Little Noah is sleeping on my chest, so I wanted to get in a quick post to cover some things I forgot to cover this past week.
Tuesday was my 25th birthday. It was the best birthday of my life, because I had my wonderful son in my arms. Sure, I didn't get any presents because my presents were all early (one in February from Justin, one a couple of weeks ago from my parents), and I had only gotten 2 or 3 hours of sleep that night. It really didn't feel like a birthday. But it was still wonderful. I'll never forget my birthday last year - the worst birthday of my entire life because of infertility. What a difference our little miracle has made! Oh, and Justin gave me a birthday card that actually made me tear up (my exhaustion may have contributed to that:).
On Tuesday we were heading into town to go to my parents' for my birthday dinner. I needed to buy new nighttime nursing bras first, and needed to get to the chiropractor as well. We were all on track to leave at 3:30, which was the perfect amount of time to get to town, run the errands, and get to my parent's by 5.
Noah had other plans. At 3:30 he got fussy and wanted to eat again (even though he had just finished 20 minutes beforehand). I thought "Alright, we'll be about 10-15 minutes behind schedule. No problem."
He ate, and right after eating proceeded to throw up everything he had just ingested. It got all over my shirt, my pants, the bedspread, his sleeper, his neck, and all in his hair. So then he needed a bath and a change. We ended up leaving 35 minutes late. It was actually pretty hilarious. So this is why people with babies are always late!!!
Noah has become an incredible grunter. He is SO loud sometimes that my mom, who had four kids, was actually kind of shocked. It's not working out to have him in the bassinet beside the bed, because I'm not getting a wink of sleep. So on Tuesday night, for the last 2 hours at the end of the night, we tried putting him in his crib for the last couple of hours of the night. I got an hour of sleep, which was nice, but I hated being seperated from my baby by two closed doors (because of the cats). Plus I could still hear him through the monitor.
Wednesday night we put him in there for the last 4 hours at the end of the night. I still didn't get much sleep because I'm trying to figure out the monitor volume thing. Noah doesn't cry, and I don't ever want him to have to cry to be fed (I know it'll happen eventually, but he's just so young!). So it's really really hard to tell when his grunts mean, "I'm awake and hungry, Mom!" or when he's just grunting in his sleep. Once again, I hated being seperated from him by 2 closed doors.
Last night we locked the cats in the laundry room, so we kept our door and Noah's door open all night. I can see his crib from my bed. I can't really see him in it, but I can see the crib, and I can walk over there easily without worrying about letting cats into the room. So I actually got about 5 hours of sleep, total, last night!
This is a temporary solution though. The furnace didn't need to turn on last night because it's so warm out right now. But when it gets too warm and we need the air conditioner, the cats will meow like crazy everytime the furnace turns on. And the laundry room/furnace room is right under our bedroom - I can hear them perfectly. Unfortunately, because of our open-concept house, there is no way to lock them in another level of the house because we have no doorways to seperate different areas of the house. Baby gates are too small - the cats can hop right over them. I'm actually considering having someone make some sort of door. It will look really really strange, but it's worth it to me to be able to have our doors open between our rooms and not worry about the cats smothering my baby while he's sleeping in his crib. I hope this will work. In the meantime, I guess they'll be locked in the laundry room.
Yesterday was Noah's 2 week birthday. Ah! Time is going by too fast. 2 weeks is too old! Yesterday was the first day that he had a 3 hour long nap, and then was awake for a whole 3 hours at a time! 3 hours was a long time for this little baby to be awake all at once. He conked out after that, though.
My new thing to try and make him sleep longer at night is to only give him one boob. He always nurses on one side, then we burp and change him and I put him on the other side. But the past couple of nights I've tried putting him back on the same side again so he gets more of the hindmilk, which is more filling. I think it's working because he's gone a bit longer between feeds. My other boob gets a bit uncomfortable, but it's not too bad. My milk supply seems under control for now.
