When I was in the final stages of pregnancy and reading up on baby's first year of life, the biggest hurdles that I anticipated in the months ahead were sleep deprivation, breastfeeding, and getting my body back. The first month of Morgan's life definitely left me shattered by the lack of sleep. Zombie form obtained, no doubt. My own Mom's 10 days with us coupled by Lee's incredible patience (not my best trait) got us through and once we formed a nightly routine + introduced the dreamfeed...I must to say I'm functioning fine on my 4.5 & 3.5 hour chunks of Zzzs. We start our morning around 7am and I am able to shower most days. High fives to that. Aside from M's little curled under lip in the hospital (thank god for my LC notes and the midwestern salt of the earth woman from The Pump Station on YouTube), breastfeeding and my supply have been easy breezy. Morgan is a speed demon eater (10-17min MAX) and the burping is getting better. I've lost muscle tone in my legs and arms but I'm happy with my weight bounce back...I anticipated much more of a struggle. (::takes bite of delicious cake from Abbey::) I burn 500-900 calorises a day making milk. It's fine.
But as life often does, the newborn curveballs thrown our way were ones I had not anticipated in the least. I had friends tell of babies with reflux and thought it was something very few infants dealt with, something that wouldn't even be on our plate once Morgan arrived. I mean hey, we had breastfeeding down right? If she's full, she'll sleep well...and we will be golden (side eye to my former self.) Two dear friends had near perfect babies that seemed to just eat-play-sleep and giggle all day. Perfect Babywise kids. The Facebook effect of my extended friend network posting hundreds of munchkin smiles had me thinking that was the only thing I'd be longing for come 6-8wks when in fact I just wanted 5min of her being content, happy and comfortable. The thing of it is...she isn't wailing or crying for hours. She's just fussy, hates being still and wrangles her body as you can imagine her last meal making its way through her tiny system. It's a full three ring circus to get her bounced and swaddled perfectly so that she's stable enough to digest and sleep at the same time with Lee & I being the only ones to know the exact method to the madness. (Friends couldn't even stop by and hold her for a few minutes as she would wail in another's arms.) "Sleep begets sleep" as all the baby whisperers say and little M is/was still fighting to be comfortable after a feed to get through one sleep cycle before the acidic saliva bubbles on her lips and she winces in pain. I have no doubt it's been harder on me than her to watch. After taking note of all her symptoms, the doctor suggested we go on baby Zantac which basically reduces the amount of acid secreted by the stomach thus allowing any erosive esophogitis to heal (hey I was a pharma rep remember!) Her starting dose was a bit low and showing very minimal improvement in her post meal reflux so we took it up to 2ml BID and we've been sitting pretty ever since...yesterday. I know, I know...a whole 48hrs of angel baby bliss is nothing to write home (blog) about but it feels like we just won a marathon. SOMETHING is working and I could just cry in elation of the fact.
6 weeks old and figuring it all out one 3 hour chunk at a time. Morgan was 11lbs 8oz on Friday at the doc's and if that isnt a win for comfort nursing I'm not sure what is ;) I know there will always be another hiccup around the corner but soldiering through this issue has been one of the hardest things I've ever done. Maybe this is just what motherhood is for these first 3 months of life: a total crapshoot (that noone talks about) and trusting your instincts. Parenting is really so primal! Here's to chunky babies, lots of leg rolls ...and getting through the heart ofa storm with the help of an incredible extended circle of mama friends. You are all amazing.
But as life often does, the newborn curveballs thrown our way were ones I had not anticipated in the least. I had friends tell of babies with reflux and thought it was something very few infants dealt with, something that wouldn't even be on our plate once Morgan arrived. I mean hey, we had breastfeeding down right? If she's full, she'll sleep well...and we will be golden (side eye to my former self.) Two dear friends had near perfect babies that seemed to just eat-play-sleep and giggle all day. Perfect Babywise kids. The Facebook effect of my extended friend network posting hundreds of munchkin smiles had me thinking that was the only thing I'd be longing for come 6-8wks when in fact I just wanted 5min of her being content, happy and comfortable. The thing of it is...she isn't wailing or crying for hours. She's just fussy, hates being still and wrangles her body as you can imagine her last meal making its way through her tiny system. It's a full three ring circus to get her bounced and swaddled perfectly so that she's stable enough to digest and sleep at the same time with Lee & I being the only ones to know the exact method to the madness. (Friends couldn't even stop by and hold her for a few minutes as she would wail in another's arms.) "Sleep begets sleep" as all the baby whisperers say and little M is/was still fighting to be comfortable after a feed to get through one sleep cycle before the acidic saliva bubbles on her lips and she winces in pain. I have no doubt it's been harder on me than her to watch. After taking note of all her symptoms, the doctor suggested we go on baby Zantac which basically reduces the amount of acid secreted by the stomach thus allowing any erosive esophogitis to heal (hey I was a pharma rep remember!) Her starting dose was a bit low and showing very minimal improvement in her post meal reflux so we took it up to 2ml BID and we've been sitting pretty ever since...yesterday. I know, I know...a whole 48hrs of angel baby bliss is nothing to write home (blog) about but it feels like we just won a marathon. SOMETHING is working and I could just cry in elation of the fact.
6 weeks old and figuring it all out one 3 hour chunk at a time. Morgan was 11lbs 8oz on Friday at the doc's and if that isnt a win for comfort nursing I'm not sure what is ;) I know there will always be another hiccup around the corner but soldiering through this issue has been one of the hardest things I've ever done. Maybe this is just what motherhood is for these first 3 months of life: a total crapshoot (that noone talks about) and trusting your instincts. Parenting is really so primal! Here's to chunky babies, lots of leg rolls ...and getting through the heart ofa storm with the help of an incredible extended circle of mama friends. You are all amazing.
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