The Beginning of the End

If you have read my blog since Emily was born, you probably know I have had a lot of issues with breastfeeding.

Quick recap - Had issues getting Emily to latch at the beginning. By the time she started latching correctly, she'd lost weight. Found out the issue was production and I started pumping after every feeding. At the beginning, I would pump about 6 times a day and would get 1-2oz each session. At my best, I was getting 10-12 oz a day. I would hand-express, even after I used the pump. As of the last two weeks, I've gone down considerably.

Since I've had so many issues, I had already decided that, at 6 months, I would start to decrease my pumping sessions. It seems by body is starting to do this for me because I am now pumping four times a day and I have been getting about 2oz for the first of the day, and about 1.5 for the rest of the sessions, bringing me to a total of about half of what I was doing before.

I kind of knew this would happen. I feel like I could have done more. For example, I could've tried to eat more (even though my time was limited) or pumped more or drank more. But that doesn't really matter because it's coming to a close.

Emily hasn't actually been breastfeeding for about a month and a half. She will only latch about 5 seconds or swallows (if that) and pull away. The thing that really sucks about this is that I am going to be buying a lot more formula. A big container lasts me a week right now.

I'm going to keep pumping 4x a day until her Well-Baby check-up in about 2 weeks. Then, I'll talk to Dr. Smith about how to not affect her digestion too badly. She's already eating some baby food (rice cereal and sweet potatoes) at dinnertime and, since her diet is less than 20% breastmilk, I hope it will be a smooth transition.

I hope that my next experience with breastfeeding will be a lot different. I think this time was heavily influenced by the pressure I felt. I kept hearing from person after person, "Every woman can breastfeed. Don't let them pressure you in to formula. Breast is the best. Your body will produce enough." I think that I would have stressed less and produced more if I hadn't been so stressed about breastfeeding and that I had to breastfeed.

I really want to breastfeed next time but I won't be listening to everyone about it next time. I need to do this my way next time.

New things

Good news first - Emily's cold is gone. Even better news? Even though she woke up at 4am last night (after 7 hours asleep), she was able to go back to sleep until 6am in her own bed. It's occured to me that my new "sleeping in" is 6am. I am glad I was in bed by 10pm but I kept waking up because she has been getting up after 7 hours lately. She was really tuckered out yesterday though because she napped less than four hours yesterday.

Before I forget, I finally got videos of her rolling over from belly to back :)

And then, from my phone:

We've been trying a lot of new things with Emily this last week. When I went grocery shopping, I saw a sippy cup for 4+ months and decided to get it. She's been taking up everything really well lately so I decided to give it to her to play with after putting a little water in and she immediately grabbed both sides and drank :) I was a proud and shocked momma. I'm not planning on weaning from her bottle soon but I was surprised at how quickly she took to it.

Other than that, it's been a pretty nice week. Father's Day is Sunday and I've already gotten gifts for my dad and Eric. Hope they like them!!

Homemade baby food with the Baby Bullet

I have made my first homemade baby food for Emily will the Baby Bullet.

My mom got me this for Christmas this last year. The system has a steamer and a blender and recipes for making homemade baby food. With all of the parts, it seemed like a lot of work but it was actually super easy. I had already decided to use it for the first time when I went grocery shopping and, since I know Emily likes sweet potatoes, I bought one (these suckers are HUGE) so I could use the Bullet. Which was much easier than I anticipated.

To make my sweet potato, I just had to peel it and chop it up and leave it in the steamer for 13 minutes. Now, I missed a part so I actually made a big mess with water that I had to clean but it still worked :) Then, you put it all in this blender for, like, 30 seconds, and it's done. This one potato made enough servings for over 2 weeks for her. Let's break down that savings:

Gerber First Foods
$0.98 for 2-pack of baby food. 1 pack = 2-3 meals. 2 weeks = 6-8 packs. 6-8 packs = $3-$4 for two weeks = $78-$104 a year for one serving of sweet potatoes.

Homemade Sweet Potatoes
$0.88 for a sweet potato = 2.5 weeks of servings = $19 a year.

Oh yeah. Saving big :)

The plus? Very easy cleanup. I'm very grateful that my mom bought it for us. It's going to save me tons :) And it's a ton of fun!

Emily's second cold

Emily is wrapping up her second cold. This one is going by a lot faster than the first (praise GOD!) but she was still miserable at the beginning.

