seven months

Allie Faye is seven months old!  This month she started pulling herself into a standing position and repeating syllables.  She's crawling all over the place...quickly, I might add.  She loves getting into things she's not supposed to and she grew hair and teeth this month like it was her job.

We're pretty sure she has allergies pretty bad.  She had a cough and a runny nose the entire month.  Carson took her to the doctor at one point and demanded antibiotics but they refused to give her anything since she wasn't running a fever.  About a week ago, her runny nose got significantly worse and when we took her to the doctor, she was diagnosed with RSV.  Carson and I have been working half days to stay home with her since we can't put her in daycare.  Carson has been working in the mornings and I have been working in the afternoons.  I'm definitely thankful that we both work in flexible environments that allow us to come and go.

A couple of days ago, Allie forced my finger in her mouth and I felt a tooth!  Just the very top of the tooth but I have no clue when it first pushed through.  Since she has been so sick with RSV, we never noticed any separate teething pain.

We moved Allie into her convertible car seat at the beginning of the month.  I think she loves being able to see out of the window, but it is harder for her to sleep comfortably.  I can finally see her in the mirror that I have set up on the headrest and I love seeing her look around.  We quit using the little sling in the bathtub and Allie sits up by herself in the bath.  It's difficult to say whether she enjoys sitting up by herself more or floating around on her belly chasing her toys more, but either way, bath time is always a very pleasant experience.

The only thing that Allie really seems to dislike lately is diaper changes and having her face wiped.  She has started to arch her back really badly and tries to scoot away.  I've almost completely given up trying to change her on the changing table and almost always change her on the floor.

This month, Allie slept through the night every night until she got really sick.  I am so so so thankful that she has always been a pretty good sleeper and that she continues to do so well.  It's amazing how quickly your body gets used to sleeping through the night again.  The past couple of nights when Allie has woken up, I'm a zombie the next day.  A typical weekend looks something like this:

7:00 wake up and eat
7:15 breakfast: 1 oz. breastmilk mixed with oatmeal
8:30-10:30 sleep
10:45 eat
11:00 lunch: pureed carrots or sweet potatoes or butternut squash (poor kid must think all food is orange)
12:00-2:45 sleep
3:00 eat
4:00-5:00 sleep
5:15 eat
7:00 bedtime

Since Allie started sleeping through the night, I pump 5 times a day on weekdays.  6:30, 9:30, 12:30, 3:30, and between 8-9 before I go to bed.  On the weekends I still pump in the mornings and at night.  I'm FINALLY not pulling from the freezer every day and we're making an effort to stay in town and to not give Allie bottles on the weekends so that I can pull ahead a little each weekend.  I've really made an effort to drink a lot more water each day and I truly do think it has made a big difference.  I went from getting about 5 ounces during my 3 pumping sessions at work to getting about 9.  I try to drink 16 ounces of water every 1-2 hours.  I've tried the Mother's Milk Tea, drinking a beer at night, and pumping both sides but this is really the first time I've noticed a change.

Allie is wearing 6-12 month onesies and pants.  She's swimming in them right now but she'll grow into them soon.  She's wearing 9 month pjs if they have footies and 6 month pjs if they're footless.  She's still in size 3 diapers.

Her little personality is starting to really shine and we love seeing what new things she's learning every day.  Even though she's been sick lately, it's been nice to be able to spend more time with her at home.

favorite things: nursing mother's wardrobe

When I started hitting the 6th, 7th, and 8th month of pregnancy, I remember staring at the clothes hanging in my closet and thinking it wouldn't be long before they would all be available to wear again. Well, aside from the fact that it took about 2 months for my body to de-puffify after giving birth, I am still pretty limited in what I can wear during the work week and when I'm with Allie. I'm a big fan of dresses and unfortunately they aren't always the most nursing friendly option. Separates are a nursing mother's best friend. As are buttons, tank tops, and dark prints.

If I'm going out in public with Allie, I'm wearing a flowy t-shirt with a tank top underneath. A scarf and a cardigan are just icing on top. I've always hated covering myself and I've never owned an actual nursing cover. If you pull your t-shirt up and your tank top and nursing bra down, your baby pretty much covers any skin that may be exposed.

I dress the same way at work.  My office is always cold so I like dressing in layers to stay warm while I pump.  Nursing bras don't typically offer the same amount of coverage as a normal bra would so I like wearing scarves to work just as an extra precaution.

If I know I'll need to feed Allie at church, I typically wear a dress that buttons up the front in a dark colored pattern to cover any spills that could potentially happen.  Again, I almost always have a scarf with me in case I need to cover up or clean up anything.  (A scarf makes a good burp cloth if you're in a pinch.)

