One Month.

Peyton's blessing day
December 23, 2012

Peyton was a month old on Christmas day. I can't believe she's already a month old. While I'm so overly tired that it feels like it's been forever, it still somehow feels like the last month went by really fast. It's weird & difficult to explain. Not important. What's important is that Peyton is a month old. & before I forget, I want to share what has been the biggest help to us with a crying baby. WHITE NOISE. Read (or watch, because there's a dvd), Happiest Baby on the Block. It works. Gabe is the master of the 5 S's. & I even downloaded a white noise app in my phone (tv static works even better). I stick it in her car seat when she's upset, or when we're out & she starts to wake up, & BOOM, happy baby. Or at least a baby in a daze, which is fine by me! Invest. It will save your life. I'm incredibly thankful to the women at church that introduced me to it. Life saver. MOVING ON!

4 weeks old.

Peyton lost 7% of her birthweight before we left the hospital. 10% is the max of what's acceptable. Since she was so close, I had to take her in the Friday after she was born (she was born on Sunday November 25th) to have her weighed. She was at 5 lbs 14 oz. She started at 6 lbs 10 oz. That's 12% which is clearly more than 10%. A lot of people have told me that's normal & not to worry about it. Yes, weight loss is totally normal. But her weight loss was due to the fact that she wouldn't eat. She wouldn't even take a bottle. She was too lazy to suck. My baby was starving & wasting away to nothing. Three doctors came to check out an abnormality at the base of her spine (which seems to be nothing), & two of them said I definitely needed to go up to the lactation specialist. So I did. It took an hour, but was completely worth it. She had me pump, which was nice because I was severely engorged since my milk had come in 2 days earlier & Peyton wasn't eating. I don't know if you've ever been engorged for 2 days, but my boobs were about 3 sizes bigger than any other day, were very red, had lots of lumps, & it hurt to just brush against something. (Seriously, if your baby won't nurse, invest in a breast pump asap. So wonderful.) Anyway. She had me pump so that we could run a small catheter into her mouth while she was latched on to me & use a syringe to slowly push some of the milk in to her mouth to convince her to suck. It worked!! I had to do that a few more times over the next 24 hours, but after that she had it down perfectly. Thank goodness!

Baby Burrito.
4 days old.

After that appointment, I got a call from the awful first year resident that Peyton's appointment was with that day that said the lactation specialist was really worried about Peyton (which she wasn't), & we needed to bring her in the next day, Saturday, for another weight check. That time she weighed 5 lbs 15 oz! She gained an oz over night!!! It was great. I had another appointment the following Monday, & she was at 6 lbs exactly! At her 2 week well-baby check up that Friday she weighed 6 lbs 1 oz. She was gaining slowly but surely. At that point, we had picked a good doctor, the chief resident, & we really like him. He wanted me to supplement with formula. I decided against it & waited to see what she weighed at her next appointment on the 18th. She was at 6 lbs 6 oz. Just 4 oz short of her birth weight at 3 weeks. The doctor I saw that day was not our regular doctor & I had a really hard time with her. Her tech recorded the weight down wrong. Apparently they had her at just over 7 lbs, but I had seen the scale & it was definitely 6 lbs 6 oz. She tried to convince me that the grams were what mattered & that according to the grams she was over her birthweight. That somehow the grams to pounds & ounces didn't matter. Uh. What? No. She was wrong. Horribly wrong. Anyway. Since she wasn't back at her birthweight at what she was calling a month old, she wanted me to supplement with formula. They wanted her back at her birthweight by one month. Which meant she had a whole week to get that last 4 ounces, but the doctor wasn't realizing that. I told her I didn't want to supplement because the whole reason Peyton lost all the weight in the first place was that she was too lazy to suck. So why on earth would I give her a bottle 4 times a day? That's way easier than a boob. Why would I give her that option? So I went against her advice, which is fine by me, & my regular doctor, because she was not smart. That's putting it nicely. I shouldn't have to argue with a doctor about whether or not grams converted to pounds & ounces would be the same thing. We went back to the doctor yesterday for another weight check & Peyton is at 6 lbs 14 oz! She is 4 oz over her birthweight!!! Now, this is in the zero percentile, but she's gaining weight!!! She also grew an inch. The doctor was pretty happy with it. She's just small. He wants her between the 5th-10th percentile by her two month well baby check up.

Bored while shopping.
11 days old.

Long story short, she's definitely still in newborn clothes, & she's now starting to fit in to them. Peyton makes lots of sounds, but luckily she's a very quiet sleeper. Makes my life easier cause that means she can sleep in our room in her pack 'n' play until she sleeps longer than a couple of hours at a time.

As for me, I'm doing alright. Super sleep deprived of course, but that's to be expected. I'm incredibly grateful my mom was here the first few weeks. I was able to hand Peyton off & get a few extra minutes of sleep every once in a while. Plus I didn't have to worry about Anya, food, or laundry. I'm dreading Gabe going back to work next week. I think I'm going to fall apart. I mean, I'll be able to handle it, but I'll probably have a mental breakdown at the end of each day. Ha! At least I'll wait until the end of the day to freak out! Gotta make sure Gabe is here to take care of the baby while I'm freaking out. I already have to do laundry almost every day just to keep up. Between Gabe's & my laundry & the baby's, it's a lot. I only have so much in the newborn size & since she has this new thing where she likes to spit up all over herself, I have to was stuff a lot. Lucky she's so flipping cute. Parenting is hard & she's only a newborn. Plus, when she's up, one of us have to be there of course. We have to moogie her, & rock her, & keep her entertained (which, she has the cutest little grin, I can't wait until she does it long enough to get a picture. When she's asleep, I either sleep, or I sit there relaxing, which means I get zero done. She's asleep right now. I should be sleeping. I'm totally exhausted. I'll regret this at 3am when she wakes up to eat.

Peyton & her daddy on Christmas Eve

I've already lost all of my baby weight. I gained 25 lbs in total. I lost 16 lbs within the first 5 days, & I'm now back down to where I was. It's nice to know that. But then I look in the mirror & I see this flab of skin & my tiger stripes & it's a horrible reminder that my body will never be the same. I even have hips!!! It's so crazy. I have a lady shape. Peyton is definitely worth it. She's a cutie & I love her.

Anya has come to terms with the fact that Peyton isn't going anywhere. Poor thing is depressed now that my parents are gone though. She gets significantly less attention than she used to. But I've been trying to get her to come lay next to me while I breast feed, so hopefully soon she'll go back to normal.

This past Sunday, the 23rd, was Peyton's baby blessing. It was beautiful. I cried a little bit. She wore a beautiful blessing dress made by Gabe's mom. I absolutely love it. Of course, when Lori got here she had to add ribbon so we could tie the dress back. It still drowned Peyton a little bit, but it was so adorable it didn't even matter.

Peyton & Grandpa (my dad).

Anyway. Peyton is asleep so I'm going to take advantage of this time & get myself some ice cream (which makes no sense because it's below freezing & we have a few inches of snow on the ground...but whatever). Holding her & scooping ice cream is not easy. I can do it, but I much prefer to eat my ice cream when she's asleep. I can't stop using my moby wrap around the house until she's a bit bigger. According to the directions it's not safe for little runts like Peyton.

I probably won't post again before the new year, so...

Happy Christmas! & Happy New Year!

Now I need some ice cream.

That is all.

- Alexa