Keep Thou My Feet

Heidi seems like a very good baby so far. I think she knows she's a second child and that I'll never survive if she doesn't let me sleep at night. At night she wakes up every 2-3 hours and goes right back to sleep (or at least doesn't cry) after she eats, which I really appreciate. Kevin was so hard to get to sleep when he was a newborn, although after a few months he became a good sleeper. The unconsolidated sleep is starting to catch up with me, though. For the first week and a half or so I felt like I had plenty of energy and getting up to feed the baby wasn't too hard, but now it's getting harder. Fortunately Kevin still takes good naps and I can usually get a nap when he does, and we've had lots of people bringing us meals, which has been great since by the end of the day I'm pretty tired.

I had forgotten how tough the first couple of weeks of breastfeeding are. For some reason all of the books and classes seem to play down that part. Even though I've read a couple of books about breastfeeding and knew all of the important things about how to get the baby on right, it doesn't mean the baby knows how to do it right. It took a while for Heidi to figure out how to suck the right way. And I also had some pain from adjusting to nursing again, and then the engorgement phase. What got me through it was remembering that it was the same with Kevin and it was over after a couple of weeks. I don't understand why the books don't give a better idea of what to expect. They mostly keep emphasizing that it doesn't hurt if you do it right, but the problem is that for a lot of women, it does hurt for those first couple of weeks, not because we're doing it wrong, but because our bodies are making a lot of adjustments. Don't worry--Heidi is figuring it out and nursing well now. She weighs 9 lb. 3 oz. as of Friday, so she's growing well.

Kevin is doing pretty well. I think the hardest time for him is when I'm nursing Heidi. That's when he tends to come over and shove her head or hit her. I've heard a lot of people say you should read books or do other things with the older child while you're nursing the baby, but honestly I don't think that helps much with Kevin. I tend to steer clear of Kevin while Heidi is eating, and then I give Kevin some good attention right after Heidi is done eating, and I think that helps. He can also be very gentle and sweet with her, though. He likes to give her kisses, hold her in his lap, pat her back, and point at the different parts of her face. He tries to copy the things that we do to take care of her, which means sometimes I have to prevent him from picking her up or shoving a finger down her mouth--but I do appreciate that he's trying to be nice. A couple of mornings ago he was lying on the bed and Heidi was lying on her tummy on top of his tummy, and he really enjoyed that. He's always excited to come say good morning to the baby and is very good at letting us know if she is sad. I feel bad that I can't give Kevin as much attention as he is used to and that I still don't have a lot of energy to play with him the way he likes, but eventually I will recover, and it will also be really good for Kevin to have a baby sister. It's been fun to be able to get down on the floor with Kevin and play with him again, though. When I was pregnant I felt so heavy and sore that if I sat on the floor it was hard to haul myself back up again.

Recovery has been a lot smoother this time. Mostly I think it's because this is my second baby and it was a shorter labor. Even right after Heidi was born I was amazed at how great I felt. I definitely felt like I had just had a baby, but I felt much better than after Kevin was born. Maybe it's because it didn't take three hours to push her out. I was pretty happy that my entire body didn't get swollen this time. They had me pumped pretty full of fluids by the time Kevin was born, which I think had a lot to do with me getting so swollen, but this time I didn't have an IV at all.

It's funny how ambitious I feel some mornings, and how quickly I change my mind. Some mornings I wake up and think, "You know, I want to straighten my hair today," and then a couple of hours later I'm thinking, "I'll just be happy if I can get some breakfast and finish changing my clothes."

By the way, has anyone else noticed how there always seem to be burp cloths everywhere except where you're currently nursing the baby?

When Kevin was a newborn, I couldn't understand why anyone would rely on nursing their babies to get them to sleep. I never could get Kevin into a deep enough sleep for that to work. But now that I have Heidi, I understand why--because for her, it works amazingly well. Heidi has a very strong urge to suck and is trying very hard to find her thumb, so in that respect she is like her brother. Maybe that's why they were both born with their hands by their faces.