More Christmas!

Well, we survived my first week back to work...but just barely! Ugh!

Last Sunday night she woke up at 4am congested. Made me feel like a bad mom for having to leave her at daycare sick for her first day. I got teary eyed a few times, but overall it wasn't bad. I had cried Sunday evening though as I was putting her to bed because I just kept thinking that when I set her in the crib and went to bed, that my time home with her was over...so I just kept holding her and holding her and didn't put her down for a long time.

Tuesday I stayed home with her (yes, I called out on my second day back to work!) ... She was congested and didn't sleep well at all...so I didn't sleep well and I just didn't want to face the day with no sleep.

Tuesday at 11am...she refused to eat! Refused the boob again. Another nursing strike. Let me just say that the next three days were hell here... I was crying, she was crying. She just wouldn't eat. I finally called our Kit (the lactation consultant) at home on wednesday evening and talked with her some and then ended up taking Luara into the office on Thursday morning for a check up just to make sure nothing physical was causing her to strike. No ear infection or anything. We were told that some babies just do that at about 3 months and sometimes we never know why. Well, this was her SECOND nursing strike... Talk about a rough last week home and first week back to work. All I wanted to do when I got home from work was huggle and snuggle and nurse my baby...and she wanted none of that. She cried herself to sleep way too many times those 3 days. Well, Thursday afternoon she snapped out of her funk and has been nursing just fine since then! I hope we never have another nursing strike...ever! But I'm glad to know we can survive it!

Merry Christmas!!!

BAM!

Well...just as fast as she decided she didn't want the boob... she decided at 1pm yesterday that all is good in boobyville and Laura is happily nursing away again :)

NO IDEA what caused her distress for those two days...but it was stressful for both of us!

What is going on?

Having stressful days here lately again...Laura is refusing to breastfeed :(

Tuesday we went grocery shopping and she ate at 11:30am. We got home shortly after at 12:30. She napped on and off through the afternoon and by 5 she still hadn't eaten. I'd tried a few times when she appeared hungry but she just screamed at me. Finally at 5:30, I gave her a 1/2 ounce bottle that I pumped off and then was able to switcher-oo her to the boob. She ate fine at 7. Ate fine at 10...and was fine for the rest of that overnight and all day yesterday too. Then last evening...same thing. She ate at 3:30 and at 5:30 she outright refused me! Screamed, arched her back, huge tears...but would take a bottle just fine. I only gave her a half ounce and figured it would settle her down and I'd try again next time she was hungry. Around 7ish she repeated that all over and got another 1/2 ounce by bottle. 9pm hit and she was still out of sorts... not screaming all the time...actually very happy lying on the floor or in the swing, during her bath, but if she was held or if she was hungry she just screamed at me. At 9, I gave her a 2 ounce bottle and put her to bed. She did fine for her 2am feeding...and was fine for her 6am feeding too. But then at 8am today... back to the screaming arching back thing :( I was able to give her a bit from the bottle and switch her over. Then we napped and when she was up at 10:30 she did it again :( After a few sucks on the bottle I was able to get her on though... REALLY not sure what's going on.

My theories are:
Teething...but why is it only happening in the evening (until today?) She's chewing her fists, blowing spit bubbles, and chews on my finger if I put it in her mouth...
Nipple confusion... she's started loving her pacifier this past week, but we really only give it to her to help get her to sleep - she she can go all day without it.
Overtired... She didn't nap really well Tuesday and then yesterday we were gone from 12:30-4:30, but I made sure she got a really good morning nap in before we left. And when we got home at 4:30 she took quite a few cat naps during the evening. ...and would she really be overtired this early in the morning? She went from really happy and smiling when her daddy was home this morning to just screaming when she wanted to eat.

I did call the doctor's office this morning. Was hoping Kit was there... but she wasn't. Another lactation consultant called me back and we discussed it. Doesn't appear to be any illness. Laura's wetting and pooing just fine. She is happy and content the rest of the time - just refusing the breast. I'm worried that she'll start wanting the bottle more becuase it's easier... so Jenn (the LC) suggested that next time I try to get her started with a dropper of milk instead of the bottle - so I've got that ready just in case. BUT - if that is the case - I hope this isn't the end of our breastfeeding relationship... starting Monday she'll be getting bottles all day when I'm back to work... We both worked so hard for the first month of her life to get this breastfeeding thing down that I'd hate to have it end sooner rather than later. Jenn told me to definitely call back if Laura keeps refusing the breast.