I've learned an easy way to show she's not feeling well - not sleeping through the night. She started to seem sniffly on Monday and by Tuesday night, she coughed through most of the night but she didn't wake herself except once. On Wednesday night, she woke up at two in the morning so I got up and calmed her down and let her put herself back to sleep. Eric was awesome and got up with her at four in the morning and then I took her to our bed at five in the morning but she was wide awake. She finally got rest yesterday (slept a total of close to 6 hours during the day) and finally slept through the night last night.

She has been a little interesting during this cold, though. On Wednesday, we heard her sleep "talking" and giggling and saw her sleep-wiggling :) We heard her making weird noises on the monitor and when we checked on her, she was sound asleep and making the most gleeful noises. Later on, Eric decided to carry her on his shoulders and when he brought her back down in front of him, I noticed she had poop on her clothes. This resulted in Eric's turn changing her diaper and being asked several times, "Are you sure there's no poop on my neck?"

Luckily, though, she's almost better.

Post-Pregnancy Belly Fat: Friend or Foe?

I think that every woman would agree with me if I were to say that losing the post-pregnancy fat sucks. For me, the weight fell off and, by the 6-week postpartum visit, I was about 20lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight. That belly fat, however, was here to stay. I still couldn't fit my old jeans or wear my old shirts and, even though I am now 55lbs lighter than full-term, my clothing has received none of those benefits.

However, since I'm always the optimist, I have 4 perks this belly fat:
- It's easy to balance the baby on with one arm while you get the crib ready.
- It's an excuse to get to wear sweatpants all day (if you aren't leaving your house. But I have left with my sweatpants on before).
- It's an opportunity to buy new clothes for the "in between" while you lose the weight.
- The baby has a comfortable spot to sit while facing you.

So, next time you're thinking about how you don't like how you look in your jeans or how that C-section scar ain't NEVER going away, just think...

"I should go shopping."

Time

Eric and I are in need of "married" time.

Lately, Eric has been stuck at work all the time and our schedules are totally opposite. Eric has been at work from 5 or 6 at night until 7 or 8 in the morning. When he gets home that late, he has to go right to sleep or he won't be able to do it again the next night. I can probably count on my hand the number of days he's had off. I think his last day off was a week ago and his next day off won't be until Monday, when he gets off work at 6am (or later). That basically means that he still needs sleep so I probably won't be able to hang out with him until nighttime.

Let me clear something up - I'm not saying that Eric should stop sleeping. I've seen a sleepless Eric and he is not a happy dude. I just wish his work wouldn't abuse him so much. I'd like a day when I actually see Eric longer than the time it takes for him to get ready for work but it seems that his boss doesn't see it like that.

I really want us to go on a date. Our last date (which was our first since before Emily was born) was about 6 weeks ago. I know that, when he finally has a day off, he's probably going to want to relax, which is fine. I just need "us" time too. He had a few hours the other day that we were able to cuddle up on the couch together for a little bit and eat lunch while Emily was asleep but we were both so exhausted, that's pretty much the most energy we had. I'm pretty sure we fell asleep for a little bit.

In short, we've gotta figure out a way to make this work so we both get family time, married time, and "me" time. Unfortunately, it seems that "time" is in short supply at our house.




I wish we could just win the lottery so Eric didn't have to work and we could have that time together.

Update

First, I have to share good news - Emiy has been going to sleep on her own for 13 straight days! She hasn't cried once (thank God!). My mom says I'm spoiled and that's fine with me - I was nervous it would be tougher.

The bad news? For the past few days, she's been up before 5am :( Luckily, this morning, I got her back to sleep until 6am.

Still, small price to pay for an easy night, right?

She's working on turning from front to back but she is nailing back to front! Also, she's improving on sitting up but she can't quite do it unsupported. She's met every other milestone though and I'm thrilled with that. She's tried sweet potatoes (her favorite), peas (not her favorite) and a taste or two of green beans. She's so willing to try everything - I have to keep my own food away from her! She was even eyeballing my English muffin this morning and that is no bueno for Mommy :) And every time I have my water bottle, she keeps trying to drink through the side. I don't know if she's teething but I check every feeding and nothing yet.

Overall, Emily is great.

As for Mommy and Daddy? I think we need a date soon.