Adventures in Mommyhood- 6 weeks

This past week I experienced the joy of my first clogged milk duct, that teaches me to stop wearing bras that no longer fit.  Thanks to all my previous research I was able to immediately diagnose the problem and knew how to fix it.  I brought Shammy to bed as he tends to nurse for hours when nursing lying down and put him to that breast.  He joyfully and immediately got down on it and worked that boob from all angles, by the time he was done there was no traces of any clogs and I had a very happy baby with a full belly, lol.

I try to not nurse lying down in bed too often as he finds it so comfortable that 1 1/2 hours will pass and he will still be latched on alternating between sleeping and eating without ever letting go of the nipple.  I usually don’t mind (until my arm falls asleep and I want to turn over) but this leads to him overeating and spitting up the excess, he just loves milk so much that he doesn’t care if he’s full.

Now that I have completed the first 6 weeks all of my doctor imposed limitations have been lifted, yay!  I can now drive again.  I actually drove a few days early taking a quick trip to Redbox to return a DVD, as long as I make sure that the seatbelt doesn’t sit directly on the scar it’s all good.

I cried so hard when she relayed the look of betrayal that her boy gave her after he was handed back to her (both her and her boyfriend refused to be present to witness the procedure).  I looked down at my little boy and told him that I would never make him suffer unnecessarily and that if he cries it’s because he wants to or needs something from me, he responded by looking at me as if saying “darn right I cry because I want to”.

On lighter topics…  Shammy has developed a bit of a celebrity complex in a very cute way.  He treats me like a papparazzi by pushing my camera phone or digital camera away if I try to take a picture of him while holding him, it’s very funny.

We’re in the period of the 6 week growth spurt,  things have been hairy at times but nothing like previous growth spurts which makes me wonder if it has even started.  We did have 2 sleepless nights in a row and given his excellent night sleeping, it makes me think that we are indeed in it. Better now than next week when we take Shammy to his first overnight trip!

During those 2 sleepless days I came  to the realization that Shammy will either let me sleep at night or have an uninterrupted shower in the same 24 hour period but not both.  I vote for sleep though, I can always take a proper shower when Daddy Fox gets home from work.

Speaking of Daddy Fox coming home, the other day Shammy was relaxing on my chest and when my husband arrived I said “Daddy is home!” and he immediately lifted his head and turned to look in the direction of the door, awesome!

Another cute episode was when he was crying in Daddy’s arms and I said “do you want boobie?” and he immediately stopped crying, looked at me and made a sound that almost sounded like “huh?”.  I would not be surprised if his first word is boobie, lol.  It’s so cute to see him smile and get excited when I tell him “let’s go have boobie”.

As I prepare to return to work, I learned from HR that I will be using the recruiting manager’s office as my lactation room at work since they didn’t have any other place suitable for pumping.  It is hard to believe that in a workplace with hundreds of employees I am the only pumping mom, it’s actually very freaking sad. I am extremely grateful that the recruiting manager has agreed to let me share her space and will just need to work out scheduling logistics with her.

I do admit that I am afraid of the impact that returning to work will have on nursing, my biggest concern being the impact on my milk supply since I find that my body doesn’t respond to the pump as well as it responds to my baby.  I will surely miss having so many nursing sessions and will be eagerly looking forward and cherishing coming home to my baby and putting him to my breast.

In the meantime I struggle to find the time to pump, I’m so glad that I ordered a hands free pumping bra as it makes the sessions so much easier, I may look like a dairy cow but now I can pump, eat breakfast and check my e-mail at the same time!  I no longer have to choose between pumping and eating on the short breaks that Shammy gives me.

This weekend Shammy got to visit the local Pirate Fest, we used the stroller because the Ergo is too warm for the outdoors and he doesn’t always like the ring sling, besides, we didn’t want the sling to hide his super cute outfit.  I was very impressed and proud at how well we handled the crowds and noise.  He was winning over the wenches that were just swooning at seeing his cuteness wheeling by.

This is encouraging to know that he will probably do fine with the crowds on our trip next week.  It will be Shammy’s first trip to Disney out of the womb and we plan to bring the stroller again to not hide his cute outfit for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween.  I am excited about him meeting Mickey but am nervous about how he will handle the car ride.

He tends to be unpredictable in the car, sometimes he will love it and sometimes he will scream his lungs off and I don’t want the latter to happen during the long drive.  I’ve read that some moms are able to nurse while baby is strapped in the seat but I was looking at the setup while riding in the car with him last night and I would have to be a contortionist to accomplish that task.  Most parents that had challenges with baby crying in the car commented on how the problem was fixed by switching to a convertible car seat, I am very very tempted and have identified the model that I would buy but won’t be able to get it before this road trip, oh well, we’ll see..

Daddy Fox and I have started the planning of our equivalent to a Babptism/Christening.  We have chosen Saturday, October 30th as the date because it is Shammy’s 3 month birthday and a very powerful symbol of his development.  Details are still in their infancy but I look forward to it.

On the cloth diaper front, he is still not fond of pre-fold diapers so I use them in the morning during the period where he normally has 3 diaper changes in 1 hour since they don’t stay on him for very long.

I did purchase a couple of Bumgenius 4.0 cloth diapers to try out and I will say they rock!  Shammy loves them and Mommy loves them even more.  Unlike the Bumgenius 3.0 that I already have, these one have a better fit around the legs so he can wear them now instead of having to wait until he grows older to use them.  They’re pricey but totally worth the price since they’ll last through potty training so as soon as I go back to work I plan to buy more little by little.

I respect other parents decisions when it comes to their children but my heart breaks when they suffer horrible consequences after making an uninformed decision.  An online friend of mine that had her baby boy at the end of August took him to the doctor at 8 days old to get circumcised, everything seemed fine at first until she got home and baby wouldn’t stop bleeding, a frantic trip to the ER later and the baby needed reconstructive surgery because the circ had been botched and they cut too much.

What’s more sad is that it wasn’t after all of this heartache that she learned the facts and realized that there had been no point in spending $400 out of pocket for an unnecessary procedure because health insurance didn’t cover it and instead she got to witness her baby boy suffering through a week in NICU that negatively affected their breastfeeding relationship and compromised her milk supply.

It’s a foreskin, not a birth defect!