This beautiful girl!
She has made so much progress over the past few days. Her weight today is 3 pounds 5 ounces. She had been up to 3 lbs 7 oz on Thursday, but she lost a little due to a couple other progressions.
Her feeding tube was removed on Wednesday because she was doing so well with eating. That means she's bottle feeding eight times a day which does take some extra calories. Her doctor increased her milk intake today, so she'll get 32 mLs every three hours. Also, baby girl breast fed for the first time on Wednesday. It was tough for her to figure out how to latch on at first, and of course that wasted some calories, too. But, once she (and I) got the hang of it, she did great.
WARNING!!! Lots of breast commentary follows, so just stop reading right now if you would rather not know about this stuff!
The bad news is that the lactation nurse told me that I have a slight nipple yeast infection. Yes, it sounds totally disgusting, but it isn't that bad because I didn't even realize anything was wrong. I have been a little sore, but I thought it was due to all the pumping I am doing. So, the lactation nurse had me contact my doctor to get some drugs for it, but she also gave me some advice on how to avoid getting these, and I found a few more fun tips on the web.
1. Limit your sugar, dairy, and alcohol intake. Avoid cheese, wheat, and flour products.
--> Oh goodie! So basically I can eat meat and veggies. BORING! No sugar or milk in my cappuccino? This girl does not drink black coffee... Guess I'll be buying soy milk and living without the sugar. No pie? The hospital makes delicious chocolate and pecan pies. What am I supposed to eat with my apples if I can't have cheese? No WINE? Getting to drink wine again was the silver lining to this rain cloud that follows me around these days!
2. Apply white vinegar to nipples with a clean cotton ball before and after each feeding/pumping to prevent yeast growth.
--> Great, so not only will my boobs smell like a salad bar, but this adds another 5 minutes to each pumping session. 7 x 5 = 35 more minutes out of my day just to spread vinegar on my tits.
3. Sunbathe your nipples for 10 minutes, twice a day. Expose all undergarments, and breastfeeding equipment with direct contact to the breasts to sunlight.
--> I spend 10 sunlit hours of each day in the car or at the NICU. So either the hospital needs to give me rooftop access to sunbathe or I need to drive to/from Tupelo with my breasts exposed. Actually, the multi-tasker in me is really drawn to the second option, but the highway patrol might not like it too much. And the other thing... 20 minutes per DAY? Add that to the 35 I will spend applying vinegar, and we are now up to almost an hour a day I have to carve out to manage this crap.
4. Boil all pump parts daily for 20 minutes until yeast is gone.
--> Yay! Now we're up to an hour and a half!
5. Wash all clothing, towels, and undergarments that come in contact with yeast in HOT water after each use.
--> Just what I was hoping to do... more friggin laundry.
6. Increase rest and decrease stress.
--> This is by far my favorite... When do I rest when I drive 2 hours a day, spend 8 at the NICU, pump for 4 hours at home, do laundry daily, and of course there is eating and showering, etc... ?
All kidding aside, I've added probiotics to my diet, have tried to cut down on carbs and sugar, and my doctor prescribed some diflucan. Things are looking better already!
