I think I’m ready to declare our new feeding routine a success. Elijah will usually go 2.5-3 hours between feedings. Every once in a while we’ll get a 4 hour stretch. We met with his pediatrician on Monday for a well baby visit and she said we didn’t need to wake him for feedings anymore (not that we were doing this often). Andy and I are getting better at recognizing his hunger cries verses cries for other reasons now that we can eliminate the question of hunger when it’s not near a feeding time. He’s still pretty fussy in the afternoon, but it’s easier to try and calm him when I can remove one of options for distress.
Friday night was a Gold Star night for our feeding plan. I fed the baby around midnight and went to sleep. Andy gave the baby a bottle of breast milk around 3:30 am and put him to sleep. Elijah will often wake up slowly. I heard him starting to wake up around 7 am. I got out of bed and pumped a little milk so I wasn’t too engorged for him, I made myself breakfast and opened the blinds to let the sun in. Around 7:30 am (four hours after his last feeding!) I got my son out of bed and fed him. I got nearly 7 hours of sleep! It was awesome. The last few nights haven’t worked out quite so smoothly, but we’re definitely on to something good.
I can say, with a good amount of confidence, that I would not still be breastfeeding if we hadn’t found a way to stretch out the downtime and make feedings more predictable. Those first two weeks when he was eating anywhere between every 30 minutes to 2 hours nearly killed me. I would not have been able to continue that. Now I can feed him and go do something, knowing I have at least 2 hours before I’m needed again. This means that Eli and I can run to Target, or I can leave him with Andy and I can go by myself. I need this predictability and freedom. I was feeling tied to my kid in a burdensome way. I’m still tied to him, but I can handle it now.
On the subject of breastfeeding, I totally understand why people quit this so soon. It’s hard. Really hard. And something I have to do all by myself. People can give advice and keep me company, but I can’t declare that I’ve had enough and expect Andy to take over. Also, it still hurts. It hurts every time he latches on. I’ve heard this is common but goes away for most people by now. I still have that pain, but it only lasts about 30 seconds. However, last Thursday I started having pain in the middle of a feeding. It was unbearable so I detached Eli and gave him the other breast. This has happened for about half the feedings since then. I saw a lactation consultant today and she gave me some ideas to fix this. I’m hoping I can find a way to get rid of this pain, I’d like to nurse Elijah for at least a year.