10 Things I Love about You...

You know when you just have too much to report back on that the more you wait the more news you store up until eventually it becomes too scary to blog because of the amount of time you may end up on the computer? Yes well this is me so instead of reporting back on everything I will list the 10 things I love most about you my Number 1 Man.

1. The way you make a little mmmm sound when drinking your bottle ... sip mmmmm sip mmmmm sip mmmm ...
2. The way your whole face lights up in the morning when I pick you up and smile at you.
3. The way you jump sometimes when you fart.
4. The way your eyes go round as saucers when you make new sounds.
5. The way you grunt like a caveman when you are trying to breastfeed and cannot find the source of your food and then proceed to head butt my breast in anticipation.
6. The way your bottom lip chatters when we pick you up too quickly.
7. The way you squeak for your bottle if I take too long.
8. The way you tuck your balled fists under your chin like a little bunny when you sleep.
9. The way you sneeze or hiccup and then look very surprised as if it wasn't you.
10. The way you sometime suck your dummy so hard it shoots out of your mouth.

....and a bonus 11 - just because you are all mine and you are teaching me so much as a mommy - I feel so youthful once again and thank you with all my heart for coming to me when you did and giving me the opportunity to experience this pure and precious love one more time.


Mommy loves you with all my heart my little chipmunk - you will always be my Number 1 Man

To my blogger pals - I would love to read yours too ...... I tag you!
To those still going through their TTC journey please remember you are always in my prayers

xoxoxoxoxo

Paed Visit

Firstly thank you ladies for your help. Chez I remember Antipeol but wasn't that taken orally? I will get some definately. Zeu - Daktarin was the name I had forgotten thanks... I used to use that with my daughter and worked very well.

So the following points were discussed at the paed yesterday:

Trents weight gain:

He was weighed on the paed's scale 17 days ago and was weighing 4.9kg's and yesterday he weighed 6.1kg's so in just over 2 weeks he picked up 1.2kg's - that's 500 grams a week and 70 grams a day!! Dr only wants him to put on 25 grams a day because of his large birth weight. So he was put on the following formula:

800ml in 24 hrs 3 hourly:

7pm - 100ml
10pm - 100ml
1am - 100ml
4am - 100ml
7am - 100ml
10am - 100ml
1pm - 100ml
4pm - 100ml

or (which I may prefer):

800ml in 24hrs 4 hourly
7pm - 150ml
11pm - 150ml
3am - 125ml
7am - 125ml
11am - 125ml
3pm - 125ml

I was definately overfeeding him when I look at the schedule above but at least we have caught it before he started getting too fat.

Rooibos:
Dr said absolutely NO rooibos as their systems are still much to immature to handle the ingredients in the tea and that it would more than likely just make his nappy rash worse so I will just continue with the boiled water between feeds.

Weeping Eye:
He said to continue with the drops given but I had been forgetting to massage the eye along the nose after applying drops. This is important because it opens the blocked duct and allows the medicine to travel through. If the problem persists months down the line he may need to go to an eye specialist where they insert a very fine tube through the eye and down the duct to open it. I hope it doesn't come to that however.

Crampiness:
Gripe water? He says its flavoured water that someone is making money out of so I'm wasting my time with it.
Telemant? As above.
He says that buscopan should be used only in extreme cases but he prefers that the babies get the winds up by themselves if they can or it will only get worse as they begin to rely on medicine. I have to agree with that.

P.S (last night hubby called me into the room as he was holding Trent and wanted me to see him in action with his dummy. He had a grip on it and was continuously putting it in his mouth and removing it - such good co-ords and he looked adorable.

