THE GREEN(wald) HOUSE … (growing rosemary & raising a little wolf)

I have been getting better at asking for Joe to help me take care of Rosie and calm her down when she is fussy - I tried to give him tips to calm her down, but I feel like I’m being condescending. I know he feels left out a lot of the time, and I think it would really help if he knew how to calm her. Still feel like I’m going at it alone most of the time - though now I don’t give him a break just because he has to get up and go to work, I have been making him get out of bed to walk or bounce Rosie during her fussy time at night - the only thing is that she doesnt calm down for him like she does for me so either I have to take over or offer suggestions that make me sound like I know more than him - but I guess I do!

Oh well, its still changing every day - Rosie was starting to go to sleep around 9:30 and would sleep pretty solidly - waking to eat a couple times- until 7ish! But for the last couple days she has been taking long naps in the day - 3 hours or so - and I try to wake her and she is just limp and stays asleep no matter what I do! Which means she is not going to sleep until around midnight and she is up by 5-6am!

She is still so sweet and cute when she nurses herself to sleep - I love when she pulls off when she is done and then uses my breast for a pillow - she usually puts her arm up and over the top of my breast too…too cute…I always say she is in a milk coma after she eats - I have heard other mamas call that look “drunk on milk”- my favorite are the milky smiles when she is 1/2 asleep, where she drools out a little milk from the corner of her mouth…

In short:
-feel like rosie is teething because she has been drooling and chewing on her hands - but also feel like it is too early
-feel liked I am getting hemmorhoids
-feel angry and resentful at Joe sometimes for not doing more to take care of rosie since I spend every single moment with her attached to me - but then again I dont really ask for help - and he does have to get up and go to work so I feel guilty waking him (he always asks why I didnt wake him) - but it doesn’t stop me from glaring at him sleeping while I pace the bedroom at night - bouncing and consoling Rosie through her fussy time
- feel fat and achy and just all around ugh!- trying to get back into shape by going for a walk every day - have been good for the last 3 days - but expecting rain today - so I’m bummed to have to break my routine. -
- I think Rosie has bad diaper rash - I think it is from crappy Papmers sposies that Joe had to buy cuz we were out for the day and I forgot to refill diaper bag with good Seventh Generation unbleached sposies - makes me feel like a bad mama

whew - just needed to vent

Just got back from our 2 month appt for Rosie - she is 25-50th percentile for everything - 23 inches, 11lbs 9oz. Our Dr. said she looks healthy and perfect

We still haven’t made any final decisions about vax yet. We are leaning toward doing the DTaP - and on a delayed schedule - but probably nothing else - I know we need to decide soon - but I just can’t bear to give her any pain… I am so freaked out by the thought of “what if” she is the 1 out of thousands that had a bad reaction…

Rosie is still having a fussy period at night before bed - the time seems to be fluctuating - sometimes starting at 10pm - sometimes as early as 7pm - we are getting much better at anticipating her needs now though so they are much shorter and then she sleeps great once we all go to sleep.

Last night, right before bed, I was lying on my back with my knees up and had Rosie sitting on my belly and leaning back on my legs - talking to her and making faces and she had a 5 min peroid of smiling and laughing and cooing - it was sooo great! She is really getting a personality now!
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Just got home from my sister Emily’s beach wedding in NJ - it was beautiful! It was perfect weather, great to see family and friends, and Rosie was an absolute doll on both flights! She slept or nursed the whole time. I had people come up to me at baggage claim after both flights to tell me “your baby was so good”

Of course, the only meltdown she had the entire time was actually during the wedding - as soon as I walked down the aisle with the wedding party - she started crying - poor Joe missed the whole ceremony trying to console my hungry girl! In hindsight, I probably should have brought a bottle and either pumped or expressed a little to keep her satisfied in this kind of situation - luckily the ceremony was only about 30 min… I will probably have Joe give her a bottle soon to practice in case another situation like this comes up…

The only downside to the whole weekend was the constant unsolicited advice we got from EVERYBODY, family, people at the wedding, strangers at the hotel, etc. Especially when Rosie was being fussy - everybody thinks they know how to calm a fussy baby - Ugh! Why do people do this? I made a mental note to never try to tell anybody else how to calm their baby. Joe got the worst of it during the wedding - I think a lot of people assume dads can’t handle their own babies - some of the advice he got was “put a carrot in her mouth” “put her on your shoulder and pat her bottom” “she needs water” and a complete stranger came up and said “want me to take her?” - like he would just hand his baby to a strange person…

Luckily, advice was the worst thing that Rosie had to endure, She seemed to be nursing constantly (for comfort I think) and if she wasn’t, I would tell people, oh, she is just getting ready to eat and I would start to reach under my shirt, that always stopped people from getting too close. Plus, I wore her in my moby wrap, or Joe had her in our stretchy pouch sling most of the time, so we got out of the whole “pass the baby” thing. I know a couple people were offended or hurt that they didn’t get to hold the baby - but too bad - she is still just a tiny baby and she is still very delicate - it would be too chaotic to have to allow everybody to grab her and hold her and pass her around.

Speaking of nursing, I am now a pro at NIP. I walked around the hotel with her latched on, sucking away, nursed during pretty much every meal, nursed walking on the beach, nursed during the wedding reception (my mom joked that she was surprised I didn’t walk down the aisle nursing!) - and I am sure only about 5% of the people who saw me actually knew what I was doing. I don’t use a blanket or anything, just a system with a shirt over a tanktop, so when the shirt is pulled up, and the tanktop pulled down, I only have to expose enough of the boob for Rosie to latch onto and most people just think I an holding my baby and her face is turned towards me. I think that using a blanket just draws attention to what I am doing - like a big arrow “hey - baby attached to a boob under here!”

