What can you do while breastfeeding a young baby?
Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward
while breastfeeding. I understand lots of women watch TV. I have lots
of books I've started to read and haven't finished so I'd like to get
that done while breastfeeding.
What do others do?
KR
down. I only watched TV in the evenings so would feed her in front of
the tv then. I often went on the computer as well, I propped her up on
a pillow and my knee and typed around her.
This time I will try to keep the baby attached to my breast while I'm
running after, and playing with, my toddler! LOL! Somehow I see us
spending a lot more time at home this time around... I need to make a
sling.
KR
V.
"Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward" <pene...@rescueteam.com> wrote in message
news:1137519205.2...@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
My baby is 7 wks old and I'm just starting to be able to do something other
than just watch TV. It still usually takes me two hands to hold the baby
and support my breast, so TV or music is about it. However, in some
positions I can manage freeing one hand for a book....note the "one hand"
caveat. This limits me to paperback books for the most part. Magazines can
be managed too. I've toyed with the idea of those stands that hold books
for the elderly or bookmarks that hold pages open, but that seems pretty
cumbersome too.
Supposedly you can breastfeed in a sling, but I've only managed it once or
twice and it still only frees one hand, so I think I'll wait until she can
control her own head to try again.
Actually, in the first weeks breastfeeding caused me to get really
sleepy/drowsy in addition to sleep deprivation, so I just stared into space
for the most part.
Good luck!
Amy
Anne Rogers
> sleepy/drowsy in addition to sleep deprivation, so I just stared into
> space for the most part.
that rings true, even now (7mths) a lot of my breastfeeding sessions are
curled up in bed listening to the radio or a tape, I'll watch TV in the
evening if there is something I want to watch and sometimes I'll
deliberately choose to feed before going home rather than after getting home
so I can chat, rather than dash off and be solitary.
Anne
Amy
V. wrote:
> Supposedly you can breastfeed in a sling, but I've only managed it once or
> twice and it still only frees one hand, so I think I'll wait until she can
> control her own head to try again.
You can, the trick is to get the sling really, really tight around the
baby. Counterintuitive, I know, but they like it because they feel
like they're all smashed in the womb again. Same reason they like to
be swaddled...
Anyway, the reason I had trouble with the sling is that I wasn't
getting it tight enough. I thought I'd break her, but once I got it
really snug, she really liked it.
Contact your local LLL and see if they have someone who can show you
how it's done. It opened up a whole new world for us. Just this
morning she puked (and the difference between spit up and puke is
exactly like the difference between BH contractions and real labor -
everyone says, "Oh, you'll know it when it happens..." and you think,
"But what if I *don't* know it when it happens?" But trust me, you
know it when it happens)... Anyway, she puked on me when we were
nursing this morning, before we got out of bed. Strangely enough, I
didn't find this experience gross at all. It was just a mess, but it
wasn't like, "ACK! I got puked on!" I was too busy worrying about her
and the brand new sheets to care about the fact that I was bathed in
baby vomit. Anyway, I didn't want to put her upstairs for her first
nap, because if it happened again I wanted to know it right away - I
didn't want her to wake up in swing full of puke, or to (God forbid)
aspirate it, so I nursed her down and she slept in her sling on my lap
while I wrote the post about PPD. I need to get a quieter keyboard,
but otherwise, it worked great, and I was able to watch her closely and
make sure that she was ok.
Wow, that was a long way to say, "Slings are great - learn it, live it,
love it!" :)
As to the original question, I do a LOT of surfing while we're nursing.
I use Firefox and I have the plug in called "stumble upon"
(www.stumbleupon.com) which is nice becasue it's one click, and there
isn't a lot of scrolling or typing, so it's easy to do one-handed.
I also make a lot of phone calls. This was crucial with the PPD - the
phone was my lifeline. I don't know what I would've done without the
friends and family who literally talked me through it. I've called my
mom every day since the baby was born, at least once a day.
