Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Christopher at two weeks

Last Thursday I went to a breastfeeding support group that takes place every Thursday at the local hospital. Everyone chats about their babies while breastfeeding. Two lactation consultants overview the group and offer advice and insight into breastfeeding.

I discussed my problems with breastfeeding to one of the lactation consultants and she recommended a herbal tea called Mother's Milk and some herbal tablets called Fenugreek. She recommended that I work on increasing my milk supply while continuing the breastfeeding/pumping and supplementing.

I've been taking the tablets for the last couple of days and I haven't seen an increase in my milk supply. If anything, the tablets make you smell like maple syrup. I may not be taking in enough calories, so I have been trying to increase my calorie consumption in a healthy manner. My parents are coming next week, (and my mom is a really good cook) so I am sure I will be able to eat more then.

It's difficult eating when the baby wants to eat and you are going by his schedule more than yours. Christopher is hungry every 2-3 hrs and then it takes time to burp him and lay him back down. Most of the time he doesn't want to be by himself, so either of us has to hold him while doing another task.

He has been sleeping pretty well at night, but the other night we were up every 2 hrs feeding, burping and changing his diapers. He goes through *a lot* of diapers. We are changing him before a feeding, after a feeding and then again 30 minutes later. Then before we know it, he is hungry again and the process repeats itself.

With the outdoor temperature in the triple digits and Christopher requiring our constant attention, we have been indoors quite a bit. We try to take evening walks when it is cooler outside and we have been able to go on a couple mini excursions. The other day we drove to the ocean (45 minutes away) and spent the afternoon walking along the ocean. Christopher was pretty good and only cried a couple of times when he needed his diaper changed or was hungry. We have been to a restaurant twice now, and Christopher slept the entire time.

Thank you to everyone for offering your advice and understanding. I really appreciate your comments and emails.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:



Christopher's first real bath! He enjoyed it until we had to take him out and then he was cold and upset.






My sleeping babies


A quick pose by the beach in Ventura

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So with all that feeding, burping and changing you must be a little sleep deprived. All I can say is it won't last forever. At least he doesn't have colic like someone I know. We're coming to help, Love MOM

Mary said...

I love the picture where he's doing the eyebrow thing! :)