Christmas Reflections

As a child I remember going to Mass with my family and waking at the wee hours of the morning to open my Christmas presents.  This is our first Christmas with our little one and while she doesn't understand the meaning of Christmas and doesn't show the excitement for Santa yet, having a child makes Christmas a little different.  We're starting to make our own traditions as a family.  For some, Thanksgiving is about bringing family together.  For me, I feel more that Christmas is our family gathering.  This is our third Christmas without Joe's Dad and I miss him more and more as R2D2 becomes more interactive and social. He would love seeing her look of awe at the tree lights and eating the wrapping paper  Joe had a great role model as a father and I love seeing Joe step into this role of a father.  Mr. Joe would be so proud of him.

In November my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She has since had surgery and will be starting chemo after the new year.  She has stage one cancer, so her prognosis is very good, however it's still frightening to know my mom has cancer.  She's already a survivor though and we will get through this.

While we exchanged actual gifts, I truly feel enjoying time with my family was my best gift I received this year.  I'm in a busy part of my residency right now and the time off was the exact gift I needed, especially with my mom's recent diagnosis.  Our families have blessed us with their gift of time and babysitting throughout the year which has helped more than Joe and I could ever return in words or Christmas gifts.

We are truly blessed.  Thank you Lord.

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!!

5 Months Old!

I'm not going to lie, I'm downright exhausted and I'm not sure how much I'm going to write.  I recently had two weeks of night work and it's so much harder sleeping during the day now that I'm a mom than it was before.

We didn't have a doctor's appointment this month, so her weight is the old school me holding her and subtracting.  So, Joe and I think she weighs approximately 14 pounds this month.  We didn't measure her.

R2D2's eyes are still bright blue! :)

Clothes: I've put away all of her 3 month clothes and she's comfortably fitting into 3-6 months and 6 months.  I'm still getting used to the sizing system.  Regardless, she has plenty of clothes.

Diapers; Comfortably size 2 now.  I have a wholesale size box of size 2s in the garage and I have a feeling she'll be in size 3 once we finish that.

Feeding: Other than a little bit of supplementing in the first week, R2D2 has been exclusively breast fed for 5 months.  That being said, I'm taking a step back.  I've been exhausting myself waking to pump or staying up late to pump after she's gone to bed.  I was keeping up, but I wasn't making time for myself.  I pumped daily while driving to work and my shoulder and neck ached so much.  I've decided to cut out pumping while driving to work unless I didn't get to feed her before I left and I'm stopping staying up late just to pump after she's gone to bed.  It took over a month for me to accept this, but I have.  I'm still making enough for her to have 3-4 bottles of breast milk a day and then she gets about 1 bottle of formula.  The first day Joe said she didn't mind it, but the second day she definitely made a face and pushed the bottle away.  I don't want to waste my milk, so I'm not going to mix breast milk with formula in one bottle.  If she's hungry, she'll get used it to.

We started solids this month too.  So far we've tried oatmeal, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, apples, carrots, and green beans.  She likes everything but the green beans. I've tried them on several occasions and she keeps spitting them out.

Milestones: R2D2 can now roll from her back to her tummy.  She rolled tummy to back when she was about 3 months and did that several times for about 2 weeks, then stopped.  She still doesn't roll tummy to back that much any more.

Sleep: We're still working on sleep.  For the most part, she can now fall asleep on her own in the crib, however she's still not consistently sleeping more than 5 hours before starting to wake every 3-4 to feed.

I know there is more.  I can't put down all of the changes and joys she's brought us in just one post, however, I hope she'll enjoy reading these when she gets older.

Green Beans

Not a big fan yet. We'll try again tomorrow.

Bad habits

Sometimes being an adult is rough and I don't have the best coping mechanisms. I miss the innocence of being a child and not knowing what's going on. There are some health concerns in my family right now. I'm also back to working 60-80 hour weeks. I'm trying not to get stressed, but its hard. I have not made or found the time to work out and the past two days I've been finding myself turning to food to help ease my stress. I must stop this, because then I just feel worse. I know I'm tired. I know I don't have much time, but I must commit to exercising when I feel stressed instead of turning to ice cream. It's easy to use R2D2 as an excuse, but I'm stronger than that.

