Hellobee Boards

@anbanan15: Oh no! I really hope she's just getting too full! I know that would be scary.

Hi November mamas and babies!

I have been pretty silent because I've been working through a bajillions things. Who isn't though, right?

I needed to give myself some time and space before I posted because I just felt like it was one thing after another.
- Difficulty with breastfeeding
- Breaking down in tears
- Receiving notice of JURY DUTY!!! (I deferred until the spring, but WHAT?!)
- Lack of sleep
- Dealing with residual stress from the renovation
- Missing my husband like crazy during week 1 of his return to work
- Wondering if I will make it through the first month with a newborn...

Tomorrow he will be 1 month old. And even as I write out those low points of the past few weeks it feels silly.

Here are the high points:
- The support of my husband
- The support of my mom and dad and sister
- The walks that I have taken
- Putting him in the Ergo without any assistance
- Heavenly showers...our new bathroom is amazing
- The trip that I took to Target with Elliott
- The little smiles I see after a feeding...

This newborn phase is HARD! I have my 1 month appointment next week because of a delay in our hep B shots for Elliott. So I'm going to work hard this week to continue plumping him up. I wish I could weigh him now - but I'm just trying to trust that he is eating, and obliterating diapers and sleepsacks - so he MUST be growing. And now that I give him about 40 minutes total on the boobs, he seems pretty satisfied.

But oh...my nips. My poor, poor nips. I'm looking forward to "my Brest Friend" arriving in the mail this week. My boppy was a hand me down and I think it's lost some of it's oompf. And my little guy is ALL over the place during feedings. I just need him to be able to get into position easier. And not rotate on my nipple. I will just say, for a while, I was screaming and stomping on the floor with every latch on righty. SERIOUS pain. But then after a while it felt like it was mental. Like I was just scared of the pain I HAD felt.

Every day I learn something new. Today is a good day. And I can't believe he will be 1 month old tomorrow.

I'm still alive...just reading while I feed J. I hate responding on my phone, but I am happy to see you all doing well! Peds appt tomorrow, so we shall see how much he has grown!

Ahhhh.... Ladies the six week growth spurt is no joke. I feel like he's nursing twice as long. One day he naps great and then today he's been awake for 7 hours. Omg. I hope welcome out to rainbows and happiness on the other side!

Caroline will be a month old on FRIDAY! it's insane how quick this is going!

She's still not latching on (she almost does what breastfed babies sometimes do with the bottle nipples the first time now....) so we're exclusively bottle feeding-- and almost exclusively formula fed now with a few ounces of pumped milk that I'm still getting in there... but she's eating and growing so I'm telling myself that's all that truly matters... it's not ideal but it's life I guess?

I can't wait to see how much she weighs on Monday- to me she still looks like my tiny little girl but everyone else said she's getting so big- hubby bets she's 8lbs now if not a little over (she was 6lb 8 at birth and had gained that back by her first week apt) she still fits in newborn but they aren't quite as big on her as they were at birth...

I kind of get teary when I think about how she's growing so fast... is that weird?

She ate 3.5 ounces tonight at this last feeding without spitting up-- and then after about half an hour or so of fussing, she passed out cold- and has been sleeping since about 10:00-- though sleeping long stretches is still hit or miss, I'm hoping it's getting better!

@Mrs. Pink: Nathan will be one month on Saturday! It is crazy how fast they grow. He's out of newborn stuff now (he was almost 9 lbs at birth), but most 0-3 month stuff is still big.

I think it's normal to be a bit sad. I wasn't just a little sad though, I was full on crying multiple times a day because of the anxiety I had that he would be a teenager, like tomorrow. That's when I knew I needed some meds to keep me in check

@Mrs. J: it's nice to hear from you!

@ms.janedoe: the smiles make up for everything don't they? Caroline's first awake smiles made me cry those weird happy tears LOL but then again, so did the first sleep smiles too...

A couple days early but she was in a good mood so I went for it! She'll be a month old Friday and we'll know her updated height/weight on Monday!

A big "almost laughing" smile and a serious face!

@lilteacherbee: thank you!!! Nathan is adorable too!

As usual, I'm super behind! Finally checking in for the first time in awhile and I'm loving seeing everyone's babies.

