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Today is my first day home alone with L. I've been really nervous for it, but it hasn't been so bad so far. L slept pretty well last night. 2 hour stretches IN the PnP until about 2:30. It got a little spotty after that, but we still got some sleep. We also got a short nap in this morning. He was kinda fussy this morning though. He's sleeping again now though.

I feel more tired today, maybe because my sleep schedule has been so opposite of what I slept last night. Hopefully I can snap out of the tiredness for the rest of the day!

@debbiei8: oh man, I have one more week of DH "working from home" and I'm already having anxiety about it. Great job!

Ok ladies I'm going to sound crazy for a moment over here. Zuma has slept 5 hours straight the past 3 nights now and it's killing me!!! Why doesn't she need me every hour anymore? Where's my cute little needy newborn gone? And of course I still don't have the sleep when they sleep thing down. I keep watching her sleep and watching her smile and assuming she will wake any minute so I better stay awake to feed her one more time before I go to bed. Anyways... Dang!

@Bao: she's up some during the day. I mean we don't have a schedule or anything but she is awake. She's such a good baby when she's awake so I don't remember how many hours she's awake for. Oh but at night I take a bath with her (hope that's not creepy) and use the aveeno baby lavender calming sleep soap or whatever and then get her out and put the sleep lotion all over her and put her in pajamas, nurse her and then burp her and swaddle her. She sleeps in my bed with me so I put her down and then she's out and then wakes up 5 or more hours later. Kills me! But maybe it's the soap??

@Bao: hahaha I'm so new at all of this so I'm sure I'm breaking every rule.

My guy is sleeping well at night tooo!!! (probably jinxing it by writing this!!) Last night he ate at about 10:30, then up at 3:45 then up at 8! Crazy. He is awake quite a bit in the day looking around and such and eats about every 2-2.5 hours in the day time and then a lot more right before bed.

He sleeps tightly swaddled, a bit of white noise in the RnP.

Ugh I wish Leah would sleep! I'm so jealous! She was so good up until about 2 weeks. She has a lot of gas, my dr recommend baby probiotics so I'm headed to the pharmacy when DH gets home. We just got back from her 4 week appt and she is 7 lbs 6 oz (she was 6 lbs 11 at birth so my dr thinks the gas is affecting her eating/growth). Anyways here is a pic from today:

Sleep is pretty good for Aaron - lately (like, for the past 3 days) he's been going down around 9-10 (after being awake/alert/sometimes fussy for about 2 hours before) and will usually not wake up for a feed until 2-3am. Unfortunately, i seem to be waking up at 12:30 and then only having broken sleep until he stirs. I'm hoping my sleep will adjust to his, cause I'm sure these 4-5hr stretches won't last! After that he'll tend to do a 3hr stretch and then be up every hour or so until we get up at 8 or so. Luckily my husband can get to work late (he's a university lecturer so doesn't keep firm hours, especially in the morning), so I can shower/prep for the day while he holds and soothes Aaron. I don't feel right unless I take a shower in the morning, to be honest it was something I was really worried about for mat leave!

I am dealing with an oversupply/overactive letdown which has affected BFing a bit - sometimes Aaron is fine, but sometimes (esp early morning) he struggles and cries as he is trying to feed and it breaks my heart - i usually just cry along with him as I lose milk into a towel until he can latch properly. The nurse that came for a home visit said that these things usually resolve themselves and to be sure to completely empty one breast at a time, which I hadn't been vigilant about. It just kills me when he cries/screams as he's trying to feed

Seems like the March mama's are doing pretty well overall! Should we start a second thread, PP stuff? This one is getting so long!

@Dandelion: haha, yeah I was just thinking about how bad I've been about checking in.

Overnight sleep sucks right now, but I expected it. What I didn't expect is my other child to regress so much. If the baby isn't waking every 2 hours, than my oldest is. It's been pretty brutal and sad.

C is such an easy baby compared to W (so far). She's a pretty content baby. She only wants to be held by me and I'm welcoming the change :-D.

Bonus: I fit into my "fat" postpartum jeans, so no more maternity clothes!

Question for the STMs - did your boobs feel less full earlier w/ the 2nd than the 1st? I only feed one side at a time and C drained both sides last night (cluster feeding?). Since then, they haven't felt full again. I had low supply last time so I'm a little paranoid this time

Little E has been sleeping longer bits at night. During the day is another story lately. He is refusing to sleep anywhere but in a carrier on me or on my breast feeding pillow with him attached to my breast. His big brother N has been attached to me as well. It is making things a bit more tricky but we are managing. I thank my lucky stars that we are staying with my parents right now! My mum has been so helpful. She has been where I am before so her insight really helps. Dh and I are going out of town this weekend, it will be the first time Dh and I take the boys out of town. I am really looking forward to it tho.

Here is a picture of me and little E. (Please excuse my hand looking huge and my lazy day clothes, it is laundry day. Lol)

Also - are any of your babies having acne? Aaron's got a pretty bad case I hate it!

@ScarletBegonia: Elliot hates tummy time. Just flat hates it. Nolan loved it. Hopefully our boys will grow to like it.

Can't believe it's been so long since I posted! I am finally feeling somewhat normal now that N is 10 days old. We go in tomorrow morning to get her possible tongue tie looked at and cut. I'm sad and scared for her but I think it will be for the best. I can't wait to nurse without the nipple shield and/or nipple pain! Trying to get her back up to her birth weight by Friday. Other than that, she's great and such a sweet sweet baby. Getting used to night feeding was rough but I think I'm mostly used to them now (haha!). We've hit a bit of a cluster feeding growth spurt and she's on the boob a lot during the day. Hoping that equals more restful nights?? Maybe, lol.

