I took Bryn to school today to show her off. She was a big hit. I wore her so as to decrease the number of students that wanted to touch or hold her, and I took her out only when my friends wanted to hold her or see her. I also visited my long-term sub and some of my students, what a mistake that was. I had finally gotten past worrying about how my sub was doing or if my students were learning the material, and all my worries came right back when I heard and saw what I did. ugh! I do miss my students, I really do, but I love love love being home with our little girl. It's a tough position to be in. I love my job, but I love love love being a Mommy.
Bryn is a very calm baby. She rarely wails, she has this small little whimper cry when she needs something. She is incredibly mobile, can sleep through anything and seems to handle her big brother's sometimes rough ways with ease. Bryn still hates her arms swaddled, so although I am still swaddling her body, I leave her arms out so she can sleep with them over her head or curled in around her face. She has begun to take the pacifier more (we call it a binky) and is a pro at nursing! She does click her tongue often while feeding, which both hurts and worries me that she's getting too much air and that's contributing to her gassiness.
Our biggest hurdles to date are 1. keeping her awake before bedtime and then convincing her to go to bed before midnight and 2. combating her gassiness and inability to have consistent bowel movements. We didn't have this second problem with our son. Ty had consistent yellow,seedy breast milk poops and rarely spit up. Bryn is the opposite. She's tooting, burping, spitting up, whimpering and pushing and fighting to get out any poop at all. We're averaging 1-2 bowel movements per day, which can't be enough. Sometimes we pray for just 1 per day so she's calm, happy and relaxed. She's also an incredibly loud sleeper, making it hard for us to sleep at times. I will say that she's a speedy eater, usually done eating in 10-15 minutes, which is way quicker than my son. I have also become really good at pumping one side as she eats from the other, so that decreases the time we're up at night. So far she averages about 3 hours or so between feedings, sometimes making it only 2.5 and sometimes going as long as 4. She doesn't cry, however, when she wakes, just stirs and makes her hunger known to just me, as I am sleeping right next to her cradle. Bryn is still a little peanut, and I'm eager to see how much she weighs at her 1 month appt next week.
It's been a whirlwind 3 weeks, but I'm still floating on a cloud. I can't believe we made two healthy, incredible kids. I am so blessed to be their Mommy. After all our struggles for this pregnancy, I am so grateful God blessed us with Brynleigh. She and Tyler are the light of our lives. I'm so in love with her and just savoring every moment I have at home just her and I. It's been such a special time :)
Here are my favorite pix from this week (trust me this is just a sprinkle of the millions I took of her!)
She had her first and second bath this week! It went as expected, some screaming and lots of shaking. But she survived, and I felt like an old pro :)
She is just perfect, M! Beautiful, beautiful girl!
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