Lauren on Living

A Lifestyle Blog about Simplifying Healthy Living

Reese’s Monthly Growth Series \\ 2

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10 pounds 6.4 ounces (28th percentile), 22.2 inches long (41st percentile), 16.3 inches head circumference, got thrush again, started smiling!!, prefers sleeping over eating, loves her pacifier, loves bath time, hates tummy time, has a bedtime schedule, falls asleep on her own, wakes up 2-4 times at night, looks most like Asher

Month 2 with my little Reese Marie has been a vast improvement on month 1. She responded almost immediately to her prescription thrush medication and all of a sudden she was happier and more comfortable than I had ever seen her. She actually looked relaxed! She started nursing better and spending periods of being awake and happy. As a result, my mood has greatly improved as well. It’s not perfect, but I think that has more to do with the cold winter weather than anything else. After my last post I received such an outpouring of love and support from people near and far, it really helped remind me that I have an amazing tribe. And it just goes to show that we should be talking about these things more, the people in our lives want to help, if only we’d let in. So thank you for reminding me of that!

I found a pacifier Reese likes, which was AMAZING! Getting her to sleep anywhere that was away from me was no longer an enormous struggle. I could put her down awake and just give her the pacifier and she’d be content, I’d replace it a couple times and she’d fall asleep. It was seriously such a game changer.

AND she smiled at me!! She smiled for the first time on my birthday and it was the sweetest present ever. She’s still not quick to smile and often can be seen sporting a furrowed brow but I’ll take it! There have been a couple times this month when she makes a noise that sounds like she’s on the verge of laughter, but I’m still waiting on that front.

Towards the end of the month she started pulling off the breast again and sleeping more and I was pretty bummed to discover her thrush had returned. This time I went straight for the prescription medication and she returned to her happier self in a day or so. With that said, she’s never been a great eater. She prefers to sleep over nearly everything else. At her 2 month appointment, we learned that she has dropped from the 48th percentile in weight to the 28th, which isn’t good. So her pediatrician wants her to come back in a month for a weight check. In the mean time, I will make it my mission to nurse this girl ALL the time. It won’t be easy, but the past couple days give me hope that it’s possible. She has pretty much nursed around the clock for a couple days. Sure it could just be her wanting some extra snuggles after her vaccines but I’m rolling with it. I also learned that she has a very sensitive gag reflex, which is to blame for all the times when she vomits from seemingly nothing. Her doctor recommended I try distracting her by blowing in her face or stroking her nose, when she gets into one of her coughing fits that leads to her vomiting. I’ve tried this a couple times in the past day and so far it seems to be working. I also think that while her pacifier has been a God send, it has contributed to her percentile drop. There are times when I try to nurse her but she flat out refuses, but will happily suck away at her pacifier, so I’m going to try to have to work on that more as well.

She did sleep a 6 hour stretch one night, which was awesome! In the mornings when she first wakes up she coos and babbles a bit at me and she gives me the most smiles during this time. She’s becoming a little more sturdy, she holds her head up more and likes to kick her legs out to support her weight for short periods. She HATES tummy time, so we need to work on that as well. All in all this month has been 2 steps forward 1 step back. Asher and Bennett are obsessed with her. They love her so much and are constantly showering her

Asher and Bennett are obsessed with her. They love her so much and are constantly showering her in hugs, kisses and sweet caresses, it’s the sweetest thing, but also makes me slightly claustrophobic to watch. They just give her no space!!

She is starting to feel familiar to me, and I’m really looking forward to watching her personality unfold!

Reese’s Monthly Growth Series \\ 1

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9 lbs 4.5 oz (48th percentile), 21.5 inches long, 14.9 inch head circumference, loves bath time, sleeps constantly, only really sleeps touching mommy, doesn’t care much for nursing, got thrush, had a tongue tie clipped, has a clogged tear duct, very fussy when she’s awake (which is rare), eyes are dark grey/brown, looks most like big brother Asher

I can’t believe it’s been a month already! This has been a hard month for me. Reese has been a challenging infant thus far. She sleeps all the time, but only if she’s on me and when she isn’t sleeping she’s been incredibly fussy, purple crying.