I never expected to have to adjust how I dressed AFTER I gave birth.  I'd be lying if I said I didn't stand in my closet and tug on the necks of every shirt to see how stretchy they were.  I've gotten used to it at this point and it doesn't bother me anymore.  I'm enjoying having more of a "uniform" and it has actually made it easier to get dressed in the mornings.

the thief of joy

via

On Friday night, I got sucked in to Facebook and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning.  One thing led to another and I wasted an entire night just creeping through people's profiles.  I'm so disgusted with myself that I've decided to take the month off of Facebook.  I'm not sure how our society has evolved into this over-sharing, over-opinionated group of people.  It's all done in innocence, I think, but the constant desire to show everyone what we're doing at every moment or the whole "pictures or it didn't happen" mentality is absolutely crazy.  Now, when we see what people or doing or what people have, we feel the need to get where they are or get what they have.

I'm excited to see what this month will be like.  Where will I spend my extra time?  Reading?  Exercising?  Probably online window shopping, to be completely honest, since I took the month of January off from spending money.

six months

It absolutely blows my mind that our little baby is six months old.  Those first few months were so tough..it was so hard to believe that we would ever have a routine or that I would ever have time to take a bath, read a book, or paint my nails again.  Things are pretty fantastic around here.  This month Allie mastered sitting up and eating solids (purees).  She hugs me every day when I pick her up from daycare and just a couple of days ago she started reaching out to be picked up.  She's the happiest, best, sweetest, cutest, most perfect baby ever.

Allie weighs 17 pounds 11 ounces now (77th percentile).  She is 26.5 inches tall (75th percentile).  Her head is 16.5 inches around (40th percentile).  She looks like a little Chia Pet with all the fuzzy hair on her head.  I'm really looking forward to the day I can put bows in her hair (seems so much less painful than headbands).  Her eyes are now almost exactly like Carson's--brown on the inside and blue on the outside.  I'm not sure if they will change anymore.  She still doesn't have any teeth but she LOVES having everything in her mouth.  I recently gave her one of those soothies pacifiers and she think it's absolutely the best thing ever (besides her feet, of course).  She doesn't suck on it, so I'm hoping it won't bite us in the butt that we're introducing a pacifier now.  I don't see any sort of attachment between her and it, or anything, for that matter.  (Not even the lovey, which I often have to take away from her to wash because she chews on it so much.)

Speaking of her feet--if she is sitting up and happens to drop her toy, on her way to pick up the toy she often discovers her feet and makes this face like "These things are so cool!  How can I get them in my mouth?" but she's still too chunky to get them there.  She takes advantage of socks and footie tights or pjs to pull on her feet/legs but just can't quite bend enough.

On Christmas Day she slept SO much.  I think she only ate 4 times that day.  The day after, she literally looked completely different.  Her hair was longer.  She was thinner and taller.  I think that was the first time Carson and I both noticed such a drastic difference.  She just looks older and wiser.  What a difference a day makes.

That cold that Allie had last month never went away and we ended up having to take her to an after hours clinic one Friday to get her a prescription for Amoxicillin.  Within a few days, it was like we had a completely different baby.  She was happy again and it was so noticeable that it made me a little sad that I waited so long to take her to the doctor.  I'm so glad she has been feeling better the past couple of weeks.  She does have a runny nose again lately but she doesn't seem to feel bad.

At home, Allie sleeps like a champ.  A typical weekend schedule looks something like this:

5:00 eat
5:30-8:00 sleep
8:00 eat
9:15-11:15 sleep
11:15 eat
12:30-3:15 sleep
3:15 eat
4:30-6:00 sleep
6:00 eat, bath
7:30 sleep

We love it.  That little stint she had sleeping through the night last month didn't last long.  Most of this past month she woke up once each night--typically around 2-3 if she went to bed at 7:30.  She has been having some teething pain the past couple of weeks that has affected her weekend naps somewhat.

She is still eating 16 ounces of breastmilk at daycare every day.  We did introduce solids this past month and as of January 6th, she gets a 4 oz. bottle and oatmeal (made with milk) for breakfast, a 4 oz. bottle and sweet potatoes + oatmeal for lunch, and a 6 oz. bottle in the afternoon at daycare.  (It's also worth mentioning that she has slept through the night every night this week since starting solids at daycare.)  So far she has only had sweet potatoes.  I thought we would have a hard time trying to get her tongue to work the first few times but she had no issues.  She really seems to love food.  We just bought carrots today to start her on those.  I also bought her some sippy cups recently and we plan to introduce her to that in the next couple of days.

