Kaiser sent their Maternal Childcare Nurse out today to take out my staples (had to get staples instead of sutures since I was vomiting when they were stitching me up) and check on Noah. She said his latch is perfect. Yay! I learned all their MCNs are IBCLCs. This one seemed naturally minded like Patty, the MCN who visited me and worked with my breastfeeding issues with Elias.

He lost another few ounces and is now down to a 10% loss. My milk hasn’t fully come in yet, so I’m not concerned. She didn’t sound concerned at all. We were supposed to take Noah into the pediatrician on Friday since they want to see babies within 5 days of birth, but our pediatrician is on vacation this week, so they let us schedule an appointment for Monday. I think this is great since it will give my milk more time to come in and more time for him to put on weight. I know what to look for as far as signs of dehydration go. Noah’s not experiencing anything like what Elias was even at this point. His mouth is always wet. He’s only had one wet diaper so far today, but I’m hoping we can get at least another couple more before the day is done. No orange crystals, so as long as I don’t see that, I’m happy. He also doesn’t look deflated like Elias did. I’m really, really hopeful everything will go well this time.

Noah’s DEFINITELY a better nurser than Elias was. Again, he has a perfect latch and he is at my breasts almost constantly. One of the biggest mistakes I made with Elias was to truly nurse him “on demand” and he didn’t demand it much at all to begin with. I’d let him go 4-5 hours without nursing and then nurse him only for 15 or 20 minutes. Just a big mistake. Yesterday I nursed Noah for 14 hours total.

My homebirth midwife called today and talked to Mark. Mostly because of the meconium, we feel we made the best decision to go into the hospital when we did. Other than that, I just didn’t feel like things were going normally. When I was 2cm and not even in active labor yet, I wasn’t able to stand upright and walk through or between contractions. I was having problems urinating (I could do it, but I had to lean into a certain position to push it out) I was a bit freaked out by my very strong desire to push once I hit 4cm. The pain seemed really intense to me… I could deal with it, but I couldn’t deal with being completely immobile during labor, the old meconium or the inability not to push. In the end, I’m really glad I was able to labor naturally through 7cm and I’m definitely glad I gave homebirth a shot. I do feel that is the best place for babies to be born in normal circumstances. The hospital was really pissing me off yesterday. I’m not convinced that I will ever be able to have a natural birth and because of that, I don’t think we’re going to be having any more babies. I’m not sure how I feel about that yet, but I’d rather not have another baby knowing what I will likely end up putting it through.

Anyway, Noah’s hungry again. Maybe one of these days I’ll have more than 10 minutes free to put up pictures. We have tons of them, but no time to get them off the camera.

I can’t wait to get back and catch up with you all. Thanks again for everyone’s immense support and concern. Really, you have no idea how much it means to me.

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