A Week Later

Our first Christmas with Lyla was better than I hoped. I didn't have high expectations, what with the lack of sleep and how young she still is. She handled two days of being passed around, poked and prodded pretty well. She did better with one family than another; I'm not telling which one. She gave me her own Christmas gift by sleeping 5 1/2 hours in a row on Christmas morning. I woke up in between there but was able to go right back to sleep- it was amazing. I had some engorgement pain as well as the nipple pain but it was manageable.

It's been a week since the frenotomy and though we still have some kinks to iron out, I have to admit we are doing much better than we were before. Nursing on Christmas Day was much better than it had been the two days before. I've had two appointments with a really great lactation consultant in the past week. These really helped give me a better sense of a good latch and we're improving (slowly but surely). We watched Lyla discover her tongue this week, she's sticking it out and using it to nurse in ways she couldn't before. I think it's a combo of #1- practice, #2- Lyla getting older and better at it, and #3- dedication. (And less pain soon please, that would help).

Plus, I've been to my ob/gyn and turns out I have a yeast infection in my left nipple, which is probably causing more pain than a shallow latch now. Yeast or thrush is pretty common in young babies and nursing moms can pass it back and forth between themselves and baby. Usually the baby gives it to the mother, but I'm the one that has it. Lyla has no symptoms but we're both being treated so it doesn't become an endless cycle. I have a week of antibiotics and she has two; the hardest part is giving hers four times a day. She loves her vitamin D drops, but of course she hates these!

The big news is that Lyla has really started smiling.

On Christmas Day my Mom had her smiling and cooing for quite a while.

Watching that was the very best part of my day. She has continued smiling too, I can coax half and full smiles out of her pretty easily.

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Her routine is becoming more defined, this is roughly what our day looks like:

3:00 AM- 1st or 2nd diaper change/feeding, depending on how good of a night it is

6:30 or 7:00AM- another diaper change/feeding. At this point she won't go back to sleep so we are up for the day

7:30-7:45ish- play time on her mat in the living room while I make my breakfast

7:45-9:30AM- breakfast sometimes involves holding Lyla who doesn't want to be put down, a little tummy time and bouncing on the exercise ball. Another diaper change/feeding somewhere in there

9:00-10:00AM- sometime in here she usually takes a little cat nap that gives me just enough time to shower and dress. I heavily encourage this.

10:00-11:30AM- errands or doctor's appointments have been filling this time so far. Two errands in a row is about her limit. We've been to Target, Trader Joe's, and the mall, and the only meltdown occurred in the mall.

between 11:00AM and 12:00PM- diaper change/feeding; a little cuddle time and then a swaddle and into the swing. She'll look around for a little while and then fall asleep

12:00PM-2:30PM- on a smooth day she sleeps and I get to have lunch and work on a few things. Not every day is smooth but she's been doing this more often than not

2:30 or 3:00PM- Lyla wakes up, diaper change/feeding

3:00PM-5:30PM- This is probably her most volatile time, the dreaded evening when an infant is most fussy. Some days she's lovely all the way through, other days she is more inconsolable. She lays on the play mat, sits in the swing, I rock her or bounce on the ball and sing songs

5:00PM-5:30PM- diaper change/feeding

5:30PM-6:00PM- Ray comes home from work and takes Lyla for a bit while I make dinner. Sometimes we are able to eat together and watch some TV, other times she is fussy and one must rock her while the other eats. As she grows we have more of the former than the latter.

Some days she falls asleep in the evening around 6:30PM or 7:00PM and does not wake again to eat until 3:00AM! Others she will eat again around 8:00PM and I go to bed after. Others she will wake up in the 11:00PM-12:00AM range to eat.

Around 3:00AM, we start all over again!