The best laid plans...

So my plan below hasn't quite worked, he definatley needs the sheilds...SO I am going to try and get my supply adjusted (with the help of Karen the LC) so the pumping goes bye bye. Also I am going to truly give up dairy and soy for two weeks, I had already given up milk, cheese, ice cream, yogurt etc. but I wasn't thinking about reading lables for things like crackers. So I am going to give that a whirl. I say that now with some confidence, but that might be because I just slept the most in one night in 6 weeks. I don't know what happened but I fed Rece at 9:45 last night and not again until 3:30 this morning and then I put him back down and he is still sleeping at 7:30, why I am I not sleeping you might ask? Because I had to get up to pump because I am in pain. See why I want the pumping to go away! Jeremy's mom and dad arrive today for the weekend (until Tuesday) I plan on taking lots and lots and lots of naps...

Update- B-feeding

I have decided that the only way I can survive this and continue to make breastfeeding work is to eliminate at least some of the "steps" that are now involved AND involve Jeremy more. I have let this control me and not being in control is not one of my strong suits, SO the plan is - since I already have to pump to get rid of the watery milk I am just going to pump a little more so that the flow is reduced enough to toss the shields that I was having to use. They suck and they are incredibly frustrating and are not a natural part of the process. I also found out that I can give Rece the probiotics in two doses of 1/2 tsp rather than splitting it up before several feedings, again trying to remove all the garbage from this supposedly "simple" process. Finally, I am going to let Jeremy take the 2 am (or 3 or 4, whenever it ends up being) feeding with bottle a few nights a week so that I can get more sleep. I tried to do this by myself because obviously I am the only one that can actually feed him, but it is too much for me at this point.

Thanks to all the mommies out there for their comments and encouragement on the blog and facebook. I keep telling myself, it must get better, or we would all be only children....

On some positive notes, my parents visited this past weekend and that was a huge help and I will post pics soon. And I have an appt on Wed afternoon with a baby massuse, recomended by my lactation consultant, who comes to my house and will show me how to massage Mr. Rece. Hopefully that will be worth while, I am looking forward to it.

When is it supposed to get easier???

We have had a rough week at the Rellinger household in State College. Rece and I are having major issues with breastfeeding and to make matters worse we are now tracing back some of the issues all the way to my labor/delivery. Rece has been in a lot of pain with gas, his bowel movements are horrible and he started refluxing this week leading to a prescription to relive the pain in his esophagus. We are also finding we have multiple causes/issues to address. Because I was leaking fluid and was induced I was on Antibiotics for 24 hours during my labor, then a week after I came home I was on antibiotics for a week due to a clogged duct. All of this apparently severely impacted the good bacteria in Rece's system. SO now that is contributing to his horrible digestion. So now I have to give him infant probotics 3 times a day to help build his natural bacteria back up. Also contributing to his gassiness is that I am apparently Hyper Lactating - the lactation consultant said that I am producing enough for twins - lucky me. This of course means that he is getting only the watery fore milk at his feedings which is probably the #1 cause of his horrible gassiness etc. because of the quick way it forces itself through his digestive tract. It also leads him to want to nurse all the time because he isn't getting satisfied, when he isn't satisfied he doesn't sleep, when he doesn't sleep I don't sleep, when I don't sleep I want to scream....good times. The hyperlactation also means that the milk basically floods him which makes him gag and choke and now he is starting to refuse to nurse because between that and the gas he has all the time, he is in pain when he feeds. With all of this I am now managing about 5 different solutions to all of these issues that will "start to help" in anywhere between 3-10 days depending on the "solution" and the issue we are trying to solve. OH! And in the meantime I am not eating dairy so that I don't make the gassiness worse. Not eating dairy really sucks. The timeline on my breastfeeding days may be numbered if we can't get things figured out for him soon...I don't feel that either of us are benefiting at this point...

1 Month Old & St Patty's Day

Well after a four or five days of a lot of nursing and not a lot of sleep, last night miraculously he went 4+ hours at a crack, thank goodness. Here are a couple of 1 month pics and St. Patty's day.

Update - Bob is gone

So Bob finally fell off, thank god. All looks well underneath. And low and behold the last remaining diaper rash spot isn't diaper rash at all but rather a diaper burn...Super. So we moved into a bigger diaper,the super sensitive pampers swaddlers to be exact, and we have to make sure the spot is constantly lubed so it will heal. Problem is because the skin is healing its texture makes it slick and nothing will stick, I think I have bought every diaper ointment in the store, and today the doctor said - "try regular old Vaseline" - so I bought some, a whopping $1.99, if this works I will have a good laugh since I now own enough diaper ointment and cream to create a butt store of sorts. When at the dr. for the diaper rash check today we weighed Mr. Rece and he is up to 8lbs 6oz, so that means he has gained about a pound and a half in two weeks. Yea!
As promised here are a couple of my favorite pics that cousin Carly took this past weekend. Not included are the ones I put in the birth announcements, to be arriving in a mail box near you very soon.

First Ride in the Stroller

We had great weather this past weekend and so we took the opportunity to take Rece out in the stroller. He slept, so I guess he liked it. His Diaper rash is getting better I guess, there is still one stubborn area that is shrinking more slowly. "Bob" his umbilical cord stump is STILL hanging on by a thread and it grosses me out thoroughly. I was fine with it until it started to move and flop in and out of its home, not nice...
Cousin Carly came to see us from NJ this weekend and took lots of pictures of Mr. Rece for his birth announcements. I will post some of those soon. She also got to go with us on our inaugural stroller ride.
Little man is doing pretty well, I have gotten him to sleep in 4 hour stints at night for about the last week and we also moved him into his crib from the bassinet with no issue. He has developed some infant acne, I feel so bad since it is probably my hormones in utero that caused it, hopefully it will clear up soon. Here are a few pics of our weekend milestones.

While I have a minute

Pics from Grandma & Grandpa Rellinger's visit!

Also Rece's well baby visit went great the Dr. said that he is off to a great start. He was 7 lbs 1 oz. Of course today, he developed a red bottom, I am not sure if it is from his constant poopy diapers (he has one at every diaper change) or it might be yeast. I am going to see how it looks tomorrow after the suggested at home treatment from the pediatrician and then if it's not looking better we might be off for another visit sooner rather than later.

A few more pics

Here are a few more pics from last weekend when my mom and dad visited. I am about a week behind these days ;-) Hopefully I will get the pics from this weekend with Steve and Lynn posted quicker!

Things are going pretty good,I was most worried about lack of sleep and as I predicted that is pretty much the worst part. I have never been good without sleep,but I think I am coping pretty well so far, I know there are several weeks to come of the no-schedule schedule so I am just going to try and roll with the punches.

Tomorrow I take Rece to the pediatrician for his two week visit, and I am taking him by myself...gulp...should be interesting. Wish me luck!