Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Starting all over again...


Call me inexperienced, but even after two previous newborns, I'm still at a loss as to how to get this newborn on a schedule! I'm sure that will happen every time, but so far she kind of has just been throwing us for a loop everyday. One night she ate every four hours on the dot and I only had to get up twice. I woke up the next morning after a good 6-8 hours of sleep pieced together and I thought I had it made. Then last night, I fed her at around 10 as we were going to bed, and she got on a "eat, fall asleep while eating, poop my pants, wake up while getting changed and burped and want to eat again" cycle until quarter to five the next morning. I got like maybe 20 minutes of sleep all together? We'll see what tonight brings. She's squirming somewhat contentedly on a blanket right now and I'm just going to leave her as long as I can in hopes that it will help her sleep when I do feed her. One nice thing is she squawks a lot, but doesn't scream and scream (at least not yet), and stays rather pleasant while she's awake for the most part. That is until you try to leave her in the crib and turn the lights off or anything silly like that.
Couple of things I have learned so far about her:
  • She doesn't like the pacifier much, sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't, but hasn't taken to it a whole lot. Just as long as she doesn't find her fingers like Linus did, I'm okay with that (still haven't broken that habit with Linus yet!)
  • She definitely likes to be swaddled when she's tired.
  • She doesn't fit into any 0-3 month sized clothes like her sister did yet, so I have hardly any newborn sized stuff that she can wear. I'm hesitant to get much, though, because she's going to grow out of it quickly I'm sure, but she swims in just about everything she wears.
  • I make way too much milk. I think it's helped with engorgement that she doesn't eat that much, so my body stops producing quite so much, but she doesn't eat like her brother and sister did.
  • She likes to be held on her back with hands supporting her head. She totally chills out whenever placed in this position
  • She gets the hiccups a lot, just like when she was still in my tummy!
  • She poops in every diaper. Good for getting rid of her jaundice, but we are going through way too many diapers!
  • She is really quite pretty, in my unbiased opinion. I can't wait to get some quality newborn shots of her, when I can clean up her room a bit (it's a mess) and not be a feeding machine long enough to get some creative shots. I have a lot of ideas, who knows if I'll get to all of them, but I'm excited to have another model to play with at home!
  • She brings a very sweet, unexplainable spirit into our home that I am grateful for. I am completely smitten with her. :-)

2 comments:

Candie said...

She is beautiful - it's not just you. She does have a similar look to her brother and sister. You can tell she's one of yours. :) She will probably be a wonderful, beautiful person. She had an awful time getting here, having to share the womb and all, but she will be all the stonger. Does that make any sense? I'm glad that nursing is going well so far! That makes a big difference.

Anjanette said...

I hate the feeling of being ready to go to bed and then the little one has ideas of their own. I know all about the baby blues, so keep doing those things you know will help fend it off.