to my baby kangaroo - Week 7

You are all smiles! You smile during diaper changes, while looking at yourself in your playmat mirror, while you're pooping (especially if no farts are involved), and randomly you stop nursing to flash a toothless grin. 

Last Thursday we started cloth diapers during the day.  My intention is to keep using disposables at night since we have several packages still,  but you slept at least one night in a cloth diaper.  I don't have quite large enough of a stash yet.  My plan is to wash Sundays and Wednesdays.  We had to wash every other day so far.  There are more diapers in the mail. 

When you are awake,  you are very alert.  

I think you are in another growth spurt this week.  You are sleeping and eating a lot and sleep best when snuggled on my chest. In order to get anything done,  i put you in the moby wrap. This is also how we walk to get the mail and go shopping. 

This week your grandma came over and watched you for a couple hours so i could work in the garden.  I got all the tomato cages and stakes pulled,  dug our sad carrot and potato harvest,  and dismantled the electric fence.  Now we need manure! We are also going to lime the yard and orchard. 

We already have issues with you not looking at the same place during photos. .. you were very mesmerized by my phone... i am now down 15 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight.  I would be concerned,  but i am eating healthy,  and you are healthy,  and my BMI is still considered overweight anyway...

This picture is from this morning!

I will say that i am very frustrated with disposable diapers. You have poop explosions out the back and legs almost every morning while you are nursing.  This morning it was so bad that we took a shower together.  We have only had one leak in the cloth diapers so far,  and it was pee, and because the leg was gaping a little.  I wasn't sure how tight the diaper needed to be,  but apparently it wasn't tight enough!  Your dad is still not sold on cloth diapers,  but only because he can't tell if you are wet without opening the diaper.  I can tell though - it feels fuller! 

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To my baby Kangaroo - Week 6

This has been a busy week for us. Baby A's six week checkup was on Monday. She weighed in at 9 lbs 12 oz (up from 7 lb 8 oz birthweight), and 22.5" long (up from 21" at birth). 

She has gotten in the strange habit of flipping me the bird while she's eating. Sometimes her hand is resting against her cheek, like below, and other times her hand is resting on my boob...

She is full of smiles now. She doesn't quite giggle, but she will hold her smile for awhile if you ask to her smile and smile really big at her. She also smiles while she is silently pooping (if she has a gassy poop she grunts).

She still curls up on my chest to take naps. 

And she curls up with Daddy to watch TV. 

She is getting really good at holding her neck up. And she scoots around when I lay her on her playmat. 

Since Halloween is around the corner, I busted out the Halloween onesies... She kept putting her arm in the way, but it says "Daddy is under my spell"... So true, too :)

This outfit also has a pumpkin on the butt, and she wore bright orange socks with it:

Baby A is still sleeping from 10/1030 to 4/430 every night, and wakes up for the day around 7/730. On the weekends we run a lot of errands and have a lot of visitors, and she doesn't get her naps as often. This makes her grumpy and really difficult to get to sleep. 

This week she hung out with me outside in the stroller while I pulled up the tomato cages and stakes, and pulled the plants to put into the compost bin. I still have a few more tomato plants to pull, and still need to remove the electric fence, and dig the potatoes and carrots. And we need to put manure on the garden and around the fruit still... 

I had my six week appointment yesterday. The doctor said I am healed up nicely...I am down 10 pounds from my weight at the time I found out I was pregnant, according to the doctor's scale. 

After the doctor's visit, I took Baby A up to my work and she got passed around to all the ladies... She missed her morning nap because we were leaving the house for the doctor's office at that time, but she fell asleep being held at the office. Ugh - I can't believe I go back to work part time in 3 weeks...

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to my baby kangaroo - Week 5

Your neck control continues to improve! You are able to sit up and watch me when I work on laundry.

snuggle time with dad

Grandpa visited on Monday. You were a little grumpy at the end, but you were getting hungry and ready for a nap.

You get playtime on your mat everyday. You found yourself in the mirror and like to look at yourself. Today I bundled you up and we picked a bucket of pears. We don't need anymore of them canned - still working on those from last year. But I think I will dehydrate a lot of them for snacks.

Tummy time to practice neck strength!  You held your head up for at least 30 seconds!

 

We went to a consignment sale yesterday morning. Everyone in line commented on what a good baby you are. You barely fussed and fell asleep in my arms. Granted, I fed you before we left the house and took a bottle of breastmilk with us in case you got hungry while we were shopping. You stayed asleep in your carseat for another 2 hours after we got home.

This weekend your aunt, uncle and cousins visited from Kansas City. Your cousins are one and two years old and they were excited to swing you and spent the whole weekend pointing at you and saying "Beebee". I can't wait until you're all old enough to play together. 

