Hellobee Boards

I've officially shut down my FB wall from others posting on it. And as the due date gets closer, I think I'll also turn off the ability for others to tag me on things. After my friend had her new baby announced by her sister's FB page, I really want to avoid that being the way most people find out!
We're definitely going to tell our families to not post anything until we've had a chance to notify people and put our own post on FB. I don't think it's asking too much for people to let this news be something we get to share first.
How are you guys handling the whole social-media-nothing-is-private-anymore phenomenon?

@winniebee: It's really a day by day situation. I think as Nico wakes up fewer times each night DH might try sleeping with us again. He already has a hard time with sleeping, so we knew it would be best for him, since he still needs to get enough sleep for work.

Last night was our BEST night shift ever. I did not co-sleep at all! Horray. Nico is waking up fewer times, but longer for each time. It works out well for me because then I'm less delusional during the session. He eats a bit, falls asleep, then I change him (right in the bed), and that wakes him up, and then he eats again for longer the 2nd time and when he's done I put him back into his bed. It worked out swimmingly last night, with Nico only waking up at 9:30pm, midnight, 3am, 6am, 8am, (then he went til 11am).

Last night at 10pm he did the most funny and gross thing: Nico peed on his own face. I'm talking in his mouth, nose, eyes, hair all at once and a lot. I felt so bad for him, but it was also really funny. Oh boy. When will I remember to cover his penis every time when I change him?!

We're heading out to the doc now. I'm guessing he might be back to birth weight now (16 days old).

@Goldilocks1107: My family is pretty facebook crazy (including my parents and my grandparents) so I have already had to let people know they can't post announcements/pics on facebook before we do!

I could just see my little sister making an announcement on facebook when I am on the way to the hospital, and then us having a million family members there to greet us when we arrive. UGH! lol

Thanks for the encouragement ladies! I am feeling better now. DH stayed home with me yesterday and we went for a long walk and cooked a nice dinner. I am back home alone today, but I am pretty sure I am going to paint the dining room and reupholster our dining room chairs to kill some time.

I am almost positive I haven't progressed at all as I still don't feel ANYTHING. After walks I have no cramps and no pressure and I have lots of energy. The only thing I am really suffering from is lack of sleep at night time.
I think the most discouraging thing for me is that it seems everyone on here is delivering EARLY!

@cvbee: Sounds like things are going great with baby. YAY!

@winniebee: I totally feel your pain... I used to fight my hubby on everything! I kind of bent the rules a lot and did things that I shouldn't because I totally went stir crazy... I totally get your wanting to take the quick drive/walk! I don't think there is much of a difference between 36.6 and 37!

Well, our newborn check-up went ok yesterday, Sawyer is still quite jaundiced (though less than on Saturday, it is still pretty striking to see), so we went for more bloodwork to make sure things are going okay as far as that goes. His doctor just called and told me the bilirubin levels are down a bit, so that is good news. Sawyer is still below birth weight by quite a bit, so we are going for a weight re-check on Monday. We also got a prescription for some cream for the rash, so hopefully that works quickly!

He has also been REALLY hungry the past 24 hours or so, I feel like he has been on the breast constantly, so I finally caved and fed him some pumped milk that I had stored twice yesterday so he could get some sleep, and my nipples can get a break. Today I am pumping after feeds to increase my supply for the hungry little man! I also used the Moby wrap this morning and blow-dried and straightened my hair, washed dishes and did laundry wearing Sawyer and it was awesome! I felt so productive. I highly recommend getting a stretchy wrap!

@cvbee: Your new mom group sounds like a great resource! It is amazing how much our little ones change from one day to the next isn't it? I often wonder what kind of personality Sawyer will settle into. Sawyer has peed on his face twice already (once while DH changes him, once when my Mom did), It is kind of gross, but I have never laughed so hard as the first time he did it.

@Mrsdaredevil: You sound like you are having a really rough time, maybe it would help to talk to a counsellor/therapist?

@winniebee: I am sure your DH is just being cautious, but I can imagine him putting limits on you when you just want to enjoy some freedom is super frustrating. I hope he relaxes a little so you can enjoy your freedom while it lasts (LOL).

