Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Life with Baby...the first 3 months

Forty weeks of bliss. Forty weeks to daydream of little feet, little hands, little smiles, and little coos. My baby ~ my precious son ~ would almost certainly eat every 2 hours like all the websites said and then he would sleep for long periods of time in his crib, peacefully. Then, we would change his diaper, I would feed him again (30 minutes tops), and he would sleep some more (in his crib) until his next feeding. I would sleep when the baby sleeps, and the sun would shine just a little brighter every day and all would be well. Not much would change except that I'd have to feed, change, and lay a baby down for his very long naps every couple of hours.

That was pregnancy. When we first brought Kameen home, he did sleep and he did nurse for very brief periods. I thought to myself, "This is a piece of cake!" ~Then, my milk came in about 3 days postpartum. And, the night it did, he nursed for 2 hours until I finally unlatched him and wondered what in the world was going on. I figured, ok, my milk came in and he's just getting used to this new taste and new sensation; soon he'll even out and nurse like all the books say. Boy was I wrong. From that point on it seemed he NEVER unlatched from me unless I took him off. When I took him off he cried and cried. I looked at Chris helplessly, wondering out loud if nursing him for 2 hours straight was normal. My mission became trying to figure out what was wrong with my son. It seemed that unless he was nursing, he was crying. We tried 4 different kinds of pacifiers (big NOPE), swaddling (Happiest Baby on the Block ring a bell?), walking, baby wearing, driving in the car (it worked 2nd to nursing as long as he had just been fed), rocking, white noise (black noise, blue noise, you get the point), and on and on. When we laid him down, he woke up. One day he would sleep on the Boppy (without me) for an hour, and the next day his eyes popped open the minute I set him aside. We were on 24-hour duty, and most nights, we co-slept (something I said I would never do, except to feed baby and put him back in his bassinet).

Finally, we took him to the pediatrician because he seemed to have some trouble with spitting up. She agreed he probably had some reflux issues. So, we put him on medicine. And, I stopped eating dairy because of the way he cried and the little bumpy rash he would get when I ate dairy.
All the while, I felt a little crazy. Was my son colicky? Did he really have reflux? Why didn't he want to sleep? What happened to my life? What happened to my body? Who was this little person, and why did he always seem so angry and tense? All these thoughts swirled through my head every moment of every day. On top of all this, my body was still healing. I was in a lot of pain most days, and even though I did sleep when he slept most of the time (picture him on the Boppy nursing, me topless with my head back on the couch, mouth open), I still felt completely out of sorts and tired.

Every day, while sitting on the couch nursing him, I would surf the net trying to find answers. I went to my message board where all the moms I'd gone through pregnancy with were now asking the same questions that were in my head. But there seemed to be NO real answers. I just kept waiting for the "milestone" weeks (like 6-8 weeks things were supposed to improve, hah!). I kept telling myself to enjoy these moments because they wouldn't last long. But, there were days when I just wanted him to go away because he cried and cried and nursed and nursed and then cried some more. I would wear him in the Mobywrap as often as I could, but it made my body hurt to be up walking with him a lot (and that's the only way he would be in the Moby was if I was moving).


And then, right around 2 1/2 months, he started to get better. They weren't significant changes, but somewhere along the way he figured out that there are other things in life besides nursing (just like the book said he would). He slowly started spending longer periods of time playing and less time crying. To this day, I'm not sure if it was reflux medication and the avoidance of dairy, or simply the passage of time that got us through those first 3 months. I truly believe in the fourth trimester. Next time I'll know more and hopefully be prepared (don't quote me on that though.) :)

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