Breastfeeding facilities in meadow hall including mothercare

As a breastfeeding mother I have been struggling to feed EmJ while out in public. Yes I know, it is against the law to stop a woman breastfeeding in a public place but I am a very shy, private person and the thought of getting my boobs out in front of people is a very scary thing! I hadn't been expressing until about a week ago, and I ended up feeding EmJ in disabled toilets in pubs like Wetherspoons if we went out!

However, my prayers have now been answered and I have discovered breastfeeding rooms!

On a recent trip to Meadowhall in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, I went to Mothercare to get some stuff for EmJ and while looking for the lift I stumbled upon a changing room, a bottle feeding area complete with bottle warmers and a separate breastfeeding room!! I was that impressed I genuinely rang my mam to tell her about it! I couldn't feed in the breastfeeding room as annoyingly it was full of people bottle feeding or just sitting waiting for their friend/relative to finish breastfeeding, so I actually ended up feeding her in the bottle feeding room but luckily no one came in! There were sofa type seats to sit on, and it was really comfortable to feed her. Plus because there was also the baby changing part I could change her straight after! !I thought this was such a good idea by mother care to have these rooms as the people who shop there will predominantly be pregnant or with child!

Because EmJ is a greedy little thing (she isn't really, she's just growing) she wanted feeding again before I left Meadowhall and I was nowhere near mother care so I resigned myself to having to take her into the toilets but then I noticed that there was an actual feeding room next to the toilets by the food court, which had a nursing seat in it!!and a lock on the door so I could feed her in comfort and total privacy!!
Because I had found this room I decided to have a little wander round and see if there were more and in general I found that there was a feeding room wherever there was a baby changing area!

I have to say that I am so impressed with Meadowhall as it makes it so much easier to breastfeed and means I will more than likely do more shopping there!!

As a side note,  I have since found a breastfeeding room in Alhambra in Barnsley also by the baby changing area!

Xxx

My current morning routine

Hi ☺

Since having EmJ, my morning routine has changed so I thought I would do an updated post.

EmJ usually wakes up at about half 3 or 4 am so I get up with her. I feed her and change her then watch nothing to declare or border security while playing with EmJ, at the minute she likes to listen to me singing songs I learnt off my family when I was very young.
At about 6:30am I feed her again, and then read her a chapter of a little princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett as that is the book I am currently reading to her and she generally falls asleep before I finish the chapter.
Hubby sometimes gets up at 7am, so if he does I go back to bed for a few hours until EmJ wants feeding again, if he doesn't then I try to get EmJ to sleep in her moses basket so I can go to sleep but a lot of the time she won't sleep of she's not being cuddled so I watch the animal planet channel or more episodes of nothing to declare until hubby gets up.
At about 10am I brush my teeth, and get washed. I am currently using the clinique 3 step system again, so I wash my face using the liquid soap for combination oily skin. I use the toner and the moisturiser from this set and brush my hair.
If I am going out anywhere I will straighten my hair and apply makeup while hubby watches EmJ, I have got this down to about 15 minutes now! If we aren't going out I don't bother, which is surprising to me as I used to wear makeup all of the time even if just staying in the house and I also always made sure my hair was perfect but now I'd rather concentrate more on EmJ. Plus it means I'm using less makeup now so I won't have to buy it as often.  Luckily hubby loves me without makeup so he doesn't mind!

If EmJ is sleeping I will watch homes under the hammer and cowboy builders as I have become slightly obsessed! But if she stays awake I try to talk to her, pull faces at her and sing to her. We also like to give her tummy time on her playmat and I have started trying to introduce toys that play music and a comfort blanket toy.

That is my mornings now. What do you do on a morning?

💖 xxx

Review: Italian farmhouse, sunderland

Two years ago hubby and I got married at the roker hotel in Sunderland, so we decided to have a meal in one of the restaurants there for our anniversary while my parents looked after EmJ  (not going to lie, I text and rang my mam a few times to check how EmJ was!). Last year we went to the Italian Farmhouse restaurant and really enjoyed it so we wanted to go there again this year and make it a bit of a tradition.