Clothing-wise, I'm afraid Allie's 6 month pjs won't last much longer.  The footie pjs especially seem snug in the length.  I think we'll be moving her up a size this month.  She is still in size 3 diapers and 3-6/6-12 onesies and pants.  Now that she's crawling I like to have her in some kind of pants always to protect her little knees from the carpet or hard floor.  I probably frustrate people with how little I get her all gussied up but I just want her to be comfortable.  Maybe when she's standing and walking I'll be more likely to put her in dresses and jeans.

She loves feeling textures.  She will scratch different fabrics with her little fingernails and she likes hearing the sounds that each material makes.  She's all about tags now too.  Forgot the toy, give her the tag.  She also loves watching and touching the dogs.

I am about 5 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight.  Everything has returned to normal with my body and now that Allie is six months old we can officially put her in the daycare at the gym.  Not entirely sure that will happen...ever.

five months

Our baby girl is five months old today!  She is so much fun and I feel like her personality has really started blossoming lately.  She smiles at everything now (I know I've said that before but now...for real.)  We took our family pictures on November 16 and she was a little under the weather so it was hard to make her smile.  The next day though, I swear she started smiling at everything.  It's not just "costco" and "jamjams" anymore.  She babbles all the time to herself in the car and is starting to really be able to shriek loudly.

She won't have an official weigh in this month but we think she's between 16-17 pounds.  She has been fighting a cold almost the entire month.  It started as some sneezing...developed into a cough...and now it seems to slowly be getting a little better.  Her hair JUST started getting a little fuzzier and longer the past couple of days. Her eyes are now a dark gray color and this past month her eyelashes have gotten a good bit longer.  We have some days with tons of drool and some days with not much drool.  She's definitely in the process of teething but doesn't have any pushing through just yet.

Sleep this month has been pretty consistent until this past weekend.  There weren't many nights that she didn't wake up at least once...but since Saturday, she has actually been sleeping through the night again.   I think the stuffy nose/cough/skills development has had a lot to do with her not sleeping well.  I introduced her to a lovey around Thanksgiving and I often find it tucked under her arm in the morning when I wake her up.  a.d.o.r.a.b.l.e.  We're totally done with the swaddle now that she's sleeping on her stomach so she's been sleeping with a blanket this month.

No issues in the eating department.  Allie is still eating often and well.  Pumping at work is difficult and I have to pull from my freezer stash daily.  I often worry about how much longer we'll be able to keep it up.  We haven't started solids yet but we will soon.  We're also really wanting to move on to something different than Dr. Brown's bottles.  We're sick of washing so many bottle parts every night.  I don't know whether we should just stick it out a little longer and then introduce a sippy cup or just buy all new bottles that she may or may not like.

Clothing-wise, Allison is wearing 6 month pjs, 6-12 month pants, and a mix of 3-6, and 6-12 month onesies.  She seems to be growing a lot taller lately.  A lot of dresses that we have for her that are 3-6 are way too short.  We moved her up to size 3 diapers in the middle of the month.

We started laying out a giant picnic blanket in the living room this month for Allie to play around on.  It's pretty much the best thing ever.  She spits up quite often so once the blanket gets a little dirty, we toss it in the wash.  Much easier than cleaning carpet and she has a lot more space to roam.  She started crawling on November 19 at 18 weeks old.  Now she can push herself into a plank position and is getting quicker at moving around.  It's only a matter of time before she gets her knees under her and really starts moving.  She finally rolled to the right on December 1.  She reaches for anything and everything.  "Out of reach" is a thing of the past...if she wants it, she's gonna get it.

Everything is still going well with daycare.  The other baby she's with can sit up and touch her toes so it's really interesting to see how they're developing differently.  I'm convinced that Allie can't do either because of her chunkiness.  She can't reach her toes over her belly and she can't sit up because she's so heavy up top.  But she is strong and gets where she wants to go for sure.  She can sit up if I position her to where she's bent over.  It doesn't look comfortable though so I don't leave her like that long.  Maybe that will be what she masters in month six.  She's still loving standing and she can actually stand unassisted if she's holding on to something.

As for me, I'm still losing fist-fulls of hair.  Working has been going well and I'm enjoying having somewhere to be every day.  I still feel a tug every now and then to be at home but ultimately, I think this is the right choice for now.

