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May 6, 2004
May 6th (8 Weeks): Another Shower, Diaper Talk
It's 12:30am and I'm pushing my luck to start writing this now because Peter last nursed at 9 and will almost certainly want to eat before I can finish, but hey, it's worth a shot.
Schedule? What schedule?
That schedule regularity I mentioned last week? It's getting a lot fuzzier these days. The world is getting too interesting for Peter to want to sleep through it. Only on the occasional lucky day does he conck out before 9pm. Last night it was 11, more commonly, it's 9:30 or 10. He wakes up anytime between 7:30 and 10:30. Today he slept until 10:15, which would have been great if I wasn't hoping to leave the house at 10:45. He usually takes a decent afternoon nap and a couple short snoozes, but more and more often, he either needs to be nursed to sleep or lulled to oblivion in the car. I'm getting better at putting a pillow in my lap and surrounding myself with enough stuff that I can let him nurse in the cradle position without much arm support from me, allowing me to read or talk on the phone or whatever. Then when he falls asleep, I let him lie on the pillow so I don't risk waking him. At that point, I can usually manage to knit without bumping him. If I can figure out how to knit while he nurses, then I'll really have gotten the hang of this.
New Tricks
Peter still doesn't care too much about toys we rattle in his face. If he could master the art of jabbing his fingers into his mouth, he'd be very happy. He's getting closer--it appears that he's bringing his hands to his mouth now, rather than dive-bombing his hands. I don't think he really understands his hands yet though--he doesn't grab or swat at anything. If he's in a good mood and I lie him on his back, he'll swing his arms and legs all over the place while flashing me a big grin and slobbering. Have I mentioned that he's drooling enough that I leave bibs on him most of the time? Yesterday, he was under a ceiling fan and was quite the happy fellow. He's talking to us more and more, saying ooooo and oooooh and ahhhhh and gahhhh. I try to get him to stick his tongue out and mimic me and he might be doing it, but it's not too obvious yet. We're just happy that he clearly is responding to our making funny faces at him. He started scooting on the changing table, to my chagrin. He moves just far enough that I need to adjust his diaper. Since he simultaneously swings his limbs around, diaper changes are getting tricky around here. Add to that the fact that he's wearing almost entirely prefolds because he's outgrown the last of his newborn sized fitteds (Kissaluvs, which lasted until over 13 lbs, at least) and we only have half a dozen bigger ones until my next bunch comes in the mail.
Next Baby Shower
On Sunday, Dan and Peter and I all attended a baby shower thrown by Dan's high school friends. It was a tea, with scones and all. Peter slept in the sling while we ate and was cheery throughout the games and gifts, to my amazement. I fed him twice while we were there. I felt a bit weird about it, since no one else there has been around babies since they were in diapers themselves and I didn't know what they'd think. The first time, I sat on a couch somewhat out of sight. Since no one gave me awkward looks, the second time I stayed in the midst of everyone. I don't use a blanket to nurse in public--just seems extraneous, and I wouldn't be able to latch on while draping it, and that's the only iffy part. Luckily, Peter's getting really quick at latching most of the time so I don't need to worry. I fed him tonight while out eating dinner with the same folks--my fear that he wouldn't stop crying overcame my nervousness over being so close to them and around strangers. It was a family restaurant with plenty of kids around, but it was my first time nursing around that many strangers.
Anyway, back to the shower. We had as many scones as we could stomach, with clotted cream and tea sandwiches and strawberry shortcake for dessert. Afterwards, they got out two bottles and had people race to chug a couple ounces of juice. Oh my gosh, that was hard! Knowing that breastfeeding is harder than bottlefeeding made me more impressed that Peter can guzzle milk down. We all had sore jaws from sucking those nipples. Then they got out 5 jars of baby food and had people guess which they were eating. I managed to avoid that one. I figure I'll be testing plenty of baby food in the months to come.
The friends got us a bunch of cute clothes, including an Hawaiian shirt and (fake) baby Tevas. I hope those fit until it's hot out!
I've got another shower in two weeks. I didn't get anything off my registry at this one, but I hadn't expected to get more things at this point anyway so we'll just buy the items we need as we get there.
How's the Mama Doing?
