Week 6

Steve travels for work and his latest trip was to the Baltimore area, so he encouraged me to come along this week. So, Olivia had her first overnight trip and first movie. (New In Town - I got tired of outlet shopping while Steve was in a meeting, so a movie was perfect.) We stayed on the waterfront in Annapolis, which is just beautiful even in winter. Olivia was so good for the whole trip, and we were able to stick to our normal eating and sleeping routine. BUT, sleeping in the same room with an infant made me realize just how much noise she makes during the night. I say she sleeps in 4-hour chunks, but really she "doesn't cry" for that time; she'll breathe loudly or talk to herself during a lot of that. Even now I can hear her making noises. (Yes, it's an hour after the during-the-night feeding and I'm still awake. Yes, I drank a glass of milk.)

Breastfeeding is actually (finally) going better. I don't know if it's the antibiotics or what, but my only pain is during latching/let-down on one side, and on the other side we're still working on getting a good latch. It dawned on me the other day that, although I've been trying harder to make sure we get a good latch, the problem might be Olivia. Anyway, THANK YOU for all the people who have written to encourage me to either hang in there or not feel bad about quitting. For now we're alternating BF and formula, which gives me a break mentally and physically and still allows OJ to get her antibodies and bonding time.

When Olivia was 3 weeks old I was about to schedule some pictures at the studio and practically overnight she got horrible baby acne. (I say horrible, but I think she couldn't have cared less - it was much harder on me. I am so vain.) It was all over her face, scalp, neck, and chest and then her eyebrows and ears and scalp started flaking off and it was all I could do not to help it along while she was nursing. Anyway, her precious face seems to be clearing up now so hopefully soon I'll be posting new pictures and finally sending out announcements to our far-flung friends. (I think this picture is cute, but I'd love to have one that shows her beautiful eyes.)

Seriously, I need to try to get back to sleep now.