Hi everyone! I guess I should start posting here. I have a 2 week old son who arrived a bit earlier than anticipated (34 weeks). So far, nursing is going well and he's gaining weight. The only issue so far is latching on - he has such a small mouth that it's hard to get him on all the way so we have to be careful. I'm a little sore, but at least there's no cracking.

I'm waiting for the weather to warm up. I can't wait to start walking outside again. We don't have a double stroller yet, but DS is so little, I'll just wear him in a sling and push DD. I won't be cutting calories, but rather focus on exercise to lose weight. I'll probably count calories once he is ready to start solids.

Hi everyone!
Welcome Donna and LedZepFan!

I got confused while reading the posts......(easy to do these days :dizzy: )....I haven't counted my calories in a LONG time...but maybe I should.

I don't really see a dip in my milk supply.....I went back to work full time when baby was 6 weeks...I manage to pump one time from 7:30-4:30. I then nurse on depand when I'm home. I do pump before I leave. I have recently begun pumping at least two times at night.....sometimes when baby nurses...I made my own hands-free bra!

I do notice that when I drink LOTS of water I tend to get more milk...but I don't know if that's because I hadn't pumped all day either.

I pumped about 6 oz. at work around 1pm. I then came home, Ben nursed for like 5 min. He fell asleep (sucked, I know)...then I just pumped...6 0z. I'm sure he'll wake in a bit...nurse....pump before heading to bed.

I do have milk frozen...not a ton, but some. I freeze whatever milk is left in fridge on Fridays....since I'm home all weekend...and I added a pumping session on Sat. and Sunday.

What was my point? I dunno now! lol

I guess I noticed that so far I have enough milk for my little guy...he's gaining weight...thriving...

Weight loss....I'm trying not to over indugle in cakes, cookies etc. I like a high protein breakfast....lunches kinda suck...school lunches...and dinners aren't that high in fat...except when fast food or pizza! LOL

Gotta run...took a break from inputting grades and progress reports!
Deb

Nursing preemies is a pain. I have photos of me nursing Linda when she was first born (at 35w4d; I don't even know why she was considered a preemie, I guess anything before 36w is) and she's smaller than my boob! :lol3: Thankfully aside from a bitty baby with a bitty mouth--which I was actually used to, considering that my first was a small 'un too--our only real issue was that she was a lazy nurser. She was easily distracted too; we'd have to swaddle her before feedings!

Oh, & I got my acceptance letter for nursing school yesterday.:carrot: I'll be starting in August.

I'm following WW, though I am doing it all on my own (no meetings or online). WW gives nursing moms an extra 10 points per day and I usually have trouble eating all of those points!

I haven't noticed a huge dip in my supply - a few times I noticed a dip, but it was usually around AF. When that happens I kick up the water intake and I add in some oatmeal to my day.

Donna—Glad to hear things are going well. Nate wasn't a preemie but he was a lazy nurser too. For the first couple of months I pumped and fed it to him. I would still offer the breast and then finish a session with 2-4 oz. of milk afterward. I would then gradually offer less after each feeding until he didn't take any more after a nursing session.

Deb—I'm not really counting calories right now. I found it messed me up too much and I would feel like I was too low and then pack on calories at the end of the day.

Sabra—Congratulations on being accepted to nursing school.

We are doing well. We did a small walk last night. I had a cold the week before and I'm still getting winded a bit easier. Nate's at work with me today so I won't have to mess with the pump YAY!!!!!!

Sabra - Congrats on your acceptance! That's exciting. How long is the program?

Dawnyal - that's sort of what we're doing too, though not for each session. Just the ones were he doesn't nurse well. One bonus of having a preemie...free electric double breast pump, courtesy of our insurance. :D

Donna, it's an LVN program that's a year long. They're working on adding on an RN program that should be ready just in time for the end of the LVN program--that's an additional year. :D My long-term goal is to become a CNM--certified nurse-midwife. But I may well get sidetracked into the Army for a while; they're hurting for nurses like everyone else.

Donna—I was so paranoid he wasn't going to gain weight. My other two lost more than the 10% and one of the nurses gave me h-e-double hockey sticks over it with William. This time Nate didn't lose as far down and it still took him over a month to get back to his birth weight. His ped was great though and continues to be because Little Man is in the 10-15%.

