Tuesday, December 7, 2010

boobs are a no go

So, after much heartache, Maizey is off the boob. it wasn't working. She would spend an hour at the breasts, and then gobble up 3oz of formula right after. It just seems she wasn't getting what she needed. even if we fed her 3oz of pumped milk, she would be looking for more as soon as she was done.

We are such first time moms. everything is questions. Is she eating enough, is she sleeping too much, do we hold her too much, are we spoiling her by holding her too much, why does she wake up and cry as soon as we put her down? will we ever sleep at night again? etc...

she sleeps almost all day and wont settle at night. she seems to get a lot of gas at night. we try to keep her up during the day, but she wont have it. wow.. so different than i expected. not worse...just different. it is especially hard when Ange goes to work for the day. I'm just not good at living on someone else's schedule.

5 comments:

Shannon said...

The same thing happened with our second son with breastfeeding. Don't beat yourself up about it. Baby needs to eat and you need to stay sane.

You can't spoil a baby this young with too much holding so don't even worry about that. Hold her all you want!

And for gas... have you tried gripe water? It really does help, as does the "colic hold".

Hang in there! It's really tough in the early days and no one can really prepare you for it until it happens. It does get easier even though it may not seem like it right now.

Loralou said...

Please don't worry about holding her too much! Newborns loved to be held, it is innate. I held my boy almost constantly for the first 4 months of his life, he isn't spoilt by this.
There will be a time in the future where she won't let you hold her! lol

Stacey said...

I'm with Shannon on everything. I couldn't breastfeed Riley but breastfed Jackson. Babies are all different. You might have what Kim had--too much foremilk (not filling). And in the beginning, they breastfeed ALL THE TIME.

I hold my babies all the time. :) You should look at a CuddlyWrap. Actually, you can borrow ours if you want. My friend Shawna has it in St. Catharines so if you message me, I can have her drop it off. It is AWESOME for small babies. You can be hands free and have her on you.

I slept with the kids in the early stages. My trick is to either lay on a couch and have the baby tucked in my arm on the side with the back of the couch or to lay in bed with a pillow propping my arm and the baby tucked my arm that way.

Gripe water is the best for gas. Try it. Also, do the hold where you lay the baby across your arm, head in hand, tummy across your arm and arms/legs on either side of your arm. The pressure on the tummy helps with gas. Or just changing postions like rocking the baby back and forth on your lap, laying on your lap tummy down or bicycling the legs while she's on her back. The gas will pass and it will get easier.

meridith said...

I'm in this camp - whatever works for you two is the right thing. And there's no way you can hold her too much. She's a tiny tiny thing and she needs you - as much as you need her :)

Teaberry said...

This also happened with me. I pumped meager amounts for about three months, but was not very able to BF at all... I was a little guilty about stopping, but also discovered I was more guilty about how difficult it was for him and my pushing something that just wasn't working. In the long run, it was the right choice for us.

Agreed with the holding-- hold her as much as you want for as long as you want. I think I held mine most of the time, honestly-- now he just wants to be out and about and I wish he'd let me snuggle him!!