Author: Over40FirstTimeMom.com

45 year old mother to our infant son, William, with my husband, Matt. We live in California with our mischievous cat, Inky. I love our local sports teams (Go Giants! Go Sharks!), photography, the beach, WWE, reading and now spending lots of time as a family with one kid and one cat.

Lactation Consultant Second Visit

One of the best indicators of how feeding is going for a baby is by weight.  As is typical, our Lactation Consultant, Donna weighed William several times throughout his appointment. With just a diaper on (with a negligible weight, yet it also is weighed and subtracted), it is apparent he is gaining weight. Still, as the goal is for him to be weaned off formula and take in only breastmilk as soon as is possible and beneficial for him, we are hoping a lot of that weight gain is not from formula. He is currently getting about eight ounces of formula over two feedings, so most of his feedings, six or so daily, are entirely or in large part made up only of breastmilk.

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Sleep Stimulators – Eating and Swaddles 

Everyone, especially parents, seem to love and coo over sleeping babies including those of others. I always thought sleeping babies were adorable, yet I never understood the extra reason for the adoration of others sleeping babies by parents. Now I do, getting a baby to sleep, even if he hasn’t slept a lot that day, can be a surprisingly difficult task.

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Lots of Love Book – Product Review

At first glance I had thought the Lots of Love Book from Manhattan Toy, one item from this month’s Bluum Box was a special version of the Itsy Bitsy Spider. As this was a favorite song already to song to William, I was especially excited to get it in book form. However, after looking through the pages the book clearly had another story contained within.

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William is Three Weeks Old 

William is three weeks old today. Some of the advice we are given below suggests how helpful a pacifier can be. In our experience William is not a huge fan of pacifiers in general, spitting out several kinds on all tries. He does take a Nuk pacifier some of the time. I’d say he will take one a fifth of the time. Most of the time when he’s fussy it’s that he needs to eat (most common) or he needs to be changed.

~ Danielle

Hospital Bags Contents – Hits and Misses 

I searched online for information on what to put in my hospital bag and ended up packing one full diaper bag for baby and one full small rolling suitcase for me. Erin, who is due in December, asked me a great question: what did I pack in my bags that I didn’t need up using. It turns out as many moms had suggested that while I did use some of the contents, for the most part I overpacked by a lot. Anyone whose seen Matt and I pack for just a weekend would not be surprised that I overpacked for the three of us.

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Divide and Conquer 

Two of the first people I had shared the news of my pregnancy with were Shauna, who was a bridesmaid in my wedding and her fiancé, Jason. I was very excited for her wedding day, however, as it was a few weeks after my due date, I knew with a newborn that I not be able to attend. So, Shauna suggested Matt take Candy as his date. We happily accepted and were glad that Matt would be able to attend with a representative sent on my behalf.

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Pump Strap – Product Review 

One of the hardest parts about pumping for me has been having to hold onto the bottles as the machine pumps. I had known there were solutions available to make it handsfree, though I was only familiar with the bras for this. My Lactation Consultant, Donna, and the manager of Maternal Connections both recommended the Pump Strap instead. According to them while they had had mixed reviews of the bra they sold, everyone loved the Pump Strap. So, I decided to follow their recommendation and only bought the Pump Strap.

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Our Lactation Consultant – First Visit 

Though I have had and will continue to have disagreements about what our insurance should cover for our son, I was thrilled to discover our insurance covered six lactation consultations. The Lactation Consultant (LC), Donna, called me the day before to confirm and to remind me to bring my breast pump with me. I packed it and the other related supplies in the Tactical Diaper Bag which had room for it, but little else as the pump itself is quite large.

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William’s First Photoshoot – Part One

I’d heard from several moms how amazing the in hospital photo sessions could be. For this reason I eagerly brought matching shirts for Matt, our baby and myself, as well as props, a few of which were gifts from people close to us. The photos turned our even more amazing then I had imagined.

CAECH102517vWilliam_01

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