Easton Gordon Hensel

Welcome to the world sweet little baby boy.  Easton Gordon Hensel was born November 18, 2017 at 6:25pm weighing 9 pounds 10 oz, 21.5 inches long grey/blue eyes and lots of dark brown hair. 

We were instantly put skin to skin after birth and held him there until after the first nursing session.  He had a nucal cord (cord around his neck) and needed a bit of crying after delivery to open those lungs up.  He latched on to breastfeed around 45 minutes of life.  After cuddling him, feeding and taking a lot of pictures, we finally put him on the scale and did his measurements.

Once my legs were no longer numb from the epidural we moved up to our post-partum room on 5th floor.  What a joy it was to be on my home unit and surrounded with my lovely co workers.  Seriously they are all the best!  Big brother Jackson, Mom, Dad, Kenzie and Jon were all there to welcome us to our new room and Jackson was so excited to meet his little brother.  He hopped right up into bed with us and wanted to hold him. 

After sending the family home that evening we tried to settle down for a little sleep.  Ha ha yea right... adrenaline from delivery still at a high and excited to see our little man.  Most newborns go through a first 24 hour sleepy stage.  Ours did not.  He wanted to nurse constantly, which I let him go to town as much as possible, but did take advantage of a little 2-3 hour stretch of sleep around midnight having him go to the nursery (thank goodness for that nursery).

The next morning Jackson and my family came back up for Easton's first bath, that Jackson helped me give him.  He wasn't to sure of the crying but was excited to see him again.

Sunday and Monday were spent nursing, trying to nap, eating yummy hospital food, and visiting with friends family and co workers. Monday afternoon we headed home after getting a nap in after the circumcision.  We were excited to be home and get settled with our family of four.

Breastfeeding is Amazing

Working in the unit that I do at the hospital, we learn so much about breast milk and the power that it has.  I knew from the beginning that I wanted to breastfeed, and I wanted to make it work for us.  I started hand expressing colostrum at 37-38 weeks and saving it in the freezer until we went in to deliver.  With Jackson being a big baby we ended up needing to supplement, we were able to use my colostrum that I had brought in for that purpose, so that we could avoid formula.  Now at the hospital there is the option to supplement with donor breast milk which is a wonderful thing that they offer, but at the time we delivered this wasn't an option yet.  I wanted to avoid formula supplementation, because even the smallest amount changes the inside of the baby's tummy. (I understand that there are a few specific reasons of why formula would need to be given in the hospital, for prematurity for extra calorie supplementation, however this didn't apply to us.)

To read more on the benefits on Antenatal Expression of Colostrum look here: La Leche UK

To see more information on risks of supplementation of formula look here : Just One Bottle

Even with my knowledge of how to latch a baby and breastfeeding, I was still having difficulty getting Jackson to latch without having some discomfort.  It wasn't terrible but I knew that it was a pain more than just my nipples getting use to having a baby suckling for hours, but a positional thing that we needed to overcome in order to be successful in the long run.  I visited with my fellow Lactation Nurses at Bryan which were very helpful, and I visited a local breastfeeding support office in Lincoln called Milkworks.

I would highly suggest checking out Milkworks or your local breastfeeding support group/ office in your area.  I can't say enough good things about all that they did for us.  Milkworks has scales available for the public to stop in and weight your baby.  I would occasionally go in and weigh Jackson before a feeding, sit down and nurse him there and then re weigh him to see how much he was successfully transferring at breast.  This also helped later on when we started giving bottles so that I knew approximately how much breast milk he would take from me at a feeding.

The lactation consultant worked with me during our appointments to do a weight, and then help me to get Jackson situated, latch him on, and continue with an entire feeding and re weigh.  All while the lactation consultant stayed right at my side, to help to trouble shoot, and answer any questions that popped into my head.  I owe a part of our huge breastfeeding success to Milkworks!

You can visit Milkworks website here to look at their wonderful information or call/stop in to visit with their breastfeeding educators or schedule an appointment.  Plus they have an adorable baby shop attached with the cutest items for baby and mom.  Milkworks

We continued to breastfeed until Jackson's 2nd birthday.  It was such a wonderful experience and I know that we both benefited from it.