Plus-Size Pregnancy

[Rosered52]

Hurray for little girls, congratulations!

 

[CaliGinger]

Congrats on your little girls everyone!

Me and baby are still hanging in there-I took maternity leave earlier than planned so I have the rest of the Time before the birth off work. It was getting to be too tiring and stressful to work.

 

[SaucySac38]

Well, little wiggle butt would not stay still so I did not hear the heartbeat. Alas, I'll get over it. I will go back in two weeks or I might just wait until my next scan which is in 6 weeks. I know it is harder to hear with bigger mommas and I have a tilted uterus so 18 weeks may be a better time. Then I will see it and hear it. I don't know, still trying to decide.

My symptoms are easing and I am happy. I know it is a worrying thing but I am over being sea-sick/nauseas all the time. I look forward to just getting round. I am still pretty tired and my appetite is still iffy but my boobs are not as tender and every smell does make me gag. Baby steps!

 

[KEslinger]

Just checking in... Hows everyone doing?

We are good. 2 week check up tomorrow. Major nursing issues so I am pumping and giving bottles of half pumped milk half formula. it doesnt matter if I dobt nurse or nurse for ten minutes to an hour, she comes off starving and takes the same amount in a bottle. Heartbreaking. Makes me want to cry everytime.

 

[maisie78]

Just checking in... Hows everyone doing?

We are good. 2 week check up tomorrow. Major nursing issues so I am pumping and giving bottles of half pumped milk half formula. it doesnt matter if I dobt nurse or nurse for ten minutes to an hour, she comes off starving and takes the same amount in a bottle. Heartbreaking. Makes me want to cry everytime.

Glad to hear your both doing well. Sorry the nursing isn't going as well as you would like. Try not to get too down about it, you're doing your best

 

[maisie78]

I weighed myself this morning and I've put on 4lbs I had lost some weight since being pregnant and I was doing so well not putting anything back on and had really hoped I was going to keep weight gain to hardly anything. But I'm just so hungry all the time. I try to be healthy but still end up having junk at some point in the day. I know it's daft, I was always going to put weight back on but at 266lbs I felt heavy enough without adding to it

 

[Mrs.B.]

Maisie, that still means your doing well, I have put on a stone already, thats my pregnancy allowance used up right there! Ha

 

[KendraNoell]

Kes- I'm sorry BF-ing isn't working out like you wanted... mine didn't either but I am SO much happier formula feeding. It just didn't make me happy or baby happy like I thought it would every baby and every mama is different!

 

[KEslinger]

@Kendra, Thanks.
It still makes me want to cry when I think about it a lot. I feel like I let her or myself down. LOL, I can't help it. We've seen the lactation consultant twice and they offered again but I declined. I know what'd happen, they'd watch me breastfeed again and tell me that everything looks perfect. We know that she CAN eat, I think that it may take her longer and she gets frustrated and then gets sleepy. I'm not sure. But, she comes off starving, if I don't have her on the breast or if she's latched for 10 minutes or 1 hour she still takes the same amount in a bottle. Her pediatrician said sometimes the biologics of it just don't work - (low supply, no supply, problems with the baby... something) that made me feel a little bit better. She had problems with the Similac from the hospital so we switched to Enfamil. She's still been super gassy and fussy, we've been using the Enfamil for about 5 days. We just got Enfamil Gentlease, if in a week or so this doesn't help we're going to have to go with a soy-based formula. The doctor said I can continue to add in whatever I pump - unfortunately it's only about an ounce per bottle that I can offer her. So, as she starts eating more her ratio of breastmilk to formula will start to go down. I'll only be able to keep up the pumping until I return to work, and, we'll have to continue renting the hospital pump because both the Avent Isis IQ Duo and the Lactina from WIC don't work on me. Yikes. Right now she takes in 45-60mLs (1 & 1/2 to 2 ounces), which is right on target. We had another appointment today. She's still gaining weight but super slow. Hopefully without trying to breastfeed her weight will start to go up more, and more quickly. We'll see. Other than that I've been a champ with the up all nights... because she hasn't come back up to birth weight we need to continue to wake her every 2 hours for food. She doesn't regularly wake to feed. Last night she started to, so, I turned off my alarms and then woke up almost 5 hours later to a baby that was sound asleep. Now, the alarms are back on. I should be pumping more often than I am. That gets hard when you have a hospital pump and are out and about. I end up pumping every-other-feed-ish. We'll see how long I can keep this up.

