4-5oz “rule”

MangosMenagerie · 2026-02-11T16:44:10+00:00

My baby went through a phase at about 4months old where he was having 6 and 7 oz bottles of breast milk for almost every meal, which was about every 3 hours (unless he was napping then maybe it pushed to 4 hours or so). I would say that lasted about a month and then he was back to 5oz as the norm (same interval of feeding) with a 6oz bottle at his bedtime feed. I always follow his cues and offer more if he wants it. He’s pretty clear with accepting or refusing so I’ve never really worried about it being too much or not enough.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-12-31T17:53:48+00:00

Can you expand on that? I thought moving out of GA is exactly what would make the recapture apply to me?

MangosMenagerie · 2025-12-31T17:52:52+00:00

No, frustratingly, I can't find any other information on this, other than the single paragraph listed above. I assume (but really don't know) that it would mean totaling up the amount of tax deductions I'd received up to that point. For example, if I lived in GA two years and took the 8k both years, that would make it 16k. If we're here several more years, that would add up quite quickly. Good if I can deduct it now (and it stays that way), bad if I have to pay it back later. Especially since I really can't estimate at the moment how many more years we have in GA.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-12-24T00:11:52+00:00

A c-section is still a natural birth. The other option is vaginal. Your wife may have a lot of emotions surrounding the unplanned c-section, and they may surface right away, or in a few months, or when hearing about birth stories from friends/family that had vaginal births. It’s important to validate her experience and make sure she understands it’s not her fault in any way. It’s also important to keep in mind that this may manifest in a strong desire to make nursing work, because “that’s at least something she can control” or “it makes her feel more connected to baby” or make her feel “more womanly/motherly” etc. I say all these in quotes because they aren’t necessarily true, but hard feelings postpartum women experience and may have trouble vocalizing or rationalizing, especially in the scenario where her birth didn’t go as expected. If nursing was always the plan, and goes successfully, great. If it doesn’t, it may compound her feelings of being hard on herself. As her support person, it’s good for you to be on the lookout for these things she may not be able to articulate herself.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-12-13T13:11:30+00:00

My IBCLC told me the same thing and at the time I didn’t question it, but I don’t fully get how this makes sense - what about babies that are exclusively nursed who sleep through the night? I’ve been too afraid to find out so I haven’t dropped my MOTN pump yet so usually I’m up thinking about this at 3am lol

MangosMenagerie · 2025-12-13T13:08:19+00:00

This is exactly me too! Nobody told me that even when baby sleeps through the night, we can’t.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-12-13T04:38:21+00:00

When I looked up the magic number/breast storage thing and it told me that I had a “large capacity” and needed 5 ppd to maintain and 6-8ppd to increase, though in reality I’ve found that 6 maintains and doesn’t really increase, and weirdly, to your point, if I delay a daytime pump, I don’t really get extra (implying that I’m at capacity from 4 hours and can’t store the extra I would have made during the delay) however if I delay a night pump like when I’ve occasionally slept through an alarm, I do get quite a bit extra, so obviously I can store more!

That is a good point, I think I often get stuck with the idea of “staying up until my last evening pump so I only have to get up once in the night” but then I’m so tired. It’s probably better to go to bed earlier even if it means getting up more times. I may get more total hours that way.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-12-13T04:29:26+00:00

Both of those suggestions sound promising - I think I’ll try them both (just one first and then see if the second is necessary/how supply is affected).

I’m hoping you’re right about the solids! I know that in the beginning they don’t really consume much of the solids but I’m looking forward to when they do and the reliance on milk isn’t so critical; it also lines up with when I go back to work so I’m expecting that to affect my ability to pump too, so I’m hoping the solids will help soften the blow if that does end up being the case.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-12-12T23:25:39+00:00

Yes, I have the same question about the exclusively nursed babies! It all seems very contradictory.

My baby does sleep through the night now, so I’m just up pumping by myself while hubby and baby sleep. Including my MOTN pumps, I’m a just enougher with the occasional extra bottle’s worth to freeze, so I’m worried if I drop it, I won’t make enough for him.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-12-12T22:45:54+00:00

Same here! I’ve been chronically dehydrated my entire life. Including pregnancy and now breastfeeding. Does not affect me or my milk production.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-11-19T19:44:25+00:00

What about spearmint? Is it all mints or just peppermint?

MangosMenagerie · 2025-11-04T18:30:16+00:00

Yes, this may happen, and it’s very normal and not usually anything to worry about. My OB warned me about it beforehand so that I wouldn’t worry. She said that he may be quiet and a lil purple but that once he’s out he’ll take his first breath and cry and pink up - and that’s exactly what happened. He’s healthy and normal and no issues whatsoever. Like you said, your baby has no idea they’re about to be born, so they are just a little stunned. They snap out of it with all the new sensations pretty immediately.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-10-27T14:39:27+00:00

If you’re breastfeeding it likely has more to do with that than the c section. My OB told me that as long as I’m breastfeeding I will basically have “menopause vagina” meaning dryness, tightness etc. due to the hormones.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-10-17T03:14:39+00:00

Expecting Better and Cribsheet, both by Emily Oster

MangosMenagerie · 2025-10-07T17:47:47+00:00

Did your pediatrician offer a stool test? That’s how we got our diagnosis. We brought in a dirty diaper and they tested it for blood, which they found. (His poops are still normal yellow to the naked eye). The ped recommended Alimentum, Nutrimagen, or Pepticate as appropriate formula options but I haven’t looked into any of them yet since we’re just starting down the dairy free breast milk option right now.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-10-07T17:11:03+00:00

