Dear Abby {7 Week Update}

Dear Abby,

I’m behind on my updates. You turned 7 weeks four days ago in the midst of a whirlwind of a weekend. Your Daddy’s flight home on Thursday was cancelled due to hail damage to Frontier’s fleet, and we had to wait nearly 24 more hours before he arrived home from his 2-week engineering course. Pure torture. Though the look on his face when he was finally able to hold you again was priceless. He is so in love with you. Your Yaya went home to Texas on Friday, and your godparents met you for the first time. Several of your cousins graduated, and you attended multiple graduation parties. After a full day of fussing, you even slept through all of the air horns and cheering as diplomas were handed out. Go figure. Today is my last day of work for the 2013-2014 school year, and, needless to say, I’m exhausted. So, I’m going to keep this update short, sweet, and to-the-point.

I barely survived a severe case of mastitis. My milk supply is still not what it was, but the infection is finally gone. Ughh. I understand why so many mamas quit nursing after experiencing that pain!
You met your great-great-aunt and great second-cousin. It almost felt like your beloved great grandfather was hugging and kissing you through them.
You did a lot of sleeping on your Yaya while I was at work. PRECIOUS!
You have begun to regularly reward me with smiles, especially when I kiss your milky lips. Heaven.
You have nearly outgrown all of your newborn outfits and fit into the “0-3 Months” clothes purchased for you.
Based on my home scale, I think you weigh between 8-9 pounds (nearly double your birth weight).
You enjoyed licking/sucking/eating a bit of nectarine. I think transitioning you to food in a couple of months will be much easier based on your early acceptance of all sorts of flavors (so far…you’ve licked tangerine, watermelon, nectarine, and a bit of vanilla yogurt).
I have to clean out the roles on your neck daily, because milk dribbles out of your mouth and then begins to “ferment” in your chubby roles. Adorable and smelly all at the same time.
You don’t hate bath time with nearly the same fury that you did when you were born. Still, I wouldn’t call it “relaxing” based on your worried expressions.
I made it through my first real run since you were born. Based on my calculations, I think it has been about 4.5 months since I was jogging. Those two miles were harder than many of the long runs that I used to accomplish. Still, it is a start!
You still would prefer to never be set down, so your Daddy and I have agreed that we are going to have to adopt a schedule soon and begin to work out some structure that allows us both to get some rest. I’m not looking forward to listening to you cry, as you learn to self-soothe. Matter of fact, everything within me feels like a bad mother at the very idea. Still, I’m too tired not to attempt something. I’m told by more experienced mothers that we will both survive the training process.
AND, finally, I’m long overdue in posting the second part of your newborn photos. They were taken when you were just over 4 weeks old, and I still haven’t managed to save them onto my computer or publish them. Hopefully, I will get to that task this week during one of the rare times when you and I aren’t bouncing on the yoga ball, nursing, or napping together. For now, this post will include several that I have taken this past week or two on my phone. They will have to do 🙂