Sibling Love, Let-Down, and Rash

The Siblings

Colden is just over two-weeks-old.  Olivia is completely enamored by her brother.  She's been obsessed with babies (dolls) since she was about 15-months-old.  So, this didn't come as a complete surprise. She expects him to join Lila and her as they are read to every night and gets up and comes right into our bedroom in the morning to see him.  She's always a little annoyed if he's nursing and she can't hold him right away.  Lila is a bit less enamored, possibly now well aware that she is no longer the baby.  Both girls have been acting out a bit more than usual - but, this is to be expected.

I'm happy to be raising my children to view natural childbirth, baby-wearing and breastfeeding as normal.  I see them play those things out when they play dolls together.  Colden is a loud nurser.  I have a forceful let-down and a bit of an over-supply of milk.  Despite nursing him in an upright position and block nursing to help lessen these issues, he still clicks loudly at the breast from time to time to help control the amount that he takes in.  Sometimes I take him off and start again and other times I'll let it go.  Olivia, however, is starting to understand the importance of a good latch (even though he's clicking, his latch is not terrible and I am no longer sore) and will ask, "Hey mom, does he have a good latch right now?" She will never know a different infant feeding method and is already getting to know the terms and know-how of breastfeeding.

Liv is in love with this little guy

I was dismayed, early last week, when I noticed that Colden had developed a bit of a rash on his bottom.  He had been in cloth diapers almost solely since birth, only being in a sposie twice as we waited for cloth diapers to dry.  I thought for sure the cloth diapers were giving him a rash.  I bought some great Welda diaper rash cream (the German formula is different than the US formula, I discovered, so I won't provide a link here) and put him in sposies for a couple of days (I had forgotten to buy rice liners for our cloth diapers which are needed if you use rash cream.  Thick rash creams do not wash out of cloth diapers well and cause build-up and repelling issues).  The rash mostly cleared up and I put him back in cloth and, to my delight, just using coconut oil cleared up the rest.  I did order a rash stick that is cloth-diaper friendly, some rice liners and fleece liners (Fleece is used to wick away moisture-great for young babies, not so great when toilet training) just in case the issue pops up again.  I also added an extra rinse to our cloth diaper wash (cloth diapers not thoroughly rinsed of detergent can cause rash).

Colden sleeps for about three hour stretches at night.  Last night he slept for four hours, ate, and slept nearly four hours again.  So, he was only up once.  Score!! Though, I still woke up exhausted and I can only contribute this to a meneire's disease flare up.  I'm trying not to let it get me down. Usually, I can figure out what contributed to a flare-up. Stress, exhaustion, illness, weather.  I think this could be contributed to the fluid changes that happen to the body in the post-partum phase.  I'm trying to stay positive and ignore it.  Not so easy when you notice hearing loss and a constant roaring noise. But, I will prevail! There is too much joy in my life right now to let much of anything bring me down.

At the end of the week, we welcome my parents!!  The girls are so excited and it'll be nice to have a bit more help as Matt goes back to work tomorrow.