Nate has bronchiolitis right now. :( He's on a steroid and antibiotics to try and clear it up.

My first was early and I am large boobed, so we REALLY had that boob bigger than her body thing for a long time. She wouldnt eat for the first 5 days and dropped below the 10% and then on day 5 woke up and ate. and ate. and ate. and gained something crazy like 6 oz in one night.

I was really ticked at the doc with dd . They kept saying stuff like "she is only in the 10th % for height and weight we like to see closer to 50th" And not just when she was newborn. Ummmmm. NOT EVERY KID CAN BE AT THE 50th. I am 5'3" (25th%) dh is 5'3" (3rd%) how freaking big do you think my kids are gonna be? She was gaining 3/4 lb per week...which is really fast....so I think she was getting enough tyvm.

Heh, Ennay, how much you want to be the doctor was using the formula company charts too?

I got so much nonsense from peds that I just don't do well-baby visits anymore. I was about ready to kill someone in Hawaii because to get the vaxes for the older two we had to do well-child visits first. And we had an idiot for a doctor there. But I digress.

Dawnyal, I hope your little one gets better soon.

I know what you mean Sabra. I was ready to go in with my gloves on when I first met their ped but he is pro-BF and he's not too concerned that he's in the 10-15%. He told me there have to be kids at both ends of the charts for their to be a 50% and as long as he's growing on a line—any line—that's what matters.

As for eating healthier, I've been doing better. I still have some slipups at night but I need to find healthier "sweets" because I've been wanting something sweet at night.

Well my baby is only 5 weeks old :lol: but we are still going at breastfeeding. It's a big challenge because my next oldest is only 14 months and he thinks nursing time is a great time to bring Momma sharp objects or beat his newborn sister in the head with board books... but we're managing. I pump a couple of times a day and get enough for DH to give her a bottle at bed time and I can freeze 1/2 - 1 ounce per day. It's a slow start! I breastfed my son til he was 5 months but then I was pregnant and lost my milk. I breastfed my daughter (now 4) for like 2 days then she quit latching, so I pumped & bottle-fed EBM for 2 months.

Our pediatrician is very pro-BF. Penelope was 7lb 6oz at birth and got down to 6lb 11oz before she started gaining again - so just over 10%. She also had jaundice but the pedi didn't want to do bili lights unless her levels got over 20. She also didn't poop for 12 days, which drove me batty, but they were not concerned and said she must just be using every bit of what she gets from me.... she's an environmentally friendly hybrid baby. :P

I will have my six week checkup in one week and after that am going to get serious about weight loss. I was at 218 when I got pg this last time, and got up to about 240. Last week I was back down to 225. I had hoped to at least be back to 218 by my six week checkup, I may not make that goal but probably within a few pounds. As long as I lay off the Nutella. :)

I have had luck with SB in the past but I'm worried about the vegetables... anyone else do it? I am worried about the gas. Pen has horrendous gas! Even when I am careful not to eat cruciferous veggies or beans or onions... She just toots and stinks to high heaven all the time!

Some babies are just gassy, if she doesnt seem terribly bothered by it I wouldnt worry about your diet. I ate everything with both kids. dd had a bit of colic, but it was "witching hour" not gas pains. I eat 90% SBD phase 2.5. In otherwords I try to have lots of veggies and protein with each meal and try to mostly have whole grains and dont freak out if there is cornstarch or white flour in the recipe. And I use real sugar instead of splenda.

Congrats on nursing school Sabra! I started that road once, but I didn't finish. So, I have 1.5 college degrees that I don't use as I run a home daycare now. Makes paying for my $40,000 student loan really frustrating!

So far I am just watching what I eat and counting calories. I have to say I am doing really well, almost too well. I don't really get to adding up my calories until the end of the day, if not the next morning, and I haven't broken 1400 calories yet (only been counting a few days). I started the week at 182 and today I was 180. My supply is still going strong as well.

Oh, all I have time for... later ladies!

Mommacat - dot feel bad about your degree. I quit my job as an engineer, went back to school and got my MBA and promptly got pg and decided to be a SAHM. So I never used the degree and spent the last 2 years of my "working life" in school instead of working and saving.

