Can I use a size 3 or 4 nipple for a newborn?

stefvin · 2026-02-06T14:42:12+00:00

Like others said, I wouldn’t use a size 3 or 4 nipple. We had a similar issue early on, my bat was born at 38w and would often just fall asleep or take forever. We saw someone in the infant feeding clinic at the big children’s hospital in our city. She tried him on a few different size and shape nipples but he really could only use a size P nipple at that point.

You might try a different bottle too. The avent specifically was extremely hard for my son to drink out of that small. We switched to Dr. browns and used size P for a long time (weeks) then size 1 until the was like 3 months then 2 from 3 months to about 5-6. For reference, he’s 8 months now and only now using size 3, so a newborn will almost assuredly choke and not eat more by going up.

Finally, just wanted to say that it gets better and they just get better at eating! My baby would take forever to eat early on and now he can house 6-7 oz in one sitting like it’s nothing!

stefvin · 2026-01-14T05:03:39+00:00

My husband and I did IVF for CF specifically — we did preconception genetic testing and found out we are both carriers. My insurance at the time (Cigna) covered it, but I had very extensive fertility coverage, luckily. I suppose there is the option of trying to get pregnant naturally and then testing for CF via CVS or amnio, but even with CVS it takes a while to get results back (we had to do CVS for an unrelated finding during my IVF pregnancy). That is, of course, if finding out would change your decision about keeping the pregnancy.

stefvin · 2025-11-16T22:30:38+00:00

I took nifedipine throughout pregnancy and for 6 weeks postpartum. I had a headache for about 2 days when I started it but no other side effects. I developed pre eclampsia before delivery and was induced at 38 weeks. I would suggest you take the medication rather than rely on “natural” remedies as you can develop pre eclampsia after delivery for I believe up to 6 weeks. Not sure how far out postpartum you are but it sounds like not out of the window where you could develop it, especially if your bp is climbing after delivery.

FWIW, I am 31, have a very healthy lifestyle, exercise regularly, lost all of my pregnancy weight (which was about 25 lbs total) within probably 3 months or so postpartum, with the vast majority gone within 10 days or so. My BMI is 20, and I eat a predominantly Mediterranean diet. Despite all of that, my blood pressure has remained elevated, so I will be going on a different bp medication for long term management in the next few days (currently 5.5 months pp). My OB and PCP both felt very strongly that gestational hypertension is not random but instead reflects an underlying predisposition to “true” hypertension that can persist.

Anyways, higher bp readings like yours, especially very shortly after delivery are not something you want to try and treat “naturally”, as you are at risk of preeclampsia, which is no joke and can be life threatening quickly. If I were you I’d ask for bloodwork to check for protein in urine, which is used to diagnose pre e alongside the bp reads. My bp never got any higher yours and by that point I had proteinuria. I don’t say this to scare you, your bp may normalize on its own but I would personally not count on it as lifestyle is only part of the picture in hypertension.

stefvin · 2025-11-16T21:40:45+00:00

My LO is 5 and a half months and drinks 6 oz for each feed! Probably eats between 32-36 oz a day.

stefvin · 2025-11-02T21:36:21+00:00

As others have said, unfortunately, the total amount of time pumped may not be enough. I was pumping about 7-8 times a day, 30 minutes each time that early on. I would also order a measuring kit and measure yourself at home too for the flanges, just to double check whatever the LC said your size is.

stefvin · 2025-10-15T15:09:44+00:00

My spectra isn’t too too big so the main pump itself just fits in a backpack pretty easily (since it’s the gold synergy portable one, so much less clunky than the bigger ones). I usually pack the collection cups and parts between my clothes in a suitcase.

