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babywise

motherhood

Somebody tell me again why I’m breastfeeding

September 14, 2009

The good news is that Kirsten has started sleeping through the night. Since she turned 6 weeks, she’s been sleeping from 12 midnight to 6 in the morning, which gives me six whole hours of uninterrupted sleep. Now at 9 weeks, she’s been stretching that to 10 hours every night.

Naturally, I’ve been taking advantage of this new development to catch as much sleep as I can, except that my breasts seem hell bent on destroying me. I figured that if I ignored them, they would stop bothering me and eventually adjust to the new feeding hours so for a few nights, I express my last round of milk at 1o and crawl into bed by 11.30. This would last till 7 in the morning when Kirsten starts stirring. Initially, I started leaking milk all over my top, which I was prepared to handle in exchange for more sleep, but a after 2-3 days of leaking, they decided to develop blocked ducts instead and believe me, it is a pain in the ass breast.

I know it sounds like a very mild condition, like a blocked nose or something, but no, it is nothing like it at all. You can’t just blow it out and go along your merry way. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s worse than hemorrhoids combined with herpes at the same time. The pain is pretty much indescribable, like someone stuffed rocks into my breast and started beating it. Repeatedly.

A few nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with a sharp pain in my left breast. I waited for it to pass, but it got so unbearable that I had to get up to check it. I tried expressing, but putting the pump to it was sheer torture. The entire breast had become rock hard, inflamed and filled with tiny lumps. Worst thing is, nothing came out. I’ve been averaging 120ml per session, but after 45 minutes, I was still at 20ml. The next morning, I came down with a flu and a fever. A quick check on google and apparently, these are all symptoms of blocked ducts. And check this out, if left untreated, it could develop into mastitis, which is NOT GOOD. You don’t want to mess with a name like mastitis.

Despite the pain, I’ve been back to a 3-hour expressing schedule, even through the night. And I have to battle a flu at the same time. Just like that, there goes my dreams of sleeping through the night. Now I can only look on with envy as my 9-week-old sleeps like a baby for 10 straight hours, while I’m banished to breast purgatory.

I never thought breastfeeding would be this hard. After going through all that initial teething problems, I though I had paid my dues but it just keeps getting worse. I only hope all that “Breast is best” propaganda is true, then at least it would all be worth it. If not, I’m seriously going to set fire to the person who came up with it.

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pregnancy

10 reasons why baby is crying

July 28, 2009

The toughest part about taking care of a newborn is their inability to indicate what they want. After a while, the body adjusts to handle the late nights and the diaper accidents, but the crying is what really gets me. They’re so helpless and all they can do is cry regardless of whether they’re hungry, tired, fussy, gassy or bored. I know there are theories that suggest one can easily tell what the baby needs from the type of cry but 2 kids in, I’m still as clueless as ever. It all sounds the same to me and every time Kirsten cries, it’s all a matter of trial and error. Mostly error, which then leads to me being on trial.

With a toddler, it so much easier because they can point to the object of their desire and it’s pretty obvious what they want. Tru has this way of grabbing my hands to do his bidding as if they’re an extension of his own. He also grabs my face if he wants my attention. Life is much simpler when I get him and he gets me.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to infants. Whenever she starts screaming, it’s “take it from the top” time. I’ve got a checklist that I run through in order of importance to eliminate all the options until I find out what’s the cause of her displeasure.

1. Hungry. This is the top of the list for my little milk drinking machine. 70% of the time, she cries out of hunger, and milk quickly solves the problem.

2. Dirty diaper/nappy rash. If milk doesn’t solve the problem, check the diaper for poop.

3. Gassy. The solution is simple – burping, but it sometimes takes a helluva long time. I can pat her back for 45 minutes and still not hear that elusive burp. Believe me, at 4 in the morning, it’s sheer torture.

4. Sleepy. If the crying is due to sleepiness, Chucky will usually surface within a couple of minutes. Her eyeballs will start rolling up to the top of her head, leaving only the whites. Oh so cute.

5. Too hot. Bring on the air-conditioning.

6. Too cold. Bring on the blankets.

7. Sick. This is a tough one. The obvious signs are fever, coughing, sneezing, runny nose or diarrhea, which should be checked by the PD asap.

8. In pain. Sometimes her little fingers get caught in the crib or Tru jabs her too hard in the face. A little kissing should make the boo-boos go away in no time.

9. Bored. It’s time to bring on the juggling and fire-eating. Very excite.

10. Fussy. This is the absolute killer. When all the above fails, it usually means she’s in one of those legendary fussy moods where nothing works. This can last anything from 10 minutes to 2 hours. Even more excite.

Studies show that the sound of a baby’s cry causes one’s blood pressure to increase tremendously. Especially for mothers, it’s the most distressing thing to hear. MAKE. IT. STOP!

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