Life on the Road Less Traveled: 9/27/15

We expected that a new baby with a 19 month old toddler would be a challenge, and it certainly has been an adventure. Rose loves her sister so much and gives her lots of hugs and kisses, but she doesn't know her strength and has a difficult time communicating her needs and feelings sometimes. We have tried to find a balance of allowing her to participate in the care of Zoe, but setting limits and boundaries on what we allow her to do. She tests those limits and that has led to several tantrum outbreaks. For the most part, she wants to give Zoe kisses, helps mommy burp Zoe, and covers Zoe with a blanket. Colin and my mom are often practicing the technique of distraction when it seems she wants to be involved in the care of Zoe when it is not appropriate (like when Zoe is drinking her milk).

Thankfully, my recovery has been very quick and complication-free. I continue to have minimal problems nursing Zoe and seem to produce an adequate amount of milk for her needs. Before delivery, I had been looking into getting Milkies Milk Savers since I had a strong let-down with Rose. I finally picked one up this week after two weeks of soaking through nursing pads. I've already bottled up 15oz of milk in two days! That is the amount of milk I was losing on the non-nursing side over the past two weeks. Now I wish I had bought them before I had Rose.

I probably wrote about the "period of purple crying" with Rose when she went through her fussiness each night from 5-7pm from the first month through the third month or so. Thankfully, we haven't noticed that with Zoe so far, but we are just getting into the third week now, so there is still time. I've been very diligent to nurse Zoe on demand fairly soon after she starts fussing. We've had a few days where Zoe will essentially nurse non-stop for almost two hours. With Rose, since I was inexperienced and we had trouble with her latch, I probably didn't nurse her as often as she wanted in those first few weeks (or even months). Now, I wonder if her nightly crying was actually her request to cluster feed in the evening before bed. I guess it's not something I will ever really know.

I mentioned that Zoe is a good eater and has a pretty good latch. I will admit that we've had a few painful sessions and I've had to coach her a few times, but overall the nursing experience has been good. We only had one night with a 5 hour stretch of sleep in the two weeks, and most nights I get at least one 3 hour stretch. For the most part, I'm up every 1.5-2 hours. Thankfully, Zoe can nurse in about 20-30 minutes, so it is somewhat manageable. Similar to Rose, Zoe seems to sleep the best (ie longest) in the mornings.

After the first few days, we also started Zoe on cloth diapers. With Rose I had used the newborn g-diapers, but didn't love the way they fit and they were difficult to get on. I was able to sell them on craigslist and recoup much of the cost I paid for them. This time around I invested in a variety of newborn diapers like xs bum genius, newborn grovia, lil Joeys, and prefolds with thirsties size 1 covers. While Zoe still had the umbilical cord stump, I was limited to the lil Joeys, but when the cord fell off around day 5, we were able to use the other diapers. I really like the fit and ease of use of the bum genius (we've used the one-size bum genius with Rose since about 6 months). I also find myself using the prefolds and thirsties covers as a second option. The only thing I hate about the prefolds is that they seem soaked every time I change her. It makes me feel like I'm not changing her enough. I'm hoping we can get Rose potty trained by her second birthday so that we can use the one-size diapers on Zoe when she is ready for them.

On Friday, September 25th, Zoe had her two-week checkup at the Women's Birth and Wellness Center. The target at two weeks is for babies to regain their birth weight. Not only did Zoe reach her birth weight, she also gained 1lb and 0.5oz, putting her at 7lbs, 11.5oz at 16 days. The midwife was very impressed and I'm glad that all the nursing I feel like I'm doing is showing some results. My mom jokes that you've got to watch out for the little babies...they tend to be the bigger (taller, stronger) kids when they grow up!

While Zoe's weight is going up, my weight and waistline is going down. The weather was so nice the first two weeks that we went on lots of walks. Coupled with nursing Zoe a lot and eating fairly healthy, I'm down ~18 of the 30 pounds I gained during pregnancy and actually just fit into a few of my more giving pre-pregnancy shorts/pants. I still have what looks like a small(ish) beer gut, but I expect it will go away over the next 2-3 months like it did with Rose.

Some personality traits that we've noticed with Zoe so far are that she: often has the hiccups; hates being burped and laid on anyone's shoulder; likes the Moby Wrap and going for walks; loves to stretch out when she's waking up, but loves her feet crossed and/or tucked under her when she's relaxing; seems to get hungry for mommy's milk when meals are ready for the family to eat; and when she wants to eat, she wants to eat now.

I think she looks like a Miller and most people that see her agree. Her face is more of a heart shape, whereas Rose's face is very round. Both Colin and I have longer faces, which I don't really see in either of our daughters. Her eyes are currently very blue, like Rose's were at birth, and she has more (dark brown) hair than Rose ever did. She seems to have the same "male-pattern baldness" that Rose had and her eyebrows and eye lashes are very blond. I think she is going to be blonder than Rose, but only time will tell.

I'm so grateful for another healthy baby, with no medical complications at this point of her life. I'm grateful to be able to meet her nutritional needs and to have so much support from Colin and my mom so that I can rest when I need to while caring for a new baby and spending some time with my older baby. I do look forward to a time when Zoe doesn't need me quite so much so that I can more evenly balance my time and attention with both girls. As Colin says and I repeat often, "the days are long, but the years are short." I want to be sure I don't skip through this precious phase too quickly. While it's not my favorite age since it is so demanding on a mother, I know that we'll never have this phase again.

Here is the photo recap of the first two weeks...

First afternoon at home