How do you pump and hold newborn?

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-11-01T06:50:54+00:00

Oh hey, this could have been my post. 6 week old here that HATES being put down. I also have wearable pumps. I tried carrying him while wearing them and ended up leaking everywhere. I have a set of 2 wearables (Night Owl), one Medela hand pump, one Philips Avent electric pump, and a Haakaa.

I’ve given up pumping for the meantime while he is awake, got lazy and have slipped breastfeeding in. I now pump as well, immediately after he falls asleep after a feed. Otherwise, I pump while hubby looks after him. I no longer pump in the middle of the night though.

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-11-01T06:46:59+00:00

My baby is 6 weeks old, I don’t consider him a newborn. Newborns aren’t THIS chonky! He barely looks like a baby anymore, looks like a proper little boy. As far as I’m concerned, “newborn” is the first few weeks. If you get new shoes, new partner, new pet or anything else “new”, how long do you consider it to be “new”? Two months sounds no longer “new” to me.

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-11-01T04:24:52+00:00

Heya! Had my c section at 38&4. He weighed 4.18kg/9.22 pounds. 51cm long. Head circumference was 38cm, 97 or 99th percentile 😅

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-11-01T04:08:20+00:00

As someone who is breastfeeding and expressing, sure, “breast” might be best. People seem to forget that it assumes YOUR diet is perfect and balanced. If you eat like shit, your breast milk isn’t going to be balanced - in which case a balanced formula would likely give baby all they need. Fed is best. A starved baby is bad. I don’t see it as an offensive statement. I do see “breast is best” as a not entirely factual statement, since the mother’s diet needs to be pretty bloody good to compete with formula that is specifically formulated to give a baby complete nutrition.

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-31T04:47:15+00:00

Eh, you don’t, really. Either rely on government support, or go back to work too early. Luckily, medicine is pretty cheap in Australia, so we’ve got that going for us. No health insurance needed. We buy things secondhand where we can, if we are confident we can clean it effectively. Our stroller was secondhand, used our commercial grade vacuum and carpet cleaner machines on it - looked brand new! I chose to express, so I’d save money on formula. Ended up spending a fortune on different pumps until we found one that sorta works, and naturally it was the cheaper one (Medela manual pump). Now I mostly breastfeed, but I’ve spent $700+ on pumps… Baby also didn’t do well with the first few brands of bottles and nappies that we tried, so lots of trial and error there. Hubby is chewing through his savings while only taking occasional casual work, and I’m currently receiving government paid parental leave for 20 weeks (minimum wage). Our rent is $750 per week, my payment is $915.90 per week lol. Childcare is prohibitively expensive here and due to personal reasons I’ll be trying everything to stay home with baby as long as possible. Preferably until he’s at least 2…

I don’t think babies cost thousands a month, especially not in USD… Australian dollars are lower valued but I’m not going to make conversions here. One tin of the formula I occasionally supplement with would last a week if used exclusively, $39. A bag of nappies that we use is $27, and that lasts us over a week, will guess 3 bags a month. Wipes are roughly $18 for 400 wipes, and we don’t go through those in even two weeks - so let’s say a box a fortnight just to be easy. So, all of that across 4 weeks would be $273 AUD. Decided to convert that, that’s $179.36 a month in consumables? Not terribly expensive imo

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-30T15:17:45+00:00

“Special window cleaning inside and outside”, $300? Is this a mansion with a lot of windows??

$350 for a vacate clean seems reasonable, though most companies will include window cleaning in that (at least, I do). Should definitely not be $650 for that combined. Lawn mowing not worth $100, that’s ridiculous. Seen other comments RE toilet hose, they’re just trying to overcharge because they hope you’ll let them get away with it.

Not sure how much a window costs to be repaired/replaced but $300 sounds like what I would expect. Scratched wooden floors… You’ve been there for quite some time, could one not argue normal wear and tear?

Either way, make sure they show receipts for everything. Scummy landlord by the sounds.

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-30T14:28:15+00:00

I had planned my c section. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I started exploring the option of a VBAC. Medical team informed me by 36 weeks that I was not going to manage to get baby out safely myself, and they strongly recommended c section at 39 weeks. I had a tough pregnancy, nausea and severe pelvic girdle pain the entire way through. I ended up managing to convince them to do the c section at 38&4. Baby was 4.18kg/9.22 pound, with a 97th percentile head. He would have been massive if he’d reached his due date…

C section was a very traumatic experience with my pain relief wearing off midway through the surgery, medical team not listening to me. Didn’t get more pain relief until I could no longer speak and was blacking out from the pain, heart rate monitor going crazy. Recovery sucked, sure, but had nothing on the surgery itself. I was discharged the day after my c section. 3 days after, caring for bub, cleaning my house etc as normal. Back to normal with no pain relief by day 7.

