Grandpa & Gwyn

This past week Greg was in Houston for a training course put on by his company. The idea of taking care of Gwyn 24/7 without Greg seemed like a daunting task for me. We knew there would be lots of family members excited to meet Gwyn so I asked for a volunteer to come stay with us while Greg was away.

Gwyneth is the first grandchild for my parents. My father has been anticipating the arrival of his grand daughter since we announced we were expecting (maybe even before!!). Needless to say, he and his wife happily volunteered to keep us company.

On day one of their visit, my dad could not contain his excitement and ran out to purchase this giant bear for Gwyn. I had a large brown bear when I was growing up and I loved it. I'm sure Gwyn will love her bear too when she is a little bigger. In the meantime, I'm not sure where we are supposed to keep Mr. Bear!!

This is one happy Grandpa!

Thank you Dad and Goli for giving me an extra hand this past week!

5 weeks and Full Term

Our baby is getting so big! She is weighing just over 7lbs, average newborn size, just in time for her original due date which was yesterday!! She is still "tiny" for a 5 week old baby but with every visit to the pediatrician she moves up a percentile or two so we will get there eventually.

I had a lovely first Mother's Day. It was the first beautiful "spring" day that we've had here in Chicago so Greg made breakfast and we ate out on the deck. All our flowers and trees were in full bloom and it was perfect. Greg surprised me with a gift card for a massage and even took the liberty of booking me an appointment that afternoon! It was just what I needed.

Thank you for the helpful hints and suggestions for Gwyn's fussiness...I am willing to try anything! We did start medication for gas, I tried the Mylicon drops alone for several days and they do seem to help some. But, Gwyn is still very fussy when she eats.

Next, I went for a lactation consult to evaluate my milk supply and determine if I should be using a different technique (such as the block nursing). Lactation did not feel that Gwyn was being overloaded with too much milk but the consultant did witness this little lady having a full blown fit during our appointment. We are nursing one side at a time just to make sure Gwyn is getting sufficient hindmilk and were told to make an appointment with the pediatrician because the fussiness could be due to reflux.

The pediatrician agreed that alot of Gwyn's symptoms were reminiscent of reflux so we started baby Zantac a few days ago. We use the Zantac three times a day and the Mylicon drops in between. It can take a couple weeks for the Zantac to start helping so we will keep this up and cross our fingers!

To update on our sleep siutation...it's about the same. Because of the reflux Gwyn is sleeping upright in her swing or bouncy seat. She has been sleeping in our room since we brought her home. Last night I moved Gwyn's swing into her bedroom (this was hard for me), but I slept a lot better as a result. She makes so much noise at night in between feedings and this is the only way I can get any sleep, even if it is just a quick nap. Since her room is directly across the hall, I can easily hear her when she is truly awake and ready to eat again. I think we will stick to this arrangement for now and hopefully with the addition of the reflux medication we will all be getting more sleep in the near future!

Feel free to keep the fabulous advice coming!

What sleep?

My most favorite piece of advice..."sleep when she is sleeping."

Ha! This is very practical and logical advice, don't get me wrong. But it just does not apply to our daughter. I'm not really sure how she functions with so little sleep because I am barely able to remember how to complete activities of daily living.

Gwyn eats every 1.5 hours...this is not a joke. We are nursing and sometimes it can take 30-45 minutes to eat, so this activity occupies most of our time. However, our efforts are paying off. Gywn is growing out of her clothes! I could barely believe my eyes this morning when I pulled out a newborn sized outfit and could not manage to get her long little legs to fit in the footies! We have an official weight check with the pediatrician tomorrow and I can't wait to see how much growing she has done.

I know you have done the math, and there should still be 45 minutes to an hour for napping right?? We are dealing with this pesky little thing called colic. I'm not sure if Gwyn is working out her digestive plumbing or if this is just typical newborn fussiness but the poor little babe just can't seem to get comfortable. She fusses between nearly every feeding and sometimes even when she is eating. Our pediatrician gave us the heads up that this will probably get worse and peak around 6 weeks. We have no choice but to wait it out and give her all the comfort we can until things start to get better.

It's hard to believe our little girl will be 4 weeks old on Friday. The last month has been total chaos but I'm savoring this time because I know it will continue to pass quickly. My favorite moments during the first month have to be watching all of Gwyn's funny facial expressions, Greg experiencing projectile poop during a diaper change, and lastly all of Gwyn's noises.

My goodness, the noises that come out of this baby are hysterical! When she is really hungry she starts doing this little laugh. Then the laugh gets faster and more intense, a little like a crazy person! That's when you know the clock is ticking and you better get moving because you don't have a lot of time. On the rare occasion that she doesn't get her milk fast enough, the laugh turns into a full on scream but I'm getting better at avoiding this type of melt down. We are learning how to interpret more of her "language" every day and love watching her grow.