GinaG3

Aw well done you. It makes you feel really proud doesn't it? sustaining your babies life outside the womb is astonishing. Agree with Molly, thats also one of my favourite things. Even more so now at 20 months. Or when she laughs and we get a milk fountain - hilarious! First time I fed in public I did it in the middle of Dulwich Park under a tree where people could see but not loads of people. I built up my confidence from there. All the way up to packed out number 12 buses and 185's. Do it, do it, do it! Muslins are great for draping over your shoulder to begin with, then by the time you get to where we are now she just pulls it out anywhere - embarrassing sometimes but hey what the hell, she loves it! My motto for public feeding - If at first you don't succeed try, try, try again!

Aw, thats brilliant news. I'm very pleased its working better for you. Continue as you are, your doing just fine by the sounds of it. If any more issues arise feel free to PM me, I will be more than happy to help all that I can. Infact this has put a smile on my face for the first time today - I'm all full of flu and feeling soOoOo crap to say the least!! I'm laughing about the cabbage, you set yourself up there if you were the only one to smell it!! For the next months you can still blame everything on pregnancy though so its fine. All the best. x BTW - Did your funnel arrive?

Hey buggie How are you getting on today? Finding things a bit easier now? Hope you are well. x

She is actually mastering already, she has got across our rather long living room. Want to find her a helmet before we attempt the park, as she has a tendency to fall over. She gets too excited at the prospect of the park and knows her way to the swings already! Its nice to watch them scoot though, little clever clogs they are!!

We are now scoot ready. John Lewis delivered this afternoon. How the hell do you teach a 'younger than recommended' child to scoot? She understands one foot on the floor and one on the scooter and she did 2 'scoots' but then gave up and keeps trying to balance on it (2 feet on) and almost falling off. And worst of all, she has done it before and did it straight away. How for the hard bit..

Do you use the rugby hold? Are you comfortable with it, if so? Mothercare are rubbish sometimes, but where they fail Boots succeed I believe. Perfect to try expressing in the bath, good plan. Have a nice relaxing time. BTW - You can also keep cabbage leaves in the freezer, or put them in there 5 minutes before you need to use one. Advice is always on tap if needed, I must say I love my job. Appreciated that its appreciated! Haha.

Buggie I would definitely try something bigger to support under your breasts. Maybe try a rolled up hand towel instead? Do you wear properly fitted nursing bras too. You can get specific ones for larger breasts that provide ultimate support, expensive but worth every penny I hear. Ask midwives to show you rugby hold if you haven't been shown before, this could be the solution to your problem! Hope it goes well, feel free to PM me if you need to know anything else or want anymore advice. I check here a good few times a day. Are you awaiting the personal fit kit for your Medela? Hope that makes pumping easier for you too. x

I would try rescue remedy, thats safe to take and is safe for babies to take too. I used this in the first weeks of breastfeeding and had no problems whatsoever. The do a sleep one too, instead of the yellow label is purple. You may want to try that also. Hope you can get a better night sleep :)

Have you tried to roll up a blanket and place it under your breast for support? This will allow you to see the latch and positioning better too. Also have you been shown the football/rugby hold? You may find this easier as a lot big breasted women do. Tried feeding laying down? Another tip for feeding with large breasts! Trying to feed unsupported you will probably find pressure being put on the babies chin resulting in a less effective latch. Don't worry about hyperactivity, not heard of breastmilk causing that effect. She will soon fall asleep, lots to take in within these first few days. Its probably more to do with her adjusting to life outside the womb. Personally I had a baby that slept 22 hours a day and had to be woken for every single feed. Nightmare! She was a lazy one.. Are you taking time to nap during the day yourself? I hope so. Don't feel like you cant, housework is less important than your energy right now & breastfeeding in these early weeks can be hard to get your head around at first. Hope this can be a little more help.

