I recently went back to my hometown and spent 10 days with my parents. They were in heaven getting to spend so much time with their new grand daughter. While I was there, we asked my sister-in-law if we could borrow her kids' bouncy chair for my baby to sit in while we were in the pool ... so she brought it over. It has since been dubbed The Miracle Chair.
Why? It's an instantaneous calmer! My baby LOVES to move. She wants to be walked, or bounced, or shook ... as long as she is moving she is happy (usually). This chair has a little vibrating feature and quite a nice bounce to it. So whenever we put her in it and turn on the vibration and rock her (rather a lot harder than I would think she'd like ... but she loves it!), no matter the problem, 95% of the time she is calm as can be in less than 30 seconds. If I had actually paid for it, I would say it's the best money I had spent on a baby item.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Battle of the Bottle
So far my baby has been exclusively breast fed. She's never had a bottle of pumped milk (although we have some stored). Well my husband and my anniversary was yesterday and we wanted to go out to dinner so we got grandma to babysit. We knew she would have to take a bottle so we started prepping her for it yesterday ... not really expecting any problems. Unfortunately, she had no interest in it. She just screamed at it and got angry. So we tried again later that day (it was never me feeding her) and we had the same result.
Last night I looked up some ideas about how to get her to take the bottle. Many people said that it's easier if she's not actually hungry yet. So my husband tried that earlier today and she did suck on it, and apparently drank some (though we couldn't tell) but not very much. So we ended up heading off to dinner not knowing if she would eat while we were gone.
Well after dinner we called home to see how she did because we wanted to take a walk around the city but not if she needed to eat. Fortunately grandma immediately said to us "guess who drank a whole bottle!!" Yay!! I'm so proud of my little girl!! Now I know I can pump and not have to worry about her starving if I need to stay away for a bit.
And dinner was fantastic, too.
Last night I looked up some ideas about how to get her to take the bottle. Many people said that it's easier if she's not actually hungry yet. So my husband tried that earlier today and she did suck on it, and apparently drank some (though we couldn't tell) but not very much. So we ended up heading off to dinner not knowing if she would eat while we were gone.
Well after dinner we called home to see how she did because we wanted to take a walk around the city but not if she needed to eat. Fortunately grandma immediately said to us "guess who drank a whole bottle!!" Yay!! I'm so proud of my little girl!! Now I know I can pump and not have to worry about her starving if I need to stay away for a bit.
And dinner was fantastic, too.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Exercising Momma
I exercised for the first time today since having my baby 5 weeks and 5 days ago. I am seriously out of shape!! It is amazing just how much. I walked on a regular basis up until I had her (in fact I walked 5k the day before my due date) and yet when I take walks with my husband now ... I struggle! Well I was very happy to exercise today and while it was much more tiring than I'd like ... it felt good. I was using the Wii Active that I was given for my birthday and so far I highly recommend it! It's definitely way better than the standard Wii Fit game.
Right now we are watching Baby Einstein for the first time. She has basically slept through the whole thing. And when she was awake ... she wasn't paying any attention to it. Perhaps I'll try this again when she hasn't just woken up from a nap. The one we are watching is Language Nursury and I find it interesting that the images shown seem to have nothing to do with what is being said. I know the pictures are just to keep the baby interested but I would think that would be somewhat confusing if they ever did figure out the words ...
She just woke up and seems to be actually watching the tv now. We'll see how long it takes before she gets fussy.
Right now we are watching Baby Einstein for the first time. She has basically slept through the whole thing. And when she was awake ... she wasn't paying any attention to it. Perhaps I'll try this again when she hasn't just woken up from a nap. The one we are watching is Language Nursury and I find it interesting that the images shown seem to have nothing to do with what is being said. I know the pictures are just to keep the baby interested but I would think that would be somewhat confusing if they ever did figure out the words ...
She just woke up and seems to be actually watching the tv now. We'll see how long it takes before she gets fussy.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Getting Things Done
I'd say ... around 3 weeks post partum I started being able to function on a semi-normal basis. When I was pregnant I NEVER guessed that my recovery would take so long. And physically it didn't. I felt fine ... everything was healed. I was just exhausted. I didn't count on being quite so sleep deprived. Or maybe I should say I didn't count on caring that I was sleep deprived. And I also didn't realize just how much time I would NEED to devote to just staring at my baby's adorable little face. :) So at about 3 weeks I started getting my act together again. And now at 5 weeks I think things are going pretty smoothly. Since I met with the lactation consultant, the feedings are going better and I no longer dread them. I still have to base my trips out of the house around that but I'm getting better at doing that. And I've learned to get things done while she's sleeping during the day (which she has started to do less of). I manage to get a few chores done every day provided that I keep myself organized enough to know what needs to be done. And next week I'll be able to start exercizing again!! Another thing to work into the schedule ... but one I'm very excited for!
