Something Wonderful

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

Even though I am at work today I'm having a fabulous day. My mommy brought me flowers...


and my coworkers handed me a big box of donuts with Happy Birthday on top (don't worry I shared). My facebook has blown up, my phone and emails have sent me well wishes and I even got an e-card. Tonight my hubby is taking me and my mom to the Nickelback concert. It's such a wonderful thing to know you are loved. I am so thankfully for my family and my friends, I am truly a lucky woman!

Proud to be 31!!!!

Let's Bake

Sammy's highlight for the weekend was locating the nifty drawer below the oven. It started with removing the bundt pan...

and then she proceeded to climb in the drawer...

even after spending all day out of the house on Sunday because we had no electricity for 8 1/2 hours...

this is where she chose to spend her time when we got home. It won't be long before she's cooking eggs for us in the morning like Daddy did when he was three, lol.

Something Wonderful

that happened to me recently...

my hubby came home Sunday afternoon after running errands with flowers and a pumpkin spice latte.

It's been ages since he bought me flowers and the latte just hit the spot. Life is so much better when you focus on the "something wonderfuls"!

Wordless Wednesday

Supply Supply Supply

You know, before I got pregnant, I never knew that breastfeeding can be deemed a luxury. I thought it was just natural and your body just did it whether you liked it or not. If you went in planning to formula feed (like most of my friends had) then you just dealt with the pain of rock hard boobs for a while and then moved on. You made the rules! Boy was I mistaken! I knew I wanted to breastfeed, I actually had the mind set that my phantom baby would ONLY consume breast milk for the first year of their life. I'll admit, I was very naive about how things worked before I ever tried to get pregnant. Thankfully I wised up for the most part prior to conceiving, lol.

Now here we are, when all those thoughts seemed years ago (technically it was over two years ago), and I have an almost 8 month old and uncooperative boobs. I regret now not taking a breast feeding class, I'd gladly switch that for the stupid birthing class we paid for...I knew what was going to happen there, I didn't need to pay $120 for that! Had I known breast feeding could potentially be such a struggle, I would have pumped like a mad woman and used those engorged breasts for every drop they were worth.

Now I sit, popping 3 Fenugreek and 2 Blessed Thistle pills three times a day, kicking myself for not making lactation cookies last night and running to Target instead, trying to stomach this once yummy oatmeal that I've willingly tainted with Brewers Yeast and wondering how much my pumping efforts today will be short of whats required to feed my child. 4oz, are you fricken kidding me...that's all I was able to pump this morning! Which naturally means I'll be so super lucky if I can 2-3 oz out of my next two pumpings today. I'm down to my last 15oz in the freezer (3 bottles) and the way things are going I'll be lucky to get through the week let alone the weekend. That can of formula is mocking me from the pantry.

I've never worked so hard at something in my life! I spend at least 2 1/2 hours of my day pumping, another 30-40 minutes feeding her from the tap. Then throw in preparing bottles and now solids...even leaving out making my own baby food, I spend more time preparing her food/feeding her daily, than the time I get to spend with her in general. Boooo!

I am bound and flipping determined to get to at least 9 months, preferably on breast milk alone. If I have to supplement, I will, I'm actually not even that bothered by it because I know she will be just fine...it's just not the way I planned. For now I'm sticking with this plan until I'm forced to, no giving up or giving in because the second I do that, cracking that formula can open won't be far behind. So after this long whining vent I'd like to share something I wish I knew:

Stock up early and rotate that milk like your a carnival ride

Oh my 30+ ounce a day boobs, how do I miss thee, let me count the ways!


#7

I taught her something

Maybe this is a stupid thing to be excited about but I don't care. I feel like Sammy has finally learned something from me versus doing things that are instinctual. Rolling, crawling, standing...these are all things a baby does as they grow. Sure they may learn by example but inevitably, they'll do it regardless for the most part.

