CLICK HERE FOR BLOGGER TEMPLATES AND MYSPACE LAYOUTS »

Monday, September 28, 2009

12 Weeks Later and Back to Work

Hello again! It's been forever since I posted but I've been a bit busy! Now that I'm back to work I plan to blog more. I have more down time here than at home! lol...

Brianna turned 12 weeks this past Saturday and will officially be 3 months old this coming Sunday. It's hard to believe she's that old already. She's changed so much! There are times when I go in to get her up from a nap and she seriously looks older than she did when I put her down.

She is getting bigger and gaining weight at a steady pace. We were having some problems initially but she is gaining about 6 ounces a week which is really good. She's still "dainty and petite" as her pediatrician says. At her 8 week appointment she was in the 50th percentile for weight and only the 25th percentile for height. I'm not sure how long she is now but as of last Friday she's up to 11 lbs 7 oz (she was born at 7 lbs 9 oz) so she's doing well.

I gave nursing a shot but it didn't go so well. My milk came in really fast and I was engorged by the end of the first night at home. The next morning I started seeing a lactation consultant. Since my breasts were so swollen, she couldn't latch on to eat so we pumped milk out for her, which was fed to her via a syringe for the first several days (she wouldn't take a bottle at first). Once the swelling was down, we tried nursing again and discovered that while she latched very well, she was very sleepy at the breast. In order to keep her awake, I had to switch her from side to side every 5 minutes to keep her somewhat awake and also stroke her cheek and move her arms, etc., which was frustrating and tiring. And again, since she wasn't getting much milk out....I was still having to pump and feed her the expressed milk via a bottle. That routine lasted for a couple of weeks.

When she was about 4 weeks old I thought she was staying awake a little better so I stopped pumping and let her nurse exclusively for one week. She only gained a few ounces that week and my nipples were cracked and blistered because instead of sucking the milk out, she was squeezing it out by compressing my nipple. I decided that was the last of her nursing days and that I would begin pumping.

So here we are at 12 weeks and she's only had breast milk....not a single drop of formula. For that I pat myself on the back. It's not easy to exclusively pump and takes a lot of time. In order to increase my supply, I initially started out pumping 7-8 times a day for 20 minutes each time and now I'm down to 5 pumps for 15-30 minutes depending on the time of day. I'm averaging 38 ounces a day and she eats 25-27 ounces so I'm able to freeze 10 ounces every day. My initial goal was to make it to 3 months and since I made it, I'm going to go for 6 months.

For the most part she's a really good baby now and doesn't give us much trouble. The first four weeks (at least) were really rough though. In addition to the feeding issues and two weeks of non-stop crying from 7 pm - 11 pm, my hormones were all out of whack and I seriously think I cried more those first 4 - 5 weeks than I had in my previous 35 years of life! I was *this* close to getting medication but the fog lifted.

She started sleeping through the night (7-8 hours) around week 8. She generally goes to bed around 10 pm and sleeps till 6 am. During the day she eats every 3-4 hours depending on how many ounces she eats from her bottle.

Last week she rolled over for the first time, from her tummy to her back in both directions. We were so excited and proud of her. =)

Today was her first day of daycare. My husband went with me to drop her off and I'm glad he was there. I didn't want to let her go and leave and I started to cry. He gave us a hug and the daycare lady did, too. I cried a bit on the way to work but not too much. And I waited till after lunch to call and check on her. (She was doing fine...napping.)

Here are some pics....


4 weeks...









6 weeks....









8 weeks...









10 weeks....











12 weeks...











12 weeks...
I will hopefully update this more often, or at least to post some pictures. We are having her 3-month pictures taken this weekend and her baptism is October 11, so I'll have pictures to post from that.