All in a days time

Been busy day...Mark lost his belly button stump today. WOOHOO! I have been puked on twice and peed on once (must remember to point the weewee down in the diaper!). Just need his weewee ring to fall off from the circ and we will have covered just about everything. Oh yeah, and I guess getting pooed on too. Good times ;-)

Something to smile about...

After yesterday's hormone induced post, decided to lighten it up a bit with just a sweet pic and none of my breast feeding drama (which, BTW, I will leave it at not going so hot still).

The best part of my day is when I wake up in the morning after feeding Mark and go out into the living room where Matt and Z are. I go sit in the recliner and the first thing Z does is come over, climb onto the other half of my lap, and give me and Mark a hug! Talk about melting a Mommy's heart! I love my boys!!!!! :)

Here we go again....

Mark only gained an ounce in four days and isn't having enough poops either. Not good. Called and talked to the lactation consultant and she recommended that we start supplementing an ounce after each feeding. Do what you got to do but of course I am upset and feel like I failed again. I won't give up and hopefully my supply will pick up with the continuing of fenugreek and the MoreMilk but I have not noticed much of a change yet even with basically feeding the boy whenever he wants and for however long. Very frustrating. I will work on pumping more too but as I said before, it feels like SUCH a waste of time when I pump and nothing comes out. I just don't understand what the problem is?!? The LC reminded me that some things are out of our control either due to hormones or mammary tissue so perhaps that is it. I hope it is not for lack of trying because I DO feel like I have been trying!

Anyway...we will see how things look when we go back next week for his 2 week appointment.

why is something so natural so tough??

Well we had our visit with the lactation consultant and she didn't seem too discouraged so I am trying not to either. We did a before and after feeding weight check and at that one, mark had gotten about .5oz. She said it wasn't terrible, but would like to see closer to 1oz. Good news, mark's latch and desire to nurse seem to be good, so we really just need to work on my supply!

Plan was to nurse as much as he would and pump after. I hate pumping. So defeating to me cause I get nothing! Anyway, been talking with another friend who struggled in the beginning and went on to exclusively bf her son for a year, and she has suggested to keep nursing if mark is still sucking in leiu of pumping since that should technically stimulate better than the pump anyway. I am kind of doing a combo of both now. Yesterday evening through this morning, I feel like he was hungry about every hour. Ugh. Makes a tired and sore momma.

Anyway, this afternoon has been better and we've been every 2 hours. Also went out to store and bought some MotherLove supplement roxanne told me about. I am taking more milk special blend which in addition to fenugreek and blessed thistle, contains goats rue which supposedly is strong enough to help pcos women specifically as well as women who have had breast surgery and even adoptive moms wanting to breast feed! Tastes like crap so hopefully that means it is serious stuff! The lady at the vitamin store said the last mom she sold it to was trying to up supply to nurse triplets...and worked for her. I just have one little dude to feed, bring on the milk! All in the name of feeding the newest man in my life! Ill let you know if it works! :) and monday we have our reweigh and bili check so we will see how we are doing then too!

A little yellow?

**UPDATE** Doc called back and Mark's bili level is just fine...so now just to work on getting his weight up and poos to turn color! We will go back Monday to recheck unless M turns yellow between now and then! ;-)

We had our 1st doctor appointment today. The hospital had said to go in 3 days after we got home since we are trying to exclusively bf and since I had issues the first go round. Guess it was a good thing. mark has lost about 12oz which isn't TOTALLY alarming but isn't great either :( And he looks slightly yellow although some of it I think is his olive skin tone....

We did a heel prick to test his billirubin and will have a better idea where we stand once those results get back today. Initial recommendation-1) start Fenugreek (check, Matt picked me up some yesterday...bring on the maple syrup!) 2) call lactation consultant (got # already, will call today after we get blood work results) and 3) start pumping after feeding (BLAH! I HATE PUMPING and was really hoping to avoid it until we needed to start introducing a bottle).

Trying to not be discouraged but of course I am a little. Doc did say Mark's pee and poo amounts were a good sign but we need the weight up a little and need the poos to start turning color today or tomorrow. Fun times in the Wittliff household!

PICTURES!

It's what you have all been waiting for, ENJOY! ;-)

Big Brother & Diaper Diaries

First things first, it was so good to get home and see my boy, Z! Although the initial reuniting did NOT go very well, he did a 180 fairly quickly and seems to be adjusting very well. On his own, the first night we were home, he came over to me while I was holding Mark just to give him a hug. Wow, talk about melting a momma's heart! So sweet! He also likes to just walk into our room to peek on Mark while he is snoozing in the bassinet, and reminds us to "shhhh". Biggest obsession is probably the binkie. He is determined for him to have it! LOL! All in all though, I could not ask for things to be going better with Zach and Mark so far and I love watching Zach give Mark hugs!!

