Where Lactation Consultants Leave Off and Life Begins...

When little N was about 3 and a half weeks old something unusual started happening. Although the nursing was going well until then, she started developing some funny habits. By the end of each day she was cluster feeding which was no surprise. What was surprising was that she began to get really frustrated after feeding for hours, instead of falling into a blissful breastmilk induced sleep. At first we thought, this must be gas. So we tried gripe water, changing my diet, and some homeopathic remedies her pediatrician recommended. Hmmm...didn't seem to work too well...

Then after doing a little research I found that she might be getting frustrated cause the flow was slowing down. This made sense at the time, she'd been feeding for hours, maybe it was just getting harder to get milk. So I began pumping after feedings or at odd times and giving her a bottle to top her up. It worked a couple of times, but not really. She'd take a bottle and drink almost nothing some times.

I went to the lactation consultant, she also thought this made perfect sense. Babies are well known to get fussy in the evenings and want to feed a lot, they call this the "witching hour". Also, she asked to see little N feed. So we did, and ofcourse she performed perfectly. Like such a beautiful feeding. If she fed like that I would have no need for a lactation consultant! The funny thing was, on my other visit she did the same thing. She's a good performer I figured, that or she was out to make a fool of me....

Then someone suggested to me the E.A.S.Y method. Where you put babies on a routine of Eat, Activity, Sleep, with timings for each based on their weight. The method was listed in the book "The Baby Whisperer". After I started with it, feeding got much easier, which told me, little N was basically just overtired. With all the time feeding and such things take, it was cutting into her sleeping time. When she was upset about being tired, I often mistook this for hunger. Also I just didn't realize how much sleep she needed. When she was first born, she'd fall asleep at her own will all the time, after about 3.5 weeks, she got more alert and was staying awake and was not able to get to sleep on her own as often as she needed to. The naps she was taking was just not enough.

This was one of those moments you realize just what a rookie you are at this, and for now it's working, but I'm told everything will change soon and we'll have a whole new puzzle to solve.

As for why she performed so well at the lactation consultant? the drive and being in the stroller before hand made sure she got some really great sleep before the appointment (is my theory anyways...) and she was able to feed really well cause she was so rested.

Random Thoughts on Life With a New Baby

- Baby smiles are the best thing in the whole world

- It's amazing how something that can leave you so sleep deprived and not let you go to the washroom in peace will be the source of the deepest love you'll ever know

- There are moments of bewilderment, where little N is crying. Where I've tried everything, and nothing works. At these moments her swing is my best friend

- I love how the crook of my elbow is her favourite place to sleep,it's amazing to literally be someone elses safe haven

- Baby sleep makes no sense to me but I'm learning

Its All Good

Throughout pregnancy and childbirth a few annoying things happen that you dread, but one of the things it taught me was God puts good in everything. Two such things that happened in my pregnancy were having an impaired glucose tolerance and my cesarean. My experiences are not at all anything horrible, and much worse things can and do happen during pregnancy, but many women might end up with these issues and they do tend to upset you (believe me) so hopefully this might serve as some reassurance.

Impaired Glucose Tolerance

Towards the end of my second trimester they did some glucose testing and found that I had impaired glucose tolerance. Even though my results were pretty borderline, this was treated as full blown gestational diabetes. Despite my protests and all my research into the fact that this was all nonsense, I was put on a strict no sugar, low carb diet and was exercising three times a week. With a masters due before the end of the pregnancy, this was frustrating times as it was very time consuming, and tiring. Additionally, I had to monitor my blood four times a day and even minor exceedances would have the endocrinologist threatening to put me on insulin which I was very scared of because of complications that it might introduce into my delivery. Also, I just couldn't have the same kind of fun most pregnant ladies have in terms of eating during pregnancy. And lets face it, that kinda sucked.

In the end though, I didn't gain nearly as much as I know I would have during the pregnancy, and managed to get the weight off pretty quickly after childbirth. Also because I was swimming 3x a week, I didn't get as sluggish towards the end of the pregnancy, which is what allowed to get my graduate studies finished. Also it just taught me about just how much sugar we as a culture regularly consume, and hopefully I'll take that with me and try my best to avoid diabetes in the future.

Cesarean Section

There was no where in my mind I had even considered that I was going to get a c-section. It hadn't happened in my family before, so why would it happen to me right? Wrong. Since nothing about my pregnancy was like anyone in my family, I don't know why this logic seemed to make sense to me. 

 After 36 hours and a total failure to progress beyond 6cm, I was told I needed a c-section. I agreed pretty readily as I was completely exhausted at this point and had no idea how I'd have any energy to push even if I did make it to 10cm. My fear of the c-section was mainly taking care of a baby and recovering. How was I going to do it? I'd never had surgery before, and it sounded extremely painful. And yes, it was. At the end of the day though, I'm grateful to have such a great family that took really good care of me, they helped me a lot and I managed to get through two very difficult things at the same time (taking care of a brand new newborn, and recovering from surgery). What's more is my husband really stepped up, and I like to think it really helped in strengthening the bond between him and little N (our daughter).


Now I just need to figure out the upside of stretchmarks....

Upside Down and Inside Out

About 2 months ago life turned upside down and inside out with the birth of my daughter. I went from defending a masters in Chemical Engineering one week, to delivering a baby the next. Basically it came down to giving birth twice in one month.

I came home with a sweet little girl, a funky new scar, and absolutely no idea what I was doing. Things are going well now, but we take it day by day and try new things until something works.

This blog is meant to go over some of the experiences of a new parent, hopefully give a window of insight for those preparing to become parents, and maybe something relatable to those who are going through it. And I'm sure it will be a barrel of laughs for those who are seasoned veterans in parenthood.