Congrats Sabra, I think I forgot to re-post that...I got stuck in a refresh loop and lost that.

My babies were very gassy when I had an oversupply problem. They were getting too much foremilk and the extra lactose ferments in their guts. It took me about 4 days to get a handle on the oversupply issues, as I have twins and the usual fix for this problem is to only nurse the baby on one side at a time. Uh, yeah, I already do that.... :)

Oversupply is suspected when the baby has frequent green, bubbly stools and appears to be very hungry (wanting to nurse every hour or so). Some babies are just gassier than others - maybe they're more sensitive to stuff in momma's milk?

Carrie - I had oversupply at the beginning too, BRIGHT green poop, looked like they ate grass clippings.

grass clippings! that's a sight!

she actually almost never poops. she has pooped like 10 times in five weeks of life. her doctor is not at all worried though, said, "she must use almost everything she gets from you!" she's gained weight at a steady rate of 1/2 to 3/4 ounces per day, and she pees all the time. just rarely poops, which is fine with us really, once we stopped worrying about it (she went 12 days between BMs).

i do think she is just naturally gassy, but her older brother does have a hard time digesting lactose, so i'm trying to keep an eye on it.

i do wish i could eat some broccoli... it's like, when you can't have something, it's all you think about! :) that's the only thing that has really given her a tummy ache, when i ate broccoli, she cried and cried all night. :(

i'm back on SB tomorrow! well, at least breakfast & lunch for now... and trying to eat healthy for dinner, but right now i'm so busy with 3 kids all day that dinner is often whatever i can cook the fastest. so i'm not going to pressure myself too hard with dinner. but i can make my lunch (salad & a protein) the night before and put it in the fridge, so that's easy enough.

oh, and i tossed the nutella. ;)

My little ones are finally pooping less now that I don't have enough milk to feed all your babies. :) They are going about twice a day, I think.

I have heard about the 1x weekly BF poops. I can handle all the BF poops in the world.....I wish that TODDLERS would only go once a week.

Thankful that Lela (2) is now using the potty on her own. I haven't changed a poopy diaper from her in 3 months.

I have high lipase milk which isnt supposed to change from kid to kid, but it seemed worse with dd. Anyway all that means it has a lot of the enzyme that digests fat. One side effect is it is hard to store. The other is it is somewhat laxative. dd went 10-12 poops a day until she started solids and 3-4 times until she weaned. I had a friend who had to use formula because she was taking toxic meds and she got breastmilk from a bunch of us for her son and she would give him mine when he was stopped up and it worked like a charm.

How did you find this out? I'm assuming that your milk was tested...where did you do that?

When you say it is hard to store, do you mean that your breasts don't store it, or it doesn't "keep" well in the fridge/freezer.

mommacat - that actually doesn't sound like enough calories to me - they say to eat 500 more when you are BFing. Just a thought for you. I'm on WW and we do points and we get an additional 10 points per day for nursing.

cjc - you can find out if you have an oversupply issue just based upon the signs (green, frothy poops being one). One way to solve that is block feeding on one side at a time. That's what we do, but we initially started that b/c one nipple was way messed up (cracked and sore). When I noticed DD seemed more satisfied, I kept up that way. ;)

It was a combination of things that led my LC to diagnose it as high lipase, it didnt seem worth paying for a lab test as there wasnt anything I could do about it

But yes, with dd my milk would spoil in the fridge within 24 hours. And I mean SPOIL, nasty foul smelling.

We had a great deal of difficulty freezing it as well, quite often it would be spoiled when we thawed it and we were using a deep freeze.

We finally discovered that if we pumped and were very careful to not disturb the milk, fridged it until the fat layer separated, THEN froze it we could freeze it for short periods of time as long as we did a quick thaw and never let the fat layer remix until we were ready to use it (same with fridge storage)

The laxative effect. With just your own child it is hard to say because some kids are just poopier than others. But without fail whenever we gave my milk to the other baby, he pooped almost immediately.

