Things can get a little rough at times when Kate is being fussy. It is heartbreaking to have her cry and cry and not be able to figure out why – or to think it’s probably gas and nothing we do helps. Thankfully her fussy periods are generally short, it’s not as if she spends hours screaming, just evenings where she spends an hour falling asleep then waking up whimpering and crying.

There is no predictability yet, but on happy days she does like to eat, get changed, spend time on her playmat, then nurse a little bit until she’s drowsy and then she’ll sleep for 2 hours during the day. Yesterday was a good day, so she pretty much followed that pattern all day until it was time to fall asleep and us all to go to bed, then for some reason she was fighting it. Maybe it was the bath. Very traumatic, in her eyes.

Sleep, other than those frustrating times, is pretty decent. We just discovered that if she’s milk-drunk we can put her in her swing, turn it on, and she might actually fall asleep on her own. That is huge!! In the past we’ve had to make sure she was solidly asleep before putting her down somewhere, and then you just hope she doesn’t wake back up. I do certainly love that swing. Last night I decided to try her in her cosleeper again, I took out the infant seat and inclined the mattress slightly. She was sound asleep when we put her down, snug between two rolled towels as a sleep positioner type thing (she needs to feel snug or she just wakes up flailing). She did rouse slightly, but not all the way, so I layed there for some time with my hand on her chest, gently rubbing… and she fell back asleep! And stayed asleep for an hour or two. When she woke up I fed her in bed, then moved her back to the cosleeper just to see… and wouldn’t you know it, she slept there again! When she woke up with the sun she was wide-eyed and staring around, quite a change from her waking up kicking and crying in the infant seat. So I layed there and talked with her for a little while, she even gave me a couple of smiles before she decided she was done and hungry.

Speaking of smiles, she smiled at me yesterday for the first time! She’d been smiling at daddy, and even a couple of times at a toy, but not mommy. I figure she is always too distracted going “EH EH” for boobies every time she sees mommy. It sure was nice to see a happy smile. I am so looking forward to more smiles and hearing laughs.

Breastfeeding is going so much better, this week has definitely seen a huge change. I don’t yelp when she latches anymore, and my nipples don’t burn. They’re still sensitive and I’m not a fan of when she pokes them with her fingers while groping me, but the worst I get while breastfeeding is a weird itchy feeling when she’s at the end of a feed and my breast is pretty empty. Oh, and of course that pins and needles tingly feeling during let-down – which is actually very useful, because sometimes I’ll get that when she’s not on the breast and it’s my reminder to make sure I have breast pads in! She does tend to be a messy eater now, she has drool and milk on her chin when she’s done, lol. She’s also been spitting up a little bit here and there – not a lot, and not every time. But enough that I have a washcloth ready to wipe her and me off. Have to love being spit up on, right? The only frustration with nursing is that some days she’s a huge wiggle-worm, arms and legs going. She tends to push and kick herself off the nipple, then she gets mad. Not so great with the coordination there. Yesterday when she was doing that I put her on her playmat for a little while to try to get out some of her energy so she’d settle down and eat. It only partially worked.

Today for father’s day Kate and I are going to go watch Den play baseball. I’m still a little nervous taking her out, mostly because she likes to blow through diapers unexpectedly so I feel like I need to bring ten million of them (just a slight exaggeration). Hopefully she’s a happy baby today!