9.18.2010

Six weeks on Monday since I had my baby...

Breastfeeding just started getting really awesome in the past week or so.  We learned quickly and E's latch was good from the start.  I did enough research to know exactly how I wanted him latched on and wouldn't accept anything less because I didn't want him to learn wrong.  I got a crack in one of my nipples because I fell asleep while breastfeeding in the first few days and E's latch slipped.  I was asleep so I didn't correct it and I woke up to him munching only on the nipple itself, no aureole.  One of the perils of narcoleptic breastfeeding I guess.  The other issue I have had with narcolepsy and breastfeeding is that when I'm extremely tired my cataplexy acts up so every time E sucks I lose my muscle tone for that fraction of a second over and over and over, it's really just irritating more than anything else.  I breast feed lying down to help me transition from asleep to awake which is a necessity for me to have.  I had to figure out how to breastfeed lying down because I got mastitis and my fever was so high I couldn't sit up to feed.  I wanted to try different positions sooner but I was waiting for my nipples to not hurt so much.  That was apparently a bad idea as using only the one position (cross-cradle) may have encouraged the infection- along with the crack in the nipple and using nipple shields to not leak all over everywhere.  I am really starting to enjoy breastfeeding now, but in the first weeks I understood why the bottle was invented.

I let E breastfeed whenever he wants it.  Babies use boobs to eat and also to sooth themselves.  Initially, E was eating too much and throwing up when my milk came in because he wanted to sooth himself so often.  He wouldn't take anything besides boob, but eventually he accepted a pinky finger.  I still have to put him to sleep with my finger pretty frequently, though it's dropped off a lot recently.  The sucking reflex is a force to be reckoned with, but I feel like if I didn't allow E to use me as his soother in addition to his meals, my milk wouldn't be so plentiful.  It is a bit of a nuisance when we're around other people to have to pull a lady out to calm E down (even though Danes are very accepting of public breastfeeding), but we're learning how to feed in the wrap which makes things much easier.  We also found a pacifier that is shaped to sit on the roof of E's mouth.  E really hasn't taken well to any pacifiers, but this one he will keep in his mouth long enough to calm down.  We really only use it when we're out.

Baby wearing is really nice.  I love to do it even though it is not the most convenient thing.  It's good once baby is in the wrap, but there can be a lot of effort needed to get to that point.  E isn't fond of being restrained so it takes him a few minutes of screaming to calm down and accept that he is in the wrap.  He then, promptly, falls asleep (usually).  I think my biggest problem with the wrap is that I thought I would be able to put one on around the house and pop the baby in and out as necessary.  I have found that in reality the wrap gets so twisted around when wearing it without the baby in it that by the time I want to pop him back in, I have to put the wrap back on.  For out of the house it is great.  Well it's great for in the house too, I just need more time to get patient with it or I need to sew myself a sling.  I am focusing on completing both.  I really dont put E down very much.  If he is awake and alert he is happy to sit in his rocker or on a blanket for almost ten minutes before wanting to be held again.  If he is sleeping in arms it's a crap shoot whether he will wake up after being put down or not.  In any case I have very small amounts of time spent with two hands and a not exhausted body capable of using both of those hands, but Marc and I are working on increasing that amount time for me.

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