Night Feeds

Whenever people ask me about Max, they always ask if he is sleeping through the night yet. It's just one of those questions that everyone asks.

I tell them 'no, he still wakes once, sometimes twice for a feed each night'. I also explain that I really don't mind him waking up and I mean it, I really don't mind.

Last night though Max slept right through for the first time. He slept from 7.3o until 11pm in his pram (we were out) and then from 11pm until 7am in his bed.

As I was getting ready for bed tonight and I was wondering if he would sleep through again. I realised that I was kind of hoping he wouldn't and I started to wonder why I like him waking up to feed during the night.

It didn't take me long to work out that it's because the only time I get to breastfeed him is when he is all sleepy and relaxed, and that only happens during the night and first thing in the morning.

If Max stops waking up to feed in the night I will miss out on that special time with him. Which makes me feel really sad.

So I hope that next time someone asks me if Max is sleeping through the night yet I still get to say no.

T xx

Welt·schmerz

***

This morning I had a really hard time going to work and leaving Max.

With the news story about the young girl in Bundaberg, the 6 year old girl in Western Australia and a friend of mine losing her baby at 36 weeks over the weekend, it felt like there was sadness all around me.

All I wanted to do today was hold Max. I wanted to play with him while he was awake, feed him when he was hungry and hold him in my arms whilst he slept.

Instead I gave him a million hugs and kisses and went off to work at 9.30 this morning.

All day at work I thought about how much I love him and how incredibly grateful I am to have in my life.

When I got home tonight he was already sound asleep in bed. So I'm waiting (and looking forward) to him waking up for a feed so that I can hold him, hug him and tell him how much I love him.

T xx

A Weekend on the Coast

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On the weekend the Big Man and I went up to the coast to visit his parents.

We had an awesome time. The best part was by far Sunday morning.... The Big Man's parents are both early risers, so at 6.30am we took Max out to them and then went back to bed until 11am. Bliss! If only we could do that every weekend :)

The rest of the weekend was great too. I caught up with girlfriends for lunch, hung out with my Sister and her family, caught up with some other new parents (hi Nat!) so that we could talk about babies non-stop and we also went and watched Avatar in 3D.

Avatar was amazing! It took me a while to get used to the 3D, but once I did I loved it. The only downside was that at the end of the movie I realised how much I missed Max and next thing you know I was leaking everywhere.... I had to walk out of the cinema holding my bag across my chest. Luckily I have a thing for huge handbags!

Max was on his absolute best behaviour the entire time. I think our families must think we are making things up when we say Max is a monster.

Anyway we're back in Brisbane now and planning a trip down the coast to see my Mum in a couple of weekends. Got to share the baby-love around!

T xx

Feeding the Gremlin

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Feeding Max has become a bit of a nightmare lately.

For whatever reason he has decided that breast-feeding makes him cranky. Ungrateful baby if you ask me!

So far I haven't really been able to work out if there is any pattern to his fussing. And when I say fussing I mean him arching his back, throwing his head back and screaming at the top of his lungs. Sometimes he does it in the morning when I have way too much milk, sometimes it is at the start of a feed when my let down happens, other times it is towards the end of a feed when there isn't much milk coming out and other times it is two or three minutes into a feed and seems to be for no reason at all. Aghhhhh.

We have been to the early feeding clinic, I've phoned the Australian Breast Feeding Association, I've been to a GP and seen the paedeatrition. They have all come up with various ideas on why he is fussing (except for the GP who practically ignored me). A blocked nose, silent reflux, not wanting to have to work for his food, my diet and kharma have all been mentioned....

The paedeatrition has given him an antacid to take twice a day and I have tried lots of other things like changing up his feeding positions (for example keeping him more upright or lying down with him), switching sides when he fusses, expressing milk first before feeding him and standing on one leg and singing whilst nursing (ok, not really, but somedays I am tempted to try anything).

So far I have only found two options that seem to work. The first is feeding him expressed milk from a bottle. It doesn't seem to matter if we feed him the bottle sitting up or lying on his back, he will take it and feed like a champion. At first I was expressing by hand, but that got really tiring. So we went out and bought a Medela Swing Breast Pump. It works like a charm! The second thing that works is if we let him scream for about twenty minutes (on and off while we try to comfort him). This seems to really tire him out and afterwards he will feed without complaining. It's hard doing it this way though, it makes my heart feel like it is breaking into a million pieces.

I am starting to think that there isn't really any reason for his screaming. Maybe he is just a fussy little man.

In the meantime I am trying to nurse him each time he gets hungry and if he refuses or screams too much I switch to a bottle.

I hope he grows out of it soon.

T xx