We had our (hopefully) last visit to the PT today.  It went well – Daphne’s cranium feels quite wonderful, apparently.  (Which, on a surface level, is a humorous statement. It’s more important than it “sounds”; the PT really meant that there doesn’t appear to be any restrictions on innervation through the body particularly based out of the skull.)  She did notice that one side of the mouth (think of the area down from the gums along the bottom of the mouth towards the tongue) was a little tight (the left side), and a little bit in the muscles right at the TMJ (from the inside, though, not the outside) and showed me how to work on that a little bit.  I continue to be hopeful, and Daphne thanked the PT by giving her the biggest smile/laugh that we’ve seen her do so far.

I’ve already noticed the hydrocortizone that the doc recommended helping.  Now I just have to remember to use it after she feeds each time.

In sleepy news, Daphne slept from 9pm to 5am last night.  She though about waking up around 2am, but went back to sleep with a bit of help.  Her naps yesterday were fairly awful, and I think she’s starting to be more aware of who is around, and knows that she wants me there when she wakes up.  Even with her current nap, she opened her eyes once, happy to look around, especially once she knew I was there.  I’m torn on whether this is a good thing or not.  Since I’m a stay at home mom, and have strong attachment parent leanings, I don’t feel that it’s vital for how we function day to day to sleep on her own and not be able to have me there when she wakes up.  There are arguments on both sides of the fence about whether or not that is “developmentally good for baby”, but there is validity to BOTH sides of the argument.  And it’s not like she gets picked up every time she wakes up – she’s starting to learn that she can stay laying in her cosleeper and go back to sleep.  Sometimes  it’s with a finger to suck on (I am starting to wish that she would take a pacifier these days), sometimes just a hand resting on her chest.

I realized the other day that, though we are constantly trying to figure out what’s not working with our approach to her sleep, it works about 80% of the time.  When she goes down for sleep 6 to 7 times a day, however, that means we have to expect at least one failure a day.  I definitely feel a lot better about it now.  On the other hand, I think we need to start separating our “nap routine” from our “bedtime routine”, since she is clearly continuing to work on how to get a single long stretch of sleep in.

In her attempts to do that this morning, Daphne went 8.5hrs between feeds, so I had rather a lot tanked up for her when she woke up, smacking her lips, to eat.  And eat she did.  Vigorously.  Eventually, she popped herself off the second side at what felt like half way through.  She used to sometimes take too much, and I’m hopeful that her learning to unlatch herself will help reduce that.  And it might, if she’d not eat so fast that she doesn’t know that she’s full – or overfull.  Approximately 20 minutes later, she spat up a large volume of milk.  Followed by two repeat performances over the next 30 minutes.  She wasn’t bothered by any of this in the list (well, a little annoyed at the changing of the clothing for the second time in the morning), but it was a surprising amount to me!  The last time was even as she was drifting off, her eyes closed as I held her in my arms.  Up came a wave of milk, her eyes barely fluttering open, and then resting gently shut as I felt my shirt getting soggier and soggier.  It was really quite funny, and is why I’m not worried about it.  I figure, if I know that I can get nearly nine ounces out of these boobs after eight hours without any draining, and she generally only takes four or five ounces of pumped milk, it’s fair that she’s going to throw two or three ounces back at me if she tries to scarf down two full morning boobs.

In play news, she’s been enjoying the kick and play a friend got us.  We’re not sure if she likes the lights, the music, or just the kicking, because we  do know that she likes kicking!  She’s working her way to growing out of most of her 0-3month clothing (and she’ll be three months old in 10 days), but still is working on the reaching out to things.  Well, reaching out to grab anything that isn’t my hair or my shirt is still being worked on.  Those two items are apparently easy-peasy.

I have a new carrier that I’m trying out, a Catbird Pikkolo.  I am enjoying it, and I think she is too.  Generally, Daphne has been opposed to facing in towards me in a front carrier.  (Never mind the “wait until they’re three months old” thing.  After talking to the midwives about it, we went with when she had decent head control.  She had that after a few weeks.)  It’s a soft structured carrier, similar to a BabyBjorn, but has both a waist belt and wider shoulder straps, which mean I can carry her far more comfortably in it than in the Bjorn.  I am still working on getting her out of it without waking her up, but at least it has a little extra space at the top for her to have a bit of support if she falls asleep in it.  And she was willing to face inwards in it yesterday when we walked to the fruit stand.  I think part of the reason she’ll accept that position in this carrier, but not the K’Tan or Moby is that it has her leaning back from me just a little bit, so she has ample space to look around, rather than just at my chest.  She’s not happy about trying to sleep in it, resting her head on my chest, just yet, however.  She tried, but it was too tempting to rub her eyes on my and then look back out.

Next week, she gets her first “hike” on our local county trail system.  I am quite excited, as well as quite nervous about how hiking with her is going to impact her naps.  But, I feel like we’ve got to start trying now, or we never will!