Chris curled in the morning which marked the first time I was alone for a substantial period of time with S. This gave a pretty good sense of the days ahead when Chris would be working and I'd basically be her exclusive caretaker during the day. When he came home, we had a good chat about our experiences so far as parents, expectations for the days ahead, how S had developed as a little person, etc. I was feeling a bit weepy as well - perhaps a bit of the baby blues kicking in?
Grandma Mary & Empa Norm were planning to come over that afternoon for a visit but didn't as both Norm and the weather were beginning to feel quite crappy. I took the opportunity to get organized with a to do list and get some stuff done, starting with a thorough perusal of a big box of clothes borrowed from Cousin Avery. S's wardrobe almost doubled after this - lucky girl!
Day 20: Monday, December 13th
The snowfall continued all morning and afternoon - the type of day that made us quite happy about our company's work from home policy!
S decided to test her mommy's mettle by staying awake until early evening doing a lot of fussing and seemingly requiring constant changes and feeding sessions. I'll admit that I did bug Chris a bit in the afternoon to see if he could get her to calm down. He tried out the "football hold" which did help for a little bit!
I filed down her fingernails for the first time myself (Chris had done this up until now) which was a delicate operation and established our routine for cloth diaper laundry. In the evening, I started on some yoga-based postpartum exercises and Chris and I tried out our Moby Wrap which we couldn't quite get the hang of getting S into. She seemed too big for the various newborn holds we learned about on YouTube but not yet big enough for the regular hug hold with her feet hanging out. It was late so I planned to give it another go again soon.
Day 21: Tuesday, December 14th
I hadn't started my car since before S was born, despite Chris' periodic suggestions that I do so previously. Unfortunately this was one of the many things that had gotten deprioritized, so when I finally went to fire it up today it just chugged. Oops. Looked like it needed a jump or a new battery altogether.
In the afternoon I researched making our own baby wipes to control the substances that are touching Little One's sensitive skin and save some extra $$ to boot. There are some awesome sites out there, including this one which includes over a dozen different "recipes" to try out. I like the sound of the Olive 'n' Tea Tree solution (though this made me a bit chuffed that I acquired so many Body Shop goodies the other week and tea tree oil didn't make the cut. :-/ )
S refused the boob during an attempted feeding later that day. She was "hand-mouthing" as we like to say, which is usually a pretty spot-on hunger cue. However when I offered her a meal, she arched her back, beat at my chest and cried. Apparently she was just in need of some soothing and wasn't actually hungry at that point. This may have been a good time for a pacifier, however Chris and I hadn't introduced one to her yet and were still determining whether or not we would. In any case, we knew we wanted to wait at least a full month to allow breastfeeding to be well established. To help calm her down, I gave her a little massage with a sample of Burriti Baby Massage Gel I *had* included in my Body Shop stash and she LOVED this! She was alert the whole time and gave me a few contented smiles and sighs. Ahhh! :)
In the evening I was feeling a li'l stir crazy so I ran a few errands around town. It was freakin' cold, however, which quickly reinforced why I'd been hibernating the last few days. Chris and I momentarily mulled over the idea of moving to Costa Rica that night. :)
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