Baby M was born just after midnight on November 21 (due on the 9th), weighing 8 lbs 12 oz and 21.5" in length (I think... it's a bit fuzzy, haha). We ended up with an unplanned c-section after 60 hours of labour. She was face up and got her head stuck, so we stalled out around 8 cm after augmenting with pitocin when I couldn't progress from 'a stretchy 7.'

I'm struggling with some sadness about having the surgery, although I'm glad that she made it out safely and healthy. I read that pitocin can basically slam an OP baby into their unfavourable position even further, thus dooming them to get stuck, and I wonder what would have happened had we been able to keep labouring past 7 cm -- would she have turned?

But, then again, by the time the doctor offered the C, I was EXHAUSTED. I had a fentanyl drip shortly after they started with the pitocin and I was falling asleep for split seconds between contractions. I had horrible pain, and experienced bad back labour the whole way through, and even the two morphine shots I had didn't take it away, completely. So I wonder if I would have been too tired to push, anyway.

On the upside we had skin-to-skin in the OR, and in the recovery room, and we actually nursed in the OR! The anesthesiologist had his mind blown by that -- he kept saying that he had never seen anyone nursing in the OR, ever. I wrote a thank you letter to the hospital after her birth because even though it was the total opposite of what we wanted, the staff was amazing and treated us really well, and now one of the admin wants to tell our story as part of a presentation on the skin-to-skin post-cesarean policies, at a conference this spring, so maybe more women will get that experience.

M is a pretty chill, predictable baby, and she sleeps well. She's actually had two 8-hour stretches at night, which is insane. She seems to be nursing well and gaining weight, although one of my nipples is getting sore so I'm paranoid about thrush. Her next appointment with the nurse practitioner is Monday.

Recovery has been rough, because it's hard for me to deal with taking it easy -- I want to clean my dang house. And, Mr. D has been back at work since 2 days after her birth. He was supposed to be able to flex time and work from home but got reprimanded for spending too much time at home within a few days of his return (which is pretty infuriating -- he worked so much overtime the weekend before her birth that he only used up 7 hours of overtime that week, despite being with me for a few days).

Overall we're doing fairly well and we're all getting used to one another! I'm feeling kind of isolated -- not many local friends with kids, and our other friends are younger and not really interested in hanging out, now, it seems, but I'm looking forward to it being not winter anymore (feels like -38C today... ugh) and getting my lifting/exercise restrictions out of the way so I can take her out and meet some real life mom friends!

Name: Cash
Sex: Little man!
Due date: November 21st
Birth date: November 28th - Thanksgiving!
Length: 21"
Weight: 9lbs 8oz

I'm still in shock I have a little boy! There's nothing better!

@anbanan15: yes on the sock trouble and mittens... thankfully we don't take her anywhere really and when we do she's always in a footed sleeper! I'm trying to see if I can shrink all the socks and mittens by washing them in SUPER hot water and drying them on super high!

Also- thanks!! She has super crazy hair when it's first washed and dried out- I hope that means it'll be curly like mine was as a baby!

@Mrs. Pink: We don't use mittens, but I wasn't successful at shrinking the socks We use footed sleepers mostly, but gowns with socks at night. We got some 5-9 lb socks at gymboree, but only about half the styles stay on so we ordered some preemie socks. The one brand (kushies) is supposed to fit preemie but also stretch to 0-3 mo, so we should get some use out of them.

Btw I was just thinking the same thing! So many c-sections! I wonder what the ratio to vaginal births really was in this group.

@MrsDragon: @Ash: I wonder if the skin-to-skin in the OR is a CA thing and it hasn't been introduced/implemented in the US yet? So awesome you got to do that and get to share your story to other expecting mom's.

@anbanan15: I'm a cheapie, bought socks at wal-mart, they say 0-3 months but I'm not buying that LOL

The gloves I bought are Kushies and they seem to have shrunk-- I'm trying to use gloves because I'm still afraid to cut her nails and they're not quite long enough to do the "biting" trick that my mom did with us...

@anbanan15: J has preemie socks too!
@MrsDragon: she is gorgeous!