P.P.S (I got another smile out of him this morning - albiet a brief one it melted my heart nonetheless)

xoxo

One In The Can For Me ;)

Well ... I just had to report back on this one. Friday night we were invited to a braai at friends and we had some drinks and chatted and all that good stuff, getting home at about 11pm. Now our agreement is that on weekends hubby sleeps with me in the main room since he does not have work the next day. Firstly I notice him heading for the spareroom and turning on the lamp. My words to him? "I DON'T THINK SO!!" so sheepishly he turns the light out and comes to bed. Fast forward 12:30am and hubby dearest has been snoring his head off for an hour and I have been up with a baby that has no interest in sleeping. Something wrong with this picture right? I start silently fuming at the fact I have been suckered yet again. Let me remind all that I too was drinking and since I am not used to drinking I was absolutely exhausted when we got home. Eventually I just couldn't take it anymore and woke him up ... dialogue as follows:

"Oli I think this is really unfair that I am up and you are sleeping"
his reply: "Well I have had a hard day at work and I got up at 6am"
me: "Oh wow - you slept in I see since I was up from 4:30am"
him "But you sit around at home all day" [me boiling over at that statement]
me "We agreed you would pull your weight on weekends and you are tired from drinking doubles tonight NOT from waking up at 6am my friend"
him: "You are the mother and it is your job" Job??? JOB???? It is my greatest pleasure but a little help would do wonders for my sanity sunshine!!!!! Now I am FUMING MAD!!
At this point I decide that the only way he will learn is if I actually leave the room so I pack up my pillows and replied "My Job???? Lets see how you feel about that when I sleep in the other room dearest... You WILL look after your son tonight as I am giving myself the night off!!!!"
And there you have it - off I went to the spareroom to what I thought would be the greatest sleep ever but there I lay, waking up every half hour worrying that he would snore his head off after drinking and forget that I wasn't there to tend to Trent (p.s. Trent sleeps in a little crib on my side of the bed -not in the bed). It was PURE torture for me to not go in and check if all was well and the only reason I did not do it was because I did not want him to tell me "Your turn now" I was in the midst of teaching him a lesson and all that good stuff. Anyhoo 4:30am I just couldn't sleep anymore so went through to check on him and realised that I had missed him so much I told DH he can go sleep in the spareroom. Granted I did not get to sleep again until that afternoon but I was so much happier knowing my son was near. Lesson learnt? You betchya!!! Saturday afternoon Sharks vs Lions game at the club and everybody was going to watch. Of course we had plans of going through as well. Now you may remember in earlier posts how much DH went out and drank while I was pregnant and in fact once or twice since I had given birth (early days when I simply couldn't join him). Well he nearly blew me clear away when he said to me early Saturday afternoon that he really did not feel like going out and drinking and would prefer to stay home!!!!!!??????? OMFW!!!! So I'm guessing he learnt a very good lesson the previous night - that it is NOT easy getting up every five minutes and having a broken sleep. He certainly woke up with a new kind've respect for me and at the same time realised that if he wants to go out and play there are limits and that I refuse to be left at home so if he goes we all go!! I hate to gloat but shit I'm proud of me ....[dusts hands] That's one in the can thank you very much.

A little on Trent:
He is growing in leaps and bounds and I am actually taking him to the paed late this afternoon. His eye infection has STILL not cleared up and its really worrying me. Then we have had a couple of very croupy sounding coughs (sound like they really hurt) and this is not something I wish to play around with. Nighttime is still pretty hard for me since we are doing 9pm, 12:30am and 3:30am (this last one he often stays awake until 7am). Sometimes I wonder if Nan even fills him up .... he is such a hungry little boy. Today I started him on a little baby Rooibos and he loved it so this will now become his inbetween-bottle-when-he-thinks-he-is-still-hungry drink. One more thing I would like to discuss is his terrible crampiness at night. When he is finished drinking he moans and grunts for such a long time (even after being winded), after a while he will either let off wind or pass a stool and then he is fine. I have telement, I have the mixture from the pharmacy and I also use gripe water (5ml's before a bottle) so not sure what I can do to help him. He doesn't cry at all as he is just not a crier - in fact everybody always comments on how peaceful and happy he is. He also has nappy rash just around the centre which looks like really painful little blisters that bleed. I have tried topical ointment, bepanthen, leaving nappy off etc but again this is something I need to discuss with the paed this afternoon. The problem is that every nappy is still a dirty nappy and his stools are still very loose even though he is now getting more formula than breastmilk (probably gets two bottles of 150ml breastmilk in a 24 hour period). Any home remedies are most welcome ladies so feel free to give me yours.

Here are some of his latest pictures:





Mommy's little shark baby

An Award from Me to me

Firstly I would like to thank Eve and Karien ((((((((((big hugz))))))))) for my award - which I will put up on my blog just as soon as I can even though it is most certainly not deserved hehe.

