Hi Everyone,
Just a quickie as I'm knackered after a week nursing DH. Good news is the bone they removed was infected but not malignant, bad news they took his ear drum away, and that area of his head is a mess. He has long very curly hair and it's murder washing the blood out. OK a bit more info than you needed I'll stop now!
Lara, the thing about breast feeding is to persevere. If it helps then just think that every drop to Mya is really helping her get the best start. The only advice I can give is to make sure you are getting enough rest, that your blood count is OK and that you are nursing enough during the night. My midwife friend told me we are designed to feed more at night because it's natures way of keeping us and the baby inactive during the day. Cruel as it seems you produce better milk at night and feeding then stimulates more milk production than in the day. It's supposed to be why new born babies wake so often at night. It means you and mya can stay dozing in the cave while your other half goes out and kills mammoths, while you are safe and sound away from sabre tooth tigers...or something like that.
Jen well done on the 6lbs. It's brilliant news and I'm jealous. i am not weighing myself until my birthday in mid may, I'm going to try very hard (second day of that so far) and hopefully give myself a nice birthday present.
Oh and Leo has 6 teeth right out and 2 more at the bump stage...he is 9 months on May6th. I have abandoned baby food altogether, he's much happier with whatever we are eating (within reason) as as I'm generally a very healthy cook and dion't use salt he can join in. He's really into pasta...I made pesto tonight with a load of fresh basil and garic and he loved it. Very messy though.
Off for a can of diet ginger beer. yum yum.
Geneve.

Geneve, now I'm jealous!!! I would give anything to give up on the baby food. drake is not taking anything more textured than puree and acts like he is going to vomit everytime I try something thicker. Oh well it will come with time.

Lara, whatever happens, don't feel guilty about breastfeeding or not breastfeeding your baby. My son wanted no part of it, he screamed and pushed away and everytime I tried to feed him it was an ordeal for both of us. Breastmilk is best of course but there are plenty of kids that have done just fine on formula. I'm a formula baby and I think I've turned out okay. Breastfeeding is something that both mom and baby need to learn how to do. It isn't something that you both should instinctively know how to do. Anyone says that has never had to do it!! Do the best you can and if it isn't working out at least you can always pump for awhile and she'll get the benefits of having the breastmilk and a mom that isn't frazzled.

Take care everyone.

Jen is so right Lara. If you want to do it, persevere and it will probably be OK BUT the main thing is that you are both happy. My first son wouldn't breast feed, he was raised on formula and is perfect (OK I may be slightly biased there) Leo took to breast feeding straight off. Luckily we have the option to choose. Whatever, don't beat yourself up about it. Having done both there are adavntages with either option.
Better go, Ted has a school friend here and I can tell by the noises above they are bust trashing his room. Little s

Here's the thing. I am VERY pro-breastfeeding for the first year. I never intended to give my baby formula at all, I figured I would breast feed and then pump for when I was at work or have the baby have water from a sippy cup. Then she was in the NICU and the nurses told me I should be supplementing as my milk hadn't come in yet and she wasn't latching on very well. So they had me feed her a bottle, and since then we've had even less luck latching on -- she gets frustrated and gives up and just whimpers until I feed her a bottle.

I've been pumping every 2 - 4 hours since then. (Almost 5 weeks now.) And my milk supply is disappearing, and my breasts are so painful even wearing a bra hurts at times. Now I've found a pharmacy that will fill prescriptions for domperidone, and I just have to get my Dr to prescribe it (I'm hoping she will do it without too much hassle). So I will try taking that and see if it helps. Otherwise I'm definitely considering giving up. This whole thing is just too frustrating for both of us.


Jen... regarding the nap thing... are you giving him formula in the bottle or water? If formula maybe try giving him just a little bit of water in it instead to wean him off it. My mum had to do that with my younger sister, finally giving her the empty bottle to just rub the nipple against her cheek. (My sister got in the habbit of using the bottle to fall asleep at nap time while in the hospital just after she turned 1.)

hth
Lara

Well Lara, ,I suppose I too am pro breastfeeding. I nursed three kids now and didn't use any formula after the first day or two. I diligently pumped and had my husband feed the oldest a bottle, however the other two never really learned to use a bottle. I was lucky, my milk would come in and I would nurse. I also tried to do all the things I was suppose to do for it to be successful, you know making sure the baby was latched on properly, drinking liquids, nursing on demand, and centering my life on the baby.

