Feb-May 2011 Mommies

aarrrggg I'm in such a bad mood.
Matt literally has 1 good bottle and 1 bad bottle. never 2 good in a row...what can be wrong?????!!!!!!!!!
His previous bad bottle was when he needed to poo...now i'm wondering if this bad bottle was because he was being put to bed and over tired?!
I go from 0-seriously irritated when he feeds like that. Its so frustrating. I couldnt even get him to drink a decent amount so who knows how long he'll sleep for.

Was so badly engorged after only 8 hours But perservered until the 12 hour mark. The engorgement is only going when 150ml is out each breast....hopefully by the end of the weekend I can start reducing the amount I pump out.

I am so tired....hardly slept again last night. Going to ask DH to do the next feed (midnight feed). I am just feeling so agitated and exhausted.

Tazzy 90g per week is a little on the low side....but I'm not sure what you can do?! I can only suggest the supplemental feeder (tube strapped to the boob) but flip its a pain in the ass to use. I hated it.

hi ladies

Schatsie so glad to hear everything is going well for now Hope the good news keeps coming

Well at this point I dont exactly need any birth control...we still not doing the deed - 5 months now...I give up. I can see this whole year going by with no BD. I'm so tired of begging him. Its not even about sex anymore. I miss the intimacy and being close. He says he doesnt feel confident in himself since he's been so long so he's scared to even try incase he 'fails'....aarrggg....i asked what I can do to increase his confidence - he says he doesnt know. I said he has no reason to feel worried since I'm always asking for it - means I miss it. But I guess now he feels pressure to perform...sigh...
I told him I am scared it'll hurt or feel different after giving birth so I'd prefer to take things slow...do other things first. He agreed and said it might help the confidence thing. But I still dont see anything happening.... at this point I'll never have another child

Lucy how is Tessa after the chiro? are the winds better?

Kimika glad you are relaxing - I also dont really like staying at other people so I'm kind of dreading our trip away. I like being in the comfort of my own home, having everything I need. especially dreading france....atleast my family will be there though

Lucy for the pumping....I went from pumping 3 hourly to 6 hourly. Then to 8 hourly-9hourly and now 12 hourly. I wanted it to be a gradual thing but often as it got to the time to pump, Matt was impossible and I never got a chance for like another 2-3 hours anyway!!!!! I was exceptionally engorged by the time it came to pump but now I can easily get to 8 hours and still be comfortable and not engorged. from 9 hours it starts getting a little uncomfortable and tingly and 10 hours I am desperate to pump but I wait it out as long as I can. This morning I thought to try wait like 14 hours...so put cabbage leaves on the engorged boobs but I only lasted like 20 minutes then I really had to pump cos it was so sore and I can hardly hold Matt it hurts so much.
so I guess you'll just need to wean yourself - should take 1-2 weeks. Then when you pump, pump 20-30 minutes (even if nothing is coming out anymore) and press all around your boobs while pumping to stimulate all the milk ducts. I usually get about 3 letdowns from doing this. However now I just press the sore parts and once they arent sore anymore, I stop pumping.
I use to get 1200ml pumping every 3 hours now I can easily still get 800-1000ml pumping twice per day. so hopefully your milk supply wont be too affected.

2KM thanks for the advice re the homeopath. We are FLAT BROKE!!!! We have $50 in the account and I need to buy Matt Formula which costs $15. My word it's awful waiting for the company to pay!! Anyway my point is I cant afford to see a homeopath at the moment...

Faw - glad Abdul is doing better and yes, your job sounds horrid so dont make yourself miserable by staying in it.

Tazzy I think all that freezer milk will be going to waste...he seems better on the soy. I did cut out some dairy from my diet but not all. And considering he has been so miserable on the BM all this time - there is no point keeping it and forcing him to drink it. The closest milk bank is in TEXAS!! So I have to buy dry ice, they send me containers and I post it to them.

BettyF - nice to meet other moms. I met a mom here who seemed to have the 'perfect' life. But we went for lunch the other day and she opened up about how her DH is so useless at helping, MIL giving stupid advice etc etc and it was nice to vent about the same things with someone!!!!!

Lucy Mauritius sounds amazing!! I think I would struggle to leave Matt but then again 4 days is not THAT long....of course you'll miss Tessa but ya....I dunno...Guess you'll cope?!

Missesmom I am going to borrow your pram if thats ok. Will get directions closer to the time. My flight is only at 3pm on the 13th back to JHB so is it ok if I drop it by you on the way to the airport? How is the lovely little Kate doing?

