Thank you to everyone with all the advice about newborns. I only tried the crying it out thing once because it was pretty hard to listen too. I think the crying it out at 2 weeks is too good to be true. So I am basically taking everyone's advice and I am going to rock Olivia to sleep and hold her as much as I can.
I have been trying to feed her more consistently i.e. never let her go more than 3 hours in the day time without feeding. Even though I have to wake her up and it is really difficult sometimes it is better than letting her sleep until she is starving. And even though it is hard to get her to stay awake for the feeding atleast I know she is getting fed.
I have been having problems with Olivia latching on correctly so I called my doula and she came over and took a look at things. For some reason Olivia isn't able to get enough of my breast into her mouth and when she nurses she makes a clicking noise which means she is sucking air. My doula thought a nipple shield would fix the problem and train Olivia to suck correctly so I went and saw a lactation consultant today.
The LC checked to see if Olivia was tongue-tied or her palate was to high. Then we tried the nipple shield and unfortunately that did not fix the problem. The assessment is she isn't as coordinated with her tongue and is not sticking her tongue out far enough to massage the breast to get the milk out.
Now I have to train her tongue to suck correctly and maybe with age she will learn how to nurse correctly and suck harder. I have to let her suck my index finger and when her tongue curls back I am suppose to turn my index finger and pull her tongue forward. I tried it once today and she doesn't like when I do it and it is a lot easier said than done.
I am suppose to keep nursing her and then pump every time I breast feed so I don't lose my milk supply. I must admit that my nipples do hurt a lot sometimes and waiting 2 weeks for Olivia to learn seems like a long time. And sometimes it is really hard to keep her awake for 15 minutes to nurse from one breast and another 10 minutes on the other. I am even burping her almost every 5 minutes to keep her awake.
I really want to breastfeed Olivia as long as possible and I am a little worried that I might lose my milk too soon and disappointed that it has been so difficult. I guess you could say that I am a little frustrated because she has to wear the harness and now I know she isn't breastfeeding correctly.
Friday, October 10, 2008
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10 comments:
I just thought I would let you know that I held and rocked my kids for the first month or 2, and they were sleeping throught the night by 3 months on their own. Its my personal opinion that each child will figure it out in their own time, and while I think reading all the books you can is fine, it doesn't change the fact that each child is different, and that what works for one kid, wont work for the other. My girls are proof of that! Good luck, and just trust your instincs, because no one knows that baby better than you! And I think you are a wonderful mom!
I say just enjoy these next few weeks and then worry about a schedule later! I think if you just let her sleep untill she wakes up on her own that you might have better luck with the nursing. Don't get discouraged though it does get easier and it is way worth it!
Sandy, she is so beautiful! I'm jealous of her perfect little lips! You two did good with her! Congratulations! And hang in there! If I had any helpful advice to offer, I would, but since I have no babies...I'll just say, I'll be praying for ya! :)
Love ya Lots,
Natasha
So I just thought I add my two cents worth...I know how nice it would be to have my kids on a schedule but even now I struggle through each stage being that I have three and they are all at different stages. You are doing a great job, and my personal advice, #1 do what you feel, even though you may not know exactly what that is, trial and error proves successful #2 You kind of just have to laugh it off, or relax it off, whatever you do to let it go, cause really every stage goes so fast, it's pretty much pointless to dread it, plus you enjoy it all so much more if you just throw up your hands (every once and awhile, which in the case of a newborn means, frequently)and rock her to sleep, take a nap with her in your arms, anything that you enjoy or need, with her by your side. Hopefully that made some kind of sense :)
I'm sorry it is going rough for you. Things DO get better. Sandy, I'm sure you are doing a wonderful job. If you feel she isn't hungry enough to try to eat, that really may be the way of it. Try letting her sleep for a half-hour longer and see if she is willing to wake-up and eat then. That way, you have her hunger working for you. Josiah was awful about sleeping through nursing and since he was so small, my pediatrician really needed me to focus on his eating enough. We undressed him down to his diaper and would rub his feet and head while he nursed to help keep him awake. Again, every baby is different, because rubbing Gavin's head just helped him sleep better :). Another thing that helped to keep me from getting too discouraged is that Kit wanted to help me out at night. It was such a blessing when I had Gunner and had to deal with the other two boys during the day, too. Kit would wake up to help burp and put Gunner back to sleep after I was done nursing him. This allowed me to rest before the next nursing session. It is okay to ask for help. If you have any friends that could come over for even an hour to watch little Olivia while you get guilt-free rest, take them up on the offer. Things will get better...don't get down. You're doing a wonderful job and being a new mother is a totally new and different experience. You and Olivia will start to figure each other out and you will be amazed how quickly it seems like you have been doing motherhood your entire life. Just hang in there! You know you can call me anytime!
Ditto to what everyone is saying! We held brielle all the time when she was new...even while doing the babywise schedule. Its hard not to. So she tooks naps on our chests while we watched TV all time...and even with me so I could take a nap and stick the binkie back in her mouth if she started to wake up! You are doing awesome-these set backs are just trying to teach you something! But soon you will be a pro! You sort of become a pro for your baby and then you will be the one to give great advice when someone else goes through what you have gone through! It will go by fast and pretty soon you will feel better too! I hope to come see you soon!!! Love ya!
One other thing you should know is that any schedule or any new thing you try with the baby takes at least a few days if not a week to actually set in. If not longer. Brielle wasn't fully on the the babywise schedule--the entire schedule--for at least two weeks.
I read Babywise and tried to get Christina to follow it with Anela but she wasn't that interested. Things have turned out great. I say do what you feel is best. I think going with your gut is going to be better than any thing you read or hear. Don't think there's a "correct" way to raise kids. We all just do the best we know how. Everyone turns out ok in the end anyway right? Or is it everyone turns out screwed up? Can't remember.
Sandy hang in there. I agree with everyone, especially Hayley. My advice? Put the books away and just enjoy her. I must admit I was pretty lucky with Pearl because she has been a great baby but we didn't try getting her to sleep through the night until she was a few months old. I held her all the time, took naps with her on my chest (mainly so I could sleep) and nursed her to sleep at night. Of course there were times I wished I would have done things differently but each kid is different. Pearl just doesn't nap well, never has, so I finally gave up on forcing her to cry herself to sleep. It's fine to hold and rock her. Let Olivia figure things out and it will get better. Maybe she just isn't a good napper and has to be really hungry to nurse correctly. Pearl always feel asleep nursing and it would take 45 minutes to feed her. The best advice I got for keeping her awake to nurse on both sides was to burp her and change her diaper in between feedings, even if she didn't need it. As for the breastfeeding, you should be commended for sticking with it and asking for professional help. I promise if you keep at it, it will get better. Even when Pearl was 9 months + I still had nipple soreness once in awhile. And I totally understand how frustrating and exhausting it is to nurse and then pump on top of that but if you keep at it, your milk shouldn't go away. The more you use it, the more you'll produce (whether it's pumping or nursing). I know you're probably not wanting to hear this again, but really just enjoy this time, hold Olivia, and treasure every minute with her! Soon she'll be running all over the place pulling stuff out of cupboards and you'll be wishing she would just take a nap on you again!
I rocked and nursed both my babies to sleep and I am planning on doing it with this one too. Both of my kids slept through the night within weeks Kynlee at three weeks and Krayden at 7 weeks. I really don't know about any of the methods in books I didn't ready any my mom helped a lot and I too would wake them up, just during the day, every three hours to feed them and seemed they got on a schedule pretty quick. I say just trust yourself. By the way she is so dang cute!!
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