Be Naked with your Babies!

OK you don't have to be completely naked. You can keep your pants on. But you should be topless so that you can do skin to skin with your babies! 

The numerous benefits of skin to skin are well documented, and the proper technique can be read about here. I'm not trying to say a bunch of stuff that's been said a hundred times before. I'm just going to discuss how skin to skin has helped me and my babies.

I didn't do it perfectly. Who does? I had 2 babies, and I couldn't do skin to skin with both of them at once. So I will admit that while I was in the hospital I did more skin to with Little Guy than his brother, but it was because Little Guy had some blood sugar trouble. While skin to skin can help babies regulate their blood sugar, my main motivation was just to comfort my poor baby.

In order to check his blood sugar levels they had to prick his heel, and they had to keep pricking the same heel over and over because the heel of his other foot held an IV of sugar water. Periodically they would also have to collect a vial of blood to send to the lab. If you've never seen a vial of blood get taken from a baby, believe me it is worse than you are currently imagining. They had to prick his heel and then squeeze the blood out drop by slow, slow drop. It's torture to be a parent in moments like that.

While my first instinct as a mom was to nurse my screaming baby, Little Guy didn't want to nurse after these blood collection episodes. Trying to get him to latch just angered him further. But simple skin to skin contact would IMMEDIATELY soothe him. It was amazing to be a part of, to know that I was helping him just by being his mother.

Now that I'm home from the hospital, and my boys are eight days old, I am reminded that skin to skin is still important. Big Guy is a cluster feeder. He would nurse all day if I let him, and I usually do. Comfort nursing is OK by me. But tonight when he was frustrated and asking to nurse more than my sore nipples could handle, I decided to try skin to skin instead. Once again, I got an amazing result. Big Guy quieted down and went right to sleep on my chest. Clearly he needed this and just didn't know how to ask for it.

So I'm going to make it a priority to be naked with my babies, at least once a day with each of them. If the only time that's possible is 2 am, so be it. My little babies need their mama, and I need naked baby snuggles!!