I made it through another week as the mother of a newborn!! That may not be much of an accomplishment for some, but for me it feels pretty huge! It was kind a busy week too…
Monday - We had a pediatrician appt. at 8:30. Sunday night was not a good night, so Mark and I were both very short on sleep. VERY!! We had both been up half the night. Mark had inadvertently scheduled an appointment for his life insurance at the same time, so I had to break the rules and drive to the pediatrician myself. I was looking fabulous…I hadn’t had a shower. Just washed my face, brushed my teeth, put on some fresh deodorant and pulled my hair up in a ponytail. Luckily having a newborn with you makes people excuse you for looking like you just rolled out of bed! LOL The appointment itself went well…Anna was up to 7lbs, 10oz…that’s a whole pound more than she weighed when we left the hospital!! The pediatrician was very pleased, and commented that breastfeeding must be going very well for us! She’d also grown 3/4″. I had a nice, long talk with the pediatrician about Anna’s sleeping issues and she ended up prescribing some drops to help her little stomach not hurt her so much.
Monday night went much better. We started trying to implement a bedtime routine. Bath, massage with baby lotion, feeding, give her a dose of the prescription drops, get her to sleep, put her in the bassinet. Since then, it’s not been flawless by any means, but we’ve gotten more sleep than we were getting. Monday night she was the model newborn (well almost)…we put her down in the bassinet and from there she woke up every 3 hours to eat and went right back to sleep. Of course, she wouldn’t go back in the bassinet, but, hey, sleeping with a baby on me is way better than not sleeping at all, right? Here is my sweet little Anna being held by her daddy after her bath on Monday night. She’s wearing her frog sleeper…this is only notable because it’s the very first baby item I bought. Katie and I picked it out back in December before we knew I was having a girl. Also notice the slightly less crazy hair. Rest assured the neatly combed hair only lasted about 5 minutes…I love this picture:

Tuesday was uneventful, Wednesday afternoon Jennifer, Madeline and Caleb got here. We made a couple quick outings before Mark got home, then hung out at the house and had pizza for dinner. The kids were so excited to see baby Anna! It was so cute…here is Anna meeting 2 of her cousins for the first time:
Yesterday we went shopping for most of the day. It went much better this time…maybe having another mother with me helped…at least one of us knew what she was doing! After a bit of a hiccup at our first stop (trying to figure out how the stroller works) everything went great. All the kids were so well-behaved. Anna did fuss in the car, but did really well in the stores. The one time she did get fussy, I took her in the dressing room with me and fed her before I tried on my new jeans (same size as pre-pregnancy, thank you!). All in all, it wasn’t a stressful as I had anticipated. Thanks Jennifer! I really needed to build some confidence about being in public with a newborn! Oh, AND Jennifer also got a couple sleeper than FIT Anna (this has been a problem) and a couple little outfits too! AND Jennifer, Madeline and Caleb babysat last night so Mark and I could go out alone. I had not left Anna ever…in all her 16 days of life. That was WAY harder than I thought it would be. If it hadn’t been Jennifer (or another family member) here watching her, I don’t think I would’ve left. Anna hardly knew I was gone, of course. She was asleep when I left…I went in to see her before I left and she looked so tiny lying in her crib. As irrational as I knew it was…I felt SO guilty leaving her. I got a little teary (getting a little teary now thinking about it), but Mark and I still left. We went to the Opera House and had a light dinner (crab cakes!) and then to the Pub for a beer. We were only gone about 2 hours. I think we had fun, but I was ready to go home. When we got there Anna had been up for 20 or 30 minutes and looked rather happy with Jennifer holding her (and a pacifier in her mouth!! I’ve been trying to get her to take a pacifier for a week or so with no success). This is what I came home to:

The kid didn’t miss me at all!! That’s ok, though, I missed her! There are a few other pics from Jennifer’s visit on my Flickr page. There’s a great one of Caleb & Anna…I’m assuming Jennifer took that one while we were gone last night. It’s really cute! Caleb really loved baby Anna! Well, how could you not?
Today we’ve been pretty lazy. We’re going to a cookout at another couple’s house later…if it doesn’t get rained out. Right now I’m getting ready to make the dreaded trip to Wal-Mart. Alone. I’m trying not to think about that part. I’d much prefer not to take Anna. Wal-mart is stressful enough for me without stressing about getting done with my shopping before she gets fussy. I’ll make that leap later! Mark needs to have Anna to himself anyway…he hasn’t ever been completely alone with her. Still, I’m not looking forward to leaving her. Ack!
Ok…I must get going. Baby to feed, Wal-mart trip to make, etc. Have a safe and happy 4th!!