@LAGS: Fingers crossed your LO comes very soon!

@Goldilocks1107: We were really lucky, no one posted anything until we did. Really though, only our parents and siblings were called about the baby the night he was born, in the morning we made our post about the same time our parents were calling grandparents/aunts/uncles etc.

@MsMini: I have totally been there with the jaundice and the losing lots of weight. Nico went from 7 pounds 15 ounces to 7 pounds 4 ounces......but now we've more than made up for it. I hope things turn around soon for you: it will feel so good. For us, it was the Bili light pad that turned things around.

OH! I can't believe I forgot to post this, today I weighed myself and I am already at my pre-pregnancy weight at 8 days postpartum. I still have a lot of swelling in my legs and feet, so I am excited to see what my weight does once that resolves. I am feeling like I am going to really dedicate myself in losing weight and getting in better shape once my c-section recovery time is over!

@Mrsdaredevil: I hope you go ahead and find someone to talk with anyway - it really helped me when I went through my slump around 20 weeks. Hope you continue to feel better!

I'm officially dilated to 1 cm and baby girl is at -1 station. Yippee! Well, I was excited until my mom told me she was dilated at 3cm for 2 weeks before I was born . . . what a buzz kill.

Tomorrow we hit up Target and knock off some of our baby registry items after we close on the house. I'm pretty psyched! I'll probably spend most of my "working" morning figuring out exactly what I want to get and which store has the most items in stock. That's what I call "productivity"

@goldilocks1107: We probably won't even really tell many people that we're headed to the hospital, just my Bro & SIL since they're taking DD. That should help keep the spoilers away.
@cvbee: glad your nights are going so well! Sounds like you're really getting a routine down!
@mrsdaredevil: I'm glad to hear you got some QT with hubby and that you're feeling better. Hopefully the doctor has good news for you.
@pastemoo: I'm sorry to hear the swelling is so bad! Hopefully it won't be much longer!
@msmini: Congrats on the weight, that's awesome!

Welp, I am a big old mess this morning. I'm exhausted and I have a cold and I lost it on DH this morning. He told DD she couldn't watch TV until she got dressed and then left her upstairs with me while he went to eat breakfast. So I'm trying to do my hair & makeup and finish getting ready and I have to help her with her stuff. I finally get us both ready and he's all, "Since DD & I are both ready now, I'm going to take her to Caribou!" Of course, I'm running late now so I just started yelling and crying. Poor DH, he's actually really good at helping me. He took care of DD last night so I could go get a pedicure and he's up again tonight while I get my hair done.
We are going to a wedding tomorrow and I have a feeling that I'm just going to sit around and be a party-pooper. At least we found someone to take DD for the night so we *should* get to sleep in on Sunday, which I think we both need.
One more week of work!

@winniebee: Ha. What's scarier is that the number of times I am up in the night now is way less than it was in the first two weeks! My advice is to sleep in. I pretty much do 12 hours of awake normal life and 12 hours of 'sleep-on-and-off' life. In the end, I do get as much sleep as I always did. Now, how someone can do this sort of thing with another child to care for.... ?

I would like to report another night of not giving into or accidentally co-sleeping at 4am. (Nothing against any of you who will be co-sleeping. Co-sleeping is a great choice for many people, but you do need to prepare for it rather than do it by accident. I get nervous about it because my mattress is really soft and my blankets are really thick and I have lots of pillows. Best for me to just stick to crib: which we did again last night! yay!)

@MsMini: Pre-pregnancy weight already: awesome.

I did finally step on the scale and was mostly very happy to see that of the 25 pounds I gained in pregnancy, I've lost 18....maybe 19. But 17 days PP, I am thinking that I'm going to have to start to exercise to get my tummy back: it's still out way more than I'd like. Today my big goal is to go for a long walk in the afternoon with the stroller. I've noticed that pushing the stroller engages my core muscles. I just need the rain to hold off.

