Wash, Rinse, Repeat

This post is sort of long…sorry. I started it a few days ago and it seems to have a mind of its own….

Things are going well. I am very tired, as you might have noticed in that last post.
I (and the Lactation Consultant) think I have low supply.
Zoe has been doing marathon nursing sessions this week. I just can’t seem to satiate her. Most likely because Strike 1 PCOS, Strike 2 Nipple shield, Strike 3 C-Section.

By marathon I mean that she would be feeding for an hour, sometimes and hour and a half. And then it would seem like within the hour she would want more food. I was having trouble finding time and energy to pump on that schedule. I know it is pretty normal for a newborn to be cyclical…eat, poop, sleep, eat poop, sleep…wash, rinse, repeat…but this week she was more like eeeeeaaaaaat, poop, sleep, eeeeeaaat, poop, sleep….

I went to the LC today. She helped me with better latching technique. Hopefully I can wean the nipple shield at least on one side. I was able to latch without it when I came home. I am not totally against the nipple shield forever (I like saying ‘Activate the Lactaction Shields’ when I use it) …just willing to try anything to get her more food.

She IS getting enough though. She weighed in at 7lbs7ozs. She has gained a half pound over her birth weight in two weeks. Yay! That makes me happy.

Yesterday I ventured out into the world for something other than a doctors appointment. I went to my sister’s for a short visit (where I proceeded to leave my lump sum short term disability check and not realize it was gone until today – can we say ‘too tired to think straight??’) and then to visit my co-workers. The Zerker was perfect at work – sleeping the whole time. On the way home I got seriously concerned that I was way too tired to be driving. I made it home ok, but I really need to get better at gauging it. I am not used to these hours or the breastfeeding and I guess I don’t realize the toll that it takes on me until it just hits me and I can’t do anymore. Needless to say when we got home and I fed her again I went to sleep and then slept for more hours later when DH got home. We have begun using the supplementer to finger feed her so that she can still suck but not get over fed. DH can do that, and it gives him a chance to get involved.

This morning I felt completely refreshed because I did get several hours of sleep.
I went to the LC today. After a normal feeding session timeframe Zerker had only recieved about an ounce of milk. She has advised the following process: nurse on both sides for up to 15 minutes each, then supplement with an extra ounce by finger feeding and then pump for fifteen minutes…sounds familiar…nurse, supplement, pump…wash, rinse, repeat…I am also supposed to start taking fenu.greek and ask my ob for a rx of reg.lan.

She doesn’t take the bottle nipple well at all. It comes out too fast, then she spits it all back up. In two weeks I will work toward getting her to take a bottle better. I didn’t even know there were such things as ‘slow flow’ or ‘medium flow’ or ‘fast flow’ bottle nipples. It isn’t something people discuss, they should make onesies that say ‘I like fast nipples’ on them.

I am so glad it is the weekend. DH is home. I have missed him a lot. I am pretty sure I could never be a housewife. It just isn’t my game. I don’t think I would be a very good housewife/SAHM housekeeping wise either. Of course, when you spend every other hour nursing and the other hours changing diapers and such, you can’t get much else done. Also, just miss the company of my DH.

These weeks are flying by. I wish time could slow down. It is wonderful to have her here every day. I know this post sounds like whining. I promise I don’t mind any of these problems. I don’t mind the no sleeping. Every coo, and every cry is totally worth it. If time would slow down then my bits and pieces of sleep would last longer too!

I mean how could you not just love this person?

Even if sometimes she is this person:

And sort of turns me into this person: