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I would just get one bra for now until your milk comes in. I would suggest something like the Bravado body silk, because it fits within a range of sizes. Also, don't worry about bringing too much to the hospital. It is way easier to just stay in the hospital gown. You're going to want to spend as much time skin-to-skin as possible & that's way easier in the gown. At 7 weeks out I have 2 Bravado bras & a few nighttime cheaper bras. I also have 4 camis that I wear underneath regular t-shirts to keep my stomach covered up when I pull up the outer shirt to nurse. I didn't think I would need so many bras or camis, but I leak a lot so going braless around the house isn't really an option.
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Jan 27, 2013 08:49
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Dandy Shrew posted:I know it's silly, but I'm actually really excited for you because I've seen your posts through your whole pregnancy here. It's almost baby time! Best of luck, Lullabee! Haha, me too - and for you as well! I read through the entire thread during an otherwise slow weekend before I started posting, so seeing people close to having babies when to my mind they just found out they were pregnant a couple of weeks ago is tons of fun 
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Jan 27, 2013 10:39
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Hastings posted:
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Jan 27, 2013 10:46
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I'm going to disagree and say I got 4 stretchy sleep bras beforehand and used every one in the hospital. When my milk came in, I kept soaking through them, and without them, I would've gotten even more soaked, because sticking a nursing pad to your nightgown doesn't work very well when your breast shifts. If you leak a lot, you'll want sleep bras anyways, and they'll work for a large variety of sizes. I think the ones I got were just a size large from Motherhood Maternity, and they fit my mostrously huge breasts and would've fit some way smaller too.
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Jan 27, 2013 15:28
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So, I have a question. Stephen is 18 weeks old and is drooling constantly and needs to always be gnawing/chewing on something. Either his fists, a toy, his paci, etc. He's been a bit crankier lately, too, but nothing horrendous. Is it possible he's teething? My mom said that I cut my first tooth at 4 months, but apparently I did a lot of weird things as a baby. I don't see any teeth coming through, but I heard it can take a few months for a tooth to actually cut through.
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Jan 27, 2013 16:50
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Its possible. I had my first tooth at 4 months.
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Jan 27, 2013 17:29
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Ben Davis posted:I'm going to disagree and say I got 4 stretchy sleep bras beforehand and used every one in the hospital. When my milk came in, I kept soaking through them, and without them, I would've gotten even more soaked, because sticking a nursing pad to your nightgown doesn't work very well when your breast shifts. If you leak a lot, you'll want sleep bras anyways, and they'll work for a large variety of sizes. I think the ones I got were just a size large from Motherhood Maternity, and they fit my mostrously huge breasts and would've fit some way smaller too. True. If I'd been in the hospital one more day, I would have needed bras. As it was, my milk didn't come in until the day after we got home.
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Jan 27, 2013 17:48
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Has anyone ever bought their baby carriers, like meitais, from Etsy? I've seen a few that are super cute, and I'm thinking maybe I'll start up with them.
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Jan 27, 2013 19:02
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ChloroformSeduction posted:Has anyone ever bought their baby carriers, like meitais, from Etsy? I've seen a few that are super cute, and I'm thinking maybe I'll start up with them. The Moby is just a giant length of fabric so I don't see why Etsy versions would be worse. I would be wary of buying something like an Ergo on Etsy though, since it has a lot more components that could possibly be messed up.
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Jan 27, 2013 22:38
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ChloroformSeduction posted:Has anyone ever bought their baby carriers, like meitais, from Etsy? I've seen a few that are super cute, and I'm thinking maybe I'll start up with them. Sure - there are good vendors and bad though, and it can be hard to tell the difference if you're new to babywearing. Check out the forums at thebabywearer.com for a recommendation before purchasing anything. Some vendors use subpar materials and skimp on construction details that are important for safety. It's important that whoever you buy from is using quality fabric (not bargain-basement calico), quality thread, and good construction methods (like xbox stitching on mei tai straps), etc. Craftsmanship with carriers definitely matters in terms of comfort as well as safety, in my opinion. The gals on The Babywearer forums are pretty opinionated and will certainly warn you off of something that would be iffy safety-wise. The for sale or trade forums there are also a good place to start looking for carriers. Personally, I like using a mei tai a lot, especially for nursing while wearing the baby in public. You can often get a gently used BabyHawk MT for around $60 on the Facebook swap group. Used stretchy wraps (like a Moby) are pretty inexpensive too, because you can really only use them comfortably until the baby is 15 pounds or so.
