The first six weeks

WOW what a whirlwind. How has it been 6 weeks since we had Mary Peyton. It has been so far so good although def has its ups and downs :) Surprisingly enough not getting enough sleep hasnt been as bad as I thought it would be considering you cant sleep when the baby does when you have a toddler as well as how hard it is to sleep just winding yourself down or at least for me. I would pump and then know I could have three hours to sleep if I needed with people taking care of both kids yet I still couldnt sleep, some weird anxiety I guess but I def didnt feel anxious like I did with Allie. This go round has been much smoother for the most part. We put the pack in play in our room with the intentions of having her sleep in there but the first night home after two hours of trying to make that work,miss MP was a new member of our bed or shall I say there and in our arms and our chests. She is a snuggler and love loves loves to be held. SHe isnt much for sleeping alone although I will say we have gotten MP in her crib right before she turned six weeks. Just decided to try it out for the first half of the night and she did quite well. I think I got her around 3am. The next night she slept from 9 am, dream feed at 12 then until 415 and then 630 and then the next night she did about the same although we did dream feed at 11 and she woke up at 330 and 630. Then I thought wow how nice I will just put her down at 8 dream feed at 11 and she will sleep until 330 again but NO that either backfired or was weird night,b/c she was up at 1 230 5 and then we just brought her down and she slept on us until 630. I am trying to do the babywise method but then I feel 6 weeks is a little young but I have already let her cry 15-20 min before I went and soothed her. She is actually much better about 830 vs during the day naps. DAY NAPS in crib are non-existent, I may get 30 min in her crib. But if we are out and about and in the car driving we can get 3-4 hours. So I am trying to remember these first weeks so here it goes. The first week nat and mom stayed with us and really helped out, cooking taking care of us and the girls, they stayed until Wed. Then Mrs. D came and stayed from Wed-Sun and she was a tremendous help as well. That weekend Christine,Mae Mae and Josh came in and stayed with us Friday night. It was a good weekend, I was pretty tired but that was also when Allison started throwing up some more, so it def increased the stress level as I was worried about Allie as well as the baby getting the possible virus we thought she had. That first week the baby slept most of the time and nursed a lot. I didnt give too many bottles and soon that week I started to feel that I had lost my milk b/c I wasnt pumping after she ate like I knew I should have been. I only would pump like once a day. So nonetheless by the Friday I was in a panic that I had lost my milk. I went to sprouts and bought Mother Love this stuff the pedi told us to buy to help increase lactation. So I took that four times a day, fed the baby and/or pumped every 2 hours. So if I fed MP then I would pump after, it was pretty exhausting. By that next week though my milk came back up to my preference even more so that I could have imagined and was pumping easily 12-14 oz per session. WE HAVE A TON of milk in freezer. The second week everyone had left which was good but also anxiety provoking at the same time with two all alone although I asked Will to stay with me when Allie wasnt in school. But with Allie being sick that week he stayed home with me to take care of the baby so that I could take her to doc that Thursday. It was pretty stressful but we managed and started getting used to our new normal. We were still taking a while to get Allie down at night usually by staying in her room until she fell asleep. So Will was on Allie duty most of the time which he is still as well. The first week Mrs D took care of MP while we picked up Allie and took her to the mall to ride the horsies and ate ice cream together. Then she got to to pick out a toy from the disney store. She seemed to like it but def had some tantrums many of time that week. MP only sleeping at this point 2-2.5 hours but I will say she has been good at night besides having to sleep on us, she would always go back to sleep after her feedings so I would get about 2 hours every time. The problem was that it took 1 hour to do the whole routine- feedings as she would fall asleep so fast and then the diaper change. and HOW Many of times I would do the diaper change swaddle her and then she would poop again. OH how frustrating. During those nursing sessions I started recording supper nanny episodes and would watch those during the night. IT actually was great because I feel it gave me some tools to help Allison and the terrible twos. We are still doing the techniques and they are working. IF anything it got me over trying to appease her and just deal with her behavior straight on vs being scared of the tantrum. I am very thankful as I feel we have turned some major corners with her. The third week I was super tired as everything was just continuing to catch up. I usually could only try and take naps on the days Allie wasnt with me which was MWF and I usually could only sleep for like 45-1 hour. Usually would try to do it about 1pm. MP would sleep a lot though which was good and would eat about every 2.5 hours. We did our first trip that week and went to Crockett for Easter. It went pretty well, I was pretty tired and still was trying to figure out the bf and pumping etc. but it went well. We started her on zantac this week which didnt help at all but I didnt call until her fourth week. We also would swaddle her in the miracle blanket these nights. The fourth week was about the same schedule MP in our bed being held in our arms or on our chests up about every 2.5 hours. She is and was eating about 3 oz, sometimes 2.5 but her usual from beginning has been about 3 oz. We started her on prevacid this week and it did seem to help. She has a witching time