Good morning. If it is reasonable to say such a thing at 3.46am. Is it really a good morning? Who is your source, and are they reputable?
I wish I had been more able to blog about the first three weeks of parenthood, but ironically being a parent has kind of got in the way of that. Oh well. I’ll see what I can remember and write down while sitting here in the dark, jiggling the babe in her rocker with my foot and wondering how long that swaddle is going to last…
Everyone that has come to see us so far has very kindly commented on how calm and relaxed we are being about this otherwise completely life-changing thing that has just happened to us. That’s nice. And mostly true. There is a lot to be said for being as prepared as we thought we were – I was expecting to throw all that theory out the window and be running around the house flailing my arms proclaiming how nobody knows anything about anything – but it turns out that we’ve actually managed to learn some stuff about babies. So it is simultaneously reassuring and frustrating when you’re trying to latch your precious little bundle of joy but their preference is for screaming their face off, and your husband freaks out and calls the breastfeeding hotline and forces you to speak to somebody and then they rattle off a long list of things that you have already done and are doing. Yes, baby and I are both shirtless. Yes I’ve tried holding her in different positions. Yes I’ve sat her on my chest and calmed her before each attempt to feed and then let her try to find the boob on her own. Yes I know that sometimes she’ll only take a snack-sized feed rather than a big one. Yes I’ve changed her nappy, what the hell, how stupid do you think I am? My question was, she is holding her tongue up and won’t latch and then screams. Never mind, we’ve figured it out on our own and she’s feeding now, you were really unhelpful, but thanks anyway. Husbandito then apologises and says he should not be looking for solutions but rather just be more supportive, which is incredibly insightful of him. Anyway that was a couple of weeks ago and thankfully she has stopped doing that. Now she falls asleep on the boob instead, or pulls herself off when she is done. It never seems like very long. She is not putting on any more weight. However she is feeding frequently, being very alert, and filling a looooot of nappies. So it is hard to balance whether or not she is eating enough. Probably not. I have kept records of every feed. She is eating significantly less than she was over a week ago. After the nurse had come and told me to chill out on the feeds, I let Penny dictate. That has worked, because she is waking and ready on average every three hours or so, she just only sucks for ten minutes or so (on average. Sometimes she’ll only take five, on rare occasion up to twenty or twenty-five). After that she loses interest, or just wants the nipple in her mouth for comfort but doesn’t drink. Sometimes she wants the second side, sometimes not. Even when she is bright eyed and very, very awake, she is just not interested in eating any more. I thought this was just her way of becoming more efficient and of the milk changing, so I didn’t stress about it, as long as I was offering and keeping her awake when necessary. Penny has since had two weigh-ins since seeing the community nurse ten days ago, and she is still at 3.4kgs. What the hell. She looks like she is growing. She certainly has a rotund little tummy, and it feels like we are having to put her to bassinet higher up than before because she is longer than when we first started doing it. So I don’t know. The doctor says it doesn’t sound like there is anything to worry about, just to try and keep encouraging her to eat as much as possible, and we’ll monitor her again in a week…
Anyway I have finished my cup of tea and the babe has mercifully fallen asleep, so now that I am super awake (time update is 4.11am) I guess I better wind this up so I can wind down. I’ve got a hundred more things to say but they will have to wait for another time… in daylight hours perhaps.
whatvioladidnext 