Abby Update
Abby Update at 14 Weeks
Stop the press – Abby can now settle herself to sleep!
We’ve been practising for the last few days, having to come in and settle her, and taking up to 45 minutes to get her to sleep without holding her. Today she has managed to sleep each time without having to be comforted. It’s taken her about 15 minutes the first couple times, and the last two naps took only five minutes before she fell asleep! It’s still early days as she will cry as soon as you put her down, but things are looking good. She’s getting heavy so the less we have to settle her in our arms, the better!
Also, we are finally settled into a routine. Abby goes to bed around 10:30pm, and wakes up around 7 in the morning (sometimes 8 or later if she’s extra tired). She feeds every four hours, four times a day, and a top up before bed if need be. Her daytime naps are still inconsistent where she might sleep for 3 hours, or it might be for only half an hour, but she definitely needs to nap in between feeds or she becomes Crabby Abby again.
Tasty teether
Abby is very interested in things around her, and her little hands are always searching for things to grab, including my hair. She’s at the stage now where she may start teething so we have bought her some teething toys to knock out two birds with one stone – keeps her hands and her mouth busy.
My Battle of the Boobs is going well also. I’m trying to express only three times a day (every eight hours) and only doing 5 or 6 minutes each side. I think my body is starting to get the message and milk production seems to be slowing down a little. It sucks that we are going to have to buy a can of formula each week once she’s comletely off breast milk – that’s almost $20 a week more than we had to spend up to now. Still, I am going to be much happier and I’ll be able spend more time enjoying Abby. Can’t wait to get back some of my freedom (sleeping in any position I want is one of those things as hard heavy boobs means I only sleep on my back these days).
Our first PIN (Parents in the Neighbourhood) group is next Thursday. Should be good to meet up with some other parents and have adult conversations! Abby is going to be an angel for mummy… lol!!
Cute couch potato
Abby Update at 13 Weeks
Wooh, I sold one of my cupcake paintings yesterday! I can now call myself a professional artist (lol). I haven’t had any time for any other craftiness yet though – the painting I drafted for Abby’s room three weeks ago still remains unpainted. I really want to get it done soon because Abby is now sleeping in there, giving mummy and daddy their bedroom back – woop!
Talking of sleep, Abby has been sleeping about 8-9 hours each night for the last month or so. It’s so good to have a normal night’s sleep again! She’s also getting into a day time routine of staying up for a couple hours then having a nap (and a cry before the nap). Her first nap of the day is usually two hours long, but unfortunately the others are short half hour ones, if that.
However she did wake up at 5am last night with a very snotty sounding nose and kept on choking so I got her out of bed to check her out. Her cousins were staying in the weekend and one had a cold, so I thought she might not be feeling well (I have a sore throat now). She had a small feed, some Pamol, and got really grumpy before she fell asleep again. I hope that hasn’t broken her routine!
Abby noms with her friend Charlie
It’s amazing how they grow (she is three months tomorrow!) and change in what seems like overnight.
Apart from her hands, Abby has started to put everything she can get a hold of into her mouth, and when she can’t get what she wants she grumbles. I hope we don’t have a tanty-thrower in our midst.
She kicks a lot as well and I think the next thing we get her is going to be a Jolly Jumper. I’m sure she’s going to love it.
In her purtie dress
One of her new things is to pucker her lips and make sucking sounds, like she’s sucking on an invisible dummy. Another reason for Grandma to think we’re not feeding her enough!
She definitely tries to have conversations now, and has had quite a few belly laughs when we play with her. It’s oh so cute!
Oh and another thing, I’m back to my pre-pregnancy weight! Got a bit of extra wobbliness around the tummy to deal with but that’s about it. Yay!
Abby Update at 10 Weeks
Abby is 10 weeks old today and getting so cute! She’s cuddly, she smiles, ‘talks’, giggles and even has the occasional belly laugh although this tends to happen when she’s milk-drunk and half asleep.
Abby at 9 weeks 6 days
She doesn’t just stare at her toys when she’s on the playmat, but whacks them and coos and gaas and laughs as she does it. Her face lights up when we come to say hello. She loves having ‘conversations’ with mummy and daddy, and also enjoys watching television which can be distracting when she’s feeding…
She may be going through another growth spurt at the moment. We’ve noticed that she’s drinking less but more often – having some now, a little nap, then the rest later.
Chub chub
Abby is now 6kg. She’s a rather chubby baby but a good chubby. And she’s long. I haven’t measured but she fits into some of the Pumpkin Patch clothes in the 3-6 month size. Definitely has daddy’s height unlike mummy who is only 5 ft tall. Abby will be reaching things for me in a few years!
Even though I sometimes still don’t get to shower until daddy comes home, I have more time to do things during the day. On most days she seems to be happy playing by herself if she’s not napping, and cries when she actually needs something.
Tummy time (before she started crying)
It might be because she’s older, or we may be used to what she wants, or we aren’t too worried about letting her play by herself, but she’s getting easier to handle and we’re enjoying her more.
Now she just has to have a reliable routine so I can plan my day and do things like bake cupcakes again!
(She also had a number 3 the other day – a poo explosion that went up her back and through her clothes. Another milestone, lol!)
Abby Update at 8 Weeks
Oh gosh. I feel so bad because my attempt at breastfeeding today made Abby cry real tears!!
She only started getting tears in her eyes a couple weeks ago but just today they made it out of her eyes – all because she hates feeding from mummy. We even visited a lactation consultant at Plunket to see what help she could offer. I now have a milk drip contraption that you tape to your boob so you can give expressed milk at the same time as breastfeeding to give Abby what she wants straight away. Haven’t tried it yet. The main problem is that Abby gets upset as soon as I try to breasfeed… *sigh*.
