Christmas in our new home

Celebrating Christmas in our new home as a family for the first time has been special. We still have lots of boxes to unpack from the garage, but we're comfortable in our home. Thanks to the help of family and friends, we're good to go. Erik has started painting our interiour walls to warm the space up a little - he doesn't get too many days off during the holiday season, so it's special that he was able to have 3 days straight at home with Mom and Baby Alyson. We woke up this morning at 8:00 am ready to have breakfast and open presents. Erik got the oven ready for cinnamon rolls while I fed Alyson. She started fussing a little, but over the course of the morning, we were able to enjoy breakfast and open presents with our little one. We had a few large gifts this year - we purchased a home and a big tv, but our favorite present is our daughter. We're so glad to have her in our lives and be able to enjoy her smiles and tears as they come.

Alyson slept relatively well last night - ate well and didn't fuss too much. Over the last week or so, she's been a little fussy - we're starting to think that she's having trouble with colic, but while I was researching on the internet yesterday, I started to think that she's having trouble with foremilk/hindmilk imbalance. This means that when I'm nursing her, she's been getting more of the foremilk than the hindmilk that is produced in breastmilk. Foremilk has fewer calories and fat, but helps to quench the baby's thirst so that she will feel full. If she doesn't get enough hindmilk (which gradually comes after the foremilk) she'll become hungry again soon because she needs more calories and will want to eat more. She has to eat more hindmilk to make up the calories that would be achieved with a mixture and ends up with more lactose in her little tummy than she otherwise would. She doesn't have enough lactase in her stomach to break down the lactose and this can create pain and give her the symptoms of lactose intolerance. In order to help fix this imbalance, I'm working to make sure that she eats only on one side per feeding, but it will be a little while before we're used to that approach. This should help her feel better and help her to have longer stretches in between feedings.