Novemberness

Holy cow! Today Linaya is 4 weeks old. In a few short days she will be 1 month old-- How can that be? In some ways it seems like forever ago that I was wishing and hoping to be going into labor, but in the blurry days of sleepless nights and constant diaper changes and even more frequent feeding sessions, it's hard to believe a whole month has passed.  Hard to believe Thanksgiving is 2 days away either! 

On Nov 3rd Tianna had a dance performance at the community christmas fair. 

Again, I was grateful Luke could get her there on time. I was able to show up right when it was time for her to dance. 

 I have so many pictures of this beautiful face. I can't help but share them! 

That binky took up her whole face! 

She thought tummy time was pretty neat-- for a minute. 

 And I can't forget these 2 cuties either. 

WHOAH LONG TONGUE! This picture reminds me of a baby lion yawing-- or Gene Simmons from the rock band "KISS"

We went to Castle Dale one snowy weekend. Aunt Monica made Linaya 2 new cute hats. This is the lamby one ;)

 We got to celebrate Mr. Raleigh's 3rd birthday

I discovered that after a bath she LOVES to hang out by the space heater. It's quite nice to have her just lay out and enjoy life for a minute... before wanting to be held again

Tianna's creation. .... nuff said. 

For journal purposes

I want to tell about my nursing woes. In case anyone else feels like they are the only person that has children who don't nurse well. 

Back story-- I have NEVER had an easy time nursing. With Tianna I knew why she had latching issues but neither Adelia or Linaya have an excuse. 

 I prayed and prayed that this time around thing would be easier. 

For the first 2 PAINFUL weeks I tried in vain to nurse her without a breast shield like I used with the first two kids. She would take forever to latch on and then she would eat for a few minutes, get off, and we'd start over. Usually it only ended because she fell asleep. Each feeding session would take at least an hour.  I was so sore and not showing any signs of healing either. 

  Finally I decided to just pump on one side to help myself heal but to my horror I was only pumping 1/4 of an oz at a time.  

I was ready to give it all up. Was she starving? Why can't I heal up? She seems latched right, why is this not working?! I spent days and days crying.   

At her 2 week appointment I hoped she was at least growing and there was other reasons why I wasn't pumping a large amount. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. She was down in weight-- 6 lbs. and 6 oz.  At 5 days old she was 6 lbs 11 oz. so she was now losing weight instead of gaining. 

 

My milk supply was shot.  I was ordered to start pumping every 3 hours, feed her bottles, supplement with formula as needed and try and nurse her when I could, but not waste too much time doing that. Oh, and I found my old friend the breast shield to help things improve.

 I WANTED to nurse and didn't want to just give her bottles all the time so i began each feeding session with nursing her-- for as long as she would. 

Sometimes that was 10 minutes, sometimes an hour. Then I would feed her a bottle from the previous pumping and then I would pump.  Then 3 hours later we'd start all over again.  That entire week we did nothing but this routine.  My supply came back fairly quickly but I was still not able to produce the 3.5 to 4 oz the doc wanted her to eat with each bottle to build up her weight. Luckily while my milk supply was coming in I had pumped quite a bit and froze it. That whole first week she never needed formula.  

By the next week my milk supply was definitely up. I'll admit, the bottle sure is convenient when I want her to eat quickly, and or when I want to sleep and Luke the night owl is up anyway. :) Plus, my wonderful friend, Janelle, is lending me her electric double pump which has made things much easier. 

For that week we still continued with the pumping ever 3 hours, whether I nursed her or not.  

The frustrating thing now is that she will nurse (and I KNOW she is eating) for a good solid half hour or longer and then she will still eat a whole bottle. I do not get it.  

Yesterday I took her to the doctor and she is now 7 lbs. 7 oz. That was an ounce a day weight gain! YAY! We were so happy-- and her cute little double chin is back. I was given the go-ahead to wean her off the bottles and pumping and try to just nurse her. 

It's going fairly well but she still will eat and eat and eat and still act hungry until she gets 2+ oz bottle every now and then.  The doctor said she should be full after about 2-3 oz at each 3 hour feeding.  So why is she such a bottomless pit?

I am one frustrated mommy........but my baby is growing, and I have a milk supply enough to sustain her, so I guess I will just do what I can and endure. 

I may do hardly anything at all each day but feed Linaya and get Tianna off to school and keep Adelia from being TOO naughty, but I guess those are the most important things. Who cares if the dishes get done or not, right?