Breastfeeding Battles I didn't expect to be able to breastfeed at all, actually. I had a breast reduction when I was 23 and was told I would never be able to nurse. At the time I thought, Who cares about breastfeeding? My priorities were so different back then.
Because the operation was done so long ago, some of my milk ducts had the time to reconnect in the following 13 years and to my great surprise my boobs work. To some extent, anyway. They took a lot of tissue out, including from the parts needed for nursing, so my milk supply is a bit lower than it should be. And no, I'm not imagining it.
I have been doing my best, giving him my breast throughout the day, but there are times when after a nursing he is still hungry, stuffing his hands into his mouth, and when I try to put him back on my boob, it's obvious he's being frustrated. He squirms, kicks his legs, twists my nipple in his mouth and even screams with exasperation. So I give him a couple ounces of formula, and he settles down right away. I am trying to increase my milk supply and wean him off the formula as much as possible. For the last week, I have been keeping a log of how much formula he gets per day, and it has gone down from 550ml to 450ml, and the nursing has increased. At the same time, I have been taking fenugreek and blessed thistle, so it could be that the decrease in formula intake reflects an increase in my milk thanks to these herbs. If I don't see more improvement by Friday, I'll start taking Domperidone, a drug that is supposed to increase milk supply (and make you wonder who got paid to come up with its sptupid name).
Gunter is still a sweet little angel and now sleeps from 11:00 pm to 5:00am. I certainly didn't do anything special to deserve to have such a good baby, but I sure appreciate my luck.
2007-07-18 (baby has arrived)
Mommy Boot Camp
When Babies Play Practical Jokes
Last night, Gunter fell asleep around 10:00. I went to relax next to him on the bed and used the breast pump at 11:00 and again at 12:00. He woke up around midnight for a feed and went back to sleep. I flaked out around 1:00.
At 3:00 am, he woke me from a deep sleep. I got a bottle of formula ready, but in my hazy state I didn't put the cap on and nodded off sitting on the bed with the open bottle in my hand. I dropped it, spilling formula all over the bed and myself. I startled awake to find myself drenched in Similac right down to my undies. I threw a towel over the wet spot on the bed and dragged my sopping self off to the washroom. By the time I got cleaned up and returned to the bedroom, my little rabbit was fast asleep again. Aparently the late night room service was so inept, he cancelled his order.
At 6:30 he woke up again and this time I got up and decided to make the formula properly. When I returned from the kitchen, he was off in dreamland again and remained there until 9:00 am. I am starting to think he has a sense of humor.
As much of a nuisance as this night of needlessly interrupted sleep was, it was a good sign as it looks like baby Gunter may be heading in the direction of sleeping through the night.
He continues to amaze me with his calm, easy-going temperament. I am so prooud of him.
2007-07-15 (baby has arrived)
A Perfect Angel
I'm a very, very lucky new mom
Gunter has an exceptionallyo calm temperament. He is really easy to soothe and only cries loudly if I'm too slow on the draw with the food when he wakes up hungry. He is unbelievably mellow and doesn't even fuss when I give him a bath. He just goes along with whatever Mom has on the program.
Yesterday, we went to Cornwall for a reuinion on Arron's side of the family. Gunter slept on the train going and coming back, and was conked out most of the day as well, totally oblivious to the dozens of cousins, aunties and uncles cooing over him.
Vera has unfortunately not been so lucky. She gave birth down the hall while I was still in the hospital recovering, and they had to pull poor little Zeyden out fith forceps as Vera was too exhausted to push after 24 hours of labor. Zeyden has been colicky so far and screams day and night. Vera and Doug are exhausted and exasperated and at a total loss about what to do. What is really sad is that she and Lara had been watching Birth Story during their pregnancies, where it's always all bunnies and happy faces once baby arrives and everyone lives happily ever after. She was totally unprepared for the reality of an unconsolable baby and I hope she doesn't come down with PPD from all the stress. I think of her all the time and I'd like to call her and Doug, but Lara says they just want to be left alone and I can understand that as I felt the same way for the first few days after I got home with Gunter. I just hope all it is is a bad reaction to the milk-based formula, which would be an easily solved problem.
Thanks to everyone on the site for your support and encouragement throughout my pregnancy and the birth of my baby.
2007-07-14 (baby has arrived)
Birth Story- Part Four
So I pushed. Hard. Dr Mitnik, whom we have affectionately dubbed 'Dr. Nitwit', continued to put two fingers inside me against the baby's head so I could feel the progress we were making. At one point I got a glimpse of the head crowning in the overhead mirror and it looked to me like it was about the size of a bowling ball. I thought I would rip right in two pushing it out! After just a few good pushes, the head popped out and Dr Nitwit said,
"There is a cord around the neck. Wow, Dr Graves really knows what she's talking about.' He tried to loop ot over the head, but it was too tight, so he asked me to hold back from pushing while he cut it. However, I got an uncontrollable urge to push and the baby just flew right out. Dr Nitwit was right on the ball,
"Oh, baby's comning out anyway!' he said as he delivered the body in a kind of somersault to keep the cord from tightening around baby's neck. The body came out easily and without much effort on my part. Once it was out, I immediately felt a huge relief.
I had torn quite badly, and I tend to think it's because I pushed the head out so fast. I received a partial third degree tear that stopped short only a few milimeters of my butt. Thank God it didn't make it down any further. They put the baby on my chest but I was so stunned and exhausted from the birth that I didn't feel particularly warm and fuzzy about holding him at that time. They asked Arron and me whether one of us wanted to cut the cord, but we too freaked out and I told them they'd just better do it themselves. I had thought I would want to hold him after birth, but I asked them to take him and clean him up. The baby had passed a lot of thick meconium and they had to deep suction him, and I watched as they put him in a warmer and worked on him. Despite the cord, meconium, and dipping heartrate during the birth, he was fine and got Apgar scores of 9 and 9.
I had a postpartum hemorrhage and the doctor put one whole fist up inside me and the other hand on my belly and compressed my uterus to stop the bleeding. After than, it took about 20 minutes for him to stitch me up. Arron said I had ripped pretty badly and he couldn't believe how much blood there was. He was pretty freaked out by that and by the rest of the birth. Even though he had arrived 1- 1/2 hours after me, right after I had received the epidural, he left twice during the birth to have a cigarette and made it back just in time not to miss me push him out. After the baby was born, Arron wanted to leave again, but that pissed me off and I wouldn't let him. He did pretty well, though: at least he didn't faint.
So, after 6 1/2 hours of labor I had my little guy. We had planned to name him Alexis but as soon as we saw him we both thought that name really didn't suit him. He was so blond, he looked like a little old German man and we thought he should have a German name. A couple of days later, we each came up with the name Gunter on our own, so we decided that should be it. It was a little strange, after calling him Alex all this time, but he really is a Gunter and we're happy we came up with that name.
It was just as well that I had the epidural because it slowed the birth down long enough for Gunter to receive four hours of anti-GBS antibiotics during labor. In fact, he was just in long enough to make the four hours. Things didn't go exactly as I had planned, but they seem to have gone exactly as they were meant to.
