Matthew's new "fussy hour"

Something is up with my baby boy. The last few days, he's been "fussy" after about 2 pm. Nothing seemed to help. Nursing didn't help, rocking, swaying, singing, patting, burping, rubbing didn't help. A car ride only helped for a while, and so did a stroller ride. He was just fussy, fussy fussy. It was heartbreaking to see my baby boy crying so hard that his face turned red, he started coughing and he overheated, which made him more upset. This went on for hours, only interupted briefly when we tried a new thing, like his swing. We finally decided to head out to Shoppers for some Gripe water. Maybe that is his problem? So we bought the Gripe water and came back as soon as we could. The Gripe water seemed to help and finally, we had a calm, quiet, happy baby. Ahhh...sweet relief: time for bed. Ok, not quite. As soon as I took Matthew up to his room, he woke up and was unhappy again. Back downstairs we went and I finished watching the movie with a baby in my arms. At midnight, Matthew was "asleep", so I took him upstairs. It took another 45 minutes of rocking and swaying to convince him to lay down in his crib, but I finally got to sleep at 1 am. I'm hoping his new "fussy hour" is just a tummy upset problem and that the Gripe water will help prevent the overtired, upset, fussy crying jaunt that never seems to end. We shall see.

Listen to Matthews Favourites

Holy Big Boy Batman!

We had two appointments today. TWO! The first was to the Lactation consultant. First we weighed him. Drumroll please ... 10 pounds 5 ounces! WHAAAAA? He's HUGE! Of course, he wasn't all that small to begin with. The appointment from there went well. He's latching fine now and I'm still struggling with oversupply and forceful letdown, but he's coping. They're not worried about him getting too much foremilk since he's gaining just fine. The prescription is the same: hand express before each feed, two feeds on each side during the day, but alternate sides at night so I don't get too engorged and uncomfortable. I didn't make another appointment, but will call if I have issues again. Here's my latest picture of my big boy!

Our second appointment was a mommy appointment. I had been referred from the hospital to the Maternal Mental Health Clinic because of my history and weepiness in the hospital. We talked a lot about my history and concerns and the psychologist agreed that I did have post-partum blues, but they seemed to have resolved now. Matthew was hot and sweaty and not very happy. He was also hungry. The second appointment really screwed up our feeding schedule, so by the end of the appointment he was really really hungry. I tried to feed him in a private room, but it was very difficult without a pillow or anything. 30 minutes of feeding, crying, changing, feeding, crying later, I decided it was best just to get home ASAP. Too bad mommy decided it was a brilliant idea to save $20 and 15 minutes of frustration and park at the mall and walk to the hospital ... in 37 C heat! BAD MOMMY! We were miserable, but walking in the stroller seemed to calm Matthew down, despite the heat.

Mr. Man is a bit upset by all the day's activities, the heat and the screwed up feedings. We're hoping a nap will do him wonders. Daddy is trying to put him down right now, so we'll see how that goes. On an unrelated note, Daddy is sad today because his beloved Germany soccer team lost. Very sad, but we didn't really expect them to get this far. Maybe they will win the consolation prize next week!

Opa's Cottage!

We took Matthew for his first visit to Opa's Cottage over the long weekend. We went up on Thursday all by ourselves and set him up in his playpen in the living room. It worked out well and I nursed Matthew in the living room. The rest of the weekend took some adjustment. It's tricky business when you don't have ALL your equipment with you. Matthew was good for the most part, but I just need to figure out how to participate in cottage activities with him. My sister in law had a brilliant idea. We put Matthew in his Snugli and I carried him around with an umbrella! That way he stays in the shade and I get to hang out a bit.

Since R was with me all weekend, he was able to take Matthew downstairs at 7 am so I could sleep for an extra hour or two. This is how I found them on Sunday!

We're heading up to the cottage again this weekend, a little older and a little wiser. (I can't believe my 29th birthday is on Thursday! And my Mr. Man will be 1 month old!). We hope to put together the old crib and then move the playpen downstairs again for afternoon naps and changes. It should be fun! Matthew's big cousins can't wait to see him again and watch the "big show" of the diaper change. Oh how fun everything is when you are 6!

Day One Alone: A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day!

