The new (human) baby thread...

[KellyHM]

Wyatt is a month old today! He's already over 9 lbs!! Good gracious, that boy can eat! He's exclusively breastfed, so I don't know how much he normally eats, but when he gets bottled breast milk he'll suck down 6 oz if I let him and would eat even more if he could.

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
Everyone says that but i dont think so lol i think she looks like her daddy

I think she looks like a daddy's girl already

 

[Robin'sBrood]

Quote:
WOW! Since I have to pump and bottle feed Ethan I do know how much he eats. His first feeding is usually about 3 to 3-1/2 oz. Then he eats 4 to 6 oz, usually about 5, every 2-1/2 to 3 hours until he goes to bed. And he is 4 months old!

 

[TheChickenCameFirst]

Robin'sBrood :

Quote:
WOW! Since I have to pump and bottle feed Ethan I do know how much he eats. His first feeding is usually about 3 to 3-1/2 oz. Then he eats 4 to 6 oz, usually about 5, every 2-1/2 to 3 hours until he goes to bed. And he is 4 months old!

I was never able to get Autumn to like a bottle. She would when she was a new born, but as soon as she hit 3 months she would no longer accept it. So, I don't really know how much milk she got/gets in one sitting. When she was very little it was about 3 oz every three hours. Now, she is primarily fed solids, but nurses for naps and at bedtime. Is that unusual that she never liked the bottle? She wouldn't EVER take a pacifier either. Blessing in disguise? I'll never have to break her of the habit!

 

[Robin'sBrood]

I don't think my 12 year old son would have taken a bottle if his life had depended on it. He was definitely a nurser, and he wouldn't use a pacifier either. None of my kids have been pacifier babies, with the exception of my oldest, and I didn't think I'd ever get that thing away from him. So yes, it is a blessing in disguise when they don't want one!
Ethan didn't have much of a choice about bottle feeding though, thanks to being in the NICU with me discharged and unable to be there to nurse. He got too used to getting his milk the easy way, through a bottle, and did not want to have to work for it by breastfeeding.

I'm no longer able to meet his demand with my supply (unless I want to be hooked to a machine all day long... NOT!) so I've been having to supplement him with one 4oz bottle of formula per day. Not too bad, and he'll start eating solid foods before long, so hopefully I can continue to provide the majority of his food for him... even if it does cause me to be hooked up like and pumped out like a dairy cow!

 

[ebwy2]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels like a dairy cow!

Arwyn will take both bottle and breast, but only when he feels like it for the breast! Which means my supply is insufficient for him, and I've had to use the pumps to keep producing milk at all, which I then pour into his next bottle of formula.

but he's taking about 135ml per feed (between 4 and 5 oz), and I only make about 15 ~ 25 ml (less than 1 oz) each time so no option there, I'm not going to starve him!

I blame all the messing around at the hospital too - when he refused to breastfeed within the firsthour or so after he was born, they gave him formula. Then they took him off to an incubator on a different ward for the night and most of the next day, and when I asked for a breast pump I was told I couldn't have it until I could get out of bed the next day (caesarian meant I was stuck in bed with a catheter etc, you can bet the minute that thing was out I got fiance to get me a wheelchair and take me to the ward where my baby was!), then the next day I couldn't because "no-one has time to teach you to use it" (what's to learn? plug it in, switch it on, stick boob into it, hold it there and wait!) then it was in use because "we only have one for the whole ward because there's no demand for it" there were 4 beds in my room and 2 of us were asking for it and neither got it... no demand? in a ward with about 30 rooms of 4 women in each, plus some single rooms?? doesn't sound likely to me!
So he had formula while he wasn't with me too.
and in the mean time, my body wasn't learning how much to make by him feeding...
so I don't make enough.
I did breast feed him once I got him back on the ward with me but they tell me that my supply was already set by then, and Arwyn was lazy - only being bothered to suck for about a third of the time he was latched on. He was on there for 3 hours once and when I detatched him from me he was STILL crying with hunger. So I had no choice but to give him formula to top up his feeds from me. I'm just lucky the bottle feeds in hospital didn't cause "nipple confusion" and leave the poor little thing unable to understand that food is supposed to come from my boobs as well as from bottles. I now use tommee tippee closer to nature bottles, which claim to not cause nipple confusion as they are designed to replicate a boob.