She nurses only when she absolutely must and the rest of the time wants nothing to do with it. She won’t nurse to be soothed or for comfort only to eat and even then she stops just as soon as she can, rarely draining my breast or taking a full feed. The first two weeks I was waking her up to nurse every 2-3 hours but since then I’ve been letting her feed on demand, well kinda, I still offer her my breast often, she only sometimes will take it. When she is nursing more often than not she chokes while feeding and pulls off, sputtering and coughing, only to then start screaming in annoyance. If I can coax her back to the breast, she’ll nurse a bit more and then stop. She detaches often to fuss while feeding, which results in a lot of milk being sprayed everywhere. On the rare occasion that she does do something close to a full feed, she vomits everything right up. So needless to say this aspect has been pretty stressful. I was frankly amazed that she had gained the weight that she has.

She sleeps a lot and I know that sounds like a good thing, except that she’ll really only sleep when she’s on me or right next to me. I spent the second half of this month working on getting her to sleep anywhere else, with little success. It would take me around 2 hours to put her to sleep in the bassinet at night. Every time I put her down she’d wake up screaming and after a few times of that she’d start purple crying and wouldn’t be soothed by anything until she finally became so tired that she’d more or less pass out. At first I stuck with it because at least after the initial battle to get her to sleep she’d stay asleep for a good 4 hours but that was short lived and she then started waking up every 45 minutes to an hour, which quickly became unbearable since she wouldn’t nurse back to sleep, so I resigned myself to having her sleep on me in the evenings until I went to bed at which point she slept in the bed next to me. She wears a breathing monitor to give me peace of mind, but it’s definitely not ideal as I just don’t sleep as well when she’s next to be, especially since she has to be touching me which means I can’t roll over or change positions at all.

And then there’s the crying. It’s such a grating cry. She spends almost all her time asleep unless she’s nursing and really dislikes being awake. She is almost always extremely angry whenever she’s awake and again won’t be soothed by nursing, so it’s been a real challenge. If she isn’t crying, she’s looking at us with the grumpiest of looks. She mainly just wants me to hold her against my chest so she can sleep. I’ve worn her a couple times, but since my core muscles are basically atrophied it’s really hard on my back at the moment. Sometimes she just wakes up screaming even when she’s on me or right next to me, leaving me at a loss. It’s been pretty challenging.

Reese was born with a clogged tear duct which isn’t supposed to bother her, but if I don’t stay on top of wiping all the gunk away her eye basically becomes glued shut and her little eyelashes pull whenever she tried to open her eyes. We’ve also had thrush. I just can’t seem to avoid it with my kids. I used gentian violet for a week, which got rid of the white patches on her tongue, but then it became apparent that her gums and the roof of her mouth were bleeding, poor thing. Turns out thrush can do that when it gets really bad. So now she’s been prescribed 14 days of liquid fluconazole and I have to use a nystatin nipple balm. Fingers crossed that this get’s rid of it.

We’ve had such an outpouring of support from our new community up here in Maine, with people bringing us meals and taking Asher and Bennett on playdates. And my parent’s have been really helpful, but also a bit overwhelmed since my brother and sister-in-law had their 3rd child the day before Reese was born and they’ve basically been helping watch 4 kids and take care of 2 postpartum women and infants. Raf’s aunt also came to stay for a week, which was such a God send. And Raf works from home now and even though he wasn’t able to take time off that does mean that he can pop in a help if I really need him to and it does allow for more flexibility in his schedule. But even with all that, it somehow feels like we’ve had less support or help this time around than we did with the other two. I think it has something to do with the fact that with the other two we had family visiting and staying with us which resulted in 24/7, round the clock help. So it’s been really hard on me emotionally. I’m also hormonal and probably have some baby blues but I’ve been crying a lot and I’ve pretty much just felt invisible most of the time. Like no one really sees me. Which is all new territory for me. After Asher and Bennett were born I was so blissfully happy I felt like I was floating. So that’s been a real bummer. Raf has been doing his best to be as supportive as possible but it’s just been really hard on me. I wasn’t entirely sure I would write about this here and perhaps this topic needs a dedicated post of it’s own, but I do feel it’s important to talk about these things and to shed light on the topics of baby blues and postpartum depression if only to destigmatize them. So please let me know if you want me to write more in depth about this topic.

