THE SIMPLE LIFE

I'm so glad I had blogged about how things were in that first week because the first 2 months were basically a blur and reading it just now was a good reminder of how miserable I was at the time.  Things have improved a gazillion times since then!

In terms of nursing, I first started using a shield - so glad my family doc recommended it because I was starting to feel like a failure.  It made a huge difference in feeding Elise and since she's been 3 months old, I've been able to exclusively breastfeed without pumping at all and also without using the shield.  She also feeds a lot faster now, takes ~10-20 mins whereas it used to take 1.5-2 hrs.

It's also amazing how a little extra sleep makes such a big difference.  Originally it was just the switch from 3 to 4 hrs.  Then she went to 6-7 hrs.  Since our trip to Vancouver, she's been sleeping 8-10 hrs at night although not completely through the night.  We'll hear her wake up sporadically with a shout or cooing/talking to herself but we don't have to do anything and she'll put herself back to sleep.  I know that we're not supposed to expect anything to last when it comes to babies so we're just trying to enjoy the sleep as much as we can before it changes again.

Our current routine is feeding, playing for 1-1.5 hrs and then nap-time.  I know I am biased but she is such a good baby =P  I can put her down when she's tired and she'll fall asleep on her own.  I've started to bring her out during the day either to baby classes or to run errands.  It certainly takes more time to travel and I get pretty exhausted carrying her around and transferring her back and forth from the car but it's worth it to get her out of the house.  She loves seeing new things.  I have to say I really enjoy having her around; especially watching her learn.        

She's been such a blessing to us; bringing the family closer, restoring relationships, laughter and lots of joy.   Everyone should have kids!