2 month update

Baby girl is two months old as of yesterday.  Time seems to be flying by! I feel like just yesterday I was sitting in the hospital bed holding a brand new baby.  This month has been a little less exhausting than last month... we are getting into a routine and experiencing lots of "firsts". We had our first real smiles, our first vacation with baby, first trip to church, first round of shots....

Betsy Grace loves to smile and laugh.  Most of the time it's for the ceiling fan, the birdies on her swing, shiny things, or bright lights but lately she's had lots of smiles for mommy.  I can't even express how much I love that sweet little smile!  She also loves to talk.  She's always making noises and likes to go back and forth with me as I imitate the noises she makes.  I think we are in some trouble once she starts really saying words because if this is any indication she will be talking non stop. 

This month also brought about our first diaper rash and trip to the doctor for something other than a well visit. She had a light white coating on her tongue for a while which I was worried might be thrush.  She didn't have white any where else in her mouth besides her tongue so I figured maybe I was just being paranoid, but decided to go to the doctor to have it checked out just in case.  Unfortunately, the PA said she had a mild case of thrush in her mouth and a yeast diaper rash.  So we left with a prescription for Nystatin in oral form and as a cream.  We have finished the oral part of the medication, but I don't feel like her tongue looks any better.  Her diaper rash cleared up right away thankfully.  We had our 2 month appointment today with the doctor and he said that she looked fine and that it's just milk on her tongue.  I hope he's right because I really don't want to have to go through the process of bleaching/sterilizing/stripping all of my diapers, bottles, pacifiers, towels, etc. again.  

Since she had thrush we've taken a break from using the cloth diapers and are using disposables instead until everything is cleared up.  I have to say that I really dislike disposable diapers... they just can't contain the poop! I've experienced more blowouts in the past 2 weeks than I did over the past 6 weeks combined!  I never had any problems with our cloth diapers leaking like the disposables.  Because of the yeast diaper rash I had to do some intense cleaning of the cloth diapers to kill all the yeast so we don't get it again once we go back to using them.  I've also been boiling pacifiers and pump supplies like crazy to try to get rid of the yeast.  Sadly, I also had to throw out a bunch of frozen milk that I had stocked up in the freezer.  I'm not sure when the thrush began so just to be safe I tossed it all out. 

We took our first vacation with baby this month as well.  Michael had a three day work conference in St. Pete at the Don Cesar and we went with him.  Betsy Grace and I were able to meet up with some friends who live in Tampa for dinner on Wednesday night while Michael was at a work dinner.  We just hung out at the hotel most of the time while Michael was in meetings, but it was nice to be away from home and have a change of scenery for a little while.

Today we had our two month visit at the doctor's office.  The past few weeks I've been trying to decide what I wanted to do in terms of vaccinations so I've been doing a lot of research.  The amount of information, both for and against vaccinations, is overwhelming.  It makes my head hurt. I'm not totally against getting vaccines, but some of the ingredients and side effects can be pretty frightening. I still haven't completely made up my mind as to whether or not I want to do the alternative schedule, which spaces out the amount of shots given at one time, or the selective schedule, which only includes the most needed vaccines.  Thankfully, both of those schedules are the same for the 2 month check up so I have a few more weeks to make up my mind.  Today she had an oral dose of the Rotavirus vaccine and the DTaP shot.  Poor little thing... I've never heard her scream so loud. 

Betsy Grace has been gaining weight steadily (very thankful that I bought a baby scale) so I've been spacing out our nighttime feedings. At her appointment today she was 11 lbs 1.5oz.   I stopped setting the alarm to wake her up to feed her and just follow her lead at night.  Normally we have our last feeding before bed at 10pm, she falls asleep in bed with us by 11, wakes up around 3 to eat, wakes up again around 6:45, and then we get up for the day at 8a.m.  It feels great to finally get more than 3 hours of sleep at a time. 

