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