Burning the midnight oil together

Hi fellow night owls, Lilly just had her infamous 3 minute feed and is back in bed, I'm sitting in the lounge expressing. Girly, I usually express in the morning when my breasts are fullest. Or if worst comes to worst at night like now. I wanted to empty the breast she fed on to avoid the engorgement in the morning. Otherwise I usually express from the breast she didn't feed from. It depends if Kaylee drinks from both breasts with each feed or just one. I too have a headache plus starving so I didn't mind staying up to express now. And both hubby and Madam are snoring upstairs so it's difficult to fall back asleep anyway lol. I think you can safely take Ibuprofen as my pain meds I got after discharge were combined paracetamol and ibu. I never took it after birth but in the following weeks for the nipple pain and it didn't seem to affect Lilly in any way. Sorry for the big block posts at night, I don't know how to insert paragraphs with my phone. Weight loss: I gained 12kg and had lost all of it when I went for my six week check up, definitely the breast feeding! I would love to start gymming again but not sure how that would affect my milk supply. Does anyone know? Girly, how on earth does your Schlehen last you a year?! I'm going through two bottles a month! Am I overdoing it lol? I take two tea spoons three times a day in my tea as per instructions. Hm, it's so yummy Lilly does follow more or less the same pattern on her colicky nights. Putting her to the breast unfortunately doesn't work, she refuses it when she's worked herself up into that mode. Telaments do work occasionaly but not always. She'll be twelve weeks next week so hopefully it's gonna get better! How did Kaylee take her vaccs? Did you eventually go to Dischem for it? Ok, back to bed with me. Later hunnis x

Evening ladies. Wow but I cannot keep up. I'm actually using the laptop to post before I go to bed so that I can catch up properly, as with my phone I have to remember everything before replying as I cannot see previous posts.

First off, I MUST apologize for my awful spelling at night. The predictive text is on my phone but I am usually too tired to check it closely. Re-reading some of my posts make no sense!

Yaz that's an awesome special! I just bought a bottle last week but it can last a year so I will stock up!
BTW Spar have a pretty good special at Spar on their normal size packs pampers.

Yaz re overstimulation - it's my biggest gripe when people visit. I would so NOT allow someone to wake her just to play.. They would see my wrath! I struggle when the inlaws come visit, as you say people just dont realise that just cos a baby is awake doesnt mean they should be stimulated. And its such a challenge to get them down once they are overstimulated. I think I must lend them my babysense book Its really difficult to tell them not to play with her when she's awake though, they just dont understand what we go through after.

Claudia I find my breast is the best pacifier. She wont take the dummy easily and especially when she's overtired, 5 minutes on the boob and she's fast asleep vs 30mins of other methods of calming which just dont seem to work.

I tried nipple shields in that first week where your nipples are just raw and the pain is excruciating. But I found the nipple was way too big for her tiny mouth, and it was teaching her bad habits as she had no need to latch properly so I stopped. I'm so glad I persevered though, as it does get easier and if she doesnt latch properly I unlatch her straight away and re-latch as I've made the mistake of leaving her before and its just not worth the pain.

Yaz I really hope that Lilly will settle down soon. When she is colicky does she follow a similar pattern each time in her behaviour? Is there a way to see the start of it and try something new? I know not everyone condones it, but have you tried putting her to the breast to calm her down?
Do you bath her in the evenings? I find the bath isnt good for Kaylee at night, it wakes her up a lot. Might get easier in warmer weather but we have to actually bath her earlier to prevent a late night.

Last night was really tough. Kaylee fed 4hours then 3, then 3 and then finally 2. At 7:30 I woke DH up to help me, but she had a repeat of yesterday morning and wasnt very happy so I could not sleep as I could hear her crying in the lounge. So eventually got up, put her to the breast, did that twice, and eventually she calmed down and I got about 40minutes sleep before she woke for her next feed. DH was naturally exhausted from it so the rest of the day I have tried to take care of her, give him some time to rest a bit. I raced off to the shops to get some gifts for a friend due in November, and bought a pair of pants that actually fit - hopefully they'll be too big soon - got lunch and got back just in time to feed again.

