Blogger Mommy's.... SOS!!!!

Ladies..  I've created a monster.

Yorlee has gone from being my sweet, cuddly, innocent baby to being a monster baby!  Well, maybe she's not acting out that badly.  But still.

I'm tired.  My "girls" are sore.  I'm frustrated.  And I need to figure out what's going on.

All she wants to do is nurse.  ALL DAY LONG.  Literally, from sun up to sun down.  The only way I can get her to sleep is to lay her down next to me with her face to my breast and let her suck herself to sleep.  Other than that, she's a screaming, crying, fussy, flailing baby.  I don't get it!

My husband and I thought maybe she's hungry.  So instead of freezing the milk that I pump everyday, I used some of it to make her a bottle.  Well, Little Miss decided that she won't take a bottle.  She screamed bloody murder to the point that I thought the neighbors were going to call the cops on us.  It broke my heart to see my baby cry like that, so of course I broke down and nursed her again, even though she wasn't hungry and wasn't swallowing (even though I still had milk flowing), and was just using me as a pacifier.

I put her down, she screams.  I pick her up, she screams.  I play with her, she screams.  I've tried the five S's.  The side-laying helps only when I'm nursing her.

What should I do?  I go back to work at the end of the month, so I really need to figure something out.  She's going to have to go to daycare.

Ugh, any suggestions?  I'm exhausted....

Dusting off my blog...

Whew!

Hello everyone!  Sorry for the lack of posting.  I'm still trying to get used to wearing my Mommy hat.

Let's see, what's new?

Yorlee is still breastfeeding.  I've been pumping more in order to build up a freezer supply for when I return to work.  I found out that I injured my tailbone when I had her, and have been in lots of pain.  Not fun!  But, she's totally worth it.

I have an award to claim, coming soon, I promise!

Yorlee weighed 9 lbs at her one month appointment.  My little piggy.  She loves to eat and will nurse all day if I let her!

She started sleeping through the night a few weeks ago!  Thank goodness!  She usually falls asleep before 10PM, and stays out until about 3AM when I feed her (without waking her all the way up, more details on that to come), and then she's back out until around 9AM.  She still sleeps a lot during the day, so I guess I just have a sleepy baby.

She's barely fitting into newborn size clothes, and outgrew newborn size diapers.  It made me so sad to see that my baby isn't itty bitty anymore!  But, I'm glad she's growing.

She also can roll from her back to her side.  ALREADY!  It freaked me out at first.  And now I've seen her do it several times.  She's determined to sleep on her side, like her Momma!

I've been doing okay, a few ups and downs, but I'm making it.  I'll try to update more frequently.  I've been catching up on everyone's blogs, I can't believe most of our little ones are already here, and the rest our almost on their way!  I love it!!

Playing

Yay!  So much fun!

What is THAT?!?!?

Okay, it's kind of fun!!

This is the greatest toy ever!!  It makes noise!

Yorlee is starting to show more interest in her toys and her activity mat.  I love watching her facial expressions when she sees the toys and hears them play music.  Priceless!!

One month old

I really don't like this headband!!

 My little Yorlee Belle is one month old today.  I can't believe how fast time is flying by!

She was born with such a big personality, and it's amazing to see how much it develops every day.  She is still wearing newborn clothing and diapers.  Her eyes are still a weird browinsh-gray color, people think she's going to have hazel eyes like my husband, only time will tell.  She loves to nurse, it's her favorite thing to do, and she always falls asleep while feeding.

Yorlee still sleeps ALL day, and likes to party at night.  We're working on that by keeping her up for longer stretches during the day, until gradually she's up most of the day and sleeping through the night.  She tends to be fussy at night, but only for about 30 minutes until dozing off.

She has LONG feet and can barely fit all of the newborn size shoes that her Aunt Lynny bought her.  I was able to get a picture of her wearing a pair, too cute!

She is very expressive with her facial expressions, she gets that from her Mommy.  I wear my emotions on my face, always have.  It's not always a good thing though...

I love having her in my life, she is such a joy!

Pictures of Yorlee

Here are a few pictures of my favorite girl!  Enjoy!

She didn't like the hat at ALL!

Her mean face, it's still cute to me!

Talking to Mommy

Another mean face, she loves to frown!

Yuck face!

Having a temper tantrum

Having a hard time...

Life with a newborn is hard.  Very hard.

I don't think I realized how much a lack of sleep could affect someone.  I'm exhausted.  Sometimes I start to feel a little resentment towards my husband because it doesn't seem as though anything changed for him.  His body didn't go through any changes, his hormones aren't all over the place, he is able to sleep ALL NIGHT, EVERY NIGHT, and he is able to get out of the house every day.

Don't get me wrong, I love my daughter more than anything in the world, and there isn't anything that I wouldn't do for her (hence me being sleep deprived), but I just needed to rant.

Every time I need a break and hand her off to my husband, he's back within 30 minutes handing her back to me because she needs to nurse.  Even if she's not hungry!  He just really doesn't know how to soothe her, and she doesn't take a pacifier, and doesn't like bottles.  I guess he gets kind of frustrated when she's whining/crying, and it feels like there isn't anything he can do.  It just seems like I can't get a real break.  I think everything is just starting to get to me.  I'm tired, and I'm emotional.

