Baby Update

So I finally have a few moments to post a decent baby update! Kiwi is 3 weeks old today, and the time has flown by in a big blur...it definitely feels like it's been longer than 3 weeks, as she's gone through so many changes and we've learned so much.

The last several days have been tough; after the first several days after her birth, we though we'd settled into knowing our baby reasonably well and were attending to her various needs enough so that she was not doing a lot of crying anymore. In those early days I think we weren't feeding her enough because my milk supply hadn't come in fully and we weren't supplementing with formula yet. After we got over that hurdle and she surpassed her birth weight in under 2 weeks, we went back to just breastfeeding. I read how a breastfeeding mother's daily calcium requirement is 1000 mcg, so started to drink more milk and eat more dairy to get to that recommendation on food rather than just vitamin supplements. Well, I think my little girl has a milk allergy, because she got SUPER fussy and started to spit up a lot. This lasted for a couple days until I stopped with the dairy, and baby is back to her old self, nursing like a champ and only having minimal spit up.

The funny thing is, I had started to get pretty frustrated about breastfeeding and how much time it actually takes out of your day (not to mention the cracked, sore nipples I had to overcome). As I said in my previous post, I feel like a 24 hour lactaction station. Baby spends anywhere between 10 - 35 minutes per breastfeeding session, and by the time I get her diaper changed and down for a nap, it's practically time for her to eat again! She typically eats every 2-4 hours, but has already had a day where she cluster-fed; I think she was in the midst of her 3-week growth spurt. Then before we figured out the milk allergy, she would be very fussy at the breast, and come off and on the breast, and cry during the entire nursing session. This made for a very frustrated Mommy, and I was really at the end of my rope. My frustration culminated in a crying jag yesterday, as I felt quite helpless and out of ideas. Luckily, DH swooped in and took on baby duty for most of the day. I pumped my milk to empty my breasts in the afternoon, and by the evening feeding, baby was happy again. So I think the milk I'd had in the morning had worked itself out of my breastmilk by then.

Although I'd been having all these frustrations with breastfeeding, I can't tell you how relieved and thrilled I was to be able to nourish my little one again. And even though I didn't have any pumped milk in the fridge (meaning DH couldn't take one of the nighttime feedings), I was happy to get up for baby and feed her because of this breakthrough we'd had. I feel like we've had a success here, and am starting to enjoy breastfeeding more now. Baby is also becoming increasingly alert, and we look at each other more intently now when she nurses, which is more akin to what I was looking forward to when I'd read all the breastfeeding books and their promises of bonding, etc. Fingers crossed, I think we're on the right path with this now...

Thanks for the Nod!

Wow - what a pleasant and totally unexpected surprise to see that I've been nominated twice as a Rockin' Girl Blogger!

Thanks go out to Trace and Nina - if you haven't checked out their blogs yet, I highly recommend you do so. They are both a couple of cook chicks with very interesting lives.

Here are some nominations from my camp:

Amanda at Manana Banana - Hers was the first blog I found that had to do with azoospermia and the utilization of donor sperm. It really gave me hope when I needed it most, and opened up this whole wonderful community of blogs to me. If she only knew how timely and helpful her blog was for me at a difficult time in my life...

Lucky #2 at Dreaming Minds - Great blog that I'm now following with interest as this mother dips her toes back into the working world - something I will be doing after the new year.

Chas at Sugar and Ice - This is a fun blog about motherhood to an adorable baby girl!

The following nominations are for folks whose blogs are password-protected. Sorry if you don't have access to their sites, but I didn't want to exclude them just because of that minor detail...

Beagle at Cats in the Cradle - Beagle is well on the path to adoption and is a strong, inspirational, candid woman whose path I have followed for quite some time. My fingers remain crossed for her and a short wait!

Dramalish at Baby Quest - Hers is another one of those early blogs that provided me with comfort when we first found out about DH's diagnosis. Plus she's an all-around cool chick who's provided tons of support to me and others out there.

Check out the above blogs, I think you'll like 'em.

Will post an update on life with the new baby soon...all I can say is that I'm tired, my back constantly hurts, I wish my c-section would heal quicker than it is, I feel like I'm a 24-hour breastfeeding machine...and my little baby is just precious. One look at her when she's awoken from a nap with those big eyes can make a tired Momma melt in a nanosecond...