So, breastfeeding is still not going well and expressing then bottle feeding is the way she rolls at the moment.
We're off to see The Wizard!
Abby and her cousin Bridget had a little photo shoot yesterday. It’s the thing to do when you’re only a day apart. They were very cute – two little babies with uncontrollable limbs and facial expressions. Bridget noticed Abby was next to her but Abby seemed oblivious to Bridget’s company. Very cute indeed.
Abby is getting more interactive and definitely trying to communicate. The hubby is sure she says a mumbly ‘Hello’ back to him when he greets her.
She’s still a lot of work but I think she may have a routine sorted. Holy moly she even managed to sleep through the night on several days this week! Unfortunately I still have to get up in the middle of the night to express but it’s better than feeding as well. I’m beginning to feel like a normal person again.
And now I know why she’s crying (most of the time) and that she sometimes just wants to be awake and play, it’s not as stressful as it used to be. We may be making progress yet!
Abby Update Extra
Oh, also forgot to mention in the Abby Update at 6 Weeks some of her developmental milestones.
She’s smiling now (has been for a while actually) and making lots of those cute baby sounds. She even tries to have a conversation with you if you talk to her.
We’ve named some of her more interesting sounds: the Horse – a rolling plurrr sound; the Shopping Trolley – a rusty squeeeeaak; and the croaky Mafia Boss – ehhh, ehh, ehhhhhh!
Her musical mobile has been a great distraction when she’s grizzly and we need to put her down for a little while. She’s also fond of playing on her playmat, often kicking and punching the toys while letting out sounds of enjoyment.
Her eye coordination is still a little off and she ends up a bit cross-eyed when trying to follow things. She can support her neck quite well already – something that she could do from the first day, surprising the pediatrician during her exam at the hospital.
There is however a fine line between play time and over-tired time so Happy Abby can become Crabby Abby pretty quickly! (Unfortunately Abby is one of those names that rhymes with lots of other adjectives like shabby, flabby, scabby, drabby…)
Abby giving a dirty look
Abby Update at 6 Weeks
So the magical six weeks has arrived…
In her sixth week Abby got chicken pox and her first lot of jabs – what a lucky girl! She also found out her hands are super tasty and has gone through yet another growth spurt. She is now 5.5 kilos and managed to grow two centimeters in a week – imagine the growing pains!
Abby finds her thumb
My weekly email from Kidspot tells me about a thing called the Arsenic Hour, where young babies are extra fussy in the early evening and only having light sleeps (usually in your arms). Abby had one of those evenings yesterday keeping mummy and daddy busy for about four hours. It didn’t help that she was probably in pain from her immunisation. I tried giving her Pamol and she threw up all over herself. I tried giving her Pamol again after her next feed and she threw up all over herself, me and the bed. I don’t think she likes Pamol.
Getting big and cuddly
Expressing milk is becoming harder as I have to keep adjusting to the increasing volumes that we should be feeding her. I’m going to make an appointment to see a lactation consultant to see why breastfeeding is so traumatic for Abby (she screams as soon as you hold her close to try and breast feed). Sometimes she latches and suckles and I think “Yuss!” but after a few sucks she pulls away and the screaming fit starts. Breastfeeding would be better for the both of us as she’ll get what she needs as soon as she needs it and I save hours each day, and have more sleep, if I don’t have to express.
Abby sleeps as Fez looks on
Fez is extremely good with Abby, as he is with all kids. He’s however beginning to show signs of jealousy such as snuggling up close and getting his face in the action too when we are playing with Abby. At the same time he also seems protective of her and sleeps next to her when she’s on her bouncer, and sometimes sits at the bedroom door when she’s crying as if to say “Do you know she’s crying??”.
This is the last week that the hubby is on holiday. It’s back to work for him next week so I’m not looking forward to being on my own during the day again.
Fingers crossed that by the end of this week she’ll be right as rain and be a good settled baby with a firm routine – yeah right!
Abby at 6 weeks 4 days
What a month
Abby is a month old already can you believe! She has already grown out of some of her newborn clothes and there are still some unworn. It’s a bit sad that she won’t be this teeny for much longer but as long as she gets easier to handle I won’t be complaining (much). Can’t wait for that.
One month old already
Abby has been busy for someone who has only been in the world for a little over four weeks. She’s been to two bbqs, on a road trip from Wellington to Palmerston North then to Auckland, another road trip to Taupo before heading back to Wellington, she’s visited friends, been Christmas shopping and had her first Christmas with both sides of the family.
Pukeko in a yucca tree
Christmas was busy! Abby took up most of our time leading up to the day, and we ended up with a yucca as our Christmas tree, complete with a pukeko (although a ponga tree would’ve been more awesome of course). We had a full house with family staying in all the spare rooms, and one of my nieces came down with chicken pox on Christmas eve so spent her Christmas in quarantine away from the two newborns. Not so fun for her. I won’t be surprised if one of us gets it next but I hope it won’t be Abby.
Abby and her cousin Bridget (who is a day younger)
Fez was extremely well behaved. He got a bit freaked out with all the noise and kiddies wanting to play with him – understandable having mum and dad neglecting him so over the last month and all.
Abby and Fez having a Christmas nap
So, it’s been a busy month and as parents it’s been exhausting. Abby is still fussy with breast feeding so Mummy Milk Truck continues to deliver milk in a bottle. She has her good days among her bad days where she stays awake for hours on end and cries about being too tired (or hungry yet again). She’s an adorable little girl though, even when she’s bawling. She’s beginning to interact more and makes those cute baby sounds when you talk to her. We love her more each day and hopefully the next month will be much easier – fingers crossed.
Previously on Eggshell Green
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