Party of Four?

charlotte and i are almost through our first bout of mommy-sickness. unfortunately, i got a head cold and a flu/bug thing overlapping. also complicating the mix was some daddy-sickness with the same bug. two weak, vomitting people does not a parent make. my mom came over for quite a while on saturday so that ryan and i could rest and charlotte could get the attention neither of us were capable of giving. now all that’s left is the residual cold-related coughing and cranky throat/lungs. i’m hoping this doesn’t turn into a lung infection like so many colds of mine do. we ran into some dehydration-related supply issues with breastfeeding, but i think we’ll be back on track by tomorrow.

the forced down time allowed me to catch up in my what to expect: the first year book, and reading between the lines has taught me a few things. specifically, that we have a “challenging” baby. it’s not just the colic (which, don’t get me wrong, is quite challenging), but apparently she’s extra-active. i hadn’t really thought about it. when we get together with other babies near-enough her age it’s either at over-stimulated holiday events or outings where all babies stay tightly bundled away in their carriers. so i haven’t had much to compare with, and know better than to take such a small amount of anecdotal evidence as any indication.

i’m not really complaining, mind you. for us it’s normal babyness. i know that extra-active has some “perks”, that she’s not alone, or too far from a “norm”, and that some of the active/colic-related habits we’ve gotten into are partially due to choices towards the path of least resistance we’ve made over the few short weeks we’ve been parents. some of that’s going to have to change in the next few weeks as she approaches 3 months and needs some better habits, especially around “nap-time”.

it’s just sort of weird to realize that not all babies kick and squirm and wiggle around as much as charlotte does. that people can put them down for naps without being swaddled, with possibly being slightly awake and the baby doesn’t scream her head off.

if anything, this realization has stopped the almost constant “and some people have two?” monologue that’s been going on in my head. :)

due to a bunch of randomness today (sickness, leftover pumped milk, feverish sleeping husband), i fed charlotte 1.5 oz of milk from a bottle for the first time today. it wasn’t her first bottle (she averages about 2-3 a week), but it was the first time i’ve fed her.

“they” say that one of the benefits of breastfeeding is the extra bonding you cannot get from bottle-feeding. yes, yes, there’s special hormones released when your nipples are stimulated that make you feel good, blah, blah whatever.

but the thing is, 7 weeks into it, breastfeeding is pretty boring. it’s not that i ignore her or anything, but i can do other things while she’s feeding: watch tv, read the internet, eat, think about any number of things, etc etc. bottle-feeding is much more interactive. you’ve got to hold the bottle, make sure she’s latched on, watch to make sure she’s actually swallowing/eating, etc etc.

perhaps it was just the novelty, but i felt more connected to her while bottle-feeding.