6 hours between feedings!!

It happened last night. We were both so astounded. Small fry had been feeding ever two hours for the majority of the day which was starting to drive me crazy. He fed at 3pm, 5:30, 7:30, 9:30, and 11:30 at which time I handed him to his father with a 4 ounce bottle and some rice cereal and went directly to bed. This is the third night we've added rice cereal to the breastmilk bottle and previously had noticed that it made a difference about 6 hours after that bottle. Well, not last night! Quint had the rice and breastmilk bottle at 1:30 and didn't cry to be fed again until 7:30!!! With the 2 hour habit he'd had all day, Hubby had crashed on the bed in the baby's room thinking he'd be up again quite soon. At 6am, I go in there to check that the baby is still breathing. I missed one of my Wellbutrin pills recently and that usually equates to 3 days of worrying about stupid stuff...this morning whether or not my baby was breathing. Also while I was up, I pumped and got 6 ounces total! A record for me so far.

Given his feeding habit yesterday, we're expecting a growth spurt. Small fry is now 6 weeks old. This morning, I noticed that a 0-3 month size sleeper was getting a little snug. Maybe that outfit is a fluke. When I tried to zip it all the way up and snap the throat snap, he cried. I unzipped it an inch and he was instantly better. Very communicative little guy. He's also started giving us a "dirty diaper" face. When he's upset now, I hold him away from me and say, "Ok, talk to me son. What do you need." Pretty soon, he will usually give me the dirty diaper face or one of the "feed me" indicators. Things are getting easier!

He has started vocalizing more. Instead of squeaking, grunting, or making noises like a chipmunk, dolphin, or a wild turkey, he has started to coo and sing a bit.

Oh, and I am finally at 100% for taking walks and basically doing whatever I want! I've been looking forward to my weight lifting class at the gym and got online today to look at class schedules. Can't find it. Found their phone number. The lady that answers the phone says the name of the gym and says it's only $14.95 per month. Odd. I ask about class schedules. We don't have classes anymore. Really! When did that happen? About July. About the time I was big enough I stopped taking walks at lunch. Well CRAP! And I paid in advance for my membership with the great rate of $20 per month. Not such a great rate now. OK, ok, there's got to be a bright side here. What is it... When it gets too cold outside is when I use the treadmills at the gym more often, especially for running. And I really will need to do some running this winter to fight off not only winter blues, but post-partum depression. So I'll still have that.

Considering that I'm still within my 3 day window of "likely to be a little sad", perhaps I should have an outing today despite the rain. Small fry needs the next phase of his Hepatitis shot, and I need snaps from Wal-Mart. And i can finally walk far enough to conquer Wal-Mart and their new *#&#^!! eight acre layout. That sounds good.

Oh, I was incredibly productive yesterday! It was warm enough and I actually got outside and scrubbed our recycling bins. I have not recycled a single thing since the baby was born and even managed to take all the recycling to the center the day before I went into the hospital. I mentioned this to a recycling friend with 3 kids and she said, "of course you haven't recycled since the birth. And you might not again for a few years, depending on how close together you have kids. You've got more important things to do." Wow! Permission! What a grand thing! And I needed new storage bins for things like baby clothes and maternity clothes. So I've jerked the labels off my recycling bins, scrubbed them, and they will soon hold baby things.

While I was scrubbing these things outside, a tree service truck paused at the stop sign near our house. We've been trying to get an arborist on the phone for months. We've got some branches touching the roof in one spot, and the chimney in another. This guy had a truck with a cherry-picker type boom and a mulcher. I waved him over, got an estimate, called Hubby, and got my trees trimmed yesterday! For about the amount we thought it might cost. Not cheap, but better than we had feared. It's one of those icky house maintenance things where you just gotta bite the bullet and get it over with. And it was $100 cheaper because he was already in the area. I explained to him that we love our trees and love our shade, but don't want the house damaged. I had him trim so that we might not have to have it trimmed again for 5 years. He understood! He had his cherry-picker put him on the roof and then climbed to the highest top ridge where he used his chainsaw on the end of a 20 foot pole. That means he was 30 to 40 feet off the ground swinging around this chainsaw on a pole. Scary stuff. Yes he was insured. And had been doing this for 20 years. I watched from inside while nursing small fry. It took them an hour and they had disposed of all the limbs and even blown the leaves off my driveway and sidewalk! Good deal!




vocalizing