The Many Faces of Lucille

Lucy has been busy practicing a full range of facial expressions.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Concerned.

Okay, no longer concerned.

Silly.

Stink face.

Contemplating her existence.

Al Pacino face.

Awwwwwww :)

Things have been going well at home.  Lucy is a pretty sweet and easygoing baby.  She'll cry when she encounters something she doesn't like, but she'll stop as soon as the problem is fixed.  She's yet to have an inconsolable meltdown.  She really loves to cuddle and will usually stop crying as soon as we pick her up.  Here are a few things she doesn't like:

1. Gas.  She gets a lot of gas.  I'm pretty sure this is a normal baby thing and not necessarily a gastro thing, although I wonder if the gastro makes it a little worse (I've heard this from other gastro moms).  We've learned to recognize when she has bad gas because she'll sit there and grunt and moan like an inhuman monster while squirming and fussing around.  One of the NICU nurses taught us a trick where you pull the baby's legs up over the belly to help release some of the gas.  That usually makes her fart a few times and helps a lot (warning: it can also cause explosive pooping).
2. Diaper changes.  She pretty much hates having her diaper changed and cries through the whole thing.  I guess she doesn't like her nakie bum exposed to the outside world.  Can you blame her?
3. Baths.  Again, not a big fan of being nakie.  See Exhibit A:

Baths, a great time to scream bloody murder.

Other than that, she is a pretty happy baby. :)

Our biggest struggle right now is gaining weight.  At her first pediatrician visit, which was two days after discharge from the NICU, she had gained 5 oz.  Not too shabby.  But when we went back a week later she had only gained 1 oz, for a total weight of 6 lbs, 6 oz.  We had been feeding her whenever she acted hungry, but now at the advice of her pediatrician we are feeding her every 3 hours on the dot (even if we have to wake her up).  We're also offering a bottle of pumped milk after each feeding to make sure she got enough.  Breastfeeding has been a bit of a struggle and I suspect that might be one of the reasons why she isn't gaining as much weight as she should.  She will latch on, but not every time.  It's most likely because she got so used to eating from bottles in the NICU.  We've been seeing a lactation consultant and are now using a nipple shield which she will latch on to every time, but it also makes her work harder to get the milk.  We're trying to wean her off of it but it has been a slow process.  To make things more difficult, I've apparently channeled my inner dairy cow and am making an overabundance of milk.  When Lucy was in the NICU they stressed the importance of pumping every 3 hours since that was the only thing keeping up my milk supply.  Apparently I was a little too overzealous about following orders because according to the lactation consultant, I'm making enough milk for twins.  While this sounds like a good problem to have, it's not.  First, it can be overwhelming for a little baby like Lucy and it causes her to pull away a lot to avoid choking.  Also, she doesn't feed for very long periods of time so she ends up getting too much of the light foremilk that comes at the beginning and not enough of the fatty hindmilk that comes at the end.  Over the past few days we've been giving her more bottles so that I don't breastfeed as often, which sends my body a signal that she's not eating as much and causes me to make less milk.  I think it's helped a lot.  We're really hoping that these new tricks give us better results at next week's pediatrician appointment!