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| Mom, I don't like getting buckled unto this swing |
Let's start with all of this weeks highlights. On Tuesday Wally and I attended the first of six weekly "New Mama" classes at Amma Maternity near the Galleria in Edina. Oh my gosh, it was absolutely fantastic! To all of my prego girlfriends and family, I recommend 3 things: the epidural, a daily hot bath, and taking a new mama class. This list will grow, but that's my start. There are about six other moms in this class with me, all with little ones quite close in age to Wally (2 girls who were born the day before him!). For over 2 hours, we talked about all the emotions, struggles, and highlights of being a new mom. So cathartic! All of these questions just stared pouring out - I was so surprised that many of my concerns were brought up by other moms too!
I can't tell you how much I learned just from seeing other mamas interact with thier babies and hearing about thier experiences. Yay, I'm not the only one having breastfeeding issues, or loosing sleep, or hitting the "3rd week slump." The first obvious disparity: Wally is about the size of an NFL linebacker compared to the other babies. He is bigger and chunkier than one baby who is 3 weeks older (double his age). He weighs 11.2 lbs - in at the 97th percentile. Holy crap! On thursday I had an apt with a lactation consultant at Methodist (Coleen - she is my cheerleader) and was assured that Wally's size is nothing to be concerned about. You can't overfeed a breastfed baby, but from the outside it might look like I'm trying to defy that law. Also, he grunts alot because of the breastfeeding and my initialy strong milk flow. The plus side to his size is that I really feel more comfortable handing him - like I don't have to be super delicate. He's pretty strong and durable. In fact, on Thursday night (and he was up from 1:30-6:00am straight) we were doing a little tummy time and he held his head up for a good 20 seconds and just looked thoughtfully at me. I teared up a little.
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| I've kept mom up this many nights in a row |
It's so helpful to feel like I am on a team of moms who are all going through this with me! We got together on Thursday for coffee and got to know eachother, which was great. Of course, Wally had a blowout. Yellow paste all over everything - his clothes, blankets, my shirt, his whole body, etc. But I still had a great time.
Today we did a little shopping/walking around Ridgedale so that I could test out the stroller. It's a Chicco Keyfit, and I really like it. I had to watch a few youtube videos before leaving the house just to figure out how to get the carseat into the stroller, but it worked and we had a great time. This weekend, the goal is to pump and introduce the bottle - just so he gets use to Brian giving him a bottle once in a while, and eventually so that I can work for a few hours in a row. Hope it works!
This week's milestones: More awake and alert, lots of kicking and head bobbling during tummy time, starting to fit into more 3 month clothes, on the verge of smiling at times, looking up at me while nursing, I'm getting more confident leaving the house
