Lilly is now 3 months old. It has been rough with her, she had colic, and when we finally thought we had sorted that out by changing my diet to dairy-free, she develops a cold followed by reflux.
But to start from the beginning.... it all began at 2:45ish Monday morning, (15th Nov) when suddenly I woke up to the feeling of my waters breaking. My yell of "oh my gosh oh my gosh!" made Landon and mum wake up so fast. Landon flipped and dragged me into the shower while running around getting everything into the car. We rushed down to the hospital, where they confirmed my waters had broken, but i wasn't having regular or strong contractions. So the decision was made that to avoid infection or complications I needed to be put on petocin. The petocin proved to be horrible. It caused me to have double contractions, but my dilating was still slow. I was put on staidol, (IV pain relief) which pretty much made me pass out. I remember them putting it in then everything going kind of hazy. Apparently I said some very odd things while under its influence, but the petocin made contractions were still too much for me so the fear of the giant needle in my back for the epidural was seriously out weighed by the pain.The staidol had relaxed me enough that I was able to not react to the needle in any way, and I am now in love with the epidural. The epidural was given to me at 9:30ish when I was 5cm dilated. It relaxed me so much that when the nurse came and checked me at 11am I was 9 1/2 cm, and soon was having the desire to push. They called my doctor and we began to push. She began to come out and crowned so quickly that the nurse made me stop pushing to wait for the doctor... to my irritation. Finally the doctor arrived and with one contraction and 3 pushes Lilly was out. She was screaming and perfect. Landon cut the cord and the doctor began work on me because it turned out Lilly's shoulder tore me from the inside out which meant I required 45 stitches. So the epidural proved to be a blessing because they could administer pain drugs right away and I couldn't feel the tear.
So I was treated like a C-section patient and kept in the hospital for 2 nights. The first day/night were very miserable for me. The drugs they had given me made my face fiercely itchy, and Lilly was struggling to latch because I had flat nipples. I was also bed ridden with a catheter, a giant tampon like thing shoved up inside me and someone coming in every few hours to clean up the blood down there. It was all very frustrating and I felt terrible and tired.
When we went home I thought it would be nice to be home, but I wanted nothing more than to go back to the hospital after the first night. I was still in pain and tired, and waking up every 2-3 hours to feed Lilly with latching problems. The first day was so devastating for me as she couldn't grab on and feed so would cry and cry and would finally have to give her formula that the hospital had given her. That first bottle brought me to tears because I wanted so much to breastfeed exclusively. Landon called the WIC lactation consultant and made an appointment for us to go see her the next day, and later that night Mum bought me a breastfeeding book. I cried again.
So the next day my milk came in and we went to WIC and got a loaned pump which was a huge relief, not only because of the pressure I was feeling, but I could pump and feed Lilly my milk from a bottle while the pump augmented my nipple shape so she could latch. Mum also took me to babies-r-us upon the suggestion of a family friend and bought me some nipple shields, which ended up to be life savers because Lilly latched instantly.
So the first few weeks were the worst, I was in so much pain most of the time, either from the healing, or from my cracked nipples or whatever else they decided to do. I wasn't getting much sleep because Lilly was waking regularly for feeds. Thank goodness mum and dad were there to help for the first while. I don't think I could have coped well with my recovery and caring for the baby by myself while Landon was at work.
When they did leave though I had a few break downs because the colic started. 2 hours every night, from 12 midnight until 2am, then she would wake to feed at 5am which would last from 1-1 1/2hours. I was also still having a great deal of pain. At our ward conference a few ladies from Crismon ward suggested that I should remove dairy from my diet. So I did under Landon's strict watchful eye and it did the trick. So I am on a soy diet now which has actually helped my milk supply.
So I used the shields for about 2 weeks, when we discovered she could latch on one side, then about a week later she could latch the other side. By a month I got my free pump from WIC which I LOVE. It gives me the freedom to go to mutual, the gym or anything else I need to and leave my milk for Lilly.
By week 8 my nipples had settled down and she is now exclusively breastfeeding and is probably 15lbs by now. She is getting cuter and cuter everyday, and I am loving all her new sounds and facial expressions she is learning every day. About a week ago she was given reflux medication which made her turn from a grumpy baby to a cheery baby.... for me anyway because she is a HUGE mummy's girl. She is not happy unless she knows I am nearby and returned to my arms on regular intervals.
Well that's all I can think of about Lilly and I, but Landon's news, he was promoted at work which meant a pay raise and with the tax return we were able to buy a new TV which he is in love with, it's his new man toy. The first weekend we had it he played with it endlessly, then at one point he started pacing the house and I asked him what was wrong and he told me he felt bad that he was playing with his TV all the time so I laughed and told him I didn't care so he got excited and started playing with it again.
So Landon, as usual, did a wonderful job at his valentines day activities. He bought us pizza and cream soda/root beer for dinner, and my gifts? The DisneyNature Oceans DVD and $50 day spa. I love him so much. I got him 2 $25 gifts cards for his two favourite things, Chillis and the movies. Our date was on Saturday and one of the young women from our ward babysat Lilly so we could go out for dinner at Macaroni grill and then we went to the stake Valentines dance.
Up coming events - Jess is coming over on the 14th March for 2 weeks. Since that overlaps with our anniversary she has told me that we must go out so she can babysit and spend time with her niece.
That's all for now ~ Katie
