and now the calm

for the last 2 weeks we have only had 2 nights where it was the hub, the little girl & i on our own. the sunday we came home from the hospital - which was a little rough as we had the 2 pups & the cat to acclimate to the new baby. and a long night of getting used to baby noises & feeding & changing. then the in-laws came for a few days which coincided with our hospital stay #2. once we got home from that we had one thursday night together & then my parents came for the weekend & my mom stayed for the week.
now- i love my mom & she is awesome with the baby & cooks & bakes like a madwoman. which is good because we feast, but we also eat like we never do normally so that means too stuffed, a lot of calories & not a little discomfort with the intestines. plus- while i do love & appreciate all that she does- she does not clean up after herself. i can see her point in that she was doing all the cooking, but typically when i cook i clean up as i go & i try very hard to keep the kitchen clean. she does not. it got a little tough towards the end of the week as every single day the dishwasher was running at least once- sometimes twice a day. we usually only have it running twice a week. it's a small pet peeve, but with very little sleep it becomes a big annoyance to both the hub & i. i will miss her being here now that she is gone & i really do wish my parents were closer so we could visit more often.
last night a friend of the hub's came over to see the baby with his girlfriend. i ended up in a totally foul mood by the end of the night. my sister & i had caiden at the mall for a few hours yesterday- long enough to feed her twice while out. they stopped by right at dinner time- unannounced. irritant #1. who just pops by a house with a 2 week old?
then the girlfriend proceeds to tell me:
- that i need to keep the dogs away from the baby because she'll inhale the dander & get horrible asthma & possibly die. (um- thanks, but prominent medical journals & studies have disagreed with you on that one...)
- that i am spoiling my baby by letting her be held while she's sleeping. i need to put her down & let her cry.
- that when my baby is fussy because she's gassy that i shouldn't be rocking her because she never rocked her babies & they are just fine.
then she proceeded to eat half our dinner & hang out for over an hour & a half while i had to go upstairs to feed my crying fussy baby. that i apparently am spoiling. i was so livid & fed up with being insulted that i tried to give the hub the hint to get them the hell out of there, which he did- but by going with them to fix his friend's computer. which meant that he was gone for over an hour & a half. annoying me even more.
my aunt & uncle stopped by with their granddaughter last night too, but after the day we had she was very fussy & couldn't calm down. which meant we cluster fed a lot while the rest of my family got to visit together. i know this isn't entirely the girlfriend's fault, but i still blame her anyway. if she hadn't been there & upset me at first then maybe caiden wouldn't have been overstimulated & maybe we all would have had a better night.
as it was my sister & brother-in-law are still here for another night & my sis took the baby this morning so i could sleep. which was awesome. then we had a nice lazy day & got dressed around 3:30 for our big outing of a walk to the ice cream stand. she is still sacked out in her carseat because she loves the stroller so much it put her completely out & i couldn't bear to wake her up to take her out.

i have started pumping- but i am starting nice & slow. i am doing one side one time a day while i feed her. so far 2 pump sessions have yielded almost 4 ounces. so i am stoked about that. we are also going to try to alter how we feed to see if it helps with her fussy/gassy sessions. i think i have been pretty much doing it backwards by letting her eat for about 10 mins on the first side & then as long as she wants on #2. i am reversing that & giving full access to #1 & then what she wants on #2. i honestly didn't know about the fore/hindmilk thing until today.

well- it's time for princess piggy to eat again, so here's to getting it right!