Happenings at the Loony Bin

Jillian is doing better in terms of sleeping at night... I fed her at 10:00 last night and she went right to sleep when I put her in her crib... and slept until 1:45 AM, then went until 3:45 AM, woke up at around 6:00, but I was able to get her to go back to sleep until around 7:00. Two middle-of-the-night feedings is DEFINITELY nothing to complain about, especially since she's such an efficient nurser. With Matt at this age, I was usually up anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half per feeding... with Jillian, I can feed her, burp her and change her in about 20 minutes or so and get back to bed - hence I can get a lot more sleep. Which is nice. :)

Days have been a little crazy, especially since Mark went back to work, but I think I'm handling it okay. The toughest thing has been trying to figure out how to coordinate feedings around putting Matt down for naps/for bed and feeding him. Also, last night Mark had softball, so I had to figure out what to do with Jillian when it was time for Matt's bedtime routine. I ended up putting her in her crib and turning the mobile on, which seemed to work. The only crazy moment was when I had JUST put Matt in his crib and Jillian spit up a little bit and started crying, which set Matt off in the next room. But I think I handled it splendidly. ;-)

I had a bout of either a clogged milk duct or mastitis earlier this week. I went to get my haircut on Tuesday and brought the kids with me... my mom and sister met me there and mom took care of them and then we all went out for lunch at Bertucci's. I started feeling kind of crummy during lunch... I had a head ache and my left breast was VERY sore and tender (TMI). I went home and started feeling really tired, achy and I had the chills. Mark convinced me later that night to take my temperature and when I did, it was 101.1!! Yikes! I did some research online and realized I had the symptoms of mastitis... so I did more research and read that I should nurse on that side first, to try to completely drain that breast and hopefully unclog the duct, and also to massage the area often and use warm compresses. I also read that it's usually the body's way of telling you to slow down and drink more liquids, which, I am embarrassed to admit, I was woefully neglecting. So Wednesday I completely relaxed (as much as you can with 2 kids) and drank water and juice 'till I was bursting. By Thursday I was completely fine again... temperature was back to normal and all the soreness and tenderness had gone away.

My parents took Matt to the Stone Zoo that afternoon, which helped me out a great deal... He had a great time with them (they said that most of the animals were completely lost on him and he had the most fun feeding crumbs from his sandwich to the birds in the picnic area. LOL!). But he LOVES his Pepere and Memere and so he had a blast. Here is a picture of him all pooped in the car coming home from the zoo with his new stuffed animal.

One more cute thing he did this week... actually, just this morning. He asked Mark to make a "track" for his trains and I told him to say please... so he went up to Mark, who was bent over the train toy box and kind of leaned over and bent his head around so Mark had a clear view of his face and said "Keeeee!!" which means please, of course. It was a lot cuter in person. ;-)