5 Weeks Old

Nursing: Well this has been a tough week for us! I started to get mastitis in my left breast on Thursday night and it was crazy painful! Around 10 PM my breast was swollen, hard and hot to the touch. I thought I was maybe just engorged so we nursed and then I tried to sleep, unsuccessfully I might add. Finally around 1 AM I couldn’t take the pain anymore and I wasn’t sleeping so Nick and I hoped on Google to figure out what was wrong. I had a slight fever and chills so we established that I had mastitis! Of course Cash was sleeping peacefully and for once didn’t want to nurse! My wonderful hubby figured out how the breast pump worked and got me set up. I pumped and kept warm compresses on my breast for the rest of the night and nursed whenever Cash was awake. In the morning I called my midwife and she said I had mastitis and we could try to treat it naturally first – which is what I always prefer. She had me drink a garlic decoction, take 1000 mg of vitamin C every 4 hours, nurse from the soar breast and of course 24 hour bed rest. The first day I consumed 20 cloves of garlic! By the next morning I was still soar but it was way better. After another 10 cloves of garlic I was feeling human again – albeit a smelly human but human nonetheless. Thankfully I was able to beat back the mastitis without antibiotics!

Cash has been going through a growing spurt and has been nursing pretty much every 2 hours. What can I say, my boy loves the boobies!

Cash has also started to hold his ear while he nurses! My mom said I used to do the same thing! It is so adorable I just can't get enough of it!

Cloth Diapering: We are so glad that we decided to order another 15 Cloth-eez diapers! Now we only have to do laundry every other day. We are still dealing with a small diaper rash every now and then so I have been researching diaper cream and plan to make my own very soon.

Sleep: Since Cash likes a diaper change every 2 hours and then wants to nurse; we are not sleeping very much. I just keep hoping that he will start going longer stretches without nursing at night, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Likes/Dislikes: We have discovered that Cash likes us to sing to him. I know what you’re thinking; every baby likes “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and other baby songs. This is not the case with Mr. Cash, he likes a particular song from a Saturday Night Live skit. How did we discover this you might ask, well, Nick was trying to calm Cash down one day and just started singing the “What’s Up With That” song from SNL and Cash loved it! Now we sing it to him all the time when he is fussy and it seems to help. Hey, whatever works!

Cash still doesn’t like diaper changes and riding in the car seat. He will tolerate the car seat when the car is moving but whenever the car stops at a light he gets really mad! I have discovered that I can sometimes soothe him by sticking my pinkie knuckle in his mouth for him to suck on. I really don’t want to give him a pacifier, but I can see why parents use them!

Activities: Cash and I have been getting out of the house more, but with the bed rest this week we weren’t as active. He did go on a couple trips to Huckleberry's this week and everyone who sees him tells me how little and cute he is! Cash also had a visit from my friend, Monika, and her adorable son Jack. It was so nice to have another mommy friend come over for a visit. We just sat in the bedroom, talked, nursed and relaxed! I love hearing all of Monika’s mommy tips! She is such a wonderful mommy and he son is always smiling and giggling! I hope Cash will be a happy boy just like Jack.

Nick's parents have also came out and made us dinner this week. They needed their "Cash Fix" as Tony, Nick's dad, calls it.

Health: We had an appointment with our midwife this Tuesday and Cash weighed 8 pounds and 4 ounces! Our midwife way so impressed with his weight gain! Cash has been a little congested this week so we also took him in for a little adjustment from my god mom and chiropractor, Kathy. It really helped! Amazing what a slight adjustment can do! The only other health issue is the baby acne. I know that tons of babies get it but I just want it to go away!

Best Moment: Nick and I took Cash to my aunt Colleen and Uncle Paul’s house so my grandma Weasie could see Cash. They were all at the birthing center for his birth but grandma hadn’t seen him since. When she held Cash she got a little teary eyed! It was such a beautiful moment. I’m so glad that Cash was able to spend some time with his great-grandma!

1 Month Old

Nursing: I love my nursing bond with my son. I can’t even begin to describe the amazing connection I feel every time we nurse. I’m really enjoying our ever-increasing bond. Cash still nurses every 2 hours during the day and sometimes more frequently. He tends to want to cluster nurse in the morning and then it spreads out as the day progresses. We are still nursing every 2-3 hours at night but I’m hoping that he will start to sleep longer soon.

Cloth Diapering: After 3 weeks we decided that we needed more newborn cloth diapers so we don’t have to do laundry everyday unless we want to.  We ordered 15 more organic cotton workhorse fitted newborn diapers from Green Mountain Diapers and 24 more Blueberry cotton/bamboo wipes. Cash is a super heavy wetter so we still change his diaper every 2 hours. That baby skin is just so sensitive!

