Eat-Sleep-Love | Maryland DC & Virginia Sleep Coach, Baby Planner, Maternity & Child Consultant

Maternity & Parenting Center

Roll Over!

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Micah rolled over again last night! We’re still not sure if it is accidental or on purpose, but he has rolled from front to back about 4 or 5 times, and from back to front 2 times!

Once again, he fell asleep in his crib . . . or, more accurately, he fell asleep on his mommy in his room while we sat in the glider, and then was moved into his crib to spend the night. While I miss having Micah around with us until 2:00 in the morning and sleeping in our room, I also am enjoying the time for us.

We can’t believe how much he is growing. I weighed him yesterday at the breastfeeding support group, and he weighed 9 lbs!! We just bought size 1 diapers, and this week I am going to see how the 0-3 months size clothing fits.

What a week!

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Thought I’d start off sharing some additional pictures from our Florida trip . . . including our visit with his Great Aunt Ellen & Great Uncle Stu. Check out the first picture – when he does this I keep thinking someone has just shouted “stick ’em up” or “you’re under arrest!”


Okay . . . back to our regularly scheduled program. This has been a crazy week so far – a really good week, but definitely crazy. On Monday I went to my 6 week checkup. All is going well – I’ve healed nicely, but it seems I have a yeast infection on my nipples. No wonder breastfeeding has been so uncomfortable!! I was given a prescription for “Newman’s Nipple Cream” to try and fix everything.

Right after my appointment, I went to my first Baby & Me class! There were about 10 women in the class, and I think it seems like a really good group. We all just sat around to talk, then we went out to Panera afterwards to grab some lunch. It was nice for me to get out and about and feel like me again.

On Tuesday, I was worried that Micah might also have thrush since I had an infection, so I took him to the doctor. Turns out, he was just fine. We did get to weigh him again . . . and he weighed a whopping 8 lbs 10 ounces!!!! I talked to the doctor about whether Micah has reflux, and he thought it was a definite possibility. He gave us some different formula (which I didn’t think would matter since we hardly ever give him formula). We decided to table the discussion on Zantac because Micah had not been crying from the reflux. Naturally, we left the doctor’s office, and when we got home, Micah began to cry. And pretty much shrieked for over 8 hours. Nothing made him feel better. He was hiccuping, making choking and wheezing sounds, crying when he spit up . . . I was sure it was the reflux. I tried calling the doctor about 3 hours in, and he had left for the day. The other pediatrician wouldn’t prescribe Zantac since Micah was not her patient (seriously?) and when I pushed about what to do, she first told me to let him cry until the next day. I pushed some more, and she suggested children’s Maalox. I sent my Dad out to get it . . . only to learn that children’s Maalox only comes in pill form. I called the doctor back, and she said “Oops, I meant Mylanta.” I then sent Elliot out to look for Mylanta . . . and again, we learned it is not available in liquid. At 8:00 pm, I called the after-hours number . . . and got the same rotten doctor!! She finally gave in, and after giving me some attitude, she called in the Zantac. All I can say is it made a HUGE difference. Micah is doing really well on it!

On Wednesday, Micah was feeling so great that we went out ALL day. We went to the baby store to get gifts for a friend of mine who just had a baby (also named Micah), and then off to Target. After the errands, I went to the breastfeeding support group. Following the support group, two of us then went out for coffee. In the middle of all this, I got a call that one of my friends (whose grandmother had just died) was having Shiva that night. For those of you who do not know, Shiva is a Jewish custom to support the family members of a person who has recently died. Everyone goes to the house, brings food, and is there for a short prayer ceremony that enables them to mourn. The custom is designed to ensure that those in mourning do not have to mourn alone. Anyway, Elliot & I decided to go there, so I took Micah to my parents’ house on our way over. We made it home about 10:00 pm – I was out with Micah for 12 hours!!

