C-O-F-F-E-E

Leah's new favorite sleeping spot: on her bear mat on the couch:

We made it through our 4 days of no nursing - with sleeping in shifts, help from Grandma .......... and coffee.  I'm on my 3rd cup of the day so far.  It wasn't so bad.  On Thursday morning (last night with Ann here) I woke up early while Jeff slept until 9 and then went off to work.  Then when Jeff got home from work around 5 we did our daily Leah care regimen and then he went to nap.  So then it was Friday morning .... Jeff woke up around 1:30 AM and then I went to bed around 2 and woke up at 8.  Jeff didn't have to work until 4:30 so we had plenty of time to do our Leah care.  Jeff came home from work around 9:30 & I went to bed.  Grandma came over that night around 10 to help out overnight and so Jeff went to bed around 11, and woke up at 8 to go relieve his Mom.  I got up shortly after since I hadn't slept well at all that night (my allergies are the worst they've ever been in my entire life).  So then it was Saturday.  Jeff went to nap around 10 and woke up around 1:30.  We did our Leah care before he left for work at 4.  When he came home at 9:30 I went to bed with an alarm set to wake up at 4:45.  So now we're into Sunday ...... at 4:30 AM I woke myself up and Jeff went to sleep until noonish.  We did Leah care and then he went into work at 4.  Once again he came home around 9:30 and I went to bed with the alarm set for 4:45.  Even with 2 Benadryls in me I had trouble falling asleep.  I was up watching Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween until close to 11 ..... and then the next thing I know Jeff's waking me up and it's 5 AM -- the alarm never went off.  So it looks like Jeff's trusty old alarm clock is no longer trusty.  It's been acting up lately - and we have another one all set to take it's place - so I think it's time to toss it.   Jeff always has off on Mondays so he can sleep now as much as he needs to before we start our day of Leah care, chores, errands and everything else.  Then I can go to bed early and Jeff will stay up until Ann gets here around 11. 

Leah's still rubbing her face like crazy - and driving me crazy in the process.

Here she is resting before her audition for an off-off-off Broadway rendition of The Deer Hunter:

Actually it's just her with a piece of blue line Tubifast on her head.  Sorry, I'm using EB-mom lingo.  Tubifast is an EB product that typically goes over gauze to keep it in place.  It's basically a really thin tube sock with the foot cut out.  And blue line simply denotes it's size.  Red line is the smallest (goes on her arms) then its green line (her legs) and blue line is just big enough to fit over that melon head of hers. 

She doesn't like it, and continues to rub but it's all I can do.  Yesterday I nearly went mental trying to keep her arms down while keeping her forehead creamed.  I could spend 3 hours successfully protecting her face, only to have her rub away all the cream and make her rawness worse in a matter of seconds when my hands are busy with something else (diaper changes, etc).  If she continues to tolerate (somewhat) the Tubifast I'll try to incorporate it into covering her little ears as well. 

Her OCDish rubbing of her face may be something I can only blame myself for.  After complaining about it yesterday Jeff mentioned that it's exactly what I do to mosquito bites.  I scratch at them until I bleed, and then I scratch some more.  It hurts but it feels so good to scratch them at the same time.  I have given myself visible scars from scratching mosquito bites.  So if that's what she's doing, I can empathize.  It's weird, but then again; so are we. 

She also has my taste in music.  The current CD in the kitchen's radio is Ray Charles.  I put it on last night while strollering Leah around while I got some chores done.  It's my new thing: we'll stroll from the living room to the kitchen, collecting dirty dishes, gathering laundry; then I'll do dishes, make formula and bottles; pausing to do a few laps all the while.  So while doing dishes I notice that it sounds like Leah needs a suction - so I turn around to see that shes just super excited; slapping her hands on her lap, wiggling and smiling to the music.  Apparently 'What'd I Say' is Leah's current favorite song.  So we listened to it on repeat about 8 times with me kneeling in front of her stroller 'dancing' with her.  She especially likes the part with the 'ohs' and 'ahs' when I would push her away and then reel her back in while singing to her.  If you could hear her laugh you probably would've been able to hear it next door.