Secondly I would like to allocate an award to myself:
"The Worlds Worst Blogger Award"

I am soooooo sorry to all my faithfull followers but shit my life has suddenly taken a very busy turn. My wonderful maid left Friday before last to go to Jhb and only arrives back tomorrow morning so I have pretty much been running around like a headless chicken trying to keep the house under control. Trent also has the most wonderful timing of having a growth spurt this week because besides all the eating he is just not falling into those nice long, deep sleeps like he was. He will go down and half an hour to an hour he will be awake again which has thrown my feeding schedule right out. Things were settling into a nice routine and quite honestly I cannot help feeling anger towards my maid for even leaving right now even though I shouldn't. I have gone back two steps and find myself once again, sitting around in pj's all day because I am not able to break away to shower or anything else. His nappy's leak (Pamper's) so I have a shitload (punn intended) of dirty washing that is piling up around my ears.

More news than that will have to wait because my little prince charming has now arisin after another half hour catnap .... there goes my shower and early departure to the shops.

xoxo

Breastfeeding Pro's and Cons

Okay so here I am writing a post I really hoped I would not write because while pregnant I was so determined to give breastfeeding my all no matter what. But here I sit, a constant battle going on inside my head about which path to choose going forward. Breast or Bottle?

Perhaps I should list the pro's and con's I have had with breastfeeding:

Pro's:
- The weight loss is a complete bonus!
- The closeness I feel to my son is amazing.
- I feel a sense of power in knowing that my body is sustaining this precious life.
- That time is ours and ours alone and perfect for bonding.
- I have milk on tap, the right amount and the perfect temperature.

Cons:
- Sadly I have a little boy to bites and fusses at the breast and twists his head around, taking my nipple with him in the process, causing me great pain whereby I have to stick a finger in the corner of his mouth to break the suction on many occassions. There are times, however that he will sit and nurse quietly and I have absolutely no pain but these times are not all that often. Why is he doing this? Is it because sometimes he gets the bottle and he feels its just too much hard work now to get milk from the breast? Either way this is very stressful for me. P.S (it is not something in my diet because sometimes I then take him off the breast and rather express his feed and he will very quietly and calmly drink the whole bottle with no gassiness or pain).
- I feel like I am kind've limited in where I can go as I am not one to breastfeed in public.
- He stretches his feeds out so much that what is supposed to be a 10 minute feed per side turns into an hour or two's feeding session because he loses interest or falls asleep and I have to try work back the couple of minutes he nursed for then when he wakes, add on a few more minutes and so it goes on. I would love if he were hungry that he completed his feed in half an hour, burping included but I know that this is not always possible and babies have their own ideas.

I know you would all tell me to just go with what I feel happy with in the end but I am just so confused at the moment because I really really want breastfeeding to work out but surely I am supposed to get some sort of enjoyment out of it?? I am so worried that I go onto bottles and regret my decision but there would be no turning back once my milk has dried. I have good days and bad days. The day before yesterday was perfect - he would feed like a little angel and I would feel proud at the end of the day that I had it all figured out. Then yesterday comes along and I end up stressed and with very painful nipples from him clamping down on them, pulling them, grunting, groaning and fighting me every step of the way. By last night I was sure I wanted to give it up. Roll on this morning and he has the perfect feed on both sides, no pain, no pulling or fussing - just an angelic little face drinking quietly and then going for a long sleep completely satisfied ... [insert BIG sigh here]

To strike off a few potential questions - yes I have AMPLE milk supply because when I express I only do 10 minutes per side and can yield up to 175ml - (besides the fact that I woke this morning with drenched Pj's over right breast). The paed was very happy with my volume and told me I definately don't have supply problems. Jahni - you mentioned N would pull away if your milk came in while she was nursing? This does not happen with T so I doubt my let-down is strong enough to bother him.

Any clues as to how I can stop this behaviour or what could be causing it would really help and I would be inclined to perservere but sadly if it continues I am not sure I can take the pain or the frustration.

P.S (still haven't had a chance to see a lactation consultant as yet)

xoxoxoxo