Adelaide’s Two and Three Month Update

Someone please tell me how my baby is already four months old! Who gave her permission to grow up?! Adelaide is such a dream baby (and slightly high needs lol) and it has been such a joy to watch her develop over the last two months! She has perfected her social smile and absolutely loves when mom and dad talk sweet to her. I’ve discovered she is most definitely a morning person and is all smiles first thing in the morning. This definitely makes it so much easier to wake up and nurse her in the early morning hours.

Month Two

So, starting off where her one month update ended, Adelaide had a lip tie revision which has enormously changed previous nursing habits. Her latch is so much better and deeper, which causes nearly zero discomfort for me. My milk supply has also begun regulating, which makes it easier for her as well because I’m not constantly so full that she has difficulty latching without me expressing first. On top of the lip tie revision, Adelaide was dealing with a bout of thrush during week five which transferred to me. Can you say absolute painful hell? I would birth her ten times over versus deal with yeast again. It is an indescribable pain that feels like pins and needles so deep that you have pains in your arm pit. Your nip skin feels like it’s on fire, and is shiny and bright pink. It was also an absolute pain boiling every pump part and every bottle after each use. I was prescribed nystatin cream, which I was highly skeptical that it alone would cure mine. Thankfully after two weeks of use it resolved. Adelaide was prescribed Diflucan x 10 days due to also having a diaper rash.

Week six we mostly laid low as I was instructed to be without a bra/shirt as much as possible to allow myself to heal. At the end if week six I noticed Adelaide starting to produce a lot of nasal mucus so I was religiously using the Nose Frida. By that Saturday, I noticed her really having trouble breathing because her nose was so full. Sunday, I started to feel like the mucus had traveled to her chest and she was having difficulty breathing. I had started using saline drops when I would use the Nose Frida. We started using a humidifier at night and several times a day I would take her into the bathroom and steam it up with the shower. She never had a fever higher than 99.7, thank goodness. Because I could tell she was extremely uncomfortable, I did give her Tylenol 2-3 times Saturday and Sunday. By Monday morning, I quickly got her in to see the pediatrician who could see her the soonest and was told I was doing all that I could be doing, but to stop the Tylenol in case it was masking a fever (seemed so cruel at the time when your baby is in misery). By Tuesday evening, I had watched her suffer long enough and decided we needed to take her to Children’s hospital around 11pm. We got there and got back to a room in the ER by 2am. They did a nasal swab (super hard to watch if you’ve never seen it done on an infant because they poke it so far back into their little nose), which she did have some bloody snot from and also suctioned her nose really well several times with a mechanical suction. It was such a torturous time for her and super hard emotionally on Brent and I, as we had just inflicted pain on her the week prior with her lip tie. Around 3am the nasal swab results came back and she was in fact positive for RSV, a viral infection that to most just looks and acts like the common cold, but in infants, children and elderly can be deadly. Her poor little ribs were pulling with every breath she was laboring so hard to breathe. Because of her age they decided to admit her around 4am Wednesday for observation, which I’m thankful for because if she had stopped breathing at home we wouldn’t have had the necessary means to help her. They did suction her again several times. Needless to say, I got about two hours of sleep over the span of 30 hours. And let me just rave about how glorious hospital grade breast pumps are for a second! My milk supply was no where near regulated during this time, so I did have to express some while we were admitted. Medela Symphony hospital grade pump is worth its $2k price tag! I wouldn’t have even known I was pumping it was so efficient and delicate feeling! Just before discharge, the medical research team stopped by and asked to enroll Addy into a study for RSV pediatric patients. Of course I said yes, as we are currently in a Meconium study with Mount Sinai and have been since before I became pregnant. This RSV study essentially consists of her being suctioned/swabbed before discharge, at one month post RSV and six months post RSV. There are also follow up calls between these appointments. The point of the study is to see how long RSV is detectable and what kinds complications it can cause.

Addy started to improve as that week/weekend went on but the mucus seemed to linger well into week 7. Week 7 our sweet girl got to experience her first Easter. Holidays are so much more memorable once you become a parent! I put together an Easter basket post HERE.