We can always tell when Cash is pooping or working on a poop because he grunts like crazy! Cash is a grunter in general (grunts while he nurses, grunts while he sleeps, grunts during diaper changes, grunts while he is being rocked-I think you get the picture) but he really grunts loudly while he is pushing out a poop. We will hear him making his poop grunts and then we hear him (yes HEAR his) FILL his diaper! It is absolutely hilarious!

Sleep: I’m still not sleeping too well since Cash wants to nurse every couple hours. I find that I am so tired while I’m nursing him at night that I will forget to put my boob away when I’m done and we both wake up soaked in breast milk. I tend to leak a lot so having a large supply of Bamboobies nursing pads has been a lifesaver, but they aren’t very effective if you don’t put your boob away. He sleeps so peacefully during the day but tends to fuss at night. We have tried a few new things this week and I think they may be helping a little. Cash doesn’t like to sleep on his back on the mattress so I put my Holy Lamb Organics changing pad on the bed and he likes to sleep on that for a couple hours at night and then he spends the rest of the night sleeping on my chest. Tuesday night was by far the best night of sleep this week. He slept several 1-2 hour stretches on the changing pad and wasn’t too fussy. We also started using a noise machine. My friend Shannon has her whole family addicted to noise machines and swear by them so we thought we should give it a try. I know I will never hear the end of it from her, but I actually think it helps! We put it on the ocean waves setting and let it play all night. Cash seems to sleep better and I don’t wake up to every single small noise he makes.

Likes/Dislikes: Cash loves to be held and still loves his skin-to-skin contact. He is also really enjoying his time in the ring sling! I am so happy that he likes to be worn because it has made our outings so much easier! I simply take him out of his car seat in the parking lot, pop him in the ring sling and we are off! Nick still rocks Cash in our glider and he LOVES the big, full rocks. We also discovered that Cash likes his nana to walk him around in a rock/drop type of walk when she holds him. My mom came over to spend some time with Cash this week at a particularly fussy time of day for our little man and she was able to sooth him with her rock/drop walk! We just love discovering new things that our son enjoys!

Unfortunately, Cash still doesn’t like diaper changes except when we are around other people. He cries and fusses like crazy at home when it’s just Nick and I but he loves to “show off” and make mama and daddy look silly when anyone else is around. I don’t know if it’s the change of scenery or what but he does really well when we change his diaper on the go! Nick and I made the mistake of trying to swaddle Cash’s arms in the swaddle blanket this week, you would think he was being tortured the way he wailed- yes wailed not cried! We quickly remedied the mistake and he was perfectly fine. Note to self: do NOT under any circumstance swaddle my baby’s arms!

Activities: We have enjoyed several family outings this week and it had been so nice to get out of the house! While is does take 3-4 times as long to run errands we have still enjoyed our outings. Cash went on his first trip to Costco this week and slept through the whole thing in the ring sling. Several people came up to us to tell us how cute he is and sneak a peek at the sleeping baby. One thing I love about the ring sling is the fact that people can’t just walk up to us and touch him! We also went to the Macys and Motherhood Maternity this week so I could return some things and buy some nursing tanks. After we left Macy’s we enjoyed our first “date” with our little man at Twiggs in the Valley. Cash slept in the ring sling all the way until our food was served. At this point he decided he wanted to eat with us. I just popped him on the breast and we all ate together. While I was pregnant Nick shared with me that he might have a hard time with me nursing in public, but now that our son is here it didn’t even faze him. I have nursed while walking around the office several times and now I have nursed in 2 restaurants. I almost feel like a pro!

Health: We have really noticed some major growth this week. Cash has outgrown his zippered newborn outfits! We tried to measure him and think he is about 20 inches long now. Luckily the snap newborn outfits still fit him! We weighed Cash at Mother’sHaven on Monday and he weighed 7 pounds 13 ounces naked! Pretty exciting that he is almost 8 pounds! We are still fighting the baby acne and a small spot (the size of the head of a pin) of diaper rash but both of these things are getting better. I keep putting coconut oil on his baby acne and Mother Lovediaper rash cream on his little bottom. I’m sure hoping these both clear up soon!

Best Moment: Cash started trying to smile around week 2. He makes little half smiles in his sleep and this week we saw a full smile while sleeping. He has also started giggling in his sleep! Nick and I often wonder what he is dreaming about when he smiles and we think we can sum it up in one word – BOOBIES!

Morelli Christmas 2014

This Christmas was by far the best Christmas ever! It was so amazing waking up on Christmas morning for the first time as a family of 3!