I have an electric pump and a hand pump from the same range - the electric pump was much more expensive but it doesn't make my hands ache like the hand pump. the hand pump seems to work faster and has a harder suction but the electric one is much more like the amount of pressure the baby uses.
hand pump uses both hands, one to do the pumping while the other holds it in place.
the electric one I can use one handed, which means I can hold Arwyn with my other arm.

I feel at my most bovine when I've got the electric one on my right boob (because Arwyn doesn't like feeding from my right, no idea why) and Arwyn on my left boob.
Moo!

the boob lady (AKA "National Health Service breastfeeding support worker") says it's possible to increase my supply by pumping every time Arwyn feeds and could eventually get enough milk to feed him without formula. Great! except that he is a greedy little thing and since I'm not comfortable with the idea of constantly getting my boobs out in front of the kind, wonderful friend we're living with it would mean that I never left the bedroom for more than 30 min at a time, never mind getting any sleep. So that's not going to happen, really.

So I have a cow moment a couple of times per day, with breast feeding him directly any time I do so (if he's feeling co-operative about it), and figure he's getting the best I can give him either way now.

he's getting chubbier and chubbier so it must be doing him some good!

but the poo! ugh! he does one a day and like almost all babies with combined feeding (robin, is Ethan's the same?) his poo is GREEN! and it is so much it's too much for one nappy (diaper) to cope with

 

[Robin'sBrood]

Bless your heart, ebwy, you've had it quite rough with your first little one.

I use an electric pump (this one) and it does a great job. At first I was pumping every 3 hours, then every 4, and now that we're back to homeschooling I'm doing it every 5. It takes me anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes to get what I need out for a bottle or two. Yesterday I didn't have to supplement with formula at all, yay! His poops are still normally the mustard colored breastmilk poopies, but I can tell when he has had formula because it thickens up some, turns a light greenish color, and is p-u smelly!

 

[KellyHM]

Wow, ebwy, you've had a hard time with the feeding! Shame on the people in the hospital too! Wyatt only "nursed" (I put it in quotes b/c he basically slept while latched on) about 5 or 6 times the first 36 hours. The hospital staff kept asking if I wanted formula, but respected that I didn't...they don't need hardly anything at that stage. They did check his blood sugar once just to make sure it was ok. After that he got the hang of it and went to town! Now you can't stop him.

I did have a friend who had a NICU baby and she had the same problem when he got out...wouldn't take the breast. So she pumped and bottle fed, but also had to supplement with formula b/c for her to make enough she had to pump every 2 hours...ugh!

Quick question...the past 2 days Wyatt's poop has been more green, instead of the bright yellow. Is this an issue? He hasn't had any formula to speak of, so not sure why the sudden change. He's also been a little fussier/gassier (is that a word?) than normal for him. Any ideas?

 

[Robin'sBrood]

Quote:
Yep, to get a really good milk supply (enough to be able to freeze some extra) you have to pump every 2 to 3 hours. When you try to do that ON TOP of taking the time to feed them a bottle every 2 to 3 hours it = insane craziness!!

Wyatt's poop is probably green due to something you ate. If I eat broccoli, which is often, Ethan's poop will have a greenish color to it. If I eat something red, like tomato sauce, it will be bright orange! When I was in the hospital they fed me mustard greens (which I ate because they tried to starve me and I was HUNGRY) and when I pumped out some colostrum it was GREEN! Freaked me out but the nurses just laughed and said it was perfectly fine.

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
sounds normal to a guy

Timmy is the same way when just breast fed.