period at night from about 5pm-830 which seems like she is either over tired or hungry. so that def started about the end of the third week-fourth week. Her first smile though was at the end of her fourth week, such a sweet smile. I LOVE when they start to smile although she wasnt doing it very often. The fifth week I took Allie to doctor and weighed MP, she was 11 pounds. Poor ALlie had pink eye and an ear infection. Luckily we got the ear infection before it got her real sick with fever. We moved her to her room in the sixth week, she goes down great about 9 and will sleep until 230am maybe :) very unpredictable but much better than in our arms. in our sixth week our baby girl has truly woken up in that she does not want to nap. Once I can get her down which I try and do in the crib but honestly it has gotten really hard during the day to get her to sleep in there, sometimes I Can get her to sleep in the swing and we have resorted to putting her in her car seat on the dryer which works for maybe 30 minutes. As im reading baby wise he states baby should sleep at each nap 1.5-2 hours. YEA RIGHT. Im confused if I am supposed to let her cry it out for naps this young. It is nice that she does very well at night. We are just trying to think of the best time to put her down for night. Last night we put her down at 9 and she slept until 230 , will tried to do dreamfeed but she wouldnt wake up. So tonight we are not going to do dream feed and try to get down at 10 which hopefully will get us to 330 then 630. it seems she will do a 5 hour stretch then she is up every 3 hours and then at 7 which is when I start the feeding she wont take anymore naps unless we are out and about. WHO KNOWS its a guessing game. Once we go to our 8 week appt then Im going to ask them about CIO with naps. Allie is precious these days, def still have our moments but they are so much better. I dont know if its b/c she feels well bc she isnt getting peanuts, or that she is getting more sleep as we are putting her down earlier, or if its her age or that we are discipling more whatever it is its better. She talks so much and you can have conversations with her which is hilarious. She is a pistol. She will look at you and be like you want this mama, or thank you mama, i love that she has named me mama now. pretty cute, Her and will are closer now which is great. He usually bathes and puts her to bed. I am missing some of my Allie at night time but we hang out during the days she isnt at school. She is into Doc Mcstuffins, Sofia the first, kindof Mickey and Barney. She watches netflix on our phones usually before bed. She has to take a doll with her to shower so she can bathe her baby, when I bathe MP a Allison always gets her baby bathtub and will get next to us on her stool and bathe her baby. She has to use real soap with a washcloth. Allie still loves her stroller and does not like it when MP uses it. So I usually have the baby bjourn on with MP and she is in stroller, Still trying to decide if I need/want a double stroller. I have decided to wait for now. Allies fav foods these days are def mac cheese, cheese pizza not pep pizza, queso and chips, oreos, chick fil a (mainly b/c she likes to go play), rotissierre chicken, SHE LIKES GREEN BEANS YAY!, loves most all fruit although wont eat bannans much anymore, granola bars, honey nut cherrios, shreeded cheese not any other kind, ham, spaghetti, cheese quesadillas.. SO MUCH MORE THAN WHAT WE WERE DEALING WITH PRIOR. She is doing alright with potty training. She never usually pees on herself but she will still have accidents with the other. UGH. I feel like its on purpose sometimes, not really sure but Will and I get quite frustrated b/c she knows better. Some weeks better than others in regards to accidents but she is in big girl panties every day, she has a pull up on during naps and night night time. She still listens to her music at night. Our schedule usally goes like this: dinner (grilled chicken with ketchup, mac cheese, green beans or fruit. Then if she does well she gets oreos. Then Will will bathe or shower with her and then she will watch some tv on our phones or ipad in her room or in our bed until 8. Then we take the shows from her and we read about 3-4 books. Then we lay with her for about 10-15 min although she would love much longer :( but she is getting so much better and not getitng out of her room. SHe seems to be doing great at school and likes it although she still in the mornings does not always want to go but when we pick her up she is in a great mood. She loves to go the park and swing and slide. She loves to go to chick fil a to play on playground and the mall to ride the horsies. She loves to get out and about also loves to go the grocery store they have a small buggy and she helps me get groceries and she loves going to the baby store (BUY BUY BABY) they have a play shopping cart and she can push it around. Its a cute age and challenging but I will say 2.5 and on is fun b/c she is starting to be able to do more stuff without all the drama :).. eating out is not bad, we went to a wedding and she did really well. She sits with us in church but lets not say its for the entire time as we usually are told she needs to potty twice and only goes once. Allie loves to do art, PAINT but not really not on paper well at first on paper but then she always starts to paint herself. She loves dolls and playing store. She loves the movies Cinderella Lady and the Tramp, Honey I shrunk the Kids, just now into Toy Story. She gets up around 7-730 and comes downstairs and gets in bed with us. MP is always in there before she is as she gets up between 530-630 but then we all go back to sleep. Then she watches a little tv then we get up and eat cereal while I feed MP and then pump. Its fun times, stressful times, happy times, annoyed times, but truly love being a mother. Its hard with two but I am so excited for the times ahead. Now is good but its great to see how MP personality will come about and see how ALlison grows every day. SO sweet...