Breasfeeding is hard.

I now understand what everyone was talking about. And to all you super natural moms out there that had an easy time stop rubbing it in out faces! To all you lacatation consultants out there screw you acting like it should be so easy. Don't get me wrong it is easy now. But those first three weeks were terrible. Things i learned.

Baibies are picky. What position worked one minute didn't the next. I would try 6 different positions before i would find one.

What do you mean I will cry as much as him?? Its not hormones (well it might be) its so frustrating I cried a bunch of times. You have a hungry baby and you can't feed him because you can't figure out something that is supposed to be natural??????? Um its hard, sure we figure it out but man it was intense.

What do you mean they might have more than one burp or none at all??? No one taught me this. Q can have three or more.  He would nurse for a second and cry. Then he would burp and still do it. Finaly I reallized he had mulitple burps. Also crying makes them swallow air. So check.

What do you mean if i turn on the white noise on the tv it will calm him down and make it easier. Why don't they tell you this in the hospital??? White noise is a fussy nursers best friend.

Don't suppliment! A bottle no matter how boob like is easier than a boob. Why would a baby want to nurse a boob when he can get the same out of a bottle much easier....lazy babies.

No pacifiers! They give him one in the hospital.

Nonstop nursing....just let it happen. Your baby is not starving they are just trying to get your supply up.  Smart babies.

Count diapers... even if your baby is fussy 6 to 8 wet diapers a day is good.

Weight gain! Is important but some loss is ok.

Hand express the colostrum. So your baby is not nursing much in the begining try this. Even a few drops of your colostrum is better than nothing.  Even a teaspoon is considered a feeding. It will minimize weighloss. just drip into the side of the mouth.

Get your bf, dh, so, to help you.  There were many times where I would feel like giving up and DH would swoop in hold the boob and the baby. Help me move manuver and so on to get the baby latched. He was a life saver.

Don't buy backup formula just in case. You will use it if you do and start on the downward spiral.

Use the lactation consultants in the hospital!!!

At 2 months or so your baby will get efficient. Q went from 30 minuted feedingd to 9 minutes and never looked back.

When i was in the hospital a neonatologist came in and complained that only 30% of women breastfeed and how terrible that number is. Even if its just a few months weeks or years. It is really whats best for baby.

Oh Baby

I cant beleive I never posted about Quintins birth. He was born November 30th. I was induced due to murky amniotic fluid at 37. He was perfect 7lbs 11oz. He was very very red. I wish they had told us at the time that he would probably be jaundice because of it. We got home the day after he was born. The induction was very smooth. He was born 4 hours after they started pitocin. But at day 3 he was so lethargic and we had to take him to the nicu to be under the lights for jaundice. He was there for 5 days. He had a  hard time nursing at first but is such a  champ now. He weighs 18lbs at 3 months!!! Big boy. He is so sweet and smart. He rolled over at 7 weeks and has been learning and doing adorbale things non stop.

Preterm Labor...

Listen, to all of the women on all of the forums out there. I understand your doctors. Cramping is normal, discharge is normal and so on. Let me tell you as someone who has suffered preterm labor and lost babies and someone who has suffered preterm labor and had a sucessful pregnancy. 1 in 8 babies are born premature. Yes 1 in 8. So I want you to think about your doctor who dismisses your concerns, Then same healthcare professional pushes all sorts of tests. Tests that check for things with probabilities that are one in thousands.

Preterm labor symptoms and pregnancy discomforts are similar. But to brush it off when the ods are so high is ridiculous.By the time its so bad they will listen its usually too late even for steroids to help little babies lungs. So you need to speak up. If your doctor wont listen then go to the er. demand testing, monitoring. Beleive me, your insurance would rather pay for your hospital bedrest then a baby in the nicu. So some test they can do.

Placenta Monitoring: Measure the effectiveness and health of the placenta
Fetalfibronectin: Test discharge to see if there is a chemical presents that can be an indicator of preterm labor.
Cervical ultrasound: check the length and integrity of the cervix.

If all else fails and you still feel that something is not right ask for a bedrest order. Bedrest saved my sons life.

gdiaper Review

gDiapers are a cloth diaper with cloth insert options or disposable insert options. Now I am not in any way much of a hippie but my Husbands skin is so very sensitive that I did not even want to mess with disposable. Not to mention we live up three flights of stairs the idea of walking diapers down all those stairs seemed to be worse than one extra load of laundry a day. I purchased gdiapers because it seemed to be the most reasonable with the most options.  I purchased first their newborn diapers. They are supposed to fit a baby from 6 to 10 lbs. I got 12 of them with some bundle. But they did not fit Quintin when he was born at 7lb 11oz. They were too small and cut off circulation from his legs so much that they would turn purple.  So we went to the smalls. They fit great for 4 weeks before he grew out of them. They were supposed to last from 8lbs to 14lbs. They only lasted us until 11lbs. Which worried me. I consulted my doctor. Maybe my son was not proportioned correctly. He said he was a big baby but just as long as he was chubby and normal. So we went to mediums again fit great for 2 more months. Again they fit babies 14lbs to 28lbs, but my son is only 18lbs and they no longer fit him. This time I contacted the company. I had purchased 12 newborns which never fit, 10 smalls which lasted less than a month and 10 mediums that lasted less than two months.  $480 in diapers that only lasted three months was ridiculous to me and so far out of their range that I felt they should at least give me a discount on the next size up.  I contacted them and got no help. They just kept saying my baby was a big baby and the sizes are just guidelines. Which I understand but when a size spans 14lbs and stops fitting after 4lbs or never fits at all I think that even a different shaped baby would get farther than that and the company should address it. In the end they did not help me at all and just kept relaying their return policy to me. Which ment they could not help me. Such a bummer they work great when they fit but only fit for a few weeks. So in the end if I could go back I would not chose Gdiapers. I would spent the extra cash to get on that has mor adjustment options, better customer service and more realistic size spans.