 

[Rosered52]

Breast feeding is such an emotional thing, I'm sorry you're struggling. My dear friend was just never able to produce enough for her daughter, and it was so heartbreaking for her. But her daughter is the healthiest, happiet little girl (our goddaughter!), she didn't miss a thing on formula. Be nice to yourselves, ladies!

I found out a week or so ago that I'm likely to be induced at 38 or 39 weeks due to the risk of a compromised placenta in diabetic moms. The countdown has truly begun--8 weeks left is kind of freaking me out!

 

[KEslinger]

Breast feeding is such an emotional thing, I'm sorry you're struggling. My dear friend was just never able to produce enough for her daughter, and it was so heartbreaking for her. But her daughter is the healthiest, happiet little girl (our goddaughter!), she didn't miss a thing on formula. Be nice to yourselves, ladies!

I found out a week or so ago that I'm likely to be induced at 38 or 39 weeks due to the risk of a compromised placenta in diabetic moms. The countdown has truly begun--8 weeks left is kind of freaking me out!

good luck with your induction. mine didn't take long at all but my cervix was already "favorable"... they said it could take 24-48 hours.

Breastfeeding is an emotional thing. I never thought I'd be in the position to not produce enough milk, I guess I was hopeful. I know that having PCOS can have a huge impact on your supply but, I dunno, I guess I just didn't want to think about that. Knowing that my baby girl only gained .2 ounces this last week kinda helped me figure this whole thing out. Her health is so much more important than breastfeeding... even though breastfeeding can greatly lend to good health. I just don't make enough for her to thrive off of. (I pump less than half of what she takes in bottles per day. Not good) Even though I've mostly come to terms with it, it still makes me sad. I'm thinking that if my supply doesn't pick up with the fenugreek I'll just finish taking it... I bought a 200 ct bottle so it'll last me for a month... I'll just continue to pump for the month and then stop. I should be seeing an increase here in the next day or so if it's going to work. I guess I should've thought about that before buying the bottle. LOL. Oh well. You live and you learn. I have to continue to wake baby every 2 hours to eat until she reaches her birth weight. The nights can be long and hard but I love every minute of being her mom. OH gets a little frustrated in the middle of the night, he still hasn't adjusted wholly to the up all nights. I can't blame him, he does go to work during the day and comes home tired. He'll let me get a nap in too if we can, he's a good guy. Problem is I need him for naps. LOL. I sleep so much better with him by my side.

 

[KendraNoell]

There is a sticky thread in the formula feeding section about breast feeding guilt, lots of moms with lots of different stories and things that happened how they weren't successful. It really helped me, maybe it will help you too. My situation was similar to yours- probably because of stress, my supply just sucked.

 

[KendraNoell]

And as far as gas goes, I have been using gripe water instead of changing my formula and it seems to help.

 

[KEslinger]

I will have to look for the thread when I can use the internet. I thought gripe water had a minimum age of 1 month?

 

[Marisa08]

What I find crazy that a lot of people say bf is supply and demand. I have successfully bf'd 3 kids. My first son for 19 months, my second son for 12 months and my last son for 16 months. But there were many times I just felt my supply wasn't enough. During those times (usually in the first two months of babies life) I would supplement with some formula. And just when I thought that I was going to have to go to formula only things would turn and my body would seem to keep up a little better. I also found that not having a set schedule (let the baby set the schedule) helped with supply too. It can be frustrating because you often feel like all you do is bf. Ladies don't kick yourself about not bf'ing. Stuff happens and what is important is enjoying your time with baby. I really don't feel like bf'ing this one at all! lol But I know I will for a few months at least

 

[KEslinger]

What I find crazy that a lot of people say bf is supply and demand. I have successfully bf'd 3 kids. My first son for 19 months, my second son for 12 months and my last son for 16 months. But there were many times I just felt my supply wasn't enough. During those times (usually in the first two months of babies life) I would supplement with some formula. And just when I thought that I was going to have to go to formula only things would turn and my body would seem to keep up a little better. I also found that not having a set schedule (let the baby set the schedule) helped with supply too. It can be frustrating because you often feel like all you do is bf. Ladies don't kick yourself about not bf'ing. Stuff happens and what is important is enjoying your time with baby. I really don't feel like bf'ing this one at all! lol But I know I will for a few months at least

