Day 7. The Breast Pump
Hello from Gil and theresa, and a big whaaa whaaaa whaaaa whaaaa from A-kel.
today we gave the little guy a sponge bath. He actually took it pretty well. its those diaper changes that hes not a fan of. HaTES the air on his business.
We love to hear the same advice or information from a large number of people. a consensus if you will. Nothings worse than getting a Yes you should to a No you shouldnt from two different doctors.
One thing that we have been hearing from everybody is that whenever he sleeps we should have music on and speak normally. This is very hard for us. we always catch ourselves whispering and then stopping, sighing and then resuming the conversation at normal decibel levels.
If the baby gets used to silence when he is sleeping, he will always need it. (thats the thinking anyway)
so we have been playing music while he sleeps and we also went out and bought a Dex Soundsleeper from B'r'US. tHE THING DRIVES ME NUTS! it might be soothing to theresa and baby but its like chinese water torture to me! with its repetitive womb setting or ocean. you know ,,,the usual. But who cares, im just the dad.
I have been having trouble sleeping. as tired as i am, i for some reason cant go to sleep in my bed. i thought it was the temp, cuzz we dropped it to 79 instead of 77 for baby,
but the next day we put it back and i still couldnt sleep. Then i thought it was the lights that we left on, so one night, we left different light on. that wasnt it. so one day we turned the noisemaker off and listened to my FAILSAFE mix cd entitled "ambient go to sleep mix" nothing. Then i thought, AHA! its theresas snoring. She has started to snore since the pregnancy. but i went to bed before her, and still!
oh, we finished the Davinci code! we were kinda sad it was over actually, wed been reading it for 9 months.
whats weird though, is that i can go to sleep if i sleep on the floor. so i have concluded that for whatever reason it is, i cant sleep in the bed.
Akello sleeps in the moses basket next to the bed on THeresas side. iM wondering if maybe its a reflex that i have to be closer to the baby. but whats funny, is that this happens only at night. when i sleep during the day, no problem.
So getting back to the music. Akello was going to sleep and Theresa put on this CD called "On a starry night"
It is an awesome cd!
Theresa said she used it at naptime at a school she used to work at and said she loved it. I had just started to rock lil' kello to sleep when she played the first song. As soon as that song started playing i fell in love with it immediatly. i began to imagine what a perfect song this would make for a DVD highlighting akello's first days with the video and pictures that i took in the hospital. I started editing the whole thing in my head, how i would start it...etc. And thats when i lost it. I was moved to tears. uncuntrolable tears of thankfulness and joy. The song had triggered it in me. I just held him in my arms and quietly cried all over his blanket. And everytime i hear the song, i get teary-eyed.
I am surprised that it took this long. I thought i would be crying the first day! but not until now. The funny thing was, i went over to see who sang the song on the cd, because it was a compilation disc. and it was none other than Bobby Mcferrin.
yep. beleive it. the song is called common threads.
look at this picture. This is how it is, our bed is strewn with baby books. Theresa is constantly reading. constantly. and she usually will read a passage out loud for me to hear.
I have gotten rid of all my usual reading material (DWR catalog) and replaced it with
The happiest baby on the block. its a great book.
Theresa mostly reads Baby 411 (thanks Mi!) This book is awesome.
In other news, the concrete patio is now completed phase one!!!!!!
lets take a walk shall we...
Now the plan is to build a small railing out of the same material used for the fence.
it will be cedar slats. alternating between 6 inch and 4 inch slats laid horizontally. with a top cap just like the fence, for your drink to sit on. the fence will only be about 2 feet high. THis is phase 2. Phase 3 will then include a 2 foot gravel bed in front of the patio with some plants and landscape lighting. as shown in this crude artists rendition sans lighting and gravel.
