/May 2015" ? or make a new thread with this title? I can do this, so let me know what your thoughts are.

Thinking of all of you and appreciate everyone's support on this journey of ours.