A Mom of Two?!

After almost two weeks, I'm finally starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel. First off, here's something I wanted to share before - my 1st Mother's Day gift from Sam.



He brought it home from school and I love the photo even though he's not smiling because the colors are brilliant.

In general, here is what we have been feeling like around here for the past couple of weeks:



I guess having a new baby around is exhausting for Sam too because he passed out on the couch after school the other day AND slept for 8 hours that night. Crazy. Note the awesome new yellow (his favorite color) shoes my Mom bought him.

So, we have a new baby. I had to take a picture of his perfect baby nails before I cut them.



So cute.

He is a really good baby so far. He likes to nurse (a lot) and sleep (a LOT). He has been having some trouble pooping, but that may have passed. Because today I changed a really grodie diaper and just as I was getting it under control he peed all over everything and I just started to laugh because it was like an out of control fire hose. Except, you know, small.

Sometimes, he wakes up and looks around.



But, not that often.

Sometimes, he sneezes and then he makes this 'uah!' noise afterwards as if to say 'what was that?!'

He went to the doctor on the 15th because we noticed that he had a tongue tie. It was severe enough that it was interfering with feeding - when he would suck his gum ridge was basically chomping on my nipple. FUN. Not. So we took him to get it looked at and they clipped it. He didn't like the thing that held his tongue in place, but other than that he was all right. I could feel an immediate difference in nursing and he's able to take a pacifier now, which is a good thing because he really likes to suck and if it was up to him he would just have my boob in his mouth all the time.

Speaking of which, the breastfeeding? Is only going so/so. If you don't know about my history with the boobs and the milk, check out this post. So, this time? I had something right away. BUT, not a lot. He usually falls asleep while nursing. There has not been much of a size increase, just a bit. I definitely have milk, just not enough to actually feed him. My midwife prescribed me Domperidone, which I didn't try last time. It seems to have increased my supply a tiny bit, but not much. He likes to nurse, but it's not sustaining him.

I am not sure what I am going to do. We have been supplementing him with formula since the day after he was born, only an ounce at a time then. But now he should be eating 3 oz or so every 3 hours when he wants to eat. So I've been nursing him on both sides then feeding him a bottle. It's sort of a Catch 22 because the more we supplement, the less he NEEDS from me. The good news is that he LIKES to nurse, so he'll do it even if he's had a recent bottle. He's getting what I have, which isn't much, but it's something. I have a months supply of the Domperidone and I'll probably finish that out and see what happens. My gut feeling is that I will probably not continue to breastfeed for too long unless my supply increases.

I am happy that things are going so much better than they did with Sam. I'm happy that Danny is getting SOMETHING from me. But I think that maybe my body just wasn't meant to make much milk. My midwife is amazing, very supportive but not pushy or anything. She is like the perfect medium. As she said, keep trying but if the tissue isn't there, it's just not there. And if not, we'll be okay. Either way, Danny is a happy boy. What's important to me is that he is not hungry, and that he gains weight like he's supposed to, which he hasn't been. He went down from 8 lb 3 oz to 7 lb 11 oz 2 days after birth and was the same at 11 days old. We go back to the doctor on Wednesday to get him weighed again, and hopefully he'll be making some progress.

The first week of recovery was REALLY hard for me. I had all kinds of problems and it was a stressful week with some things going on around the house. My stomach muscles were REALLY sore afterwards and I think I was sick, which caused bad stomach cramps and made the seperated muscles in my stomach really sore. Wrapping my stomach with an elastic back brace I have for about 24 hours improved that immensly. Two weeks in, I am almost feeling back to normal. I get tired easily and there are little reminders of what my body's been through, but I am definitely on the road back to normal.

I ended up down about 20 lbs from where I was when I got pregnant. The other day I wanted to wear a real pair of pants for the first time in 9 months and realized now I need to go through my pile of like 25 pairs of pants/capris and figure out which ones actually fit me now. I have no idea! But, I'm not complaining! I will go back on Weight Watchers soon because I need to get back to healthy eating habits and I don't want to gain back the weight I've lost.

I can tell I'm feeling better because I've started making lists again and actually got some chores done around the house this weekend.

Justin was in Mexico last week from Tuesday night to Saturday night on the annual men's group mission trip for our church in Seattle. My Mom helped out Wednesday, then on Thursday Sam went to his other Grandma's house until Saturday night. It was really awesome to have two and a half days with just Danny and I for me to hang out with him and hold him and everything.

On Friday he had his 2 week checkup and it went well, then we went on our first outing to Target. I got tired out from walking around the store. Danny slept the whole time as long as the stroller was moving.

So, that's been life around here lately. Justin goes back to work full time starting Monday, and I'm a little nervous but I think I'll be okay. Luckily Sam has school Mon, Tue and Wed and maybe by Thursday I'll feel up to some kind of outing to a park or something.

So begins the day to day of life as a Mom of 2. Wish me luck!