-Declan is such a little snuggler. I love it for the most part, although it is sort of draining when he wakes up AS SOON as I put him down. No matter how deep a sleep he's in before I carefully make my way to his bed. He also hates the carseat with a passion, although luckily the screaming and crying only lasts until the car starts going and then he passes right out.
- Feedings are all over the place. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm just not one that enjoys breastfeeding. With Em, I never even attempted to. Mostly because I was a young 21 year old mother and the thought of nursing was sort of icky. When C was born I felt much differently and was fully prepared to breastfeed, ideally until he was a year old. We had latching issues right from the beginning. He didn't like latching and I have insane flat n.ipples (sorry for the TMI) so even the best latch would/does cause some pain. I visited an LC when he was 5 days old, and while I left there feeling confident, by day 9 I was a crying mess over the pain and the stress. So I started exclusively pumping. While it took more time in the long run, I was much happier. For me, the important part was that he was getting the good stuff, not HOW he was getting it. But I guess I got a little lax on pumping and I ended up with a nice double case of mastitis. While waiting for the doctor to see me, I started leaking milk all over the place. I ended up changing my gown twice before she got in there and I remember just being in tears because I was over it. I left the hospital with a prescription and a vow that I was done with it. C was almost a month old at that point. Since I responded well to the pump, I had enough in the freezer that he got supplemented with BM until he was almost 4mo.
This time around I went into the whole nursing thing much more confident. He latched on well at the hospital and was only 3oz away from his birth weight at a week old. But still....I don't enjoy it. I don't like being the only one who can feed him, I don't like the cluster feeds, the anxiety that comes along with not knowing how much they're eating, the fear that he'd never take a bottle, etc. D will be 12 days old tomorrow and for the last couple of days I've been doing a mix of exclusively pumping and breastfeeding. I FINALLY found a bottle nipple he will take (brown latex for the win!) so it's been nice seeing him drink and know he's getting a nice full feeding. I'm not sure how long I'll do this for. Because of the flat n.ipples, they are constantly sore. Naturally I find myself drawn to the pump since it doesn't hurt as much but I also feel bad since D likes to nurse. I nursed all night last night and for every nap today. I'm going to try to follow that trend for as long as I can. I said from the beginning that I wouldn't be "all or nothing" like I was last time. So, any breastmilk he gets makes me happy. Realistically, what I think will happen is that I will continue to pump and then supplement with formula as his intake goes up. Right now I'm making just enough to feed him, so I'm storing nothing. But anyway, yeah. Feedings are all over the place.
- We still aren't decided on what we want to do regarding c.ircumcision. As of right now, he is not. DH wants it done, especially since our 2yr old is, but after learning all about it, it's something that really makes me nervous to do. We agreed not to do it in the hospital, since I wanted his birth and the days after that to be all about him. Getting used to a life outside the womb has got to be stressful. I didn't want to add a very painful procedure on top of that. I felt confident with my decision when we left the hospital, but I will admit that I second guess myself all the time. I look at him and he's PERFECT, so it's hard to think "he needs this removed, for no real reason, just because". But anyway, after a couple days of seriously freaking the fuck out every time I'd think of it, both DH and I seemed to have dropped it for the time being. Monday is his 2 week appointment and I'm sure it will be brought up again, though. :/
- Em and C have been so amazing with him! There seems to be no jealousy and they both randomly say things like "I like baby Declan". C always wants to hug him ("hug" him as in just place his head on top of the baby's) and Em always want to hold him. I love seeing them interact with him and I think they will have a lot of fun when D is a giggly happy 6mo instead of a newborn who just eats, sleeps, and cries occasionally.
No comments:
Post a Comment