I didn't get any pictures of the food or the decor as every time I went to take a picture I was getting dirty looks off the woman on the table next to us and I am a very shy person so I didn't dare!

We made a reservation for 7pm, when we got there we were given a table for 2 in between two other tables despite there being loads of free tables that weren't quite so claustrophobic. The tables were really close together to the point where the woman on the next table kept staring at me and blatantly listening to our conversation which made me feel uncomfortable!
The design of the restaurant is quite nice, it has a lot of brickwork on the walls which gives it a bit of a rustic feel, and it has bags of pasta and bread as decoration and garlic and salami hanging from the ceilings above the windows which actually makes it look better surprisingly. The lights have big paper shades around them which makes the atmosphere a bit more romantic as the lights seem dimmer and there are candles on every table. The only thing that was out of place was the signs on the bathroom doors which I took a picture of because they were more rock or biker club based than Italian! There are quotes on the walls which I love as they are inspirational quotes which made me smile! Again didn't really fit with the Italian theme but didn't look out of place if that makes sense.

Hubby got a pint of lager and as I'm breastfeeding I got diet coke, which took about 20 minutes to come!which meant that our order didn't get taken until about 25 minutes after we got there which was a little annoying as the last time we went it was taken more quickly and I was very hungry. We decided to get a starter and hubby got meatballs and I got bruscetta as I usually love it. I don't know whether the bruscetta I have had before has been made incorrectly, or whether it was made incorrectly there but I didn't like it at all. The bread was soggy and cold (it might be meant to be cold it just happens that whenever I have had it before the bread has been a bit crunchy and it's usually warm ), and there was way too much basil so I ended up leaving most of it. Hubby loved his starter though and I must admit his was really nice although the sauce genuinely tasted like dolmio sauce! The starter took ages to come, and the table to the left of us had their main and dessert before we got our starter and the table to the right of us had their starter and main before we got our starter!! Both myself and hubby were starving by the time the starter came which made it all the worse when I didn't like mine!!

For main hubby got a pizza with three types of cheese on it with spicy beef and I got spaghetti carbonara as it is one of my favourite meals and it was lovely when I had it last time. Unfortunately hubby didn't like his pizza, we don't think the board it came on had been wiped properly as his pizza tasted of washing up liquid and the beef wasn't spicy and had loads of fat on it! He left most of his so I offered to share mine with him but it had mushrooms in it so he wouldn't! Mine was quite nice although the sauce was a bit too liquidy, and the ham was mostly fat so I ended up picking the ham out! They also covered it in black pepper and as I don't like the taste of pepper I ended up leaving a lot of mine too. The main took about 40 minutes to come which again was disappointing!!

As we both had left a lot of our food so far we decided we wanted dessert to try and fill us up a bit. Hubby got ice cream and chose chocolate, raspberry pavlova and passionfruit. He left the raspberry pavlova scoop but he really enjoyed the other two flavours and I haven't seen him so happy in ages! The passionfruit scoop was a bit like having sorbet which was good as it helped to get the taste of his pizza out of his mouth. I got chocolate calzone which was calzone with Nutella inside of it and vanilla ice cream on the side. Although my calzone was burnt I still really enjoyed it as I absolutely love Nutella!! The dessert was definitely the best part of the meal and I loved it so much!! again, we had to wait ages for our dessert to come out, and hubby was beginning to get annoyed with the service! I had finished my drink with my main and I didn't get the chance to get another one because the waiter wouldn't come over to the table even when we tried to get their attention so I ended up being quite thirsty and having to get a drink as soon as I got home!

The fastest part of the night was when we had to pay, the waiter couldn't have been any faster if he tried! Although this was good because it meant we could get out of there quicker, it was slightly annoying that they made us wait for the food but couldn't wait for us to pay and leave even though it was practically empty!

