Heartburn

I experienced heartburn for the first time in my life during the 5th week of Nadia's pregnancy. I didn't have any after giving birth until I was pregnant with Ian. I assumed it would go away after I had him, but that hasn't been true. It's not as severe as it was when I was pregnant (one pill a day versus 2 a day during both pregnancies), and it's no longer constant. Now it's just induced by certain foods; unfortunately many foods I like have "offending" ingredients such as chocolate or tomato sauce. Is there any chance this is still going to go away? Ian is 100% worth it, but I'd rather not have frequent heartburn the rest of my life, if possible.

Ian and Nadia have 10 first cousins (thus far) - 3 on Paul's side and 7 on mine. Brandi (age 15) came over with Grandma and PopPop today; this means 6 cousins have now met Ian. Our kids have 3 aunts and 4 uncles (not counting Great Aunts and Great Uncles); 4 of those 7 have met Ian. Ian has been held by his only Great Grandma and 3 of his 4 grandparents. My dad hopes to come up and meet him this week.

This morning I made it to Sunday School and church for the first time since Ian was born. I still didn't manage to make it there on time although I was only 5 minutes late today, which is an improvement. Before I became a parent, I was rarely late. I still haven't figured out how much time to allow to get the three of us ready. I started by nursing Ian at 6am and then fed Nadia while I ate breakfast. Next I took a shower and then got Nadia dressed. Then I gave Ian a bath, got him dressed (first time he's worn a suit atlhough I didn't have him wear the tie today), and then nursed him again before starting the process of bundling the three of us up because it's cold out. That whole process took 2 hours and 50 minutes. I guess if we had skipped the photo shoot I would have made it on time. Getting two kids to and from the car isn't an easy task either. I could use a third arm, and I only have 2 kids under the age of 2. I have no idea how others do it who have 3 under the age of 2! I recruited someone to help me when it was time to go home as it was pouring outside and I wanted to pull the car right up to the door before taking them outside.

One disadvantage of Nadia's new nap schedule is that she's been sleeping from about 12:30-3:00. So when we get in the car around noon after church, she konks out immediately which means it's hard for her to fall asleep when I put her down at 1pm after she's had lunch. It took her an hour to fall asleep whereas lately she's been falling asleep very quickly now that she's down to one nap a day. She is still getting up early even though she's down to one nap. I hope she starts sleeping in at least until 6am in the VERY near future. Paul and I had gotten used to taking a morning nap. We're having a much harder time dropping this nap than she is, LOL! Of course she's getting at least 10 hours of sleep at night whereas I'm getting about 4-5 hours a night. I normally get 8-9 hours a night. The first few weeks of Ian's life I seemed to be running on adrenaline, but after 5 weeks of not getting much sleep, I am one tired lady. I did get a nap this afternoon while Paul's parents were here. The ironic thing is that I am going to bed earlier than usual (sometimes as early as 7pm) and yet I'm still only managing to get about 4 hours of sleep a night on average. Last night Ian spent only one hour in the crib although that was an improvement since he spent no time in the crib the previous two nights. I am not sure what to do. I do not think letting him CIO is appropriate, but I do know that I must start getting more sleep.

He did sleep in this beanbag chair for a little bit today. Maybe I'll give this a try tonight. Nursing is still stressful. The doctor's office called back yesterday, and I did return their call. I let the receptionist know I really didn't want to take Ian  in this week. She said she'd send a message to the doctor. We shall see what the doctor says. Ian gained 1/2 ounce each day the past two days so today he finally was back to his birth weight of 6lb 1oz. YAY! I keep changing my mind about whether I am going to keep trying to nurse him or not. I only pumped once today, but I did get 2 ounces (and that was after nursing Ian). I think my supply must have increased.

There are many times though when it's still a big struggle to get  him started. It's very tricky for me to keep his fingers out of his mouth, keep the shield on, and squirt milk into his mouth by syringe all at the same time. I really do need a third hand!!! I lost it when I spilled 1/2 ounce of EBM during one such attempt. With Nadia nursing was only stressful for 4 weeks because by that point she was off the shield and also from 2 weeks to 4 weeks old she gained 1 full pound. It was two months before I became accustomed to the physical discomfort, but only one month of stress. This time the discomfort isn't really a problem, but the stress hasn't let up at all even though he's 5 weeks old. He's still on the shield (and doesn't seem anywhere near getting off of it) and although he's gaining weight, he's not gaining it quickly enough (he's been home almost 4 weeks and has gained only 8 ounces in that time span). It didn't use to be such a struggle for him to latch on. If at least that can get back to normal (what it was before we started supplementing with a bottle a few days ago), I could probably handle the stress. Of course getting more sleep would also be most helpful!