March Mummies 2011

[Nixilix]

Lol I hope not. I was desperate to meet phoebe and she was 8 days early

Any names yet natty?

 

[Nixilix]

Ps hope she comes on my bday 13th feb

 

[natty1985]

Did your waters go with phoebe nix ? Xx were calling her Evie Mae

 

[Nixilix]

Lovely name! No I was induced but didn't work really, they wanted to get into break waters but they went on there own 3 days after!!

 

[blessedmomma]

natty- love the name!!!! lol i dont think you will go all the way and honestly i dont think i will either. my goal is to make it to march, but im due march 18. any days after the 1st is just a bonus to me. what is your actual due date? i was thinking feb 18??

rachel- my BF class was awesome! it looks like i will have a lot of support and the teacher was a lactation consultant from there. they have a dept in the hospital and a clinic open every day in case i need to go in for help with anything. its nice to have since i dont know anyone personally that can help if i have any issues. im gonna try my best, but not beat myself up if it doesnt work out.

 

[membas#1]

love the name natty! we thought about Evelyn for O before she was born, but my middle name is Eve so didn't opt for Evelyn for her. Evie is so cute!

blessed, glad your class went well and you will have support near you. the key thing to remember is to relax try to get baby to latch in that first hour but don't worry if baby doesn't right away--don't panic. give LO some time and just relax...i remember when O came out being obsessed to get her to latch right away--i mean right away...within minutes..finally a nurse told me sometimes they don't latch for 30-60 minutes...and sometimes later than that...so i just relaxed and waited to try and after about 20 minutes she latched right on.... you'll do great and like you said if something doesn't go right you tried and that's all you can do. don't beat yourself up over any of it!

 

[blessedmomma]

membas- did you let them clean her up first or put her right on you and keep her there? the teacher said its good to leave the baby on you right off the bat, but to be honest i would rather have him cleaned up first. i know that sounds horrible. i want him to be skin to skin, just for him to be wiped off first. i can wait on him to be weighed and all that. and when do they do the apgar thing if they put them on you right away?

 

[membas#1]

They wiped her off a bit but we really didn't want them to--we wanted the vernix to stay on her cuz it's great antimicrobial and lubricant for their skin...but if you want them to clean LO up a little bit then ask them to do that...as soon as O came out and they put her on my tummy she pooped meconium all over my stomach...it stayed there til i took a shower later (they wiped some of that off). we didn't actually bathe O for the first week. it's a preferential thing...i'm not sure what all the apgar entails? i didn't get an apgar score or anything for O? they weighed her later after several hours. they checked her vitals occasionally and checked mine but they pretty well left us alone for a few hours outside of the 20 minute checks. later after about 5 hours we had her hearing done and her PKU test...sometime before that they weighed her and measured her. but we had asked to have early release. we wanted the minimum time in hospital which is 6 hours, they gave us the ok after 5 hours but it took 3 more hours to get the paperwork etc. done....which was annoying but we were home 8 hours after she was born.

skin to skin is good as soon as you can get it. if that means letting them clean baby up for a minute then that's fine, just let them know what you want.

 

[blessedmomma]

so even though you had her there right away and kept her there it still took a while for her to BF? i havent decided how much i want done with him. im thinking of having them wait to cut his cord, so he might be put on me right away anyways just for that purpose.

did you have he epidural or any kind of labor meds?

 

[membas#1]

it took her about 20-30 minutes i think to BF (if memory serves me right). we did delayed clamping of the cord...waited til the placenta quit pulsing so yeah if that's what you do they'll probably deliver him to your tummy but they can still wipe him off some if you want.

i didn't have any drugs or labor meds...they kept offering me ibuprofen afterwards but i kept saying i was fine...i think they thought i was crazy.

i just made a lot of noise but it hurt so i figured i had a right to

 

[blessedmomma]

lol i think women have the right to make any noise during and after labor they want. sorry to be so nosey

i want to try to do what i can to help BF happen. i usually have the epi, my first was without and was a nightmare. i feel like it helps me keep my energy for after the baby is born. i have had very pleasant experiences with the epi, but she said half of babies who are born after the epi have a hard time latching. those statistics arent very convincing to me, like it could be that some babies just have a hard time with it. but i dont know. i usually have everything pretty well thought out based on my previous experiences, but i feel adding BF has thrown a wrench in my usual plans. rethinking a lot of things

 

[membas#1]

i don't think you are being nosy at all...that's what this forum is for, sharing i dont' mind the questions.

