Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Breastfeeding, sleeping and the pumpkin patch


It's been over a whole month since I last posted?  Oops! I'm going to try to get this posted before Max wakes up from his nap. We'll see how I do...

Max turned 4 months old on Monday! He had his 4 month check up today and weighed around 12.5 lbs (they weighed him in kilograms, so I don't know how much he weighed today, but yesterday he weighed 12.5 lbs) and he's 26 1/4 inches! He got his immunizations and he did much better than he did last time. Thankfully. I cried right along with him when he got his shots last time, but this time, he just did a little cry for a few seconds and then was a big boy about it. They did make him very sleep though and he's taken a few naps, which is very rare for him. 

The doctor said he's growing great and made the comment on how mature he looks for a baby his age. He said he looks like he could have a real conversation with Max. haha I've had a few other people tell me he looks mature or very much like a boy, whereas some babies apparently don't. Ha. IL've got a manly man of a baby boy, I suppose. 

So, onto breastfeeding. For whatever reason, my milk supply dropped significantly at the beginning of October. Like, I felt like I was drying up completely. Max was starving and I had to go through the 10 or so bags of frozen milk I had in the freezer to keep him happy, and even then, he was still hungry. I spent many evenings crying, right along with him because I was mad at my body for not making the milk that he so badly wanted and needed. I tried fenugreetk, two different kinds of mothers milk tea, lactation cookies, and Dairy Queen pills on Etsy. Nothing increased my milk enough to make my baby happy.

I still go to the breastfeeding class on post each week, and he pretty much stayed the same weight for the whole month of October, between 12.2 and 12.5 lbs. Last week, the doctor suggested I talk to a lactation consultant about why he wasn't gaining weight. So I did. My body just slowed down the milk making process for whatever reason and the LC gave me a prescription to Reglan which helps my body make more milk. There are side effects, as with any medicine, but I have yet to see them, thankfully. Severe facial twitches, depression and exhaustion are the main side effects. The facial twitches are permanent too, even after you stop taking the medication. But I really really really really want to only breastfeed him, so I'm taking the pills. Luckily, it's only a 13 day course of taking the medicine and after I'm done with the course, my milk supply should keep up. I started it last Wednesday and by Sunday, I saw an increase in my  milk. My boobs are getting full in about 2-3 hours, whereas before, it was a good 6-7 hours before they'd feel full. I'm so thankful for the lactation consultants and all of their knowledge and help that they've given me. Max was a great nurser from the beginning, and nursing was very easy for both of us. So it was a big surprise, and not a good one, when I started having these problems. Yesterday I went to the class to get him weighed and he weighed 12.5 lbs when we got to class, and then I fed him on both sides and the weighed him again. In 12 minutes of eating, he gained 5 oz! This was A LOT considering the last few times I weighed, fed and re-weighed him, it was 2 to 2.5 oz. He's eating so much better and getting a full little belly. And this means he's sleeping better too.

Since the day we brought him home from the hospital, he'd been sleeping in the basinette attached to the pack-n-play in our room. He outgrew that in early October (well, if we're being honest here, probably at the end of September, but he was just so cozy in it and slept well that I didn't want to transition him to a different bed! But when his little toes were poking over the edge, I knew I needed to change it up for his safety). So we removed the basinette and he slept in the pack-n-play in our room. He slept absolutely horribly. He'd wake up every hour to hour and a half and be wide awake. I know it takes a few weeks to adjust to a new sleeping environment so I was trying to be patient, but it was difficult because I was exhausted. On Halloween, I spent a good portion of the day thinking about if it'd be a good idea to just take the plunge and put him in his crib for the night. I didn't want him down the hall from me (he's so little!!) but I did think he'd sleep better. I talked to Seth about it that night and he, of course, was like, Lets do it!! It's easier for the guys, I think, to say lets do it to major changes like that. Anyways, we did it and Max slept WONDERFULLY!! He slept for about 4-5 hours, then I fed him and he slept for another 4-5 hours. Tonight will be one week since he's been sleeping in his crib! He's growing up! I do still bring him into our room and nurse him in bed though, then back to his crib he goes. This morning, he was in his crib babbling/talking for a good 30 minutes! It was sooo cute. I had time to shower, do my hair, get dinner in the crockpot and a few minutes at the computer. 

Now, for a few pictures. We went to the pumpkin patch a few weekends ago and did the corn maze, pumpkin slinging and picked out our pumpkins. Max slept through the whole corn maze (this was the first time he was in his big boy stroller and he seemed to enjoy it based on how much he slept in it).

testing it out at home...patrick approves of the stroller too

rainbow when we got to the pumpkin patch!


sleeeeepy! 





unhappy i woke him up

very unhappy



hey ladies


hard life of a baby



I feel like this post was all over the place, and I'm not going to re-read it and re-write it before I publish it! Max is waking up now...good timing...and we're going to take a little walk to the mail box and then we'll play and wait patiently for daddy to get home from work :)