12-24 weeks pregnant (part2)

neverdespairgirl

Even when you are someone who can express lots, like me, it's a hassle and takes longer than just feeding the baby yourself. So I only ever did it when I was at work, and not able to feed him myself - I've expressed in private rooms in courthouses all over London (-: I had a cool bag with frozen sachets in it to keep the milk cool until I got home, and could put it in the fridge.

From a year old, I stopped expressing - Isaac was quite slow to eat much, and was still drinking quite a lot of milk at 12 months, but I felt I'd done my expressing duty by then, and he had formula while I was at work from then on, and I fed him at night and first thing.

mysecretalias

con1888 wrote: »

That and he is a very ' here and now' person... he doesn't really do talking about things in the future, he takes each day as it comes, it can be a pain but I guess he never gets himself set up for disappointment also. I'm the opposite, I LOVE planing, anything from babys room to holidays to christenings.. I just love to have something to plan towards. I did say we will wait til after Christmas before really concentrating on the room and buying stuff/ looking at names but I would like to at least discuss some.. We have lots of baby stuff in the livingroom atm, the things my brother gave us as we are clearing out upstairs atm and I don't want them covered in dust or anything... maybe after Christmas he will get more excited.... I do hope so or I may bash him on the head !!! :rotfl:

Just bash him over the head, that'll ensure the message sinks in

All this talk of breastfeeding/expressing is really useful. I intend to breastfeed, and also express as like others my OH will want to be involved in the feeding process.

Neverdespairgirl I heard about the whole nipple confusion thing. What I am struggling to work out is at what stage it's best to start trying to express and getting the OH to try the baby with bottles - I don't want to do this too early and have the baby then shun my nipples!! Unfortunately my only point of reference (my best friend) wasn't able to breastfeed so I can't get any advice from her! (Which is why I love coming on here and picking up good tips!)

Vickyvics blimey that's a lot of stuff for just a tenner!! Pretty impressive! Did you go to a baby sale to get that?

mysecretalias

mrshappy wrote: »

Sorry there is so much feeling yukky around My OH had man flu last week, but I seem to have escaped it thankfully. I am back to feeling very nauseaus again though and was sick this morning I don't have time for this malarkey though, as well as working full time I also have my own business doing craft stuff and am trying to finish all my Christmas orders, busy busy.
I'm going to have to have a word with my mum tonight-something a friend of hers said yesterday has been going round my head all day and I'm just getting more and more wound up. Perhaps I'm being a bit irrational, but I don't think so-I was in the pub with my mum and dad and a few of their friends last night, for the first time since we had gone public with being pregnant, so blah blah all the congrats stuff, the OMG's from people who didn't know etc, anyway, we are sitting round the table when this friend of my mums says "I heard it was AI" to which I said pardon, and he just sat as cool as a cucumber and said again "AI, artificial insemination" I just thought that it was a totally bizarre thing to say, and clearly my mum has been blabbing. I'm not ashamed of needing help to concieve, but it's up to me who knows. I'm raging!

So sorry mrshappy I must have missed your post when I was scanning back just now.

Reading this made me angry on your behalf!! What a blooming cheek of your mum to share that information in the first place, and also of her friend to just come out with it in the pub in front of everyone! Doesn't anyone with even so much as an ounce of common sense realise that for a lot of women/couples that is a very sensitive issue?!

You seem to have dealt with it surprisingly calmly at the time though. I have to say if I were in your shoes I think I would have ended up kicking off right there and then especially given added pregnancy hormones thrown into the mix!! Did you talk to your mum about it yet?

mrshappy

mysecretalias wrote: »

So sorry mrshappy I must have missed your post when I was scanning back just now.

Reading this made me angry on your behalf!! What a blooming cheek of your mum to share that information in the first place, and also of her friend to just come out with it in the pub in front of everyone! Doesn't anyone with even so much as an ounce of common sense realise that for a lot of women/couples that is a very sensitive issue?!

You seem to have dealt with it surprisingly calmly at the time though. I have to say if I were in your shoes I think I would have ended up kicking off right there and then especially given added pregnancy hormones thrown into the mix!! Did you talk to your mum about it yet?

I haven't spoken to her yet, am too annoyed and will end up saying something nasty, I think it's worse because I haven't told hubby as I know he would go off his head and be very angry with my mum and the friend, especially if he sees how much it has annoyed me. My mum is a bit of a gab, but this time she has overstepped the mark in sharing info. :mad: I'll have a rant tomorrow to my friend who has been a great support to me for this whole journey and then I'll feel better hopefully.

abis21

mrshappy wrote: »

I haven't spoken to her yet, am too annoyed and will end up saying something nasty, I think it's worse because I haven't told hubby as I know he would go off his head and be very angry with my mum and the friend, especially if he sees how much it has annoyed me. My mum is a bit of a gab, but this time she has overstepped the mark in sharing info. :mad: I'll have a rant tomorrow to my friend who has been a great support to me for this whole journey and then I'll feel better hopefully.

I would tell your mum that you are cross and that its private information that shouldn't be shared without your permission. She might be telling other people too if she doesn't 'realise' its wrong.

