Wow, where has the time gone!?! Miss Riley and I have had quite the busy end of the week with not a lot of sleep! Riley has been having the worst few nights, she used to go about 4 to 4 1/2 hours between feedings and lately two hours has been a stretch and when she's not eating she's wailing, we've had a few 4 hour sleep nights. We think she might be lactose intolerant because it seems gas is what is making her uncomfortable and it's worse at night when we generally give her formula. We took her off of formula to see if it helps her tummy but unfortunately I am not producing enough milk (even taking fenugreek) to make it sustainable. We took her off of formula last night and she slept from about 10PM to 2:30AM, had 2 1/2 ounces of milk and then slept until 9AM when we woke her up for her bath. The sleep I got between 3AM and 8:30AM (I woke up a half hour before her to pump) was more sleep than I get most nights all together! Her belly seems much better so looks like we have to call the Doctor tomorrow and inquire about getting tested for lactose intolerance.
We've been taking walks with our neighbor, who is also on maternity leave, which has been fun, especially for Shari and I! Her son is 4 months so the four of us have been venturing out since the weather has been nice. Unfortunately it looks like rain all this week so we might have to walk the mall. Our week got super busy on Thursday, ironically Wednesday night was the start of our sleepless nights.
Thursday morning we went to meet my roommate from freshman year of college for breakfast at Mimi's Cafe. Andrea was in town from Chicago visiting some friends and wanted to meet up. It was great to see her and catch up, I realized it's been 12 years since my freshman year of college, how did I get so old? I hadn't seen her since graduation but we have been catching up on Facebook so it was great to see her in person. Then Riley and I went home and met up with our neighbor and walked down to Peet's with her and her son. It was great to get out and stretch the legs and get fresh air and also talk to an adult! After our walk we came home, got fed and then headed to the bowling alley for a team builder with my work. Someone backed out of bowling at the beginning of the week so they asked me if I wanted to come and fill the spot (they also invited Marc, I really think the guys were secretly wishing Marc would go instead of me, but it's all good!). It was a fun time and like a true Zimmerman, Riley took right to the bowling alley. Lori held her for the first half hour and gave her her bottle and then Ashley took over when Lori had to leave. I delivered scores of 115, 118, 100, and 124 (yes, 4 games, my arm and butt were killing me!) and one a bottle of wine, to which I yelled "Yes, I can drink it now too!" After bowling Riley and I hung out in the bar with some of the guys and so Diana could hold her since she didn't get to hold her while we were bowling. All I could think of was that line from "Sweet Home Alabama" when Reese Witherspoon's character is home in Alabama and she's in the bar and she runs into an old friend from high school who's in the bar with her baby and she says, "You have a baby...in a bar!" It felt a little wrong to have Riley in the bar but oh well, she has been wine tasting twice. Thursday night was another sleepless night.
Friday morning when Marc left for work in the morning I was in tears, I was so exhausted and at wits end as to why I couldn't make Riley happy, Marc offered to stay home but I knew he couldn't since his company is going to go through another round of layoffs. Friday we got up and went for another walk with our neighbor. Then we met Ashley for lunch at Panera, who was sweet enough to offer to baby sit Riley if I was ever exhausted and needed a nap. We came home for a bit to get an email from Marc telling us he arranged for a massage for me on Saturday since I had been having a rough time and many sleepless nights. After feeding and pumping we headed up to Walnut Creek for a bit of a shenanigan, we returned a pair of pants to Banana Republic for Marc who'd worn them to work once and decided he didn't like them. I was really too tired to argue about the ethics of what he wanted me to do so we returned them anyway. I also picked up his wedding band which was at Movado for a week getting polished. Then to Dr. H for our weekly cast change. Now I will say I was a bit nervous about Riley's appointment this week. Some women from the clubfoot group had seen pictures of her feet from last week and mentioned they were concerned about the crease on the bottom of her foot which can be a sign of atypical (or complex) clubfoot. I had read about this sign a while back and asked Dr. H about it several weeks ago and he said at that time he didn't believe her feet with atypical, stubborn and tight yes, but not atypical, so I forgot about it, especially since each week the crease got smaller and smaller