Big Booty Girl!

As you can tell from this picture Uxue has an enormous bum! She looks a bit like Urkel from Family Matters! We are using reusable cloth diapers so it makes her but look so big! She actually has to wear pants for the next age group!

I really am amazed how easy cloth diapers are these days! You place a special piece of paper in the diaper so you can pull it out with the poo and flush it down the toilet! And the diapers come with velcro tabs or buttons, making it just as easy to put on as disposables! No more folding or pins! Then the plastic cover comes in different colors and designs or you can buy them already integrated into the diaper! So easy! The hardest part is choosing what works best for you.

Gorka and I started with the reusable diapers when Uxue was a week old and her umbilical cord had fallen off. My favorite baby store rents diapers for 40€ for 1 month as a trial. You get 20 diapers and are able to mix and match different kinds to see which ones you like the best. It was really great! We were surprised to find the ones we liked the best, we had no intention of trying. The sales lady really pushed us to take at least 2 of that kind, just in case. Good thing she did!

We ended up choosing 2 types. Ones with buttons that grow with her from birth to potty training. And another that just folds without any closing system. This one also grows with Uxue, but will need extra cloth liners as she grows to catch all her pee and poo!

We are now using disposables at night. Our midwife recommended using them so we don't need to change her until morning. As long as she doesn't poo this works really well. It helps to keep her asleep. We were changing her with each feeding which would wake her up and we would never get back to sleep. Thanks again to Barbara, our fabulous midwife!

Time Flies When You Don't Sleep!

Well, things have been interesting! Uxue went through her 6 week growth spurt... which means eating every 2 hours, not sleeping well, and generally cranky!

We have also been struggling with her need to suck. According to the doctor, babies need three basic things to be happy:

• to feel full
• to suck
  
• and something else I forgot because of lack of sleep! It must not have been important since I forgot it!
  

What this means for us is Uxue can stay on the breast for hours just sucking if I don't take her off. I'm not fabulous at calculating when she's full so about once a day for a week or so she was having projectile vomiting. Out her mouth, her nose... everywhere! It was really scary. The doctor said it was fine since she had no pain and recommended giving her a pacifier. That's wonderful in theory but this little stinker has three different binkies and doesn't like any of them! I didn't know it was possible for a baby not to like a pacifier! She actually gags on them!

Along with the growth spurt comes other things: more awareness of things around her and more time awake. It's great! We're beginning to get to know her little personality! I think she's gonna be a stinker! Still no smiling or laughing at us yet though.

Now that Uxue is more awake it's also more difficult for her to fall asleep. Similar to little kids when they get tired, she is cranky before falling asleep. There were 8 days in a row I had to get up in the middle of the night for 4 hours because she didn't know how to fall asleep. It's really sad because their eyes are so heavy and they fight so hard to keep them open, then they cry every time they open them!

Interestingly, Uxue hasn't lost any hair. It just gets longer and longer! She looks a bit like a baby orangutan with this hair!

Uxue had a visit from a little baby boy who was in our prenatal class. It's so funny seeing how different they are in size. He was only 3 weeks older than her, but Noah came 1 week late and Uxue almost 3 weeks early. What a difference in size! They were so similar besides that! Same sounds, expressions, everything! I had no idea babies were soooo incredibly similar. Before this I thought everything Uxue did was so unique and amazing! Little did I know all babies are this cute and captivating!