Back to the Grind...

...Today is back to work for me. I've been off since last Friday and it's been wonderful to chill, be lazy, and hang with my girl. This is a random post of this and that and other thoughts.

I took full advantage of my week off from good eating and working out. I also paid $50 to join a 12 week weight loss challenge where the first place price is $700!!! That's the kind of motivation I need to keep going so today marks back to working out. My goal is to do boot camp or run in the morning before work and then run in the evening on boot camp days or do a Pinterest at home workout on running days. I think the next few weeks I'll be able to swing it, but once my class starts at LU, I'm worried about my time crunch. As long as I get one workout in a day and eat well though, I should be okay. Plus the weather will be warming up in the next couple months which means AR and I can do more things outside which will be nice.

Since I've been off, I've been putting all our Christmas gifts away and trying to get the house back in order. AR was loving playing in the box of peanuts.

But once she started hiding toys in them and taking them out one by one, it was time to get rid of it. Bye, bye peanuts!

My sister got AR a broom just her size. Of course, she still prefers to use mine which I let her until she jabbed it in my ear when I was on my knees picking up spaghetti noodles we dropped.

Heading back to work, I'm all caught up on laundry. AR likes to dance around her room while I put away clothes. Thanks for the help!

Luckily, my child tries to crawl IN her crib instead of out of it. Oh, she's also had this nasty cough for a few weeks. The Monday before Christmas, my mom took her to the doctor who said it was just her sinuses. Last Saturday, I thought the cough was getting better and we could stop the meds. Then wouldn't you know it, she woke up Sunday morning with a nasty runny nose. We're definitely getting our money's worth out of that humidifier.

Oh hey, her hair is long enough for a ponytail! Woohoo!!! Now she has three hair-dos we can style. Still haven't got her haircut although those front bangs/hair are in her eyes if it's not pulled back. As part of the sitter's Christmas present, I gave her a whole box of ponytail holders so she can do AR's hair (this was in addition to other goodies and an extra week of pay).

We've had lots of time to play around, be silly, and take pictures like this one. I don't know why, but I really like it. Oh! My SIL got engaged the weekend before Christmas. She's asked me to take pics of them for their Save the Date cards. It's a total honor, but I'm worried that they won't turn out well. I really struggled with outdoor lighting so any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 I'm also considering doing a photo challenge in February if anyone is interested. Here's the challenge I plan on doing.

We've enjoyed being silly girls!

I bought her some new sippy cups. It's like the next step after straws I guess. It's spill proof and helps them to drink from a regular cup. So far, I'm loving it and so is she. The ones we bought were the Playtex brand. I only have two right now so she'll stay on the straw cups at my MIL's but we'll send these daily with breastmilk to the sitter's.

 

Yes, I still have frozen breastmilk but I'm guessing we'll use it all up by the end of this month. I'm happy I had some to help her through the winter this year, but I'll be glad when I don't have to thaw it out every day and then we won't have to send ANYTHING to the sitter's which will be AMAZING! So thankful we had a great breastfeeding relationship. I miss it in some ways, but in others, I'm so glad we're done. Not that we have a choice about baby #2, but that's one of those things that if we had a second, I wonder if I could I do it again for another year. I'm sure I could and would, but it wouldn't be something I was looking forward to.

My sis got AR a LeapPad 2 for Christmas. AR's favorite program is the camera so we have lots of pictures of the two of us. I finally got her to stick out her tongue when I tell her to so here's one of the cuter ones that we have.

And then we did a selfie with my DSLR to match! The little LeapPad doesn't take bad pics, probably just as good as my phone.

 

So that's what we've been doing for the past week. Now it's back to work clothes instead of sweats, fruit instead of frosting, and hanging with adults instead of AR. Today feels like a Monday so I'm pretty excited that it's already Thursday. Oh and an update since I wrote this, Matt has to go in to work at 3am because of the weather so there goes the plan to run before work today. Please tweet or FB me to guilt me into running when I get home this evening!

We're headed to Florida in a couple weeks to see Nana. While I'm NOT looking forward to traveling alone with her, I am looking forward to lounging and chilling with her and Nana in the warmer Floridian weather! 

Our Nursing Journey...

...I did it! I was able to breastfeed AR for a whole entire year. I'm doing a little happy dance because I'm pretty dang proud of myself. When I was pregnant, my original goal was just to make it the 12 weeks I was home on maternity leave. By the time I went back to work, I couldn't imagine not nursing but I'd heard from my co-workers how hard it was to pump and keep up with it when they returned to work. I set a new goal to make it to 6 months. Once I got back to work and realized I could do it, my new goal was a year and I made it! I can't say how flippin' excited and happy I am!!!

