a day of jesus and friends

Saturday we had the lactation consultant come over, which was rather traumatic for Carolina (which I'll get to in a sec) and then yesterday was her Christening. Another day of high stimulation.

She and I learned on Saturday that she is probably colicky (whatever that really means...) and not suffering from reflux. She's got gas. A lot. Often. So the fact she gets fussy later in the day, means that if I'm more diligent about minding her gas during the day -- by burping her, keeping her upright more often, giving her Mylicon (which is baby GasX), and gripe water -- that CAN mean that she'll suffer less as the day wears on.

Having my boob shoved into her mouth while she was gassy by the LC that at one point she screamed so intensely that her entire head was red and she was gasping for breath. I was willing to frustrate her so that we both learn how she is supposed to latch on to the boob, since she wasn't latching NEARLY enough. But when she gets hysterical, that's when I can't take it and so had the LC stop what she was trying and just burp her.

Poor thing was so overwhelmed by the experience she slept for 4 hours after 4pm, the LC left at about 12pm. She was just. very. tired. I made sure to breastfeed her for all subsequent feedings that night and following morning. I wanted her to practice the proper latch as well as comfort her instead of giving her a bottle. I felt really badly she had gotten so stressed and was in such discomfort.

I was proud of my girl. She learned quickly to latch better without me having to do much set up. Two times I let her not do it quite as well only because she was relaxed and I was more interested in her eating and not being stressed than doing it 'correctly.' The following morning she continued to improve and I've been super full of milk since then.

The other thing I learned was that if she's not latched correctly, not all my milk glands are being asked to work. So I think I'm working at capacity now. This also means she'll get more milk and not have to suck as hard but will have to work differently. She's started to sleep longer than an hour during the day and night at times, so already there's a change. Phew!

The next day, however, was her christening. She got up at 3am and ALMOST every hour after that. I think sleeping for 4 hours and then 2 hours immediately after that made her think that 3am was morning :) At about 7am, as usual, we gave her a bath and put on a onesie. I figured she'd nap a little between 8am and 1pm, before we had to go to the church for the 2pm ceremony.

I figured wrong.

She was basically awake with a few minutes of dozing until 12.00, when she passed out on the couch in line of the A/C for about 20-30 minutes. I was glad for her that she finally could relax enough to sleep but concerned how she'd handle the upcoming christening ceremony. There were 8 babies and their families in the church's chapel. I figured, another day of overstimulation and I wasn't looking forward to it.

After some expected fussing when we put on her 3 layered Christening outfit, she got a pacifier and calmed down. And then basically slept in Ismael's arms after we got to the church through the end of the ceremony. Slept through all the babies crying, families talking loudly, deacon speaking on the PA system, and having water and oil poured over her head and put on her neck.

I was more stressed the entire time than she was. I was glad she was in her dad's arms, no need for me to hold her and possibly change the balance of happy sleep she was in.

I hadn't realized that the chapel being so much smaller than the church there wouldn't be enough seating for all the families and friends. We had a LOT of people in attendance to support our daughter. I was really proud to have such a showing for her.

I always say that friends are the family you choose for yourself. I really believe that for our friends. Luckily we like our families too, so it makes it easier that we'd probably pick all of them to be in our families if we had the chance. It was just great to keep turning around to see who was there and see another couple or friend we invited sitting near us. If only Ismael's parents could have come, it would have been perfect.

We are glad that my cousin, Maria, and our close friend, Raul, agreed to be her godparents. They will certainly be good influences in her life and yet another excuse to visit them throughout her life.

But again, by poor girl suffered from gas and over-stimulation. So getting her back into the car seat to go home wasn't happening. My dad walked home with her while I went with my mom and Paula in the car. Ismael and Raul walked the presents and car seat stroller home. Once there, poor thing was still crying a lot. My dad continued to try to get her gas out but it wasn't totally working. So after getting changed quickly, I checked to see how hard she'd suck my finger (to test if she was hungry) and lo, she was. She refused to take the bottle from my dad, but it's possible she just didn't want the bottle even though she was clearly hungry and exhausted.

So I brought her to the bedroom, closed the door. Fed her myself for a good stretch of time, and she started to doze off. Then we bathed her, changed her into a onesie and tried to put her to sleep. She wasn't quite relaxed enough, so between saying goodbye to grandparents and then going back into the bedroom -- she finally fell asleep. For over 3 hours!

Poor kid was really exhausted in many ways.

Today, while the godfather and his wife are still in town, her father is thinking that we should go to Central Park with her. I'm nervous about yet ANOTHER day of stimulation and exhaustion for my poor kid. So we're thinking about it. I told him that I'd agree to go for a bit IF! it was on the bus (not the subway) and only if it was really early in the day (before 12pm).

So we'll see...