Monday, April 29, 2013

8 weeks

Both mama and Mira needed to take a food break in the car during errands last week. 
Yes, that's a Doritos Locos taco :)

Today Mira is 8 weeks! She's still having some troubles with gas, but giving her tummy time is really helping. I think it's finally starting to get better. I also had my first experience with her crying screaming in public when I went to Target last Tuesday. She is one vocal little girl. I thought if I took her out of her carseat and held her in her favorite position, she would eventually stop, but nope, she just cried worse. So I got to enjoy every. single. customer. staring at me. Needless to say, I did not get to the bottom of my list. She can go from smiling and cooing to having a crying fit in a matter of .5 seconds, so we never know how trips to the store are going to turn out.

We are taking our first trip tonight! We're going home to Crookston to stay with my parents. There's soo much to pack.

Mira loves:
Her activity play mat
Kisses
Getting her diaper changed during the day
Sleeping on mom in any way possible
Bathtime (95% of the time)
Peeing in the bath (every single time)
The sound of running water
Car rides
Stroller rides
Getting fresh air
8 am
Grabbing my hair/necklace/bra strap, just about anything she can get a hold of
Looking in the mirror
When daddy comes home from work - she is all smiles!

Mira does not like:
Getting her diaper changed in the middle of the night
Being swaddled
Being burped. Especially in the middle of a feeding!
Sleeping on her back

Stats: 
Weight: 11.5 pounds
Feeding: Still exclusively breastfed
Diaper size: Size 1's, probably moving onto size 2's once this package is gone
Clothes size: 0-3 months and some 3 months. Odd how much sizes vary between outfits, even when they're still the same brand. I was so sad the day I realized she grew out of her newborn sized clothes. I still try and squeeze her in a few of them.
Development: She is trying so hard to crawl and/or roll over. She is one hyperactive baby, and I should've known that judging by how active she was in my belly. We also stuck her in her bumbo seat for the first time last week, but she is still unsure about it. She's talking more and more and doing random little squeals (yes, adorable).

 Her first time ever in the bumbo seat. 

Starting to like it more :)


Monday, April 22, 2013

Post pregnancy progress

I have 8 pounds to lose in order to reach my pre-pregnancy weight. I lost the rest of the weight by doing nothing so I'm guessing (hoping) that the last 8 pounds should be easy once I start working out. I still get sore when I go for a long walk or accidentally stretch a weird way, so I don't think I'm quite ready to workout. I'll probably just take it reaaaally easy and maybe go for walks here and there when I have time/ambition.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

6 weeks

Just sitting peacefully in her car seat at a restaurant for Adam's birthday

I had my 6 week post delivery appointment yesterday. I am officially free to workout! I don't know why I'm all excited about it yet, I still don't have the energy or time to do too much. I plan to start slow, perhaps speed walking and 5 pound weight exercises, and gradually increase the intensity over time. 

Mira is cute as ever. She is a little mover; she can roll onto her side, and also manages to scoot forward using her legs and arms when she's on her belly. 

She's gotten progressively fussier over the last few weeks. And it's no mystery that it's gas. Poor thing. At first I thought maybe dairy was affecting her, but after eliminating that for a few days nothing changed. Then, after some research, I found that it was common for breastfed babies to have gas at her age and it was primarily from the way she feeds on the breast. I started to make sure I was leaning back far enough so she didn't gulp so fast. She still managed to gulp so fast she choked. It doesn't help that she hates being burped, it's like pulling teeth with her. I bought gripe water, which had almost unanimous positive reviews. Did not do anything. I even got the expensive, all natural, FDA-approved one. Sigh. 

Then at the doc yesterday I asked her what else I can do. She told me, since I have such an abundant milk supply, to pump a little bit before I feed her. That way she won't be gulping so much at once. Duh. Why didn't I think of that? I also bought some gas drops after we left. It's only been one day, but after pumping a little bit before, and giving her gas drops after feeding, I notice a difference. I hope it gets better, because there were times where I wanted to cry because I felt so bad for the little one in such pain. 