She's napping now... I wonder if she'll want me when she wakes up ?

Laura likes shopping at...

LOWES! She loved looking up at all the lights. Very alert the whole time we were there. And what could be better than being held, being walked AND having bright lights all over the place? The girl was in heaven :)

Yellow Fuzzi Bunz!

Milk Coma

So yesterday Laura ate and fell right back to sleep... these pictures show her progression of facial expressions during her milk coma!

Look what Laura found!

I fed Laura this morning then left her lying on the pillow because she was falling asleep - I heard a little slurp slurp and looked down to see this...



She takes a pacifier really well now (almost too well!) ...but this would be nice if she could consistently find her thumb because then I wouldn't have to keep going in her room everytime she wakes up as she's trying to fall asleep because she popped her paci out.

Green Fuzzi Bunz

Did ya'll catch the trend here? I'm trying to get a pic of her in each color dipe, and then whenever I get to making her a scrapbook I want to do a page with her showing off all the colors ... am I ever going to have time to scrap again? :P

Overnights...

This girl is a traveling chick! She is now 10 weeks old and has spent the night in quite a few places besides her own home...

Aunt Megan and Uncle Matt's house
"Aunt" Hannah's house
Grammie and Grampa B's house
Delta Lake cottage
Great Gramma Brown's house (err...aunt ruth I mean!) ha ha ha!
This weekend she's going to be ag Grammie and Grampa B's house again...

We were up to Delta Lake last weekend for Christmas Haven Retreat -

Trying to stay warm ...


She dressed up as a baby Santa ... so here is her first picture of her getting in the Christmas mood...


Mommy and Baby...


She takes a bottle really well - so no worries about that when she has to go to daycare...


Grammie and Grampa B ...


We got to have a surprise visit with Great Gramma Brown... The cottage isn't super warm and since it was supposed to drop to about 9 degrees on Saturday night - dad, me, Laura and the puppies took a trip down to stay with Gramma. She was thrilled that we spent the night with her. When we first got there, Laura was wide awake and happy - sat for probably 15-20 minutes just staring and smiling at her Great Gramma.

Pics (Showing off the blue fuzzibunz today!)

Happy Baby!


As Evelyn used to tell us - a bird would poop on that lip if it stayed stuck out like that!


ENOUGH Already MOM!


And...helping with the laundry again!


Laura still isn't feeling 100% better yet, but her sneezes are less frequent and she doesn't sound as congested anymore. Still in the mornings and evenings, but much less during the day.

Laura and I are headed to Delta Lake for the weekend. Haven retreat...but this year I'm not on the books to work, just visit.

2 more weeks until I go back to work :(

Nursing in Public

It is legal in NYS (as well as many other states) to breastfeed in public - The law specifically states "a mother may breast feed her baby in any location, public or private, where the mother is otherwise authorized to be". Now, some people choose to cover up while they're doing this - others chose not to cover up.

I have a coverup - but we're still learning how to use it. I still need 2 hands to feed Laura with and she swats at the cover so most of the time we're uncovered even if we're trying to stay covered.

Where am I going with this, you ask?

I found the perfect solution to nursing in public if we're at the mall... use the dressing rooms! Laura and I went to do a little shopping today and we left home at 10:30 and didn't get home until almost 5pm. We were able to take a feeding and diaper change break at both Target and Sears by utilizing thier changing rooms :) SO much easier than trying to cover up while sitting in the food court or going to the car to feed her!

Laundry is boring!

Well, I'm sorry to say that I bore my baby girl. She was wide awake when I brought her downstairs with me to fold the laundry - and not half way through the load she was OUT!



***Don't worry, I was standing within arms reach all the time she was on the dryer - even when I took the picture

2 days later and...

Daddy and mommy are both sick too. Blah!
Richie started to feel yucky yesterday morning and I started to get a sore throat overnight last night.

Hope this doesn't put a damper on our weekend plans...Laura and I are supposed to go to Delta Lake for a couple of days!