Overall we were in there for 3 hours and genuinely spent about half an hour eating and 2 and a half hours waiting! There was another group of people came in about half an hour after us that had finished all 3 courses before we even had our main! I don't know whether our waiter was just really busy or really slow but the service should have been more consistent rather than some people having to wait ages and some getting their food practically straightaway!

Overall I would give a 4 out of 10 for service, and a 4 out of 10 for the food and that's just because I adored the dessert so much. I don't think we will be going back there again which is a shame as we loved it last time but the chef was different I think. I know hubby wouldn't recommend it to anyone and after this time I don't think I would either! I think the only really good thing about it is that it is opposite the beach which is my favourite place in the world and makes me feel at home even though I don't live there anymore.

Have you been there?What did you think of it?

Xxx

Baby's 5 week update

EmJ is 5 weeks old now...how time flies!! She is still such a little character and loves to copy faces you pull at her, she will also try to blow raspberries if you blow them at her which is super cute! If you go to kiss her she turns her head so you kiss her on the mouth, and sometimes she leans in too!If you blow kisses at her she purses her lips as if she wants to blow them back ☺ we have also had more smiles off her!

She is eating more now and sometimes seems as if I'm constantly feeding her!I have started to express now but she wouldn't take the bottle off hubby at first only off me, but now if I hold her hand she will take the bottle off him which he loves as he feels like he is bonding with her. We did try her with formula as I wanted to breastfeed her during the day but give her a bottle on a night to see if she sleeps longer. We tried her with a bottle we made up and one that was ready made, she didn't take any of the ready made one at all but did try the one I made up. Unfortunately she only took half of it and then threw it all back up so we have decided not to give her formula.

She has grown and now fits a lot of her 0-3 months clothes now ☺

She is better in the bath now and only cries if the water is too cold. We have had a few smiles while she has been in the bath so we are hopeful that she likes it now!If she is particularly tired we have been putting the johnsons bedtime bath product into the water and then applying the lotion after to try and help her sleep.

She loves being in the pushchair and sleeps as soon as it starts to move. She's usually good when we are out and only cries if she's uncomfortable or hungry, and stops as soon as she gets a cuddle or feed.

She still doesn't like sleeping in the crib, but will go to sleep in her chair or in someones arms.

She likes to turn round and watch the TV, I think she likes to see the colours moving and she loves the music channels.

She loves when I sing to her and smiles and makes noises as if joining in. I try to dance with her too which is quite fun and I am reading a little princess to her still. We have just bought her a new toy for the crib, pram and car seat so I hope she likes it! She has started to hold things when she goes to sleep, like my necklace if I'm wearing it or a sleeve so we have started to give her a comfort blanket that she can hold on to. She played with her rattle yesterday, accidentally I think as she just wanted to hold it and I don't think she had realised it made a noise as it gave her a bit of a shock. 

She is staying awake longer during the day now, and didn't sleep at all for a whole afternoon but then she slept all of the next day.  Sometimes she sleeps for about 5 or 6 hours during the night which is good but other times I have to be up all night because she won't sleep.

She loves having tummy time still and you can see her trying to crawl but she can't quite figure out that she has to lift her bum up.

Think that's everything for now ☺

Xxx

Travelling with baby...weekend away

I don't live near my parents so we have to travel to visit them, and since we have had EmJ the amount of stuff we take with us to stay a few nights at my parents house has increased dramatically so I thought I would do a post about what we usually take with us.

🔴 clothes- EmJ has her own little suitcase (I got a champneys set for Christmas which came with a hard pink bag) but not all of her clothes fit so she has a bag too.  The reason we take so many clothes is that she generally is sick on them, poos on them or dribbles milk on them so has to be changed.

⚪nappies- we generally take half a box of nappies (so about 72 I think) as we do need quite a few still and if we need any more we can just go and buy them.

