When I was in the hospital after delivery, I always saw the post-partum nurses at the station with babies. They would keep them while moms napped or showered and such. They were wonderful.
@amyg I'm just going to be blunt and ask - who are you? Did heaven send you? Seriously. I may have missed this if it was ever discussed but I keep reading all of your advice and answers and I'm just amazed. Are you a June mom too? Do I not recognize you from the past 9 months? Or am I just completely losing it and can't remember anything in this crazy newborn sleep deprived state?
@amyg I'm just going to be blunt and ask - who are you? Did heaven send you? Seriously. I may have missed this if it was ever discussed but I keep reading all of your advice and answers and I'm just amazed. Are you a June mom too? Do I not recognize you from the past 9 months? Or am I just completely losing it and can't remember anything in this crazy newborn sleep deprived state?
TL;DR - thank you for all of your help!!
May bmb calls me a lactonerd which kind of says it all. lol
Someone gave me the name of Ultimate Breastfeeding Guru. I did not give that name to myself
I've been giving breastfeeding advice to new moms online for over 15 years now. I used to be at breastfeeding.com til the bump/nest/knot conglomerate bought it out, closed the message boards and fired the admins. I moved over to the bump breastfeeding board and found a home there.
Then the bump troll marked me and hid all my 12000 breastfeeding posts and I moved over here. I'm usually on the breastfeeding board, but brand new moms tend to not go to the breastfeeding board cause they are comfy on their own bmb. So I search the words breastfeeding etc and jump into other boards to try to answer questions.
I am not an LC, I have no formal training in the subject even though some call me a peer breastfeeding counselor[which is a WIC term and comes with a few hours of training] . I nursed my boys for 50 mos combined at a time when LC's were really hard to find (my oldest is 19 now) and I really struggled. After all this time you think the support for new moms to breastfeed would have improved immensely but Drs still give bad advice, LCs are still hard to find/contact or you get a hospital LC who is so busy seeing other patients that they give you a nipple shield and leave.
And sometimes I answer non breastfeeding questions cause along the way helping new moms I've probably seen every new baby question that could arise.
I try not to be too pushy and answer too many questions as this is your bmb, not mine.
It's our first night in the hospital with DD and I'm soooooo sleepy I'm delirious. (Labor will do that to ya) But DD will only sleep if I hold her, and the hospital won't let me sleep unless she's in her bassinet... Soooo we find ourselves at a bit of an impasse. I know it's just the first of many sleepless nights to come but at least if we were at home we could try the rock-n-play or something to try to get at least a few minutes in. Home girl won't go two minutes without crying if she's alone in the bassinet. not really long enough to doze off for mama. I really hope they discharge us tomorrow... I need my bed!
Sorry about the sleep deprivation in hospital. I could never sleep in the hospital and spent an extra week in the hospital after my youngest was born and a week of no sleep was pure torture.
I would have recommended calling a nurse and asking them to help you out. They can often swaddle babies so tightly that they will sleep soundly when we just can't get them swaddled with hospital blankets tightly enough. Have dh hold her. I coslept and nursed side lying in the hospital bed but that was with my youngest and I had years of experience doing it before. with my oldest I was discharged less than 24 hours after he was born so I don't remember much about the whole thing. lol!
Even if you hospital doesn't have a nursery, the nurses will often take the baby to the nurses station for a couple hours for you to have a cat nap
Hope you get evicted today and can sleep in your own bed. Of course that comes with it's own challenges like you have to make your own food.
Baby girl has been extremely gassy lately, to the point she sometimes cries when she's trying to pass gas. We have been supplementing since Saturday.. does this mean we need to try out a different formula? We have just been using the Enfamil Newborn. She also has only been having 2 dirty diapers instead of her normal 3-4. Is this formula related?
Have you tried Enfamil Gentlease instead of regular newborn? We switched H for one day to the regular infant b/c we had a free sample and all hell broke loose. The poor thing was super gassy and fussy, always wriggling around trying to pass gas. I felt terrible!!! When we went back to Gentlease, she was back to her normal self the next day.
They will poop less often on formula. Gassy babies this young overall is pretty normal, they have immature digestive systems. Also if you are using bottles, make sure they are super slow flow and you sit baby more upright and tilt bottle downward, and burp every 1/2 oz--and burp way longer and extra. Some babies get really really gassy with a bottle at first, cause if they take in extra air and don't burp it out, it moves thru the digestive tract and comes out the other end.
