Wednesday, October 8, 2014

to my baby kangaroo - Week 4


Here l go being all vain again ... This photo was taken last week l think on Wednesday. As of today l am down another pound from last week. Still not trying to lose weight but l think the milk production is causing the scale to drop. l feel like l am eating a ton more than when l was pregnant. On this day l also got my flu shot hence the sexy bandaids on my upper arm.

Baby A gets tummy time every day to work on her neck control. 
She gets a little grumpy when woken up from a nap.
Stretching awake from a nap
She still curls up like a frog when sleeping. And we have to swaddle her with her arms down at night for two reasons. One, because her hands get cold, and two because if her hands aren't swaddles she hits herself in the head and wakes up. Sometimes she gets her arms out of the swaddle though (we call her a little Houdini) and she wakes up fussing. But if we tuck her arms back in she goes back to sleep.
Milk coma while momma is having her morning cup of coffee

This week we have let her sleep through the night and wake up when she is hungry.  This usually means she goes down for the night between 10 and 1030, and wakes up around 330 to eat.  She takes about an hour to eat,  and is up for the day around 730. I am also working on a freezer stash of milk,  so I pump each side after she eats at the 3am feeding and 7 am feeding. This puts 4-5 ounces a day in the freezer.  This milk is for when I go back to work,  so I have some extra for the sitter. It is also for if I want to drink a beer or two and not worry about the alcohol being in my milk. And I wanted to get used to the pump before going back to work so I am more comfortable with it. Then, hopefully my supply won't drop just because I'm at work and nervous about pumping when other people are around. I believe I'll be using the small conference room most days, which is also used for attorney-client meetings for municipal court and for employee meetings with HR. It's lockable and other pumping mommas have been using this room, too. My goal is to breastfeed until Baby A is at least 6 months. Since she is a month old today, we are 20% to that goal. Who knows, I may get to March and decide to keep at it for a few more weeks or months. Or I may go back to work and decide it isn't working. There have already been nights when I think about the free formula samples hidden in the back of the closet (I made it hard to find so sitters and the family can't find it, and so I have to work to get it out if I decide to go that route.) And I think about my sore nipples and huge boobs and those 2 hours of sleep I lose in the middle of the night, and how easy it would be to switch to formula. But then I think of the health benefits (especially since we are headed into cold and flu season) and the money we are saving by me breastfeeding and I keep at it. Since Baby A was born, I've had to use a nipple shield because she couldn't latch on to my boob. Initially, I was so pumped full of IV fluids and swollen, that she couldn't latch at all. I am trying to wean her off the shield because I think it is causing some of my nipple soreness, and we are successful sometimes. This week, she has latched on 2 to 3 times a day without it. Other times, she is so hungry and frustrated that I go ahead with the shield. A lot of doctors and lactation consultants are against nipple shields because they think they hinder eating and growth, but according to our bathroom scale, Baby A has gained almost a pound a week since our last doctor's appointment, so I don't think we have that issue! As of Monday, she weighed 9 pounds 4 ounces.

 I convinced the hubs that I want to use cloth diapers once Baby A is big enough. I bought some used ones that are in the mail as we speak, and some new ones from Target. Used, you say? That's gross? Nothing that laundry detergent, bleach and the sun can't remove. And at almost half the price of new, I think they're a good idea for when we're starting out. Our sitter also agred to use them. And we'll save a lot of money. I've spent about $250 on 23 diapers compared to the thousands we would spend on disposables. Even after figuring the extra several loads of laundry I'll need to do each week, they are still more economical. I've also read there are less poop blowouts with cloth diapers which I am really looking forward to. We've had 1 to 2 blowouts every day for the last week. Once, I had to change clothes (and luckily didn't get any of the poo on our couch!) And the other times have required clothing changes for Baby A. 

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