Decided to do an outfit post today to document a few things.... We've had super cute outfits lately, because my cousin Chrissy sent us two enormous boxes of clothes, hand-me-downs from her two sons. But I'm still catching up around the house from being out of town, so adding outfit photos to the mix sounded overwhelming. And overwhelming is not how I want our outfit photos to be. I do it because it's fun. And it needs to stay that way, or I will stop, or take a break.
Anyway.... The shorts and tee Jax is wearing are from the box she sent. I absolutely adore the shorts. They are Hurley brand, and are just too much. The super cute grey and white plaid, the bulky cargo pockets, the longer length. But they are six month size, and he's already wearing twelve month size shorts. I could barely snap them, and he might not even wear them the entire day if they're hurting his belly. So I had to document him wearing them just once. The shirt says "Balboa Boat Club", and since they live in CA, I'm sure is the real deal.
And me? I bought this necklace yesterday at a yard sale for a buck. Along with a six-inch rubber ball for Jax. While we were out of town, both my friends had balls about this size, and Jax had so much fun with them. I've been making a list of toys he played with while we were gone that were his favorites, so I can look for them at yard sales. Can I say that spending money on a necklace for myself counts as a gift for my son? (Since he plays with them all day while he nurses, and whenever I'm holding him.)
So the other thing I want to document here is whatever growth spurt or something Jax has going on right now. The entire month of September, while we were gone, he stopped sleeping through the night and started nursing through the night instead, waking every 1-4 hours all night long, depending on the night.
Since coming home, especially the past week, I feel like the minute I'm done nursing him he's hungry again. I started paying attention to the clock the last four days (which I normally don't; I just feed him when he seems hungry).
Yesterday I went to work for five hours. He drank six ounces of expressed breast milk in three hours while I was gone, and went hungry the last two hours until I returned. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon nursing what felt like constantly. On for ten minutes, off for five, on for fifteen, off for twenty, on for twenty, off for fifteen, etc. Last night, he went to sleep at eight, woke to nurse at 8:30, 10:30, 1:30, 4, 5, 6, and 7 before getting up for the day. He has nursed almost constantly again today since waking up. Day before yesterday was ever hour on the hour. Day before that was every two hours. Day before that was every hour again. And before that, I wasn't keeping track, but it felt like every hour and a half or so for the prior week-ish.
It's lasting much longer than a "typical" growth spurt, which is 2-3 days. I felt like he nursed extra the entire month of September. The good news, is I've been getting worried about his weight gain, and that has finally changed.
In the first three months of his life, he gained two pounds and two inches EVERY MONTH. Way above average. Then since he was three months old, he has gained one inch, but not even an ounce. He's been 19.7 pounds since he was three months old. I weighed him yesterday, and he finally hit the twenty pound threshold. Perhaps all that extra nursing has finally paid off.
He is also SO, SO distracted it seems difficult to keep him focused on eating. He will eat for five minutes, then pull away, and I can't get him back on. So twenty minutes later, he's hungry again.
His hungry signs are probably typical, but still humorous to me. He pulls hard on my shirt, trying to get it down. He dives at me with an open mouth, landing on my chest, arm, face, or neck with his sloppy wet, drooly mouth, licking once he lands. He latches onto whatever part of my skin he can reach - biceps, chin, or collarbone is a favorite. He open-mouth dive bombs my breasts with my shirt still on, so he lands on fabric, but knows what's going on underneath.
I have an appointment with my lactation consultant today to ask a lot of questions about this new stage of nursing plus food. I have no desire to wean him anytime soon, but need to figure out how to get enough milk into him when he is so darn distracted and so darn hungry all at the same time.
One solution that has helped a lot is to nurse him laying down in bed. That position seems to help him focus on nursing, and even if he pulls away, I'm right there in a minute or two when he's done investigating the window, or the fan, or the pillow, or whatever captured his interest.
I started nursing him in bed laying down while we were out of town. It was a way for me to get some down time and alone time (because I'm an introvert at heart and as much as I love people and conversation and friends, I can't handle it all day long without some breaks). It was a way for me to connect with Jax, instead of trying to make him entertain himself while I worked or cooked or cleaned or chatted. It was a way for me rest from my efforts, and be peaceful and calm. And it was a way for him to focus on nursing. I figured he was just distracted because the new places and new people, but clearly that wasn't the only issue. It hit me three days ago, I needed to nurse him laying down at home too, to provide the same calm centeredness that helped both of us when we were away.
It makes me question the breastfeeding books I read. Because they all instruct you to wait until baby has finished one breast (he pulls away) before offering the other. Let baby tell you when he is done. Don't decide he is done by pulling him off the breast yourself. That has never been our problem. Instead, I'm trying to gauge if he's really done the fifth time or fifteenth time he pulls away. If I guess wrong, he starts nuzzling and licking me five minutes later when he remembers he's still hungry.
It makes me incredibly grateful that I'm staying home with him. If he was with a sitter, how could I keep up with this sudden increased demand in milk?! I couldn't be pumping all day long in the same way I'm nursing all day long. What a gift it is to be with him, to be available five minutes later when he's still lapping at my collarbone and tugging at my shirt.
HERS | Shirt Target | Shorts Old Navy | Necklace yard sale | Shoes Crocs Malindi
