40 Weeks

It's hard to say for sure how big your baby will be, but the average newborn weighs about 7 1/2 pounds (a small pumpkin) and is about 20 inches long. His skull bones are not yet fused, which allows them to overlap a bit if it's a snug fit through the birth canal during labor. This so-called "molding" is the reason your baby's noggin may look a little conehead-ish after birth. Rest assured — it's normal and temporary.

It is hard to believe today I would just be 40 weeks and instead I have a 1 week and 6 day old! Crazy!!!

Since my last post, I made a compromise with my dear husband... He called the other day asking about another golf tournament, so I told him he can go but he has to spend the last 2 weekends of July with the two of us. He agreed. Breast feeding has been going better as well, minus that every time she gets hungry she puts her hands by her face, thus I can't see her mouth to latch her on and she lunges and tries to latch her self to my nipple (or she just sucks and doesn't give me a wide open mouth...). I feel like I need a third arm to hold her arm down just to get her to latch. Once she gets some milk in her the arm isn't an issue, it's just that first latch... So if anybody has some tips for a 2 armed mommy, let me know!

Two nights ago we had another bad night. My confidence was severely shaken as a mother. I was up for 4 hours again, between 1 and 5am. I got frustrated and I don't like getting frustrated, then on top of that I thought my husband was mad at me for getting frustrated (turns out he wasn't, it was just the cranky side of him upon waking up-guess I can't fault him for that because I'm cranky too when I first wake up). He did take her at 5am and get her to finally fall asleep after countless attempts to feed her and give her her binky. What I have learned from this... She still acts as if she is hungry even when she is done eating but if I rock her she stops and starts to fall asleep in a short amount of time. AND, if I rock her and get her asleep or almost asleep before putting her down, she continues to sleep and not fuss, which is what was happening as well. The last 2 nights of doing this have been much better, and I can typically get her to fall sleep with in 30 minutes. What has also been helpful is my husband has been taking her after her 4am feeding and changing her and rocking her to sleep so I can get a little bit more sleep. It's nice not having to catch up on my sleep in the morning and to be able to actually sleep during the night. (Although, I have found I am guilty of letting her spit out some cry's before actually getting up with her to make sure she is actually hungry and not just a little fussy or "talking" in her sleep...). Things keep getting better, but I have to realize no matter what there will be some bad nights and I just have to take them in stride.