@sweetooth: OMG, I am still feeling this pain. It's a little better now, but sometimes those first 30 seconds or so just make me wanna scream and cry and curse and sometimes I do. And it's not even that she has a horrible latch or anything and the actual skin on my nips is fine, but it hurts on the inside. Oy, anyways.
The last 2 weeks feel like years, but have also gone by so fast, it's crazy surreal! I'm feeling great, other than sleep-deprived, but nursing isn't going so hot. Which we knew would more than likely be the case, but it's kinda disappointing because I'm pretty sure I have the best supply I've ever had and maybe if I'd had another 7 pounder I might actually have enough to exclusively nurse. But as it is, we're having to supplement about 5 oz. of donor milk to keep anywhere near to the proper diaper output, and she's not losing weight, but she hasn't regained her birth weight yet so, meh. We nurse constantly at home, but we have to leave the house sometimes, and sometimes the older kids need their mommy, and we still have my SIL here helping out- I have no idea how I'm going to maintain the supply I have after she leaves. Lame, but oh well.
So glad it sounds like everyone else is doing pretty well!

Oh, and Nathan turned one month today!

I love following along, I need to get better about commenting back! It's so great to hear everyone is doing so well! @ash: we never even touched the GMD prefolds I got for the newborn days... I think I'll just sell that stash. I feel kind of guilty but the Pampers have been so freaking simple. It IS frustrating to burn through 3 in a single diaper change when LO decides she wants to poot again... I'm going to give the BGs a shot in the next few weeks, here's hoping those go a little better!!

Do you guys find your little ones making dirty farts constantly? They're not big enough to call poops, but it's enough that it definitely warrants a diaper change.

Popping into the convo you guys were having earlier, I was able to have skin to skin in the OR as they were stitching me up. They initially brought her over all bundled, and I asked if we could do it, and they just helped unbundle her!

All is going well here! We've exclusively breastfeed for about a week or two now, which is so effing crazy. I NEVER would have thought we'd get here. Don't get me wrong, I'm still paranoid she isn't getting enough and I want to set up a weight check for next week, but she seems happy, and diaper output seems good! We're struggling a little as at one or two feeds a day she'll just be freaking out at the breast--latching and unlatching, pulling, flailing, fussing, etc. I thiiiink it's slow flow as it's usually if she's just recently eaten, but man does it suck!

We went and saw Santa today, which was uneventful; we went out to lunch after. She slept through the whole thing! We had a rough night or two of sleep, but I'm chalking it up to the 5 week Wonder Week and 6 week growth spurt--she'll be 6 weeks in Wednesday, what?! DH has been gone M-F and it's been going surprisingly well. Granted most days I call it a success if I can poop in peace, but we've seemed to find a little routine!

I've been feeling great, I have my 6 week appointment on Minday. I refuse to go on anything that might impact my supply, so we might just resort to a lazy charting method and cross out fingers. Responsible, eh?

@lilteacherbee: I must've fat fingered his birth weight - he was 9lb7oz at birth but yes, we had big boys! We were definitely all baby and there was no way my little man was coming out vaginally.
Lol @ dh and the honey. Mine would've wanted to be putting it elsewhere!
Love Nathan's one month - He's adorable!

@FarmWifeGina: glad to hear you're doing well! Hopefully nursing gets less painful. You're doing a great job!

@anbanan15: Oh my, I'm so glad you said that about the fitteds. I had no idea it'd be that way and I felt guilty for not liking them. So you're saying I'll like the bgs better right? Right now we're using a mix of honest dipes and 7th generation - no blow outs or leaks in either like we did with the pampers in the hospital.

@ms.janedoe: I'm glad I'm not alone! Sposies are really really nice compared to the fitteds. You're not missing out!
As for dirty farts, I have a little boy who farts and poos constantly - really loudly... and sometimes it's just a teeny skidmark shart. It cracks me up!
I was having that flailing/screaming trouble too but lately things have gotten better. I think it was usually if I pumped and then he decided he wanted to nurse. I've gotten his system down though.
Glad nursing is going well for you overall!
Love the pic! We thought about going to see Santa but we're not sure if we wanna risk the germs since ds was in the hospital for 10 days already.
As for birth control, we're gonna do condoms which doesn't sound like fun but I refuse to do bc of any other sort. I also don't wanna get pregnant too quickly after having my uterus sliced open!