1 Hour X 8 Feedings/Day = A Full-Time Job

Like I said in my previous post, Evie is nursing really well. I had some trouble nursing Elina so I only did it for 6 months with her. Eli nursed well, so I nursed him for a year. For Evie, I told B that I would have to see how she did to determine whether or not I would do it for very long. Well, since she nurses well, I can't back out of the deal now so I'm going to nurse her for a while.

The thing with nursing is the time commitment. It's scary how long things take and how often you have to do it. In the beginning, you have to nurse every 2 1/2 - 3 hours...from the beginning of one feeding to the beginning of the next feeding. Right now I'm doing about every 2 1/2 hours. Unfortunately, Evie is a SLOOOOOOW eater. To make matters worse, she LOVES to fall asleep while she nurses. So, the whole process takes about an hour. Here's how it usually goes down--

1:00-1:20pm Nurse on one side...Evie falling asleep at the end.

1:20-1:35pm Try to wake Evie up by rubbing her head, wiping her face with a wet paper towel, and changing her diaper.

1:35-1:55pm Nurse on the other side.

1:55-2:00pm Burp Evie.

There! A whole hour of my life has vanished into thin air. And this whole process starts back up again at 3:30pm. That leaves me 90 minutes to try to take a nap, feed myself and/or the kids, play with the kids, and/or do something productive around the house. If I opt for the nap, then I nap for an hour, wake up, quickly stuff my face with food, then I'm sitting on the sofa again nursing Evie. My time is so limited these days.

Luckily, for the past 2 days Evie's been eating a little faster, so we've cut the whole routine down to almost 45 minutes instead of the full hour. The extra 15 minutes I've gained is already making a HUGE difference.

But think about it...I'm sitting on the sofa for an hour at least 8 times a day, just to feed this newborn. That's 8 hours of my day just sitting on my bum. Can you believe that?? B said it's definitely a full-time job and I agree. Nursing is definitely good for both the baby and for the mom and it's convenient because you don't have to carry around bottles and formula, but it can be so time-consuming. I'm just crossing my fingers that Evie will get quicker and become more alert, so that the whole process can be shorter. Honestly, if she didn't fall asleep all the time my life would be easier, but I guess that's what newborns do...fall asleep all the time. I just have to keep reminding myself that "this too shall pass" and before I know it she'll be eating solids and drinking whole milk from a cup.