MSE Pregnancy Club 28

arbrighton

Just back from the Scotland trip with the new dog. Thankfully walks were suited to mil being pushed in her wheelchair plus toddler nephew so i kept up mostly. Lovely to spend a few days with new nephew at 7 weeks too-lots of obvious changes including smiles.

Despite eleventy zillion phone conversations, the midwife texted to say i'd missed the appt this week but has rebooked me for next week. Slight grrr but at least it gets me back on track with those in addition to the growth scans

clarabell1984

Thanks Cats! Due date been and gone and happy to now be in April! Was really hoping our wee button would hold off until this month. We have so many birthdays in March and it's nice to know it will now be born out with them We also got married in April for this reason - and the fact we love Spring!!

Tired today, neighbours son had a party for his 18th last night so lots of music, singing, shouting etc until early hours! Weather is so so today, feel like I should be out doing something but not sure what :rotfl:

Hope everyone has a great weekend x

april87

Hopefully your not too tired/uncomfortable and the little one makes an appearance soon.

Glad your trip went well Abrighton.

First NCT class yesterday, it was on breastfeeding and it was good. Thinking about it not, kind of annoyed expressing wasn't covered, and she was very anti-bottle. The woman was more than ok if people were choosing formula fed but not breast feeding, with expressing milk for bottles to let dad's have a go which I didn't like. I get that babies may end up prefering bottles as they find it easier when doing both but I felt in doing that dad's were excluded. Glad it wasn't just me and my OH who raised that point but oh well. Had a good group of people, so I'm looking forward to next week.

Hope everyones weekends are going well

penguingirl

Snow- hope your class was useful

arbrighton- your trip away sounds lovely. And nice to spend time with nephew too, ours is 12 weeks old now and so gorgeous. He makes me so broody! Lol

Clarabell-hope the right spring day comes soon! It's my birthday next week and it is a lovely time of year to be born, plus it will often do well with Easter holidays and being off school.

April- glad your class went well, but a shame you still have some questions. Are your other classes done by the same person? Our bfing one was done by a bfing counsellor, and the others were someone different so we talked about expressing during the session on newborns and she had bought a pump along. Both our teachers were pretty laid back about when to introduce bottle etc, just said to make sure latch is established really well first. If it is someone different next week, maybe you can ask for some more info on it? Also are there any local breastfeeding groups? We have a very active one in my area with sessions at the children's centres, a helpline, bfing counsellors that will come out to your home and a busy Facebook page. They've been really recommended to me by a few friends and my SIL who have done well with bfing. I've joined the Facebook page already and lots of people share tips on expressing.

I had my baby shower yesterday which was really lovely, but a long day as it was at my mum's 50 miles away. I'm feeling very spoilt and baby definitely has more clothes than me now! My MIL has bought us tons of 0-3 outfits, but gave us gift receipts with them so thinking we might swap some for 3-6 months. Plus we're picking up lots of stuff from BILs today that nephew has outgrown. Can't wait until the carpets are fitted so we can build nursery furniture to store everything! My house is like a baby showroom at the moment and having lived in a building site for 6 months I just want to nest

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend

arbrighton

april87 wrote: »

Hopefully your not too tired/uncomfortable and the little one makes an appearance soon.

Glad your trip went well Abrighton.

First NCT class yesterday, it was on breastfeeding and it was good. Thinking about it not, kind of annoyed expressing wasn't covered, and she was very anti-bottle. The woman was more than ok if people were choosing formula fed but not breast feeding, with expressing milk for bottles to let dad's have a go which I didn't like. I get that babies may end up prefering bottles as they find it easier when doing both but I felt in doing that dad's were excluded. Glad it wasn't just me and my OH who raised that point but oh well. Had a good group of people, so I'm looking forward to next week.

Hope everyones weekends are going well

That's a shame April- we're probably going to try OH/grandparents giving bottles of expressed milk as I will want to get back to some things quite quickly and sometimes bean will be hungry when I'm doing that e.g. my rowing official volunteering

BIL said to Oh that he actually found first nephew easier- they mixed breast and expressed as he struggled with latch but found it a lot more flexible. New nephew is EBF and that's rather less flexible

cats2012

We're planning to express as soon as supply is built up - midwife recommended waiting around 4-6 weeks and then just introducing it gradually. I really want OH to be able to feed her so I can get back to stuff too but I won't risk my breast milk supply if we do have any issues.

Really surprised that they didn't cover it though! Our classes did but did explain that there could be risks. I'm keen to try anyway though!

arbrighton

Cats- that's the vague plan for us too- not least as there is an event I'm supposed to help run at about 6 weeks (although there is a contingency plan too if that isn't possible, e.g. if I need a c section)

Need to start purchasing the supplies for that too really

april87

Yeah the other classes are run by someone else. I got a copy of the agenda for the classes this morning and nothing on expressing, but I will ask. I am sure I won't be the only one. Like mentioned I plan on expressing so baby can be bottle fed at times as well as breastfeed.

Penguin there are plenty of breastfeeding groups so I will be sure to make myself acquainted with those when the time comes. I'm glad you enjoyed your shower, and a bonus that your MIL gave you the receipts, as you said means you can swap sizes more easily.

Beckyy

It's a shame they didn't cover that. The FB group 'Breastfeeding younger babies and beyond' is SO helpful. If you join they'll send a screening message which will likely go to your Others folder, then ask you to rejoin the group.

Kellymom and Milk Meg website have some really good information. It's worth reading about paced feeding, basically ensuring baby doesn't guzzle a bottle down in seconds as the milk comes out of bottle very quickly (unless you use a bottle like Medela Calma, which they have to latch onto like a breast) it can be easy for them to overfeed from one if they're used to feeding from a breast.

Expressing wasn't covered much in our NHS session but nobody really asked about it. I think they try to avoid it possibly so people aren't tempted to start expressing before their supply has settled and increase the risk of oversupply or bottle preference. One thing I would recommend is if you can't feed baby for whatever reason initially or in the first few weeks then to use a cup/shot glass rather than a bottle, regardless of whether it's expressed milk or formula.

clarabell1984

Our breast feeding workshop was very helpful about expressing and mixed feeding. I was expecting them to be anti bottle but the information they gave was great. At the beginning of the class they went round the whole group and asked what we wanted to learn/gain from the class and expressing was one of them. So we were told 6-8 weeks before introducing any kind of bottle whether it be expressed or formula. This should allow time for your milk be to be established but always runs the risk of confusion for baby and they might not go back to breast. There were a lot of expecting mothers there who wanted to involve Dad!

Not much news on my front, still no baby! I did have some menstrual like cramping yesterday and a little brownish discharge but doesn't seem to have come to anything! Bit fed up and disappointed today :rotfl: everyone is at work and I'm bored!