On a lighter note, she really loves bath time. It’s really the only place I’ve seen her look remotely content or happy. Asher and Bennett absolutely adore her. They are constantly asking to hold her, kiss her and hug her. It’s really so sweet. Every time she cries they both run to her and try to calm her OR they immediately tell me that she’s crying, even if I’m clearly right next to her. It’s pretty sweet. Bennett has really blossomed into her role as a big sister. She gives Reese the gentlest of kisses albeit while squashing her with the rest of her body, but still. Bennett isn’t so thrilled to have to share me, but at least she doesn’t seem to harbour any jealousy or resentment towards Reese. Since Asher is older this time around he really understands what it means to be a big brother. He keeps exclaiming how cute she is and asking for reassurance that we’re keeping her. He really seems a bit worried that we may just send her back or something. He’s really quite taken with her. Both Asher and Bennett have been great mommy’s little helpers. I’m just in awe of how gracefully they’re handling this transition, even if they have been acting up a bit more as they vie for attention.

We really can’t decide who Reese looks like. Everyone says she looks like Asher, but Raf and I just don’t recognise her when we look at her little face. I think she has Raf’s mom’s nose, my mouth and Raf’s eyes. But to me, she just looks so different than Asher and Bennett. I think her nose is really throwing us off since Asher and Bennett have the same nose and Reese’s is so clearly different. I do believe we will actually have a brown eyed child this time as her eyes are a dark muddy grey. She’ll be our brown eyed girl 🙂  I’m definitely looking forward to settling into our new normal as a family of five!!

Breastfeeding // Thrush

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When many people hear the word “thrush” they either think I’m referring to a bird or they have no idea what I’m talking about at all.  The term thrush is commonly used to refer to a yeast infection in the mouth.  It is fairly common in breastfed babies but it can also occur in the nipples and breasts of breastfeeding women and can be passed back and forth between the mother and child.  It is caused by an overgrowth of the candida fungus.  Candida is present in our bodies all the time, but it is normally kept in check by good bacteria that feed on it, however when this bacteria is compromised, say by taking antibiotics for example, it can lead to an overgrowth of yeast.  Yeast in the breast is much harder to get rid of than a vaginal yeast infections because the yeast thrive in sugar rich, dark, moist environments. Which brings me to my story.

Remember when I tore while pushing Asher out?  Well, as luck would have it, I developed a lovely infection.  At my two week postpartum checkup I was told that I had an infection, which meant two things.  First, some of my stitches didn’t take and second that I would need to go on antibiotics for 2 weeks.  Honestly, I was relieved because it meant that the excruciating pain I had been experiencing was in fact NOT par for the course and that with the use of the antibiotics relief was at last in sight.

HA!

I started to notice that breastfeeding was becoming INCREDIBLY painful and that Asher had developed a fuzzy white patch on his tongue.  So, I took him to the pediatrician and I went and saw a lactation consultant and we were told in both cases that we had thrush.  This seriously bummed me out, because I knew that thrush could be really difficult to get rid of.

I was put on a two week course of fluconazole and Asher was put on a nystatin rinse.  Well, after the two weeks were up, we still had thrush and our treatments had done little to improve the symptoms.  So, we were put on a second round of our respective treatments, along with strict instructions to sterilize everything that touched my breasts or his mouth. In addition, I was told that I should stop using a breast pump until the thrush was cleared up.  Luckily at this point my milk supply was established and stable so I was able to take a break from pumping.  I also rinsed my nipples with a solution of vinegar and water, cut out all sweets, exposed my bare breasts to sunlight (in doors) every day I could and we both went on probiotics all in an attempt to get rid of the nasty thrush.

Well, after all that and completing round two of our treatments, we still had thrush!  Luckily, Asher didn’t seem to mind at all, in fact I don’t think he even noticed.  I on the other hand was not a happy camper, seeing as that I was saddled with stinging nipples and shooting pains in my breasts.  Finally, our lactation consultant recommended that we try gentian violet.

Gentian violet

After going on a wild goose chase searching for the stuff, I was finally able to find some at a small independent pharmacy.  I applied it once a day to my nipples before nursing and that way we both got treated where we needed it most.  We used it for one week and once the purple wore off I noticed that Asher’s white patch was gone and my pain had subsided. Success!

Except within two weeks both symptoms had returned.  So, we did another week of gentian violet.  This time I applied it to my nipples before and after every feeding as well as directly to Asher’s tongue.  This no nonsense approach paid off.  After a long fought battle we had conquered our thrush, albeit, after staining many articles of clothing with bright purple splotches.

This and this are is a great resources for anyone considering using gentian violet to treat thrush.  I’ll warn you, it is incredibly messy, but it is well worth the relief.  I put olive oil around Asher’s mouth to try and cut down on the mess and this helped a lot.

