Tuesday, September 23, 2008

No weight gain

Unfortunately, CC's doctor’s appointment didn't go so well. She didn't gain any weight at all since the last appointment. The doctor is disappointed and neither of us want to put her on formula. But, we have to get her to start gaining weight.

The doctor put Christina and I on this ridiculously exhausting schedule which involves breastfeeding her 15 minutes on each side, then putting her on the breast with a tube also in her mouth which is connected to a syringe that has formula in it. I then have to pump 1 ounce of formula into her mouth and basically try to trick CC into thinking that it is coming out of me (hence the reason she will be on the breast and have the tube in her mouth as well). After getting 1 ounce into her, I then have to pump both breasts.

The exhausting part comes into play when I'm finished and have just enough time to wash everything and prepare for the next feeding, before it's time to start the next feeding. You see, I'm suppose to do this every two hours. It wouldn't be so bad if it was every two hours from the time we finish the feeding. But nope, it's every two hours from when we start the feeding. This means that by the time the whole process is over, it is just about time to start again.

How do I eat, sleep, and shower you ask? Well, let's just say, I'm still trying to figure that out myself. :-( I'm also having trouble figuring out how Christina is suppose to get enough sleep too.

We are going back to the doctor on Thursday to see if there is any weight gain progress. My best guess is that CC was having trouble getting enough milk out because she is tongue-tied. When I give her the extra formula she gulps it down and eats so much, in addition to what she is getting from breast feeding. Plus, it's not just because it's formula, because I have also supplemented with breast milk that I had stored away. She gulps that down too. I think she just has trouble getting enough milk out of me herself. So, hopefully this new process is the answer.

Friday, September 19, 2008

Enlightening Doctors Visit

Christina had another doctor's appointment today because last week the Dr. was concerned that she hadn't hit her birth weight yet. Today, we found out that although she is back to her birth weight, she is still behind by six ounces. That is not good, but not terrible, says the doctor.

I feel like a fool because it took me an entire week to figure out that when using the nipple shields to breastfeed (the lactation consultant recommended them), a lot of milk was dripping out and soaking up into my bra, instead of going in CC's mouth. She was basically getting a lot less milk than she should have. It wasn't until I breastfed without a bra and felt the milk streaming down my stomach, that I realized I need to lean forward while feeding her.

So, Christina is still playing catch up on her weight because of that week when she wasn't getting enough milk. Hopefully that was the only problem and when we go back to the Dr's on Monday, she will show a big improvement in her weight gain.

Another possible problem though, is that CC is tongue-tied. The tongue is very important in getting the milk out and being tongue-tied means she may be having a lot of trouble getting enough milk. Monday is D-day though and if CC hasn't gained enough, the doctor will tell us to start supplementing, which I don't want to do. So I'm just crossing my fingers that she will gain enough this weekend.

The other big thing that happened at the appointment (and that made Nik and I feel like fools again), is that the doctor showed us how to calm CC down when she is crying. Previously, the only way to calm her down has been to nurse her. This meant that I was essentially bound to her 24/7. So, what was the doctor's secret, you ask?
Swaddling.
I'm sure you are thinking, "duh". But wait.
I knew that swaddling babies was suppose to calm them too. In fact, Nik and I have been swaddling Christina on and off, but it didn't seem to make any difference. Here's why.

In one word, arms. CC was always throwing her arms up and wiggling around, so we always left her arms out of the swaddle, thinking that she wanted that. Turns out that having her arms out, over-stimulates her. All it took was swaddling her tight, with her arms in, and presto.

I feel so dumb for not knowing this, but I'm so thankful that I know it now. Hopefully now Nik will be able to hold her for more than just a few minutes. Before, CC was a ticking time bomb and it was only a matter of minutes before I had to step in and nurse her. Now we should be able to get some serious Daddy-Daughter time in, and at the same time, give Mommy a break.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A few more things

Nik reminded me that I missed quite a few things on my list from yesterday, so . . .

