Lactating Dairy Cow-Karma Perhaps?

Originally I thought that my having to have a C-section was karma for all the sections that I've performed on various 4-legged patients.  In fact, my last C-section at the vet hospital was during my last week at work.  Now I truly believe that karma is after me.  I feel like a lactating dairy cow.  All the wonderful pumping has given me a new perspective into what it feels like to be a dairy cow and hooked up to those machines, standing there chewing your cud and wondering when it's all going to be over.  All those wonderful pregnancy palpations that I had to perform in clinics are coming back to haunt me.  Drinking my 2% milk now I have a new appreciation for how it got to me.  

That first weekend of constant breast feeding to regain Elliott's birth weight may have caused my milk supply to become more than she can handle.  Let's just say that if I don't feed her within 2 to 3 hours, I am so engorged that I have to pump in order not to choke her.  She will literally vomit everything she works so hard for if there is too much for her to handle.  So I have saved countless bags of extra breast milk already for when I return to work.  

So the engorgement is one thing, the leaking is another.....If I even think about the baby I start leaking immediately.  Thank God for nursing pads that actually work.  Heaven forbid you start leaking around your nursing pad and it shows on your shirt (thanks for the heads up Jeremy because I just have this awful premonition that this is going to happen to me at work.)  Luckily they make heavy duty nursing pads that can hold about 3 ounces because I need them.  I might as well wear Depends in my bras people.  It's that bad.  

To make matters worse, (although I am not complaining about the supply because Elliott is a little chunk, growing like a weed, and an over-supply is much better than an under-supply) I had my 6-week visit to my OB/GYN today.  They prescribed me a birth control to use while I'm breast feeding that must be taken at precisely the same time every day or it may not work.  That's just perfect for the mother who can barely remember her name she is so tired.  Oh, and the wonderful side effect with this lovely pill is an INCREASE in your milk production.  Not only am I going to look like Dolly Parton but I'm going to have to pump even more.  Fabulous.  

Progress, Possibly?

Elliott slept for 4 and 1/2 hours last night in a row!  Trivial you might say but not for a sleep-deprived mom who has been banking on this transition!  I wasn't expecting a longer stint like this for another couple weeks but it was GLORIOUS to wake up and discover this sleep time.  Of course after I put her back down she only slept for another hour and 45 minutes but hey, that 4 and 1/2 hours was magnificent.  It may not happen again tonight but I am certainly marking it on the calendar that it happened at almost 5 weeks!  

I swear that she smiled at me this morning.  I swear it!  She was bright-eyed and alert staring at me and this huge grin erupted on her face.  Twice!  I screamed for Spencer who was downstairs feeding the dogs to come up and see it.  Of course but that time she had stopped her beaming but I know it happened!  My heart started pounding and I fell in love with my daughter all over again. I keep trying to get her to do it again today to no avail but I'll keep trying.

We've been having a lot more alert time.  I have this beautiful quilt that one of my technicians made for me that I spread out on the floor and we have play time and tummy time for a short while.  She gets over stimulated sometimes and we have to stop but our times on the quilt are getting longer and longer!  I can't wait to put her in the play mat with all the fun toys that dangle down.  

She still looks like her daddy too.  She has his eyes, his nose and his smile lines.  But my lips!  Her dark brown hair seems to be growing in more as well.  Oops, I swear she knows when I'm on the computer but she wakes up every time I try to blog.  And I hear her stirring......

One month old!

Elliott is one month tomorrow, the 13th.  It's hard to believe that just four short weeks ago we were waiting her arrival.  Now many many sleepless nights later, she is over 2 pounds heavier than when she was born and doing very well.  Still has a full head of dark brown hair, still has dark blue eyes that are now opening wider as she grows more alert.  I swear she looks intently at me now.  I know that she responds to my voice.  I cannot wait until those little half-asleep baby smiles turn into fully alert "I love you" smiles that new mothers crave so much.  

We visited Daddy's office today.  Our first visit to the big law firm where Daddy spends all of his time.  She fussed a little but I think she sensed the urgency and stress within Gentry Locke's walls.  She slept during her first visit to Vinton Veterinary Hospital but after all, she did listen to incessant barking during nine months of gestation.  I can't wait until she recognizes our three crazy dogs.  They love her so much and try to kiss her all the time.  I feel for certain she has ingested enough dog and cat hairs now that we won't have to worry about allergies.  Maybe just hairballs!

Strolling Revisited

So yesterday Elliott and I went and voted for city mayor and council! (Way to go Court Rosen on your victory!)  As we are strolling in the world's heaviest stroller, a gentleman asked me if my stroller brewed coffee.  Yep, it's that large and complicated.  My friends Michaux and her daughter Millie, and Rhonda and her daughter Peyton looked terribly cute in their tiny bug-a-boo strollers that fit their car seats so nicely and then there were Elliott and me in our 100-foot boat.  So today I bit the bullet and ordered a "snap and go" stroller from Wal-mart.  Not just to fit in (okay, a little to fit in) but so that I don't give myself a hernia trying to stroll uphill.  When she's older we'll put her back in the Graco.  For now, I'll save my biceps from rupture and will actually be able to take the stroller and Elliott into public places without wiping out whole tables or knocking down walls.  Yes, the stroller is that big.  All that to contain a 9 pound tiny infant.  How did we survive as children?  Remember the huge station wagons with the 3rd row back seat that faced on-coming traffic?  Seriously, how did we survive?  I'm sure I was teething on some horrible toy that was made in China and full of lead and bisphenol-A.  I'm doing just fine!

Out Strollin'

God Bless April.  It is gorgeous here in Roanoke and Elliott and I are loving the beautiful days.  We have officially taken it to the streets in our super fancy Graco stroller.  Now don't get me wrong, I love the stroller.  But truly Spencer and I picked the largest and heaviest car seat known to man: the Graco Safe Seat.  I love the car seat and matching stroller's modern colors of chocolate brown and lime green as they highlight Elliott's giraffe print diaper bag.  But who are we kidding, that car seat heavy.  And she's only over 8 pounds.  God help us when as she gets bigger and bigger.  Now imagine placing the world's heaviest car seat into an already heavy stroller.  If the marathon breast feeding doesn't take off the pregnancy pounds, pushing that enormous contraption around certainly will.  

Elliott made her first Roanoke bar scene appearance at Trio for the Dog Park cocktail fundraiser last Wednesday.  While our visit was a long 45 minutes due to a minor meltdown and a demand for dinner, we had a great time.  Elliott also won the award for youngest party goer at J.B. Clements 1-year old birthday party on Saturday.  She beat out another newborn who was 2 weeks older than she.  Maybe next year she can join the other kids on the moon-bounce or get to enjoy some of Henry's Memphis BBQ.