Jon was working as a teacher. His first day of school was the day Sarah was born (he took the day off work :~) ). I know how stressful and tiring teaching can be. I did not want Jon to be too sleep deprived considering he needed to do well at his job and I wanted him to be able to drive safely to work each day. Jon, being the great husband that he is, would still come home and help clean the house and spend time bonding with Sarah and learning how to care for her.
Treating Sarah, due to the possibility of CPT II, required us to feed her every 3 hours. This is an average time between feedings for a newborn. It is usual for new parents to be sleep deprived. We knew this. The general advice is to sleep when your baby is sleeping.
Sarah seemed to wake whenever I tried to set her down. Sarah also seemed to know when I was about to eat. I would finally get her to sleep and not in my arms. I would prepare my food and as soon as I was about to eat, she would wake up. It happened often (seemed like every time I tried to eat). Even though I was desperately tired and knew I needed to eat (I didn't usually feel hungry), I saw the humor in the situation.It also seemed that as soon as I was able to sleep, Sarah would wake up. I did not find this humorous.
I was determined to breastfeed Sarah. There was still the chance that the Newborn Screening was a false/positive and so I didn't want my breast milk to dry up. This required me to pump my breast milk in order to mix it into the elixir. I had only purchased a hand breast pump considering I was going to stay home with Sarah I figured we would only need to have extra breast milk for weekly date nights.
I realized I wasn't finding time to eat or time to sleep or both. I wrote out all that was required of me and the amount of time it usually took to accomplish each task to see if somehow I could work out a system or schedule to get everything done.
Daily Requirements
- prepare elixir
- get dressed - brush teeth, brush hair (at least)
- tummy time for Sarah
- *sleep some*
- *eat more calories than normal to promote breast milk production*
Every 3 Hours
- Heat bottle
- Wake-up Sarah
- Change her diaper
- Feed Sarah
- Interact with Sarah while she is awake
- Try to get Sarah to fall back asleep and lay her down without her waking-up
- Pump my breast milk
- Store breast milk and clean the bottles
- *Eat and drink something*
- *Sleep until next feeding round (unless at this point Sarah was awake, then I needed to take care of Sarah)*
I can't remember the timing of everything but when I was finished with the list, I realized that I could not function. There wasn't enough time to get everything done. I called Jon at work. I was crying and trying to explain the process I had gone through to come to my conclusion. Jon got the next day off work so we could see if there was a way that we could function under the circumstances.
We ended up buying enough Medela bottles so I could pump with them and use them to feed Sarah the elixir without needing to clean them during each three hour allotment of time. Jon took on the role of nightly bottle cleaning duty. He also ensured that Sarah did tummy time to help her get stronger, especially if I hadn't been able to during the day. We purchased microwave meals so I could easily and quickly prepare food for myself during the day. We also purchased a thermos to hold hot water so that I was able to feed Sarah a bottle away from home. The gift of no longer being so confined was very freeing. I searched out a way to get an electric breast pump for free until we found out whether Sarah had CPT II.
We admitted to close friends and family that we were struggling. I learned to ask for more help. I learned to be more dependent and not to fear being an inconvenience. Brian and Kerry were a great help in making sure that I remembered to eat and was able to find the time while Jon was gone at work. My sister gave me the best birthday gift of caring for Sarah overnight while I caught up on sleep (and got totally engorged but it was well worth the rest :~) ). There were quite a few times that I would go to my mom's house to sleep while they cared for Sarah.
It was a rough time but, by the grace of God, we survived.
We ended up buying enough Medela bottles so I could pump with them and use them to feed Sarah the elixir without needing to clean them during each three hour allotment of time. Jon took on the role of nightly bottle cleaning duty. He also ensured that Sarah did tummy time to help her get stronger, especially if I hadn't been able to during the day. We purchased microwave meals so I could easily and quickly prepare food for myself during the day. We also purchased a thermos to hold hot water so that I was able to feed Sarah a bottle away from home. The gift of no longer being so confined was very freeing. I searched out a way to get an electric breast pump for free until we found out whether Sarah had CPT II.
We admitted to close friends and family that we were struggling. I learned to ask for more help. I learned to be more dependent and not to fear being an inconvenience. Brian and Kerry were a great help in making sure that I remembered to eat and was able to find the time while Jon was gone at work. My sister gave me the best birthday gift of caring for Sarah overnight while I caught up on sleep (and got totally engorged but it was well worth the rest :~) ). There were quite a few times that I would go to my mom's house to sleep while they cared for Sarah.
It was a rough time but, by the grace of God, we survived.
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