What a difference 2 weeks makes...

Today is our little girl's two week birthday!!!!  Everything is already moving so quickly!

Our princess lost her little umbilical cord "stump" yesterday (July 18) - which made mommy cry.  It's sitting in a box in our room right now and I'm not sure what to do with it.  I'm sure that most people toss it right in the trash, but for me that is the last thing that connected me directly to her so it's hard to just pitch it.  I'm sure I'll be able to part ways with it eventually but for right now I'm hanging on to it.

Nicolette also received her first piece of mail yesterday from the Social Security Administration.  So fun to see a piece of mail addressed especially to her!  She's a little person with her own mail and everything :)

We had a fun newborn photo shoot this past weekend with one of my dearest friends and I can't wait to see the images.  She is so stinking cute I could just eat her up!  And yes, I WILL be THAT mother who will shove photos of my daughter in everyone's face...so just brace yourselves.

As far as mommy (aka me) goes...I know that I'm supposed to be napping when she naps throughout the day (which is A LOT - her nickname is Sleeping Beauty because she sleeps SO much and can sleep through nearly ANYTHING!!!!!) but I can't keep myself from holding her, staring at her and kissing her sweet cheeks and head.  I know that this special time where she is so tiny and helpless is going to pass by so quickly so I'm trying to live in the moment and take it all in as much as I possibly can.  Both mommy and daddy love "skin to skin" snuggle time with the little princess.  There's just something so special about having her right up against me.  I know it sounds weird but sometimes I miss being at the hospital - we spent most of our time with the 3 of us cuddled up in our little hospital bed together.  It was so nice to have all of us so close together.  I had heard friends say that having a baby really strengthened their marriage and I would have to say that so far that is definitely true for us as well.  I feel closer to the Italian than ever before.  And every time I look at her sweet face I know that  without him there would be no her.  He's a very good daddy and loves snuggle time.  He gets a little jealous because I get to spend so much more time with her due to the 9+ hours a day we spend feeding and burping!

When I look at her I cannot believe that only 2 weeks ago she was inside my body.  When I look back at my 39 week bump pic - taken 1 day before her birth and then look at my 1 week, 5 day post partum pic I can't believe the difference that 2 weeks makes!  Sometimes I miss my bump and having her safe and inside me but as soon as I see her sweet cheeks, fingers, toes, nose, lips or hair I am so glad that she's here!  I've found more joy in the simplest things like watching her sleep than I ever thought possible.  We are exclusively breastfeeding so not only did I grow a person over the past 9 months (CRAZY!), but for the past 2 weeks I have successfully kept that person alive.  This is absolutely mind boggling to me!  I know that it's natural but it still is so amazing to me now that I'm in the process myself.

39 weeks

1 week, 5 days Post Partum

Breastfeeding definitely presents it's challenges and has been difficult for a control freak like myself to undertake.  I'm big on tracking things and with breastfeeding you don't know how much she's eating or sometimes if she's eating anything at all or just comfort suckling.   Having to rely solely on dirty and wet diapers to guesstimate her intake is a little scary (especially on our first day at home when we had NO poopy diapers for 24 hours!  (I never thought that I would be so excited about another human being's bowel movements...but alas I am.  I now rejoice with every poop and pee - even the 3 am projectile poop that not only covered my hands but also the walls of her beautiful little bassinet...oops!)

We had some trouble with breastfeeding during the first week.  She had latching issues and her never ending sleepiness made it nearly impossible to feed her but we seem to be getting into the swing of things now.  It is still VERY difficult to keep Sleeping Beauty awake long enough to finish a feeding and I feel guilty but I spend most of our feeding time, poking, prodding and tickling her in order to keep her awake.  We've even resorted to a cold washcloth to help shock her a little bit when all the other pokes and tickles don't work.  I feel like she and I are getting better at it with every feeding and I have no doubts that we'll have it down pat sooner rather than later.

That's all I have time for now - Sleeping Beauty is finally awake which means it's lunch time!  Hoping for lots of messy diapers today so I know that I'm doing my job well!  :)

Is it odd that I find the number of dirty diapers more gratifying that getting signed contracts for big pieces of business at work???  :)  My how things change in just a few short weeks!