*Sigh*

Today is my last day off of school. I have this weekend, and then Monday I head back to work. I can not believe how fast these 7 weeks have gone. How did pregnancy drag on so, but now time is just flying?

The best advice I have received so far...

1. Give breastfeeding time. The first couple of days seemed so easy. Then, as Wesley's jaundice got worse, it got harder. I had to do any and everything to get him to stay awake. We'd strip him down to his diaper, tickler him, change him, etc just to keep him awake. As his jaundice was treated, this got better. Then, we struggled with weight gain because of my supply. I've talked to lactation consultants 4 or 5 times since coming home from the hospital. At four weeks, he was finally gaining weight, I had all my vitamins figured out (I take 21 a day just for my supply...), and we were doing great. Now, it's so easy and I love the bonding time with him. He is a SLOW eater... as in 40-45 minutes to eat every time, but it's so worth it. Now, I am just hoping I can keep up with pumping until summer. My goal is to exclusively give him breast milk for 6 months and nurse at least part time until a year or so. Pumping is my current struggle, and I just hope if I do have supplement some during these few weeks back at school that I can go back to exclusively nursing him this summer. When I go back at the end of the summer, he'll be 5 months old, and I think I can get enough stash to make it a month at day care in that amount of time. (Note: I know formula is not bad for babies and all that, but I am so glad I am truly giving this every effort I can. I would never judge someone for giving up because it's hard or they just can't do it, but I tend to be a lot harder on myself than anyone else...)

2. Watch The Happiest Baby on the Block. When Wesley is grumpy, the 5 s's (actually he old needs three s's most of time), are magic. We learned about this video at our infant care class. Yeah, this is the class we only went to one of three of because it was SOOO boring. It was worth learning about this video. I'd heard of the book, but it was thick. This was a 25 minute video that has made our grumpy hour or two at night immensely better.

3. Have help. Nick took off a week when Wesley was born, and my mom came for three days two different times. This was great. The first night we were home with Wesley was rough. He was to the point where he was getting hungry, which he wasn't really in the hospital and he was spitting up stuff from delivery still and it was awful. I got hardly any sleep. Thank goodness I had Mom and Nick; it would have been so overwhelming without him. I was so glad Nick didn't have to work because I didn't feel guilty making him get up every time Wesley did. I wish he would have had more time, since we practically spent this whole time at the hospital since Wesley had to go back, but it was good anyway. Mom was great because she took him in the morning, so I could sleep more. She also cleaned a lot, cooked a few meals, and did a few projects around the house when she was there the first time. The second time she was there, she helped me to get out of the house. It was nice to have help the first couple times taking Wesley out. It was so much less overwhelming.

4. Have the baby sleep in your room at first. Wesley spent all of his first nights in the cradle in our room. He still spend the second half of the night there. It was so nice not to have to go into his room every time he woke up the first few weeks. Now, he starts in the crib and then stays in the cradle once he gets up the first time.

The Worst Advice
1. Don't buy any newborn clothes. Tons of people told us this (including the nurses at the hospital), and I am sure it's true for some people. Wesley just outgrew his newborn sleepers about a week and a half ago, and an still wear shirts and pants. I am sure this has a lot to do with him being an average (not big) baby and having weight gaining issues at first, but we only had one newborn sleeper for Wesley along with 2 sleepers, 1 outfit and a few pain shirts and onesies that a friend lent us. Wesley just swam in his 0-3 stuff for a long time, and a lot of it is still huge. We did go buy a couple of things after he was born, but I got SO sick of this stuff since he wore the same things over and over for weeks. Plus, the first 3 or 4 days he was spitting up nasty snotty stuff, and so I did laundry all. the. time. Next time, I will buy more and just leave the tags on most of it. I was not wanting to go out and shop when we first brought him home!

Okay, so I am pretty lucky that I didn't get a lot of (okay, any) terrible advice and got mostly good advice.