Your First Week With Baby - Day 6 - Just When You Feel Like It's Getting Better
By Kimberley Fernandez - CLD, CCCE
Kimberley is a dual certified doula and childbirth educator, and a certified sleep consultant. She has been working with pregnant and new families in their birth and postpartum journey since 2006, and currently teaches prenatal classes virtually as well as offering virtual classes through her teaching portal "The Birthing Room"
Around day six, you may be starting to feel like you are getting the hang of it. Baby and you have settled into a rhythm. I say rhythm because routine is out of the question at this point. Sleep is probably a mess right now, you are grabbing it where you can. Remember, keep letting people help you. Being cared for by others actually boosts our Oxytocin levels which will help with your mood and your milk production. Also, when your sleep is lacking, it will drop your glucose levels. So always have snacks on hand throughout the day and evening. One handed snacks while body feeding and staying hydrated will help you feel better both physically and emotionally. You may also be feeling off, intellectually as well. Baby Brain in pregnancy becomes Mommy Brain after the birth. But there is a reason for it, and don't worry it gets better. After baby's birth, your brain is basically rewiring its self to better learn about baby and respond to their cues. Your emotional intelligence increases and your sense of smell and taste become heightened. It's been shown that birthing parents can identify their own baby's clothing just by smell alone. And have your ever seen mammals in the wild feeding their young? The parent always tastes the food first then gives some to the baby. That heightened sense of taste can be life saving from poisonous foods. So while you may be temporarily stunted analytically, you are smarter in the area of caring for your baby. Again, you will get back to your normal, but for now enjoy this new super power. Baby will be going through another growth spurt. What!!!? Yes, the cluster feeding and growth spurt you had around day three to bring in the mature milk did its job, but now we need another growth spurt to get baby back to their birth weight. So hunker down again and get into this constant feeding period. It won't last forever but it will help increase your supply and get baby on to that upward trend of growth. Most care providers of babies will want to see baby back to their birth weight by day 7-10. So you may have a doctor visit scheduled around this time to make sure this is happening. If there were struggles with feeding in the beginning but baby is making progress, some doctors will wait until day 14 before suggesting supplementation. Keep good records of those feeds and diapers for at least another week or so.