I can't complain though, AR and I have had a pretty easy breastfeeding relationship. She latched on right away at the hospital, the LC squirted colostrum across the room from my boob, AR will take bottle, sippy cup or boob, she doesn't care so long as she gets milk. That's not to say we didn't have a few obstacles but compared to some other stories, ours were minor. We had the situation when I returned to work and she went on a nursing strike and I had my one day of post-partum depression because my baby wouldn't nurse. That's when my mom told me to suck it up, either make it work with breastfeeding or throw in the towel, just stop feeling sorry for myself. I'm so glad we persevered through that. Then I constantly worried about my milk supply when in actuality, I was probably always fine but I just never wanted to dip into my frozen stash.

My husband didn't understand that. He just saw it as breast milk was taking over the deep freeze so let's use it up. In my mind though, if I had to use a bag of frozen then I had failed, I wasn't producing enough milk and this was the one and only thing I could give her from me only. Occasionally, I think this clicked with him but not for too long because the next week, we'd have the same discussion.

Speaking of the frozen stash, not only was I able to breastfeed my own child but I was also able to help out at least 5 other babies including one all the way in Florida when we were on vacay!

There have been pros and cons to breastfeeding. Most of the cons brought on by myself. I really haven't had any social engagements without her this past year. Mainly because if I wasn't at work, I wanted to nurse her, I didn't want to "waste" a bottle of milk when I could just nurse her myself. Not to mention I'd have to take the pump, find some place to pump, store the milk, etc...or rush home before my boobs burst. At the same time though, I feel like we're a lot closer because I take her with me everywhere and I get to spend each morning and most evenings cuddling with my sweet baby. Another con, which there's no way around it, is pumping! It wasn't bad but when I was at work, I'd always be right in the middle of something and have to stop to go pump or schedule meetings around 10a and 2p but I had to do it so there was no way around it. I really don't think I need to list the pros: cost, relationship, etc...not to downplay it but I think I've discussed it before.

I keep saying I'm going to stop at a year but my mind really hasn't grasped that we're coming to a close with this chapter. I have to stop pumping at work because my space will be gone for the summer. Jenelle gave me hope today that I could drop my work pumps and still nurse in the am, pm and weekends. I have a huge freezer supply so I plan to try that and still have some fresh milk for her. I'm just not ready to say we're done. We all know AR will be our only child and when I'm done breastfeeding her, I won't ever get to do it again.

The funny thing is, when I was pregnant, I wasn't all gung-ho about breastfeeding but I guess in the back of my mind, I knew it would work because I never really thought about any other option. I never thought I'd be one to nurse until she's one but we did it; AR and I together with the support of her daddy, our family, co-workers and mommy friends!

My Baby is Going to Be 1!?!

...in just 18 days, my sweet little girl is going to be one! How in the world did the time go so fast? How did this infertile couple have the most precious baby girl? How in one year has my entire life changed?

I am currently in full-on first birthday party planning. The theme is pink lemonade; I hope the party turns out half as well as I see it in my mind. While it's exciting that she's turning one, it's also kind of bittersweet. Why? Well, for one, our breastfeeding journey will soon be over (I have a whole other post for that once we hit the mark). I know that AR will be our only child so like pregnancy, this will be the only time that I'll breastfeed and have that special bond with my sweet, little baby. I'm sure our bond will continue but I'll miss the early mornings and bedtime feedings with her. Along the same lines, she's not a baby any more! She's a little girl, a toddler...no more first holidays or seasons, she's been through them all. Also, I can no longer (and haven't for awhile) been able to say, she's just a baby, she doesn't know better. I'm going to have to start disciplining her which we already have when it comes to dropping her food on the floor. And I have to figure out when she starts using utensils and how many words she should know and teaching her everything!!!

I'm sure in 18 days, I'll forget all the bittersweet reasons and just be excited for her birthday celebrations. Before we know it, I'll be doing a graduation post! #lovemyAR

"Perk" of Post-Pregnancy...

...I had another "fun" post-pregnancy surgery today. When I went back to work, I swore all my shoes fit but about a week later, I had ingrown toenails on both feet. OMG! It hurt so bad as in I couldn't get up off the floor or put on flip flops without grimacing from pain.

