Babies vomit. Mine in particular loves to be at the breast 24/7 which inevitably leads to overeating, which in turn results in an overly full stomach and projectile vomiting. Awesome!

She’s shot vomit everywhere exactly 3 times. Once from her swing on to the floor. Once while cuddling me in bed, it went right down my shirt, arm and all over my side of the bed. Then this morning we were both back asleep after a long early morning feeding when she began to quietly fuss…

Half asleep I was verbally consoling her but had my back to her. She’ll calm down after hearing “you’re okay” or “shhhh, it’s okay”. So, I am consoling her and an explosion of vomit hits my back, my hair and once again soaks my side of them bed.

I shot up, wiped her face, arm and the bed. Made sure she wasn’t choking on vomit. Then I stood there looking like “someone killed my puppy” as N put it while I pondered my next move.

Did I want to lay some receiving blankets down over the wet vomit spot, wipe myself off and lay back down to sleep for a few more hours or was it shower time?

There was warm sour milk dripping from my mop of crazy hair, down my back and also from my left arm. Keep in mind she did this same thing to me the day before and I’ve becoming increasingly sensitive to the sent of sour milk on myself now.

After several seconds of deliberation I choose to shower off and wash the sour milk from my hair. If it hadn’t soaked my hair I so would have opted for sleeping some more but having baby vomit in my hair was just too much for me to ignore, this time.

So, I headed off to the shower at like 5am and thought to myself… “Pretty soon sour milk in the hair will be something I am used to living with, I am just not there YET!”

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We’ve been doing much experimenting with my diet and other causes of her fussiness and gas. The first thing I did was take dairy out of my diet since I know many other moms (like Veronica) have shared their own issues with breastfeeding and dairy.

Everly’s gas and fussing didn’t improve when I went without dairy for several days. Now I am going without chocolate to see if that is the culprit. Much reading has indicated that chocolate is a problem for many breastfeeding mothers. We are also going to try removing coffee/ caffeine from the diet after we finish testing the chocolate theory.

We’ve also spent the last few days allowing Everly to dictate her own schedule. For a while I was worried that she wasn’t getting enough to eat so I would wake her for feedings and diaper changes. She can sleep for several hours on end during the day, we are talking 4-6 hours sometimes. If only she could sleep like this during the night!

Anyway, it seems allowing her to sleep and feed on her own schedule makes her a much happier baby and she in turn sleeps better at night and fusses much less. Last night she slept from 10pm-2am and then went back to sleep from 3am-7am… That is two long stretches of sleep during the night which makes me super happy and feeling well rested (amazingly).

Last night we spent the evening outdoors and grilled some ribs, it was nice and relaxing for us. Everly was well behaved and fell asleep shortly after 9pm which allowed us to enjoy a meal together. Also, she actually had a good night Friday and on Saturday with more long stretches of sleep. This means we did get to sleep some, just not during the times we would prefer to be sleeping.

We went to several stores on Saturday with her in tow and she just slept the whole time. She loves car rides and is pretty good in her carrier while we are inside stores. I am not quite ready to venture out with just Everly and I yet. Having N along insures we’ve got each other’s back in case she gets fussy or needs anything while errands are in progress.

I am still feeling unlike myself with the hormones and all. Can’t wait for things to get back to normal, it’s been nice to have N home to help out and has made me feel much better. Makes it all that much more do-able with him around.

Now we are off to give Everly her first bath now that her umbilical stump has fallen off!

Oh, if you want to read N’s version of Everly’s birth story (Pt. 1) & N’s version of Everly’s birth story (Pt. 2) are now up over at his blog! I am still working on my long version of the birth story. Posted my short summary version already, it can be read here.

The post Winding down: First 2 weeks of parenting comes to a close. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

The crazy thing about childbearing is that after birth they really just hand the baby over to you to figure it all out on your own!

It’s crazy to think about how little guidance first time parents get before taking baby home and how scary that really is. I was in labor for about 18 hours and then voila I am responsible for another living, breathing being and on my way home 4 days later.

I still think it all hasn’t fully sunk in for me. Sure the love and attentiveness is there but the gravity of the fact that we are now parents to our daughter, not so much. It is hard to explain really. It’s overwhelming, exciting, lonely, scary and fun all at the same time.

I am overly emotional these days. Talked to my mom and brother on the phone yesterday and cried like very 5 minutes for no reason (other than that I am tired and at a loss). I am still kind of sore and healing still.

We’ve been trying to get out and to continue our regular routines with Everly in tow. Today we grocery shopped and visited my chiropractor.

Unfortunately, Everly is still fussy and it’s hard for us to not have a way to ease her discomfort. I chatted with my chiropractor/ nutritionist today about her troubles and he had some good solutions for us to try.

We are also still in touch with our midwife from The Farm and will be heading back for Everly’s 6 week check up in the beginning of August.

I’ve also been informed of a local breast feeding support group that has weekly meetings in our area, I plan to attend the next meeting.

Basically we have many good info resources and are just learning as we go, which is how everyone does it. It’s just a trying, exhausting and scary process along the way.

The post Reflections on parenthood, 16 days postpartum. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

We are learning about this whole parenting thing and we are so in love with little Everly. Unfortunately, we’ve got a fussy uncomfortable baby that we can’t seem to calm. Everyone is saying it is colic and everyone has an opinion about her ailment that doesn’t seem to help us in treating it.

I just hate calling it colic because the name doesn’t imply any specific condition or treatment. Everyone just throws their hands up and says “Oh colic, hang in there- it will pass”. I am sorry but just accepting that it’s a mystery that she’ll out grow isn’t okay with me. Her fussing is due to something and I want to know what so I can fix it.

She’s not fussy all day, just over certain extended periods of time. Recently she’s begun fussing at the breast too and she’s really straining to poop or pass gas.

We took a trip to the library on Sunday and checked out a bunch of breastfeeding books for me to read. Some books say colic goes away and that parents just have to tough it out. I’ve read that breastfed babies can’t be constipated but many are typically gassy and strain to poop normally. I’ve also read about how a mom’s diet can cause digestive distress for a breastfed baby.

On Sunday night/ Monday morning I had to take Everly down to the nursery and spend the night with her fussing and crying all night. We left N to sleep in the bedroom since he had to work on Monday and he spent the previous night with her fussing so I could sleep.

Anyway I am pretty sure feeding is making her tummy hurt. It’s either something in my diet or it could be her nursing pattern and the fact that she’s not getting a good mix of foremilk/ hindmilk. She could be swallowing air or not properly latching on too. Basically it could be anything…

I am just overwhelmed, frustrated and at a loss right now. I want to know what the problem is so it can be fixed but there is just so much conflicting information out there and nothing seems to be working.

Today I’ve tried breast compressions during feeding. I just read about breast compression to encourage baby to finish feeding on a breast as opposed to sleeping before sufficient hindmilk is consumed.

Everly is very soothed by feeding and has fallen asleep during feeds since she was born. I chatted with a lactation consultant about this at The farm and she showed me how to compress the breast and keep her nursing longer. I had no idea that poor latch and baby’s dozing at the breast can be a cause of colic.

To get more info I am also reading about:

Help relieve abdominal pain in infants with colic.
Colic and the breastfed baby, diet issues, let-down and other causes.

Last night was much of the same fussiness. She didn’t sleep for very long and when time came for feedings she would only nurse for like 10-15min before pulling off, fussing and grunting or falling asleep. The pulling off and fussing/ grunting is hell on the nipples and I wish she would just nurse long enough to get sufficient milk. It might reduce the constant nursing and allow us all to get some sleep.

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