Three of the things that newborns are best known for...
Sierra is 2 weeks old today, and gaining weight fairly quick too! At her 4 day-old appointment she had regained the weight she had lost in the first day and was back up to 8lb 7oz. On Thursday (July 25) she was up to 9lb 4oz (which might I add was the estimate of what she would weigh when she came out). These are good indicators that she is doing well with her breast feeding! I am so proud of the little oinker... I am serious though sometimes she makes little piggy noises while feeding. It's so funny. I have quickly learned that she needs burping after every meal and usually half-way through a feeding too. This makes her gas less severe and her spit ups less frequent. Oh the lessons you learn through doing. Gus and I plan on introducing a bottle with breast milk in it somewhere around August 10th since he will have to feed her with one during my 3 hour escapade back to work on the 13th and 15th. So I have read up on it. I will need to pump and freeze (normal freezer breast milk will last up to 3 months, but the longer it is frozen the more Vitamin C it loses) 4oz servings for the little one. Whatever we don't use of a serving has to be thrown away. Or I can pump a little bit before and put it in the fridge, but only for up to 2 days. All recommendations vary but I will stick to the conservative side just to be safe. Also the process of unfreezing breast milk must happen slowly in the fridge, and when it defrosts it must only be stirred gently not shaken... Wow, there sure is a lot to remember... That's why I have a reminder on our fridge... Just in case we forget! I feel very strongly about breastfeeding her as long as I can because of all the benefits... maybe even up to 18 months, but more than likely only up to a year. At 6 months we will most likely start introducing solids (when I say that I do mean mashed up veggies etc.) and supplementing breast milk.
Sleeping has been interesting. For awhile she would only sleep when we were holding her, but now I have been putting her down in her crib and bassinet for naps. If she is being really fussy we put her in the Moby wrap and walk around with her for a bit before she promptly passes out. We think the pressure and closeness resemble the womb state and make her feel comfortable. At night, all bets are off though. It is hard for us to get her into the bassinet for longer than a few minutes without screaming, and since Gus has to work again it really puts a damper on the sleep department. So we have been doing quite a lot of co-sleeping with very short bouts of bassinet sleeping. Yes, yes, we HAVE read all about the slight increase co-sleeping has for SIDs, but do keep in mind a large number of the cases were with people who drank heavily, smoked, or were obese. Luckily, these things don't apply to us so we are essentially in the clear as long as we have a sense of awareness about us when she is sleeping. I am on what feels like an "alert mode" with her. Sometimes she just slightly stirs and I jolt up. It's crazy... do moms really have super powers or is it just all of this oxytocin and progesterone flowing through our veins?! Anyhow, I loved reading this article about co-sleeping. It was among the first few positive articles I read about the subject. It also address the cons of it, but it lets you make up your own mind on what you feel is right. http://www.babycenter.com/0_
On the poop front... we made the switch to cloth diapers two nights ago after I suggested we see if the disposable diapers we were given were from Costco so we could return them. They were and we were able to return them (with the member's number who bought them for us... so I had to tell them that we would be returning the gift unfortunately). Anyhow, my image of easy cloth diapering may have been slightly off, but I am starting to get the hang of it. I was given a nice stack of prefolds (http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/prefolds.html) and some covers (I also bought some of my own covers) from my friend Jackie. Apparently, in my first few days of attempting this I was literally just folding them and putting them in the cover... okay for 1 year olds during the day, not okay for runny breastfed newborn poops. I was having many casualties. After going to a "Natural Moms" group I was enlightened (plus I did a little YouTube research to see what I might be doing wrong). This is a great video on the variety of ways to fold a prefold (unfortunately all the moms suggested snappies too but I only have pins... so pins it is) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDqa45EOHfE. I have also realized (yes this may be too early on to state, but) I think I like the All-in-ones (AIOs) like BumGenius 4.0 the best. These are "pocket diapers" that have an absorption layer insert that goes into a soft fleece-like pocket, and the whole thing gets washed after. Anyhow, there is one point that I do want to bring up whether you cloth diaper or use disposables... you have to put the poop in the toilet (unless it's exclusively breastfed poop only). http://alphamom.com/parenting/baby/the-straight-poop-on-cloth-diapers/ Either way, with cloth diapers you surely will want to spray (with a diaper sprayer...we bought a dog washing spray house that Gus hooked up to the toilet plumbing... super strong spray) them off into your toilet first so the stains come out easier.
On a side note, our trip to Downieville was a success. The guys went mountain biking and I bonded with Sierra and did "online and work-related errands" (including stuff for Sierra). I also read read read about newborns... Did I nap much when Sierra fell asleep? Not really, although I know it's recommended and I sure did need it. Oh well. The meals I previously prepared and froze, I had decided to bring with us to eat on the trip and it worked out splendidly. We were all very pleased!
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