Mallory is two weeks old today. She had her check up with Dr. Randall on Thursday and is now up to 8.2 lbs. Doc says that she's healthy and very cute so he recommended that we keep her. I can agree to that except for when she's being a little pill; then I wouldn't mind maybe trading her in for a baby that is more calm (of course I'm kidding...sometimes). Sometimes I wish we had the ability to put her in the nursery like when we were at the hospital. But this is just a part of what comes with having kids and it's good for us to go through not just the easy times but the hard times too.I love my little girl and she is such a joy in our lives, but the past two weeks have definitely been hard. She may be a cutie but she's super high maintenance. The very first night home from the hospital was one I'll never forget - pure hell. We were so baffled as to why she wouldn't stop crying that in our sleep deprived state we almost decided to go back to the hospital. We finally figured out that she was starving because my breast milk still hadn't come in all the way so Jody made a 3am trip to Winco to pick up some formula, which she gulped down. Unfortunately I'm not one of the lucky moms able to produce more breast milk than they know what to do with so we still have to supplement with formula. This has been a struggle that I haven't taken lightly because I am a huge proponent to breast feeding and was really looking forward to it. And though I'm still able to breast feed half of the time, I wanted it to be 100% of the time. I know there's nothing I can do about it, but I still get bitter every now and then.
In Mallory's first week, she was extremely needy and wanted to be held all the time. We even had trouble putting her down in her bassinet at night so most times she ended up sleeping on my chest just so I could get some sleep. When she does sleep she's pretty loud so with every little noise I would jump thinking she was going to start crying. Now that we're on week two, she's sleeping in the bassinet at night but only for a couple hours at the most. Then I'll transfer her to the swing where she's content until she's hungry for her next feeding. I'm also getting used to her noises so I can sleep through most of it. However, now we have a new problem: she prefers me over Jody, big time. It breaks my heart a little every time he goes to pick her up and she won't stop being fussy. I can barely go to the bathroom without her having a tantrum. It's weird and came out of nowhere and I hope it goes away soon because I need him to be able to relieve me.
She's become more impatient (I wonder where she got that from!) especially when she's hungry. She'll go from quiet and sleepy to crying and angry in no time. If her paci doesn't console her then I'll sit and mock her with a fake cry. I know she's too young right now to soothe herself so we give in to her cries, but as soon as she's old enough she'll have to learn the hard way. Crying doesn't bother me unless I have no sleep under my belt. Besides, newborn cries are somewhat cute.
We are starting to see some improvement which has been nice. As first time parents not knowing what to expect, it can be challenging when you feel like the easy times will never come. She sleeps for longer periods at a time so now I'm only getting up every 2-2.5 hours at night instead of every hour. During the day she'll even sleep for up to three hours. Except for when she's gassy, she's pretty chill when she's awake. It seems that she's starting to like her changing table more; she'll just lie there kicking her feet around. We've learned the best time to change her is after she's eaten. Unless you have cold hands she usually won't fuss anymore. She loves her car seat and going on walks and car rides. I'm sure we'll be using the car ride trick to console her in the future. I had to give her a mini bath the other day after she spit up all over herself and she didn't cry at all. Big improvement from her first bathing session.
Overall, we've been taking baby steps towards things getting easier and building somewhat of a routine. Our new routine isn't one I particularly care for seeing as I'm used to getting most things done before noon and momentarily our days don't really start until then, but it's definitely not about what I want right now. Jody goes back to work in a couple of weeks and the routine we currently have will change again; should be interesting. As far as my recovery goes, I'm doing well for only being two weeks out. I've been reducing my Norco pills over the past few days and as of today am only taking the Ibuprofen. I'm still pretty sore but I hate taking Norco because it makes me constipated, so I'd rather be in a little bit of pain from the soreness. Of course I have been pushing the limits of what I should be doing because I can't stand just sitting around. That and I figure if I continue to move around and exercise my muscles, I'll get stronger faster. I just make sure to listen to my body and when I feel pain I'll sit and relax for a bit. I already know that I'll be in the gym sooner than the doctor mentioned, but I won't run until I get clearance. It's all about the baby steps.
I too had a challenging first born. I remember doing it all myself,in those days fathers had different duties. I remember never having enough sleep, time to eat, almost anything I started had to set aside to hopefully finish? I remember the non stop crying, so I cried too! I remember one day she just stopped and I had a hard time with that, waiting for a cry or sleeping with one eye open. I remember! My heart is open to your changes. I love you three very much and will be there for one month in Dec. Help is coming!
ReplyDeleteOK first you have my labor except that I only pushed for 4 hrs, he wasn’t low enough to even vacuum so c-section it was. Now milk supply probs too? I feel like I’m reading my own blog! This is so common, I know so many Moms who had to supplement. Don’t give up, you can successfully do both. I had to supplement formula with both my boys from the hospital on and I made it to six months with the first and somehow made it to 7 months with the second. With the second, the supply was so bad I tried every herbal supplement to increase supply like mother’s milk tea, fenugreek, until finally I got desperate enough to ask my OB for a PX for Reglan at my six week appt. None of these worked for me, not even the reglan. I still stuck with the breast feeding because my pediatrician gave me lots of encouragement by reminding me that some breast milk is better than none. As long as both you and baby aren’t getting too frustrated, keep going. I never thought I’d make it past the second month because the supply was so bad but I just set one month goals and every month that I made it, I thought, well maybe I can do this for one more month. I wanted to give up so many times but I’m so glad I stuck with it especially during those really fussy times when breast feeding was the only thing that would comfort him to sleep. It is so much more work to have to do both but you can do it!!! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteTami