Little Hot Chili Pepper

11 days have passed since I started staying full-time with Jessie at the postpartum care center. I can see why Jessie is so eager to go home now. Staying in a confined area for an extended period of time can drive anyone crazy. There’s just not much to do besides waiting for the baby to be hungry and helping Jessie run small errands. Therefore, some of Jessie’s comments to me don’t make any sense.

Jessie: Still on your laptop? If you're not using your laptop, then you're playing games on the iPhone. I’d like to see how long you can sit there using those two things.

What else do you want me to do?! That's like asking a jailed convict why he's still sitting on his prison cot, staring at the wall. The logic just isn't there.

While Jessie is up to 90 ml of milk now, feeding Caitlyn hasn’t become any easier. A typical feeding usually takes over 1 ½ hours. It’s a test of patience for Jessie. When she’s tired of breastfeeding, she’ll hand Caitlyn off to the nurses or me to continue bottle feeding.

If Caitlyn actually concentrated on feeding, it would probably take 20-30 minutes tops. But in between, she’ll fall asleep or just stare off into space. Thankfully, ours isn’t the only baby that does this. Breastfeeding takes a lot out of a baby and they usually get tuckered out pretty quick. They take short power naps to help regain the energy to keep sucking.

Awake one second

Fast asleep the next

Tips to keep the baby awake and focused include: tickling the toes, rubbing the cheeks and ears, unswaddling the arms, or wiping the face down with a wet cloth. I don’t know about keeping the baby focused, but these techniques sure do piss the heck out of our baby. In fact, the new nickname the nurses have given Caitlyn is “Little Hot Chili Pepper” for her fiery temper.

My educated guess is that her crying is caused by insecurity. Some babies are better at self-soothing than others. Ours needs to be constantly comforted. If you notice in the picture below, Caitlyn has been pushed into the middle of the room. I call this the “timeout area,” similar to the timeout corner for naughty kids.

The babies that are pushed into the middle are usually fussier than other babies and need more attention from the nurses. Most babies might occasionally work their way to the middle, but are quickly put back once they’ve calmed down. Well, our baby has the distinguished honor of being in the middle, 99% of the time. If you’re going to do something, you might as well go all the way, right?

Now that Caitlyn’s acne is slowly starting to go away, Jessie has conveniently found something else to worry about.

Jessie: Have you noticed that one of Caitlyn’s ears is bigger than the other? I think one of them is larger. Do you think we should get this checked out?
Me: You’re kidding, right?
Jessie: What?
Me: Oh, boy. You are serious. Sigh.

For the record, there is nothing wrong with our baby’s ears.