🔴wipes- we didn't actually bring any back this time as we have a box of wipes at my parents house.

⚪bath support- we were going to take the baby bath but it wouldn't fit in the car so we took the bath support instead as last time we forgot both and it was quite awkward trying to wash her in the big bath and keep hold of her at the same time.

🔴toiletries - we brought the johnsons first wash but that was it as we have johnsons bath stuff and lotion at my parents house so there was no point in taking ours. We did take a couple of sponges though as they don't have any there.

⚪pram- we have the silver cross 3D travel system, and originally I had planned to just take the frame and use the car seat on it, but the rain cover doesn't fit over the car seat and as the weather we have been having has been so unpredictable we didn't want to risk it, so have been taking the full travel system which admittedly does take up a lot of room.

🔴baby chair- we forgot this the first time we visited my parents so they bought one for her so we don't take it there but we do take it if we go to Liverpool or anywhere else. Luckily the chair we have packs flat so doesn't take up too much room.

⚪room thermometer- the room in which baby sleeps has to be a certain temperature, and if it is too hot or cold then the clothes they wear for bed or what blankets are used changes, so we take the gro egg with us everywhere we go so we can make sure we are dressing EmJ appropriately.

🔴bottles and pump- now that I am expressing a bit I take these with me so that I can express wherever I am staying. This means that if hubby and I go out anywhere (like we did for our anniversary ) I can express and my mam can still feed EmJ.

⚪steriliser- we don't take the electric steriliser with us as it is too big, but we have a travel steriliser that can be put into the microwave for steam sterilising, or be used with cold water and sterilising tablets.

That is everything we usually take with us, but there is probably something that I have forgotten!
What do you take with you for weekends away?

Xxx

Breastfeeding Q&A

Hi ☺

As you may know if you have read my previous breastfeeding posts, I did have a bit of trouble at first feeding EmJ and until I went back into hospital when she was 5 days old I didn't get much help despite asking for it. So I thought I would do a post answering the questions I had so that if anyone else has the same problems as me hopefully this will help.

How do I get my baby to latch on?
Babies don't naturally know how to latch on, it is a learning curve for you and them. I was doing it wrong at first which is why EmJ lost so much weight but the nurse on ward 37 explained to me how to do it. Take your breast in your hand (the hand on the same side as your breast so left hand and left breast etc), hold the baby with your other arm with your hand on the back of baby's head. Tilt the baby so they are facing you, and guide the baby's head to your breast. Position your nipple so it is under baby's nose, and baby should open his/her mouth wide and take the nipple in. Baby's chin and nose should be touching your breast, the brown part of your breast should be mostly in baby's mouth.
This may take a bit of practice but it becomes second nature to both you and baby I promise.

How do I know if baby has latched on?
You will know! For me I can tell when EmJ starts sucking properly as it hurts initially, and I can basically feel her sucking. When the milk starts to flow it doesn't hurt anymore but I can still feel her sucking longer and harder. I don't know how else to explain this but after she didn't feed for the first few days I can tell the difference between how that felt and how it feels now. If baby isn't latched on it won't feel uncomfortable and you probably won't be able to feel baby sucking. When baby is finished feeding and spits the nipple out look at the shape, if the nipple is its normal shape but a bit longer off where the baby has been sucking this is fine,if it is squashed on one side baby hadn't latched on properly and this could make it more painful for you.

How can I tell if baby is feeding?
You will be able to hear baby swallowing, if you can't hear swallowing he/she probably isn't feeding although they do have natural breaks when feeding so watch out for them. If you haven't heard baby swallowing in 5 minutes but they are still sucking it generally means they are sucking for comfort so you should take baby off the breast. If baby hasn't sucked in 5 minutes but is still on the breast, remove the baby from the breast.

How do I unlatch baby if they aren't swallowing or have fallen asleep?
Put your little finger into baby's mouth and push the tongue away from the nipple. This will release the nipple so you can withdraw it from baby's mouth.

