Life w/babe wk of 9/18

[crazyeight]

So we had our 2 week checkup today. She is 9 lbs...up from 8 lbs only 8 days ago!! She grew an inch and another cm around her head. Everything is going great and thankfully they don't have any shots until shes 2 months old. Dh is going back to work next week so i really need to get her into our health insurance this week and go to WIC at the crack of dawn....:

[dakotamidnight]

today seems to be the day for appts!

We had WIC this morning {crack of dawn, of course - does WIC ever do anything else?}, and I'm pleased to report that Trinity is back up to her birthweight! : And, according to the WIC scales, I've lost 13 lbs since delivering Go boojoo {breastmilk}! Trinity nurses every 3-4 hours normally, and then goes right to sleep normally. We've even managed to avoid using the pacifier so far, but I think it's coming soon. She does a lot of comfort sucking, and I can't always stand there with my finger in her mouth for herr to suck on! She does suck on her hands, but then she ends up with hicups and gas from swallowing so much air

Very surprised at WIC - they have a breastfeeding room in the clinic, and were more than willing to do anything I needed - they don't get too many breastfeeding moms around here: I did surprise the cashier at the grocery when I went to cash my vouchers, and was getting carrots & tuna - she had no idea you could get those on WIC and had to check with her manager :

Spent the rest of the day resting, and then ran over to the local thrift store tonight to find some clothes that fit her - she's in newborn sizes, and I never expected her to be!

Everything is going great so far but tomorrow will be the test - I start back to 2 classes {have tests so I have to go} and will be gone from 12:30 pm to nearly 5 pm! I've pumped {3 oz}, and will be leaving a bottle, but we'll see how this goes since she's never had a bottle before. Any tips?

[crazyeight]

honestly the stuff wic gives us is pretty crappy. i mean how healthy is juice, tuna and carrots? i don't remember getting the tuna and carrots though last time....oh well. i just like having enough milk and cheese which is all we would ever actually buy.

i have only seen our mall as breastfeeding friendly. no other place and certainly not wic. the waiting room is overpacked all the time and they don't have any room left. oh well.

dd is still kinda wonky on her sleeping. she stays up until 11 and will not go to sleep without me laying with her for over an hour. i really hope it changes soon cause mommy and daddy need some alone time!!

[lobster]

We had our two week check-up yesterday as well. Lyndy is 9lbs (he was 8lbs 5ozs at birth)! He has been so alert lately, holding his head up and checking everything out. Every day he spends longer and longer periods of time awake (which, coincidentally, means he sleeps for longer periods at night, hooray!). Yesterday he had his first bath without mommy, in his own little tub instead of the big tub. He loved it! Several times he tried to drink the water.

Danielle, how's your breastfeeding going? Are things more manageable now?

[blairinargentina]

We had our four week checkup on Monday and we're up to 7lb 10oz! That's up from 6 lb 6 oz at birth. And Isabel is now 19.5 inches long. The vaccination discussion was a breeze and we are now deciding what to/not to vaccinate at the 2 month visit. Hmmmm.

Now that we've survived the 1st month I think everyone, Dh and baby and me, are feeling much better. Relatively well rested and adjusted. She sleeps for 4-6 hr stretches at night, which is absolutely heavenly! We are dealing with food sensitivities though, which is a little frustrating. The dairy I was eating is not agreeing with her... bummer, I love cheese! And it's the only thing we actually use our WIC benefits for. (Don't even get me started on that approved food list... are you kidding me, it's all sugary crap! And there is no incentive to buy healthier food that is available... organic, etc.).

Breastfeeding is going well in that she is putting on the pounds but it's a struggle for me sometimes. She has the tiniest little latch, no matter how hard we work at it.

[crazyeight]

breastfeeding is going much better. i was able to get her latch better just by watching and really being sure she had a big open mouth. i still have the "pull" her lips outward but i had to with ds too. it also helps that shes stretched her feedings out to about 3 hours for most of the day. my nipples have time to heal! i am going to call LLL this week (i hope) and get into a meeting. i really want to meet some people and make friends cause 2 kids is going to be overwhelming with only dh supporting my adult convo's.

i have been wanting to not give dd the hep b vaccine but the military uses combined vac's that have hep b in them with other stuff i DO want her vac'ed for. anyone know how you handle that?

