U.S. Mommies To Be

[AuntBug]

We're both great. C-section wasn't as bad as I'd imagined, even though I had a classical cut on my uterus. She is doing better than I ever could have hoped for, we are so lucky she's a fighter. Just need some time for her to grow. It's so hard being at home without her.

 

[MissFox]

I couldn't imagine! I hope her time away is short and that she grows quickly! (I'm sure she will!!!) I'm glad that the c-section recovery is going well for you also. Did you have to labor? I've heard it can make recovery a lot easier if you didn't have to labor much. I showed her picture to my coworker and she says she is beautiful!

 

[AuntBug]

No labor at all. We had planned a csection at 37 weeks, but based on the u/s she needed to come out at 35+2.

I'm certainly sore, need my pain meds, but I had worked myself up over how bad it would be.

My DH has been so amazing, I couldn't have made it through any of this without him.

 

[MissFox]

Excellent! Glad your DH has been there for you! Mine was amaaaaazing also. He didn't let me change any diapers for the first week... but now it's a fight to get him to (I wonder what he does while I'm at work LOL). Everyone I tell who has had a CS I say TAKE THE PAIN MEDS! I didn't take all of mine but if I was in pain I wouldn't hesitate. And I would take one before Ileft the house to go somewhere. I still have some left

 

[AuntBug]

It seems like we have lots of bf moms on this thread. I'm trying my absolute best to bf, especially since I have a preemie, but I have 2 major challenges. First, my baby isn't with me I have limited chances to put her to breast as I'm not producing much and she gets too tired to take her bottle. I don't want her to get an ng tube because I don't know what I'm doing or I don't have milk. Second, I had a breast reduction 15 years ago, it was pretty radical, the removed and reattached my nipples. But I healed well, got sensation back right away, and it was a long time ago.

I still don't have much supply on day 6, about 15 ml a day that I painstakingly pump. But tonight I'm getting strong cramps, my bb ache and are very firm. Is tis a sign of milk coming in?

 

[MissFox]

Sounds promising. There is a thread somewhere in here in the baby section about the pros and cons I'd exclusively expressing. I pump a lot and I have a hard time upping g my supply by pumping and haven't gone more than 10hrs without baby actually latching on. Good luck! And crazy on the reduction. I want one so bad!

Sooo possibly fml. I noticed I was ovulating. DH and I HD make up sex and the condom broke. Off o procure some plan b tomorrkw

 

[lisaf]

Sounds like milk is coming in! Babies don't need a lot at first and if you have to supplement with formula, try not to worry. I don't know about what the reduction does to your ability to produce but as long as you keep pumping every 3 hours, even at night, then you're doing your best to establish a supply.

It took me a few weeks to latch on at all so even if you have to exclusively express at first, it doesn't mean you won't get to BF directly ever. If you can do lots of skin-to-skin it can help your milk supply (not sure if you can with the nicu)
Looking at a pic of your baby can help you produce too. Make sure you are eating enough and drinking plenty of water too. You can take fenugreek to help supply.

Keep up with it if you can, but if it's too hard, dont beat yourself up about it.

 

[AuntBug]

Thanks ladies. I'm lucky, she's doing well enough that I can hold her quite a bit, especially if I kangaroo. I feed her directly about once a day. With a nipple shield she latches like a champ, even though my nipple is bigger than her face

I definitely have to supplement, and prob won't ever produce enough to bf exclusively, but that is ok. Every little bit helps her Even pumping is kinda nice. I can't do that much for her, I don't even change her diapers most of the time, so it is great to have something only I can do for her.

 

[sma1588]

well ladies i had my baby shower yesterday and i had a ton of peope and gifts. some how i ended up with newborn outfits and tons of onsies but no other size outfits or recipts...no breast feeding stuff at all and almost al size 1 diapers...2 small packs of newborn.....tons and tons of wipes, a bath tub,5 things of lotion, blankets (no sheets) a pack n play a bouncer crib from my mom travel system from my dad, and a carry thing but not the moby...now i need to but all the breastfeeding stuff

 

[Sweet_Mama]

Sorry it took me so long, I just got home from the hospital this afternoon. I hated leaving without her, but she is doing amazingly well!

She is perfect and lovely!

It seems like we have lots of bf moms on this thread. I'm trying my absolute best to bf, especially since I have a preemie, but I have 2 major challenges. First, my baby isn't with me I have limited chances to put her to breast as I'm not producing much and she gets too tired to take her bottle. I don't want her to get an ng tube because I don't know what I'm doing or I don't have milk. Second, I had a breast reduction 15 years ago, it was pretty radical, the removed and reattached my nipples. But I healed well, got sensation back right away, and it was a long time ago.

I still don't have much supply on day 6, about 15 ml a day that I painstakingly pump. But tonight I'm getting strong cramps, my bb ache and are very firm. Is tis a sign of milk coming in?

It definitely sounds like milk coming in. Is there any way you can talk to a lactation consultant? I have a friend who had a reduction and is successfully breastfeeding with some formula as well.

Sooo possibly fml. I noticed I was ovulating. DH and I HD make up sex and the condom broke. Off o procure some plan b tomorrkw

This is my fear right now... only condoms and it scares the life out of me that I'll get knocked up again... I haven't even had a period yet though, which is unusual for me, nursing, pumping, or not, I've never gone this long without my period... so I just have to test every week with a dollar tree test, lol, just to be sure there were not sneaky swimmers.

well ladies i had my baby shower yesterday and i had a ton of peope and gifts. some how i ended up with newborn outfits and tons of onsies but no other size outfits or recipts...no breast feeding stuff at all and almost al size 1 diapers...2 small packs of newborn.....tons and tons of wipes, a bath tub,5 things of lotion, blankets (no sheets) a pack n play a bouncer crib from my mom travel system from my dad, and a carry thing but not the moby...now i need to but all the breastfeeding stuff

Ah, the clothes givers... they mean well, don't they, lol. Diapers are an awesome gift and you WILL use ALL the wipes and so many more. Now, just make a list of what you need and go for it.