We had a relaxing Christmas morning and just snuggled in bed and eased into the day. That afternoon our families both came over to start making Christmas dinner. Normally, I make Christmas dinner for our friends and family but with our little man just turning 2 weeks old it would have been a little overwhelming this year. 

All day I got to relax, nurse and enjoy our families and our new son while helping out here and there in the kitchen. It was really nice since I was exhausted from not sleeping to well since Cash arrived.

We enjoyed an awesome prime rib dinner and later opened presents! Let me tell you what, Cash made out like a bandit for Christmas! He had so many presents from grandparents and aunts and uncles! I can already tell that our family will spoil our son!

Cash got an awesome Swiss cross canvas poof ottoman from Nana and a really cool burlap covered cork board picture frame from his uncle Wyatt & aunt Kendra. Grandma, Grandpa and auntie Shanna spoiled him with clothes and books. Shanna’s boyfriend, John, bought Cash his first pair of Uggs! They are adorable booties in a Seahawk blue color and the fit is perfect! They are great to have with our cold northwest weather!

After present opening we sat in the living room and just enjoyed spending time together. It truly was the best Christmas ever!

3 Weeks Old

This post is a little late this week but Cash's picture was taken on the day he turned 3 weeks old.

Nursing: Cash is a nursing machine! I would say nursing is one of his favorite activities! During the day he still nurses every 2 or 3 hours. In the morning he tends to nurse more frequently. We are still trying to get our nighttime nursing down. Sometimes he will go 3 hours in between nursing but a few nights this week he wanted to nurse every hour. We think he is going through a growing spurt.

Cloth Diapering: Nick and I are so glad we chose to cloth diaper! Not only is it way better to only have organic cotton against our little man’s bottom but also we will save so much money in the long run. Cash is a pooping and peeing machine! We change his diaper every 2 hours and it is always soaked with pee and usually has a huge poop in it too. We have been fighting a small bit of diaper rash this week. It’s not too bad but we wanted to get right on it so we started giving him some “naked baby time” to dry out in between diaper changes and we started using some Mother Love diaper rash cream to help clear it up. We also added a few drops of tea tree and lavender essential oil to his diaper wipe solution. I think all of these things are really making a difference. The only problem with “naked baby time” is that he pees and poops everywhere when he doesn’t have a diaper on.

Sleep: We are still working on out nighttime routine. We started swaddling Cash in an Aden +Anais bamboo swaddle blanket at night. He seems to like this but not if you try to swaddle his arms. He has to have his arms free or he throws a fit! Cash sleeps best tummy to tummy on my chest. He doesn’t like to be put on his back out of my arms! This has been pretty tough to adjust to but I’m really hoping that we get a nighttime routine down really soon!

Likes/Dislikes: Cash still loves to be held skin to skin. I have been practicing carrying him in my Sakura Bloom ring sling and he seems to really like it! He also loves to rock (the full big rocks) in our glider with daddy. We have recently discovered that he also likes to “sit up” (with us supporting him of course) and look around.

We still struggle with diaper changing time and trips in the car seat. He is ok for a short time in the car seat but after a little bit he starts crying. It is so tough to hear when we are driving and I can’t take him out to nurse him.

Activities: We had visits from our friends Alejandro and Katee and my uncle Paul, aunt Colleen and cousin Kenzie.

Katee is pregnant and due in March. Nick and I are so excited for them to become parents! They plan to move back to Spokane after their son is born and we can’t wait to have babies so close in age!

Cash and I also ventured out on our first solo outing this week! We went to a breastfeeding support group at Mother’s Haven. The group is lead by a lactation consultant and consists of breastfeeding mommies of babies and toddlers. It was so nice to be around other breastfeeding mommies! I think we will try to go to this group every week. Cash did really well in the car and only cried a little bit at the beginning of the group. He was satisfied as soon as I fed him though! Cash is a total boob man!

Health: Our little man is super healthy but he does have some baby acne! I hope it goes away soon. It doesn’t bother Cash but it upsets mama! We also weighed Cash when we went to Mother’s Haven on Monday. He still had a shirt on and I put a small flannel receiving blanket under him but he weighed 7 pounds 7 ounces. I don’t know how much the shirt and blanket add but I would guess that he is at least 7 pounds.

Best Moment: Christmas and Christmas Eve! We had our family over for both and it was so nice to have a house full of family. Nick’s family and my family took care of all the cooking and clean up so I actually got to relax and just enjoy the holiday. I can’t wait for Christmas time next year when Cash will be 1! I know he will love Christmas time just as much as his mama does!