Baby Needs

Here I am at 7 weeks postpartum!

I’m not ready to publish our birth story quite yet, but I would like to talk about our bouncing baby girl. Ashni is cuddly and adorable and I love her more every day. Yes, life is different and has brought a whole host of challenges, but I can’t imagine going back to how things were before. It’s weird, I still want to do fun and crazy things, but at the same time, I don’t want to be apart from my baby too long. We’re still adjusting and trying to find some balance, but we’ll figure things out!

Cake for Ashni on her 1 month birthday

All Clean!

Luckily, taking care of little Ashni is getting easier as we get to know her better. She doesn’t cry a whole lot, but when she does, Chris and I can usually figure out what she needs pretty quickly. Whether it’s hunger, boredom, gas pains, tiredness, etc., the same issues tend to come up around the same time each day and can be taken care of before she gets upset. For those times when we can’t determine why she’s being fussy, the 5 S’s (Swaddling, Side/Stomach Position, Swinging, Shushing, Sucking) typically get her to calm down in no time. 

Ashni’s feedings are now shorter (can be done in 15 minutes) and her diaper changes are less frequent. I must admit we were a bit concerned when she turned 4 weeks old and went from 4-6 bowel movements in one day to none the next day, but apparently that’s normal in breastfed infants. We feel like she’s a ticking time bomb now though – she stores things up and has a blowout once every few days. We were pretty astounded the first time it happened. During the end of a nursing session, in the span of just a minute, she filled a clean diaper beyond capacity. The mess extended into her shirt, up her back, and to her neck. We’ve had a few more fun recurrences since then, but luckily they’ve all been at home. Needless to say, we now keep some clean baby outfits in the car just in case. 

If we have to deal with it, so do you!

Nighttimes have also gotten a little more manageable for us. Ashni can usually go all night in just one diaper and breastfeeding is no longer painful for me. Also, now that my incision is more healed, lying on my side to nurse in bed is a lot easier, so I can get more sleep. I still haven’t had a full night of rest though thanks to Ashni’s constant grunting and flailing. Chris will slip into the guest room for uninterrupted sleep before work (I stopped needing Chris’s assistance with night feedings/changes at 3 weeks), but we’re not thrilled with that arrangement. I’m hoping we can work out a better nighttime plan soon. There were a few nights last week when Ashni was quiet and went half the night without needing to feed, but other nights, she was incredibly fussy and had a hard time sleeping soundly. We’ve read lots of conflicting information about nighttime parenting and sleep training, though, so we’re just riding it out. A lot of books talk about scheduled feedings and strict bedtimes, but that would really limit our ability to be spontaneous and hang out with friends. Also, recent research discourages scheduled feedings and recommends nursing on demand whenever baby is hungry, and I’m having a hard time straying from that advice. Besides, it’s pretty unbearable for me to let her cry when I know that nursing will make it all better. So ultimately we’ll play it by ear and do whatever needs to be done to keep us all happy. 

Hopefully this will become a more frequent occurrence... 

And here’s a video of a happy daddy playing with a happy baby girl!