Hi buggie, congratulations on the birth of your baby. I am a trained breastfeeding counselor and have had experience of poor/inconsistent latch with my own daughter. I advise you to continue to try feeding as much as possible from the right side and hand express if you feel your getting full. Have you tried C-hold to make the latch a little easier for baby? To do so try holding your thumb just above your areola with your index and all other fingers placed underneath the breast further back from the areola. By doing this you then allow your nipple to raise (toward the ceiling if you like) a little more and try to bring the baby as close as possible (tummy to tummy with back as straight as possible and head slightly back). If you rub babies nose with your nipple this will hopefully make your baby open her mouth wider for a more effective latch. You can also place your thumb on the babies chin and try and show her how to open her mouth a little wider. Sorry if you've been through all this already just trying as best as I can to help with your situation. I can sympathize totally, but you sound like your doing a great job already! If you feel you can get out, Peckham breastfeeding cafe is running tomorrow 10-12 and they will be more than happy to help. They are brilliant with latching techniques. Happy to help in any way that I can.

I had the same problem. Its great now just took a few weeks to settle. We waited around 2-3 weeks before it got better. We still don't get proper speed but we are only about 3mb short of it.

2am is a bit extreme for a child to be running around is it not? We live in a flat with a near 2 year old, its hard to stop her running about making noise, so what do you do? (Sorry to my neighbour downstairs, she has 2 young children of her own so obviously knows what its like) It certainly doesn't happen at 2am though. Children I can handle, the children upstairs fight and fight crashing and banging everywhere but the parents are worse. Young children cannot be helped, do you cage them up and suspend them above the floor so they cant be running and jumping around. I just don't know?! When you have adults upstairs fighting and playing music until 3am thats when it gets tedious. I can hear every single word of their arguments every night, this can be helped!! Its a annoying situation but I'm unsure what you could do about it. Cuncil wont take a noise complaint about a child running round will they?

Thank you everybody. Scooter it is then. Funny how today we went to the park and there were about 8/9 just sat there, she didn't bat an eyelid, apart from to say 'scoot scoot'. Maybe the thieving has stopped now she saw me looking up a 'reen' one on John Lewis. Don't you know Santa disguises as mummy and shops online at JL and also can be spotted in September!! All advice much appreciated, if you see a verrry small person on a 'reen scoot scoot' soon, please feel free to jump out the way in any dramatic motion..

I always wash with non-bio anyway as I have sensitive skin, definitely wash baby clothes in non-bio too. Always wash things fresh from the shop, you never know how far its been kicked round the floor etc even if it doesn't look like it has, also germs from other people looking and holding the garment.

Oh yeah there was another thread about pillows a few days ago, there may be some more advice for you there.

Sorry no advice on dropping feeds my daughter is still fed to sleep at nearing 20 months so I'm no expert on that one. On the pillow front. I gave my daughter a pillow from 1 year albeit a extremely thin one. I would wait a little while longer, they do advise not to use pillows before 1 year (same goes for duvets I think?), I believe although I could be wrong. Every baby is different of course it comes down to your instinct as a mother too, you know your child best. Personally I would wait another 3 months though.

It appears they all do Molly. Kids get very defensive of theirs in the park. Right on them too, the cost a small fortune although that reason doesn't cross their minds but the reason of love does. Must practice my STOPPPP!!! voice then I suppose. Ohh a whistle now theres an idea, or maybe not, no. You can get lots of little things to put on them, maybe a little bell for 'ding ding'. Oh my, parenting is fun!

I didn't even think of the mowing down, silly considering we nearly got mowed down about 8 times the other day in the park. I can teach her that though its fine, she is a very good learner and careful too. Hopefully they carry on selling the limited edition colors for a little while yet, the green ones have got me (and her!) jumping for joy! Looks like maybe I will scoot scoot instead.. I'm now wondering what I'm letting myself in for when she scoots off and I cant catch her. "Weeeee" as she would say! Although there is the possibility of her being able to scoot round the park after me and Daddy on our run, if that plan ever kicks in *yawn*

Yes, your daughter sounds like my own. I suspect she will just scoot off as soon as she sees it come out of the box. But if not, I suppose it can be saved for later on. She is a confident walker, or should I say runner like she ever walks anymore! Thank you for your insight into scooting, just what I wanted to hear. Most kids I see on them are younger than 3 anyway, clever little people..!

Ha. Well as the title says how old was your child when they got to grips with scoot scooting.. My daughter is nearing 20 months and for the last 5 months has been obsessed with scooters, she tries to steal them in the park (so beware!!), always trying to get on someone else's and ride off into the sunset. They recommended from 3 years do they not? I was thinking she would love one for Christmas, but would she get to grips with scooting? I suppose practice makes perfect. Anyway, what is the perfect scooting age please?

