We’ve tried to set realistic expectations to Fry on what life with a new baby sister will be like. He likes to share his understanding of the situation by saying things like “newborn babies are boring”, “they only eat, sleep, and cry”, “you’ll give me less attention but daddy will give more”. Despite all this, he’s really excited about his baby sister. He loves feeling her kicks and absolutely lights up. It’s so sweet, and makes me so glad I got pregnant when I did; earlier I don’t think he’d have been in a social-emotional enough place developmentally to comprehend all this.
That’s so sweet. C1 is such a good big brother that it melts me. We were afraid he’d be jealous since he’s so attached to me but he looooves the baby and his big brother role.
I get some heart melty stories at work. Today, 4yr old big brother was crying to mom about how he wished they were all home so he could hug baby brother all night. Ngl I teared up some.
C2 barfed allll over. Normal. I take him to change us both. Unzip his pjs. Important to note here that D did bath tonight, before I gave the baby the bottle we ended up wearing. He. Is. Not. Wearing. A. DIAPER.
We came home today. Fry is SO sweet with minnow. Constantly kissing her and cooing over her little ears, little feeties, etc. When we’d left the hospital she’d lost a lot of weight; my milk took 5 days to come in last time, this time might be similar. The pediatrician wasn’t alarmed, but said if there were fewer than 3 wet diapers, give her a bottle of formula. We only hit 2, so decided on formula. I appreciate that the pediatrician didn’t dick around with milk purism, unlike the lactation consultants, whose suggestions were all way more complicated (donor milk, pump like your life depends on it, etc). I know there are awesome LCs out there, and they do a lot of good, but fuck if I was in the same fragile headspace as last time I would be a mess trying to do what the LCs said.
I’m glad to hear that! We supplemented with S when he was in the NICU, while I pumped to bring my milk in. It worked great, and once my milk was in, we moved fully to BFing and didn’t need the formula anymore. I’m glad doctors/LCs are being more realistic for you this time. It’s a hard enough transition as it is!
Our LC's are...not...reasonable like that. It drives me crazy. I'm glad your experience was much better this time @Afishwish !
It’s such a huge difference with the second kid. I was already in therapy and medicated so that helped too, but just knowing I had choices was empowering. LC’s can be a great resource but you have to find the right one. One in the NICU was a huge bitch but a couple of the others were great. I love our Ped who told me to feed him hot Cheetos and root beer if that’s all he’d eat.
Honestly quoting the pediatrician was what did it. I’m not positive on what level of reasonable we’d have had from the LCs otherwise. One told me today I should be pumping ever 3 hours even if I miss a feeding. Lady, if a supplemental feeding allows me to get a full sleep cycle in, I’m doing that.
With C2 I just refused to get up in the middle of the night to pump. Like nfw am I doing every 3 hours all night and 2 during the day like they guilted me into the first time. Yesterday C1 lost his first tooth and C2 got his first tooth poking through the day before. So funny how exactly they synced that up.
I just did the coursework to become an IBCLC (haven’t sat for the exam, still deciding if I want to) and I rolled my eyes so hard at some of the suggestions. They were talking about “problematic” formula donations were in the midst of a natural disaster and... uh... pretty sure that’s nuts?