Wiley

Wiley is 6 days old and is such a sweet baby.  Very chill.  Barely cries.  Sleeps a lot.  Just a joy.  He is a cuddler.  When you pick him up, he fits himself into the curve of your body and just snuggles.  I have decided that he is little David.  Jackson is little me, Wiley seems to be taking after his Dad.  I am really enjoying him.  As precious as my Jackson is, he was not a cuddly baby.  Too much physical stimulation made him crazy and restless.  He wouldn't sleep on you, didn't want to be rocked.  He didn't want to be held til he learned what affection was all about in his second year.  Wiley is a snuggler.   

I may write more about the c section when I have more energy.  I'll just say that it went as well as it was supposed to but was not a fun experience for a person who is terrified when out of control.  You can't get more out of control than submitting to surgery while awake.  But it was a perfectly executed procedure resulting in a healthy, safely-birthed baby boy. 



Don't know why this pic won't turn the right way : )



His cord was double-knotted like a pretzel.   Not dangerous, not tight, but my doc says he sees maybe one in a hundred babies with one knot and has never seen two.  I thought that was interesting.  The doc was able to hold off cutting the cord for a full minute so Wiley got a good dose of his stem cells and that meant a lot to me.  He came out crying and sounding so loud and healthy, there was no doubt he was ready to be born.  He was a full 8 pounds at 39 weeks.  A full pound larger than Jackson was at 41 weeks 2 days. 

We had a few set-backs in the hospital that lead to a 4-night stay.  First, Wiley was born tongue-tied, which means he couldn't stick his tongue out very far.  Which means his latch while nursing was very shallow and he couldn't get enough to eat and made me very sore.  The tongue is very, very important to breastfeeding.  So he couldn't do it very well and he lost a good amount of weight.  He got down to 7 pounds 1 oz and his bilirubin was high so he was getting pretty jaundiced.  They asked me to supplement with formula (oh horror for a breastfeeding mom!)  so I did a supplemental nursing system by which I taped a tube to myself and he got formula while also latched to the breast and getting what milk he could from me.  He perked  up pretty quickly and gained enough that they let us go on Tuesday AM. 

Wednesday morning we saw an ENT who fixed Wiley's tongue-tie with a super-quick frenulectomy which immediately fixed his latch.  He is now able to get all the milk he wants from me and is busily nursing as much as he can and gaining weight.  At the pedi today he was 7 lbs 10 oz, so he is doing great.

We are getting decent sleep for having a newborn in the house.  My sister was here for a couple of nights and she helped out a lot.  But this baby is so chill and mellow.  I am suspicious of how easy he has been - besides the whole breech thing, failed version, c section and tied tongue...hmmm.

We have had friends bring by food for a few days so we have been well-supplied and cared for.  My pain has been decently controlled.  I have some weird numbness, pain and tingling in the area of my incision that is uncomfortable and disconcerting.  I feel like I have a lot of healing to do in there.  I'm swollen and sensitive and need to keep taking it easy.  I've lost 20 pounds already and feel pretty good about it.  Have about 15 pounds to get back to where I was before.  Seems like a lot, but I am not going to freak out about it.  I'm going to try to be as laid back as Wiley.  He just takes it all in stride and is always happy to get another shot at the boob.  (See, he does take after his dad :)