One month out

Ahh the weight and warmth of my snuggle bunny on my chest is magic.  I remember how fleeting this time is, I remember with Nolan being sad when he outgrew the sleeping on us phase.  "Enjoy the baby," a coworker closed an email with today,and  that's what I'm doing this morning. 

1 month old, our girl is doing great.  I'm going to take her for another weight check on Thursday, but so far things are feeling good. We are still having some nursing issues, which just may need time to resolve.  One of them being my massive milk supply due to my voracious toddler.  He has picked up any slack Frances may have had with nursing, and I have oversupply, which is giving her difficulty at some times during the day. 

Thursday update, Frances is doing great! She weighed in at 9 lbs. 9oz., which is about a pound greater than last week.  I feel so much relief! I can't say enough how beneficial seeing a Lactation consultant was.  I learned some great tips today on burping, positioning, and feel so much more confident. Awesome. I was feeling so good that Frances and I risked a trip to trader joes and were mostly successful, crying only at the end.  It honestly feels like a weight has been lifted, everything is as it should be. And I squeezed into some pre baby jeans, I am loving that familiar feeling: icing on the cake of today.

Sleep is the thing

We've all been working on sleep these days. 

This is how our nights look.

Naps look like this!

And the rest of the day looks like this.

Frances is one month, yesterday. She's had quite the week. On Monday past I took her with me to a lactation consultant because I'd had some lingering concerns about her latch, spitting up, infrequent poops and fussiness.  The first thing the consultant noticed was a significant tongue tie, which is where the tongue is attached to the bottom of the mouth with a skin attachment called a frenulum. With a lot of tears from mom, she had her tie "revised" on Tuesday, and has been healing up quickly since.  Her spit up has decreased dramatically, she's pooping more, and much less fussy.  We are still working on the latch, which I've been assured will improve with time and strength.  She's doing great! 

Nolan is on the move.  It's raining in Chicago so instead of Nick and Nolan's daily trip to the park, right now I am listening to the sounds of water play in the tub, complete with food coloring and bubbles. Oh to be a toddler. 

Three weeks in

Here we are at almost three weeks old, it's been a whirlwind time getting to know our girl and figuring out who we are as parents of two. What I've learned so far is that my capacity for love is vast, this new addition has made me so grateful for my little family of four, we feel complete in ways I never knew were wanting.  I am learning about the impermanence of all things children, what matters one moment will pass, and Nolan will wake from his nap and still love me even though I couldn't meet all of his needs earlier in the day. Nursing two babies is not easy.  It's been a steep learning curve for me, I am trying to listen to my limitations and meet somewhere in the middle with Nolan's needs. At the beginning he wanted to nurse all the time, now that I have milk again, he has been so interested. I quickly learned that his schedule of nursing didn't work for me because with an infant who's also on the boob every waking moment it seems, there was no time that I was not nursing. I had some first hand experience with feeling like a milk machine.  Now we are down to nursing in the morning, which is for my comfort as much as his, because Frances cannot possibly keep up with my supply overnight, and a few minutes after nap and before bed.   He still asks for "Na Na nursh?" all the time, but we talk it through and he seems ok.  It feels like all I do is nurse and all I talk about is babies.  

We did have a nice visit with my parents and Nolan got lots of special attention. Here are a few pics of the past week.

Our smush face snuggler.

Tom- Tom holding a quiet (rare moment) Frances. 

Towel tent with sawhorses! Oma and Noley even read books under.  He is definitely a little boy now, with boy needs for mischievery and adventure.  My heart swells for him all the time as I witness growing up!

Yawn

Snoozer 

These cheeks are filing out! 

I even had time to pick tomatoes make a few jars of freezer sauce. 

Baby Fig is all about hands and gestures.

And sleeping on my lap, if you squint you can see Arnie at my feet, his self assinged guard spot. 

And there she is wrapped up, only lasting a short bit, enough for me to hang a few pieces of laundry in the sun. 

! Apologies in advance for formatting funniness, I'm doing this on my phone and its weird!