Four Months Old!

Our baby girl is a third of a year old!  Now that I'm back to work, the months are going faster :(  She had her 4 month check up on the 20th.  She weighed 12 pounds 4 ounces and she is 24 inches long.  Her weight is now about the 12%, so that makes me happy.

R2D2's eyes are STILL blue.  I love seeing her big blue eyes look up at me.  I really hope they stay blue because they're such a beautiful shade of it.

Clothes: 3 months clothes are getting a little tight, but the 6 month clothes are still a little too big.  I'm trying to rotate her clothes so that she can try to wear things at least once...

Diapers: She's comfortably fitting into size one diapers right now.


Feeding:  I'm happy to say we're still breast feeding.  I'm producing just enough milk, but just enough is still enough.  She's not sleeping through the night and I wonder if she had more to eat during the day if she wouldn't wake to feed overnight.  I'm not pumping enough for that to happen, so I'm ok with waking to feed her in the middle of the night.  I'm not going to lie though, I am reaching the extreme state of exhaustion.

Sleep: As I said above, she's not sleeping through the night just yet.  She'll sleep for about 4-5 hours when I first put her down and then wakes every 3-4 hours to feed the rest of the night.  We've transitioned to her sleeping in her crib though and she's been falling asleep on her own in the crib :) She takes 1-2 naps a day.

Activities:  She's become much more social, which I love!  Joe can get her to giggle up a storm and she's been talking more.  She enjoys tummy time more, but still doesn't roll over from tummy to back that often.  As you can see from the picture, she LOVES putting her hands in her mouth.  Mom said I had my first tooth around 4 months old, we'll see about R2D2.

As you can see, she's starting to outgrow the laundry basket :)

Solids!

R2D2 turned four months old yesterday! We decided to give solids a try today. She took the oatmeal like a champ!

Ravens Week 9

Little time for blogging, but I'm going to try pictures at least.

Baptism and Hurricane Sandy

R2D2 was baptized this weekend!  Fortunately the winds and forces of Hurricane Sandy didn't come until the evening.  I'm still finding my own way back to the Catholic Church, but I'm glad we've welcomed her formally in the church. 

We live on the East Coast and pretty darn close to where the eye of the storm passed.  We lost power for about 24 hours, but that was the worst of it for us.  I am beyond thankful we're so safe.  My mother in law had some roof leaks, which isn't good, and my parents had some mild flooding in the basement.  It could all be worse.  Thank you for all the workers who helped restore our power and with the clean-up!  I was fortunate to not be on inpatient rotations and given my distance to the hospital, I didn't have to voyage out.

3 Months Old!

Baby girl turned 3 months old last week!  I can't believe our little one has been in our lives for a quarter of a year already.  This month was different than the first two since I'm back to work now. It's been an adjustment for all, but we're starting to figure out a routine.  I miss spending as much time with her and hubby.  I also miss not having to wash bottles every night!  When I first went back to work, baby girl had some nipple confusion, but fortunately since switching to Tommee Tippee bottles, her latch has been much improved.  With breastfeeding, I'm always, and I mean always, hungry!  I'm about 10 pounds away from pre-pregnancy weight and I'm starting to feel frumpy.  I mentioned this to my mom and I just have to save her response forever.  In my mom's words "Your body is making you eat to produce the milk for R2D2.  You are doing a great thing nourishing your daughter.  You can worry about those couple pounds when you are done nursing."  So, that's that.  I'm going to continue to try to make healthy choices, but I know I personally can't diet while breastfeeding.  I'm also going to try to make more time to work out, which has been difficult since going back to work.

R2D2 is back to sleeping longer periods of time again :)  She'll sleep for closer to five hours now.

We didn't have a doctor's appointment this month, so it's difficult to say exactly how much she weighs.  Using our home scale, I think she's just over 11 pounds now.  She's wearing size 3 months clothing now and size 1 diapers.  She's up to eating about 4.5 ounces every 3-4 hours during the day.  I've been fortunate enough to be making enough milk. 

Baby girl's eyes are still blue!  One of her favorite things now is looking at her mobile.  She doesn't mind being in her crib when looking her mobile, but we're still working on naps in the crib.

