Still truckin' along the Newborn highway!

Things are going OK lately. Mostly.

I recently had a nasty, nasty stomach virus for a week straight that about knocked me flat on my rear. Evan and Ally had it to a much, much smaller degree thank God.

I had an epiphany when Emily was 4 weeks old. I decided I really, really wanted to at least pump a bottle or two for Emily each day. Just when I thought I had made my peace with formula feeding, I guess I wasn't as OK with it as I thought.

Since then, I've been attempting to relactate. HOLY CRUD... that's some HARD WORK! If I would have just done it when my milk originally came in it would have been a breeze. But since airheaded Jodi decided to wait until 4 WEEKS POSTPARTUM to give her baby breastmilk, it's been a lot more challenging.

Especially after having the flu, it was like starting all over again. I'm only getting about an ounce total per day at the moment. But every time I feed it to her, it makes me feel so good knowing that I'm giving her something I made for her. And knowing that I'm giving her something no one else can.

If I never get any more volume than this, though, I'll have to hang up the pump for good. But I'm definitely going to fight the good fight for a few more weeks at least. I'm currently taking a supplement called More Milk Plus that has fenugreek and blessed thistle in it. I'm also on a drug called Domperidone which is supposed to increase my output. But we'll just have to see.

Emily is my little growing girl. She was a little over 9 pounds at 6 weeks old and about 23 inches long. She started social smiling a couple of weeks ago. OH. MY. GOODNESS. It might be the single most darling thing I've ever seen!!! She gets this huge, ginormous open-mouthed grin when you smile at her or make silly noises. I'm just soaking it all in.

Other than that, last weekend (April 24) was Ally's third birthday!!! I can't believe it!!! Sadly, we had to postpone her party since I was still pretty ill with the flu at the time. Turns out it was a blessing in disguise: we ended up having a tornado warning that afternoon and were huknered down in the basement!

But on May 8, we're going to have a princess party for our little princess girl. Instead of bringing toys (which she does NOT need), I'm having each person bring a different Disney princess costume for her. She only had one costume before (Snow White) and she *loves* playing dress-up in it. I can't wait to see her sweet face at the party!!!