Can we talk about eating? Us and baby.

[Deleted]

1. I'm with you on the eating, especially at night. I buy the good food, but don't reach for it. Luckily dh has been making dinner. I need to get back to meal planning and pretend I'm at work and eat on a good schedule. I'm really good on water, I have my 1liter camelback and refill it a couple of times a day. At my late night feedings I cam usually down a liter during a feeding. I also try to do Oj in the morning and milk at night for calcium.

2. We now nurse 15minutes on each side then she gets .5-1oz pumped milk. We did a weigh and feed this morning and I'm hoping that by the next appointment on Wednesday we'll be done pumping. She got 2.5oz this morning. It sounds like 3oz is the golden number the LC is looking for. We feed every 2-3 hours now that we're off the formula.

3. I pump after each feeding except at night. They had me shorten my time to 10 minutes as I was over producing. I overheard the LC telling another woman that you should pump after each feed if you want to up your supply or get it to save. Waiting more than an hour after a feed or doing it before a feed will mess up your supply as it takes over an hour usually to replenish your milk supply.

[requiressnacks]

1. In the beginning I lived on English muffins, cold cut sandwiches and takeout. Also, lots of quick snacks like yogurt, granola bars and fruit. I really struggled to stay hydrated so try to drink a glass of water everytime you feed the baby.

2. Mine ate 2-3 oz per feeding in the beginning. Now we are closer to 4-5 oz per feeding.

[littlelion]

1. In the beginning I ate cereal, chicken soup w veggies, all types of sweet breads (muffins, mexican, etc), eggs, pastas. With kids I def needed help from others to ensure we had food to eat. My husband watches kids as I cook, I'd ask my sisters to bring whatever grocery items I needed, and in emergency I'd order food in. Plus freezer meals and my family dropping off food.

Nowadays dh does the grocery shopping on the weekend and I try to meal plan a few nights. I still struggle to reach for healthier snacks. I.e. I have yogurt but reach for waffles.

Hang in there, it gets better. I remember when baby cluster fed and I needed dh (or my sis) to make me a plate and set it close enough to reach.

2. EBF. Baby nurses on avg every 2 hrs. There's a 3 hr stretch here and there but so are the every hr sessions. He'll last about 10 min. He sometimes falls asleep and then wakes up soon after wanting more. I'm feeding on demand but I thought by now he'd spread out feeds but he hasn't. His 2 mo appt is this week and will ask the pedi about trying to do more of a schedule. We only have 1 mo more before he starts DC.

3. Once I return to work I'll pump a few times a day to leave for DC the following day.

[babycowbell]

1. I've been very lucky to have a husband who likes to cook stay home with me the last six weeks. I do oatmeal or avocado toast for breakfast, leftovers or something easy for lunch like the frozen quinoa kale things from Costco and adding tuna or avocado or an egg to it. Dinners we've been working through freezer meals or taking advantage of all the new food delivery companies, or he makes something tasty. We'll see how I do on my own when he goes back to work tomorrow.

2. & 3. I do on demand feeding, probably every 2-3 hours during the day usually, then she'll usually do a six hour stretch once at night lately. Right now I just pump once in the morning to have a little stash to give some flexibility during the day. That way my husband can give her a little extra if she seems insatiable and I need a break, and we can have an in case of emergency bottle available when we go out and she gets wild. I used to pump more when LO wasn't gaining enough weight but now that my supply and her appetite are pretty in line I just try to get 6 oz from pumping once in the morning.

[littlelion]

babycowbell you are lucky! Esp that 6 hr stretch at night! How old is your baby?

[Winnifred]

No advice here, but I totally can commiserate with the issues feeding yourself. I'm terrified I won't be able to feed myself during the day once dh goes back to work! It's just impossible. Any good moment usually fizzles out before I can even start eating... sleeping/happy baby always melts down at the worst moment!!

This is why I'm pretty much only eating prepared foods right now. It sucks...

One day we'll get the hang of this 😉

[babycowbell]

Jan 22, 2017 18:03:07 GMT -5 littlelion said:

babycowbell you are lucky! Esp that 6 hr stretch at night! How old is your baby?

I feel lucky! She's six weeks and does well at night but doesn't nap much during the day, but I'll take good nights! We used to wake her up to feed her at night but now the LC says she's gained enough weight we can let her sleep.

