At what point will it no longer be acceptable to wear sweat pants everyday? (Remember, I am not just contending with post-partum pounds. I've also got post c-section pain to accommodate as well.)
My milk is letting down every 2.5 hours whether Mr. Charles is ready to eat or not. This never happened with Aubrey. Will it regulate? Because, ow.
Why do I feel like shedding some tears every day when the sun goes down? And isn't this the cruelest phenomenon to experience during the WINTER?!
I have a cracked nipple. I die a little each time I nurse on that side. Will this heal? Please, please tell me it will heal. (And yes, I use lanolin after each and every feeding)
Charlie is being circumcised in a few days. What can I expect? Should I watch?
Will I ever feel normal again?
17 comments:
Do not watch. My sil did and she said it was AWFUL. Your nipples will heal. I nursed on the side that wasn't cracked for 2 feedings, the cracked side for 1, and expressed milk as needed. Another great thing I learned was if you rub (breast)milk on your nipple and air dry it helps as well. If the baby isn't ready to eat, just express milk. Your body should regulate. Best wishes and congrats.
OH, and the circumcision site will be blue/purple and look so bad. You'll have to put petroleum jelly on it and wrap it, but they should show you how to do it.
I think I wore sweat pants for a good 3 months probably. My milk let down all the time and I was always leaking until Grant was about 4 months old. I had an excessive amount of milk though. Your body will regulate itself eventually, but you can try putting on ice packs in between feedings. They circumcised Grant the day he was born and he slept for 6 hours straight. I didn't watch. You will definitely feel normal again. I had a really hard time adjusting at first and I thought "how does anyone have more than one child!" Before I even knew it, life started to become normal again. Hang in there! Love you!
Congratulations on an adorable baby! I'm so glad he made it here safe!
1. Sweat pants will never go out of style for Mommies, maybe when they reach jr. high you should slip on some jeans when running them around but not before then.
2. Your milk will regulate soon. I found that just putting some pressure on my nipples would stop the let down, a little embarrassing when in public but do what you've got to do.
3. After I had Lucy I bawled after hearing Bryan Adams "when I see you in heaven", really strange things can set you off and that's okay.
4. It will heal but it will be painful until it does, sorry. Keep using the lanolin or a little bit of expressed milk and make sure that that nipple gets some air.
5. I don't make boys so I wouldn't know :)
6. Give yourself some time, you will feel normal again, someday.
Good Luck!
hey megan! two tips that are SO random and weird sounding but really, really help with the nursing issues. my little guy is 5 weeks old now and i dealt with similar issues (WAY too much milk, and cracked and bleeding nipples that were so bad my baby was spitting up blood - it was awful). anyway - sorry for the details. for the abundance of milk, try cabbage leaves. you just put them straight on your breast and it slightly decreases your milk supply. i like it better than pumping or expressing, because then your body doesn't think it needs to make more milk. for the cracked nipples, put black tea bags on them for 15 minutes after feeding. just heat the tea bags up in a mug of water and then put them on the nipples. it feels SO good and it the tannin in the tea really toughens the nipples up so they heal nicely. i also used ameda comfortgel pads and they helped the healing go faster (you can get them on amazon or at babies r us).
anyway, sorry for the long comment - but i totally feel your pain! also, i absolutely loved reading your birth story! such a beautiful experience! i'm so glad it went so well even though it wasn't exactly what you were hoping for.
christine
Alright girl, a couple of things. try using Bag Balm. It comes in a green can in the baby section-also works great for bum salve( 4 babies of course:)It works wonders. Pumping helps give some relief. Now I never watched my first 2 boys be circumcised, but with my last I did. It wasn't bad 4 me to watch but I see gory-not so fun animal things with Scott a lot. I would just tell them to pull it(the string) really tight, because this last doctor didn't and it was a horrible story for my little boy. And you don't want to mess around down there.And yes,put vaseline on when you change him so the gauze doesn't stick and it helps it heal. Give him a little medicine before hand to. You will feel normal again, but don't push yourself to meet anyone else's expectations. Every baby and experience is different, and boys and girls are different and you have to adjust to having 2 kids as well. It takes time, and just enjoy the slow moments in between. You are such a good mommy, and your little one is too cute.
Wait. . .am I not supposed to be wearing sweat pants anymore???
My milk would let down anytime Bennett cried, whether he was hungry or not. Also in hot showers. It eventually stopped around 2 months but until then pressure on the nipples helped to stop the letdown.
Don't watch the circumcision. What our doctor told us is that newborns don't have active nerve endings yet in the circumcised part so they cry from discomfort, not pain. That helped a lot to know. We just had to put vaseline on every diaper change and it looks gross at first but it will heal nicely after a couple weeks.
I still wear yoga pants whenever I'm at home, and Sydney's 8 months old. :) If you feel like your ducts are actually getting blocked at all let me know--I know an amazing trick.
Your nipples WILL heal, although every time he latches you are going to feel like they never will--OUCH. Lanolin, slathering with breastmilk and letting air dry--yup. Done that. Definitely helps. Make sure your nipples are completely dry, though, before putting lanolin on afterwards. My sister swears by "soothies". They are the size of a breastpad, but they are this thick gelatin stuff that apparently does wonders for cracked and sore nipples. I think they have them at Walgreens? They can be a little expensive but they're big so she just cuts them in to quarters and puts the smaller piece right on her nipple before putting a nursing pad over the top to keep it in place.
