2nd Month - Trials of Breastfeeding and Daddy's back at work

This is one of our favorite pictures of Aiden, it still serves as our background on our home computer and was taken the weekend of his 2 month birthday.
This post was going to be much shorter than the previous two "updates" as the second month was when I went back to work and Raquel stayed home with the baby. So I didn't really have a lot to say about it. There are a few updates from that month to share, but I will get to those later.

Tonight when Raquel read my entry from the first month she asked why I had not discussed breastfeeding at all. Well Raquel tried to breast feed and had a really tough time of it, and I sort of thought it was a bit of a sore subject with her, so I let it be. But she feels it is important for other new moms to understand that it is okay to switch to formula if breast feeding just isn't going very well.

Raquel had a rough start with the whole prospect of breastfeeding. The hospital where Aiden was born does have a Lactation consultant on staff, but apparently she only works a half day on Saturday (Aiden was born... you guessed it, Saturday) and she called in sick on Sunday. So Raquel's first opportunity to talk to the "specialist" was not until Monday. The nurses helped, and they did know what they were talking about, but we had gone to the breastfeeding class and were sort of under the impression that the Lactation consultant was going to be able to help more.

By Monday Raquel was cracked and bleeding and neither she or Aiden were having a very successful time of it. Aiden would go at the breast for a bit, but eventually we had to give him formula just about every feeding. Frankly, I don't think the lactation consultant, when Raquel did see her, helped all that much. So we came home with both mom and baby a little uncertain about this breastfeeding process.

After a couple of weeks of trial and error, several phone calls to the maternity ward nurses, and endless frustration, Raquel decided the best thing she could do at this point was to pump and feed Aiden from a bottle. At least he was still getting the breast milk everyone said he needed, and pumping was easier on both of them than trying to get a latch and get comfortable.

One of the things you have to do some solid research on to find anything solid about is the fact that a goodly percentage of women, especially those who deliver via c-section, don't produce enough milk. I think there is such an emphasis on the NEED to breastfeed that no one at the hospital wants you even thinking about the possibility that your milk just isn't going to be there. But, no matter how much she pumped, Raquel was only getting about an ounce of milk per session, so it would take her several pumping sessions just to get one decent bottle for Aiden. While Raquel spent a lot of time blaiming herself and calling herself a failure, I don't think there is anything she could have done to increase her milk production. It just wasn't going to happen.

After about 6 weeks Raquel decided it was time to switch over completely to formula. By this time Aiden had been diagnosed with the Acid Reflux and we figured it was best to keep him on strictly the nutramigen. The pediatric nurse said that as long as he got some breastmilk for the first six weeks he got the value out of it that is so important (mommies immunities and such).

This is such a hot topic, before Aiden came I had no idea. There are literally camps of people who fight over the value of breast feeding. I read one place where a new mom had called her doctor's office to ask about how much formula she should be giving her new baby and the nurse told her "I don't know, I breastfed all of my babies, and every woman in this office breastfed their babies so they won't know either" Now this might be an exageration, I certainly would not be going back to a doctor who allowed a member of their staff to answer a serious question like that, but the fact is, it is out there. Raquel did have a little bit of backlash from other moms who have had it grilled into them that formula is bad and only breastmilk will do, but fortunately, none of it lasted too long.

I was a formula fed baby, and while the jury may be out on if I turned out okay or not, I think I did alright. So if formula 30 years ago was good enough for me, I figure the formula today is good enough for my baby, if formula is what helps the mental state of my wife and my child then so be it.

Just a couple of things to share from Aiden's second month:
-Aiden had his baptism celebration at 8 weeks old.

-Aiden made his first significant Road trip right as he was turning 2 months old. We drove up to Santa Claus Indiana to see Grandma Mimi and Grandpa Danny. The trip takes approximately 3 hours each way and we were able to stay 2 nights. Aiden slept for the most part through the entire trip.

- Aiden's first smile occured at approximately 7 weeks.

-Aiden is getting used to routine trips to Grandma and Grandpa Perez' house. Since they are only 20 minutes away we make trips there pretty regularly, and occationally mommy and daddy leave Aiden with the grandparents while they take care of other things.

- At two months of age Aiden weighed 11 pounds 9.6 ounces and measured 23 1/2 inches long.