Taking a Shower

Well, the vibrating rocker didn't put her to sleep, but it kept her happy for my whole shower! Well, it did as long as I kept reaching out to reinsert her pacifier over and over.

Motherly Experiments

I learn things about being a mother every day. I also forget things every day.

Crystal has just recently only been giving me one 4 hour sleep block instead of two at night and I haven't returned to daytime sleeping because Crystal won't sleep with me in bed during the day any more even though she easily returns to sleep in the middle of the night. The only thing that will put her to sleep during the day is if I wear her in a sling. Taking her out of it wakes her up, so I've been baby-wearing these past couple of days. I'm fine with it though because I can do stuff with both hands when I wear her. I might start doing some work soon.

I still need to figure out when to take my shower. The middle of the night might be easiest for a shower even though I should be sleeping instead. Maybe we'll try a shower after giving the baby to Steve after he comes home. I noticed her quietly watching me from across the room while I was putting away groceries today. Perhaps she'll be fine if I sit her down in the bathroom within eye sight of me while I take my shower. I don't know whether she can recognize me through our clear shower curtain though. Maybe I can sit her in a place where she can peek through the back side of the curtain at me.

I wonder whether all babies do the same things that she does. For instance, since as early as her 2nd week, I've occasionally noticed her laughing. There are some experts that say that newborn smiles really aren't from gas and that they are genuine. I would never understand what she's thinking about when she suddenly bursts into smiles. It's usually when she's sleepy and relaxed. Also, she really likes to suck. Even her cry is really cute.

After always staring at her, I think that she has Steve's shaped eyes and his color eyes, Steve's hair, Steve's nose, Steve's hands, my mouth, my cheeks, and my chin. I'm interested to see how our next child would compare. For no reason, I have a feeling that we would have another girl. Too early to think about that yet, I guess. I wouldn't want to freak out Steve.

As far as the house search goes, we just got the appraisal report. It seems to have been appraised at a value only slightly higher than the price we offered. Aw shucks. The house inspection is scheduled for Thursday night and then we'll decide on whether we want the house next week.

Club Foot

Steve got worried about the increase in yellow nastiness coming out of Crystal's eyes, so I took her to the pediatrician on Tuesday and he said that it is just from her clogged tear ducts and told me to massage them at her diaper changes. He also prescribed some optional eye drops and said that the problem could last for 4 months and wants to know if it is not gone by then. She was weighed at 9 lbs, 10 oz. Perfect growth.

The appointment with an orthopedic specialist was yesterday. He basically said that she has border-line club feet and wants me to stretch them at diaper changes for a month and then we'll go in for an appointment and if there hasn't been any improvement, she'll get the casts.

I've expressed some breast milk and given her a bottle a couple of times already in the past couple weeks. Having a bottle on hand was a life saver when we were in the waiting room for only 5 minutes and in the exam room at the orthopedic clinic. She was able to eat while the doctor looked at her feet.

Crystal has become more fussy lately as she sometimes have been crying when she's not hungry. I've found this to mean that she's tired even though no matter what I did, she wouldn't relax. I've found that letting her cry it out for 5 minutes by herself tires her enough so that she'll finally start relaxing after we pick her up.

We have a ratified contract on the house in North Brentwood and are going to sign the mortgage application for it at the lenders this afternoon. Meanwhile, our agent is trying to get the seller to turn on the utilities for the inspection.

Life With Baby

I didn't want to start using the pacifier until after another couple of weeks but, at day 8, Steve introduced it anyways. I wasn't angry though because the tired baby automatically stopped fussing and I know that Steve only did it because he was wanted to give me some relief. So far, it looks like Crystal is still latching onto the breast the same, but she seems confused for a couple of seconds when given the pacifier. The only time that she seems to need it is at 8 pm at night, or fussy time. Otherwise, she wants to "comfort nurse" and be constantly attached to my nipples for 5 hours until she's able to sleep.

I've picked up some tricks which help things. After nursing, if she'll sleep while I'm holding her, then I can keep her snuggled on me and sleep in our bed. She seems to stay asleep this way and, during the night, she sleeps for 4 hours at a time. Don't worry: I won't roll onto her. My carefulness tends to cause me to freeze my body and seemingly sleep with both eyes open. Lately, the bassinet only seems to be keeping her asleep for 15 minutes at a time, no matter how snugly bundled she is. I'll keep in mind that I should move her out of the bed as early as I can, while she's still young or when she's less upset, in a few months I suppose.

I'm pretty much back in the same shape as I was before the pregnancy, except for my chest, as I had only gained 7 lbs. I'm probably one pants size bigger due to the change in my bone structure. I already owned clothes that were too big anyways, so no big deal. The birth hardly injured me at all as I physically feel much better now than when I was pregnant. I was even able to go to church on Sunday, at two weeks. The baby stayed asleep basically the whole time and I only had to feed her once. So, I was able to play the piano in Primary.

Other news: It turns out that we didn't get the contract on that one house. We put an offer on a different house instead, one in North Brentwood which seems to not require any repairs or upgrades, for 126K. Moving there would probably put us in the College Park Ward. Though, for some reason, I'm not sure that I like the idea of being in church with Steve's parents. I'll get over it, I guess.