So, I guess I do make enough milk. (Not So) Little Jake weighed in at 9 lbs 9 oz at his two week appointment, topping his birth weight by 2 oz. This means that he gained an oz a day in the past week. Considering that I didn't start supplementing until the night before the appointment, all that weight gain is a credit to me. This baffles me. Will did the same thing, gaining back all his lost birth weight on my breast milk and then starving in the weeks to follow. Thus I'm not letting a good weight check go to my head. I have surmised that while I produce enough to meet his needs at this point, I probably won't be able to keep up as he grows. I believe this because despite Jake's best efforts to up my supply through constant nursing, I'm not making MORE and he's still HUNGRY. I've been nursing him these past two days and if he's not satisfied after 30 minutes or so at the breast, I give him an oz or two of formula. There is no harm in that and it gives me confidence that he's getting enough calories, especially during this growth spurt. All I know is that I will NOT make the same mistake again that I made with Will. I'm paranoid about it. It's my mission to ensure that this boy has a tummy full enough to sleep on. And considering that he currently looks like this
I'm calling it "Mission Accomplished."
My other little man took a three hour nap today! It was lovely. I think he's gearing up for a growth spurt too. He woke up in a good mood and is contentedly laying in his Boppy pillow, drinking a bottle of milk, hugging Woofwoof, holding a little car in one hand, and watching Monsters Inc. Never was there a happier boy. He's adjusting to having Jake around more and more every day. In fact, he came over to me the other day while I was holding Jake (completely unsolicited!) to stroke his hair and kiss him on the head. Needless to say, Jamie and I both melted into a puddle of goo from witnessing such sweetness. So, he's handling the new addition pretty well. However, there are some boundaries that are NOT to be crossed. For instance, he made it VERY clear that the Boppy pillow will not be shared. I attempted to use it to nurse Jake on the day we brought him home but Will walked in the room and caught us. He marched right over and pulled the pillow out of my lap. Message received. And that's fine for right now. I don't really need it for nursing anyway since I rarely get to just sit and nurse anymore. I think by the time Jake is going to need it for tummy time and supported sitting that Will won't mind as much. Also important is that Will gets a bottle whenever he sees Jake with one. We learned that lesson VERY quickly. He got SO upset when he saw us feeding Jake with one of his bottles. SOOOO upset. Like angry/heartbroken/beside himself upset. So, Will has been getting little snack bottles whenever I need to supplement Jake. It's a good thing we've switched to 2% milk! I'm not sure how this jealousy issue will impact weaning him off the bottles altogether. He doesn't NEED them anymore, as he drinks water from sippy cups and uses a straw like a pro. But he SO enjoys them. I don't think now is the time to consider weaning though. Maybe in another month when Will is used to seeing Jake use them and the jealousy has ebbed. Doing it now would just reinforce the idea that Jake stole his bottles.
So, New Jersey is starting to get pretty cold. In fact, Charlie's water bowl was frozen this morning. The low temperatures seem to have no effect on my son, however. He STILL wants to spend every waking moment outside. He drags me over to the door every five minutes begging to play outdoors. It is such a shame that we moved away from our lovely big backyard just as Will was reaching the age and mobility level to enjoy it. Our townhouse has a postage stamp sized yard and Charlie has done a number on it already. We've pretty much accepted that we'll have to resod annually. But sodding a postage stamp should be cheap, so no biggie. What really sucks is that I have to clean up every last speck of dog poop each time we go out there or else Will is guaranteed to step in it. I hate it. Plus, the neighboring yard has this tree that drops some kind of nut into our yard and Will attempts to eat one at LEAST once every time we are out there. Taking him outside is a high maintenance activity. But he LOVES it. And really, it's kind of fun to play with him out there. All he wants to do is push his car around chasing after Charlie and occasionally get a ride around the yard.
I'm down with that. It's just getting him to come back inside that's a problem. He's not even two yet and he's mastered the temper tantrum. Lord help me.
Comments