20 days old - Not enough hours in the day

I seriously don't know where the hours go when a newborn arrives. Most days I'm finally getting to eat breakfast around 11 (if I'm lucky) after waking, changing, feeding, changing, snuggling, taking the dog out, feeding, changing, pumping, snuggling, etc. If I try really hard I can also get a load of laundry going or the dishwasher loaded or unloaded but things like a shower or real housecleaning, um, yeah, not happening. Then the afternoon has lots of feeding, changing, pumping, snuggling, feeding, tummy time, oh yeah eat some lunch, changing, and maybe, just maybe, folding some of the laundry I started earlier in the day. Evenings are when the little princess gets a bit grouchy. She gets really gassy (as evident by the plentiful farts she produces) and generally just doesn't feel so great. So in addition to feeding, changing, pumping, we also add in walking, bouncing, bicycling her legs, massaging her tummy, and whatever else we can to get her settled and feeling better. Somehow through all of these daily happenings, the clock seems to fly from 8am - 11pm in the blink of an eye. I must say though, while our days are just filled with baby everything, DH and I wouldn't have it any other way. We are completely on cloud nine with our Maribel .

The new feeding schedule drives me a bit crazy. It seems to take forever to breastfeed, then feed a bottle, then pump what she didn't get to drink. Sometimes I'll mix it up so she just breastfeeds one feeding, then the next feeding is primarily formula (with a little pumped breastmilk) with Daddy while Mommy pumps. This is at least allowing me to still keep the supply up (and start stocking the freezer) while not spending all day in my glider rocker with either baby or pump attached to my boobs. We're really hoping that Thursday's weigh-in shows improvement in her gaining weight like she should.

The past week has also been challenging as we tried to find a good formula & bottle combination for Maribel's tummy. She's not always the best bottle drinker. If she drinks too fast or drinks too much she has an explosive regurgitation of everything she drank - out of her mouth and nose, the poor girl just can't hold in what she drank (and it breaks our heart to see milk/formula flying out of her...that can't feel good for her!) We found that some formulas seemed to increase the number of times she'd regurgitate everything. Similac was not her friend. Neither was Gerber Good Start. Both of those were samples we got from the pediatrician and the little one didn't take well to either of them. DH went out a couple nights ago and got some Gerber Good Start Gentle and so far (knock wood) we've only had one regurgitation with it. We also have tried 5 different kinds of bottles to find one that would slow down her drinking and cut down on gassiness. When DH picked up the GS Gentle formula he also grabbed a Playtex Ventaire bottle (DD loves these for her little one) and it's been really good so far so I think we'll be picking up more of those. After each feeding we also keep her upright for awhile (a long while), burp her a lot, and just pray that we're not going to see that meal come back up.

We also started using our cloth diapers (CDs) on Saturday. Love them! They're so easy (even DH said they're just like using a disposable) and so soft against her skin. And I love thinking of the disposables she's NOT using - especially when she's using 12-14 diapers a day at this point (she sure does poop a lot!) The diaper sprayer we bought works great too to just spray the mess into the toilet - again, so easy! The CDs do make her butt look huge, but I love that look of the fluffy butt. The pic at the top of today's post is Maribel rocking the fluff on her first day of wearing CDs. I don't think she was too happy with Mommy though during the photo shoot - she was just waking up and wanted boob NOW!

Well, I'm happy to have finally had 20 minutes to write today but my little darling is starting to squeak which means waking can't be too far away. Gotta run!