Home again

We got home on Friday afternoon, and things are going really well since. The days are FLYING by. Why does that happen?! We are all in love with this darling girl, especially her big brother. He wants to hold her all the time, and when he goes to bed at night he just asks for the baby over and over again, and is sad he can't sleep with her. She is as easy-going as Theo was as a baby, though we are having some gas issues. She slept all night without nursing, but is so grunty in her sleep, I could barely sleep. She cluster feeds all day, only taking the occasional nap in the afternoon. She is super alert and pleasant the rest of the time, except when we change her or put her down.

She is an awesome nurser, I was a little worried because she has a really tight frenulum on her upper lip and was tucking it in a lot, but it's not hurting me at all. We're doing lots of laidback breastfeeding due to an extreme oversupply of milk. My milk came in after about 10 hours with a vengeance. Wow. Fortunately, I have a Medela Symphony breast pump from work that is doing wonders. And having a toddler who still nurses doesn't hurt either... Charla and Austin had the insight to bring me cabbage leaves, and so I'm using those after almost every nursing session to help bring down the inflammation and reduce the supply. So far, they aren't hurting as bad as with Theo even though they are like 4 times as huge. I'm glad I know so much about breastfeeding, it's making this time around so much smoother.

And I have to put in a plug for natural birth -- women, seriously, it's amazing how quickly you recover. I thought I had an easy recovery last time around. We're at day 4 now, I'm not taking pain medication, and I don't hurt at all. Even though I only pushed three times and she flew out of me, I did not tear one bit (thanks to a combination of good genetics, evening primrose oil applied daily during the last three weeks, laboring in water, and an upright pushing position). Not only did I not tear, I'm not swollen at all like I was the last time. It's pretty remarkable. My bleeding is super light, but that's mostly due to a pretty nasty postpartum hemorrhage that required pitocin and cytotec, causing my uterus to clamp down super fast. But lots of breastfeeding doesn't hurt with the uterus clamping downness either.

I just love the baby stage so much. I wish it could last forever. Sigh...