Noah's little nursing blisters are almost all peeled off his lips. But his belly button still has a fair amount of dried blood in it. I'm wondering when that will go away. His umbilical cord fell off an entire week ago! The blood gets all over his clothes - we're going through spray and wash like crazy!
Finally, in 14 days I lost 34 lbs. That's 18 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight. People can't believe I just had a baby. Neither can I, for that matter.
Showing posts with label Weight loss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weight loss. Show all posts
Friday, April 2, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Anemia
I got a call from my OB today telling me that they just got my bloodwork back and it shows that my hemoglobin is very low and I need to get on iron supplements immediately.
I gave birth 13 days ago, and they JUST got my bloodwork - bloodwork that was done while I was in the hospital - that shows that I need to be on iron supplements. I can't believe it took that long! I didn't ask for my level, but it's obviously pretty low, because my hemoglobin was already low during my pregnancy and my OB didn't want me to go on iron supplements then because of my bowel issues. I guess it's way lower now, because he's changed his tune.
So I am anemic, and I'm only getting 3-4 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. I guess this explains my weakness, my massive marathon headaches, my completely lack of energy, my sleep sweats, my shortness of breath, and maybe even my hallucinations.
This morning we tried putting Noah in his nursery from 4:30-6:00am because I had only gotten 2 hours of sleep. He is such a loud grunter (even my mom, who had 4 kids, says he's a very loud grunter), and does it all through the night while he's sleeping. And I'm a bad sleeper, so any grunting keeps me awake. By 6 he was starving so Justin got up and brought him to me (he had to get up for the day anyway) and after I nursed him I put him back to sleep in his bassinet next to me. For the next two hours I was paralyzed. I literally could not move except to occasionally lift up my head to see if all of Noah's noises were from him being awake and needing to eat, or if he was just sleeping. Half the time I couldn't even do that. I wasn't even really sleeping, except the occasional dozing. I was just unable to move.
As I lay there I was kind of freaked out. Here I was, home alone, and I felt totally incapable of caring for my child. I'm sure that if he had started crying, something in me would have broken free of my paralyzed state and I would have been able to get out of bed to pick him up. But it was really freaking me out that I was the only person around to take care of him at that time, and I could barely even lift my head to look at him. I was just thankful that my mom was coming in a couple of hours, because I honestly thought I might not be able to get out of bed before she arrived.
Hopefully being on the iron supplements will give me a bit more energy. I'm exhausted enough as it is, I don't really need anything else adding to it.
Weight Loss Update: In 12 days I lost 33 lbs. I am now 17 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight.
I gave birth 13 days ago, and they JUST got my bloodwork - bloodwork that was done while I was in the hospital - that shows that I need to be on iron supplements. I can't believe it took that long! I didn't ask for my level, but it's obviously pretty low, because my hemoglobin was already low during my pregnancy and my OB didn't want me to go on iron supplements then because of my bowel issues. I guess it's way lower now, because he's changed his tune.
So I am anemic, and I'm only getting 3-4 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. I guess this explains my weakness, my massive marathon headaches, my completely lack of energy, my sleep sweats, my shortness of breath, and maybe even my hallucinations.
This morning we tried putting Noah in his nursery from 4:30-6:00am because I had only gotten 2 hours of sleep. He is such a loud grunter (even my mom, who had 4 kids, says he's a very loud grunter), and does it all through the night while he's sleeping. And I'm a bad sleeper, so any grunting keeps me awake. By 6 he was starving so Justin got up and brought him to me (he had to get up for the day anyway) and after I nursed him I put him back to sleep in his bassinet next to me. For the next two hours I was paralyzed. I literally could not move except to occasionally lift up my head to see if all of Noah's noises were from him being awake and needing to eat, or if he was just sleeping. Half the time I couldn't even do that. I wasn't even really sleeping, except the occasional dozing. I was just unable to move.