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Breast Feeding Should Not be Painful
This is something I heard many times. But I heard even more times that it was ... for the first couple of weeks anyway. And so it was for me, and I thought that was normal. I thought that just the lucky few managed to have a pain free experience.
But four weeks into this ... it still hurt (at least on the left side) and I was beginning to think that maybe it wasn't so normal. So I finally called the lactation consultant from the midwife center where I had my baby and we met yesterday. She told me that it should NOT be painful. The only pain I may experience is from the initial latch when I first start breast feeding (as in, back when she was born). She said that the myth that it IS painful is so widespread that people take it as truth and then don't try to get help until they've really damaged their nipples.
Fortunately my case isn't that bad. I'm a bit damaged but not too far gone. She showed me that I was actually holding her wrong and lo and behold ... when I hold her correctly, her latch improves. It's going to take some practice to get good at holding her correctly, though. I'd gotten used to the way I did it before. Now I'm back to feeling like I need an extra arm. She also told me that as soon as it starts to hurt on my bruised side, I should stop and switch her to the other side. It made me feel better that she was giving me permission to do that.
And so if you find breast feeding to be painful beyond the initial latch ... then you're doing it wrong. Get help. It's worth it!
But four weeks into this ... it still hurt (at least on the left side) and I was beginning to think that maybe it wasn't so normal. So I finally called the lactation consultant from the midwife center where I had my baby and we met yesterday. She told me that it should NOT be painful. The only pain I may experience is from the initial latch when I first start breast feeding (as in, back when she was born). She said that the myth that it IS painful is so widespread that people take it as truth and then don't try to get help until they've really damaged their nipples.
Fortunately my case isn't that bad. I'm a bit damaged but not too far gone. She showed me that I was actually holding her wrong and lo and behold ... when I hold her correctly, her latch improves. It's going to take some practice to get good at holding her correctly, though. I'd gotten used to the way I did it before. Now I'm back to feeling like I need an extra arm. She also told me that as soon as it starts to hurt on my bruised side, I should stop and switch her to the other side. It made me feel better that she was giving me permission to do that.
And so if you find breast feeding to be painful beyond the initial latch ... then you're doing it wrong. Get help. It's worth it!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Taking Care of Momma
I am somebody with an extremely strong immune system. I rarely get sick ... and I've been this way my entire life. And yet, since I've had my baby 4 weeks ago I've gotten sick TWICE. Why? Because I'm horrible at taking care of myself!! I realized that it was because I'm now keeping such strange hours with my daughter that I forget to eat. I'm devoting way too much time to sleeping (and ending up not getting very much at all). But during all the "night" hours I don't even think that I should be eating something. In reality, if I am awake and trying to take care of her from 11pm - 6am then I should most definitely be eating.
I know I'm not the only one. I've talked to other new momma's who've also gotten sick shortly after giving birth and I wouldn't be surprised if it were for the same reason. So here's a lesson to all the new momma's out there ... really make sure you take care of yourself because being up all night with your baby is hard enough when you are healthy. When you're achy and feverish ... it's even harder.
On the bright side ... both times it's only lasted about a day and a half and tylenol was a big help!
I know I'm not the only one. I've talked to other new momma's who've also gotten sick shortly after giving birth and I wouldn't be surprised if it were for the same reason. So here's a lesson to all the new momma's out there ... really make sure you take care of yourself because being up all night with your baby is hard enough when you are healthy. When you're achy and feverish ... it's even harder.
On the bright side ... both times it's only lasted about a day and a half and tylenol was a big help!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Co-Sleeping
Back before I was a mom I had some grand ideas about what kind of a parent I would be. There were some things I was so certain about. Like that I would let her cry it out, and I wouldn't co-sleep. Ha!! These things went out the window after about 2 days.
The reason I was anti co-sleeping was just because it seemed unsafe to me. I was afraid that my husband would roll over onto her while he was asleep and I didn't want to put her on the outside of the bed. What I didn't realize that in many cases, co-sleeping is more about the parents' sanity than the baby. They sleep better when they are with their parents. And sometimes, when you just can't get them to sleep any other way, and you are about to pull your hair out from fatigue and frustration, it suddenly doesn't seem like such a bad idea to let your baby sleep with you ... as long as it means they will actually sleep.
