Precocious

That's the word people have used several times to describe my little ND, although I can't honestly remember why the first times those people said it. Today it was because my little tiny 19 day old baby actually turned herself over today from her front to her back! It took awhile, but I captured it all on video.

This girl is just so strong! Strong grip, strong legs (which keep growing), and of course strong lungs.

Fortunately she performed this amazing feat about an hour before my parents had to leave from their first visit out to see her. It was very hard to say goodbye. It doesn't help that all four of us, not counting ND, are fighting colds now. It meant I was the only one allowed to touch her for the last few days and that we've all been worried about her.

But as I say, she's STRONG and I guess so are the antibodies in the mother's milk I've been feeding her.

Oh, and I owe a bit of a retraction. In Day By Day I wrote about how painful the breastfeeding has been. I was duly warned by my caregivers that it would be normal to have some pain in the first two weeks in addition to the fact that ND had started off latching in correctly and had really damaged me. Yesterday I couldn't take it anymore and called my doula/lactation consultant to say that I was excessively sore to the touch and that about 15-20 minutes after a feeding, I would feel shooting pains from the entire breast into my corresponding shoulder blade. Right away she said it sounded like thrush. I called the midwife who confirmed and prescribed me meds. Already there is a WORLD of difference. I was really getting to the point that I didn't think I could continue the feedings and was sometimes tempted to try to put ND to sleep instead of feed her because it hurt so badly. But now, after just over 24 hours on the meds, I feel so much better.

I'm a little surprised this wasn't caught earlier. I was sick before the birth and had gone on antibiotics which are likely to cause just such a complication. But I'm mostly just grateful it's solved. I was starting to get really mixed messages from both friends, fellow bloggers, and caregivers about what I should or should not have been feeling.