I'm all about routines these days for the mornings. When I decide I've finally had enough sleep (maybe 8am, 9am or 10am), I put baby in his pack and play cradle, then I shower, get dressed, do makeup, clean up the overnight laundry (I throw dirty diapers and cloth wipes on the floor, plus anything else that gets covered in milk or pee or poo....the night shift gets messy). I make the bed, get clothes out for Nico, go downstairs and clean up the kitchen, sweep floors, clean up after DH (don't get me started), and when everything is nice, I sit down to breakfast. Today breakfast was near 11am, but who cares?!

In the topic of PP recovery: every time I have a really good bowel movement, the inside of my pelvic girdle near my sacrum hurts like I'm having back labour again. Like, it hurts during and then for a minute after. Oh back labour!

Happy Friday everyone! Can't wait to see who has a supermoon baby! Good luck!

@duckduckkristen: That's funny - as we were leaving the OB's office yesterday, I told DH he better be ready to start 'knocking boots' tonight! And yeah - Go SuperMoon Go! And I'd still use the name Liam - you like it and you never see anyone. If you weren't on FB, you'd probably have no idea that your kids had the same name until way after the birth certificate was signed! Of course, as a Sarah, I'm accustomed to never being the only one with my name and probably just don't care as much

@winniebee: Didn't have my progression checked today. My doctor said again that she just doesn't feel comfortable checking because it only introduces more bacteria, and dilation is so unpredictable. She said in one of her pregnancies she was at a 3 for 5 weeks (!!!)....and she doesn't want to drive her patients crazy with them thinking they're close to something happening, and then nothing does.

We talked about scheduling induction but I decided to wait. I really think that God has the perfect plan for this little one and has already planned the exact second that she is going to come. I just need to relax and know that the longer she stays in there, the healthier she will be.

I have another appointment on Tuesday where she will actually check my cervix and we will kind of just play it by ear. I told my doctor about all the anxiety I have been having and she actually prayed for me at my appointment! I felt a lot better....she reminded me that God has perfect timing! I am sure some of you aren't religious, but to me it was great advice. I think if things start to get bad again I will talk to a counselor, but for now I am feeling OK.

@duckduckkristen: That's why my Dr. doesn't want to check me. She sees people stay dilated for wayyyyyy too long before anything ever happens! Hopefully you don't have to wait much longer though

@cvbee: I love reading your updates. You make me so excited for mommyhood

@Mrsdaredevil: That's really beautiful that your doc was able to connect with you through a spiritual way: how special. I'm so glad to hear about that.

@winniebee: DH has been back to work since two days after Nico was born. At first it was so hard for him to go back and leave us, but he's getting used to it now. It's a good thing that he's going to work because I'm already feeling the money-crunch....just got my last pay deposit from work and it hasn't covered all the bills. Time for us to get frugal!

Okay, so last night, Nico slept for two stretches of 4 hours. It felt insanely good to wake up at 7am instead of having to sleep another couple of cycles to get enough sleep. It's now 10:30am and we've already both had our baths, breakfasts, and he's onto his first nap again. It's like Mother's Day came early. I'm also going to start a thread called 'impressive things I've done while breastfeeding'....check it out and learn something funny I did this morning. ha!

@LAGS: good question! On the day that Nico started to actually nurse with some vigor, my nipples were so sore that my flannel nightshirt actually felt like a knife and I was glad to have a really soft, plush house coat, and the sheets on the hospital bed were actually soft too. But right away I started slathering on the Lanolin, and they felt nicely protected and got less sensitive very quickly (within 24 hours).

Then around day 5, when I was struggling with the breastfeeding because of Nico's jaundice, I started to accept an improper latch because I just wanted him so badly to be feeding. It hurt so much when he was latching on (for the first few minutes) that I almost cried out and had to like move my legs around to stand the pain. Due to me accepting an improper latch, my nipple got a bit swollen and cracked a tiny bit. It was so sore. But I just happen to re-admit to the hospital that day, so I fell into being surrounded by experts again. They taught me to manually express a little bit of milk to get things started with that nipple so that he wouldn't chew while being impatient at the beginning. That worked really well (although it was hard for me to figure out where to push to get the milk out), and so his latch got better immediately and he stopped doing the 'chew for the first few minutes' thing. That, plus a constant thick coating of lanolin fixed the crack by later that day.
I can't say enough good things about the lanolin. I also love it as chapstick and I rub it on my cuticles too. Now, at 18 days in, I'm still using it a few times a day just to keep things good.