Here are some more things you didn't know about Christina:

- She is tongue-tied. (Unfortunately, she gets that from me)

- One of her cries sounds just like Vince Vaughn's laugh. It is almost impossible not to repeat it after Christina does it, because it is just too cute and funny.

- Randomly, she makes T-Rex sounding noises.

- She snorts sometimes when she cries.

- She seems to like all of her toys (her bouncer, her swing, etc), but they won't put her to sleep or calm her when she is crying - only nursing her will do that.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Not that you asked

Things you didn't know about Christina . . .

- She has a dimple on her right cheek, just to the side of her mouth. You can only see it when she smiles a certain way, and I only discovered it when she was about a week old.

- She gets the hiccups about four times every day or sometimes more.

- She has a huge appetite, like her daddy.

- She screams for a millisecond right before she sneezes.

- She prefers a dry diaper before she will give you a dirty one, which means that at least once each day, minutes after I change her wet diaper, she will, well, you know, go "number two".

- Her eye color is still yet to be discovered. They are a dark blue/gray color now. I think they might end up a dark blue, but Nik thinks they'll be brown.

- She makes some of the same faces I use to make when I was a baby.

- She has the cutest yawn.

- At two and a half weeks old, she is still too small for even her newborn clothes! This is the exact opposite of what Nik and I expected. Thank goodness for hand-me-down Gerber onesies which run really small (and have probably shrank from wear), because they fit her perfectly.

- She screamed throughout her first real bath (I think the water was too cold), but seemed to be loving the second bath (when I finally got the temperature right!)

- She gets along great with the dogs and vice versa, thank goodness.

- For the first week and a half she seemed to only want to sleep when the sun was up. Then she went through a few sleepless days and nights (maybe she was transitioning?), and now she seems to do the majority of her sleeping at night. Let's hope that lasts.

- Gets royally pissed when you try to give her a pacifier, even when she isn't hungry and just wants to suck. Oddly though, she usually is open to sucking on a nearby finger of mine or Niks.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Update on Christina

Christina is now two weeks old and I can tell you that she is still perfect. But I guess what Mom wouldn't say that, you know? Seriously though, she is just so adorable and sweet, and I love getting to know her more and more each day.

She makes the cutest little faces and it just amazes me that she is a little person. Sometimes when she is lying down, but still awake, she will kick out her arms and legs to wiggle around. She is extremely active (when she is awake, that is) and when she is happy like that I could just watch her forever.

On the other side, when she cries, it makes me so sad. Luckily she doesn't do much of that and I'm crossing my fingers that it doesn't change. She really only cries when she wants to be nursed and luckily I always have what she needs.

That does make it tough to do anything without her though. I'm pretty much cleared for showers and bathroom breaks, but other than that, CC has me on-call. I need to be available for her at all times. This means that when Nik and I ran out with her the other day to run errands, I ended up nursing her in the Walgreens parking lot. The week before that, it was the Walmart parking lot. Both times in the car of course.

Today we really pressed our luck though because we went to Macaroni Grill to eat with my Mom. It was the first time I've gone out to eat since I was pregnant and I was really looking forward to it.

We got a quiet table tucked away in the back of the restaurant in case I needed to nurse her while we were there. Turns out we didn't even get to order before Christina was demanding her food. I think I did a pretty good job in that situation though. I had a blanket covering everything and because of where I was sitting, the only person in the whole place that knew what I was doing (other than Nik and my Mom), was the waiter.

I think the waiter was cool with it, although he did spill half of Nik's appetizer into my Mom's water glass. But, I'm pretty sure that was just because he wasn't a very good waiter and he got nervous when he realized that he brought the wrong appetizer for me.

Overall, I think it went pretty well and now I'm signing off so that I can study CC's face a bit more. My little sleeping beauty needs some mommy time I think. :-)

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Picture Post

Here are some of my pictures of my little girl.































































And here are some pictures of Christina with the family.



































































I am still working on getting the videos organized. I will get some of them up here eventually.