Food for baby

Just a few notes about my milk and breastfeeding experiences. At first we did great, my colostrum was enough to keep you happy in the first few days of your little life. By day three my colostrum had dried up and my regular milk had not come in but I still tried to BF you. In the meantime we also gave you formula because you had jaundice and had to eat in order to move it out of your little system. I was so upset that my milk had not come in. It took 4 days for my milk to finally come in. It only came in after trying to BF you and then pumping nothing for 15 minutes at a time every few hours while someone else fed you formula.

Ever since we have been trying to get to a strictly BF relationship. I have supplemented off and on with Isomil Soy Milk. There was a point where my nipples were on fire and hurt around the clock because of thrush, luckily you never showed symptoms but I defiantly hurt from it. I couldn't feed you because it hurt too much so we gave you formula and I would pump and give that to you. I got a prescription from the doctor that didn't seem to help then I tried Gentian Violet which stains everything it comes into contact with purple it worked.

Here you are my little purple people eater. <3

Then there was our trip to Ohio over Christmas where we were in the car for many many hours and taking you out to BF was just not an option. Since I didn't have any milk pumped we gave you formula again and I would BF when we stopped. We also gave you formula because your BMs weren't regular and you were really fussy and gassy so we figured it was something in my milk that upset you. We switched a full day of breast-milk for formula and you seemed so much happier which was hard on me. I wanted my milk to be best but it appeared that it was not.

I was determined to get back to just breast-milk so we slowly weaned you off the formula and now here we are at 2 months of strictly breastmilk and you seem to be doing better with the gas and BMs. You would go several days in between a BM but now it has only been a day or two between. You would get really fussy when you haven't went in a while and I feel like it is something that I am eating that causes you so much pain.

Looking back I now think that the combination of breast-milk and formula may have been causing you all that pain. You are doing so much better now that you are drinking strictly breast-milk. I pump everyday at work so you can drink that at daycare.

BF is hard in the beginning but it is what is best for your little growing body and I'm happy to say we are doing good right now.

You are getting close to starting solids. At that point I will be making your baby food for you. I have been learning all about my Baby Bullet food processor and how to store your food.

Just another month and a half to go!

Love you my lil bit/bubbles/pumpkin!!

Sleep

Looks like I'm averaging a post a month right now. I really wish I had time to write more so I could track every little thing that Ever does on a day to day basis. I feel like I'm missing so much in this blog about her.

This post is actually going to be about some of her sleep habits since birth.

We started off with her sleeping in our room in a Rock n' Play. We were told she shouldn't sleep in that because it could cause her spine to become crooked if she was in it too much. So we setup the Pack n Play with the bassinet insert at the end of our bed. Ever would make all kinds of crazy noises in her sleep. We made jokes about how she sounded like she was possessed. I wish we had got video of this, it was quite funny.

I did get a short video of her sleeping and making noises but it is dark and I think she was just having a bad dream or something. This was taken when she was about 2 1/2 months old in January.

Check it out....

I had planned on her sleeping in our room until she was 6 months old but alas with all of the noise she made we eventually moved her into her crib by the time she was 4 weeks old. It really helped me get more sleep because I wasn't jumping up at every little noise she made in her sleep anymore. Now that she is 4 1/2 months old she no longer makes all these noises when she sleeps, now she just snores a little bit. LOL She sleeps in her crib every night and for some of her naps. I think it helps her get better sleep to be in her own room so no one is disturbing her.

They tell you to put baby to sleep on their back it helps reduce the risk of SIDS. Everyone is scared of SIDS. I would feel awful horrible heartbroken if I were to awake to find Ever not breathing. With that being said I have to admit that we would put her to sleep on her stomach in those first few weeks. First it started with when she was taking a nap and we would be right there next to her. Then it grew into when we laid her in the bassinet. She just slept better that way. She wouldn't jolt herself awake as much. I know, we could have swaddled her but I could never get it to stay wrapped around her. Also I felt that she could move her head enough to be able to breath and I would check on her constantly.

4 1/2 moths old -- Her favorite sleep position

I did research on it and apparently they used to tell parents to put babies to sleep on their tummy so they wouldn't choke on spit-up while sleeping. It wasn't that long ago they did this. So taking that into consideration and knowing that her other risk factors for SIDS was very low I felt a little more comfortable laying her on her stomach to sleep. We now lay her on her back to sleep and she doesn't jolt herself awake any more.

SIDS is still a constant worry of mine. So when I woke up at 7am this morning and realized that Ever still hadn't woke up I started to feel this lump in my throat and panic in my gut.  My husband had checked on her and she was fine. Still sleeping away. She actually slept through the night. The first few times this happens it really does give you a bad feeling to wake up in the morning and realize that you haven't heard your baby all night. I wonder if this is the beginning of me getting more sleep at night?

As far as her waking up at night... from when she was probably 6 weeks old she has consistently went to sleep about 8 or 9pm and would sleep until about 4am. There was the time we went to Ohio to visit family and her sleep schedule was all screwed up and when she was sick a few weeks ago she would wake up every few hours but besides that she has had a consistent sleep schedule. Now the amount of time I'm up at night with her is down to a half hour. She eats and is back to sleep pretty quick compared to the hour I would be up with her every 2 hours just after she was born.  It really didn't take that long to get here. It seems like forever when you are going through it but looking back that time was so short.

Here are two more videos of Ever sleeping. These were taken on our way to Ohio. She used to make all kinds of faces in her sleep too. Glad I got video of this because I almost forgot about it. She is about 2 months old in these videos.

They really do grow up so quick in these first few months. Here's to getting more sleep at night!