Yeah, they say it's supply and demand but that's not really how my body works. In the hospital (for 5 days straight) I had to put her to the breast, 10 minutes each side, supplement with pumped milk or formula if we didn't have enough pumped milk, and then pump. I did that every 3 hours and my supply never increased. I'm producing now what I was producing when we left the hospital. She only gained 0.2 pounds in a week, not good. I'm taking Fenugreek, 3 capsules 3 times a day now... in hopes of increasing my supply and I'm still pumping the same amount. The other thing is, she doesn't really have the "demand"... she rarely wakes to eat, we have to wake her. So, we're now back to a schedule, this time every 2 hours, trying to get back to her birth weight. Once she gets back to her birth weight we can let her sleep through the night and what not. The pediatrician we have was pretty reassuring about the biologics of it and how sometimes it just doesn't work. Sometimes I'm fine with that and know that I'll do whatever I can to raise a happy, healthy baby. But, other times it makes me super down. Feeling like I failed her in some way. OH's phone is shut off, but he can receive texts... I text him asking how long I keep this up for. When do I call it quits? I have a big ass bottle of Fenugreek and a ton of storage bags so I guess I take it until it's gone and pump until my bags are gone and then stop. The stress isn't worth it but I do want her to have some milk from me. It's hard to keep up the pumping game, too, when only the hospital grade pump works for me. I can't really take it places and pump while I'm out, so I just pump and extra ounce to ounce and a half when I've been out longer than usual. OH is reassuring. I know the baby will be fine and we'll be on the right track soon, whether it's part me part formula, all formula or what have you, but right now, inside, it just sucks.

She's swinging in her swing. Content. Perfect as can be. I love her. So much. Time to feed her. It's kinda funny, I have an alarm set to go off at certain times to feed her... when she hears the alarm she starts fussing now. haha

 

[lillichloe]

I went throught the same thing with my daughter she wouldnt wake to eat and we had to set alarms to feed her. I for what ever reaon completely lost my milk at 6wks and had to do formula only. Then two weeks later my milk came back and Lilli had absolutly no interest in it after the formula. I felt like a failure. BUT she is 7 now completly healthy and happy.I find myself wondering if I even want to put myself through it a second time and just formula feed.
With how far we have come scientificly our babies arent missing anything being on formula. You are a wonderful mother! You are doing everything you can to do right by your child. Try to remember that and give yourself credit for all that you are doing!

 

[KEslinger]

I went throught the same thing with my daughter she wouldnt wake to eat and we had to set alarms to feed her. I for what ever reaon completely lost my milk at 6wks and had to do formula only. Then two weeks later my milk came back and Lilli had absolutly no interest in it after the formula. I felt like a failure. BUT she is 7 now completly healthy and happy.I find myself wondering if I even want to put myself through it a second time and just formula feed.
With how far we have come scientificly our babies arent missing anything being on formula. You are a wonderful mother! You are doing everything you can to do right by your child. Try to remember that and give yourself credit for all that you are doing!

Thank you!!! I know plenty of moms have been there before.

 

[KendraNoell]

The gripe water that I got says its ok for babies 2 weeks and older.

 

[KEslinger]

The gripe water that I got says its ok for babies 2 weeks and older.

Do you know what brand it is? I'll see if I can find it out here.

Tonight we're going to try and let Alyssa wake up on her own to eat. The other night she went 2 hours, 1 hour, then 4 hours... we're supposed to be waking her to feed her, and "feeding on demand every 2-4 hours" (that sounds kinda dumb to me, if it's on demand it's whenever, right? if it's every 2-4 hours then it's every 2-4 hours. Haha). I'm going to set my alarm for every 4 hours tonight to be sure she gets fed if she doesn't wake up to eat. She was cluster feeding today so hoping that's a good sign of a growth spurt, along with some fussiness but not too much, less gas (!!!), lots of wet diapers. Yay. Her cluster feeding was weird... she usually eats 2 ounces every 2ish hours. She was eating 1 ounce every hour for most of the day... finally got her to take a 2 hour nap and when we woke up she took 2 ounces, then 2 ounces again 2 hours later and here we are now. Time for another feeding. We're starting to make bottles with 3 ounces in them so she has the opportunity to drink more if she wants to... though if she's going to do that we kinda have to slow her down or she'll spit a bunch of it up. Doctor said at this age (and being early) she should be taking in 45-90mls (an ounce and a half to 3 ounces) so being somewhere around 2 is just fine. Hope you all have a great night!!!