Sorry for such a long delay between posts. I have all these thoughts pop into my head during the day, and never manage to make it to post it on the blog. Consequently this is just a random mess of thoughts 🙂
To continue comparing my children…Alison is much harder than Reed was as a newborn. (Let’s hope this means she will be an easier toddler!) The first 2 or 3 weeks were pretty normal but lately her sleep habits have gotten terrible…and I am grumpy as a result. All of you warned me that have a cuddly baby was a bad thing and you are right! She only wants to go to sleep in my arms. Sometimes I don’t want to sit on the couch and hold a baby ALL day. I’m good with it for most of the day, but not all. As a result of her cuddliness I haven’t been working out like I need to and I haven’t lost a single pound since day 5 postpartum. (On day 5 I had lost 20 pounds and I haven’t lost another ounce since!) Back to the crappy sleep. She still has her days and nights mixed up and so she is awake from like 11pm to 1am. NOT a good thing. We are trying to keep her awake more during the day to fix this problem.
The second major difference is that she is still spitting up. It isn’t ever a lot, but it’s enough so that I always feel like I’m covered in throw up. I didn’t realize how annoying this was. I should have enjoyed Reed’s lack of throw up a WHOLE lot more.
Ali had her 4 week checkup Monday and she weighed 9’6″ (70%) and was 21inches long (50%) Sadly, Reed gave her pink eye so I had to put ointment in her eyes for a few days. I hated seeing her goopy eyes when she woke up in the morning. So sad.
Other than my earlier complaints we are doing great! Reed still loves Ali, sometimes too much. We are still working on ‘gentle’.
Last random thought…I really suck at being a stay at home mom. I am not good at self motivation and we wind up spending way too much time at the house. However on the other hand I’m sad that I’m going back to work in 7 short weeks. Is there any way to make me happy? Sometimes I even annoy myself!!!
I think the whole staying at home thing can’t be judged by the first few months of a newborn. I think you have to spend most of the time at home (especially in this cold and flu season) when you have 2 children this small. I bet if you had 2 slightly older children you would be out and about all the time!
I am sorry she’s still got her nights and days mixed up and is hard on the sleeping. Joe was much harder for me then Ben was, especially the nights. Hang in there! Both my boys were spitty babies – not fun at all!!! But the good news is that they pretty much grow out of it!
Kate wanted to be held round the clock too. Actually, more than held, she wanted us up and bouncing constantly. I found that she really loved the stroller as long as it was moving so that is how I got my exercise. I loosely followed the Baby Wise method which is feed, wake time, sleep. So after I fed her I would hold her/play with her then sometimes she had her nap in the stroller. I would walk for 30 min to an hour while she slept and it felt great. I only suggest this because I know you have Reed at daycare…it’d be next to impossible to coordinate if you had a toddler home all the time!
John spits up a LOT! I’d be alarmed if I was a first time mom. But I’ve read about it and have friends with similar experiences so I’m not worried. It’s just a hassle like you said. Must have burp cloths around all the time and I use many per day but still end up covered in it sometimes. I’ve read that it goes away for most babies by 6 months so at least that’s not too far off! Kate did not spit up at all, I never used bibs or burp cloths with her and I agree I did not appreciate that enough!!
I know you are happy and loving it just like I am but it makes me feel better (less guilty) that you have a couple complaints too 🙂
Jack used to spit up all the time too, and I was always covered in puke and changing both of our clothes all the time = WAY too much laundry! I’m not sure how much this will help you, but the Dr. Brown’s bottles made a HUGE difference for us. He went from spitting up several times a day to spitting up only once a week or so. And now I can’t even remember the last time it happened. I’m not sure how often you’re feeding Ali at the breast and how often she is getting your pumped milk from a bottle, but the Dr. Brown’s might help out for the bottle feedings at least. Good luck!