Since my last post about how difficult feeding Tai has been, things have taken a turn for the better. For over a week now, he has been nursing exclusively! It's such a relief not to have to pump all the time, and I find that I am much more relaxed as a result. Things are more manageable now, and I'm so glad we persevered.
I'm also getting more sleep than I was when we were bottlefeeding, which is so nice! Instead of waking up, finding Tai's bottle, feeding him, rocking him to sleep, putting him back in bed, and then pumping for 20 minutes, I can now simply take him out of his bassinet (next to our bed,) and feed him in our bed. It's so easy! Yoshi likes it too, because before he always did at least one feeding at night. Now he has the perfect excuse!
Let's hope things continue to get easier!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Maia + Tai = Love
There is nothing sweeter than watching Maia interact with her little brother. She is truly in love with him. A few times she has mentioned that she wants to marry Tai. I have tried to explain that we only marry people who are not in our family, but she will not take no for an answer. Tai is a lucky boy to have such a doting older sister, and I am a lucky mommy that she is eager to help take care of him and loves him so much. I cannot wait until he is a little older so they can interact more. I anticipate lots of awesome photo opportunities ahead.
I love the look in her eyes in this picture!
A rare family nap. Maia stays up way too late if she takes a nap in the afternoon.
Maia asks to hold Tai often, but tires of it quickly because he is so heavy. She much prefers laying next to him like in this picture. Notice she is sharing her Elmo blanket with him!
I have a feeling poor Tai will be subjected to a lot of princess dress-up games. Oh well, it's a fair trade-off for having such an amazing older sister!
This is a rare shot of Maia in pants. She usually refuses to wear them and prefers to dress herself in skirts and dresses like in the picture above. Tai appears to like his pea outfit. I hope he won't be as picky about his clothes as Maia is!
I love the look in her eyes in this picture!
A rare family nap. Maia stays up way too late if she takes a nap in the afternoon.
Maia asks to hold Tai often, but tires of it quickly because he is so heavy. She much prefers laying next to him like in this picture. Notice she is sharing her Elmo blanket with him!
I have a feeling poor Tai will be subjected to a lot of princess dress-up games. Oh well, it's a fair trade-off for having such an amazing older sister!
This is a rare shot of Maia in pants. She usually refuses to wear them and prefers to dress herself in skirts and dresses like in the picture above. Tai appears to like his pea outfit. I hope he won't be as picky about his clothes as Maia is!Sunday, February 8, 2009
Little Man
Here are some closer views of Tai! I like the faces he makes when I sit him up like in these pictures. He's starting to look more like Maia did at 2 weeks old, but bigger. He actually doesn't fit into about half of the 0-3 months clothes that I have for him. I have a feeling he has inherited my genes when it comes to stature. In other words, he won't be petite like Maia.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Where I've Been Lately
I intend this post to be an apology to all my friends who I have not called back and who I miss desperately but keep forgetting to email! You know who you are!
Having an infant to take care of really changes one's lifestyle. For me, it's all about sleep, and finding the time to get some. Luckily, Yoshi is very helpful in that regard, but since I'm the one feeding Tai, I have to wake up a lot during the night.
This might be the time to mention that besides the usual challenges of having an infant to take care of, we are going through some pretty tough breastfeeding issues. To put it briefly, although Tai latches on and sucks, he fails to get enough milk. This is the exact same thing that happened with Maia when she was his age. We did not figure out what was going on with her until she was a bit older, and she had a very fussy beginning to her life. The poor thing was always hungry! With our second baby, I'm more no nonsense in my approach. Tai was fussy for exactly two days before I gave him his first bottle of formula.
With that said, I'm still committed to breastfeeding. It must be that part of me that went through with a natural child birth despite the ultrasound that predicted a 10 lb. baby. I have a love/hate relationship with that aspect of my personality. When Maia was little and I briefly gave up the idea of breastfeeding her, I cried all the time and am sure that I had a little post-partum depression as a result of everything not turning out the way I had envisioned it. In the end, I got her to breastfeed again, but it was not an easy thing. I had to express milk with my pump all the time to build my milk supply back up. She also had a cranio-sacral adjustment. By some miracle, it worked, and I nursed Maia well into toddler hood.
Things with Tai are not too desperate yet. We went to an osteopath who gave him a cranial-sacral adjustment, and it did the trick. He was nursing like a champ, but the effects lasted less than a day. After that, he was back to his old self. I've heard that happens sometimes, and that you have to go multiple times. We have another appointment for this Monday. The doctor is out of town until then, or else I would be insisting on an appointment sooner. I hope this time the effects last longer, because I am getting running out of energy maintaining my current routine of trying to nurse, pumping, and bottle feeding. It is truly the worst of all worlds. Luckily, I'm familiar with pumping from my time as a working mom, and when I did it with Maia, so I can express milk pretty easily.
