Two Week Check-ups

Well, the boy and I both had our two week check-ups this past week. I couldn't remember when newborns get their first round of shots (come to find out it's 2 months, not weeks) and I was REALLY worried about taking him since our nights have been so rough this past week! Lucky for both of us that he only had to do part II of the PKU heel stick and his pain was over. No overnight fevers or fussiness due to shots in this household - now if we could just clear up the other fussiness.

After cooing over Jax for a few minutes, my dr got down to checking me over. She offered up several suggestions to help with Jax's tummy problems, including suggesting that I go dairy-free. Not really sure how I feel about that, but if his fussiness has anything to do with his little raw bottom, I'm MORE than willing to try anything! She also suggested some different wipes, which I went out and bought, so we'll see.

My incision looked great, she removed all the steri-tape strips so that I look less like a Frankenstein on my belly and checked out my sutures. She was happy to see that most of the center stitches had already dissolved, and I'm left with just the ones on each end. But she warned me that my lines didn't exactly match up and she was disappointed with herself for that. I told her that I could really care less at this point.

You know what I was happy to see? THE SCALE! Yeah, I said it. The Scale. I weighed in on Thursday at 6 lbs UNDER my starting pregnancy weight. Wow! They say that breastfeeding really burns the calories, and I guess that I'm walking proof of it. My ending pregnancy gain was a total of 23 pounds, but you could say that it was only 18 true pounds as that last week of a 5 pound gain was more than likely water due to all the swelling in my legs. So, two weeks later, I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight plus an additional extra few pounds lost.

Now, that doesn't mean that I'm wearing anything other than maternity clothes still. Partly because my incision area is still a bit tender and normal clothes are typically low-cut, you know? And partly because in these past two weeks I haven't had to leave the house that often. Or go anywhere really important. I am fitting into some of my regular yoga pants and stretchy work-out type clothes that I don't mind wearing around the house or to run to Target in. But regular jeans? Haven't tried them yet. Maybe next week.

For Jax's appt, he did great. The length measurement is still off from what the hospital says, by half an inch. So he was either 21.5 inches at birth (according to the hospital) or he's 21 inches now and shrunk half an inch in the past two weeks (according to the Pediatrician). I think that maybe they're just not stretching him enough, but that's just my theory. Either way, he's doing well and thriving as he's gained back to his birth weight plus a little more than a pound. His official two week stats are:

Height - 21 inches
Weight- 8 pounds, 5 ounces

So for all the times that you feel like you might not be doing it all right when you have a newborn and they can't really communicate with you to tell you what's wrong, I know that I'm at least supplying him with enough food. I hadn't planned on breastfeeding, that's a whole other post that I'm working on, but I am doing it. He's eating solely breast milk, and it must be good as he's gaining weight and right on track with where he should be.

I spoke with his dr about the loose stools and diarrhea to the point of his raw, bleeding bottom (that's actually only happened once) and she suggested the normal things - air drying, lots of butt cream/ointment, and sensitive skin wipes. When I asked her specifically about the dairy issue that my dr and I had talked about the day before (I had already cut out dairy as of the day before) she was a little more hesitant to say that's what it was.

I was both relieved and worried at the same time to hear this. I was hoping that she would agree and tell me to go off of dairy products and that would explain some of his fussiness at night. But she thinks that his days/nights are just mixed up and that my diet doesn't have anything to do with it. But she also said that it might help, and couldn't really hurt to try it and see. She was also a lot less strict about it, and said that it might be a slight intolerance to milk products and told me that I could still have SOME dairy, just not as much as normal. And she also said that with some experiementation, I might even be able to pinpoint it to specific dairy products, such as milk might bother him, but cheese doesn't.

That was nice to hear, because I honestly don't know how long I can go without pizza. I'm just being honest! I'll do it for his sake, as long as I can, but living without pizza? I don't know. And ice cream? Ooh, this just sounds harder and harder every time I think about it.

But really, I'm on day 3 and it's not that bad. I'm not being strict about it, like I know that our margarine does have whey (milk) in it, but I still use a few dabs on my toast and waffles. But I have avoided cheese and milk for the past 3 days and it's ok. I'd love a DQ Blizzard, but I can also still live without it for now.

So I'll make do with snow cones - I must get one today! - and just dream about eating ice cream for a little while longer. I should either see an improvement or no change at all within a week or so, according to both of the drs, and I can decide at that point whether to continue to cut out dairy or to keep eating it.

Have you had to change your diet while breastfeeding? Did it really make a difference? I know that this lady has had lots of luck with cutting our dairy from her diet, but I don't think that my little guy is anywhere near as fussy as her little boy was being, so I don't know.