New Challenges

When you first have a baby, people always tell you to "sleep when the baby sleeps". When you've got another child, however, that can be difficult to manage. They rarely sleep at the same time during the day. I tend to hit the wall around 5pm, when I'm occasionally able to catch a catnap while holding Amanda on my chest. There's something about holding a sleeping infant that makes you very drowsy. With Dave home, I've been able to catch a few naps a week, or at least sleep in an extra hour if the night before was rough. Sleep at night is touch-and-go right now. Some nights Amanda will wake only 2 or 3 times to nurse, and others she'll wake and fuss every hour. Once she kept me up until 2:30am, and then a few of nights later she slept fine until 4am, when she woke with gas pains and fussed for the rest of the morning. We really haven't established a pattern yet. As much as I miss a full night of sleep, it can have it's downside, too. A couple days ago I woke from an unusually good night of sleep to engorged breasts, because Amanda hadn't nursed as much as usual that night. I soon discovered that it had caused a painful clogged milk duct on my right side. My mom recommended hot compresses and frequent nursing to prevent it from turning into full-blown Mastitis (breast infection). Thankfully it cleared up the next day, and I learned something new about taking care of myself while breastfeeding.