[Lucy]

I eat a lot of leftovers from the night before, premade bagged salads, soups from a can and I feel like I pick up a rotisserie chicken every time I'm in a store that has them. They're great for easy protein by itself, on a sandwich or on a salad. Also, yogurt, cottage cheese, hard boiled eggs, Cheese sticks, and lunch meat, peanut and almond butters, and all kinds of nuts are always in my house as something quick and easy. I eat a lot, and try to eat a lot of protein because of the weight loss surgery I had 5 years ago.

I also like chicken nuggets as much as most 4 year olds do.

Cora is formula fed and drinks 3 to 4 ounces most feeds with one 5 to 6 ounce feed in a day just to confuse us.

[legalbeagle]

Breakfast is something super quick like a protein shake or a bowl of cereal. Her morning nap is always crap (like anywhere from 25 to 40 mins) and in that time I need to eat, take vitamins, play with dog and pee. Lunch is prepared/frozen food or leftovers from dinner. Dinner during the week is usual takeout. I know I know!

S eats on one side anywhere from 8 mins to 15 mins, but sometimes both sides or longer if she has spat up. She eats about eight times a day. Kellymom has a great post about how breastfed babies at this age take about 25 ounces of milk so you can figure out about how much your kid will need if you are away for a certain amount of time. Just divide 25 by the number of feedings you will miss and that will tell you how much LO prob eats in one feed. Or about one ounce an hour.

I pump once a day in the morning on the side she doesn't feed on and get anywhere from 2.5-4 ounces. I also pump if I miss a feeding (DH has taken a night feeding or the nanny has fed her). So if DH does a night feeding then I'll wake up when she wakes, feed her and put her back down (possibly a very wet and engorged hour) and then pump. I'm trying to decide right now if I am going to stop breastfeeding/pumping before I start new job. Very torn.

[Lucy]

If you can take 20 minutes on the weekend to throw them together, soups are great to make and eat on for the week. These 2 are amazing and pretty healthy.

www.budgetbytes.com/2010/10/lentil-sausage-stew/
www.budgetbytes.com/2014/01/chunky-lentil-vegetable-soup/

[lola]

1. What do you guys do for food for you? When do you eat? How many times a day? How much water do you drink? I struggle here. Right now I do a chai tea latte in the morning (Tazo concentrate and milk), with either pop tarts or muffins. For lunch I'll do a sandwich, leftovers, or something like a frozen burrito. For dinner, it varies from takeout to crockpot/sheet pan meals or frozen foods. Lord, I sound like a teenager! We need to work on this, but dinner time is typically when baby girl melts down, so we're doing good to just get a meal eaten while the other person holds the baby. If I'm honest, I forget to eat a lot of times and my husband hounds me about it. I'm trying to do better. As far as water goes, we both got Camelbaks and we've been trying to keep them full at all times. I don't get the dehydration that much in the daytime, but I NEED water at night.

2. How many ounces does your LO eat a day? Or, how long/how many sessions if you EBF? Hmmm, I don't know how many ounces. If we're going with the Kellymom math of 25 ounces per day, then she eats 3 ounces per feed. We're EBF right now, and she's eating 8 times a day. Typically every three hours during the day, with 3-4 hour stretches at night. However, if she's going through a growth spurt, she'll cut it down to 2 hours in between feeds. She eats for about ten minutes each feed. Most of the time we do both boobs for about the same amount of time, but especially at night she'll sometimes feed from only one side and fall back asleep, which sucks because I get engorged on the other side. She's a comfort sucker, so I have to really watch her cues and swap the pacifier in when she stops eating and starts comfort sucking. If not, she'll keep sucking and end up spitting up everywhere. We've started doing Mylicon before every feed, and it helps with her gas and spitting up.

3. How many times a day do you pump? I'm slacking here because I don't have to go back to work for a while, but I plan to pump 2-3 times a week, an hour after my first morning feed. I read that you make more milk in the morning, so it's best to pump then if you're trying to build up a stash. I'm limiting it to 2-3 times a week so I don't end up increasing my supply, as I sometimes deal with oversupply issues. My plan is to have some in my freezer for unexpected absences, and then pump each day for the next day's meals at daycare. I'm guessing I'll pump 2-3 times each day at work once I go back. I'm not sure how long I'll pump, or if I'll end up transitioning to formula during the workday and breastfeeding when I'm home. I'm going to wait and see how pumping at the office goes. I also got a manual pump to take the edge off when I get engorged, which has been helpful, especially when my boobs are too big/hard for the baby to latch.