Progress on all fronts

It's amazing how little time I have to blog these days! Maybe that's to be expected...

Michaela is amazing. She's such a sweet baby. She hardly ever cries (unless we let her get breaking point hungry) and she is a good sleeper for the most part. She does grunt a lot, but it seems to be tied to her digestive system. It's interesting, though, because it really feels like she's quiet during the day and her grunting picks up at night. Not sure what that's all about.

Tonight I put her in her bouncer thing, which has a vibrating seat and an activity bar that lights up and plays music. The activity bar has some figures on it that move, and tonight, she followed the movement with her eyes! I am so proud. Mike was outside, so I called him to tell him to come in and see it. He immediately came in and shared my appreciation for what a genius our child is. Not bad considering she's only 3 weeks old, and that she was a month early!

She has been a lot more active lately, opening her eyes more and just having more energy in general. The pediatrician said she looks a lot less jaundiced, and we no longer have to have her bilirubin levels tested. She eats like a champ-- she is drinking probably 4 ounces of milk at a time, which is a lot-- and seems to be going through a growth spurt! When we had her weighed at the pediatrician's office, she was up to 8 lbs, 10 ounces. I was so proud!

Breastfeeding is going a lot better, though I'm still pumping and we're feeding her mostly from the bottle. I had an appointment with a lactation consultant on the 28th and it was a godsend. The consultant suggested I try a nipple shield, and it made a world of difference. Michaela still gets tired or lazy (I'm not sure which) on the boob, but it she latches on easier, stays latched on longer, and it's good for keeping her interested in the breast given all the bottle feeding we're doing. At the consultation, we weighed her before and after I fed, and she drank 2.5 ounces, so I was proud to know she's getting what she needs from me. I am a little concerned about milk volume now, though. When my milk first came in, I had an oversupply. Then I cut back on the pumping and it went way down. Now I'm trying to increase it some so I can have some extra milk on hand, but it hasn't really increased. Or it hasn't seemed to, anyway. So I'm trying to drink more water and to pump regularly, using a technique the lactation consultant showed me, and hopefully my milk will increase a bit soon. Very important, given Michaela's velociraptor appetite!

Mike and I have been doig a good job switching off, so we're both relatively rested. I actually got 7 1/2 consecutive hours of sleep the other night, which is no small feat. A friend of mine told me that she has only gotten that much sleep twice in the 10 months since her son was born. I feel very lucky that Mike has taken on so much and that he's so good at being a parent.

I was feeling really down on myself a week or so ago, because it takes me a long time to do things and because some of this hasn't come as naturally as I expected/feel like it should. By the time you hit 30 years old, you really don't do much that you're not good at anymore. For example, geometry. I suck at geometry, but I don't have to bother with it these days. So I'm really used to being good (if not great) at everything I do, and it's been hard that I have had such a learning curve for so much of this stuff. But I'm trying hard to remind myself that it's only been a few weeks and that sometimes, it takes time to learn and to improve, and that I need to go a little bit easier on myself. Mike was concerned about post-partum depression, and honestly, the thought had crossed my mind, too (after the however many consecutive day of crying multiple times during the day), but I am feeling a lot better now. Thank goodness!