A Spare Moment
I feel like a crazy lady, but a good crazy lady!
We got to bring Scarlett home on Wednesday last week! And it has been quite the adjustment. Somehow we all forget what the sleeplessness does to us. (Otherwise we'd all only have one child...)
The first couple of days were our learning/remembering how to do this days. Scarlett slept so good at the NICU, and at home there are no monitors or other crying babies, so she wasn't sleeping so great. Also she is a noisy sleeper (well noisy as in makes a lot of noise, she is not loud at all). We have her in our room in a playpen w/ bassinet, which is what we did with Alexandra and it worked out great. But she's noisy enough that Dean (who sleeps through anything) can't sleep with her in there. Although even if we put her in her own room we'd have the monitor on and so it would still be the same noises, so it wouldn't really fix the problem for him. Before she was born I had not bought a monitor or had plans to buy one. We live in a two-story house, surely I would be able to hear her when she woke up.....nope she is so quiet! Even when she is "screaming" you can't hear her downstairs at all, so I had to go buy a monitor. She has a great temperament. When she gets upset you just have to talk to her and she calms right down. We have learned though that we have to let her get to the "screaming phase" when she wakes up, otherwise she's not awake enough to eat (she takes almost 3 oz when she's good and awake). And then that puts her on a 2 hour schedule versus a 3-4 hour schedule. That took us a few days to figure out. Also she does not like to have her arms swaddled. She likes to have them up above her head. She sleeps so much better if we leave them out. So we half-swaddle her! She is not doing so great on the nursing though. We're still having to supplement her with 24 calorie formula stuff mixed in with the milk I pump (they want me to keep up the supplements until she's at least 2 months old). I'm only allowed to nurse her twice a day, but she just seems to be getting worse and worse at nursing (If she was doing better I could up the amount I can nurse her). She takes about 75-80 cc's of milk in a bottle and when I nurse she still takes like 50cc's afterward and then she just doesn't sleep well at all after the nursing time. Plus I'm getting so tired of pumping....it hurts - humans weren't meant to be hooked up to machines like cows.... Also I get so much less sleep because after she goes down I then have to pump and then clean everything, so I'm missing out on at least 30+ minutes of sleep and if she only stays down for 2 hours it makes it so I'm lucky to get maybe an hour if I'm able to fall right asleep (which I'm not...) So my plan is to keep trying till I run out of bags to store milk in (I have about 85 bags left right now) and if she's not showing any progress then I'm done. I hate to have to put her on formula (although it would probably be 2 months from now - my chest freezer is seriously getting full of milk), but I just can't pump forever (one the hospital will want their pump back, and again it hurts!!!) I truly have gained more respect for mom's who work and pump during the day, although I would give anything to only have to pump 2-3 times versus 8+. Dean has been great at helping. He didn't really have to help with the other two since he couldn't feed them - well that was his excuse anyway, but since Scarlett is on bottles he has no excuse this time!!! But he has been awesome. And he's feeling it too. He told me the other day he felt so drained and didn't know why.
The girls love having her home. Although the newness has worn off for Alexandra. Riley always wants to hold her and when you ask Alexandra she'll tell you "Nah maybe later".
Alexandra wants to play on the computer, plus my brain is not functioning at 100% yet, so I'll end with some great Alexandra quotes.
When Scarlett was in the hospital hooked to the monitors one of the things it recorded was her heart rate. On the section that was her heart rate is had a little heart beating. When Alexandra saw it she said "Look at all the love she has for us!!!!" It was so cute!
"That's disgusting!!! Who would want to eat that!!" - the first time she saw Scarlett nurse at home.
"That's baby for NO! I don't want anymore" - when she saw Scarlett shake her head back and forth looking for her bottle (even though it was in her mouth).
We got to bring Scarlett home on Wednesday last week! And it has been quite the adjustment. Somehow we all forget what the sleeplessness does to us. (Otherwise we'd all only have one child...)
