Hellobee Boards

Babe did some more cluster feeding yesterday evening and late this afternoon, but slept well in the ring sling and the boba for naps
I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with the high needs of the baby, and was that I can barely meet any of my big girls wishes right now.nthe exhaustion really hit me this afternoon.
I'm also feeling frustrated by still not being fully healed and missing exercise!
I remember feeling all this stuff the first time, and also remember how quickly it all changes. I'm grateful for the perspective and just have to keep reminding myself of it!

I love hearing people's birth stories- I wrote mine for the baby book but it's super long, will try to get an abbreviated version here soon!

@Silva: I hear you on the healing and missing exercise. I could really really use a solid workout. But. This c-section recovery is no joke. I had my three week follow-up today and even though I am healing well, I am only cleared for light walking. And really, I know that's probably all I'm capable of. Just walking around feels strange--like part of my body is missing/won't engage. As the feeling starts to come back in more places, my pain level increases as the day goes on and I move more. I have a ton of referred pain in one shoulder, and my scar is tighter on one side than the other. I just want to be better. Not feeling good physically is exacerbated by the lack of sleep (even though my little guy is a decent sleeper!). It takes a toll mentally. I try to remind myself that I am only three weeks out and that I'm doing really well. But I still feel like I have so far to go, and not being able to move forward is incredibly frustrating.

@ShootingStar: We're just coming out of this period now at 6 weeks but DS still wants to be held pretty much all the time he is awake but is sometimes happy to be held by someone else now. DD is behaving better, she's really only acting out while I am home alone and feeding now.

@pwnstar: Three weeks is not very long after major surgery. Be kind to yourself!

@Silva: Yay for 3 hours!! J does that to me all the time, he starts his longest stretch at 7pm and I am just not going to bed at 7pm.

@THOU: I hope you're ok and your power comes back on soon

@Silva: @AprilFool: Thanks

@T.H.O.U.: I'm so sorry y'all are dealing with this! So many hugs to you. I hope you feel better soon and that making the trip allows you to rest and recover while your parents watch your littles.

@OldpuebloJenn: I try to. I wear it mostly at night though. It creases so much that it's kind of uncomfortable. Although maybe that's just the trade off-for my belly to feel good I just need to suck it up and wear it. I have two-the Belly Bandit Original and the BFF. I also just ordered the C-Panty to see if that would be more comfortable. It should arrive today!

What kind do you have/wear?

@OldpuebloJenn: The BFF. It has two tabs to secure the binder instead of one long tab, so it fits better than the Original. I have a long torso, so I feel like the area above my incisions doesn't get covered. And that's where I need the compression the most-I still have swelling above my scar (and more swelling on one side than the other--the side where it feels like my scar has more adhesion(s)).

@agold: I was given a binder to wear because of my c-section. I didn't wear a binder with my first so I'm unsure of any benefits for a vaginal delivery. It takes a while to get back to pre pregnancy shape, if ever for some.

@pwnstar: ha! I will just laugh if weight gets redistributed to my hips. My hips are so wide already. I figure their wideness is what attributed to baby girl coming out so fast! so good lord, if they get any wider?!?!

MRSWHIT1 (Born 7/11) - 1 Months, 23 Days
Thismustbetheplace (#2 born 7/28) - w, 0 d
APRILFOOL (#2 Jack born 7/22) - 1 Months, 12 Days
Umberto (#1 born 7/29) - 1 Months, 5 Days
TeawithPaloma (#2 Dominic born 8/5) - 0 Months, 29 Days
dcw6411 (#3 Luke born 7/21 ) - 1 Months, 13 Days
pregnantbee (#2 born 7/29) - 1 Months, 5 Days
Mossyslane (#2 born 7/13) - 1 Months, 21 Days
AANDMKLOVER (#3 Wes born 7/12) - 1 Months, 22 Days
MrsBeluga (#2 born 8/5) - 0 Months, 29 Days
Coffeemom (#2 born 7/12) - 1 Months, 22 Days
mrschickpea (#1 Anya born 7/18) - 1 Months, 16 Days
silva (#2 born 8/11) - 0 Months, 23 Days
coopsmama (#3 born 8/18) - 0 Months, 16 Days
Glitter (#2 Juliet born 7/31 ) - 1 Months, 3 Days
oldpuebloJenn (#2 born 8/23) - 0 Months, 11 Days
MrsSCB (#1 born 8/17) - 0 Months, 17 Days
T.H.O.U. (#3 born 8/14) - 0 Months, 20 Days
pwnstar (#2 born 8/11) - 0 Months, 23 Days
stratosphere (#2 born 8/16) - 0 Months, 18 Days
shootingstar (#2 born 8/16) - 0 Months, 18 Days
agold (#1 born 8/26) - 0 Months, 8 Days
LCTBQE (#1 born 8/28) - 0 Months, 6 Days
mrskerch (#1 born 8/27) - 0 Months, 7 Days
clairhuxtable (#2 born 8/22) - 0 Months, 12 Days
pirouette (#2 born 8/25) - 0 Months, 9 Days

