Hellobee Boards

@Alivoo01: @.twist.: @StbHisMrs: I was just about to come on here and ask if anyone else has been having sleep issues. We used to get three to four hours overnight and three for most naps during the day and now I'm lucky if he sleeps more than an hour at a stretch. I'm so tired and the kicker is that he pretty much screams the whole time he's awake. We've been to the pediatrician and I'm trying eliminating a certain medication, then if that doesn't work I'm going to cut out dairy, and if that doesn't work, we're going to try mess for reflux which is what I think the problem is. This parenting stuff sure isn't easy!

@skipper2010: Will do! They gave me enough for a week. Will that be enough?

@Mrs D: Isn't it odd? The nurses promised me that night two would make me think that I had a different child.

We got sent home early yesterday. They are so busy at my hospital that they were excited that I was doing well and wanted to go home. And so much better to sleep in a real bed last night and eat real food and not be interrupted by nurses all the time.

@Mrs D: you'll be fine tonight! Don't be scared! My first night home though I just dozed with her on the recliner. She wouldn't leave me and didn't sleep very much! It's nice you got rest at hospital. In our hospital babe stays with you so I did not sleep at all!

I hear you ladies on the sleep issues. Liv was giving me some good 3-4 stretches and last night she was up about every hour or so I was hoping it was just a fluke! She's really sleepy today but I'd rather her sleep At night!

Oh, I forgot to say that we took E to visit my office yesterday. It went pretty well; not too many people held her, and since she was sleeping that kept a lot of people from touching her. We were there for hours, and she actually stayed quiet until we were out in the parking lot!

@delight: same here. We've had a fair amount of visitors and they all seem to want to put her to sleep while they're holding her and then she's not tired at night time. People think its like a test of who she likes best. Now I just tell people if I want her awake that if they rock her to sleep they're coming back at midnight when she thinks its party time because she slept all day while I entertained visitors.

Woohoo! I survived and K survived! She ate 4 times and slept for 3 three hour intervals...which I was so pleased for! I found that she loves being swaddled tightly after eating and with a paci passes right out! Pure bliss for mom!

We're introducing our dog to her today - so once that is over and goes well I'll feel totally relieved!

@redsmarties: I don't think so, but we're supposedly coming up on one, so let me know how it goes!

@Mrs D: awesome!

@Grace: K has been pretty regular about eating every 3 hours throughout the day today...we'll see if that carries over to tonight. Fingers crossed.

For other moms....how do you know what let down feels like? I feel like my milk is coming in...

@Mrs D: @Grace: Congrats to both of you!!! Aren't little girls so fun?!

@redsmarties: I'm not sure about a wonder week. M eats allll the time when she's awake. But she's been sleeping pretty well at night. I find the swing works best once she's already drowsy or asleep. If I put her in there awake she's usually only content for 10-15 minutes, but if I put her in it as soon as she falls asleep she sleeps for hours.

@Mrs D: My letdown feels like a tingling sensation, but I don't think I felt it right away. I knew my milk had come in because I could hear her gulping and swallowing (it sounded different than before) and there was often milk running down her chin.

@Mrs D: My let down kind of felt almost like I was missing her mouth, and milk was trickling down my boob on the outside. I seriously used to double check if that was the case before I realized it was an internal dripping.

@Mrs D: glad everything went well!
@Grace: my babe had no regular schedule at the beginning. We were also every 1-4 hours. We are just starting at 3.5 weeks to have more of a routine.

I don't even really know what let down is. Can someone explain? I never feel anything different in my boobs. I mean i know when they are super full because they are harder. When LO attaches and it's full my milk can drip down my front and down her chin. Is that letdown? I have to always wear those disposable pads otherwise I leak through my bra.

@delight: a letdown is basically just the release of the milk. I think it's actually a reflex. So normally the baby will have to suck a few times before milk actually starts flowing (the sucking is what triggers the letdown). I also sometimes have a letdown just from hearing M cry.

@StbHisMrs: yes. I know some people can't feel theirs, but the twinges on the opposite side is exactly what I feel when I have mine.

@delight: I try putting her down drowsy but it seldom works. I just nursed, bounced, held her from 5-9:40. Tonight has been pure hell! She normally has 2 very long naps a day, morning and evening with short naps inbetween. She took 1 today. Yikes!!

@Grace: Yeah I think a weeks supply should be enough. If you haven't gone in a week you should call your doctor anyway I think.

@delight: B is rarely asleep when we put her down. She is usually pretty awake after her 9pm(isn) feed. Husband usually has a snuggle with her then we swaddle her and lay her in her cradle awake. I have no idea when she falls asleep. She sleeps from 10 ( when I go to bed ) until 5am. She feeds until about 530, then I put her back in the cradle awake. She will coo and whatnot for about an hour then she sleeps until 830. There's no trick for us, she's just always been able to fall asleep on her own. I know we are extremely lucky. She does like noise though, usually I put the air conditioner on for her.