I'm sure there's more, but honestly, being a working mom is exhausting! 

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Lactation Cookies

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Lactation Cookies by Noel Trujillo

Recipe from Food.com

This recipe made about 4 dozen cookies for me.  Honestly, I can't tell if it increased my supply because I'm not eating them regularly.  Regardless, they are absolutely delicious!!  I ended up freezing most of the batch and pull them out when I want a dessert.  My mom and brother loved them too!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons flax seed meal
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups oats
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2 -4 tablespoons brewer's yeast

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Mix the flaxseed meal and water and let sit for 3-5 minutes.
3. Beat butter, sugar, and brown sugar well.
4. Add eggs and mix well.
5. Add flaxseed mix and vanilla, beat well.
6. Sift together flour, brewers yeast, baking soda, and salt.
7. Add dry ingredients to butter mix.
8. Stir in oats and chips.
9. Scoop onto baking sheet.
10. Bake for 12 minutes

I love my husband

The difference a year makes

People tell you being a mom is unlike anything you've ever experienced before.  While I certainly listened to them, it didn't set in until I actually became a mom.  Seeing my baby girl look up and smile at me truly brought tears to my eyes today.  I have friends who have experienced losses and friends who are having difficulty getting pregnant.  I look at our daughter and hope these friends can experience this unconditional love too.

I've written before that I feel like I'm a mom to two children.  I think I would be in awe of our daughter even if I hadn't experienced a loss, but having experienced one, I know I appreciate our gift that much more.

When R2D2 gets old enough to understand, I imagine I'll tell her about my miscarriage (decades from now).  She and her sibling are connected.  I had my positive pregnancy test on June 10, 2011, unplanned, R2D2's baby shower was June 10, 2012.  R2D2 was born July 17, 2012, my D&C was July 18, 2011.  I hope one day to give R2D2 a living sibling, but unknown to her, she already has one.  So, while I will always grieve our little one that was never born, I'll love R2D2 that much more and be thankful for every day I have with her.

(This post also stems from being back to work and seeing terminally ill children and not even wanting to imagining what those parents are experiencing).

My Breastfeeding Woes

This past week was my first full week back to work.  I was fortunate enough to only work 3-4 days the first two weeks back.  This week, I'm definitely noticing a change in our nursing relationship, and not a good one.  R2D2 takes about 4 bottles a day and then I nurse her 3-4 times when I'm home.  This week the first feed she's almost always not taking a big enough latch and then often biting and pulling away.  Not fun!  I know that with her age, it could be that she's more easily distracted, but I definitely think it's laziness/nipple confusion because by our morning feed she has the pattern down again.  To help support my worries of laziness/nipple confusion so more, after having only the breast since Friday night and it's now Sunday, she's back to efficient and effective nursing.  I adore being able to nurse her, so I'm determined to make this work.  I have a medela pump, so right now we're using the medela bottles.  I thought about buying Calma Nipple but reviews state babies generally won't take it if they're already had other nipples since it's so much work.  Plus that darn nipple is expensive!  Others have recommended Avent, so last night I bought some Avent Natural bottles from Target.  The nipples are definitely wider than the the medela nipples so I'm hopeful.  I've also heard good things about Breastflow and Tommee Tippee, so those are options too.  I never thought I'd spend so long in a bottle aisle analyzing the shapes of nipples.  Again, such is the life of a working breastfeeding mom.

Oh! My other breastfeeding excitement for the week, I left my pump supplies home Friday!  Friday morning I pumped before going into work, washed my valves and flanges and put them by the sink to dry.  At work I go to pump in the morning and uh oh, no flanges and valves!  There was a Target about 15 minute from work, but I was carrying three pagers and it wasn't quite feasible to leave work for an hour.  Fortunately our hospital uses Medela for our breast feeding moms and our lactation consultant had extra parts.  That being said, we couldn't meet up until about 7 hours after my last pumping session.  Yowsers.  I know some moms hand express, so here I am in our resident work room looking up a you tube video on "how to hand express."  Thankfully no medical students walked in while I was watching that video.  But again, a breastfeeding mom does what she needs to do.   For some relief, I ended up trying to hand express.  Yeah, hopefully that will be the last time I have to do that.  It's not very easy trying to contain the milk and it's definitely a lot of work to get a little bit of milk.  All in all, I was still able to pump what she took by the bottle while I was at work, so that worked out and now I'll be carrying an extra set of pumping supplies in my bag.