Good luck!
First, congrats on your handsome boy!
Second, take Motrin until the pain in your nips subsides. It killed me to nurse for the first month and half, because I got raging eczema on my nips. Nice, huh? The cabbage and other home remedies didn't help me, but the motrin took the pain away so I could keep plugging away at nursing. I also used those shields that put pressure on the nips to keep from letting down and they worked really well.
Third, Evie is 4 and I still wear sweats 90% of the time. Maybe I need some kind of intervention a la What Not To Wear....
Fourth, I get teary eyed every night, too and I don't have a newborn nor am I pregnant. I try to make it something exciting for E and I, since Dave isn't home until after sunset, to chase the blues away.
Sweats are a c-sections best friend!! I had major let down about every 2 hours as well, I just had a tight bra, and wore my nursing pads. I regulated after a month or so...tears are so normal! Even for me, and I'm not a cryer...get Matt to the Sunflower market for some nipple cream by Mother Love ASAP!! It's a miracle cream I promise! Slather it on every time you finish feeding. I watched Kameron's circ. and I am so glad I did!! It made me feel at ease about the whole procedure, and I could see that he wasn't in pain. As for what to expect, ask your doctor if he will do one that is fully finished. Both of my boys had those, and they didn't have the string, bell, or band around their little weenies to fall off. It was so nice, and they look awesome! It will hurt every time he pees for the first couple of days, and then will subside. Tylenol every time you can. Slather the diaper with petroleum jelly, and make sure his weenie points down, otherwise he'll just pee out the sides from the jelly...it will look horrificly red/purple to begin with, and then will get a gross yellow film. Wash gently when you can, and in about a week it will look great! You will feel normal when your body, etc. is ready. It may take a few months to get into a routine, etc, but once you do, you won't even remember the hard parts! Love you, keep your head up and call if you need a shoulder to vent or cry on!
1-sweat pants are always acceptable in my book.
2-Yes, it will regulate. Promise. The previous comment about putting pressure on the nips is right, it helps.
3-Sorry about the tears. It's normal to have post-partum baby blues. If they don't go away, however, then zoloft can be a mama's best friend (take it from me ;).
4-cracked nipples heal, I promise. They most definitely suck in the meantime, however. All the previous tips are good ones.
5-Sorry, I'm not help on the circumcision stuff, neither of my boys are.
6-define normal ;) I promise you will find a new normal. You will adjust, just be patient with yourself in the meantime.
Dr. Newman's All-Purpose Nipple Ointment. Has to be mixed at compound pharmacy-works wonders.
Try Vanicream. I know dermatologist sell it. I got a whole pound jar for $15. Its a great lotion, and it works for nipple cream as well.
I don't have much more to add to what everyone else said, but one random thing that helped me, that might just be common sense, but I didn't figure out right off the bat... I loaded up on the nipple cream just before I got in the shower, and it helped protect me from that horrible sting of the water on sore cracked nipples.
Other than that, hang in there! The way you are feeling is 100% normal, and it will take a while to feel normal again and to get on a schedule, so just enjoy not being normal for a while... and enjoy the valid excuse to put off things that you would maybe otherwise be doing.
As for the circumsision, I didn't watch, and I'm glad I didn't. The recovery for that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, just lots of tylenol and petroleum jelly, but the doctors should give you all the info you need on that.
Thinking about you! Please lean on me to help you if you need it. I feel bad I can't help you on Friday, but I promise I'm not that busy and I'm happy to help where I can, especially with Aubrey, or if you need help around the house or something.
PS whit is right - Zoloft is a girls best friend, if the blues don't go away. She and I both know first hand the beauty of that drug :)
Megan, I don't have anything brilliant to add--and I'm reading this late so you've probably moved on!!--but I just wanted to say hang in there. And to tell you that it gets easier from here--I think adjusting to my second was the hardest, and then when she was about six months old I realized that my children were turning into friends and playmates, and it was wonderful (especially because they occupy each other and give me a little more breathing room to do things like make dinner). You've done the hardest part. :-) And I really felt like my body got better and better at having babies and nursing and recovering and doing everything it was supposed to do after the second baby.
And last but not least--there's a new normal. Now that we have four sometimes I think longingly about "old me." But I also realize that "old me" was not as strong or as interesting or as capable or productive as new me, even if old me got more sleep and dressed more fashionably and had less loose skin. :-) Don't hold yourself up to the same standard that you used to use; embrace your new capabilities and potential to influence and shape and mold another precious baby.
And because that advice is only going to be practicable six months down the road when things are a little more calm, here is my best postpartum advice: make a to-do list, if you are a list-type person, and put things on it that you have already done. Like eating breakfast and taking a shower (that is no small achievement!) This always helps me so much to feel like I am actually accomplishing something other than nursing all day. It also helps me to prioritize what really HAS to get done that day for my own sanity--a lot of times I feel like I am going crazy because there are all these things running around in my head and I just need to stop and identify what actually matters that particular day, whether it is laundry or just spending all my spare minutes playing with my older children. Or holding a napping baby for two hours and reading a good book rather than trying to tiptoe out and be productive while he sleeps.
Good luck! You are fabulous and you can do this.
wow, for not having anything to say I sure wrote a lot. :-)
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