Right now I'm trying to look on the bright side and the long-term picture. Tai is so beautiful and happy. He has gained weight well and the pediatrician has no complaints. I am able to feed him all my own milk with the exception of a bottle of formula at night. He is still willing to try breastfeeding despite the fact that he gets very little milk that way. All of these things are reassuring and give me the motivation to keep up with my grueling schedule. Eventually, he will figure out how to nurse correctly (hopefully with the help of a couple more adjustments.) I know it will all work out.
And if it doesn't, I'm not going to freak out again. I have many friends who I respect that bottle-fed their babies. Their children are delightful and intelligent. I can observe no long-term affects of them not getting breast-milk. Speaking of which, both Yoshi and I were formula-fed as were most people born in the '70's. We've all turned out just fine if I do say so myself! It's just that not breastfeeding was never in my paradigm of motherhood. I've always believed I would do it, and not being able to is hard for me emotionally. But just as I was willing to have a c-section if it would have been the best thing for Tai, I am willing to formula feed him as well. I'll try as hard as I can, but if it doesn't work, I'm not going to cry this time. I'm just going to focus on my little man's well-being, not my own idealized notions of everything motherhood should be.
So to all my friends I have not been a good friend to lately, just hold on. I'll be back to myself sooner rather than later. Thank you for understanding my little neurosis that I have, and for not calling me crazy. Your support and friendship mean so much to me!
Having an infant to take care of really changes one's lifestyle. For me, it's all about sleep, and finding the time to get some. Luckily, Yoshi is very helpful in that regard, but since I'm the one feeding Tai, I have to wake up a lot during the night.
This might be the time to mention that besides the usual challenges of having an infant to take care of, we are going through some pretty tough breastfeeding issues. To put it briefly, although Tai latches on and sucks, he fails to get enough milk. This is the exact same thing that happened with Maia when she was his age. We did not figure out what was going on with her until she was a bit older, and she had a very fussy beginning to her life. The poor thing was always hungry! With our second baby, I'm more no nonsense in my approach. Tai was fussy for exactly two days before I gave him his first bottle of formula.
With that said, I'm still committed to breastfeeding. It must be that part of me that went through with a natural child birth despite the ultrasound that predicted a 10 lb. baby. I have a love/hate relationship with that aspect of my personality. When Maia was little and I briefly gave up the idea of breastfeeding her, I cried all the time and am sure that I had a little post-partum depression as a result of everything not turning out the way I had envisioned it. In the end, I got her to breastfeed again, but it was not an easy thing. I had to express milk with my pump all the time to build my milk supply back up. She also had a cranio-sacral adjustment. By some miracle, it worked, and I nursed Maia well into toddler hood.
Things with Tai are not too desperate yet. We went to an osteopath who gave him a cranial-sacral adjustment, and it did the trick. He was nursing like a champ, but the effects lasted less than a day. After that, he was back to his old self. I've heard that happens sometimes, and that you have to go multiple times. We have another appointment for this Monday. The doctor is out of town until then, or else I would be insisting on an appointment sooner. I hope this time the effects last longer, because I am getting running out of energy maintaining my current routine of trying to nurse, pumping, and bottle feeding. It is truly the worst of all worlds. Luckily, I'm familiar with pumping from my time as a working mom, and when I did it with Maia, so I can express milk pretty easily.
Right now I'm trying to look on the bright side and the long-term picture. Tai is so beautiful and happy. He has gained weight well and the pediatrician has no complaints. I am able to feed him all my own milk with the exception of a bottle of formula at night. He is still willing to try breastfeeding despite the fact that he gets very little milk that way. All of these things are reassuring and give me the motivation to keep up with my grueling schedule. Eventually, he will figure out how to nurse correctly (hopefully with the help of a couple more adjustments.) I know it will all work out.
And if it doesn't, I'm not going to freak out again. I have many friends who I respect that bottle-fed their babies. Their children are delightful and intelligent. I can observe no long-term affects of them not getting breast-milk. Speaking of which, both Yoshi and I were formula-fed as were most people born in the '70's. We've all turned out just fine if I do say so myself! It's just that not breastfeeding was never in my paradigm of motherhood. I've always believed I would do it, and not being able to is hard for me emotionally. But just as I was willing to have a c-section if it would have been the best thing for Tai, I am willing to formula feed him as well. I'll try as hard as I can, but if it doesn't work, I'm not going to cry this time. I'm just going to focus on my little man's well-being, not my own idealized notions of everything motherhood should be.
So to all my friends I have not been a good friend to lately, just hold on. I'll be back to myself sooner rather than later. Thank you for understanding my little neurosis that I have, and for not calling me crazy. Your support and friendship mean so much to me!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)