*UPDATE* You can find gentian violet here but I was also told that you can find it at some Targets, although I didn’t see it on their online store.  Just make sure you look for a 1% solution, if you can only find a 2% solution that’s fine too but you will need to dilute it yourself.

Breastfeeding // How I Increased My Milk Supply

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Milk coma

Somehow during my insanely long labor (probably during the pushing phase) I lost a greater than average amount of blood.  It’s a bit of a mystery how or when this happened as there wasn’t any obvious hemorrhaging or anything, nonetheless, it happened.  As a result my blood pressure was super low, my pulse was incredibly high and I was very pale.  In fact the next morning my dad kept saying that I looked like I was part of the Cullen family.  That’s right, my Dad referenced Twilight.  Moving on.

Now apart from not being able to stand up and hearing the sound of rain every time I tried, I wasn’t all that affected by the blood lose, but since being able to be upright and conscious is really helpful when you have a newborn my Midwives gave me two blood transfusions.  After the first two transfusions they were still concerned with my blood pressure and thought I could have a third but since my symptoms were gone they felt the risk outweighed the benefits.  While all this was happening I was pretty delirious since I had literally not slept for 4 nights but I remember them mentioning that  the blood loss my delay my milk coming.

Well, delay it, it did.

When Asher had his first pediatrician’s appointment at 3 days old, he was already becoming dehydrated and lethargic, so she put him on a strict feeding schedule (of every two hours from start of feeding to start of feeding) and told me we needed to supplement with formula and that I needed to pump after I nursed to stimulate my milk to come in.

So it looked something like this:

Nurse on left breast: 20 minutes

Nurse on right breast: 20 minutes

Prepare and give Asher a bottle: 10-15 minutes

Pump: 20 minutes

This gave me approximately 45 minutes to sleep, before I had to wake Asher up to repeat the whole process all over again.  Needless to say, we were both exhausted.  The poor guy would be too tired to nurse, so I’d have to strip him down and place cold objects on his tummy and feet to keep him awake long enough to eat.  I don’t have to tell you that this was awful.  I was a basket case.  Luckily by the time he was 1 week old he had regained and surpassed his birth weight and my milk had come in so we received the all clear to feed on demand and he immediately started sleeping 4 hours straight at night, which felt like 10 hours to me.

For the next few weeks things were going really well milk supply wise.  We stopped supplementing with formula and I was able to exclusively breastfeed, which was a huge relief for me.  Then my mother in-law came to stay with us and very sweetly infused all my drinking water with mint, which I LOVED while I was pregnant, however for some reason I wasn’t really enjoying it anymore (which should have set off a flag in my mind).  I started to notice that my milk supply was decreasing and Asher was hungry ALL the time.  I couldn’t understand it, because nothing had changed in my diet or habits, other then the mint water.  So I did some research and discovered that peppermint and mint in large quantities will actually reduce your milk supply and are used by a lot of women when they are weaning their babies to help with engorgement.  So what did I do?  Well, I pumped.  A lot.

Milk production is all about supply and demand.  The more you nurse and pump the more signals will be sent that your breasts need to produce more milk.  It’s really quite simple.  I pumped for 10 minutes after every single time I breastfed.  This was especially hard during the middle of night feedings, but it was only 10 minutes so I forced myself to be disciplined about it AND I had thrush (more on that later).  If I could do it, so can you!  Very quickly I began noticing that my supply was increasing.  I allowed Asher to nurse for as long as he wanted to, to use my breasts as a pacifier and to fall asleep nursing.  Those 3 choices also helped increase my supply.  The key is to empty your breasts and then to continue to stimulate them for 10 minutes longer.  Babies are far better at stimulating your breasts than even the highest quality pump, so keep that in mind.

I also did 3 other things to help support my milk supply:

1.  I drank a TON of water.  I have a 20 ounce water bottle and I would drink a whole bottle or more every time I breastfed.

2.  I ate a lot.  This was hard, because all the water drinking was curbing my appetite, but I just had to stay on top of it.  The milk production cookies that my midwives recommended were a huge help in this regard.

3.  I took a lot of Fenugreek.  I was taking 4 pills, 3 times a day.  I reeked of maple syrup, but hey there are worse things to smell like.

I’m happy to report, after much hard work and effort we are exclusively breastfeeding and Asher is gaining weight like a champ!

So that’s what I did and that’s what worked for me.  If you’re having milk supply issues I recommend trying these steps but if they don’t work for you, leave me a comment or send me an email and we can trouble shoot together.

Happy nursing!