I hope everyone had a great new year! It has been so wonderful spending time with adorable Kai, and we even have gone out with him on a couple of walks along our favorite trails. Hes 4 weeks old today. How time flies!
Wish- Wow, you look great! What a wonderful bump you have. Haha, my belly is already flat, but its also squishy and soft. It feels really strange

Im so happy that your twins are doing so well! Its so exciting that youll get to meet them soon

It will be even better than you imagine! Savor those last days of pregnancy, though, as you might miss that after its gone. I really did miss being pregnant, even though it is heaven on earth to have outside gummy with me now
Wicky- Poor you, what a tough time youre having

I hate feeling nauseated, so I was a big baby through a lot of my pregnancy regarding the queasiness I felt. I cant imagine what you must be going through. I really hope it ends soon for you, and you get to enjoy lots of nausea-free days of pregnancy!
Rain- I hope you can go back to your beloved first daycare. Thanks, it was indeed disappointing that my mom couldnt just help out without bringing in all kinds of drama. I have come to expect her to be unable to give emotional support, but I thought she might be able to just do things like cook and clean, as she seems to need to do these things for people. You were right, were doing much better with the breastfeeding now that gummy has reached his due date. DH has been doing the bottle feeding portion of the feeds, but Im still supplementing a bit with the bottle and pumping, which gives me almost no time to sleep. Im taking fenugreek now, I hope it helps.
Terri- What an interesting coicidence that 2 places burned down after you visited them! Hugs to you and your family for the anniversary of your brother's death.
TTC- Ugh, how annoying that your mom is acting up that way. I dont envy you, having to deal with your mom while she lives with you. She sounds like a handful. I hope that you are feeling better these days! Fx this is your month!
Vonn- I hope that S is sleeping better, and that you are getting more sleep now. I think Ive forgotten what its like to get sleep at night!
Ask- I think its wonderful to be pregnant during the holidays. I agree, its totally worth it missing out on drinking and having to be sober at parties! Congrats on a great scan. I think the heartbeat is nice and strong. I had the same fears after my scans, wondering if the heartbeat was fast enough, and gummy turned out fine!
AFM- Im still very sleep deprived, as expected during this time, but Im feeling so much better! Gummy and I have gotten better at breastfeeding, so it is going a bit faster, but I still have to supplement with a bottle as well as pump. It has been physically and emotionally draining. I cried when I had to give gummy his first bottle of formula due to weight loss, but the silver lining is that DH gets to spend time with him and feed him the bottle. Sleep is a luxury that I rarely get maybe 3 hours maximum per day - but one look at gummy and its so worth it.
My parents left 8 days ago and things got a whole lot better. It was horrendous while my mom was around. She turned every day into a big party for the family, holding big lunches and dinners in my home and inviting my sister and family without consulting me. She knew that I have a strict feeding regimen, where I have to start a bottle feed/breastfeed/pump cycle every 2-3 hours. This meant that I was unable to be out of my room much as I was left with barely any time to sleep. My mom knew that I was determined to breastfeed, but she doesnt care about my success on this front, as she thinks that I should just feed Kai with formula. So she didnt care that I couldnt stick to my regimen. My sisters kids are not very well behaved and my 9 year old niece doesnt have good boundaries. So my sister and her would barge into the room uninvited to see the baby (sometimes waking him up) or talk to me. I was trying to do skin-to-skin while breastfeeding, so it was very embarrassing to have my niece come in while I was quite exposed. My mom would just allow or encourage them to barge in. Another thing that would happen was that my sister would swoop in to pick Kai up whenever he cried. This made me feel very stressed out and inadequate. Anyway, once my folks and my sisters family left, things got a whole lot better. It was sad that my dad had to leave, because I enjoy his company, and he loves Kai and helped bottle feed and carry him.
My sister still swoops in to pick Kai up when he cries, but she has been such an amazing help that I dont mind anymore. She leaves tomorrow morning, and I will be so sad to see her go

She has started to respect my views on how I want to feed Kai, and tries to follow it, whereas she was pushing her opinions while my mom was around. I think my mom was poisoning her mind. My sister really adores Kai, and she takes tons of photos of him. Talking about photos, here are some more of Kai. I think the newborn stage is so precious, and I get overcome by how sweet and cute he is. And hilarious too!