Sunday, February 05, 2006

Is it just me, or is this whole baby thing really easy?
Our transition home has been a piece of cake. I don't know if I have a really good baby (which I think he is anyway) or people complain about a whole lot of nothing. We are on a nice little routine where Logan eats every 2-3 hours durring the day & every 3-4 hours at night. He is not only the eating champion of the hospital, but now the pooping champion of the house. This kid is doubling the "standard" number of diaper changes for his age & I've never done so much laundry in all of my life. What an over achiever!

My milk came in yesterday & let's just say that if I ever get augmented, I'll know what I'll look like. The engorgement was so bad that I slept with ice packs on my chest. It didn't really hurt, but more so felt like they were going to explode. They've settled down a bit today however, they now leak at the drop of a hat. I'm getting the feeling that I have enough milk for triplets. It's been so much that Logan eats too much & spits up often. He had a projectile spit up that startled me last night & a smaller one that came out of his nose this morning. Yummy, I know. I'm starting to carry a burping cloth with me at all times now.

We also had Bill's mom & sister visiting this weekend. I'm glad that it was just a few days, because I did get that "crazy over protective" feeling while they were here. Not so much with his sister, but with his mom. The only time I ever touched Logan was when he needed to eat & get his diaper changed. Otherwise he was taken hostage. I kept telling myself in the back of my head to not freak out, she lives in another state & is only going to see him a handful of times during the year (unless they end up moving out here). The craziness did put me on edge with a few breast feeding comments though.

A few minutes before they arrived, I changed Logan's diaper, but then he proceeded to pee all over (even being covered). So I got him cleaned up with a sponge bath, but he was getting upset because he was hungry. They got here just as I was getting him dressed & ready to eat. He eats for about 10 minutes on each side & 5 minutes into it Bill's mom yells out "Are you done yet? Cause I'm ready to hold him!" For cryin' out loud, I know it's exciting & all, but calm down. All I could do is roll my eyes & tell her that he will be finished in 15 minutes. Meanwhile I can hear them talking about diaper changes & poop consistency & she says "well, that's what you can expect from a breast fed baby", almost like it's a bad thing.

Later that afternoon, it was getting close to the time that Logan needed to eat. He was comatose (he probably gets that from me) & I needed to wake him up. When I explained that he needed to eat, she looked at me & quickly said, "He's not awake yet". I was just a little annoyed when I explained that he's on a schedule & if I don't wake him up, he'll sleep for hours on end (to which I would be up all night long). The straw that almost broke the camels back was after dinner when I was dealing with spit up & engorgement, she commented about how "that's the difficult thing about breast feeding, you never know how much they are getting". To which I exclaimed (most likely with a little edge in my tone), "I'm not going to formula feed, at all". I think she got it because afterward she was saying how good breast feeding was for Logan.

I was really anxious at the end of the night when he needed to eat again ( this time she got the hint). However, she took forever to try & wake him up, very slowly undressing him & quietly calling his name (which in no way was going to do anything but take up time) the meanwhile my chest almost rock solid with pressure. I was proud of myself for keeping my composure while ringing my hands & quietly taking deep breaths.

Everyone left this afternoon & now I can finally hold & cuddle my baby. It's strange how strong the mothering instinct is. I really hope that it's not going to be like this every visit, because they are coming back in two weeks.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

oh... UGH. I am worried because my MIL is coming for TWO WEEKS to "help." Yikes. I'm glad breastfeeding is going so well for you!

Avorie said...

I'm so glad to hear that the transition is going well! It sounds like you're a great mother and he's a great baby.

Sorry for the crazy family visit. It must be difficult to deal with. Thankfully, most of our family lives nearby and those that will visit will be doing so about a month after baby is born, which should give me time to figure things out. I don't think I would have handled things as well as you did. I already feel like no one can hold baby in the hospital because I'll miss her and they might breathe their germs on her. Of course, I have to let people hold her, but at least they won't be staying with me and their time with her will be limited!

the stefanie formerly known as stefanierj said...

You poor thing--my MIL didn't BF either but at least was very supportive. Having done both BFing and formula (I didn't have much choice--my milk dried up at 7 mos.), I say BFing poop is much, much better--hardly any smell until they start on solids, and if you're using cloth, it washes right off--no rinsing. You keep at it, girlie! Good for you for standing up to the nay-sayers! They need to get with the program!