 

[DarlingMe]

well ladies i had my baby shower yesterday and i had a ton of peope and gifts. some how i ended up with newborn outfits and tons of onsies but no other size outfits or recipts...no breast feeding stuff at all and almost al size 1 diapers...2 small packs of newborn.....tons and tons of wipes, a bath tub,5 things of lotion, blankets (no sheets) a pack n play a bouncer crib from my mom travel system from my dad, and a carry thing but not the moby...now i need to but all the breastfeeding stuff

I think I mentioned before but maybe not. Blame it on pregnancy brain! We were able to return things and get store credits. We had quite a bit of NB clothes, we returned them all. I kept a couple onsies and a 2 pack of pants. LO was estimated 5.5 lbs at 33 weeks so I am sure he will not fit 8 lbs clothes. Diapers we kept but all in the packs so we can return them if he goes though sizes quicker or slower. Got a few things marked on clearance that I tried to return that were only $2 that we decided just to keep. Otherwise we got enough store credits to get the breast pump and some other things. Got the Avent Duo Electric, which is what I wanted. It has very good reviews and was $180 at Walmart, Buy Buy Baby price matched and took a 20% coupon. Hopefully it works as well as everyone says!

I appreciate the generosity of my family and I am sure they would be happy to know that we were able to get the items we needed, b/c we got a lot of multiples of gifts, many as you said with no receipts. BTW Carters makes different lines for each store. They are a huge brand in the area and a huge percentage of the clothes we recieved were carters brand. Target carries "Just one you" and Walmart carries "Child of mine" if that helps you at all. I kind of had an idea what items came from each store from shopping the past few months so we just took a day and went shopping and returning. And BRU and Buy buy baby charge more than target or walmart for most things so the basic things we could, we returned to there to get more credit. It was great to have the store credits to shop with! Hopefully you will be able to do the same and get most of what you need still.

 

[heyyady]

Target has an AMAZING return policy- if you have a gift registry there (if you don't already, sign up now, it doesn't matter if nothing was purchased off it) then you have 30 days to exchange for FULL CREDIT (not sale prices) anything they carry, whether it was on your registry list or not

 

[DarlingMe]

Target has an AMAZING return policy- if you have a gift registry there (if you don't already, sign up now, it doesn't matter if nothing was purchased off it) then you have 30 days to exchange for FULL CREDIT (not sale prices) anything they carry, whether it was on your registry list or not

boo they didnt give me full price on some things and she had me pull up my registry! That was where some of the towels and a couple outfits were only $2! I think I got full credit for everything else though. Seems to be the same full price policy at buy buy baby.

 

[sma1588]

thanks for the help ladies, i have no clue where anything is from so i just washed what i got for clothes and hope i use them.......no 1 really went off the registries but x mas will be very soon after she is born so i will get bigger sizes of clothes and i will use the gift cards for the breast feeding stuff i wanna get

 

[southerngal2]

Target has an AMAZING return policy- if you have a gift registry there (if you don't already, sign up now, it doesn't matter if nothing was purchased off it) then you have 30 days to exchange for FULL CREDIT (not sale prices) anything they carry, whether it was on your registry list or not

Yep! I had to do this with lots of things and i got full credit.

 

[tlh97990]

i had my baby shower on saturday (i know its early but i had to drive two and a half hours) i got a travel system, a ton of clothes in sizes from newborn to 24 months, a lot of toys and stuffed animals, socks shoes bibs burp cloths hooded towels wash cloths a ton of diapers and wipes and diaper rash cream like 20 bottles of shampoo baby wash and lotion, a video baby monitor, a high chair, 2 bouncy chairs, a bassinet, an activity mat, a bath tub, and a bunch of other stuff i dont even know remember. we got pretty much everything we needed and more all we have to get now is a diaper pail and a whole bunch of hangers!!

 

[sma1588]

wow sounds like u did get everything u need...thats awsome ......my fav. out of everything was the blanket my OHS grandma made...it looks just like one that would come with a crib set its perfect........











well today im still putting away some clothes and trying to get the room all done but i have to take it easy now cuz im cramping pretty bad and getting sharp pains down there so im making everything take a lot longer than it should

 

[tlh97990]

yeah my mom made a blanket and so did my aunt..my sister found a rag doll my great great aunt made for me when i was little that i havent seen in years. i didnt even know it was still around so that was really neat!

 

[bbygurl719]

my mom does counted cross stitching and shes makin Aaryella a blank and i chose on of the harder ones to make and shes been working on it since i was like 7 or 8 weeks. and in the mean time we kno a few othe people that are preggo and my brother and his wife had there baby march 5th so he made 3 or 4 others in the mean time of makeing my baby blanket and shes still working on it. it probably wont be done till the baby is here plus when baby comes she has to add her name weight time born and bday!!

 

[Sweet_Mama]

Awww, I love when people make things. It means a lot because I know how much work goes into them. I have a lovely cross stitch blanket that my grandma made for my first baby, just washed it for the gazillionth time yesterday and it's still nice. My little Maggie (baby #4) uses it to practice her tummy time.