but when a few women mentioned it to me I got concerned again so I decided I had to ask Dr. H about it. Now even with my concern I still 100% trusted Dr. H and his treatment of Riley. So Friday I asked him about it and told him the situation and he assured me while her feet were tighter than most she was responding quite well to treatment, so much now that he might move her tenotomy up a week because he thinks she is ready. He encouraged me to express concerns and again reiterated that he will continue to watch it and if we start to see something funny, curling toes, etc. we'll look into it to determine if she has atypical feet. He said the crease is a symptom of atypical feet but it's usually much deeper than the crease on Riley's feet and generally there are other symptoms that go with it and in Riley's case since she is responding so well right now he did not believe I needed to be concerned about it, he certainly isn't concerned by it. Whew! I was really worried he would be mad that I was questioning him but he welcomed my concerns and we proceeded to talk about Dr. Dobbs (whose bar he uses when Riley is done with her casts) and a new grant he got to research the cause of clubfoot. He also let me feel her Achilles tendon and feel how tight it was. Again, I love Dr. H and am so glad we decided to use him! I am so relieved he welcomed my concerns! Everyone at his office is great and they just love Riley there. Here's some photos of Riley's feet this week, it's so amazing to think that about a month ago they were turned in and up, truly amazing that this transformation has occurred without surgery or pain to Riley.
Oh and she weighed 6lbs 13.5oz, it's hard to believe she's just now about the same size as most newborns but is about 2lbs bigger than she was at birth and she'll be 7 weeks old tomorrow. You probably noticed in the photos her second toe is longer than her big toe, we learned it's called Morton's foot or toe, I have it too. Riley got her cute cheeks, eyes, nose, chin, and mouth from Marc, from me she got crooked pinkies and Morton's feet! Got to love genetics!
Homer has also been doing much better and seems to have taken to his new sister. Friday night after dinner Marc and I went upstairs to get Riley's bath ready and when we came down we found Homer looking over his unattended sister.
Friday was another semi-sleepless night but Marc took over most of Riley duty, I just got up to pump. He decided in the middle of the night to take her off of formula since she was so gassy and in such obvious pain and she seemed to do much better on the breastmilk. It hadn't started to rain in the morning yet so we went for a walk down to the bagel shop and then got dressed and headed to the mall so I could get my Juicy pants (which were purchased at Juicy, my own little shenanigan) shortened at Nordstrom, I also purchased a new pair of True Religion jeans, my post-pregnancy treat to myself. Then we had lunch at PF Changs, which was the first time we ate there since I became pregnant, it was a major food aversion during pregnancy, which was unfortunate. Then we headed up to Pleasant Hill for my hour massage (best husband ever!) and then to Jill and Edwin's for dinner to celebrate Edwin's birthday. My massage was amazing, I had to fight not to fall asleep during it, I wanted to enjoy every moment of it. Here are some photos from Edwin's birthday celebration.
Morty checking out his new cousin:
The birthday boy and his niece:
Bright eyed and actually not crying!
That's it until next time!
I can hardly believe it but Riley is 4 weeks old today! It's gone by so fast I can hardly believe she's been with us a month. We're starting to get the hang of things and get into a nice routine. I think I've got her cries down finally and can tell the difference between a dirty diaper and hunger. Marc stayed home sick today and made a comment that it was cute how I had my little routine with Riley - we wake up, feed Riley, pump, go for a walk if it is nice, feed again/pump, run some errands if we need to, feed/pump, and then relax, then feed/pump and wait for Marc to come home. Today I was in my zone even though Marc was home and he was cracking up at me. I'm feeling great and I hope to start going to the gym again this week, I was going to go today but the weather was nice so we went for a walk instead. I'm planning on going to the gym after Marc gets home from work and let him have some alone time with Riley while I get my break by going to the gym. I love being home with Riley and can hardly bear to think what it will be like to have to go back to work. Work seems a million miles away right now and I love seeing Riley change each and every day. Every day she seems so much bigger and older and seems like she conquers a new task - like yesterday she kept her pacifier in her mouth for over an hour. Happy 1 Month Birthday Baby Girl - it's been the best (and most tiring) four weeks of my life!
