Why? First of all, winter is coming up and this will be a great way to keep her little legs warm and simplify diaper changes. Secondly, they are just too sweet to pass up. In fact, I'm getting a ton. The hardest part is deciding which ones!
Now that her legs will be warm, let's move up the body and discuss her tummy. As you may or may not have read in a previous post, nursing did not go as planned for us. Due to a bad latch, crying at the breast, and thrush, we stopped nursing when she was about 3 weeks old and I've been pumping exclusively ever since. Unfortunately, I have a low supply (about 18 oz a day -- she eats 30-ish) that I have been unable to bump up even though I have tried every trick in the book. So, I spend hours (literally) every day pumping and not even getting everything she needs and thus having to supplement. For those of you who have never pumped before, let me tell you a little about it -- not only do you have to feed your baby (obviously) and therefore deal with those bottles and feedings like a formula fed baby's mom would, but you also have to be tied to a pump for 20-30 minutes (now that I've dropped pumps, the pumping time has gone up) for 6-8 times a day, then you have to clean bottles to pump with and pump parts! It's exhausting!
Imagine this: Your baby has been fed and is drifting off into na-na land. It's 10:00 and you know she'll probably wake around 3 or so to be fed again. So, you decide to go to sleep yourself! But, then you realize you haven't pumped! Ahk! So, you have to stay up an extra 30 minutes to pump.... Then in the middle of the night you wake to feed your baby. She eats and falls peacefully back to sleep. Now it's your turn to sleep, right? Wrong! You've got to pump for half an hour at 3 AM!
I said all of that to say this: Pumping exclusively is hard work. And frankly, I'm getting very tired of it! In addition to growing weary from the schedule, we've found a formula to supplement with that helps her not spit up AT ALL! Over the past week she had started being the spit up queen again, spitting up anywhere from 4 to 7 times after each feeding. But, with a switch to Enfamil A.R. that has rice starch in it, she hasn't been spitting up at all... however, she does still spit up when she eats the expressed breast milk. *Sadness* I'm thinking about ordering "Simply Thick", a thickening agent that can be used to thicken breast milk to see if that helps. So, while I'm ecstatic that this formula is so wonderful on her belly, it's also depressing to see that this expressed breast milk that I work so hard for causes her to spit up gallons. It doesn't help my desire to keep this pumping journey up. My ultimate goal was 1 year, but I'm thinking 6 months may be all this momma can handle! I just have to take it day by day and do what's best for Mommy and Baby!
(ETA: She did latch a couple of times last week, so this is another reason I'm hesitant to give it up!)
Onto the "Happy Heart" part of the post ... Yesterday was SUCH a wonderful day! We welcomed a new brother into the family of Christ. Matt was baptized yesterday afternoon and Daniel and I then took him out to eat afterwards. I had so much fun getting to know him and seeing the joy he experienced after being buried and raised anew! Praise God!
Then, last night, when we got home from Bible study, Daniel started tickling Jenaleigh and she laughed. She's only laughed a handful of times before, but it is the greatest most lovely sound in the world! Then this morning she rolled over again (she's done it about 5 times)! I love watching my little girl grow up so much!
No comments:
Post a Comment