R went back to work today. I was looking forward to my usual night of 3-5 hours between feeds, but Baby K must have known something was up. He was on 1 1/2-3 hours between feeds meaning no sleep for mommy last night. I was hoping his 4 am feed would take him past when R had to leave for work. Well, it did, sort of. He woke up at 7 and then my day of hell started. He was fussy, wouldn't nap, wouldn't be calmed, kept wanting to feed... He would cry, I'd try something, he'd stop, then cry again a few minutes later. Nothing was working and then he started to nod off on my chest. Ah, sweet relief! A nap! Then ... the doorbell rings. To answer, or not to answer. For future reference, the correct answer is DON'T ANSWER! As I walked to the door, child in arms, buttoning up my bra, I thought "this better be someone important". I thought it "could" be my SIL who I would welcome, but was realistically expecting a real estate agent bugging me to sell my house and was preparing myself to tell them to PISS OFF! I did NOT expect the person facing me when I opened the door. It was my BFF's brother! Oh yeah, he got a job here, how nice of him to visit (without a phone call grrrrrr). Well, not quite a friendly meet-the-baby visit. Turns out, he was staying with some family friends and it wasn't working out. He wanted to know if I knew anyone he could stay with. Um ... no !?! I let him (and his pet guinea pig) in and let him use my phone to call people who he thought might let him stay with them. In the meantime, I was trying to feed, calm, soothe, nap, change, and otherwise deal with a fussy, fussy baby. Needless to say, the only food that entered my tummy was a muffin early in the morning. Finally, my BFF's brother worked things out and left, at 1 pm. By that time, both mommy and Baby K were overtired.

After talking to my good friend S online, I decided to try and clean up and take a nice walk to McDonald's. Baby K went into his crib and "seemed" to be sleeping, so I washed my face, brushed my teeth and got dressed. By that time, Baby K was awake and crying again, so I put him in his stroller and off we went on our hot and sticky walk. Baby K immediately fell asleep. Ah, sweet relief! Too bad mommy was hot and tired and started getting a stitch in her side half way there. We finally mad it to a lovely air-conditioned McDonald's and mommy ordered herself a nice cold drink and a hot fudge sundae. Mmmm.... But halfway through the sundae, Baby K was fussing again. Time to move. Again, Baby K slept all the way home. Yay. Maybe now mommy can put him down in his carseat and he'll sleep for a bit? NOPE! Cue more fussing, crying, screaming, oh please daddy get home soon!

Daddy comes home and Baby K is finally calm. We put Matthew down and I tried to take a nap. No go! Time to feed ... again. So daddy makes dinner and mommy gives Baby K his dinner. Mommy got to eat over Baby K and then daddy tried to get him to sleep. It took some doing, but Baby K finally went down for good! Too bad mommy is so overtired she can't sleep. I hope this was just a day one adjustment thing. Maybe Baby K missed having daddy around all day? Maybe mommy just needs to learn how to read him better? I can only hope that Baby K is tired enough tonight to sleep and give mommy a break. Tomorrow is a new day and I'm sure there will be better (and worse) days ahead. I must keep in mind, he is only 2 weeks old. We're both still learning. Things will get better. Breathe in, breathe out!

Gigantic Catch-Up Post!

Ok, so I promised my 40 week bump pic would be up and running ON TIME this time. Well, that didn't work out so well. So this post has a lot of catching up to do. First things first, the (shortened, less gory, birth story).

I was told to call the hospital at 5 pm on Friday, June 11 to see if there was a bed ready for my induction. Well, the hospital called me back at 3 to say "get your butt in here now!" So I called Roland and told him to get his butt home immediately. We got to the hospital at 4:30 and got hooked up to monitors. Turns out, I was already contracting at around 5-7 minutes, though to me it felt like nothing more than the menstrual cramps I'd been getting for weeks. Dr. Gurland was doing some c-sections, so we had to wait. Just before 7 pm, he finally came to check on me. I was still 2 cm dilated and my blood pressure was still high. So, out came the crochet hook and POP, my water was broken. Immediately, the contractions ramped up. They were instantly 1 1/2 minutes apart and 50-60 seconds long and getting stronger by the minute. By 8 pm, I couldn't stand being in the bed much longer, so we went for a long, leaky walk. We got into the birthing suite just before 9 pm and I was definately in active labour. I was able to smile in between contractions (for all of 30 seconds), but once the contractions came, I was inconsolable. I tried to hold out until 9:30 for the nurse to check me, but after the vomitting started, I cried mercy and got checked at 9:15. I was 4 cm already. One more strong set of contractions sent my calling for the epi. The anesthesiologist was between c-sections, so it's a good thing I called him when I did. Before he got there though, I went through another bout of vomitting, one big long 5 minute contraction, shiverring and hyperventillation. The epi couldn't get here soon enough. At 10 pm, the epi was in, and by 10:15 it was working. R and my mom were able to sleep for a while, but by 11 I was uncomfortable again. The nurse turned up the epi, but the pain was getting worse. We kept topping up the epi, but the pain only increased. Finally, at 11:30, the nurse checked me and I was 8 cm. In another hour I was fully dilated and ready to start pushing. But I couldn't feel a thing! We tried and low and behold, I was able to push effectively even though I was completely numb. The nurse got everything set up and by 12:40 we were pushing. By 1 am, the doc was called in the room and 20 minutes of pushing later, Baby K was born! It's a BOY! 9 lbs 1 oz, 21 1/2 inches long.