Okay question time
How long did it take you to get back into your pre-pregnancy jeans? I gained 18kgs in my pregnancy, and have lost 12 in 6 weeks. I know that at least 4 of the kgs I gained was due to eating habits, but I was hoping the breastfeeding would help shed some of those. Am I just being impatient? I'm eating much better than I used to though, as trying not to overdo it on sugar and caffeine etc and I used to be a chocaholic.
My tops fit fine, but I only have 2 pairs of pants that fit, and none of my jeans but dont want to waste money unnecessarily.

Second question - I want to start expressing a bit during the week to give 1 feed a day on the weekend by bottle.
Does anyone do this?
I want to know - when is the best time to express after a feed and still have enough milk for the next feed? Do you express from the same breast you just fed from or the other breast?
And the feed that I skip, if I am out and cannot express, how does one survive that feed without overflowing breasts? I am worried about possible mastitis if they get too full. Do you just express when you get home or ?

Third question - what pain pills can I safely take while breastfeeding?
I am sitting with a dull headache for the last 40minutes and the ponado's are still not working. Everyone tells you how you cant take anything stronger than ponado during pregnancy, but no one says anything about medication and breastfeeding. Can one take ibuprofen while breastfeeding or is it strictly paracetemol? If I take ibuprofen, would it make K drowsy? I remember with the synap forte in hospital, she was very sleepy as a result and I dont want her to be affected by it.

Gonna go lie down now. She had a very short feed at 9, so chances are she'll be awake in an hour for a feed so let me make the most of it - even though ironically I am now not really feeling tired

Will catch you all later!

Claudia, I know, it's insane this bureaucracy. Our kiddies are really lucky to get both, the SA and European passport. Lilly is behaving colicky again tonight after her day of overstimulation with Daddy. I'll be happy to hand her over to him now hehe. I wouldn't mind an early night. Catch you all later, ladies. Oh ja, hope you saw my post about Schlehen Elixir, great special! x

@ Yaz that's so bizaar that you can do it one way but not the other. I hold both a german and a SA passport:) My hubby is British south African so we are getting James a British passport although we could also get him a german one. We go to the uk more often because my hubbies fam are all there whereas my dad and his fam are allin SA now(except my one cousin who decided to go to Germany to learn his trade).
I would murder my MIL if she did that to me, but I must admit my hubby dowant get the keep calm thing either!

Am hoping for a small age gap between babies- about 2 years and only want 2 kids.
I wouldn't mind doing some foster caring maybe. I cared for a little baby during my comm serv year that was abandoned in the hospital that I worked at. He was luckily adopted when the HIV results came back as negative.

Girly, how's it going with K today? Hope she's getting her schedule right again.

Claudia, if the baby's born in Germany it's more complicated cause dual citizenship is not allowed so he/she could only become SA permanent resident and I would have to go through the whole application nightmare with Home Affairs. Much easier the other way around as the German Consulate works very efficiently, wasn't a hassle at all to apply for Lilly's German passport and birth certificate.

Nikki, how are your dogs after the air show, shame?

Lilly's sleeping in her wrap. Shame, she's completely pooped after an extensive play episode with Daddy this morning. He never knows when it's enough and only stopped when she started crying. I know he's meaning well, just that I have to bear the consequences most of the time. Now he drove out to the in-laws. Told him I stay home with Madam as his Mom always wakes her up and finds it funny when she starts crying?! This is how it goes: My child id fast asleep in the car seat, MIL takes her out and starts screaming into her ear"wake up, Lilly, wake up for Granny!", Lilly wakes up and starts crying, MIL passes her over to me and says: "here Yazzy, now she's crying. You must give her something to drink!" DUH!!!?!!

Hope everyone's enjoying the Saturday that feels like Sunday!

Hey all:) Telkom has been down most of the night and all morning:( wasn't even able to swipe my credit card when I did groceries earlier!

@ yaz why would citizenship be an issue?

I started tearing and my midwife thought it was going to be a third degree tear so she then cut. The torn area healed so much quicker so I can honestly say rather tear than have an episiotomy.

@ girly I was demand feeding but as James got older he started going longer between feeds and I decided that I'd rather him eat more during the day so I now feed him 3 hourly unless he demands it more often:) I also sometimes use the breast to pacify if he's niggly because he never took a dummy!

@Bronz - you are so right, I need to verbalize my thanks more often as I sometimes forget and take the sweet gestures for granted.
BTW when can you stop burping a baby?