I have been fortunate enough to have a lot of friends who know a lot of things, and who have read different things. My good friend, Ashley, has twins, as I have said before and she is totally on top of everything! She tells me that she has to be on top of everything because if she wasn't then she would never get ahead. And she really is on top of it, I think she is doing such an amazing job.
So then I decide that I want to do things the way she is doing them, but I find that it isn't really working for me. She tells me that babies can be trained, and she is right, but you have to be CONSISTENT. That is what I have learned. I want to be consistent, but then I "try" which I really do try, but I know that I am letting my baby kind of lead the way at the same time.
After talking to other friends this weekend, it was clear that they had a lot of struggles with sleeping and then scheduling because of this. She tried so hard to put her first-born son on a schedule, and she would drive herself so crazy with it! When we went over to their house they complimented Micah continuously for being such a good sleeper, because she didn't have such good sleepers. They told us that they couldn't even put their son down, or he would have a fit! They tried the co-sleeper, and it didn't work! Conrad and I have a co-sleeper, and although I hold Micah more than I care to admit, he is just fine when I put him down anywhere. He has his fits, but we are able to soothe him after no more than an hour. He has his bouts of gas, spit-up episodes, and exhaustion fits, but yes, I would have to agree…he is a good baby!
Another one of my good friends, Courtney, did absolutely nothing to "train" her baby to sleep better, or to go longer between feedings, she just kind of did it all on her own.
Sleep, feeding, and some of the literature I've read
I am currently getting Micah to go 2-2 1/2 hours between feedings during the day. Last night he slept for four hours straight for two different stretches. In The Happiest Baby on the Block Guide to Great Sleep, it says that if you feed your baby more during the day, then they can go longer at night. I think I am leaning more towards using this book, because I really like Dr. Karp's ideas, not that other ideas are wrong, but that is the kind of parent I am. At first I thought I was a more Baby Wise type of Mom, but once I had Micah here, I guess I feel differently. That's the thing, you can say all that you want prior to having a baby, but THINGS CHANGE. I heard it a million times, and I didn't believe it. Well, they changed for me, anyway. I would recommend reading both books so you can decide what you want to do. There is a lot of great information in both.
Anyway, I had a lot of guilt, thinking I wasn't doing things correctly, but I have decided to just do what I think is right and take it easy. I don't want to stress out about scheduling anymore. Just because I do things one way, and someone else does things another, doesn't mean that I am wrong, or they are wrong…it just means we are doing what works best for us! :)
Self-proclaimed overproducer
Within the first weeks of Micah's birth, he was constantly choking, and I realized I had a strong let-down, and that I am producing A LOT of milk. I called lactation consultant after lactation consultant, and they told me to try different positions (I did), express milk before I fed him (I did, which totally doesn't help because it causes you to produce more!), and frozen peas (I thought would be too difficult to do between EVERY feeding). Anyway, I read about block feeding, and I decided to give it a try. I did it for a week, or so, and it really helped. He wasn't choking as much, and he was happier (although still gassy, and still spitting up). I stopped because I was worried about not producing enough. I know that pumping would help me, in that case, but I am trying to avoid pumping for the time being. As it is, I am only feeding on one breast each time because he only takes five minutes or so to nurse. Go ahead, read all you can about how much your baby "should" be nursing, and read about how they "should" switch sides…this isn't the case for me. This caused me to spend a week freaking out that he wasn't getting enough to eat. I feed on one breast now because I want him to get enough hind milk, that way he would be full and not want to keep feeding. So anyway, block feeding, in my case looked like this: baby nurses on left breast at 12:00 p.m., baby feeds on same breast at 2:30 p.m., then baby feeds on right breast at 5:00 p.m. So essentially Micah went a big block of time without feeding on one breast or the other. It helped me not to overwhelm him, but I think I should go back to trying to do it the other way, that way he gets used to the supply that I have. I am still experimenting though.
Gas and spit-up
I wondered if this was normal from the beginning. Rarely is a lot of gas and spit-up not normal, I have discovered. I have learned to ALWAYS ask your doctor if you have any questions, or are in doubt. That is always the best way to go about it. I am going to wait until my two month appointment to see how he is doing, and then I will ask my doctor more questions. So far, the nurse practitioners at the doctor's office say everything sounds normal. I am a first-time mom, so I am learning what is normal for Micah.
