10/16 Newborn-3mo Check In

[lily]

How old is LO?

How's everything going?

Questions/concerns/cute stories to share?

0-1mo:
What positions/props are working for you? What are you struggling with?


1-3mo:
How do nights look at your house?

If you're pumping, how is that going? When are you returning to work, or are you SAH?


GTKY: if your baby had been opposite sex, what would you have named them?

[grumpycat]

Waves hi! I'm new here!

How old is LO? 3 days.

How's everything going? Pretty well. Lots of poopy/wet diapers, my milk is in, and DS2 is latching well. He's still sleepy but I'm feeding on demand so he pretty much gets the boob anytime it looks like he may want it.

Questions/concerns/cute stories to share? He was eating every 45 min to an hour last night. The Google tells me that this is pretty normal. Any tips on how to take care of me when he's doing this? We have a rocking chair but I think I'm gonna push for a comfier one.

0-1mo:
What positions/props are working for you? What are you struggling with? Football hold on my right, cradle on my left. The clusterfeeding is challenging, that whole lack of sleep lol. DS1 seems ok with me feeding DS2 all the time, so far at least.


1-3mo:
How do nights look at your house?

If you're pumping, how is that going? When are you returning to work, or are you SAH?


GTKY: if your baby had been opposite sex, what would you have named them? He would have been Madeline.

[lily]

grumpycat it may take some experimenting to find the place you find most comfortable to nurse / what combination and arrangement of pillows and props (if any) keep you and LO well supported and comfortable. You may want your feet up on a stack of books or an ottoman. You may like reclining and nursing laid back. Side lying can be tricky at so young an age, but some women prefer it from the get go. You can lie on your back and have baby kneeling beside you, but you’ll likely need some assistance getting into this position.

A large glass of water with a straw within easy reach can be helpful - I personally like reusable silicone straws because they’re flexible. One handed snacks too- spoonful of peanut butter, nuts, granola bar, popcorn, etc. Phone, tv remote, book, radio, etc whatever your preferred flavors of entertainment are.

If cluster feeding has been going on a while and you need a break, just slip your little finger in the corner of LO’s mouth to break suction and remove your breast. Hand baby off to another caregiver or put baby on a safe, firm surface. Go to the bathroom, step outside and breathe fresh air, do a five minute meditation (I usually say 5 min of stretching but at 3 day pp that may not be what your body wants to do) and then snuggle back into your nursing nest and keep going if baby wants/needs.

If there’s no medical counterindication to bathing, you may find the bath a relaxing place to do an hour or so of that cluster feeding. Laid back nursing may work well for this. They make bath pillows if that feels necessary - my ILs swear by those plastic air pouches that come in boxes from Amazon for this purpose. I used to put the rock n play in the bathroom with a towel in it, so I had a convenient place to put baby while I dried off if I couldn’t hand him off to another adult.

Is that what you were meaning by taking care of you?

I’m also happy to chat babywearing and breastfeeding but at 3 days old you may choose to focus on you & LO getting in a nursing groove before throwing something new into the mix.

[wells2010]

How old is LO? 5w 5d

How's everything going? Pretty good. I've started to focus on building up a freezer stash for when I go back to work. She is also hardly choking at all but I have noticed that she has been spitting up a ton in the past few days.

Questions/concerns/cute stories to share?

Any tips on building a feeezer stash for work? Right now I have enough for about one day (12 hour shift) and have 6 more weeks until I go back.

Why would a baby start spitting up all of a sudden? Is that because she is eating more? Could it be a problem that my letdown is still too much for her? She seems to be gaining fine and it's not really bothering her. Just the laundry issue.

1-3mo:
How do nights look at your house? Not terrible. She kind of cluster feeds in the evenings around the time her older sisters go to bed (7/8pm), then snoozes a bit, feeding about every hour or so until 10/11pm when we do our bedtime routine. Once I swaddle and feed her once more she usuallly passes right out. She doesn't really wake up to eat, but will grunt between 2 and 4 am, waking me up. Typically by the time I get back from the bathroom to feed her, she is back asleep and it ends up being more of a dream feed. She is usually up again around 6ish and then will have another 3 hour stretch.

This is working right now, but isn't great for going back to work so I plan on getting her swaddled and settled down a bit earlier in hopes that she will have a more "normal" sleep pattern.

I really can't complain about her sleep though! My second wore me thin!

If you're pumping, how is that going? When are you returning to work, or are you SAH?

See above. I try to pump after the nighttime feed since she either feeds off just one side or it just feels like there is a lot left. I usually get 2-4oz.


GTKY: if your baby had been opposite sex, what would you have named them?

Good question! Well LO is a girl and we named her Hazel Grace.

I think we settled on Carson Robert for a boy. I also liked Owen, but H thought it was too popular.

[lily]

wells2010 increased spit up is normal for the age; it generally peaks somewhere between 2-4 months. Yes could definitely still be letdown related. Babies get old enough / big enough / coordinated enough to start guzzling the fast letdown instead of choking on it, but still spit up afterward. As long as baby is comfortable and gaining well, not an issue. You can try bibs to see if that is easier than 137 outfit changes in a day.
kellymom.com/hot-topics/reflux/

It sounds like you’ve got a good pump routine down. Once you start introducing a bottle, be sure you pump to replace that feed. You may find you get more at that pump.

