Ander and I are two very exhausted parents... as we knew we would be. Charlotte has really good nights and some really bad ones. Usually they're good, and the bad ones only come along every once in a while. Last night was a bad one.

Here's our problem: I apparently developed mastitis in my right breast. This is a blocked milk duct of some sort that usually comes with some infection. My doctor told me I needed to pump every two to three hours instead of every three to four, so all night long I wake every three hours to pump. This means I hardly have time to feed Charlotte myself throughout the night, so Ander is on feeding, changing, and burping duty each time Charlotte wakes up. He is a CHAMP for doing so, but I feel completely useless... even though I'm the one providing the milk he's feeding her. I know I'm technically doing something but I don't feel like I'm DOING something. And pumping every three hours isn't quite in sync with Charlotte's feedings during the night. I have to wake up far more than Ander does, and from the beginning of a pumping session to when I can finally go back to bed is about an hour, since I have to wash pump parts and store the milk in the freezer. So I'm sleeping in two hour sessions, while Ander is usually sleeping in three to four. Either way, we're both super pooped, but it looks like this infection is going away (hopefully!) So here's hoping we can get back to shifts in the night with more sleep!

In other news, we made a trip to a plastic surgeon this past week. Vain, I know. I'll get to that after these few pictures.

Okay, about her ear. Charlotte was born with a little floppy ear on her left side. We called it her little elf ear. It was actually super cute, but I kept thinking to myself that kids can be really mean, and I wanted to try and fix her ear if we could. Luckily one of the pediatricians at the hospital gave us the name of a surgeon in Austin who specializes in this kind of thing. He's the only one in Austin who does this when the baby is still very young, instead of waiting until the child is six or so to have a surgery to correct it.

 So Dr. Cone put these little plastic molds on her ears to shape the cartilage. When children are this young their cartilage is very flexible so it can be molded. Even better, our insurance covered 80% of this, even though technically it's cosmetic!

So now for four weeks little Charlotte has earmuffs. They don't bother her in the slightest. We go in every once in a while to have them reapplied since the adhesive begins to wear off after a while, but it's a pretty sweet deal. This way we completely avoid surgery!

And to top things off, one of my lovely clients/friends ordered us a huge Chinese take-out feast the other night and had it delivered directly to our door! This food lasted us for days!