I'm a Breastfeeding Mom

I love that I'm able to breastfeed.  My milk has come in, the baby has a good latch, and we've been successfully breastfeeding for 2 months now.  Our relationship has changed since I have returned to work, but so far so good.  Breastfeeding is important to me and I'm learning a breastfeeding mom does what a breastfeeding mom needs to do.  It's an amazing feeling knowing that my body continues to provide all of R2D2's nourishment.  Our bodies really are wonderful things.

 I have pumped in a public bathroom at Camden Yards.  The ballpark did say I could use the family bathroom at guest services.  Yeah, not very nursing friendly.

I then proceeded to pay $4.50 for a cup of ice to store above pumped milk.  Yes, ridiculous.

 I have nursed in a fitting room, but the furniture section is much more comfortable!

In an effort to help spend as much time as possible with my little one, I occasionally pump while I drive.

 And the car's cup holders make a perfect place to store my milk for the rest of the drive home.

I've always found a place to pump at work, even if it's a patient room during our lunch break.

It's not always easy, but breastfeeding is important to me and I hope I'll continue to find ways to make it work.

2 Months Old!

Our baby girl turned two months old this week.  I continue to be amazed at how quickly she changes.  She is much more alert and continues to stay awake for longer periods of time.  I think one of the best things now is her smile.  She hears our voice, looks us in the eyes and gives us a huge smile.  Talk about melting my heart!

I've since returned to work and that has been a transition.  Before I went back to work, R2D2 was sleeping for approximately 5-6 hours overnight.  Since going back to work, she now wakes every 3-4 hours again.  I think she prefers to nurse rather than take the bottle as much during the day.  While I miss the longer stretches of sleep, I love our nursing sessions. I'll eventually get used to this constant state of fatigue.

At her doctor's appointment today, she weighed 9 pounds 2 ounces and was 21.6 inches.  About 5 weeks ago she was 7lb 9oz, so I'm quite happy she's gained weight.  Her current weight is only about the 5% on the WHO growth chart, so she's quite petite.  I admit, it's been tough determining exactly how much to put in her bottles for the day.  Joe says 3 ounces seems to be enough and she's not looking for more.  Some days I pump more than she eats so I've been freezing that milk.  I'm going to start putting at least another 1/2 ounce in her bottles (when I have the pumped milk).  Hopefully that will help her move up on the growth curve.  To think of it, perhaps she is nursing more overnight because she's not getting as much during the day.

Last week I packed up her newborn clothes.  Some of the 3 months outfits are still big on her, but she was getting too long for the newborn.  She still fits into newborn diapers, but she'll finish our stash today and we'll stick with the size one diapers.

I love that her eyes are still blue.  Joe and I both carry the gene for blue eyes, so I'm hoping they stay blue since they're so pretty, but we'll see.  Joe says he thinks he had blue eyes until he was about 5 years old.

One of her favorite things now a days is a bath.  She's definitely like her mom and dad in that regard.  She's taken to the vibrating chair a lot more and still loves her swing. And as this photo shows, she does get tired of me taking her picture :)

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cups

I love fall and I love pumpkin.  I have mixed reviews on this recipe.  I have to note I altered it significantly by adding brewer's yeast and flaxseed meal, so I think that affected the taste.  Brewer's yeast, flaxsseed, and oatmeal are supposed to help increase breastmilk supply, hence adding them.  Now that I'm back to work and have to pump, I want to make sure I'm getting enough milk.  I don't know if it was these "muffins" or that I was less stressed this week as compared to last week (my first week back), but Monday I had these for breakfast and had an awesome pumping session at lunch.  Who knows.  I ended up adding some maple syrup to the second half of the batch.  They are bitter, but I think that's because of the brewer's yeast, which isn't a part of the original recipe.  I don't if I'll make these again, but if I do, I'll definitely add maple syrup and probably some raisins.  I didn't use almond milk and I definitely think I should have added vanilla or almond extract.

