Seven Weeks

This past week with Allie was a mixed bag.  I feel like as soon as I'd make a declaration about Allie's personality, she'd change to the opposite.  I'd say, "She's usually fussy when she's awake", and the next minute she would prove me wrong and be a perfect angel for 4 straight hours!  A couple nights she was up almost every hour or two all night long and then the next night I had to wake her up to feed her because I was so engorged.  She was just really unpredictable.

We took a two hour nap together after one sleepless night.

Mornings are usually a fun time with Allie.  She's usually pretty alert and happy (hence why I'm blogging right now) and smiles a lot then.  I can usually get her to smile when she's in that kind of mood, which is cool.  She also has started making coo and other cute noises while smiling and interacting.  It pretty much melts my heart when she does that.

She has good stretches during the day when she seems pretty alert and awake.  She's awake during stroller rides a lot of the time now (she used to sleep through them) and seems to be looking around taking it all in.  She was even sort of awake during a short play date with my friend Sarah and her son the other day, which was funny.

Evenings are still Allie's fussiest time.  The pediatrician said this is normal because babies build up gas during the day and by evening they are pretty uncomfortable.  She also said that gas drops don't usually help, just holding them and getting through it is all you can usually do.  I would still hesitate to do dinner out with Allie because she's so fussy then.  Even the usual tricks of driving to put her to sleep in the car seat don't consistently work then.  We ran some errands last night (Home Depot and Petsmart) and she melted down pretty good so I ended up sitting in the car with her trying to calm her down while Greg ran in to get various items.  Not fun.

The last two nights we started trying to establish more of a nightly bedtime routine.  Around 7-7:30pm we gave her a bath (the first night, we didn't last night), put her in clean jammies, and then read her a Dr. Suess book in bed with the lights dimmed and waited for her eyes to get heavy.  I then put her in a Swaddle Me wrap and put her in the bassinet for bed.  It worked pretty well except she is a little Houdini and can get an arm or two out of that wrap if I don't velcro it perfectly.  Even though I swore she wouldn't tolerate the arms in the swaddle, I find that if I wait til she is falling asleep she'll let me put them in and it really does make a difference to get the arms swaddled in for longer stretches of uninterrupted sleep, so I think we'll be doing this from here on out.  Also, I took Dorsa and Jen's advice and started changing her before feeding her when we are up at night and I think that helps a lot in getting her back to sleep since she's usually so sleepy after eating.  I was worried she'd freak out while I changed her, waiting to be fed, but it doesn't seem to bother her as much as I thought it would.

I'm not sure when we're going to try to transition her to the crib.  We still put her in there for occasional naps, but we need to work on doing that more so we can get her used to it.  We have a trip to Hilton Head coming up and we may have her in a Pack N Play with no bassinet attachment, so if nothing else we probably should see if she'll sleep in the Pack N Play without the bassinet.  I guess that might be a good transition to the crib anyway since the mattress is more flat and crib-like.

She is doing really well with the play mat, still batting her toys, and it's one of my tried and true methods of calming her down if she's changed and fed and I know those aren't the reasons she's crying.  I think she's craving stimulation.  She likes being under the dangling toys while I jingle them and talk to her about what everything is.  It's cute.  We also do a lot of tummy time on the play mat.  I've tried to step up my effort to do tummy time more because I know it's good for her and her head!

In not-so-glamorous news, Allie has had a little bit of baby acne around her mouth.  Nothing major though, I don't think it's even noticeable to most people and I just try to keep it clean and that helps.  She also had some cradle cap, but I followed directions I found online and used some olive oil on her scalp before her bath, wet her head, then used a soft brush to brush the scales off, and shampooed her head and it's basically gone.  Apparently it's caused by oily scalp, so to keep it away you are supposed to shampoo the baby more often.

Allie is still spitting up a bunch.  I think it's my fault because of my milk supply and how it shoots down her throat at feedings.  I feel like it's getting a little better, but I still put a bib on her after feedings in case.  The other day I was putting her in her car seat to go somewhere and she totally spit up down the front of her outfit and I had to change it before we left.  Sometimes during the night I find that she has spit up on herself and have to change her outfit because it's wet from the spit up.  I don't put a bib on her at night though because I worry about SIDS.  Someone needs to invent a nighttime bib that is safe for babies to sleep in.  I would do it, but my husband told me some baby would die from it and then I get sued.  Good point.

We won't know til her two month appointment how big she officially is, but I did put a bunch of her newborn clothing away this week, realizing that it really doesn't fit well anymore- sniff sniff.  She's mostly in 0-3 or sometimes 3M clothing (although that stuff is a little big on her).

I am having fun dressing her in things other than sleepers, but if you are having a baby, I still swear sleepers are the way to go for the first month or so.  Even now, people aren't really seeing the outfits I have her in much since she's usually in the car seat when we are out, so my effort is wasted!  We didn't do anything for Easter (it's not a big holiday in my family and Greg was away), but I dressed her up in an outfit Alison sent me and got some pictures of her in it.

I had lunch with a friend that is seven months pregnant the other day and she was grilling me with a bunch of questions like, "What is the thing that most surprised you about having a baby?" and stuff like that.  I didn't really know how to respond.  I did have tons of tips on things you need, breastfeeding, and those sorts of things (I may do a post soon), but it's really hard to describe motherhood in broad terms.  I love it, but I don't know if it's what I thought it would be like, or if I even had any expectations of what I thought it would be like before I became a mom.  I haven't changed my mind about going back to work, but I'm still really glad I have six months off with Allie and am soaking up the minutes with her.  I am loving the experience of being a mom and watching my baby.

One last note- I went RUNNING twice this week!  I did 1.75 miles on the first run, and then 2 miles on the second.  The first run kind of sucked, but the second felt almost normal, and I was actually not that much slower than my usual leisurely pace (non-racing).

I'm excited to be back at it!  So far I'm only running outside when Greg is home, but eventually if Allie gets into some sort of reliable nap pattern, I may try running on our treadmill at home sometimes.  We will see.  I really need to get ab work on the agenda.  It's by far the area of my bod that needs the most work.  Baby steps...  :)