Co-Sleeping

So James David does not have his own room. I just didn't see the point. Little babies need almost nothing. He has a dresser for his clothes, receiving blankets, and wraps and carriers--it is in our room. He has a changing area--in the bathroom--located in close proximity to the toilet, which is very handy while cloth diapering . . .

He has a cradle, located next to our bed, and then there's his cosleeper, which goes on our bed:

Since we would have wanted him near us at night anyway, the only thing that we maybe could have put in a nursery is the dresser . . . not a very full room.

So he doesn't have a room. I think by the time he is one or definitely by the time he turns two, we'll have designed and decorated a nice little toddler room for him, complete with his own bed, dresser, painted letters and animals on the walls, chalkboard paint, cork boards, the whole deal.

In the meantime, he'll sleep with us. This was, quite unexpectedly, the one point that my Dad freaked out about. It was fine that we had a midwife, a home birth, that we'll delay vaccinations and didn't circumcise, but co-sleeping was just too much for him. (It's sort of weird how everyone has their points of contention).

In the first few days, he was just in the cosleeper. Both James and I wanted him RIGHT THERE, between us, in front of our eyes, at the reach of our hands--we both woke up multiple times in the night with a gasp, reaching over to check that his chest rose and fell, poking at him to see his eyelids flutter--making sure that it was not all a dream--that he was there with us.

Now, typically, we'll get him to sleep "for the night" sometime between 10pm-12am, and we'll put him in the cradle. We'll have our opportunity then to snuggle with each other, hold each other as we fall asleep. Then James David will wake up between 3-5am, and at that point, we pull out the cosleeper and he'll sleep there for the rest of the night--easy to reach out and comfort if he is fussing--easy to get if he needs to nurse . . . accessible.

At some point in the future when he outgrows the co-sleeper and the risk of SIDS falls, he'll probably just sleep right in our bed, and so far, that is where James and I like him. It is by far the easiest situation for nursing and bonding.

Honestly, I can't imagine putting him in a crib in a separate room and closing the door. I carried him inside me for nine months, and such a drastic separation right away feels so unnatural. I want to be near him, to hear his noises and see him--all the time. It feels very very odd to be apart from him--even in a different room.

So I know co-sleeping isn't for everyone, but it is working great for us, so far. My Dad insists that we'll never get him out of our bed but I'm fairly certain that he won't take us to college with him, ;-) Anyway, at this point I have bigger fish to fry--sleeping in close proximity to your baby greatly reduces the risk of SIDS, promotes a good breastfeeding relationship, in short--helps a newborn grow into a healthy toddler. That's what I'm focused on right now--we'll worry about teaching him to sleep without US when we're ready to sleep without HIM, and that time is definitely not now!

Two Weeks!

It was two weeks ago today that I gave birth to my precious son!

In that time, he has already changed and grown so much! He is back up to his birth weight (or very nearly)--he was 8 lbs 6 ozs this morning and 8 lbs 7 ozs at birth.

He is getting to be a bit fussier than he used to be--I find myself so thankful for nursing because he will instantly stop crying, usually just from being put on my lap on the boppy, because he knows he will get to eat in a minute. And nursing stops him from crying no matter what, and usually puts him right to sleep--though of course he will wake up again a few minutes later unless he is actually tired . . . I wonder how formula feeding Moms do it, because I'm pretty sure you can't just give tons and tons of formula to a baby as a fix-all solution the way you can with nursing.

Anyway, I think the little chap is rather gassy--he burps and farts A LOT, and even if I burp him multiple times while eating, it doesn't seem to help. He just tends to swallow lots and lots of air--both while nursing and other times. I actually don't even know how he does it while nursing--isn't there supposed to be a vacuum in his mouth?

So while he's awake he is often fussy, but as long as I feed him often enough I can keep him from crying. It's going to be interesting when James goes back to work, though, and I can't just feed him all the time! Luckily he still sleeps well--both at night and takes long naps during the day. I usually have to wake him up from naps at least once a day because I don't want him to sleep so much that he doesn't sleep at night.

