Adjusting to the Life of a Family of Three!

 Our daughter is now 5 1/2 weeks old.  Basically, she's already almost a month and a half!

FIST BUMP!

That was a FAST month, but time seemed to stand still when I was sitting there holding and bopping my constant fussy baby 24-7, while running on only a few hours of sleep at a time.  That would make anyone get on their knees and beg for mercy.  It's exhausting!!!  The first 3 weeks were HARRRRD, as you could tell from my last post.  I don't regret writing that post, and NO I am NOT depressed or resent my child.  It was my way of saying, "Hey!  Parenting a newborn is tough stuff!!!"  Plus, there is such a thing as baby blues (WHICH IS NORMAL!!!) from a sudden drop in hormones that DO go away after a couple of weeks.  I no longer lose it and cry over anything and everything.  I hope to show my "Confessions of a First Time Mom" post to my daughter one day to scare her enough to WAIT.  If she's anything like mommy, just showing her that you don't shower for a couple of days and it's tough to find time to put on your makeup and do your hair just might scare her a little.  Tee hee hee....

I loved all the great, personal messages I was getting on Facebook from those that LOVED and related to the post.  It felt good to hear that other mommies didn't like the newborn stage, as well.  They wrote to me telling me how they remembered this stage when their children were newborns and related to it SO WELL and.that I was RIGHT?!  No one just comes out and tells it like it is.  I'm blunt, honest, and I'm not going to lie and say I was born to be a mommy that just loves that fresh, couple week old newborn stage.  More power to the women who love it.  I'm just not one of them.  

Already, Brynlee has changed so much as far as growth, development, feeding, and fussiness.  Don't get me wrong.  It's still no walk in the park.  It's still hard.  BUT!!!  We're all adjusting now that we've gotten past that few weeks of newborn life stage.  I'm already starting to get excited about all her new developments.  She's even now SMILING!!!!!  I got my first 3 BIG ones last week.  Tyson put her in our bed after she woke up.  I had just come out of the bathroom, started talking to Tyson, and she turned her head to look at me because she recognized my voice.  I hovered over her, and in a baby voice I said, "Do you recognize Mommy's voice?"  That's when she gave me 3 big cooing/gurgling smiles in a row.

I'm learning her cries, what she needs, and how to calm the fussiness a little better.  I've learned most her fussiness is due to being overtired, and I'm not getting her to wind down fast enough.  She seems to already have a built in routine....sort of.  Once she's overstimulated, it's fuss city.  She sleeps VERY well at night, but sucks at it during the day time.  She just gets WAY too overstimulated.  She's a MUCH happier baby, though, when she's gotten at least a couple of good naps in the day time PLUS she's easier to put down at night when she's gotten a few good afternoon naps.  And, yes, even with naps during the day, she sleeps nice, long stretches at night.  Sleep DEFINITELY seems to beget sleep for her.

 We've introduced the pacifier to start calming her down more.  I wanted to wait until we got breastfeeding well established.  I am not a big advocate of using it as a sleep aid/prop. It just doesn't work for me.  Yes, during afternoon naps she starts to doze with it once in a while, but she's usually drowsy and it'll fall out and then she'll either wake up or start to snooze into a deeper sleep.  I just don't want her to fall into a deep sleep with it in her mouth for reasons that will take me too long to explain in this post.  I use it to get her to calm down and satisfy that natural suck reflex that babies have at this age.  Basically just to soothe her when we're in fuss city.  It has definitely helped!  For as far as going to bed at night, I do what is called the 3 B's.  Bath, boob, and bed.  I give her a bath, feed her, then rock her till she falls into a deep sleep.  That routine seems to work for us and for me as a mommy that needs to stay sane.

Her feeding has gotten MUCH better.  No longer does she snooze on the boob.  She'll close her eyes once in a while, but she still suckles.  She's MUCH more efficient.  Now, I'm no longer spending an hour feeding her.  It takes her 20-30 minutes TOPS!  Thank. The. Lord.  She's stretching to 3 hour feeding periods once in a while throughout the day with some 2 hour.  Fine with me!  I'm not a prisoner of my own home anymore.  Now that's she's more efficient and taking longer stretches to eat, I'm able to get out and get a few things accomplished out in the open world.  I no longer have anxiety about leaving the house and her blowing a gasket because she needs to eat.  Oh...And just in case you wanted to know, my nipples are doing much better.

I've learned how to shower and put on makeup with her.  At first, I didn't like how I had to do it.  I just wasn't used to it and was used to have some free hands and just my "me" time.  I have to do it a little differently now, but YOU ADJUST!  It starts becoming a routine.  I have that type of personality that HATES change and HATES changing the way I have to do things, but I adapt, and I've adapted.  Now, it's getting easier for me to come to grips that I can just let her lie in her swing in front of the shower while I shower and let her be in the Baby Bjorn while I put on makeup.  If she fusses, shes fusses.  Mommy has got to do what she has got to do.  She'll eventually wind down.  But!  I think she's also maturing a little more with each passing week.  I don't think in week 1 or 2 I would have been able to do this with her without her full blown wailing.

So, we've started creating little bits of routine here and there.  Brynlee has been sleeping great at night with on average one 7 hour stretch of sleep.  Unfortunately, it's not uninterrupted sleep for me because I have to get up to pump on a missed feeding because I'm so engorged and in so much pain and leaking like a faucet.  I'm actually producing an overabundance of milk and am having to get that under control.  Today is the first day I feel like it's starting to even out a little more....FINALLY!!!!  My boobs went a whole 9 1/2 hours last night with me not waking up in pain and leaking, needing to pump.  Needless to say, I got a whole 6 straight hours of sleep last night, and I feel GREAT today!  Brynlee slept about 9 hours straight last night, which allowed me this 6 hour stretch.  I WISH my body could unwind and I could go to bed when she does.  I would have gotten 9 hours!

Overall, I'm falling more in love with our daughter every day.  I love talking to her, and when she coos back at me, it's super special and REALLY cute!  I ESPECIALLY love her really cute smile.  I can't wait to see how much more she changes with each passing week.  It's really fun to watch her grow and change!

MY BEAUTY...