Pumping at Work: Supplies, Schedule, Struggles

I'm no expert, but I have learned a few things over the last couple of weeks while breastfeeding and being away from Allison.  Pumping at work is almost just as difficult as learning how to breastfeed was.  There is the constant question of 'will I produce enough to satisfy my very hungry daughter's appetite?'.  Allison is almost 5 months old and has been eating 3-4 ounce bottles at daycare each day.  Our daycare has just recently requested 4 bottles of milk per day to make sure that Allie has enough to eat.  Cue Chelsea freak out...I certainly don't have time to pump 4 times each day but I really don't think Allison is ready for solids yet.  I'm hoping once we introduce solids between 5-6 months, her milk intake will settle back down.

So, our set up looks something like this:

1. Medela Advanced Personal Breastpump with On the Go Tote--I have no complaints about this pump.  The bag is kind of large but with everything in there that I need, there's not much left over space.
2. Dr. Brown's 8 oz Bottles--We have 8 Dr. Brown's bottles that we send to daycare with Allison.  Yes, there are a lot of parts but Allison eats from them with no problems.  We had such a hard time getting her to eat from a bottle in the first place...maybe later down the road we'll try to transition her to a bottle with less pieces, but these work great for now.
3. Parmolive Baby Dish Wash--I like this soap MUCH better than the Medela brand bottle soap.  There is no residue left in the bottles when we wash them and the price is a million times better.  I got 3 very large bottles for the price of 1 small Medela bottle.
4. Insulated lunch bag--I use a very plain insulated lunch bag from Target to carry her bottles to daycare.  If I know I'll be out longer with her bottles, I'll stick a freezer pack in it.
5. Bottle Brush--We keep a bottle brush stuck on our kitchen sink pretty much all the time.  I like the ones that are able to stand up--either with a suction cup or holder like the one in the picture.  If we have guests over, we stand it up in our baby cabinet.

I filled our freezer with milk while I was on maternity leave.  At first, I was really confused about when to pump and there were a few times that I burned myself because I pumped both sides and then had an awake, hungry baby earlier than expected.  Then, out of the blue, Allison began to sleep through the night.  For a few weeks, I was able to pump every morning and get at least 6 ounces and still have plenty left over to feed Allison when she woke up.  That's all well and good but now I have bags upon bags of 6 ounces in the freezer and I often only need 2 or 3 ounces to supplement what I was able to pump at work.  I'm kicking myself for not splitting it up now.

I pump 3 times every day at work--9:30 am, 12:30 pm, and 3:30 pm for 10-30 minutes.  I can get anywhere between 2-6 ounces each time.  I'm currently only pumping one side at a time--that may change when she gets a little older.  I'm lucky enough to have a private office that I am able to pump in at work.  Before I get started, I make sure I have water and don't have to pee.  I bring an extra sandwich bag for my pump parts so I can keep them refrigerated in between pumping sessions.

Every night, Carson washes all of Allison's bottles and my pump parts.  We use a giant pot but if we had a sink stopper, we would use that instead.  We also have a very simple bottle rack that I picked up at Target for $6.  If for whatever reason bottles don't get washed at night, I have a few Medela sterilizer bags and I just toss everything in the microwave before I leave for work.

There have been a few times that I became pretty concerned with my supply and I did some research and decided that I HAD to have lactation cookies to boost my production.  The only ingredient that I was missing in my cabinets was brewer's yeast.  When Carson couldn't find brewer's yeast in the store, I turned to plan B--drinking beer.  Maybe it was the placebo effect or maybe it actually worked, but I do notice a slight different in my supply when I have a beer a few nights in a row.

If you asked me for my advise, I would say:

-Take advantage of your baby sleeping longer increments to build up your freezer stash
-Freeze your milk in 2 ounce increments always
-Don't waste money on the hands-free pumping bra
-Set a reminder on your phone or computer to pump
-Sit up straight
-Ask for help

I was never able to find much online about pumping at work so hopefully this helps at least a few people!

four months

Our little baby is four months old!  I can't believe how much she has changed and grown.  Throughout the month, Allison has gotten stronger, more vocal, and has been all over the place with her sleeping patterns.  She laughs and rolls and sleeps on her stomach now (as of a few days ago).  She also took a break this month from growing hair to grow some eyebrows.

Allie weighs 15 pounds, 13 ounces now (84th percentile) and is 25 inches long (79th percentile).  Her head is 15.5 inches around (20th percentile). She had her second round of shots on the 4th and she handled them so much better this time.  No change in hair color and eye color this month--still light brown hair and dark blue eyes but it does sometimes look like the center has started to turn brown.  She is still drooling all over the place (some days are worse than others) and she's putting more and more things in her mouth.  No signs of teeth yet though.  She has had more cradle cap issues but again, coconut oil clears it up pretty easily.