Thursday was another adventure. I woke up in the morning and took Micah back to Target because I had mistakenly bought the wrong bottle. We then went to pick up Elliot, and we went to the bris for my friend’s baby Micah. We spent the afternoon there, then came home. Elliot & I decided we were long overdue for a date night, so my parents came over to babysit. We went out for a few hours to see a one-man comedy show – My Mother is Italian, My Father is Jewish, and I’m Still in Therapy – at the Bethesda Theatre. It was a lot of fun, and so nice to get out just the two of us.

Today we spent the day with Aunt Jen and cousins Paige and Peyton. It was another good day, although Micah seems to cry at the beginning of every car trip (which breaks my heart). I even had time to take a business call before we left! Micah has been so much more alert and awake this week. We’ve had time to play on the playmat (actually, both my babies were playing together):




and run some errands, too! I can’t believe how big Micah is getting. He is having some cranky periods now (very new for me) and he has some fussiness and hours when all he wants is for mommy to hold him. We’re working on getting the hang of the new routine.

Here are a few other fun pictures from this week:


And Micah wants to send out a big “hello” and a huge hug & kiss to his Poppy Ira and his Grammy . . . both of whom always make sure to read this blog and keep such close tabs on him! Thank you.

Rough Week

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This week has been tough. Micah has been struggling with a cold, and then it affected his eating/nursing. We’ve been having a difficult time getting back on track. He seems to be feeling much better, but he is still congested. At the doctor’s appointment on Thursday (we went in to have him checked for his cold), he had only gained 4 ounces – about 5 ounces less than we would have liked. We have no way to know whether this slowed weight gain is merely due to his cold or if it signifies a bigger eating issue.

I’m a bit frustrated right now with breastfeeding. He was doing a great job eating, and we were on a pretty good schedule until he got sick. He wouldn’t eat for about a day, so I had to pump and bottle feed him. All I can say is this began a long cycle of crazy stuff . . . first I was feeling like I had an oversupply, and then it felt like my milk supply crashed. Micah finally got his appetite back, but he has been cluster-feeding pretty much non-stop for the past several days. We finally resorted to giving him a few bottle formula supplements because I just couldn’t nurse him that many hours a day. I think he was nursing for about 12 hours straight on Thursday and Friday. Yesterday was better during the day, but then Micah would not stop nursing overnight and would not go down to sleep. I had a horrible migraine, so after nursing him for 9 hours (with about 45 minutes of breaks TOTAL), I finally told Elliot to give him a bottle of formula so I could try and sleep my migraine off. I’ve been concerned that Micah is nursing like crazy because he isn’t getting enough from me. The formula did the trick last night and Micah finally slept for 5 hours straight. He seems to be nursing more “normally” today – we’ll see what happens tonight. He has been difficult to wake for his feedings today, so I’m concerned we are on a bad cycle here.

I’ve tried calling a few lactation consultants. Right now, everyone seems to think this is just a growth spurt (although I’m not convinced). Did I mention he is pooping green? I am concerned this means there is an issue with my milk, but who knows. He isn’t exhibiting other symptoms of a foremilk/hindmilk issue (and he nurses for very long periods of time – sometimes 30-50 minutes on each breast – and yes, he is actively nursing that WHOLE time). I may have another appointment with a lactation consultant tomorrow.

Overall, today was a good day. Niki and Eric and their kids came by to bring us bagels for breakfast and take a tour of our house. I then went to meet a new contractor to get a price quote on fixing up my condo for resale. Micah has been nursing easily and quickly going down for his naps today, but tonight will be the real test. I’m still obsessing about his weight (and my milk supply) and whether everything is okay, but I’m trying to hang in there for a few more days.

My little porker . . .

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Micah had his 2 week appointment today, and he weighed in at 6 lbs (well, with rounding up)! He is growing well (averaging an ounce a day) and we were officially given permission to stop force-feeding him at 3 hr intervals around the clock – we can now feed “on demand” so tonight is the first night we intend to let him sleep until he wakes up. I’m SOOO excited – I think we might actually get 4 hours of sleep in a row. I’ve continued to feed him every 3 hrs or so all day in the hopes that he won’t be too hungry tonight to sleep a bit longer.

