Monday, February 1, 2016

Life With a Newborn-Part 1

             Hey folks! Thanks for checking out my new series! I'd like to think I'll have regular updates on a specific day each week or every other week, but as most of you know, life with kids is unpredictable...And, as I'm writing this, my husband just went back to work today, so I'm sure things are about to get extra interesting around here!
             These first almost two weeks have been about 50/50 as far as smoothness of the day goes. I had a rough night or two when we first got home from the hospital. Unlike Myka, Ripley seems to be a snuggler and didn't/doesn't want to be put down at night. I ended up sleeping on the couch for about an hour with her the night we came home. Then, since we had turned the heaters down some while we were gone (we never turned our gas on when we moved in), I was freezing my ass off so I went back to bed still holding her for awhile. To be honest, I was so tired I can't remember if I dozed off with her for awhile or not. Pretty sure I did...which should say something about how tired I was because I am so not into the co-sleeping thing. 

My little snuggle monster

             After the first couple of nights, she did good sleeping and eating at fairly regular intervals during the night for about a week...Then she evidently slept too much during the day and didn't go to sleep for good until 4 o'clock in the morning. -_- The last couple of nights haven't been too much better because she's been waking up every time I try to put her in bed. It's literally been taking me like 3 hours or more to get her to finally go to sleep. I'm usually not much of a crier, but I've had several breakdowns in the past few weeks at night out of sheer sleep deprivation or plain frustration.
             Myka has been doing a lot better with her than I expected. So far, the jealousy level has been at a minimum. She likes baby sister so long as she's not crying. She's “too woud” when she cries and Myka usually goes running into another room. Lol
             Like I said, today is my first full day alone with both of them. It has been going surprisingly well. This morning I was worried it was “the calm before the storm” because things were going WAY too smoothly, but it is almost 4 o'clock now and all is still well. I attribute it mostly to the fact that Myka and I woke up before Ripley, so I was able to get Myka all situated with breakfast, using the potty, and whatnot before the little milk maid woke up. In fact, Myka has been acting a lot better today than she has the past few days my husband has been home. Whatever. I'll take it!
             Myka has also been getting better about keeping herself entertained...at least she has been today! However, I was glad I had the chance to do some stuff with just her so she doesn't feel left out. I actually had time to repaint her nails this morning, we went on a short walk (with baby sister. I'm trying out a wrap for review, so stay tuned for that in a few weeks!), and I let her take another bath this afternoon...even though daddy gave her one last night. Lol Ripley wasn't very happy about us being in the bathroom instead of being held, but her crying a little bit didn't kill her. ;) (In my defense, I fed her right beforehand and changed her diaper, so I thought she would be ok. Ha! Oh. And the fact that I had her in the wrap for almost two hours.)
             Nursing has been going pretty well for the most part. It's been kind of a learning experience because I didn't have much luck with Myka for several reasons. I don't know if it's normal or not, but the one thing that irritates me a little is that Ripley has a habit of just licking my nipple a bunch before latching on unless she's REALLY hungry, so I end up leaking all over the place. Plus it has the opposite effect of what I'm assuming she does it for: to get my nipple to stick out more. I don't know. My body is bass akwards like that, I guess.
             I don't know WHAT was going on the other night that she stayed up until almost 4 in the morning, but she was on my boobs almost non-stop for 6 hours. No joke. I had finally gotten to where both breasts felt empty after her feeding too, go figure, especially my left one, so guess what. Now they both feel semi-engorged again. * sigh *
             However, even with the shenanigans, nursing is totally worth all of the weight I have lost already. I knew you lost weight quicker if you breastfed, but I had no idea HOW quickly! I've already lost about 29 pounds from my pregnancy weight and 13ish from my pre-pregnancy weight...And it's only been 13 days. I wasn't worried about losing weight right away, of course, but I am totally ok with this! 

 
             I'm sure there are lots of other things I could go on about, but I'll save some for the next post so this one doesn't turn into a book. ;) (You know. Like my birth story, if you happened to read it!) Until next time, happy parenting!

P.s. If you nursed your children, what struggles did you have, if any? Leave your comments below! I think it's important for moms, especially first time ones, to know that breastfeeding isn't as easy as everyone makes it out to be!

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