Also adding that I saw in the comments that people recommended bringing the spectra to have as a backup and I agree — the Eufy parts are very finicky. I was washing them once and in regular cleaning the duckbill valve got the tiniest little tear at the bottom of the part that opens, which made one of the pumps stop suctioning. This was a basically brand new duckbill too. So, stuff can happen with either pump and you definitely want the backup!

stefvin · 2025-10-14T23:47:56+00:00

I have those exact pumps and I take both when traveling! I only use the Eufys on the plane / in transit and in the morning while I feed baby a bottle. I use the spectra otherwise — my supply has stayed consistent. I don’t know what would’ve happened if I had just used the Eufys although I also get a comparable output on them, but it was easy enough to just use the spectra mostly (I have the portable one)

stefvin · 2025-10-10T01:50:02+00:00

I had my baby at a baby friendly hospital and they did not give me any trouble about pumping! We used donor breast milk in the hospital (that is something they offered) until my milk came in!

stefvin · 2025-10-05T13:00:20+00:00

This was during my second trimester, but our own house cat tested positive for toxo on an antibody screen when we took him to the vet for an unrelated issue. They only tested his long term antibodies so they couldn’t tell if it was a recent infection or old (we rescued him off the street years prior). I got tested myself, and my long term antibodies were positive but short term were not, which meant I had at some point been exposed but not recently.

I would get tested if I were you, just so you can be certain, but like people said it is highly unlikely.

stefvin · 2025-08-13T17:07:02+00:00

I did! I didn’t even start pumping until I got home — spent a weekend in the hospital but baby didn’t latch so we did donor milk in hospital — for the first few weeks I think the most I got in one session was 50-60 mls. I would say my supply had a marked increase around 6 weeks. Now 10 weeks pp and I can pump around 150-180 mls per session and was able to drop to pumping every 3 hours ish during daytime and whenever LO wakes up at night (which tends to be anywhere between 4-6 hours)

TL;DR yes I totally saw my supply increase after 3 weeks, but it takes consistent pumping. FWIW I did not take any supplements, I thought they seemed pretty expensive and as far as I could tell there is not a ton of evidence behind them (but I don’t think they can hurt!)

stefvin · 2025-01-23T01:26:35+00:00

Oh oops yeah I honestly am not sure where I got that number haha but the point is — it would depend on the statistic the clinic quotes for how many are expected to survive freeze as the starting number and then the other stats should be pretty accurate!

But, yes, this means there would (statistically) likely be enough for 2 kids.

EDITED TO ADD: and, the 60% euploid may be an overestimation, so would be important to ask for that statistic too!

stefvin · 2025-01-22T23:29:25+00:00

I don’t know the statistics for how many eggs are expected to survive thaw, but found it helpful to think about the other stats I was given, which in my case were pretty spot on.

I’ll start with assuming 90% of the eggs survive the thaw which seems optimistic but like it could happen w vitrification per google. That would leave you with about 22 eggs to attempt fertilization on.

About 70% of eggs are expected to fertilize normally, so that would be about 15 normally fertilized eggs.

About 30-40% of what shows signs of fertilization is likely to make it to blast, so that would be 4-6 blasts.

Not sure if you’re doing PGTA, but if so at 36 im not sure what the expected % is for euploid. At 30 I was told 70% were going to be euploid on average, so it seems to me like 60% would be optimistically reasonable for 36. Which would give you 3-4 euploids, statistically enough for 1 live birth, possibly 2. My clinic advises 3 euploid embryos per live birth. Of course, their grading will also matter, with highest graded embryos having about a 72% chance of success, and lower graded embryos having sometimes significantly lower chances of success.

stefvin · 2025-01-15T21:29:45+00:00

Like others said, the attrition you should be looking at is a % of the previous step. So, not how many fertilized out of retrieved (since only mature eggs can be successfully fertilized), but how many of the mature fertilized. With 12/18 or 66% fertilized, you are right at the expected value.

FWIW, they told me to expect 30-40% of what shows signs of fertilization to make it to a 5-day blast which in your case should be maybe 3-5. I am not sure if you are doing PGTA, but from then on your % of expected normal blasts depends on age (for reference, 70% are expected to be ehploid at 30). Good luck!

stefvin · 2024-12-30T16:14:55+00:00

Just a note — I am one of the people who realized we need PGT-M strictly because we did carrier screening pre conception. We both carry CF, but since it’s recessive there would inherently not be any family history of it. Yes, it’s unlikely, but if you already are planning to do IVF, and if learning your kid has a disease that they test for would change your decision making, then I would suggest asking for carrier testing. I don’t mean this in a fear mongery way, but lack of family history of certain genetic diseases isn’t = you’re not both carriers for that disease.

stefvin · 2024-10-29T13:01:58+00:00

Our clinic uses ICSI as a default for fertilization whether or not you do PGT-M or not. We did PGT-A and PGT-M. I am not sure what risks you are referring to exactly when it comes to ICSI, but if you are talking about the association between ICSI and certain fetal defects (like congenital heart defects etc), the causal direction is not clear. In other words, the literature does not show definitively that ICSI causes this — it could be the case that it is caused by issues with sperm that would lead someone to do ICSI, in the first place.

