It's Saturday!

Which means...I have 2 hands!!! Yay! DH is feeding our little one, so I will briefly have 2 hands.

Lydia is now 2 weeks, 2 days old :) Things have been gradually getting easier and we are all starting to get the hang of things. I'm starting to get used to being at home alone all day with her. I try to get out of the house at least once a day just to break things up a little bit so we aren't sitting on the couch watching TV all day. I've also been doing my best to keep up with house stuff - laundry, dishes, etc. I even manage to make the bed most days. I'm not going to lie, doing anything becomes quite the challenge with a baby in my arms. So I feel accomplished if I manage to do one load of laundry or put dishes/bottles in the dishwasher. Things such as eating and going to the bathroom have become quite the hassle. I get annoyed every time I get hungry or have to go to the bathroom. Things that have helped: Bouncy seat we keep in the bathroom keeps her content for a little while. I bought slimfast shakes that I can drink for lunch and not have to worry about making anything or needing 2 hands to eat.

Feeding, much to my surprise, has been the biggest challenge so far. I never expected to have trouble with breastfeeding. I never really even gave it a second thought. I planned to exclusively breastfeed...well, things haven't quite worked out that way so far. For some reason, I just do not make enough to keep her fed. I tried really hard to make it work, and it just wasn't. We started off only breastfeeding. She had lost 1 pound in her first 4 days. Then we started supplementing with 1/2 oz of formula after each feeding. She had only gained 2 oz from 1 week old to 2 weeks. She was supposed to gain 7 oz and be back up to her birth weight. So now we are giving her 2 oz of formula after each feeding. I am only getting about 1/2 oz of milk (from pumping) after waiting 3 hours between feedings. Definitely not enough. I am feeling better about supplementing. As long as she is getting some breast milk, I feel ok about giving her formula. And I must admit, it does make certain things easier and takes a lot of stress off me now that I am not her only source of food.

Nights have been going pretty smoothly. She started out practically sleeping through the night. She would sleep for about 6 hours straight (12am-6am). She was sleeping with us, mostly me, in bed. We just started putting her in her bassinet because it was too hard on me to sleep with her. I would wake up with every squirm and squeak. It was hard on my body to be in the same position all night, not being able to move. I sleep much better without her. She slept for about 4 hour stretches in her bassinet last night, which is pretty good in my opinion. I hope nights continue to go smoothly.

My body is slowly but surely shrinking. It is weird because I don't even remember what I looked like before I was pregnant. When I go into my closet, I have no concept of what will fit me. I tried to put my regular jeans on last weekend (1 week after giving birth) and failed miserably. I should have known better. I am anxious to get back into a workout routine and start fitting in normal clothes again. I'm am supposed to wait 6 weeks before I start working out again, but I don't think I'll last that long. Besides that, most of the pregnancy ailments have disappeared. My fingers still get stiff at night and just recently my wrists started hurting. It might be from holding the little bean all day, but I hope it is just a temporary thing. I sort of need my hands to do dentistry :)

Ahhhhhh...it feels good to get all that written, with two hands! :) Next update might be next weekend.