Gi-Gi Roxx - The Ravings of a Lunatic

I have to put last night in the baby book as the first time Starfish slept through the night.  After some seriously horrible tantrums during the day yesterday mixed with having barely slept from 3am yesterday until we put  her down last night at 11pm, I imagine she must've been so exhausted that sleep just couldn't be fought any longer. I was at my wits end, crying while she cried, wondering what I was or wasn't doing right when the hubby came home from his class last night around 9pm.  I was just as exhausted as the little one was, maybe more so, because while she got in a few 30 minute naps (and by few I mean three all day long) I was searching for the next thing to try to calm her when she would inevitably wake up screaming. I also managed to get the bed linens washed, dried and the bed remade, get the dishes done and make myself grilled chicken on the George Foreman (my only real meal of the day yesterday). I tried once to lay down and nap while she did but that w...

So for, oh... the last 48 hours or so, the little Starfish has been a serious cranky butt.  She fights sleep, cries...no... screams for seemingly no reason at all, and is just generally cantankerous.  It's exhausting.  She did sleep well last night, when she finally WENT to sleep.  Which was sometime around midnight.  Daddy took duty again last night because I was exhausted, frustrated and just out of ideas to try to calm her.  Nothing I'd tried had worked.  So I said, "Here ya go daddy...you try! I'm going to bed." I didn't hear her make a peep once he got her settled until around 5 this morning.  When she started stirring, I got up and started our nighttime feeding routine of turning on the low wattage lamp, changing her diaper (whether it needs it or not), and then feeding her quietly.  No TV, no bright lights, no noises except my gentle "I love you's" when we make eye contact. She didn't fall back to sleep right after that feeding l...

According to the blogger hit counter that I see when I log into my Dashboard, I'm at 80,021 hits since I started this blog back in 2007. That's pretty cool.  The one I have on here by SiteMeter was added well after I started the blog and is therefore inaccurate but still offers a good sizable number to gauge my blogs "popularity" by.  I am more than slightly humbled by the numbers, regardless of which counter you wish to go by.  I still can't believe anyone wants to read this crap. Also... I can't believe that ticker up there says my little Natalie is 4 weeks and 2 days old already! Today I'm gonna share a video of my little Starfish and I having a conversation this morning... because I want to share her smiles.  Just a few of the 80,000+ she will give me over the course of our lives together.  I love her face.  Enjoy!

So we decided that since our Starfish's cord stump finally fell off late last week (yay!) that we'd give her her first tub bath.  Unfortunately, it didn't go anywhere near as planned. I had imagined her being thrilled to splash and kick in the water as we gently scrubbed her with one of her soft washcloths.  Then we would have a sweet, happy and clean baby bundled in a fresh towel at the end to snuggle with. Yeah. No. Instead it went more like this: Starfish was already screaming because she just does that most evenings recently and is nearly inconsolable for at least one hour.  I mean, what better time to decide to strip her naked and plop her into a tub of water than when she's already pissed off, right? Once naked baby is in the tub, screaming bloody murder, daddy commences the washing while mommy watches and tries to catch at least one moment on camera where baby isn't all scrunchy red-faced and wide-mouthed looking like she's being tortured. M...

I can't believe my sweet little Starfish is 3 weeks 3 days old already.  Time is flying by.  She is growing so fast, as she snoozes in her bouncy seat right now she looks like a chubby little baby doll.  I am so glad that she's getting enough to eat from breastfeeding to be growing so well.  That makes me feel good, especially since we had such a rough start with it.  At her two week check-up last week the pediatrician was pleased with her weight gain.  When she was born she weighed 7 lbs 15 oz and then four days later she had lost (which is normal) 12 oz and weighed in at 7 lbs and 3 oz.  Well, at that check-up last week she weighed in at 8 lbs and 1 oz! The doc said she was spot on with her weight gain which made me so happy.  Our next appointment isn't until she's two months old.  So she'll have plenty of time to gain even more weight before her next weigh in.  Life with the little Starfish is getting a little easier each day....

Tomorrow we have our two week check-up with the pediatrician.  I'm anxious to see how much my little Starfish has grown.  I just hope she's not Jedi mind-tricked me into thinking she's bigger while having lost weight.  But really I'm about 99% sure she's a bit chubbier, especially since her newborn diapers are starting to get a wee bit snug.  She has been going thru what the midwife and various others have said is a growth spurt, as of late.  She gets uber fussy in the late evenings.  She has periods of time each day when she wants to cluster feed, not seeming satisfied until she's turned my poor little boobies into sad and sore little deflated balloons. But then she sleeps like a champ at night, last night she slept for 5 hours straight before waking to beg for food and then another 3.5 hours after that before waking for her breakfast buffet. She's been a little fussy this morning, however.  And I'm starting to wonder if she's dealing with gas...