Oh another question: anyone have a nursing bra or tank that they love? I've just been wearing the sleep bra ones, but i struggle with finding clothes to wear when i leave the house because they are not so flattering i could use one that more resembles an actual bra but doesn't have underwire. And maybe a new nursing tank that doesn't have tons of extra fabric in the belly area (like looks like a normal tank)

@pwnstar: I miss exercising so much! I'm dying to get back to it, and I've thought about just starting to lift weights with my arms (nothing super heavy). But then I think i might as well wait for the all-clear.

@Silva: we also have a lot of cluster feeding going on. It makes me nervous that maybe he's not getting enough, although his weight is following a curve so far...

I know I read cluster feeding doesn't mean anything re: supply, but I feel like I'm not eating enough and I'm terrible about drinking water. I always read BFing makes your appetite increase, but I feel the opposite. My appetite is small these days. I suspect from stress. I'm a stress not-eater, vs. eater, it just completely takes away any desire for food

@Pirouette: I don't know if these count as flattering per se, but I have two of these and find them very comfortable. And I don't find them terribly unflattering at least. My only complaint is that they don't come in more sizes. The band size for medium is a bit big, but the cup size of small is wayyyyy too small. So I got mediums, and they've been working fine. ETA: I also ordered new nursing tops from H&M that don't look like they have tons of extra fabric. I'll let you know how they fit when I get them!

Somewhat TMI question -- I still have a decent amount of bright red bleeding and still get minor cramps occasionally. Is that normal at this point? I'm 2.5 weeks postpartum. Not enough to fill a pad or anything, but I just thought it would be lighter by this time.

My little boy is almost 8 weeks old now, and I can't believe how fast time has gone. After a bit of a bumpy start, he is doing great. He had persistent jaundice, and we had a home bili blanket and home health care nurses for several weeks. He had difficulty gaining weight, but is catching up now. He was born at 5 lb 11 oz and is finally over 7 pounds now. Still tiny, but is now healthy and the ped is happy. We are still having a hard time with sleep (he only likes to sleep on me), but the cluster feeding at night has decreased. During the day he eats like crazy though!!

I'm feeling great, except for the fact that I got my period back already! I got it back at 4 months with DD, so was expecting at least that and not at 7 weeks!

Hope everyone else is doing well!

@Pirouette: ahhh, totally meant to include a link earlier, my brain is not working these days haha. http://www.target.com/p/women-s-nursing-seamless-bra-gilligan-o-malley/-/A-14910003

@Pirouette: I give you mad props for having two c-sections. Seriously. The swelling. *augh* I was literally bigger when I left than when I was admitted. That was super head trippy. But I didn't have any spinal headaches. That sounds absolutely miserable. I hope you feel better soon!

I also have uneven production--my left side seems to always be more full than the right (it was that way with my first too).

@MrsSCB: I am mentally so ready to start working out. And I have been seriously tempted to push myself physically. But I haven't. I will start doing more walking this week now that I'm cleared for that, and hope that my good behavior will get me full clearance at 6 weeks. *fx*

Your bleeding sounds normal. I bled for 6 weeks with my first, and I started spotting again after I became more active and finally stopped for good at 8 weeks. Which felt like an eternity!

@CoffeeMom: So glad everything is smoothing out and going well! We needed a bili blanket for my first, and she was a slow gainer too. She's now four and is a force to be reckoned with!

@Umberto: I swaddle during the day. Not for naps when he's being held, but if I am going to put him down and try to maximize a nap, I will swaddle him to keep him settled. I am trying to make sure he gets enough sleep during the day that he sleeps at night too (so that he's not overtired). I have also had good luck wearing him for naps (I currently wear him in a Solly wrap).

So Thomas is 1 month tomorrow and that means I am halfway through maternity leave...The desire to quit working to be with him is in overdrive (this never happened with my first baby). I can't imagine being anywhere near ready to work FT in a month and I am ready to sell our house to downsize and cut our spending budget. My DH thinks I've lost it:( Anyone else go through this?

