I started this post on May 11 and am just now getting back to it on May 26! Wow how the time flies!
It's been a difficult but exciting few weeks. Danny is doing more and more everyday and it's so fun to watch him develop. He is making good solid eye contact now and his head and neck seem to be very strong. We are trying to do tummy time everyday and he seems to like it. He's still not real interested in any toys. He'd rather stare at the things around him. One of his favorite places in the house seems to be the hallway. When we walk through there his eyes get big and he looks around.
Weeks 5 and into 6 were perhaps the most difficult weeks yet. But if you are paying attention to the date on this, you'll realize that we are now in week 7 and things are looking up. Week six brought a lot of fussiness. Not real sure why. Could be a growth spurt, who knows. But we spent lots of sleepless nights up trying to figure out what was going on with our little guy. Not much seemed to make him happy. He seemed to get overtired in the evenings and then would resist sleep. Also he wasn't napping well. He would sleep 20 minutes to 2 hours at the most. Also during week 6 we went back to the lactation consultant for a weight check and to our surprise our little premature son was weighing in at a big 8 pounds 1o ounces! Just two weeks before that he was 7 pounds 4 ounces. I still can't believe that weight gain! Yay!
Then something happened. On week 6 day 3 he decided to sleep through the night! Now it's not the sleep through the night kind of thing that I'm accustomed to. The professionals call "sleeping through the night" a 5 hour stretch or more for newborns. He slept 5 hours that night! I think what happened is that we learned the art of the swaddle. My friend, my wonderful friend, came over that day and showed me her swaddle stuff and I think it works! Because since then, he has been sleeping for a 5-6 hour stretch every night! Last night he slept from 11pm-5am!
Now while this sounds great and before you go high-fiving me on all the sleep I'm now getting, wait a second. For some reason, I can't sleep more than a 3 hour stretch, if that, at a time. WTF? Guess who has trained me on their sleep pattern? *looks over at Danny* When I do lay down to go to sleep, my mind is filled with, well I don't even know what. But I just can't get to sleep. I'm exhuasted and I can't sleep and I have the opportunity to sleep. In any case, I'm thrilled that Danny is getting all this sleep. In addition to his lovely sleep at night, he's also sleeping 2-3 hours during the day for naps. It's great!
But of course, this new found lovely sleep has now led me to more worries. These worries are about my supply. I'm still breastfeeding and it seems to be going well (note big weight gain cited above). In fact, today marks the end of the 3rd day of not using a nipple shield. But now with his increased sleep, he is going longer between feedings and I'm worried about maintaining my supply. I went from having an oversupply to being worried about having enough.
In addition to these worries thoughts about work are also filling my mind. I'm just not sure what is going to happen. There are pros (well one or two, not many) and cons to staying in my current position and to looking elsewhere. I'm just hoping that the perfect opportunity will just fall into my lap and I won't have to think too hard about it. Of course, I'd love to figure out a way to stay at home, not go back to work and still have an income..hmmmm...if anyone else figures it out, please let me know.
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