Baby E, Band Camp and Cloth Diapering…

Now that I am a mom I am thinking blog posts will get shorter and probably less thorough here (with more spelling and grammar errors I am sure) , I mean I am struggling to get posts written now that I can’t sit down for an hour straight to write. Brain power is lacking as is uninterrupted blog writing time. You knew that already though huh?

Anyway, on to the updates. After busting out 4 loads of laundry and loading the dishwasher I’ve got a few minutes to spare, baby E is the angel baby today. She was a screaming banshee yesterday, lol.

She woke to feed about every hour and a half, would doze off while feeding then scream bloody murder when you tried to put her down and let her sleep. We tried changing, playing, swinging, burping, tummy time, side time, back time, swaddling, rocking, hanging out in the backpack/ carrier and nothing made her happy.

After about 12:30am she was swaddled and swinging when she zonked out. She slept right through till we woke her at 7am this morning for our field trip fun.

Today I went and met the high school band kids I’ll be working with this fall. They were having their band camp this week (and last week).

I am still not 100% back in the game with teaching since E is exclusively breastfeeding and I can’t feed her in front of a bunch of high school kids. I don’t think the school administration would approve of that huh? I would so do it (discreetly of course) if they (the admin & parents) didn’t mind, I am betting they would though.

Anyway, until E can have breast milk in a bottle (and possibly a paci) at 6-8 weeks (to avoid nipple confusion according to lactation consultants) I am limited as to what I can and can’t do. I am her milk machine and am on call 24/7, lol.

So, back to the point… N and E and I all took a field trip across the river and hung out for the morning portion of band camp. I met the other instructor, the kids and had some fun doing dance stuff with them.

N and E hung out, he watched over her while I did my thing but I was there just in case she went crazy and needed to be fed. We weren’t too sure how she would handle the 3 hours out. Would she sleep or be awake? Would she fuss and need boob the whole time or would she be calm?

Well… I didn’t have to feed her until the end of the 3 hour chunk (once all the students were gone to lunch). N changed her once and she was surprisingly very calm and quiet for 3 hours. She did get fussy once but he let her suck his finger and she relaxed and slept a bit. For the most part she was awake and he just read his magazines and pushed her around in the stroller.

It was nice to get out and to sort of get back to teaching for a few hours and it is a good sign that she acted so good while we were out today. It means going back to teaching is possible, soon.

Getting out gave me a nice, much needed break and when we all got home I was refreshed and more enthusiastic about my duties here at home.

I laundered the 5 BumGenius diapers E went through yesterday and am happy that they washed out clean with the exception of a few light stains that I’ll sun out in a few days once the rain passes.

I am using my GroBaby shell and the organic cotton prefolds (that Maiden53 sent us) to diaper E today while the BumGenius diapers and inserts are hanging to dry around my bedroom. The GroBaby shell fits E amazingly (even better than the BumGenius diapers) and I can just keep changing out the prefolds inside the shell as she soils them, love it!

N is bringing Arby’s home for dinner which makes me happy. We’ve not been grocery shopping (no time) and the meat/ meal options are looking slim here. Plus, I am getting burned out with cooking and I don’t want a repeat of almost burning E’s foot while cooking and holding her. That was scary!

Oh and why is it that E likes to sleep in the most contorted positions? Here I am blogging right now. See her head there on my tummy?

I was holding her on my shoulder and burping her when she passed out, as usual. I kept holding her since she wakes and cries if you try to move her. I was blogging one handed and my arm got more and more fatigued, she kept squirming all around too. This meant she kept sliding lower and lower down my chest. Then eventually she was resting her head on my stomach with her legs to the side of me like this:

If you ask me it doesn’t seem like the most comfortable position to be in but she seems to like it just fine. I think the sounds of my tummy and organs must be soothing to her still. She’s been like the for some time now. Odd huh? Now I am going to try repositioning her, cross your fingers for me! Hopefully she doesn’t wake and cry about it.