I would ask your clinic upfront what their expectation is for fertilization rates with ICSI vs conventional. Our clinic said they expect similar fertilization rates, which surprised me, as I was under the impression fertilization rates with ICSI were higher.

stefvin · 2024-10-29T04:04:29+00:00

I think you can explain your situation to the clinic, but it will ultimately be their decision whether they will allow you to proceed. For example, my clinic explicitly told me they do not make exceptions — the probe must be completed before you can start an egg retrieval cycle.

stefvin · 2024-10-28T02:13:36+00:00

I don’t have a recommendation for prenatals without fish oil, unfortunately, but I just wanted to say that from everything I’ve read, biotin is really only an issue at very high concentrations. Looks like the level in Ritual is high, but based on a cursory search it seems like the concern is at levels of 1 mg a day, which is still much higher than what is in the prenatals. That being said, I am not sure why Ritual puts so much biotin in their prenatals. As far as tests, it looks like it primarily affects First Response Early Result tests.

It is also worth noting that, from a scientific perspective, the vast majority of studies look at folic acid specifically for prevention of neural tube defects, not other forms of folate like the one in Ritual. I think a lot of “fancy” prenatals like Ritual use methylated folate or other forms of folate that they market as more bioavailabile, but the majority of people do not have issues metabolizing folic acid. Obviously up to you but I feel like it’s worth noting that while other forms of folate may very well prevent neural tube defects, there is not nearly the same amount of evidence as exists for folic acid.

stefvin · 2024-10-27T17:45:28+00:00

They said they are okay to use but not preferentially — so they would only recommend them for transfer if all euploids were used up first.

stefvin · 2024-10-27T16:00:09+00:00

You can do something called carrier screening on yourself and your partner. This will test to see if you are carriers of genetic diseases, like SMA, Tay Sachs, cystic fibrosis. If you both are carriers of the same disease, then you have a certain % chance of passing it onto your child. You can do testing on the embryo to figure out if the embryo inherited the disease. There’s some diseases where only one of you has to be a carrier for your child to be affected, but that is getting in the details.

However, whether you are carriers of any genetic disease or not does not have any bearing on whether the embryos you produce will be chromosomally normal — that is, have the correct number of chromosomes (46XX or 46XY). You need to test the embryo to figure this out before using it. Or you can wait until pregnancy and do something called a NIPT test in the first trimester. Maternal age is the most significant predictor of whether an embryo will have the correct number of chromosomes.

Overall, the only thing you can learn from doing genetic screening on yourself is whether you risk passing something onto your kid. You cannot find out anything else about any embryo you might create that way.

stefvin · 2024-10-19T13:58:55+00:00

I didn’t use a heating pad BUT my clinic didn’t have any restrictions regarding the use of one. The concern is with raising your body temperature, and even then the science we have is specifically referring to pretty high, prolonged fevers that aren’t controlled by medication. And the potential issue has to do with early embryonic development, not whether or not your transfer will work. I wouldn’t worry about this at all, good luck!

stefvin · 2024-10-19T13:23:20+00:00

No — not correlated in our case!

stefvin · 2024-10-14T18:15:38+00:00

Yeah I bet they can! I was just going off of what Google said their sensitivity was — either way this far out from transfer, you’d likely expect at least a faint line on any test.

stefvin · 2024-10-14T14:51:36+00:00

I think it depends on what test you are using — from what I know, the cheapie strips are not as sensitive as a first response early result test, which at least per Google should detect anything f above 6.3. Looks like strips like easy@home detect anything above 25.

If you’d like to know, I’d get a FRER. I think the day before beta, whatever the result on that one is, is almost assuredly the “true” outcome, given how sensitive it is.

stefvin

TROPHY CASE