Working moms/mums - come share tips and get support too! #2

[TRR]

Hello ladies

So crazy busy these days I have just been able to check back in.

So DD is still having a df. I have been trying to up it time wise 15min at a time. So we are up to 10:00pm feed. Had a few bumps with holiday get togethers, visitors and so forth. I think when we get to 930 I am going to try and see if she will go all night without. I think she can even right now but she is getting her 2 front top teeth in so her nursing is all over the place again. Hoping to have her 2 front teeth for Christmas. She will be a bunny for Christmas with her 2 top and 2 bottom teeth.  :'(Poor little darlings. Teething is just such a up and down time for them. She has the roses checks, gums are sore and so tired. She wants to nurse and chew on things but it hurts. She is so darn cute with teeth, when she smiles now she seems so proud of the bottom 2 that she looks like she is purposely pushing her bottom jaw out to show them off.

As far as work and pumping going OK. I have been pretty luck so far with having a place to pump and not having to many issues with having to take the time to pump. I am sure it is just because I work for the government and most people are afraid to say to much in case they are brought up on harassment. May heart goes out to all of the moms have issues with work. This day and age it should not be any issue. You are doing the best thing you can for your child and trying to make sure they are taken care of financially by working.
Just keep reminding yourself you are doing the most important job in the world which is being the best mother you can be.

[campbellchick]

Well the bad news is that Holly has a really bad ear infection in both ears...  I feel soo bad not knowing that.  She hasn't even been pulling at her ears or screaming or anything, but it was obviously getting worse, hence the 2.5 day fever she had.  Thankfully the fever broke yesterday afternoon and after starting antibiotics she started feeling better.  Today DH stayed home with her as I had to come to work and he said she has been really good so far.  She is back to napping normal times (not all day) and has even been playing on the floor on her own instead of wanting cuddles all day.  I have been missing the cuddles though!!!  Anyway, must run as I am at work.  Tracy, glad to hear that everything is going well for you and the pumping.  Don't you just love those teeth - Holly has her 2 bottom ones and I think they are just adorable too!

[clh]

Yay, Tracy!  Glad to hear things are going pretty well.

{{hugs}} Kerrie & Holly!  Hope the infections clear quickly. 

[olkan]

Kerrie - glad to hear Holly is doing better, hope she gets well soon!

Thanks for sharing, if I only have to wait 3 more months I think I can cope with 4-5 hour sleep at night. Quite honestly I don't have enough will to go through any sort of sleep training for a few weeks, when she wakes I feed her and put her right back and fall back asleep immediately. I don't even know whether it takes her long to go back to sleep, but I reckon she's ok as she doesn't wake me up.
I can't really get to the bottom of the NWs, as we started solids, she had a bit of wind pain, she had an obvious growth spurt at some point, a cold before that, so it's kinda hard to rule out everything. She did only 2 NWs yesterday which is not bad, we've been through 3-4 lately.
Will probably have to have my DH to try to give her bottle at night, gonna be tough He stayed with her today for the first time on his own, 40 min naps only throughout the day  , had to put her down to sleep an hour earlier to avoid getting her OT.
I'm actually quite opposite, I get 240 ml around midnight, but only 140ml in the morning. I'm also forever paranoid about dropping milk supply, so I never miss a pump, and when my LO has days when she eats less, I pump after feeding her to keep the supply up

[lidiayy]

Hi All!

My nipple bleb has almost gone.   The doctor was right when he said I had to quit daytime feedings during weekends, it's soooo much better not feeling pain when latching!

Thanks for the info re dipping milk supply after periods returning. My supply is gradually dipping and it's making me nervous, but I need to start thinking that someday DD WILL wean, so better get used to this idea. 

Kerrie - loved the new pic of your avatar. Hope this ear infection clears up soon. So bad when our LOs get sick, isn't it. If only we could fix all for them. 

Candice - congrats on the pregnancy!

Olga - IKWYM by not missing a pumping session. I tend to think that if I miss a single pumping session, my body will immediately think that baby doesn't need it and my supply will dip.

