Tired Parent Update

So the first week went pretty well. Charlie was gaining weight and feeding ok. One night, we even got a four hour stretch of sleep and I was thinking, "This isn't too bad - we can do this". This second week has been harder: Charlie didn't gain weight and we think his tongue tie is affecting his ability to feed. This difficult set back has been all the more difficult because he now seldom settles after a feed. He wants more, more, more. Some nights we have slept with one of our fingers in his mouth just so he wouldn't be crying and we could get some sleep. We're exploring getting his tongue tie released. In days gone by, midwifes would keep a nail long and sharp and release the tongues of any newborn within reach. Doctors would routinely line up the kids and snip. It sounds awful to want surgery (no matter how minor) for your child but all the evidence speaks to this being a big part of the problem with breastfeeding since he can get a good latch and is certainly hungry but he is ineffective due to the tongue tie. We've pumped once a night and topped up one or two feeds to try and put some weight on him while we figure this out. Tough times at the moment. All three of us are ragged and running on empty. Meanwhile, Schuyler sleeps soundly in the next room.

Having said that, tonight was fun up until bedtime: Michelle, Chris and Eli came over at about 5pm and we all got to hang out and talk. Schuyler was psyched to have someone (Eli) who actually wanted to play with her all the time and they even got to have a bubble bath together (which exposed Schuyler's new fascination with boy parts and led to some slightly embarassing, very funny conversations about keeping our hands to ourselves).

But now it is 5:18am and Charlie is not feeding well. Liz's neck hurts badly. And Daddy feels helpless. Who designed this system? Couldn't God have designed it such that newborns only needed to feed once a day and either parent could do it and it only took 36 seconds? That's seems like a much more intelligent design than making everyone sleep deprived, frustrated and grumpy, and then try and try and get this little dude to eat.

The good part is that he's adorable. And we feel really close to him considering he has yet to thank us properly for our efforts. His cuteness has saved him for now.