The Best Laid Plans...

This week was supposed to be my last week at work.  It was going to work out perfectly - Fulton has a teacher workday on Friday, so I was hoping to meet with my long term sub and go over where my kids had left off, etc.  They were all going to be finishing up a unit this week (or last) and I was going to have my grading completed and in the books, with everything all nicely and neatly laid out on my desk and ready to go.  Well...  we all know how that worked out!  Logan had other plans, and while it took me a bit to accept that, it has worked out nicely - just maybe not as neatly as planned.

This past week has gone pretty well considering he's home and we're finally like new parents.  He had his first pediatrician visit last Monday and received an A+!  That's my boy!  If he is capable of A's in life, A's are what I expect.  But B's and C's will be ok (at least I try to tell myself that I will be ok with those for my children).  Anyways, the pediatrician's scale had him at 7lbs!  That was quite a jump over his first weekend home (of course, the scales probably are a little off)...

I asked the pediatrician about supplementing after breastfeeding and when I could start switching from bottle feedings to nursing.  She said that if Logan looks satisfied and has the requisite 6-8 wet/dirty diapers a day, then I could discontinue supplementing!  That was great news for me!  I had found that because I was supplementing him and then pumping after nursing, I would cut his nursing times short.  Now I could just let him nurse to his heart's content.  I also decided to stop pumping after nursing because I didn't need an oversupply of milk, and EBF moms (exclusively breast feeding) don't pump after they nurse, so why should I?  She also said that I could start gradually removing a bottle feeding and adding in a breast feeding.  I decided that I would start with his noon feeding this past Thursday, and if that went well, then switch over his midnight feeding this past Sunday.  Well, now that I am mostly breast feeding, we no longer have a schedule, except for his 6:00pm and 6:00am bottle feedings, which Jesse does.  I now feed Logan on demand.  I think he may be going through a growth spurt, too, because yesterday I felt like an all-you-can-eat buffet.  Logan has a weight check on Wednesday, so if that goes well, then I will dump his 6:00pm bottle feeding.  Jesse and I decided to keep his 6:00am bottle feeding for multiple reasons:

1. We decided he doesn't need to forget how to take a bottle before I go back to work, since he will be taking several a day when that happens.
2. Jesse likes the bonding experience with Little Man.
3. It forces Jesse to wake up on time.  :)
4. It will help out my schedule when I go back to work.
5. Right now I get to have a little extra sleep since I don't have to feed him that one time a day.

Last week Logan had lots of visitors.  He finally got to meet his great-grandmother Wade!  I have a feeling he's just going to love her.  He also met his "Aunt" Lori and my mom finally got to hold him (as did a bunch of other people!).  And his "uncle" Jason and Gruncle Steve and Graunt Deb.  Sorry if I left someone out!  Today he is going to meet his Aunt Hannah who was down from Washington, DC, for her brother and sister-in-law's baby shower this past weekend.

Jesse went back to work this past Wednesday.  He's been such a big help, though, doing things around the house.  He's been putting stuff together, cleaning the house, helping keep it clean (because I'm horrible at that - just ask anyone who has lived with me), and hanging out with Logan while I get some sleep.  

I've been hanging in there.  Logan, for the most part, has slept well in his cradle in his room.  He has some nights where he wakes up fussy a lot more than others, but now that he's not on a feeding schedule, I just nurse him back to sleep (he falls asleep and stays asleep maybe 70% of the time).  There have been a few nights where he hasn't done this and I've ended up sleeping later in the day when he does, but so far so good.  I'm not expecting this to last so that I don't get my hopes up, but I sure hope he continues to sleep well enough like this!  He is also nursing much better!  I can't ever quite tell how much he's getting, though.  Sometimes he nurses for 20 minutes and is done, sometimes 40 minutes, this morning he nursed for an hour!  Of course, it's not like he's eating the entire time.

The pets are slowly adjusting, too.  As mentioned, we're trying to give them tons of attention, so they don't associate Logan with bad things and then take it out on him or something like that.  I cuddle Yoda when Logan is asleep in his room, or carry the cats around.  Both Mozart and George have shared my lap with Logan while I nursed him.  We let them come into his room when we are in there so they can sniff around and such.  Of course, Yoda is afraid of the space heater and the car seat, so he doesn't come in often.  With the weather getting nicer and me adjusting more and more, I may see about taking Yoda and Logan for a walk.  Plus, I want to start getting back in shape.  It will be slow going, I have to take it easy on my abs because of diastasis recti (look it up if you're really interested), but I may join a gym for the first time in my life.  That means I will have to figure out what to do with the Little Man when I do start going.

Anyways, I will leave you with some pictures of Logan!