I'm also lucky in the sense that I'm a very light sleeper. I don't even move around without waking up. So I just lie on my back, with her on my chest, and we both sleep like that. I don't have to worry that I'll roll over and knock her off. I hold onto her so I know she won't fall off on her own (and as she's only 3 weeks she doesn't really move around much either). And I know that my husband won't squish her since she's on me.
So I guess my point is just that sometimes it doesn't work out quite how you planned. But it's all good!! I'll re-visit the crying-it-out thing once she's a bit older. For now I scoop her up almost immediately.
The reason I was anti co-sleeping was just because it seemed unsafe to me. I was afraid that my husband would roll over onto her while he was asleep and I didn't want to put her on the outside of the bed. What I didn't realize that in many cases, co-sleeping is more about the parents' sanity than the baby. They sleep better when they are with their parents. And sometimes, when you just can't get them to sleep any other way, and you are about to pull your hair out from fatigue and frustration, it suddenly doesn't seem like such a bad idea to let your baby sleep with you ... as long as it means they will actually sleep.
I'm also lucky in the sense that I'm a very light sleeper. I don't even move around without waking up. So I just lie on my back, with her on my chest, and we both sleep like that. I don't have to worry that I'll roll over and knock her off. I hold onto her so I know she won't fall off on her own (and as she's only 3 weeks she doesn't really move around much either). And I know that my husband won't squish her since she's on me.
So I guess my point is just that sometimes it doesn't work out quite how you planned. But it's all good!! I'll re-visit the crying-it-out thing once she's a bit older. For now I scoop her up almost immediately.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Sleeping
Last night I was feeling all accomplished and motherly because I woke up, right on cue, with my baby when she wanted to eat at 4:45. She didn't have to cry. I could hear her smacking her little lips in hunger. Apparently I have developed super sonic baby hearing. But the joy stopped there. She didn't want to go back to sleep after she was done eating. So from then until her next feeding three hours later, I got very little sleep at all. And then she didn't want to sleep after THAT feeding either so I put her on my chest and we snoozed together. She is powerless against sleeping on me. She can't help it. I love that.
Being able to hear every little sound she makes is actually something of an issue for me. It keeps me awake at night because every noise she makes, I snap out of my dream state to make sure she doesn't need me (and hoping fervently that she doesn't). According to my mom, this will last a good long while. I am quite positive my husband doesn't have the same problem. She can cry, I'll take her for an hour and feed her, come back and rock her to sleep, and he'll not even have noticed that I left. Lucky.
She started out the day in really good spirits. She was awake and alert and just looking around. I love it when she's like that. But as soon as I pointed out how good of a mood she was in, she did a 180 and started crying and was only consoled by eating (even though she wasn't eating ... she was using me as a binky). This went on for several hours. Poor baby. Poor mommy.
Being able to hear every little sound she makes is actually something of an issue for me. It keeps me awake at night because every noise she makes, I snap out of my dream state to make sure she doesn't need me (and hoping fervently that she doesn't). According to my mom, this will last a good long while. I am quite positive my husband doesn't have the same problem. She can cry, I'll take her for an hour and feed her, come back and rock her to sleep, and he'll not even have noticed that I left. Lucky.
She started out the day in really good spirits. She was awake and alert and just looking around. I love it when she's like that. But as soon as I pointed out how good of a mood she was in, she did a 180 and started crying and was only consoled by eating (even though she wasn't eating ... she was using me as a binky). This went on for several hours. Poor baby. Poor mommy.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
The First Three Weeks
This was my mom's idea. Actually she told me I should write a book but I figured this might be more useful for more people since the likelihood that I would ever actually publish a book is really quite small. Anyway ... the point is for me to keep track of my thoughts as a first time momma since memories tend to get a little rosier with time. Not that there aren't any real rosy memories to be had but I'd like to remember it as it really happened ... and hopefully help out some other first time mommas as well!
My little girl is already three weeks old now and since those three weeks are pretty important ones, I will try to summarize it as best as I can.
When I had her, I had been awake for nearly 48 hours straight (and 17 of those, I was in labor) so I was pretty tired. It took awhile for me to catch up again. Recovery in general was a lot harder than I was expecting ... even though I had been justly warned that it would be tough. I didn't understand why. Giving birth definitely puts some stress on the body!! I was just exhausted for at least a week before I started to feel somewhat functional again. Even though I was up and moving around (with difficulty) immediately ... the actual recovery took some time. Now at three weeks out I only really feel sleep deprived when she keeps me up all night ... which she likes to do occasionally just to keep me on my toes I think.
