Turtle Monkey

Elias and I have settled into somewhat of a routine that I actually look forward to during the day. After Elias eats, I’ll give him the opportunity to play. When he starts getting fussy or he’s too tired to keep his eyes open, I’ll pop him in the Moby and start walking around the apartment. Walking around with him in the Moby almost always calms him down within 10 minutes. He’ll either become content and quietly look around (in which case I’ll do laundry or dishes or something he can focus his attention on) or more likely, he’ll fall asleep. I take that opportunity to come online or eat. He doesn’t like just standing still doing nothing when he’s awake, so I try to save the housework for his quiet awake time.

Yesterday went well! My mom came over and brought a 22lb turkey, cranberry sauce, ingredients to make stuffing and a green bean casserole. I made pumpkin pies and macaroni and cheese. We also had rolls and country crock sweet potatoes, but the latter wasn’t really all that great.

Elias was a bit fussy last night after everyone left, but I think that may have been because he was a bit overstimulated during the day and just refused to take an evening nap. He was up for four hours straight from 7:30-11:30 and wanted to eat most of that time. I’m not sure if he was really hungry, but he kept shoving his fists in his mouth and kept spitting out my nipples, which he doesn’t do if he wants to comfort nurse. He’d just cry inconsolably until I’d give him some formula (we’re doing bottles now mostly, especially at night, though I still use my SNS too because I prefer to at least feel like I’m breastfeeding him.)

He’s getting SO heavy. He definitely went through a growth spurt over the weekend. He seems longer and he’s absolutely heavier. My mom and Jim noticed a big difference in him from when they were here on Saturday.

I’m worried that he may be getting too much formula, but I’ve also heard that young babies don’t overeat if they’re not hungry, so I’m not sure. Who knows how much milk he’s getting from me (he nurses on both sides before each feeding for maybe 15-30 minutes total in addition to comfort nursing throughout the night and day) but I can’t imagine it’s more than a couple of ounces total. Up until last week he was taking between 20-24 ounces of formula a day. Now he usually scarfs down 28-32 ounces a day, most of which is late at night. He’ll drink between 8-12 ounces within a 4 hour period late at night. It doesn’t seem right… it definitely seems like too much, but nothing else will make him happy. We’ve tried every other method we have to comfort him before giving in and letting him eat and eating is the only thing that makes him happy. Maybe he’s still just going through a growth spurt and it will taper back down to ‘normal’ soon. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was up to 12 pounds, so 28 ounces wouldn’t be so far off from that, but I am concerned when he takes 32 ounces in a day.

I hate not being able to exclusively breastfeed. After reading tons of information about it, I definitely do feel like I have low milk supply due to insufficient glandular tissue (especially since the Reglan, very frequent nursing and herbs didn’t make any substantial differences in my supply) but I think the poor start we got to breastfeeding didn’t help matters any. Hindsight is 20/20, but if I had to do it again, I probably would have waited even longer before introducing formula. I felt that there was something wrong with the fact that he nursed half the day away and got frustrated at my nipple, but I now know that at least he was getting SOME milk from that if he had to nurse 24/7 to get all the milk he needed, it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. I think having people around me constantly and feeling like I needed to “do something” didn’t help matters any. Whenever I see a post in the breastfeeding community of someone complaining about the amount of time their baby wants to breastfeed I feel like slapping them. I would kill to go back to having that opportunity.

I think our next child may have a better chance to get more milk from me. I don’t think my supply right now can be built to be enough to sustain Elias, but maybe I should at least try it… skip his next formula feeding and just let him nurse and nurse and nurse to try to pull as much milk from me as possible… I don’t know. I’ve read the information on kellymom about relactation and I’m already doing 90% of that stuff in my normal daily routine with him since the start and it hasn’t made any difference in my supply. Sometimes I can hand express up to 1/4 of an ounce in 15-30 minutes, however I haven’t been able to hand pump more than a few drops and I got the same results with the hospital grade electric pump. These results truly just make me feel that it’s an IGT issue and not me giving up too soon or not doing the right thing. But if it is IGT, then with my next pregnancy I should build more glandular tissue and with a good start, I may be able to exclusively breastfeed, or at the very least supplement with much less formula.

I didn’t mean for this to turn into a breastfeeding post, but it did. I try not to let it bother me, but I do still have a lot of guilt over the formula thing. I am happy that I have at least a little milk so he can comfort nurse and I can nurse him in bed, buying an extra hour or two at times overnight.

Elias has pretty much outgrown his newborn clothes (more in length than chub) and is fitting into the 3 month sizes! I’m predicting he’ll be at least 12.5 lbs at his 2 month appointment.

Well, last night went pretty well! Elias didn’t go to sleep until about midnight which is a bit later than usual, but not bad. He slept until 5:30am! I got up to feed him and we were back in bed by 6am. He was slightly awake for about an hour, so I nursed him in bed and he slept until 9:30! That’s definitely better sleep than he usually has overnight (and he’s always been a good overnight sleeper). I don’t know if it’s a fluke or wearing him on the Moby all day had any influence over it. It’s good to know him sleeping most of the day didn’t influence his overnight sleep though.

He didn’t really have a fussy period last night either. After he was fed around 8pm, he was an angel for about 30 minutes and talked and cooed to me and Mark. He’s been baby talking to us a lot this week, but last night was the most by far.

Elias did have some fussy periods in the Moby wrap. I was torn between taking him out to comfort nurse him (no way will I be able to nurse him in this thing) and walking around to try to calm him down. Walking around seemed to take a bit longer, but almost every time he fell asleep shortly afterward. He did the same thing this morning. So it seems for some reason, when he’s really tired in this thing he will cry and scream for a few minutes and then fall asleep. I’m not sure what that’s all about or if it will end at some point.

I’m planning to wear him all day again today. The only time he was out of the Moby yesterday was when he was being changed, fed and when Mark and I were playing with him in the evening. Putting on the Moby this morning went remarkably smoother than yesterday morning as well.

I feel like I have so much extra time with my Moby wrap! I’m not confined to the couch when Elias is sleeping and don’t need to balance him in my arms walking all around the apartment when he’s not! So far today I’ve been able to do the dishes, tidy the living room a bit and take Teyla outside for a short potty break. I also got to make myself some things to eat! Yay, no more starvation until Mark gets home at night!

Elias was awake for the dishes and the tidying.. maybe about 30 minutes total, but otherwise, he’s been sleeping. I really hope he doesn’t sleep the day away in the wrap and then not want to sleep at all at night. He didn’t go to sleep last night until 2am and I’m not sure if that was because of spending all night in the wrap (primarily sleeping) or gas pains (once Mark got a big burp out of him, he stopped crying and fell almost immediately to sleep.)

I really love this Moby and wish I would have gotten it from the start. It is a pain in the ass to put on just because of the miles of fabric, but at least I don’t need to put it on every time I need to pop him back out of it for some reason. Tomorrow I might try taking Elias out for a short drive and then back home again just so I can see how difficult it would be to get him from the carseat and into the wrap. It’s so easy to put him in it, I doubt it’ll be a problem, but practice would probably be good before I tried going to a store or something using that method.