Better go now because DH is waiting me to have dinner.

XOXO

Lidia

[campbellchick]

Lidia - was also going to comment on your new avatar too - Milena is just gorgeous....  It is so nice to hear from you more often these days - what is going on there?  Has your DH finally resigned to the fact that you need an outlet?

CONGRATULATIONS[/color]
Candice - I didn't even see your new ticker - that is fantastic news.  I hope it all goes well, but I'm sure you will keep us informed!

Olga - Holly used to get wind pains, but it started from birth.  I cut dairy out of my diet and she stopped getting them.  So after some trial and error I found out she has a lactose overload issue.  She only reacts when I have too much lactose.  It sounds possible that your dd is having a reaction to something she is eating directly.  Most doctors tell me that what I eat shouldn't make a difference to her - but I know it definitely does!  I really hope her NW's get better for you though.  Holly just all of a sudden dropped from 3-4 a night down to 1 at 7 months after the solids kicked in (she didn't start eating solids until almost 7 months due to a really bad cold she had at 6 months).  Your dd might be waking due to wind maybe?  But it is great when they go straight back to sleep - that is a great start.

Anyway had better run, am at work and have a meeting to go to.  Hope you are all doing well xoxo

[campbellchick]

Whoops - I put the colour on the wrong line instead of the congratulations - sorry Candice, that was meant to be a nice Teal colour!

[clh]

  Thanks, ladies!  I'll be coming back to the bf boards with my own questions again soon. 

[olkan]

Hi Kerrie - I'm totally with you on believing what I eat influences the baby though doctors here say otherwise - that's why I was on the strictest diet cutting off dairy, sugars, beans, any sizzle drinks, all yeast bread and white bread, all fruit and fresh vegies for the first 3 months, and them brought those back in really slowly, and started having dairy only when she was 5 months old. I think her NWs is altogether - hunger (I cut back on solids now to solve the wind pain), accidental parenting (I have no stamina to tackle her crying with pu/pd at night, I'd rather nurse for 5 min and put her back to sleep), habit, windpain sometimes, development (she learns crawling now and recently started to sit), so I guess it's just this period when you can solve hunger, but then something else kicks in. And she hasn't started teething yet, so my real sleepless nights are ahead I reckon

We also went all over the place with her routine now, really hard to get her on the 3rd nap, but tried 2 naps and got her OT by evening, but she pushes feeds/naps around a lot now (and used to be minute-precise for the past 3 months), so I'm getting so confused that I don't know where to start - Feeds Routine, Naps, Night Wakings, you name it. Just asking myself whatever I'm doing on-line at midnight instead of catching up on sleep lol 

[campbellchick]

Olga, it really sounds like our babies are twins!!!  Well, the younger Holly anyway.  Your last paragraph there - Holly used to do that too.  She never actually catnapped well anyway.  I gave up on the 3rd nap by only a few months as it was near on impossible to get her down for it, but then if she didn't have it, she was so OT.  Thankfully it all came good again when her A time started stretching out.  How much A time does Tessa have now?  Can you start trying to stretch it out by 15 mins at a time?  If she has dropped that 3rd nap for good (which sounds about right at her age).  I really feel for you - I totally understand where you are at.  Holly was soo inconsistent I never knew where to start trying to fix our issues either.  It can be so frustrating.  When I started back at work full-time and she was about to go to daycare, I was soooo nervous about her routine being all over the place and I wasn't going to be there to control it, but it ended up being a good thing.  I made the daycare fill in a book so I could see what I needed to adjust and things ended up smoothing themselves out, now she is a consistent napper again and we have the NW's sorted.  Fingers crossed for you - AND you probably need some sleep too instead of being on BW at midnight problem solving 

[TRR]

Hi Ladies

Things are a bit out again for DD. The top teeth are pushing through and having pain. DD having trouble BF and EBM. Hopefully be down in the next couple of days and DD will be better. She does look so darn cute with the rosy checks. I really should get a picture loaded. Maybe over the holiday I will get time.

Candice: Congrats! That is wonderful news.

