MSE Pregnancy Club 26

kerri_dfw

38w bump picture I look like I've swallowed a basketball.

Jox

Lovely bump kerri!

TeamLowe

Just typed this up in Word so I can go back as I think of more and it then looks like I’m doing my work lol

Promised a summary of the breastfeeding workshop for BigZ but thought others might find it useful, just a few bullet points of the important things. I found it really useful and the little interactive bits helped to drive home the messages. They were clearly enthusiastic about breastfeeding without being preachy. Nothing was mentioned about mixed or formula feeding but then again no one asked!

Positioning – they went through a few positions and explained how baby should latch on to the nipple- chin first, wide open mouth and nipple to nose. The importance of not just putting the baby’s mouth on the nipple was demonstrated by trying to suck orange juice out of an orange segment with a straw. They also emphasised (which had never occurred to me so glad they did) that you shouldn’t be trying to control the baby’s head. Baby should be held straight facing your boob so that it’s not twisting its head and you support the head with a finger on the cheek so that baby can draw its head back as much as it needs. This was demonstrated by trying to drink a drink with your head turned away from it and then with your head tucked into your neck. The little exercises sound crazy but they really helped me- I’ll definitely remember the difference now when I’m trying to make sure baby is on properly.
Positions shown were the ‘normal’ one- so baby held in opposite arm to the boob you’re placing them on, ie in left arm if going for a right boob. She recommended that the first few times you sit on your free hand so that you’re not tempted to control baby’s head, although I think for me I’ll manoveur the boob a bit with it. Rugby ball- hold baby straight so they’re coming under the boob and fingers round neck to support whilst baby tilts head back. They also demonstrated lying down safely at night – no duvet, turned away from partner, knees up so baby can’t wriggle down, bottom arm straight out so you can’t roll on to baby and set a timer on your phone to wake you up if you do fall asleep. They also mentioned that it’s recommended you feed baby in the room you’re both sleeping in, rather than say take them downstairs, but didn’t explain why. If latch doesn’t seem right then put your little finger in baby’s mouth to release the vacuum and pop them off and try again. They said it was good if partners could know what a good latch looks like as obviously they can have a better view, so can help the first few times

Milk Production – controlled by hormones but can’t explain it well, well they did but I can’t, but basically the hormone for the ‘let down’ reflex is prolactin and that’s hindered by pain, stress and anxiety, so they were saying to try to stay calm and most importantly look out for baby’s feeding signs – which is waking, looking round, ‘rooting’ and sucking fingers, which will all come before crying, and try to feed them before they start crying as it’ll make you anxious if they’re upset and the let down hormone will be hindered making feeding harder so you’ll get into a bad cycle.

Actual feeding – basically, feed baby when they want, they called it ‘responsive feeding’ and more feeds means more milk will be produced. Baby may not always feed for the same length of time – sometimes they might just want a quick drink cos they’re thirsty, sometimes they’re really hungry- but always let them feed until they’re done. You can not physically over/force feed a breastfed baby – they have to work their tongue to get the milk out so if they don’t want to it ain’t guna happen. It may seem at the end like they’re just messing around as not swallowing much, and some mums think baby is just using them as a dummy, but they have to work harder to get the hindmilk.

Expressing – it’s recommend not to express colostrum as baby only needs 7mls a feed in the first day, so really just a bit more than a teaspoon, and that can get ‘lost’ in the tubes of the pump. If there’s a medical need they’ll get you to hand express and collect it in a syringe. If you do express try to do it near your baby or where you can hear/smell them as it helps with the let down hormone. You may not get a lot of milk out but that doesn’t mean there’s not enough for baby – they’re much better at getting it out as they massage the breast with their tongue. They recommended storing milk in 2ozs as you won’t know how much baby will need to feed til they’re satisfied and it’s better to put 2oz + 2oz together for a 4oz feed than have to throw away half a 4oz feed.

Tongue Tie – seemingly becoming more and more common and they think hereditary. Basically the skin connecting tongue to palate is too short so baby can’t move it like they need to to feed. May not be picked up straight away as obviously mouth is very small but if there’s issues breastfeeding in the first few weeks it’s looked into again and a referral made if necessary for it to be snipped.

