Rest for the Weary

I finally decided that there must be something wrong, since I'm still suffering from sore, cracked nipples now, with Ian nearly 8 weeks old. So we went this morning to see the lactation consultant. It was very helpful, and no doubt I should have done it long ago. It was great to have someone actually watch me nurse, instead of just reading about what to do and getting advice over the phone. She made several observations and recommendations:

- Ian does not bring his tongue far enough forward, so we have to teach him to do that better by forcing him to latch on more deeply
- He wants to suck on the nipple (since he's gotten accustomed to this), and since he is physically strong for his age and very strong willed (he does not get this from me!), he is fighting me when I try to get him to latch on better
- He may be having problems from reflux (common in babies, since their esophogeal sphincter is still immature), especially because he's getting a lot of milk, and this may be causing his thrashing behavior -- to combat this, we need to keep his head elevated above his body at all times
- He is very alert and interested in everything, which causes him to try to look around while he's nursing, so he needs to nurse in a calm place, and maybe with a blanket covering his eyes
- Based on his alertness and responsiveness to what's going on around him, the nurse says that he is very smart :)

She gave me hydrogels (typically used to help burn victims heal), and said that things should clear up within a week if everything goes well. Otherwise I'll have to go back next week. The prospect of relief from pain while nursing is very exciting!! It is rather emotionally exhausting to know that you have to do something painful every two hours. Lately Ian has seems much less content nursing than he has in the past (probably due to the reflux), so hopefully this will be a relief for him, too.

Despite his nursing difficulties, Ian is clearly getting plenty of milk and growing well. He weighed in today at 14 pounds flat. He falls around 95% for his age on the growth chart for weight (he is marked with the red circle):



But he's not a chubby boy. He wasn't measured today, but based on his length at his last appointment (5 weeks), he is much farther off the chart for length than for weight (the upper line is the 95th percentile):



We finally located Doug's baby book tucked safely away in a closet (Doug's parents brought it to us after Ian was born). So I'll be sharing some things from Doug's development as it parallels Ian's (and invite my parents to chime in with things about me -- my baby book is in Syracuse). Although Doug was two pounds heavier and one inch longer than Ian at birth, Ian has caught up now. At 5 weeks, Doug was 23.25 inches long (vs. Ian's 25.5 - Doug didn't reach this length until 3 months), and 13 pounds (vs. Ian's 12 lbs 9 oz). Doug weighed 14 pounds at his 2 month appointment, so Ian will surpass him there. Does this mean that Ian will ultimately be a bigger man than his Daddy? We'll have to see - breastfed babies often grow faster initially, so things might even out later . . . According to the book, Doug was my height and weight when he was 12, so at least I'll have a little while before my baby boy looks down at me! (Note: the next year, at 13, Doug had grown to over 6 feet tall!)