Recipe adapted from Green Lite Bites

• 1 15oz can of pumpkin (420g)
• 1/2 cup vanilla Almond milk (I used regular 1% milk)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp Baking powder
• 3 cups (240g) Old Fashion or Rolled Oats
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tablespoon brewer's yeast (optional, for lactation)
• 1/4 cup flaxseed meal (optional, for lactation)
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar or sugar in the raw

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Mix all ingredients together, and let sit while you prepare the muffin pans.
Spray a muffin pan and/or liners with with non-stick spray.
Divide batter into 15 muffin cups. They should be just about filled.
Bake 20-30 minutes, you’ll see the edges just starting to brown and they will be firm to the touch.

Return to Work

My maternity leave has come to an end and I officially return to work tomorrow (rather than casual work from home that I've been doing).  I've only cried once today.  We'll see how tomorrow goes.

190 Miles

I'm exhausted today.  My mom and I hit up a consignment shop, great deals.  I also had a baby shower today.  Ends up I drove approximately 190 miles (187 miles) today.  No wonder I'm ready to crash!  (Yes, it was quite a tour of the Baltimore Metro area.

Entertaining a Newborn

I'm not one for idle time and some may say I have a difficult time relaxing.  I think it's just in my personality to constantly be doing something.  Since I usually can't just sit in one spot without a book, craft, etc, I worry R2D2 is getting bored now that she's awake for longer periods of time.  When I place her in the vibrating chair, I feel like I'm just setting her aside so I can get stuff done.  I mostly feel that way because I personally would be so bored just sitting in a chair.  However, when I look over, I see her looking around, smiling, kicking, and downright enjoying herself.  I'm realizing that although I may find some of these simple things boring, they're a whole new world for a newborn.

Our First Vacation

Joe was able to take a couple of days off of work, so we took a mini-vacation to the beach before I have to head back to work. It was nice to get away. However, OMG, I had to pack more stuff for R2D2 than myself and I only imagine it gets worse as they get older. We traveled to Ocean City, Maryland. In my honest opinion, I think it has become too commercialized. My mother-in-law went down with us, which was nice and she enjoyed spending time with the baby. Joe and I had our first date night. It was comforting knowing our little one was only a couple blocks away. We did a good job of not talking about her the whole time and enjoyed our steamed crabs. R2D2 was extremely fussy the next morning, which has happened each day following seafood. I'm not certain it's the seafood, but for my sanity, I'm going to avoid seafood while I'm nursing.  R2D2 is 6 weeks old.

 Left: We walked the boardwalk the first night, she loved all of the lights! 

 Right: If only Carter's had snaps on the bottom of the bathing suit.  Who wants to take the whole thing off to change a diaper?

 Mommy and Baby

I braved a bathing suit 6 weeks post-partum.  Enough said.  I successfully nursed on the beach and she still insisted on being swaddled, even on the beach.  Fortunately it wasn't too too hot and we were under the umbrella.

I wish we had a family photo, but alas, I didn't ask anyone to take it.

I tried to make a barricade of objects around her to block the sand.

Elizabeth Street

Elizabeth Street: A Novel Based On True Events by Laurie Fabiano

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The book isn't quite 3 stars, but it's definitely not as low as two stars.  I love historical fiction and I love reading about US immigrants in the early 1900s.  So, for those reasons, I enjoyed the story.  However, I did not feel like the book flowed.  The story set in the past worked well and wove a tapestry.  However, I did not feel the trips back to the present were necessary.  One of them foreshadowed a major part of the novel, but it foreshadowed it too early.  I also didn't like the images of the hand-written letters.  I wish I liked this book more.