I also sing a lot of songs to the baby. She wasn't much interested in
books at the beginning, so we didn't read a lot, but now she likes to
read when she's finished eating.
Oh, OH! You can totally imprint the baby to a certain song (make sure
it's one you REALLY like!) if you sing it to her every time she nurses.
I sing "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins almost every time we nurse
(and I call her my little chicken, too, so I'm feeding the bird!), and
if she gets pissed off in the car, all I have to do is sing the song
and she starts to settle down about half the time. I've been told that
this continues even after you've stopped nursing, and the effect gets
stronger, if you're consistent with it. The baby will learn to
associate that song with all the warm fuzzy feelings of being fed and
held and loved, and later when she has to have shots, or she's sick, or
she can't sleep, you can evoke those feelings again by singing the
song. Apparently when I was a baby it was the Hobart (Indiana) High
School Fight Song, which starts, "Our boys will shine tonight..." :)
It no longer puts me to sleep, but that could be because there was a 25
year drop in the stimuli. So, playing psychologist while nursing,
that's fun. Sometimes I'll also try relaxation exercises with her,
also for later. I say to her, "Relax your busy toes," while I gently
rub her toes. "Relax your busy feet..." while I rub her feet, etc. I
work my way all the way to the top of her head and back. I don't think
that she really knows how to relax at 5 months old, but I'm hoping that
later, if she's hurt or upset or I need to soothe her for some other
reason, I'll be able to repeat that stimuli and get her to calm down.
I've always been high strung, which is why teaching her ways to chill
out is important to me...
We also nap and nurse, not as much anymore. We'll lay down in the bed
and I'll watch TV while she nurses. I don't like doing this as much
now that she's noticed the TV and will attend to it (mostly to the
commercials, oddly enough). It makes it tough to get her to
concentrate, but in the beginning it worked really well.
Amy
Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward
far. I am fascinated by the idea of associating a song with these warm
and fuzzy feelings, and the relaxation exercises. It all fits right in
with what I'm learning at my HypnoBirthing classes!
mcm...@cup.hp.com
: I'm in my 36th week, and am wondering what sorts of things one can do
: What do others do?
Well, there was a clip on a website somewhere of a mom doing a headstand
while nursing. Actually, the baby crawled up and started nursing while
she was already doing the headstand. I wouldn't recommend this unless
you are already pretty proficient at headstands.
Larry
Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward
> while nursing.
That sounds hilarious!!!!
ls
her room, door closed, no distractions. Then when I wasn't fighting to
keep her awake I could read a little. Once we both got the hang of it
I could watch some TV. Talk on the phone. A couple of times I got the
sling just right and could putter around the house while nursing. But,
I think the movement distracted her too much. And once, I went pee.
Ha!
emilymr
stuff. Now... I just nurse and fend off exploring hands. But another
thing I can do while breastfeeding a young baby: change his diaper and
put on another pair of pajamas. Wouldn't that be nice if that was a
marketable skill??? ;)
Em
mama to Micah, 11/14/04
Sidheag McCormack
> What do others do?
Sign up for an online hire-DVDs-by-post scheme (there must be a short name
for these) get a portable DVD player, and watch lots of DVDs (with
earplug headphone thingies, gosh I'm losing words today!) I'd have liked to
read, but found it hard, because getting even one hand free to hold the
book was a problem sometimes, and I found it frustrating that I'd just get
it working and then Colin would move and I'd find I couldn't read on...
DVDs worked much better for me, in practice.
Sidheag
DS Colin Oct 27 2003
Anne Rogers
> I also make a lot of phone calls. This was crucial with the PPD - the
> phone was my lifeline. I don't know what I would've done without the
> friends and family who literally talked me through it. I've called my
> mom every day since the baby was born, at least once a day.
interesting, my flag for I'm not doing well, is not making phone calls
Anne
Anne Rogers
> I think the movement distracted her too much. And once, I went pee.
