3-6 month Check In 2/9

[aves0708]

1. How old is LO?



2.How is breastfeeding going?



3. How is pumping/work (if you are back to work)?



4. Any short and/or long-term breastfeeding goals? Any goal updates?


5. How are nights?


6. Any teeth/signs of teething?



7. Questions/AW/Rant?



GTKY:  If you could live anywhere, where would it be?

[danvers]

1. How old is LO? 4 months!

2.How is breastfeeding going? Good! DD2 will definitely overeat if I let her nurse forever (so much spit-up!) so when she’s done, I unlatch. So different than DD1 who could and would nurse forever if I let her.

3. How is pumping/work? I hate pumping but it’s going well. I just hate the time suck and being hooked up to a machine and my tiny, freezing pumping closet. I had a large oversupply when I started pumping a month ago at work but it’s slowly regulating itself and I feel less enforced during the day now.

4. Any short and/or long-term breastfeeding goals? Any goal updates? Day by day here. Ultimate goal is 1 year.

5. How are nights? We tried unswaddled last night. It did not go well. Previously she would sleep 7+ before waking to eat.

6. Any teeth/signs of teething? So much drool but who knows.

7. Questions/AW/Rant? I had a ton of milk in the freezer due to LOs refusal to nurse the left side initially but I produce enough each day to not need it (right now) and I’m not sure what to do. When school lets put in laye May I won’t need to pump anymore so I could freeze what I make now and use frozen for daycare but I will still have a lot left come summer... we live in a very rural area so I’m not sure where I could donate it either 😕

GTKY: If you could live anywhere, where would it be? Back home where I grew up. Both girls have been sick and I miss having the support of my family around. A lot of my friends never moved away too and I miss having those connections because making new friends as an adult is hard.

[addymac]

danvers , I know some of my friends used their frozen milk in baths when it was close to expiring so it wouldn't go to waste. That's a thought? Alternatively, once it's getting close to expiring, you could thaw one bag a day, and freeze one bottle's worth and sort of swap it out? that way you could also have fresher frozen milk when you return to work in the fall? I'm sort of tossing these ideas around, too, since I have only had to ever use 2 out of ~50 frozen bags I have and he's nearing 6mo so I need to start using some of the older stuff soon.

[addymac]

Hi! I'm going to try to participate here a bit more because I realize I have questions and sometimes I feel like I'm bothering my LC at work too much

1. How old is LO? 6mo in 3 days!


2.How is breastfeeding going? he's getting all breastmilk still I seriously didn't think we'd be at this point a week after he was born, even a month after he was born because it hurt so much. I mostly pump, since I work 4 days/wk and I try to BF exclusively on days I'm home, but I do end up pumping so DH can help with an overnight feed. And we usually give a bottle for his last feeding before bedtime because it helps give me a better idea of how much he ate, so I am less anxious. I know it shouldn't matter, but my anxiety was way too high with not knowing a firm number for his bedtime feeding so I just released the breastfeeding at bedtime and it helps me relax a lot.



3. How is pumping/work (if you are back to work)? pumping is so annoying. it's time consuming, i can't eat lunch with my friends because I don't feel comfortable taking multiple breaks, esp. because i'm a RN so I need to ask my coworkers to watch my babies while i pump. So i eat while i pump and it's a pain and i can only eat sandwiches because they're easy to hold.. and when it's a busy shift, sometimes I can't pump every 4hours and it drives me crazy/hurts. but he gets his milk and that's the most important part.



4. Any short and/or long-term breastfeeding goals? Any goal updates? when i returned to work he was 4.5mo, my goal was 6mo. he turns 6mo in 3 days so now my goal is 9mo. then one 1yr. we will see!


5. How are nights? ugh. this kid. he can go 7+ hours from his last feeding til his next one, but some nights he's up 2,3,4,5 times. we've started the no, its only been 2 hours, wait til 3 hours to feed. We KNOW he can sleep long stretches, but some nights... oof.


6. Any teeth/signs of teething? omg yes this kid is gnawing on everything. His gums were looking a little different about a week ago, but then it went back to normal. ::shrugs:: who knows, man. They'll come when they come.



7. Questions/AW/Rant? So, this is a really dumb question but since I mostly pump these days I feel like I lost my groove with BFing. When I feed him, he will eat and be done in like 5-7 minutes most times. Sometimes he'll eat for 10-15, but usually its like 5 min and he's done, and my boob feels empty and all is well. except I didn't switch him to the other boob. So i switch him at 5 minutes and he is full, so he doesnt want it. So i have one empty boob and one engorged and then I have to pump or suffer until he is hungry again, 3-4 hours later, because he doesnt give me time to put him down and pump for 15 min. With a quick meal like this, do I really need to stop at 2-3 min and switch sides? Wouldn't that create a foremilk/hindmilk issue? I feel like bc I pump so much my boobs are so used to being emptied at the same time, it's hard on my BFing days and at night when I feed. I am truly at a loss for what to do.

Also Q#2 - how do I train my body to not produce so much milk overnight? up until mid January he was still eating every 3-4 hours overnight, and I went back to work and I was working night shift so I was pumping every 4 hours at night. Now, I'm on day shift and he's going longer between eating, so on nights when he wakes up to eat only once, and we have a bottle because I pumped before bed and DH is going to get up to feed, I get SO engorged and I hurt so I pump because I want to make sure he has enough fresh during the day for the nanny or DH to feed. But i tried to start training my body to not make so much overnight so I don't wake up in so much pain. But the other night i tried, and when I pumped in the morning I got 18oz out! I just couldn't stop bc the pain is so intense I had to pump! How do I train my body to not make so much while not being in so much pain and so engorged? I'm pretty sure I gave myself a clogged duct so I said F it and BF/pumped all day to relieve it and fix it, but OMG, it put me back at square one.



GTKY: If you could live anywhere, where would it be? oh gosh... I love Chicago but I wish it wasn't so bloody cold. Probably the pacific northwest or vancouver. I LOVE the climate and scenery, it's so beautiful.

[aves0708]

1. 5 months!

2. Pretty good. I got hit really hard with a stomach bug on Tuesday, and I’m finally feeling normal again today (Saturday). I’ve been working on slowly rehydrating myself, but I think my supply took a little hit. Lots of wet diapers from the little though so I think we’re doing ok.

3. I pumped once the other evening just to help with boosting my supply back up. It’s the first time I’ve pumped in a long time because I SAH.

4. My goal is 2 years. It looks like we’ll be taking a trip alone for a wedding just after baby turns 12 months. I’m already anxious about it impacting our nursing relationship.

5. Ugh. She sleeps attached to my boob and wakes a million times a night. We will be making some gentle sleep changes soon.

6. So.Much.Drool. And she’s nomming on everything, so who knows.

GTKY: Maybe Hawaii. I get so sick of the long winter season.

[danvers]

addymac I think it can take a bit for your supply to adjust. I remember when I dropped a pumping session with DD1 it took a couple weeks for my body to adjust but eventually my output decreased. Hopefully yours will slow down from night production. I think the recommendation is to just pump until discomfort eases since empty breasts signal more milk production... this is how I found myself in oversupply currently I think.

As for the quick nursing sessions ??? My LO typically eats in 5-7 minutes now on one breast only but my left hasn’t really produced this go around so I don’t nurse on it anyway and just pump it when I pump at work. I hope it all regulated out for you soon!