It's starting to be a bit more real that I'm a Mom and he's my baby. I don't know if the full reality has REALLY hit me, but it's getting there.

On a final note, we have such such amazing friends and family. As if the tons of things we got for his baby shower weren't enough, we've gotten tons of presents from the most unexpected people in the last few weeks . . . everyone has been so generous--and not only with traditional gifts but with food, helping us clean up, and so so many visits. It just feels like this huge outpouring of love, and it makes me just swell with thankfulness.

Then again, who could resist loving him?


I really can't believe how fast he is changing--he already looks so different and so much older than he did two weeks ago. I keep meaning to take videos of him and most days, forgetting. It just feels like everything is happening so fast and before I know it, he'll be a man.

The Benefits of Cluster Feeding

So our evenings--starting as early as 4, and ending as late as midnight, but usually for a good 4-5 hour stretch . . . are basically an all-night eat-a-thon. Meaning that James David nurses for 5-15 mins, then takes a 5-15 min break, and then wants to nurse again. This seriously does last for at least 4 hours.

I will let him go on one boob for a total of 30-45 mins of EATING time, and then switch to the other one--but after several hours of this, they haven't had time to fill up again by the time it's "their turn" again.

So, by the end of it, I almost feel bad because my boobs are completely done--or at least, it feels that way--like there is no milk left in them. And yet when he pops off, there is still milk in his mouth--where is it even coming from???

Yet eventually the baby goes to sleep--typically, sometime between 9 and 12, and when he FINALLY and REALLY goes to sleep, then the benefits of all-evening cluster feeds start to shine through. Because that baby will sleep almost the whole night through!! Last night he slept from 11:30-4, ate, and then slept again from 4:30 to 8:45. Ahhh, the blissful wonder of (nearly) uninterrupted sleep.

There was ONE day (in the past week) that he didn't spend all evening eating. And that night he woke up every two hours on the dot, and it was SO SO much worse. For some reason one's body is not programmed to sleep in tiny chunks (unless one's body is 13 days old, that is).

So, all in all, no matter how sore my nips are by the end of it, or how deflated my boobs, I'll take the cluster feeds and sleeping at night over an every-two-hours-throughout-the-day-and-night sort of schedule. The sleep at night is totally worth being attached to an adorable baby all evening.

My Baby is a Prince

I've been a bit neglectful (of the blog) and this won't be a very long post either, but . . .

James is a sensitive little dude. Specifically, he HATES to be wet. He also (apparently) like pooping in completely clean and fresh diapers. So today James changed him. About a half hour later he started fussing again, and low and behold, was once again wet, and so, got changed again.

Literally the SECOND James sat down from changing him this second time, we heard a huge poop explosion. And so, the prince was changed for the third time in an hour.

In related news, today was our first day in exclusively cloth. We'd been doing some cloth and some disposables for the past week or so, but I quickly realized that the prefolds we had were WAY too big for him, and so were the size small Happy Heiny brand pocket diapers that I had. So the only diapers we had to fit him were four fitted diapers (3 size 0 Kissaluvs and 1 Happy Heiny), and 3 size extra small Happy Heiny's pockets. I'm really glad I didn't try to go for one size diapers because I'm pretty sure they wouldn't work for us at all, at this point.

Anyway, these seven diapers were not enough to get us through the day, especially given how often James likes to be changed, so we were doing both for awhile. However, by a happy stroke of luck, we got 12 prefolds as a present from our family friend Sharon and her husband Skip, and they were really slim and fit James really well. So today is our first day doing entirely cloth, and I think it's going really well!

James is the master diaper changer and is even quite confident now with the prefolds, snappis, and covers. I also ordered 12 more small size prefolds and two small fleece covers, so when these arrive, we'll really be rocking! So there's a little update for you!