> Ha!
LOL, you only did that once?
Anne (who pees whilst bf at least once a week)
Jess
"Sidheag McCormack" <avoid.spa...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:m34q42l...@geilo.lan...
> Sign up for an online hire-DVDs-by-post scheme (there must be a short name
> for these)
You mean like Netflix? :p
Jess
ls
All of the women I've told this to said no, they've never pee'd while
bf.
Now I wonder how many do it!
- Laura
Marie
news:1137519205.2...@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
TV, read, eat, sit at computer and do email, newsgroups. Talk on phone. Do
it all now while you can!
Sometimes I actually cooked dinner or vacuumed, I was always good at walking
and holding the baby in one arm while she nursed so I could do things with
my other arm. I tried washing dishes a few times but that takes a very long
time.
Marie
Marie
news:4358jhF...@individual.net...
> Anne (who pees whilst bf at least once a week)
With all three babies I usually went everyday while bf. My SIL thought that
was gross, but she did not bf so alot of what I did was gross to her.
When I potty-trained my oldest daughter, I had to wipe her so many times
while my middle daughter was bf. That can get tricky!
Marie
Chookie
Post here! I have a comfy ikea chair, not an office chair, and I'm BFing
right now!
--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)
"In Melbourne there is plenty of vigour and eagerness, but there is
nothing worth being eager or vigorous about."
Francis Adams, The Australians, 1893.
FayeC
breastfeeding a newborn.....women who have gotten used to nursing
babies in slings can do pretty much anything while nursing the baby.
I have nursed the baby in the sling while shopping, cooking, cleaning,
etc.....
The problem is when the baby gets too big for nursing in the sling.
Then you get limited mostly by what you can do with one
arm/hand...since my son has reached past the 20 pound mark I have
worked on the computer, read books, watched more tv, etc.
I guess the determining thing is what you do in your normal routine
that would allow for one-handedness.
FAyeC
On 17 Jan 2006 09:33:25 -0800, "Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward"
Irene
FayeC wrote:
> I don't think there is really a list of things you can do while
> breastfeeding a newborn.....women who have gotten used to nursing
> babies in slings can do pretty much anything while nursing the baby.
> I have nursed the baby in the sling while shopping, cooking, cleaning,
> etc.....
> The problem is when the baby gets too big for nursing in the sling.
> Then you get limited mostly by what you can do with one
> arm/hand...since my son has reached past the 20 pound mark I have
> worked on the computer, read books, watched more tv, etc.
> I guess the determining thing is what you do in your normal routine
> that would allow for one-handedness.
>
(or sometimes not), plus eating lunch, answering the door, interviewed
a prospective employee...
A lot of it depends on the age, honestly. Newborns who you need to
support and help - you are more limited in what you can do. A lot of
it depends on how much you want to do the other thing, too! Then, when
babies get older and more distractible, I found I needed to go
somewhere without distractions or she would just pop on and off. But I
spent a *lot* of time reading and surfing the web when ds (baby #1) was
around 1 month to 6 months. With baby #2, I didn't have the luxury of
hanging out - I had to help ds with stuff much more.
And btw, I *have* bf in a Kozy (mei tai), but found it much more
awkward than a sling - but that's a YMMV thing. I had my best results
when I slipped one strap off the shoulder, but that really only works
when sitting. (Dd really prefers to lie down when nursing).
Lately, dd won't let me do much of anything if she's awake and nursing.
;-) (She's 21 months) I can websurf, but not type much of anything,
and apparently reading is too distracting, as well. But she isn't
doing marathon nursing anymore (except some naptimes) so it's not as
much of an issue, either.
Irene
Marion
laying on the boppy pillow, then type over her head as I was trying to
work from home with her. Around six months she didn't sleep as much
and was more efficient at nursing, so had a lot more time to want to
'help'. After some emails were sent before completed, and her happy
and not-so-happy noises became part of several conference calls, I
decided I really needed daycare!