The first couple of days were our learning/remembering how to do this days. Scarlett slept so good at the NICU, and at home there are no monitors or other crying babies, so she wasn't sleeping so great. Also she is a noisy sleeper (well noisy as in makes a lot of noise, she is not loud at all). We have her in our room in a playpen w/ bassinet, which is what we did with Alexandra and it worked out great. But she's noisy enough that Dean (who sleeps through anything) can't sleep with her in there. Although even if we put her in her own room we'd have the monitor on and so it would still be the same noises, so it wouldn't really fix the problem for him. Before she was born I had not bought a monitor or had plans to buy one. We live in a two-story house, surely I would be able to hear her when she woke up.....nope she is so quiet! Even when she is "screaming" you can't hear her downstairs at all, so I had to go buy a monitor. She has a great temperament. When she gets upset you just have to talk to her and she calms right down. We have learned though that we have to let her get to the "screaming phase" when she wakes up, otherwise she's not awake enough to eat (she takes almost 3 oz when she's good and awake). And then that puts her on a 2 hour schedule versus a 3-4 hour schedule. That took us a few days to figure out. Also she does not like to have her arms swaddled. She likes to have them up above her head. She sleeps so much better if we leave them out. So we half-swaddle her! She is not doing so great on the nursing though. We're still having to supplement her with 24 calorie formula stuff mixed in with the milk I pump (they want me to keep up the supplements until she's at least 2 months old). I'm only allowed to nurse her twice a day, but she just seems to be getting worse and worse at nursing (If she was doing better I could up the amount I can nurse her). She takes about 75-80 cc's of milk in a bottle and when I nurse she still takes like 50cc's afterward and then she just doesn't sleep well at all after the nursing time. Plus I'm getting so tired of pumping....it hurts - humans weren't meant to be hooked up to machines like cows.... Also I get so much less sleep because after she goes down I then have to pump and then clean everything, so I'm missing out on at least 30+ minutes of sleep and if she only stays down for 2 hours it makes it so I'm lucky to get maybe an hour if I'm able to fall right asleep (which I'm not...) So my plan is to keep trying till I run out of bags to store milk in (I have about 85 bags left right now) and if she's not showing any progress then I'm done. I hate to have to put her on formula (although it would probably be 2 months from now - my chest freezer is seriously getting full of milk), but I just can't pump forever (one the hospital will want their pump back, and again it hurts!!!) I truly have gained more respect for mom's who work and pump during the day, although I would give anything to only have to pump 2-3 times versus 8+. Dean has been great at helping. He didn't really have to help with the other two since he couldn't feed them - well that was his excuse anyway, but since Scarlett is on bottles he has no excuse this time!!! But he has been awesome. And he's feeling it too. He told me the other day he felt so drained and didn't know why.
The girls love having her home. Although the newness has worn off for Alexandra. Riley always wants to hold her and when you ask Alexandra she'll tell you "Nah maybe later".
Alexandra wants to play on the computer, plus my brain is not functioning at 100% yet, so I'll end with some great Alexandra quotes.
When Scarlett was in the hospital hooked to the monitors one of the things it recorded was her heart rate. On the section that was her heart rate is had a little heart beating. When Alexandra saw it she said "Look at all the love she has for us!!!!" It was so cute!
"That's disgusting!!! Who would want to eat that!!" - the first time she saw Scarlett nurse at home.
"That's baby for NO! I don't want anymore" - when she saw Scarlett shake her head back and forth looking for her bottle (even though it was in her mouth).
I'm sure this is no help, but I'm sooooo glad I'm past all the newness. Now we're just trying to get a good routine going. And you know, as great and wonderful as nursing is, there's a LOT to be said for formula feeding. A LOT. They both have their ups and downs, but go formula! LOL
ReplyDeleteI am so happy she is ho,e with you now. Congrats!!
ReplyDeleteAt this point formula has a lot more ups then nursing does.....but I'm trying to not make a decision when I'm frustrated and hurting, hence the when I run out of bags decision.
ReplyDeleteCourtney I had the same issue with Riley. He was early, not premature bad early, but early enough that he had feeding problems. My pediatrician is awesome and was so supportive during that time. I too was like you, pumping after the baby was asleep which took away from my nap times during the first month when you really need them. I had to supplement too. I was a crazy woman and pumped for 3 months. Riley never once took to nursing, so it was pumped milk from a bottle, plus formula. The best thing the doctor told me was this...One month of breast milk is better then no months, 3 months is better then one month, but you need to do what is best for you and the baby. I hope that things get better, and I really do know what you are going through.
ReplyDelete