3 weeks of Heavenell
Bittersweet just didn't seem to be the word to capture the first few weeks of bringing June home. On the one hand, labor was over, and that automatically meant things were looking up. June was born healthy and she was so perfect. Kenny and I just loved looking at her and holding her. That was heaven. The other side of the picture was me, Kenny and my mom marathoning the feeding effort every couple of hours. It started with hand-expressing colostrum and spoon feeding June. Kelly came to the house when June was 24 hours old and stayed for 4 hours to make sure we had a handle on things. 
I had to get on the double-pump bra, which makes you look like Madonna from her cone-days and makes you feel like a cow in the wee hours at a farm. Kenny finger-fed June while I pumped and Mom took care of feeding me and making sure I had taken pain-killers at regular intervals. There were so many schedules to keep: taking June's temperature every 4 hours (mine as well- you are in charge of that when you don't have nurses waiting on you), pain killers every 8, pumping every 2 or 3, start waking June up every hour or two so she could eat every 2 or 3 hours (it took an hour to get her awake), trying to eat 3 times a day, and oh yeah, sleeping when I got the chance.
I was a hot mess for sure.
June was too.
Things started to turn around once a lactation consultant was finally able to get her latched on. It was the 3rd visit with a LC. June was about a week and a half old. The hell was starting to freeze over and we were able to enjoy June a little bit more. My mom went home when June was two weeks and we began to adjust. Our church family was so supportive, they brought meals for 3 weeks and we got a couple gift cards for groceries as well. Kenny went back to work, but I called him to come save me a couple of times. Thank goodness he's only a 2 minute walk away. We went through so many breastfeeding woes I told Kenny he could probably become a lactation consultant. I really hope I can use my experience to help other moms. And also to help moms who don't have a gooing-ooey-this-is-the-best-thing-ever-love-passion for their babies right away. I loved June, but I really didn't enjoy those first few days with her either. She made everything better when I saw and held her, but then again she made everything stressful too. I'm glad those first three weeks are over. And I'm so glad June is a part of our world now. She completes our family.
I had to get on the double-pump bra, which makes you look like Madonna from her cone-days and makes you feel like a cow in the wee hours at a farm. Kenny finger-fed June while I pumped and Mom took care of feeding me and making sure I had taken pain-killers at regular intervals. There were so many schedules to keep: taking June's temperature every 4 hours (mine as well- you are in charge of that when you don't have nurses waiting on you), pain killers every 8, pumping every 2 or 3, start waking June up every hour or two so she could eat every 2 or 3 hours (it took an hour to get her awake), trying to eat 3 times a day, and oh yeah, sleeping when I got the chance.
I was a hot mess for sure.
June was too.
Things started to turn around once a lactation consultant was finally able to get her latched on. It was the 3rd visit with a LC. June was about a week and a half old. The hell was starting to freeze over and we were able to enjoy June a little bit more. My mom went home when June was two weeks and we began to adjust. Our church family was so supportive, they brought meals for 3 weeks and we got a couple gift cards for groceries as well. Kenny went back to work, but I called him to come save me a couple of times. Thank goodness he's only a 2 minute walk away. We went through so many breastfeeding woes I told Kenny he could probably become a lactation consultant. I really hope I can use my experience to help other moms. And also to help moms who don't have a gooing-ooey-this-is-the-best-thing-ever-love-passion for their babies right away. I loved June, but I really didn't enjoy those first few days with her either. She made everything better when I saw and held her, but then again she made everything stressful too. I'm glad those first three weeks are over. And I'm so glad June is a part of our world now. She completes our family.
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