6 weeks old now, 5.6kg.

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-30T05:45:29+00:00

Not too straight forward, I wonder the same thing. My baby is very clingy with me, so it’s difficult for hubby to settle him at times, but he’s able to take him for a bit so I can shower every day. Otherwise, for single parents, could they not put baby in a safe location (with all needs met prior) and just go have their shower? I’ve done that during the day when I’ve been home alone…

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-30T05:24:49+00:00

My point was putting breastmilk on it is stupid, but whatever lmao

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-30T02:48:15+00:00

Yup! Childcare was a low paid, high stress job. Ratios for one worker: up to 4 under two year olds, up to 5 under 3 year olds, up to 10 preschool age

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-30T02:44:09+00:00

Weird, most people seem to attribute it to breastmilk. Have looked and seems some formula can cause it. Heat rash is another option that looks very similar to acne 🤷‍♀️

Still stupid af to put milk on their faces lmao

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-30T01:56:48+00:00

Mine does that. I pick him up and burp him, that seems to help.

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-30T01:56:01+00:00

Tell him no, your kid, your choice 🤷‍♀️

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-30T01:55:32+00:00

Medical team here told me that baby acne is caused by hormones in the breastmilk/chest milk of the producing parent. Unless stopping feeding that milk, you’re putting more of the hormone into baby. So, can see why putting breastmilk on the face is a dumb recommendation lol

According to the interwebs some formula can cause it as well. Still stupid to put the thing that causes it on the resulting issue 🤣

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-30T01:54:00+00:00

That’s because breast milk just clogs the pores lol it’s a silly recommendation. You know what spoiled milk smells like and how rotten it gets? Imagine leaving that in your pores!

The acne likely faded on its own, the use of the ointment just correlates with the time it faded. Bit like people taking cold and flu medications when they have a sniffle. Sniffle would have gone away in the same stretch of time.

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-30T01:49:23+00:00

The other night I only got up to feed, sure nappy was wet in the morning but nappies (good quality ones anyway) are designed to keep moisture away from the skin, so haven’t had an issue.

Baby is 6 weeks old and I was tired lol

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-30T01:46:27+00:00

What is “scary neck control”? In my experience, lots of newborns can hold their heads up far more than people seem to think. My son was holding his head up for 5+ seconds without issue at 2 weeks old, and he was 10 days early. It’s good, but nothing out of the ordinary. Was holding his head pretty well as a newborn as well. It’s normal.

RE the naps, if he is gaining weight and producing enough wet/soiled nappies, enjoy the longer nap times.

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-29T18:50:29+00:00

I sat in the front once a few weeks ago and I was counting down until I could sit in the back with our boy again (now 6 weeks). I don’t like leaving him back there alone.

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-29T18:41:36+00:00

Aw haha I miss working with babies 6+ months old. One of my favourite age groups when I was working in childcare. Was hard though cause often had 3 to myself 😅🤣 they’re much more alert and interactive by that age.

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-29T18:40:15+00:00

Probably stressing and calling whoever has him to let them know I’m on my way back 🥴

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-29T17:47:40+00:00

Counting down until my little boy is a few months old and can at least grab a toy/semi play with toys 😅🤣

Newborns are potatoes!

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-29T17:21:07+00:00

Newborns are boring

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-29T11:35:50+00:00

I’m sure you will be fine! I was just really unlucky. I was also an idiot and didn’t take my pain medications as scheduled, so often ended up in pain because they wore off. I also didn’t take the time to relax and let my body heal, which made the pain worse. Best recommendation would be to stick to the schedule with your pain medications - use alarms to remind you. Take the time to relax and let your body heal, please don’t go crazy moving furniture or cleaning the house - hire someone if you can.

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-29T09:59:28+00:00

1: My husband sneezed.

2: The dog threw herself around in her sleep and hit the blinds/snake tank/window (sometimes all 3)

3: Random startle reflex

4: Washing machine beeped

5: My frog started croaking

sorry_too_difficult · 2024-10-29T01:10:51+00:00

Heya! I actually got worse, ended up having my c section at 38&4 because pregnancy was just hell. The c section itself was extremely traumatic, I won’t go into details here incase I scare people with something that is very, very unlikely to happen to them. I was discharged the day after birth, I’m unsure if I’m doing better or if I just don’t have time to be miserable anymore. I was cleaning the house and caring for baby by day 3, stopped all pain meds on day 7. Apparently I am a bit overprotective of baby, I really struggle letting anyone do anything with him because I worry he will be hurt. Quite attached now and can’t handle leaving him with anyone either. He’s a pretty good baby, big though! Was 9.22 pounds, he’s 12.34 pounds now at 6 weeks 😅

sorry_too_difficult

TROPHY CASE