It’s amazing how little sleep someone can survive on for days, I think as a new mom you must be running on the joy you get from holding your baby, because sleep was pretty non-existent. The first 3-4 days I only got around 3-½ hours of sleep each night, and somehow still managed to keep my eyes open during the day.
Part of the problem was that I was trying to pump every 2-3 hours to help my milk come in, and pumping takes 20-30 minutes. If it’s the middle of the night I also change and feed Landon, then I only have about an hour before I need to get up and do it all over again. Sleep also wasn’t helped by the fact that Landon had doctor appointments the first three days home that required us to get up and ready early in the morning.
The first day we had to go back to the birth center because they wanted to check that Landon’s jaundice levels were dropping, and see how feeding was going.
They told us when a baby develops jaundice it starts at the top of the head and works it’s way down the body. Landon had it on his thighs when they put him on the billy blanket in the hospital, but now it was mostly just his head that was still yellowish.
For feeding we were trying something called SNS (Supplemental Nursing System) where a very small tube is placed behind a nipple shield and formula is pushed into the shield with a syringe. It’s supposed to encourage the baby to latching on before your milk comes in. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue for most babies, but because Landon was given a bottle right away due to low blood sugar levels, he wasn’t really interested in nursing, because it took a lot more work.
The lactation nurse we met with gave us a feeding plan, and told us we should be feeding him 50 ml if he went 2 hours between feedings and 70 if he went 3 hours. This was way more than they had told us when we were in the hospital, but I guess his stomach size grows fast in the first few days, and he seemed happy to drink more milk.
Wednesday March 4th was another doctors appointment, this time so his pediatrician could check his jaundice levels. Our appointment was around 11 AM and it was so hectic trying to get out the door. I pumped right before we left, and Nate was getting Landon ready, then of course Landon had to mess his diaper just as we were going to walk out the door. Amazingly we arrived right on time to our appointment.
The appointment went well, the doctor told me that he looked great. But since we were having feeding issues she wanted us to bring Landon in for just a weight check on Monday, instead of waiting for his two week appointment.
After the appointment we picked up food from Panera Bread for lunch and went to Granny and Papa’s to eat it and visit. Peg and Merle also came over to see Landon, as they had not met him yet.
After a somewhat short visit it was time to head home to pump already. It really seems to take over your life when you pump every 2-3 hours.
Thursday Landon and I went to a breastfeeding support group at the family birth center. I wasn’t really sure how well it was going to go considering the only time Landon will latch on is when Nate is helping me with the SNS feeding, and since it’s just Landon and me, I didn't have high hopes.
While there they have you undress your baby, weigh them, and then put a diaper back on them. You're then supposed to nurse your baby, and then they weigh the baby to see how much they ate. Well Landon decided he wasn’t hungry, and that it was nap time. I couldn’t get him to wake up for nothing, and so I couldn’t really get any help from the lactation nurses. Finally when the hour was over I put his clothes back on, and he decided to completely mess them, so I had to change his clothes. Then he decided he was hungry, but the class was over and another class was going to be starting, so I needed to leave. I had brought a bottle of pumped milk with me, so I fed him that, and then we headed home.
I felt pretty defeated to say the least, being surrounded by 15 or so moms all nursing their babies just fine. I know it was supposed to be helpful, and maybe it would have been if Landon would have been awake and willing to even try nurse, but I just felt like a big failure. It was basically after this that I pretty much gave up on even trying to nurse. Now I just pump and feed a bottle.
In the evening Kyle came over to meet Landon for the first time, and Mom and Dad came along too.
Friday was my first day with nothing on the schedule, and sleep was my goal. It took half the day, but since I didn’t have to be anywhere I was able to get enough sleep. Still not very refreshing when I’m waking up every 2-3 hours to pump, but better than only getting 3-5 hours.
We have been having such nice weather that Nate and I decided to take Landon for a walk around the subdivision in his new stroller.
Saturday I wanted to go over to Jana’s house to try take Landon’s birth announcement photos. The place she’s renting has huge picture windows in the living room that let it a ton of light, and I thought would give lots of natural lighting for the pictures.
I thought Jana was going to be gone in the morning, so I planned on going over in the afternoon. Jami wanted to know if she could come visit, so she ended up coming with us to Jana’s too.
By the time we got to Jana’s the lighting really wasn’t ideal anymore, but we tried to make it work. When we first arrived I fed Landon and then he decided that he was going to be awake. Well the easiest way to take a babies picture is when they are asleep, because they are easier to pose, but he refused to go to sleep, and needless to say I didn’t really get much for pictures. We were able to get a nice family picture, just nothing to really work for his birth announcement.
I had thought maybe we would try make it to church on Sunday, but just being at Jana’s for a couple hours completely exhausted me, not to mention the fact that it just hurts to sit down.
Dave and Kristie came down after church though, because they wanted to see Landon, and Wyatt and Anwen came over too because they had not met Landon yet.
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