View all my reviews

Body Funk

Ok, yes I know I just had a baby about 6 weeks ago, but ugh; I'm feeling so frumpy.  At about two weeks post partum I was only about 5 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight.  Then I started doing some light exercise and I swear I gained weight.  Right now I feel like I'm always hungry.  I'm fluctuating between 7-9 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight.  Being 6 weeks out from giving birth, I know that's still good.  The thing is, I'm not feeling sexy or beautiful.  It probably doesn't help that I live in spandex or elastic waist bands.  While I can button my pre-pregnancy jeans, they're not comfortable.  I don't even want to talk about my shorts and how they don't fit.  See, the thing is, I had gained a little weight before getting pregnant and was just, and I mean just, fitting into my jeans and last summer I was dealing with my miscarriage, so I don't think I fit into my shorts then either.  Now that I'm even a couple more pounds heavier, my bottoms really don't fit well at all.  I sprung and bought a pair of jeans and a pair of shorts in the next size up.  They fit me, but I'm still coming to grips with the fact that I'm a size larger.  I shouldn't beat myself up about it though.  I'm breast feeding so I'm trying not to diet.  Heck, I hate dieting.  However, the past two weeks I have seriously overindulged in dessert.  I think that's truly why I'm feeling ugh.  I go back to work in one week, so I think I'm also doing some stress eating.  I don't like that I do that, but I do and at least I recognize it.  Here's to embracing my new size and trying to go back to eating fruit instead of ice cream!

Solas Caomh Blanket

What's the word in the title?  I'm not quite sure either, but it Irish for tender comfort.  While looking for nursery ideas a few months back, I came across a pattern for a beautiful crocheted blanket with Celtic knots.  Since I love all things Celtic, I knew I wanted for our little one.  For a brief second I contemplated trying to teach myself how to do the crochet work, but then I realized I had enough on my plate already.  So, I'm fortunate that my neighbor knows how to crochet and agreed to take on my request.  She noted the pattern was a challenge, but fun.  Since she was so kind to make me the blanket, I felt it only appropriate to plug her etsy store Gifts by Gwen.  She has some outfits and table runners on there.

And, in case you want to take on the project yourself, here's the pattern from interweavers.com.

Nutella Banana French Toast

I think the picture says enough. I'm going to miss making breakfast once I go back to work!

Angels Above

Angels above were watching out for us yesterday. I attempted to wash our pillows for the first and last time. If we didn't smell the burning I know our house would have been on fire. While drying, the drum stopped rotating. Now to try up fix our dryer sometime this week. Personally, if your pillows are dirty, just buy new ones.

Angel

Angel by Mary E. Kingsley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Overall an enjoyable read. I think Kingsley did an excellent job capturing the emotions and thoughts of a thirteen year old and I really fell in love with the main character, Angel. However, I feel like the actual conflict and ending was not as strong as I would have expected based on the beginning. I'm not sure how to make it better, but I felt I reached the end and was like, "well that's it."

View all my reviews

Happy 1 Month!

Wow, it's hard to believe R2D2 is one month old already. Yes, there were some long days, but overall it went fast, too fast. (Honestly, not too fast, I'm anxiously awaiting more head control and interaction, but I digress).

I'm fortunate enough to still be on maternity leave, so we had the opportunity for a mini photo shoot! I think the laundry basket photo is my favorite, well honestly, I love all of them. I love watching her facial expressions and hearing her start to realize she can make sounds other than crying.

We don't quite have a schedule yet.  Sometime she takes long morning naps, and other days it's afternoon naps.  Just when I try to do something, she changes her routine up.  We're continuing to breast feed and she's a champ!  The past two days I think she's been in a growth spurt because she's waking more at night to feed.  For about 3 days in a row she slept 5 hours at night.  I was in heaven.

She's still a little peanut, but has exceeded her birthweight, which makes Mommy happy.  My liquid gold is working!  She is still in size newborn clothing and diapers.  The onesie in this photo is a size 0-3 months, which is starting to fit her better.  At her 1 mos check up, she weighed 7 pounds, 9 ounces and was 21 inches in length.

We've started to get out of the house more and R2D2 loves car rides!  She loves to be held when she's awake, which is increasing.  She enjoys the swing and vibrating chair, but not for more than 10-15 minutes if she's awake.  I have taken to using the Moby to try to get things done.  Bath time is hit or miss, but she loves the sound of running water!

 

And to close things, here is our first family portrait!  Love you! (Family photo taken by Lisa Marie Photography).

Protective Much?

I walked out of the room and came back to this. I love our dog!

Shopping!

