good gul

Coco is such a good sleeper... so far :]
She usually sleeps 7pm-7amish.
Today she let mommy sleep in until 9am [minus the pumping]! She feeds while she sleeps and goes right back to sleep.
She woke up at 9am and is down again! :D hahaha

Baby Bath Product: Shampoo, soap, lotion

 Just Hatched $5$7
Aveeno Baby $18-$25~ Burt's Bee Baby Bee $13-$20
Seventh Generation Sold Separately
BabyGanics Sold Separately
Mustela Newborn $35-$42
My personal favorite!
Honest $50

California Baby

Colette is such a good sleeper. She sleeps 12+hours at night , 3/4 hours at a time, and goes back to sleep after a feed. :D

I love the newborn stage. I wish she stayed this way for longer!

Birth Announcement

Breastfeeding and Sleep

I just found out last week that even if your baby is doing their nights and sleeping all night, if you are breastfeeding, your milk is ALWAYS on. So you're up releasing the milk regardless - so no sleep! I thought you could go longer at night when baby is sleeping for some reason. As long as your nursing, you are not getting restful nights of sleep. Wow. Not only is breastfeeding hard in MANY other ways, but this no sleep [even if baby is sleeping] is an added "bonus". I hate BF man, lol.

Baby Bottles

Here's my top list of baby bottles that I recommend:


comotomo 





Iiamo Self Heating





mOmma





Mimijumi 





Adiri




Mixie for formula

Feeding the first week

Going in, my husband and I wanted to try to exclusively breastfeed Colette for a year. That was the goal. Just a goal. ;]

The first few days, a mother's mature milk is still producing. So we decided to feed her my colosseum and supplement with formula bcos she was loosing a lot more weight than average [newborns loose weight in first 2 weeks from birth]. In a couple of days, she gained weight and her yellowish skin [risk of jaundice] started to fade and she started to get a little more healthier.

My husband had 2 weeks paternity leave and let me sleep at night. After 5-7 days after birth, I pumped, but was always short of one feed during the night so we supplemented one feeding with good ol' :P formula for a week and half. My nipples were also extremely sore for the first 3 weeks.

We used formula in the beginning to help feed Coco until I was able to abundantly provide milk for her. This made me a lot less stressed about her gaining weight, her being satisfied/full, being healthy, and not putting pressure on myself with nursing.

Thanks to God

All of this is only possible through the power of prayer. We prayed truly believing. We prayed years before. Thanks to the power of prayer and thanks so much to God for all these amazing gifts. He continues to answers prayers and watch over us all!

Mommy

We didn't need to get induced! We had a healthy, safe labor.

My contractions were very bare-able. The pain was not excruciating. Dilating cms up to 9 cms was very quick. 

But I was stuck at 9cm for a very long time though [HOURS] and pushing, for me, was very painful. 

Overall, labor was not that difficult. I was ready to do it again even though it was one of the craziest things I've ever done. And the next morning in the bathroom, I thought "WOW", but that it was all worth it!

I had a couple hemorrhoids. This was possibly more painful than labor for me, lol. I've never had hems and had no clue how annoying in the least they are. It hurt to cough. When I went to bend down, I couldnt spread my butt cheeks. I got better after a week. 

My figure actually went back to normal with a flat stomach in 2 weeks. Am I happy and proud of this? - Of course! 

This will not happen with the next pregnancies. I will get bigger quicker and stay that way longer. 

Baby, you, give me energy. When I wake up, I wake up with a purpose and not being cranky and horrible. 

Baby

After a few tries, you latched right on at the hospital. You know how to latch on every since. You're not lip or tongue tied either.
I did have a breakdown though, and bounced back. ;]

As a newborn, you sleep a lot! You are a heavy sleeper that sleeps through bright lights and very loud noises. At 2 weeks, baby lets mommy and daddy sleep through the night! We just wake her up every 3 hours to feed. She doesnt cry [bcos she's passed out], drinks her milk, and goes right back to sleep. 

You had your times of being fussy of course!

You burp and poo like a champ! You love getting burped and have huge burps!  They are very loud, big, and very often. We are glad you don't hold it in and are not that gassy. 

But you can't stand the slightest poo or pee in your diaper and cry "bloody murder" to get changed ASAP. Sometimes you will pee or poo again RIGHT after we changed you; literally like a few minutes after. We go through an above average amount of diapers - kind of wasteful, baby!

So far, you don't cry that much.

You don't mind us washing your face. What a good baby!

When we sway you side to side, you bop/move your head side to side too. We sike you out by stopping, and you still move your head to the side. Haha!

You are very expressive. Your facial expression are so intense. We love you rainbow eyes smile. 

Your voice was the cutest thing I've ever heard. I heard your voice when you came out of my womb and I fell in love. You make a lot of very cute noises all the time. I think you will be a good singer from both grandpas sides of the families, hehe.

I also love your long body, long fingers, and long feet. Hopefully you will be tall. And you already have beautiful hands. Maybe you will play instruments very well?

Happy ONE Month, Baby!

‎Parenthood is hectic and intense as well as amazing and exciting! ;) No one can describe it and you can't fully understand it unless you go through it yourself.
It's like your part of this new club. Seriously... [raising eyebrow]

Breastfeeding Breakdown

Today our baby is 4 weeks old! :D

Yesterday was the day I broke down and would have given up with breastfeeding. I cried from the excruciating pain. Yes, it hurts more than contractions to me. I thought by now it would only get better. 

On the positive, my milk is coming in great. 

The sides of my nipples are cracked, beyond sensitive, sore, and bleeding. [But it's my fault. Read below.] I can't even sleep or sneeze or breathe :P because they're throbbing so painfully. It feels like a HUNDRED little sharp cuts made by really thin blades are all over your nipples. 

They hurt so bad that at 5pm yesterday I stopped nursing and pumping. But of course you're going to get engorged/clogged/full of breast milk so that hurts too! Nothing could bare to even breathe in the direction of my nipples. It's like I couldn't even quit nursing if I wanted to since the milk is producing. And thank goodness for that because I would have seriously gave up last night.

So I figured out that while pumping [every 2/2.5 hours all day and night long... so an average of 8 times a day], it was chafing and rubbing so hard and so often making the sides of my nipples get DESTROYED. I stopped putting nipple cream on because I didn't realize this was happening until it was a few days too late. Duh me! 

So now I have to suck it up and nurse through these destroyed nipples. I put on crazy amount of nipple cream and aquaphor before, during, and after. My cracked nipples will get better and things will soon be more normal. :/ :]

Zara Mini

How adorable!?





here

Busy trying to do this ;]

Scratch Mittens

Some of the scratch mittens I have are too big for my newborn so we used newborn socks and put them on her hands! Works like a charm! :D They tend to stretch out after a bit so wash them in hot water to shrink back and make sure you have a few extra. 

Also try to find scratch mittens that tie and tighten bcos only then they will not constantly fall off. I found newborn sizes that you can tie on etsy.

 here
 here
 here
 here
 here
 here
 here