Big Girl

Our big girl is a little over 2 months old and is filling out her 3 month clothes already... Can't believe how fast she is growing! We had a good day at home today with daddy. C took a four hour nap! Let's hope she sleeps well tonight. I could not help but post to share these sweet pics of our baby girl sitting in her bumbo at nanas! 

I love that girl! 

Days at Nana's

The last couple of days daddy has been working a lot at the fire department so C and I have been at nana's house and boy has it been nice to have the extra help between Pop, Nana, and Uncle A. Especially since work starts back for me next week and we go into full swing busy mode... These fun days are going to end soon. 

C slept the whole way to nana's.. Which doesn't happen too much. 

She is the happiest when she's naked! 

"Hi mom!" 

Serious sleepy face.

"Man I just really like this nana woman!"

Just hanging out with mama while nana picks up our monogrammed outfits.

Happy....

Happy....

HAPPY!! :) 

"Thanks for the clean diaper, mama!" 

Uncle A rocked C to sleep and they rocked for quite a while! 

Last night nana and I took C to church where the ladies of Nazareth had a meal, music, and testimonies. C was good and I got a blessing out of it. We are having lots of fun at nanas and will be going home tomorrow. This week is ending soon and then my world will definitely be changed forever when work starts. Until then we are soaking up all the time we can! 

P.S. (C slept from 9pm to 4am last night but we won't talk about that!) 

Acceptance

Day number four on soy formula/breast milk and we are doing good. By good I mean that C isn't having near as much gas pain and she has three dirty diapers for two days in a row. I'm happy with that. I titled this post "Acceptance" because I have had to come to some major terms this week. One of the hardest things about having a baby in this day and time is comparing your baby to everyone else's. We all wonder why our baby isn't doing what that baby does constantly. The honest truth is that Caroline is not a great baby. I love her with all of my heart and I know that this time will pass, but I struggle with her daily. Her daytime naps are only 10-30 minutes long most days with an occasional good day thrown in the week where she may nap a few hours. She cries a lot... Mainly when she's fighting sleep which is frequently. I stay exhausted because who wants to let a baby cry all day long? Not this girl. She is sleeping good at night with only one feeding though. It's just the day that wears us out. Anyway.. God has entrusted me with her. She did not ask to come into this word and remind myself of that on bad days. She is precious and smiles at me so much it melts my heart.. And I know that she is growing so fast that this is just for a season. Here's a recap of our week. 

Watching TV at nanas...she loves to watch the TV! 

One night we got home really late and took her out of the car seat to just swaddle her and put her to bed. This is one of the only times she hasn't woken up when I lay her down. Baby was tired!

Just hanging out with dad and Libby! 

Watching mama wash bottles. (Which takes a whole lot less time now because we swapped from Dr. Browns to Avent.. Don't have time to wash those things!)

Watching mama get a pedicure with nana.. Don't let her fool you. This power nap lasted 15 minutes. :)

My granny's sister Sybil is 97 years old and met Caroline for the first time yesterday. She loved her.

Eating at Los Arcos with my people!

Uncle A and Aunt V loving on C!

Waiting on nana at WalMart! 

My family watching tv.. So sweet. 

And I will end with just a real picture of what we look like most days. Tired but loving our little girl! 

Formula Blues

As mentioned in previous post, I knew this week was going to be kind of hard. We have been doing half breastmilk and half formula for 6 days now. And it hasn't been fun. 

After some advice on powder formula vs. ready to feed from my friend Jenn, we have finally decided to try Enfamil Soy formula that is ready to feed. C just wasn't doing good on Gentlease powder and I remembered how much better she did breastfeeding when I cut milk out of my diet, soy seemed like an option to try. This is all trial and error for us.. As the pediatrician said it would be. She is not taking her breastmilk/formula bottle well and it takes over 30 minutes to feed her 2-3 oz. I have read that most babies do this when switching so we are hoping she starts taking it better. Her shots were on Monday and those next two days were awful...lots of fussiness and I slept 2 hours in 2 nights. I came to my mothers yesterday since Kyle is working a 36 hour shift for some help. I know this will get better in time, I keep telling myself this. But if you see me at Walmart and I look like a drug dealer with my sunken eye sockets and ratty ponytail.. Just look the other way! :) Here are a couple of pics from yesterday at nanas. 

"Blowout Queen" is staining her clothes frequently! :)

 

Just hanging out with my Uncle A! He loves me! 