Then I saw on FB that Jenni had her ingrown toenails fixed. I decided to bit the bullet since I'd met my deductible for the year so I made an appointment. I was in and out today in about 30 minutes. He had to call my OB first to get permissions since I'm breastfeeding. She gave the go ahead so we got started.

He numbed both my toes. Holy heck, it hurt like *insert profanity of your choice*! It was worst than an epidural, probably because it was like 3-5 shots in each toe. But once the med set in, I couldn't feel a thing. I closed my eyes and didn't watch the actual cutting and all that because I thought I might lose my lunch if I did. It was nice to just close my eyes and relax for a bit too.

When he was done, he wrapped my toes up and I had to shove them back in my tennis shoes. I guess I wasn't thinking ahead when I got dressed in the morning. He wrapped the toe up to soak up all the blood but by the time I got home, it soaked through the gauze and even through my shoe!?!

As the numbness started to wear off (right at bedtime for AR), it was a little painful. Once I got her to bed, I went to Walgreens (Matt was home with her) to get soap and antibiotic ointment. I swear I walked back and forth at least three times looking for this soap. After the third Walgreens employee, I said you're coming with me as I hobbled along. I have to soak my feet 2x/day so I'll do it when I pump at night and I guess when I feed her in the morning at 5am, that should be interesting!

I came home after my appointment and unloaded my car. Then I got AR and when we came home, we went to her room and read...it seemed like not much movement or things for her to get into. Of course, she loves to crawl and pull up all over Mommy!

So yet another "perk" of being a mom that's entirely worth it because look at that smile! I love my sweet AR!

Donating Milk...

...our deep freeze is being taken over by breastmilk. No, seriously, it is! With hunting season around the corner and the first batch of what I pumped going to "expire" soon (aka 6 months from when I originally pumped it), I decided to look into milk donation. I totally and 100% feel this was a God thing.

I'd been deciding whether or not I wanted to do it for a couple reasons. 1. I'm a hoarder. I didn't want to give any away because what if I needed it. However, at this point, I have easily over 1000+ oz frozen, enough to feed AR every feeding of every day for 2 months and some. 2. I really didn't know much about it or where to donate it. As I saw that I was running out of space, I decided to look into it. I researched online, I called the hospital and I asked Kristal, my go-to gal on all things breastfeeding. I couldn't find much online except creeper stories. The hospital told me the closest milk donation center was in Indiana and I'd have to ship it there in dry ice (way more work than I wanted to put forth). Then Kristal told me to check out the Facebook Group Human Milk 4 Human Babies (that's the main group but then you can type in your state's name to find local). Basically, you post whether you are looking or donating and work out the logistics with the other person.

I talked to Matt to make sure he was okay with me donating and he said, as long as I did it at a public place and didn't take AR with me then he was okay with it. So I visited the site Thursday night and I read through ALL the posts back to July debating on what to do. Then right before bed, I decided I'd post and see what happens. The next morning, I woke up with 2 messages from people interested. And this is where, I feel it was a God thing...

Lady #1
She is has a 4 month old and has returned to work so her supply is decreasing. She lives one town over, not super far away but I rarely get down there. Just so happens that I'm working a half day and headed there to pick up SIL's Christmas present and it happens to be her day off work as well! I tell her I'll bring her 50 oz. She asked if I wanted to be paid for the milk. I told her if she wanted to give me a couple bucks for the bags that would be great (after all that's really the only expense I'm out). I'm getting ready to leave and I pull out ten 5-oz bags and you can't even tell I've taken anything out of the freezer so I go ahead and pull out another 12 bags. I meet up with her and give her 110 oz of milk. She hands me a thank you card and we go on our ways. I run my errands, get home and open the card. She gave me $60 in cash!?! Totally not what I was expecting (or wanting, just wanted to get rid of some milk!). I emailed her and told her that was way too much and she replied that it was worth it to not have to stress for the next month about feeding her baby. I let her know to contact me when she needed more and don't give me anything!

Lady #2
She lives about 45 minutes away...in the same small town that my sister does. God thing: My sister just happened to be coming to my house on Sunday and was able to take some back to her. She was sweet and gave me an entire box of freezer bags. My sister told her I was a milk-producing machine to which she replied well, if she has any more, I'd be happy to take it. I think I'll text her any time I go to visit her and take her some if I have it.

Lady #3
Saturday morning, I check my FB and I have another email from a lady who lives 2 towns north of us. She said she would be willing to come to me so I told her I worked on Saturday (just one town away from her) and she could meet me there. Perfect!

