Babies April 2015

Hi Ronelle

Congrats on the birth of your daughter.

I think a lot of mommies wish they had that sort of routine
Firstly, please join the la leche league SA fb page. You can ask any sort of bf question and if you need to know what medication is safe etc.

Everything I'm about to say has been advised over and over by the La Leche League Leaders (LLLL). Ideally a bf baby should feed 8-12 times in 24 hours, especially because bm digests in 90 mins. Formula babies will easily drink 3-4 hours because there is a higher fat content but bm is designed exactly according to what your baby needs at each feeding. Absolutely amazing how it changes as your baby grows or when they become sick.

Seeing that she is a lazy sucker, a bottle isn't really advised because a baby needs to work at the breast and the flow of a bottle is much faster, which makes them even lazier to suckle at the breast and in turn can cause them to reject the breast all together.

Here is a few articles that you can read. The one from Jack Newman (Specialist in Breastfeeding) is to help with the lazy sucking. It is called breast compression.

www.breastfeedinginc.ca/content.php?pagename=doc-BC

www.llli.org/llleaderweb/lv/lvoctnov99p99.html

www.llli.org/nb/nbnovdec07p279.html

A bf baby can't overfeed themselves. They know when to stop even if you offer booby 24/7 BUT they can overfeed via a bottle. That is why it's so important to google - paced bottle feeding. This is for a bf baby or formula fed baby.

Bf babies can drink anything from 69ml - 180mls per bottle when they go to creche. My son only drank 90-100mls per feed when my mother took care of him.

Everything is about supply and demand. The more the breast is emptied, the more milk it will make. So by expressing as well, it's signalling to make more milk. Stop expressing and just place her on each boobie per feed. For example, start with left side, if she seems finished, burp her and put her on right side. She will take it if she wants to feed more. If you feel like you getting too engorged on the right side, then just express a little bit by hand into a towel. Just to get a bit of relief.

It takes about 6 weeks for milk supply to be established and breasts will still get full and huge in that time but will start settling down. You will also get to a place where they don't feel full anymore but that doesn't mean your milk is decreasing. Empty breasts make more milk and full breasts make less milk. If that makes sense to you?

If breasts stay full for too long, it will signal to make less milk but if breasts are emptied often, it will constantly make more milk.

Hope this answers everything!

Oh yes...There is also a nice Facebook group called la leche league south Africa which has a lot of breastfeeding advice.

Oh my gosh, ronelle you are waxing it. I am so jealous! My boy started with eating all day like every hour with half and hour naps if we were lucky. I had to take eglonyl to help bring my milk in. Now I have enough but he doesn't always fall asleep after feeding and we resorted to using a dummy so that he can just stop suckling on my nipples all day. After he finished eating, he would fall asleep and if I took him off, he would wake and cry. Then daddy rocks him to sleep. Sho. Now we are dealing with cramps so he battles to sleep and even eating is no easy since he cramps up in pain during. It's been rough but hoping it will get better. I am just glad there is milk for him when ever he is hungry. Now we just have to focus on getting rid of cramps and hoping he will form a pattern with longer sleeping hours.

Sho Ok. don't have advice regarding the over feeding but I don't think so. Surely they stop when they full? I think with breastmilk you can give as much as they want to drink? But I am not sure.

Hope everyone is doing well

Morning mommies!

Hope all is well? Somehow i think the long period of inactivity here is a good indicator of that

I thought I'd share my typical day with you and ask a question or two around breastfeeding...

Our day starts around 7 when Laila wakes for breakfast, we feed, change and she goes back to sleep. At 10 we feed again and change into a fresh jumper when changing nappies. Lunch is served around 1:30 followed by a long afternoon nap ( where mom joins in for the first time) till 5 when 'power hour' starts a.k.a. feed followed by bath and our pre night sleep session. Bedtime snacks follow at 8 after wwhich we stretch till 12 and then till 4 and then the next day starts.. i made it sound so easy and simple

So here's a question: till now Laila has been a very lazy little sucker. She'd be on the boob only to fall aslerp around 8 - 10 mins later. I'd try wake her she suckle some more for a couple of minutes etc when putting her in bed she'd wake up with a startle sucking her fists (hungry!)...i started to let her loose on boob nr 1, and I'd express boob nr 2 and give her the bottle once she's done on the boob (i was thinking the suckling made her too tired to drink). Now I'm wondering if i am overfeeding...the last two feeds i only had her on one boob and persisted on her suckling there till she falls asleep deep slerp and she still kept her hours. I am still expressing boob nr 2 and saving milk just in case... what do you think? Overfeeding? I have strong supply and express around 70 mls per boob one shot...also if this keeps working I'd like to slow down and stop expressing boob nr 2...how do i do that without getting engorged and or mastitis?

Sho, that was a mouthful...hope you can ( as always) assist with sage advice...please share your days? It would be interesting to read?

Nels_n and ronelleB, your little babies are gorgeous thanks for sharing the pics.

I didn't have swelling, but they did put compression socks on me just incase so I guess it's normal yes. I totally understand, I am so scared every single day, that I'm causing damage to my wound. I use my tummy muscles a lot. I can' help it, I can't just sit down and stand up without doing it. I always have baby on my chest or in my arms so it's hard to move without using tummy muscles. Let's just hope for the best.

I sstarted taking eglonyl to help my breastmilk supply. Only taking one a day and they suggest 3, but I have an increase and seems to be satisfying the little milk monster now. breastfeeding is hard work! And if one more person says it shouldn't be sore if you're doing it right I might jump in my computer and... . anyways. We are getting better at it each day.

I hope everyone is feeling strong. It's really tough at times but just the love for the little one makes it so worth it.

Ronelle@ the first few days are really tough but it gets better. I have not experienced swelling. But if you worried please call your Dr or go see him also for the pain in your wound. One of the things that cause even more pain on the wound is tensing your stomach muscles when standing or changing position without noticing. Try relaxing your tummy and making sure you have some support on your tummy when you sneeze for eg. Its tough but doable. Take care of yourself please and keep us posted.
Laila is adorable. Enjoy your precious baby

hello mommies

Gloie thank you for posting for me. I appreciate it. that Middle photo is actually Khanya on the right and Amara on the left as a newborn.