Kerrie: Hope Holly is better now. I worry about my LO and ear infections. She pulls at her ears a bit especially when teething or OT. Our PED told me to bring her in any time I was concerned because so many LO have ear infections and don't show signs until they are really infected. So don't beat yourself up for not knowing. Poor LO, it must really hurt. IKWYM about missing the cuddles. It is nice to be able to cuddle them, if like my LO she is so busy now cuddles are few.

Good idea with book for daycare. What did you ask them to keep track of? I am just starting to set up a child care provider for DD starting in Jan as DH is going back to work also, and looking for any tips or ideas on how to make it go smoothly as possible.  No more MR MOM , it has been great experience for DH to be at home. He now really understand how busy a LO is, but like me still would not change having LO no matter what.

Olga: I know it is hard!  :'(My DD at about the same age went through a crazy time. She did not nap well, was having NW 2 -3 times (had been sleeping most nights before that) had her growth spurt, caught a cold and finally had her teeth come in. It was exhausting! I remember thinking I would not survive, and what was I doing wrong. Some how we struggled through and things have got much better. I ended up just trying to not stress over trying to be on schedule all the time and work on things in baby steps. It took about a month and half but now she is back to some what normal sleeping and eating. Or should say was till teething started again. Also when I started my DD on solids at 6m she to had wind that seemed to keep her awake at night. Sometimes at night if I could get her to pass it she would go back to sleep right away. She is better now that has adjusted to solids. Yes I to believe what we eat as BF moms affect the LO. I know I could tell when DD was new born she would defiantly react to things I ate. Always had an issue with the slightest bit of garlic, to much dairy, and had to watch some veggies. She doesn't seem to have issues now.

Lida: Hope nipple bleb better. I have not had many issues that way but can just imagine how painful it can be.

Lidia/ Olga: IKWYM about missing the pumping. I feel like if I do miss I will not get it back up. Also have had dip with period and find I really need to pump a bit more often to get it back up again.   

Sorry for the novel, apparently lots to chat about today. Wish you all a very wounderfull holiday season just in case I don't get back on till the New Year. Be sure to enjoy ever minute with families. Time to go pump!

[campbellchick]

Hi Tracy - I hope the transition into daycare goes smoothly for your dd after being at daddy daycare  .  The things I put in the book for daycare to record were times of morning tea, lunch & afternoon tea, bottles and naps, then I had a comments column.  The main thing I looked at of course were naps and then bottles.  I could tell straight away if she was going to be OT when we got home by her naps and also if she could hang out until a bedtime bottle or needed one straight after getting home.  The main reason I did the book was because DH picks the kids up usually and he would never read the board (they have all of that info recorded up on a whiteboard each day) or if he read the board, he could never remember to tell me the times.  It really helped me (I was probably too obsessed over it like I have been since she was born  ) but I knew what time to put her down each night and also if any tweaks needed to happen, I could let the carers know what to adjust.  It is probably worth trying for a while until you are comfortable all is running smoothly anyway.  Let us know how it all goes once she gets there 

[olkan]

Hi Ladies,

Kerry, Tracy - thanks for your support, it's getting much better as I've been able to stretch Tessa's A time to 3 hours and we are on 2 naps unless she EW at 6 am, then we need the catnap which is a nightmare, but the 2 nap day works really well. I've also had great progress in recognising her mantra (finally) and I stopped what apparently was clear interfering when putting her to bed or when she wakes up. She falls asleep after 10 minutes of screeching on her own which is great, and only wakes at 5:30 for a feed. I'm still struggling with lots of accidental parenting to get her past 40 min mark for the naps, and end up rocking her in her pram throughout the nap, but just don't yet have confidence to start sleeptraining, especially when I need to be back to work in a week, just hoping maybe she will outgrow.