Anyway, with all of that said, he has been the best thing that has ever happened to us. I get so worked up because I want the best for him. I want to make sure I am doing the best I can!
After talking to other friends this weekend, it was clear that they had a lot of struggles with sleeping and then scheduling because of this. She tried so hard to put her first-born son on a schedule, and she would drive herself so crazy with it! When we went over to their house they complimented Micah continuously for being such a good sleeper, because she didn't have such good sleepers. They told us that they couldn't even put their son down, or he would have a fit! They tried the co-sleeper, and it didn't work! Conrad and I have a co-sleeper, and although I hold Micah more than I care to admit, he is just fine when I put him down anywhere. He has his fits, but we are able to soothe him after no more than an hour. He has his bouts of gas, spit-up episodes, and exhaustion fits, but yes, I would have to agree…he is a good baby!
Another one of my good friends, Courtney, did absolutely nothing to "train" her baby to sleep better, or to go longer between feedings, she just kind of did it all on her own.
Sleep, feeding, and some of the literature I've read
I am currently getting Micah to go 2-2 1/2 hours between feedings during the day. Last night he slept for four hours straight for two different stretches. In The Happiest Baby on the Block Guide to Great Sleep, it says that if you feed your baby more during the day, then they can go longer at night. I think I am leaning more towards using this book, because I really like Dr. Karp's ideas, not that other ideas are wrong, but that is the kind of parent I am. At first I thought I was a more Baby Wise type of Mom, but once I had Micah here, I guess I feel differently. That's the thing, you can say all that you want prior to having a baby, but THINGS CHANGE. I heard it a million times, and I didn't believe it. Well, they changed for me, anyway. I would recommend reading both books so you can decide what you want to do. There is a lot of great information in both.
Anyway, I had a lot of guilt, thinking I wasn't doing things correctly, but I have decided to just do what I think is right and take it easy. I don't want to stress out about scheduling anymore. Just because I do things one way, and someone else does things another, doesn't mean that I am wrong, or they are wrong…it just means we are doing what works best for us! :)
Self-proclaimed overproducer
Within the first weeks of Micah's birth, he was constantly choking, and I realized I had a strong let-down, and that I am producing A LOT of milk. I called lactation consultant after lactation consultant, and they told me to try different positions (I did), express milk before I fed him (I did, which totally doesn't help because it causes you to produce more!), and frozen peas (I thought would be too difficult to do between EVERY feeding). Anyway, I read about block feeding, and I decided to give it a try. I did it for a week, or so, and it really helped. He wasn't choking as much, and he was happier (although still gassy, and still spitting up). I stopped because I was worried about not producing enough. I know that pumping would help me, in that case, but I am trying to avoid pumping for the time being. As it is, I am only feeding on one breast each time because he only takes five minutes or so to nurse. Go ahead, read all you can about how much your baby "should" be nursing, and read about how they "should" switch sides…this isn't the case for me. This caused me to spend a week freaking out that he wasn't getting enough to eat. I feed on one breast now because I want him to get enough hind milk, that way he would be full and not want to keep feeding. So anyway, block feeding, in my case looked like this: baby nurses on left breast at 12:00 p.m., baby feeds on same breast at 2:30 p.m., then baby feeds on right breast at 5:00 p.m. So essentially Micah went a big block of time without feeding on one breast or the other. It helped me not to overwhelm him, but I think I should go back to trying to do it the other way, that way he gets used to the supply that I have. I am still experimenting though.
Gas and spit-up
I wondered if this was normal from the beginning. Rarely is a lot of gas and spit-up not normal, I have discovered. I have learned to ALWAYS ask your doctor if you have any questions, or are in doubt. That is always the best way to go about it. I am going to wait until my two month appointment to see how he is doing, and then I will ask my doctor more questions. So far, the nurse practitioners at the doctor's office say everything sounds normal. I am a first-time mom, so I am learning what is normal for Micah.
Anyway, with all of that said, he has been the best thing that has ever happened to us. I get so worked up because I want the best for him. I want to make sure I am doing the best I can!
I know that he is gaining weight because of how he fits in his clothes (he's still wearing newborn). I know that he is eating enough because of how many wet and poopy diapers he has.
Taking care of another human being is hard work! He is so worth it though.
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