Learning Curve

Having read almost everything I could get my hands on before the baby got here, I thought I was Prepared for the baby. HA! This is not something that you can be overly prepared for, especially on the first time out of the gate. It is getting easier every day, though, and after nearly four hours straight of sleep last night, plus an hour and a half before that and catnap this morning I'm feeling pretty darn good. Talk to me again in a few hours though, and you might get a different story.

We've made a few newbie mistakes, but are learning things about our daughter rapidly. Things that she changes just as rapidly.

The first time we left the house with her after arriving home from the hospital, we were about halfway to our destination before we realized that we forgot the diaper bag. We looped back around and picked it up, and of course didn't end up needing it, but still. What a rookie mistake.

Gabbie has a penchant for peeing as soon as she gets her diaper off, is wiped clean and the dirty diaper is removed to make room for the clean one. She can't get anything on her harness, so we've gotten really good at quickly scooping her up and letting her pee on the table. I don't know what I'm going to do the first time she does this and I'm home by myself though. Luckily, while it was a close call this morning, it didn't happen.

My mom is still here and had run out to get a coffee and a second harness (just in case she gets better at the surprise pee and we don't pick her up quite quickly enough) this morning. I was trying to wake Gabbie up from her nap because it was time to eat, so I tried our best weapon: the diaper change. (I apologize if this story is gross to anyone out there, but this is my life these days; maybe don't read on if you can't handle baby's bodily functions.)

So I unsnap the onesie, open the diaper, and start wiping her down. Then she passed some gas, and in the process, a little bit of poop that got on my finger. While wiping her down after that, she started pooping in the diaper. At least it was still the dirty one, right? Then as I'm wiping her down from that, she started to pee. Still lucky enough to have the diaper under her for the pee, and it didn't get too far out of where we needed it to be.

Finally cleaned up, I put on a fresh diaper, put her down in her bassinet, and go wash up. When I went back to scoop her up? She pooped some more. In the clean diaper. So, we change another diaper, get her snapped up, and sat down to start our feeding session. As soon as I get her into position, she pooped some more! Not wanting to get all settled in again, I nursed her and figured I'd change her when we were done with that side. My mom came home in the meantime, and happily changed the diaper during which she peed again.

I'm guessing she's getting enough food, because that's a lot of output from such a tiny little baby!

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I wanted to say thank you so much for all the wonderful comments during the past couple of weeks. I'm sorry I haven't responded to them as possible, because, basically, it hasn't been possible. But I do appreciate all the kind sentiments!

(Also, Cassie - can you send me your email address? Mine is mrs.jessie.ca [at] gmail [dot] com. I'd love to respond to your comments but can't find out how to contact you!)

Finally, I would love to post more pictures, but the computer we use for that is, of course, on the fritz at the moment. She looks so different from the first couple of days, and I'd love to show her off! I'll get some posted soon, hopefully.