12 days old - Sleeping & eating - her favorite pastimes

Here's our little princess at 11 days old - chilling out on Daddy's lap on the patio. The last few days we've all been spoiled rotten by my family. My mom, daughter, granddaughter, sister, and 2 nieces arrived on Friday just after lunch. They drove down together from upstate NY to meet our little one and help out the new mommy & daddy. Between the delicious home cooked meals they brought down, to the many walks they took our dog on, to loading and unloading the dishwasher numerous times, to loving and holding our little Maribel - we were seriously spoiled rotten! It was a full house (or full tiny apartment) with air mattresses and sleeping bags spread around, but it was soooo wonderful to see and spend time with family. I hadn't been up for a visit since Memorial Day weekend since we didn't want me too far away so close to the end of my pregnancy (especially after my pre-term contractions in early June) so seeing them was long overdue! After a nice breakfast at the diner this morning, they headed back home and I'm already looking forward to seeing them when I go up for a visit in August.

Maribel's been doing great! She's still in the "sleeps a lot" stage though we're starting to see a couple periods during the day where she stays awake longer. I know that in the next couple of weeks we'll see a huge increase in wake periods, but for now she loves to loaf for a good portion of the day. She's eating very well and nights are getting a bit easier on DH and me. We're not complete zombies anymore which is delightful (now I know we'll have more zombie nights in the future, but touch wood, the last few nights have been pretty darn good.) In fact, I generally have to wake her for one or two feedings at night so we don't go longer than 4 hours. Now some may say "let a sleeping baby sleep" but I seriously need my milk supply to stay strong at this early stage. Just the past two days she's had a period of cluster feeding where she eats from one boob, eats from the other, then within 20 minutes she's eating again - like she just can't be satisfied. And she seriously drains me at those feedings. Also the amounts I've been able to pump decreased a little as well, so for now I'm trying to drink fluids like they're going out of style and keep daytime feedings 2-3 hours apart and nighttime feedings 2-4 hours apart. Hopefully that will keep the supply going strong. Not to mention, my boobs turn to bricks and leak like a sieve once we start hitting the 3 hour mark.

As for me, I'm feeling pretty good. The pain from the c-section is completely gone. My weight as of Friday morning was 170.2 so I'm about 7 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight (163.6) Mind you, the day after I came home from the hospital I was actually 2 pounds heavier (184.2) than the morning we went to the hospital (182.2). What??? After giving birth to an 8 pound baby, placenta, and amniotic fluid??? How could I weigh more? But really I was so swollen from all of the fluids they pumped into me and the surgery in general that my legs looked like tree trunks, my feet were just puffy masses, and my hands looked like the Hamburger Helper hand so I guess it took a few days for that fluid retention to go down. So just under 7 pounds to go to get to my pre-pregnancy weight and then I'll start working on my big weight loss goal. Ideally, I'd like to lose an additional 28.6 pounds to get me down to 135, but I'd even be happy to get back down to 145, which is where I was at when we got married.

Well, sleeping baby just started to stir. And so I'll close today by saying I'd personally like to thank the individual who invented breast pads. Because of you I'm not ruining every bra & shirt I own. So whoever you are, thank you!