Mine could never poop at all on similac or Enfamil but were ok on good start.
How old is baby? number of poops is low either way. Why are you supplementing? Maybe you could pump and supplement with extra breastmilk? or do you have low supply issues? Can I help with that?
Does anyone else have experience w their baby rolling from back to side already when sleeping? I put her to sleep on her back and she rolls to her side. DS didn't do this until 3 1/2 months and that is when we stopped swaddling because it can mean they can roll to tummy while swaddled and therefore potentially suffocate.
Does this mean I pretty much need to stop swaddling now? What a pain. She has been sleeping really well at night (4 hours first stretch then 3 hours then 2 hours) or should I swaddle arms out w a sleep sack now?
V has done thus since the first week. I figured if she did it naturally then no worries BC she would go back to laying on her back....we still swaddle but she squirms so much it come right off when she wakes and is at her feet. She usually sleeps about 4 hrs at night.
And my kid is back to not pooping - she last had two messy BMs Thursday AM (& they were the yellow breastfeeding ones). She's been getting mostly breastmilk now as we lowered her supplementing to 1 oz after each feed (she kept spitting up 2 oz) and I've been able to pump more. She doesn't seem to be in any pain and she certainly wets enough diapers so I'm trying not to get concerned again.
I'm concerned about poops as well. I think we've gone a full 24 hours without poop. He's had small amounts of poop from when he farts sometimes but nothing like a real good BM, nothing quarter-sized. G is 5.5 weeks old, I'm exclusively breastfeeding and he's had a wet diaper at every feeding and sometimes more and is passing tons of gas when we do our leg exercises. What's the deal? Should I call the pediatrician?
I'm concerned about poops as well. I think we've gone a full 24 hours without poop. He's had small amounts of poop from when he farts sometimes but nothing like a real good BM, nothing quarter-sized. G is 5.5 weeks old, I'm exclusively breastfeeding and he's had a wet diaper at every feeding and sometimes more and is passing tons of gas when we do our leg exercises. What's the deal? Should I call the pediatrician?
Some BF babies will go 4-8 days between poops...When it got to day 7/8 is when I got concerned with L. Some peds will want to know sooner. After X amount of days they will usually suggest rectal stimulation (with a thermometer) or an oz or so of prune juice (after a certain age). It doesn't hurt to call and see what your ped suggests.
My friends pedi just told her it can be normal for a BF baby to go 14 days w/o pooping! It's bc they use all the nutrients and there is no waste. As long as when they do poop it's normal consistency and not hard, it's ok.
Never hurts to put a call into your pedi though! That's what they're there for!
She pooped this morning and it was normal and H got it! Hah! I have read that BF babies can take longer to poo and I guess I need to adjust my expectations since she seems to take a few days.
That's how my LO was. Poops at every diaper change, though in hindsight I guess it had been slowing down lately. But to go a whole day with no poop worries me. I guess it's normal. Maybe as he's getting older his digestive tract can digest the milk more effectively and, like tulips114 said, leave less behind.
Post by holliberry28 on Jun 29, 2015 10:32:28 GMT -5
Someone mentioned good apps for tracking feeding/diaper changes before?
M sleeps great during the day but cries half the night. He doesn't seem full after 2 oz of pumped milk and sometimes formula. When do I worry about over feeding him? He sometimes poops twice during one feeding.
Someone mentioned good apps for tracking feeding/diaper changes before?
M sleeps great during the day but cries half the night. He doesn't seem full after 2 oz of pumped milk and sometimes formula. When do I worry about over feeding him? He sometimes poops twice during one feeding.
Our LC said they would spit up if you overfeed them from a bottle. I'm not sure how you tell before that point. I have noticed that our LO doesn't seem full as quickly from a bottle - it takes a little while to digest some and then he realizes he's full. We just take it really slow with the bottles and burp him often before trying another oz.
Someone mentioned good apps for tracking feeding/diaper changes before?
M sleeps great during the day but cries half the night. He doesn't seem full after 2 oz of pumped milk and sometimes formula. When do I worry about over feeding him? He sometimes poops twice during one feeding.
bottles instead of nursing or in addition to nursing?
Make sure it's a super slow flow bottle nipple, if you hold it upside down no milk comes out.