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Jan 27, 2013 23:29
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CravingSolace posted:So, I have a question. Stephen is 18 weeks old and is drooling constantly and needs to always be gnawing/chewing on something. Either his fists, a toy, his paci, etc. He's been a bit crankier lately, too, but nothing horrendous. Is it possible he's teething? My mom said that I cut my first tooth at 4 months, but apparently I did a lot of weird things as a baby. I don't see any teeth coming through, but I heard it can take a few months for a tooth to actually cut through. Soren is in the same boat and has been for about 6 weeks now, he had his 4 month immunisations the other day and the doctor said that yep. That's what's going on. He never used to be interested in a dummy/paci but now he is - sometimes he just wants to suck. I think his ears are playing up a bit and it helps. Every now and again his cries are scream-like painful ones, so I give him some infant panadol. Luckily his sleep isn't being affected by it just yet. We can see little white areas underneath his gums which come and go and you can feel lumps along his gum line where I guess the toothy pegs are coming through. it almost feels like there are several teeth coming up at the same time when you look at & feel the gums.
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Jan 28, 2013 07:37
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Need some advice from you ladies...when is the part when I stop feeling like I got hit by a truck? I'm only 9 weeks now and every day I am exhausted and simultaneously starving and horrified by food. It's fine if I can veg around the house or do a little bit of chores and then rest, but when I go to work I get so wiped out. If it was a desk job or something relatively still then I would be fine but I've got the public in my face all day, every day and I'm selling, loading freight, and running around. I have taken a couple days off already when I just could not be roused, but I don't want to sail through all my PTO before the time comes when I really need it. I read about all these ironladies who are working up until week 42 and I know that this all comes with the territory but it just makes me feel like a super lazy turd. I know this was basically a waambulance post about problems everyone has but I really don't know how to get past feeling like crap and then being stressed out over feeling like crap.
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Jan 28, 2013 15:22
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MockTurtle posted:Need some advice from you ladies...when is the part when I stop feeling like I got hit by a truck? I'm only 9 weeks now and every day I am exhausted and simultaneously starving and horrified by food. It's fine if I can veg around the house or do a little bit of chores and then rest, but when I go to work I get so wiped out. If it was a desk job or something relatively still then I would be fine but I've got the public in my face all day, every day and I'm selling, loading freight, and running around. I have taken a couple days off already when I just could not be roused, but I don't want to sail through all my PTO before the time comes when I really need it. I read about all these ironladies who are working up until week 42 and I know that this all comes with the territory but it just makes me feel like a super lazy turd. I know this was basically a waambulance post about problems everyone has but I really don't know how to get past feeling like crap and then being stressed out over feeling like crap. Second trimester, usually. The first is always the worst of them, with the possible exception of the last few weeks. Maybe talk to your boss, see if there's less strenuous stuff you could be doing for the next 5 weeks or so?
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Jan 28, 2013 15:27
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Stupid question. I always hear you all say "when my milk came in" and it's days after the birth. What does baby eat for the first few days? Colostrum?
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Jan 28, 2013 15:34
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Lyz posted:Second trimester, usually. The first is always the worst of them, with the possible exception of the last few weeks. No one at work knows yet, they are going to majorly restructure our store and I wanted to hold off as long as possible so they don't conveniently find a reason to not include me on the post renovation staff (I know this is illegal but they can always find another bullshit reason to can someone and my boss is a huge bitch who would not think twice about this. She literally gets mad and bitches all day long when people call off because she takes it personally and thinks people are just wussing out and giving her a hard time). Besides, I am the head of my department so there's not really anywhere to switch to and still be full time. I'm trying to work out a way to just switch positions altogether and go part time after the babies, but no one knows what positions there will even be at this point so it doesn't help me now. It's basically a case of horrible timing at work but I get so stressed over it and the boss is a huge contributor so I just feel trapped.
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Jan 28, 2013 15:38
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Stupid question. I always hear you all say "when my milk came in" and it's days after the birth. What does baby eat for the first few days? Colostrum? Yep, colostrum. Newborn stomachs are tiny, like the size of a marble. The first few days she slept so much, and I just kept putting her to the breast at least every two hours or whenever she woke (whichever came first). Edit: totally not a stupid question either, I remember asking goons this when I was pregnant!