All of our cloth diapers arrived and are washed and ready to use. We have 13 bum genius elementals, 4 bum genius 4.0s, 4 bum genius freetimes and one bum genius flip with 6 inserts. I tried the freetimes and elementals on you Monday for about 8 hours. So cute! I'm ready to use up our disposable diapers so we can make the switch.

This week you continue to flash big grins. Sometimes you'll be nursing and will stop to grin at me. Makes the late nights and early mornings easier to deal with, for sure. Last night was pretty rough sleepwise. You didn't go to bed until nearly midnight, and then woke up crying three times. I ended up snuggling on the couch and sleeping there with you until about 2, and then put you in your rock and play and slept the rest of the night on the couch. And of course you woke up hungry at 5:45. And I find it impossible to take naps during the day. I lay down and rest, but rarely fall asleep. My mind is busy thinking of things I want to do, like dismantle the garden and compost/mulch around the fruit before it gets too cold.

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to my baby kangaroo - Week 4

Here l go being all vain again ... This photo was taken last week l think on Wednesday. As of today l am down another pound from last week. Still not trying to lose weight but l think the milk production is causing the scale to drop. l feel like l am eating a ton more than when l was pregnant. On this day l also got my flu shot hence the sexy bandaids on my upper arm.

Baby A gets tummy time every day to work on her neck control. 

She gets a little grumpy when woken up from a nap.

Stretching awake from a nap

She still curls up like a frog when sleeping. And we have to swaddle her with her arms down at night for two reasons. One, because her hands get cold, and two because if her hands aren't swaddles she hits herself in the head and wakes up. Sometimes she gets her arms out of the swaddle though (we call her a little Houdini) and she wakes up fussing. But if we tuck her arms back in she goes back to sleep.

Milk coma while momma is having her morning cup of coffee

This week we have let her sleep through the night and wake up when she is hungry.  This usually means she goes down for the night between 10 and 1030, and wakes up around 330 to eat.  She takes about an hour to eat,  and is up for the day around 730. I am also working on a freezer stash of milk,  so I pump each side after she eats at the 3am feeding and 7 am feeding. This puts 4-5 ounces a day in the freezer.  This milk is for when I go back to work,  so I have some extra for the sitter. It is also for if I want to drink a beer or two and not worry about the alcohol being in my milk. And I wanted to get used to the pump before going back to work so I am more comfortable with it. Then, hopefully my supply won't drop just because I'm at work and nervous about pumping when other people are around. I believe I'll be using the small conference room most days, which is also used for attorney-client meetings for municipal court and for employee meetings with HR. It's lockable and other pumping mommas have been using this room, too. My goal is to breastfeed until Baby A is at least 6 months. Since she is a month old today, we are 20% to that goal. Who knows, I may get to March and decide to keep at it for a few more weeks or months. Or I may go back to work and decide it isn't working. There have already been nights when I think about the free formula samples hidden in the back of the closet (I made it hard to find so sitters and the family can't find it, and so I have to work to get it out if I decide to go that route.) And I think about my sore nipples and huge boobs and those 2 hours of sleep I lose in the middle of the night, and how easy it would be to switch to formula. But then I think of the health benefits (especially since we are headed into cold and flu season) and the money we are saving by me breastfeeding and I keep at it. Since Baby A was born, I've had to use a nipple shield because she couldn't latch on to my boob. Initially, I was so pumped full of IV fluids and swollen, that she couldn't latch at all. I am trying to wean her off the shield because I think it is causing some of my nipple soreness, and we are successful sometimes. This week, she has latched on 2 to 3 times a day without it. Other times, she is so hungry and frustrated that I go ahead with the shield. A lot of doctors and lactation consultants are against nipple shields because they think they hinder eating and growth, but according to our bathroom scale, Baby A has gained almost a pound a week since our last doctor's appointment, so I don't think we have that issue! As of Monday, she weighed 9 pounds 4 ounces.

 I convinced the hubs that I want to use cloth diapers once Baby A is big enough. I bought some used ones that are in the mail as we speak, and some new ones from Target. Used, you say? That's gross? Nothing that laundry detergent, bleach and the sun can't remove. And at almost half the price of new, I think they're a good idea for when we're starting out. Our sitter also agred to use them. And we'll save a lot of money. I've spent about $250 on 23 diapers compared to the thousands we would spend on disposables. Even after figuring the extra several loads of laundry I'll need to do each week, they are still more economical. I've also read there are less poop blowouts with cloth diapers which I am really looking forward to. We've had 1 to 2 blowouts every day for the last week. Once, I had to change clothes (and luckily didn't get any of the poo on our couch!) And the other times have required clothing changes for Baby A. 

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To my baby kangaroo - Week 3

Baby girl, you make the funniest faces. 

