Newborn Summary: Week 7

The week I earned my Parent Card. Seriously. The week began with Thanksgiving celebration at Lew's parent's house. 2 days later, the stomach bug hit our house really hard. Lewis got it bad and it basically lasted the whole week between him, me & Isis all getting it to some degree. Thankfully Lux didn't get it, but it did end up affecting things with her. Here's how:
Nursing: Nursing was fine at the beginning of the week. Then Tuesday I got sick. I never had the vomiting like Lewis did, but I had other stuff and I lost my appetite completely and didn't eat the entire day. So then on Wednesday, I noticed a significant drop in my milk supply. It was clear that Lux wasn't getting enough and finally on Thursday I had to supplement with some formula a couple of times. I usually can pump from one side and get 5 ounces since I was doing single side nursing. On Thursday, I decided to pump one time to see how much I was producing and I got 2 ounces total from both sides. I took that 2 ounces and mixed it with 2 ounces of formula and gave her that. She drank that whole bottle. Then that night, I offered her just formula after I breastfed her. She wouldn't take it, so I just assumed she wasn't hungry. From the time I noticed my supply had dropped until now, I've been feeding her more often. I'm writing this on Saturday and it seems to be back up to almost normal, but I have to feed her from both sides most times rather than just 1 side at a time.    I haven't had to use formula again, but I think I might start giving her a formula bottle a day and pumping during that time. Since I'm feeding from both sides now most times, it shouldn't mess up my supply like it did before. It also will give me that extra supply of frozen milk and it will get Lux used to a bottle and formula because I know I'll have to give her formula anyway to supplement when I go back to work.
Burping: I'm going to stop posting about burping because it's just normal. Sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't, but it's not an issue.
Reflux: Reflux also hasn't been an issue. She will spit up sometimes if she's had a lot, but it's not a problem. I will wait and see how it goes once I'm giving her formula more often to see if that has any impact.
Waketime: I'm doing the same hour with each wake time right now, although you'll see in the nap section that I'm playing with it. I have also been doing more tummy time and I've been spending some time really trying to play on the floor face to face to maintain eye contact and to help her start to track things with her eyes and things like that. (See milestones for more on that.)
Witching Hour: She can still be fussy before bed. I've been trying to get her to take her last nap of the day right up until about 6:15 or so and then feed her at 6:30. From 6:15 to 6:30, she's really fussy, but 15 minutes is nothing.
Swaddling: This week I had a mini mom meltdown with all the stomach bug stuff. I was just really tired and overwhelmed and my fears and anxieties just got a little out of control. I noticed this week that Lux was starting to have a little flat spot on the side of her head. It's nothing crazy, but it was enough that I noticed. Because I was swaddling her with her left arm out, she would always sleep on the left side of her head. So I decided it was time to just buckle down and get rid of the swaddle. I finally just swaddled her with both arms out for bedtime and decided that if it meant a rough night, it was worth it. But, the night was actually exactly the same as normal! So I did it for naps the next day, too and they were also the same as normal. That's very exciting! I feel a lot better about that. I'm going to leave her swaddled around her midsection for the next week or so and then go to a sleep sack.
Nighttime Sleep: This week her bedtime routine has been similar. She goes down on her own, awake, and will cry for about 10 minutes while we put Isis to bed, but she's been quiet once Isis was down every night. I can see in the video monitor that she isn't asleep yet, but I don't hear her again and she's finally still after a little while. She's had some interruptions due to sickness and just getting back to normal after the Thanksgiving disruptions. We did notice a difference after we had to change things on Thursday and Friday night.
Night 1 - Friday Night - We went to Lew's parents house this day for Thanksgiving. We were there all day and we left around 6:15 or so. I fed Lux at 7:25 when we got home and then did the bedtime routine. That's about an hour later than normal. She woke up at 1:30, 3:00 and 7:45. It's really unusual for her to wake up like she did after an hour & a half in the middle of the night, but she ate full feedings at both of them.  She had 2 feedings after we went to bed (1:30 and 3:00) and her longest stretch was 6 hours from 7:30 to 1:30.
Night 2 - Saturday Night - We tried to just get her back to normal this night. I fed her at 6:30, then did the bedtime routine and put her to bed. She woke up at 11:30 that night, which is also unusual. I think it was dealing with the disruptions to the routine during Thanksgiving. She woke up at 5:00 and 8:00. She had 2 feedings after we went to bed (11:30 and 5:00) and her longest stretch was 5.5 hours from 11:30 to 5:00.
Night 3 - Sunday Night - This was the night Lewis woke up sick in the middle of the night, so I was up with him from about 1:30 to about 5:00. Thank goodness she only woke up once after we went to bed. She did have a hard time going to sleep this night, though. I fed her at 6:30 and did the bedtime routine and put her to bed. She briefly fell asleep and then started crying again later, so I fed her at 9:15. She then woke up at 3:30 and 7:30. She had 1 feeding after we went to bed (3:30) and her longest stretch was from 6.25 hours from 9:15 to 3:30.
Night 4 - Monday Night - This night I fed her at 6:30, then did her bedtime routine and put her to bed. She slept pretty fitfully until 10:00 when I decided to just feed her. This night I started feeling sick in the middle of the night. It was also the night that I slept downstairs on the couch because we didn't want me to get what Lewis had. I also didn't want him to deal with either girl, so I had both monitors just to myself. It was a really rough night for me, but thankfully Lux only woke up once at 2:15 and then at 7:00. So she only had 1 feeding after I went to bed (2:15) and her longest stretch was 4.75 hours from 2:15 to 7:00.