Here's my beautiful baby boy!

Baby K is doing much better. He's been perfect at every test he's had, but we had some breastfeeding issues initially. Well, not really, but we definately had a hard time due to some conflicting messages. First off, Baby K is a powerful sucker and I was very soon blistered and bleeding. The second night, I hadn't slept yet and Baby K was fussy. He wasn't feeding well, and I couldn't console him. The nurses took him off my hands and promised to return him at 1:30. Well, I woke up at 12:45 anxious for my 1:30 feed. 1:30 came and still no Baby K. 1:45 came, still no Baby K. 2:00, no Baby K. 2:15 I was freaking out and called the nurse to return my baby. I was told that they finger-fed him formula and he was sleeping nicely. Very shortly though, he was up and fussing. I tried to feed him, but it wasn't working. They came to weigh him at 3 and gave me a bottle to give him because "he's a big boy and very hungry". In the morning, we were taught how to supplement with formula while breastfeeding with a tube. It seemed tricky, but we didn't question it and went home on Sunday. Tube feeding at home was horrendous. Very quickly it wasn't working and Baby K wasn't sleeping and neither was I. We went to a lactaction consultant on Tuesday and it couldn't come soon enough. Tuesday came and we were told that I had "sabotaged" myself with the tube feeding. Great. Just lovely. Why would they send me home tube feeding if it was going to screw me in the end? The consultant sent us home with an electric pump with orders to pump after every feed to ensure a good supply for the long haul. Well, two days of that and Baby K was choking at every feed. He would only feed for 5 minutes and sometimes it would ALL come right back up. Talk about a fussy baby! I couldn't wait for my next appointment with a lactaction consultant. On Friday, we had our appointment with the lactation consultant who was NOT affiliated with the hospital. She told me that I had TOO much milk and he couldn't feed properly because it's hard to suck on a boulder! She taught me how to hand express before each feed so as not to choke him and only offer one breast, then hand express the other one to comfort. This worked much better and by our next lactation consultant appointment on Tuesday, I was feeling better. The consultant helped me with some tips to feed him more inclined to makes sure Baby K doesn't choke, and suggested I try sidelying position. Let me tell you what a savour sidelying has been. 2 am feeds are so lovely when I can just lay back in bed and feed him for as long as he needs. He doesn't choke, and my arms don't get tired, and he even self latches properly most of the time!

So the moral of this story? Hospital nurses are on crack! Why would baby need 30 ml of formula at a feed if naturally he'd only get a tablespoon of collostrum? Why should I fuss with tube feeding if it's going to mess up my supply? Let nature take its course. Yes, sore, cracked, bleeding, blistered nipples are par for the course, and you'll probably be crying through each feed for the first week. But if you get a good lactaction consultant and good support to learn how to properly latch baby, your body will normalise and things will work themselves out. Do I still have some issues with feeding now and again? Yes, but Baby K is sleeping well at night and most days isn't fussy until just before bedtime.

We are slowly getting into the swing of things, but next week, Daddy goes back to work. It's going to be a whole new kind of adventure to learn how to do everything by myself. Hopefully I can find time to update how we're doing in our first week alone.

Eviction Notice Has Been Served!

It's Baby K's Due Date today and we had our 40 week appointment this morning. I finished my last day of work yesterday and was looking forward to checking some more things off my to-do list after my appointment. The nurse takes my blood pressure and it is 120/70. I commented that it sounded a bit off. "Oh, is that high for you?" "No, my blood pressure hasn't been that low since before 30 weeks!" The cuff seemed to be coming off during the reading so she takes another reading on the other arm ... twice. It was 150/92. The OB didn't like my blood pressure, so he ordered an induction. I was "supposed" to call at 5 pm tonight, but the hospital just called and want me to come in NOW! Off to make the rounds of phone calls and then we're on our way to have our baby! The next post will have a picture of Baby K!