And of course how could I not share how much my big girl has grown? I'm proud of every ounce she has gained! 

Sad Changes :(

Disclaimer: total mommy post here! For my friends who don't have children, this post is about breastfeeding which is probably not of any interest to you! 

Today I have made a very hard personal decision for myself and C. I decided that we are going to wean from breastfeeding. I could literally cry thinking about it… but after much contemplation, I believe it is what's best for both of us. And my primary job is to do what's best for her. I wanted to post about it because I know several of my friends are breastfeeding and maybe going through the same thing, or will eventually. Maybe this will help me realize that some of you are feeling the same things, too.

I came to this decision this morning. For the past week, I have been pumping bottles daily for C to get ready for going back to work. I only breastfed her for the middle of the night and early morning feedings. But on Monday, I started to notice I was pumping less than I usually did. I was only pumping 2-3 oz. combined every 3 hours.. which is definitely not enough to keep up with her. Of course I panicked and starting drinking even more water and continued to take my Fenugreek vitamins. But by Tuesday night I wasn't seeing a difference. After talking to a couple of friends, I figured that pumping exclusively was causing my supply to go down so I needed to start breastfeeding her every feeding. Wednesday and Thursday we breastfed around the clock. Each and every time was a struggle for her and for me too. She has always been a great latcher from the start, but every time she would start feeding she would start kicking and squirming from the get-go. I think she latched/unlatched 4-5 times on each side every feeding, crying after each time. I ended up bottle feeding her 2 oz. of pumped milk to finish each feeding because I wasn't sure if she was full. Talk about exhausting. I would start each feeding being calm and by the end I was almost in tears. This is not the mother/baby bond we had the first few weeks.. this is watching my baby girl be hungry and my body wasn't giving her what she needed. 

This isn't the only reason that I decided to wean. I know this might sound selfish, but I think I will be a much calmer and more focused mama when we switch to formula completely. I spend all day worrying about breastfeeding! I worry about finding time to pump because she is a huge sleep fighter and my whole day is spent trying to get her to sleep and feeding her. I worry about going back to work and producing enough. I also worry about her never getting enough even when I know I feel my like my breasts are full! Talk about worry… I need to get on medication, right? I haven't been able to enjoy her nearly as much as I would like to because of the worries of breastfeeding. Don't get me wrong.. I have thoroughly enjoyed the first 8 weeks of her life and getting to feed her from my body! It has been so rewarding and the bonding that we have experienced I will never forget. My very favorite picture my mother took at the hospital was the first time we breastfed. It melts my heart. So yes, the guilt will be washing over me for the next few days and weeks… and I will probably cry a lot. It will be hard switching to formula and finding out which one works for her. Going through the days of her stomach adjusting and being gassy/constipated will not be fun. So please remember us in your prayers. Even though this may be trivial and something that will pass in time, it is huge to me. Hopefully we will make it. 

Two Months Old!

My oh my….Kyle and I cannot believe that we actually have a two month old baby. For some reason when I hear other people talking about their two month olds, they don't seem like newborns anymore. I still feel like she was born yesterday. Time really is moving on.

We have been able to see such a change in C over the past two weeks. Four weeks old to eight weeks old made a huge difference in her and me too. I have been able to figure out her likes and dislikes, how much to feed her, how to supplement formula, how to help her gassy tummy, and so much more.  Between the probiotic drops and the half teaspoon of aloe juice we are adding to C's bottles, we can tell a pretty great difference! We are in the strict routine of bath, bottle, swaddle and bed around 8:30-9:00 every night. Depending on what time we lay her down, she is sleeping around 4 to 5 hours, waking up to eat, and then will sleep around 2-3 hours more. I will take it! The only problem right now is that she is taking 4 oz or more every bottle.. and when she is awake she is hungry every 2 hours or so... So we had to start supplementing. Gas = no fun. At one point she had not had a dirty diaper for 24 hours (not like her 5-6 usual ones a day) so I took my granny's advice and added a teaspoon of dark Karo syrup to her bottle and sure enough, three hours later the problem was fixed. :) Sometimes you don't ask the pediatrician when it's 9 pm, you've been awake since 2am that morning, and your baby hurts because she needs to poop. You just listen to the wise women. 

