Warm Legs, Full Belly, & Happy Heart

Okay, are these not the cutest EVER - baby leg warmers!? I'm getting mine from mylittlelegs.com, but babylegs.com also has some pretty adorable ones.

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!

Bloggin' the Night Away

Random Thought #1: Is there anything better in this world than sittin' here in my recliner, holding my baby girl, typing out a blog post, and eating donut holes? Yes, it's that time of night again. I've already been on "duty" for an hour. For those of you who don't understand what this means, let me explain: I stay up (ie. do not go to bed) holding our daughter until it's Daniel or my Mom's turn (when she's here ... which is, thankfully alot!). Seriously. Jenaleigh still won't sleep without being held. So, during our "shifts" we hold her! I try to put her in the crib, pack 'n play, or bassinet ... sometimes it sticks and she'll sleep for half an hour. But 85% of the time it doesn't. I keep telling myself that she's only little once and to soak up all of her cuteness and cuddleness. I'm so blessed to have her here safe in my arms that it's hard to get frustrated about the lack of sleep.

Random Thought #2: I'm so in love with the little faces she makes. My favorite one is when she puts her mouth in an "ooooo" shape while looking around with her big ole eyes.

Random Thought #3: I promised that I'd update on her weight and .... drumroll please ... she's up to 6 lbs 14 ozs.! No, it's not birthweight, but it's 7 ounces in 9 days, so things are looking good. Our pediatrician is pleased, but told me to keep up my "schedule" until next week when we can re-evaluate things. Right now I'm slipping with the strictness of the schedule and sometimes doing 2.5 hours or even *gasp* 3 hours in between feedings. I also haven't pumped any today to give her extra. When she's draining both sides at every session there's not much left for the pump to get out!

Randomness #4: I loved giving birth... How strange does that sound? But, it's so true. It was such a euphoric experience! I was so in awe (still am, I guess) of the process and the role in which our doula played that I'm seriously considering taking steps to obtaining certification from DONA (doulas of north america) and taking that path in life. It's something I need to pray more about. It would definitely be part time, I would never want more than 1 or 2 clients in the same month so I wouldn't be away from my family more than a couple of days. Obviously this will work out better when Jenaleigh's a little older. And, I still want to be a stay at home mommy, so being a doula would let me set my own schedule (somewhat -- not when it comes to specific day/time, but the general time commitment). It's something I'm seriously considering. To be a servant (Greek definition of doula) during the most beautiful biological process that God put into place would be such a blessing and perhaps even an opportunity to let His Light shine!

Choices

This morning I was faced with a couple of decisions that needed to be made...

First of all... Do I snuggle with Jenaleigh or put up the laundry and tidy up the house?

Secondly ... Do I pump or take a shower?

What do you think I did?

Well, the first decision was uber easy to make. Jenaleigh was already stripped down to her diaper, so we climbed into bed for some skin-on-skin snuggling. By far it was the best part of the morning.

The next decision was more difficult. I really wanted to take a shower. But, one breast had not been emptied in two feedings, so I was in some discomfort. Pumping won that battle (in fact that's what I'm doing right now)!

Maybe a shower will come later on today when D is home and can snuggle with Critter.

Thoughts on Sleep (Or the Lack Thereof...)

Good news! Yesterday's weight check showed a 2 and half ounce gain! Woohoo! We must be doing something right! However, I wonder ... how long is this 2 hour nursing schedule going to be necessary? I'll do it as long as I have to, but it's insanely difficult! In fact, it's that time again right now, but she looks so serene that it kills me to have to go wake her. So, I think I'll continue writing a few minutes instead...

My favorite mommy moment today? Realizing I could take Jenaleigh with me into the bathroom (while she was in her carseat) and dry my hair! The sound of the dryer (as well as the vacuum cleaner, the vent above the stove, and the dryer running) is a "shushing" noise; which, according to Dr. Karp and The Happiest Baby on the Block replicates sounds baby heard in the womb. While I'm diggin' the 5 S's that Karp lays out in the book, I'm a little unsure as to how to apply them to get Jenaleigh to sleep without being held. Which brings me to another thought...

