Pineapple Newborn Summary: Week Two

This is a summary of the second week of Pineapple's life. She was 1 week old.

Nursing

Pineapple has been on a 2.5 hour schedule during the day and a 3 hour schedule at night. At her weight check appt on Wednesday she only gained an ounce. The doctor (a different one than last Saturday) was concerned that she was just snacking when she was nursing. She asked us to supplement 15-30ml after every feeding for a couple of days. Which meant a lot of pumping and cleaning. Anyways, her idea was that the extra milk would cause Pineapple's stomach to expand and when she nursed she would be hungrier because her stomach would be bigger.  

Well overnight Thursday/Friday Pineapple started refusing to nurse. She would latch even worse than usual and spit out the nipple. I ended up pumping most of that night and Kevin was giving her bottles for most of her feeds. Friday she did better with nursing but in the evening she started refusing the boob again. So my aim Saturday was not to give anymore bottles. I called every place I could think of to track down a Supplemental Nursing System and couldn't find one locally. I checked Am.azon and thanks to my prime membership it only cost $3 to overnight ship it (which meant we would get it Monday).  Then when Wiki was visiting that afternoon she suggested using a nipple shield. OMG what a difference! Pineapple would finally latch well, the pain was minimal (and disappeared within a day of me using it) and she never had a fussy nursing session the rest of the weekend. On Sunday we went to visit my parents and forgot the shield. I went out after one feed without it to pick one up.

I've read that using a nipple shield can cause issues like reduced supply because the stimulation is lessened when using one but I'm not that worried. I have an oversupply/fast letdown issue so it's not going to be a big deal.

Waketime

We still do a diaper change before feeding her to wake her up and then usually she still falls asleep about 10 minutes into the feeding. I'm not stressing about her being awake during feeds right now because she's so young and was two weeks early. 

Naps

She usually sleeps between feeds while being held by someone. We did have issues on Thanksgiving Day trying to get her to nap. It was obvious she's already using the boob as a sleep crutch. Plus she wouldn't let us lie her down in the pack-n-play or her bassinet. She would wake up right away and then want to nurse back to sleep.

Night Sleep

She started the week so well! Monday night we would wake her, feed her, double swaddle her and then put her back down until the next 3-hour shift started. She went to sleep quickly and stayed asleep. The rest of the week? It didn't go so smoothly. There are some times when she won't go back to sleep between feedings. There are other nights when she sleeps on me (while I'm sleeping on the couch) between feedings. I know I'm not suppose to do this but it's a bad habit I've formed.

Swaddle

We still double swaddle her at night. Sometimes during the day but usually she's sleeping on me with a blanket over her. I tried using the Summer Infant SwaddleMe. It worked once. The other nights she's gotten very upset at being put in it.

Weight Gain

We had a weight check on Wednesday. She gained an ounce - 7lbs 4 oz - in a week. Not optimal. Tomorrow I'm going to a New Moms Group at the hospital she was born at  that is run by a Lactation Consultant so that we can do a weight check & a feeding weight check. Then we have her 2 week appt on Thursday.

Jaundice

This seems to have resolved itself. When we saw the doctor on Wednesday she said it wasn't an issue anymore. I still see a yellow tinge in her eyes but it doesn't seem to be as bad as before.

Big Brother

GV is an awesome big brother. He likes to hold her and will ask at least once a day. Then when holding her he'll tell us "GV loves Pineapple!" He likes to tickle Pineapple as well. Usually when she's asleep. So we've had to implement a "no tickling while Pineapple is asleep" rule. Doesn't always work but it stops him before he gets too involved.

Conclusion

This week was a super emotional week for me. myMom and I had a bit of a tiff at the end of week 1 which got me emotional (it doesn't take much these days) at the beginning of the week. She didn't call me all week (when she usually calls daily). Then we went to the doctor and Pineapple had only gained 1 oz. Even though I knew they would want to do supplementation it still hit me hard. When she started refusing the breast  on Friday I was a wreck. I would start crying at every feeding and I probably would have slipped into PPD if not for the nipple shield. Once we had that on Saturday my attitude/emotional state was so much better. A complete 180. So the week ended very well.

