Wednesday, March 14, 2007

We started out with Jonah sleeping with us, then tried switching him to the bassinette but after a week of nursing him in the wee hours, having him sleeping in my arms in the chair in the nursery and then having him awaken when I tried to set him back in the bassinette I've taken to sleeping with him by my side. It's been a big help for me -- he can grumble and make noises in his sleep and I know right away if he's just being noisy or if he needs to be fed or changed. He sleeps longer as well so I'm not falling on my face tired. I'll still lay him down in the bassinette when we go to be if he's in deep sleep and then bring him over later but this seems to work better for us.

We've been working on our side-lying nursing and Jonah's getting better at it. Last night he rooted around until I pulled up my shirt and then he latched on every couple of hours for a while with some assistance. Neither of us really had to wake up fully. My partner changed him around 4:30 AM as it had been a while and his diaper was pretty wet.

I admit that co-sleeping might present some issues later on but Jonah will nap in his rocker and bouncer seats, the Pack & Play bassinette and his own bassinette -- such as right now -- so I'm trying to keep his sleep options open.

He sleeps so much better at night though when he's in my arms. I feel like a mama bear with her cub curled up beside her. My partner and I think about what would one do in the wild with a newborn; certainly not leave the baby in its own tent down the way as the wild animals would get it. What is the natural sleeping posture of the human animal though since the establishment seems so bent on isolating baby from his parents?

Monday, March 12, 2007

I had a c-section delivery four weeks ago. Thankfully I've dropped a lot of the bloat from pregnancy already in my legs in particular, my hips/belly and butt are all still larger than pre-pregnancy. I've been making do with my maternity pants but I can see that I'm going to have to invest in some transitional pants/skirts. I look forward to getting back into my size 10 jeans though, but for the time being I'm going to have to deal with being a 12/14.

I've been going through all my clothing, emptying my dresser drawers and going through the clothing I set aside during my pregnancy, and I'm paring down. With the breastfeeding boobs its going to be a while before I fit back into many of my old tops and some of them are just worn out. Mostly though I just feel like its time to leave behind some of the past and move on with new clothing.