Having said that I agree with Geneve and Jen and as long as your baby is growing and getting nutrition that is what matters most! Honestly, I think we put too much time and thought into these very early issues and later more important things come along and we have worn ourselves out with what really amounts to small stuff. If you can nurse great and it will be great for the baby and good for your bonding. If you can't don't knock yourself with guilt because believe me somewhere down the line something much larger will come up and you will need that guilt then.


Barb C. (who has downloaded more WW stuff onto her Palm and now feels equipped with renewed ferver in this eating healthy thing)

I haven't heard yet if my dr is going to prescribe the domperidone for me or not, I'm not sure if I even want her to at this point, I'm so confused. I want to do what's best for Mya, but at this point I'm not certain that continuing in this vein is what's best for her. She needs a Mummy who isn't frazzled and I'm feeling frazzled. Although maybe if I were actually getting more than 1/2 an ounce or so when I pump for so long I wouldn't be quite so frazzled. So I guess I just answered that question. If she will prescribe it I will try it. I don't mind pumping as long as I'm getting something for the effort and pain. Otherwise, I'll probably give up pumping so often and just slowly allow my milk to dry up.

Thanks for all the support.

Lara

Don't give up Lara! It sounds like you are a wonderfully committed mom. If you have perservered for this long, then I'm sure that the medication will help and you'll soon find that milk a-flowing.

My first was not very good at latching on. I pumped every 3 hrs for the first week and fed him from a bottle. For the next 2 weeks I used a nipple shield - its like a big nipple that you put over top of your breast and it gives the baby something to latch onto (I had flat nipples). After two weeks of that and lots of visits to the lactation consultant we were able to go "natural" from there on. Ironically, when I went back to work at 6 months, ds wanted no part of the bottles!

My second and third were WAY better at getting latched on. My third (almost 8 months old now) was also in the NICU. He was an awesome awesome feeder, but he had blood sugar problems; so the nurses insisted that I supplement w/ formula while he was in the NICU. Luckily he didn't get any nipple confusion, but it sounds like that's where you ran into problems. Totally frustrating since you had no control over it.

My sister has had supply problems and found fenugreek and mother's milk tea to work wonders to help her supply. Ask your LC about these (I'm surprised she didn't mention them already?). Also, try eating real oatmeal (not instant) every morning - helps with the milk supply.

Best of luck to you. You've come so far and are probably way closer than you think to getting that baby latched on and ready to go.

Amy 237/145 (ww lifetime member since July 99)

p.s. as others have said, you should not feel guilty at all about deciding to formula feed. I just wanted to give you some ideas that might not have been given to you yet. Good luck!

I'm taking a homeopathic blend called more milk plus which is supposed to be even better than the tea, and it has fenugreek in it. Also, we've tried the nipple shield as I have rather flat nipples as well as huge breasts, but she still got really frustrated after trying for only a little while. I should try that again though, maybe with the sns feeding tube thingy it might do the trick.

I'm going to try and just go with the flow so to speak and try not to beat myself up over the whole issue any more.

Thanks again for the support and ideas, all of them are welcome.

Lara

Lara - get the domperidone. I promise you that it will make a huge difference in your milk output. You'll be able to pump 4oz in 10 minutes with your electric pump. You'll have enough milk for triplets!! The downside (if you are anything like me) is that you will leak in between if you don't pump often enough and/or you might become engorged. That happened to me once and it wasn't very nice. You will definately have to pump at least every 4 hours. What I would do is the second the baby was asleep I would pump until I was empty and then go to bed until he woke up again. But something good that comes out of it, when you decide to stop pumping you stop the medication but keep pumping for a week or so but not as often. So you pump long enough to get the medication out of your system and you don't get engorged but not often enough to build up a large milk supply which probably wouldn't be a problem since like me you aren't getting much milk anyway. By the end of the week you can quit pumping and you won't get engorged. this is what I did anyway when I gave up pumping. Try and see what happens, you might not want to put in more than a couple of weeks because it is very arduous. Also thanks for the advice about the formula before bed and naptimes. I am going to start diluting the formula I give him at these times and gradually work it down to plain water. Maybe he'll give up wanting formula by then.

