Journey with You

We came home on Saturday and the first two days at home were really hard. We didn’t know what we’re doing and he kept crying and rooting. My nipples hurt so much that I wanted to cry myself. I’d been using Lansinoh to sooth them but they still cracked and bled every time. I finally talked to a nurse at the pediatrician’s office on Monday. She told me I might not drink enough water and I wasn’t supposed to feed him for two hours. Thanks to the help from my FIL’s wife, Linda, we took him to have his weight checked and he was only 6 lb 5 oz. Dr. Lana told me to get a breast pump right away and supplement each feeding with formula until my milk fully comes in. I felt so bad that I was starving my child. Two days later after following Dr’s instructions, he gained 8 oz. I was so relieved. Another three days later he gained about 4 oz. Doctor was happy about it, so was I.

Time flies. I can’t believe he was 2 weeks old today! It feels like I just gave birth to him yesterday. We took him to his 2 weeks doctor visit today and he weighed 7lb 8.5 oz, exceeding his birth weight. Yey!! Doctor was pretty happy with his weight gain and everything else looked good too. His eye infection seemed to go away after we used eye drops for the past five days, which was comforting. He used to cry at the doctor office after we undress him. For some strange reasons, he was very calm and alert today. Acutally, he’s been pretty alert all day. He used to sleep a few hours during day time but not today. He only dozed off when I nurse him but woke up right away if I put him down. I hope he will sleep better tonight because of this.

Once again, I asked the doctor about cutting back on supplementing formula. He said Cyrus is 25th percentile now, which is smaller than average, thus he still wants to see him gaining more weight before we completely switch to breastfeeding only. He told me to feed him 15 mins on each side and, if he is still hungry, give him 2oz of formula or pumped breast milk. It’s good to hear that at least I can feed him exclusively on my breast milk if I have extra pumped.

The past few days were hard. My sore nipples finally healed and I finally have more milk to nurse him but I am still supplementing him with formula. I’ve been cutting it back down to about 4 oz per day though. I want to gradually cut back on formula and feel him exclusively on breasts. Now that my nipples are healed, I can feed him more often and hopefully that will stimulate the milk production.

The other problem/dilemma I’ve been having since we came home was that he didn’t want to sleep in his own crib. He would fall asleep in my arms when I nurse him and would wake up crying as soon as I put him down in the crib. It drove me crazy in the middle of night when I need my sleep as well. I ended up feeding my lying in my bed and let myself fall asleep with him. He could go on sleeping for a long stretch time with me this way. I talked to my neighbor about this. She said baby like his age is too small to sleep on their own. She’s been co-sleeping with all her three children. Cyrus’ doctor also told us that a baby likes to have the physical contact with his parents. They usually feel more secured to be left alone after four months of age. I guess I would co-sleep him for now and day by day gradually train him to sleep on his own.

Here are some photos to share…

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