BABIES BORN ON NEW YEARS

The last week has brought big changes!

First of all, after my breastfeeding pep talk with Lauren, I am now
down to two pumps a day. And we have also had a day or two with no
bottles. Last night, we would have skipped the bottle except it was
Lucy's first National's game. I'm still not convinced that the Bebe Au
Lait Hooter Hider would hide the goods from those sitting behind me.
Plus it was like having a built in babysitter. Laura pretty much held
her the entire time and then passed her on to Lizzie for the dirty work.

Plus I've officially given up my stat sheet and traded it in for the
most amazing iPhone application, which is labled creatively as Nursing
on my screen. Henry pointed out at least four times that I have a
breast on my phone. Yes, I guess you're right. Now I know at a quick
glance on which side to feed, how long it's been, and how many times
she's eaten. With this info, her snacky ways seem to be fading away.
Maybe because I'm feeding her more regularly and there's no need to
play catch up. It's time to remove the batteries from the Itzbeen and
pack it away.

Second, I finally put Lucy in her crib. After nine weeks of bliss in
her Moses basket, Lucy was starting to push off on the walls of the
basket. She would push up to the top against her head. The self-
rocking benefit of the stand was useless because all of her weight was
tipped to the top. I guess that stepping reflex was really getting the
best of her, because she was even pushing her way out of her pjs. The
first night this happened, I found her with the neck of her gown
around her waist and one hand still stuck inside. It was around 4 or
so. The night before last, I skipped the gown, but she also had her
shoulders out of her legged pajamas. So last night when I noticed her
shoulder peeking through within minutes of laying her down, I made
Henry take everything out of the crib and put it in the Moses basket.
I was a tad bit scared that everything would end up on the floor in
the middle of the night.

Third, we successfully swaddled Lucy. I would tell people who asked
that we were only able to swaddle her twenty-five percent of the time.
In fact I had packed away her miracle blanket in the baby number two
bag. Everytime we attempted to put her in it, she made her way out
like Hoodini. We took advantage of Sarah's visit by asking her to wrap
Lucy for us. Dylan seemed excited by the sight of being wrapped up
like a mummy, what must be a distant memory. She wrapped and tucked
and we stood and counted. She was out. So instead of going out for
dinner, Henry went to pick up take out. Wow! Maybe she was just too
small before.

The swaddle sack with Velcro was another failure. The sleep sacks seem
to be a guaranteed chance that she will work her way out of her
diaper, poop and grind it into her skin for the rest of the night. But
I was open to the idea of swaddling her again, especially since there
was serious changes happening with her Moses basket.

Last night Lucy screamed bloody murder while I strapped her in her
straight jacket, I mean wrapped her in her miracle blanket. I know
that she loves to sleep with her hands next to her face. And
seriously, no miracle blanket baby is going to find their thumb in the
middle of the night. I was tempted to take her out as she continued to
cry. But I found her pacifier, attempted a couple of other S's
(swaddle, suck, shhh, swing, and ...., I can't remember the fifth),
and placed her in the crib. Next thing I knew it was 7 am. Instead of
sitting down to feed her, I took her back to Henry to share the good
news. Essentially she slept through her 4 am feeding. Hallelujah!

And finally, Lucy has graduated out of the Newborn diaper size and
into a number one. The Newborn size is so tiny! Who knew they made
diapers that small. And I guess there are even smaller ones for
preemies. I started to notice her legs were looking very tight and a
few additional blow-outs were happening. So I ordered a huge case from
diapers.com to be stocked and ready. Now she has plenty of room to let
things flow. I hope not too much room.

Day 175 of 365 (Monday) - I was woken a lot in the night as I had two poorly children. In my experience cuddles and Mummy milk cure most things, without the need for anything else. It helped my baby son cool down from his temperature the other night, and last night he went to bed with a rash, which by morning had almost disappeared. The two of us were lucky enough to return to bed for cuddles, more feeding, and some much welcome sleep too. Breastfeeding is an important part of how I raise my children, yet I have so few images of it. I had planned to just take a few shots of my baby generally, but he soon tired of that and wanted to feed again. I am thankful to 365 for ensuring I have such photos to remind me of precious times.

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