Just a swingin'!

No, I don't want to wake up from my nap

I think we both sleep better if we get out of the house and enjoy the sunshine a little bit everyday. Even if it is just the 7 minute walk to the mailbox and back. You tend to fall asleep in the baby carrier and stay asleep for 1-2 hours, versus when you fall asleep after nursing and only sleep for 20 minutes (or until I decide to put you down in your crib and then you wake up screaming bloody murder). 

This week you have shown a little more interest in your playmat/gym. I don't think you are intentionally playing yet, but sometimes when you flail your arms you hit the rattle or some of the other toys and are interested. There is also a mirror, and you look at yourself sometimes. 

Monday I picked the rest of the peppers and tomatoes. The nights have been cool lately, in the 40s, and the tomatoes have lost their flavor. They taste like sad store-bought tomatoes. We also went to the farm yesterday and walked Freddy up to Grandma's house again. And then you got to entertain Grandma for an hour. I'm trying to make a point to walk Freddy and visit Grandma at least once a week. She doesn't get around much/very well anymore, and she really enjoys the visits. I know you won't remember them, but I try to take photographs too. 

What do you mean I have to lay still in this cake pan while you read the digital display??

I'm sure this is a fear that every breastfeeding mother has at some point, but I get scared sometimes that you aren't gaining weight like you're supposed to. Your Daddy brings home a digital scale from his work once a week and we weigh you. According to the scale, as of Monday you had gained 8 ounces above your birthweight.. So in the last three weeks, you gained the 5 ounces you lost in the hospital plus another 8 ounces. I would say the breastmilk is working just fine! We weighed you twice this week - before and after a feeding - and you ate about 2 ounces. 

"No one told me it was naptime; I missed that memo"

We are seeming to get into a sleep routine during the day. You eat breakfast at the same time as me and your dad, and then usually have a second breakfast about an hour and a half later (along with your daily vitamin D dosage). Then sometime between 9 and 10 you go down for a 2 to 2-1/2 hour nap. You wake up and eat again, play on your gym/mat, I read a book to you, you get some tummy-time to practice lifting your neck, and then you eat and go down for another 2 to 2-1/2 hour nap sometime between 4 and 7. I know, a wide range there, but if you start getting cranky and you're fed, burped, and freshly diapered, I know you're ready for a nap. 

At night, we were waking you up 4 hours after your bedtime to feed. That stopped last night. It was a huge ordeal. You weren't waking up on your own, so at 1:30am, it would take 30-45 minutes to wake you to eat. You'd fall asleep eating on one side, no matter how much I talked to you, or rubbed your face or feet. So then I'd burp you and spend another 15-20 minutes waking you to feed on the other side. By 3:30 or 4am, I'd be back in bed, but you weren't sleeping well and neither was I. The pediatrician was who told us to wake you every 4 hours. But the Hubs talked to several people at work that said they always let their baby sleep until s/he woke up hungry and then fed. So we tried that last night. Your last feeding ended at about 9pm and you woke up at 330am to eat. You, me and your dad are a lot better rested today. You woke up for the day around 7am, your typical wake-up time. 

Over the weekend, we also moved you out of our bedroom at night. You were in a rock and play next to my side of the bed until this weekend. It was nice because I could roll over and see/feel that you were breathing, even if you weren't making a peep. But it was also annoying because you grunt and make all kinds of noises in your sleep that wake me and your dad up. We were not getting very restful sleep with all your night-time noises. So you are now sleeping in your crib and I have the baby monitor turned on low so I can hear when you wake up. 

Since you aren't eating during the night, I'm trying to figure out when/if to pump instead of feeding you at night. I don't want my milk supply to decrease since I'm not feeding you then, and I need to start storing milk for when I go back to work so you can eat at the sitter's house. This morning I pumped on the side you didn't eat on first, and put that milk in the freezer. But I waited until your first feeding to do that. I might try to do that if I wake up before you. (Or I might spend that time eating breakfast with your dad like I did this morning.)

Breastfeeding has been an adventure. Hardly any of the nursing bras I bought during my pregnancy actually fit. And when they do fit it is only for the first hour or so after feeding, and then my boobs swell up with milk and I end up with boob muffin-top poking over the top of my bra cup. I bought a couple nursing bras to wear at night, but they don't fit... I swell up like a balloon and the bra leaves indentations on my chest and I feel tender. So those are staying in the drawer... I've found that I really like nursing tanks that have built-in shelf bras. Super comfy and I don't get poked by underwire :)

I stepped on the scale again on Monday and I lost another pound since last week... And I went into work today to get my flu shot at the health fair (and to show you off) and I wore a pair of pre-pregnancy capris. I can't believe how lucky I am to shed the weight that quickly. 

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