Growing baby

T had her 2-week well-baby check on 9/1. I can't believe she's over 2 weeks old! She's grown 3/4's of an inch in length and is 1 pound heavier than her birth weight. The breast milk is working! I remember when N (baby #1) was born. I had no clue how she could possibly be growing or still existing only by nursing... I was always so worried about how much she was eating! If I could have figured out how to put a flowmeter on my breasts, I would have.

Since I could not figure out how to install a flowmeter, I did the second best thing. I kept a record of when she ate, the duration of each feeding, which side she, when she had poopy and wet diapers, and when she slept for about 50 days. I also weighed her as often as possible. When it became clear that indeed she was growing, and growing rather fast (she gained 1 lb 2 oz. in the first 2 weeks) then I felt better. I also did a "weigh, feed, weigh" (you weigh the baby first, then feed her, then weigh immediately after feeding for an estimate of how much milk they got in the duration of nursing. With N she got over 3 ounces in ~8 minutes when she was 3 weeks old).

With baby #2 (K) I wrote things down for a couple of days just so I could get a better sense of what she was doing. I didn't do "weigh feed weigh" with her, but she gained a lot of weight quickly (13 ounces in her first 13 days of life). This time, I wrote down about 4 things when we were in the hospital for the nurses (cause they were getting mad at me for not recording).

With K, I learned that babies grow even if you don't record all the stats on them. All 3 of my girls have been fairly similar in eating habits. K was a great eater, but not a big sleeper. N was a great eater and slept a LOT for the first 4 months. She's also always been a great napper. At 3.5 she's just now giving up her 2-3 hour nap. (It's just happened in the last couple of weeks too. It's ok she still will take rest time and play quietly in her room or watch a video.)

T is a sleepy baby so far and reminds me a lot of N on the sleep front. On the nursing front they are a bit different. N was a very efficient nurser and never comfort nursed (ok, maybe she did 3 times). T is a cluster nurser and more of a comfort nurser than N or K. K was mostly efficient, but liked to comfort nurse more than N. (But a frog would like to comfort nurse more than N did.) K is still nursing. I mentioned that I would talk about tandem nursing (aka boob talk) at some point.... I guess I might as well now.

When I found out I was pregnant with T, K was only 7.5 months old. To say I was surprised that I was pregnant was an understatement! (More on this in another post.) I had previously decided that I would nurse K till she was 2 (or as long as she wanted to keep nursing--whichever came first). I was very sad and worried that I wouldn't be able to keep nursing the entire pregnancy. I felt awful. I worried she wouldn't get breastmilk for the first year.

I got the book Adventures in Tandem Nursing, and it helped me realize that if my milk supply kept up, I could nurse K through the pregnancy. I had been a cow previous to getting pregnant. I'd even donated milk to the Mother's Milk Bank in my area. (Over 150 ounces!)

I tried to keep up a milk supply for her to drink when I was at work by faithfully pumping every morning. I managed to get about 3-4 ounces a day till K was about 10 months and then I started having problems pumping--it became too painful and futile. Given my faithful pumping routine though, I did have enough pumped milk to make it till she was almost 12 months (thank goodness I don't work full time).

She kept nursing a lot and I'd actually bring her into bed with me and let her nurse all that she wanted up until she was 1 year. Nursing seemed to be keeping up my milk supply enough (she'd have milk driping out of her mouth till she was almost a year). I did experiment with formula when she turned 11 months old (because of not being able to pump any more). She hated formula. We decided to give her soy milk when she was about 11.5 months old during the day when I was at work. When I was home she could nurse, but when I was gone she needed something. I was happy when she hit a year old.

After she turned one, she kept drinking soy and also started cow's milk, and kept nursing. Unfortunately, I started having lots of Braxton Hicks contractions when she nursed just as I entered the 3rd trimester. I decided to cut down the nursing to just once a day--a morning session for only about 10-15 minutes (she used to do 45 minutes plus). Given all the BH contractions, I hoped that when I was over 37 weeks that nursing would help me go into labor.... As I got closer to my due date I decided to let her nurse as long as she wanted in the morning. But alas, it didn't send me into labor. Finally when I was 40 weeks and 4 days (according to my doctor) I went into labor in the morning when K was nursing. It was really intense and after 10 minutes or so and contractions every 2 minutes, I decided I had to stop her from nursing or else I might have the baby at home.

Anyway, since the new baby (T), K has been nursing 1 - 2 times a day. She loves to wake up and come snuggle and then nurse. She also likes to nurse after her afternoon nap before dinner.

Probably the most interesting thing I learned from nursing through the pregnancy was that as you get close to the due date, you get more colostrum and less milk. Because of this, the toddler you are nursing will start to have "new baby" runny poop. We still have some of this happening now since I still have a lot of colostrum for T after her birth.

I don't know if I'm technically tandem nursing. I don't actually nurse both T and K at the same time. Mostly because K only nurses a couple of times a day. Partly because I don't want two babies attached to me at once. The amazing thing is how much K will drink in the morning... She will empty me on one side in one session in about 10 minutes or less. It will take T 3-4 nursing sessions to empty the other side.

I give K one side and then the other side to T for the rest of the morning. By afternoon I'll switch to feeding T from the side K drained. I think it's working ok.

OK.... If anyone came here for boob talk that was more stimulating than this, sorry... This is the boob talk that rules my life.