The past few nights, he has been unhappy from about 4 am until 8 am. We’ve been waking him up from a pretty sound sleep to feed him, and then we have a hard time getting him back to sleep after the feeding. He’ll start crying, and I almost always have to nurse him again . . . we’ve been cluster feeding for several hours every night, and it is taking its toll on us. It is probably more accurate to say he won’t let us put him down after the feeding – he’ll sleep on me or Elliot, but if we try moving him to the bassinet so we can sleep, he starts crying, and since we are too exhausted to stay awake and hold him on us in the bed . . . well, let’s just say it has been challenging. We’ve eventually been able to get him to sleep in the bouncy seat, but we don’t want to have him sleeping in the bouncy seat every night. Here is hoping we have better luck tonight!

We are going to attempt to use the playmat tonight – we’ll see if he is ready for that. Luckily, he seems to really like tummy time, although he mostly spends tummy time on Mommy or Daddy’s chest. We thought we’d try a change of location tonight, so we’re off to the rec room in the basement for a change of scenery.

Houston . . . we have weight gain!

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Today was our weight check . . . and Micah gained weight! He weighed in at 5 lbs 11 ozs – getting close to his birth weight. It looks like the breast feeding is finally going well. We also have tons of poop . . . I swear, that child has a diaper explosion with EVERY eating session. He also likes to wait for the diaper to come off, and THEN have an explosion. Sometimes he is considerate – he waits until we put a clean diaper on him, and then he has an explosion. I think we must have 8-10 dirty diapers a day!

We’re still using the preemie diapers (and preemie clothing) – the newborn size is just still too big for him. We had him in a newborn diaper the other night – it slid off his tush and he ended up with a mess in the swaddle. We won’t be trying that again until he is a little bigger.

We do seem to have a better system in place now. I’m actually getting a few hours sleep at a time at night. Elliot wakes the baby up, hands him to me, then goes back to sleep. I spend the next hour nursing, and then Elliot gets back up to change his diaper and dress him again. Lately, Micah has been wanting to nurse AGAIN for another 15-20 minutes after he is swaddled, so we nurse again until he falls alseep and I put him back in the bassinet. This way, both Elliot and I can get about 2 – 2 1/2 hrs sleep at a time.

Cute squeaky noises

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I’m sitting here listening to Micah make his cute little squeaky noises while he naps across the room in the pack-n-play. He is really so much fun sometimes. He has been eating like a champ since the lactation consultant came on Thursday, and I’m so relieved that feedings have become normal and no longer a totally stressful event.

We had another doctor’s appointment yesterday and Micah weighed in at 5 lbs 7 oz. We’re not sure yet what to think about that – I think the scale was off on Wednesday when they weighed him in at 5 lbs 9 ozs – that seemed like too big a jump to make in 36 hours after not eating for almost 18 of those hours. The lactation consultant weighed him in at 5 lbs 4 ozs naked and 5 lbs 6 ozs with the diaper, so 5 lbs 7 ozs would be consistent. The doctor said that babies can plateau at 4/5 days – stop losing but not quite gaining yet. He wants to see a measurable jump in weight when we go back on Monday, so let’s hope we are on the right track!

Sunday we are having a bris for Micah. For those of you who don’t know what a bris is, basically, it is a religious ceremony for his circumcision and naming. All of our family and friends will be joining us to welcome Micah. We are so excited to introduce him to everyone tomorrow.

Who would have thought I could love a nipple shield?

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Well, it has been another challenging 2 days. After coming home from the hospital, Micah slowly grew more alert. For our 6:00 feeding, he was willing to latch but not nurse, so for our 9:00 feeding, I decided to try the breastfeeding supplement contraption. I was amazed – on his 2nd attempt, Micah latched, took the supplement tube, and he nursed for about 30 minutes and ate all his supplement! I thought we were home free.

