I remembered last night how worried I was about wind, baby pulling his legs up to his tummy and poos. Oh yes, those wonderful first few weeks of concern are just great fun, not.
As well as engorged and painful breasts, you'll find shit takes over your conversation. Or maybe your conversation just turns to shit ... I don't know.
Our first had horrendous problems with wind, although our second didn't suffer as much at all (maybe a sign that we were just left concerned, or a sign that they were just both different - I'm slightly edging towards the former theory, but anyway). Does baby cry, pull his legs up to his tummy, make lots of discomfort noises and then let out a little fart? We tried Infocol, gripe water, anything that might help. In the end, our doctor gave us the best anecdotal advice that worked wonders for us (although I haven't found anyone else willing to try it, however much they say their baby struggles with wind) - onion water. So, you roughly chop half an onion, place in small bowl and just cover with boiled water. Once it's cooled you can keep in fridge for 24 hours. Put a teaspoon in each feed and see the magic happen - boy, those noises will treble I can tell you! Amazing stuff. Farts and poo come at regular intervals - pretty awesome (although bloomin' smelly milk - don't be put off). Our poor first born was filled with Infocol before feeds, onion water during and gripe water after! Maybe it was this tri-potion that helped, or maybe his body just worked out how to deal with air over those first few weeks. Either way, by 10 weeks we were off it all and he was feeding well (albeit with lots of sick still).
Do you find baby is sick a lot? It's another 'please don't worry' moment - it's really common and although it may look A LOT to you, it isn't really. If you try to picture all that sick back in the bottle, 10/20mls would look like loads after it's been puked up. But if baby has had a 120mls bottle, they've still kept loads down. So do try and put it in perspective (however annoying that may sound). It goes back to the age old, is baby generally contended between feeds, are baby's nappies wet, is baby alert etc etc - in which case don't worry, he's fine - and give it another few days and the sickness will subside.
Oh yes, hindsight is a wonderful thing - with your first you'll find yourself worrying, panicking, being concerned about what's wrong with baby. And a few days later you'll find yourself saying 'oh, a tooth has come through - maybe that's why he was crying so much the other night', or, 'oh, baby has got d and v - maybe that's why he wouldn't eat as much yesterday' or somesuch! But with every one of these 'oh ...' moments, it'll add to your confidence and knowledge and will help with the next 'why is baby upset' or not doing something you think he should, so just go with it and enjoy each epiphany moment!
The other thing to mention here is it is perfectly common for some babies to poo 4 times a day and some to poo once every 4 days - if you have one of these extremes, don't worry - it's fine and perfectly normal. Don't get drawn into a comparison with other mummies - it'll drive you crazy.
And the boobs. Oh the boobs. Breast feeding or not they'll be huge by now. Enjoy the look (not the feel) as it won't last long. Gravity and sagging will soon take over. Buy Lanisol by the bucketload and layer the bloody stuff on after each feed. It's the only way to stop the cracking and soreness. And if you're lucky (?!) like me, you may even get bruised nipples for a while too - oh, that's a joy. Don't worry - that pain does go after a couple of days, but it's pretty crap whilst it lasts. Keep feeding through from that one - otherwise you'll get pain from full breasts - the former is the lesser of two evils. Tomorrow I'll go on to the exciting topic of mixed feeding - booby-feeding, single minded mummies may not want to read!
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