So there you have my milk donation stories. So far, they've all been very positive experiences and as I said, God totally intervened that I posted at the right time that I could help these 3 ladies and their babies out. However, even after giving away 200+ oz, our freezer is STILL full, just a little bit more organized but it's a good problem to have!

Trying to Figure This Out Before My Hair Falls Out!!!

...OMG! I'm kind of at a point of I have no idea what to do regarding sleep and introducing solids.

I decided AR was ready for solids and started giving her single grain oatmeal. I read on this, called the Gerber hotline, I was ready. After 3 days, I stopped because I read about open gut and the nurse at the pedi office said to wait until her fouth month check-up which was yesterday. Those three days, she took it very well and seemed to like it. After her check-up yesterday, the doctor said to go ahead and intro. Plus she needs to be eating every 4 hours instead of every 3 and this may help. I have no idea how I'm going to stretch her out to 4 hours because after 3 she acts like she hasn't eaten in days!

So this morning, I decided to read up again on intro-ing solids. I'd decided we'd start again this weekend. Then I read that intro-ing solids could lead the baby to wean off the breast early. So now I'm back to being in limbo of I have no idea when to start! Ugh...

Her sleep...yeah, it sucks. She's STTN three times in the past month but those were only fakeouts because the other nights, she's up at 11, 1, 3 and sometimes every 30 minutes after that. At her check-up, the doctor asked if she was a good baby. I said, "She really is a good baby but she hates to sleep." Her response, we can fix that. Ha-like it's that' easy! I told her everything we do and she said that I should lay her down awake so when she wakes in the middle of the night she can put herself back to sleep. Okay, so most nights she falls asleep at the boob but not a deep sleep. Like when I lay her down her eyes open or some nights she's wide awake and I'll lay her down and she'll put herself to sleep. So I'm really doubting that this will work. In fact, I tried it with her nap just a few minutes ago and then spent 15 minutes calming her down. So yeah, I will never sleep again. Feel free to leave your tips but I guarantee I've tried it all...bedtime routine, dropped the night feeding, don't go in until she's crying and then just paci, ssh and rub belly if I have to. I tried about 5 minutes of CIO and put a stop to that. Both the nurse and doctor said I was doing everything right SO I just need to learn to function on zero sleep.

Then she said that she needs to be taking 3 naps a day totaling 4 hours and she shouldn't be awake for more than an hour and a half at a time. I looked at her schedule to see how we could adjust that and there's no way she'd only take 3 naps and not be awake for more than an hour and a half. As I type this, she's laying in her crib wide awake and has been awake for almost 2 hours.

I'm so frustrated of reading and stressing and trying things and it not working and reading and analyzing... I feel like AR is such a good baby, she just HATES sleep which affects the whole family and our attitudes. I'd hold her all the time to get her to sleep if I could but I can't and I know that won't help the problem. I really have learned to function on less sleep and most nights, I accept that when I lay down at 9:30, I'll be up in an hour or so but other nights, I just want to cry because I'm.so.tired! And I'm always the one that gets up to get her but Matt insists that he's up too because he wakes up when I get up. There's a huge difference between constantly getting up and sshhing (that's all I feel like I do some nights) and trying to fall back asleep vs waking up briefly and laying in bed while someone else takes care of her.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining (well, I guess I am). I just needed to vent this out. I love AR more than anything in the world and I'd give up every night of sleep for her. It's just frustrating because I know she can STTN but she just refuses too. Plus I have NO idea what to do with the food thing! I wish she'd come with an owner's manual :-)

Introducing & Making Homemade Baby Food...

...I knew before AR arrived that I wanted to make my own baby food. Being married to an outdoorsman whose boss grows veggies and sells them to a local restaurant, it was really a no brainer for us. Once we fell into routine with AR and I saw all the fresh fruits and veggies around, I couldn't wait to start making baby food. Over Labor Day weekend, I took advantage of the lazy, rainy Saturday and started the adventure.

I searched all over Pinterest but mainly just followed this website. It lists what fruits and veggies to introduce at what months. I also read that baby food is good in the freezer for 4 months. Basically, everything I made over Labor Day weekend needs to be used before the end of the year.

In the next couple weeks, we plan to introduce cereal. I'm leaning towards starting with single grain oatmeal over rice cereal. Her 4 month check-up is on 9/18 so I plan on waiting until then and talking to the doctor. She's definitely showing interest in food but I don't think her swallowing is quite there yet. She always spits out her Vitamin D drops but I'm also thinking that maybe the cereal will help her swallowing (and cereal is much cheaper than spitting out those Vitamin D drops!).

