2 Weeks Old

M is spoiling us. She's such a mellow, chill baby that it makes me scared to have a second. There's no way another baby will be this good. Every now and then she'll get super gassy, and that's about the only time we have to listen to unstoppable crying, but even then it's not really all-out-crying, it's more "this is really uncomfortable and I'm going to make sounds and faces to show it." And then when she finally farts/burps/poops we're so relieved because now she'll be able to sleep...having a baby really opens your relationship to bodily functions. We've taken to congratulating each other for them, in order to be consistent for her. Except the stinky ones...those we still try to hide. But for the most part, once you've had a diaper change misfire and start running down your leg (jeans for C, bare leg for me), you really relax about the whole thing and get much less grossed out by it. Last night was a go-thru-two-diapers-and-the-whole-changing-pad type of change, and I just nonchalantly rinsed her off in the kitchen sink before we went back to bed. The most surprising thing to me is how fast this confidence develops - 2 weeks ago I barely knew how to pick up a baby or change a diaper and I was terrified of bathing them. Now I can do 2 out of 3 before she even wakes up completely.

The first week home for the hospital, we had friends over every night, and they brought take-out. I had no idea how helpful this is, and now I feel bad for not doing it for friends who had babies earlier. We were just getting settled into our new routine, so I could barely think twice about food, and having ready-made plans and food show up was AWESOME. They got to meet the baby, we got adult conversation, and everyone got fed...everyone won. Especially when they brought extra and I could eat it for breakfast and lunch :)

We've been mostly using disposable diapers with occasional naked time on a waterproof pad and the occasional cloth diaper, but I'll probably try to start EC soonish. She's amazingly competent at sensing when a diaper comes off and pooping immediately, which seems like it'll work well for EC, though it makes changing her diaper an anticipatory stand-off. I finally caved and bought a changing table from IKEA, and it does make things easier. We were fine using the dining table, but changing time is now much less fraught with worry if I go wash hands mid-chnge. Besides, C wanted one, and since he's been doing a majority of the changing, he gets what he wants. So on the front of avoiding baby furniture and stuff, my big caves have been a swing (not used much yet, hear it comes in handy soonish...), a pack-and-play (used as a crib), and the changing table (foldable). Not too bad so far. The pack and play is super useful - I'd figured we'd all just co-sleep (baby in our bed), but the first night made it clear that I can't sleep with her that close to me - instead I'll lie awake all night neurotic with "is she still breathing?" worries, which once again everyone always says, and I didn't listen to. In my defense, you can't know how you're going to react to your own baby. We've napped together successfully in bed, but at night I find it much easier with her in the pack and play near our bed.

Everyone asks about the sleep, so here's the low down - as a breastfeeding mom, I get to sleep about every 2-3 hours, as much as I want to as long as it's in intervals, because she eats every 1-4 hours now. So a typical night time is getting ready for bed around 10pm, letting her eat as much as possible, then going to bed while C changes her and swaddles her and puts her in the bassinet/pack-and-play. At first she'd wake up at midnight, 2am, 4am, 6am, 8am, etc. and want to be fed, and feeding would take about 20-30 minutes. After 3 days when my milk came in, I started (unintentionally) waking up when she's stirring, getting her, changing her, feeding her, re-swaddling her and occasionally letting her fall back asleep on my chest before putting her back down and going back to sleep. C is totally willing to do the nighttime changes and burping, and I know some couples do this as a way to keep things "fair", but in my mind it doesn't make a ton of sense since I'm already used to the interrupted sleeping from pregnancy (I was waking up every few hours to pee) and am going to be up anyways. So C mostly handles the day changing and burping instead. In any case, like I mentioned before, the first night home from the hospital with the every-2-hour feedings was really rough, but since then the feedings have spaced out and become almost pleasant. I can't say I love getting up, but I'm happy after that. She rarely cries during the whole thing, and now the timing is more 10pm feeding, 1am, 4am, 7am, with feedings taking 10-20 minutes. Last night was 10pm, 2am, 6am, 9am...which was awesome and I hope keeps up. As long as I remember to get a nap in during the day, I feel pretty rested, but on the days that I forget or have to skip a nap I tend to crash around 8pm.

After a month, the breast-feeding advocates say that you can start using bottles/artificial nipples, but we've been doing so well weight-gain wise we may start earlier so that C can take a feeding or two. It's been going relatively well, in comparison to some horror stories I've heard, though it still hurts a bit when she first latches. However, my breasts have developed a mind of their own. I keep asking C if this is what being a guy is like. When she cries, or it's feeding time, or sometimes for no reason that I can tell, They'll start tingling and leaking breastmilk. It's pretty common, but certainly new to me, and occasionally I'll just stare in bewilderment as I start dripping on the carpet. Sleep-bras are very, very useful. I should have ignored the nursing bras and just bought more sleep bras, which are basically easy-access sports bras. Much more comfy. But the nursing bras are useful for going out in public, so they aren't all bad, and they remind me that I used to care about what I was wearing more than "can I whip my breasts out to feed when I'm wearing this?" Priorities!

I typed most of this while wearing her in a Hotsling, though now our visiting family is over and holding her. Baby-wearing is wonderful - you can do almost every activity you do pre-baby with them next to you, and it keeps them happy and content. We're going out to a fancy family dinner tonight, and probably someone will be holding/wearing her the whole night. So far we've gone out for dinner, dim sum, and lunch each once, and it's gone really smoothly. Best baby I've had so far.











I can has your nose!