Day 2…

Yesterday, the first 30 hours with Riley home pretty much left me feeling that whatever I had learned from reading all those parenting books had been lost in some sort of “delivery amnesia”. The nursing seemed to take a nosedive as he’s not latching like he was in the hospital. My nips are in pain and my boy isn’t getting what he needs from just me – gotta keep pumping and giving the supplementary bottle.

Combine this with the reality that he’s still learning day from night (read: no playtime when it’s dark) so the grand plan to feed him and have him go right to sleep didn’t go so smoothly. He slept 4 hours, ate and was awake for 4 hours. Hence, the picture my mom took yesterday around 8am when we were all sacked out in the living room. After showing a willingness to sleep 5+ hours earlier in the evening (with our efforts to arouse him pretty much unsuccessful), we paid for it around 3am.

Then his pediatrician said to make sure that he eats at least every 3 hours during the day and every 4 hours at night. My difficulties in nursing and his sleeping habits left me wondering if that’s an achievable task right now. I had my first episode of “mama guilt”.

Then, I went to see my midwife and she informed me that I still have gestational hypertension and would need to have more blood drawn and to take blood pressure medication for the time being. Just as it was in the last half of my 3^rd trimester, my bp is up when I’m sitting or standing and it drops to normal when I’m lying down. How the heck do I lie around all day with a newborn??? I never had health problems until I got pregnant and assumed they’d go away quickly once I delivered. So, I’m taking drugs yet again – I thought I was done after I went off my pain meds last week.

After several meltdowns yesterday, J suggested that until we get breastfeeding established, I give Riley a bottle at night (since he’s less alert and won’t nurse as well) and use the times during the day when he’s more awake to practice b/f. We tried it last night and it was much better. I got the bottle warming and proceeded to pump as J changed Riley and fed him the bottle. We were both up a total of 2 times for 30 minutes and managed to get 7-8 hours of sleep.

Today, after giving myself the option of pump and bottle, my day has been completely stress-free. I fed my boy roughly every 3 hours and he takes a bottle, even when he’s half-asleep. Mama feels better knowing her boy is getting enough food. No more mama guilt.

I made an appt with a lactation consultant for tomorrow to see if we can remedy to b/f issues and got some special cream for sore nips that reportedly works wonders. If the problem isn’t resolvable I have my plan B of pump and bottle. More trouble, but Riley will still have the good stuff from mom.

He is so much fun to play with when he’s enjoying his wake time. His various facial expressions just slay me. I’m in love with this kid – no bones about it…

I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures from his first bath – he did really well and didn’t cry once – that’s my angel baby:

Shelby