I almost forgot, Christopher and I made Sergeant on the 14th. Things are going well. I feel like time is going much to fast with him. I didn't have that with Nicholas. I don't want it to end, I get sad when I think of him growing up. We have had A LOT of stress in my family recently and nursing him is just about the only thing keeping me going... really keeping me sane.

Also, I recently completed my training for my CLC, and now I am working on my hours for the IBCLC.... I love that I get to do this for a living

( Here's some pictures...Collapse )

first, allow me to introduce myself. my name is jill, bfing attached sahm to ds, aiden, who will be 3 mos on march 7. married to dh, eric, for 3 years march 20. will include pics of me and aiden behind the cut. now onto my problem, sorry if this is long, but i want to be as specific as possible. ( Read more...Collapse )

Squeaky and I are officially Colonels! She still nurses two or three times most days, but last week we finally night-weaned -- fairly uneventfully. Over the past month or two she'd been waking up and then getting up even more when she nursed, so about a week ago, I explained to her that the boobies would be going to sleep when she went to sleep, and they need their rest JUST LIKE SHE DOES, and in the morning, when it's time to get up, they'd be ready for her. The first night, she woke up and I snuggled and comforted her and she drank water and went back to bed. Since then, of the past like eight nights, she has called me into her room only about two or three times, and that seems to just be that weird "first waking" period == about an hour or two after going to bed, she just seems to always want to wake up; maybe she's checking if this really is "nighttime sleep" or "nap sleep."

If she needs me at night -- either by calling my name or by getting *very* upset -- I go in, no prob, but if she's just waking up and getting resettled, I let her do that on her own. So far, so good. And every night we talk about how important sleep is, for her body, for her brain. And she's getting much better sleep now!

And then in the morning, we nurse for about half an hour. It's a great way to ease into the morning!

I've seen a couple of posts lately about thrush and I wanted to share what helped me with you.

http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/bf/thrush.asp

xposted to boobie_bootcamp and breastfeeding

Hey ladies.

As you may know, Indy is 1.5 months old, and was a 5 week preemie.  I know that her digestive system may be a little more immature than most babies her age but my baby is gassy.  She's gassy all the time.  Every time I nurse her she needs at least 4 burps and she spits up regularly.  This really dosen't seem to bother her and I remember this being the norm with my other babies.  This is only a problem at night when I lazy-nurse.  I nurse her laying down and she gets a half latch and we both drift off again.  I don't burp her, and she creaks and grunts for the next few hours.  Lately I've been laying her on my chest after I nurse her, chest to chest, her nuzzled under my chin.  Then she can burp easily but I'm not terribly comfortable and will wake up all stiff.

I don't eat broccoli, or take vitamin supplements, and watch my intake of dairy since that seems to cause more gas.

It's not that big of a concern, i.e I'm not going to start eliminating things from my diet, but does anyone have any suggestions to help in de-gassing the wee one?

I am not currently breastfeeding. My chibling is five and a half, and nursed until she was three. I have experience getting reluctant kiddo's on the breast, and helping fix latching problems, and whatnot. I am not a LLL leader or anything like that.

I recently helped bring a lovely little girl into the world named Willow. Her mother and father are dear friends of mine. Willow was born with a minor cleft in her soft palate. With a very receeded chin, and a tongue that's too big for her mouth, all of it together adds up to her not being able to get on the breast. Added to that, the hospital has refused to release her yet, she was born a week ago tuesday, and has been giving her a pacifier (against the parent's wished) and feeding her formula with a Haberman bottle (really unavoidable unfortunatly). Now, Erin, the mother has been pumping like a fiend, and is producing mass quanties. But the NICU have Willow on a feeding SCHEDULE that makes it impossible for her to keep up. And Willow does NOT like the schedule AT ALL. (70 ml every three hours) THis is naturally very discouraging for Erin, to say the least.

But my question is, has anyone here any first hand experience breastfeeding a cleft baby? We have some information, (the NICU and doctors and whatnot and LC's at the hospital are ZERO help) but I'd really like some first hand input. The cleft is NOT severe, and is only in the soft palate. So far, everything else has checked out healthy. Erin IS putting Willow to the breast every chance she can get and letting her gum and suckle as well as she can while hand expressing into her mouth, even if it's only a few drops, but honestly, the way the NICU is going, they're practically torturing the baby. It's just awful. I wish I were exaggerating.

Anyway, any input would be greatly appriceated. Thanks!!

( picture of Willow so you can see it's not a cleft lip as wellCollapse )

Just a brief intro since I'm new to this community....I'm Lovonne, a sahm, 28 yrs old,military spouse who is still nursing on demand 12 month old, and just found I'm preggers this week with baby # 2. So, unless #1 self-weans will be tandem nursing.
?? How will that affect colostrum?? knowledge or experience very welcome

Please post here as to why you think you should be accepted into Boobie Boot Camp - consider this your ASVAB, then go join the community.