Thank you once again for all your advice. Day 5 now and I've woke without headache normally I hit day 14 at least so this is a bit too good to be true, such relief though. Crossing my fingers and toes that it doesn't come back during the day as I have a well deserved night out on the cards tonight, hopefully I don't have to let anyone down! Episodes are 4 months apart usually so hopefully I can breathe easy for the next weeks months. Thank you for all your advice it has been really useful, I knew there would be headache sufferers out there somewhere. Wondering now whether headaches will become less intense once my daughter is fully off the breast, cant see this happening for another year or so though.. Got to stick it out and hopefully it will be worth it in the end. Definitely see doctor over the next few days as cant do with not being able to function with a very active (and loud) toddler!

Hi Bishberro, Glad you feel reassured by others comments. I sympathize completely it must be a horrible worry to see something like that. I'm with buggie on just watching the feeds and if its worrying you contact your GP for an appointment. It could be a case of vascular engorgement whereby increased blood flow to the breast alongside the development of more milk glands cause a tiny internal bleed, this is nothing to worry about and its quite common in first time breastfeeding parents (if you are one?). This usually clears after 3 days and you can continue to feed throughout. It could just as easily be broken capillaries in the breast due to rough handling or improper use of a breast pump, once again nothing to worry about just your body getting used to breastfeeding. If you express a little milk can you spot any blood in your milk? I'm a trained breastfeeding counselor and more than happy to help put your mind at rest a bit more if you have any more questions. Hope it gets better soon. Good luck.

I haven't tried anything other than paracetamol and ibuprofen although we have already established at the doctors that these heads are resistant to these types of analgesic and have been for years. I'm unsure what I could take prescription wise. I cannot take codeine as it makes me really delusional and sick and I am still very reluctant to give up breastfeeding which in turn means I am limited to what I can take. Can anybody tell me what seeing a neurologist would involve (do they give you scans and stuff?), out of interest? Now I know they wont cut my head open to dig around or anything although I would love for the pain station to be demolished!! My aunt swears by Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) whereby you tap away the pain at certain points on your body, I'm a bit sceptical with these natural methods so as of yet haven't managed to follow the instructional videos on youtube although some research apparently proves it to be effective where drugs aren't. Off I go to tap, tap, tap!

Thanks for all your advice very useful, whilst its hurting to try reading it all I got there in the end. Definitely tension headaches, not clusters or migraines. Funny how people keep mentioning pregnancy and breastfeeding. I had suffered for some years before getting pregnant but pregnancy definitely made the episodes more drawn out and painful. I have been breastfeeding for coming on 2 years now and do think possibly this has made my posture a lot worse than it already was. I would suspect mine is linked to stress as I have various problems in my life right now that are stressing me out a lot. I have also recently started using the pill for medical rather than contraceptive use but this isn't the cause just may have made this episode worse. Oh boy, its difficult. Doctors have seen me repeatedly over the last few years but cannot offer any advice or medication other than analgesics, I may soon as to be referred to a neurologist though as I have been thinking about this recently (my doctor is beginning to think I'm crazy anyway as I have a number of referrals pending right now - I'm falling apart it would seem). Have been offered acupuncture on the NHS before, has anyone tried this for headaches? I dread the thought of acupuncture needles after stabbing one under my knee cap when I was little whilst my mum had pregnancy acupuncture. That would probably make me very tense, so I think may not help. Thanks for all your advice, much appreciated.

Does anybody suffer with these? I have suffered for years now with tension headaches coming for 4 months at a time, consistent band of pressure and horrible pain right around my head, complete with the fact my whole face feels like its about to explode. I'm 2 days in to an episode now and just cannot do it this time, I cannot sit there waiting for it to stop as it will quite literally be permanent for the next number of weeks. I take paracetamol which does nothing as my doctor has already told me my headaches seem to be immune from the help of analgesics. I'm still breastfeeding so didn't want to take ibuprofen especially, but did anyway and have been for 2 days now, it just is not helping at all. They are getting worse and worse by the hour. Does anybody have any advice before I literally pull all my hair out and keel over? I'm beginning to be unable to function and feeling hugely sick and dizzy plus with a active toddler this is not fair to either of us. Have had physio before, also unhelpful. Any other suffers please bombard me with ideas, this computer is not helping so I'm going to relax, will check for ideas soon!!!!