Monday, April 12, 2010

Accessories Sold Separately

We are morons. Really, we are. When we went to register we looked at all kinds of things for the baby. At the time, we have very concrete opinions about things we wanted and things that we didn't want at all. Unfortunately, hindsight is 20/20.

The first thing that we bought that we didn't think we'd need or want is the Itzbeen, a baby timer. Jeff ordered it after we'd been home a night and had it ship the next day, which is something we never do. It's lovely. Since Doug isn't on a schedule, it's hard to remember in the middle of the night when he last ate or had a diaper change.

The next thing we ended up buying that we didn't want was a real breast pump. In hospital breast feeding was very problematic. It was a combination of too many visitors all at once, nurses coming in and out to check on Doug and I, a tired baby and flat nipples. Basically by the end of the second day, we'd gotten desperate. Doug hadn't had a whole lot to eat, so we gave him a bottle. He took to the bottle like a duck takes to water. He sucked it down, which made me feel really bad, because clearly he was starving. He just didn't have the hang of the breast. So, we decided that we'd pump and then bottle feed him since we had trouble breast feeding. So I kept pumping in the hospital and hardly got anything out. I know that there isn't supposed to be a whole lot of colostrum, but it was still very discouraging to only get a teaspoon or so. When we got home I kept pumping for a day or so on the cheap battery operated single pump we'd bought. After a day or so I got tired of it. It seemed like my milk wasn't going to come in. I decided to wait and see if my milk would ever come in. It was clear at that point that I'd only ever be able to get one bottle's worth anyway. Finally, 6 days postpartum, my milk came in. We wanted to rent a Medela breast pump, but the store I wanted to rent it from wasn't open til the weekend. We decided to bite the bullet and buy one. It worked wonderfully! However, pumping gave me a migraine. I Googled it and apparently it has something to do with the hormone involved in let down. After two pumping sessions and me nearly biting Jeff's head off each time, I decided to call it quits. Breast feeding just wasn't working out for us. We were able to sell the pump on Craig's list and I hope the lady who bought it has an easier time than I did.

Our next purchase came when Doug was two weeks old. Each night we'd put Doug down in his crib and then spend the whole night walking back and forth between our room and his. We decided to get a co-sleeper bassinet. He seemed to sleep well with us, just not on his own in his crib. The first night he slept in it in our bed. Our bed is a bit too small to comfortably accommodate the co-sleeper, so we put it on a coffee table next to my side. He's been sleeping a bit better in it. And our hallway carpet is being saved.

The next week we found out that Doug had reflux. This necessitated the purchase of his baby bouncer. I really hadn't wanted one, they can be pricey and take up space. However, I also wanted to sleep. Doug really does seem to enjoy it.

Over the weekend we decided that he really needed a swing for our bedroom. Again, something I never wanted to get. Doug wakes up and is just awake after a feeding for an hour or so sometimes. It seems to help soothe him back to sleep with the reflux too. The box said that it helps baby sleep. But oh no,it helps Mom sleep! The baby on the box looked very happy too. The Mom also looked quite content, smiling, happy, no bags under her eyes. As if!

Hopefully our next major baby purchase will be baby gates and a bigger car seat. I can't imagine he needs anything else!

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic Blog Subject Heading.
    ...and you're not a moron, lol.

    ReplyDelete