(I’m planning to fill in what happened for her first five weeks soon. However, I need to just jump in here and now, or I’ll never start.)
First, you can see lots of pictures of Ruby in this online album: https://www.mynameisruby.com/album. I post new pictures there once or twice a week, and try to post just the best ones so as not to overwhelm the viewer.
Until this week, Ruby has pretty much been an angel (again, I hope to write more about the past weeks at some point). However, this week, “teenager” is a better description. Her face has erupted in baby acne. She’s much fussier. She stays up much later than we’d like.
To be fair, the fussiness appears to have a definite cause. She’s been having some digestive issues… her tummy hurts and so does pooping. During these periods, it’s sometimes hard to calm her, although sticking a finger in her mouth generally does the trick. It’s tiring for us, though, because she needs so much soothing and attention (just putting her in a sling or carrier is not enough).
We’ve started struggling a bit more with sleep at night, too. For several weeks, we were able to soothe her to sleep, then put her in the co-sleeper where she’d sleep for 3-6 hours. Now, she’s started to startle awake more often, so putting her down becomes an endless iterative process. Often, we just give up and whoever’s turn it is will take her downstairs or to the couch and put her to sleep on their chest (where she sleeps much easier). Also, I’m sick this week, which makes the nighttime struggles that much more frustrating.
One positive thing is that breastfeeding is finally going well. We struggled with it for a month, but now it’s working OK for everyone involved. We had assistance from books, our doula, our midwives, and a lactation consultant, and they helped, but I suspect it was just a matter of time and practice. It’s hard to see that when you’re in the middle.
Ruby has started to flirt with smiling, and we’re on the edge of our seats waiting for her to finally bust out a big responsive grin. That’s the reward we’re hanging on for right now.