Breastfeeding

Lumps in Armpits

VisciousKnitter — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 17:50:35 GMT

My sweet boy, Tanner, was born a week ago. I am EBF but have been extremely engorged for 3 days now. I finally picked up a pump to get some relief. I have noticed lumps in my armpits. They're irritating, but not painful. They're also movable. Has anyone experienced this? I'm wondering if my lymph nodes are reacting to my engorgement or if it is extra breast tissue/mammary glands?

Tell me it's okay to ignore my pedi's advice. (long)

ChloBub — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:46:56 GMT

For Mobile: Tell me it's okay to ignore my pedi's advice.

...or don't, if I shouldn't, but it doesn't seem very breastfeeding-friendly to me. And I know from lurking here and from LLL that most pedis aren't very knowledgeable or supportive of BF, but it's still hard to completely ignore the words that come from a medical professional, even though they don't seem right and they're stressing me out.

DD will be 3 months on Friday. She very infrequently STTN and it's only 6 hours at the most if she does. We're trying to transition her to the crib from the RnP in our room. When talking to the pedi about her sleep, he mentioned these things:

- Don't nurse her to sleep or rock her to sleep.

- Put her in the crib awake. She needs to learn to fall asleep on her own. She's old enough to self-soothe.

- If she cries, give her 10 to 15 minutes before going to her.

- If she wakes in the middle of the night, give her time to cry before going to her. She should be sleeping 6 to 8 hours now and shouldn't need to eat in the MOTN.

- Get her on a more consistent nap schedule during the day, both time and place (i.e. always in the crib).

Am I crazy, or did he basically say to CIO and night wean at 3 months? I feel like this is NOT what I want to do, but the fact that a doctor told me to do it is getting inside my head. BFing is extremely important to me and I feel like these recommendations are contrary to our nursing relationship. But I'm still stressing about not doing the "right" thing. Thanks so much for reading all of this.

tl;dr: I think my pedi told me to CIO, night wean, and schedule DD at 3 months. It's okay to ignore him, right?

Extended BF Weekly Check-In (6/19/13)

litzo27 — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:40:49 GMT

Good afternoon all - sorry for the late start, I'm still in vacation mental mode and nearly forgot that it's Wednesday already! (For the purposes of this post nursing past one year is considered extended. Lurkers welcome. Questions are occasionally recycled)

1. How old is your nursing LO(s)?

2. How much/often do you nurse?

3. What other milk did you introduce and at what age?

4. Were you BF/FF/mix?

5. Anything else you want to share this week. If you have a question you want put into rotation - please post it.

Transitioning to EBF

kelly422 — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:47:28 GMT

My LO is 4 weeks now born at 35 wks. She hasn't been able to BF very efficiently, so we've been pumping and giving bottles. I've basically been giving her time to get stronger. I put her to the breast a few times a day and hope she'll pick it up soon!

I pump every 3 hours on the dot. I've tried to space that out or adjust it but then dealt with plugged ducts and drop in supply. still hasn't fully recovered. I would like to practice BF LO more, but it always seems she either snacks every hour or she'll be starving RIGHT after I pump! Any suggestions on matching up our schedules better?

What can I eat?!

MMA1109 — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 17:39:29 GMT

I met with a lactation consultant today who thinks I have the beginnings of thrush so among other things she told me to stay away from carbs and sugar. My LO has also been very gassy so I'm trying to reduce my dairy (not completely cut it out yet). I feel like that doesn't leave me many options besides meat and non gassy veggies. Anyone with a similar diet have any ideas?

A "ton" of water = ?

Lucky2K13 — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:40:14 GMT

So I always read about drinking a TON of water to help keep your supply up. I have a 64oz bottle at work that I usually drink one and a half of, two on a good day (so 96-128oz) and then I drink water at home too.

How much do you ladies drink? What's your "ton"?

Transitioning from a nipple shield?

gulickr — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:04:34 GMT

Hi ladies -

I've just started lurking on this board since my DD decided to arrive a month early! She's 2 weeks today, and we're finally starting to get the hang of breastfeeding - in the past week, she's transitioned from an eye dropper (!) through a series of progressively more-difficult nipples, and is now feeding exclusively from the breast, using a nipple shield to help her latch on.We haven't had to supplement her with any formula since Sunday, and are pretty psyched!

Our last challenge is transitioning from the shield to just the nipple - we're taking it slow, BFing on demand, and essentially letting her "play" for as long as she needs. She'll latch on periodically for a bit, but definitely still needs some extra assistance.

