Happy Halloween!

Almost a week late, here are our pictures from Halloween. I was a black cat and Saoirse was my pink kitten. My sister, Reese, was an angry bird. 

By this point in the night, she was not digging the hood. 

So we took the hood off. 

And here's Reese dressed as an angry bird (she's adopted from China- you can read all about that here: http://kaijinsbigsis.blogspot.com/ )

Saoirse had her 2 month old appointment on Halloween as well. She's now 22 inches long (20 in at birth), 11 lbs 6 oz (8 lbs 1 oz), and has a head circumference of 16 inches (13 inches). We've also decided to do a delayed shot series, largely following Dr Sears' schedule. She got the DTaP and rotavirus vaccines. At the beginning of December, we'll go back and get the Pc and HiB vaccines. This was a decision we didn't take lightly, and we did research on it. Ultimately she will be fully vaccinated. She's just not getting them all in one visit. We did decline the Hepatitis B vaccine at birth, as no one in our family has the disease, so her risk of catching it is so ridiculously small. We will get her that series at some point later. 

Baby Photo Shoot

 

 

I took all of these about a week and a half ago. Wanted to capture my beautiful girl at this time in her life, so we took to the outdoors with the Mombo and a white sheet and had at it. These are just some of the results, some of my favorites. I bought the outfit from Hugs N Stitches late in my pregnancy and had it personalized. Something that was only Saoirse's, that wouldn't get passed down to younger siblings, something I could give her later on. Something with her name on it, given that it is such an uncommon name here.

I also wanted to show off my cutie.

Thrush

I'm pretty sure I have it. Nursing on my right side hurts like heck. Burning and stinging horribly while she nurses. Pain and discomfort even when she's not latched on. She's been wonderfully gassy lately which apparently can sometimes be caused by yeast in her system. I tried removing dairy from my diet and it really did nothing to change that aspect. Her extreme fussiness she had a couple of nights seems to have just been a phase I would just rather never experience again. I'm sure I won't get that lucky. 

Fact is, my boob hurts. Nursing hurts. But we do it anyway. But as a result of all of this, I present these pictures. 

The purpleishness of her face is surprisingly unnoticeable in that last shot. But you can see the wonders of gentian violet in the first 2 (the first being last night after she ate for the first time after I applied the gentian violet. The second is this morning.)

I applied the gentian violet last night. I need to get some fresh as what we have lying around expired 2 years ago. Oops. I'm also applying monistat cream after pretty much every feeding. Hoping it helps. And sooner rather than later. 

Showers

Once Saoirse's umbilical cord fell off, we took to the bath tub. She had a sponge bath before then and was none too thrilled, but we held high hopes for her first "real" bath with me in the bath tub. 

It didn't go so well.

There was a lot of crying and general upset for whatever reason. Tried it again a few more times, same result. It wasn't soothing and only served to get her clean. 

For some reason, one night we had the idea to put her in the shower with Cheerio (my mom). She loved it. She kept a firm hold on her, and I assisted with soap and wash cloths. Ever since, our bath routine has consisted of a shower, sometimes with me, usually with Cheerio. She loves the sound of the water (hence the app on my phone and iPad that produces rain sounds) and the feel of it. She enjoys it, and it soothes her. She gets clean without all the drama and uproar. I'm so glad we thought to try a shower. 

In Case You'd Forgotten...

"In case you'd forgotten, you're beautiful."

I'm not sure how my husband knows what I need to hear. Even when I don't know. Because most days the last thing I think about is whether or not I'm beautiful. But in case I'd forgotten, somewhere in the midst of the stretch marks, the leaky boobs, the not-so-toned tummy, the perpetual presence of slobber or spit up, with one boob hanging out constantly it seems, where it is easy to find yourself just managing to tread water in the sea of parenting, he's there to remind me. He's there to remind me that beauty is more than whether or not my hair has seen something other than a lazy ponytail or if I ever managed to put on a "real" shirt on top of my nursing tank. He can somehow see it when I can't. 

