Hellobee Boards

@Mrs. J: I promise the anticipation is worse!! I cried last week too, but it got better! The smiles when I pick him up are amazing what's your childcare situation like?

Also, bring some pictures! Everyone at my school wanted to see him and of course, I love showing him off!

@Mrs. J: I'll be thinking of you!

@lilteacherbee: Bahahah C has that same problem - it's slightly mullet-like.

@Mrs. J: Aww that's great! My mom (and grandma, since she lives with my mom) keeps N for me. It really is a blessing. It makes it a lot easier to go to work knowing that he's with someone who loves him to pieces!

@Ash: Ha! I just finished giving her a leggy-rub with the lotion! She woke up at EDIT:6:15 so I've managed to keep her up until now, she'd juuuust started nursing and is still awake, so here's hoping this little 45ish minute awake time helps--and even this was a stretch to keep her up without screaming! Does your little man like bath time? I'd like to work it into our night routine (if you can call it that), but she haaaates getting out.

Right now I do diaper change and cream her up good, leg massages with that lotion, turn off nursery light and nurse--she usually falls asleep during this, once she's done move to our room where I swaddle her, then I rock her and sing Jewel over and over until I think she's sleepy enough to plop down. What are you all doing?

Mom came over for a little bit today, I ran out grocery shipping which was nice. Oh, DH will be home for tomorrow night!! He flies out again at 7:00am Wednesday morning, but I'll take the 24 hours I get! That's so awesome you guys have so much help and support from your families!

Our bedtime routine goes something like this: 7:30 we start bath time, then put on PJs and swaddle and nurse in our bed. Once he falls asleep I transfer him to the pack n play next to our bed. Sometimes he takes a long time to fall asleep, sometimes he wakes up a little while after transfer. One amazing time I put him in drowsy but awake and he went to sleep.

Of course this has all gone to hell tonight as D barely slept all day, but DH was able to get him to nap in the swing as soon as he got home at 5:30. So D's been sleeping for 3 hours and it's an hour past bath time now. I don't want to wake him up, but I really don't know how this will mess up the rest of the night. His sleep's been really bad in general the past 2 nights, so maybe it won't get worse.

We have our 2 month appointment tomorrow. I'm excited to see how much he weighs, but I'm not at all looking forward to the shots :(.

For you guys that breastfeed, what are you plans for pumping and bottles and everything for when you go back to work? I go back on Monday and I'm still trying to figure things out. I've been trying to pump the past few days (I have no stash) and I get varying amounts. When we formula feed sometimes we need 2oz, sometimes 4. So I'm not sure what to send with him. And do I make sure all the breastmilk I pumped is in equal portions - like all 3oz bottles? Or do I send them in varying amounts?

@ms.janedoe: personally I'd swaddle her when you feed/rock her. I make sure he's completely ready for bed the last time he eats (around 730/8). For us, we bathe, eat and go to sleep in RnP. He usually falls asleep by 9. I always rock him to sleep before putting him down.

@ShootingStar: I bet he would take 4oz at a pop. If not, have the daycare tell you what he's taking so you can adjust the amount for less waste. Unless you send a bunch of 2oz bottles - but that seems like a lot of bottles. But what do I know! Ds almost always takes 4oz here.

@Ash: I've tried swaddling first but she haaaates being swaddled and then fights it the entire time until she falls asleep, so she gets super hot and then the swaddle is loose and her arms come out. Fail.

Boo to no sleep, super not cool. You're doing great in your own though!! Especially feeding and pumping! Good job! Cab you sneak a nap tomorrow?

Tonight is much better (whew!) for us, 4 hour stretch and 3.5 hour stretch. I'm now stuck as she fell asleep eating, and then made a dirty fart... Do I wake her up to change her or just let it go for another hour or two (as I'm assuming she'll be up again by 7:00 like usual)...I diaper creamed her butt up good, so I might just leave it...gaaah, so guilty!!

@ms.janedoe: Our evening routine is feed, burp, change, white noise, swaddle, crib, close the door and walk away. We've had Elliott in the crib pretty much since the beginning of January. He goes for 3-4 hour stretches at night. One of us usually sleeps in the guest bedroom which connects to the baby room via bathroom. So we hear him fuss and struggle to Houdini out of his swaddle for a bit, but he mostly tires out and falls asleep.

