Night 1: I held Ellen all night because I couldn't put her down. She practiced nursing, but mostly slept. No crying.
Night 2: Exactly like her big brother, Ellen started crying when she was about 20 hours old and cried for several hours. Nursing would soothe her for 15 min or so, but then she would get upset again. We figured, like with Lucas, it was because she was hungry and my milk wasn't in yet. Why did Mother Nature design us this way!?
Night 3: Ellen slept soundly from about 2pm to 11pm, with breaks for nursing, so we thought that she would surely be awake most of the night again. I nursed her at 11pm and then we went to sleep with Ellen beside our bed in a basket. She woke up a couple of hours later to nurse, but went right back to sleep in her basket. She only slept for about half an hour, and I was so tired, so I tried a position I had figured our earlier in the day. I held her in the traditional, across the chest baby hold and then just laid down in bed so that her head was resting in the fold of my arm. I remember looking at the clock around 2am, 3am and 5am, but it was a very restful, peaceful night with Ellen sleeping and nursing as needed there beside me. It goes down as some of the best moments of my life that I hope I never forget... so peaceful, sweet and perfect.
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2 comments:
I love your blogs over these past few days!
Night Two comment: mother nature did it this way for several reasons. The colostrum is extremely absorbing to her teeny, tiny tummy which is the size of your pinky's nail. That's why it empties every 30 minutes or less after you fill it with your colustrum (which is better than milk). The purpose for that is so that you feed her again. Mother nature wants her to be fed every hour or so to GET THAT BAD POOP out so that she doesn't get jaundiced. The root cause of jaundice can actually cause brain damage, so it is very serious. She wants you to nurse as much as possible BEFORE you milk comes in so that she gets her intestines lined with colustrum's healthy bateria. That good combination of bacteria will give her tummy the ability to digest for the rest of her life....
Frequent nursing is the solution to prevent many problems-- hence, ever 20 minutes, she wants more.
See, mother nature wasn't setting you up for failure-- just a smart perfect baby like Ellen.
You are a natural again!!!! Sounds like you are all settling in and adjusting to your little pricess. Please give her a hug and kiss from Madison and Macklin.
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