Some Cool Baby Stuff

I've been neglecting my blog because I've been exhausted (and busy), so I thought I'd do a quicky on neat baby stuff we've found particularly useful, since pretty much everyone we know is pregnant, men included.

We got an Arms Reach Co-Sleeper, which is a bassinet where one side folds down and it attaches to an adult bed (still leaving about a 4" high barrier between the baby and the adult bed). This allows the benefits of co-sleeping -- having the baby handy for nursing, being able to watch and touch the baby all night, etc. -- without the terrible risks of having a baby in an adult bed. It was particularly helpful while recovering from the C-section so I didn't have to get out of bed to get him. We got the mini (in blue gingham).

If you get an Arms Reach, the Mighty Bright book light perfectly fits on the bar and makes a very nice nightlight for checking on the baby or nursing without waking up the non-dairy parent. I think this would be my new trick for any bassinet, finding a book light that clips onto it!

I had one of these color-changing light balls that I picked up at Cub Foods for $5 a while back, because I'm weirdly fixated on lights that change color. This thing turns out to be BABY CRACK. He will stare at it for minutes on end. I'm getting another to use as a nightlight in his room.

One of the neatest things I got is a Milkband (front page cycles through pictures, one of which has a nursing woman in case nursing boob is disallowed for your workplace surfing). This is a bracelet of the "live strong" type, with two little sliders and a series of numbers so that you can mark the last time you nursed, and on the outside it says "Left" and the inside it says "Right" and you flip it inside out so you know which side you last started on, instead of mucking around with paperclips on your bra or whatever. The "left" is lowered (debossed into the bracelet) and the "right" is raised, so you can even tell in the dark. This was perhaps the coolest $6 I spent, since the first few weeks I was waaaaaaay too tired to remember when I last nursed (let alone on which side), but writing it down after the first pediatrician visit just seemed tedious. (Also, Milkbands had a computer hiccup so my order went out late ... so they sent me five of them instead of one!)

Three May Enter, One May Leave

I put three baby "lap sheets" (they're like 12x12" squares of a heavier cotton fabric, but lighter than a burp cloth; helps protect your clothes from baby orifices and their products) in the wash today. They were brand new, came in a package of three, I took all three out and unfolded them and put them in the laundry basket. Threw the laundry in the washer, then the dryer, then came back upstairs with it ... and there was only one lap sheet.

I have been all through the laundry area like four times now trying to figure out where the other two went.

Apparently my washer is like a death cage match for lap sheets.

ZZZZZZZ ...

The baby is having some stomach trouble, which means the rest of us are having some sleeping trouble, which means I'm not real clear on what's going on, like what day it is or how to count to ten. I keep trying to count to ten (recording feeding times) and running out of numbers before I run out of fingers, so I know I'm missing one in there somewhere, but I can't for the life of me figure out which one. Probably six or seven, which have always been tricky bastards.

EDIT: Oh, look at that, my blog says it's Thursday. Who knew?

Great Minds Think Alike ...

Eyebrows mass-texts the family: Flippy said "ga"!

Immediate return texts:

Aunt McGee: Aww. A clear attempt at 'Aunt McGee'

Grandpa: Cool! I think he was trying to say "grandpa."

Grandma: Short for grandma of course

Phone call from husband: I think he was saying my name.

They're all wrong. Obviously he was working towards "Mama."

The New Normal

I woke up yesterday morning feeling like having a baby in the house was normal, instead of waking up and thinking, "When is your mother coming to pick you up, baby? Oh ... crap." or "OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG" or "I CAN'T DO THIS!!!!!" It helps that he seems to recognize us both now and interacts a bit more, so he's less of a newborn lump of neediness and pooping and more of a baby (still full of neediness and pooping but now with personality).

Then last night he slept between feedings instead of fussing and spaced his feedings about 3 hours (instead of ONE hour, which has been the story of the past few days and I thought I was going to actually die). I got almost six hours of sleep, in two-hour chunks, so I feel like people again. Tired people, but people.

I know this doesn't mean it'll all be sunshine and roses (as likely as not, tonight he'll be up all night and eating constantly), but at least I can see a light at the end of the tunnel when I'll no longer be a zombie. (A zombie that says things that endlessly entertain my husband, like, "Stop! I can't think and talk at the same time!" and a zombie that freezes in panic when asked an open-ended question like "What do you want for dinner?" because that's too many choices for my tiny zombie brain.)

Reflux

Himself has acid reflux, which is interfering with EVERYONE's ability to sleep and leading to daily laundry loads from the astonishing quantities of spit-up. The pediatrician has him sleeping on an incline, which Himself is convinced is cruel and unusual punishment. (On the plus side, he's getting very good at scooting.)

My mother suggested that baby arms should come as an aftermarket add-on available after six weeks, because all they do until then is flail and get in the way. This sounds about right. Himself likes to get his fists up in his face when he's excited or mad or wound up, which is pretty much every time he's about to eat, and then he gets mad that he can't get the bottle or breast into his mouth because THERE ARE FISTS IN THE WAY, so he parks his fists more firmly in front of his mouth and gets madder.

Doing Well

Baby (whom I'm tempted to call Pink Baby after someone was clever in the comments about my cat names!) is on the gaining weight side of the equation now, eating heartily, farting copiously (and making hilarious faces as he tries to manage it). I'm wiped out but recovering.

Looked at my incision with a mirror. Kind-of wish I hadn't, though I'm sure it'll look better as it heals more. Having been awake for a grand total of two hours, I think I need to go nap now.