Leg of dissent

My leg has gone mad. One of the muscles just above my left knee has been twitching madly all day. I'm not unduly alarmed (slightly too aware of my own mortality at present to be completely calm about anything) as it isn't sore/swollen/veiny but it is rather disturbing. Googlage reveals that muscle twitching is relatively common in pregnancy. Many (loony) hits suggest it's an electrolyte deficiency and so recommend a variety of untested dubious tinctures that haven't been accepted by the medical profession. Sorry, I think the accepted term there is "alternative medicine". Herbal maybe, or homeopathic if you don't really care for correct nomenclature. Or as I said, untested. (I'm not a fan).

What I am prepare to do is eat a banana in an attempt to boost potassium.

*pause for banana getting*

I do like bananas, and they are proving to be a pregnancy wonderfood. I previously found them to be wondrous in their anti nausea ability. Now they provide an simple non-healthfood-shop source of potassium. And they're yummy.

Leg is still twitching. It would seem it takes more than a minute to reach my muscles. Pah!

I have now finished the breastfeeding book by Clare Byam-Cook. I liked it, I am convinced that I want to go for a little bit of breastfeeding, I am also convinced I am not exclusively breastfeeding until 12 months. Nuh uh. I did subscribe to Practical Parenting, my pregnancy magazine du choix, and elected to get a free breast pump. So the intention is there.

The book was good, but I have to agree with the reviews that say its old fashioned. While I agree with some of her views, they aren't quite the party line with regard to weaning and formula preparation, amongst other things. On some things I applaud her sense however, but it is not the most up to date tome. For tips on breastfeeding it is a goldmine, so I recommend it for that alone.

Kaz Cooke's Rough Guide to Babies and Toddlers is both no nonsense and full of up to date advice.

Today I was delighted to receive Christine Hill's "A perfect start". So far, so excellent. "The not-so-perfect parents survival guide" it claims. That's me!

My leg is starting to be sore. I may phone someone in the morning just to check it's normal with regard to blood pressure and being very very old.

Pelvis not good today, walking was particularly difficult and pain was definitely increased. This may have contributed to the mad leg. Don't know.

Times they are a-changing

Hmm. A more tactful colleague today said in a nice manner that I was blooming. Because of the tact, I responded in the manner of a calm rational person and discussed that yes, I am unmistakably pregnant but really, if you think how ginormous ladies get in the last month, I'm relatively teeny. I don't stick out much. And do you know what she said??? You're quite neat really.

I love her. Even if she did just say it to humour me.

Hmm 2
As I continue to read Clare Byam-Cook I am less enamoured. Not so much by her - although she does wax lyrical about the great usefulness of your own mother (she hasn't met mine; lovely though she may be, useful she is not) and how to choose a maternity nurse (as if!) - but more with the sheer effort involved in breastfeeding. I am told it is easier. I am not sure what it is easier than however, because it sounds rather hard to me.

I'm still going to try. If I manage any time, I'll be pleased.

Baby has kicked rather a lot today. Which is still life affirming (literally!) but can be rather painful at times. I was idly twiddling my (unrecognisable) navel before and my finger got booted. At one point I lay my hand on my abdomen and FELT her racing heartbeat. She must have been lying right at the surface. It was weird, but cool.

Active girl. I should eat less cake/consume less fizzy caffeine.

Feeding

I've been a-reading about breastfeeding, in a much recommended book going by the name of "what to do when you're breastfeeding and what to do if you can't". The author (Clare Byam-Cook) is very good apparently and so I thought I'd see what she had to say.

By coincidence, the very same day I downloaded this book onto my precious kindle, Julia Boggio blogged that she'd visited Clare Byam-Cook for advice and was singing her praises. Spooky complete randomness, but hey, it could be a small sign of something. A sign-ette that I should be considering the whole breastfeeding thing.

Because of the whole breast-is-best and the lack of support for bottle feeding, I'm slightly evangelical about people who feel they mustn't ever give up on exclusive breastfeeding and are appalled by the idea of topping up. I'm quick to say "it's ok!!!" but that doesn't mean I don't think everyone should give the old breastfeeding a shot.

The book does make both palatable and interesting reading. I do intend to try it again, but even reading the book I am thinking "an hour to do a feed? an HOUR?" and worrying about comfort sucking and similar. Having not succeeded with breastfeeding at all last time, it's a whole new ball game.

I am motivated by how sick O was, I think he may have escaped a lot of that if he hadnt had formula from birth. I don't know that though. I was interested to read that a small baby that falls asleep quickly may not have the energy for a full breastfeed. O was like this and we had to get him faster teats so he could manage to drink a whole feed. While he may not have been so sick, he may not have got enough food and would have been even tireder. Who knows? He's very healthy now.

My reservations are thus:

If I have a caesarean birth, my milk may not be there at all again. The twins didn't even get colostrum and were getting sickly which is why I introduced formula in the first place. I do believe it is perfectly possible to give formula top ups until the milk comes in, but I'm not sure how that works if there's nothing at all coming out of the breast and baby does not want to latch on at all. This is what happened before, and I never went back, it was not suggested even when my milk came in and I queried it.

I am perturbed by the number of breastfeeding mums who do night feeds when their child is a considerable age. Over a year old and still having night feeds!! The twins had dropped all night feeds to the extent that waking again as we approached 4 months was noteworthy and indicative of a need to wean. I feel that I would definitely be topping up at bedtime if night feeds persisted.

Bottles are kind of easy to monitor, I worry that I'd spend a lot of time ineffectively breastfeeding. The book indicates that you quickly get the hang of whether the baby has had a full feed or is comfort sucking, and that if the baby is sated that they will sleep for 4 hours. Two hourly feeds are supposedly indicative of a poor latch or not enough milk being taken.

Babies who don't have bottles may have problems taking a bottle for water and later on for juice. They may also not like a dummy and - I may be making this up - might look to the breast for comfort instead.  Hmm. On that last point, I am reminded that I didn't offer the twins a bottle if it wasn't obvious that food was what was required, so I guess I wouldn't put them to the breast unless I genuinely thought them hungry.

Oh I don't know. I want to try, even if it's only for the first few days.

A small part of my brain is hoping baby comes the week before my caesarean is due and arrives naturally. Is that mad? Does that mean I'm really after a VBAC? The risks convince me no, so why the secret wish?

I'm even contemplating baby led weaning. Whether that holds out when baby is starving, I know not.

I'm going all soft. Kaz Cooke's Rough Guide to Babies and Toddlers arrived and while she's not at all of the you-must-obey-the-rules-of-naturalness she does make suggestions that make me think, well, it might be OK...