The Daily Hailey

The word “still” in this title doesn’t actually make sense. Laela has only been with us for 8 days, yet her peace blows me away constantly throughout every day. One thing that I think I can attribute this to is her age. She is still new enough that her biggest cry is still so tiny. Her wails are more like little honks, and they are so adorable, I have to convince myself to go make them stop. They are such lovely little sounds, they don’t bug me in the slightest. They remind me of when she freshly came out and was honking away, and I didn’t really try to make her stop. I wanted the safety in hearing her cry. I wanted her to cry all the crud out of her pipes that needed to come out. To me, the sound was comforting. Maybe I won’t always feel that way, but I did that today, and I still do today.

She is also a very calm baby in the way of being alone. Even with as much help as I have, my kids have both had times of needing to wait for me while I deal with the other.  Laela is so relaxed. I can lay her in our mamaroo, in the U-pillow, or even in her cradle, and she’ll wait. Sometimes she fusses, sure. But rarely do I have to hear her full out crying before I can go get her again. She doesn’t seem to have a panic mode yet at all. I STRONGLY advise anyone who feels like they could use a little more peace to come over and hold her. It will do the soul some good.

Once again, I will brag up her sleep. I know I can’t count on it forever, but my little girl is sleeping beautifully. Last night, we had a very hard time getting a burp out of her, and she was up on and off until about midnight, with a tummy ache. Finally, at about 12:15am, she heaved an enormous burp on me, slumped, and it was all over. She woke up for food again at 3:30am, and went back to sleep without question. After that, she woke shortly after 7:00am. Looking at it now, I guess thats only three hour stretches. Its no five hour stretch, or twelve like we got from Dekker, but I’m not stupid. I don’t expect those things! I could not be happier with my little one waking so little! Brady and I both wake feeling quite rested, which is so much more than I could have asked for from our newborn daughter. After Laela’s wake up at 7:00am, she had a big burp and poop. I changed her bum and tried to play off the situation well and put her back down to bed. As soon as I lay her down, she opened her big dark blue eyes and stuck out her lower lip. Well that was over before it started. I plunked her down on my chest and lay with her in bed until about 9:30am!!! She slept and I caught up on some of my YouTube videos that I’ve missed over the last week and a half. It was so relaxing! My mom came mid-morning like she’s offered to do the last couple of days and the upcoming ones as well. I invited her to come hang out with us while Dekker slept in, so we cuddled up and chatted in the dim light before getting up and facing the world. It was a great morning! I’m floored that Laela sleeps so soundly and gives her parents some nice stretches at really appropriate times.

As for the rest of the day, we relaxed today! No real jobs, or tasks to accomplish. Dekker struggled pretty hard yesterday evening, and I felt like a quiet, normal day was what he needed most. So we sat downstairs and watched a movie. He played quietly and stopped to watch when music would play. That was really it. And it paid off!!! He didn’t freak during diaper changes, and for the first time in a week or two, he didn’t fight his patch! He’s gotten so much worse with it recently, to a point when Brady and I both have to pin him down to get it on. Today, there was no issue. I mean, he cried once it was on, but thats it. SUCH a big boy, I’m so proud of him! He was disappointed at nap time but not miserable. I was relieved. He’s finally settling back into our routine. Our routine that will likely change again very soon!

For my last side note of tonights post, for months now I’ve been regretting not saving these entries. Not that they’re all glorious and interesting, but they are a summary of my life, and my family. Wouldn’t it be cool for my kids to be able to read back one day if they wanted?! Maybe not, but I’m thinking I should have kept record. Lucky me, I think I finally came up with a way to do it!!! It will take a decent amount of time to do it, as I’ll have to save the entries one at a time, and there are over 450 now. But the question is, this is just saving the entries. Would you guys print them off and make binders? Or would you just leave them as files on an external hard drive? The format I’ve found to save them is imperfect as well. It doesn’t have the heading and it has a few lines overlapping that say things like “You’re viewers may sometimes see advertisements  in this space…” and I can’t get rid of that kind of stuff. Do I keep searching for a more “perfect” look or just save them this way? Help! I am not tech savvy at all and would love some opinions on the way you guys would do it!

Cookie dough and a bath tub. I have to get out of this nightly snacking habit. Or I should at the very least stop telling people about it…