Monday, July 16, 2007

Notes on sleep and a baby

Viv is everything I could ever want, but taking care of a preemie is more work than I could have been prepared for. The last few days, Vivian has decided that the 3-4 hour stretches of sleep were entirely too long, and has instead preferred to wake up every 1 1/2 hours between 12 a.m. & 8 a.m. to be fed and changed. Awesome!

So here is our average 4 a.m. wake up schedule: wake up, pick Viv up. Take her into the nursery to change her diaper. Ask Richard to go warm a bottle. Take Viv back to bed, try to find the nipple shield, put it on, try to breastfeed Viv (lasts 5-10 minutes). Take Viv off boob (and try not to get covered in milk at the same time), and hand her to Richard to be bottle fed. Set up the breast pump and get milked like a cow for 15-20 minutes. Richard tries to burp Vivian. After I pump, I hand Richard the bottles/bags full of milk and he hands me the baby. I lay Viv down and try to swaddle her as best as my sleep deprived mind will allow while Richard puts the milk containers in the fridge/freezer. Repeat as often as necessary.

It's a good thing she's so cute, because she's a lot of work.

Vivian resting

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cutest baby ever! I'm sorry feeding her is so difficult right now. It will be so much easier soon, I promise! She will get bigger and figure it all out.

This may sound insane, but I found pumping easier with a manual pump. I refused to consider it until I needed to pump and wasn't near an electrical outlet - and wouldn't you know, it worked better! Might be worth trying.

Faith said...

But Oh My she's adorable!

Love to you.

Uccellina said...

So cute! So sweet! Meep!

Anonymous said...

Oh, she is adorable! And she already looks like her dad!

Anonymous said...

Such a cutie pie! Sorry to hear your nights are so long right now - they will get better. Big hugs!

Allison said...

Your schedule detail (every 1 1/2-2 hours) is more or less my recollection of the first 6-8 weeks. It does get better. Have any tips in "Happiest Baby on the Block" or "What to Expect the First Year" helped?

MonkeyGurrrrrl said...

I'm with Allison. Every 1.5 - 2 hours sounds about right. Especially the little ones (WMG, tho timely, was dinky) b/c they can't hold as much.

Hee, hee. SHE IS GORGEOUS. :) Seriously.