I was just curious whether anyone had a similar experience, and if so, if you had any tips that worked for you in getting over this last hurdle.

Many thanks!

How many times a day does your baby eat?

DJS0312 — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:53:17 GMT

Hi!

My LO is sleeping until around 6 or 7 in the AM and I'm still doing 7 feedings a day (she's 3 months), which equates to eating around every 2-2.5 hours with bedtime being a 9 or 930pm. I'm considering dropping a feeding so that she eats 6 times a day instead of 7. Just curious how often does your LO eat?

Unable To Pump At Work

rcantor — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 08:13:33 GMT

I just went back to work on Monday and was able to pump three times today and yesterday. My daughter is 12 weeks. I'm a lawyer so I'm often out of the office and will not be able to pump. Any advice for how to keep up my supply and deal with engorgement when I'm not in the office? I have a manual pump so I can always run to the bathroom with that but that only does so much. Thanks!

Going back to work and cleaning parts.

stephzrn — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:49:47 GMT

I was just wondering when I go back to work and pump, how do you clean everything. I know its time consuming to clean parts. Are there wipes I can use? Or do you just find a sink and bring soap and then just dry everything while at work? TIA

Question on Supply/Demand

carmen.d.scott — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:56:14 GMT

Hi ladies!

I'm fairly new to this board but need some help (and I plan on talking to my dr tomorrow and possibly meeting with LC again as well).

LO is 15 days today and I've been BF since birth. She's been fussy like she wasn't getting enough to eat and created a blister on me this past weekend. Since Sunday, I've been having to supplement formula and manually pump/hand express what I can...my question is this: If I'm trying to build up demand/supply, do I need to pump at the same TIME daily (I know it takes about 48 hours to build supply) or can I just pump several times a day to build up my supply?

Thanks for any/all help in advance!

? about pump weaning and weekends

DCMerged — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:11:53 GMT

As my LO approaches one year, I am thinking about weaning from the pump while I am at work. However, I would like to keep BFing when we are together for as long as he wants. This involves weekends. However, what should I expect if I am not pumping as much (and eventually at all) during work days but he wants to nurse during the day on the weekend. Will I have supply? Will nursing all weekend make it difficult to not pump as much on Mondays? Any insight and advice appreciated.

Weaning at 6 months?

landosmommy — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:50:23 GMT

I'm thinking about weaning DD at 6 months...I recently got a really bad blister on my nipple (bleeding and all. JOY) and it's still healing. It is kind of the straw that broke the camel's back, unfortunately. :( So my question is, how is the best way to go about weaning? Drop one feeding a day? I really have no clue and I haven't been able to get on TB to read any posts, so I'm sorry if this is asked & answered all the time. :-/ Anyone else wean at 6 months?

a different kind of BF in public anxiety

honkytonk_kid — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 14:52:54 GMT

I'm working on my IBCLC coursework at Starbucks this morning. Think: slide shows of boobs, nursing babies, pumps, etc.

Do you think I should put a cover over my laptop? Maybe I should just work in the bathroom? Really I should have planned ahead and done this at home before coming to the coffee shop, right?

Freestyle Battery

MrsBigTime — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:27:25 GMT

Has anyone had any issues with their Medela Freestyle battery? The last three days mine has been dead, and yesterday and today it died after 15 minutes of use after being plugged in all night.

I'm going to call customer service on my day off tomorrow, but until then I am wondering if any of you have had this issue and if anything you did helped. The whole point of the pump is to be portable and if I have to plug it in all the time it defeats the purpose!

Bad night=bad day

aesthyerin — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:18:54 GMT

I EP due to latching issues. Last night dd was up most of the night fussy and gassy. She ended up spitting up quite a bit of breast milk and my stock in the fridge is practically gone. I'm thinking I need to supplement with formula soon as I can't keep up and I feel horrible about it. It's just stressing me out and I know that's not helping either.

For those who can't see my signature she is a month old today but was 4 weeks early.

If you nurse a toddler...

CavColby1 — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:49:18 GMT

do you have problems getting mastitis? My 15mo. nurses 2x a day and I've had mastitis twice in the last 2 months. I think we are both almost ready to wean so my OB put me back on full estrogen bc pills to try to help dry up my milk, as well as an antibiotic. Anyone else keep getting recurring mastitis?

Are the bc pills (full estrogen-not mini) ok for LO if I still end up nursing another month or so?