Oh, Rosie definitely takes after her dad when it comes to farting and pooping - my girl is amazingly loud! Burps too! Joe and I always have to ask each other “are you sure that wasn’t you?” because we find it hard to believe that our sweet little girl can make such loud noise!

Rosie is still going through a super fussy time around 10p-12a. We have tried hylands colic tablets - they sometimes seem to work - and tried gripewater too - though she seems to spit out most of it…She just needs a change of scene every 5 min or so, then she eventually settles down and sleeps great - most times I don’t even remember waking to nurse in the night!

Re: dirty fingernails - I dont know hoe rosie’s nails get so dirty! I have been trying to keep them short and just gave her another bath yesterday - She is getting so chunky - it was hard to try to clean between the folds in her chubby neck and thighs…

Our midwives had a “Labor” Day picnic yesterday for all past and present clients - I thought is was a really cute idea and it was great to show off our girl and keep in touch with other mamas we had met through the office and our birth classes.

Joe and I had a great dinner on Sunday for our anniversary - we ate at the Townsend - where we got married - there were 2 other weddings going on that night - so it was fun to watch and re-live our big day. rosie was a perfect angel, slept for the first 1/2 hour, then I nursed her for 1/2 hour, and she slept the rest of dinner and all the way home. While I was nursing at the table, a hotel staff person came up and told me they were getting ready to lead the wedding guests and wedding party right by our table to the back room for dinner - at first I thought she was going to ask me to stop bf - but she said “I just wanted to let you know” - so I stayed put but did bring the blanket around rosie up a little closer to her face to ensure you couldn’t see any boobage. Most people walked right by us without looking - a couple people noticed and smiled - and one lady walked up and very loudly said “good for you” and gave me a big smile and thumbs up! I thought it was so cool and made me feel great! I looked at joe and he said “its like you are part of a cult” - I said “I am!”

I have been having some milk leakage - but usually only when nursing - the non-latched on nipple will leak - and I get leakage from both when going to the bathroom - weird huh? I have some reusable breast pads and I just got some lilypadz to use at my sis’s wedding…I usually dont use any pads at home, and I sleep topless for easy nursing, so leaking is not really a big deal - I usually just mop up the drips with the topsheet

We are excited but nervous about taking rosie on her first plane trip - I am currently trying to decide if we are going to take the big stroller/carseat combination, or just sling her… We will need the carseat for the car when we arrive, but not sure if I want to haul the big stroller everywhere - though it will be useful to carry other luggage and stuff through the airport…hmm - pros and cons on both sides.

We had our 7 week appt with the midwives today (was supposed to be 6 weeks, but we are lagging) - our girl is up to 10lbs 4oz! - was 6-15 at birth and 7-8 at 3 weeks, so she is gaining well. They also gave me a once-over and pap and everything looks great and perfectly healed…
Rosie has been sleeping well and seems to be over her fussy period (knock on wood) though she seems to be sneezing more lately. I am going to up my vitamin c and garlic to ward off any bug that might be going around.

Joe and I will be celebrating our first anniversary on Sunday - my MIL, Carol offered to watch Rosie so we could go out to dinner alone, but I told her I am not ready to leave her yet (or anytime soon) - so she will be joining us for dinner!

Finally - Rosie has had a couple long bouts of sleep but then that had me thinking I should be waking her to eat - but I LOVE getting the extra non-interrupted sleep! Last night she slept from 12:30 to 5:30! woo hoo! I figure as long as I am not engorged and she is having lots of wet/poopy dipes, there is no reason to worry…

I am back to work but have been doing most of my work from home, so it has been pretty easy so far, I just take Rosie with me wherever I go. I had to show some houses the other evening and I made Joe go with and sit in the back seat with her and keep her entertained while I went inside.

As far as co-sleeping, we bought the co-sleeper mini and have not yet attached it to the bed, rosie has been in bed with us and we have used the mini as a platform to hold diapers, clothes, wipes, etc. We have a big body pillow that we have dividing our bed down the middle, with joe and our dog, georgia, on one side, and rosie and me on the other, thank god far a king sized bed! The body pillow is useful for keeping her lying on her side when night nursing lying down, and keeps Joe from rolling over on her. I am not worried about me rolling on her as I am a super light sleeper and I am hyper-aware of her in bed - I wake up to every little movement or sigh. Plus, it has been so warm, I sleep with just a top sheet and only pull it up to waist level so it just covers the lower half of both of us. once it turns colder, and rosie is older and not nursing so often, we plan on moving her into the co-sleeper.

Rosie went to her second wedding on sat nite. She was an absolute angel and slept or nursed the entire night. Joe and I traded off wearing her in our pouch sling and we got a lot of great comments and questions about it. One elderly gentleman said “why that’s a new way of doing it” - to which I responded “actually, it is a really old way of doing it” …We had a great time and Joe and I danced together with rosie in the sling between us and it almost brought me to tears looking at my husband and baby and singing along to “at last, my love has come along”…

Still learning more each day about Rosie and being a mom. The newest revelation came 2 nights ago when she was fussy and pulling away at the breast before going to sleep and I couldnt figure out what was wrong - then I switched her to the other breast and she quieted down and nursed herself to sleep - I was trying to make sure she was getting the good hind milk - but I guess she didnt want the cream, she wanted the skim milk!