The Daily Hailey

Laela Hazel was born one week ago. I just need to brag her up a bit, if no one minds. If you do mind, you probably haven’t met her. Or you just shouldn’t read this blog, because I am incredibly proud of my kids!

Brady was back at work today, so last night I did all the Laela jobs on my own. Feeding and diapers. Not a huge deal at all, and I think a lot of moms do those things on their own, but Brady is always more than happy to help out. He did a full night for me just the other day! But last night was INCREDIBLE! Laela bean had a nice wakeful evening and had her last feed around 10:30pm before we tucked her all in and turned out the lights on that side of our room. We went about our regular bedtime routine of a bath and some Netflix, and then went to bed. She slept until 1:40am, which I thought was a nice stretch for such a young little girl! I fed her then, and it seemed to take forever, if I’m being honest. But as I sat in bed, I realized that was the best way to eat! Dekker had been such a bottle monster and no matter which nipples we used in his bottles, he would get his milk way too fast and then throw it all up. Laela drinks steadily and just has her one little burp halfway through the bottle. So if it takes her a bit longer to drink them, so be it!! No, I’m not trying to compare my kids or pick favorites, but Dekker’s projectile vomiting was actually a huge challenge for us. The fact that Laela doesn’t vomit down my back into my pants every single day is just a nice bonus 🙂

So back to the point, Laela dozed and drank consistently for a good while, but I couldn’t get a burp out of her. We worked at it for a while, and our midnight feeding became about an hour long. But she wasn’t fussing or demanding at all. Just peaceful. So we hung out and waited and eventually got our burps! Which resulted in a pretty sick case of the hiccups. I just held her until they were gone, then put her in her cradle and went back to bed. I was quite awake afterwards and was laying in bed, replaying her crazy delivery as I so often do. Ten minutes after she went down, I heard her yawn. I cannot believe that she will already fall asleep from being awake!!! So pumped!

I got to sleep pretty soon after that I think. I felt so awake but I sure wasn’t up for hours at all! I was awakened by Laela once again for food at 6:00am!!! SUCH a beautiful stretch of sleep! This feeding and diaper change was awesome, being completed in 25 minutes, getting both burps out, all her milk drank, and her diaper changed. She was back to sleep before 6:30am and didn’t wake up for the day until 8:15-ish. When she did wake up, I went and got her from her cradle and as soon as I lifted her, she burped, farted, and had a BIG tummy gurgle. Poor dear!! I could tell she had a tummy ache, so I brought her to my bed and lay her on me, tummy to tummy. we lay all cuddled up for close to an hour before I put her back in her bed (completely asleep) and put on clothes and deodorant in preparation for my mom and Willa to come for the day.

This was a VERY long way of saying that Laela really only woke up to eat twice last night!!! And neither time did she stare at me with her big wakeful eyes. She would watch me calmly and relaxedly, and when she was just coming near the end of her bottle, she’d get nice and sleepy and nod off. And burping her seems to only really calm her further. Love that!

My last update on Laela is that she lost her belly cord stump today! It actually really freaked me out. I don’t remember Dekker losing his especially vividly. I almost wonder if Brady found it off instead of me. I can’t picture it at all! But first thing in the morning, the cord was fully sealed on. The next diaper change it was hanging by a thread and there was blood through her sleeper, and all over the inside. Having the grandmas over for the day, I missed the next two diaper changes. But I could see her cord through the little gaps in her jammies and it just freaked me out. I was scared it would hurt her making that final break. But when I finally went for her next diaper change, I found the nasty little stump floating around in there, completely detached all on its own 🙂 FREEDOM!!

Even her belly button is dainty.

Sorry to those of you that don’t want to see it. I know, its a little bloody, but I was so relieved, I had to take a picture!

So all things considered, today was great. No, I wasn’t on my own. I had TONS of help. Willa brought me a pumpkin spice latte this morning, my mom brought lunch, and my friend from church brought me meals for the week, put together by herself and a couple of my other friends. I feel sooo doted on!

All because of my Laela.