must-haves for the first week

These are items that helped our survival during the first week of our little spud's life...You may not agree with anything that what we used, but I found our sanity and cora's to be greatly improved with these items. As a mom you have to deal with endless judgements on what you should be doing. I hate the shoulds. So Matt and I did what we felt was best...and here is our list that may help you to be strong too if need be.

1. formula
Yes, my name is Lindsey, and I formula feed our baby. My baby was crying endlessly the first night looking frustrated with the latch or lack there of....and I pleaded with the nurses to just get me some damn formula. Oh yeah...and a nipple! Boy, the looks I got could almost send me to tears (oh, wait that's right...it did, many tears were shed). Cora took to the bottle with a smile and almost a giggle... so excited to just get some sustenance. A few days later it turns out cora wasn't getting any milk/colostrum from breast feeding because she was tongue tied. Thank goodness I used my new motherly intuition to supplement with formula, regardless of the judgements.... my baby was fed and nourished thanks to formula.

2. breast pump
After meeting with the lactation consultant and determining that our little cora was latching great, I was doing my part...and still she was getting almost zilch from my boobs.... we decided to do the pump thang. This enabled my milk to come in and give her breast milk from the bottle- awesome. The pump is actually okay to use. It doesn't hurt...just a little awkward watching and willing drop by drop to come out of the boobies. (gosh, I wonder what kind of traffic I am going to get to this blog now...  boobie searches galore.)

3. dr. brown's bottle with infant nipple
Our lactation consultant recommended these nipples as a super low-flow nipple for using the bottle. Of course having our infant being bottle fed was not ideal, but necessary. My milk still hasn't come in to the volume it should, due to Cora's tongue-tied nature in the first days. So, we supplement pumped breast milk with formula...either using this bottle/nipple combo or a tube and syringe to tube feed. It helps that grandparents, matt...they can all feed cora and soothe her.

4. bouncy chair
This is like a second set of hands in times of need. For instance...so that I can shower, do my hair, prepare the bottles, pump... super helpful. Ours kind of vibrates and has a white noise/music option. She likes it, but it would probably be fine without too.

5. these cheap "precious firsts" PJs from target
Cora turned out to be tiny... like too small for the 0-3 month clothes we purchased. So this newborn sized outfit is adorable and fits perfectly. They are cheap and at target...and simple. No silly writing on them, just great sleepwear that is snug for our little 7 pound 10 ounce babe.

6. soothies pacifier
The hospital actually frowned upon this one. It took me hunting down two nurses to get my hands on a pacifier our first night. As though being a mom isn't hard enough...I had to deal with the negative stigmas of giving my new baby a pacifier. Whatever.... I know the reasoning, but I needed to pacify my baby...and that's exactly what it does. She prefers this big clunky pacifier and will not take the myriad of other much cuter ones I bought. Go figure.

7. tucks pads
Eeesh. Healing from birthing a whole human is a wee bit painful. These tucks pads help to soothe. I didn't have a tear that required stitches, but none the less a tear. One day it should heal I am told. I am still waiting with tucks pads galore.