Deep Breath

It was NOT a good night or morning....

* We tried to put her in her bassinet for the first portion of last night. She must have suspected something was up because she wouldn't fall asleep while being rocked like she normally does, and she was very fussy. It took until 8:30 and Daddy rocking her before she fell asleep, then we transferred her into the bassinet -- she lasted there for 10 minutes before she woke up and was crying. It took until 9pm to get her to sleep again.

* After an initial 2.5 hours of sleep, she was up almost every hour, squirming and whimpering. Then she'd let out a big fart, and immediately start to cry. It sounded like it really hurt her. It took a long time of patting her and cuddling to get her to calm down and go back to sleep. So none of us got a good night of rest.

* The first thing Mommy discovered when we got out of bed this morning is that Aunt Flo decided to come for her first post-partum visit. 10 weeks, 5 days after delivery, AND I'm breastfeeding! I had no tell-tale dip in my supply (thank goodness) but I should have noticed when my skin did it's normal thing and I've been extra moody lately.

* Then we decided to try the bottle. OMG, I hate bottle feeding. She was giving the hunger cues, so we got the bottle of breastmilk out of the fridge and started heating it up. It took FOREVER to heat it up! By the time it was ready, she was practically hysterical. But she ate 1.5 ounces of breast milk from the bottle for Mommy, so at least I know she'll take it.

Ironically enough, she fell asleep at the bottle, so I laid her down in her crib and thought I'd go get breakfast. 5 minutes later she was up and crying, so I picked her up and breastfed her, and she ate readily, then fell right back asleep and is now out on my chest, poor thing. Just too much going on. I'm happy that she takes right to the breast after a bottle though.

I foresee a nap in everyone's future today!

Super-Mom?

This morning I feel like Super Mom. Emma had a terrible night last night (she didn't get a good afternoon nap, so she was amazingly fussy and was quite gassy -- so apparently Mommy's experiment with dairy didn't work and I get to go off of dairy again), but after she got to bed, she did ok. She got up at 5:30am with a large poo that Daddy changed, and then was WIDE awake. So I stayed awake with her, fed her around 6:30, and then rocked her back to sleep. I put her down in her crib so we wouldn't bother Joe and he could sleep (usually I wake him up to watch her when I'm pumping), and she stayed asleep with the help of Mr. Bear. So I pumped and now am getting ready to grade papers for my online class.

Not to mention that I pumped almost 12 oz between the two today, and since I started pumping on Feb 16th, I have frozen 93 ounces of breastmilk! I don't think I'm really going to have problems with getting enough milk for the first day of work (knock on wood).

Strange feeling, being the only one awake in the house -- and the one who got the least amount of sleep! :)

Peaceful Morning

Last night was the third night of a fairly good night -- even though it took a while for her to get calmed down, she slept in 3-hour increments for the most part. If we can get this 10pm fussiness managed, I think we'll be doing great! We've narrowed it down to gas and/or just general fussiness.

So today is Day #4 of Mommy being off of all dairy. It's an experiment to see if it's actually going to affect her little system and make the gas better, or whether the gas is just a normal amount. It's really not that much, but it bothers her SO much -- I think it hurts her little bottom when it finally works its way out more than it bothers her little gut.

Other milestones for Mommy, Daddy & Emma:

* Today is Day #9 of exclusively cloth diapering! We're SO happy to be away from the disposables at night, and I think Emma is happier too.

* We're moving up to the next size prefolds! Her newborn ones are finally just WAY too small and tight, so even though they're supposed to fit up to 10 pounds (and she's not quite there), we're moving up to the next size. I can tell it was a good thing that we changed detergent because you can definitely feel the softness difference between the old prefolds (they feel crunchy) and the new prefolds (very soft). Hopefully she enjoys that too.

* We discovered our reflection! I ordered a crib mirror from Babies R Us and we found a way to put it in her pack-n-play for diaper changes. She'll look at herself and self-soothe while we change her, or fix supper, or eat, or whatever. It doesn't last a long time, but long enough.

While she's napping, Mommy is going to run up and take a much-needed shower. Emma had a very large, mucousy spit-up this morning and Mommy's chest smells like baby vomit. Not as nice of a smell as clean baby, LOL. :)