Week five was a bit challenging.  Trying to get days and nights situated was nothing compared to week five.  Hattie wasn’t able to get more than 3oz of formula at a time.  Which means that feedings were kind of stuck at 3 hours apart.  According to the pediatrician, that can be normal until she gets between 3-6 months old. 

Towards the later part of the week, Hattie would be hungry and wanting to take the bottle.  After about 3-4 suckles, she was crying in pain.  I couldn’t figure it out.  In the middle of the night, my options were a bit limited.  I tried a different formula with the same experience.  Then, I tried chilled bottled water.  She was able to eat a couple of ounces with the bottled water.  Sometimes, little ones have a difficult time with the minerals in the water adults drink with no issue.  I got some purified water the next morning.  That helped a little.  She was still crying in pain.  If I were breastfeeding, I probably would have been asked to eliminate eggs and dairy.  The way to eliminate these items in formula is try a different formula.  I got some soy based formula.  Since then, Hattie has been able to eat up to 4oz during a feeding and starting to stretch feedings out to 3.5 – 4 hours.  She is starting to be more attentive and interactive again. 

As a parent, there’s nothing more difficult than seeing your child in pain and not knowing how to fix it.  The most important thing about being a parent is having the patience and love to keep looking for answers. 

Below are some pictures from the last week.

Hugs, C

It’s been one month since Hattie was born.  In the last month, we’ve been getting settled into the house and into the start of a routine.  Setting her feedings at every 3 hours and taking cues from Hattie when it comes to how much to eat, she’s had some great growth.  She is up to 8 pounds, 4 ounces, and 20 inches. 

Hattie squeaks and grunts a lot…even when she’s sleeping.  She loves to watch the dancing Santa’s on the ceiling and has started to look for them.  Guess this decoration will be out all year.  Good thing it has a variety of images to rotate through.  We both love snuggling.  Hattie isn’t a big fan of the process of a diaper change and the hours of 9pm-12am.  Once we make it through both of those events, she settles quickly.  She is starting to have more “good” nights. 

Napa and Sonoma are starting to understand that she isn’t going anywhere and are starting to spend more time with both of us. 

Time is so precious and we are soaking up every second we can!

Hugs, C

The last three weeks have been a whirlwind! The biggest thing that I learned is it’s Hattie’s world and I’m just living in it.

As I thought about raising a human being, I wanted to breastfeed. It’s a great way to get babies valuable nutrients. I wasn’t able to produce or express enough to get to the next feeding. During one of the midnight feedings, Hattie was having a meltdown as I was hooked up to the pump. At that point, I made the decision that this momma could control the stressful situation by switching to formula. Since then, I’ve had a happier fed baby and my stress level went way down. I count that as a win.

Sleeping has been another elusive subject. We are working on getting days and nights straight. At first, Hattie would only sleep if the lights in the bedroom were on. Not only does that make it harder to get the times in line, resting was much harder for me. I was able to find a nightlight that had lots of options and different sounds. We’ve been toying with that a bit. Over the last 3 nights, two have been successful when it comes to sleeping well between the feedings. Another thing is, just because it worked one night, doesn’t mean it’s going to work the next.

A couple of things that Hattie and I have always agreed on… snuggles are the best, we like to see the dancing Santa’s on the ceiling, and we both like to eat (not the same food).

Each day brings a new adventure. We are soaking up the experience and enjoying the moments!!

Hugs, C