Knock On Wood

I'm nervous to put it in writing, but I might daresay that Johanna has outgrown her fussiness...?
Maybe it's all the social obligations I've been holding her to the past couple of weeks, maybe it's the noticeable growth spurt that she's gone through, maybe it's that I've chilled out on the feedings, I don't know what the reason. But, for the past 2 weeks Johanna has been a much happier and sleepier girl! For the past couple of weeks, she will go down sometime between 9-11, feed between 1-3, and once more between 4-6. Berto gets up every day at 5am for work, so we pretty much start our day at that time. It also makes it feel like I only have to get up once during the night.
But back to the possible reasons for her new attitude.
1) As I said before, social obligations make her less fussy. Since my last post, we've visited with Meg and her girls two more times and made many more outings to Target and Kohl's just to keep our days busy.
2) She's definitely gone through a growth spurt. Compare these 2 pictures of Johanna with her cousin Martin. The first one was taken the last day of January. The 2nd was taken this Thursday.




Johanna definitely looks a lot thicker and I don't think it's just the cloth diaper booty. She hasn't been weighed since her last doctor's appointment February 6th where she was 7lbs even, so we're not sure what she's up to now, but clearly she's gone through a spurt that's perhaps more fully developed her digestive system.
3) I've relaxed on trying to have a feeding schedule. When we left the hospital, they got us so concerned about her weight loss that I listened to their advice verbatim: feed her every three hours. If she's sleeping, wake her up to feed. After a week, I moved to only following these instructions during the day and letting her wake me at night. During those weeks she was always so cranky and gassy. For the past 2 weeks, I've just been feeding her on demand, and she's never been better.

I'm not sure which of the above, or maybe all three, has led to her cheerier disposition, but I'm very thankful for it! And, of course, am still knocking on wood that it continues!

1 Month Old

I can't believe my baby girl is one month old already!

She is such a blessing! She is definitely the greatest challenge (especially since she is colicky) but also the most amazing thing we have ever encountered!




These adorable pics would never show it, but Johanna can definitely be a cranky pants! The definition of colic is "a condition of a healthy baby in which it shows periods of intense, unexplained fussing/crying lasting more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week for more than 3 weeks." I guess she's not technically colicky yet, but only because the fussing has only lasted about 2 weeks. Close to 2 weeks ago, there was a 48 hour period where if she was awake, she was fussing. 7-8 hours of unexplained crying per day = more exhausting than running a marathon. We took her to the doctor just to be sure she was ok even though she wasn't running a temp and all eating and pooping was going well. She was given a clean bill of health; I actually saw the doctor write "irritable child" on her file.
Her fussing has developed into a pattern now, where she's usually fussy from around 8-11am and 6-10/11 at night. It's not every day during those time frames, but it's definitely more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week. And it's definitely the worst at night when Berto gets home from work. Poor Daddy has to come home to a crabby baby! We can only hope that she will grow out of it sooner rather than later!
The only thing that we've discovered so far that cures her fussiness: socialization! I'm sure people are going to start thinking we are just being whiny, 1st time parents, because anytime Johanna has visitors over or goes on outings anywhere, she is an angel! The doctor was probably looking at me and thinking "yeah right" in his head as I explained her 7-8 hours of crying and he's seeing this wide-eyed little doll on the examination table. I felt embarrassed, because I knew he had to be thinking that I was exaggerating.
Since she puts on such a good show for everyone else, my new solution is to fill Johanna's social calender for the rest of my maternity leave. Weds I took her in to work to visit my staff, yesterday we went to visit Meg, Bella, and Emi, and today we had Juli over to visit. Though she was still fussy for a couple hours at night, it hasn't been near as bad now that I'm keeping her (and me) occupied.

Johanna's 1st Valentine's Day

Adventures in Breastfeeding

The past 18 days have been the fastest of my life. Especially now that every day is broken down into 3 hour increments that make up Johanna's feeding schedule. But at least now she seems to be on a somewhat predictable schedule.
The first few days in the hospital she was insatiable. I was feeding her every 20-30 minutes, very rarely would she sleep longer than an hour or two at a time. It took exactly 72 hours after surgery for my milk to come in, but even then, she never seemed satisfied. Two lactation consultants checked on me during those first few days. They watched us and always said that she was doing great, yet the nurses would weigh her and tell me that she was still losing weight. All babies lose weight initially, but she was continuing to drop and at a greater rate than normal.
On discharge day, the head nurse and lactation consultant took one look in her mouth and saw that she has a short frenulum, which is the little piece of skin that attaches the tongue to the bottom of your mouth. This keeps her tongue from being able to extend all the way and interferes with her ability to suck. After further investigation, apparently some doctors recommend clipping short frenulums, but no one mentioned that to us at the hospital. Instead, the nurse offered me a nipple shield which is like an extended nipple so that it goes farther into her mouth to compensate for the short tongue. She also said I should pump for 10 minutes after every feeding and supplement with 1 oz followed by additional 1/2 ounces until she seems satisfied. Rather than using a bottle she recommended feeding her using this little sippy cup that she would slurp up like a kitten. We called it her kitty cup.
This method provided relief for the next few days, but after a while, we were supplementing 2-3 (1) oz kitty cups for every feeding, half of which she would spill all over herself because of her unbelievably strong and unpredictable arm and leg wamps. It got me wondering what she was actually getting from me. And what a waste of all that milk being spilled from the kitty cups, not to mention multiple outfit changes a day. Sure, babies are messy and multiple outfit changes are part of the territory, but we were changing her practically every feeding because she would wet the front of herself trying to drink the kitty cup. She also moved more and more from 3 hour feeding intervals to 2. Again, part of the territory of having a new baby is regular feedings, but it turned into yet another unending food cycle. When you start with 40-45 minutes of breastfeeding, then spend another 10-15 minutes preparing and administering a kitty cup (doing your best not to spill), followed by a diaper and/or outfit change, and rounding it up with 15 minutes of assembling pump accessories, pumping, and deciding how much milk you will need on hand for the next kitty cup (should I leave some out for immediate use? refrigerate? freeze?), it's already been an hour and twenty minutes. Meaning there's only 40 minutes, or maybe less, until her next feeding cycle begins all over again.
Beginning last Saturday, we finally just starting giving her bottles rather than the kitty cups. Since I was already using the nipple shield, she doesn't seem to have any problems with nipple confusion and easily feeds from either breast or bottle without any fuss. Now I am doing about half of the feedings strictly bottle and half breast with a supplemental bottle afterwards if she doesn't seem satisfied. It's A LOT more pumping, but it's given me a lot more free time. I would rather pump twice for 10 minutes during a 3 hour period and give her a bottle than breastfeed, supplement, AND pump. Especially at 2am.
I've been getting 6 hours of sleep per night since moving to bottles and have felt better than ever, even with Berto going back to school on Tuesday. We just might sleep in our own bed tonight instead of on the couch, that is, if D hasn't pooped the bed again. She has pooped/peed in our bed three times since bringing Johanna home. From what I've been reading, she is "stressed" by the environment change. Berto says she is on suicide watch, but then that is a whole other dilemma... Instead, more pictures!

Her first bath