February 21

This morning, I nursed Eli from 4:15 to 5:00, then woke Chris up and asked him to feed Eli a bottle of expressed milk. While Chris fed him, I rolled over and went back to sleep. I ended up sleeping until 8:30, which was the longest stretch of uninterrupted sleep I've had since Eli was born.

Just over 3 hours.

It was beautiful. And when I woke up, Eli and I snuggled and nursed for another 45 minutes while Chris made breakfast for the big kids and kept everyone alive and happy. I have a good husband. He must have even taken a few pictures for me, because I found these gems on my memory card tonight:

Apparently the big kids were playing dress-up in the basement, and this was Caleb's ensemble. Batman muscle suit, Batman rain boots, skull cap, and a stick with a foam pad on the end.

Princess Daisy wore a purple gown over her fleece nightgown, and completed the look with some Princess Ariel flats.

Aren't they a funny pair? I love that they can play unsupervised in the basement now. It's so liberating. 

Lily was down there with them for a while, too, wearing her Olaf hat the whole time. She also somehow found this hoodie, which she has long outgrown, and insisted on wearing it. I just can't get rid of that silly hoodie!

After lunch, Chris put the girls down for naps. While I made my grocery list, Chris and Caleb fed Eli a bottle of breastmilk.  

Caleb got to help feed Eli his bottle, which was a really big deal. Daisy and Lily never took bottles, so Caleb has never experienced being able to help feed a baby. He was pretty excited!

I love the look on Caleb's face as he rests his head on Daddy's shoulder and feeds his new baby brother a bottle. It was such a sweet moment!

More of the same, I know, but each image is so precious! Also, in case you're wondering, my breastfeeding-guru doctor mandated Eli's bottle feeding position. She gave detailed instructions about how Eli should be seated completely upright while we feed him, and how we should tip the bottle up and down to mimic breastfeeding as closely as possible. 

If she says it, we do it. 

After the bottle, I loaded Eli into the van and took him shopping with me. Normally when I have a baby wrapped on my chest, no one notices. I can do my shopping in peace, knowing my baby is safe and happy. Perhaps it was because I was wearing Eli in our new, brightly colored wrap, but today everyone noticed Eli, and everyone wanted to talk to me about how tiiiiny my baby was.

I get that Eli is a novelty - most people haven't seen a baby as small as him. And I know people just think he's interesting and noteworthy and cute. Like a little doll. But goodness, it gets old hearing how tiny he is, over and over and over again. We all know I'm not the most tactful person in the world anyway, but the repeated comments plus the stress of the past three weeks means that I just want to shout, "Of course he's tiny! He was five weeks premature! He should still be in utero right now!" 

But I don't. I just smile and try to be gracious and move on. I suppose in the long run, I will be very thankful for this healthy dose of perspective. For now, I'd just like another three hour stretch of sleep. Maybe after that I could be gracious and kind to strangers at the grocery store.