Tilt bottle down and sit baby more upright. That helps to slow down the feeding, a full feed with bottle should take about 20 minutes so their brain has time to realize they are hungry. stop very very frequently to burp and switch sides you hold them on, like when nursing.
After a 2 oz feed, offer a pacifier for 5 minutes or let them suck on yoru finger. If they are still hungry they wil suck for a bit and spit it out and complain, and then you can offer small amts, 1/2 oz at a time with lots of pauses. After about 3 weeks of age normal intake is about 2.5-3 oz every 2.5-3 hours for a total of 25 oz a day on average, range of 19-30 oz a day. But before 3 weeks the amounts gradually increase.
it's not really true that if you overfeed with a bottle they will just spit up the excess.
When born their stomach is the size of a marble or a cherry, and over the next couple of weeks stomach size stretches out gradually to reach the above 2.5-3 oz range.
What that means is that baby's stomach is very stretchy, so giving too much by bottle the stomach will just stretch right out to hold what you give. Of course if you give a huge amount too fast they spit up the excess or spit up because of taking in air bubbles.
Stomach stretches out to hold too much, like when we stretch out our stomach to hold a steak, baked potato, salad, dessert, bread and drink. If we do it every day we start to want to eat that much, even though we don't need to eat that much.
Someone mentioned good apps for tracking feeding/diaper changes before?
M sleeps great during the day but cries half the night. He doesn't seem full after 2 oz of pumped milk and sometimes formula. When do I worry about over feeding him? He sometimes poops twice during one feeding.
bottles instead of nursing or in addition to nursing?
Make sure it's a super slow flow bottle nipple, if you hold it upside down no milk comes out.
Tilt bottle down and sit baby more upright. That helps to slow down the feeding, a full feed with bottle should take about 20 minutes so their brain has time to realize they are hungry. stop very very frequently to burp and switch sides you hold them on, like when nursing.
After a 2 oz feed, offer a pacifier for 5 minutes or let them suck on yoru finger. If they are still hungry they wil suck for a bit and spit it out and complain, and then you can offer small amts, 1/2 oz at a time with lots of pauses. After about 3 weeks of age normal intake is about 2.5-3 oz every 2.5-3 hours for a total of 25 oz a day on average, range of 19-30 oz a day. But before 3 weeks the amounts gradually increase.
it's not really true that if you overfeed with a bottle they will just spit up the excess.
When born their stomach is the size of a marble or a cherry, and over the next couple of weeks stomach size stretches out gradually to reach the above 2.5-3 oz range.
What that means is that baby's stomach is very stretchy, so giving too much by bottle the stomach will just stretch right out to hold what you give. Of course if you give a huge amount too fast they spit up the excess or spit up because of taking in air bubbles.
Stomach stretches out to hold too much, like when we stretch out our stomach to hold a steak, baked potato, salad, dessert, bread and drink. If we do it every day we start to want to eat that much, even though we don't need to eat that much.
Thanks @amyg! I give pumped breast milk, formula (1-2 bottles a day to supplement) and breast. At night especially, he gets hungry an hour after 2 oz of breastmilk.
Besides latching being uncomfortable for a few seconds (ouch!) nursing is starting to feel good. Like gently scratching an itch inside I didn't know was there. Weird! Or like when you swallow cold water and feel it go down to your stomach. Hard to describe but it's nice.
@amyg I've got a question for you ma'am. I've seen it written a few times, but I wanted to double check and make sure I understand. My little one is breastfed, but we give bottles during the day. She's 8 weeks old. How much should she be eating in a bottle each feeding? Is it still one ounce per hour? So if it's three hours between feedings, she needs to eat at least three ounces? She has her two month check up on the 13th, but I wanted to make sure I was feeding her enough in the meantime. Thanks!
@amyg I've got a question for you ma'am. I've seen it written a few times, but I wanted to double check and make sure I understand. My little one is breastfed, but we give bottles during the day. She's 8 weeks old. How much should she be eating in a bottle each feeding? Is it still one ounce per hour? So if it's three hours between feedings, she needs to eat at least three ounces? She has her two month check up on the 13th, but I wanted to make sure I was feeding her enough in the meantime. Thanks!
That's going to be an average amount of 1 oz per hour, 25 oz a day. The range is 19-30 oz a day. Kellymom has a milk calculator that will give you an average bottle size based on how many feedings a day, as well as a range to cover the low and high amounts that should work. It's a bit of a balance of course.