Yes, I used a midwife. Yes, I even had a doula. Yes, I had a natural unmedicated birth. Yes, I'm breastfeeding. No, we do NOT co-sleep. Sometimes I feel like an outsider with all the "natural moms" out there since we aren't sleeping with the little one in our bed. But, for us, we just can't do it. We're not comfortable doing it and therefore aren't candidates for it. Nor are we going to sleep with her in our recliner.

We have a bassinet in our bedroom, which we've abandoned for the crib in the nursery.

She sleeps a little better in the crib. But, one of us is always with her. I take the late night shift, until 4 a.m. and Daniel takes the early morning shift until 9 or 10. After every nursing session, I lay her down in the crib. Sometimes it "sticks" and sometimes it doesn't. If she does sleep, then I sleep in the recliner. (She's already had an hour of slumber in the crib so far tonight.) If she doesn't sleep, then I hold her (which usually induces sleep). I've already been told by a few people that we're spoiling her by holding her while she sleeps. Seriously? Spoiling a two week old baby? Humph. I don't buy that.

So, there are two extremes (for the most part) of sleep advice. Some say "co-sleep" and others say "cry it out". Where's the happy medium? Is there one?

Every Two Hours.

When I say every two hours, I don't mean from the end of one session to the beginning of another.
Nope. It's from the beginning of one to the beginning of the next.

What in the world am I talking about? Breastfeeding of course.

Let me begin in the beginning (a very good place to start, some might say) ... Jenaleigh weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce at birth (May 13). She was discharged from the hospital at 6 pounds 9 ounces (May 15). On May 18 she weighed 6 pounds 8 ounces (yes, the weight was going the wrong way!) We met with a lactation consultant (who has been an ABSOLUTE BLESSING) and decided to start a strict 2 hour regimen with me pumping and supplementing .5-1 oz of breastmilk at 60%-70% of feedings (via finger feeding; we're trying to wait until week 4 to introduce the bottle). I was excited. We had a plan and this little girl was going to gain weight. We decided to wait 3 days to see.

May 21 came, and she weighed ... 6 pounds 7 ounces. SERIOUSLY! She had lost another ounce. Let me add that she was having tons of wet diapers and about 3-4 poopy diapers a day, all of which is completely normal for a breastfed baby. We (and the lactation consultant were puzzled). She urged us to be even more diligent with the schedule (allowing for one longer "sleep stretch") and told us she'd come again the next day for a weight check.

So, two days later Critter was up to 6lbs 8oz again. An ounce gain in 2 days is pretty normal. The LC comes again today, so we're hoping to see an even bigger increase before we walked into the pediatrician's door tomorrow!

Anyway, here's a sampling of my actual schedule yesterday:
8:03-8:28 Breastfeed
8:28-8:35 Supplement with Pumped Milk (via finger feeding)
8:35-8:50 Pump
8:50-10:10 BREAK!
10:18-10:48 Breastfeed
10:50-12:00 BREAK!
12:10-12:30 Breastfeed
12:30-12:40 Supplement with Pumped Milk
12:40-1:00 Pump
1:00-2:15 BREAK!
2:15-2:30 Breastfeed ... Continue the madness in a similar fashion daily...

Notice all of my breaks from breastfeeding/pumping are only about 1 hour and 10 minutes long. So, if you're wondering why I haven't returned your call, answered your e-mail, or taken a shower, it's because I'm having to prioritize what I do in those one hour blocks. Using the bathroom, eating, and enjoying my baby are filling those increments up pretty quickly. I'm hopeful that she'll have gained weight and will continue to gain and that this schedule will not be necessary for much longer!

I'll keep you all updated!