Six Week Update

Where to start with week six?! Zac and I had been warned that week six would be a challenging one. One person even described it as 'hell week'. They weren't wrong. Babies are due for a nice growth spurt at week six and as you can imagine this causes them to get pretty hungry and quite fussy. Zane is falling right in line. His fussiness began week five and hit an all time high this week. (Or at least we hope it's an all time high!) We've nicknamed our little man "Tiny Tyrant". He's quite demanding this week and we're doing our best to determine what he wants and meet his needs. Sometimes it takes us a little longer to figure it out and Zane isn't happy about it. Poor baby!

One thing about growing is that it makes Zane a hungry boy. This is fantastic! We want our little man to grow big and strong. This week he started to cluster feed. Being a breast fed baby this meant a lot of extra work for me. We had gotten used to Zane eating every two hours and nursing for forty five minutes to an hour. This left me with an hour to attempt to get things done in between feedings which felt like a lot of work and left me pretty tired.

On Saturday, Zane began to cluster feed. He nursed at 1:30pm, then again at 2:30pm, and 3:30pm and every hour on the half hour for the rest of the evening until his bedtime routine started just after 8:00pm. His feedings still lasted about forty five minutes or so which only left me a fifteen minute rest between each nursing session. Talk about exhausting. On Sunday this started at 2:00pm and continued again until bathtime.

Yesterday was the fourth day of cluster feeding and it began once Zane woke up at 6:00am. By this time I was unbelievably exhausted and didn't know if I could do it anymore. I have also been trying to pump and get a nice stash together for when I go back to work. Pumping during the cluster feeding has been just about impossible. I tried a few times to pump while feeding Zane and when he squirmed he would push the pump off. After his sixth feeding yesterday I was pooped. It was just after 11:00am and I couldn't imagine continuing on for the next 9 hours. I finally gave in and had Zac feed Zane from a bottle while I pumped. I pumped every time that Zane fed to make sure that my supply didn't take a dip, but my pumping didn't last for as long as Zane's nursing sessions would. This helped me keep a bit of my sanity and still allowed me to add to our frozen milk stash. I'm grateful that Zac had the entire day off and was home with me. I'm not sure what I would have done if it was just me.

Eating as much as he is, Zane is going through quite a few diapers. Prior to the cluster feeding, Zac and I were doing diaper laundry and making wipes every other day. The last few days Zane's diaper pail has been filling up daily which means daily washing. Thankfully we have our wash routine down (turns out I had the washer on the wrong setting before) so the diapers get clean without needing an additional wash. It's not a huge deal having an extra load of laundry to do but we do look forward to going back to washing diapers every other day. 

In addition to being super hungry, Zane is also much more fussy than he has ever been. This week if he wasn't sleeping or nursing, he was screaming. It can wear you down when that adorable little face gets so red, that tiny body stiffens up, and that loud crazy cry echoes through the house. On Monday the exhaustion and Zane's screams started to get to me and I needed a break. Zac saw that I was getting tears in my eyes, handed me the car keys and our Target shopping list, and told me to get out of the house for a little bit. It was my first solo shopping trip since Zane was born. I have to admit that I lost my sleep deprived mind. Even though I had a list, I grabbed a cart and just started shopping. When I hit the register I immediately woke up and snapped out of my haze when the register read $357. Needless to say when I got home I sorted through my pile of goodies and created a very big "return" bag. 

Zac and I tried several things to help make him happy and some things just didn't work. Zane had a lot of gas so we tried what we could to relieve him of the pain. We pumped his legs, massaged his belly, and rubbed his back. He seemed to really like the Superman hold.

These days we look forward to a little after Zane's 8 o'clock feeding when we start his bedtime routine. Just after this feeding we get the bath started. Zane's first bath was not an enjoyable experience for him. He screamed at the top of his lungs and raged the whole time. The second time around, he cried only when we wet his head and washed his hair. As the saying goes, the third time was a charm. The sound of the water seemed to calm him and he was very relaxed during the whole bath. Even while I washed his hair he just looked around and didn't make a peep. He stayed calm once he was wrapped up in his towel and even allowed me to massage him with some lotion before diapering him up and swaddling him. It's especially great that he gets so calm during bathtime because most evenings Zac is at work and I give Zane his bath by myself. Afterwards he goes to bed just fine. 

We've heard that week seven should be much less difficult than week six. Zane should finish cluster feeding and get back on a regular routine. He should also be a much happier little man and THAT is something we look forward to. He's such a sweet, expressive little guy and we hate to see him upset. I hope to get more of these cute little faces than a pouty lip or a scream.

Today not only marks week six for Zane but also the end of my maternity leave. Tomorrow is my first day back at work. Tonight I'll be laying out my clothes, packing my pumping supplies, and setting my alarm instead of listening for Zane. (He is a pretty reliable alarm clock!) In the morning, Zac will be giving Zane his first bottle of the day while I sit in the parking lot of my work pumping before heading in to get my eight hour shift started. The longest I've been away from Zane up until now has been forty five minutes. It's definitely going to be a rough day and I hope it goes by quickly. At least I know that Zane will be with his daddy all day and I will have bathtime to look forward to when I get home.