Henry's lullaby to Bea

Lately Bea has been really having a hard time sleeping and has been extra hungry. I was up every hour last night and she hardly slept today. Needless to say my house was a disaster, and after getting up, exercising, getting everyone ready to go visiting teaching the house had not been cleaned and it was already 5pm! Where does the time go? I tried to put her down and she kept crying after a few minutes each attempt. The last time I thought it was going to work, I was downstairs for ten minutes when she started screaming again and I had only emptied one half of the dishwasher. I drooped my head thinking my house would never be clean again when Henry said, "Uh oh, baby sister is crying. I go see her." I would have normally told him not to bug her, but I didn't stop him from going up for who knows what reason, but I'm so glad I did." With the monitor on I heard Henry say, "It's ok Bea." and then start singing the Winnie the Pooh song, "Deep in the hundred acre wood, where Christopher Robin plays..." and she stopped crying after about a minute. I heard Henry gently close the door behind him as he left my room and came downstairs. I turned to ask him if she was alseep and he said, as if it was no big deal, "yeah, she's asleep." I asked him what he did and he looked at me, shrugging his shoulders, " I sang deep in the hundred acre wood" with a slightly embarassed smile on his face. She stayed asleep for over two hours after that and I was able to clean the entire house. Even though Henry is usually driving me insane and making huge messes, he totally redeemed himself today. I know the Lord inspired him and me to let it happen and I'm so grateful that Henry is so sensitive to Beatrice's needs. They're going to be great friends.

Chubbing Up

Beatrice went for her 5 week appointment the other day and she weighed a whopping 10 lbs 5 oz. I really wasn't expecting her to weigh that much since everyone I met was telling me how tiny she was. I think that was due to the fact that her head size is barely on the charts at the 5th percentile. So I guess when people see her tiny head they think she's way smaller than she actually is. Her head is roughly the size of a large grapefruit and it perfectly round.
I love holding it in my hands. She is turning out to be a really good baby and is pretty good natured. She sleeps most of the day and when she's awake, she is content to just lie on the ottoman and look out the windows. She also loves the outdoors. We have gone apple picking and I went green bean picking all day one day last week and she just slept in my front carrier. She is nursing pretty well now. I already learned how to nurse Henry in my super strappy front carrier from when we took him to Italy at this stage so that is the only way I can feed her in public. She's finally big enough to fill out some of her cute dresses for church and she was just adorable today in her turquoise and brown dress.
She is still ravenously hungry which really pumps up my milk supply which makes me feel so happy. I can't even tell you how good it feels to know that I have enough milk to feed her every time she's hungry. It's pure joy.

Breastfeeding Nightmares

I don't know if anyone has as big of a problem breastfeeding as I do. I'm engorged for about a week during which time I have to freeze my breast with ice and then manually express/squeeze the milk out while it's throbbing and tender (think of mammogram X100) eight times per day until the pump can finally get the milk out when the engorgement ends, then, I have to pump every two hours for an entire month while my babies won't latch on. Then when my babies start latching on, I get so sore that tears come out while I nurse and I've even cried a few times because of the pain. I have to use the football hold on my right side which makes it impossible to nurse in public and since I have to smash my baby's face on to nurse, I have to use my other hand to make sure my babies can breathe and that leaves no hands for making sure I'm not exposing myself. Bea also doesn't open her mouth unless she's screaming, so I have to make her cry and then shove her face on and that, as you can imagine, draws a lot of attention. These are just the problems I feel comfortable admitting online. There are many more issues I won't embarrass myself by exposing. Is there good news? Yes, I actually have enough milk this time after all my efforts(yea, no expensive formula!) and I'm actually symmetrical on both sides not like I was with Henry when I was a size D on the left and an A/B on the right. Good thing I was carrying Henry on my front for months so I could hide it. Anyway, it's on the up and up and hopefully I'll be able to nurse in public so I can go places soon!