@MrsBeluga: I can imagine feeling the same way. Unfortunately, I have to work so I'm going to push those thoughts from my head. Too much income to cut out from my family.

Regarding bleeding - I just had a rather large clot come out of me. I felt it as it was coming out! is this normal! It was like a golf ball or anything, but it was a big flat gross clot!

@Umberto: I worried about the same thing with my first but I always swaddle. It's the only way to get good naps in this house.

@MrsBeluga: Sorry that you're feeling that way. Hopefully it works out in a way that you feel comfortable with.

Finally wrote out my birth story and wanted to share for anyone who is like me and enjoys reading these Brace yourselves, this is long...

I went to my 40-week appointment on the 16th, my due date, and we made a plan to induce a week later at 41 weeks if he didn't arrive by then. At about 3:15 in the morning, I woke up to contractions. I started timing and they were about six minutes apart, but not super painful yet. I decided to try to sleep a little longer to see how they progressed. Woke up at 5 a.m. and they were still close together and getting painful. I woke up my husband and said I thought it was time to go to the hospital, and I don't think I've ever seen him jump out of bed faster. We ran around making sure we had our suitcase and everything on the list and we arrived at the hospital at 5:45 a.m. By the time I got hooked up in the assessment room, the contractions were very painful and about 2-3 minutes apart. I couldn't see the contraction monitor from the bed, so I was squeezing my husband's hand during them and he would tell me when they started winding down. Not too long after, they told me I would be admitted. I was so worried about going to the hospital and getting sent home, so I was happy to hear that!

I decided pretty quickly I would be getting an epidural, but I had to wait until I was actually in my labor and delivery room, which took a little while. When I was moving from the assessment room to the delivery room, on a different floor, the nurse asked me if I would rather be wheeled there in the wheelchair or walk I remember thinking, "I'm having contractions 2-3 minutes apart, does this seem like a time that I would enjoy strolling to a different floor?!" haha.

Once I was in the labor and delivery room, the resident checked me and I was at about 4 cm. I got the epidural very quickly after that. I'd been super nervous about the process, but the anesthesiologist was friendly, cracking jokes and very efficient, so it was much easier than I thought it would be. One weird thing was that they made my husband leave the room for that. But he's not good with needles, so it was probably for the best anyway. I felt pretty much immediate relief. I could still tell when contractions were happening by pressure, but no more pain. Amazing! My doctor came by shortly after that, probably around 10, and said she would be around and available all day, she just had one mandatory meeting from 12-1. After that, my husband and I just chilled in the room for awhile and watched a movie (Identity Thief). The nurse came in periodically and had me lie on one side for awhile and then switch to the other. My family arrived in the waiting room at 12:30, and I figured it would still be awhile, so I told DH to go get some lunch in the hospital cafe with them.

This is where it started getting interesting. Within minutes of when he left, I started feeling a lot of pressure. I thought maybe I felt like I needed to push, but I also thought there was no way -- the last time I was checked I was 4 cm. After several very uncomfortable contractions, I finally called the nurse and said I was feeling a lot of pressure. She checked me and I was fully dilated! They started prepping the room for delivery and I was freaking out because I couldn't get ahold of my husband. The hospital had terrible cell service. I was calling him, calling my family members, texting, I sent an email with the subject line "COME BACK NOW." Finally he came running back in, whew. Of course this all started just before one, and as I mentioned, my doctor was in a meeting from 12-1, her only obligation for the whole day. Typical...ha. So as they're prepping the room, they're paging my doctor to see if she can make it. Meanwhile, the on-call doctor is waiting right outside my door, just in case things got started before my doc could make it. This was basically the start of the worst part for me because my epi had pretty much entirely worn off. I hadn't wanted to push the button to increase the amount, because I didn't want to be completely numb...so instead I went in the opposite direction and could feel everything by that point. It felt like they were taking forever to prep the room and I was feeling SO.MUCH.PRESSURE and pain, I thought the baby would come shooting out before they finished. I was basically turned on my side, clutching the bed rail for dear life through every contraction. Finally, they were ready and my doctor did arrive, so things got going. I started pushing just after 1 p.m. and F arrived at 1:47.

