Life seems like one 200 hour days with a few naps here and there

Life has been...I really can't find the best word to describe everything about being a new mom. It's crazy, amazing, wonderful, exhasting, scary, highest of highs and lowest of lows. Valin just had his two week bithday yesterday, and it doesn't seem like two weeks have passed. And yet it also seems like two weeks would never come.

Here is a little up-date on the last two weeks. Whe we took him home from the hospitol, he was a little Juandise (condition affecting the liver), which meant that he was very sleepy and a little yellow. Breastfeeding him was hard because he was so sleepy and both of us were trying to get a hang of the lacthing thing. I was determined to breastfeed him though, and made up my mind that that was exactly what I was going to do, no matter what. Anyway, it was hard. I was sore, everywhere and very tired and so was Valin. I was getting the latching and Valin wouldn't stay a wake for more than two minutes. So I went to the Breastfeeding support group at the hospitol and got help breastfeeding. There I weight him before and after feeding to see what he took. They noticed the trouble I was having and saw that he was yellow so they suggested a three step feeding process for me. First I would try to nurse him, then give him what I've pumped previously through a speciality flow bottle, and then pump for the next time. This was all supposed to be done within an hour, at least every three hours. The odject was to get him to take in a lot so he would pee a lot and clean up his liver.

So by the following Tuesday, I went to the support group agian, and he didn't look yellow at all and he would generally last about five minutes nursing before we would have to struggle to keep him awake. He was 11 days at the time and weighed 7.3. Babies are supposed to be back at their birth weight by the time they are two weeks so we had three days to get him to gain 6 oz. So we were to stick to the three step feeding plan, but get 8-10 feedings in a 24 hours. Valin was also having a hard time latching. We found out that we needed to treat the bottle nipple as if we are trying to latch him to it.

Valin's latcing has been doing better and we weighed him on Friday at the support group and he was 7.9. So our efforts paid off. Valin was still falling a sleep, even though he was two weeks old. We decided that it was because Valin has a very weak suck. He sucks well for the frist few minutes and then he gets so exhasted that he shuts down and sleeps. They suggested that I try finger-sucking exercises and then express milk while he is sucking so he gets more for his efforts. This seems to be working. He stays awake for ten minutes now, which is wonderful and a relief! I'm also going to be getting help from a lactatist that specializes in strenthing his suck.

So that's were we are now, just wanting for the day where Valin will nurse for twenty minutes on both sides without tryign to keep him awake -the light at the end of the very long tunnel. Wish me luck and please pray for Valin.