As I lay there I was kind of freaked out. Here I was, home alone, and I felt totally incapable of caring for my child. I'm sure that if he had started crying, something in me would have broken free of my paralyzed state and I would have been able to get out of bed to pick him up. But it was really freaking me out that I was the only person around to take care of him at that time, and I could barely even lift my head to look at him. I was just thankful that my mom was coming in a couple of hours, because I honestly thought I might not be able to get out of bed before she arrived.
Hopefully being on the iron supplements will give me a bit more energy. I'm exhausted enough as it is, I don't really need anything else adding to it.
Weight Loss Update: In 12 days I lost 33 lbs. I am now 17 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight.
Monday, March 29, 2010
"Weigh" Surprised
As most of you know, I only gained 16 lbs with my pregnancy. This really surprised me, because I thought I'd gain about 40. I also thought it would take months for my body to go back to normal. You know what they say: 9 months up, 9 months down.
Well, apparently it's 9 months up, 9 DAYS down. At least for me.
9 days after giving birth I had lost 30lbs. Yeah. I gained 16, but lost 30. In 9 days. Without trying.
I'm now 11 days past giving birth and I haven't weighed myself again, so I don't actually know if I've lost anymore weight. But I am so surprised.
I'm even more surprised by the fact that my stomach is completely flat. It's not like I have firm muscles, but it's flat. And when I suck in, my stomach goes way in under my ribs. I'm just waiting for my stomach muscles to go back together before I start working on my core again, so my stomach can be firm.
The other day Justin said to me "You just look like this really skinny girl with big boobs." I felt so good about myself. I had been warning him for months that after I give birth I wasn't going to let him see me naked for a long time. And for the first few days I didn't. But then I spent a day or two with the belly bandit on, and my loose stomach disappeared. After the first two days the medium bandit was way too big and I had to move over to the small one. Unfortunately they cost $70, and the medium was a bit of a waste of money. But hey, I was worried that it might be too SMALL at first! Who knew it would be too big almost right away? I highly recommend buying one!
I feel like the universe is trying to correct itself for giving me an incredibly painful pregnancy where nothing went as planned. I only had to push for 15 minutes (and not very hard), I got the cutest baby I've ever seen, and I lost double the amount of weight that I gained (so my clothes are too big) in only 9 days.
Thank you, Universe.
Well, apparently it's 9 months up, 9 DAYS down. At least for me.
9 days after giving birth I had lost 30lbs. Yeah. I gained 16, but lost 30. In 9 days. Without trying.
I'm now 11 days past giving birth and I haven't weighed myself again, so I don't actually know if I've lost anymore weight. But I am so surprised.
I'm even more surprised by the fact that my stomach is completely flat. It's not like I have firm muscles, but it's flat. And when I suck in, my stomach goes way in under my ribs. I'm just waiting for my stomach muscles to go back together before I start working on my core again, so my stomach can be firm.
The other day Justin said to me "You just look like this really skinny girl with big boobs." I felt so good about myself. I had been warning him for months that after I give birth I wasn't going to let him see me naked for a long time. And for the first few days I didn't. But then I spent a day or two with the belly bandit on, and my loose stomach disappeared. After the first two days the medium bandit was way too big and I had to move over to the small one. Unfortunately they cost $70, and the medium was a bit of a waste of money. But hey, I was worried that it might be too SMALL at first! Who knew it would be too big almost right away? I highly recommend buying one!
I feel like the universe is trying to correct itself for giving me an incredibly painful pregnancy where nothing went as planned. I only had to push for 15 minutes (and not very hard), I got the cutest baby I've ever seen, and I lost double the amount of weight that I gained (so my clothes are too big) in only 9 days.
Thank you, Universe.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Quick Thoughts From Day 6
Noah is 6 days old (sadness... I miss when he was 12 hours old!) and I wanted to post some quick updates and thoughts:
-My full milk supply came in within 48 hours after birth, and I spent Days 2-3 soooo engorged I finally broke down and pumped. The night beforehand the pain was soooo horrible. My breasts were literally like two 10 lbs bowling balls pulling on my skin. It hurt to move my arms, and it felt like I had rocks in my armpits. Meanwhile, Noah wouldn't eat as often because he was too full from the actual milk, so he wasn't hungry.
