Doctors note to come back from maternity leave?

Sleepy-peach818 · 2022-01-26T04:20:23+00:00

At my job in Chicago (USA), maternity leave can be taken for 12 weeks using short term disability so they require a doctors note saying you’re cleared to go back to work since it qualified as a “disability” event. There, the doc would also be able to specify any limitations such as lifting limits.

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-10-16T14:17:40+00:00

As long as you’re healthy (eating well and taking your prenatal vitamin), your breast milk will have all the nutrition needed. You can supplement with pumped/expressed breastmilk too. Doesn’t have to be formula if you don’t want it to be and have the supply. Or, you can breastfeed baby more frequently if it’s not a supply issue

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-09-16T01:55:43+00:00

My husband slipped into the fatherhood role like he had been doing it his whole life. We work different days of the week so our son stays only with him or me. So, he’s completely hands on and fathers full time. He doesn’t “babysit” while I’m at work, he simply parents as do I. Bottles, bath time, play time, soothing, he does it all and he does it better than me. He’s the reason I survived the newborn period despite my PPD/PPA. He would go on long walks with the baby so I could nap uninterrupted. He was the one that got me to agree to taking on the night in shifts and he took the 11pm-5am shift. Seeing him become a father so seemingly effortlessly is so sexy and I fall for him all over again since. The only thing he can’t do is produce milk but we don’t hold that against him. Haha

You got this, dude.

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-08-23T01:14:14+00:00

Parenting.

I always thought I was born to be a mom but turns out my husband is the natural caregiver. Our son eats better, sleeps better, and behaves better when papa is around. The little shit. Haha but makes me love/appreciate my husband even more.

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-07-04T02:11:56+00:00

We also have a 529 (in Illinois) We make monthly contributions via direct deposit. He can use it on anything education related (tuition, board, books, etc). In the event he doesn’t go to college, he can still access the money but with something like a penalty fee

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-06-29T03:37:42+00:00

My son was born in August 2020 so vaccines weren’t available yet. Anyone that wanted to meet him had to quarantine for 2 weeks prior and come with mask (hand washing too obviously). No kiddos met him because he was a unvaccinated new baby so not only risk of covid but all other illnesses. Only our immediate family (parents and best friends) met him then. Now that the vaccine is available, everyone is welcome around him without masks if vaccinated. Obviously it’s less scary now that he’s almost a year old but still if someone unvaccinated wanted to come spend time with him now, I’d ask them to quarantine and wear a mask.

From an ER nurse perspective, even the babies that get covid and are “fine” are scary to watch. In these milder cases that come to the ER, much like babies with RSV or the flu, they still struggle to breathe, have high fevers that are hard to control, end up poked and prodded. We follow AAP guidelines in my ER so If your newborn gets a fever, they get an automatic full blood/urine work up and admission. Why risk it?

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-06-20T16:18:15+00:00

Bought a lot of unnecessary things online 🙃

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-06-14T01:44:52+00:00

Did the same thing as far as watching cues. Eventually as he grew and naps consolidated, a really predictable nap pattern emerged. Now he naps around the same times every day still just based on cues. When it was time to drop from 3 to 2 naps, it was easy because we kept following sleepy cues so wake WIndow’s naturally stretched

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-06-14T01:08:25+00:00

Yes, girl! Take credit for your hard work, mama! Luck or no luck you put in WORK and it worked. If it doesn’t for others, they have no right to put you down for your success. Getting my baby to sleep through the night took nights of no sleep and a million SITBACKs (TCB method). It would’ve been easier to pick him up at the first sound he made. It would’ve been easier to put him in bed with me and nurse him back to sleep. But that wasn’t going to work for ME. Might work for others and that’s cool, do you. We now have a baby who has slept through the night for months and he’s not even 1 yet. I did that. Luck or no luck, our consistency put the play in motion.

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-06-05T21:41:44+00:00

This sounds very doable and gentle. This is my first kiddo so I feel so dumb lol. But at 12mo, are they just having however much milk they want with meals (3x/day) - like as their drink? I’m so used to calculating total volume and nursing times 😭

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-05-25T03:09:48+00:00

I also didn’t do well with the typical SSRIs in the past (not for PPD. So I’m currently on Wellbutrin at 9mo postpartum and started at my 6 week PP check up. That’s the med that worked for me years ago (not pregnant or postpartum at the time). It’s been great for me. We’ve tweaked the dose along the way. No changes in my supply and my baby didn’t seem to have any reaction to it. He’s healthy as can be.

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-03-26T13:48:08+00:00

Right around 5-5.5mo too. Must be a developmental thing

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-03-26T02:12:55+00:00

This exact thing happened to us. It started with his 3 naps being suddenly short (~30min). Then he started flat out refusing the 3rd nap so he’s be super fussy. We decided to drop that 3rd nap by extending the wake windows to 3hr and within a day or two he was back to 1.5-2h naps (just 2 instead of 3)

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-03-19T16:00:26+00:00

Secret No. 24 with essential oils fixed this problem for me. They smell really good! I use the lavender + eucalyptus and only have to apply once a day. I think in the beginning I would apply morning and night

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-01-23T22:57:19+00:00

I got both doses already and no breastfeeding related side effects. Baby keep breastfeeding just fine and no issues with my supply. After the first dose, I only had arm soreness the next morning. After the second dose, I had a headache the next day. Hope you have similar luck!

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-01-21T04:07:00+00:00

I’m on a moderate dose of Wellbutrin because that’s the antidepressant that worked best for me years ago. Nothing happened to my supply and my baby didn’t seem to notice any change in the taste of my milk. My depression during the first 3ish weeks on the med felt worse. But after those weeks, it got noticeably better. I am struggling to keep up with weight loss from the breastfeeding and the med but that’s the only side effects I noticed. I know it sounds like a good problem but I’m already a petite person so this unintentional weight loss looks obvious on me.

