Heeding The Advice of Many

Well, the last two nights haven't been that bad. I still get anxious around 9 when I start to get really tired and I know I have a long night ahead of me, but I think I've found a happy medium.

I called and talked to my midwife and posted my dilemma on the breastfeeding support group on babycenter. The responses I've gotten have basically been to let Charlotte sleep when she sleeps and to adjust my sleeping times around her. Trying to keep her awake during the day will just make her more fussy at night it seems. Sleeping with her in the recliner has been working much better than sleeping in bed as well. It's easier to feed her when she wakes up and easier to get her back to sleep since I'm holding her and stays pretty warm. I miss my comfy bed but I'd rather get more sleep in my recliner. I've also reconciled myself to not having a morning. This arrangement has me "going to bed" around 11pm and finally getting up around 11am. I figure with the lack of deep sleep and all the interruptions throughout the night this is a near equivalent to my normal 8 hours.

G Butt!

I realized, too, that I need to feed her a little more than I want to. What tends to happen is that she eats and is fine for awhile but then starts to fuss. I think I've been misinterpreting this as tiredness rather than hunger because I just fed her. When I feed her again she tends to sleep much easier.

On another note we've hit another couple of milestones. First is that she's finally big enough to wear her gdiapers! I managed to get 12 cloth off craigslist for $40. Considering their $30 for 6 new, I thought this was a good deal. We've been using the disposable pads and I've been pretty happy with them. So far there haven't been any leaks and they break up great in the toilet for flushing. I also like how much softer the pant it and how it doesn't leave as many indents on her legs as the disposables do. We'll start using the cloth today and using the rest of the disposables at night. Thanks to the generous donation of Uncle James and Aunt Dori she shall have 12 more cloth inserts. Hopefully this will be enough to last until she gets bigger.

Sadly there is a finger blocking her ear.
oops

Another milestone is that Charlotte's starting to get a bit more responsive to sound and sight. She loves to stare at her Grandpa Gary's face. He has a gotee and I read that baby's tend to like to look at mens faces with facial hair because of the contrast of light skin with dark hair. It's pretty cute how mesmerized she is with Grandpa.

We have a little crocheted carrot with a rattle in it that she likes to look at as well. Today I had her on her tummy and was able to get her to lift and turn her head from side to side when I jingled the carrot behind her head. Yep, she's a genius! She can turn her head! lol