Vacation and Retirement

Yesterday I thought I might fall over from lack of sleep as Maddie ate every 1-2 hours around the clock. Today, I feel like I had a little vacation overnight! Madeleine went three hours (3 hours!) between feedings, not once, but twice! Which means I got two hours of sleep TWICE! I'm a new woman, but I have a dirty little confession to make. I gave in to the pacifier last night. Madeleine would not be soothed by anything. She was fed, changed, cuddled, sung to, swaddled, shooshed, swung, sided, and clearly, the only S* we hadn't tried was suckled - so I gave in, gave her the pacifier, and felt like a bad mom for doing so. Fortunately, she used it for a few minutes, dropped it, and fell asleep.

Last night she lost her cord, too, so now we have a cute little belly button to look at. It's not really an innie or an outie yet...it's looking about half and half.  

And have I mentioned the lungs on this child? Remember when they did the amnio to see if her lungs were fully developed? I can't imagine if they were more developed than they are. She has a scream that echoes in rooms that aren't really echo-prone. Anything can bring on a scream - a diaper change, a clothes change, being set down (what??? no one's holding me?)...a friend told me her baby doesn't really cry. Well, mine does - quite dramatically. I suppose I should have seen this coming.

And in sad news, today we'll probably be retiring some of Madeleine's newborn clothing. Those adorable Pumpkin Patch onesies her dad and I picked out when we found out she was a girl are starting to S-T-R-E-T-C-H across her expanding frame, and the cute GAP naturals onesies are just a little bit short and snug. Fortunately, Carter's has more generous sizing, so I don't have to put away all the newborn clothes at the same time, which is just a bit traumatic. I'll be back later with some pictures of Maddie in some of her soon-to-be retired clothing.

* The five S's are from Dr. Karp's The Happiest Baby on the Block and usually swaddling and shushing take care of Madeleine's cries.