Now on to the making of baby food! I spent about $12 for all the food and here's what all it made:

The haul included: green beans, carrots, zucchini, butternut squash, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, apples, plums & peaches.

I peeled, chopped, pureed everything and then put into ice cube trays. I let the trays sit for about 12 hours then popped them out and put them into freezer bags, labeled and put them away.

So here's how I did it...

First step, WASH EVERYTHNG!

Sweet potatoes, squash, carrots & zucchini:
I baked all of these items at 400 for about an hour. When it was soft, I pulled it out and let it cool. Then I scooped the insides out, put it in the Magic Bullet and done. I did add a little water to the thicker veggies to make it a thinner puree.

I didn't use the Magic Bullet for the sweet potatoes, I just mashed them with a fork, so they're a little lumpy (they were the first ones I made) but I figure I can puree a little more when I get them out. I used a HUGE zucchini. For the carrots, I wrapped them in foil then baked. The squash I used wasn't that big so it only made like 5 cubes.

Cauliflower & Green Beans:
I boiled the green beans and steamed the cauliflower. The I put in Magic Bullet and voila-baby food!

Plums, peaches & Apples:
Peaches and apples are both in the Dirty Dozen so I was sure to peel both of them. I also peeled the plums too. I used Golden Delicious apples but I think I'm also going to make some out of Granny Smith apples too. Once it was all peeled, I cut them into smaller bite-size pieces and simmered them in some water. Then I put in Magic Bullet and pureed. I tasted the plum on and it's pretty good.

I also plan on giving her bananas and avocados but those are so soft that I plan on buying fresh and mashing to give to her, no need to freeze. I figure any fruits she doesn't like, Matt and I can mix with oatmeal and as she gets used to more food, we'll do the same for her as breakfast. I'm sure with the leftover veggies, we can throw them in stew or chili or something so none will go to waste if she's not a fan.

I feel like we have a lot of orange veggies and not many fruits. I'm going to keep my eyes open for some other things I can make. I'm also starting to save coupons for yogurt so I can save some money there too. We plan on waiting to start on a weekend so tha we're not rushed. We also plan to start with veggies first so that she doesn't get used to sweet from fruit. When we get into regular routine, we'll do a fruit in the morning and her veggie at night. I'm excited to start this chapter with AR!

While I got the food out to take pics, I decided I'm show you how the breast milk is REALLY taking over the deep freeze. This is just the top layer, there's bags/cartons of milk below everything you can see too! And so far, we've only used 2 bags of frozen milk!!!

What foods do/did you plan to intro first? What did your kid like?

Updated: I forgot 2 things to tell you all! 1. I covered the ice cube trays with saran wrap when I put them in to freeze. If you find ice cube trays with cover, I'd highly recommend that instead. 2. The fruits were harder to pop out when frozen. My assumption is because they are sweeter and sticker so I had to use a fork on some of them to help get them out.

Lactation Cookies-yum!

...last week, there was a thread on The Leaky Boob about lactation cookies. Basically they are oatmeal chocolate chip cookies but you use flaxseed, Brewer's yeast and thick cut oats. Those three ingredients are supposed to boost your milk production. I'm not experiencing low production but I'm always game to try out a new cookie recipe! I found the following recipe on the Simply Real Moms blog:

Lactation Cookies

Author: Jasmine

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• Lactation Cookies
• Ingredients:
• 1 C butter
• 1 C sugar
• 1 C brown sugar
• 4 T water
• 2 T flaxseed meal (DO NOT substitute)
• 2 Lg eggs
• 1 t vanilla
• 2 C flour
• 1 t baking soda
• 1 t salt
• 3 C Thick cut oats
• 1 C Chocolate chips
• 2 T Brewers Yeast (DO NOT substitute)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Mix 2 T of flaxseed meal and water, set aside 3-5 minutes.
3. Cream butter and sugar.
4. Add eggs.
5. Stir flaxseed mix into butter mix and add vanilla.
6. Beat until well blended.
7. Sift: dry ingredients, except oats and choc chips.
8. Add butter mix to dry ingredients.
9. Stir in the oats and then the choc chips.
10. Drop on parchmant paper on baking sheet.
11. Bake 8-12 minutes.

 

They were pretty good. I think they tasted better after sitting overnight. Matt kept eating some and I would tell him I could see his boobs leaking. I'd say they worked. The next morning, after feeding AR, I pumped 10 ounces!!! Oh, I also heard almonds help increase milk production so I threw some in my recipe as well. Enjoy!