@greenebee: sorry you're having some trouble with breastfeeding. If it's something you'd like to continue with then don't give up! WHen B was born she didn't gain any weight for about 5 days after discharge. The public health nurses came to my house, I fed her, they weighed her and then told me that she wasn't taking in enough at each feeding. They found that she was about 20-30mls short each feeding so I had to pump that amount and then cup feed her. It took her just over 2 weeks to get up to her birth weight while doing that. Since then she's become a little porker and gains more than average for every appointment. At her last appointment she was way above the weight they wanted her to be at ( they wanted her at 7 pounds 11 ounces I think and she was at 8 pounds 5 ounces. ) that was without the cup feeding.
It was really hard emotionally because I felt like I was failing as a mother because I couldn't get her to drink enough. They had me feeding her every 3 hours and if she wouldn't eat I had to put a cold cloth on her to wake her up ( which obviously she hated. ) It was really hard, but we got through it.
If you really want to keep trying with the breast feeding, then keep offering your breast, and if you have to supplement after, then do so. I would imagine they are keeping a close watch on his weight so hopefully he starts gaining and holding soon. Good luck, I know it's hard, keep with it

@greenebee: I'm sorry it's not going well. I guess just remember that even if you have to supplement now, it's not like you can't breastfeed. He's still getting those good antibodies!

I have a newborn sleep question. P waking to nurse roughly every 1.5 hours. Did your babies do this too? If there's longer stretches now, how long did the frequent nursings last?

@greenebee: sorry you are struggling - I think the ladies gave you some great advice and I don't have too much more to offer! Just want to offer hugs!

I'm struggling with emotions too...it's a weird feeling but it just seems like I am not doing enough. I mean I feed her, change her and an totally responsible for her but I still feel like I am not doing enough when I just watch her sleep or snuggle her when she's up...I know I'm not doing anything wrong I just feel a little lost on what else I can do for her in these 3 mos when I can be 100% devoted!

@Mrs D: @Sapphiresun: I agree. I feel like the little time when I'm not feeding her or changing her, or taking care of myself I either don't want to do all those 'other' things or I'm too tired to even think about it. Then I remind myself she's 6 weeks old and I feel the most important things to focus on are love, trust, and security. We show them that every time we feed them, change them, dress them, comfort them.. so really we're all doing ok

@Grace: oh no no no no... My whole point is that I'm NOT doing those things. My husband works 12 hour afternoon shifts and I'm by myself with her from 11-1am 4days a week. It still feels like survival mode here most of the time as well. Because all her basic needs take up most of my time, and when I'm not attending to those I need to attempt to keep myself fed, watered and relatively clean things like multiple stories a day (I sometimes read her our posts while she's eating - once in a while I remember to grab a real book before we sit down but I'm sur not showing her the pictures) and getting maybe 5 minutes of tummy time in a day?? She kinda hates it and will only tolerate 1-2 minutes and then need a break or falls asleep which is not the point.
Annnnnnd she's been sleeping in my bed which I feel like is our total dirty little secret. She goes to bed at 8pm and I sometimes feed her side lying and then just leave her there while I so whatever. When I come back at 11 I feed her again and tend to just fall asleep with her, and then often when dh comes home he sleeps in the guest bed. She has half a queen size bed with no pilloww or blankets to herself, and I put a small pillow beside me so I can't roll on her, but yeah... Afraid I'm creating a monster but sometimes at the "end" of the day I just want her to go to sleep without a major fight and feeding her and not moving her after is so easy...

As for the baby blues they're crazy aren't they?? Im not an emotional person either. Before I got pregnant I had to think about when I'd last cried and figured it was a close family members funeral 12 years ago. So yeah - baby blues blew me away. I cried for 2 hours straight about 3 days after she was born. I think what originally set me off was thinking about how it was going to hurt to poop and then it was just like.... The entire world crashed down and I couldn't stop crying. I felt like I had a hair trigger for the waterworks for about a week but now (5.5 weeks pp) it seems to have passed.

@Sapphiresun: Well K just started eating like every 1.5 hours...I am trying to let her just hang out on the boob more so she can maybe go a little longer or sleep a little better. I agree though...I try to take a step back and realize that I am doing so much for her already that I need to not worry about other things yet!

@Grace: Total baby blues here. I have choked up a few times but kept from crying. I think today is going to be bad because we had our first bad night last night. I think I barely slept...maybe two hours. She just constantly wanted to eat. Maybe a growth spurt? I dont know...

@MrsB2012: Thanks for the nice words...thats what I try to tell myself!