I have other major concern, I guess I'm just looking for some reassurance. My boss needs me to start travelling as early as first week of Feb (Tessa is going to be 8 months), and it's going to be the whole week and I'm just so terrified to leave her. She still has NF, she's BF, my DH never attended to her at night and with him she only naps 40 mins. I have tons of frozen milk but what if she will just refuse it and scream through all nights and days?! I just can't imagine leaving her, plus she could start having separation anxiety then, and I guess I'm having one already.
If that's not enough, my MIL who was here for 3 months to look after Tessa when I'm at work has just been refused the next visa, and me and my DH are taking all our vacations now while to try to find a nanny, but then again leaving my DD with some new nanny for a week...  I don't think I can bear it, though I know I will at the end but it's just sooo hard.
Could someone say something reassuring that it will work out ok and how BF babies manage through their mom's travelling...

[campbellchick]

Oh Olga, I really feel for you!  That is a lot to go through all at once, very stressful.  BUT I can say from experience, my dd coped just fine with my travelling.  DH had also never attended to her during the night for a feed, but when I did have to go away (she was 7-8 months when I started travelling) she took the bottle from him with no problem during the night (actually, I was probably a little miffed over that though  ).  She did really miss me when I first started going away though, but she did get used to it and she does really well.  Your dd is used to the bottle, so maybe on weekends you could get your DH to start giving her a feed just to see how she goes?  When is your MIL due to leave?  Will your dd be used to the new nanny before you go away? 
Really big hugs to you, I know how stressful it is - I was so worried about how I would cope with BF'ing dd and my travel, but it actually worked out for the best because she eventually started sttn when I wasn't home anyway   It might be tough at first, but she will cope okay while you are gone and if she is hungry enough, she will eat.  Huge hugs again xoxo

[lidiayy]

Hi All,

First of all, Happy 2009!! I hope the best for you and your LOs! 

We have just got back from a week away travelling. We went to the beach and DD just loved it! She can't walk alone yet but DH was holding her hands and if she could run, she would have swun like a Nemo!    Isn't it interesting how babies like water?

I'm returning to work tomorrow morning, after spending a whole week with DD, starting to have SA (me, obviously  )

Now some personals:

Kerrie - I'm also very happy that DH is not complaining about me BW'ing. I think I made a big change because I used to be a BW maniac and I have to confess that I overdid it. I was so strict to a routine that it made me almost crazy. I started a therapy with a psicologist two months ago and it's been helping me a lot. I still have lots of problems with MIL but I know I have to deal with one problem at a time. I'm very jealous when DD has to stay with MIL or even when we're all together and MIL plays or cuddles DD. 

Olga - Kerrie's idea of a book is very useful. We use it too. In my case, the daycare already has a standardized report in which they write down the naps (when it started and how long it last), meals (time and composition), bottles, diaper changes (poop and pee) and general comments. It's really useful because if your LO comes home in a bad mood you can have a look at the book and check if she's OT. I also find it very useful because they write down how many onces of my milk DD had and what she ate during the day so that I can vary her diet.
Now re the travelling thing, IKWYM... DD started to show symptoms of SA and she's now 10 mo. In my new job position, I'll have to travel more often and I don't know how to deal with it as I have never been away from DD.
There was one night last month that I wasn't at home to feed her, though (and it wasn't planned). DH had to take over the bedtime routine and defrost my milk to put DD in bed. He did it perfectly and she STTN! So, hang in there because your LO will help you. In my case, I used to talk to DD a lot and try to comfort her that even if I'm not with her all the time, whenever she needs, there'll always be someone there for her. Big hugs to you 

Now a litte bit of me. I missed friday night pumping session because we're on the way home and since we arrived at 3 am (I'm used to pump at 11 pm), the only thing I could think of was to get some sleep as DD would wake up at 6 am. Yesterday night I tried to pump and I could only get miserable 20 ml. Nothing... Now I think there's no turning back. I tried to pump again today at 10 am with no avail. Tonight will be my last trial. It's sad to say and I'm dreading to think that in a few weeks time, DD will wean as my milk supply will dip drastically. 

Are your LOs having only BM? How did you introduce formula to them? I still have some frozen milk but I'm afraid it will last until next weekend so better come up with a plan this week. Any tips are appreciated.

Hugs to all

Lidia