Sack of Potatoes

The first month or so of a babies life, they are like a sack of potatoes. Except these potatoes poo, cry, and need to be fed. Quite the needy potatoes we have.

I am not going to lie. Everyone explains this "unconditional, love at first sight" feeling for their baby. I didn't have an immediate bond with him. I am not sure if it's because I had a c-section so I was robbed of the whole birthing experience, or if this is just real life, and no one wants to admit it. I don't think I had PPD because I never thought of harming Roo, or myself. And I took awesome care of him. I just didn't have this unexplained love for him--yet.

The first month was hard. I would be up all night. I exclusively pumped. Which meant I had less sleep than most. I would wake up to feed Roo, then I would have to spend atleast 20 minutes on the pump before going to bed. Every time he would eat, I would pump. Every time he napped I pumped. I pumped pretty much every 1-2 hours. For anywhere between 20 and 40 minutes. I wanted to get every last drop out to be a successful pumper. I still didn't make enough though, and had to supplement.

After a couple weeks I realized that my Roo had started to become quite the little fuss pot. I couldn't figure it out. Luckily his 2 month check up was in a few days so I waited. When we went to the doctors she pushed on his tummy a little bit and she asked me if he had been fussy. I thought maybe because I looked so sleep deprived she could tell I had a fussy baby. So I told her yes but not to the point that he was colic, thinking she had some magic miracle to help me get more sleep at night. She told me his tummy was full of gas bubbles and should take gas medicine with every feeding. Since becoming pregnant, and now being a mother, I had become quite the hippy. I was not much for medicine, but I had tried the all natural way (gripe water, the bicycle exercise, etc) and it wasn't working so I tried the over the counter gas drops. She also suggested I switch his formula. So we did. And she suggested I don't eat anything that would make me gassy, because that would in turn make Roo gassy. So I listened.

It didn't take long for those gas drops to kick in, and suddenly I had a STINKY sack of potatoes. The stench would linger too, it didn't go away quickly, just hung out. You would think this baby had poo'd and there would be nothing in there. But, my Roo was no longer fussy, so I was happy.

xox-J.