Growing Baby!

We had to reschedule Tzipora's weight check appointment from yesterday because of the snow. Actually, I'm relieved we didn't have to go in at 9:30 in the morning (snow or not) because I try to use the morning to sleep as much as I can. Tzipora is actually a FANTASTIC sleeper and I generally feel well rested, but you can never get too much sleep. ;-)

Breastfeeding is going so well. I am in awe of my body, which fought against me so heartily after the birth of the twins and refused to produce enough milk for one baby (let alone two). This time around I don't even have to think about my milk supply because there's always enough for her, no matter what time of day. And it gives me such satisfaction to see milk dribbling out of the corners of her mouth or to hear her gulping down milk. Tzipora is a champion nurser, too, feeding just about every 2 hours during the day and going for nice, long stretches at night. I do wake her during the day to make sure she's not going too much past the 2 hour mark, because I want to make sure her longest stretches are at night. Her night feeds tend to be sporadic, meaning one night she might only do 3 hour stretches but the next she might go for 6 or 7 hours... There have even been some nights where I've woken up to go to the bathroom and she is still fast asleep! Kinda funny when your newborn can go for longer sleep stretches than you can... :-) I even asked my doula whether or not I should wake her if I get up before she does, and my doula said that as long as the baby is back up to her birth weight then I could let her sleep as long as she wants to (but not past 8 hours). The only problem is when she wants to do a cluster feed between 8pm and 1am. Sure, I don't mind it as much as I would a cluster feed between 1am and 6am, but when school starts up and I need to be up and about before 8am, I'm going to be super tired without my sleep between 10pm and 1am. Honestly, though, I have nothing to complain about. I get enough sleep, even if it's usually interrupted once or twice, and now that Tzipora knows that night = sleep, I'm generally getting restful sleep. (There's a HUGE difference between getting 2 hours in a row and getting 3 hours. It has to do with sleep cycles and REM sleep, but getting 1 or 2 hours of sleep and then being woken up is almost as if you hadn't slept at all.)

The proof is in the pudding, though, as they say... She's two weeks old today, and not only is she back up to her birth weight, but she's well above it!! Last week on Tuesday (so 9 days ago) she was 6 lbs exactly, down 7 ounces from birth but up from her lowest weight which was in the 5's. Today she's now 6 lbs 13 oz!! She gained 13 oz in 9 days. Woo hoo!!

Updates

Can you believe that my little baby is already a week old? It's incredible how time flies...

My day in the hospital with her was pretty uneventful. She spent most of the time in my room with a few short stays in the nursery for checkups and so I could get a few hours of sleep. We were discharged on Friday afternoon so we could get home in time for Shabbos...which we did by the skin of our teeth! Our amazing friends have been bringing over meals since then, so I haven't had to cook at all. The most I've done in the kitchen in the last week is cutting up a cantaloupe for the twins and pouring myself a bowl of cereal. lol

The first few days at home were tough since my milk didn't come in until Sunday and she was feeding constantly. Her sleep clock was also completely off, so she was having cluster feeds at night for 4-5 hours straight (like 10am to 3am). At that point I would call in Shmuel to hold her for a little while and try to get her to sleep so I could rest a bit. After two nights of that I decided I needed to do something to regulate her sleep clock. So, I stopped swaddling her during the day and made sure she was feeding every 1-2 hours. That way she would be sleepy and not particularly hungry overnight. Well, it worked! The past two nights she's actually had 5 hour stretches of sleep and she goes back to sleep pretty easily (something she was not doing at all).

During the day I'm trying to wear her in my Moby wrap so she's up a bit and not lonely, since she would cry and I wasn't sure if she was hungry or lonely and I would just feed her. But doing that wasn't practical cuz she would suck for like 5 mins or less and then fall back to sleep... So now we have a system!

As for me, my recovery has gone pretty well. I'm still really sore, so it's hard for me to sit at times, but it's better than it was. I'm just taking it one day at a time and little by little it's healing. I'm feeling great, though, just a bit tired. Thank goodness my mom is here to help out - she can help me with the baby during the day and then help Shmuel with the twins after day care. There's just so much to do with three little ones, and even three adults at times doesn't seem to be enough! lol

I hope everyone had a happy new year!!

All Alone

Well guys, this is it. My sister-in-law is on her way back to Israel, my hubby is at work and my mom is not coming back for another week. I'm officially on my own. YIPE! I'm outnumbered! Luckily, they are doing VERY well with sleeping at night. For example, last night they both had a feeding around 10 or 11pm (can't remember the exact time). Dovid then woke up to feed at 1am and then both he and Chana woke up at 5am. After that feeding they were both quiet until I came in around 10:30am--I was nearly exploding and needed to feed them or pump. If we could just get Dovid to skip that 1am feeding, we'd be golden.

Yesterday my sister-in-law and I had some fun. We went to New Hampshire to visit my RE and show off the twins...I'll have to post the picture we took together. Then on our way home we decided to stop off at Brandeis to have lunch. While we were there we got to see several of my old professors. It was a great time.