Years ago when I interned in preschool and kindergarten classes, I picked up a simple little jingle that was often used to get the kids quiet on the carpet. It goes:

Open, Shut Them, Open, Shut Them (while opening and closing your fist)
Give a little Clap, Clap, Clap (clap hands with each word clap)
Open, Shut Them, Open, Shut Them (again while opening and closing your fists)
Lay them in your Lap, Lap, Lap (guess what you do now, lol, you got it...lay them in your lap)

Well a couple weeks ago Sammy starting opening and closing her hands all the time so I started singing this song to her. She LOVES it!!! There are certain songs that will stop crying/fussing at any moment and put a smile on her face. The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Little Bunny Foo Foo and now this one...it's obviously the hand motions that go along with them.

Anywho the whole point of this is that last night her and I were enjoying a little playtime together and I began to sing this song. When I got the the "clap clap clap" part, what do you know but my little girl clapped right along with me in perfect unison. I got Steve's attention and did it again and she followed right along again.

OMG my baby girl is growing so so fast, I'll try to get this on video asap!

#6

Exhuasted with a capital E

So now that summer is actually turning into summer with temperatures to match, we have been hitting up our pool as often as possible. Sammy is truly a water baby and absolutely loves the water. It however tends to exhaust her to no end! Here are some pictures from our trip to the pool last night...

After our trip to the pool it was time for dinner. Sammy ate the best she has ever eaten before, bite after bite BUT it was only because she didn't have the energy to fight it. My little sweetheart fell asleep in her chair, too cute:

So I reclined it and there she took her nap!

#5

Finally getting things in order!

After crashing computers and hundreds (possibly thousands) of pictures that sit unorganized...I'm finally getting things together so I'll be catching up on blogging with lots of old things that have long since occurred. This weekend I went and bought a external terabyte!!! I had no clue what this was until I decided I no longer trusted my computer to hold my treasured pictures. Did you know a TB will hold 200,000 pictures???? So that covers Sammy's 1st year, lol!

That being said, I am in the process of organizing but its coming soon! Wahoooo!

#4

Oh the screaming!!

When Sammy was around 6 1/2 months we decided to start doing sleep training a la Ferber method of crying it out with interval checks. Day 1, not bad, Day 2, better, Day 3, Flawless and the weeks to follow went well. Then out of nowhere Sammy started waking around 4am. I would leave her in her crib without checking on her because she was playing and talking to herself versus crying (thank you monitor) and would get her up at 5am.

I guess she got tired of that because then she started going to bed at 9pm, waking up and 10pm and then crying like a mad woman. Unfortunately DH and I were both stressed so this led to rescuing her after 30-45 minutes of crying. She would go right back to bed and sleep until I woke her at 6am. Bad mommy and daddy, we obviously have taught her a new trick.

Last night we went to the grocery store and in the 5 minute drive home she fell asleep, apparently this was the power nap of all power naps. We got home, woke her and followed her bedtime routine. Steve gave her a bottle and she was wide awake versus her completely knocked out norm. She then proceeded to play for almost an hour before falling asleep, only to wake up a half hour later screaming like we had just cut off her right arm.

Cue the Ferber wait. I started with 7 minutes since that's what we were comfortable with given her tone of crying and moved to 10 minute intervals. She screamed...and screamed...and screamed for over and hour until it was after midnight and Steve and I were exhausted. I picked her up, rocked her, she continued to scream so I threw her (nicely) into her swing, turned it on and slept blissfully until 5am.

I know it's our own fault and that we need to really enforce her no napping rules in the evening (good luck) and just put her to bed and let her scream. Its really hard because she sleeps fantastically until we are just about to hop in bed and that's when the screaming starts.

So that's it, I'm fed up, I'm going to have to let her scream until she passes out because right now she has us in her pocket and knows eventually we will come get her. Tonight is the night, Steve can sleep with his earplugs in and I'll stare at the clock with mine in so I can check on her when the time is right but not being crying into my pillow like I was last night. I guess I just couldn't be lucky enough to have her stick with rock star mode forever!

