2 Weeks Old

Xon feeding Bradley with the finger feeder to make him stick out his bottom lip, 6/1/07

The week since our last post has been consumed with trying to get breastfeeding on track. It is pretty much a 24/7 thing, so we're not doing much else. Thank goodness Xon is not working full time yet! Bradley has been gaining weight since my milk came in, but not as quickly as we had hoped. When we went to the pediatrician on Tuesday, he weighed 7 pounds, 4.8 ounces. (We were hoping for at least 7 pounds, 6.4 ounces.) The nurse told us to start supplementing with formula, but we decided to visit the lactation consultant at the hospital before doing that. So we have been meeting with her just about every day this week to try different things. We figured out that the jaundice makes Bradley a sleepyhead, so it's hard to get him to eat very much when I'm feeding him. On one hand, him sleeping a lot is good for us because we're getting much more sleep than most new parents. He will easily sleep 4-6 hours at night. On the other, it is a bit frustrating because he needs to eat so we can get his weight back up, and it is no fun having to wake him up and make him mad in order to get him to eat. :-(

The other thing Donna (the lactation consultant) helped us see is that when I'm feeding Bradley, he is sucking his bottom lip in. So he is getting less milk even when he is sucking hard. We came up with several things to try. About Wednesday or so, I started getting a little panicky that he wasn't getting enough to eat and wasn't gaining enough weight. Xon and I were getting crabby with one another, Bradley was getting frustrated because we kept messing with his lip, etc., and I knew when I yelled at him that he had to eat that I had lost it and we needed to try something else. I started pumping exclusively so we could see exactly how much he was getting at each feeding. We bought a little feeder that I can attach to my chest, or Xon can attach it to his finger. When we use that, we can check his lips to make sure he is sucking properly. The hope is that his jaundice will be completely gone in a few days and he will be an eating machine and we can go back to breastfeeding like normal. But the pumping gives me peace of mind for now.

We did use formula for a day so I could build up a little stash of my own milk. The difference between Bradley eating formula and my own milk is like night and day. He does not like the formula at all. We can barely get him to eat it, and he spits up quite a bit of it. He also gets a horrible look on his face. With my milk, he sucks it down as fast as he can, he never spits up, and he never gets weird looks on his face. So I am really hoping the breastfeeding gets better and better--even if I have to keep pumping. (BTW, THANK YOU to my sis for lending us her super duper pump! It makes pumping every 2 hours as easy as it can be. What would we have done without her??!!!)

Xon took Bradley for a weight check today, and he was up to 7 pounds, 7 ounces. We are really happy with that. And as long as we are feeding him every 2 hours during the day and his weight continues to climb, we can let him sleep as long as he wants at night. Which is nice.

ANYWAY, in other Bradley news...

Xon was running errands this afternoon, so Bradley and I sat on the couch, and I sang to him. That was a very sweet time.

He has two "aahhs." One is a mad aahh that we hear any time Bradley is naked or when we're changing his diaper and whatnot. One is a happy, content aahh. I just love to hear the content aahh. It is the best sound in the whole world.

He LOVES the sound of water--whether it be the sink faucet, the shower, or the fountains outside. I would really like to get a little sound machine that has water sounds on it.

He LOVES the sunshine.

He will look straight at me sometimes now. His eyes are still a gray/stormy blue color. He lifts his eyebrows all the time like Alex does.

His hair seems to get lighter in color every day.

He snorts when he cries. :-)

Several people have commented on how strong his neck is. His legs are really strong, too. He almost took a flying leap out of Daddy's arms this week! When I was giving him a bath in the sink, it really hit home how long he is. Our lactation consultant said he may never get to be a chubby baby since he is so long and lean now. She also said he seems to be a really laid back kind of guy, so we should watch out on the next one! ;-)

I am feeling MUCH better as far as recovery from labor goes. I can start walking tomorrow, which will be great. I'm so glad I got past the worst of the recovery!

We are extremely thankful that people have been bringing us meals since we're so consumed with the pumping/feeding stuff right now. I'm also really proud of Casey and Riley for handling our new addition so well! They are champs!