I’ve been super crabby the past couple days, which made my day alone with the princess very nice. It’s hard to stay grouchy with the sweetest little girl in the world by your side. She’s so smiley these days… It’s perfection.
Who could be angry with this face around??
Tonight the hubs watched sweet Charlotte and I went out with my parents (this is his way of feeling less guilty for going on a boys trip in a week and a half… A topic for another day). Anyway, we had a great night! Pizza and WINE… Guilt-free, drink the whole glass wine! Then, we saw a movie. I literally could have left after the previews and felt totally satisfied. It’s been so long since I’ve allowed myself to be totally engulfed in TV. It was really nice. We saw The Giver, which was great!
But, I’m not going to lie, I was really happy to get home and find that my sweet girl was still awake in her crib. I definitely took the opportunity to breastfeed her a little bit and rock her to sleep… And give her tons of kisses. I missed my girl.
Speaking of… How cute is she??
I can’t believe another week has flown by and our girl continues to change. This past week, she has really needed up… And not just in the chunky way… I think she’s gotten longer, too! In fact, we weighed her today and she is 11.5 lbs! That means she’s up about 3 lbs since birth.
Besides just gaining weight, she’s also gaining new tricks and traits. Her tummy time performance is totally improved. She pretty much keeps her head up the whole time and is still rolling from her belly to her back.
She’s also smiling and laughing and just much more aware. She makes eye contact and follows things with her eyes.
When she’s really hungry, she will let out a huge yawn and top it off with a shriek. It’s actually quite cute and silly.
And, this week I’ve decided that she loves me… And not only because I’ve got the milk. That’s definitely what led her to love me, but now I think she just finds comfort in me and enjoys me. We spend a lot of time during the day chatting and playing and making eyes at each other. I’m definitely the quickest way to make her happy or quiet her down… And I love it. It’s crazy how much I am just totally head over heels for this sweet child. Even on days like today when she fussed her way through everything, boycotted naps, threw up milk barf ALL over the both of us, peed all over herself and outfit, dug her nails into my nipple and pulled (aka baby titty twister), and fussed some more. Even today, sweet girl, I love you to pieces.
And here are a couple of us when we stopped by the office…
So, after our first cloth diapering experience, the hubs and I have been avoiding them like a plague. In fact, I called our diaper service on Monday and asked them to put our service on hold.
With that in mind, Mark and I decided it was time to give them a try… Before we put our service on hold… And never took it off of hold. Anyway, our second run at cloth diapering has been way more successful!
In fact, we used them all evening yesterday (until bedtime when we switched to disposable) and I’ve been using them all day today. Honestly, I don’t mind them. I mean, I don’t like diapering in general… Because really, who does? But the cloth are no more difficult than the disposable.
The main difference I’ve noticed thus far is our sweet girl’s reaction to a dirty diaper. She’s never seemed to really notice or mind a dirty diaper. With cloth, that does not seem to be the case. Today she woke up from her nap in instant hysterics. Poor lovey. But, definitely makes sense why cloth diapered babies are potty trained sooner than disposable diapered babes.
On a somewhat relevant note, Charlotte tried her best to shoot me with poo today. I was tossing a wipe into the trash when I heard a noise and felt a breeze on my arm. It took me a quarter of a second before realizing that her pre-poop fart was a courtesy warning. I instantly grabbed a cloth diaper and tossed it over her tush. Thankfully, my body was protected, but the changing table cover wasn’t as lucky.
Here are some pics of the sweet pea all clothes up…
Well, sweet Charlotte is getting old and time is flying. She’s definitely getting very strong. Loves to be held straight up so she can keep her head up and look around. She’s also began smiling at mommy and other happy things… Like windows. The girl loves her windows. She’s big and cuddly and lovely and amazing.
This past Saturday was a big day for me, and honestly, a day I was pretty nervous about. It was one of my closest friend’s bachelorette party, which meant a night out and away from my tiny pumpkin.
Other than the bachelorette party, I had only ever been away from Charlotte for about an hour or two when I went to get a mani / pedi with my mom and sister.
Anyway, I pumped all week in anticipation of the big night out and had 13 ounces for the hubby to feed her with. I was gone from about 5 until 12 and in that time, my little milk monster drank it all! As a side note, I somehow survived without pumping at all during the night, which then got everything (my supply) all out of whack.
When I got home, Charlotte was sleeping, so I decided to pump. Of course, an hour later, she was up and ready to eat. SO, hubs ended up bottle feeding her the 7 or so ounces I had just pumped. I was super frustrated that she had to take another bottle.
The next morning, I fed her and pumped after. I had to clean my pump parts, so I was a little too delayed in pumping and she was screaming for more milk before my bits could replenish. F*ck! Another bottle needed. Pumping fail.
After that, we were just in a weird little routine. I literally fed her nonstop from about 4 until 10 when we went to bed. BUT, after that, she slept 6.5 hours, woke up for 20 minutes to eat and then slept for another 3 hours. Best night ever.
Anyway, I’ve totally digressed. Back to the bachelorette party… It was really great! Despite having the mom guilt pit in my stomach the whole way over to my friend’s house, I was really able to relax and enjoy myself. Of course, I missed my girl like crazy, but it was nice to just be me for a few hours. And of course, enjoy my friends!
While our little princess slept 5 hours consecutively again last night, she didn’t follow up with any additional sleep. We woke up at 4 am and since then, missy miss has been quite demanding. She’ll eat for 4 minutes, fall asleep, then I’ll put her down and she’ll be up demanding more milk (aka mommy snuggles) within minutes. This pattern has been nonstop until mommy the sucker finally gave in. Now, we’re here…
If you need me, I’ll be on the couch. Today is going to be a lazy… whatever day it is.
Earlier this morning, I sent daddy this pic of his sweet girl nursing with the caption, “This is where I’ll be today. Don’t bug me or I’ll scream.”
Within seconds, she confirmed my interpretation with this giant, “f you, mommy.” Such a princess 🙂
My sweet girl is three weeks today! I can’t believe it! She’s already so different… Much more alert, more responsive to me and my voice, and so strong! Today, we were doing tummy time and she flipped herself over onto her back! Such a tough girl.
So, after being chained to the couch all day with the milk monster (I’m talking literally 7 hours of nursing… I tracked it!), and barely getting anything done (I made dinner… And watched a TON of this teeny bopper show), the Milk Monster decided to be VERY nice and give back to her very desperate mommy.
Yes, I’m talking about the greatest gift for a (breastfeeding) new mommy: sleep! Charlotte went down super easily last night and literally slept 5.5 consecutive hours (and then another 4 after that)! I probably slept a little longer than that because for the first time, Mark actually got her down (aka, she didn’t require a boob to go to sleep; although I had just fed her a few minutes before her last changing).
This extended period of sleep was sooo needed, as the prior two nights were not so lovely. LOTS of nursing… Like, 2+ hours at a time nursing throughout the night. Not fun.
So, from the bottom of my heart and the tip of my sore nipples, thanks baby girl for throwing mama a bone. I’m not sure we would have survived another nurse marathon last night.
It’s 3:30 pm, just 1.5 hours until the end of the workday and I have to say, Charlotte and I have been doing pretty darn well! We got up at 8 am, had breakfast, put up some soup in the slow cooker, did a bazillion loads of laundry, made lunch for hubby (he came home to eat with us) and… The kicker… We both napped!
Today might just be beginner’s luck, but I’ll take it. Fingers crossed that tomorrow goes just as well.
The cutie pie ready to go… And then not so ready to go 🙂
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Playing House 