Three weeks old

My darling daughter turned 3 weeks old on Friday and I decided to make a list (in honor of you Stephanie) of everything that I have learned in the past 21 days.

1. I can do almost anything one handed while holding a baby.
2. I can fall asleep anywhere, including standing up while holding my daughter.
3. I am astounded by people that can change a dirty diaper with only 3 baby wipes, I have to use 5 minimum and that is when it is an easy "load".
4. I can drive with one hand while reaching into the backseat of a rear facing car seat, find the binky, and put it back in my screaming daughters mouth. And I can do this while staying in my own lane :-)
5. A double chin on a baby is cute until formula starts to pool in it while she is eating... then it is just gross.
6. I can literally tune out my daughter when she has been screaming for over an hour and have a conversation with Alex. (For those of you concerned- I am holding and rocking her while she is screaming, not just letting her lay there and scream).
7. There are a plethora of sirens that go by my house at all hours of the night. I hear at least one at every nighttime feeding.
8. I have a TON of neighbors that stay out to 1 and 2am every night of the week. I hear them come home at night- it's kinda weird.
9. Somehow a little girl whose lady bits are in the middle of her- has a knack for peeing up the back of her diaper and out the top.
10. When my daughter pees up her back in the middle of the night, I have actually contemplated not changing her because it would wake her up. In the end, I always do.. but it's tempting!
11. I can go from frustrated with my screaming child to concerned the second I hear the tone of her cry change.
12. Gas is a bitch! It is what causes her to cry for hours on end and causes me to pay LOTS for sensitive formula instead of being able to buy the cheap Costco brand.
13. My daughter is not one of those "happy all the time" babies that everyone always talks about. She is moody and has a mind of her own already.
14. To add to #13- I wouldn't trade her for the world. She is the most beautiful, wonderful, frustrating little thing and I can't wait to see who she becomes as she grows older.

Please pass the tissues

So I have seen the sappy 'Lifetime movies' with the mom that is bawling her eyes out due to the lovely postpartum horomones but I always thought that they weren't really that bad. Until I had Emersyn. I can cry for any reason. A few nights ago when it was raining and hailing, I was awake with Emersyn and heard the noise outside. I went to the window and then woke Alex up crying because it was hailing on his car and I was so sorry we didn't have a garage for him to park his car in (side note- there was not a dent left on his car and he just laughed at me for crying). I can cry when I sing Emersyn to sleep because they are the songs my mom sang me, I cry when I get frustrated with her for not sleeping because I feel guilty for being annoyed at my precious baby and I can cry for absolutely NO reason (any episode of the Wonder Years which is now on each night gets me crying). I will never make fun of the sappy movies that showcase the "baby blues" again because as my sleep deprived body tries to regulate back to my pre-baby horomone levels, I may just cry a few more times just for the hell of it.

Oh there you are Peter...

Alex is by far one of the funniest people I have ever met, however apparently I lost my sense of humor in the last 3 months of pregnancy. I didn't realize I had changed until this week. I have found myself laughing all the time from hanging out with him and the new common phrase in our house is, "Stop, laughing hard hurts my incision" while I am holding my belly and continuing to laugh at him.

While on a trip to Target yesterday, Alex and I were laughing yet again at something stupid when he looked at me and stated, "I forgot you had a sense of humor when we got together." I was a little floored but sadly it was true. I had truly become a nasty 'witch' to him during the last few months and his attempts to be funny got him yelled at. Well, I am happy to say that in the 8 days since Emersyn has been born, I have fallen back in love with my Prince. I am laughing all time, wanting to hold his hand while we watch TV and cuddling with him on the couch. I have transformed back into the girl he fell in love with. Someone please remind me of this when I am pregnant with baby #2 so poor Alex doesn't have to deal with yet another round of "Pregnant nasty Amanda" :-)

Boobygate 2010

So when Emersyn was first born I wasn't producing any milk/colustrum and since the hospital frowns on not feeding your baby, we put Emersyn on formula. The friendly lactation lady came in and told me to pump a few times a day to help with the situation and what do you know..... I woke up Monday morning with "porn star boobs" (sorry but they just were). So we tried to nurse.

If any of you have children, you know that breast feeding is a lot more work for babies then bottles since they have to actually make an effort to get some food. Also, babies are VERY lazy. So, boobygate 2010 started. My push to get Emersyn to use the boob and her push to not. Well I thought we were doing well until Tuesday night when she was awake crying nonstop for almost 5 hours. She finally calmed down when I gave her a bottle. By Wednesday morning she hadn't poo'd since Monday and at the doctors appointment we found out she had lost weight. So... mommy caved a little and has realized that as long as my angel is well feed we can do boob and then bottle at each feeding.

The lactation specialist at the doctors told me no binky and no bottles because it will make her not want to nurse. While I agree that those efforts are probably productive, in our house we use the binky and we use the bottle. As long as my baby girl is getting the antibodies from the breast milk and the substance of the formula, we are happy. She may fight me each feeding when I try to get her latch but after a minute or two, mommy always wins and she nurses. Boobygate 2010 continues in our house, but I think that as the weeks go on. Breast feeding will get easier and my little angel will realize that mommy is MUCH more stubborn then she is.

It was supposed to be so much easier...

When we found out Emersyn was breech, back in August, we scheduled a C-section for a week before my due date (October 8th).  This meant I would get to "miss out" on contractions and labor pain...and for those of you who know me know this is a good thing!  However, little Emersyn had her own agenda.  On Thursday, Sept. 30th, just as we got into bed my water broke.  Neither of us panicked because we were told in birthing class "it can take hours from when your water breaks until labor truly begins".  They lied.

Luckily we rushed to the hospital (skipping the showering and shaving of my legs) because within two hours my contractions were every twenty seconds.  Since we were waiting on the spinal tap for surgery I had NO PAIN KILLERS.  Thankfully surgery started a little after midnight and 19 minutes into the first of October Emersyn was born.