How do I know if baby is getting enough milk?
The midwives say to use the guidelines of 6 heavy wet nappies and at least 2 dirty nappies per day show that baby is getting enough milk, but EmJ was producing these and wasn't feeding properly. So my advice is to watch out for weight changes, if it looks like baby is gaining weight they are probably feeding okay but the weight checks that get done by the midwives and health visitors will give an accurate interpretation. Another thing to watch out for is sleepiness,I know that babies sleep for most of the day at first but if you find that you have to keep waking baby up to feed and when they are awake they don't seem like they have much energy I would get them checked. EmJ was very lethargic and had to be woken up to feed when she wasn't feeding properly and she ended up being too tired to even try to latch on so she lost too much weight, so watch out for those signs.

How often will I need to feed baby?
Basically as often as baby wants it. At the minute EmJ is feeding every 3-4 hours during the day and during the night,but between certain hours in the evening (usually starting at about 6pm) she cluster feeds. This is when baby can feed loads in one or two hours and it may seem like she is feeding constantly with no break in between. This is normal and they do it to keep your milk supply coming as the hours when they cluster feed is when the level of hormone needed to produce breastmilk is at its lowest so they cluster feed to stimulate production. Quite clever really. If your baby doesn't wake up every 3 or 4 hours, leave them to sleep if they need it but don't let them go longer than 6 hours without a feed (this is what we were told). When we are out with the pushchair some of the time EmJ will sleep for 6 hours before having a feed and that is fine now so don't worry if your baby occasionally does this.

Does it hurt?
The midwives will say if you're going it right it won't hurt, but it does. Everyone I have spoken to that has breastfed have said it hurts too so it's not just me. It hurts when they first latch on and for a few sucks but after that it feels fine. When EmJ first latches on it actually makes me jump and has brought tears to my eyes once or twice so don't worry if it hurts initially,but do get checked out if it hurts the entire time. 

Can I give baby a dummy?
The advice given is wait until the baby is 4 weeks old as the sucking motion for breastfeeding and sucking a dummy are different so baby might not suck your breast properly if given a dummy before this but I disagree. We gave EmJ a dummy when she was 3 weeks old because she kept looking as if she wanted to feed,or kept sucking her hands and these were both for comfort so when we gave her a dummy it really helped. It also helps bring her wind up and she still feeds properly so using a dummy a bit early didn't affect her

Is it easy to express?
I Have expressed both in the hospital and at home and have used manual and electric pumps and for me it is easy to do. It does feel different to when baby sucks and some people find that it hurts less and is less uncomfortable but for me it still hurts a little initially. If using a manual pump, try to mimic the way baby feeds so pump fast and short until milk starts coming out then start holding each pump for about 3 seconds before releasing as this mimics the let down and then normal feeding.

How do I know how much milk to give if I am expressing?
I don't really know the answer to this other than what I do which seems to work. We checked how much formula she would be getting if we weren't breastfeeding and used that as a guideline and also I empty both boobs every time I express as this would be the amount she would be getting if she fed herself. Luckily for us the amount I express from both boobs was the same as the amount of formula she would be getting so we are confident she is getting enough. She comes off the bottle herself when she is full if there is still some in the bottle and if she is still hungry she will let us know so she never eats too much or too little.

I hope this post has helped and I am sorry it was quite long! If you have any other questions just let me know as I have asked so many questions about breastfeeding that I have probably asked someone what you want to know 😂

Oh and the poos breastfed babies do look different to bottle fed which I hadn't known, and the poos are mustard seed consistency (trust me you will agree with this description once you see one ).
💖xxx

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My birth story part 2...active labour

Hi ☺

So when I finished the last post I was going to the birthing centre...