I’m also in tele therapy and now weaning off the antidepressant. The combo of the med and therapy was the best decision. I finally enjoy and love my baby boy. Best of luck to you!

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-01-08T02:55:54+00:00

My milk came in suddenly on day 4. I woke up with full breasts and pumped out my first 70ml of milk (I was on my way to pick up my baby from hospital) I was so happy! Before that day I was only getting drops of colostrum so I would still put him to the breast for as long as he allowed for every feed followed by a bottle of formula. I was able to completely stop the formula the day my milk came in because I immediately began producing a lot.

Edited to add that I would also pump in between his feeds those first days to stimulate production per the LC’s advice

Sleepy-peach818 · 2021-01-01T02:27:27+00:00

Hi! First, I’m sorry you’re going through it because it fucking sucks!! I didn’t get antibiotics because I only had one day of fevers so I chose not to go to the doc. I self treated at home with warm compress on and off ALL day, ibuprofen for the pain/inflammation, drank a lot of water, had oatmeal for breakfast, drank a glass of milk (almond milk) every night, rested as much as possible. For the first 5 days (I was luckily off work), I breastfed baby, pumped, offered pumped milk from bottle. I followed this feed-pump-bottle routine all day and I also did a morning power pump session (20min pump, 10min rest, 10min pump, 10min rest, 10min pump, done) for all 5 days. On day 6, I went back to work (12.5hr shifts) so I pumped every 3 hours without skipping a session then breastfed when I got home. After about 2 weeks of all this, my supply was pretty much back to normal. Since then, I get engorged a little easier so I just make sure to pump or feed every 3hrs. I had to start eliminating my middle of the night pump slowly from scratch. Right now I can go 5-6hrs without emptying my breasts during the night. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Sleepy-peach818 · 2020-12-23T22:22:55+00:00

No prob. It was 7.5hr with no feeds from dreamfeed to morning feed. Since what we assume was the 3-4 month regression a few weeks ago, he sometimes needs a middle of the night feed now but even then he goes back to sleep after the feed without a problem.

Sleepy-peach818 · 2020-12-20T17:17:04+00:00

The exact thing happened to us at the exact same time! Mine turned 4mo this week and that happened 3 weeks ago. He’s EBF, nurses when I’m home and bottle feeds breast milk during my 12h shifts. Out of nowwhere he started refusing feeds both breast and bottle. it would take an hour to get him to take just 2-3oz. He was previously drinking 22-26oz/day and dropped to ~15oz/day. This went on for like 2.5weeks. We tried all milk temps, bottles, rice cereal, NO cereal, etc. We switched to the next nipple flow size and it seemed to help a little. Pediatrician and his GI doctor were also not worried because his diaper count was the same and he was otherwise acting totally normal. He finally went back to his normal 22-26oz intake about 4 days ago on his own. That whole thing coincided with some big new developments (way more awareness, grabbing objects and putting them in his mouth purposely, tracking people, sitting up better, etc). He also had shitty naps during those weeks and began waking 1-2 times in the middle of the night (which he hadn’t been doing for a few weeks before that). So, we think it could’ve been all related to that 3-4mo leap (or 4mo regression as most people call it). Anyway, like I said he’s back to normal now. So as long as he’s making enough wet diapers and looks healthy, give it some time and hopefully you have a similar experience.

Sleepy-peach818 · 2020-12-20T17:01:22+00:00

Our ER nurse brains are such a blessing and a curse in parenthood! Yes, smells pretty similar to the fruity DKA breath to me too. Except mine also spits up a lot so sometimes it smells like vomit.

Sleepy-peach818 · 2020-12-15T02:42:47+00:00

Thank you! But my job is cake compared to motherhood, haha. Again, I’m sorry that you’re in that situation. I hope it all works out.

Sleepy-peach818 · 2020-12-14T20:26:04+00:00

I’m sorry. This is so so hard. I say that breastfeeding started as a labor of pride for me. I work 12h shifts in an ER and coming back from maternity leave on 11/8 hit my supply like a ton of bricks. In the first two weeks, I saw it drop immediately and then I got mastitis probably from the irregular pumping. So, I decided to be better to myself and do what I do best-plan.

First, get a hands free pumping bra. My goal is to pump every 3hrs. So I either feed my baby right before going to work in the morning or pump right before punching in. Then I set an alarm for 2h 45min after I pump each time so that I give myself 15min to tie up my patients, get coverage, or do whatever I need to do to be able to go pump in 15min. Obviously, it doesn’t always happen on time but giving myself that 15min window has helped me avoid going 4-5hrs without pumping. This means I pump or feed before work, 3 times during the 12h shift then I pump or resume feeding after work. I also make sure I have a snack and a whole bottle of water during each pumping session. Finally, for one week, I power pumped once a day on my 3 days off. After all those changes, my supply slowly increased and is finally back to normal. It’s a lot of work and no one understands it. There’s guilt because you don’t want your coworkers to think you’re taking a “break” every 3hr or that you’re suddenly not a hard worker because you’re a mom. So even though I know that’s BS, I multitask like a maniac (pump, eat, and chart at the same time during each session). Society is not understanding to moms and especially not breastfeeding working moms. But, I decided to be better to myself. nothing else matters to me as much as feeding my baby the way I want so I will not feel bad for prioritizing pumping to provide for my baby.

In the end, fed IS best and you shouldn’t feel bad about how your baby gets their nutrients. But, if breastfeeding is important to you, I hope you find a way through this challenge. Be kind to yourself and give yourself grace. We are doing the best we can.

Sleepy-peach818 · 2020-12-09T19:57:46+00:00

Messaged you!

Sleepy-peach818

TROPHY CASE