R2D2 and I successfully went to 4 stores today, one of which was the grocery store!  I was a little hesitant about introducing her to the public world so young, but she stayed in her stroller and no body touched her.  I feel comfortable she didn't get the new swine flu.  Seriously though, it's a fine balance between being secluded and protecting their young immune system.  I breastfed in a fitting room for the first time and wore her in a Moby while grocery shopping.  My shoulders hurt from the Moby by the end, but it was a success.  I learned errands take three times as long and are at least twice as exhausting with a baby.  In this picture, R2D2 is in her Moby, 26 days old.

A Dog and a Newborn

Last night was a rough night.  Joe was at work, so it was just me, the baby, and our dog. I don't think R2D2 likes when I eat seafood and I had seafood for lunch. She either nursed or cried for 3 hours straight. I even made a bottle of formula thinking she was starving and I wasn't producing enough. After an ounce of the bottle, she started screaming again, so that made me feel better at least; it wasn't only my milk that was making her upset. On top of that, the dog wanted something. At first I thought he needed to go potty. Nope. Then I thought he wanted me to throw his toy. Nope. I sat on the floor with him while nursing to try to help give him attention. Nope that wasn't it either. I felt helpless. I had before me two individuals I love and neither could tell me what was wrong. Fortunately R2D2 eventually fell asleep and we're having a much better morning today. I needed to do something relaxing for me this morning, so I made pancakes. It felt good.

Here's to a new day! (Plus Joe doesn't have to work tonight :) )

Banana Peanut Butter Flax Seed Cookies

Wow, I made these in October of 2011 and I'm just blogging them in August of 2012, almost a full year later.  Oh well.  That's life.  Don't like the ingredients of the cookies deter you, they are quite delicious!!  In fact, I'm thinking about when I can make them again.

Recipe from Clean Eating Magazine

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups 6.75 ounces whole-wheat pastry flour
2 tbsp ground flaxseed
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 medium banana, mashed
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup unsalted natural peanut butter
2 tsp pure vanilla
1/4 cup mini dark chocolate chips, optional

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, flaxseed, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, mash banana with a fork. Stir in maple syrup, peanut butter and vanilla until well combined.
• Add flour mixture to banana mixture, stirring just to combine; do not over-mix. Fold in chocolate chips, if desired. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer sheet to a wire rack to cool slightly, about 2 minutes. Remove cookies from sheet and let cool directly on rack.

Happy Due Date

Today was my due date for Miss R2D2.  I am beyond excited she decided to make her appearance 18 days early instead! I honestly thought I'd still be pregnant today and now I can't even imagine being pregnant still.  Having her in the world has become such a part of our lives now and gone are the days of feeling her move inside me. 

Post Partum Body Aches

People may have mentioned it, but I don't remember ever being warned about how much my body would ache after labor.  Postpartum day one, oh my goodness, I could not get over how much my back hurt and shoulders ached from pushing.  I mean it makes sense, I think I used every muscle in my body, but I wasn't expecting it.  The next couple of days, I felt my body realigning and found myself using different butt and leg muscles, making more soreness.  Our bodies are wonderful things.

Then I started breastfeeding.  Despite trying to prop her up, I still found myself slouched over.  This slouching over just continued the cycle of aching shoulders.  A couple of years ago I purchased a microwave heat neck pad from The Ferris Wheels on Etsy.  It has come in quite handy and definitely helps relieve my shoulder/neck aches.  I high recommend it, just be sure not to use it when actually holding or breastfeeding your baby so she doesn't get burned.

I tried to stay active while pregnant.  I purchased Complete Pregnancy Fitness with Erin O'Brien and I'm glad I did.  The prenatal workout can be a little strenous if you're out of shape, but ultimately very good.  Right now I'm absolutely loving, and I mean loving, the postnatal work outs.  The post natal DVD has basic stretches you can do your first day back from the hospital.  After that, the DVD has three 15 minute workouts.  The first starts with teaching your muscle groups to refire properly and then goes from there.  I've done the first two workouts and they're just the right amount of workout for being so close to delivery.  They are helping my abs and focusing on the muscle groups that have been neglected, aka some butt muscles!  I haven't started any cardio workouts yet.


So, if you're postpartum or about to be, these are two must haves, in my opinion!