She's still sneezy and congested. Still no fever and acting normal. Yesterday she was back to her normal sleep pattern, so maybe she's feeling a little better than she did Sunday. AND... I had her in bed 20 minutes before her normal bedtime! YAY! Wonder if that was just a fluke though... She was in bed and asleep at 9:40. :)

First cold :(

Our baby girl is sick :( She woke up at 2am on Saturday night with terrible nasal congestion. We started the humidifier up in her room. She's been sleepy and sneezy - lots of yuck. No fever. And when she's awake, she's still got her normal happy times. She slept almost all day yesterday and then was asleep from 4:15pm-10:30pm with only one small feeding at 6:30pm. Awake and fussy from 10:30-12:50 last night, but then had a good night. Awake at 3-3:20 to eat. Then awake at 7 to eat. Stayed up for an hour and then tried to nap - she couldn't breathe well lying down...


so I propped her while I was right there with her.


Toby is making sure the humidifier is working okay!


Hopefully she'll kick this in a couple days and be back to feeling better. Richie and I just feel so helpless and so wish we could take all her uncomfortable sickness away...

Laura's first Thanksgiving!

What can I say... Halloween she posed with a pumpkin - so do you expect anything less than a turkey picture for this holiday???


We spent the day with Richie's side of the family at Aunt Jill's house. Everyone was taking turns holding Laura and I don't think she was set down once the whole time we were there. I took a bottle with us so that someone else could feed her while we were there and Stephanie was very quick to volunteer for that job! I found out that I have to pump more for a feeding though - we used to get by on 2 ounces, then 3...but on Thanksgiving, 3 wasn't enough! Maybe she just knew that you're supposed to eat a lot on Thanksgiving! I guess from now on I'll try to pump at least 4 ounces if I'm leaving her for a feeding.

I am so thankful for my happy little family :)

Cloth Butt!

Yep, nearly everyone thought we were crazy when I said we were going to use cloth diapers...but I'm here to say that we're doing it...and it's so easy! No nasty wet pail to deal with - we just toss all the dirties into the washer and they come out nice and fluffy clean :) What's a few extra loads of laundry each week? Nothin'! We're saving a bunch too - we've only bought 2 packages of disposable diapers ...we're using those on the overnights, but I imagine soon we'll start using cloth overnight too.

This diaper is just for looks - we didn't like how it fit, so I'm going to be selling it, but it looked cute for the pictures!





Caught her mid sneeze on this one!



And this is the diapers we're using mainly - the fuzzibunz. Even Richie is proud to say that he likes using the cloth diapers for Laura! She has pink, lavender, kelly green, bright blue, baby blue, sage, butter, and white dipes :)



Larua and I went and visited her daycare last week. We got there at naptime so everyone was asleep. That let Lynn hold Laura for a bit before the kids started to wake up. Once Laura starts, there will be 10 kids MWF and 9 kids T/Th. Then there are a couple of older kids who get off the bus in the afternoon who are like 11 years old. The next kid closest to Laura's age turns 1 next month - so there's quite a gap. Should give Lynn enough time to spend holding Laura if she needs to... since there aren't other really little ones who would need the same attention. We met Olivia - a 2 year old adopted from Guatemala, Braden - the 1 year old boy, Lana - almost 2, Lyndsey - 5 year old who should have gone to kindegarden this year!, and Gracie - a very talkative 3 year old, and Morgan - the 11 year old when she got off the bus... the other kids didn't wake up while we were there. We'll go back another day next week in the morning to meet them and see the play rooms. I showed Lynn and Jenna the cloth diapers and they were both really impressed! They'll have no problems using them :) Lynn said she takes out 5 full garbage bags of diapers to the curb each week! yuck!

Few other random bits...

Toby decided to curl up and snuggle with mommy and Laura -



We put Laura down on her play mat and she can kick the big ball, but doesn't really "get" the things above her yet - she certainly likes looking at the bright colors though! She is also getting so that she loves looking up at the colorful animals on the mobile abover her swing. That swing can keep her occupied for a good 15-20 minutes on a good day :)



Check out the smile I caught!

Catch up!

Whoops... got busy around here again!

Laura had her 2 month check up on November 14th (a day shy of 7 weeks old).
She's 10#6oz (gaining roughly an ounce a day) - this puts her in the 75thish percentile and she's 23 inches - in the 95thish precentile! She's gonna be tall! She got her shots - and I swear she screams longer and harder after her bath than she did for those. I was worried we'd have a rough evening because it'd make her fussy, but she slept all evening and only woke up to eat.

