i love getting the mail these days because our friends and family have been sending gifts for sullivan and it is so fun to see what arrives.
imagine my excitement when i open a gift from kate busby and find....pee pee tee pees! finally, i will no longer have to worry about getting pee in my eye, a concern that would never have crossed my mind prior to having a son. and yes, meredith, they are the tee pees with the little airplanes on them. too cute. definitely would have come in handy the night of the 'tasty urine' incident. :)
Monday, September 29, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
from person manufacturer to milk production plant
my son is only...10 days old, but it feels like it has been MONTHS. mostly in a good way, although sometimes not. we have jumped big hurdles, summited a few mount everests.
for example, breast feeding. in my mind, breast feeding should be the most natural thing on earth, since prior to the advent of formula, this was the only way to feed babies. further, it is the only real purpose for boobs. i mean, given these facts, how hard could it possibly be? HA!
in the months leading up to sullivan's birth, we took several classes: childbirth, infant parenting, and breast feeding. i thought for sure that breast feeding class would be the most ridiculous one of them all. i have boobs, and i planned on using them. i knew babies sucked on the nipple, and milk came out, and that you should try and alternate boobs. silly, silly me.
first of all, you don't even begin to make milk until 3-5 days after the baby is born. until then, the baby gets colostrum, a yellow-ish clear fluid that is called 'liquid gold' because if its nutritional value. and even though that is all they get, that is all they really need anyway, because their little stomachs are about the size of a grape. so, breast feeding in the hospital was great because i knew he was getting colostrum, the nurses were there to show me how get sullivan to latch on correctly (who knew there was a right and wrong way to begin with?), and he could easily latch because my milk had not come in yet and my breasts were a manageable size.
let us fast forward to thursday.
i was taking a nap and i woke up because my boobs were sore. really sore. and tight and hard like a drum. and then i stood up, and they did not sway ever so slightly like they normally would. they didn't even move at all. they had grown. they were creeping into my armpits and up to my collarbone. they looked like footballs strapped to my chest. and my nipples were stretched flat. there was nothing for sullivan to latch on to. my nipple was barely a little button on my boob. they say the nipple needs to reach the back of the baby's mouth for breast feeding to work properly, and sullivan could not even get mine beyond his lips, poor little guy.
i tried to feed him when he wanted, but i could tell he wasn't getting enough. during one of the night feedings, i finally broke down in tears. i couldn't feed my child, i was a horrible mother. Sullivan was crying, i was crying, it was a mess. Ryan was amazing, he comforted me and assured me that everything would be okay, he massaged my boobs to help the milk flow, and he held and changed sullivan when i was too much of a weepy wreck to do anything. While he already proved himself as an amazing husband, Ryan is turning out to be an incredible dad as well. sullivan and i are lucky to have him.
Uh oh...I must run and feed the little guy. there is a good end to this story, I promise! I will finish it when I can. it involves the pediatrician and a british lactation consultant...
*update* After reading that post myself, i realized that i never did finish the story. As briefly as possible, here it is: We took sullivan to the pediatrician and he had lost almost a POUND of his birth weight. as soon as the doctor said this i turned into a weeping, sobbing mess. she said it was nothing to be too concerned about, as soon as the feeding problem was figured out, everything would be fine. she said breastfeeding issues happen with 50% of her new patients. she gave us some formula and a syringe and tubing so we could supplement his feedings through the tube without disrupting breastfeeding. then she gave me that little fake nipple thing and suggested i see a lactation consultant. i still had the number for the woman that taught my breastfeeding class, and she told us to come down to her work and she would help us there. she works at a maternity/baby store in another hospital in san diego. meredith came with us for this outing and took notes. the lactation lady was lovely and british and looked truly pained when she saw how ridiculously engorged i was. the store had a very sensitive scale that measured to the tenth of the ounce so we weighed sully, fed him, and then weighed him again. the fake nipple worked, he took in 5 ounces! thank god. since he had to get his weight back up, we had to feed him every two hours, even if that meant waking him up. it was exhausting, and my nipples were so sore it brought tears to my eyes. but at least he was eating. We took him back to the doctor after the weekend and he had gained half a pound. crisis averted.