Once again, however, Micah refused to nurse at his 12:00, 3:00 and 6:00 am feeding. I had to give up on the breastfeeding supplement contraption and go back to the syringe. My mom and I covered the 3:00 and 6:00 feedings so that Elliot could try and catch some needed sleep. It was a frustrating time – Micah kept getting so hungry and so upset that he was really hard to calm down, and I just couldn’t get a successful latch at all.

We had to do the 9:00 feeding 1 hour early because we had an appointment to see the doctor. Unfortunately, Micah could barely stay awake for that feeding, and the breastfeeding didn’t work out again. In better news, however, we got a great evaluation at the pediatrician appointment. Micah had gained about 5 ounces, his color was better and he was quite alert! The doctor asked us to come back for another weight check on Friday, but he thinks the worst of the jaundice is behind us.

We made it home in time for his next feeding . . . and once again, no latch and tons of frustration. We finally gave in and did this feeding by bottle – I tried to nurse him, he refused, then we gave him a combination of breast milk and formula in a bottle. Ironically, Micah rejected the bottle, too – he just does not like to latch! After some pushing and persistence, we convinced him to take the bottle. We tried again to nurse after he finished eating (no luck), then I went on to pump. The feedings continued to follow this pattern all afternoon, so I spent the rest of the day trying to find a lactation consultant to help us out. By 5:00 pm, I scheduled an appointment for early this morning.

The good news is that overnight, Micah did try to latch and nurse several times. He clearly showed an interest in nursing, but just couldn’t seem to obtain and keep a latch. Even worse, when he has a good latch, he does not like the feel of it, so he closes his mouth down and uses his tongue and hands to push me out. I was a bit less frustrated because we had a system, but I was feeling disappointed that we just couldn’t get the hang of nursing. One of my friends suggested we try a nipple shield (thanks, Marisa!), so Elliot ran out to pick one up at Target, and we tried that. I was so hopeful, but the shield just seemed a bit too big for Micah’s tiny little mouth. Again . . . close, but no cigars :(.

Elliot & I went upstairs to try and sleep around 2:00 am. We had just fed, and Micah had latched and nursed for about 1-2 minutes after that. I still had this feeling he was hungry (he was not in his usual food coma) but we were trying to avoid increasing the formula, so we figured he didn’t need any more and was probably just more alert because he was feeling better. We crawled into bed, and I had about 2 hrs to sleep before the next feeding. Just as I drifted off to sleep . . .. . . the wailing begin! We tried comforting him, we changed his diaper . . . still crying. I asked Elliot to go down and get an extra 10 ccs of formula (we had been giving him 30 ccs ~1 oz – total combined with breast milk, and we were told he could take as much as 60 per feeding ~2 ozs) and we fed that to him. We figured with the extra food we could push his big feeding back 1 hour and get a bit more sleep. WRONG! He went right back to crying. He did much better when Elliot was cuddling him, but he still wouldn’t sleep. We guessed he must be hungry since at that point we were just over 2 hours from his last real feeding, so I tried breastfeeding again. He latched and suckled a bit, but nothing substantial, and then Elliot went and got another bottle and he sucked that down. At this point, it was about 4:30, so we returned him to the bassinet and went to bed.

Naturally, 15 minutes later, the crying started again! I told Elliot it was my turn to sleep and he should stay up with the baby. He was great! He didn’t get much sleep, but he spent the night cuddling and rocking the baby and keeping him quiet. The lactation consultant was scheduled to arrive at 8:00, and I was hoping to stretch Micah’s feeding until she arrived. Because I was too tired (and it was too close to my last session), I skipped the 4:00 am pumping session, so I went downstairs before the appointment and pumped. I got over 20 ccs this time, so my milk is definitely increasing!

Luckily, Micah stayed quiet until the consultant showed up. She was a HUGE help – she evaluated Micah, took his weight naked and with a diaper, she evaluated my technique, and we tried a few different approaches. Nothing was working. She quickly realized (like the others) that Micah does not like to latch. I mentioned to her about the nipple shield we purchased last night, and she said she thought that would be a good option to try. I told her I wasn’t sure if it was too big, and she told me she had smaller if we need it.