November 15th - Laura and I took our first trip together to Grandma and Grandpa's house! She did really well with the car ride again (like always). We met my mom at school so she could show off her grandbaby to her coworkers. Again, everyone commented on her amount of hair and her chubby cheeks :) We got pizza for dinner and then headed back to the house for a quick clothing change and then we were off to Delhi for Laura's second party in one week! The ladies from the church threw us a shower and it was very nice to see everyone and get to show Laura off :) She was a perfect angel - slept all evening. I think that was a combination of it being warm in the house and the background noise of everyone chattering. Lulled her right to sleep. We got some very nice gifts and I am working on the thank you notes this week!

Mom and dad's dogs were really good with Laura - they licked her ears, but they were gentle. Laura was even able to sleep through them barking and jumping up on Mom's lap!




I said it was her second party - the weekend before (Nov 11) we took Laura to Aunt Karen and Uncle Don's house and Laura got to meet a bunch of her extended family. Again, awesome time - lots of nice gifts - Laura now has a nice size collection of books. Richie is working on building a book shelf for her room now.

Here is Laura modeling the cute little sweater that Rachel made for her...


And here is just a cute slippery baby in the bathtub picture - because she's cute!

She smiles and coos!

This was yesterday afternoon ... finally caught a smile on camera!
Just this week, Laura has started to smile in response to her environment instead of just in her sleep from being full and content. She's getting so she'll sit and watch what's going on around her and not need to be held all the time when she's awake too. Yesterday I heard a little "coo" out of her a couple times, but this morning when I picked her up right after she woke up, she gave me a huge open mouth grin and a big "coo"... (No, I don't know what a "coo" actually is, but that's what all the baby books say she'll start doing right around now)...

She'd suck on her thumb if she didn't keep it tucked into her hand...

Ain't she cute!?! This was yesterday during tummy time. She does really well lifting her head up, but she only tolerates a few minutes at a time.


I thought this was cute - you know the little blister breastfed babies get from sucking? She finally has hers! ... Well, I say finally - it's been there for a few days, but I just managed to get a picture of it - and today it's gone already.

The most frequently asked question...

Is she a good sleeper?

Sometimes. She naps well during the day. We're figuring out how to calm her down at night... but lately she's been wanting to be awake for a couple hours between 2-6am! Ack! Usually it's a happy awake as long as someone is walking with her. I'll do that all day long, but at night - I'd prefer to sleep. Hopefully she'll figure out that during the day is wake time, and nights are for sleeping. Two nights ago she was pretty good - slept a great stretch (4 hours) in the beginning of the night and then woke for feedings, but decided to do cluster feedings (about 30-45 minutes apart) from 4am on. Last night, she ate at 8:45pm, in bed with not a lot of fussing by 10...slept until 2! Yay! But then she was awake until... 4:15. Just got her down, and at 4:45 she wanted to eat again! Luckily after I tucked her in that time, she slept until 8am... but hmmm... I try to keep her awake for 2 hour stretches at a time during the day, and I'm still making sure she eats every 2-3 hours during the day... She's got 6 weeks left with me home to get the night routine figured out.

Laura's first halloween...

First Laura had her appointment at the peds office. Met with Kit again... and Laura got to show off her amazing feeding skills that she learned this week! Had to get a picture with Kit to document this occasion! She was such a great resource for me, and a great support person who kept reassuring me that eventually Laura would get it... I believe that's a huge reason I was able to stick out 4.5 weeks of latch problems! Laura was 9 pounds 9.6 ounces. Still 22 inches long. Our next visit to the peds office will be in 2 weeks when she goes for her 2 month well baby visit. We'll see Dr. Snedeker. We saw him in the hospital and really liked him, so we'll stick with what we know!

On the way home we stopped and got pictures with pumpkins. Shhh...don't tell Laura that we didn't buy her her own pumpkin for her first halloween! ha ha ha!

Then we came home and dressed Laura up in her little nurse scrubs! Awe! (Thanks Aunt Dawn!) We took Laura across the street to meet two of the neighbors - then home for the night routine of rocking and shushing and sucking and eventually sleeping.