I was taken into room 2 (don't ask me why I remember that!). I was asked to get myself from the wheelchair onto the bed and I thought to myself I can't do that it hurts too much! But the midwife told me once I was on the bed I could have gas and air, and as I hadn't been given pain relief since 9am this convinced me to get on the bed!
I told them I wanted a water birth so they started to fill the bath but as soon as I breathed in the gas I felt the urge to push which I told the midwife. She told me to go with it and push whenever I felt the need to.
After that I lose all sense of time but I remember having to push and the midwife telling me to push into my bum without making a noise as if I made a noise it would mean I wouldn't be pushing properly.
The midwives grew concerned as baby started to get distressed and they asked me to push as hard as I possibly could. The gas and air was making me dizzy but wasn't taking the pain away,but it helped me to keep breathing it as with every push I was saying to myself the next breath will make it hurt less! A doctor came in and told me I would need forceps to help get the baby out as the baby needed to come out immediately!
The forceps really hurt more than anything that had happened up until that point...I can't really describe what it felt like. I could feel where the baby was and could feel a lot of pressure and that doubled when the forceps were used but after a few more pushes all the pressure was suddenly gone.
Hubby cut the cord and was apparently given EmJ to hold but I don't remember this. I was told to lie still while we waited for the afterbirth but after a while (I'm not sure how long) someone realised they hadn't given me an injection they were meant to give me, so they gave me that and the afterbirth came out. I was told I needed stitches as they had cut me and I had also torn, but they forgot to inject me with anaesthetic so I was using the gas and air again to try and help with the pain. Despite everything I had just been through, the stitches hurt me to the point where I was crying! To make matters worse once they were done the doctor said she couldn't find a swab and spent ages looking to see where she could have put it and I was dreading them having to undo the stitches to see if it was inside me but thankfully it didn't come to that!

I don't remember holding EmJ although hubby and my mam took pictures so at some point I must have, but I do remember trying to decide her name and picking one for no reason other than it seemed like I should pick one!
I was told I had lost nearly a litre of blood so was going to be given some fluids, it took them a few attempts to get the cannula in and they needed to take blood but couldn't find any veins in my arms so were trying to take blood from my hand but it was just really painful and they didn't manage to get any.
I was given something to eat but I didn't feel well so only ate a small amount, I told them I didn't feel well but they said that was to be expected.
A nurse came and asked me to get up so she could take me into the shower room but when I sat up I felt really weird, and everything started to go dark like it does before I faint so I told her I thought I was going to faint and wanted to lie back down.  At this point I thought I had lay back down and gone to sleep and when I opened my eyes again hubby and some more nurses were standing over me telling me to keep my eyes open,I was really tired and shut my eyes to go to sleep and hubby shouted at me to stay looking at him. I thought he was just being really horrible seeing as I had been awake since 11pm the night before, but then I was told I had had a fit! They didn't know why I had the fit but they were worried about it so had decided to give me 2 units of blood.
I work in the hospital lab so I know that transfusions can go wrong and people can die and have reactions to the blood etc so I was panicking! But everything went fine and I stayed on labour suite until I had been given both units which took until 2am Friday morning. While I was being transfused my mam told me she had panicked when I was having the fit and thought I was going to die and that hubby had thought the same and had been crying. Apparently when I had sat up and said I felt faint I had just fell backward and hubby gave the baby to my mam and tried to catch me and then I started having the fit and the nurse who was there didn't know what to do so my mam had to run round the bed to press the call button to get the rest of the midwives in.
Another nurse came in and sponged me down down there.
The hand which had the cannula in it swelled up to three times the size of my other hand and it started to hurt where the blood was going in so I asked the midwife if everything was okay, she had a quick look and just said it was fine but sent a senior midwife in. The senior midwife told me to stop being stupid and the blood was flowing fine so obviously nothing was wrong. When they came to change the bag of blood over, they flushed some water through which really hurt and the tube ended up being changed because it felt like there was a blockage to the nurse, which could have been why it was hurting so much apparently as it was being forced through!
I was then transferred to the antenatal/postnatal ward at 2:30am and my mam and hubby were sent home.
💖xx