Presley’s One Month Old

On March 15th, Presley turned one month old! I can’t believe time is flying and my little bear is growing and growing. He still sleeps a lot but has moments where he’s awake for long stretches of time. He’s up every 2-3 hours in the night still. He’s also grown 2 and a half inches in length! He weighed in at 8 lbs and .05 oz. His birth weight was 7lbs 1 oz so he’s gaining!

I take so many photos of him but I make sure to do his daily photo...Here’s his first month of 28 days since he was born in February he has a short month. Don’t worry I won’t subject you to all of them. 

 

 

 

Breast Feeding Struggles

Before I had Presley, I was adament that I was going to breastfeed for as long as I possibly could. Personally, I think it’s the best thing for a baby and it’s free. My mother breastfed me for over a year, granted I knew I probably couldn’t go a year but I was determined to do it for as long as I possibly could. Before he was born, my breast were getting ready. I was constantly leaking clear fluid for weeks before his birth.

When Presley made his grand arrival. I started having colostrum instantly. He would latch on really well and stay on for just a few minutes. I was also manually expressing it (which is painful) and putting it into the syringes the hospital gives you for that purpose. The nurses also helped express it and let me tell you, you haven’t lived until about 15 different women have helped squeeze your breasts. Then my milk didn’t come in. It was probably 3-4 days later and it finally started to come in. It’s painful (at least for me) my breast felt like giant rocks and had to be massaged and put under hot water to find comfort. I also had developed a cracked nipple. Unfortunately, Presley was having some sugar regulating issues and was in the NICU. So I couldn’t really feed him on demand. We went there for feeding every 3 hours around the clock for 3 days. I would also sit in the NICU him and if he wanted to latch on he could. Due to the sugar issue they also had to give him some formula. I didn’t want to have to do it, but you have to do what you have to do.

Then Presley became a lazy latcher. He will latch on but after the first let down, he’s bored and over the sucking. Basically he was only staying on each breast for about 2-4 minutes. For your milk to come in at full capacity a baby should be staying latched on for 15-20 minutes each breasts. I met with lactation several times. They gave me different tips and advance with each different person that I talked to. Finally the last lady that I talked to gave me the most helpful advice. She told me to start pumping a minimum 9 times a day and only latch him on for comfort. She said do that for several days and that should help increase my milk supply. I did that for 5 days and my milk supply did increase. My precious, little Presley is still a little lazy when it comes to the sucking but he’s staying on now for about 7-9 minutes. So what am I doing? I’m pumping many times day and night and botteling it we are giving it to him that way. Because guess what... breast milk is breast milk. I don’t care if he gets it by latching on or bottle. He’s being fed either way.

Now... with that said.... we are having to supplement with some formula. He’s eating so much I can’t keep up. I’m still about 5-8 ounces a day short on breast milk so we are having to give him some formula. Did I want to do that? No, not really but again.... you do what you have to do. He’s hungry and needs to be fed. Do I think it’s wrong to give him formula no but do I feel like a big, fat failure every time I crack open one of those newborn formula bottles? Sure do! But with pumping way more, I feel better that he’s getting 16-20 ounces a day in breast milk.

It’s not easy. Breast feeding is definitely work. You have to seriously want to do it to make it work. Definitely if you have milk issues like me. Now, is it rewarding to see progress? Yes! While I have no idea what will happen when I go back to work, I’m going to keep pumping and feeding him as much as I can, for as long as I can. I put him on a few times a day and let him latch on for however, long he will and then I pump as many times as I can in a day. When I go to work I’ll pump as much as I can and feed him in the mornings and evenings as much as I can to keep the milk supply going.

Just know that if you have problems breast feeding... I get it. Keep pushing though it. You can do it. Buy those breast pads, get that breast soothing cream!
A plus side too.... you will drastically burn calories and lose that baby weight quickly!

Let’s Talk Bowels

One thing people tend to not talk about a lot after having a baby is your bowels. Specifically I’m talking about bowel movements. In my case the lack of movement in general that is taking place. Now I’m about to get real personal here with my bowel movements here so if this isn’t for you then stop reading now. No offense will be taken. Poop talk just isn’t for everyone, I get that...but if your a woman and you haven’t had a baby this might give you a little heads up. On the other side of the spectrum if you have had a baby then you might have experienced this too and can relate. 

I had our precious baby boy on February 15th via an emergency c section. However, I must say that I was in labor for almost 6 hours and I did dialate to 10 cm. The doctors did have me try to push for a minute to see if he was going to come out naturally but since he went into distress they made the decision he needed to come out ASAP. With all that said, I was already nervous bout the first bowel movement even before I went into labor. I knew that almost all hospitals require that you urinate and poop before they will discharge you. I knew that with pushing it could change the poop situation, however, with the c section I wasn’t for sure how much that was going to effect me in that department.

On the day of the c section they started me on stool softeners. I had to take two a day. Four days after having the c section, I still had not gone to the bathroom. The doctors and the nurses weren’t  concerned and all they wanted to know was if I was at least passing gas. Well I was passing gas but that was all that was moving. Finally I went to the bathroom and let me tell you I was scared to death. Having steri strips and a fresh incision, the last thing I wanted to do was grunt one out. Even with the stool softners it wasn’t pain free. It was painful and didn’t make me want to repeat it. I would sit there clutching my incision and praying that my grunting wasn’t going to pop me open (granted I’m sure it couldn’t). 

Days would go bye and nothing. I was a once/twice a day pooper and then to go once only every 4 days. Geez.... that’s rough people. So now I’m almost 5 weeks out post partum and I’ve just now started to be able to go without having to sit there and think about it and try to grunt one out. I’m also consuming about 90-100 ounces of water a day, eating tons of apples and trying to move around a little bit more. It’s noticeably helped and while it’s still been a little painful when I go the frequency of how many times I’m going is getting better. I’m about to every other day.

I know talking about poop isn’t glamourous but I’m just keeping it real and hey... it could mentally prepare someone if their going to have a c-section and go through something similar.