eleanor: week two

only a day late... not so bad!

weight
i dont remember exactly what she weighed when we brought her home (she was down 4% of her 6lbs 15oz birth weight, someone else do the math). at her 1 week check up she weighed 7lbs 1oz, and at todays check up she was 7lbs 3.8oz. keep up the good work, kid!

health
so far so good. a pharmacy student came in while we were in the hospital and gave me info about giving babies vitamin D drops to help support brain development and prevent rickets... apparently thats still a thing?! i remember giving it to henry when he was born (supposed to be every day for a year or something... i think we did it approximately every other day (when/if i would remember) and then it sat in the fridge and certainly wasnt given for a year (if a month). the one the pharmacy girl gave me (wanted $5 for it but the credit card machine wasnt working so she just gave it to me) was going to be 1mL every day (they dont have the concentrated dose kind yet... i remember henrys doctor recommending it but his was one drop that i could just put in his bottle or on my nipple). she said sometimes they spit it up or think its too sweet and you have to be careful giving it too fast and gave me all these directions on how to administer it blah blah blah... so anyway, i took the box and didnt think about it any more until we got home. i started doing some research and ended up looking at the ingredients on the box- pretty sure my newborn doesnt need citric acid, caramel, or artificial cherry flavoring (among the rest of the other 9 ingredients in the "natural vitamin D supplement"). so i went to the natural foods store and bought the actual vitamin D drops (1 ingredient... vitamin D!) and long story short, i still have yet to give it to her. $15 well spent im sure.

looks healthy to me! #chins

sleep
the majority of the pics we have of her so far show she tends to be asleep more than shes awake. we had one rough night early on, but overall she is a good sleeper, about 2.5 to 3.5 hour stretches throughout the night. she still wants nothing to do with the bassinet or laying flat on any surface, she would much rather be propped slightly upright and loves sleeping in the rock & play. although it states good for sleeping (if you google "rock & play" it comes up with "rock & play sleeper"...), a lot of blogs and reviews say it isnt good for them to sleep all night in it. first of all, she doesnt sleep all night. second of all, judge away. its what works for us (and her) to get any sleep at all, and her head will not be flat and shes still perfect and ill do what i want regardless of what other people say. shes mine, not yours.

clothes
the "newborn" onesies and feet pajamas are looking slightly snug, but she still swims in the 0-3 month clothes (ironic- in henrys two week update i wrote the very same thing. i apparently make little tiny peanuts hehe). shes still wearing newborn diapers (i am not a fan of the "seventh generation" diapers, prefer pampers. ill start cloth diapers in a couple of pounds). we are constantly finding one sock missing from her feet and she also wont keep them on her hands (the mittens are useless and wont stay on so we have been putting socks on her hands so she wont scar up her face... those find their way off as well. we do have some clothes that has little hand pockets which has worked well).

this is how i feel about not being able to use my hands guys

meg bought me some new hats!

nicknames
we have all the nicknames for her! im sure this is normal (at least thats what im telling myself)-
little miss thang, E, Elle, Ellie (im not sure what we will actually end up calling her. im sure something will stick), stinky (she certainly lives up to this one), muffin, ive called her henry once (ok maybe a few times), froggy/frogger (she has these long skinny legs that are constantly stretching out and recoiling, making putting pants on terribly difficult... and makes her look kinda like a frog)

outings
we've had tons of doctors appointments between her and henry (and duke!) so since we have been out and about anyway, might as well stop at target (a few times), hannaford and dunkin donuts, right? we also went to see a few friends at the maine marathon expo and met little EJ! he isnt so little anymore though.

