Tyler: Week 8

August 11-August 17, 2010 (7w-7w6d old)

Breastfeeding:

This was a rough week!  Tyler has been doing great, mama... not so much.  It started off with 2 days of strange rib pain on my right side.  I had to rip off my bra, lay on the floor and stretch to get it to ease up.  In hindsight I now believe this had something to do with was to come next... blocked milk ducts.  I had 2 large hard masses in Righty and nursing wasn't getting rid of them.  Nursing eventually became unbearable so I nursed on Lefty and pumped Righty.

What ended up clearing the blockage was warm compresses and massage followed by nursing/pumping.  I rotated Tyler around Righty to compress the areola in all directions.  I curled my toes in agony.  Eventually the lumps went down which provided so much relief, then it took another day or two to get over the areola pain from Tyler tugging at them so hard to get the milk flowing.

I'm not sure what caused the blocked ducts, but likely the new bra or going too long without emptying.  With running errands and having company, I did go 6 hrs twice without emptying and just gave Ty a bottle.  Won't be doing that again!

Thought I was out of the woods until Lefty decided it was her turn.  Rinse, lather, repeat.  :~(

Diapering:

I plan on giving a full cloth dipe review after I've had a little more time to work with them, but for now, here's this week's tally on how well they did.

BumGenius AIO:  6 out of 25 leaked
BumGenius Pocket:  0 out of 6 leaked
Thirsties Wrap with Stay-Dry Insert:  1 out of 2 leaked
GroBaby:  2 out of 7 leaked

I didn't show the GroBaby in my last post, so here it is:

I have 2 Flips by BumGenius as well but haven't been able to try them as they're still a little too big at this time.

I tried out Rockin' Green detergent.  It seems to work fine.  I can't tell the difference between it and the Tiny Bubbles.  I will say that they sell some cool scents, but it's really just a gimmick as you can only smell it in the bag and not on the dipes.

As far as cloth wipe solution, I've been using BumGenius Bottom Cleaner and it seems to work well.  You can also make your own, there are tons of recipes out there if you just search for cloth wipe solution recipes.

Tyler Update:

This was an exciting week as Tyler showed off his 1st intentional smile!  This is a milestone I've really been looking forward to judging by how many pics/videos I took.  It took me forever to sort through them.

Smiling Videos:

He started sticking his tongue out.  It cracks people up.

Making silly faces video:

He took a bath with mommy for the 1st time.  You can't tell by this pic, but he loved wading around in the deep water.

He took a nap in his crib for the 1st time.  He did great, but mama spent the entire time watching him on the video monitor.  So much for using that time to catch up on things.

We tried out the bumbo chair for the 1st time.  Since Ty hates tummy time, this was a great alternative for him to work on his neck muscles.  I have his diaper undone as it was cutting into his belly.

Bumbo Video:

He's has been using his hands more, especially during BFing.  He pushes on my boob when nursing.  It's like he's doing breast compressions to get more milk.  He also grabs my hair and rubs his eyes.

He's starting to inch his way around in a circle when he's really mad.  All his arm and leg flailing gradually rotates him.

He went to a babysitter for the 1st time so mommy and daddy could go to a dinner party.  Grammy was the lucky sitter and she loved every minute of it.  I really thought it would be hard on me to leave him, but I did really well and so well that Grammy babysat again the next day so Kerry and I could go on a date to the movies.  It was fun to pick him up as I missed him so much.  Thanks Grammy!

He loves this swing and sleeps so peacefully in it.

He loves playing airplane.

But most of all, he loves sleeping.

He weighs 9lb5oz this week.

Mama Update:

Nothing really new with me.  I was due to go back to work soon and the thought of it was dreadful.  So after much thought and number crunching, I decided to extend my maternity leave for an additional 4 weeks at no pay with benefits.  Anything beyond this would result in paying cobra which is outrageous and not in our budget.  I worked too hard to get this little guy here to not take advantage of every second I can manageably get with him.

Ty, Grammy and Mama:

Judging by the bags under my eyes, I'd say the signs of exhaustion are showing, but the smile says it's all worth it!