Schedule

We are now on a 2.5 hour schedule during the day and 3 hour schedule at night. We don't have a set schedule because sometimes she'll want to cluster feed or if she doesn't nap well then her next nursing session will start before the 2.5 hour mark. But we don't go over 2.5 hours between feeds during the day. 

Pineapple Newborn Summary: Week One

With GV I did weekly updates during the pregnancy. But with Pineapple I thought I missed quite a bit of her early pregnancy and then when I found out I hadn't I wasn't really into doing the updates again. I would go back and read the GVs and compare them that way. I've seen newborn summaries on this website so I thought it would be a unique way of chronicling her first year.

This is a summary of the first week of Pineapple's life.

The Beginning

I'm going to write a birth story post for Pineapple but here I'll just mention that it was quick (labor pains started at 1:30am and she was here by 10:49am) and other than not getting the epidural till _way_ late pretty routine. After about an hour of kangaroo care she started rooting and showing some pep so they finally did her vitals, moved us to a Mom & Baby room and she got to try out this nursing thing. She did well although she only did the right side for about 15 minutes because her pediatrician showed up and needed to check her out. Once that was over we switched sides for an additional 10 minutes. In total it was about 25 minutes. 

Hospital Stay

We had a new experience with this hospital in that Pineapple was in the room with us almost the whole time we were there. They took her away once to do her vitals and then again when they did the blood/dna collection thing the state does. Paranoid me immediately picked her up and checked to make sure they brought me back the right baby. She looked like the baby they took away. 

I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to sleep because no one would be watching Pineapple to make sure she kept breathing. Also this time Kevin stayed overnight with us both nights. After two days we got clean bills of health and were discharged. The did one last weight check (she was down to 7 lbs 3 oz - 6% weight loss) and checked her bilirubin levels and then told us we could go. We waited to complete one last feed and left around 3:30pm.

Fluid

Apparently newborns often have amniotic fluid in their tummy that upsets it so they spit up a lot in the first 48 hours. This was one of the reasons why GV didn't really like nursing in those first couple of days. With Pineapple, she would often spit up before I would even nurse her. Plus she started snorting on her second evening and just sounded clogged up when breathing. The lactation consultant wanted us to have the pediatrician give her a saline nasal spray but our pediatrician didn't want to because she thought it would pass pretty quickly and it did. It was gone by the time we left the hospital.

Big Brother

GV is so sweet with Pineapple. When he came to see us in the hospital later that day he was so excited. Okay mainly he was excited about being in a hospital but he did check her out and give her kisses (first the blanket and then eventually her cheek). Every time she fretted or cried he would want to give her a kiss to make her feel better. And the second night when the nurse came to take her away to do her blood sampling thing he was very concerned that they were taking her away. He almost chased down the nurse to get her back. When we got home on Wednesday he wanted to help carry her into the house. Since being home he has wanted to hold her, kiss her, pet her, point out her eyes/mouth/ears, hold her hand, tickle her, sit right next to her and feed her a bottle. Also at her newborn appt he was concerned that the doctor was poking and prodding her and making her mad and then he was anxious that she was going to fall off the table and pushed her blankets further back onto the table. 

Nursing

Oh how I wish this was going better. She doesn't latch that well. It's very shallow I think mainly due to my size (one of my brea.stshields for pumping is 30mm). I've had cracking, soreness, rawness and blood blisters. I had the cracking and soreness with GV but he was a champion nurser (and weight gainer). Pineapple was a fully pound smaller than him at birth and she just doesn't have the same deep pull. Hence the soreness and rawness. It's starting to go away as I adjust to a different nursing style but sometimes the pain makes me want to rip her away. I've been scouring the web to try to find ways to help her and it's been a little better.

