Caroline Smiles!

Caroline has been smiling for several weeks now, but we were never fast enough to catch it on film. A week or so ago, I was finally able to capture a few pictures of her adorable smile! She gets really smiley during diaper changes and even coos and "talks" to us, so that's where I was finally able to get the picture. Here are some of the best shots I've gotten so far:





I also love this picture of Anna and Caroline together. Anna just loves holding her baby sister!



In other news, things finally seem to be looking up in the nursing department. Last week, I tapered off the supplementing, and it went pretty well. So Saturday, I decided to go cold turkey and just get rid of them altogether. I was prepared to nurse her very frequently, since I figured she would need to nurse a lot to build up my milk supply. The daytime went pretty well, but she started to get fussy Saturday evening. She ended up nursing for almost FIVE hours straight Saturday night, but we made it through the day with no supplements.

Unfortunately, Sunday evening I started feeling like dirt, so I took my temperature, and it was nearly 100 degrees. I think it was probably a plugged duct, which can often cause flu-like symptoms and fever. Sunday morning, I still felt pretty woozy, but by Sunday evening I was feeling much better. Sunday went pretty much like Saturday, nursing wise, but I did end up giving Caroline a couple of ounces of supplement Sunday night because it was obvious that she wasn't getting much when she nursed at that point. Fortunately, Monday went MUCH better, and today has been even better than that. I can tell that my supply is better because I can hear her swallowing a lot more frequently during feedings, so maybe we're on our way to being completely done with the supplementing!

All this nursing business has taken up a LOT of time, and my house is a dump, but if I can get this baby 100% breastfed, it will be SO worth it! Since Anna never took a bottle (even on the rare occasion we would have liked her to!), I had no idea how much hassle it is to prepare milk, figure out a way to keep it chilled while you're out, figure out how to fit it in the diaper bag, and then figure out how to warm it while you're out. With Anna, when I wanted to leave the house, I grabbed the baby and a few diapers, and I was good. This whole hauling milk around thing is for the birds!