Feeding frenzy

It seems like one of the first questions I get these days is about how well Elisa is doing with her feedings. Whether at the doctor's office or getting emails from friends who've been there before, I am constantly being asked about her nursing habits, whether I'm breastfeeding and/or supplementing her, and how she's pooping/peeing. Considering this is my first time as a human milk machine, I'd say things are going pretty well. In fact, my breasts haven't been nearly as sore as I anticipated after those first few days passed and I'm finding that the little animal I gave birth to is a hungry girl...most of the time.

Elisa's favorite way to wake up is to squeak a few times, barely crying out enough to get noticed. Then she begins rooting around, smacking her mouth on anything that resembles a fleshy surface (elbows are nice) and generally trying to impress upon us that she is, indeed, starving. However, within minutes of sucking, she is usually knackered enough to need prodding and poking to keep on track. Mom has become the Burp Queen helping move the gas and air out of her tummy, while I favor the hands-off approach of letting Elisa lie on the couch for a few minutes--just enough for her to wake up and realize there is more food to be had. The wet washcloth to the face also works wonders, though I find she's not as annoyed with that lately...must think of new tricks.

Since we've been carefully monitoring her weigh-ins with the pediatricians (thanks to their overzealous 48 hour check approach), I know she's already gained back a good part of what she lost since birth. On Friday she was still down 2 ounces, though, which means we try again on Tuesday to bring her back up (and hopefully OVER) her birth weight of 7 lbs. 7.5 ounces. In the meantime, I'm pretty sure that she's getting plenty of sustenance since we're changing her twice every feeding it seems with lots of seedy, curd-laden diapers. The appearance of the "O-Face" (with her terse little mouth--not the other kind) during a feeding is a sure sign that the bowels are moving and the hunched shoulders and blowout will follow. Seeing how these little signals are already forming and she is telling us with her 2 burps and the hiccups that she's nearly full is an amazing feat after only 2 weeks. There is so much to decipher, of course, but still it's cool to find that she has lots of non-verbal cues for the reading. Now if we can only get her days and nights sorted out in the next few weeks, we can maybe master the feedings and the sleeping. Wouldn't that be nice.