:D Yay!

Things ARE starting to look up... :) so that @%&$! of a father stayed the night here last night, but only so he wouldn't have to walk the 4 miles home at 12:30 AM, I was being nice. He slept through the night soundly, while it was ME who was up feeding Riley and changing his diaper and calming him back to sleep, at 3, 5, and 7 in the morning. With Joey right beside me just snoozing away. I woke him up at around 8 or so to feed Riley so I could go to the bathroom.. To hold his bottle up, actually. I don't trust him, so I propped Riley up with my blankets ever so slightly and handed his dad the bottle and upon returning what did I find? Joey laying on the bed where he once was propped up feeding Riley, ASLEEP... and poor riley with the bottle sticking out of the side of his mouth sucking on air. :( I was so mad. I told him "JOE! I was only gone for 3 minutes!!" >:(  
Anyways.. I know this was supposed to be a happy post, lol but I just had to get that out there first. So this is atleast what I've learned to expect from him, much unlike the first night in the hospital where I thought he'd actually get up and help. So atleast I'm not shocked this time. :/

Anyways [again]! I saw the lactation counselor today and everything is great! I'm so happy. And proud of myself and Riley. Our teamwork is getting better and slooowly I'm becoming much less frustrated when things don't work out properly.. I'm starting to learn more about what he needs and what to do and when. I had it covered for the first week or so but then things got difficult... It's getting easier, in ways. Harder in others, I think.

Now to the good part, the LC said that some women have a lot of trouble just trying to get 1 oz. of milk, and that I'm easily getting 4 is really great. She also said sometimes babies have a hard time just returning to birth weight for up to a month almost... Well, Riley was 6 lb. 2.4 oz at birth, then leaving the hospital at 5 lb 11 oz.. He is now 7 lb. 10.2 oz. Can you believe that?? He's gained almost 2 lb in 2 weeks!! Apparently we're doing something right, and I couldn't be more happy. He's really healthy and things are going great.  
I'm not saying that being a single, teenage mother is easy by any means, or that breastfeeding is easy.. It gets really hard sometimes.. But it's all worth it to hear my little man is pretty high up on his rank of health. That's all that matters to me. But she reminded me that I need to place myself a close second of importance, to keep him healthy I need to be too.