@Mrs. J: Good luck today!

I'm considering finding a perminant donor for my milk. I'm just scared/nervous that I may need/want that milk down the road and then regret not having it (I have this desire to save all the milk). My current freezer stash is a little out of control and I will probably run out of room sooner rather than later (we are approaching 1000 oz already).

@MrsDragon: Not sure about the tongue tie. Looks normal to me in the pictures, but I don't really have experience with them either. Have you tried nursing in the side lying position? Both of my babies nurse better in the position, plus I get to relax.

@Ash: ditto on the cheese

@ShootingStar: @sweetooth: I would do a bunch of 2 oz bags and then 4 oz bags for awhile as far as freezing (save the 6 oz for later when you have a better idea of what LO needs). Do you have to have the bottles pre-made for whomever is watching? If not I would instruct them to only heat 2-3 oz at a time then add to it if LO wants more, that way you are not wasting any, until you get a better idea of what they take while away.

Oh my goodness. I have a fussy pants on my hands today!

@Ash: does having a conversation with him after every feed/change combo where he's engaged and cooing count?

@Ash: isn't it crazy how talkative they can be on the changing table? I feel like he's not all that interested in toys. I've tried laying him in the pack n play and batting the little stars on the mobile thing above him. I think he enjoys looking at the ceiling more

@Ash: N is OBSESSED with ceiling fans! He'll stare at them forever. He's not really interested in toys yet, except for one of his mobiles. I sing him lots of my pre-k songs, which I'm sure he thinks are totally annoying

@Mrs. J: Yay! Hope the rest of the day was tolerable and you are getting lots of snuggles tonight

@Ash: We have a musical turtle (Lamaze brand) that DD loves. She smiles every time she hears it. She also loves to stare at the baby Einstein talking tubes bc it has lights. She laughs at her mobile now too (fluttering paper birds). I try to put her on her playmat once a day too but she's not always interested.

I'm so jealous of everyone who has family helping to care for their LO! I go back to work in two weeks and I'm still trying to find a nanny.

Our bedtime routine is bath (every 3 days), diaper, lotion, jammies, one boob (in glider in the nursery), swaddle, other boob, burp/rock for 5-10 mins, place in bassinet in our room asleep. She *usually* sleeps 9-2 then we feed and put her back down, often in our bed. She wakes up again around 5 and lately won't go back to sleep after that.

@Cara M. 17: Omgggg, the 5:00am wake up is the worst. LO does the same, getting up around 4:30-5:30. That's when she's just wide awake... We usually end up laying on the changing pad and kicking for 20 minutes, then staring at the night light for 20 minutes, then laughing at the wall and shadows, then finally deciding to be tired and go back to sleep for an hour... Lame.

It's been a snowy day stuck inside here!

@ms.janedoe: I heard the average pumping output is 0.5-2oz total per session so your stash is awesome!

I donated with DS to a local women who was adopting and unable to induce lactation, but BM was very important to them. I just gave one huge lump sum (just over 1110 oz) and then saved the rest again for DS, but I was thinking of finding someone M's age and preferably that would need dairy/allergen free milk that I could give so much to weekly/monthly the entire time I BF.

@Mrs. J: wahoo! Good job surviving your first day back!

@ShootingStar: Awesome job mama! And I know! We typically think a "good" pumping output should be so much more!! I read it elsewhere also, but here is an excerpt from Kellymom about what is normal:

@ms.janedoe: dude, 5 hours? Totally take it when you can get it. Especially if it's the nighttime. I just got 4 consecutive hours myself because he didn't make a peep until 3 am instead of 2.

@Ash: I got the milk maid app to keep track of all of my pumping/stash. I actually keep track of the pumping on baby connect (I like it better), then also put the total in the milk maid app because it gives you stats and always has a running total, plus you can take it out of your total if used, donated etc.

I'm not sure how you freeze it, put I put a certain number if bags stacked into a 1 gallon zip lock bag, so I could add up the total that way too.

@ms.janedoe: Good job mama! I totally would have pumped and not woke the baby lol. But I know if I was full and true to feed her without pumping first it would have been a disaster. Keep up the good work!