Just Add More

I had a follow up doctor appointment for the kidney stones yesterday. I wasn't surprised to find out that mine are solely caused by the fact that I do not drink enough liquids. However, I was surprised when he told me that I also need to be drinking a LOT of lemonade. Apparently, the citrus is good for the kind of stones (calcium) I had. Good thing I like lemonade and it is also nice for the horrible heat wave we are experiencing in Texas. Sadly, I was hoping the remedy would be lots of ice cream.

I also took Jordan to the doctor today. He is 6 months old now (sniff, sniff). He is 28.25" long (93rd percentile) and 15 lbs & 13 oz (30th percentile). Yep - very tall & very skinny. When I mentioned that he still isn't sleeping through the night despite the fact that I am feeding him breakfast & dinner, she told me that he needs more food. She wants me to start feeding him lunch & yogurt for snacks. On top of that, I guess I am supposed to continue breastfeeding.

For the past few weeks, I have been thinking about my dad's eating habits and skinniness. He used to eat 4 - 5 heaping plates of food for each meal and his ribs were all very visible. I wondered if this trait had been passed down to Jordan....this one trait that I wish I had gotten. How could this be inside me & not be something I possess? I also thought about how expensive our food bill is going to be in the future. I guess this is part of having a boy in our family. My husband, father-in-law, and brother are also known for being big eaters (nothing like my dad though). People are always commenting about how much they can put away. Jordan was bound to join the club.

One thing is for sure, I am going to be making lots of trips to the grocery store for lemonade & baby food.

Sleeping Single

When you think of married couples, you don't picture them sleeping separately. The funny thing is that for us, procreation leads to sleeping apart. It started with Lexi. We quickly realized that we would both be better off in different rooms. Steve felt that getting a decent amount of sleep would help him to function at work. I liked being near the tv or computer so I would have something to do during late night feedings. Babies are sweet, but waking up in the middle of the night to sit in a dark and silent house is just not fun. I wanted something to keep me from nodding off. For the first few months, I slept in the guest room or on the couch.

When Jordan was born, there was no question that we would do the same thing. It started the first night we brought him home from the hospital. There were a few nights of being together at Christmas due to guests filling up the place. Other than that, my husband and I live as roommates. We hang out and talk for an hour or two after Lexi is in bed and then part with a simple kiss. It is starting to feel like we have been doing this a long time even though Jordan is almost 3 months old.

With Lexi, I was back in the bedroom right before the 3 month mark. Her sleep time started lengthening more and more, so it wasn’t bad. Then, she began sleeping through the night right at 3 months.

Even though I have used the exact same methods with Jordan, he still wakes up STARVING every 3 - 4 hours. I try to slip in the pacifier to coax him into sleeping longer and it works for half an hour or so. Maybe I shouldn't complain because once I feed him, he goes right back to sleep. I tried giving him formula one night to see if that would hold him over for longer, but it was worse. He woke up & screamed for 2 hours. That is a big deal for a baby who doesn't cry much. I guess since he was early, I should be thinking that this is more like 2 months.

For now, my hubby & I are roommates. He has nobody to snuggle with, but he can sprawl out on the bed. He can also get some much needed sleep so he can have the energy to help clean, cook, and take care of the terrible two year old. I'll just continue to carry on with sleep deprivation. Fun times!

Nursing It Along

In October, I wrote about my desire to give breast feeding a fair shot this time. This is my update post. To my amazement, it is actually working and it is true that it REALLY sucks (yes: pun intended) for a while, but it gets better. What I would like to know is why do lactation consultants say that if it hurts, the baby is not latching correctly? Fortunately, there were lots of great nurses at the hospital that knew better. They told me that I was doing it right, but that it just takes a few weeks to toughen up. Plus, I was told that fair skinned people are usually more sensitive (great – I have a higher chance of skin cancer & bf hurts more).

I would have to say that the first two and half weeks were quite hellish. Right about that time, I had serious thoughts of quitting. When I was about to pull my hair out, I decided to call the lactation consultant. She happened to be booked up for the day and then mentioned her prices, which had gone up significantly. She told me I could check out a few websites or we could schedule an appointment. I decided to go another day or two on my own. Suddenly, by the end of week 3, it was a LITTLE better (lots of emphasis on a little). I guess mainly the sore nipples were not as bad.

I guess I should mention how I managed to get that far. You would think that after all the pain of birth, that breast feeding could be a little easier on the mommas. Sore nipples and engorgement are nightmarish by themselves, but throw in a squirmy toddler who wants hugs that end up bumping the painful knockers and it is too much. For the nipples, I used lanolin and gel patches. One side hurt so badly, that I pumped & dumped for a few days so that it could heal a little. I was also switching between the cradle hold and the football hold. For engorgement, I started feeding him every 2 hours, which made doing anything else practically impossible. I think avoiding engorgement kept me going. For sanity, I pumped and gave him a bottle once or twice a day at 2.5 weeks (no problem with nipple confusion btw).

I kept all of that up and engorgement subsided around four and a half weeks. There was still some pain though, but I decided to keep going until 6 months. Now, I am at 6 weeks and I would have to say that everything is ok. I am certainly not ready to rave about it, but I no longer think about how happy I will be when I quit. I still pump and give him a bottle almost every day usually when we are going out. I am a little shy about doing it in public. When I haven’t brought a bottle, I have gone to Steve’s truck. I have fed him once at the park with a blanket over him, so hopefully I’ll get use to that soon.

The biggest advantage at this point is that breast feeding takes less planning. I know the list of positives is long, but less planning is my current motivation.

We're Home

This is just a quick post to let you all know that we are home. I was released from the hospital Monday night, but Jordan had jaundice and they wanted to keep him under the lights. We spent yesterday going back and forth to the hospital so I could breast feed him, which is going very well by the way. More later...

Because I Don’t Want Breastfeeding to Suck …So Much

Yesterday evening, I attended a breast feeding class. I have been thinking about going to one since I was pregnant with Lexi. Actually, I really wanted to, but with my father’s death 2 months before she was born and working full time, I just didn’t feel I was up to it. Plus, I felt it was more important for us to do the birthing class. Scheduling time for that was about all I could handle at the time.

As many of you know, the first time around, breast feeding did not go so well. By the time we left the hospital, I was cracked and bleeding. Then came engorgement. I had no idea how horrible that was going to be. It didn’t take me long to fall in love with the breast pump and reunite that love every 3 hours. Let’s just say that I did NOT have a problem with production (quite the opposite).

There were many factors that made that time in my life a living hell including working at home trying to put in 40 hours with deadlines at the crazy point of the year in marketing, knowing that I would be back in the non-pump friendly office in a few short months, my husband losing his job less than a month after she was born, and numerous 2-hour trips to visit my mother-in-law who was in and out of the hospital and well on her way to losing her battle with cancer. While, I was so happy to have my sweet little baby I will freely admit that was a nightmarish time of life. Needless to say, the stress of breast feeding was just another issue for me to deal with, so I pumped and Lexi was fed breastmilk in a bottle for 3 months.

Since then, I have been bound and determined to have a much better experience the second time. It would be pretty impossible to have a similar or worse experience, so my odds are great. In general, I feel optimistic because I am not working, none of our close relatives have terminal cancer, and life is just going better. Breastfeeding will work this time, right? Well, I am not going to give up easily. Hopefully, this baby is a great at latching and if not, I have a lactation consultant that lives close by.