Children And Trees: Day 10

It's been a whole week since my last entry, so this will be a couple topics and report up until Koral's 10th day. It's been a great week!

First, as promised, I'm going to discuss feeding her. In the hospital, as soon as Koral was born, she was able to suckle as I mentioned before. What I didn't mention is that I had not started to produce any milk yet, and actually the nurses assured me this is perfectly normal. It can take 3 days for milk to start coming in, and during this time, babies are fine living on the fluids in them from birth, so really her nursing was simply there to stimulate milk production and tell my body that it was time.

The second or third day I did notice some liquid, which was colostrum. There is really not a lot of this - like not even enough to fill a shot glass each time she feeds. It's a super strong vitamin milk that only lasts a couple of days and is perfect for newborns. Well, her latch was really good so I just let her drink, and the hospital was unable to get me a lactation consultant until our final morning there, Friday - day 3. Meanwhile, her strong latch was actually doing some damage to my tissue because I didn't know how to adjust her (wait for a wide mouth, hold her head firmly on, use a finger to break the latch when it was painful, etc.). So, by Thursday night, I was ready to cry it hurt so much and it is a terrible feeling to not be able to feed your little infant! I called a nurse, who suggested we try the hospital pump and get a little milk that way. It still hurt, but not nearly as much, so we did that and fed her with a little syringe. The next couple of feedings were the same until I could try her latch again with the help of the consultant. We were sent home Friday in the early afternoon, and I continued to pump about every other feeding to give myself a break from the cluster feeding and latch issues to heal. It was a difficult time, though. By Sunday, I was okay to feed her again exclusively. My advice is to double check with a lactation consultant early, even if it doesn't hurt, and then know that it gets better after about five days. Also, thank goodness I had this nipple balm in my bag because the hospital gives you nothing! I used this after each feeding the first week and now I don't seem to have issues, but this got me through. I used half of it in the first five days. There are a ton of kinds out there, but I got Boob-ease Balm from "Bamboobies" brand because that's where I ordered my washable milk pads. Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Boob-ease-Natural-Nipple-Balm-Organic/dp/B007TIM8A6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1406371548&sr=8-2&keywords=nipple+balm

However, I have heard that plain coconut oil works amazing, too, so when I run out, I'll probably just refill my little container with that since I have it in the kitchen.

She now eats really well, and it has been a great convenience to have the milk ready to go at the first little cry. Poor Senthil is helpless and can only offer her a finger to suck on.

The other issue with feeding that is just huge is the clothing. It's a huge pain to take off your whole shirt every one to three hours to feed your baby, which is what I did for the first week pretty much. I have since ventured to Target and now have exactly three nursing tank tops that I love (gray, black, and purple) that have a built-in nursing bra and the sides just unsnap to allow feeding. I am comfortable in public in this top, but it's mainly great for at home. I need to find more shirts since this will go on for 6 months to a year, and these are sort of workout-casual.

Also due to feeding, my trip to Target and just about everything else revolves around a two-hour window from one feed to the next. Senthil is starting to remember to account for this as well. He was home, I fed her, and I was out the door - and back with groceries and clothes in an hour and a half - really good considering the drive out there is 15 minutes. So my time since having her goes a bit like that.

Don't plan on working the first week after giving birth. This might sound obvious, but I had a few last items to get completed (legal forms, appointments to schedule, etc.) and it was really hard. Harder than usual. Something that would have taken me a few hours was this burden in my foggy, sleep-deprived mind for four days while I struggled with the fact that I would have to wait to deal with it. However, I finally got caught up on sleep - I sleep when she sleeps as much as I need to - and got it done on day 9. That felt really good, to be rested, back to normal, feeling like my old self even pre-pregnancy only with this perfect little bonus daughter that I love! Also on day 9, we took our first walk in the stroller and she slept peacefully the entire time.