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Jan 28, 2013 15:54
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MockTurtle posted:Need some advice from you ladies...when is the part when I stop feeling like I got hit by a truck? Agreeing with everyone else, second trimester. End of first/beginning of second, if you're lucky. I started feeling gradually better from week 11-12 (my biggest issue was that I was just over the top exhausted all the time). I got about a week of feeling in perfect shape before the weird stomach/back/butt nerve-pains set in  But for me they've been much less of a problem, because I can function perfectly well despite saying "ouch!" occasionally, as long as I've got something approximating my normal energy levels back.I've also been wondering about the milk thing - an aunt of mine assured me that I had a window between the birth and the breastfeeding when I could have a drink in honour of the occasion, and holy crap that sounds good, but is it true, or just another variant of "we all smoked and drank when we were pregnant with you lot, and you turned out fine!" ? PS: MockTurtle, you're not whining - I felt silly myself to be so worn out and nauseous when I was growing something the size of a blueberry, but all the hormones and what-not really do conspire to make you feel like absolute poo poo. v v v I've got no personal experience yet, but from what I've read/heard, the expensive stuff does nothing that a plain old good moisturizer doesn't also do. And it seems nothing prevents them, but keeping the skin moisturized helps at least a little, since they're caused by the skin stretching too rapidly, and anything that makes your skin less stretchy (i.e. it being dry) is probably a good idea to avoid. Sockmuppet fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Jan 28, 2013 |
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Jan 28, 2013 16:04
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Tell me about stretch marks. What are best practices to avoid them? Hydrate a lot? Use a magic cream? Is there a cream to reduce/prevent that costs less per ounce than premium tequila?
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Jan 28, 2013 16:04
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canyoneer posted:Tell me about stretch marks. What are best practices to avoid them? Hydrate a lot? Use a magic cream? Is there a cream to reduce/prevent that costs less per ounce than premium tequila? Have good genetics.
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Jan 28, 2013 16:08
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canyoneer posted:Tell me about stretch marks. What are best practices to avoid them? Hydrate a lot? Use a magic cream? Is there a cream to reduce/prevent that costs less per ounce than premium tequila? There's not really anything you can do. It's mostly genetic. If your mom had them, you might too. However, I've heard that gaining weight gradually instead of all at once helps prevent them. Personally, my belly got so huge (and I'm a petite lady) that I couldn't escape them altogether. The skin stretched too much around my belly button. But now, post partum, I don't really mind them. No one will see except me and my husband.
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Jan 28, 2013 16:11
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Stupid question. I always hear you all say "when my milk came in" and it's days after the birth. What does baby eat for the first few days? Colostrum? To add onto what Twatty Seahag said, here's a handy graphic for how much your newborn really needs. 
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Jan 28, 2013 16:50
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ChloroformSeduction posted:Has anyone ever bought their baby carriers, like meitais, from Etsy? I've seen a few that are super cute, and I'm thinking maybe I'll start up with them. I purchased my Mei Tai off Etsy. I love it. As for going in the hospital over and over before baby's born: With my daughter I went in 3 times for preterm labor issues. With my son I went in 4 times starting at 31 weeks. 3 of the 4 times I was given something to stop/delay contractions (in pill form after I left the hospital). I made it to 39w 4 days with her and 37 weeks on the dot with him.
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Jan 28, 2013 17:09
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canyoneer posted:Tell me about stretch marks. What are best practices to avoid them? Hydrate a lot? Use a magic cream? Is there a cream to reduce/prevent that costs less per ounce than premium tequila? It has to do with genetics and skin elasticity. Gradual weight gain helps but you can't really do anything about how fast your belly grows, particularly when baby has a growth spurt, and if your body can't produce collagen as fast as you grow then you'll get stretch marks. I made it to 35 weeks without a single one, but as baby has dropped and gotten bigger much faster I've gotten a couple on the bottom of my belly. Lotions, oils etc wont prevent them, but it reaaaaaally helps keep itching at bay. And they itch a lot 
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Jan 28, 2013 17:36
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Oh yeah, I forgot about the itching. Soooo much itching. I liked BioOil personally. Or just plain Jergens sometimes.
