The last two weeks

In the days following Thanksgiving, things have been pretty low key. We've just been taking each day one day at a time and trying to be as flexible as possible. Yooper and I realized there was a fair amount of stuff we had forgotten from the first time around or had yet to deal with. Changing a little girls diapers was a bit odd at first. Brushing up on things like newborn swaddling, car seat installation, and burping all took a bit of a learning curve to recall. Also, Leila and I had a bit to figure out with the whole breatfeeding thing. Tanner was bottle fed so this is new territory for both of us. Again, I'll spare the details but let's just say that it took a few days to work out the bugs.

We're now at the point that a routine is finally starting to emerge and I'm physically mostly back to normal. I feel well enough to get back to all my normal activities of shopping and house stuff but Leila doesn't always allow it. We have to plan any activities around the feeding schedule which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Sunday I had to make a run to the parking lot to nurse in the midst of a Lowes excursion. So much for timing on that one.

I think the biggest challenge so far, of course, is sleep. I have such a long list of stuff to do that I try to be as productive as possible with my time, often at the expense of taking naps and sleeping as late as I need to. I realized over the weekend that I have no idea how I am still functioning with the current sleep deficit I'm on. At merely 4-6 hours per night for the last two weeks, I should be unconsious but somehow, I have managed to not only keep going, but stay fairly energetic which is very different that how I usually react to lack of sleep. Ususally on the 3rd or 4th night of that kind of schedule, I will shut down completely. Must be some sort of postpartum energy store I have tapped into. I have made a promise to myself to try and get as much sleep as possible this week and finally catch up. We'll see how that goes.

At first Leila wasn't sleeping well in her crib. Mostly because she's pretty squirmy and really doesn't like her arms in the swaddle. This meant pretty cold nights for her. It's winter time here which means some nights get in the low to mid 60's. Without a furnace to take the chill off, that's a bit too cold for a newborn. Yooper and I decided to bring her in with us and everyone has slept much better since. If she gets a bit of a chill, one of us can cuddle closer and she usually settles right down. We're a bit worried about spoiling her and when is most appropriate to cut off the special treatment but I feel that the risk far outweighs letting the poor thing freeze in her crib. And yes, we're very careful :)

All in all though, Leila has been a perfect baby so far. I say so far because I'm terrified of jinxing myself and I read somewhere that colic usually starts up around two weeks. So far however, she only fusses when hungry or getting changed. She really doesn't like the cold wipes :) She seems to be growing a ton already too. Her last checkup was at eight days old and she was already back to birth weight. Not a chubby baby though, very long and lean. She still doesn't seem to be getting close to fitting into the 0-3 month stuff though. I only had one onesie that fit her when we got home because she was such a peanut. I actually had to brave the mall on the day after Thanksgiving to get a few outfits that would fit her. Some longsleeve stuff too for the cold nights. Unfortunately, they only had longsleeves in blue with a winter theme - see pics below. Snowmen and "Let it Snow" in Hawaii? Oh well.

I think one of the most surprising things about her so far is how much she looks like Tanner. There are a few pictures of the two of them that I swear you could shuffle and have a hard time guessing which pic is which kid. I find the whole thing fairly interesting because I've never seen a strong resemblance to either side of the family with Tanner. At first I thought that maybe the whole similarity was just a baby thing and I was confusing the newborn look with family resemblance but most people who see her in the presence of Tanner comment on it, and these are people who never knew Tanner as an infant. I guess that means she'll be a cutie too :)

I'll try to continue to keep up with this blog an at a minimum, get pictures up every so often. Have to say now though, with the impending holiday as well as upcoming visits for both sets of Grandparents, I'm not too optimistic about timely updates.

Thanks SO MUCH for all the great gifts and emails. I'll hopefully be getting back to you all very soon. Until then, here's a few pictures from the last few weeks...