Blankets on parade!

     Cupcake is 11 1/2 weeks! This Thursday marks the 3-month mark and it totally blows my mind. It's gone so fast!

Yo yo, homie! Wearing her cute knit hat made by one of my co-workers. She's looking at a bee toy on her bouncy chair. Chris and I joke that she hates the bee because he's smug and doesn't talk back to her

     Tomorrow we have her newborn hearing test (yes, a little late, but they didn't have any appointments until now. Plus, it's okay to have it done within the first 6 months). On Thursday, we have a 2nd pediatrician appointment (just for her DTap vaccine). I'm really dreading it. Ugh... I'm hoping that holding her during this shot helps (she was laying on the table last month when she got two shots). I know that she's fine and that I don't need to cry, but I can't  help it. It's just an automatic reaction. Maybe I'll get thicker skin in the next few months.

     CC stayed with grandma Leniger this last Sunday while both Chris and I worked. Sounds like she made it easy by falling asleep almost right after Chris left and slept for a few hours. When she woke up, she spent some time in the Bumbo seat.  She gets to stay with grandma again next week and two more Sundays next month. Uncle Justin and Aunt Kim have watched Ayla a few times, too. Uncle Carl came up from Corvallis one night to babysit while Chris and I had a date night. We're so lucky to  have family help out! Though, I'm not sure whether they want to help or just have snuggle time... :)

     It's moving week! We sign for our new place on Friday and start moving stuff on Saturday with the help of some friends and family (well, I'll be working, but I'm super grateful)!

     We've received several blankets and quilts since Ayla was born. Check them out!

Beautiful quilt made by Grandpa Alsman's friend, Teresa Green. I love it! Pink and rainbow-y!

Cupcake's name in the middle--Ayla Noelle Leniger

Sewn on tag

It says May 2011 because baby came 2 weeks early at 38 weeks. Go figure! She couldn't even wait an extra 3 days. Oh well.

From left to right: pink blanket from Grandma Leniger, cupcake blanket from Uncle Justin and Aunt Kim, cupcake blanket from my cousin Betsy. Cupcakes!!

Quilt from Aundi (made by her grandmother). Very cute!

Pink strawberry blanket from Chris' aunt. It's SO soft!

Blanket from Andaluz Water birth center

Handmade with Love from the Andaluz Midwives, www.waterbirth.net  We love it!

Made by my aunt Tracy!

     

2 1/2 months!

     CC is 2 1/2 (or 10 weeks) old! I'm finally getting to the point where I'm recognizing that she does look a little bigger than she did when she was first born (I've been in denial). There are days when I can't wait for her to get  bigger (crawling, walking, doing stuff like help bake cupcakes or go to story time) and then there are times when I don't want her to get any bigger or grow up at all. I'm trying to just enjoy everything in the here and now and not focus too much on the past or the future, but it's hard!

Cool Cat! Getting ready to go to the Blues Festival in Portland with dad

       Last week when I was at Target, I saw something called the Simple Wishes nursing bra. It's for a double pump electric breast pump so that you don't have to sit there and hold the bottles with your hands. I was a little skeptical, but it made sense to me and seemed like a nice idea. I didn't have the money for it, but kept thinking about it throughout the week. Lucky for me, a woman on the Andaluz (waterbirth center) yahoo group had two that she wanted to give away for free! They were the size I needed and free is always a great price. I contacted her, hoping she had at least one left and I'm happy to say that I picked one up on Wednesday, used it Thursday and LOVE it! It's so nice to be able to eat something or read a book while I take 15-20 minutes to pump, instead of sitting there, staring at the wall. I'm so happy that I have it now and don't know how I didn't know about something like this sooner! And since I plan on breastfeeding (and in turn, pumping while at work) for about a year, I know this is going to be a very handy piece of "equipment"!

Tummy time! Working on getting that head up and neck strong. She uses this time as a leg workout and is always kicking around like a breakdancer

     There have been a couple nights where she's been sleeping 6-8 hours in a row (so nice!). She'll usually be up around 6-8am to nurse and then sometimes falls back asleep (sometimes with daddy). On the nights where she does wake up in the middle of the night (3-5am), Chris gets up, sometimes changes her diaper, and then puts in her bed with me to nurse where she promptly falls back asleep. I don't want to risk waking her, so I leave her in bed (instead of moving her back to the play pen/sleeper next to our bed) and usually don't sleep very well. I've always been a bad sleeper (I wake up a TON at night) and like to spread out, which is kind of hard to do, even when it's just Chris in bed. With a baby? Forget it. She sleeps in between us, so I'm not worried about her rolling off or us rolling onto her at all. I just want to stretch out! Oh well. It's worth it waking up to her sweet little bed hogging face. I'm pretty sure I spent 20 minutes the other morning just laying there looking at her and kissing her (which she slept through). I was almost late to work because of it. Bad baby! :)

"Hmmm... that dog looks weird. I don't think it's real..."

