5 weeks!

Well, Miss Caroline is 5 weeks old today! In some ways it seems like it's taken forever and other ways it seems like it's been a flash! So, what is our 5 week old up to? She still cries a good bit, mostly in the evenings when Chris and Meredith are home. She's pretty good during the days with me and we even seem to have a bit of a nap schedule figured out. So, I feel kinda bad that while Chris and Meredith are home tends to be her fussy time. Although, that seems to be improving slightly. She still won't really take a pacifier either, so tends to just nurse a lot for soothing, but I think that is getting a little better too. She is a pooping machine! I forgot how a new clean diaper must help a baby poop! Let's just say that her insides work well! We've gone through a ton of diapers...used a few newborn size, but basically went straight to size 1. She also seems to be pretty sensitive about having a dirty diaper on and tends to holler until she gets a new one. Meredith also thinks that is the cure-all for when she's crying...'Mommy, just change her diaper!' She has a love hate relationship with her carseat...mostly hate. We still have been keeping up our routine of going to pick Meredith up after Chris gets home and trying to run some errands. She usually cries quite a bit and then passes out and sleeps for awhile. Chris has discovered that she likes to be carried in her carseat instead of being pushed in the cart or stroller. So, he carries her around the store and it generally helps. He'll have great arms soon! We even had our first meal out at a restaurant (she slept the whole time!) this week at Fat Daddy's. It's just nice to pretend to be normal people again! We're still far from normal, but we're seeing sings of normalcy! She's been sleeping in her crib for almost 2 weeks now. It was a bit of a battle since she really hated sleeping on her back, but we got a sleep positioner and an inclined wedge for her bed and after the first night, things got better. She is sleeping a little over 4 hours some nights, which is fabulous for me! Overall, her nights are pretty predictable now, so even if it isn't much sleep, I generally know what to expect. I still long for the night that I can sleep more, but right now it really isn't too bad. I'm getting good at it :) Ok, little girl is waking up from her nap, so I'll post this for now and try to add more later. Happy 5 weeks Caroline!

Life as a family of 4

There's no doubt about it, life with a newborn is hard. If it wasn't for the whole sleep thing, it wouldn't be so bad, but the lack of sleep makes eveything tough. We are now into our 4th week and seem to be finding a little bit of a routine developing, but it's still really loose.

Caroline definitely tends to have fussy evenings, right around dinner and on into the night. She is happy as long as she is nursing, but I tend to feel like a pacifier and I know I may be promoting a bad habit for her, but it's the only thing that keeps her from crying! The whole nursing thing has gone better for sure so far with Caroline than with Meredith, but it's still hard. It's good to feel needed, but it also makes me feel a bit trapped too! She has had 2 bottles from daddy and did ok with them, but everything else has come right from the source!

She also refuses to take a pacifier, just pushes it right out with her tongue. Maybe she'll grow into liking one, but not sure. It's a little frustrating considering she really needs soothing a lot and I think the pacifier will help so that I'm not nursing her constantly. She's sleeping about 3 hrs max at night right now and sometimes goes back down pretty well after eating, but other nights she's up for 2 hrs before she'll go back down. Makes for a long night for me!

I will say that the nursing has helped me drop the pounds already. I only gained a little over 20 lbs during my pregnancy and considering Caroline was almost 9 lbs, there wasn't a whole lot left after that. By one week post delivery, I was already into pre-pregnancy jeans and I've lost another good 10+ lbs since then! I'll need to be really careful with what I eat since I'm sure I can't keep up this pace, but it is a good feeling since I really needed to drop weight before I even got pregnant! One silver lining to nursing 24/7!

Meredith is great. She adores her sister and wants to hold her all the time. Caroline has even given her a few grins here and there. We are still sending her to school every day, which I think is good for her and me! I haven't seen any evidence of jealousy at all. She has gotten a little frustrated with her crying in the car, but nothing too much. She is just such a sweet girl and I have to say I kinda miss spending time with her like I used to be able to, but she seems to be taking everything in stride. She also sleeps like a rock, so hasn't heard any of the nighttime crying!

So, we are slowly adjusting and are hopeful for the weeks to come to see our Caroline grow and develop! Hard to believe that my maternity leave is already 1/3 over! Yikes!