Not as far up

Week twelve weight on Thursday, baby has only put on 300 something grams since week ten.

While she's still in the 75th percentile, the nurse seemed a little concerned.

Then in a completely contradictory manner, she told me she was still putting on good weight.

She suggested we make sure that she has six feeds a day, and she has been - until the last two days.

Last week she cracked it four days in a row at around 3pm, usually two hours after her previous feed. It wasn't until the fourth day when I really persisted in trying to feed her through the tears (not easy) that she settled and had a massive feed and slept.

At the moment I'm doing my best to make sure she is really, really full before I put her to sleep. As a result she spent more than 220 minutes attached (yeah, we didn't get a lot done).

We're going back in for her 14 week check, so hopefully she back in the chubby-gainers club then.

Sleeps

We're settling in to a bit more of a routine.

The last three nights, the baby has slept between 8 and 10 hours. Of course, she rises out of her sleep cycles and makes noise that makes me think she's about to wake up, so I go so far as to turn on my 'baby in the bed' light or get her feeding mat out, but she's always gone back to sleep. One of those nights I fell asleep at the same time as her, so not a bad sleep (even if I woke up two or three times).

After her big sleep, we do a feed and she usually goes back to sleep for three hours (apart from the night she slept 1:30-10:00, I would have felt bad about making her sleep again!).

Then, on most days, after she feeds and plays and then starts to yawn, she can keep herself happy in her bassinet in the loungroom under the butterfly mobile, for roughly an hour (she usually falls asleep).

Then, she feeds every three hours during the day/night, almost to the minute.

I have to be realistic that this is only temporary - it might not even work this way from tomorrow. But it's nice to feel a little more in control - to look back at how hard it was when she just had no idea of any pattern. It makes the thought of having a second child all the more daunting.

Milk shakes

I don't know what I thought breastfeeding would be like.

It freaked me out a little because I didn't really know what to expect. And it hurt a little at the start. For longer than I had read it was meant to.

But now? No worries.

But it's the mechanics of it that shock me. I guess I knew what went where, but didn't know what exactly happened. Like the baby got magically filled up like when you plug your mobile in to the charger.

Not quite.

Because if my baby magically detaches herself, she will end up with milk sprayed all over her. And the couch/pillow/my singlet.

Sometimes I feel bad.

But sometimes I let myself laugh at the way she has streaks of milk all over her face and a glistening halo of droplets in her hair.

Or how she will pant as she tries to catch her breath.

Not when she kind of chokes from the force of it.

But definitely when I don't notice that she's snuck off and is just getting hosed in the ear/eyes/nose.

More rolling

I got the husband to witness the baby's new trick on the weekend, but he said it was the bed making her do it.

When I was washing her the other night, she rolled from belly to back on the washing machine. That's a firm surface, so it had to be all her. And yes, I keep a hand on her while she's up there, all the time.

So not only has she started to roll, but she also showed me how she can push her little bath chair by propping her legs at the end of the bath, as well as lifting her butt and belly out of the water by doing the same thing with her nuggety little legs and feet.

Up and running in no time!

Woah

The hierarchy of tears for babies never ceases to confuse me.

The baby can squawk and screech for half an hour before she squeaks out a burp, a nappy-rattling fart (literally - she was laying on me yesterday and I saw the back of her nappy rattle) or a splash of turd, but she can lay on her back and fountain out a stream of milk that reaches more than half a metre away and she only smiles coyly?

I mean, if I was laying down after a good meal and suddenly threw up in such a manner that I kept my front dry and my back wet, ruined the giant bed I was laying on, and could see that my gross volume reached further away from me than I am tall, I'd probably be a little emotional about it.

Sickness and health

The husband is coming down with a cold.

I'd like to shoot whoever passed it on to him.

I've been very lucky so far (TOUCH WOOD!!) that my last cold was in August 2010.

He has a headache, he's tireder (didn't think it was possible), he has a sore throat and he's sleeping in the spare room.

I was thinking that it might not be so bad, that if he's hanging out at home a little more I can get some extra things done while he nurses the baby. But he won't nurse the baby for fear of making her sick. And now I've got two babies, and negative help.

Fingers crossed it's gone overnight...

12 weeks

Today I started the Michelle Bridges 12 week body transformation - she's doing a special round for new mums/pregnant women.

Did you know that breastfeeding is meant to burn about 500 calories a day?

So far it's going well (almost 24 hours in) - I did the whole take-a-photo-in-your-undies thing, took some measurements and tried to focus on the positives.

I did really well in the pushup and flexibility tests, but had to walk the 1km fitness test (I was told I wasn't allowed to get straight in to running) and couldn't even manage one sit up (damn stomach muscles).

I've eaten beans with all three meals today (a first! Normally I eat zero beans!) and haven't had any caffeine.

Not only is it outlining all my meals and exercise, and giving me things to think about (to perhaps help me understand my relationship with food), I'll be getting healthier (not just leaner {hopefully}).

But the best thing for me is that I've got something to concentrate on during the day. Like rather than sitting down on the internet, holding the baby, waiting for the husband to come home so I can actually do stuff, I'm more proactive in getting her settled/occupied so that I can do what I need to.

I've got things running in my mind, rather than letting the gray fuzzies be my primary thoughts.

First weigh in is on Wednesday....