40 days

Traditional postpartum rituals of India, North Africa, and the Middle East prescribe seclusion, henna, and 40 days of homecare where friends and family do all the house work and older child care and the birth mom does nothing but care for her new baby. The henna is for the mom's feet - since she hasn't seen them in several months, it's a nice way to feel pretty. The application of henna is also supposed to keep her off her feet - great idea! Maybe they have something with the 40 day time frame too. Today, at 40 days, Violet was a great baby! She took several naps and fussed much less. She only nursed about every 3 hours instead of 2 and seemed more satisfied and happy after each feeding. She seems to be suddenly a lot more aware of people and facial expressions and is really interested in looking at us. I swear that she smiled at me this evening. I couldn't get her to do a repeat performance for the camera, but mom confirmed that it was definitely a smile. Smiles are GREAT! I've been trying to augment my milk supply with Fenugreek and extra pumping before I go back to work in October so maybe that's working in our favor too. Mom leaves again tomorrow. We'll be sad to see her go it's been wonderful having her here.