I already knew I had an oversupply problem. No one believed me, because no one thought it was "possible" with twins. But my girls had the green bubbly poop, and I kept saying, "I don't think it's a GI virus, I don't think it's food intolerance." Finally I just did my own remedy for oversupply. It's not really even an oversupply issue as much as it is a foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. When there is too much foremilk (when you have a large supply) then the baby drinks mostly foremilk, which is higher in sugar (lactose) and lower in calories than the hindmilk. The baby gets full, but not satisfied since s/he got less fat. And the extra lactose ferments in the gut, causing the bubbles. They want to nurse again in a short amount of time, because nursing is comforting, moves the gas, and the baby is truly hungry because they didn't get enough calories. (They won't starve with an oversupply problem, but will be gassy and more fussy.)

Yes, you're right that the "solution" for oversupply is to only feed on one side at a time, and if that's not enough, for several times, before switching. It's highly effective. However, since I'm nursing twins, this isn't an option. :) I had to come up with my own solution, of forcing them to go longer. For 2 days, I had very hungry babies who wanted to nurse, so I wore them (one on front, one on back). I also pumped off the extra foremilk (about 5 ounces on EACH side BEFORE they nursed), and for the first time in weeks, my babies could nurse in peace, without gagging and getting gassy.

It was my fault, because I was nursing them every hour like I had been when they were both under 5 pounds....but they were huge nursing champs who could go 3-4 hours.

This is a very common problem - the majority of women produce more than enough milk for their baby. Pumping and giving bottles of EBM contributes to this. I'm glad that I trusted my instincts and addressed the problem before it went on any longer. My babies are happier and not pooping 14 times a day.


Ennay - I'm learning so much from you! I wonder if I have a similar issue because I noticed that my BM in the fridge was not fresh smelling. I don't usually pump, but had because of the reason above. Maybe that was the reason......thanks for the info. I'm also trying to up my calories to 2000-2200....finding it very hard to get enough when I'm not eating cruddy food. I also post on the calories counters because that's what I'm doing.

I don't feel so odd for having the supply issues that I have reading about all your oversupply issues. My body reacts to pumping WAY better than nursing. I have to pump every morning (which is fine because then we use a few oz for cereal the next morning and freeze the extra) or my supply takes a serious hit. If I eliminate this pumping session for only a couple days, I will find that I have to give Logan bottles at night.

Right now we are hitting the point where we HAVE to give him bottles though as my frozen stash in my standard freezer is reaching expiration as fast as we can give them to him. We only have about 6 more to go though and the rest of my stash is in the deep freeze. I have wanted a nice stash built up so in case we get pregnant (not preventing, open to life) and my supply doesn't do well, we can still give him milk at least part of the time, but of course I plan to keep nursing even if I do get pregnant... just preparing in case there is a problem.

Jenny, yeah, I am not trying to eat that little, but for a few days there that was all I ate. Most of the time I don't get to adding up my calories until late in the day or the next morning, but I try to keep a mental total in my head until I can enter it in my journal and get a true total. I made myself eat a snack before bed last night and I managed to get to almost 1700 calories. MUCH better!

carrie - most milk doesnt smell great, but if it smells way off it could be. Mine smelled exactly like cow's milk that is so far gone it pours out chunky- foul gagging smell. I dont have it as bad this time and I am not sure why, but I can get almost 3 days now. I still find I do best if I disturb the milk as little as possible, I store in the container I pump in and dont open it until I am ready to use it. If I close it tight while it is warm the it creates a bit of a vaccuum. If I open it to "check" if it is ok before I leave to go out, then 2 hours later it is starting to get "off". dh just had to learn to smell and taste. oh, and I sterilize everything like mad.

gah - today was definitely a "do as I say not as I do" moment

ds lunch - breast milk, brown rice, avocado, sweet potato

dd lunch - apple, milk, a few fries, a bit of hamburger (not hungry)

my lunch - cheeseburger, fries, diet coke. bleeergh

sigh....

These were my numbers for today. Been posting on Calorie Counters a lot. I'm afraid I'm not getting enough calories, even though I'm eating what I feel to be a healthy diet and eating until I feel satiated.