for example, breast feeding. in my mind, breast feeding should be the most natural thing on earth, since prior to the advent of formula, this was the only way to feed babies. further, it is the only real purpose for boobs. i mean, given these facts, how hard could it possibly be? HA!
in the months leading up to sullivan's birth, we took several classes: childbirth, infant parenting, and breast feeding. i thought for sure that breast feeding class would be the most ridiculous one of them all. i have boobs, and i planned on using them. i knew babies sucked on the nipple, and milk came out, and that you should try and alternate boobs. silly, silly me.
first of all, you don't even begin to make milk until 3-5 days after the baby is born. until then, the baby gets colostrum, a yellow-ish clear fluid that is called 'liquid gold' because if its nutritional value. and even though that is all they get, that is all they really need anyway, because their little stomachs are about the size of a grape. so, breast feeding in the hospital was great because i knew he was getting colostrum, the nurses were there to show me how get sullivan to latch on correctly (who knew there was a right and wrong way to begin with?), and he could easily latch because my milk had not come in yet and my breasts were a manageable size.
let us fast forward to thursday.
i was taking a nap and i woke up because my boobs were sore. really sore. and tight and hard like a drum. and then i stood up, and they did not sway ever so slightly like they normally would. they didn't even move at all. they had grown. they were creeping into my armpits and up to my collarbone. they looked like footballs strapped to my chest. and my nipples were stretched flat. there was nothing for sullivan to latch on to. my nipple was barely a little button on my boob. they say the nipple needs to reach the back of the baby's mouth for breast feeding to work properly, and sullivan could not even get mine beyond his lips, poor little guy.
i tried to feed him when he wanted, but i could tell he wasn't getting enough. during one of the night feedings, i finally broke down in tears. i couldn't feed my child, i was a horrible mother. Sullivan was crying, i was crying, it was a mess. Ryan was amazing, he comforted me and assured me that everything would be okay, he massaged my boobs to help the milk flow, and he held and changed sullivan when i was too much of a weepy wreck to do anything. While he already proved himself as an amazing husband, Ryan is turning out to be an incredible dad as well. sullivan and i are lucky to have him.
Uh oh...I must run and feed the little guy. there is a good end to this story, I promise! I will finish it when I can. it involves the pediatrician and a british lactation consultant...
*update* After reading that post myself, i realized that i never did finish the story. As briefly as possible, here it is: We took sullivan to the pediatrician and he had lost almost a POUND of his birth weight. as soon as the doctor said this i turned into a weeping, sobbing mess. she said it was nothing to be too concerned about, as soon as the feeding problem was figured out, everything would be fine. she said breastfeeding issues happen with 50% of her new patients. she gave us some formula and a syringe and tubing so we could supplement his feedings through the tube without disrupting breastfeeding. then she gave me that little fake nipple thing and suggested i see a lactation consultant. i still had the number for the woman that taught my breastfeeding class, and she told us to come down to her work and she would help us there. she works at a maternity/baby store in another hospital in san diego. meredith came with us for this outing and took notes. the lactation lady was lovely and british and looked truly pained when she saw how ridiculously engorged i was. the store had a very sensitive scale that measured to the tenth of the ounce so we weighed sully, fed him, and then weighed him again. the fake nipple worked, he took in 5 ounces! thank god. since he had to get his weight back up, we had to feed him every two hours, even if that meant waking him up. it was exhausting, and my nipples were so sore it brought tears to my eyes. but at least he was eating. We took him back to the doctor after the weekend and he had gained half a pound. crisis averted.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
sullivan james woodward has arrived
so many things i was going to do this week before my due date....work on the blog, go to the movies, the beach, etc. etc. INSTEAD, sullivan decided he was ready to be born and started being all pushy about it around 11:15 sunday night. labor was hard, but relatively fast, and at 11:42 on monday morning, he was born. a perfect boy, 7 pounds 5 ounces. I am still in disbelief about it myself, but it is all too real as he is here and i have the war wounds to prove it. we are getting used to our new life. I apologize for another short post, but i have a person to take care of!
Sunday, September 7, 2008
a blog is born
i've set up a blog! how exciting. now (hopefully) everyone can check in and see how peanut, ryan, blue and i are doing. we are embarking on a crazy adventure. more to come, i must do some more organizing.
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