I also think I have an oversupply problem as well. I did with GV (his poos went from yellow to dark green when my milk really came in) and so would have to nurse from the same side 2-3 times in a row (offering the one side minimizes foremilk). So I started doing this with Pineapple and by the next morning her poos were closer to the mustard yellow color they were suppose to be. But then when I told Dr. C about doing this she looked at me like a crazy person so I went back doing each side for 15-20 minutes. Her poos went back to dark green. So I've gone back to one side for 2-3 feedings and they're back to normal.

Weight Gain

Pineapple was 7lbs 11oz on Monday (her birth day). By the time we left the hospital on Wednesday she was 7lbs 3 oz. At her newborn appt on Saturday she was still 7lbs 3 oz. So they wanted her to go back for a weight check on Wednesday. Today I measured her using my food scale and she was 7lbs 2oz. I might have had a breakdown. I'm sure this is tied in with her bad latch and the foremilk/hindmilk/oversupply issue. So the other night I checked after her feed and I pumped about 45 ml from the brea.st she had just been nursing on for the past half hour. So today I've decided to pump after her feeding and then give her the bottle. I know I run the risk of nippl.e confusion, nursing strikes and her preferring a bottle but I'm more concerned about her lack of weight gain and I really don't want Dr. C to tell me to supplement with formula. 

Jaundice

On our last day at the hospital the nurse came in to check Pineapple's bilirubin levels. I wasn't that concerned because Kevin and I have the same blood type and I had read somewhere before GV that jaundice was caused by different blood types between mother and child. Her readings were okay. Then on Saturday when we went to the pediatrician Dr. C was concerned about Pineapple appearing yellowish. She noted it in her head and chest but her lower half was still normal. I couldn't see the difference but Kevin said he could. She recommended that we put her somewhere near a window so she could get some indirect sunlight. Of course I read all about it and realized that lack of breastmilk (that shallow latch is haunting us again) can cause jaundice. The whites of her eyes are a bit yellow (the only place I can see the yellow) but I'm not sure what else we're suppose to be doing. We're scheduled to go in for a weight check on Wednesday and I'm sure Dr. C is going to want to check her "yellowishness." 

Waketime

In the hospital Pineapple was really hard to wake up. A couple of times she would go over the 3 hour mark for her next feeding because I couldn't get her to wake up. But since we've been home she's better at it. We usually change her diaper before her feed and she'll be awake for about the first 10 minutes or so. She does fall asleep most times (it's rare that she doesn't) and I'm starting to notice that she needs the bre.ast in order to fall asleep. In a few weeks I'll be more stringent about her staying awake for her whole feed and falling asleep on her own

Naps

As long as Pineapple falls asleep on the bre.ast she naps great! If not she will want to feed again for a few minutes to help her fall asleep. Those naps are usually more restless and she'll wake earlier for her next feeding. She's really flexible about location of her naps and also the amount of noise GV makes when she's sleeping. 

Night Sleep

The hospital room was always comfortably warm during the day and then got pretty cool in the evening. However since she was wearing a hat and was double wrapped in receiving blankets I wasn't concerned about her getting too cold. And then when we got home I tried to mimic the cool room at night (also because I LOVE sleeping in cool/cold rooms) and she was having problems staying asleep while in our room. The first night home we thought it was an issue with the cradle vs. playpen. GV had the same issue. He'd sleep wonderfully in the playpen but then when we would put him in the cradle he would get upset in an instant. As soon as we brought the playpen upstairs and put it in our room (and him in it) he would be fine (and sleep!). So I thought it was something similar with Pineapple. We decided to incline the cradle hoping that would solve it but after another non-sleeping-in-the-cradle night we knew that wasn't it. So then we tried giving up the swaddle (GV rebelled against the swaddle almost as soon as we got home) but that made things worse. Then the night before last I finally gave up around 3 am and after feeding her put her in the playpen in the living room and she slept till her next feed, fell asleep again right away and then slept till 8am. Something clicked that it must be the warm room. So the next night we closed the windows and turned off the ceiling fan. We double swaddled her and sure enough she slept in the cradle in the room waking only when we woke her to change her diaper and feed her.

