Thursday, January 5, 2017

Yesterday was hard

God is so good. His plan is perfect. That's why He lets us completely forget what it's like to have a newborn. We're able to block out the sheer exhaustion, the crazy amount of diapers that need to be changed, and the hours and hours and HOURS spent nursing. 

This chair and I have become greatly reacquainted. 

Nursing has been really great and also very hard this time. Sweet Lorelei latched right on from the very first time in the hospital. The nurses in the baby nursery even commented on her barracuda suck reflex. It all started out great. Then the soreness kicked in. 😳 

We started out using the nipple shield to get us both into the hang of things. When the soreness started I decided to try without the shield. That helped for a few days but then got REALLY sore. So much so that I decided to take a day off and just pump. Anthony fed her bottles and let me have a break. She has taken bottles just fine from the start. That helped a bit and we started back on the shields again. It's much less painful that way overall. 

Aside from New Years Eve that was REALLY really hard, we've done really well together and she's been happy and really only cries when she's hungry. NYE was different and she screamed all. Day. Long. It was miserable. I was home alone without help for nearly 2 hours and she screamed the whole time. She was so full of gas and her little tummy was hurting. We made it through. 

Yesterday was also a very hard day. She was sooooo hungry! It was our first true day of cluster feeding. She had already nursed 7 times by noon!! (Typically she nurses 7-8 times a day!)  So yesterday she nursed nearly every hour. And she nursed for 20-30 minutes each time. So I would only have about 30 minutes between feedings to do anything. And most of that time she was still crying or fussy. Talk about exhausting!

Wednesdays are great days because the big kids go to Grammy's house for the day. It's my day to get things done and run errands. However, that obviously didn't happen. I tried to leave. I did. I packed up the diaper bag, put her in the car seat and actually pulled the van out of the basement....with her screaming the whole time. I decided it wasn't worth it. I unpacked us and went back in the house. No one wants to ride around with a screaming baby, much less try to push her around a store. 
Anthony came home early and let me go to town alone. Hallelujah!! It was really very nice to spend some time by myself without someone needing something from me. 

She continued to fuss like crazy and Anthony fed her 5 oz from a bottle over a span of 2 hours. I don't know how she could hold all that in her tummy at one time. Thankfully she slept all through church and the ride home. And it was Family Night so I didn't have to cook dinner!!

I know there will be hard days...and nights, But overall this peanut is so good, She sleeps most nights from around 9 or 10 till 3-4. She's usually awake after for about an hour then sleeps again until 7-8. She usually nurses every 3 hours or so depending on the day and what our activities are. She's definitely going ti have to be "go with the flow". She'll just be where we are, 

The weather is calling for a few inches of snow this weekend. Maybe we will celebrate her birth, Christmas, and her first snow all in her first month!