6 1/2 weeks old!

Here is an email I sent out last week and because I don't have everyone's email addresses I thought I'd post it here...

I apologize for not updating the blog sooner... I have been busy with Christmas Shopping in the afternoons and Sophia keeps me hopping when she's awake during the day!

Sophia is 6 1/2 weeks... time is flying by! She is sleeping much better. Will usually go down about 7:30-8pm and will wake between midnight and 1am for feed then go back down until 4:30-5:30am. She'd like to start her day around then, however I'm not quite ready!! I can usually get her back down around after an hour and a bit and she and I will sleep until Daddy goes to work at 8:00.

She is starting to smile alot and has even giggled for her Daddy. She LOVES to watch her big sister... and inturn Anika LOVES to play with Sophia and has become a really good babysitter when Mommy needs to jump into the shower in the morning. Anika was amazed that Sophia wasn't going to bite her fingers off when she tried to put her soother back in, so as soon as Sophia starts to fuss, big sister flies in and comes to the rescue! Anika also asked if she could change Sophia's diaper, even after hearing the horror stories of Sophia pooping all over Mommy and even Gramma!! I wish I had my camera with me when the diaper changed happened because Anika was holding her nose with one hand and wiping Sophia's bum with the other! All went well and I'm sure it won't be long before she asks to do it again. Anika also likes to hold Sophia and burp her after she has had a snack! She's such a proud big sister, always kissing and hugging her baby, and singing songs about Sophia! Who would have thought she'd love a baby as much as she does now, when 8 months ago she was mad because she didn't want a sibbling!

I had Sophia weighed yesterday at the clinic and our little pork chop is 10lbs 7oz!! She has nearly gained 4lbs in 6 weeks!! She still has all her dark brown hair, blue eyes, and her skin has stayed a nice olive color. Its nice that she got something from my side of the family... hopefully she keeps the nice dark skin like my Dad had. Speaking of her olive skin... Anika asked us "why isn't Sophia's skin white like mine, Mommy's or Daddy's"!!! LOL..

Well that's about it. Will update soon! We are going to see Santa, hopefully Friday morning. Will post the picture of the girls as soon as I get it scanned :)

Click on the photo to enlarge

Live from the trenches...

Here I am, live from the trenches at 4:08am.

Sophia must have heard us when we said that she might be sold because, she has made a 180 degree turn. Last night she had a bath, was fed and put down in her crib at 7:45pm to sleep. When Gramma phoned at 8:40 she wondered what was happening over here... were we getting ready to battle things out in room #3?? When I said that Sophia was in her bed... she asked "all alone?"... um yes... I won't fit in the crib without the bottom and mattress crashing to the floor. Well... our little Princess #2, slept until 11:30!!!!!!!!!! Yes - you read that right from 7:40-11:30 and if you do the math ~ that is nearly FOUR HOURS!!! Of course my girls (yes my boobs) were ready to explode but I can deal with that! So after Sophia had an explosive poop all over the change table and me (this kid has to make something difficult for us), and Mom... this one was worse than the one you experienced... she went back to sleep with in minutes after her feed. Now it can't happen twice you say??? Guess what... she woke up at 3:45am which is nearly 4 hours again for her night feed.

I feel like a new woman. I'm just waiting for her to fall back asleep then I'll be hitting the bed myself. Maybe Sophia loves her crib... who knew???

Til the next feed... I'm a happier Mommy!!!

Hi... My name is Sophia...

and I'm a boob-a-holic.

I'm at my witts end. We need to find her a support group to help her with her addiction. Don't get me wrong... I am sooo happy that breast feeding is going so well, but at night it would be great if she could go a little longer than 2 hours. I thought feeding every 2 1/2 hours was hard. Sophia has now put on her game face and is eating every 2 hours which has cut my sleep time down considerably.... which makes Mommy a raving lunitic at times.

If I hear that "so and so's baby" is sleeping 7 hours straight and is only 7 weeks old I might scream and sell little Sophia. She's very cute and will have you wrapped around her little finger immediately... but when the clock strikes 11pm its time to pop the devil horns, fuss, grunt, cry, poop, "spit my soother further than you could ever imagine a 4 week old baby spitting" and everything else that goes along with it.

Adrian is off today. Last night he was quite helpful or as helpful as he could be with the devil in room #3. I fed Sophia at 1am, and put her down in her bassinett in our bedroom. That didn't last long before the noises started so I moved her. I decided to see if Sophia would give us all a better sleep if she wasn't in our room. She is a very vocal baby, with all of her sounds and we thought that maybe we were keeping her up by jumping to her every sound. So last night was going to be the first night she would spend in her crib. She'd suck her soother feverishly and it would pop out. Helpless as she is, she couldn't get it back in her mouth. So after 15 trips to room #3, Adrian told me to stay in bed and get some sleep... he would battle it out until at least 3am. I dosed off and on. At 2:30am I heard him mumble something like... "maybe if I duct tape the soother in, she'll stay asleep." LOL... someone else feels my frustration... FINALLY!! I asked him to bring her into our bed. To be honest, I can't recall what happened at that point.. did I feed her? did she calm down? I'm not sure... I do know that I was up with her from 4am-5:30am as she couldn't settle and gets herself into such a rage.

For those of you tht have spent any time with Sophia, you have heard her grunting when she's working on a poop or gas. I have eliminated anything that would bother her little tummy and we still deal with this. I'm going to pick up oval drops today to see if they will work. We have also tried putting the soother back in her mouth when she wakes at night to see if see if she is actually hungry, or just needs to suckle to settle herself down.... it gave me an extra 45 minutes, but she was so angry when she woke up that it took me over an hour to get her settled AFTER she ate!!! So if you have any suggestions please email me at kathrynheidinger@gmail.com

Will post some pictures as soon as I get some new ones up loaded.

Sophia's first 3 weeks of life in pictures...

Here is a Sophia's first 3 weeks of life....
(click on picture to enlarge)