"Nope, it must not be real. It's not licking me back or sniffing my head!"

     We're moving in two weeks! I can't believe it. I'm really excited to have a mini yard for the dogs and to not have upstairs or downstairs neighbors, but I hate packing and moving (of which I've done over 25 times in my life. You'd think I'd be used to it by now). And now there's a baby in the mix. Oh the joy...

First pediatrician appointment

   Cupcake is 9 weeks old!
   Weight: 9 lbs 14 oz (46 percentile)
   Height: 21 3/4 inches (49 percentile)

Seriously, how cute is this?

 

Love this outfit, but sadly it's been retired. It's really hard to get her head in it!

     We went to the pediatrician for the first time on Thursday! We had gotten a pediatrician referral list from the birth center, but it took us awhile to look over it and pick someone. After narrowing it down to 3 or 4, we looked at websites, locations and initials (I wanted to go through a naturopath, but I think Chris felt more comfortable with an M.D.). After discussing over a few days, we finally decided on Dr. Paul Thomas at Integrative Pediatrics (or rather, I decided and Chris didn't have any objections). The clinic is fairly close to us (hwy 217 and hwy 26, right down the street from St. Vincent's) and the doctor is a doctor (though he approves of alternative vaccine schedules and using natural/organic/holistic when possible and medications only when necessary). I really liked the website, it was very informative and Dr. Thomas has accomplished a lot in his career (http://www.drpaul.md/bios.html#paul).

     After filling out paperwork, we were taken back to get CC's height and weight and speak with the Nurse Practitioner.  She was very nice and answered any questions we had. She examined baby and commented on how strong she is (she said she has very good head control and neck strength and could blow 4-monthers out of the water!). She went over a little vaccine information with us (we were still on the fence about whether we wanted to vaccinate or not and I had some questions regarding a few of the recommended shots). She gave us a few minutes to talk about it and said that we could have one, none or all of them that day. I didn't feel pressure from her at all (or the first nurse we saw) and it was really appreciated. I'm not totally against vaccines, I think some of them are really good and helpful, but I'm not convinced that the current recommended vaccine schedule is the way to go (getting 3-5 vaccines in one visit, a few of those already being multiple vaccines, so it ends up being 3-7 things at one visit. That just seems like a lot for anyone's body to deal with, especially a two-month old. Plus, the jury is still out on how the aluminum in vaccines can cause reactions/harm, so getting more than one vaccine containing aluminum in one visit can be risky depending on who you ask). Chris and I have already agreed and declined on some vaccines (hep B at birth, for example), so we knew we'd have to keep researching the other vaccines that babies are "supposed to have". In Oregon, you're allowed to claim religious exemption for any or all of the vaccines when your child enters daycares or schools. I'm not typically someone who does something just because "that's how it's done"; I like to research and see what my options are and what I think is best for me or my family. I get some arguments from some people about it sometimes, but ultimately it comes down to what Chris or I want/think/feel is important. Anyway, we ended up getting CC the Hib and Pc vaccines and let me just tell you, the cry that came out of her little body was terrible (as I'm sure any parent knows). I can listen to babies cry and know that they're fine, but my body had a totally different reaction to my own baby. About 5 seconds after the first injection (and making a light comment about how "that's a new one we haven't heard" in regards to her cry), I couldn't help crying. I knew she was fine, but I had no control over it. She received the second shot and then the nurse told Chris he could pick her up (he was holding her hands as she lay on the exam table). I went over to them and had to restrain myself from ripping her from his arms. I was finally able to say to him, "I'll take her" (it's hard to talk when you're trying to hold back from bawling and collapsing on the ground). He handed her to me and she calmed down a little, but kept crying, so we had a little cry fest together. Sheesh. No one said it was going to be that hard! ;) Next time, I'm definitely going to tell the nurse that I want to hold/nurse her when she's getting the shots (or hold and try to nurse right after the shots, though I don't think Cupcake will go for that. She was pretty focused on the crying the first time). And maybe they'll have some earplugs and blinders for me so my heart doesn't explode into a million pieces again. Ugh.

Taking a nap with daddy on the couch

     We're officially out of newborn size diapers and CC's wearing size 1! It doesn't seem like she's grown very much (but she obviously is), but the 1's are working well (no more  blow-outs... for now, anyway). I think we're going to officially retire her newborn onesies in the next week or two as well. There's one outfit (pictured above) that definitely does not fit over her head anymore. We've been experimenting with the size 0-3 month clothes this last week.

Nap time for everyone (Pogo loves being around her! I can tell they're going to be very good friends as she grows up)

2 months old!

