The first week

Time is flying.  Of course.  That's how it always goes.   AJ is already 11 days old today.  It's been wonderful, challenging and tiring.   We ended up spending 3 days in the hospital.   The first day was tough.  He wouldn't latch on to me for the first day or so.  It was very frustrating.  He was just super super sleepy.   Because he wouldn't latch on I had to pump to make sure I was keeping my body in track to have my milk come in.   I kept trying him every 2 hours. The nurse that night wasn't my favorite.  She made me feel like I was doing something wrong and really worried me.  She said he would have to go on formula if he didn't eat.  So of course I cried.  I knew I wanted to breastfeed .  No one really warns you that it might not come easily and that your baby may have a hard time latching on.   It has been beyond hard.  So the nurse went and got the nurse practitioner.  She was much nicer.  She said not to worry.  Babies are often very sleepy after birth.  Don't do formula, just keep trying.  Phew!!  What a relief.  The next day my nurse Keisha was so much better.  She said "we will get your baby to latch today".  And guess what?!  He finally did.  Still not consistent but at least he could.  They were supposed to do his circumcision that day but since he hadn't nursed well they wanted to hold off.  They said babies are usually really sleepy after circumcisions and since he already had been they wanted to wait.  So he had his procedure Friday morning.  But he couldn't go home till he peed.  So we waited, waited, waited.   By 8pm he hadn't peed.  We really wanted to go home.   But even by then we were starting to worry.   The nurse said they had a couple tricks they could try.  First was putting him on the scale.  Babies almost always pee on the scale.  No luck.   She said we could try a smidge of formula.  So we said ok.  I gave him a couple gulps of it.  An hour later, we checked.  No luck.  By now it was 930.  We figured we would stay one more night.  But just as the nurse changed his diaper, he peed!!!  We were thrilled!  So we left the hospital at 1030 at night.  It was really nice to go home.   Mom and dad were here visiting so mom helped us get him out to the car.

Steve's parents, MJ and Mike, came on Saturday afternoon.  We had a very full house !  It was nice to have all the help and also overwhelming.  I had a couple of break down moments that Steve helped me through.  It's true that you do get the baby blues.  Stupid hormones!!  By Saturday night though we wasn't latching again.  I wrote to my wonderful sisters-in-law for advice.  Thank goodness for them.  Their advice helped me get through the night.   I was and still am having pain when I nurse.  Not just a little but ALOT !   Toe curling, crying pain. I know they say it can take a while to get used to things but I knew this wasn't right.  Otherwise women would never breastfeed.  So I called a lactation consultant who gave me more advice on how to have him latch on better.  It's been helping but not great.  I am going to have a home lactation consultant come to the house to help me.  I want to breastfeed as long as I can.  At this rate, I wouldn't make it very long.  Hopefully she can help me.  

AJ is doing great though.  He's nursing anywhere from 1.5 to 3 hours.  I'm getting used to nights.  He's super active from 10pm till 1am of course!!   My mom is still here helping.   She's doing our laundry and cooking meals.   I'm learning to take naps during the day.   We usually sleep in till 11.   As in were up at 5 am, 7am, 9am for eating and sleep in between feedings.   He's peeing and pooping consistently now too.  We call him double tap because he always poops twice.  But usually right after we change him of course!  

Being a mom is awesome!  He makes me so happy.