This will be a bit of a long post, mostly because its been awhile since I checked in! I am surprised at how much time I DON'T have during the day! by the time Melody eats, and then gets back to sleep I have just enough time to eat something myself and maybe a shower or a few moments of peace before she's ready to eat again. I am not even doing much housework because DH is really insistent that I try to rest as much as possible when M is sleeping.
She's starting to hit the 3-week growth spurt I Think because she's eating a lot more often all of a sudden and not sleeping as well. I realized yesterday she's basically worked herself into a state of being overtired because she's eating often but not a lot because she'll fall asleep while eating, then wake up 30 minutes later and eat more and fall asleep and repeat. So she's not getting enough sleep. Then at night if I keep her in bed with me she sleeps a little better but that's because if she's hungry she'll just wake up and attach herself, take what she wants, and go back to sleep. lol. So I am working on getting her to stay awake at feeding times, which is helping her get more sleep.
I've also started pumping once a day to create a stash. I read a book called Work Pump Repeat. If you have to go back to work and want to keep BF, I really recommend it! It's a great book full of PRACTICAL advise from a professional woman who had to find ways to pump in all sorts of awkward situations. It's also completely NON-judgemental so there's no making you feel guilty for a) working b) pumping or c) possibly having to supplement, or stop BF. She keeps reiterating that you do what you need to do and good job for trying for as long as you did! It made me feel so much better about hte whole going back to work thing.
Right now the storage I'm putting away is not so much for when I go back to work as it is for if I need to go get a haircut or go to an appointment and I can have DH or someone else feed M with breastmilk and a bottle. We're going to introduce bottle end of this week or early next week I think.
In another couple weeks I'm going to slowly start transitioning toward getting her a little more on a sleep schedule, but we're going to take it slowly. My goal right now is just to get her to sleep in her bassinet! Last night we managed a whole hour before she woke up and I fed her, tried again, but then she was fussing in 30 minutes so I just took her into our bed. But, an hour is better than nothing. I have had several friends (and my doctor) recommend a book "Babywise" to check out. They all said ti can be a little rigid for some people, but taking bits and pieces of it can help. Plus, all my friends who used the advice in that book reported that even their fussy, not-sleeping babies, started sleeping 5-6+ hours a night by somewhere between 6-10 weeks of age. And they are all exclusively breastfeeding moms. One of my mom friends has two older kids (19 and 17 years old), and was doing a similar schedule with them when they ewre little. She also has two littles that are under 2 right now (a 1.5 year old and a 3-4 month old - very accidental they were TTA but can't use contraceptive because they are fairly strict catholics, and as she started going through pre-menopause her cycles got all wonky and she ended up pregnant....twice!). She said the same thing worked for her two littles, the only one that took a long time to get sleeping was the youngest but that's because she was really relaxed about putting her on a schedule because her husband got a 3 month Paternity leave (paid) from his company and hew as taking care of the other kids which let her just "go with the flow" with baby.
Anyway... I'm going to try some of the things in that book and see what happens., but the book itself says not to even start until after 4 weeks because at this point baby needs to eat basically on demand. Even my doctor said to take some bits and do what works for me, she said she couldn't do it herself because it felt too rigid for her twins but that she knew a lot of people that it worked for as long as you used common sense (for example: don't force baby to wait 3 hours to eat, if baby is hungry feed baby and then readjust schedule, some parents try to take it too far and that is bad).
Right now she's napping in her swing, and while I didn't want to let her start getting into the habit of sleeping in swings and only sleeping with the rocking sensation I'm taking advantage of the fact she's been asleep for 45 minutes and is still asleep! She needs the rest and so do I!
Okay, that's enoguh of my rambling!
Jezika - Tha'ts great that you'er getting out with baby. I have only been out once with her to my sister's house and then DH and I took a walk the other day with her. I think I'll try to get out a little more in a week, I'm just so nervous about going out to do errands when I never know if she's going to decide she wants to feed, or needs to be changed, etc. It's very intimidating to me.
As for nursing in public - in the US each state has it's own laws. I live in Washington state, and we have a law that protects women's right to BF in public, but that doesn't make me any less nervous about it. I'm not actually shy about it in terms of my own body, I'm more worried about stares and comments. I shouldn't be, because it is my right, but I just don't want to have to deal with ignorant people.
Star - THe epidural can be scary, but the chances of paralysis are really really low. Honestly, the biggest side effect you'd probably have to deal with is the possibility of the bad headache afterwards if they go in a little too far. My anesthesiologist had told me she'd be able to know immediately if they went too far and would be able to tell me to expect the headache, but she said it didn't happen often, and that didn't happen. I say go in with an open mind, tell them you are considering the epidural but want to see how the process goes. That's what I did. and when the contractions after my water broke got really bad, I said "F this, get me an epidural"
Of cousre in my case it didn't take so I still felt most of everything....but that also isn't common. I do know that I tend to be resistant to pain meds that are meant to numb you (my dentist always has to use 2-3x as much numbing stuff as they expect).