Anyway not much going on with me. still doing the WW thing and I think it is working well. We'll see on Monday (my weigh in days). take care all.

aaarghh . flu. me , not baby yet, am trying not to breathe near him.
am going to move somewhere hot and dry.
in supreme maternal devotion mode did Leogland with ted all day sat with flu. now regretting it.
still, eating MUCH better....how many calories in Night nurse I wonder?
You all seem to be doing great. Reading this makes me want to breast feed again and I'm sure I didn't find it all that uplifting atthe time.
Really ladies, i think I'm broody. I keep putting off having the coil put in and I just know I'm waiting for the year to be up to see how I feel when I can try again. I know DH would go for another baby but I'm 37 soon and I have the post partum depression thing to worry about , and we have less money than we have for years already, and I'm sure it would be another boy anyway...so why have I just changed the skin on my PC to one with a baby on it? I must be delirious!
Anyone else hear the old biological clock ticking????

Well Geneve if it is any consolation I was 38 when Isabelle was born. The pregnancy was fine and it was a girl (after two boys). My friends still laugh about how I was convinced I would have a boy because I was meant to have a boy....

Meanwhile I know this is all I want to have. My husband flips out with each added responsibility. I get buried in kids and kid stuff. Everyone told me the third was the one that threw them under.... hence the 6 years between number 2 and number 3.

I have recommitted to WW and am trying to follow it religiously..........well, sort of. I worked out on the Precor today for 20 minutes earning 2 points. Woo hoo! At least I did something. Sitting on my duff is getting way too easy.

I am trying to do the things I have to do to get a business license and sell my crafts. Crafts being soap, lotion, and dolls. I could spend days just researching on the computer.......these machines are either a wonderful thing or a curse.




Barb

Even with the problems we are having breastfeeding and the fact that Mya is only 5 weeks old I am already feeling the ticking of that clock! If we don't have fertility problems we won't be waiting long to have another baby...

Although finances aren't looking so great here at the moment either.

Lara

Hi all. How is everyone doing? I'm not too bad. The DH has been working out of the house...did I tell you that he got fired? I don't think I did. This was at the beginning of April and since then he has been doing tons of consulting work and has made more money than if he was still at his old job. He has been assured of getting a job with this place, they are just waiting til they have a backlog of work that they can go to the owner and say, "we need to hire someone now!" then he'll have the job. They do need someone, obviously or he wouldn't be getting all this consulting work. So he's on the computer all day and I never get the chance to get on.

Anyway things are okay. I lost another 2.6lbs last week which really surprised me because this is my TOM and I usually retain water like mad. Been exercising fairly regularly too, still need to work harder on drinking more water.

I DO NOT feel the biological clock ticking. I did have a very passing thought about 2 weeks ago about having another. There is this commercial with 2 little boys and Oreo cookies that makes me want to give Drake a little brother or sister.

bc - how is the WW going? What point range are you at? I am 24 -31 and try to aim for the low end but the past week I've been more in the 29-30's though today I managed 25. Do you try to eat a lot of low point things so you can eat a lot of food or do you eat 'normal' food but just eat less of it?

geneve - hope your flu is better and Leo didn't catch it. Drake hasn't been sick yet, knock on wood. Moving someplace warm sounds nice but I'd like someplace that is just warm, not hot and humid, that's nasty.

lara - how is the pumping going? did you get that med?

PANTS.
Spent ages on a reply...so long i got logged off the net. Am going off in a huff!!!
Love to all.
Geneve

Hi all. Sorry your post got booted Geneve, that has happened to me and it is such a pain. It's okay, we love you anyway!

Lost 2.4lbs last week for a total of 12 lbs over 3 weeks. It is the most I have ever lost. I'm so loving Weight Watchers right now.

Drake is doing well, his top 2 teeth are coming in but he is handling it well. Slept through the night last night which was wonderful. Lately he's been waking up around 4:30 but after a bit of formula he'll go back for a couple of hours. I felt bad about having to use a bottle to get him to sleep but now I am okay with it. It's not the end of the world and right now it is more important that we are both happy and healthy and if that means a bottle at bedtime then that's what it means. I think he will eventually outgrow it when his teething let's up.

How is everyone doing? Hope those babies aren't giving you grief!