Reality with a Newborn (3rd time around)

Life with a newborn is always so rough for me. I know everyone processes it differently, but for me the first two weeks are easy, but after that I hit a wall and it gets so tough until they are about 3 months. This time around has been made even more rough with the fact that she actually nurses. Cara didn't at all and Gwen we only did for 2 weeks so the fact that I'm already over a month in has been new for me. Some days I absolutely hate it and most days I love it more than anything. 

My reality this time is that most of the time I'm sitting on the couch, listening to a podcast, letting Lucy nurse and nap on me. I have to keep water and some snacks nearby because I'm trapped for at least an hour each time. If the older girls are napping I'll have the tv remote nearby so I can watch a movie or show. I'm thankful that Lucy naps, but most of the time I wish I could put her down for a nap and go do something else. Even between naps we have a harder time putting her down (she spits up SO much and she doesn't love being on her own), so usually between naps I'll rush take a shower or go to the bathroom or refill my water. 

This is me almost all day long...every day!

But that face is just too sweet!

About 3 days ago we had our first outing as a family to Costco. I figured it would be easy and gave us an excuse  to try and get her to nap in her carseat, not on me, but no such luck. She got so fussy I had to cover up, hook her up, and just walk the rest of the way with her attached to me. Luckily it wasn't SO bad, but man would I love to have a nap time to myself. I know she'll only be this tiny for so long and watching her sleepy face is the cutest thing in the whole world and I'm sure I'll miss this when I go back to work (at least a little bit), but it's hard to go this long without working out, doing something about my ab split, or eat a meal with both hands....man that sounds like bliss!

Anyways, I know we're only about 6 weeks in, but hopefully within the next 6 weeks (when I go back to work) we can figure something else out for this girlie...I'm not going to be able to nurse/nap while I'm working from home haha.

3 kids, one shirt

One of my favorite things is the unisex onesies I have that I know I can put any of our kids in (no matter gender and, mostly, season). One of those shirts is this Milk Belly shirt:

Triplets - right?

I love seeing the comparison of all my girls in this shirt. We only have one more kid planned, but I sure plan to put that one in this one too and see how they all look...how great is it that they are all facing the same way even? Haha.

Lucy is ONE Month!

I am ONE month old!

I like: eating, eating, and...oh yeah, eating! Cuddling, not being put down...that's about it.

I dislike: being cold, being hungry, being put down for naps, napping, sleeping, anything that isn't being attached to mom! Hahaha
 

I am now: Our unofficial weight check shows she's up to 9 lbs even this morning (up from 8 lbs 5 oz)! I was so happy to see that breastfeeding is working on her gaining weight! Also, a check against a measuring tape shows she's 21 inches long (Up from 20.5). She's in newborn pants and diapers, but 0-3 month shirts and very ready for size 1 diapers. She's getting long, but she's definitely skinny.

A Typical Day looks like: we don't have a typical day just yet, we're still figuring it out. However, she tends to eat every 2 hours in the morning and spaces out to every 3 hours after the nap time. She is going to bed by 9 PM at the latest, but it'll range anywhere from 8 to 9. She tends to nurse for about 10 minutes, sometimes longer if she's comfort nursing for sleeping. She naps about 1-2 hours each time she naps (the binky helps her go a little longer). She does get a 2 oz bottle around 6:30 so that when I nurse her to bed it's just a top off (and also isn't a big deal if she falls asleep quickly). She tends to only get up once a night, usually around 4 AM, but then she grunts from then on until the morning. We try and not get her up until 7:30 or 8 at the earliest so if she won't go down after her feeding, I'll let her nap on my chest until 7:30.

This Month I: grew a bit, ate a TON, cried quite a bit, and just tried to get used to my parents and how they do things. I met my two older sisters, who have seemed to warm up to me quickly. They all are loud, but I'm louder when I'm not comfortable - haha. I've met a few family members, but not as many are out there. I know my Nana (mom's mom) is very excited to meet me, but with Covid it's hard to be around too many people or be out of the house too many times.

