Lily's First Two Weeks

Baby Lily has proven herself to be a model baby. She eats constantly and sleeps the rest of the time. She is barely awake in between napping and eating. Actual feeding schedule from Thursday night.

 Nighttime ranges between really great (woo hoo! Feeding at 11, 2 and 5!) and horrible (boo hiss! feeding at 11, 12, 1, 3, and 5 or any combo in between).

She has developed a diaper rash, no matter how many times we change her diaper and try to keep her dry. We've done Gloves in a Bottle to lay down a protective silicone skin protector, Desitin, naked time (for the record, every single naked time has ended up with pooping or peeing on Mommy or the protective blankets). This is a typical baby thing; they have such sensitive skin. But, it's sad and stressful to see as a protective parent.

Her brother is in the middle of the 'Terrific Twos'. I swear, he has a temper tantrum about something almost every day. He doesn't want a bandaid on his bleeding toe. He doesn't want to say 'Please.' He is upset that we are making him not pour green juice all over the floor. You name it, he's flailed on about it. It's challenging on both Chris and I. We haven't figured out the best reaction - come down hard and discipline? Try to be patient? Diversion?

Grandma came up for an ENTIRE WEEK and saved my life. She did such an amazing job taking care of Jamisen, the garden, the house and ME. Jamisen asked for her several mornings after she left. He will be so happy when she arrives back next week to visit and help out for a few days. We are lucky to have her support (and all the Grandparents!).

He is rather hilarious about wanting to touch her. He loves to touch her, pat her head, touch her face, her hands, her feet. He has no idea how to be gentle with her so we don't leave him alone with her. He has taken to trying to "help" her eat. If she doesn't want to latch onto my breast for feeding, he will come by and shove her face into my breast, and command "Eat." Sometimes, he even puts a stern "NOW!" after that. "Eat Now!"

He loves our reading time. He really has turned into a voracious reader and adores reading time. He plops up onto my bed (that's right, it's my bed since Chris is sleeping on an air mattress on the floor, having been kicked out of bed by Little Miss Lily), and grabs 15 or so books, piling them onto the bed one by one, and then we read a few books. He tries to get one more book, "Just one more! One more!" before having to go to bed.

 We read every morning, before naptime and before bedtime.

I just ordered $100 worth of truck books (!!!) and am considering making them prizes for peeing and pooping in the toilet (10 stickers = 1 book?). Maybe little cars at 5 stickers and then 10 stickers gets a book?

I did have one mini setback this week with the c-section recovery and ended up on bed rest for two days. I will admit that day one of being stuck in bed was not a hard ship (having people bring me food AND change the baby? Yes, please!) but by day two, I was ready to be done! Today, we went to Farmer's Market and I've been out and about with no ill effects thus far. This is me after a little bit of blood loss - a little pale. And I know the baby looks like she is trying to suffocate herself, but really, I promise, she's fine.

We're looking forward to a great rest of the weekend. We have a play date today with our dear friend Sasha. His Mommy, Heather, helped plant our garden so we're going to send her home with lots of these amazing veggies. We have more than we could ever use! And, we like to share.