5 days old...

So, Riley is now 5 days old. Wow, time is flying. We came home on Thursday and were greeted by all of our family. Christmas was great and Riley slept through most of it. About mid afternoon, my sister looked over at me and laughed. She said, "Um... you're leaking." Sure enough, my shirt was soaked around both nipples. My milk had arrived!!! And with a vengeance, my breasts had grown in a matter of minutes to three times their size! Just one was bigger than Riley's head!!! Holy moly. And they were hard as a rock as well. Already, I was having trouble with breastfeeding because of how tender they were. In fact, they were starting to get cracked and dried out even though I was using the nipple cream regularly. Now, not only were they even MORE tender, but my boobs were so engorged she had a hard time latching on. On top of all that, I made the mistake of drinking two cups of coffee and had a Coke later in the day. As a result, Riley was up crying until about 2am and very fussy every time she woke up to feed. Needless to say, on Saturday, I did NOT drink any caffeine or dairy.

Saturday was also Jimmy's first day back at work since Riley's birth. Mom and my sister went out shopping at 5 am to catch the after-Christmas sales while Dad stayed with me until they returned.. There was NO way I could join them for that. I can barely stay on my feet for more than a few minutes before my stitches start to really hurt. I'm still pretty swollen down there and very, very tender. I have to be very careful when I sit, but I have discovered that sitting in a tub full of water mixed with baking soda or witch hazel helps immensely. I have also learned that placing wet regular tea bags on my nipples after feeding also helps to soothe them. Another thing I plan to try tonight is cabbage leaves. My right nipple hurts so badly that I can no longer even attempt to feed Riley from it. I have started pumping that breast and feeding exclusively from the left. I will attempt to give both of my breasts a little relief today and test out the medela pump bottles for feeding and see how that works.

We also introduced Riley to the pacifier yesterday. It worked really well last night for helping to soothe her back to sleep after feeding. The downside was that she only slept for a couple of hours before she woke again. When she cried herself to sleep, she would typically sleep for 3 or 4 hours. It wasn't too bad though.

Tomorrow morning at 9am is our first pediatric appointment. I am really curious as to how that will go. I really hope they say she is doing well. She doesn't poop and pee a lot like I had heard she would, but she is feeding regularly and for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. She is a lot more alert the last couple of days as well. Jimmy's parents will be heading home today, but they've been by every day to see their newest grandbaby. Everyone absolutely adores her. I can't wait to see her become more active with everyone as she grows.