Leslie Lee’s Weblog

Who is who??

It’s 3:35am, I just got up to feed Olivia, and can’t sleep, so I’ve decided to share my pretty boring thoughts…thoughts that go through my head while I’m feeding…

Breastfeeding Bra Pads

I’ve tried a few different ones, and here’s my advice: ditch the Avent brand and go for the Medela! The Avent’s are big, puffy & flat, there is no hiding the fact that you have padding in your bra and it makes it look like you have giant, swollen areolas. Not cute. The Medela brand are really thin, yet absorbent, they’re contoured to fit a round boob, and big enough for good coverage of my big ole DD’s. They aren’t noticeable at all. The only thing that bugs me about them is that each pad is individually wrapped in the package, and the wrapping is this really thin material similar to the produce bags at the grocery store, so one, I feel bad about the “green” factor (like I’m creating more landfill every time I use a pad), and two, if your boob is leaking every where and you’re trying to get that pad fast, fumbling to get that really thin plastic bag open is a pain (think of opening those produce bags with really dry fingers), a pain in the arse. But really that’s minimal pain. Price wise, they’re about the same. A pack of 100 Avent pads are $9.99, and 60 Medela’s are $5.49; they have the Avent’s at Target, but I have only found the Medela’s at Babies R Us, which isn’t so convenient, but oh well. So, if you have leaking booby-juice, go for the Medela pads.

Breast Pump

While I was pregnant and registering for baby stuff I saw the electric breast pump for $279 and thought, HOLY SHIZZ! That’s ridiculous! Why would you need a $300 breast pump?! I registered for the cheap-o little had pump. But now I know! One of my favorite things to do these days (this sounds so sick) is to pump my booby-juice. Olivia was jaundice when she was born, and so to help get my milk in, the Newborn Club at Kaiser rented me a big ole electric breast pump. (The nurses asked me if I had a breast pump, and I said yes – a hand pump – and they laughed) It is the greatest thing in the world! The first couple of weeks Olivia was here, I breastfed her and then I’d have to supplement her with a 2oz bottle. And then I’d pump for 10mins to help my milk supply. At first the bottles were formula, but as soon as my milk came in I was able to pump out a few ounces to supplement her with. These days I’m able to pump sometimes 7-8oz in less than 10 minutes, which is the most wonderful thing for two reasons. One, omg, when your boobs are that full it is soooo painful! My nipples are burning, my skin is so tight it feels like it’s just going to explode like shrapnel, and they’re rock hard and heavy! And if I try to feed when they’re all engorged, as soon as the poor baby even looks at it, it starts squirting out like a fire hose! So she starts choking because it comes out too fast, she unlatches, and then gets soaked – that part is actually quite funny! So the fast convenient electric pump not only helps with engorgement, but it also makes night time feeding easier (I give O a bottle of breast milk during the middle of the night feedings because breastfeeding takes 30-45 minutes, when bottles only take about 10) and it give me more freedom with her. If I need to go out, and John has her, or my mom is babysitting, they can feed her. And it saves money – formula is EXPENSIVE! (Not to mention stinky!) So, register for an electric breast pump! My rental is up when Miss Livi turns a month old, I wish I had put that on my registry!

Wash Cloths

Who knew how useful these tiny little pieces of towel could be! The little baby wash cloths are so soft and the perfect size to use as a little bib for baby and boob, to put under a boob while pumping, to use in a bath, to use just to wipe down a sticky face, for just about everything! I got a whole bunch as gifts, and thought, what the heck am I going to do with ALL THESE?? But seriously, you can never have too many!

Cloth Diapers

The Gerber cloth diapers make the best burp cloths! You can never have too many of these either. They’re not too expensive, and not too pretty, so you don’t feel bad when they get all icky and stained. They’re thick and absorbent and the perfect size.

Zippers

Zippers on baby clothes is stupid. Yeah, they’re quicker than snaps, but the zipper pull up at baby’s neck isn’t a good thing. It gets all in her neck/chin rolls and leaves big red marks. Me no likey. We do have a couple pajamas that have a zipper and then this protective flap with a snap, so it covers the zipper pull at the top, but I still don’t like how the zipper ripples and bends all the way up her body, but that’s just me being picky.

Rain

We got this Sleep Sheep as a gift. It’s this really cute, soft stuft sheep with a sound machine inside. It plays a heartbeat, whale sounds, ocean and rain. It is the greatest thing in the world! A total lifesaver. It puts Olivia right to sleep, I mean right to sleep. I haven’t really tried any other sounds than the rain, just because that’s what I prefer, but I’m sure any of them would work. But I highly recomment a sound machine, even if you have trouble sleeping, it’s really soothing.

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OLIVIA

So, what’s new with MissLivi (her nickname these days)…well we went to see the cardiologist last week. Baby still has a heart murmur, a small hole in her heart, which isn’t totally uncommon. The doctor said it’s not anything to totally worry about, it will probably fix itself by the time she is 3 or 4 years old. There’s a 1% chance that it may not though, and if that happens, they insert a tube through a vein in her thigh, and place some sort of device to fix it. So atleast she wouldn’t have to have open heart surgery or something like that. But we’re not going to think about that unless it happens, and I’m sure we’ll find that her sweet little heart fixes itself.