Are you pumping during the day with bottle feeding and nursing at night?
@amyg I've got a question for you ma'am. I've seen it written a few times, but I wanted to double check and make sure I understand. My little one is breastfed, but we give bottles during the day. She's 8 weeks old. How much should she be eating in a bottle each feeding? Is it still one ounce per hour? So if it's three hours between feedings, she needs to eat at least three ounces? She has her two month check up on the 13th, but I wanted to make sure I was feeding her enough in the meantime. Thanks!
That's going to be an average amount of 1 oz per hour, 25 oz a day. The range is 19-30 oz a day. Kellymom has a milk calculator that will give you an average bottle size based on how many feedings a day, as well as a range to cover the low and high amounts that should work. It's a bit of a balance of course.
Are you pumping during the day with bottle feeding and nursing at night?
Yes ma'am! She nurses at night...usually around 1:00, 4:00, 6 or 7, and again about 9 or 10am. So I nurse her 3-4 times at night/early morning. As far as bottles go, she eats 5-6 times during the day, depending on if I nurse or give her a bottle for the 9/10 feeding. So she's eating about 8-9 times a day. Her average nursing time is about 6-7 minutes, with some being closer to 10, and occasionally she'll nurse for 15 min or so. Her bottles are anywhere from 1.5 ounces up to 3. She usually eats about 2.8 ounces or so.
Post by ombradellarosa on Jul 1, 2015 2:20:27 GMT -5
Any advice on getting a newborn to sleep in a bassinet? She was doing it fine but I stating holding her sometimes while she was sleeping and now she won't sleep without me. She either wants to sleep being held by someone or in the bed with me. I can get her to sleep in the bouncer sometimes but not other times so maybe she just wasn't tired? Anyway, I'm worried about how safe it is for her to be in bed with me and I'd like my husband to be able to sleep in our bed again at some point. I keep all the blankets and sheets below the halfway point and keep her head away from my pillow. I make sure she's in the middle of the bed with me on the outside (one side is against the wall) and there's nothing around her. I noticed she was sweating even with the fan (not blowing directly on her) so I stopped swaddling her and just let her sleep in a onesie. I am confident I won't roll over on her because I'm completely out of practise sleeping on my stomach so it's not natural. If I had an Arms' Reach co-sleeper it'd be perfect because I could reach her without her being in the bed, but I don't.
The other thing is I'm afraid I don't nurse her as well. Often because I'm sleeping and I don't have to go anywhere to feed her I start nursing her side-lying and fall back asleep before I'm sure she's had enough. She falls asleep nursing too so no one is on the job making sure she gets enough. Of course with her gaining so well I guess I don't need to worry too much--the LC said whatever I'm doing is working for E.
Any advice on getting a newborn to sleep in a bassinet? She was doing it fine but I stating holding her sometimes while she was sleeping and now she won't sleep without me. She either wants to sleep being held by someone or in the bed with me. I can get her to sleep in the bouncer sometimes but not other times so maybe she just wasn't tired? Anyway, I'm worried about how safe it is for her to be in bed with me and I'd like my husband to be able to sleep in our bed again at some point. I keep all the blankets and sheets below the halfway point and keep her head away from my pillow. I make sure she's in the middle of the bed with me on the outside (one side is against the wall) and there's nothing around her. I noticed she was sweating even with the fan (not blowing directly on her) so I stopped swaddling her and just let her sleep in a onesie. I am confident I won't roll over on her because I'm completely out of practise sleeping on my stomach so it's not natural. If I had an Arms' Reach co-sleeper it'd be perfect because I could reach her without her being in the bed, but I don't.
The other thing is I'm afraid I don't nurse her as well. Often because I'm sleeping and I don't have to go anywhere to feed her I start nursing her side-lying and fall back asleep before I'm sure she's had enough. She falls asleep nursing too so no one is on the job making sure she gets enough. Of course with her gaining so well I guess I don't need to worry too much--the LC said whatever I'm doing is working for E.
Lots of babies have issues sleeping laying completely flat in the bassinet. You can try putting something under the mattress or feet to slightly raise one end up to see if that makes a difference, but that's why some of the other sleep products have become very popular.
You could sidecar the crib to the side of your bed (google) or there are pic I think on the attachment parenting board.