And it can be hard to see when you're 22-going-on-23 and proud as heck to be a mom, but at the same time trying so hard to be a mom who has it together and at least looks like some thought might have gone into her appearance even if it didn't or barely crossed her mind. As I juggle a baby who only likes being snuggled and keeping up with laundry (both clothes and diapers) as well as managing to eat on a semi-regular basis. As I try to remind myself that being a mom and sitting down and feeding Saoirse is being productive and not me sitting on my butt and playing on my iPad for the 45 minutes it can take her. It can be really hard to even believe the adjective 'beautiful' could apply to my person at times like these. 

But I guess that's what I have an awesome guy like him for. A great husband and dad. 

A Visit To Mom's Alma Mater

Awkward cute picture of Saoirse sleeping for the win! And yes, that's a cloth diaper- a Fuzzibunz to be precise. 

Saoirse and I went to school with Daddy today(10/17) to do what we we dubbed "the baby tour." We stopped by the Writing Center, where Joseph and I met, and showed her off to some friends. Joseph was wearing Saoirse in the Baby K'tan so I'll be honest, they saw little more than the back of her fuzzy head. We then went to hunt down the head of the Writing Center at her class where she also got to see the back of Saoirse's head. She was quite content making it look like she was smothering herself and we were doing nothing about it. 

Don't worry, we kept a good check on her breathing ability, no matter how impossible it may have looked for her to get air. 

We then hiked over to the anthropology department, where I got my degree from. We opted to take the elevator instead of hiking up 4 flights of stairs or a ramp with 10 lbs of baby attached to Joseph's chest, a diaper bag, and Joseph's computer bag. We saw some of my old professors and some friends. I pulled Saoirse out of the K'Tan, so everyone got a better look than our prior stops had. We then stopped to nurse and chatted with our friends then decided to go crash my favorite professor's class. We got there between the lecture and lab, so we really weren't any kind of inconvenience. Everyone ooh'ed and aww'ed while the teaching assistant put out the bones for the forensics lab. Saoirse spent a lot of time in that room in utero, with that professor talking, as 3 out of my 4 classes in the spring were in that room. With that professor. 

Saoirse seemed comfortable there. And in honor of visiting my physical anthropology teacher, I dressed her in her horribly anatomically incorrect skeleton outfit. I love that thing. It could only be more awesome if it was anatomically correct. 

We sent Daddy off to his last classand saoirse and I made a quick run to Walgreens to get a refund on her birth announcements. They printed out way too dark and are going to have to be reprinted. Hopefully correctly this time. Of course all of this was after she screamed 3/4 of the way there. She really hates the car seat, no matter what we do. You have a better change at calm when moving, but there are no guarantees. 

We returned to campus to wait for Daddy in Mrs Jennifer's office. She's a great resource for breastfeeding and natural child rearing stuff and I really like talking to her. We got to hold Saoirse, and we lived through a blow out. One last vist to the Writing center then on to home. Baby had a big day, and I set foot on campus for the first time since summer. 

Saoirse later got to snuggle with Cheerio (my mom), during which timese a shooed a makeshift boob out of her own hand using Cheerio's boob as support. She slurped happily on that for a time before deciding the real thing was called for. 

We can definitely hook you up, kiddo. 

Sleep

That place where a normal person's sleep schedule has abandoned you? Yup, I'm there. In response to Saoirse's immense hatred for the time frame between 12-6 am, when she has recently decided that fussing and refusing to sleep sounds good, we've gotten into the habit of going to bed "for good" when she finally chills out between 5-6 am. And end up sleeping til 2-3 pm. Hence why I just stayed up through the 45-60 minute nap thing she just took. I got caught up reading while she was asleep on my lap and I was scared to move for fear of her waking up and screaming. But now she's awake and after a short bout of crying, nursing happily and half-unconscious. I think I'll attempt to go to bed now since I actually have an alarm set for tomorrow (today?).

In conclusion, I hate tummy bubbles, which are generally the cause of her upsets and were the reason we ended up on the couch tonight. Incredibly uncomfortable farts. 

Welcome to motherhood. 

I leave you with this picture from 3 am of Saoirse holding her head up. (Please ignore my stretch marks and focus on the cute baby.)