Today you are 3 weeks old and it is March 26, the date your dad and I have been telling people you were coming since last summer. Lucky for us you decided to come early. I am so glad I have gotten to spend this extra time with you instead of sitting on my butt on bedrest being miserable.
At 3 weeks you are:
- More fussy. You are definitely trying to start telling us there is something wrong, even if we have trouble sometimes figuring it out. You don't really cry a lot, just grunt and wail a bit to let us know you are pretty pissed about something.
- Farting. A lot. And it is loud. Like grown man farts. Or momma farts.
- Spitting up more. You've even projectile vomited on your great-grandma Darlene and your dad. We switched bottles and are sitting you up longer after feedings to counter this.
- Focusing more. Sometimes I catch you staring at something like you are really thinking about it. When it's me you are staring at I just can't contain myself!
- Awake for longer periods of time - not always a good thing when it is going on 11 o'clock at night.
- Hungrier. You pretty much eat 3 ounces every couple hours during the day and every 3 hours at night. You try to trick people into feeding you more so you can spit it all back on them, but through trial and error I've found about 3 ounces is just right for you.
Mommy took you to the cardiologist with me last week and the old ladies in the waiting room loved looking at you. Dr. T just wanted to check me out after delivery. My blood pressure was 128/78 - still not my norm but much better than what it was when I was pregnant. He wants me to come back in September for an Echo with Bubble Study to make sure the holes are absolutely closed in my heart. Whatev.
We still have a lot of visitors but it seems like things might be starting to calm down.
Your great-grandma Darlene has come over a couple times now and has taught me how to cook a couple meals. So far it's been meatloaf and a blackberry pie and chicken with homemade noodles. She watches you while I can take a nice, long normal shower and can run to the store or whatnot. Tomorrow she is coming over and we are making spaghetti. She loves to hold you. She calls and asks about you almost every day.
On Friday your grandma T came over and watched you while your dad took me out on a much-needed date night. I was hesitant to go, but didn't have much of a choice in the matter, and we ended up going to Lone Star Steakhouse, which is where we went to celebrate when we found out we were having you!
I actually fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans and had my first beer in 9 months!
Cheers! It was delicious and mommy got pretty tipsy from it. :)
The weather was rainy almost all last week, but over the weekend the sun came out for a bit! So you and I sat out on the deck and got a little bit of sun.
Momma is down 30 lbs in 3 weeks with only 9 left to go! I am actually hoping to lose more than that!
Biscuit is starting to come around more. For a couple weeks he was pretty jealous and kept to himself a lot. Don't get me wrong, he wants to know where you are and he checks on you when people are holding you besides me and daddy, but he was our "baby" for a long time so it has been an adjustment. We have been taking him on more walks since it's getting nicer out and he enjoys himself.
E-ping
I'm pretty much only breast-pumping now, aside from a couple times in the early morning when you would latch on when I pulled you into bed. But I'm trying not to do that anymore because I don't know how much you are getting and it throws the rest of your day off with feedings.
The breastfeeding was trouble from the get-go and causing a lot of stress for you and for me. I didn't know something so "natural" could be so hard and emotionally taxing, but I read a lot about it on the internet and have even confided with other friends about all the trouble they had doing it. After a lot of research (and tears) I decided to say to hell with the breast feeding, admit failure, and just pump. Here is an interesting article on "E-ping"(Exclusively Pumping) found here.
I feel much better now and less anxious. I was spending so much time trying to make it work, obsessing over it, researching it, talking about it, and asking questions, that I felt like I was losing quality time with you. I am sad that we "failed" at BFing, but you don't seem to mind. You don't mind how you get your milk as long as you are getting it! And now that I have been pumping a while I have a good stockpile going and other people can actually watch you and take care of you so mommy can get things done too.
My goal is to pump until I go back to work and then half-and-half with formula and then switch over to formula once my stored frozen breast milk is used up. That's the plan because right now I am pumping 7-8 times a day for 10 minutes at a time, that includes when you and I wake up in the middle of the night. So yeah, hooking up to the pump at 4 AM is not fun when all you want to do is keel over. But at this point I figure we've come this far...
My chubby checker at 3 weeks today! (On your due date - LOL!)
Love,
Momma Bear
No comments:
Post a Comment