Many Things, featuring Philosophy Soup

Baby Check
This week Kaylee weighed in at 8lbs, 11.5oz. That's only up 2.5 oz from last week, and they want to see 4-8 oz... so maybe I'm not feeding her enough. She usually seems satisfied after her bottles of expressed milk, but perhaps I need to start offering her more! I just dislike that I have to throw out the stuff she doesn't drink after it's been warmed. The milk feels like a precious commodity that I hate to pour down the sink. Also, she's 2 cm taller this week!

Outings
Kaylee is an amazingly good baby. Last weekend we went to a wedding, and she was an angel. Just a little bit of fussing in the church, but she quieted down right away while other babies were crying a lot. Then a reception that was, at times, rather loud. She slept through all of it! I got to eat my food and visit with others, and they could peer at Kaylee, and all was good  ;P  Then Monday, we went out for supper to Rock Creek restaurant in Regina for Dad's birthday, and she was either sitting quietly in her car seat looking around at the lights, or was being good while I fed her a bottle. Yesterday, I should have given her a bottle before I left for baby check, but I ran out of time and wouldn't have made it to the baby check or her photo shoot appointment at McMaster Studios. She was all good and quiet during the baby check, and started to get fussy during the appointment, but we got through it okay. The photographer, Rob, was very very patient, and from what I saw on his camera, there are some awesome pictures of her! (When I get them, I'll upload them!) Then she had a bottle at the photo studio before we left (or as much as she would finish...) then went to Diana's house, where she was also a sleepy little angel! She must have been so hungry, going a couple hours over her usual feeding time and then not even finishing the bottle I offered late, but she just so good anyway. What an amazing baby!! <3

Sleep deprivation
It's still going on. It's starting to wear on me, too. She gets a bottle between 11pm and midnight, and can usually make it 5.5 to 6.5 hours before she wants another, so I usually get a fairly decent chunk of sleep after I can get her to fall alseep. But that's the trick... getting her to fall asleep. With the exception of last night, the previous few nights was her sleeping in bed with me because her crib wasn't good enough. She'd be quiet for a little while, then spit out the pacifier and fuss. She'd been fed, changed, swaddled and covered, and was even yawning and closing her eyes, but then she'd just wake up and fuss. I know I need her to fall asleep in her crib if I don't want her to be in my bed for the next several years, but after an hour of standing near the crib, trying to get her to fall alseep in there, I get pretty darn tired and I give in and take her to bed with me. And THEN she's quiet right away. It makes me feel special, but it's a bad habit we're forming. Anyway, the days have been busy lately, and the amount of sleep I've gotten feels pretty short. I feel my nerves/patience wearing thin and my brain getting perpetually fuzzy.

and featuring...
Philosophy (alphabet) Soup, part one
I'm learning some deep (and not-so-deep) stuff so far in this parenting adventure!

A) When changing diapers, never leave nothing under the bum! Once the dirty diaper is removed, a clean one needs put under there right away because the time you don't or aren't quick enough is the time that Kaylee will take a pee... all over the change pad and her sleeper! ;) I used to get frustrated over this, but it's happened so many times now that it's just funny.

B) Perspective changes when you have a child. Last year when it was icy on highways and I wanted to go somewhere, I just did it. In fact, it was even kind of a fun challenge to drive on ice and get somewhere safe. On Tuesday, after the first snow of the season, I went to pick up a parcel and mail some letters (I didn't take Kaylee with me). The highways were total crap, and I realized that things are more serious now. Kaylee is depending on me to take care of her, and it's possible that I could drive perfectly and do everything right and still end up rolled in a ditch, badly hurt or worse. If I don't absolutely, life-threateningly, need to go out when the highways or roads are crap, that I shouldn't go, because going out there when its like that is actually threatening my life. I was scared when I was driving on Tuesday, and it makes me cry to think that I potentially risked my life (and my wonderful future with Kaylee) just to pick up a parcel.

C) Kaylee taught me a lesson, too. When she needs something or wants something, she cries. She makes herself known and probably tries to make her needs known too (I'm just still learning what her different cries mean). When she wants something, she can cry and I can decide whether I can give her something or not. Well I can apply this to my life too. I don't need to cry or scream, but I can ask for things: if there's something I need or want it doesn't hurt to ask, and if I need help I should ask for it. I really don't like having to ask people for anything - I'll usually struggle with something myself until I either succeed or reach a dead-end and am forced to ask for help. But life doesn't have to be that hard, I can ask for help and people will understand. I don't get upset with Kaylee because she's asking for stuff, and I'm always happy to be able to help someone else if they ask for it (or not ask for it, if I can read their minds!). People probably don't see it to be as big a burden as I feel it is if I ask for help sometimes. Plus, they can always decide to say no!