Any mamas in Canada/Ontario area :) ?

[SweetV]

I hope you all had a great holiday yesterday! Perfect weather to be pregnant in TO yesterday.

Congrats treeroot!

 

[2have4kids]

Happy Canada Day ladies, I hope you all had time to celebrate today.

I was just happy having DH home for the day, I wish he could be home every Wednesday! Had my little one on June 11th, so he's 3 weeks now.
Nothing but a frenzy of feeding these days.

Ha, be careful what you wish for - my DH was just laid off. We're not too worried though, he'll get EI and was paid out for 6 months salary + holidays.
Congrats on your new addition, are you bf-ing? Has baby been sleeping or are you up all night. All the best bella xx

 

[treeroot]

Ha, be careful what you wish for - my DH was just laid off. We're not too worried though, he'll get EI and was paid out for 6 months salary + holidays.
Congrats on your new addition, are you bf-ing? Has baby been sleeping or are you up all night. All the best bella xx

Oh no! I'm sorry to hear that; it's great that you've got the 6 month buffer, but I imagine the uncertainty is still stressful.

I'm breastfeeding, and he's a very frequent eater. Usually every 1-2hrs during the day. At night he tends to feed every 2hrs, but is sometimes fussy and doesn't want to sleep in his bassinet.
But he's been gaining tons of weight so I guess it's working
Though I still dream of the day when I can get 2+hrs of uninterrupted sleep...

 

[SweetV]

Wow treeroot, you must be so exhausted.

 

[2have4kids]

I have heard that formula in the evening can reduce the amount of night feedings. But that was from a mom who's baby constantly had her up feeding at night, she tried formula evenings only and it allowed for more sleep. I just got a "Halo Bassinest" so that I wouldn't be getting up going to the crib, feeding and going back to bed. Hopefully it'll make for an easier time at night.

 

[SweetV]

2Have- That's what I did with DS. I would pump and his night bottle would be 1/2 breast milk and 1/2 formula. He slept through the night from the first night he was home. I also had a bassinet with him and have just purchased another. I like to have them close for the first little while.

 

[2have4kids]

2Have- That's what I did with DS. I would pump and his night bottle would be 1/2 breast milk and 1/2 formula. He slept through the night from the first night he was home. I also had a bassinet with him and have just purchased another. I like to have them close for the first little while.

Makes sense, my mom said her milk didn't come in for a while and same with a gf so I was hoping to supplement with formula if this happens. I never thought to mix them but that seems like a smart thing to do rather than have baby lose weight waiting for your milk to come in. And something about formula keeps them more satiated at night, will def try cutting the breast milk with it.

 

[SweetV]

DS refused to latch, he didn't eat for almost 24 hours after birth and was monitored for weight. Lactation consultant told me to give up so I pumped and it took a while for supply to come in. He was such a happy baby I don't regret supplementing when I needed to.

 

[2have4kids]

DS refused to latch, he didn't eat for almost 24 hours after birth and was monitored for weight. Lactation consultant told me to give up so I pumped and it took a while for supply to come in. He was such a happy baby I don't regret supplementing when I needed to.

I think it's people with really rigid thoughts on how to do something that wind up having a hard time. A colleague of mine (male) was bent on having his child exclusively breast fed for the first 6 months. It wound him up with a strung out frustrated wife and a screaming unhappy baby that quickly lost a lot of weight in the first 2 weeks. All of the horror stories tend to be from people who have this picture they'll only do it the one way and then baby disagrees
You sound like a smart lassy, glad to hear you had a good experience!

 

[SweetV]

Yep I absolutely agree about people being unwilling to bend that have a harder time. My MIL was not impressed that I wouldn't be exclusively breastfeeding (although not really her concern either way) and was not shy about letting people know. Mothers are made to feel as though they are doing something wrong and that is not the case at all. You have to do what works best for the baby and the parents, others opinions should not play a part. I was pretty open to most things and lucky to have a supportive DH that was willing to experiment until we found something that worked.
Thanks . As do you!

 

[treeroot]

Ya, I'm pretty tired, but I don't worry about anything except looking after my little man right now (doesn't stop me from feeling guilty sometimes though!).
I'm going to hold off on any formula since breastfeeding has been gong so well, I don't want to inadvertently mess with my supply. I know this stage will be temporary, so I just keep that in mind. As long as he's doing well and my well-being is still good, I can handle it.
Last night he didn't want to sleep away from me at all, and was super fussy. It just happens sometimes.

 

[SweetV]

Ya, I'm pretty tired, but I don't worry about anything except looking after my little man right now (doesn't stop me from feeling guilty sometimes though!).
I'm going to hold off on any formula since breastfeeding has been gong so well, I don't want to inadvertently mess with my supply. I know this stage will be temporary, so I just keep that in mind. As long as he's doing well and my well-being is still good, I can handle it.
Last night he didn't want to sleep away from me at all, and was super fussy. It just happens sometimes.