At two months old, C weighs 11 pounds and 8 ounces. She is 23 and 1/2 inches long. She had three immunization and only cried for ten seconds. I cried longer.  She smiles and her daddy and I multiple times daily. Sometimes have to work for it, sometimes she just smiles when we look at her. She still has to be swaddled during the day for naps and always sleeps to white noise. (We have graduated from the vacuum cleaner because it drove daddy crazy.) I know everyone says "my baby never sleeps!" but hear me out here. This child only naps 2-3 hours in a ten hour period. She is always awake and alert. It wears mama out. She usually gets fussy around 6 and starts getting sleepy. She absolutely loves to be naked and to have her diaper changed…to the point where when she is fussy and won't give in to sleep I just change her diaper and let her lay there for a while because she is so content. She likes riding in the car, but stays awake to look around mostly and doesn't fall asleep unless we are riding more than thirty minutes. Even at such a young age she has developed a little whiny cry when she gets sleepy or wants us to know she is tired of whatever she's doing. I predict a future D-I-V-A!

We have been doing lots of things during our time together. Our favorite is to ride to Sonic during happy hour to get a Grape Nerd Slushie. I probably have consumed 20 to 30 since she's been here. And gotten my mom and my brother's girlfriend addicted as well. We love to spend the night at nana and pops when Daddy  is working but the one hour drive there is very hard. Between my stuff and hers it's a big day packing and traveling and getting there. C usually sleepy fusses for 20 to 30 minutes on the ride since no one can stick the paci in so Mama does lots of talking to Caroline and praying to Jesus. :) We also love to stroll Bridgestreet and go to Great American Cookie, Barnes and Noble, and Sephora. When daddy is home with us we ride to Guntersville to the park with Libby and walk by the water. I know when I go back to work in 2 weeks I will miss these fun times. 

I love my smiling 2 month old! Even if she does take an hour to fall asleep and then nap for 30 minutes. ;)

Daddy was so proud of C at the doctors office. 

This grin cracks me up! So so much! 

Little twins! Morning cuddles.

Legs are getting chunky...

And of course my Instagram post about our stinky blowout at the mall! We were feeding C in the food court and realized we were sitting next to Kyle's high school Spanish teacher so we started chatting. Next thing I know, I feel C blowout her diaper and my forearm is wet! We quickly excused ourselves and hit the family bathroom (somewhere I never thought I would be since I think public restrooms are nasty) and laughed our heads off cleaning her up. There was poop up her back, on her shoulder, on my VB changing pad, and many other places. Obviously C felt better so she smiled and cooed at us the whole time. I'm sort of glad it happened because I realized it was the first time I have belly-laughed in a long time! :)

Polly and C were in the nursery together at church on Sunday. I couldn't leave her just yet (even though I trust Haleigh and Jennifer completely) so I stayed and played with these girls. Anna Beth and I were due 3 days apart in February. Polly came on the 13th and we had C on the 19th. Hoping these two will grow up in church together learning about the Lord! 

This week and next week are my last two weeks at home with my little girl. I am so glad I didn't leave her at 6 weeks and even though leaving her at 10 weeks will be just as difficult.. I know that she's more ready now. I'm going to try to enjoy every moment with her these next few weeks! 

Homebodies

Not much has went on these past few days except better sleeping at night! Our bath, bottle, swaddle routine is working pretty good. We have 5 hours from whenever we lay her down with one night feeding then back to bed. It has made for a better week for mama. Just wanted to post a few (iPhone quality) pics! 

Just hanging out at home with her rents because Lord knows soon enough she will not want to hang with us! :(

Hanging With Friends

Today we traveled to Aunt Andrea's to visit with friends. Jennifer, Tawnya, and I were a few weeks apart in our pregnancies. We have been co-workers and friends from the ER for a long time! Aunt Andrea loves all babies so we always meet at her house for fun! Luke is an ER baby as well and was staying with Andrea while his mommy was out today. He just didn't know what to think about these little babies! We definitely have to do this again. 

Love these little peeps so much! And their mommies!

 

This little man is such a terrific baby. He is always cheerful and is so sweet. It's pretty obvious he gets it from his mama because she's pretty special too! 

This is Tawnya at 37 weeks, Me at 34 weeks, and Jen at 33 weeks pregnant. The babes are 10, 7, and 5 weeks now!

My beautiful little C! Thank you Nana for our sweet dress.. We love it!

Thankful for these mommy friends who always are willing to help me out with any questions I have! Love you all!