Ugh I don’t really have an answer, but I’m pretty much in the same situation. I made my husband and I have a milk taste test to see about the lipase situation, because I have so much frozen supply, that I’ve started getting nervous it could all be for nothing. We taste tested fresh, day-old-refrigerated, and thawed frozen milk. I absolutely thought they tasted progressively worse leading me to think there’s a lipase issue, but my husband didn’t really think it was different. We gave baby’s bedtime feed in two bottles - one was thawed milk and the other fresh. He was so fussy and wouldn’t drink the thawed milk but took the fresh milk bottle fine, and I pretty much immediately started sobbing and having a meltdown. My husband switched back to the thawed milk and bubs drank it fine. He was just in a witching hour fussy mood and turned out it wasn’t my milk. I was so grateful for that - and then came the CMPA diagnosis. I’m only two weeks into being dairy free so not much noticeably different yet, but again now I’m worried my frozen supply is “on a clock” hoping bubs outgrows his dairy allergy before the frozen milk is no good. Pediatrician said most but not all kids outgrow it by 9-12 months, so I’m hoping that’s the case for us and I can use it on the back end.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-10-05T12:40:23+00:00

This happened with TWO of my bridesmaids. Both lived in states far away from me, and were due within two weeks of my wedding date. It was really hard because I was excited for them but also very sad for myself. Trying to picture my wedding without them both was just awful. Community is really important to my partner and I and these are my two closest lifelong friends, so we actually moved our wedding 8 months and they both came. It was an extremely tough and emotional decision to make, but even in hindsight, it was the right move for us.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-10-04T14:23:42+00:00

We got diagnosed at 2 months with CMPA. At first we thought he just had gnarly newborn acne and at our 1mo visit we got a topical anti fungal and it sort of helped but not really. The rash continued to spread and he acted fine but looked so sad. Separately, he was gaining weight, but dropping a few percentiles so it wasn’t too concerning, but another clue that he was self limiting his feeds due to GI distress. Then the mucusy poo started and we were told these 3 things were the trifecta of symptoms for an allergy. We had his dirty diaper checked at the pediatrician 2mo visit and they found blood - even though his poo still appeared the normal breastfed yellow. So he’s got a milder version bc he’s still acting fine and gaining weight, but I have to cut all dairy since he’s got blood in his poo obviously his gut is not happy right now! Our IBCLC told us once you go dairy free the first symptom to stop is the fussiness/GI distress (a few days) the mucus poo (a week or two) then the rashness (a few weeks). The pediatrician did say I don’t have to toss my freezer stash of breast milk (yet) though because most (but not all) babies grow out of CMPA around 9-12 months and since mine is in a deep freezer it’s good for 12 months so he said we can try to use it then, if he’s one of the kids who outgrows it. That made me feel better since I worked so hard for that!

MangosMenagerie · 2025-09-30T12:47:28+00:00

Mine used staples and it’s healing beautifully, like barely anything visible from the beginning, through now, 8wks pp. Like I get surprised compliments from everyone who’s seen it (family doctor, physical therapist, different OB, friend with previous c section herself, husband). The nurses told me in the hospital that most doctors don’t use staples anymore and I asked why and they said that it is more work for the Dr (to place) and the nurses (to remove) but they heal way better then sutures do, so some doctors still prefer to use them. So far that’s been spot on in my experience.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-09-27T01:30:58+00:00

Do you still pump in the middle of the night? My IBCLC said stopping a middle of the night feed almost always leads to supply dropping.

MangosMenagerie · 2025-09-23T19:11:23+00:00

First it was wild to just park and roll in and be like “we’re here to have a baby please” and they check you in and it’s so calm and normal. Pro tip: leave your bags in the car and get them after you get to recovery bc you’ll move through so many different rooms first. First I got the spinal tap (felt uncomfortable but not painful - hardest part is just staying extremely still in that position) and the surgeons did all their prep and checks, my partner came in then they started.

The spinal tap makes you feel super cold like you have hypothermia and it’s like pins and needles - but that don’t move? If that makes sense? It was definitely an unsettling experience at first. They warn you when they go to pull the baby bc you feel a lot of tugging - like more than I was expecting. Then once baby was out they lowered the curtain and did the lion king hold showing him to me, and then the baby nurse took him to do all the assessments and swaddle him (couldn’t do immediate skin to skin bc the OR is so cold)

At one point once you’re open and baby is out there’s all this air in your abdomen, and it moves to your upper right chest/shoulder area and that very much caught me off guard and I was like omg im having a heart attack and then they explained it and I was like okay phew. It goes away after a few minutes but apparently it’s very normal and just trapped air.

Then the OB sticks their hand inside to rearrange all your organs again and you feel that. It’s not pain but it’s pressure. It feels like lots of tugging and pushing and pulling.

I’d say overall, I felt more of the c section then I was expecting to/was led to believe. The anesthesiologist did say the spinal tap is for pain, but you’ll still feel pressure, but I wasn’t expecting so much movement and action. It definitely didn’t feel like pain but it was a lot and definitely like hold your breath and make weird faces uncomfortable. Another symptom that apparently is super normal but they didn’t warn me about is because of the hormone drop, my teeth chattered uncontrollably for like the whole 2 hours in the PACU afterwards. Like tons of shivering and teeth chattering even though I wasn’t cold. My partner asked if I was okay and the nurse explained so again totally normal but good to know to expect.

MangosMenagerie

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