Nursing laying down is biologically normal. Baby can more easily control the flow of milk, gravity isn't increasing the flow too fast, they can pull off if done very easily As long as latch is good and not damaging your nips and weight gain is fine, no need to overthink that position that allows you to snooze and nurse.
Any advice on getting a newborn to sleep in a bassinet? She was doing it fine but I stating holding her sometimes while she was sleeping and now she won't sleep without me. She either wants to sleep being held by someone or in the bed with me. I can get her to sleep in the bouncer sometimes but not other times so maybe she just wasn't tired? Anyway, I'm worried about how safe it is for her to be in bed with me and I'd like my husband to be able to sleep in our bed again at some point. I keep all the blankets and sheets below the halfway point and keep her head away from my pillow. I make sure she's in the middle of the bed with me on the outside (one side is against the wall) and there's nothing around her. I noticed she was sweating even with the fan (not blowing directly on her) so I stopped swaddling her and just let her sleep in a onesie. I am confident I won't roll over on her because I'm completely out of practise sleeping on my stomach so it's not natural. If I had an Arms' Reach co-sleeper it'd be perfect because I could reach her without her being in the bed, but I don't.
The other thing is I'm afraid I don't nurse her as well. Often because I'm sleeping and I don't have to go anywhere to feed her I start nursing her side-lying and fall back asleep before I'm sure she's had enough. She falls asleep nursing too so no one is on the job making sure she gets enough. Of course with her gaining so well I guess I don't need to worry too much--the LC said whatever I'm doing is working for E.
LO went through a phase where she didn't like the crib so we bed shared for a week and it was awesome. Then we had a few rough bedsharing nights where she was up every hour so I switched back to the crib and she likes the crib again. My advice to you is to maybe be flexible about sleeping arrangements and just because you are bedsharing now doesn't mean you have to always. Just see how things go.
As far as the bassinet I posted this previously but our trick is to swaddle then lay them in the crib and put one hand firmly on their chest and with the other hand slowly removing from their back and place the hand palm side down on the mattress near them and push up and down on the mattress in a bouncing motion for one minute. It gives the baby the feeling of motion and that you didn't just place them in the crib and walk away so they still feel held.
@amyg how can I tell if my baby is actually drinking the breastmilk when nursing, or just using me as a pacifier? She is a week old and latches great, has a nice strong suck. The thing is that she will nurse for a long time and eventually fall asleep - then when i move her she will wake up and want to continue nursing. This cycle continues and ends 1 of 2 ways - either she seems content but then needs to nurse again in an hour, or she is not satisfied until I give her some formula in a bottle.
Could it be possible that all the time she spends nursing she isn't actually swallowing the milk? I would love to EBF but I cannot get her to be satisfied until she gets a bottle (whether it's formula or pumped milk).
Amyg might have a better answer, but I can feel a difference between when LO is swallowing versus just pacifying. Pacifying he seems to move his mouth faster, but it kind of tickles since he's not sucking as hard. Also, I can see a difference in how his neck/ chin moves. I wish I could explain the difference better, but maybe that will help you identify some small differences as well.
Post by carolyngrace on Jul 4, 2015 14:59:36 GMT -5
Wondering if DB is excessively fussy or in the normal range for a 1-month old.
He's usually awake about 1.5-2 hours in between naps. Of that time, at least a half hour is breast feeding (more if he nurses again to fall asleep). Another MAYBE 20 minutes is calm, no need to intervene time. Like he will lay in his crib and look around, or tummy time on the boppy. The other hour (or more) he needs to be bounced, walked, shushed, etc to keep him happy.
I feel bad but I'm so relieved when he falls back asleep!
carolyngrace I hope this is normal, ours has been this way too for the last few days. He eats, we put him in a bouncer/boppy etc and he amuses himself for about 20 mins before he fusses. I tend to just move him around the house with me, singing made up songs until he eventually takes a small nap. My lyrical talent knows no bounds...I made up a song about eating pie today. I could tell he really appreciated it musically. Lol.
He does sleep 4-5 hour stretches at night though, so I can deal with daytime fussiness!
Yeah, Oscar sleeps pretty good at night too, so I feel like I can't complain. And he naps as well. I guess I feel bad when we're out and I rarely offer to let people hold him because I know how quickly he gets fussy/screams if things are off. Also DH seems overwhelmed by how needy he can be when awake so it made me wonder..
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