As long as you get adequate breaks to pump at work, all you truly need is milk for that first day. But of course it’s understandable to want some back up in case of emergency / poor pump day / spilled milk / etc.

[wells2010]

Oct 16, 2017 19:39:25 GMT -6 lily said:

wells2010 increased spit up is normal for the age; it generally peaks somewhere between 2-4 months. Yes could definitely still be letdown related. Babies get old enough / big enough / coordinated enough to start guzzling the fast letdown instead of choking on it, but still spit up afterward. As long as baby is comfortable and gaining well, not an issue. You can try bibs to see if that is easier than 137 outfit changes in a day.
kellymom.com/hot-topics/reflux/

It sounds like you’ve got a good pump routine down. Once you start introducing a bottle, be sure you pump to replace that feed. You may find you get more at that pump.

As long as you get adequate breaks to pump at work, all you truly need is milk for that first day. But of course it’s understandable to want some back up in case of emergency / poor pump day / spilled milk / etc.

We do bibs! The outfit changes are for me ! 😕

[grumpycat]

lily thank you that is exactly what I meant by taking care of myself. DS2 seems to do a nice stretch (1.5 hours lol) of solid sleep after clusterfeeding from 3-7am or so. I made sure to go back to sleep too.

He is still sleepy while eating and will go about 5 min, fall asleep, I wake him up, 5 more min, fall asleep, I wake him up, 5 more min. He's pooping/peeing more than enough so I think we are doing ok with how much he's getting. He was early (36w 5d) so we are just going with the flow.

wells2010 I EPed with my first and had an OK freezer stock. And my kid refused to eat it. He was happy with refrigerated milk though so I was usually only a day ahead or so. I likely have high lipase which is why he rejected the milk. So just be aware that that is a thing and definitely test out a defrosted one with LO before going nuts on a freezer supply. I think there are ways to prep the milk to prevent the high lipase taste though.

[danvers]

How old is LO? 2 weeks

How's everything going? Ok, I feel like we have a handle on things... most of the time anyway

Questions/concerns/cute stories to share? We’ve been struggling w bit with jaundice here. Doctor seems to think it’s breastmilk jaundice (Not to be confused with breastfeeding jaundice) and just wants us to contimue to monitor LO for the next few weeks. We’ve gotten a few different blood tests to rule out anything major and her bili levels seem to be hnging out in the low teens and doctor doesn’t seem the least bit concerned. She’s got tons of wet and dirty diapers, is alert and active, and aside from a yellow coloring seems fine. It’s still concerning as she’s my baby and I tend to obsess about these things though.

0-1mo:
What positions/props are working for you? Finally figured out that to get LO latched on left side I needed to do football hold. With DD1 I just did cross cradle or cradle So I never got the hang of “football”. However, I (and my left boob) feel so much better now that she is taking from both sides easily again. I’m just having to use my boppy anytime she feeds on the left

GTKY: if your baby had been opposite sex, what would you have named them? If LO has been a boy she would have been Everett.

[lily]

Oct 16, 2017 20:53:10 GMT -6 wells2010 said:

Oct 16, 2017 19:39:25 GMT -6 lily said:

wells2010 increased spit up is normal for the age; it generally peaks somewhere between 2-4 months. Yes could definitely still be letdown related. Babies get old enough / big enough / coordinated enough to start guzzling the fast letdown instead of choking on it, but still spit up afterward. As long as baby is comfortable and gaining well, not an issue. You can try bibs to see if that is easier than 137 outfit changes in a day.
kellymom.com/hot-topics/reflux/

It sounds like you’ve got a good pump routine down. Once you start introducing a bottle, be sure you pump to replace that feed. You may find you get more at that pump.

As long as you get adequate breaks to pump at work, all you truly need is milk for that first day. But of course it’s understandable to want some back up in case of emergency / poor pump day / spilled milk / etc.

We do bibs! The outfit changes are for me ! 😕

Aw man. I loved prefolds as burp rags because they’re big and quickly absorbent. But they don’t make good fashion accessories thrown over your shoulder/chest 24/7 :-P

[thechickencoop]

How old is LO? 5 and a half weeks.

How's everything going? good! Baby has gained a ton of weight as of his check up on Monday so his pedi is completely fine with just nursing on demand and supplementing if we want to.

DS is still a super sleepy nurser though so we've been doing formula overnight so he will actually eat and I can sleeeeep more that 45 minutes at a time.

Still crazy gassy too but as long as I keep on top of the gas drops overnight then he seems to stay more comfortable. Ugh.

Questions/concerns/cute stories to share? Pedi also said he still has a bit of thrush on the inside of his cheeks so we have another week of meds. ::grumble grumble::


1-3mo:
How do nights look at your house? Dark. Haw haw. But like, last night, DS slept from 10:30 to 1:30, then was fussy and nursing until almost 4, then I gave him a bottle that he sucked down and he slept til almost 9. BUT DS1 had to be at the bus Stop at 8:30 so it wasn't like I got to sleep 😕

If you're pumping, how is that going? When are you returning to work, or are you SAH? Stopped pumping really, woohoo.

GTKY: if your baby had been opposite sex, what would you have named them? I love Violet for a girl.