The birthing class we took was great. We didn't use a lot of what we learned in terms of the breathing and pain management stuff because of how quickly I progressed after my water broke, but it made me so much more aware of what to expect, and they included a whole day on newborn care and things to expect, which was great. I think the birth class will be a great option for you. Take all the classes you can and do research. But if you know you don't tolerate pain well then accept that it's OK!
As for thinsg to buy - a bunch of my friends said a wipe warmer was stupid, but one of my friends recommended strongly that I buy one and so I got one and it has saved us so many times! It really depends on the baby but Melody SCREAMS bloody murder with cold wipes, the wipe warmer saves us so much hassle because she isn't nearly as fussy about it and so middle of the night changes don't wake her up as much. And, the warm wipes don't trigger random pee! Also, I would look into Halo Swaddle Sacks. They recommend swaddling to hep baby sleep, especially with the moro reflex, and I suck at getting a good swaddle in a blanket to hold ,but the Halo swaddle sack makes it SO MUCH EASIER.
A few other things: if breastfeeding, invest in a good BF pillow. At night I just use a regular pillow under my arm while leaning back in bed or side-lying. But during the day, especially if we're on the couch I use my BF pillow. I have the BrestFriend and it's amazing. Saves me a lot of work and tired arms. Look for a good carrier that you can carry baby during the day while doing things around the house. Either a good sling or a carrier. We have a carrier and I have a Moby Wrap. If you buy a swing, try to find one that does BOTH front/back and side/side (cradle) swinging. Some babies only like one version. My niece screamed bloody murder in the front-back swing but would sleep for hours in the side-to-side swing. So I made sure to get one that can do both so I didn't have to worry about wasting money if she didn't like one of them. I also really recommend getting a carseat/stroller set that does the lock-in. It makes it really easy to transfer from car to stroller. A lot of people consider getting the convertible car seat right away to save money, and that's a good option BUT that version doesn't come out of the car (not easily anyway, it's designed tos tay in the car) so also consider whether you want to have to move baby if she's sleeping out of carseat. We opted to buy a "rear face only" that isn't convertible that snaps into a base, and buy an extra base for the other car. So it's super easy to put her in the carseat and then snap it into place in the car, and it also goes into our stroller. Oh and GAS DROPS! They have saved us so many times! Get them early and don't be afraid to use them often (they can be used at every feeding if you need to).
Gagrl - I'm so sorry about the contractor bit! That's awful! A friend of mine had something similar happen to her. It's awful! I hope you can get something done to take care of it! As for the glucose test, I failed the 1 hour too, and I'm not overweight and I watch what I eat. Its' really common to fail the 1-hour. The 3 hour sucks but it's more common to pass it. Congrats on passing!!!
Kat - Alexander is so cute!! What a doll! I'm glad your DH seems to be willing to help you out at night now. That's a big improvement! But I'm so sorry he's being selfish lately.
Star & kat - I wanted to comment on the peeing on clothes - it's super common with baby boys, but happens with girls a lot too. M has peed on her clothes a few times. It happens most often with her if we use cold wipes, the cold triggers her to pee! So if I'm in the process of switching out the old diaper to the new one and am not fast enough she may pee and then gets on clothes. We leave clothes on while changing but what happens most often is it goes on the changing pad, which doesn't absorb and then pools. We actually started to put a receiving blanket down on the changing pd (we were gifted a whole bunch of used receiving blankets from friends) and so then 1) the pad isn't cold on baby and 2) if she pees the blanket absorbs most of it and we are less likely to have to change her clothes. She hates changing!
Moomi - welcome! I also started TTC after 15 years on BCP. The first few months your body can do weird things, and your cycle might be off so don't be disheartened if you find AF showing up early/late because your body is still adjusting. Are you doing any tracking or OPKs or just going with the flow? Some people find ith elps to track and others find it stressful. If you have questions though, we'll be glad to help!
MissDoc - Oh yeah I remember the BH when walking. That sucked.... I hope they ease up some for you! That's great that you're almost done prepaying for your OB costs. I was doing the same thing and was so glad when we finally got it all paid off about a month before labor! Of course now I'm just waiting for the hospital bill to come in for the birth!
Okay that was super long, I'm so sorry! But at least I'm caught up now. lol I'll try not to take so long to check in again.
Don't know if that's the norm with his bedtime and getting up time but he's set the schedule a bit himself. His naps range from 1-3 hours btw, most outdoors in his baby carriage. If she's taking 2 hours to get to sleep, she may possibly not be getting enough sleep and/or becoming overtired. I know Alexander is a real handful when he's overtired but even then it doesn't take over 1 hour. According to the chart she shouldn't be awake for more than 1-2 hours although I read somewhere else it could be closer to 45 minutes for newborns. You need to look for her tired signs and act quickly. I try getting Alexander ready for a nap when his eyes get droopy and he's moving slower. 
I told him what an idiotic thing to do and he got pissed off. Then this morning I was trying to get Alexander to sleep after bf'ing him and my DH got up and then turned on the bathroom light which hit Alexander in the face so he woke more up 
