And Then There Were...: I Can Do It Myself (with a little help)

So, Tuesday and Friday, we went back to the hospital to meet with the lactation consultant. We've been using a counselor offered through the doctor's office, but the hospital LC was off for the holiday and weekend. She gave me a nipple shield with a cutout for Ellie's nose and actually showed me how to use it. She manhandled Ellie for an hour and got her to drink to the point of exhaustion. When we got home, we tried it again with similar results, and again 2.5 hours later. She's nursing like a champ, but hates it since she actually has to work for her food :) Wednesday, she actually cried for her evening meal. That was a first. We've had a timer going to wake her up every 3 hours since we got home from the hospital.

The Friday visit, we worked on latching on. Ellie had developed a habit of fussing and refusing to latch on until she'd worn herself out with crying and spitting out the nipple shield or trying to knock it off. Sometimes it would take 20 minutes to "talk her into" feeding. Which became exhausting. 48 Hours after our latest tutorial, we've had our best night ever. She didn't futz around too long and didn't require much glucose water to persuade her to latch on. I was able to get all her feedings done in about an hour which meant I could get in 2-3 hours of sleep between. Rick didn't wake at all till she decided her 5 o'clock feeding wouldn't hold her and started fussing at 6. In fact, the most time-consuming part of the feeding routine is the 20-30 minutes of hiccups that she seems to get between sides.

Our little girl has already reached her first milestone. She lost her umbilical cord stump last night. So, sometime today, she'll get a real bath. Much as I like her baby smell, she has an undercurrent of sour milk from all the messy eating she's been doing.