Hmmm who else....MistyMom - see you are donating your extra milk too - wonderful will make such a difference to those babies in need. They will thrive like you cant believe.

Gosh my brain is so dead I cant even think who else to greet sorry everyone else!!

Matt didnt poo yesterday and was doing his "I need to poo cry". So the paed told me to stimulate the rectum with a rectal thermometer. so I did and he made a poo - not a massive one but never-the-less a stinky formula poo
Then about 30 minutes later he poo'd again so I was just holding him chilling. Changed him about 10 minutes later. OH MY WORD!!!!! The ENTIRE nappy was full from front to back. There was no white part showing!!!! Shame poor child. it wasn't watery...but it was runny-ish. Hope its not a reaction to the soy?!
I heard if one is truly allergic to cow milk they are most likely allergic to soy too.
This morning he did another huge poo like that on his own. He has been better on the bottles until this morning. Fussing like before so I was really disappointed as I thought the soy was making a difference. Then he had that huge poo. so maybe he was fussing cos of the poo?! Will see how the next feed goes. I'm only going to call the paed on Tuesday (monday public holiday here) to discuss if the soy is any better. that atleast means I gave him 5 full days to assess...

DH has invited people for a braai tomorrow...I so dont feel ready to have people over for an evening!! Matt is super sensitive to noise. So Im not sure he will sleep too well if people are chatting downstairs....plus I will need to clean the house nicely, buy groceries (with our $50!!!!!!!!!!! - will clearly need to use the french credit card) and then clean afterwards. plus we'll be up late and then I am left with the night shift...I explained that to DH and he said he would do the 7am-10am shift which is good...but ya...would rather just not have people yet until Matt is more settled. oh well.

been invited to another braai on sunday - think we will go. we having family photos taken sunday afternoon too. it was cancelled last time due to rain so hope it wont rain again.

finally booked my flights to SA. I am staying a few extra days in JHB. so I am in SA 2 weeks now instead of 10 days. at least DH doesnt complain about the cost...since he paid for the flight! have to say thats one good thing about him. he is not stingy with his money and has no issue paying for things like this when he is not even going to be coming with.

ok enough of my marathon letter. Time to feed Matt.

How long has it been since the birth? I think its normal to bleed for up to 4 weeks. Just monitor it though, if it goes back to bright red then I'd contact your gyn. I had a few complications and bled for awhile too. I had a clot stuck in my uterus.

Oh back to the bfeeding. She never falls asleep, she just fights me after 5mins. I try my best to get her to drink more but she gets cross!

Betty - I go to a private perinatal clinic and she didn't seem to worried. She also weighed A after I fed her for a bit (to settle her after jabs) and she had drank 70mls
But then I also take her to our local pharmacy to be weighed every now and then and that nurse was a bit more finicky about it. she is only picking up about 90g a week.

Maybe I should be worried??

Evening ladies
Watching a bit of Cbeebies with my LB- eventful Friday nights, long gone are the after work drinks and partying till all hours
Don't miss it at all.....

Faw - so pleased to hear that Abdul is better now! It is terrible when they are so small and can't tell you what the problem is.
Sales are difficult and so not for me. Sounds like a very long day, and shat kind of people wont give you time to express?

Schatsie- glad the procedure went well. Enjoy the parties tomorrow!
I am still bleeding after my c - section. Can't remember how long the bleeding is supposed to last.

Tazzy - What did the clinic say about Amelia's wright gain?
They told me that they would like Sarah to gain about 150 grams a week. Last week she gained 130 grams, they want me to bring her in again for a weigh on Monday. The only thing about breast feeding is that one does not know how much milk LO gets
4 minutes a side does seem short. Does she fall asleep? Or just stop drinking?

AFM- had a very nice day, went to the Mothers support group at the clinic. Met some other mommies with babies- although Sarah was the youngest there. There was a lady there doing babies foot print on a tile. I had one done for M when he was little so it was great to get one fond for Sarah too.

Schatsie - glad you're back home and that everything went smoothly. Was this your first period since the birth? I haven't had a period at all, but I've heard that you don't get a period if you bf ??

AFM - I'm good, just bEen really busy (betty - I can relate to the crazy days with a toddler and a baby!)
Amelia is doing well. She had her second round of shots on wed. She hasn't picked up the weight she should have but she's well and healthy so I'm not too bothered. She weighs 5.63kg now.
I just wish she would feed for longer. Still only 4 or 5 mins on each boob every 3hrs during day. Then I wake her for a feed at 930ish and she sleeps til around 3am.
I hope she is getting enough milk from me, I would really hate to start introducing formula already.