I told Steve last night we have to do this now because if she starts calling out mama or dada I just might have to jump off a cliff. I can only handle so much, it's bad enough that she spent almost the entire last standing in her crib (something she's never done before, in her crib anyway) screaming. I'll give her credit though, she's a smart booger. She started with screaming into her room and once she realized I kept leaving through the door, she moved over so she could scream directly out the door. Talk about volume change...she's too smart for her own good.
Wish us luck!

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#3

Oh to catch up on life....

This is going to be a long post about any and everything updated...bare with me.

So Sammy is 7 months old...

and she is growing absolutely too fast. She has long since mastered sitting up on her own and in the last week she has also mastered pulling up and standing on her own. She still refuses however to crawl and settles with her adorabley cute army crawl. She will get up on all fours, take a couple "steps" and then flop to her stomach and take off. Either that or she will get up on her hands and toes in a downward dog position and then get pissed off that she can't stand up. I'm sure every parent says this but I have a feeling she will walk before she crawls.

She is doing amazingly with daycare...which is more than can be said about her sleeping habits. She started out fantastic with her sleep training, by night 3 she was down and out sleeping until the morning with no crying. Then she started getting up and 4am everyday and crying. Now she has gone back to her going to bed at 9pm, only to wake up screaming at 10pm. The first night we let her scream for 20 minutes (while checking Ferber style) and then Steve picked her up, soothed her while she screamed for another 10 and then I grabbed her and she went right to sleep (cue pissed hubby). The second night she screamed for 40 minutes when we gave in, Steve grabbed her, put her in her bouncer and rocked her back to sleep, she was out until morning. Then of course last night, same deal, bed at 9pm, up at 10pm, rock back to sleep but then she added the extra bonus of a 3:30am wake up time. Sounds like its time for some more tough love...we'll see how this goes.

Friday night we spent the evening at the Oakland Coliseum for the A's game and fireworks. They lost but I got some great pics.

Meanwhile, Steve celebrated his 40 birthday on Monday. In honor of the day, we went to dinner Saturday night with friends and then Monday night as a family. Sammy was a rock star for both...and now for your viewing pleasure...pictures:

So that's it for now, hope you enjoyed the update, I'll be back very soon as to stick with the 30 Day Blog Challenge. For details or to join, click below:

#2

30 Day Blog Challenge

This is certainly something that I need to do as I have become a horrible, horrible blogger. Thank you so much Sarah for starting this challenge, I am happy to participate. If you'd like to join, click the icon below to see how it works...




That being said, I need to go load some pictures so I can make a proper post, LOL. I swear I will be back to post another entry but for the sake of technicalities...this is post #1.

Sleep Training

sldlHad I written this post on Monday it would be nothing but puppies and rainbows about how sleep training is fabulous. Unfortunately its Wednesday!


We started sleep training Sammy Friday night and it went smoothly. Her crying lasted about 20 minutes on Friday (total) with me checking on her at 3/5/10 intervals. She was asleep just before the second 10 min check. Saturday was thrown off a little by my MIL, we went to dinner and she let Sammy fall asleep on her shoulder. Therefore when she finally went down around 10:30/11:00pm it was maybe 10 minutes of crying. Sunday she was out before she hit the crib and slept all night.


I went in Monday feeling fabulous. We went to dinner because it was our 2 year wedding anniversary so things were a little off but back to 10-15 minutes of crying before falling asleep and then she was up playing in her crib at 4am. I left her there until 5:15 when it was an hour before her normal waking time. She didn't sleep much according to the sitter so last night we went straight into her routine, everything to the T. This, sad to say, resulted in 40 minutes of screaming before she passed out and slept until 6:10 this morning.


That was horrible. Not only was she sitting up in her crib crying...but I was power pumping so Steve was the one soothing her and all I could do was listen in. It eventually led to a fight between Steve and I because I was overly emotional and irrational (partially because he was being an ass too) and today I just feel....shitty.


