These days are a little more clear than the ones in the hospital but still blurring together fast. We've mainly worked on breastfeeding. It's pretty hard to know what to do in the beginning. They say to follow hunger cues and feed when hungry, and it's hard to know how much he's getting. So I would feed on one side and then after a time he would stop or not and eventually I would stop him. Then I would switch cause he was still rooting around and sucking on his fingers. The time ranged from 5 minutes to 40 minutes. So sometimes he would eat for more than an hour. Actually most times since we came home. Just imagine your nipples not used to hours of sucking and a newborn with stronger jaws than you would expect sucking at you for 8 hours a day! OUCH! We've since decided that (with the help of the talk with the pediatrician) that maybe we'll try just doing one side at each feeding since my milk has definitely come in and he falls asleep now after a lengthy feeding and seems satisfied. He still sometimes seems to want more but we're trying the one side at a time and letting him dictate if he gets hungry earlier than 3 hours.
The nights are hard because he seems more active at night and doesn't sleep much between his feedings. And without much rest all day the feedings are more painful for me. I'm also wondering if he sucks harder at night. Last night we introduced the pacifier. He seems to have a higher need for comfort from sucking and I don't want to be a human pacifier in pain. It seemed to be what he needed and we all actually got a little bit of sleep. We just have to watch for signs of nipple confusion but the pediatrician wasn't really concerned about that with the pacifier.
The things they don't tell you: It hurts unless you are one of the lucky few. You will cry because it hurts and you are tired and you feel guilt about not wanting to feed your child. It can hurt even when the latch (the baby attaching to the nipple) is fine.
Chef Genevieve in the house! We have a personal cook in the form of Nicolas's mom living with us and all our meals are home cooked and prepared when we like. It's awesome and has made this whole process soooo much easier. We would be eating cereal for every meal. She also of course loves her new grandson and is happy to hold him and watch him anytime so we can do things like go to the bathroom. Oh, and she folds laundry! :)
Some of these pics are from later than this post but since I'm so late getting them up they are all on this post.
Let's celebrate Luc's day of birth with cake!
Somebody is so full they are passed out!
French family and friends sent along a little 'shower' with Genevieve:)
First bath!, wait, this is the second bath.... the first was a sponge bath. He's had three total and seems to like them more and more
Nicolas says: He looks like Rodin's Thinker :)
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