Today
Total: 1728
Fat: 51 (29%)
Carbs: 201 (42%)
Fiber: 34
Protein: 118 (30%)

BREAKFAST: coffee w/ 1/2 c. light soymilk, 3/4 c. oatmeal, 2T wheat germ, 1t brown sugar, 1/2 egg (split with Lela), 1/2 oz. turkey sausage, sprinke of Parmesan cheese
SNACK: Oops.........does folding diapers count?
LUNCH: salad with green leaf lettuce, apple, chicken, chickpeas, cukes, tomatoes, croutons, raisins, 1/2 c. lowfat yogurt
SNACK: homemade pasta salad = tuna, chickpeas, roasted red peppers, 1t mayo, 7 cinnamon sugar pecans
DINNER: wrap = whole wheat tortilla, 1/2 c. chicken, 3 dried apricots, 1/2 tomato, 1t mayo, 1 c. homemade stew, 1/2 c. lowfat yogurt

This is a typical day for me. Please tell me what you all think about this.....as fellow nursing mothers....again, I'm eating what I feel to be healthy and until I'm full. Except tonight, when I didn't want that stew and yogurt after eating the wrap.....I was only at 1525 and needed some extra calories.

My weekly average:

Average Calories 1785
Fat: 57 (30%)
Carbs: 230 (47%)
Fiber: 33
Protein: 97 (23%)

My only difference is that I'm nursing twins. My milk seems to be fine after this week, and my energy level has been great (relatively) because I've been exercising and eating well.

carrie - first, I wanted to comment on the folding diapers - you use cloth too? :) We're a CD household here as well. Second, as far as getting in extra calories, sometimes I have to add in healthy things for me, that are higher in cal/fat - things like avocado. Or, you can make a batch of oatmeal cookies and have a few of those as a treat in the evenings when you are lacking in cals. Best of all, it will also help your supply. :)

You might also just try eating more frequently.

My day goes like this:
breakfast is usually around 9:30. If it's earlier than that or if I'm going to eat lunch later than noon, I'll throw a snack in around 11. Okay, lunch. Snack around 3-4. Dinner around 7. Snack around 9. And then, I'll often snack again around 11 (if I still have points left!).

I try to sleep until 9 am, and our evenings go much later - it's rare to find me in bed until 1 am or later. DD doesn't go to be until 11 or so (and we try to get it earlier every night, she just seems to be a night owl like her daddy). The flip side is she sleeps in a bit later in the day. I'd be just as happy going to bed earlier and waking earlier, but whatever, it's clear I'm not the boss yet. ;)

as a nursing mom thing I would say you need more milk/calcium and a glass of milk is easy to squeeze in even if you aren't very hungry - I am bad about that though. Of course I am never not hungry

Nuts are also a good way to get calories. Apple with pb.

jennylou - Yes, we use cloth diapers, even on trips and in public. We have to wash A LOT with two babies. Incredibly our toddler decided to use the potty when the babies were 2 months old, so we only have a few of her diapers to wash, and we wash them all together. I love cloth!! :)

I usually get some type of nuts (almonds, pecans, cashews) about 5 days a week. I do eat frequently, and rather than eating 3 meals and 2-3 snacks, I usually have about 5 mini-meals per day and 1 snack before bed, eating every 2-3 hours. I try to eat about the same number of calories at each meal, so my blood sugar stays the same. (I had a very bad scare with what I guess was low blood sugar on Tuesday. I had only had 700 calories at 3pm (travelling and busy) and I started shaking.)

Today is payday :D so I will get to go grocery shopping! I will get some avacado, and maybe make some of the blackeyed pea patties that I love (avacado is awesome with them). As for fat though, I do pretty well - I use olive oil on my salads, a little butter to scramble eggs, and add flax oil to stuff.

We are early sleepers, early risers around here....though it's 8am and Laurel and Liv still are sleeping. Lela is having her oatmeal.

Ennay - Oh my goodness...you're totally right. My calcium is slacking, I hadn't even noticed. I will get some more yogurt and Ca-fortified soymilk. And I need to start taking my prenatal vitamins again. When I was pregnant, I would get muscle cramps if I hadn't taken them daily. That will get my Ca up, too. Apple w/ peanut butter sounds good.....maybe I'll get some almond butter too.

Okay, time to go make myself some breakfast....oatmeal, wheat germ and brown sugar....maybe a few Tbs of whole milk.

Thanks for the feedback......
Carrie

Ooh, do you have a recipe for those blackeyed pea patties?

