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Why I Breastfeed

6 1/2 weeks into Aedan's life and I still have to remind myself on a daily basis why breastfeeding him is the right thing for us.  So I thought I would blog about it to help me with my goal of doing it as long as I can.  Every week or so I set a new goal.  My current short-term goal is 2 months.  My long-term goal is to do it until I go back to work.

Why I breastfeed:
1.  We already know Aedan has a sensitive stomach, breastmilk is formulated to be the best thing for him, as long as I avoid dairy.  I worry that even hypoallergenic formula will be tough on his stomach.

2. It's free!  (sort-of)  Formula, especially hypoallergenic, is expensive.  I'm cheap.  I say it's only sort-of free because I've invested in nursing bras, tank-tops, remedies for soreness early on...and a pump.  But at least the pump was an investment I made 3 years ago.

3. Attempt to keep Aedan healthier.  Theoretically since my breastmilk has my immunities, it should give Aedan a stronger immune system.  Brody was constantly sick (as are most daycare kids) the first couple years, so I am trying to give Aedan the best shot possible.  Do I really think that formula-fed kids can't be just as healthy?  No.  But it's worth a shot!

4. It is easier, when we're at home.  No bottles, no powder to mix, and it's always in stock!  Especially in the middle of the night when I'm too sleep deprived to make bottles.

Why I struggle with breastfeeding:
1.  It's not easy, when I'm not at home.  I can walk through Target feeding Aedan a bottle, I can't however walk and breastfeed.  I know some moms can (by using a sling), but I'm not that coordinated (ha!).  I've gotten over my fear of nursing in public and I just use a cover to keep everything hidden.  If I didn't do this, I'd never get out of the house and then I'd really go crazy.  But it still requires me to sit down for anywhere from 20-40 minutes depending on how slow Aedan wants to eat that day.

2.  The pump.  I hate the pump.  At the end of the day, I'm going back to work and ideally I would pump to keep up his breastmilk.  So I started pumping to get him used to the bottle and to start building extra.  Unfortunately, I'm learning that I can only pump about half of what he eats.  So, while I'm still building an extra stash, when I give him a bottle, I lose out.  He eats 3-4oz, I pump 1.5-2oz.  So as much as giving him a bottle is great and gives me a break, I lose out.  Which means less time away from the baby, which means less time with Brody and less alone time with the hubs.

3. DAIRY!  Have I ever mentioned how much I love milk, and cheese, and milk chocolate and ice cream?  Yum...

Above all, I LOVE those cute squishy cheeks!

Aedan is 6 Weeks

On our way to 2 months!  Aedan is more alert, has better neck control and is smiling! 

He's eating and growing like crazy.  I don't know how much he weighs, but he's wearing some 3-6 month sleepers and looks pretty chunky in a lot of his 3 month clothes.  I can't believe how big he's getting!  He's growing so much faster than Brody, just another one of the differences we're going to see with these two. 

He's an amazing sleeper.  We are so lucky, as he averages 5-8 hours each night.  After the 8 hours nights, I feel great!  It's so nice.  Then a 5 hour night sneaks up on us...but I really can't complain. 

We haven't introduced any formula at this point but he's getting about 1 bottle of pumped milk each night to get him used to the bottle.  He's doing it pretty well with it, but still doesn't love his pacifier.

The past two weeks, Aedan had his first Halloween, met a few of my friends he hasn't seen yet, and spent his first few hours away from his parents.


Here's a photo recap since his 1 month checkup:

Happy Halloween!

 

1 month dr appointment

Aedan's 1 month check-up was yesterday and overall it was good, but we did have a list of things of things to review with him.

As I mentioned in his 1 month post, he weighs 10lbs 11.5oz and is almost 23 inches.  That's almost 1 pound gained since his 2 week appointment.  He also weighs more than Brody did at a month by 10oz.  My little chunker!

Other items covered:

1. Dairy Allergy - We went over all the symptoms we saw from Aedan once I introduced a little cheese into my diet.  The pediatrician agreed that it sounded like dairy allergy, though he was as surprised as us that Aedan reacted as quickly as he did.  He was sympathetic to how annoying not eating dairy is, but re-iterated that as long as I can hang in there, breastfeeding is the best thing for Aedan right now.  However, when/if we need formula, Nutramigen is our next step.  It's hypoallergenic formula that worked great for Brody, so hopefully it would work just as well for Aedan when the time comes.

2. Reflux - It's pretty typical for babies to have reflux because they're systems are still immature.  I described the reflux-type symptoms I was seeing from Aedan to get his advice if we should do anything.  Aedan arches his back almost everytime he's done eating, he grunts when he lays down after eating and it often sounds like it is bothering him, though he doesn't scream his head off or anything.  I also hear him spitting-up, but it just sits in the back of his throat and he gags on it a little.  This always freaks me out, so while I know he's okay, it worries me.  So he prescibed zantac and we'll give it a try for a month and see how it goes.

3. Other - Second Hepatitis shot (cried for a second and then quickly got over it), next appointment at 2 months (where he'll get a lot more shots), and quick reminder that Brody needs his flu shot.  Overall a good appointment and hoping that the medicine will make Aedan more comfortable. 