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Jan 28, 2013 18:02
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Twatty Seahag posted:Yep, colostrum. Newborn stomachs are tiny, like the size of a marble. The first few days she slept so much, and I just kept putting her to the breast at least every two hours or whenever she woke (whichever came first). Also babies are born with a ton of fluid in them and subside on that as well, which is why they lose so much weight after they're born. So basically they're already designed to give your boobs time to adjust.
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Jan 28, 2013 19:17
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On the 18th I delivered my little girl Adeline!   Labor was not at all what I was expecting, I only started having contractions 4 hours before I gave birth and they started pretty intense and only 4 minutes apart. By the time I got to the hospital 20 minutes later I was 6 cm dilated. I wanted a natural birth originally, but felt like my insides were being torn apart and asked for an epidural. I was progressing so quickly they couldn't give me one, so I had a natural birth anyway. Her head and shoulders coming out was the most painful thing I've ever been through and I was screaming so loud you could probably hear me through the whole hospital. I'd thought she was going to be a small baby, my belly never got very big at all and the last ultrasound I'd had she was in the 40th percentile for size. But she was 8 lb 15 oz, and I guess too big to fit out of me because her left clavicle was fractured during delivery and I got a second degree tear. But we're both healing well! For the most part she's been a delight, I really enjoy her and besides a couple feedings at night she's been sleeping very well. I'm getting frustrated with breastfeeding though. The first few days I had problems waking her up to eat, but I've gotten better at waking her up and she's gotten better at sucking instead of just falling asleep the second she latches on. She's getting worse at latching on though. Sometimes she does it like a champ, but most of the time she either won't open her mouth wide enough, or she opens her mouth wide and bashes her face against my nipple over and over again or she starts gaping like a fish. Half the time she I can only get the nipple in her mouth once when opens wide to start screaming once she gets upset. And then sometimes she's too upset to latch anyway but just cries with the nipple in her mouth. After I do get her latched on, she'll suck 2 or 3 times before dropping the nipple for no reason at all that I can tell and deciding to try latching again. After the third or fourth latch she usually decides to actually eat, but sometimes it can go on a lot longer. It usually takes a good 20 minutes before I can actually get her eating. I enjoy breastfeeding once she's latched on and eating well, but at night sometimes it really gets to me when it takes so long to get her started, and she starts screaming and flailing because she's hungry and the nipple is RIGHT THERE. Is this typical? When do babies usually figure this poo poo out? I just want her to eat!
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Jan 28, 2013 19:59
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She's so beautiful. :3 Breastfeeding is hard early on! They do get better at latching and figuring things out. For the screaming at the breast, could you try offering it before she's showing signs of hunger? That helped with Kosta. When he was having trouble, I'd also sometimes squirt milk into his mouth to give him the hint that hey, food is here. 
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Jan 28, 2013 20:04
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nah.
Lullabee fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Mar 21, 2017 |
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Jan 28, 2013 20:07
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I think the biggest disservice the natural birth movement does is making breastfeeding out to be this very natural process. Our birth class teacher even gave us an anecdote about how a newborn placed on mother's stomach can just root up and latch on with no guidance. That may be possible, but I think it's very very very rare. tse1618, congratulations! Your breastfeeding experience sounds pretty normal to me, our baby is 10 weeks tomorrow and it's only been in the last few weeks where we've really gotten to the point where feeding time doesn't involve at least some cycle of crying -> soothing -> feeding -> crying. The first 6 weeks were a nightmare of terrible latching, choking and gasping, and self doubt about whether we would actually be able to stick with it. Just take advantage of every lactation consultation service available to you and keep working at it, it's a learning process both for you and the newborn.
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Jan 28, 2013 20:09
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She's gorgeous, and her name is simply beautiful!
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Jan 28, 2013 20:09
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I too took advantage of Chris crying to get him latched on properly. He was a pretty lazy baby, never opened his mouth very wide, but when he hollered it was perfect. XD
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Jan 28, 2013 20:12
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Thanks for all the stretchy feedback, although it wasn't what I wanted to hear
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Jan 28, 2013 20:51
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tse1618: Congrats on your little cherub there. Stretch marks: I rubbed that cocoa butter moisturiser on myself when I thought about it, so not with too much frequency. As far as I was aware I had none when I went in to hospital to be induced. But once I was home I had a couple of light ones just below & either side of my navel. I don't know if they were there beforehand or not, or if they happened during my c-section when they really push down on your stomach. But eh, I'm not fussed. I can't remember what I did during my first trimester, I didn't tell anyone and I worked at a job where I was on my feet all day cooking, making coffees, serving and lugging the tables in and out each day. I did have a coke or two through the day as a bit of pep. I was one of those annoying people that kept working until I was 38 weeks, and the only reason I stopped then was because my coworkers were afraid I was going to have the baby behind the counter, heh. Each day they would assign various roles to each other. "You! Boil water. You! Get towels. I have the tongs! *snap snap*" In my last few weeks of pregnancy I was losing about 3 pounds a week, so overall I think I only gained about 12-15 pounds. It appears to be normal, my doctor wasn't worried at all. The only annoying thing was that after all was said and done, I ended up lighter than before I was pregnant so all my comfy maternity pants were too big and fell down. Boo.