Conclusion

The shallow latch (due to my size) seems to be causing most of the problems (in my opinion). I'm pretty sure it's what is causing my BFing pain, her lack of weight gain, her thin poops (sometimes green), and jaundice. I've been warned that babies born early can take longer to start gaining weight though.

Schedule

The schedule this week hasn't really been a set schedule. We were feeding her on a 3 hour schedule but then after her naught weight gain, Dr. C wanted us to get closer to 2.5 during the day - she was fine with us going 2 hours if Pineapple was ready. At night we are usually going 3 hours at the latest. I wake up 15 minutes before we hit the 3 hour mark so she's usually on when we hit it.  

Ugh...

So there are a few websites I stalk. Of course FB is one of them, then there's slate [dot] com and also nb.cnew.s [dot] com. As an avid reader of almost everything - I've been known to read EVERYTHING on a cereal box while eating said cereal in the mornings - I love websites that are constantly updated and where new things show up throughout the day rather than just once. Also the Dear Pr.udenc.e columns on slate [dot] com just crack me up!

Anyways today I was reading n.bcne.ws [dot] com and I came across a headline titled Ic.e-T 'could make a baby through a brick wall'. The other day I was flipping through channels during GV's nap and something happened and the TV landed on the show Ic.e Loves C.oco. After watching a bit of it I saw a preview about the next episode in which they discuss her wanting to freeze her eggs. I was curious so I read up on the people in the reality show and Coco is actually near my age. So I watched a bit more and fertility/infertility was never discussed on that episode. So then this morning I saw that headline and was more than a little curious so I clicked on it. And by the time I had finished reading it I was soooo sad and angry.

Because here's a woman who has genuine fears and doubts about her fertility and her husband is dismissing them and not only that but being so "macho" about it that it was just frustrating. I didn't watch the segment (or clip) but I think if I would have I prolly would have thrown something at the TV. I can sympathise with her because I know what it's like to fear infertility before you even start trying to be fertile. There shouldn't have been a reason for me to worry about it because I come from a VERY fertile family. My mom got pregnant the first two times she tried (four years apart). But there was this fear. Before I knew what PCOS, Clomid or anything was I was pretty certain Kevin and I would have a rough go of it trying to get pregnant. And to see a husband being so callous and dismissive about something that is a very real possibility just set my teeth on edge. Anyways here's the article in case you want to read it: http://tinyurl.com/cysx58n. Maybe you won't be as upset/offended by him/it as I was...

One Month

Till I turn 35. Advanced maternal age. Because Pineapple is due two weeks before that I'm not high-risk. Which apparently means I'm missing out on some u/s and other tests that would be covered if she was due even one day after. Oh well.

How the heck am I already almost 35? I still think of myself as in my 20s. Maybe it's because I didn't get married till 29. Or have my first kid till 32. Or that most of my (new) friends are just hitting their 30th b-day. At the end of this month I will have known Kevin for 17 years. I met him when I was 17!! Maybe because my parents are still in their 50s (albeit only a 1-2 years away from 60). Whatever it is I don't feel 35 most days. Some days I do though. Usually on those days I want to take a nap.

Go Vote!

Only because I can't! :(  Apparently when I moved here my voter registration was never turned in. I signed up at the DMV when I was getting my license but my card never made it to the supervisor of elections. It wasn't until Saturday when I realized that I didn't know where I was suppose to go to vote that I called and found out that I couldn't vote. It really bums me out! This is the second time I'm missing a presidential vote! The first was while I was in college and in my sophomore haze realized I had over-scheduled myself on that fateful November day. But the guy I wanted to win did so I didn't really worry about it. This time I was looking forward to taking GV since next time around he'll be in school.

Anyways, go vote!!

Time Change Sleepover

So somehow I've managed to finagle it so that GV spends the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house on the weekends where there's a time change. Which is good because apparently he was up at 6am this morning. And Kevin and I? Well we didn't wake up until almost 9am.

I saw all the FB comments from other friends who are parents complaining about their children not realizing that they were suppose to sleep an extra hour. And I sat there with a secret smile on my face...