When Allie hit 15 weeks, we had a few nights with two night feedings (which was killer) but it didn't last long at all and we're back to just one night feeding.  She typically sleeps between 7:30-3:30, she's back to sleep by 4, then I wake her up at 6:30 to feed her again before leaving for work.  I really don't mind waking up with her in the middle of the night and I actually think I'll be kind of sad when it's over.  She is always so happy to see me and when I lay her down, she's still cooing and smiling.  Sometimes after I lay her down and start to walk out of her room, she'll say something else and I can't help it, I have to run back to her and talk to her some more.

Yesterday, Allie woke up early from a nap so I thought I would let her cry it out a little to see if she would go back to sleep.  After about 10 minutes, she was still wailing so I went in to check on her and she had gotten her arm stuck through the crib slats.  (Obviously I deserve the Mom of the Year award for that one.)  I ran out to Target and bought one of those breathable mesh crib bumpers.  She scoots and rolls SO much that I knew that wouldn't be the last time that happened if I didn't do anything about it.

I returned to work on October 21 and Allison has been doing great in daycare.  It took about two weeks, but I think things are starting to become more routine.  I feel really at ease with the person watching Allie during the day, Christina.  She actually reminds me A LOT of one of my college roommates.  At first, Christina mistook Allie's tired cues for feeding cues so she was eating 16 ounces each day.  Every day I worried about that because I only get between 10-15 ounces a day at work so I was constantly having to dip into the freezer stash.  The past couple of days though, Allie has eaten 12 ounces during the day so I feel better about the feeding situation.  Pumping at work though is a whole other story.  It's really difficult to take a break 3 times a day to pump.

Allie is still wearing a mix of 3, 3-6, and 6 month clothing.  Some of the 6 month clothing is too big but we went ahead and washed everything so we could use the clothes to layer.  Now that we have to actually get dressed for daycare/work every day, we're doing a lot more laundry.  No more staying in our jammies all day.  She's still wearing size 2 diapers.

This month, Allie is really starting to love playing with all of her toys.  After I feed her in the morning, I put her in her Rock N Play with her toys hanging over her and she is perfectly content swatting at them...especially her monkey.  When we lay her on her playmat, she loves throwing her arms all around and hits all the hanging toys.  We keep her Oball in the car to keep her occupied and she knows how to shake it to make it rattle.  During tummy time, she can come up off her elbows and supports herself with just her hands.  She rolled from her back to her stomach the night of November 7th and it seems like that has completely changed the way she slept.  Before that though, some nights I would lay her down facing one way and when I got her in the morning, she had completely turned around.  But she was always perfectly the other direction...never at an angle.  She's quite the scooter and it really blows my mind how mobile she is.  She REALLY wants to crawl but can't quite figure out how to make it work yet.

Carson and I have discovered the hard way that it's pretty easy to spook Allie.  I had done it once or twice when she was younger but it seems the older she gets, the easier it happens.  If we sneak into our room and she catches us, she'll look at us and just wail.  It's so sad/funny.

Allie is laughing more and more every day.  Sometimes when we find a word that makes her laugh, we just repeat it over and over until she's no longer amused.  2 that we know work?  Costco and Jamjams.  She loves it.  She continues to amaze us and others with how totally relaxed and calm she is.  We're able to take her with us and she takes it all in stride.  Last weekend, we actually took her to a bull riding competition and she just sat on my lap and looked at everything and just soaked it all in.  She even took a little catnap on my lap.  She didn't cry once.  And then she slept through the night that night.  Perfect baby?  I mean, I don't want to brag.

My hair loss is definitely much worse than it was last month.  It almost looks like I cut bangs in the front.  Other than that, there's still the constant struggle of juggling being a wife, a mom, and now I have to add work to the mix again.  It's been difficult not being able to stay late at work anymore and it makes me really stressed sometimes.  Working out is totally on the backburner these days.  I just can't seem to find the motivation to do it.   Especially now with the time change...the sun is setting as I leave work.  I have lofty dreams of waking up really early to work out before work but I'm already supposed to wake up at 5:15 and find myself waking up at 5:30 most days.

All in all, the transition back to working hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be.  I struggle constantly with the guilty feeling that I'm picking something totally meaningless over raising my child just for money.  However, with my extra income, we will be able to fully fund Allie's college education and will be able to take trips and give her experiences that otherwise we wouldn't be able to afford.  And then that leads me to conflicting feelings that it absolutely wouldn't hurt her if she had to pay for some of her college (I turned out okay) or have a job when she's 16.  I suppose we could still have her do those things to a certain extend.  The point is, I'm working on being comfortable with my decision.