It's Not All Bad

Ruby treated us to a great night last night, giving us one 6-hour stretch of sleep (11-5) and one 3.5-hour stretch (6-9:30). We all woke feeling well-rested, and today Ruby has been awake almost the whole day. Not only that, but she's been in a good mood – awake and inquisitive.

Baby Gear

I thought I’d take a minute to mention some of the gear that we’ve found most useful and/or essential so far:

Lap pads: These are pads made of thick cotton that go on the changing table. They’re amazingly absorbent, and can contain a lot of pee.

Hair dryer: The discovery of this basic appliance made diaper changes go from a shrieking struggle to a happy, relaxing time. We prop it so it’s blowing up toward her bottom end (but not too close to burn). She loves both the heat and the noise and it’s one of the most potent relaxation tools we have.

Cheap cotton wipes: Like the kind you use to remove makeup, we use these with plain water to wipe her bum. It turns out that regular diaper wipes were giving her a diaper rash, stupidly enough. With plain cotton and water, we rarely need diaper cream anymore!

Cheap Costco washcloths: My mom gave us about five million of these, and we use almost all of them between laundry days. They’re great for spit-up, drool, keeping milk wiped up during nursing, and many other things.

Onesies and sleepers: It’s folly to try to put anything more complicated on a newborn. Ruby lives in sleepers (or just a onesie, if it’s warm enough). For extra warmth, we just put a bigger, thicker sleeper on top. I should add that hats and socks also have their place.

Changing table top: This is meant to be portable, but we leave it on top of a regular piece of furniture and it works fine for her changing table.

My Brest Friend nursing pillow: This is a must-have for new mothers who are just figuring out the positioning for breastfeeding. It’s good while you build up your arm, hand, and wrist muscles. Just overlook the stupid name.

Nipple shields: These saved me when I thought the nipple pain would kill me. They’re a good temporary measure. (I used the “extra small”.)

Soothies: Cooling gel pads to use in place of nursing pads. They are indeed very soothing! They’re also easier to handle than nursing pads because they stick to you rather than your clothes. If only they were cheaper…

Glamourmom nursing bra/tank top: This bra-and-shirt in one is great. It provides enough support, and is discreet for nursing in public. I plan to live in these this summer.

Ruby at five weeks

(I’m planning to fill in what happened for her first five weeks soon. However, I need to just jump in here and now, or I’ll never start.)

First, you can see lots of pictures of Ruby in this online album: https://www.mynameisruby.com/album. I post new pictures there once or twice a week, and try to post just the best ones so as not to overwhelm the viewer.

Until this week, Ruby has pretty much been an angel (again, I hope to write more about the past weeks at some point). However, this week, “teenager” is a better description. Her face has erupted in baby acne. She’s much fussier. She stays up much later than we’d like.

To be fair, the fussiness appears to have a definite cause. She’s been having some digestive issues… her tummy hurts and so does pooping. During these periods, it’s sometimes hard to calm her, although sticking a finger in her mouth generally does the trick. It’s tiring for us, though, because she needs so much soothing and attention (just putting her in a sling or carrier is not enough).

We’ve started struggling a bit more with sleep at night, too. For several weeks, we were able to soothe her to sleep, then put her in the co-sleeper where she’d sleep for 3-6 hours. Now, she’s started to startle awake more often, so putting her down becomes an endless iterative process. Often, we just give up and whoever’s turn it is will take her downstairs or to the couch and put her to sleep on their chest (where she sleeps much easier). Also, I’m sick this week, which makes the nighttime struggles that much more frustrating.

One positive thing is that breastfeeding is finally going well. We struggled with it for a month, but now it’s working OK for everyone involved. We had assistance from books, our doula, our midwives, and a lactation consultant, and they helped, but I suspect it was just a matter of time and practice. It’s hard to see that when you’re in the middle.

Ruby has started to flirt with smiling, and we’re on the edge of our seats waiting for her to finally bust out a big responsive grin. That’s the reward we’re hanging on for right now.