Monday, March 10, 2008

Today was the first day Carter and I spent alone, as Doug had to go back to work. I also took care of Carter all night -- Doug usually takes over around 4:00 am so I can sleep for a few hours, but he heads to work around 5:00. So I didn't have more than about an hour of sleep at any one time in the last 24 hours. I had no idea how important those 3 or 4 consecutive hours of sleep were before now. :-P

So we stayed in bed until around noon. I've been triple-feeding Carter (nurse, bottle, pump), which takes more than an hour. And then I can sleep an hour (if Carter goes to sleep) before he's ready to eat again. I think I managed to get about 6 hours of sleep between 11:00 pm and noon, though no more than an hour at a time. In the NICU, he would go to sleep when put in his isolette or bassinet, but that sure doesn't happen at home!

He took a nap in his bassinet in the middle of the day, and I wore him in the Moby for a couple of hours while I was doing some work around the house. It's amazing how deeply he sleeps when he's in the Moby. He doesn't seem bothered by noise or the motion or me bending over to pick things up or anything. That is consistent with everything I've read about babywearing, of course, but it's still cool to see it in action.

Here's a little video of him awake. He's very grunty!



Not the most interesting video in the world, I know. But so cute! For comparison purposes, here's the video of him when he was first born. He was so tiny! He's probably a bit over 5 pounds now and he looks huge to me, though I know he's still quite small for a baby.



Breastfeeding is coming along slowly. I've been weighing him before and after feedings, and in general he gets less than half an ounce per feeding, even though it seems like he's working pretty hard. I talked to the lactation consultant this afternoon and she said it's most likely just a developmental issue. He's still quite small and two weeks from his due date, and in a few weeks everything will probably just click. She told me not to kill myself trying to nurse him at every feeding, but to just do it about every other time and weigh him once a day to check for progress.

I really needed to hear that, I think. I had been worried about the fact that he was nursing for half an hour and then still taking two ounces by bottle. I kept waiting for him to be able to take a full feeding by breast, but it seemed like it wasn't happening. And as mentioned above, it was really taking a lot of time, especially in the middle of the night. I felt guilty about the few times a day I gave him a bottle instead of trying to nurse him, and I was going nuts trying to organize my pumping schedule around his feedings. The LC's comment today basically gave me permission to let it go for now. I know he'll be breastfeeding soon enough, and there's no reason to work myself so hard now -- or him, for that matter.

The freezer is full of the milk we FedExed from Greensboro. (Cha-ching!) We're trying to use up the older milk in the hospital bottles, as those waste a lot of freezer space.


Crazy, huh?

I'm working on a diapering post that I'll put up in the next day or so. We're cloth diapering, and I've been trying different options since we got home, and taking lots of pictures along the way. I think some people reading this might be curious about that. ;-)

4 comments:

Aidan and Emma said...

He has grown SO much since I've seen him last! He's got chubby cheeks and all! and I can not get over how much milk you have in your freezer!! That is just crazy! Hang in there with the breastfeeding, your lactation consultant is right, he will get it eventually and I know its hard to not feel guilty giving him a bottle, but he will be nursing like a champ in no time. You are doing such a great job! You seem to be a natural, but I'm not surprised, I always knew you would be the best mommy! love you! Donna

Anjela said...

N'aww, he's SO CUTE. :D And the babywearing working so well both surprises me and doesn't -- on one hand, I always think of babies as being relatively easy to "jar" out of a good sleep, but on the other hand, thinking of how many hundreds of years moms have had to wear their babies to get stuff done, yep, I can see how that would work...

And holy cats, look at that freezer! How quickly are you going through it? Are you adding to it faster than you're using it?

Carla said...

I'm glad to hear things are going so well for you, Doug and Carter. I was holding Wyatt as I played the Carter awake clip and it was like Wyatt was trying to tlak to Carter. He could hear him and he kept cooing and grunting right on with Carter. Best of wishes
Carla, Doug, and Wyatt Dillon

Rita said...

It's NOT a boring video! Cherish this time, because he's infinitely more fascinating than any of the garbage they show on TV. The precious little nummins! Making his cute, adorable little noises! Opening his eyes and looking around! Waving his little arms! Nobody was ever so precious! (Except my own wee one, of course. It's a tie.)