well if it helps my sister had 2 kids with epi, BF both. my SIL had 1 with epi, 1 without--BF both, my other SIL has had 3 C-sections BF all 3. no issues with latching. that being said if you decide to go without the epi just keep in mind your body can do it and as for energy afterwards...adrenaline will kick in at least for 3 days

 

[natty1985]

Thanks everyone I wasn't keen at first we also liked Olivia and phoebe ! Blessed I'm actually due 20th feb , 18th is Ethan's birthday xxx

 

[Tanikit]

I think BF varies so much between individuals and also individual babies. Both my births were induced with an epi though the second ended in C-section. My first baby battled to breastfeed, the second latched very easily and the ICU staff were surprised as she was latching with tubes down her nose quite easily. The first I did have to have help with as she battled with the latch for days before I found someone who could help me - she went on to BF for 26 months so something must have gone right after those early days.

Both my children went to NICU after the birth - with the first birth I only had a brief cuddle before they snatched her away, with the second they did give her to me straight after the birth before cleaning her up and again on the way out of the theatre, but I didn't see her again til the next morning.

BF shouldn't change your options blessed - it can be managed (sometimes needs help though) even in hard cases - I didn't get to BF my second child til 18 hours after the birth and she still BFs fine - she even had bottles and tubes of formula in NICU and dummies/pacifiers and she still latched fine so while they give you a method that usually works best, it doesn't mean that the non ideal is not going to work too. Kirima is still BFing quite happily.

 

[Nixilix]

You girls are so helpful

 

[readynwilling]

i had no drugs and i didn't get J for probably 10 minutes after the birth and had her cord cut right away and was semi wiped off. , and when they gave her to me for skin to skin and tried to bf and it didn't work so well but only cause i was so worked up!!!. it really is like Membas said, relax, it makes a HUGE difference. i was so worked up about her feeding and nervous, and it wasn't till i told myself to calm the f down and chill that J got it. And that was 3 whole days later! and i gave her no formula... we just kept trying and trying. and we are still bf'ing several times a day 10 months later!!! but skin to skin with baby is good for baby even till they are 1! if you are naked from waist up and baby is just in diaper at when bf'ing it can help boost supply. i realize that's not possible during the day with 5 other kids, but at night it should be

 

[membas#1]

yes skin to skin whenever you can is important, whether it be right away or days after birth. when we got home from the hospital O and i stayed in bed skin to skin for several days (well we got up to go to the drs office and for a walk outside but anytime we could we were skin-skin in bed).

 

[blessedmomma]

natty- you are so close!!!! do you think she will come before ethans first birthday?

nathon is finally about to pop some teeth in. my poor guy is miserable. its his top middle two. they are about to pop but still havent broke through

thank you so much ladies! i feel so much better reading your experiences and that things still worked out. i feel a little overwhelmed with all the BF info as it is. and then hearing that my labor choices was possibly gonna make it harder just made it feel like it was too much. its so nice to know if i have an epi or a section it can still go really well

i plan on having plenty of skin to skin with him in hospital and i co-sleep so at night too. i usually feed mine in bed, but im sure it will be different than feeding a bottle while they are propped up on my arm. i have to figure that all out. BF teacher said it was good for daddy to have skin to skin too so my DH is gonna do that. thats gonna be so cute. our other ones rooted on him toward his nipples even though i didnt BF them. he said he doesnt want baby to get nipple confusion lol

 

[membas#1]

you'll do great blessed. i would try not to stress about it and just let happen what happens

my Dh had skin to skin with O too within the first few hours when i decided to wash up in the shower...it was pretty sweet

O is popping teeth like crazy too right now..there are 3 on top coming...all at slightly different stages...one finally broke skin today and then another is a day or two behind that one and then another a day or two behind that one...ugh. she already has 3 and they came in one at a time and she didn't fuss much about any of them...but i think these are bugging her...2 nights of very restless sleep--but today she was very happy and took 3 (40 min) naps and had a babysitter for 5 hours while DH and i had a date and she was still that happy and no tears...so hoping she'll sleep well tonight! i need a good night's rest!

 

[readynwilling]

I hope you got some sleep Membas. J cut 4 all at the exact same time (same stage for all of them) just a month ago. she went from 4 teeth (2upper, 2 lower middle) to 8 teeth in the course of a week but they didn't bother her that badly. i did give a dose of advil each night before bed, they seemed to bother her more at night. she still seems like she is teething some... but the next due are molars, and i don't see any signs of them.