Survival Journal 2 week update - Those really aren't mutually exclusive

Bobby McFerin must have written Don't Worry, Be Happy before he had his kids because otherwise he would have known that it is entirely possible to have both of those emotions at once. The last two weeks have been full of joy and happiness for us because just as we knew she would be, Lucy is the best and most beautiful baby in the entire world. But I would still say that 90% of the time, especially the first week, my dominant emotion was worry. Not that anything is wrong.

Breastfeeding has been going pretty well. I'm lucky that I haven't had any "real" problems but it is still hard and I worry. Soon we will go back to the midwife for a two week checkup and I'll see how much she has gained which will hopefully ease my mind a bit.

Nights are going well too. She sleeps 2-3 hours, wakes up, eats then goes back to sleep. Now that I've gotten the hang of nursing while lying down, I don't really feel very sleep deprived at all since we go to bed early, sleep late and take a nice nap every afternoon. But since she loves her sleep so much, sometimes she doesn't wake up on her own. Most of the time when I wake her, she'll come to enough to eat before going back to sleep but every once in a while she just won't have any of it and then of course, I worry she will starve. This is highly unlikely but still, I worry.

Her cord fell off on day 6. It wasn't totally healed and of course - I worried. But rest assured, your babies internal organs don't start seeping out if that happens. No, this is a common occurrence and the doctor will just give you a little antibiotic ointment to put on it for a couple days as a infection prevention measure and all will be well again.

This week, I'm gaining confidence. Yesterday was Craig's first day back at work and Lucy and I survived a day just the two of us. It was a long day but we made it. And while she has always been fairly alert, sometimes she is actually awake and not hungry now so we play together. Playing involves me looking at her and talking and her kinda looking at/around me and not crying. She also love Baby Tai Chi which is what I call it when she moves her hands and watches them. It's fun. Tonight is her first big social outing since we will be attending our Bradley class reunion. The only places we have been the last two weeks have been the doctor's and a local baby shop* that has lactation consultants on staff so I'm pretty excited about it.

And since we can't possible have a Lucy post without pictures, here are a few of my favorites from last week.

* Shout out to Kangaroo Kids, if you live in the area, they are the best!