Life:
Well, it turns out that that hellish week 7 was just an adjustment period for Harmony- things went a lot smoother this week. I still get really frustrated in the evenings when Harmony is really fussy, but I'm learning to better understand her little noises and can usually tell pretty quickly what the problem is. Her most common problem at night is that she's exhausted but she just can't settle herself off to sleep. She usually needs her soother, swing, or both before she gets calmed enough to sleep. She still refuses to sleep in her crib, and has now started rejecting even her car bed. I usually let her sleep in her swing for her first few hours of sleep and I've now moved it to my room. So far that has worked a lot better. After her middle of the night feeding (usually somewhere from 1-3), she'll settle in her carseat, and then same goes after her early morning meal (from 5-7). After she wakes up again (around 9:30 or 10), she usually stays up for a while, for a little play time, shower and bath time (she hangs out on the floor in the carseat while I shower until it's her turn to get clean). Then she'll usually settle off for a nap (around noon) and then we usually have an outing, like Drop-In or visiting Dee-Dee or shopping. Then she usually eats every couple hours until her night time fussy time comes around. I usually feed her a lot- for an hour or more, before trying to settle her off, firstly because I want her to go a fairly long stretch so I can get some deep sleep, and secondly because the closeness and being able to suck as long as she wants seems to really soothe her. You'll notice there are a lot of "usually"s in this entry- although her routine is starting to show through, she definetely doesn't stick with it. At night time it gets a little sketchy- she'll all over the place. The earliest she's settled for the night has been at 10:30- usually it's more like 11:30 and sometimes she still goes til 12 or 1, much to my frustration. But hey, at least she's getting more predictable, hopefully that trend will continue...
Harmony's Growth:
Harmony weighed in at 10 lbs 14 oz on Monday, which is a good, healthy weight for her- no wonder those little cheeks and knees are getting so chubby! The diaper rash that she's had a for a couple weeks has now cleared up since I've been using the cream Dr. Moss prescribed. It's so frustrating, because I waited until I got my drug card from welfare to get Harmony's cream because I thought- why pay for it if it'll be covered when I get the card- it's not very long to wait. So I finally get it and they tell me it's not covered! Grr... She's had a lot of skin problems lately though- she seems to have really sensitive skin, especially in the face area. Her infant acne is gone, but she now has cradle cap. I went to the clinic on Monday and the nurse there started telling me all the things I should do- switch to the (very expensive!) baby laundry detergent to wash all her clothes in and mine too since her face rubs against my clothes, buy a special (very expensive) oatmeal based soap (I think it's called Avenno?), wash her face 3-4 times a day with warm water, give her a bath every single day, wash her hair with vegetable oil, buy Dove unscented soap for her body, and change my diet to not included any acidic foods like juice or anything with tomatoes in it like spaghetti or pizza. I just broke down crying- it was so overwhelming! What I thought was a little skin problem, I was supposed to change out lives for? Then the nurse noticed how upset I was and started saying stuff like "Well, how old are you?" "Well, see you're 18, and that's so amazing that you're doing stuff already... I didn't mean to do everything, just do what you can." I've talked to other people since who've told me she went way overboard on this one, and I tend to agree. I'm doing what I can, washing her hair every day with the vegetable oil, and I did buy the Dove unscented, but not that ridiculous other soap. And her cradle cap does seem to be getting better, so hopefully I wont have to go through all those other drastic measures.
A milestone! Last Sunday morning, for the first time, Harmony did not cry during her entire bath, and she even smiled during her bath! She's been continuously working on her smiles and little noises. One morning this week, I woke up around 9:30 am to her little noises- she wasn't crying, just making funny little sounds, so I stayed in bed. At 10 I peeked in and she was wide awake, looking around her room (she was in her carseat in the crib- she wont sleep in her crib yet) and just talking to the walls I guess! :) Then I walked up to her and said "Hi sweetheart- good morning!". She turned towards me and smiled!!! Her eyes just totally lit up like "Finally! Someone I can talk to!" and then I changed her diaper and we had a little chat and she was really cute and happy the whole time. It was such a nice change from when she wakes up cranky and wants to eat right away. Her motor skills are improving- she's still doing really well at following toys and doing ok at turning towards noises and voices. She's ahead in that department. The only thing lacking in her physical skills is the ability to hold her head up when lying on her stomach. I've been trying to let her spend more time in that position- I haven't really had her lying like that much in the past. I'm not worried about it though, because in any other position, her head support is excellent. One exciting skill is being uncovered- she's started to discover her hands! I don't think she's been able to focus on them before, but now she's starting to cast curious glances in their direction. Pretty soon (like, in a few months) she'll realize they are an extension of herself and I'll have to watch what goes in that little mouth! :)
"Fourth Trimester":
I had my checkup with Dr. Wolfish, who says my incision is healing nicely and everything else checks out ok. It still bothers me sometimes when I'm lifting something heavy or walking fast, but on the whole, I barely notice it's there. My weight checked in at 15 pounds less than before Harmony was born- which means I've still got 30 to lose. I'd gone down 20 pounds, but I guess I've gone back up- feels like it's mostly "milk weight" though! :)