ALSO! I took a picture of the stain on the fence.
this is before, the natuaral cedar
and after, the "natural cedar" colored stain and waterproofer
these pics were taken at different times of day so to show you the real comparison
check out this pic. i went ahead and stained the top and bottom of the fence just for fun in the interim. i will ultimatly stain it all the darker color as soon as i get a chance.
ok. on to the breast pump. today we went to go see a lactation consultant about a cracked nipple! Pooor Theresa has had a bit of a time and all the different advice is really begining to frustrate.
we were at her office forevor. ill make this short. She had years of training and all that, but she sucked. She gave theresa an ointment to use to heal and said to quit using lanolin, and that you had to wash off the nipple b4 each feeding. (kinda lame)
and then she sold us on these discs to put on the nipple to keep anything from touching it.
theresa - "arent you supposed to let your nipples breath? and air dry?
lact consult - "yes, thats what the hole are for"
chaching!!!
anyway so we also buy a brest pump from her and she had a great price on them. we wanted a breast pump, because A. manual ones suck (poorly) and B. whos got the time!
but seriously, T, can express some milk and then store it, and then i can handle the feedings when i get home from work.
If any of yall want to contribute to the breast pump fund, be my guest. they are not cheap, 225! but well worth it.
what sucks is that Michelle was going to let Theresa use hers, but we found out through multiple people that single user breast pumps are not to be shared!! (for health reasons)
so dont go buying one off of ebay.
OH THE NIPPLE GAURDS
so we get home and we use the ointment and the nipple gaurds. well for one, theresa looks at the ointment and im serius when i say that it said.."WARNING !! KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN, TOXIC IF SWALLOWED!!
Now theresa was using lanolin wich is totally ok for the kid to touch and you didnt have to rinse it off everytime you breastfed, wich HELLO is like every hour to 3 hours. Theresa flipped. almost drove back over there. Also the nipple gaurds. so you have this wet nipple thats usually leaking a few drops of milk, and you are supposed to sandwich this nipple shieild between the nipple and the maternity bra...and its supposed to keep dry because of the 3 little holes in it???
puuuhhhlease.
learning.....learning....
today we gave the little guy a sponge bath. He actually took it pretty well. its those diaper changes that hes not a fan of. HaTES the air on his business.
We love to hear the same advice or information from a large number of people. a consensus if you will. Nothings worse than getting a Yes you should to a No you shouldnt from two different doctors.
One thing that we have been hearing from everybody is that whenever he sleeps we should have music on and speak normally. This is very hard for us. we always catch ourselves whispering and then stopping, sighing and then resuming the conversation at normal decibel levels.
If the baby gets used to silence when he is sleeping, he will always need it. (thats the thinking anyway)
so we have been playing music while he sleeps and we also went out and bought a Dex Soundsleeper from B'r'US. tHE THING DRIVES ME NUTS! it might be soothing to theresa and baby but its like chinese water torture to me! with its repetitive womb setting or ocean. you know ,,,the usual. But who cares, im just the dad.
I have been having trouble sleeping. as tired as i am, i for some reason cant go to sleep in my bed. i thought it was the temp, cuzz we dropped it to 79 instead of 77 for baby,
but the next day we put it back and i still couldnt sleep. Then i thought it was the lights that we left on, so one night, we left different light on. that wasnt it. so one day we turned the noisemaker off and listened to my FAILSAFE mix cd entitled "ambient go to sleep mix" nothing. Then i thought, AHA! its theresas snoring. She has started to snore since the pregnancy. but i went to bed before her, and still!
oh, we finished the Davinci code! we were kinda sad it was over actually, wed been reading it for 9 months.
whats weird though, is that i can go to sleep if i sleep on the floor. so i have concluded that for whatever reason it is, i cant sleep in the bed.
Akello sleeps in the moses basket next to the bed on THeresas side. iM wondering if maybe its a reflex that i have to be closer to the baby. but whats funny, is that this happens only at night. when i sleep during the day, no problem.
So getting back to the music. Akello was going to sleep and Theresa put on this CD called "On a starry night"
It is an awesome cd!
Theresa said she used it at naptime at a school she used to work at and said she loved it. I had just started to rock lil' kello to sleep when she played the first song. As soon as that song started playing i fell in love with it immediatly. i began to imagine what a perfect song this would make for a DVD highlighting akello's first days with the video and pictures that i took in the hospital. I started editing the whole thing in my head, how i would start it...etc. And thats when i lost it. I was moved to tears. uncuntrolable tears of thankfulness and joy. The song had triggered it in me. I just held him in my arms and quietly cried all over his blanket. And everytime i hear the song, i get teary-eyed.