I'm not willing to give up yet and I need to talk to her daycare and make sure they are following her schedule. I have a feeling she tends to leave Sammy in the crib to play just by certain comments she's made, so I want to make sure that's not the case. I swear though, on the weekends I've got this great baby and during the week, not so much. I'll be working my hardest to figure out why my weekend baby leave me every Monday morning.

She's lucky she's cute!!!

Getting the house in order

The countdown is on, my MIL is coming to visit on Thursday and my house is in shambles. I've got piles and piles of laundry to fold (hey at least its clean), my bathroom is disgusting, my kitchen floor could use a good clean and let's not forget that even though Sammy is 6 1/2 months old, we still need to finish up her room...all by Thursday.

Steve has an appointment tonight so I'll be entertaining Sammy while I make her food (sweet potatoes, avacados and apples) and maybe get the bathroom clean. I think she wants to hang in her johnny jump up tonight. Cross your fingers that she agrees with this fun filled delight for at least 1/2 an hour, 45 minutes would be a bonus!

Girls Weekend

This past weekend was my first weekend away from Sammy for a girls weekend in Gualala, CA. I left friday after work for my 3 1/2 hour long drive. It was absolutely beautiful driving up highway 1. Windows down, heater on, radio blaring = awesome. The last 49 miles of the trip was super curvy highway so needless to say, even though I was driving, I was car sick when I arrived. Once I found the house...so began my weekend!

I found that you can only relax so much when your a BFing mommy but even still, my girls just saw my boobs a couple times throughout the weekend (once when they asked how swollen my nipples were after a power pump, lol). I pumped the moment I got there and then hopped in the hot tub to enjoy 2 glasses of wine and some kind of vodka drink my friend said I was required to take. Shockingly my low tolerance for alcohol wasn't affecting me and I was not the one throwing up in the wee hours of the morning. I was however the first one up each morning as my alarm clock (rock hard breasts) went off.

Saturday was spent doing absolutely nothing, the most we did was run to the store for bloody mary ingredients to help said early morning thrower upper. Only one of us even showered so the group felt her job well done counted for us all. Can I say though, sitting around doing nothing is fabulous! We played a couple games, talked for hours and I whirled them all with my magically tricks of pumping with no hands. I actually got several compliments on my great commitment to BFing, which was super nice to hear.

As much as I missed Steve and Sammy, this was a much needed weekend of nothing and I am so glad I went. I have been recharged. Not to mention, there is nothing better than coming home to two smiling faces that love and appreciate you. We are already planning girls weekend for next year!

PS I would have pictures but what happens in Gualala....doesnt get caught on my camera because I left it for DH who didn't take a single picture of Sammy all weekend. Boo! I'll update when my friend finally posts hers to FB.

I've gotta get this going again

I look back at my blog from throughout my pregnancy and I kick myself for not keeping up with it since Sammy was born. It's so great to have a "documented" record of what was going on, what I was thinking and the exact dates things happened. Granted I write things down in her baby book but still.

So this is day 1 (even though its friday and I skip weekends) of my quest to get my blog up and running again. Sammy is 6 months old and changing so fast. It will be good for me to be able to AW her around a little. So cross your fingers that I stick with it this time.

And for good measure...a picture!

Samantha is here!

I am absolutely horrible about updating my blog so for those ladies I haven't "seen" in a while...I had my daughter Samantha Haley on January 2, 2010 at 3:33pm. She was 7lbs 5oz and 21 inches long and adorable.

Being a mommy has kept me far away from the computer for any substantial amount of time (oh how I wish I had a laptop) so I've been very much so MIA, sorry!

Sammy is doing wonderful, she is 4 weeks old today and when I weighed myself with her this morning (and then without) the scale says she's up to 10lbs 2oz, we'll see what her pedi says on Thursday. We are working on getting her days and nights straightened out and that's been a challenge, otherwise I'm loving being a mommy!