-Noah has the cutest "suspicious" expression where he wrinkles his brow and looks at us like "You've got to be kidding me." This expression was particularly hilarious when my milk came in and my boobs got HUGE, because he looked from my boob to my face, to my boob, to my face, as if to say "Um, that is not what I've been eating from for the past 2 days! You want me to get that in my mouth???"
-Noah loves to be swaddled, and we use our swaddlers constantly. He is so cute when he comes out of them when he's sleepy, because his arms and legs stay straight as boards:)
-Our first diaper change at home we were tag teaming it. As soon as I took the penis-protection off to get the new diaper on, a huge stream of pee shot up in the air, all over the change table, my hands, his adorable going home outfit... even the wall and the blinds! What a powerful little guy!
-8-10 diapers a day? Try 15-20! We went through 70 diapers in 4 days. 75% of the time he poops and/or pees in the middle of a change, often right onto a fresh diaper. Or onto the top of the old diaper (not so easy to clean).
-Noah poops at least 10 times a day. I don't think we have any risk of jaundice!
-I love his little squeaks and moans.
-I love how his sweet milk breath smells exactly like apples:)
-I love how when I burp him on my shoulder, he leans his head back with a round, open mouth, and he stares into my face. He often falls asleep like that, and it's so sweet.
-I love how I lost 25 lbs in 5 days. It's interesting, since I only gained 16 lbs with my pregnancy. My belly is almost completely flat too, and my stomach muscles are started to work again. When I suck in, my belly actually sucks in too! I highly recommend the belly bandit. Justin was saying to me how I just look like this skinny girl with really huge boobs. Not how I thought I'd look 6 days after delivery!
-My full milk supply came in within 48 hours after birth, and I spent Days 2-3 soooo engorged I finally broke down and pumped. The night beforehand the pain was soooo horrible. My breasts were literally like two 10 lbs bowling balls pulling on my skin. It hurt to move my arms, and it felt like I had rocks in my armpits. Meanwhile, Noah wouldn't eat as often because he was too full from the actual milk, so he wasn't hungry.
-Noah has the cutest "suspicious" expression where he wrinkles his brow and looks at us like "You've got to be kidding me." This expression was particularly hilarious when my milk came in and my boobs got HUGE, because he looked from my boob to my face, to my boob, to my face, as if to say "Um, that is not what I've been eating from for the past 2 days! You want me to get that in my mouth???"
-Noah loves to be swaddled, and we use our swaddlers constantly. He is so cute when he comes out of them when he's sleepy, because his arms and legs stay straight as boards:)
-Our first diaper change at home we were tag teaming it. As soon as I took the penis-protection off to get the new diaper on, a huge stream of pee shot up in the air, all over the change table, my hands, his adorable going home outfit... even the wall and the blinds! What a powerful little guy!
-8-10 diapers a day? Try 15-20! We went through 70 diapers in 4 days. 75% of the time he poops and/or pees in the middle of a change, often right onto a fresh diaper. Or onto the top of the old diaper (not so easy to clean).
-Noah poops at least 10 times a day. I don't think we have any risk of jaundice!
-I love his little squeaks and moans.
-I love how his sweet milk breath smells exactly like apples:)
-I love how when I burp him on my shoulder, he leans his head back with a round, open mouth, and he stares into my face. He often falls asleep like that, and it's so sweet.
-I love how I lost 25 lbs in 5 days. It's interesting, since I only gained 16 lbs with my pregnancy. My belly is almost completely flat too, and my stomach muscles are started to work again. When I suck in, my belly actually sucks in too! I highly recommend the belly bandit. Justin was saying to me how I just look like this skinny girl with really huge boobs. Not how I thought I'd look 6 days after delivery!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)