Other things... read, watch t.v., take a bath (K still loves nursing in
the bath tub at almost 16 months old), talk to my mom on the phone
(Grandma really enjoys listening to Katy slurp, coo, and eventually
snore...).
Before we learned to nurse lying down, I would push my chair so that my
knees butted up against the crib (we still nurse in an old light weight
office chair.. the only one in the house that is the right height, has
the back straight enough, etc...) so that K wouldn't roll off the Boppy
in my lap and I would doze off. I've spent entire nights like that,
head bowed, K latched on, both of us sleeping peacefully :-)
Marion
single mom to Katy-Bug (10/4/2004)
15mos and still going strong! used breastshield for first 11 months.
Pologirl
I read a lot of books, and spent at lot of time NAK (nursing at
keyboard), reading and posting to Usenet. But the NAK was reinforcing
for Monkey Boy to the point that at 5 months old he began demanding to
sit in my lap and type for himself. Also, I think that is part of why
he weaned at 9 months; he became more interested in the computer than
in nursing. At 21 months now he still types almost every day. He says
"Boy type! My turn 'puter. Open window." and tells me what color he
wants the letters to be. He has learned how to say the names of many
letters and their position on the keyboard. Currently, meaning for the
past month, he is most interested in the letter s. My time at the
computer is now very restricted, so my advice to you is: make the most
of it while you still can. :-)
kandacewright
I work, :). I do digital art and 3d texture work while I nurse. I
switch sides and am ambedextrious with my mouse work but my pen tablet
I can only do when he nurses the right side since I'm a leftie.
I also have shopped, given my other kids a bath, cooked dinner, had my
hair done, etc.
Kandace
James 11/19
Jessie 7/24/01
Jacob 10/21/98
Jackie 8/28/96
www.kandacewright.com
Anne Rogers
> that
> was gross, but she did not bf so alot of what I did was gross to her.
> When I potty-trained my oldest daughter, I had to wipe her so many times
> while my middle daughter was bf. That can get tricky!
that's when the baby gets put down! Though I have done at least some of the
dealing with a potty training toddler whilst bf as Ada was only 8+ weeks
when N suddenly announced he was going to use the potty.
Anne
Hillary Israeli
Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward <pene...@rescueteam.com> wrote:
*I'm in my 36th week, and am wondering what sorts of things one can do
*while breastfeeding. I understand lots of women watch TV. I have lots
*of books I've started to read and haven't finished so I'd like to get
*that done while breastfeeding.
Hmm. Immediately postpartum with my first:
watch tv, talk on the phone, talk with visitors
After the first week or so postpartum with my first:
read online stuff, watch tv, talk with visitors or on the phone, walk
around the house, read books
After the first month postpartum:
read online stuff, type, read books, watch tv, talk with visitors, make
and receive phone calls, answer the door, produce a urine sample for the
OB, go through grocery store checkout line
Today (third nursling will be 1 yr old 1/27):
all of the above plus:
read and write at the computer, prepare and send out snail mail, feed 5
and 3 yr old breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack; pack lunches for other
kids; help 3 yr old use potty; sort through the mail; play with play-doh;
etc etc etc :)
--
Hillary Israeli, VMD
Lafayette Hill/PA/USA/Earth
"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it is
too dark to read." --Groucho Marx
Hillary Israeli
ls <lse...@excite.com> wrote:
*Once a week!? LOL!
*
*All of the women I've told this to said no, they've never pee'd while
*bf.
*Now I wonder how many do it!
My first was latched on solidly at my six week postpartum OB visit when
the nurse said "urine sample please." I obliged. He never unlatched.
Jess
"Hillary Israeli" <hil...@hillary.net> wrote in message
news:slrndt07aj....@manx.misty.com...
> My first was latched on solidly at my six week postpartum OB visit when
> the nurse said "urine sample please." I obliged. He never unlatched.
*cracking up*
Jess