I have to say, pushing was way harder than I even imagined. I made a lot of noise pushing through each contraction, which I never thought I would, but it was like I couldn't help it. Crazy. I remember looking at my husband and thinking, "This is going to be our only child for sure..." lol. And I was so proud of my husband. He's super squeamish, like he almost passed out during my first TV ultrasound, so we'd been wondering how he'd do during labor. And he did so great! He held my leg for me, and he even saw the baby coming out and was just in awe. I was shocked that he watched everything. But he was such good support, which made me really happy. And as I was pushing, the nurse, doctor and my husband kept saying, "He has so much hair!" My doctor had me feel his head at one point, which was amazing. When F came out, they put him immediately on me while they wiped him down. We got to do skin to skin for awhile, I don't even know how long, but he latched on right away. While he was lying on my chest, my doctor stitched me up and told me I had a second degree tear. When they finally took F to measure him, he was 8 lb., 7 oz and 21 in. long.

@MrsKerch: it's great to hear from you! I love the name Emmaline. My girl is just Emma. I really love your outlook. Everything for me feels like a struggle right now. I've been having some down days - I feel like my husband is better at everything than me. But we are going out for the first time today - to my mom's house! I pray it all goes well. We are so late. Baby needed to feed. I leaked breast milk on her outfit. I hate when she cries and I don't have the option of just feeding her. But I'm going to stay confident we will find the right balance soon!! I need to keep reminding myself - she's only 10 days old and I've only been mobile for about 2 days.

Does anyone here feel less than confident about strapping their baby into the car seat? I'm fairly sure that I'm not doing it right and I'm terrified.

Here's an abbreviated version of my birth story...
On the morning of the 10th I woke up and lost more of my mucus plug. Since this had happened a week earlier I didn't think much of it. Ran out the door to get to my 40-week spot. Luckily my daughter had been staying with my mom for the night/dAy so I could rest and go to the appt alone.
I lost my bloody show in the bathroom at the doctors office before my spot. They checked me, I was 2cm dilated and 75% effaced. She did a sweep, which hurt like crazy, and told me to go walk around town- just in case things went fast. I walked around town, and began having mild contractions every 12 min. After a couple hours I drove home because I didn't want to be out and about and it didn't seem like things were going fast.
I rested at home and then sat on a yoga ball. Around noon the contractions began to get more painful. Slowly they got closer together. I called my husband home from work when they were 6 min apart and too painful to talk through. The on call nurse recommended we head in, since we live 45 min away. We walked a bit more when we got to the hospital. I couldn't walk or talk through contractions and they were coming every 4-5 min so we checked into L&d at around 5.
I was 4cm dilated when I got there. They also confirmed the baby was posterior and not descending...I spent the next 4 or so hours laboring in the tub and on the ball. My contractions lasted about 2 minutes, and were very painful, every 4-6 minutes. I threw up a couple times. At 8:30 it was clear to me that this was looking a lot like my first labor so I requested an epidural (it made me progress very quickly last time). They checked me and despite all that labor I was still a 4 (confirming my suspicions). I waited a good hour for an anesthesiologist.
After the epi was placed my blood pressure plummeted and the baby's heart rate started having some pretty intense decelerations- into the 90s and not rebounding well. They decided to break my water to try to get things moving.
I started getting a ton of fluids at this point.
The next few hours were intense. It was a dance of trying to manage my super low blood pressure, which was impacting baby, and finding a position the baby liked. They all but turned off the epidural and I had to stay on hands and knees because it was the only position baby would tolerate. They gave me epinephrine three times to try to bump my blood pressure.
I did, however, dilate rapidly after the epi. At midnight I was at 9.5 and started feeling and urge to push. My doctor was able to kind of push the rest out of the way. I pushed for 20 min and he came out. He had a crazy long cord (it was probably about 3.5 feet long) and wrapped around his neck twice and arm once. Once my water broke he was able to move to the anterior position so I had finally started to dilate but every contraction compressed the cord- explaining his low heart rate.
It was pretty scary for a little while- I was worried I wouldn't have enough strength to push him out. I had the same doctor who delivered my daughter- and i love her. She was great the whole time, and I trust every decision she made. I didn't tear at all (although I was way more swollen than last time- he was a pound bigger than his sister).

there were a lot of similarities between my two labors, probably because of those darn posterior babies. Despite my BLood pressure issues this time, I think next time I may just go straight for An epidural. I want to talk to my doctor more, but if I have another posterior baby I'd rather just move forward rather than waste my energy with intense, long, painful and totally unproductive contractions. It's super discouraging to do all that work and not make any progress!!

I feel kind of annoyed with my body when I think about my experience this time, but mostly I feel positive about it all- I felt so much immediate love for him. That was pretty wonderful since it took me a little longer to feel that way with my daughter

Anyway- that's it! Sorry it's so long!