I was one week overdue when I was induced. Labour was going well for the most part. But then the baby's heart rate was dropping with every contraction. Dropping too low and not recovering well. So the decision was made that getting the baby out quickly would be safest, and I was whisked away for a C-section. At 12:14am on Thursday, October 25th, Julia Rose Wolframe entered this world! She weighed in at 8lbs 10oz and was 21 inches long.
Here she is just moments after being born.
Sleep Deprivation
The "experts" had told me to wake my baby up to feed her every 2 to 3 hours. After doing this for a week and a half and running myself into the ground, I emailed several of my friends with babies and asked them if they all did this. The response I got was a resounding NO! LET SLEEPING BABIES LIE! So with a great feeling of relief, I decided to do just that. Happier Mom and happier baby!
Weight Issues
At Julia's second doctor's appointment (which was one week after her first) she hadn't gained any weight. The doctor recommended supplementing the breastfeeding with formula to pack in the calories. At her next appointment the following week (which was actually yesterday, Nov. 15), she had gone from 7 lbs 14 oz to a whopping 8 lbs 11 oz!
Here she is being weighted at her very first doctor's appointment with the best doctor in the world, Dr. Bryant Litchfield.
Lazy Baby
Julia is what is known as a lazy, or ineffective suckler. Basically, she can't be bothered to stay awake to eat! When breastfeeding, she'll eat just enough to stave off the hunger, then fall asleep and not wake up to eat more for another hour or more until she's really hungry again. Since it's more work for her to drink from the breast than from the bottle, she will happily stay awake to get her fill from a bottle. So we're going to go to exclusive bottle feeding. It was a heartbreaking decision for me to make since I always wanted to breastfeed, but we have to do what's best for our beautiful baby girl! And after feeding her a bottle several times now, and having her guzzle it while gazing up at me with her beautiful eyes, instead of frustrating both of us by falling asleep, I've fallen deeper in love. So I know we'll both be happier doing it this way.