Don't feel guilty. You are absolutely right this is a very temporary stage in the grand scheme of parent hood (as is the throwing food all over the place next stage). You are lucky it is going so well!

 

[BrandiCanucks]

Just a suggestion but frequent feedings, more often than 3-4 hours apart, all day or through the night, is suggestive of tongue or lip ties. They feed so often to make up for the calories they are not taking in when they struggle to eat. Other signs are falling asleep at the breast, clicking while nursing, pain in the mom, constantly screaming, gas/colic (because of all the air they swallow), difficulty gaining weight, weight loss (they burn more calories trying to eat than they are taking in) and more.

Pediatricians SUCK at diagnosing anything more than severe, classic ties and often tell parents to start supplementing with formula rather than send them somewhere that can properly assess, diagnose, and treat the child for ties. This comes as a result of the Formula generation. Tied babies take much easier to bottles than breast, so there was no reason to pass on and teach the knowledge of diagnosing different severities of ties.

My son fed every 1-2 hours and he was tied. He clicked, was gassy, fell asleep at the breast, and three NICU nurses and a pediatrician all missed his tie. He was treated at 5 weeks old by Dr. Newman in Toronto, who saw it in 30 seconds, clipped him 5 minutes later and saved our breastfeeding relationship. There are other symptoms of ties too. Just a thought for the ladies who may be struggling with breastfeeding and are having their peds suggest supplementing with formula. Have them evaluated by a pedatric dentist, or better, a Preferred Provider.

 

[2have4kids]

Just a suggestion but frequent feedings, more often than 3-4 hours apart, all day or through the night, is suggestive of tongue or lip ties. They feed so often to make up for the calories they are not taking in when they struggle to eat. Other signs are falling asleep at the breast, clicking while nursing, pain in the mom, constantly screaming, gas/colic (because of all the air they swallow), difficulty gaining weight, weight loss (they burn more calories trying to eat than they are taking in) and more.

Pediatricians SUCK at diagnosing anything more than severe, classic ties and often tell parents to start supplementing with formula rather than send them somewhere that can properly assess, diagnose, and treat the child for ties. This comes as a result of the Formula generation. Tied babies take much easier to bottles than breast, so there was no reason to pass on and teach the knowledge of diagnosing different severities of ties.

My son fed every 1-2 hours and he was tied. He clicked, was gassy, fell asleep at the breast, and three NICU nurses and a pediatrician all missed his tie. He was treated at 5 weeks old by Dr. Newman in Toronto, who saw it in 30 seconds, clipped him 5 minutes later and saved our breastfeeding relationship. There are other symptoms of ties too. Just a thought for the ladies who may be struggling with breastfeeding and are having their peds suggest supplementing with formula. Have them evaluated by a pedatric dentist, or better, a Preferred Provider.

Thanks for this -it's such great information as this can lead to months of crying unhappy hungry infant and a mom that feels like she can't do anything right. It's SUPER common too, DH and I wanted to be ready for it just in case and found a few really great articles on it. You can sometimes see the tissue under the tongue or on the front gum attached to the upper front teeth - it's unusually tight and the fix they do is a tiny snip that allows for the tongue to be free so baby can latch. You can recognize toddlers that haven't had this fix because they'll sit in a relaxed position (picture one watching tv), mouth opened and their tongue rolls forward almost out of the mouth with the tip still tied close inside that mouth anchored just behind the lower teeth. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/12/tongue-tie-babies-delays-treatment-nhs-breastfeeding

 

[treeroot]

Thanks for the info Brandi.

My guy is a super frequent eater (though the first 6 weeks are so interspersed with growth spurts that I can barely tell them apart from his "regular" feeding). He can also get gassy and has lots of spit up.

In my case I think it's probably related to a heavy let-down and full milk supply. Since he was born he's gained 2oz every day!

Some babies are just frequent feeders, but if he wasn't gaining weight I'd definitely be looking into causes (such as ties).


Weathers been great in central Ontario lately, but my garden is out of control. Nothing to harvest but weeds. And we can't seem to keep up with the lawn either.

 

[BrandiCanucks]

Asher gained like crazy too, but it was because of the frequent feeding. He wasn't able to take full feeds, so he woke up sooner than most babies, wanting to feed again. He was every hour through the day and every two hours at night. I didn't even know about ties, but a friend of mine pointed out his "heart-shaped tongue" in a photo on Facebook and suggested I have it checked out, and sure enough, he was tied. The nurses and ped told me he wasn't tied because he could stick his tongue out. Problem was, he couldn't lift it to transfer milk properly so he fed more often to make up for the feed he was missing out on. Once he was clipped, in a day or two, he was taking full feeds and sleeping for 3-5 hours at a time. It was a wonderful sense of relief for both of us...and his gas, spitting up and reflux went away! Spitting up and reflux are also commonly caused by ties.

 

[treeroot]

Good to know; thanks Brandi!

 

[StaceyM]

Really good information ladies. Thank you all!