[Guest*]

All is well here. Just learning to juggle 2 kids, keep up with my daily responsibilities and make time for myself. At least 2 of those suffers daily!

My son is a sweetheart. I'm so blessed that he is laid back and a pretty good sleeper. I was terrified that he would be a high needs infant like his sister. He's just such a joy to have around. I'm also blessed to have a husband who works from home, because as much as my dd loves her brother, I can't leave them alone together. So, when I need to run out for a minute, I can have my husband watch them for a few minutes without worrying about my infant getting kicked in the head.

I don't know how much he has gained, but he's been an incredible nurser since birth and only lost 2 ounces, so I wouldn't doubt if he's close to 8pounds already. We'll find out at our 2 week appt (which will be closer to 3 weeks because of scheduling issues).

I'm still healing but feel about 85% recovered. I'm still taking it as easy as I can.

I hope everyone else is well.

[Mimi37]

DD had her 1 mo appt on Tues (at 5.5 weeks) and she had grown 2 inches and 3 lbs since birth!! almost 2 oz a day since 2 wk appt!! Wow, go breast milk. I am thrilled after struggling to feed her the first couple of weeks. Now she has a little double chin and chunky thighs and I don't have to worry about her starving. I'm also learning that she is not always hungry when she fusses (even if she's happy to get at a boob!) and am getting better at soothing her w/o nursing sometimes (yes, that includes a paci for when she just wants to suck; so controversial, I know). This seems to be helping her reflux, which is darn bad at times. She is also on Zantac, which helps a lot. And I've cut oit dairy So nice that she does not seem to be in pain any more, though pm feeds are syill rough bc I have to hold her upright 15-30 minutes after we're done to give her little system a fighting chance to keep it down. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz who wants to do that at 4 a.m.? She is sleeping 2-5 hrs at night, usually 3ish. She is so cute and I love her more every day.

[VBMama]

Hi everyone,
I've been MIA from here for a while, but everything is going well. Connor is growing like crazy, haven't weighed him in a while but he is getting lovely chubby cheeks and seriously chunky thighs. He is a super mellow baby, sleeps easily and only fusses when he has a soaked/poopy diaper or is hungry! (Before someone wants to throw something at me , dh & I feel like we "earned" this, because ds1 was a really high needs baby who was pretty much screaming whenever he wasn't sleeping, nursing, or being held and he didn't do a whole lot of sleeping!)

Ds1 is doing okay with the transition. He's a little resentful at times and is having a few issues that seem related to the stress of this big change, but overall it's going well. Figuring out how to juggle the needs of two kids and the logistics of going out is definitely challenging, but I'm getting there!

Hope everyone is doing well!

[dvons]

Nadia is 2 weeks today. She is so mellow and goes with the flow. Good thing because I'm up taking the older ones to playgroup and such now. We had a moms group meeting today and my midwife was there with her scale. She is 8lbs 15oz back up from 8lbs 3oz last week.

I feel great and I'm going to start my walking DVDs soon to start getting some exercise before I go for the aerobics DVDs.

Deb

[crazyeight]

no kidding with trying to juggle with 2 kids!! : i am not sure how i am going to cope!! ds seems to ask for stuff when i have just settled in to feed dd. guess hes just going to learn to wait and hopefully not scream bloody murder every time i tell him to wait. i still haven't figured out how to get them in and out of the car in a timely fashion! and why in the world did they make shopping carts for one child the standard???? i mean theres mostly people with 2 children!! besides the fact that with a larger family you need a larger cart!! hehe.

we're surviving and i hope to be able to go shopping on my own without it being a show.

[lobster]

What the heck happened to my excellent little nurser? Last night Lynden clamped down on my nipple and yanked his head back - twice - sending a firey pain shooting through my chest. Today my nipple hurts so bad that he felt the need to do it again! He made me scream. What a little bugger!

I told him that if it happens one more time, he's getting formula. :

Haha, as if that would happen.

[ish]

Originally Posted by dhinderliter

we're surviving and i hope to be able to go shopping on my own without it being a show.

I can totally relate!

Everything is going pretty well, it's been a huge adjustment, but I think we're slowly starting to get the hang of things.

