a little update... and a halloween video

here's a little video from halloween.

a cute thing i can't remember if i've documented yet... z always says "no, not simple, no" from the "simple it's not to make up your mind" page in the "oh the places you'll go" book by dr. seuss. it used to be his favorite book at bedtime. lately we've been reading "green eggs & ham" & 5 poems from "where the sidewalk ends." and we always have to read the poem "one sister for sale" on p. 52 first - should i be worried?

so i saw the lactation guru Doris yesterday again. i tried having s breastfeed, and learned good positioning strategies to reduce pain. we discussed some "homeopathic" ways to try to manage s's massive spitting up. we're not supposed to actively try to burp her - just to hold her upright after feeding and wait for a burp (or a toot). even after doing that she still spits up. we also put j's largest chemistry books under two legs of the crib so that she sleeps at an angle. after pumping only - no breast feeding - for five days, i breast fed only all last night until, unfortunately, at 5am my nipples were hurting too much to feed her anymore. they're destroyed again. i'll try just pumping for the rest of today, and see if they can handle her latching again tonight. aside from the pain, it was so much easier just breast feeding because i could just sleep until she cried, instead of having to worry about waking up every 3 hours to pump, and coordinating feeding s on top of that, & getting her back to sleep. i woke up feeling pretty rested this morning for the first time in awhile. we have another appointment with doris on tuesday. if her spitting up has not improved significantly, we're hoping something official written by doris will help convince s's pediatrician - whom we see the next day - to let us try zantac to combat the reflux. i think it's beginning to cause her pain, as she was crying a lot last night after spitting up. she is managing to gain weight, so she's not spitting up 100% of what she takes in.
my belly is getting smaller, and i've lost most of the swelling. i have 17 lbs to go before i'm back to my normal weight. i'm finally trying out wearing normal underwear & maternity jeans today for the first time, instead of wearing pajamas & a robe & j's boxers.