Black Eyed Pea Patties
 

INGREDIENTS
1 (15 oz) can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed OR about 2 cups cooked black-eyed peas
1 1/2 c. frozen corn kernals
1/2 T oil
1 t minced garlic
1 (4 oz.) can chopped mild green chilies
1/4 t. cumin
1/4 c. chopped onions
1 T dried cilantro
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. breadcrumbs
1/2 c. flour

Makes 4 thick burgers or 8 thin patties

Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat, and add garlic, chilies and cumin. Saute about 2 minutes.

Add onion and corn, reduce heat to medium and saute until onions are very transluscent and corn is thawed.

Place in bowl with peas and mash with imersion blender, until some of ingredients are mashed and there are some larger pieces. (Don't mash it too much, in other words)

Let cool and add bread crumbs. Stir.

Add flour and then form into patties of desired thickness.

Heat skillet on medium heat, add oil.

Cook on one side until golden brown, and then flip to other side, adding more oil as needed.

Serve on a bun, roll or in a wrap. Good with lettuce, tomatoes and avacado slices. Or salsa, guacomole and cheese.

Okay, this is the recipe that I have, but I do it a little differently. I use blackeyed peas from the dried beans to cut down on salt and save $. I don't add the green chilies because I never have them. I add a little more cumin, and I put some fresh cilantro in at the end of cooking if I have it. I don't add salt. I don't have an imersion blender, so I just pulse mine in a food processor until I get it to the consistency that I like (a little on the chunky side, but still mushy.)

I like mine to be thin, so I use less breadcrumbs and flour and they don't dry out in the pan. Thin patties are a little more crisp in the pan. Of course, if you wanted them to be more like a burger, then add more breadcrumbs and make it thicker. If you want to freeze them, it is easy to do so BEFORE cooking them. Stack them between pieces of waxed paper. If you do them thin, then you don't even have to thaw them before you cook them, just toss in the pan.

I serve mine in a wrap with lettuce, tomatoes and avacado. I may drizzle the patty with a little flax oil for some EFAs. MMMMMMMM!!!! Tasty and healthy....vegan too.

Sounds great, thanks! :D I'm always looking for a good bean burger recipe. We love the ones at Chili's, but they now make them with a lot of soy.

yum..the best part about making your own baby food is the leftovers. I usually wont start a new ice cube tray if there is only a little bit left. I dont know why I never puree squash that fine for me...so yummy (of course for MINE I added salt and butter and cinnamon) and warm pear-sauce is way better than applesauce

We made babyfood for Lela. It was the only time I actually pumped (used breastmilk to make oatmeal and thin down foods). She started eating other foods at 8.5 months, and she only did the mushy foods for about a month.

It was so much fun going to the Farmers' Market and buying food for her. The only thing we didn't do was make her cereal - we used Earth's Best whole grain cereals for the iron. Her iron was slightly low at 6 months (probably because she was induced at 37 weeks, very small 4#15, and her umbilical cord was cut immediately instead of waiting for it to stop pulsing).

On another note, how many grams of protein should I be getting? I have read that I need an extra 10 (per baby) but what is a good baseline for me? 60? 80?. I'm averaging 95-100 grams per day now.

I'd say you need a minimum of probably 70-90 and then how ever it works for your way of eating.

I average about 110-120/day

cj - we do cloth full time too. The only time that we didn't while on a trip was on a cruise. But, we've been other places and did cloth no problem. :)

I took Charles to the dr's for a weight check. He's up to 6lb4oz. He has a avg gain of 4.5 oz per week. Since that's a little low, even for a bf baby, we have to go back in two weeks for another check. I believe the avg for bf babies is 5-7 oz per week, so he's not doing too bad (DD's weight gain was much worse). I have stopped giving him bottles of EBM, so he's nursing for all of his feedings. I'm hoping that will help him become a better nurser.

With the warmer weather, I've been taking the kiddos out for a afternoon stroll (DS in a sling and DD in a stroller). I think I need a double stroller though, esp as he starts to get heavier!

Our pediatrician said that 1/2 to 1 ounce per day was normal, so that'd be 3.5 - 7 ounces per week. My daughter gained an average of 3/4 oz per day for the first 3 weeks and the doctors were not concerned.