That pretty much sums up the past month.  Until next month... :)

Surviving the first month

Baby girl will be six weeks old tomorrow, so I guess technically we've survived more than the first month but my time to update my blog has greatly diminished since I have another human being total reliant on me.  So here's what has been going on since we came home from the hospital with our sweet little girl. 

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4- Christmas

Week 5

Week 6

Michael went back to work the Monday after we got home from the hospital but the midwife didn't want me being all by myself at home so my mom came to help the first day.  She also went with me to my appointment with the lactation consultant at our pediatricians office.  The lactation consultant had me nurse the baby and then weighed her after each side to see how much she was eating.  She said that I was doing everything correctly and she gave me some medicated cream since the baby had done some serious damage to my left nipple.  Of course the baby nursed totally fine while we were with the lactation consultant, but at home she was really struggling and fighting on the left side but nursing great from the right side.  Because of the damage on the left side it was also super painful for me to have her nurse from that side, so I resorted to pumping on that side instead.

Because the baby had some jaundice issues, I was told to nurse her as frequently as possible.  We were waking up every two hours through the night so I could feed her, but because of the jaundice she was almost impossible to wake up.  I would have to get up, change her diaper (which would make her mad), undress her, turn the light on, and then she would finally wake up enough to eat for a few minutes.  It was hard having to do this because Michael would have to go to work in the morning so I felt bad about waking him up through the process of waking her up, she would only feed off of the right side, and I was exhausted from my complete lack of sleep.  The pediatrician wanted me to do the 2 hour feedings until she was back to her birth weight. 

Well, because she was only feeding from the right side, I was pumping the left side before bed, then going all night and then pump again in the morning. I did that for about a week and a half before I experienced my first clogged ducts from the engorgement of going all night with out pumping or feeding from that side.  Holy cow- clogged/plugged ducts are nothing to mess around with... it is seriously painful.  The entire left side of my left boob was hard as a rock, red, hot, and hurt like crazy.  I knew I needed to be careful so that I didn't get mastitis so I tried taking hot showers, massage, and pumped like crazy. When I woke up that morning, I was in so much pain that I wanted to cry and I couldn't even hold the baby with my left arm. The next day it was even worse.  I had developed blisters on my nipple and was in serious pain (although I never had a fever, thank goodness). I called the lactation consultant and she told me that I needed to pop the blisters with a sterile needle (yuck!) and then pump right away to try to unclog it.  She also said to have the baby nurse on that side to try to unclog it, but the pain of having her nurse on that side was unbearable so I couldn't do it.  Finally after two days it cleared up and I hope that is not something I have to experience again.  Seriously not pleasant at all!! After that incident, I decided I needed to suck it up and just let her nurse on the left side and fight through the pain. Thankfully, now she can nurse fine off that side and it no longer is painful.  Anyone who says breastfeeding doesn't hurt or isn't hard... IS A LIAR! But if you can make it through the hard part in the beginning, it definitely gets easier with time and now I actually enjoy the time I spend breastfeeding my baby.

Betsy Grace wasn't back to her birth weight at her two week appointment (she was 3 ounces shy) so they told me to continue waking her up every two hours to eat.  Man, I was so disappointed.  I was so hoping that she would be past her birth weight so I could finally get more than an hour stretch of sleep at one time during the night.  They told me to come back in a week to check her weight again.  She gained 5 ounces which put her at 8lbs 6oz.  I asked the nurse if I could do longer stretches between feedings at night since her weight went up, but she said because she is a slow gainer to not go more than 3 hours between night time feedings.  Ok, so I get a little more sleep but not a lot.  I know that everyone says "sleep when the baby naps during the day" but I am not good at doing that and when you are home by yourself you have to get other stuff done rather than nap all day. So I would feed her at 10pm when we went to bed, again at 1a.m., 4a.m., and then again at 6:45a.m. when I would wake up Michael so he could get ready for work. (And continued to feed every two hours during the day)   We did that for about two weeks  and then I finally broke down and bought a baby scale so I could make sure she was gaining weight. 

