Meh. . .

Today was so-so. Maria was a lot less fussy today so my headache finally went away. The visit to the pediatrician was so-so. She weighed in at 7lbs 8oz on one scale and 7lbs 12 oz on the other scale. While I would like to think she is at 7lbs 12 oz the doc thought is was closer to 8oz. He suggested we supplement with more formula. I'm disappointed that breast feeding is not working out like I wanted it to. Whoever says its the most natural thing in the world never tried to breast feed a baby! I'm not giving up but I've had to accept the fact that I'm just not producing enough to get her to thrive. The doc said despite the lack of weight gain, Maria is very healthy and very strong so that is always good news. I think Chris is secretly happy about formula because that means he gets to feed her.

Ok, here's what you really want- pix.

4 weeks!

today maria is 4 weeks old and what a day it has been. she woke up at 7am spitting up. i got her cleaned up, diaper changed, and calmed down. then i fed her about 8. she cried until 9. i fed her at 9. then she cried until 10 so i fed her at 10. this went on until after noon. she went to sleep about 5 minutes before chris came home for lunch. she and i slept until about 2:30pm. i fed her at 3pm then she cried until 4pm, so i fed her at 4pm then she cried until 5pm. she fell asleep 5 minutes before chris came home for the day. she woke up and started crying about halfway through our dinner. so guess what? i fed her. she thanked me with a huge blow it out the side poop diaper. chris cleaned her up while i cleaned myself up. then guess what? yeah- i fed her some more. chris took over maria care for the night and i took a shower. she has been asleep the whole time for chris.

so the theme today is i got all the spit up, poop, crying, sore nipples from feeding, more crying and more crying. chris gets all the sweet baby sleepy breathy noises and snuggles. all i have to say is- mom, if you are reading this and i did this to you- i am soooooooo sorry!

Waking up Maria

Our garden grows

Well we did it again. Bug wouldn't go to sleep this morning, so we fell asleep with her on our chest. Maria was fussy all morning. Amelia fixed us a proper English breakfast: scones, eggs, tomato slices, but sadly no sausage links. It was close to noon before we both got to eat.

Once we got Maria to take a nap, I went out to garden. I cleaned out the plants that didn't make it through the heat. I dug up the potatoes that I planted back in January. I actually got a good number of potatoes. While they aren't the giant Yukon gold from my birth state of Idaho, they are going to make a nice batch of rosemary potatoes. I planted honey dew, and a watermelon today. Hopefully, they will grow and by the end of the summer we will have some delicious melons.

There were a couple of Maria firsts today. She wore socks for the first time today. She kept them on for at least fifteen minutes before she kicked them off. She also played on her mat for the first time today. Play might be a little optimistic, she mostly just laid on her back looking around, but humble beginnings have glorious endings.

Later, our good friends Jake, Alicia, and their one and a half year old Naomi came to visit. They made an awesome dinner for us. Usually, Maria has a meltdown between 7 and 8 PM, but with Alicia holding her she stayed calm the entire hour. Maybe she can come over and hold her more often.

Saturday's alright for fightin'

Bug was a real pill last night. She would feed and fall asleep, but the second we would try to put her in her little bassinet, she would wake up and scream. We spent a couple of hours rocking her and trying to get he to go fall into a deep sleep. Each time we would get her to close her eyes, she would wake back up and scream. Around 4 AM, Amelia fed her for the last time and she fell asleep on Amelia's chest. I know we aren't going to win any parenting awards, and it was just plain dangerous, but she fell asleep for several hours.

She outgrew her first outfit today. It was a very cute Paul Frank onesie. I feel a little sentimental because it helps to cement the reality that she will never be that small again. We really should cherish these days because she is growing fast. We weighed her today and she came up as 7.8 lbs wearing clothes and diaper. It feels like we have turned the corner on the weight issues she had previously. She is beginning to put a little chub on her frame. Her belly, hands and feet are all getting a little more chubby, making her that much more cute.

Tonight, I realized that Chuy's has a to-go service and I was able to order and go pick it up. It was the first time that I have eaten Chuy's since Maria's birth. I used to go there at least once a week, so I was really jonesing for Tex-Mex. Amelia had the enchiladas with a chocolate shake from Whataburger and I had my "big as yo face" chicken burrito. Here's hoping that bug sleeps better tonight because we may be in a food coma.

Thank heaven for Grandparents

I missed a day on the blog because I finally decided to listen to the advice of the nurses at Seton, "if the baby is asleep you should be asleep". Maria went to bed at 9 last night and so did I. The 9 o'clock hour is usually when I write, thus no blog.

Amelia's parents came into town yesterday and it was a god send. With

their arrival Amelia has had a little down time. They have really helped us out, especially in the meal department. We get so fixated on our Bug that we don't do a very good job of taking care of ourselves. The grands have given us some wonderful meals and even better company. Plus, Amelia's dad helped fix our garage door which has plagued us with jams, since we bought the joint.

On the Maria front, today she has been really fussy. She woke up and fed and then decided to have an explosive accident. We cleaned up the mess and then I headed off to work. The joys of parenting. Later in the day Amelia broke the breast pump that we had just bought yesterday. We passed on the product replacement plan, we are so smart. Luckily, Medela hooked us up with a replacement part that will be here in the next couple of days at no charge.

There was a lot of inconsolable crying from Maria this afternoon. Daisy decided that she was tired of the crying and hid underneath the coffee table. Grandpa finally got her to settle down and take an afternoon nap.

When I got home from work Maria was asleep and we enjoyed a nice family dinner together. When she woke up we went on a little walk.

While the day started a little rough we muddled our way through with the help of our family.

Big Ole Jet Airliner

The house is oddly empty tonight. My family left to return home. My mother boarded a train this morning for Fort Worth. Tony made his flight back to Burbank. It was really nice to have them here because as the saying goes "many hands make for light work".

It feels like we have turned a corner with little bug. She is now waking up every 3 hours to be fed and because of it she is generally much less fussy. She is giving us a smile every now and then which makes it much easier to deal with her difficult moments.

Tonight, Bug, Amelia and I danced to Ima Bee by the Black Eye Peas. Bug shakes her arms wildly in typical newborn fashion, but it looks like she is dancing. Amelia listened to that song alot when Bug was still in the womb so whenever we hear it on the radio we feel like we have to dance.

I took half the day off, The Tyler Family had a good day today.