Miss Sophie is one-week old already! I am glad that all I have to do these days is to tend to her needs, she will grow up so fast!

She is an extremely easy baby, but it has not been without its frustrations. Her feeding is very good; she eats, is satisfied, goes back to sleep. During the day she wants to nurse every couple of hours; at night every 3-4 hours. So for her, it’s going great. For me, it’s rather painful. I had a series of bad latches this weekend just from trial and error, and that leads to being very sore. It is getting better day by day, but today I just started weeping about it (crying for no reason happens just because of the whole hormonal thing, couple that with my frustration with myself…). I just felt like I was letting her down; I have done everything as naturally as possible for her benefit, and done it well at that. So to not do this perfectly, well, I just feel so guilty.

The thing is, this is common and will go away, but I can’t help but feel like I am the only mother who has this issue. Formula is just not an option for me; the benefits are far too important. So I bravely move forward. I certainly feel better about it tonight. I am lucky to have a really patient baby; she could get really upset with me for taking so long to get her to latch (anticipating the pain) but she never goes into the ugly cry. I think if this is the only problem I have I am lucky.

She also gets hiccups a lot; in fact, she got them a lot in utero too! I used to feel them all the time, it was weird. She sometimes can get frustrated when those are strong and fuss a bit. I just rock her, rub her back or nurse her, and they seem to go away quite quickly. I say she inherited daddy’s hiccups..Rick also gets chronic hiccups. Hee! :)

She and I are getting a good rhythm with the overnight feedings. I nap with her on the couch for an hour or so around 11pm, then nurse her, and head to bed around 2am. By 5:30 or so she wants to be fed again, and then again at 8:30-9am. I sleep easily between those times, and I think because I have started doing the EC cues, she doesn’t need a diaper change in the night (right now I decided to diaper her at night because of my breast feeding frustrations, I didn’t want to have to deal with her elimination at night when I was struggling with that. I figure one disposable diaper a day is pretty darn good environmentally speaking). After breakfast at 9, we sleep for an hour or so…and I am feeling very well rested. At his point, Rick doesn’t even have to get up in the middle of the night. I consider us very lucky…but again, that’s the the beauty of natural child birth; a non-fussy baby.

I know all these painful things I do for her is worth it in the long run, so I will stick it out. I wouldn’t trade her in for the world!

So we’ve been engaged for almost 2 weeks now and we seem to be settling into the new title well. It is kind of weird to use the word fiance to someone you have referred to as “my boyfriend/girlfriend” or “my partner” for almost 4 years. Even stranger to say “husband/wife”! Yeow, I feel old. ;)

We haven’t yet decided on a date except that it will be in the latter part of May. Our actual anniversary of when we officially started dating is May 30th – so the closest to this date we can get. We toyed with the idea of getting married THIS May. We both aren’t big on the idea of a long engagement – I mean, if you made the decision, what the hell are you waiting for?! But, in a practical sense, it will have to be NEXT May. I’m really not keen on a 15 month engagement, but this will give us a chance to have the wedding paid in full and give all our out of province family & friends a chance to plan to come.

The extra money the extra time will bring will be a blessing. Although we are not keen on a long engagement, we are even LESS keen on a half-assed wedding. ;) I’m not saying it will be extravagant, because that is in neither of our personalities, but we want to be free to invite as many people we want and that everyone will be comfortable, well fed and well entertained!

Right now, we are just trying to contact our close family and friends with the news. It has proven to be more exhausting than I ever realized. Screw it — I’ll send out engagement announcement cards. ;) They can double as “save the date” cards anyway. Plus we are toying with the idea of an engagement party so…they may even be invitations.