baby gear love
the rock and play is the only thing she will sleep in, so im thankful to have that. ive carried her in the ergo and baby bjorn carrier a few times (good for bringing her to the bus stop with henry, and for reference- i like the baby bjorn carrier much better. its less bulky and much easier to get on/i feel more comfortable wearing it. E doesnt appear to have a preference either way at this point). i feel like the pack and play (where we change her when we are downstairs) needs to be a little higher, it hurts my back to bend over (i dont remember it being this way when we used it for henry... and i cant imagine it feels any better for tyler who is much taller than me). one of tylers co workers gave us a diaper dekor- so many blogs say the diaper pails are a waste but omg i love it! i wish we had this for henry. super easy to use and does not stink at all (and holds so many diapers!). we will be able to use it when we transition to cloth as well, which will be helpful. i also didnt realize until the week before she came and i was getting things ready that the attachment for the car seat i had for my bob stroller wasnt going to work with our new car seat. apparently it is an attachment for car seats "pre 2016" (link is for the newer version). as much as i love the bob, i wont be running with her in it until she can sit in the regular part of it anyway, and i found a universal stroller to attach the car seat to at a consignment shop for $18 vs the $60 a new bob attachment was going to cost me. so im happy about that.

the 5 S's
swaddling- just like her brother she hates it and busts her arms out. im not good at it anyway so we just gave up. i have a few of the swaddle blankets that attach with velcro and help swaddle her but allow her feet to stretch out which is a little better. side lying- she does this sometimes after nursing but mostly she lays on her back. shushing- do people really think this works? not for her. swinging- we dont have a swing. well actually we kinda have some sort of swing thing that my neighbor gave me but i havent tried it yet. maybe ill do that soon. sucking- on everything. yes.

crying
E is a super chill baby and really only cries if shes super unhappy, which isnt often. mostly when im not fast enough in getting my boob to her face. life is full of disappointments, kid. learn it early (but i wont make you wait long, i promise)

milestones
hmmm what milestones does a 2 week old have? she gained some weight and her head circumference grew. she certainly poops a lot. her head is very strong and she shows it off all the time. she wasnt all too impressed with tummy time but we will keep working on it.

postpartum/motherhood (again)
its amazing, once again. there are a lot of things that i remember from last time (random crying, running on empty, so.much.laundry!) but there are quite a few that i forgot as well (super sad nipples, how much cluster feeding sucks (repeat, sad nipples), fancy mesh underwear that gave me a sweet rash along the waistband, week upon week of a period without use of a tampon is totally sweet... hello 6th grade! also, barf. this whole baby thing is truly glamorous, dont you think?). i definitely feel like my anxiety this time around is much better/less and im more or less just going with the flow (and trying to find a way to slow down time!).

hows henry doing? 
were all still adjusting but he is really great with all of the change and appears to still think the world of Eleanor. hes a bit needy but hes also still 5 years old. wants our attention and we try hard to give it to him and not push him aside (just writing that sounds awful but things are infinitely busier and more difficult to give him the specific one on one time he got before she arrived). he loves school and came home with an award from their school assembly last friday for "excellent reading". he was very proud of it, as are we (i just wish someone would have told me about it so i could have gone and see him receive the award!)

practicing on his doll to help feed E

how are duke and chips?
adding to the multitude of medical bills we will have from the month, duke went to the vet this week and has conjunctivitis and double ear infections. this dog i tell ya!! always something. hes great around E though, doesnt seem to care much as long as we feed and water him and let him out (multiple times a day... always on the wrong side of the door for sure). and chips is seeming a bit jealous and wants some mommy time, always coming up and sitting on my lap when im breastfeeding as well as when i dont have E with me and am sitting somewhere.

always up to no good

hows daddy doing?
"great" he says. so descriptive. (hes certainly getting more sleep than mommy, but is very helpful with everything and i could not imagine doing any of this without him!) and it is quite apparent that this little girl is already wrapped around her daddys finger.

random 2nd week pics (hard to choose out of the hundreds ive taken haha)

on henrys 2nd week blog i shared this video/commercial that meg had sent to me at the time (which of course made me cry, how could it not! and still does...)

this time around my brother had a video for me to watch. all. the. tears! you cant keep doing this to me you guys! (my hormones also cant take the new show "million little things"!)