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Jan 28, 2013 21:26
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tse1618, we went through the same cycle of crying & latching & pulling off when we first started. It got better as Archer grew & got more practice. I know it's super frustrating, but just keep at it. It does help to try & start feeding before the baby really realizes she's hungry. If you can get her to latch on when she's in that semi-drowsy state it can go a lot easier, especially at night.
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Jan 28, 2013 21:36
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tse1618 posted:On the 18th I delivered my little girl Adeline! What a sweet picture. She's adorable. Congrats!
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Jan 28, 2013 21:49
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MoCookies posted:Sure - there are good vendors and bad though, and it can be hard to tell the difference if you're new to babywearing. Check out the forums at thebabywearer.com for a recommendation before purchasing anything. Some vendors use subpar materials and skimp on construction details that are important for safety. It's important that whoever you buy from is using quality fabric (not bargain-basement calico), quality thread, and good construction methods (like xbox stitching on mei tai straps), etc. Craftsmanship with carriers definitely matters in terms of comfort as well as safety, in my opinion. The gals on The Babywearer forums are pretty opinionated and will certainly warn you off of something that would be iffy safety-wise. The for sale or trade forums there are also a good place to start looking for carriers. Good to know. Thanks! tse1618 posted:On the 18th I delivered my little girl Adeline! Congrats! Yeah, the breastfeeding thing can make you want to tear your hair out (or just wish someone would cut off your boobs and put you out of your misery.) As unhelpful as it sounds, try not to stress too much about it. Hopefully you have access to a good lactation consultant or two.
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Jan 29, 2013 07:46
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Sockmuppet posted:[...] I've had several girl dreams now after I got pregnant, and just have a...feeling of a girl. But I've got nothing to base it on what so ever, so I'm very curious now as to whether my subconscious is on to something, or completely clueless. Back from my ultrasound, and holy crap, my baby is a perfect looking little girl! Nothing amiss, she measured right where I thought she was, and I have an anterior placenta, as I suspected, since I haven't felt anything. So all good news, and I can't remember the last time I was so spot on about so many things at once! Helps with the feelings of "oh God, I'll mess up this baby, I haven't a clue!"Due date 5th of July!
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Jan 29, 2013 11:04
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Sockmuppet posted:Back from my ultrasound, and holy crap, my baby is a perfect looking little girl! Yayy congrats! 
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Jan 29, 2013 11:39
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Sockmuppet posted:Back from my ultrasound, and holy crap, my baby is a perfect looking little girl! Congrats!  I go in for mine tomorrow. So nervous, I just want the baby to be healthy..
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Jan 29, 2013 18:03
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Thanks for all the reassurance that Adeline's breastfeeding issues are normal! My husband has been convinced that that we'll start having to give her bottles because she can't figure out how to latch on. I actually had a really great night feeding her, I'd try the football hold a couple times in the hospital and didn't really like it so I hadn't done it again. But I decided to try it again last night and she latched really well right away with it all evening and overnight. I was feeling pretty confident! Then this morning was horrible, I couldn't get her to wake up to eat. All the usual things that wake her up like undressing her, changing her diaper, wiping her face with a cold wet cloth weren't working. She'd fuss a lot but wouldn't wake up. She only ate a tiny bit, and as the morning went on she started waking up to scream and scream because she was hungry, just screamed around the nipple when I popped it in, until she tired herself out screaming and fell asleep again only to wake up a few minutes later screaming because she was still hungry. I ended up spending two hours failing to feed her before giving her to my husband, manually expressing milk, and giving it to her in a dropper until she'd had enough that she calmed down to breastfeed.
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Jan 29, 2013 20:26
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