On super suckers and awesome mamas

Your special guest blogger this evening is Dr. JT! Bridget is busy feeding a wild animal baby. She does this sometimes at night after Bridget takes a bath - she'll eat, but she'll protest and wriggle and writhe around the whole time. It's pretty funny really, and we'd love to show you, but, well, breastfeeding and the internet.

The good news is that Maren is doing MUCH better since the last post. She had her tongue tie corrected on Monday afternoon, and we saw some small, but immediate, improvements. A few days later, however, was the high point of our stress, when 1) Maren wasn't eating well, 2) Bridget was alternating pumping and feeding every 1.5 hours, 3) I was supplementing her with bottles of expressed milk, which 4) she would sometimes explosively vomit. So we called the lactation consultant again, and she visited us Friday morning, and showed Bridget one more little trick to encourage Maren to suck well, and BOOM - she was eating so much better. It was like she had been building some skills in the background, wondering when we were going to give her the chance to show them. Since then she had been eating well much of the time, and pooping up a storm, I get so excited when she fills a diaper I break into song - many 80's top 10 hits have been altered to allow for poo worship.

So Bridget has been hogging our little one a lot since Friday. Mom and Maren have been lounging out on the rocker for most of the day, so that Maren can snack as much as she wants, and also for further mouth retraining (she still has some work to do). I get her for diaper changes and during bath time, so she gets intense snuggles during those periods. Overall,life is much, much, much calmer around here, and we are happy. It is so nice to have the support of all of our friends near and far during these crazy days.

With stress levels down, Halloween decorating has resumed. I feel that it is critical that Maren understand the importance of Halloween, so she needs the full display even when she is a little wee one. I'll snap a photo on Halloween so that Bridget can post on here!

Oh, and did you know that Bridget is the best mama that ever lived? It's no word of a lie! She is so loving, sweet, and nurturing. I love both of my girls!