1 month!

I can't believe Arianna is a month old already! The time has flown by, but I also have a hard time believing I've been nursing in pain for a whole month. I thought for sure I wouldn't be as miserable this time around as I was with Marissa (two whole months). I feel like we've tried everything, and I'm so sick of hearing all the professionals I talk to saying "give it time"! I saw a lactation lady at the hospital the other day, and she basically said the same thing. Oh well, at least Arianna's doing great. Dan fed her a bottle of pumped milk the other night, and she guzzled the whole 2 ounces. She was ticked off the entire time, and didn't really stop screaming even when she was drinking it. But at least she figured out how - lol. She was pretty upset after she finished it, so I nursed her for a minute. Then she decided she was done with all the pumped milk, and spit up every last drop of it. And she's had several other HUGE spit-ups since then. Like HUGE puddles on my lap, soaking my pants, the chair underneath me, my phone in my pocket, the floor under the chair, etc. It's really quite awful, and even scary to see it happen, but she's been fine before and after each time, so who knows. I just hope we're not headed towards horrible reflux!

For a few nights she only slept 6 hour chunks, and they ended as Marissa was waking up, so I'm was pretty tired. I got so used to being spoiled already! But last night was much better at 7.5 hours straight :-)

A few weeks ago, I bought a Shark Euro-Pro tiny wacky sewing machine online (can't find any links to show you, but it's very odd). I read some good things about it on some blogs (like it was small, portable, and easy/simple to learn), and I'd been wanting to learn to sew lately. I really wanted to purchase a fancy nursing cover, but they can get so expensive, especially when they use fancy beautiful fabric. So I decided to make my own! I've spent the last few days trying to figure out the sewing machine. I'd never sewn anything before, and I wasn't even familiar with all the terms and parts of the machine. It didn't help matters that the manual that came with it is horribly written (most likely by someone who's first language was NOT English), has typos all over, and isn't very thorough. But Sunday night I sewed a straight line on some scrap fabric and it looked great! I was so proud to have figured it out all on my own! I am NOT a crafty person like this, so I was pretty impressed with myself. Lol. I was soooo nervous that I would mess up my beautiful fabric! Not that it would be a huge deal, since it was only like $8/yd. But still. It was hard to find time to work on it, especially since I couldn't do it while Arianna was napping in the living room, and by the evening when Dan's home, I've been too tired to do much. But I managed, and here it is:

I'm so pleased with how it turned out!

Strange little sewing machine

I also bought some fabric to create some art in our bedroom. I'll try to take a picture once that's done.

Marissa and Arianna are both napping right now. Arianna falls asleep for a long nap as soon as I swaddle her - it's like magic! And Marissa went to sleep at 2. Marissa had some MAJOR issues with naptime/bedtime recently. But she's finally doing better. She just decided she wasn't going to go to bed, and nothing we did could change that! She stuck it out for over an hour every time! Impressive stubborn streak, but soooooo hard to deal with! But now she brags to us that she's going to go to bed/nap like a big girl, and not get out of bed at all. So phew! I hope that nightmare doesn't ever come back!

Things are looking up around here, and I feel much better about life with two kids. Especially when they're so cute (and Arianna's pimple cheeks are finally getting better!)