one week old today

We went to Maternity Connect to weight/feed/weight her yesterday. My body seem to be producing a bit shy of one ounce per three hours. Which is not enough for the baby but twice what I was producing in three hour period at the hospital.

I tried what some of the mom said where you just don't do formula but put the baby to your breast so it continuously stimulate and lets your brain know you want it to produce more milk. I did that from 2pm until about midnight. I really don't think this is a viable method. If it was, why wouldn't I just pump my breast every hour for 12 hours straight. Or better yet, just continuously hook on the pump for x amount of hours straight? I feel like the only thing this exercise accomplished was teaching Vivi how to fall asleep using my boobs as pacifier.

Plus we are reading the baby better this time. Maybe not with the Dunstan baby language (at least for me) but from her actions. We know how she is when she is not hungry anymore. She is awake a little and does her diaper business and then sits contently for a while before feeling tired. Then Noel is able to put her down while still awake and she fusses a little and falls asleep on her own! At one week old that's better than some of the older kids I know that still needs their mother's boob as pacifier. Most importantly she's a much happier baby and rest better when she is content with food. When I just put her to my boob constantly, she's just hungry. She doesn't have good awake time and doesn't sleep well. I don't see how she can grow well if she doesn't sleep well.

I am not saying I do not use my boob as a pacifier, I do that at night when I am tired and need to sleep. Maybe that's why I am not feeling as exhausted as I did last time. Or maybe it's just catching on to me now. It's been one week and I am starting to feel exhausted.

Noel is trying to get some good rest too and while I wish he was more helpful so I can get more rest, he needs rest to get his mind in good place when he goes back for the performance tracking thing. I suppose the worst thing that could happen if I don't get enough sleep is I don't produce milk. But the worst thing that could happen if Noel doesn't get enough rest is that we will have no income.

One week down, many more weeks to go!