Tuesday we went and had her hearing re-tested and I’m happy to report that she passed! At the hospital they tested her hearing, but her right ear didn’t pass. They said that that’s pretty common as well, because there is sometimes fluid in the ear right after birth. I was wondering, how do they test a baby’s hearing? It’s not like they can raise their hand when they hear a noise. So, here’s how they do it – they have these tiny little baby earphones that stick over baby’s ears (yeah, stick, like with sticky stuff) and then they stick on these electrodes to baby’s forehead, back and shoulders. The earphones make sounds, and the electrodes measure something – I guess the baby’s reactions. I wish I had a camera, Olivia looked so silly with all that stuff stuck to her. They have you feed the baby before the appointment so that they’re asleep and not all fussy, and she was really good and slept the whole time until it was time to take off those stupid sticky earphones which stuck to her hair, she totally started screaming when the nurse was trying to remove them. Oh, that poor nurse felt so bad! The sticky stuff is water soluble, so she went and got a washcloth and pretty much washed Olivia’s hair to get those earphones off.

Olivia had her first bath last week. I was so excited to finally get to really wash her! It took forever for that stupid belly button to completely fall out, and she was getting kind of crusty, so the bath was much needed. I was expecting resistance and misery, but she looked like she actually enjoyed it. We did it in the mid morning when she’s the most awake, and she sat there and kicked her feet and looked around, she didn’t even mind when I used the faucet shower to wet & rinse her hair and got water in her face. She really seems to enjoy the water and so far every bath time has been the same, no tears. I guess she’ll be just like Mommy and Daddy, and be a good swimmer. John’s joke – “I wonder if she’ll be a really good diver, like Mommy, too” Hehe, not funny. Afterwards, she got all prettied up and even got a cute little clip in her hair!

 Isn’t she getting big?? I look at her first pictures, and that doesn’t even look like her anymore! She’s just starting to coo, it’s the cutest thing. She is so funny, she’s definitely her mothers daughter! She lays down for the night around 10:30, she usually gets up around 2 or 3am, then again sometime between 5:30-7, she goes back down really easy and then sleeps until 10am! When she gets up at this time she is wide awake, it’s my favorite time of the day with her. She’s super happy and wide eyed until 12:30/1:00, then she gets fussy and she fights the tired. I hate that. It’s her new thing. She’s super tired, but she doesn’t want to sleep. She acts like she’s hungry, and roots for the boob, but she doesn’t really want it. And then she cries and wails her arms and legs. She turns all red and purple and screams in frustration. It sucks for like 45 minutes, until she finally gives in. The best way to get her to calm down is her car seat, it’d be nice if the car went along with it, but no, that would be too easy. If you walk her around in her car seat carrier thing, she calms down almost instantly. The problem with this is the dang carrier weighs like 40lbs (a little exaggeration, but that’s what it feels like) and it’s kind of awkward to walk with. (Don’t get me wrong, I LoVE this car seat! It’s super convenient not to have to wake baby up every time you get out of the car.) But yeah, as soon as you start walking with that thing, and her head sort of wobbles around in there, the calm starts and her eyes close, but if you stop short of a 10 minute walk, you have to start all over. I guess it reminds her of me waddling around with her in my tummy!

Today Olivia had her first wellness check up (her first visit with the pediatrician). I thought it was at 9:30 this morning, so I got up before Olivia, so that I could shower and get myself ready, then I got her up (because gawd forbid the girl woke herself up!), fed her, cleaned her up so that she was presentable and we were off – only about 10 minutes late. But lo and behold! Our appointment was at 10:00! So we were EARLY!! Jees, I felt like such a responsible parent! I thought like we looked like we totally had it together, here I am with a newborn and I had on make up and my hair blow dried, and she was all dressed cute and quiet (more like passed out) and WE WERE ON TIME! Hahahaha, little do people know! Anyhoot, it was a proud moment…

So, she was very good in the dr’s office. She woke up and was all bright eyed and happy. Our pediatrician, Dr.Griffin, was very nice & informative. Olivia got weighed today, and HOLY COW! When she was born, she was 6lbs, 15.5oz. She was a little jaundice, and she lost weight, her lowest being 6lbs, 4oz. But the last time we visited the Newborn Club she had gained a few ounces, and was up to 6lbs, 7oz – that was her last weigh in. WELL. Today she was – dun dah dun dun – 7lbs, 8.5oz!! Yeah! Whatta fatty! She gained a whole 18 ounces! Hahahaha, the doctor said that at 2 weeks old it’s good to see a baby back up to their birth weight, so Olivia is doing really well.

In other news, it turns out that she might have a heart murmur. The doctor at the hospital (when she was born) heard it too, but it was slight, and they didn’t think that it was detrimental, so they sent us home. They said that that sometimes happens when a baby is making that transition from womb to the outside, so…but today our pediatrician also heard it, so it didn’t go away. She said that it was nothing to worry about, but has referred us to a cardiologist. We have that appointment on Thursday. We’ll see what happens, in the mean time I’m not going to stress about it…

Welp, alright, I guess I should go since Olivia is screaming her head off and Daddy sounds like he doesn’t know what to do…

It’s been a while! You’d think I was busy or something!

Actually, no, it’s not that bad.

So, Miss Olivia is the best baby ever! Today she is 13 days old. The first week she was home, she was absolutely, well, boring. No, that’s not true, but she didn’t do much, not that she does that much now…but all she did was sleep. She was a little jaundice, so we had to feed her about every two hours, but she wouldn’t even wake up unless we bugged her! Needless to say, she skipped a few meals overnight, oops!

Now her jaundice is gone, and she lets us know she’s hungry every 3 hours or so. She’s eating about 3-4oz at every feeding, and her belly is getting BIG! (last week, it was hard for her to get 1.5oz down) I know it’s just gas, but she smiles and makes all sorts of funny faces, she’s very animated, I think that’s a sign of what’s to come. My favorite face is her “fierce” face, it’s the picture where it kind of looks like she’s yawning, but no, she opens her mouth real wide to show her non-existant teeth, and then she, almost violently, shakes her head back and forth, as if saying NO! She does that a lot when I’m trying to feed her, it’s hilarious.

Welp, I’m having a really good time being mommy! Until next time…