As far as sleep goes; some nights are really good and some nights are just okay. We never particularly have a rough night where we get no sleep. Nighttime schedule is as follows: Between 8-9 is bathtime. We only use soap every other night since her skin dries out, but we lotion her up with lavender California Baby lotion every night. Then within 10 minutes after that I will feed her. Around 9:30, whether she is asleep or not, I will swaddle her and put her down for bed. If I'm lucky, I would have already gotten ready for bed and hopped in at the same time as her. Otherwise, this is when I get ready for bed. I give her her nuk and play some type of ambient noise. Usually it's one of the nature sounds, like ocean waves or rain, from my iphone app. Sometimes I play some slow acoustic songs just to switch it up a bit. The bath + lavender lotion + nuk + swaddle + ambient noise usually gets her fast asleep within 10-20 minutes. If I miss one of the things from that formula, she won't fall asleep as easy. There's been a handful of nights where we skipped bathtime + lotion and she spent 15 minutes alone trying to bust out of her burrito swaddle. And she always succeeds, little stinker. 

We love our little girl and we see more personality in her everyday :)

This is what a midday nap looks like


Thursday, April 4, 2013

My little girl is 1 month old!


I can't believe how time flies. I weighed Mira yesterday and she is 10 pounds. Our little punkin is in the double digits now. She's even growing out of most of her newborn size clothes, sad.

I know they said the emotions get worse for the first couple weeks after you have a baby, but I didn't think it would happen to me. Luckily I didn't have post partum depression, but I did get the baby blues and occasional crying (all revolving around the fact Mira was growing too fast and time went by too fast). I probably cried at least once a day because she was basically growing in front of my eyes and just thinking about how I wish I could do it all over again; the labor, the birth, the first couple days with her in the hospital. In fact, I even miss being pregnant. I'm still getting used to the fact that I no longer have a belly. It all came and went too quickly. I had also been struggling with the fact that I had a c-section. I didn't think it would be a big deal until it actually happened. I didn't get to hold my baby right away, which was obviously sad to me. Those ~2 hours I was initially separated from my baby actually kind of wounded me. Evolutionary-wise, that separation is not supposed to happen. Mothers are supposed to be able to bond with their babies right away. Once I got to hold my baby, I forgot about all the trauma. I even forgot about it all after we got to take her home. Then when I saw the pictures my dad took of Adam holding her in the nursery, I got really sad again. He was getting that initial bonding time with her while she was just about 20-30 minutes old. It was hard for me to see that. I had to wait until she was about 2 hours old. This is why I would never wish a c-section upon anyone. Not unless the hospital does things way differently, which I've never heard of. Looking back, I wish I would've spoke my mind more. It's my child, so I should've been able to hold her when I want to and for how long I want to. Even though the hospital staff was wonderful, I wish I would've been more aggressive with my wishes. 

On a brighter note, Mira has started smiling at us (not just in her sleep anymore) and I'm so in love. She most frequently smiles on her changing table while/after getting a dirty diaper changed. (I'd be smiling too!) She also smiles big when we give her kisses. She tries to talk to us by cooing and gurgling, which is obviously adorable. She also has a really strong neck and strong legs. She was already partially holding her neck up when she was still in the hospital, now she head butts us. Her favorite thing is being in her snugamonkey swing with the music on. She just stares at the moving monkeys that move above her head. She's most comfortable laying on mama in any position possible. The one thing Mira struggles with is burping. I've never seen a baby be such a stubborn burper before, and this causes her to be fussy later on since she gets gassy. So, basically I have push through the crying and whining and head butting and try to burp her, no matter how much she fights it. I know they say not to, but there have been a couple nights where I let her co-sleep on top of me because she was fussy. I make sure to prop pillows on the sides so she doesn't roll off. There seems to be lots of new data out there that say it's okay, in fact preferred to co-sleep with your baby in your bed. I don't want to make it a habit, though. I just bought an incline napper that fits right in her bed and so far we've had awesome luck with it.

We love Mira so much and can't believe she is ours. I was just thinking today, how many nicknames Adam and I have given her. Muffin, Little one, Punkin, Sweetie, Honey bunny, the list goes on. Any cute name we can think of we will call her. 
Here's to another successful month full of more milestones and lots more baby smiles! 
Powered by Blogger.
Back to Top