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