I am surprised that it took this long. I thought i would be crying the first day! but not until now. The funny thing was, i went over to see who sang the song on the cd, because it was a compilation disc. and it was none other than Bobby Mcferrin.
yep. beleive it. the song is called common threads.
look at this picture. This is how it is, our bed is strewn with baby books. Theresa is constantly reading. constantly. and she usually will read a passage out loud for me to hear.
I have gotten rid of all my usual reading material (DWR catalog) and replaced it with
The happiest baby on the block. its a great book.
Theresa mostly reads Baby 411 (thanks Mi!) This book is awesome.
In other news, the concrete patio is now completed phase one!!!!!!
lets take a walk shall we...
Now the plan is to build a small railing out of the same material used for the fence.
it will be cedar slats. alternating between 6 inch and 4 inch slats laid horizontally. with a top cap just like the fence, for your drink to sit on. the fence will only be about 2 feet high. THis is phase 2. Phase 3 will then include a 2 foot gravel bed in front of the patio with some plants and landscape lighting. as shown in this crude artists rendition sans lighting and gravel.
ALSO! I took a picture of the stain on the fence.
this is before, the natuaral cedar
and after, the "natural cedar" colored stain and waterproofer
these pics were taken at different times of day so to show you the real comparison
check out this pic. i went ahead and stained the top and bottom of the fence just for fun in the interim. i will ultimatly stain it all the darker color as soon as i get a chance.
ok. on to the breast pump. today we went to go see a lactation consultant about a cracked nipple! Pooor Theresa has had a bit of a time and all the different advice is really begining to frustrate.
we were at her office forevor. ill make this short. She had years of training and all that, but she sucked. She gave theresa an ointment to use to heal and said to quit using lanolin, and that you had to wash off the nipple b4 each feeding. (kinda lame)
and then she sold us on these discs to put on the nipple to keep anything from touching it.
theresa - "arent you supposed to let your nipples breath? and air dry?
lact consult - "yes, thats what the hole are for"
chaching!!!
anyway so we also buy a brest pump from her and she had a great price on them. we wanted a breast pump, because A. manual ones suck (poorly) and B. whos got the time!
but seriously, T, can express some milk and then store it, and then i can handle the feedings when i get home from work.
If any of yall want to contribute to the breast pump fund, be my guest. they are not cheap, 225! but well worth it.
what sucks is that Michelle was going to let Theresa use hers, but we found out through multiple people that single user breast pumps are not to be shared!! (for health reasons)
so dont go buying one off of ebay.
OH THE NIPPLE GAURDS
so we get home and we use the ointment and the nipple gaurds. well for one, theresa looks at the ointment and im serius when i say that it said.."WARNING !! KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN, TOXIC IF SWALLOWED!!
Now theresa was using lanolin wich is totally ok for the kid to touch and you didnt have to rinse it off everytime you breastfed, wich HELLO is like every hour to 3 hours. Theresa flipped. almost drove back over there. Also the nipple gaurds. so you have this wet nipple thats usually leaking a few drops of milk, and you are supposed to sandwich this nipple shieild between the nipple and the maternity bra...and its supposed to keep dry because of the 3 little holes in it???
puuuhhhlease.
learning.....learning....
posted by THE MODERN DAD at 31.8.06
1 Comments:
Okay, Total Stranger here (TS for short) but the best advice I got when Baby V was wee (she's 11 mos now) is this:
Do what works for you.
The books contradict each other. Even the best pediatrician is only making educated guesses. Your baby will teach you how to parent him the way he needs to be parented.
You're gonna screw up. A lot. That's how we learn.
If playing music while he's sleeping drives you nuts, turn it OFF! If he is a light sleeper, he will be a light sleeper no matter what you do. If he's a snooze-o-rama kid, you don't have to do any "tricks" to help that along.
Pray. Do your best. Trust the universe (and yourselves).
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