So, as the nurse said, 'no pain no gain' is not a phrase for breastfeeding. If the latch is hurting you, get it fixed or you will get into trouble.

@cvbee: my nips hurt so bad! Ive just been pumping /supplementing to give them a break. I never imagined breastfeeding being so hard! So many moms have all said it initially hurts while LCs say it never should. I was praised in the hospital for DDs "excellent latch" but my nipples ended up looking like a tube of lipstick and chapped with blisters! Im currently nursing only for the ovenights when enorged and today have only pumped once this AM cause of so much company.

I have a call into a lactation consultant but DH has been loving giving bottles and how less stressed ive been. I will admit some major mommy-guilt but baby girl is gaining weight and thriving, I shouldnt beat myself up right?

All in all getting adjusted to mommyhood has been awesome. Abbey is such a great sleeper and eater we feel spoiled. Shes a real cuddle bug and loves curling up on people for naps. Ive been recovering beautifully from my section. I have some soreness but the toughest part was recovering from a terrible spinal headache from the epidural. Pain meds, drawn shades, and staying reclined were the only things that helped which was really hard. Shockingly I am already 15 lbs under my pre pregnancg weight and it keeps melting off. My appetite is literally gone!

Hope everyone else is doing well, so sorry not to post sooner life has been hectic!

Today is Sawyers due date! I am so happy we decided he should come early, and that I have had this time with him here! This morning we slept in until noon, then had family snuggles in bed with DH, me, Sawyer and Charlie the dog, which was really nice! We have some yard work to do today before it rains, but otherwise we are just going to enjoy a lazy day!

@volksgirl64: I hope you are able to enjoy the wedding today, and your sleep in tomorrow!

@cvbee: Despite being now under my pre-pregnancy weight, my belly is a mess, it is so stretched out. I am hoping the elasticity comes back sooner than later, because the skin is just so floppy it is gross. We went out for a long walk yesterday, and it felt awesome, I have to be careful about my activity though, since I am just 10 days post-op. It is hard to not overdo it! Yay for 4 hour sleeps! I set an alarm for 4 hours, and it does go off once in a while before Sawyer wakes up, which is awesome. He is nice to e and cluster feeds throughout the day then sleeps 3 1/2-4 hours at night, I just pray it stays that way!

@duckduckkristen: Ugh! Sorry about the name issue, I think that the babies having the same name isn't a huge deal though. I am a Jennifer and sharing a name with many other people was never a huge issue in my life, it is something you just get used to!

@Mrsdaredevil: I am glad you are feeling more at peace now! I hope that your baby decides to come soon for you.

@winniebee: I am sorry you had a meltdown and that you are feeling stressed about the contractions. I can't imagine how hard it is to switch gears from desperately avoiding labour to welcoming it. You will get there when you are ready though!

@LAGS: I have had a little nipple pain on and off, I have flat nipples on both sides, and wear breast shells to help them come out during the day, which helps Sawyer to latch well, at night though, when I am not wearing the shells he has more trouble latching, and end up slipping off a bit, and if I don't notice because I fall asleep or am super sleepy I end up with some damage. It heals pretty quickly with lanolin though, and once Sawyer gets bigger and stronger I think that will stop happening. I am also hoping once he is bigger I can retire the shells, because I kind of hate them.

@Nskillet: Yay for the excellent weight loss! I hope the LC helps you with your nipple pain!

Just wanted to say congratulations and good luck to all of you lucky ladies!

@duckduckkristen: OMG CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH

@duckduckkristen: supermoon baby!!!!!!!

@Mrsdaredevil: hope baby comes soon. Im on standby as well.
Wish she would come soon. I think my belly dropped so that's good news.

At my Thursday appt, I was 50% effaced and 2 cm dilated.
Let's hope things progress for the both of us.

Imagine we have baby date twins!