For the past week or so, I've been feeling like my tearing is healed. It's still sensitive down there, but I'm not as scared of it anymore. I'm seeing one of the midwives on Friday and hopefully I'll have good news then. I've been managing one good bath a day for the most part. I can tell that I'm not as comfortable if I skip it.
I've been thinking about Peter's birth over the past couple days as I prepare to write his birth story. I feel sort of bad that I haven't gotten to it yet because I'm forgetting things like where I slept over the various nights or why the chiropractor came the previous day. By this weekend, I should have my midwives' notes, and then I'll be out of excuses. It's interesting because I've totally forgotten what the pain was like, but I remember exactly what I was thinking and how I felt as he was born. Amazing how our bodies work!
Mother's Day!
I can't believe that on Sunday, I'll be able to celebrate my first year as a mother! I've been dropping hints that I'd really like a real rocking chair, but we'll see if that worked or not. I feel bad because I haven't figured out what to do for my own mother (or my MIL). I guess I have a few days...
Diaper Fun
Oh goodness, I am turning into quite the diaper hyena. I managed to get ahold of a First Class Baby dipe that should arrive anytime now. That's my first secondhand diaper, but I figure it's like buying a 2003 car that was leased for a year--the price drops in half with hardly any wear. It feels wrong to pay $15 or more for a diaper, and this is a $17 diaper in excellent condition for $14. I also bought a dozen diapers from Tykie Diapers that should come in a couple weeks, 3 more fitted dipes from SugarPeas, and 3 from Crickett's Diapers that apparently were shipped from Texas, got returned to sender accidentally, and are making their second trip now. I'm planning to buy a few from Bottombumpers once she restocks, too. As I said earlier, Peter's moved into the next size and we've had to retire all his original diapers. We've got three Snapdragons that he wears overnight, plus 2 Kissaluvs 1's and a SugarPeas 1, which get us to mid-afternoon on one day.
I've been washing diapers every day or day and a half, but by then, we even go through all his (2 dozen) prefolds because we use so many as burp rags and whatnot. I'm becoming slightly more adept at snappi'ing prefolds, but he has a tendency to pee while being changed, so I go through multiple diapers per change. I thought his pooping was slowing down, but we usually get 2 or 3 poops a day, so it hasn't slowed much. They're more explosive now, which, combined with bad snappi'ing, wasn't pretty. One day I found poop on my pants and shirt along with his onesie and pants. Eek. He was pooping out the legholes of his newborn fitteds, which is why those are now out of service. Now that I've had a few days of practice, the poop is usually contained to the diaper and the edge of the cover and doesn't go everywhere.
I've started knitting wool soakers, which even Dan admits is cost-efficient. I try not to use the ones someone lent us if he's got that "I'm straining to poop" look just in case, though. I need to figure out how to lanolize them because one is leaving wet spots on his clothes all of a sudden.
I listed my first two items on eBay last week, 2 contour diapers and the SnuggleNest I bought off eBay a few months ago. Both have bids now and the SnuggleNest is up to six, so I might even get most of my money back. I was worried that since I have a feedback rating of 1 that no one would buy, but it's working out. I sold two other contours plus my newborn proraps covers on Mothering's Trading Post last week and used the money to get the First Class Baby dipe I mentioned earlier. I figure that if I get extraneous ones like that, I need to sell something first.
I just hope some of the diapers I ordered arrive soon--prefolds are great, but I'm ready to have more fitteds again.
Almost a Year
I can't believe it's May already. January and February lasted ages and ages, March was a complete fog, April whizzed by, and BAM, it's nearly the second week in May. Huh? I realized that I'm nearing my LMP--May 20th. One year without AF! (ignore the 7+ weeks of postpartum bleeding and spotting, of course ;) I wonder if I'll be lucky enough to go another year before she comes back? I'd love to get through 2004 first. Stay far, far away!
Yay for Tara! Congratulations on the (oh so quick) birth of Lily! If I haven't said so already, congrats also to Sherry and Quinn! All four of the pregnant TFY Chicago-ites have all had their home births now. Wow. Time for Jeanette and Rebekah to go for number two ;)
My sister is coming home this weekend and meeting Peter for the first time--yippee!!
It's been an hour and Peter is still sleeping. Amazing--that's 4 1/2 hours since he nursed. I'm quitting here before I push my luck any further. Maybe my next entry will be my birth story? I'll be moving to BabiesToday eventually, but you all know how that goes.
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