And onto Mark, wow, I know its only been a couple days, but he seems to be a very good, chill, baby boy! Rarely gets too fussy unless he is hungry. Loves to snuggle but also content to sleep in the bassinet too. Of course my biggest obsession is FEEDING! Since breast feeding was not all that successful for Zach, I am really working on being successful this go round. I think with being generally more at ease and confident about caring for a newborn, that hopefully bfing will come easier too. I was very encouraged at the hospital when in the first 24hrs of Mark's life, he pooped like 5 times thinking that surely meant he was getting food. He seems to latch pretty well and likes to nurse so the question is whether or not he actually gets enough. Today, according to the chart, he is supposed to have 4 green/yellow poops. Its already 1pm, and we have only had 1 poop and it was still more of the brown gooey stuff. We have our 1st scheduled pediatrician visit tomorrow so I will definitely be asking lots of questions. And in the meantime, I am just letting the little dude eat whenever he wants in hopes of getting supply established and MORE poos!

So that's about all that is going on in our world right now. Thanks for all the well wishes and feel free to come visit any time!

Sneak Peek

Since I havent uploaded pics yet...you can get a sneak peek at my sweet boy at Susan's blog!! Thanks Sue! :)

zzzzzz

Hard to believe the little guys is just barely over 24 hours hold. Seems like more than that already! Yesterday was a pretty good day. Mark was very sleepy and therefore sometimes not interested in eating, but right around the 24hr mark he has started picking up and on about an every 3hr schedule. I am pleasantly surprised to say that so far at least...he seems to be doing pretty good at the eating! He is interested and stays on for awhile, and although his latch is no where near perfect, I think it is getting better. So we shall see. I hope to see the lactation consultant today to go over a couple of concerns before we head home.

Speaking of home, just got off with my mom and Z is doing great! He told me hi mommy and bye mommy (awwww). She was excited to tell me that all last night, Zach was wearing his pirate hat (and nothing else) around the house! Pirate hat and why is that all that exciting albeit cute? Because for the first 20 months of his life...Zach has DESPISED hats! Hence why I decided he would be a pirate for Halloween because it did not require anything to be worn on the head in order for people to know what he is! So he seems to be doing well and enjoying life with the grandparents (who wouldn't when they do whatever he wants to do?) and his new trains they bought him. But I am hoping he is missing me too as I am excited and ready to see his sweet face!

I finally got some sleep last night. I was thankful for the nursery who would take Mark away and then bring him to me to feed when he woke up and then whisk him away again so I could rest. Feeling fairly refreshed which is a good thing. I have to chuckle though...as you mommas know, when you are in the hospital, they come in and check on you all the time for your vitals, etc. So while I was up every 3 hours for either feeding Mark or checking the vitals...Matt was able to sleep through it all, just 2 feet away. I have had the overhead light and TV on since at least 7 when breakfast and my OB came in....and Matt has slept through it all. Impressive. Guess I wont feel too bad having Mark sleeping in the bassinet in our room since it wont wake daddy anyway! :)

So, now just sitting and waiting. Need to get the little fella snipped up and then maybe home this afternoon! Woohoo! :)

missed it by 22 minutes!

In case you haven't heard...Mark Wendell came barrelling into this world at 12:22am on Oct 18th, 2009!! And what a ride it was!

Very briefly, as I had emailed in the afternoon to some girlfriends, I was having regular irregular contractions since like 5am but never close enough to go in to the hospital, about 7-10min apart. Then they all but stopped around 4pm yesterday. I was pretty sure that was it for the day...My parents stayed over all day so I could rest and just help with Zach. Mom decided to spend the night just in case so we wouldn't have to wait for her to get there if something DID end up happening. I went on several walks hoping that would get things going and it did! I guess around 9pm, they were every 7 to 10 min and by 1045, every 4 to 5 and mom said we should GO so we did!

We got to a L& D room around 1130pm and when checked, I was at 3.5 and about 80% eff and contractions coming quicker. I told them about how once things got going, z came fast so could we PLEASE hurry up with the epi!! But we had to do some paperwork and blood work first. Ugh!! By midnight, I was 7.5 to 8 and said baby is coming. They were trying to get me to hold on for doctor but that wasn't happening either! By 1215 or so, I was fully effaced at 10 and wanting to push regardless of who was there and mark was out at 12:22am, DRUG FREE!!! The epi guy poked his head in while I was pushing the placenta out and doc a few min later!!! It hurt LIKE HECK but I cannot tell you the instantaneous feeling of relief and no more pain!!! Mark cried right off and is beautiful! 9.9 on his apgar, a head of dark brown hair, almost black! 7lbs 7.2oz and 21 inches long!! We got to nurse for a bit and he did okay. Then it was move to the new room a bit later. All and all, we delivered the boy in less than an hour at the hospital, craziness!

Today has been good, we have had lots of visitors (Sue, Al, Rox, my folks, Claudia, Becky, Ashley, Kathi and Matt's dad, Dan!) It was great to see everyone and Mark was a doll! The only person I did not get to see is my Z Man :( Thanks to the swine flu and all other strains, they have a no one under 14 policy in place at the hospital . So I wont get to see him until we go home tomorrow. I miss him but the grandparents have been keeping him busy! THANK YOU!

We have had a couple good feeding sessions and 3 good poos so I feel like he is at least eating something! Praying it continues!

All and all, even with the 45min drug free delivery, its been great! Tomorrow Mark wil get circumsized, Ill get cheked out by my doctor and we should be good to go! Home to our family of four!! I will post pics as soon as I can!