Showers All-Around

When I moved down here shortly after GV was born, my college roommate recommended a moms group to me. I decided to join when I met a mom with a son 2 months older than GV and another mom with a daughter 3 weeks younger. I figured it would be a good resource to have them around. Then more moms joined and soon enough there were about 5-6 moms with babies who would all be in the same "school year" as GV. GV is probably going to Catholic school so I don't think he'll go to school with these kids but they might be in the same sports or activities.

Anyways for a bunch of us our kids were the first ones and we all have sons. As our kids approached 18 months we started talking about trying for that second kid.  I was nervous about all the talk because even though Kevin and I wanted to try for another one we had no idea if it would actually work. Well it did. And I'm actually the second one in line. There are currently 6 of us pregnant (with a 7th mom (who is no longer in the group) pregnant too) so it's a baby boom. Who thought I would ever be in the middle of a baby boom.

And so all the baby showers are happening now. At first I didn't want a baby shower but since Pineapple was a girl I was coerced encouraged to have one. And it was a good experience. A good second shower. This morning was the shower for the 4th mom. It was a book shower which was a neat idea. The other three will probably be in the new year which will be good break since three of the babies are due before the end of the year.

Full Term

As of today I'm 37 weeks. Full term. 21 days to go. I'm excited but it still seems so far away.

Yesterday was my OB appt. There are four doctors in this practice. Unlike GV's doctor, this time I don't have an assigned doctor. I have to have my appts with all the doctors and then whoever is on call when I happen to go into labor is my delivering doctor. I don't like this system but as this is likely my last pregnancy and I'm almost done there's no point in switching. Before I got pregnant I saw Dr. G every time I went in. I wasn't too fond of her but she seemed competent so I stayed. Then when I got pregnant I actually didn't see her again until yesterday. I've been seeing the other three (and the NP) my entire pregnancy.

So yesterday Dr. G came in and did the cervical check. One centimeter dilated. This time last go around I wasn't anything at all by this point so that's good. But I'm still not effaced at all. Then she did the doppler check and finally measured my uterus. Everything looking good. Then she wanted to do a u/s to make sure that Pineapple was head down. After about 15 minutes I got called back into the u/s suite and got to see her again! She is head down and facing my spine which is good for delivery but bad for ultrasound pics. But she's got tons for hair! And apparently it's long, already flowing past her ears. GV had a lot of hair too but it all fell out between 3-6 months.

So it looks like we're good to go just waiting for her to decide to be born. If I'm honest I wouldn't mind if she came 2 days early or 6 days late. See the earliest date that Thanksgiving falls on is the 22nd (this year) and the latest is the 28th (next year). So if they want to induce I think I'm going to ask for the 29th. We'll see if it works.

Hallow'een

Last night was so much fun. GV had decided that he wanted to be a ghost. Because I didn't think he would wear a costume over his head the whole night I decided I was going to make him a costume. Mind, my sewing machine hasn't seen the light of day since before we moved here (over 2 years go!) this was a little crazy for me. But I found a pattern that I liked, bought the fabric and did the needful. I finished the day before Halloween.

And I got GV to wear it for about 30 seconds when I bribed him with TV. Then yesterday when he was napping I decided to make white pants to match.

Fully prepared to have him look like a newbie painter, I was pleasantly surprised when he not only put the cape on but wore it the whole time we went trick or treating.

He loved shouting "Boo!" and he had practiced his "Trick or Treat"s and "Thank you!"s but it took a few houses before he was brave enough to use them.

We did the shortest loop through the neighborhood but he got so much candy that his bucket was full half way through. I had brought a back-up bag but he refused to move his candy. We tried once and almost had a melt-down and then when we had no choice we made him. Cue meltdown two houses before we were back on our block. It took a while to get him to calm down (Kevin didn't really help because sometimes he forgets that GV is TWO!) but then he carried both bags around. So next year we take a bigger bucket.

It was also Kevin's first real trick-or-treating experience. It was kind of weird having to explain all the "rules" to him. Things we take for granted. No, I haven't raided GV's candy yet but only because we have pass-out candy left over.