All I can say is who would think a little piece of silicone that covers your nipple needed special training to use? She showed me how to put it on, and she showed me how to get him to latch with it. It took us quite a few attempts, and we were just about to give up on the bigger size when he latched! He fed for over 1 hour! She showed me how to move into a more comfortable position (the LCs at the hospital told me I had to keep my breast mushed the whole time I was nursing and couldn’t “relax” at all).

In even better news . . . he has continued to latch and nurse at every feeding since the LC left! We had a rough time getting latched at the 1:00 pm feeding, but we did it, and he nursed for about 1 1/2 hrs! We nursed again at 4:30 and again at 7:30, and so far, each time it has gone perfectly. I tried supplementing after the 1:00 feeding, and he took maybe another 5 or 10 ccs. I pumped again, and got about 12 ccs. He was in a food coma after the 4:30 feeding, so I didn’t bother supplementing, and got just a little more from the pump to store. At this point, I can’t decide if the pumping after each feeding is necessary/a good idea. If we don’t need to supplement, it seems a bit much. Because I’m getting so little, I think Micah is doing a good job right now of draining my breasts, so I’m not sure the pump is really doing more to increase my milk supply. A “normal” breastfeeding mom would not need to pump with these feedings, so I’ve been a bit unsure what to do. I did just give Micah an extra 15 ccs after his 7:30 feeding because he seemed very alert after his last feeding, and last night that was a sign that he got famished about 30 minutes later. The extra breast milk has nicely placed him back into his food coma, so I think it was a good idea. I got so distracted, however, that I got all re-dressed and forgot to pump. I think I’ve decided to skip pumping this feeding – I’m just too darned tired and I’ve been pumping every 3 hours for 3 days straight now, and well . . . I’m SORE. I hope I’m not making a bad decision. Did I mention that I LOVE the nipple shield?

In other news . . . Micah’s umbilical cord fell off tonight. Well, it might have had a little help . . . thanks to kisses from the dog. It looks fine, but I’m a bit worried that it had a little help falling off. We’re planning to give him a bath tonight – should be interesting!

Tomorrow we go back to the doctor for another weight check. He is doing much better, but he is still pretty yellow. Hopefully all is progressing as it should – I will update again!

Another Appt

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Today was another follow-up appointment to monitor my contractions. Last night was a rough night – I was in a lot of pain and I had contractions pretty steadily throughout the night. Yesterday I tried to reduce the anti-contraction medicine, so today we are going to return to taking the maximum dose at scheduled times (every 4-6 hrs) to see if that helps. I am also staying on the tylenol every 6 hours. I’m still measuring right on target, but I seem to have lost another pound this week. They also sent out another urine culture to see how my UTI is doing. I have to call the maternal fetal medicine place and ask when I can do another course of the 2nd medicine. Other than that, I seem to be doing okay. They don’t really know if the contractions/discomfort will continue throughout this pregnancy or if they will magically disappear, so I’m supposed to focus on each episode at a time and not try to project for the rest of the pregnancy.

24 weeks 2 days

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Today I am 24 weeks 2 days pregnant! We had another appointment today, and we finally managed to record the heartbeat again. He was playing keep away with the doppler, and even kicked it a few times before running away. He kicked so hard the probe actually moved! There are actually 2 recordings – the first one is the actual heartbeat, and the second one is the baby moving around and kicking the doppler. Hope you enjoy!

I did get in “trouble” today, however, for not gaining weight. Or, perhaps more accurately, for losing another 1/2 lb. I’m still pretty surprised I haven’t been putting on weight considering how big I’m getting, and I’m not really sure what else I can do! I eat . . . and eat . . . and eat, and the weight doesn’t seem to go up yet. I think this baby has Elliot’s metabolism! I also had gained so much weight before getting pregnant that I wonder if this is just my body stabilizing . . . kind of like an advance on a paycheck or something.

Other than that, I’m still worried about Nugget. She hasn’t passed the blockage yet and still isn’t eating. We go back tomorrow for another xray, and I’m hoping they will say she is okay.