Night 5 - Tuesday Night - This night was the night that Isis woke up sick around 11:30, so Lewis and I were up with her most of the night. When she finally stopped throwing up, we got her to sleep in her bed if we slept on the floor of her room. The problem was, there was lots of commotion and noise throughout the night because she threw up about 8 times between 12:00 and 9:00 in the morning. Most of that was between 12:00 and 4:00. We had to take her in the bathroom and then we had to do some laundry and then we had to go downstairs and she kept throwing up on her clothes and blankets so we kept having to go upstairs to get more things. Anyway, I think that contributed to Lux waking up a little more because of all the noise. I fed Lux at 6:30, did the bedtime routine and then put her to bed. She woke up at 1:15, 4:00, 6:00 and 8:00. This was a rough night all the way around. She had 3 feedings after we went to bed (1:15, 4:00 and 6:00) and her longest stretch was 6.75 hours from 6:30 to 1:15.
Night 6 - Wednesday Night - This night nobody got sick and it was finally starting to get back to normal. I fed Lux at 6:30, then did bedtime routine and put her to bed. She woke up at 1:15, 5:30 and 7:30. I had mentioned last week that I was not going to do the dreamfeed anymore. I started on Wednesday night last week and it was great, but then started the 2 night of Thanksgiving disruptions and then everybody got sick. When I stopped the dreamfeed, I assumed that it would mean 2 night wakings because it would push back her first waking. So this night when she had 2 night feedings, it fit with what I was expecting. I think this will go back to 1 within the next week or so. She had 2 feedings after we went to bed (1:15 and 5:30) and her longest stretch was 6.75 hours from 6:30 to 1:15.
Night 7 - Thursday Night - I fed her at 6:30, then did bedtime routine and bed. She woke up at 1:00, 5:00 and 7:45. She had 2 feedings after we went to bed (1:00 and 5:00) and her longest stretch was 6.5 hours from 6:30 to 1:00.
Naps: Well, her naps got consistent this week, but not in the way I wanted. They consistently started only lasting for 45 minutes! The Babywise mom blog talks about the 45 minute intruder, so I'm trying to troubleshoot by adjusting her wake time. I've tried 45 minute wake time and like an hour & 10 minutes. It worked better at longer than an hour, so I'm going to keep trying that. It also was hard to tell anything when my milk supply dropped. I just kept feeding her whenever she woke up because I knew I needed to get it back up. She would always take a long nap if I held her, but I've decided I have to stop holding her for naps except her very last one of the day because she's not going to be able to do that at the babysitter's house and I only have 4 1/2 weeks left until I go back to work!!
Sibling: This week, possibly because of everything else that was clearly going on, I just didn't notice any real issues with Isis. She was super sweet to Lux! She always tries to calm her down if she's fussy. And she is constantly coming up when I'm holding her and she'll put her hand on Lux's cheek and go, "mommy, she's so pretty." Sometimes these girls just break my heart!! Love them!!!
Schedule: My schedule is staying the same overall as the last couple of weeks, but it may change next week as I adjust wake time for the nap issues. We'll see.
Mom Stuff: Well, I saw my midwife on Monday for my 6 week appointment and we talked a lot about how I've been feeling lately. I talked about it last week on my newborn summary. I shared with her about feeling overwhelmed, all my anxiety, the moodiness and grumpiness and the fact that I've been more mean and short with people. There was a lot more to it than that. When I say anxiety, I feel like that word alone doesn't cover what I've been going through. So she said it sounded like a good idea to stay on top of this and try a low dose of Zoloft. She also referred me to a counselor and I have an appointment next week to see her. I started the Zoloft Monday night, but that was also the day Lewis was sick and the following couple of days was just dealing with my family being sick and lots of sleeplessness. So honestly I can't really tell if anything has helped because I feel so overwhelmed after this week and I think anyone would feel like that! So I'm going to re-evaluate next week and see how I feel. I also hope that meeting with the counselor goes well. I'm really looking forward to it.
Milestones: This is one thing that sort-of goes hand-in-hand with the mom stuff and anxiety. I had mentioned last week that I was a little worried about Lux not holding eye contact with me. Well, for one thing, to say I was a little worried is a gross misrepresentation. I was completely freaking out. I wasn't sleeping, I would be in tears when I would try to put myself in her line of sight and she would look away. I couldn't stop thinking about it. It was like I was completely fixated on it. This should give you some insight into the anxiety I was talking about. This was just one example of the anxiety and I've had anxiety about many different things, not just her eye contact. 
Anyway, so I was worried about her not making eye contact. Well, finally I just started really getting down and working on it. I was worried that it was an eye sight thing, that it was an autism thing, I even worried that it was a brain damage issue (omg anxiety). So I started by putting myself further away from her and trying to get her to look at me. She would sometimes. I would eventually get closer and closer as we were playing. Then one day later in the week, it was like it just clicked. Starting from the moment I brought her downstairs in the morning when she woke up, I was changing her diaper & she just started watching me and looking me in the eye and smiling like 6 times! She then did that at every wake time after that. I would get close to her or above her when she was laying on the ground and she would look me in the eye and smile over & over. Then I was holding her at dinner and she just stared at me the whole time. My first thought it "whew!! She's okay!" And my second thought is, "Seriously, Cameron, you have to get your anxiety under control." 
So goal for next week: get the anxiety under control.