Aedan is 1 month old

Aedan is 1 month old today! Can you say, time flies when you're having fun? Or when you're too sleep-deprived to know what day it is...











Aedan's first month was actually a lot easier than Brody's.  It helps that I knew what to expect, what to worry about and was a lot more patient with breastfeeding.  It doesn't hurt that Aedan is sleeping better than Brody already.

He's a great sleeper.  Once we let him sleep on his own he started off with 3-4 hour stretches.  In the last week, he's slept 7 hours for 3 nights and 8 hours last night.  I am getting so spoiled!  Brody was a great sleeper and even he didn't sleep for 7 hours until 6-7 weeks old.  He's amazing.

Aedan weighs 10lbs 11.5oz and is almost 23 inches.  He always seems so much longer than they say he is, but I think it's just the way he's built.  His torso is very long.  He's in the 90th percentile for height, 75th for weight and 50-75th for his head.  Definitely a big kid, which is a huge relief that we're not constantly worrying about his size.  He's fitting best in size 1 diapers and 0-3 month clothes.  Some of them are getting tight though, so we may end up in 3-6 month clothes sooner than we did with Brody.

In the last week or so, Aedan has found his voice. He's practicing oohing and aahing. It's adorable. Much better than the grunting I normally hear from him. He has great facial expressions, that are practically identical to Brody's baby faces, so that's pretty cute. I'm enjoying him being awake more often during the day and we're using it to do some tummy-time. It can be kind of quiet when the baby sleeps all day!

Aedan gets out of the house fairly often, since I have a hard time staying home.  On the fun side, he's been to a few birthday parties and a pumpkin farm.  He's also been out shopping more times than I can count.  When my very tolerant husband started asking what I was going to Target for, again, I realized I probably go a little too much.  But there's always something you need, right?!?

Who Does Aedan Look Like?

My personal opinion? Newborns look nothing like what they'll look like as they get older. Brody looks so different from when he was a baby. So whenever anyone analyzes Aedan, saying, "oh he looks just like Jason!" or 'Wow, he really looks like you!" I just take it with a grain of salt, because who knows how he will look when he gets older. But, one thing is for certain...

He is definitely a spitting image of his brother. I didn't realize it at first, but now I totally think he is identical to Brody as a baby.  Which of course makes me think that they'll end up looking very similar as toddlers as well.




Aedan 5 days

Brody 3 days old

Aedan 5 days



Brody 4 days

Brody 3 weeks



Aedan 3 weeks



3 Weeks

Aedan:

Sleeping: He's a pretty good sleeper, but still wakes up every 3 - 3.5 hours throughout the night. Once, he slept for 5.5 hours, of which, I got 4.5 hours of sleep because I was dumb enough to stay up for an hour reading a book. I'm hoping to get another one of those soon!






Eating: This totally depends on the day, but on a good day, he eats every 2-3 hours during the day and 3-4 hours at night. Some days though he eats every hour. It's Aedan's world and I'm just living in it.

So, now that Aedan is up to his birth weight and growing so well, I thought I would introduce small amounts of dairy into my diet. I thought I would start with a piece of cheese here and there. Then I had pizza one day for lunch. First, he got fussier, but I wasn't sure if that was due to growth spurts. Then, we noticed changes in his diaper. But that could have been due to his cold. Then I found blood in the diaper. This is exactly what tipped us off to the dairy allergy with Brody, so alas, I'm finding history repeating itself. The good thing is that we figured it out a little earlier this time. The bad thing is, I've been dairy free for almost 5 weeks and I hate it. Apparently we eat a lot more cheese and dairy in this house than I thought! However, the switch to formula will be even more annoying, since we'll likely have to start with hypoallergenic. So back to dairy-free I go!

Development: Aedan is more and more attentive every day. Jason swears that he "smiles" at him / recognizes him. I don't doubt that, I know he recognizes his voice from even before he was born, but I'm thinking he's exaggerating the smiling part. :)



Exciting night in the Johnson household

We haven't spent a ton of time on tummy-time, but his neck is pretty strong when we lay him on our chests. We'll be working on getting him in his playmat more and more.

Brody:
 Big-Brother is still adjusting.  I don't expect him to accept the change quickly (I know I don't react well to change), so we'll continue to give him more time.  But we've had good days and bad days.  Still working on getting more good days than bad, but the rainy weekend didn't really help with that either.

2 Week Check-Up

Today we had Aedan's 2 week check-up.  The most important part of the appointment was finding out if he gained his birthweight back.  We struggled with Brody gaining weight, so I've been worried constantly about how often he's eating and if he's growing.  But like the many differences between my two pregnancies, they are obviously different children and will have many differences.

The funny thing is, you'd think we've been through this before and we wouldn't have many questions for the pediatrician...yet, I had a list of them.  I don't think you ever become an expert at this!