Thanks

Domperidone dosage

ashcody2 — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:37:57 GMT

I posted a week or so ago about ordering Domperidone - well, it arrived yesterday with no instructions on how to take it. I thought I remembered some posters recommending 30 mgs/day up to 90 mgs/day. I've taken one so far this morning and just read some literature on it saying you can take 2 pills (4x/day) or 3 pills (3x/day) and it says to go 6 hrs. between doses.

Should I go ahead and take another now, I took first one at 8 am? Also, it mentioned taking the pills at the same time each day, is this really necessary? Sorry, if I'm being paranoid - I just want to do it correctly in hopes of bringing my supply back up.

She's nursing today!

mrshall10210 — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 19:39:10 GMT

My LO is 6 weeks old and I have EP'ed since the day we came home from the hospital. She would never latch and would scream and scream when I tried. It's been a rough road and I've gotten lots of help and good advice here.

This morning, she started to fuss so I got out of bed to make the bottle. While it was warming up, I held her and was trying to keep her soothed in the meantime. She was rooting all over me, trying to eat my arm, my fingers, whatever she could reach. She's never done that! So I attempted to nurse, and she did! She's been nursing great today!

Just wanted to share my excitement and hopefully I won't be EPing anymore!

EP: Clogged Milk Duct Trouble

kaityb22 — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 12:13:07 GMT

Hey Ladies,

I have a bad clogged duct, it's been about 2 days and I've tried everything I know how to do. I've done heat treatments, massage, and even a hot shower where I immediately got out and pumped on an higher setting than usual. I don't want to have to go to the doctor but I don't want it to progress to mastitis either. Any other ideas? Thanks for any advice in advance :)

nipple bobble

helenkayj — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 03:42:35 GMT

I am not really sure how to describe this but I'll give it a go... my LO does this thing where he bobbles my nipple around in his mouth like he can't find it. Then he'll latch on to my nipple only, get frustrated, then bobble it around again... eventually he'll get it right but the process gets both of us quite frustrated. Sometimes the silly process can last 10-15 min! Does anyone know what's going on here?

working and nursing mom's who have started solids

Wild_flower25 — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 18:46:49 GMT

What does your feeding schedule look like, if your baby STTN?

I'm thinking about a plan for when we start solids soon. Right now, she eats 6 times a day, including one nurse in the morning, 3 bottles at daycare and nursing twice once we get home.

The problem is we get home at 5 and she's ready for bed by 7. So in order to get solids in at night, I think I'd have to cut out the nursing session right when we get home (5:15) and replace it with solids, then nurse her at 6:45 before bed. That would be 5 nursings a day, plus the solids for dinner. Is that about normal for a 5/6 month old?

I think the bedtime nurse is the most important so I think I'd want to leave that one, but I'm worried she's still going to want to nurse when we get home from work because she's usually crabby from not napping well at daycare. But if I nurse her at 5:15, I don't think she'll be hungry at all for solids a half hour later, plus another nursing a half hour after that. That seems like a lot to fit in.

Or would you still nurse when you got home and see if she refuses the bedtime nurse instead? I think she wouldn't refuse it but instead overeat and spit up when I tried to put her down to bed. So I'm just wondering what your schedule is like in the evenings if time is limited.

back to work

kballou — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:19:56 GMT

I have 2 questions. I am back at work full time, DS is almost 8 weeks and EBF. I work 8 to 5 and nurse right before dropping him at daycare and then pump at 10, 1 and 4. He is taking 3 bottles a day at daycare, 4 oz each and he has been gaining more than enough weight, even before bottles were introduced.
When I pump, I am getting an extra 5 to 6 oz a day to freeze. Should I cut out a pump session at work or just enjoy building my freezer stash?
Also, DS cluster feeds from the time we get home until he goes to bed. I am alone with DS and DD evenings for dinner, baths and bed and just want a little bit of time to give DD without having DS on my boob the whole time. Does the cluster feeding improve as they get older?

FTM literature recommendations needed

dobrydney — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 15:24:34 GMT

Hello ladies! I've never posted on this board before, usually over on the Nov 13 BMB. I'm 17 weeks today, and looking to breastfeed and pump due to having to return to work approximately 6 weeks after baby. I'm trying to educate myself now so that I have SOME kind of an idea of what is coming. Does anyone know of any really good resources (books, websites etc.)? I plan on taking the breastfeeding classes that my hospital offers later on, but I want to really understand the whole process more.

Breast PumpCigna

MeghanJustin — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 04:04:43 GMT

Has anyone under a Cigna plan been able to get Cigna to pay for a breast pump?

They told me, 'only if its medically necessary'. Just curious if anyone else has heard the same story and or found a work around!