Wow! I can't believe Erika's over a month old now - and that we survived!! She's now 5 weeks and 1 day old, still technically a newborn, but I think we've just endured the first growth spurt. Ah, the horror!!
Erika has been a frequent feeder since birth. By that, I mean 1.5-3 hourly, day or night! She tends to sleep a little better in the morning, so I tried to shorten her daytime sleeps in the hope that she'd sleep longer at night. That didn't work, though. All it did was teach her to have short sleeps day and night! And I mean SHORT! She would feed for about 10-15mins (couldn't get her to take any more - seems she only has a little tummy!), then play for about half an hour. When she starts to fuss and get sleepy, I'd try to put her down for a sleep, but it would take me about an hour or more, despite wrapping, rocking, patting, etc. Once down, she'd sleep for 5-10mins then wake again - this would go on for ages. By the time she finally conked out, I'd be very tense, wondering how long it'd be before I'd have to resettle her AGAIN. When I realised she's finally out for the count, it'd be just minutes before she's due to wake for the next feed, so why bother going to sleep myself?! As well as being difficult to settle, and keep settled, she has issues with wind/colic. She isn't always able to burp during/after a feed, and the pains always seem lower down, anyway. All we can do is wait for her to pass it out the other end! Cycling her legs seemed to help a bit, and we've also put her onto some medicine, which seems to help too (but even if it's a placebo, it makes me feel better for trying!!).
The first two weeks were managable, as Neal was on holidays from work. But when he went back, it was onto afternoon shift for two weeks - that meant I had to deal with Kira's 5 o'clock horrors, Erika's 2 hour feeds, cook dinner, and do the bath and bedtime routines all on my own. Talk about challenging! Add to that, Erika tends to have two fussy times - around 2pm (Kira's nap time, which means I don't always get to have a Nanna-nap), and around 7pm onwards (this can go on til 2am!). During those two weeks, I took to camping on the couch. Neal snores, and the more tired he is, the worse the snoring gets - he was keeping me awake! So you can see we've been more than a little sleep-deprived!
Things came to a head last week. On Monday (right on the 4 week mark!), Erika started feeding 2 hourly at 10am - you could set your watch by her! I don't mind the frequent feeds during the day, so long as it doesn't go on all night. But it did! Between 6pm and 3am Tuesday morning, Erika did NOT sleep! I'd manage to get her to nod off, but it'd only last 10 mins before she'd wake again. I kept trying to resettle her, but with no luck. I was wrecked by the time Neal got home from work (around midnight). He took over whilst I tried to sleep, but I couldn't, as I could still hear her crying from the other end of the house. At 1.30am he brought her back to me for yet another feed, and she FINALLY crashed at 3.30am. Neal took Tuesday off work so that I could spend the day doing nothing more than feed and sleep. Thankfully, we had a better night that night.
On Wednesday (18.3.09), I got a call from the Child and Youth Health clinic - I'd booked in to the day service for a few weeks' time, but they'd had a cancellation so I got to go in early. The timing couldn't have been better! I spent the day in the clinic with the nurse, who reinforced the routine I'd started, but showed me some alternative settling techniques (which of course worked brilliantly in the clinic, though not so well at home!). As well as learning a few tricks, I really appreciated having that one-on-one time with Erika without any other distractions, as up to that point every time I had to do something for her I felt very tense and anxious (How long would she be up for? How long would it take me to settle her this time? How long would she stay asleep for? etc).
On Friday, I felt pretty good, as I'd managed to get some reasonable chunks of sleep. My friend Sue popped in for a visit. When she asked me how I was, I burst into tears! We ended up having a cry together, as we're in a similar situation (family interstate, husbands work shifts, our kids are the same ages). Later, when I was trying (and failing) to get Erika down for the afternoon, and seeing my much-needed nap-time going out the window again, another friend texted me. Realising that I wasn't having much fun, and in need of sleep, Angie offered to come over to watch the kids for me. I was grateful for that! I tried to sleep, but my brain wouldn't switch off, but the rest still did me good. Later, her husband came around with dinner and chocolate! They both stayed and helped out until Kira was in bed, and I felt more relaxed. It must've done the trick, because Erika went 5-6 hours between feeds that night, and I felt like a whole new woman the next day!
Neal's now working morning shifts for the next 3 months, which I think is great! He's now home in the evenings, and so can help out with the kids. He's not really a morning person, and really needs his sleep since he has to be up early, but it's nice to have that shift continuity, too, instead of the rotating roster, for a while.
Erika is still stretching out her feeds. During the day, she'll feed 2.5-4 hourly, and at night she'll feed 3.5-6hourly. She's getting easier to put down to sleep now, too, though sometimes she still likes to fuss about for a bit. Because we're all sleeping better now, I'm feeling better (less emotionally fragile!), and picking up on her cues/cries better, too. I'm HOPING we're over the worst of it! I know there'll be more tough growth spurts, but hopefully we'll be better prepared, and able to cope.
On a brighter note, Erika is gaining weight - at the clinic last Wednesday she was about 3.9kg. And she's starting to become more interactive! She's starting to hold eye contact, and "talks" - lots of cooing! She's very cute! She's broken out in the lovely 4th week milk spots, and now looks like she's hit her teens prematurely! I think they're slowly starting to fade now, thank goodness.
Kira seems to be loving her role as Big Sister to Erika. She seems so proud of Erika. When asked who Erika is, she'll reply very excitedly "Baby Eh-kah!" "Baby Sista!" "Mine's Daughter!" She loves to give Erika lots of hugs and kisses, and pats (though sometimes that gets a bit rough, but always done with love!). She doesn't mind when I breast-feed. Kira will do her own thing, or sit next to me and watch Erika "drinking boobies". When Erika cries, Kira puts out her arms, and says 
"Coming!", or "Eh-kahhh! That's enough! No more! Go to sleep!!" Kira likes to help give Erika her dummy, or pass things to me when I'm not able to get them myself (like Erika's wrap, dummy, etc). We haven't seen any signs of jealousy from Kira. Just the typical 2-year old behaviours (pushing her limits, especially when tired or hungry!). Kira likes to play "Mummy and Baby" with her dolls and teddy bears. She takes them for walks in their pram, gives them their dummy, and feeds them pretend milk and water from a bottle. 
Although, today as we were driving home from playgroup, I was listening to Kira playing with her teddybear....she was lifting up her top and breastfeeding it!! "Drinking boobies, teddybear!" Very funny!!