I think the toughest thing so far has been the breast feeding. Maybe it's because I didn't really expect it to be tough? She was given to me immediately after she was born and we had her latch on right away ... and she did latch on. The difficulty is that although she has an effective latch, it's not a good one. So it hurts. And it hurts a lot. It was extremely frustrating for me. When she would latch on (mostly on the left side ... for some reason my right side adjusted just fine to this torture), I would squeeze my eyes shut, my feet would fly up into the air, and every muscle in my body would tense up. Sometimes I would cry out, and sometimes I would just cry. It was very painful and I was not seeing the benefits in torturing myself every day, many times a day. Just two days ago, we found out about something called breast shells (not to be mistaken for nipple shields) that cover the nipple when I'm not nursing, but give them air (there are holes in it) so that it can heal. It seems my problem was that I had a blister on my left side that wasn't getting a chance to heal because it had no prolonged exposure to the air (and I wasn't willing to walk around without a top on). The shells have made a world of difference. It still hurts but not nearly as much. Now that the blister can heal I am betting it will stop hurting entirely pretty soon. And we are working on the latch which is also slowly improving. The only problem was that after wearing the shell for 2 straight days, I read in the directions I was only supposed to wear it for 40 minutes at a time. Whoops.
One thing that people keep asking me is about sleep. How am I sleeping? Well it depends on the night. It takes a long time to get used to sleeping in 2-3 hour increments but I am slowly getting there. At this point, I am usually pretty awake by the time she is finished with her feeding. She is currently in the middle (or possibly just ended) of her 3 week growth spurt. That means she wanted to eat every 1-2 hours for a couple of days. That is tough at night!! It was frustrating because despite having many many warnings that this would happen ... we were still caught off guard. Why? Because when she hit the spurt, for some reason she decided to stop showing any signs of being hungry. She would just wake up and SCREAM, leaving us wondering what was wrong. Naturally the first thing we guessed was gas. Once we figured out it was the growth spurt, we started feeding her pretty quickly after she started crying and things have gone more smoothly since then. Today she has finally calmed down a bit and after two days of wanting to eat constantly ... I am feeling a little bit engorged. Ouch.
Apparently something that is not uncommon for new moms is NOT being attached and immediately in love with your new baby. This is not a problem I've had. I can stare at her, and cuddle with her, all day. I love her to bits. What has been strange for me is that I still haven't quite grasped that she is mine! It still doesn't feel real. You'd think pushing her out and feeding her every 3 hours for 3 weeks would have pounded that into my head pretty well ... but it hasn't. I'm not sure how much longer it will take for it to sink in.
I find that I "spoil" her much more than expected. I just want to hold her constantly. She's so cute and precious and I can't help myself. As soon as she cries, I scoop her up and cuddle her. After she eats, I don't want to put her down. That's actually my favorite time to cuddle with her since she's always so perfectly content then. Often in the morning after her last night feeding we will stay out in the main room in the chair together and just cuddle for a couple of hours. It's the best. :) I know she won't let me do this for long so I have to take advantage of it while I still can.
And emotions!! I am NOT an emotional person. Anybody who knows me at all can tell you that. Even during the entire pregnancy I seemed to be relatively unaffected by hormones making me overly emotional. There were only a few days when I can say that I was definitely acting out of character due to hormones. But ever since she was born I have definitely been more emotional (probably a normal level for most people). I cry much more easily. Not for stupid reasons (don't worry ... it's not PPD) but for reasons that I don't think would have bothered me before. I wonder if this will last or if it will fade in time.
Last? My body. My hips feel like they have been permanently displaced making me wonder if I will EVER fit in my pre-pregnancy clothes. My stomach has flattened quite a bit (though not completely) but it's all flabby and really quite gross looking in my opinion. I still have 25lbs to lose and I can't wait until I can exercise again (3 more weeks!) to start getting back on track. But really ... I'm not sure my stomach will ever fully recover. It's been pretty damaged and stretched to the max.
My hope for this blog is to update as often as possible (hopefully daily?) to document each and every day as a new momma. I have a personal blog and a blog for my baby and a blog for my business ... but this one is for all the new momma's out there who just want to read the experiences of another new momma. Wish me luck!!
My little girl is already three weeks old now and since those three weeks are pretty important ones, I will try to summarize it as best as I can.