Today isn't bad.  I'm typing this as Yorlee is sleeping in her swing and I'm eating some pizza.  She slept for four hours straight last night, which was great.

I also think that the stress of thinking about whether or not we can afford for me to stay home with the baby, and the possibility of me NOT being able to stay home with her is wearing on me.  I don't want to leave my baby!!  I'm looking for a job that will allow me to maybe work part time so I can be with her.  Yes, I may be tired and need a break, but going back to work full time really isn't what I want to do.  Decisions, decisions...

Worry

It's a given that being a parent brings on a new set of worries.  But I never thought about just HOW many things there were to worry about.

I worry about if Yorlee is eating enough, is she warm enough, is she comfortable, if she has a cold, if I should put a hat on her, is she breathing, is she pooping, how many wet diapers did she have today, what side did I feed her off of, did she get enough hind milk, should I pick her up, is she crying, is she smiling, is she, is she, is she?!?!?!?


Oh dear!

Once my husband went back to work, I felt an emptiness that I just can't describe.  I never felt teary-eyed or emotional until then.  I guess I have a hint of the "baby blues".  But I can tell it's starting to go away.  Today was a much better day for me, but I still feel the urge to cry every time my husband comes home.

Hopefully my hormones balance out soon and I start to feel more "normal".

What do you mean, no more breast milk?!?!?

This is the face that Yorlee gave me when I JOKINGLY told her that she wasn't getting anymore breast milk.

My little princess is two weeks old today!  It has been the longest, yet shortest two weeks of my life.  I love her to pieces.

I'll try to post again soon...

Pediatrician Appointment

Yorlee had her 1 week well baby check up yesterday.  She did so well!  I was so proud of her, she didn't cry at all, and she hates having her clothes taken off.

Here are her stats:

Weight: 7lbs 13ozs
Height: 20 1/2 inches
Head circumference:  I forgot the measurement, but she's in the 50th percentile

She's still really congested, so we're trying to figure out which heat setting to keep the house on, and we've turned down the cool mist humidifier that we've been using.

The pediatrician said that her jaundice is looking great and is definitely going away.

I'm just so in love with her!!

I've been dealing with a little bit of anxiety lately.  I'm always so concerned about her, and I have a paralyzing fear of SIDS.  So I can't sleep when she's sleeping, and I never want to lay her down.  I've been working on it and praying that I'm able to calm down.  Her pediatrician told me that I need to relax, and I agree.  But I did just purchase an AngelCare Monitor to help put my mind at ease.

I'm proud of myself because she's laying in her bassinet while I'm typing this post and I feel pretty good.  Hopefully things continue to improve as we both get used to one another.

Thanks for all the kind words about my postpartum recovery.  I've lost 27 lbs total, so I'm only about 3 lbs away from my prepregnancy weight.  But I feel like I have NO muscle tone!  I can't wait to get the green light to start attending Zumba classes with my sisters!

Life with a newborn

I'm so in love!!!  My husband gets on me all the time because I'm constantly holding Bunny.  It's so hard for me to put her down, she's just so sweet!

Things have been going a lot better than I could have anticipated.  We had a few bumps in the road so far, but nothing major.

We were released from the hospital on Monday evening.  Once we got home, I didn't feel so well.  I felt shaky and feverish and just plain weird.  And then it felt like there were two huge boulders on my chest.  Once I felt that sensation,  I realized that my milk was in and I was extremely engorged.  It was hard for Bunny to latch on because my breasts were HUGE!  But I kept feeding her, and eventually they went down.  After that we had a little bit of difficulty with breastfeeding.  Her latch was incorrect and it was PAINFUL!  My poor girls were raw and I was feeling like I wanted to give up.  Every time I fed her it would hurt so badly, and eventually I would cringe when I heard her hungry cry.

But I didn't give up.  I looked up some information on line, and called to talk to a lactation consultant.  She taught me how to suck train Bunny by using my thumb.  I put my thumb, nail down, in her mouth and let her suck for awhile before putting her to the breast.  For the first time since we had left the hospital, it didn't hurt to feed her!  I was so happy!  Ever since then it's been great.  She's eating and pooping and peeing, which is awesome.

I never knew that all my life I'd been getting way more sleep than I needed to function.  LOL!  I can totally make it off of two hours.  Who knew?!?!?  I even cleaned up some today after being up with her all night.  Yay me!  I'm trying to stay off my feet, but it's hard when people are constantly coming over.  I hate for my house to look messy when I have visitors.

I'm still trying to get used to my "new" body.  The good news is that I'm already down 20 lbs, but I'm noticing stretch marks in places that I didn't see while I was pregnant.  But she's totally worth it!  The soreness isn't as bad as I had anticipated either.  So all in all, things are going well.

I can't believe my belly used to be this big!  Here's my 39 week picture again:

 

And here I am exactly one week postpartum.

I'll try to update again soon.  Bunny is really congested, so I've been watching her like a hawk.