Well, Lauren is on my chest right now in her Moby wrap. We were taking a nap and she woke up with a little cry and kept on crying... she needed a diaper change! And now she dozed back off. She's been staying awake for large portions of the day. Yesterday was a very hard day because she was pretty much awake from 3am until 5pm for some reason... I think it had to do with the famous "3 week growth spurt". During this time, babies are supposed to be more fussy at the breast, can go for marathon feedings, and are more fussy in general. I can expect the same thing at 6 weeks and there are a few more growth spurt times according to my lactation information packet. If I didn't know about the 3 week growth spurt, I might have been worried. OK, here are the growth spurt times in my lactation packet:
1 week
3-4 weeks
5-8 weeks
3 months
5-6 months
"Your baby will suddenly eat more frequently and become fussy at the breast. You may think this fussy behavior and frequency in feeding is due to an inadequate milk supply. Don't worry, this behavior and the frequent feeding increases milk production for the baby's growing needs. Growth spurts will last approximately 4-7 days."
I was breastfeeding the other day and trying to read from Dr. Sears Baby Book. I've always been a "book smart" type person and now I'm wanting to read all about babies so I can be on top of everything for Lauren. There is so much to know. So far the topics that have interested me are: breastfeeding, sleeping, diaper rash, nutrition, wearing your baby (sling... for me the moby wrap).
Last night after telling my hubby that I needed more help (due to the 3am-5pm marathon awake session), my hubby took care of her and stayed with her till around 1:30am and let me sleep except to feed her. I felt refreshed after sleeping all of the late afternoon and I took over for the night feedings feeling ready for it. I think Lauren needs more time being burped and more time being rocked to sleep so last night our feeding sessions went from 12am-1:20am, 3:50am-5:30am, 7am-7:50am. She is waking me up when she is hungry and usually eats for about 8 minutes and then poops... then we change her diaper, blow dry her butt, apply the diaper cream and if I'm lucky, she won't pee on herself after the diaper cream step. But she likes to pee when her diaper is off and she's clean. Then we go back to the living room for more eating. The lactation consultant told me that she needs to eat for about 20 minutes on one side in order to get the fatty hind milk that will satisfy her hunger for longer periods of time. I think she is getting plenty of hind milk because she poops almost every diaper and she probably weighs 9 pounds. The lactation consultant let me know that you can't overfeed a breastfed baby, so I'm not worried about that.
Everything is going great if I take into account that she is only 4 weeks old. Yes, I'm supposed to be tired and exhausted. No, I'm not supposed to have everything all together right now (my hubby reminded me of that yesterday). Yes, it's OK to leave the laundry for another day and to clean the bathrooms another day. I love being a mom. I love Lauren so much. Her little face and everything about her just melts my heart. She melts my hubby's heart too.
I hope for another night where we can have a stretch of sleep like we did last night from 1:20am until 3:50am. Wow, that was a good stretch.
Well, here we are in my moby wrap today:
Sounds like new mommy life is pretty standard for you! I remember marveling at how I was able to function on so little sleep! Keep it up, you're doing great! Congratulations again!
ReplyDeleteBecca