I can hardly believe that today our little boy is already one week old.  Things are going amazing well for us and we are a very happy little family.  So far I have been able to avoid the expected baby blues or period of feeling “weepy” with the exception of a few “I’m so happy I’m weepy” moments and I believe it’s all thanks to my incredible husband who has stepped up above and beyond what I would have ever expected as a husband and as a father.  He loves our little boy so much and is taking care of us.  He really deserves an entire post of his own 🙂

The birth of our baby boy was the farthest thing of what I had expected, but of course that was the biggest piece of advice I was given was to be flexible and at the end of the day, I delivered a very healthy and alert baby boy born Friday the 13th and get this: his weight was 7 lb 7.7 oz! Now I don’t know about you, but that’s a very big coincidence and I think it is a great sign 🙂

It was a good thing that I didn’t have a particular “birth plan” in mind because while I had visions of holding our little peanut immediately after birth with as few interventions as possible, we did experience complications that required the use of forceps and experienced some of my own troubles following the birth, I will say that while interventions are not ideal in some circumstances, there are times when things may not have such a happy ending without them.  I am grateful to have had the luxury of outstanding medical care at the IWK I will just leave it at that.  I’ve decided not to share all of the details of his birth, simply because I don’t think anything can be gained by hearing it.  I don’t want that to sound “scary” or “bad” just that I remember hearing birth stories from other people while I was pregnant that did nothing to help ease my anxiety of what to expect and our story was not typical and I wouldn’t want any expectant mom to worry needlessly.  All that is important is that our baby boy and I are a happy and healthy mother and son 🙂

Breastfeeding

While I may not have had 100% control over the events of our birth, the one thing that I knew I did have some more control over was establishing breastfeeding.  Before Cameron’s birth, I had read countless books, websites and other breastfeeding resources, not to mention attending a La Leche League meeting while I was pregnant to prepare myself for what to expect and how to deal with any potential problems and issues.  Of course there is always some anxiety surrounding educating yourself about these things because then you worry that you will experience some of the same challenges that I had read about.  I had even been told by some that doing so would essentially “set the stage” so to speak for such problems to occur and would set me up for defeat.  I am very happy to say that while breastfeeding was indeed a challenge to establish in the first 2 days in the hospital, we kept at it and we are now a successful breastfeeding duo!  This was more important to me than any birth plan or unexpected complications. 

We had our first outing and checkup with the doctor yesterday and little Cameron is doing very well and gaining weight.  He is still not back to his birth weight yet (just around 7 lbs), but hopefully by our next check up in a week’s time, we’ll be closer to the mark!  I’m not worried in the least.  He’s latching and eating well, getting all of his requisite wet and dirty diapers and gaining.  One of my biggest worries was that I would be one of the unlucky 1/3 of women with PCOS who has difficulty with milk coming in and/or sufficient supply, but so far it doesn’t look like that’s me! HUGE sigh of relief!

I will say though, that I did have one nurse who did try to push a formula “top up” on me during our second day even though I told her I was reluctant and wanted him to have breast milk exclusively unless his circumstances were medically necessary.  Cameron’s bilirubin levels were getting a bit on the high side, but he wasn’t yet into the zone to be put under the bili lights.  He had some bruising on his head which also causes bilirubin to go up.  It is a very vulnerable position to be in.  On the one hand, you want to trust the advice of your care providers and you want what is best for your baby, especially if there’s any health concern, but on the other hand, I’ve read about this exact same scenario happening and tried to prepare for it.  My saving grace was the switch to the night shift nurse.  She completely supported my feelings and within a few hours Cameron was a breastfeeding champ and we were on our way!  I am only mentioning this because it was a concern I had and mentioned during our pre-natal classes and the nurse teaching the class answered me frankly telling me that “it depends on your nurse” and she was right.  To me, feeding him formula is not the end of the world and it can help in many cases, but it was not what I wanted to just “do” as a default and I’m glad that it ended up working out fine. Cameron’s bilirubin levels peaked as was expected and he is now perfectly fine 🙂  I now live for this “milk drunk” face:

Over all, our little guy is a very content baby.  He only cries if he’s hungry (which usually I have been able to anticipate before he cries) and when he needs to be changed and sometimes if is skin is exposed, but he seems to be getting more used to this too.  We appear to have just entered his first cluster feeding growth spurt which is of course tiring for Mama for round the clock feedings, but if that’s the only challenge that we have at this point, I’m a very happy mom 🙂