I had a similar thing with my mum over my miscarriage/molar pregnancy - she told several relatives and treated it like a piece of gossip :mad: I didn't say anything the first time other than a quick mumble about how my aunt even knew about it. Then she told a 2nd cousin too a few weeks later!! She feigned innocence when I confronted her. She thought I wouldn't mind as I'd be 'over it' despite having to go through weekly testing for the molar pregnancy for 8 months :mad:

I'm still quite cross over a year later about it. Wish I had spoken up earlier but I really did think it was obviously private and didn't need spelling out!

Hope you feel better for getting it out and yr friend helps xx

TeamLowe

re breastfeeding/expressing etc: whilst obviously I haven't actually tried breastfeeding yet, I found this timeline really quite interesting and intend to have it close by when baby's born so hopefully it can keep me motivated and reassured.

http://www.thealphaparent.com/2011/12/timeline-of-breastfed-baby.html

Although I didn't read too much of the site, the woman can be quite offputting with her strong views.

A problem I have is that people keep saying 'no one tells you how hard it is, it's really hard, you get cracked nipples, you feed more etc etc' but then don't say anything of the positives other than 'i was gutted to stop, i loved it' so what did you love about it, cos it doesn't sound fun at all lol

claire16c

My friend had a lot of trouble at the start but ended up loving it so much she's become a breast feeding peer supporter and done a course and helps at a cafe & everything!

I'll have to ask her lol!

Some of it I guess is practical - no making bottles in the night etc, just whip your boob out lol but then she did at one point spend a lot of her day doing it , she'd line up snacks, magazine, tv remote etc next to her on the couch!

It was quite cute/funny when her little girl would sit on her lap & then try to pull her top down to get to her food!

LannieDuck

I enjoyed breastfeeding, and it's definitely less hassle than dealing with all the bottles, but I combined it with expressing which totally saved my sanity. OH could do an early morning bottle and I got to sleep through one of the feeds. Bliss! (Although it did mean a lot of washing up of breastpump and bottles... at least OH could share that.)

We started introducing the expressed bottle at 5 weeks (recommendation when I read up about it two year's ago was 4+ weeks to avoid nipple confusion, but before 6 weeks to avoid them rejecting the bottle). With that extra little bit of sleep, I suddenly felt human again. The first 5 weeks had passed in a blur and I can't really remember much about them. Luckily OH has lots of photos

I have an NCT friend who tried to express but couldn't get her baby to accept a bottle. By 9-10 months, she was desperate to stop breastfeeding, but couldn't. OTOH because DD was happy with both bottles and breast, we could switch over when I felt ready and when I started to want to get my independence back a bit.

Being able to switch over to bottles also made encouraging baby to sleep through the night easier. If you're still breastfeeding, they can smell the milk whenever you go into their nursery to comfort them. With a bottle you can try and comfort without milk.

Just my experience, obviously

Oh, and Lansinoh cream is an absolute saviour for cracked nipples. A bit expensive, but worth the price if you're breastfeeding. Get OH to buy you a tube as a post-birth gift! lol :laugh:

VickyVics

mysecretalias wrote: »

Vickyvics blimey that's a lot of stuff for just a tenner!! Pretty impressive! Did you go to a baby sale to get that?

It was on eBay. Someone was having a clear out (their baby had moved onto solids) and had it as a buy now auction. Couldn't believe it. So chuffed. It looks brand new as well x

lushlifesaver

LannieDuck wrote: »

I enjoyed breastfeeding, and it's definitely less hassle than dealing with all the bottles, but I combined it with expressing which totally saved my sanity. OH could do an early morning bottle and I got to sleep through one of the feeds. Bliss! (Although it did mean a lot of washing up of breastpump and bottles... at least OH could share that.)

We started introducing the expressed bottle at 5 weeks (recommendation when I read up about it two year's ago was 4+ weeks to avoid nipple confusion, but before 6 weeks to avoid them rejecting the bottle). With that extra little bit of sleep, I suddenly felt human again. The first 5 weeks had passed in a blur and I can't really remember much about them. Luckily OH has lots of photos

I have an NCT friend who tried to express but couldn't get her baby to accept a bottle. By 9-10 months, she was desperate to stop breastfeeding, but couldn't. OTOH because DD was happy with both bottles and breast, we could switch over when I felt ready and when I started to want to get my independence back a bit.

Being able to switch over to bottles also made encouraging baby to sleep through the night easier. If you're still breastfeeding, they can smell the milk whenever you go into their nursery to comfort them. With a bottle you can try and comfort without milk.

Just my experience, obviously

Oh, and Lansinoh cream is an absolute saviour for cracked nipples. A bit expensive, but worth the price if you're breastfeeding. Get OH to buy you a tube as a post-birth gift! lol :laugh:

Can't thank everyone enough for their posts re combination feeding! This is what bf and I intend to do; partly so he can be as involved as possible and partly because it means he can have that little bit of extra independence with tot :T
LannieDuck; I had heard Lansinoh was good - have put some on the list for my post birth 'treats'/hospital bag!

I've been lurking all weekend without much to say but last night as I was waiting up for bf to get back from Prague little girl started fidgeting and then kicked out and made by tablet bounce! such a nice feeling to finally be able to feel it from the outside - can't wait for bf to see/feel

Definitely need some thick woollen tights now - does anyone think there's a massively noticeable difference between maternity ones and me just buying the ones I get normally but in a larger size...other than leg length?!

Think I am going to treat myself to two dresses from Mothercare (one for casual/social and one for Christmas now my bump is getting bigger and more defined (if still relatively small compared to others at 22+3 !) Got a few more Christmas presents to buy first though