First, he's at 9lbs 13oz.  Woohoo!  That's up 1 lb in less than two weeks (he went down to 8lbs 13.5oz at 4 days).  He's 22.5 inches long.  That's the same length as Brody at 2 weeks but more than a pound bigger than he was.  Aedan's going to be my little chunky monkey and I love it.  I don't know if giving up dairy helped him gain weight (he doesn't spit-up nearly what Brody did), but if it has, it's totally worth it.  Next, I plan to phase in small amounts of dairy and see if it affects him.  Also, I can stop waking him up in the middle of the night for feedings.  I'm so sick of hearing my alarm at 1am and then trying to convince a sleeping baby to eat, so I am very excited about that!

Then we went through our list of questions/concerns:
1. Aedan has a cold.  Ick.  2 weeks old.  We've been monitoring his temp and he isn't running a fever.  The doc listened to his lungs and has no concerns.  Just need to keep up what we're doing (clearing his nose, humidifier, etc.), and we're pretty much experts at colds by now having Brody in daycare.  It does freak me out when Aedan starts gasping for air because he's so stuffed up, but we just have to keep doing what we're doing and wait it out.  Jason had a cold last week and managed to infect the whole household.  So aside from Aedan having a cold, Brody & I got it as well.  Not fun. 

2. Aedan's hearing.  Tuesday, we took him to the hospital to repeat the hearing test they do when he's first born.  His left ear failed on day 2, but since a lot of times this is due to fluid from birth, they just re-test to determine if it's an issue.  Happy to report that he passed with flying colors.

3. Aedan's eyes.  His right eye keeps turning inward, making him look cross-eyed at times.  The doc says this is totally normal for 2 weeks, but if it keeps up by 1 month we'll take a closer eye on it.

4. Umbilical cord.  It fell off last week, but still bleeds from time to time.  Again, it's apparently normal and said it actually looks really good.

Overall a good check-up!  We head back at 1 month, when he'll have to get more vaccines, poor guy.

Worn out from the appointment, napping in his carseat

2 Weeks

2 Weeks Old

Aedan:
The very exciting life of a 2 week old.  Aedan is eating every 2-3 hours during the day and 3-3 1/2 hours at night.  He's a good sleeper right now, but I'm still waking him at night to eat until he's back to his birth weight.  His 2 week appointment is on Weds and I'm just praying that he's surpassed 9.5lbs so we can let him sleep on his own.  According to our home-scale this morning, he's actually over 10 lbs, but since it's not a very scientific way of weighing him, we'll see what the pediatrician says!

After eating every hour all evening the other night, I tried letting him wake on his own.  4 hours later he was still sleep and I felt bad, so I woke him up.  Of course once he'll be allowed to sleep as long as he wants, I'm sure he'll start waking every 3 hours.

This week, Aedan also got his newborn photos taken.  He did an awful job, but we had a great photographer who was very patient with him.  Once we get more pictures back, I'll blog about our experience.  Here is one that turned out pretty cute.

 



He's becoming more attentive, but still sleeps a lot during the day.  We've pulled out the playmat to give him some tummy-time when he is awake.  We've also introduced the swing, which he seems to like.  He watches the mobile above the swing, which I don't remember Brody paying any attention to until he was older.  It's pretty cute.



Brody:

He loves his baby brother.  It's clear that he realizes he's not getting as much attention as he used to and has been acting out a little more.  The good thing is, he's not taking it out on Aedan.  He still wants to hug him and give him kisses.  Our biggest argument about Aedan is when Brody gets mad that we won't let him carry his brother. 

Reading a book to his brother

Newborn photo shoot

Me:

Nothing much here.  I'm feeling well, just tired.  A couple of weeks of only sleeping 2-3 hours at a time, eventually catches up with you.  However, it's been fairly manageable and Jason is still being a huge help with Brody.  The weekends are easier to take naps because I know Jason is around to watch Aedan while I'm sleeping.  Even though he's sleeping, sometimes I still worry about him.  At least at night I'm getting 6-8 hours of sleep, even if it isn't consecutive sleep.



Potty Party

So you've never heard of a potty party?!?  I can't imagine why...

Brody's daycare teachers throw a "potty party" for each kid that is deemed "potty-trained."  Ever since we started the potty training journey, Brody has been talking about his potty-party.  The great thing is, when the other kids at daycare have one, it's incentive for the others to have one. 

Finally, we seemed to accomplish small success in going both pee and poop in the toilet.  #2 took a little (lot) bit longer, but we eventually got to the point where he did it, voluntarily, on his own.  Once at "home" (we were actually out to dinner @ BW3s...who knew that's where he would decide to go!) and then again at daycare the next day.  So, his teachers promised him that if he keeps his underwear clean for one more week, then he gets his party.

One week and a few days later, he had his potty party.  So what do you do at a potty party?  Well...

First, you put underwear on your head:

Second, Brody gets to pick the snack (Oranges) and flavor of milk (Strawberry).  And his teacher got him a balloon.



Then, your parents come, and you get to make them wear underwear on their heads.   

Brody has been talking for months about how he wants his brother to come to his potty party.  At first we were unsure if Aedan was coming in utero or in person.  But at 8 days old, Aedan showed up to the potty party.  He did not, however, wear underwear on his head.

 

 As silly as it seems, it was important for Brody to be recognized as much as possible for being potty trained.  We've already had one minor set-back, but he's come a long way in the last few months.  We're very proud of him.