She now weighs 9lbs 9oz and we don't go back to the doctor until the end of this month so I made the decision to start stretching out our feeding times at night.  I know that I can't let her go more than 4 hours at a time without eating because breastmilk is digested so quickly she could get dehydrated after more than 4 hours.  We are currently going to bed at 10pm, feeding at 2a.m., and again at 6a.m. although sometimes she will want to wake up to eat around 5a.m. instead.  I've also strayed away from the strictness of the "feed baby every 2 to 2 1/2 hours" schedule and leaned more toward baby directed feeding.  I've been doing a lot of research about other cultures and the ways they raise their infants and what I've found is that the best option is to simply follow the baby's lead.  So that's what we are doing now and since I have the scale I can make sure that she is still gaining like she should.  So rather than feeding every 2 hours during the day, I let her tell me when she's hungry.  It may be 10 or 30 minutes after she last ate or it may be 2 hours after she ate.  She's eating frequently and seems to be doing fine. 

Another thing that I've decided on (that I've met some resistance about) is that we are co-sleeping.  My mommy instincts tell me that it is best to have her near me while we sleep rather than putting her in her crib away from me.  Research shows that infants who have skin-to-skin contact sleep better, breathe better, have a better regulated temperature, and have better brain development.  All of those are perks but I just feel more comfortable and sleep better knowing she is safe in my arms.  People say "aren't you afraid you are going to roll over on her?" and no, I'm not afraid of that.  I'm very aware that she is in my arms and we both wake up in the same position we fell asleep in.  If she moves or stirs I feel it.  When I feel her looking for my boobs, I know she's ready to eat.  I don't have to get up and go get her to feed her, I simply have to sit up.  I'm not sure how long we will co-sleep, maybe just the first few months, but right now it's what feels right.

I've also been told that I'm spoiling her by holding her too much and not letting her sleep on her own.  I don't believe that is the case.  Rather, I feel it is important to be close to her as much as possible (even though it can be frustrating when I'm attempting to get something done and she won't let me put her down).  There is a lot of interesting research about the "fourth trimester", the first three months outside of the womb.  It makes alot of sense to me... google it if you want more info. I'm very thankful for my Baby K'tan wrap so I can wear her when I need to get something done (I'm currently wearing her as I type and she's snoring away!) Other cultures hold or wear their infants constantly throughout the day (and co-sleep as well) so why do people in our culture think it is ok to just leave this little person by themselves and expect them to not fuss about it? Sure it might be hard or inconvenient, but you can't expect life to be just like it was before you had a baby. 

We've been using cloth diapers since we came home from the hospital with the exception of days that we were out of the house all day and during the night time, but as of two weeks ago (when we ran out of disposable diapers) we've been using cloth full time.  I love it! Sure, I have to change her a little more frequently during the day using the prefolds but it is way easier than I had imagined it to be.  We use prefolds and covers during the day at home and then use the pocket or all-in-one cloth diapers at night or when we go out.  They work better than the disposables too.  The only mess we've had was in a disposable diaper when it went all up her back.  We don't have that problem with the cloth diapers. I just do a few extra loads of diaper laundry a week and that's it. So far my cloth diaper stash includes 24 prefolds, 10 covers (most of which were given to me on my cloth diaper cake), 1 Rumparooz pocket diaper, 4 Fuzzibunz pocket diapers (my favorite by far!), 6 BumGenius pocket diapers, 2 Kawaii diapers, 2 Cocalo diapers, and 5 BumGenius freetime all in one diapers. 

As far as my recovery is concerned, I feel 100% back to normal.  I've lost 26 pounds without even trying and have 10 pounds left to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  I'm not sure how quickly those last 10 pounds will fall off because breastfeeding makes me super hungry all the time.  I go to the doctor on the 14th for my 6 week post partum check up and hopefully she will give me the ok to start exercising again.  I've missed my body pump and spin classes at the Y that I loved before pregnancy.  Its hard for me to think about leaving my little one in the daycare at the gym when she's so little, so it may be a little longer before that happens, or will only happen when Michael is home to watch her. 

That's it for now.  Hopefully my next update won't be another 6 weeks from now.