heavyweight

Well, we must be doing something right because Daphne's weight is back up. Way up. She's gained almost a pound in the past week and change, when I felt she wasn't getting enough, her weight up only 2 ounces over the previous five-day period, and that my milk supply was tanking. Today she weighed in at 10 lbs. 2.2 oz., well past her birth weight of 9 lbs. 5 oz. She's no longer needing to be woken up for most feedings, instead usually waking up or otherwise wanting to be fed every 1 1/2 to 2 hours during the day, with, usually, one longer stretch of 2-3 hours if I'm lucky enough to get a nap that doesn't happen in the car seat or on me (like right now). She nurses really well on the right side. She still struggles to get latched on to the left side, somewhat mysteriously, so I reserve that side for daytime feedings and usually resort to right-only at night when we're both particularly tired and frustrated or when I have to nurse in public, something that is still pretty awkward but that I've probably successfully done more with her than I ever did with Elias. I pump when she skips the left side for one to two feedings, so I've already got several bottles stored up, hoping to get Daddy to administer a bottle from time to time after the three-week mark (already looking forward to my next hair appointment when she'll be seven weeks - an hour of freedom!).

At night she's been blessing us the past three or four nights with one long stretch of four to five hours, beginning around 8 pm. It's funny that even when she seems tanked up and ready for a nap before then it's like she can't fully settle down until around the time Elias has gone to bed (needless to say 8-8:30 is now our bedtime, too). After that she's usually up one or two more times. Which would be nothing but awesome if it wasn't often a hassle to get her back to sleep and/or deal with various gastro-intestinal issues - gas, perhaps a mild case of reflux, multiple middle-of-the-night poopy diapers, and burping. A lot of it. We started gas drops a couple of nights ago but I can't say there's been a huge improvement in her incredibly noisy, restless sleep past that midnight or 1 am feeding. At her check-up today the doctor didn't hesitate to offer a prescription for baby Zantac but we'll wait it out at least a few more days. With Elias it was pretty clear what he was experiencing at this point was not "normal" but with Daphne, I'm just not certain this isn't typical newborn fussiness. If it wasn't affecting her sleep I'd totally ride it out until at least that classic six-week peak. But we'll see how the next week or so goes.

In other news, I've resumed preschool pick-up this week, which I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday since afternoon is when the cabin fever hits hardest, regardless of whether or not we got out in the morning. Daphne is still a little fussy in the car seat initially, something she'll hopefully get over soon since she'll be in it at least two times each day beginning next Monday. But she calms down once we're moving and was incredibly calm and cooperative once we got to Eli's preschool. It also helped that Elias was ready to leave, grabbing his lunch and running to the gate before I could even check him out. The real challenge will be next week when Neal goes back to work and I'm then responsible for both kids, drop off, pick up, and everything in between, for about ten hours each day. Wish me luck!