Hopefully mom and dad figure out my cries quickly so we can all be happy and get some good sleep (for nap times - bedtime isn't bad right now actually)

Parent's Notes: I want to remember this first month so I typed up this post about things to remember for the first 4 weeks. The first month is definitely the hardest - I think I got too confident with this being our third child and so it's really shaken me up. It also doesn't help that I'm actually able to exclusively breastfeed Lucy. While that has been phenomenal to experience and feel so good that I'm able to do it, it's so hard to get used to and makes everything new for our experience with her (and therefore feels like we're on our first baby all over again)! I was able to for 2.5 weeks with Gwen, but it took it's toll on me and my mental health with all the postpartum hormones. This time, while it's been difficult, I know the hardest part has just been getting Lucy down for naps - which has nothing to do with nursing or being bottle fed. I know we'll be switching to bottles eventually (when I go back to work) so I've been going back and forth on when we should start switching to bottles. Should we wait till 6 weeks (since that's when I hear it gets easier)? Should I wait till 8 weeks so I can enjoy the "easy" part of nursing for a while? Should we wait till 10 week so that I can enjoy it as long as possible and just use those last 2 weeks of my leave to get her used to them? Should we do it sooner, but slowly transition? Should I pump before the feeding? Should I just pump every 3 hours and once at night regardless of when she wants to eat? When should we bring formula into the mix? Am I ready to be getting up at night for pumping AND feeding? Am I ready to have both hands tied up with bottles at night, rather than having a free hand with nursing? There are SO many things to figure out. It's SO hard.

I will say I've been thankful that I've been able to take regular showers, I've been able to take the older girls on a walk to the mailbox without any recovery issues (physically). I've been making mental lists of things I'm grateful for on hard days to help keep it in perspective. I've also been looking back at how things were with Cara and Gwen to help compare or ease my mind. For example, I've been nervous to have Lucy nap on me too much, but then I see that I basically let Cara nap on me throughout my whole maternity leave, and she does good with naps and bed (I can't believe we never swaddled her haha!). I will say 3 kids definitely makes you realize how easy having only 1 kid really was - I wish I had appreciated how easy 1 kid was back when I was in that phase of life.

Regardless, as hard as this first month is, I SO look forward to when Lucy is older and playing with the other girls. And her cuddles really do make me melt. I just wish I had more time to enjoy them - typically the other girls end up screaming and waking her up so I can't stay cuddled with her too long. I did have a horrible day where I thought I'd let Lucy nap up in our room and I'd just shut us in there and take care of her and get used to her queues - however that was SUCH a miserable day. I missed spending time with my other girls and I hated being stressed out in my bedroom - which is supposed to be a place of comfort. So we went back to being downstairs real quick on that one haha. I'll also say I look forward to when Lucy sleeps all night without grunting and groaning. She does SO well when we put her down until she gets up for a feed (usually around 4 AM), but after that she struggles SO much staying down. I'm not sure if it's gas or just newborn issues she'll work through, but I'm trying to avoid using the binky like we have before and just get her used to sleeping better...I know the 5 week leap (wonder week) is coming up and I'm just doing my best to keep in mind to be patient through that exhausting time and get to the 6 week mark where things will, hopefully, get easier for us! We also need to get Larry used to putting her down for naps and bed...eventually.

 

Goals for next month:

• Get her used to a routine with bottles (since we know we're going to have her on bottles by the time I go back to work)
• Get more used to how to put her down for a nap and get her on a schedule
• Look forward to coos and smiles :) (One of the best first milestones)
• Get her down by 8 every night (right now it's between 8 and 9)
• Get her used to Tummy Time
• Get back into working out on a regular schedule (for mom)
• Start neck workouts (for Lucy)
• Maybe get her grasping toys
• Get dad used to putting her down for bed and naps (although we'll probably wait on naps until I get closer to being back to work).

Happy 4th of July

Well having a holiday during the newborn days is always so much fun haha. This year was really low key because of the new baby situation, but we made sure to spend as much time outside as possible. Larry put down fertilizer while the girls played with rocks and bubbles. I just concentrated on feeding Lucy. I will say I'm just happy when we can be outside most of the day and having this on a weekend is great! 

One fun thing this year was putting Lucy in an old onesie from Cara's first 4th of July, I feel like they look so much alike so it was fun comparing them. The rest of us were of course in our red, white, and blue looks. 

As usual I get so nervous putting babies down on loud holidays, and Lucy did take a bit to go down, but luckily fell asleep right before the fireworks started. Now I'm just sitting right next to her hoping she sleeps good (because she's not my best so I'm expecting this to be worse than other 1st loud holidays we've experienced). Maybe next year we'll be able to do real fireworks? 

Finally asleep...

...And ten minutes later - awake!