what i've learned, vol. 2--breastfeeding

Okay, so onto everyone's favorite topic! Breastfeeding is hard and doesn't come as naturally for everyone as you might think. After having a tough time with Lewis the first time around, I was relieved that things have been very smooth with Owen. Here are some suggestions:

--If your hospital will allow it, breastfeed immediately after the baby is born. Lewis was whisked away for bloodwork because he was at risk for Group B strep. It turned out he was sick, but Owen was equally at risk and the hospital staff still allowed me to hold him and nurse him right away. It got the ball rolling for us.

--Avoid bottles, pacifiers and nipple shields as long as possible to avoid the dreaded nipple confusion. Lewis was sent to the NICU right away and given pacifiers and bottles before I was ever able to nurse him. We had to use nipple shields to get him to latch on and it was always a fight to make him work for the milk that he knew he could have more easily (from a bottle). With Owen, we still used a nipple shield at first to help him latch on, but would remove it mid-feeding so that he would not become dependent on it. The Humana nurse I mentioned in the last post told me that nipple shields make it really hard for babies to get milk because they have to suck twice as hard. This can effect supply and make feedings take much longer.

With Owen, we stopped using them completely after a month or so and his feedings have gone from being 30-60 minutes to more like 20 minutes since then. We waited to give him any bottles of pumped milk until he was over 2 months old too. With just breastfeeding, he has gained much more weight than Lewis did initially and at 3 months is close to 15 lbs. The other benefit is that he is sleeping through the night (7-10 hrs).

We did introduce the pacifier after a week or so, and it has enhanced his ability to sleep well!

--Feed on demand. We let Owen decide when he is hungry and feed him whenever he needs it. He has been such a happy baby! After the first couple of weeks he basically adjusted to a 3 hour schedule, but occassionally has a day where he eats much more (every 2 hours). Lewis started out on a strict schedule at the NICU and it made life very hard on us when we got home. Every baby is different and may need to eat more or less often depending on size, growth spurts etc.

--If you have trouble, contact a lactation consultant or experienced friend for help. This time I still took advantage of LC's at the hospital and afterward to make sure we were on the right track. Most women should be able to breastfeed, but it may require the guidance of professionals!

--It's like riding a bike. If you've had a baby before and nursed successfully, it should go even better the 2nd time around. I have been much more confident with Owen because it's not something totally foreign like that first experience. It's different to go from nursing a 16 month old to a newborn for a lot of reasons. But it all comes back to you!

what i've learned, vol. 1--swaddling

Okay, so it has been a long time since my last post. I'm starting to wake up now that our second baby is sleeping through the night. We've been learning a lot as parents of two kids, and so I'm hoping to chronicle some of that stuff on the blog.

The first thing is swaddling. With our first baby, Justin (my husband), swaddled in rare form at key moments to calm Lewis down. But this time, I was up in the middle of the night often trying to get Owen back to sleep and having trouble. Owen has been a relatively easy baby with only a few really fussy instances. Still, in the middle of the night when you're exhausted and in a daze, you just want that baby to get back to sleep ASAP.

We were enrolled in a program through our insurance company that got a nurse involved in our prenatal care. Basically she called about once a month to check on my progress and answer questions. It was actually really nice because she could answer questions I was embarrassed to ask anyone else as a second time mom. This nurse sent me the DVD called THE HAPPIEST BABY ON THE BLOCK, by Dr. Harvey Karp, which turned out to be very helpful in regards to the whole sleep issue. Dr. Karp recommends the swaddling thing as part of his "4th trimester" theory. You want to recreate the womblike atmosphere, and let's face it--babies are pretty snuggly trapped at the end of pregnancy.

We found that the swaddling trick really worked for Owen. That coupled with background noise provided by a fan, which Karp also recommends. Owen has been sleeping through the night for a couple of weeks now. He's going 8-10 hours or more now at 12 weeks, and it is fantastic! We still swaddle Owen at night with one arm out. He falls right to sleep once he's in position. It's wonderful. Lewis started sleeping through the night at about 13 weeks, and Owen beat him by about 3 weeks using Dr. Karp's recommendations. Just something to think about for those of you with newborns or pregnant!

More to come......