DS1 loves his baby brother, and is usually good, but the rest of the time he is hell on wheels!

DS2 is breastfeeding like a champ, but is having jaundice and weight gain issues. We saw the ped on Tuesday, who told me that his slow weight gain is due to the "fact" that my breasts are not producing enough milk! I asked for a ref to a lactation consultant, which he hesitantly gave, and on my way out the door he shoved three cans of formula into the diaper bag and begged me to feed my "poor" child. I went home in tears, feeling like a failure. (DH fired the ped, btw) I seriously considered opening a can of formula to feed my baby, but I called the lactation consultant instead. I am so glad I did! She helped us discover that DS2 is getting between 1-2 oz a feed, and that my supply is not to blame! He has a perfect latch, suck and swallow. We're not really sure why he's not gaining as well as he should be, and if he's not up up to at least 8 lbs 13 oz by next Tuesday, we may need to start supplementing.

DH went back to work this week, I wasn't sure we were ready, but he's short on vacation time and we need the extra money. Well I made it all the way to Tuesday night before having a breakdown. The events at the peds and trying to take care of two kids by myself for over 16 hours on no sleep pushed me over the edge. DH and I have decided it's better to take the time off now and allow our family to bond, then to continously run into this kind of trouble.

I can't wait to find our rhythm, and start functioning like a normal family again.

[crazyeight]

ish- i hope that you can get ds to gain some weight soon!! i wonder if a persons diet could be to "blame"? i am no expert but if your eating way healthy and not getting any fats would that translate into your milk?? maybe he just doesn't want to gain weight!! good luck with it though!

in your situation i would promise yourself that you don't do anything during the day!! having your sanity is much better than getting a shower, getting chores done or even getting dinner on the table!

[mum2be]

We had a ROUGH night last night. Something in dinner didn't agree with either me nor Elisabeth. I was feeling nauseas, sick to my stomach, had a MAJOR headache (which I still have...) and was so tired I thought I would just drop to the floor.

Luckily, my mother is still here helping out. So between dh, my mother, and my boobs () we got through the night. She was up from 6 p.m. until 7 a.m. She was not a happy babe. I felt so horrible! And we don't know what it was from. I wouldn't have thought that if it was the dinner I ate, that it could have gotten into my breastmilk that quickly.

Anyhoo, she is sleeping now. I am still recovering from my infection which has been really hard. I'm doing topical antibiotics and a numbing cream. I think they are working, but the progress is slow. I am now able to walk and take a shower. I changed my first diaper yesterday! (I wasn't able to stand before to do it.)

I wasn't prepared for the feeling that I am constantly nursing her. It's like I have no time to do anything in between. I keep putting sleep off because I tell myself she'll wake up in another hour to eat. I wish I could detach my breasts and hand them over to dh for a night!

Her cord is almost off! She's getting her first sponge bath today. Her skin is just peeling off everywhere But she's still so gorgeous! I love her to death

[orangefoot]

We are fine, Frida will be 3 weeks tomorrow and is feeding like.....well, a newborn needing to grow!!! We haven't managed to get out of the house other than to collect ds2 from school today as it was pouring with rain. I made cookies with dd with Frida in the didymos sling but haven't managed much else. Yesterday we went to our usual toddler group for the first time but we only made it in time to paint one picture before singing and tidy up time. What with pooping feeding and throwing up we had some trouble leaving the house.

Originally Posted by ish

I can't wait to find our rhythm, and start functioning like a normal family again.

Things will never be 'normal' again! Adding new people to the family always makes things into a new kind of normal which you wouldn't have recognised before: Honestly though it will get better little by little. And wow at the ped. Where do they get off saying stuff like that:

Mum2be

Sorry to hear you had a rough night. Take sleep when you can, don't put it off. An hour's sleep is worth having even if you have to wake up to feed your babe.

[_betsy_]

We're doing well. Had a ped appt. Monday, but my milk wasn't in yet, so she was losing weight and hadn't pooped anything after a meconium poop Friday. Went back in yesterday and she's gaining well, within a half ounce of her birth weight at 8 days. And she's pooping after every feeding, so that seems right.

Sleep when baby sleeps. Sleep when baby sleeps. It's my new mantra!