abracanabra | Theia, 10 Days Later (Reply)

At her 1-week doctor's appointment, Theia weighed in at 9 lb., 3 oz., more than regaining her birth weight. She also measured at 21" long. These measurements put her at the 99th percentile for height, the 94th percentile for weight, and the 55th percentile for BMI. In other words, she's right where we would expect and want her to be.

Breastfeeding is going well. She's a hungry little lamprey, feeding about every hour and a half while she's awake, and generally not sleeping much more than three hours before waking up to feed. My breasts have mostly adjusted to the notion, so the starting-nursing discomfort is generally fading away.

Changing poopy diapers on a girl baby remains a special kind of horrifying. Phil went on strike for a few days after there were new developments because she still has some of my hormones circulating through her system.

Sleeping...well, yes, she does a lot of that during the day. I could have guessed from her movement patterns in the womb that she was going to be a night owl (like me, her dad, and her brother), but I wasn't braced for the couple of hours of awake time that she wants to have every night between about 1 AM and 4 AM. This is when she will rest her eyes as long as I'm cuddling her, but no, she has no interest in sleeping in her cradle. She does tend to have a good sleep interval before and after, though. Hopefully, her schedule will readjust as she gets older. During the day, she has a long morning nap and a long afternoon nap, and then smaller naps mixed with short periods of alertness/cuddle time.

Cassius is doing really, really well with having a little sister. There have been only a couple of, "What do you *mean* I can't hurl myself on top of her to cuddle?!" meltdowns. Generally, he's doing great at being gentle (this translates as only petting her head with one finger and not touching her face or pressing on her). He likes to cuddle against my arm and provide commentary while she nurses. He hasn't really exhibited any jealous behavior, but of course, he's been getting attention from both me and Phil--and in the first week, from me and Phil and Grammy Staffin. We'll see how things go next week, once Phil's back to working half-days.

And how am I doing? Pretty well. I didn't take any damage from giving birth (must have rolled a natural twenty), so most of my aches and pains are of the "body trying to reshape itself back to normal" variety. I'm having the usual post-partum bleeding and cramping (though *way* less painful than it was the first time around). There's some lingering soreness around the epidural site; it's getting better. Most of the punched-in-the-solar-plexus feeling has subsided, but my back still starts to ache if I stand for too long. Phil's home to watch the kiddos if I need a nap, so I'm not sleep-deprived (yet) despite Theia's witching hour. Beyond taking care of the kids, not a whole lot else is getting done around the house, but that's kind of to be expected. We're managing. We've gotten some things done, like finally sorting through the ridiculous amount of hand-me-down baby clothing we have. We've been basically living off of Thanksgiving leftovers for the last week and so haven't had to deal with trying to cook with constant child and infant interruptions. I'm down 25 pounds already. Breastfeeding gives me ample time to catch up on all my reading on my Nook, and Netflix streaming on my computer is a good distraction while I'm trying to rock a baby back to sleep at oh-dark-hundred.

I may get a little cabin fever in the next few weeks, but I don't want to take Theia with me and go places just yet, because a) freezing cold, and b) her immune system won't be doing much until she's about 6 weeks old, so we want to keep her away from crowds. And I can't go very long away from her, since I'm her portable feeding system. Sadly, this means I may miss out on most of the holiday festivities.