Addy has reached the age she loves staring at objects, especially light. She’s able to track things with her eyes if they’re moving in front of her. She’s in 0-3 month clothing still and finally size 1 diapers. She’s the queen on blow outs and hit a major growth spurt during weeks 7-8, which did cause a day or two of sleep regression and cluster feeding (Brent had a little bit of a hard time coping during this time LOL). She’s typically a very happy, consolable baby. We’re still cosleeping, but I am going to start her on daytime naps in her crib now that she is two months to make the full time transition easier (hopefully at 3 months). She typically lays down for the night around 8-9pm, but I start her “routine “ (and I say that loosely because she is so young) around 7pm. We try to keep things dimmer and quieter after this time. I’m still trying to give her her biggest feeding when she wakes for her first nightly feeding around 11pm-12am. By that time I’m ready to fall asleep and want my longest stretch of sleep to be immediately upon falling asleep. I’ve found this makes waking up for the next feeding so much easier.

Month Three

Week 7-9 were a nursing dream! We were doing so well! Week 9, Addy discovered her hands, which was the cutest thing to watch! It took her a few weeks to realize they were hers and she was in control of them. She also started discovering her voice and would coo back when talked to. During week 9 we developed thrush... again! This time I caught it before it got as serious as far as my symptoms go. This time it felt different and nystatin wasn’t clearing it up. I spoke with lactation who weren’t convinced there wasn’t something bacterial going on as well, so week 10 I was started on Bactroban. Between the combination of Bactroban and Nystatin symptoms finally started to clear weeks 11-12. My milk supply was through the roof during these weeks due to Addy going through a growth spurt and cluster feeding like a mad woman, which was unfortunate because during this thrush episode I refused to do any pumping and freezing because it’s such a pain to sterilize so many things.

During weeks 11-12, I did some work at my brothers new house which was my first experience working on projects with a newborn. I can say it’s beyond a challenge. She’s going through a phase where she doesn’t want comforted or entertained by anyone but me, which makes getting anything done difficult. On a typical day I would never complain about all the cuddles, but when there’s a time restraint involved with getting something done, it’s a challenge! During these weeks also, Addy learned how fun it is to put her hands in her mouth and smear around her new, abundant saliva. She’s doing so well at holding her head up and is able to hold small objects in her hands for small durations. She is in 3-6 sleepers and about to retire all of her 0-3 clothes. She’s officially in size 2 diapers and we’re still using Pampers Aqua wipe only. She is still the queen of blowouts!

​Around week 13, I developed what appeared to be thrush again and my assumption was that it never fully went away from the second time I got it. Who knew breastfeeding could be such an ongoing challenge? After several weeks of treating Addy and I for thrush per usual protocol of Nystatin, I stopped. I know Addy has such awful bowel problems by now when we're on thrush medication. I ordered some gentian violet and gave that a try once a night for three nights. I felt better after the first day, but by the third I was itchy, red and inflamed all over again. So I stopped the gentian violet. Honestly, it's not as huge of a mess as others make it out to be. We have white sheets on our bed and didn't get a single stain. As long as your careful during application, wear a thicker material black shirt and dress your baby in mittens and on ugly onesie during that first after application, you'll be fine! I also applied Vasoline to Addy's cheeks and tip of nose before that first feed to minimize staining to her face and it worked like a charm. She stained, but not a severe degree. And it fades fast once you stop treatment! Also during week 13, she found her feet, is constantly grabbing them and holds objects in her hands for long (and I mean long!) periods of time.

​Week 14, Addy started rolling over, both back to front and front to back! It was such a shock when she did it! I thought I'd have at least another month of a non-rolling baby! We tell her she's an overachiever! She has also been napping like a dream during the day in her crib, but we're still co-sleeping at night. I was really hoping she would have dropped a nightly feeding by now (four-ish), making it less tiring on me to physically get out of bed and feed her. Her bedtime definitely became a more rigid routine during month 3. About 90% of the time she goes to bed between 7-8pm, which is nice because it allows me a hour or two to tidy the house and get laundry moving and spend some quality time with Brent before her next feeding.
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​After stopping the gentian violet in week 15, I decided to do no more treatment and see what happened. So far the redness has lessened, I still have slight twinges of itching/discomfort (never during actual nursing), but overall slightly improved. I'm starting to wonder if I just have some permanent damage from all the breastfeeding problems I've encountered since day one. On a positive note, my supply is still going strong. Sometimes still too strong lol. We go for her 4 month appointment in a few weeks and I'm so curious about her stats! She is such a long baby! On our home scale a few weeks ago she was weighing in around 13.4 lbs. She's still in 3-6 month clothing, but I could see her growing out of 3-6 sleepers and onesies within the next month. Month three was super special because I got to experience my very first mother’s day, which made this whole mom thing so much more real!