@BabyBoecksMom: awesome about the maternity jeans! I think I'm close to my pre-preg jeans but am too scared to actually attempt for another week or so.

@MrsRcCar: cute! So glad that you have family around to help!

@ScarletBegonia: I know what you mean about nursing being harder in the early morning hours...I have an over active letdown as well and L sometimes chokes on it. It scares the crap out of me! L actually does ok with tummy time, but it's hard to find time because he seems to spit up every time we do it and he nurses so often during the day (usually wants to every hour or so when he's awake!) that there's never enough time to let the milk settle and make sure he's not in nursing

@Bao: we got our first 4 hour stretch tonight too! DH gave L a bottle for his last feed at 9:30 and we were all in bed by 10:30 and DH actually woke me up at 2...L woke at 2:30 and now we are nursing. Crazy!

Things are going pretty well here. We traveled 4.5 hours over the weekend. The trip there was super easy...the way back turned into 6-6.5 hours and L screamed like I've never heard for the last 10 minutes. It sucked. He has a really bad diaper rash that might be yeast. I ended up having to take him to the pedi yesterday after he screamed off and on all morning and had a temp of 99. Luckily when we got there his temp was down (it may have been elevated because of the crying I think) but they looked at his diaper rash and suggested it could be yeast and be what was causing his screaming. We started using monestat this afternoon and it's almost completely gone! L is a little chunker though! At 3 weeks he's 8 lbs 9.6 oz (he was 7lbs 5.1 oz at birth). I'm thinking we had a growth spurt start this weekend. My mom and I both couldn't believe how chunky his face seem to get overnight!

Is anyone else's baby's nose stuffy? L gets it pretty bad at night (especially without the humidifier). I brought it up at the doctor, but she said it's pretty common since babies are nose breathers. It sounds worse than it is I think...he doesn't seemed bothered by it and I try to suck it out, but nothing comes out. The noises he makes at night because of it freak me out!

I'm recovering pretty well still from my c section. I still have weight limits until Monday and I hope after that I can get out on walks and stuff. We are confined to the house right now which kinda sucks! My incision is healed but I do get sore if I do too much. And the muscles tug a lot at the edges with walking. It isn't painful but such a strange and uncomfortable feeling. I have a hard time standing straight too. It's like I need to retrain those muscles! Weight wise I was down 25 pounds last week and had about 15 to go to pre-pregnancy (though I was heavier than I wanted to be). I figure that's pretty good for not being able to do much, so I'm hopeful I can lose more and firm up after I'm allowed to walk. The worst thing right now are the stretch marks I got around my belly button in the last couple weeks. Something must have agitated them because they are very painful when touched. I don't know what is causing the pain though! My mom thought maybe it was related to the cleanser they used for my section. I just hope it stops soon. It makes wearing normal pants feel impossible!

Hope things start to get easier for everyone! And hopefully everyone is healing ok! It definitely seems like things get easier for us everyday. Last week I was in tears over not sleeping but things seem to get better every night which is great!

@debbiei8: I have an Ergo but I haven't tried it yet. Truth be told it scares me a little. The carrier I am using in the picture is a baby Bjorn. Dh wore him yesterday for the first time, so I could have a little break. I also have a ring sling that I love for when we are out because it is so easy to use and it fits in my diaper bag. And thank you for saying I look good. I was a little shy to post the picture because I was chilling in sweats. Lol.

@debbiei8: I have the infant insert as well. I think I was chicken to try until like now because he was so tiny! Now we are closer to 8lbs, he isn't so tiny.

@Dandelion: I think I have dissolvable stitches...I can actually feel the knots on the end of my incision under my skin. I was wondering if the uncomfortableness about my incision is from the skin being cut and reattached? It was pretty numb when I touched it for the first couple weeks.

It is right over my stretch marks which made me think it was related to that...but maybe it has to do with the incision! Ugh I made it 37 weeks without stretch marks and then they showed up! I'm guessing it happened when he dropped.

@fussygal: @ScarletBegonia: such cute babies!!

@MrsRcCar: you look great!

@debbiei8: I ordered the Ergo and insert online (come on international shipping!) and am so excited for it to get here so I can start wearing Leah! I'm going to be so disappointed if she doesn't like it.

@Bao: I miss sleep! I took for granted how good of a sleeper J is (and has always been). I have a routine during the day for J but L is still hit and miss in it. I also try to wake L during the day

So we started probiotic drops 7 days ago. I see a bit of a difference but she is still so cranky at least half the time. Where did my sweet baby go? I can tell she is uncomfortable and feel so so bad. I'm hoping that if we continue with the drops it will get better. If not I will start an elimination diet starting with dairy...boo!

Well tonight I chose my fate - Aaron took a monster 4 hour nap right before bedtime, and like an idiot I let him sleep - it was just so nice to have uninterrupted evening time with my husband! We talked, ate dinner, watched a few shows on tv, and snuggled on the couch - it was so nice! When A "woke up" at 930 he was soooo groggy, had to use every trick in the book to wake him enough for a feed...now it's 1am and the kid wants to party. Not liking how I think the rest of the night is going to go my fault entirely... Oh well!!!

How is everyone? Is anyone planning on getting a birthstone or a different piece of jewelry for themselves? I want something to remind me of baby Z and do the same for all future kids, but I'm not sure what to get.