When I had her, I had been awake for nearly 48 hours straight (and 17 of those, I was in labor) so I was pretty tired. It took awhile for me to catch up again. Recovery in general was a lot harder than I was expecting ... even though I had been justly warned that it would be tough. I didn't understand why. Giving birth definitely puts some stress on the body!! I was just exhausted for at least a week before I started to feel somewhat functional again. Even though I was up and moving around (with difficulty) immediately ... the actual recovery took some time. Now at three weeks out I only really feel sleep deprived when she keeps me up all night ... which she likes to do occasionally just to keep me on my toes I think.
I think the toughest thing so far has been the breast feeding. Maybe it's because I didn't really expect it to be tough? She was given to me immediately after she was born and we had her latch on right away ... and she did latch on. The difficulty is that although she has an effective latch, it's not a good one. So it hurts. And it hurts a lot. It was extremely frustrating for me. When she would latch on (mostly on the left side ... for some reason my right side adjusted just fine to this torture), I would squeeze my eyes shut, my feet would fly up into the air, and every muscle in my body would tense up. Sometimes I would cry out, and sometimes I would just cry. It was very painful and I was not seeing the benefits in torturing myself every day, many times a day. Just two days ago, we found out about something called breast shells (not to be mistaken for nipple shields) that cover the nipple when I'm not nursing, but give them air (there are holes in it) so that it can heal. It seems my problem was that I had a blister on my left side that wasn't getting a chance to heal because it had no prolonged exposure to the air (and I wasn't willing to walk around without a top on). The shells have made a world of difference. It still hurts but not nearly as much. Now that the blister can heal I am betting it will stop hurting entirely pretty soon. And we are working on the latch which is also slowly improving. The only problem was that after wearing the shell for 2 straight days, I read in the directions I was only supposed to wear it for 40 minutes at a time. Whoops.
One thing that people keep asking me is about sleep. How am I sleeping? Well it depends on the night. It takes a long time to get used to sleeping in 2-3 hour increments but I am slowly getting there. At this point, I am usually pretty awake by the time she is finished with her feeding. She is currently in the middle (or possibly just ended) of her 3 week growth spurt. That means she wanted to eat every 1-2 hours for a couple of days. That is tough at night!! It was frustrating because despite having many many warnings that this would happen ... we were still caught off guard. Why? Because when she hit the spurt, for some reason she decided to stop showing any signs of being hungry. She would just wake up and SCREAM, leaving us wondering what was wrong. Naturally the first thing we guessed was gas. Once we figured out it was the growth spurt, we started feeding her pretty quickly after she started crying and things have gone more smoothly since then. Today she has finally calmed down a bit and after two days of wanting to eat constantly ... I am feeling a little bit engorged. Ouch.
Apparently something that is not uncommon for new moms is NOT being attached and immediately in love with your new baby. This is not a problem I've had. I can stare at her, and cuddle with her, all day. I love her to bits. What has been strange for me is that I still haven't quite grasped that she is mine! It still doesn't feel real. You'd think pushing her out and feeding her every 3 hours for 3 weeks would have pounded that into my head pretty well ... but it hasn't. I'm not sure how much longer it will take for it to sink in.
I find that I "spoil" her much more than expected. I just want to hold her constantly. She's so cute and precious and I can't help myself. As soon as she cries, I scoop her up and cuddle her. After she eats, I don't want to put her down. That's actually my favorite time to cuddle with her since she's always so perfectly content then. Often in the morning after her last night feeding we will stay out in the main room in the chair together and just cuddle for a couple of hours. It's the best. :) I know she won't let me do this for long so I have to take advantage of it while I still can.
And emotions!! I am NOT an emotional person. Anybody who knows me at all can tell you that. Even during the entire pregnancy I seemed to be relatively unaffected by hormones making me overly emotional. There were only a few days when I can say that I was definitely acting out of character due to hormones. But ever since she was born I have definitely been more emotional (probably a normal level for most people). I cry much more easily. Not for stupid reasons (don't worry ... it's not PPD) but for reasons that I don't think would have bothered me before. I wonder if this will last or if it will fade in time.
Last? My body. My hips feel like they have been permanently displaced making me wonder if I will EVER fit in my pre-pregnancy clothes. My stomach has flattened quite a bit (though not completely) but it's all flabby and really quite gross looking in my opinion. I still have 25lbs to lose and I can't wait until I can exercise again (3 more weeks!) to start getting back on track. But really ... I'm not sure my stomach will ever fully recover. It's been pretty damaged and stretched to the max.
My hope for this blog is to update as often as possible (hopefully daily?) to document each and every day as a new momma. I have a personal blog and a blog for my baby and a blog for my business ... but this one is for all the new momma's out there who just want to read the experiences of another new momma. Wish me luck!!
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