Today's Highlights and Breastfeeding Tips

Zachary has some jaundice. He has a little tan, as did our girls when they were newborns. It's pretty common in a lot of babies, especially breastfed ones. Most of the time, though, it's no cause for concern. Sometimes the doctor will want to do blood testing 3 days in a row just to make sure bilirubin levels are going down. I don't think Zach's is that severe, but he has his first checkup on Friday and we'll see what his doc says then.

We've discovered he likes sleeping in his car seat and tried it in his bassinet last night. He slept two good stretches. He wasn't liking his bassinet until then. I think he likes being snuggled in so we're going to try one of those sleep positioners or something like that.

Bryan also noticed what appeared to be a little tooth right under his bottom gum. I am in denial. I'm really hoping that is not what that is. He's not allowed teeth until he's at least 7-8 months old! So there :)

Nursing is going well. He's eating about every 3 1/2-4 hours. My milk is in with a vengeance. I'm thinking about putting out a sign to advertise "Free Milk!" to any baby who's passing by :) I could feed a whole slew of them right now.

For those of you who don't know, milk ususally comes in 3-5 days after birth, and very often, the breasts will become engorged, which is just an overproduction of milk. They kind of overcompensate for the infant's needs in order to make sure they get enough. It can be very uncomfortable though, so putting ice packs on them between feedings and taking pain meds like Aleve helps a lot. After a few days though, the production will slow down as they start to match the infant's feeding needs. Sometimes, the infant will get a bigger appetite right after they slow down production, and this will result in the baby wanting to eat much more often for a couple days or so. This is called "cluster feeding" and is best met by just feeding on demand, though it's very tiring! Often women will give up nursing at this point, believing they don't have enough milk to satisfy the baby. This is usually NOT the case as again, the breasts will begin to increase milk production to meet the baby's needs!! So, if you are expecting a baby, or will be at some point and plan to nurse, remember that! Hang in there those first couple weeks and you'll get a great breastfeeding relationship established with your baby.