Nipple confusion was mentioned, so try not to have bottles or dummies before 6 weeks but all they said was ‘baby will get confused’ and not any consequences of baby being confused lol

Boy, that was a lot! Found it really useful and I have more confidence now than I did before I went which is obviously great, feel like I can do it now rather than ‘omg how the hell is this going to work’

kerri_dfw

Thanks Jox

TL - did they explain that mastitis (sp?) can be aided by "milking" yourself? You pull down on the breast in big long strokes to relieve the pressure of the built up milk in there.

smartcat04

Afternoon Ladies,
Congrats to Misscoupon on her new arrival.
My physio appointment has finally come through- christmas eve. See if they can give me any exercises to help with the SPD- still in a lot of pain but got a fancy long body pillow to try tonight.
Went to an antenatal fayre hosted by the health visitors. Did find the breastfeeding talk quite pushy at times. However it hasnt put me off and still want to try it for a couple of months.
x

faith2009uk

kerri_dfw wrote: »

Faith can you let me know your EDD and team colour I'll edit the list. I've guessed your EDD

1. optimistic-mummy - 12th December 2013 :male:
2. lippy1923 - 22nd December 2013 :male:
3. Amyloofoo - 28th December 2013 :female:
4. Kerri_dwf - 1st January 2014 :female:
5. bigzippy - 8th January 2014 ?
6. mincepiemonster - 14th January 2014 :female:
7. Ellie3009 - 17th January 2014 :male:
8. jemb - 23rd January 2014 :female:
9. firefly369 - 28th January 2014 :male:
10. Fran-o - 28th January 2014 :male:
11. Bambisbelle - 28th January 2014 :female:
12. TeamLowe - 2nd February 2014 :female:
13. Rummer - 6th February 2014 :male:
14. durham_girl - 7th Febrary 2014 ?
15. Birdie85 - 10th February 2014 :male:
16. Jox - 13th February 2014 :male:
17. Mrs Bunny - 21st February 2014 :male:
18. Jenni_fer - 25th February 2014 ?
19. Emz118 - 26th February 2014 ?
20. Smartcat04 - 26th February 2014 :female:
21. Becca0417 - 3rd March 2014 ?
22. Kynthia - 3rd March 2014 ?
23. SmlSave - 3rd March 2014 :female:
24. Faithhope - 3rd March 2014 :male:
25. Sidney88 - 8th March 2014 :male:
26. Squ1rrel5 - 14th March 2014 :female:
27. LannieDuck - 17th March 2014 :female:
28. Claire16c - 23rd March 2014 :female:
29. Sjlou - 26th March 2014 ?
30. Lushlifesaver - 28th March 2014 :female:
31. Lulu75 - 29th March 2014 ?
32. Con1888 - 29th March 2014 ?
33. Hannah27 - 29th March 2014 :female:
34. Eiteews - 5th April 2014 :male:
35. McRach - 20th April 2014 ?
36. Faith2009uk - 23rd June 2014 ?
37. TigerLilley1980 - 21st July 2014 ?

Hospital Bag list here

Supplement list and dosage here

BIRTH LIST - Within the last month

:female:Amy_85 - 22nd November 2013 13:10pm Bethany Anne 8lb 1oz
:male:Vic3 - 24th November 2013 10:29am Thomas 9lb 5oz
:female:KScarlet - 26th November 2013 7lb 5oz
:female:LilyMay1 - 3rd December 2013 09:52am 4lb 12oz
:female:Abis - 3rd December 2013 10:22pm Aliona Belle 8lb 8.5oz
:male:iceicebaby - 4th December 2013 10lb 7.5oz
:female:Finch7 - 8th December 2013 7lb 14oz
:female: misscoupon - 16th December 2013
PROBABLY GIVEN BIRTH BUT TOO WORN OUT TO LOG ON LIST

Allow 2 weeks after EDD before transferring to this list (Max 6 weeks)

Lola888 - 21st November 2013:female:

CONTRACTION MASTER TIMER

Please post your birth stories here when you have time/energy

Thankyou for adding me My EDD is 8th April and its a girl

Love how busy this thread is, and now going to see whether I can read through the posts properly x

becca0417

Congrats miss coupon xx

Thanks for the info TL really looking forward up my bf workshop now x

mincepiemonster

Thanks for sharing TL - really good stuff there!

I am furious with myself... lost my debit card and £30 which I'd taken as cashback from my back pocket on the way home from the shops. I never do things like that! Baby brain doesn't seem quite so funny right now :mad:

con1888

Had a lovely day out with mum and gran today, gran gave me 6 lovely home knitted cardigans, they smoke in her house though so they smell of smoke arghhh. Mum has a hand wash function on her machine though so will give them to her and hopefully they will smell fresh, a friend told me when they come out the machine and are dry to put them in a carrier bag with some dry baby soap for a few weeks as that also freshens them up without using chemicals like febreeze

con1888

P.s I like the look of those cot bar covers but I think we're just going to have a bare looking cot, all the advice seems against using anything. I know I'm ordering a nursery decor theme but will leave out the bumpers.