     Two months old, I can't believe it! We have a pediatrician visit next week with Dr. Thomas.

     Chris and I have been looking for houses to rent. We're looking for a place with a yard that accepts medium and large dogs (and near our price range). Our options are fairly limited, unfortunately. We drove by a few places in NE and SE Portland and found a couple that were decent, but nothing that we were absolutely crazy about (the one we liked that had a great yard and one car garage had a really small floor plan... it seemed smaller than our current apartment!). We found some townhomes in an apartment complex just down the road (off 217 and Greenburg) that we put in an application for today (there shouldn't be any problems getting approved for it, but we'll hear by Monday or Tuesday). It's an almost 900 square foot townhome with a fireplace, private yard (small, but still somewhere the dogs can do their business without us having to put their leash and collar on and walk down the stairs and across the parking lot. I'm SO looking forward to that!!), washer and dryer hookup (lame, but maybe we can find something cheap to buy. Until then, there's a resident laundry room which is better than having to go to the laundry mat). The two bedrooms and bathroom are upstairs and the living room, dining room and kitchen are downstairs. I can't remember ever living in a place with stairs, so it'll be interesting to get used to. We'll have to figure out a way to block the stairs at the bottom once Cupcake becomes mobile. We're hoping to only be in this place and rent for another year or so (we both have credit cards or school loans plus our cars to pay off, then we'll have to start saving for a down payment).

     I went back to work on Sunday (Father's Day). Chris took the day off to spend time with CC (they went and visited Chris' grandfather, mother and brother and later that day, Chris' dad). I worked from 8-6pm. Yep, 10 whole hours. I'm not sure what  I was thinking when I scheduled that, but it actually went really well considering it was my first day back and a Sunday (Sunday's are almost always crazy busy at DoveLewis). I worked 5 hours on Monday, but it was flex time upstairs in my cubicle. I didn't get in as early as I wanted to (I was hoping for about 10-3pm) so I brought Cupcake with me (Chris worked 4-10pm that day). Luckily, she slept through most of it, waking up once to nurse (we have a maternity suite upstairs with a couple nice chairs and a table. It was so nice to use on Sunday to pump!). I had a short 8-1pm shift today. This weekend is going to be the real test for all of us. I'm working 12-10pm both Friday and Saturday and then 11-4pm on Sunday, with another short 5 hour flex time upstairs on Monday. I have a feeling I'll be really tired by Sunday (luckily Sunday and Monday are shorter shifts). My brother Justin and his wife Kim are going to watch Ayla for us on Sunday and Chris' mom will watch her the two Sundays in July (I work two weekends a month, so two Sundays a month is the only time we really need someone to watch her while we're both at work. Our schedules worked out really nicely with tiny adjustments one day a week for each of us. Our employers are flexible and we're really grateful!)

     I didn't sleep much last night (I wasn't tired when I needed to go to bed around 10, so I only got about 5 hours of sleep. I don't know what time it was when CC woke up to nurse. I figured I was better off not knowing, ha ha!). I'm fighting taking a nap so that I can go to bed around 10 tonight, but it's so hard. Everyone else is napping. I'm having a hard time thinking of what else to write, so I suppose I'll go do some reading or find something to eat before baby wakes up and wants to cement me to the couch while she eats :)



     

7 weeks old!

Cupcake: 9 lbs, 5 oz
Mama: Within 2 lbs of pre-pregnancy weight (minus some muscle)! Woot!

 

   Cupcake had her 6-week checkup at the waterbirth center (a week late) and everything looks good! She's still gaining weight and even grew about 2 inches (from 19.5 at birth to 21.5)!

            Ayla's certificate with foot prints from the waterbirth center!

                                                                             Her "birth leaf"!

          The "birth tree" at the Portland waterbirth center. Each leaf is a baby born with the Andaluz midwives, the peaches are twins, the little flowers are VBAC births (vaginal birth after Cesarian). Her leaf is down in the lower right hand corner by one of the peaches.

    She had her first babysitter experience on Wednesday evening! Kelsey and I went to the gym to try Zumba for the first time and my brother, Justin, came over to watch CC. He thought he was in for an easy, video game filled night, but she had a different plan that consisted of crying for 40 minutes after I left. I think she realized that she didn't totally know who this person was (despite visiting with him two or three times) and where the heck was her mama or daddy?! :) It sounds like Justin tried everything... bottle, swing, glider chair, walking around the living room... all I know is she was asleep in her car seat when I got home. Wonder if I'll get anymore babysitting offers from him...

 Chris and I found this at the Portland Saturday Market a few weeks ago. We can't wait to get a picture in place each month!

   I go back to work on Sunday. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Physically, I feel ready. Emotionally and mentally... that's where I go back and forth deciding whether I want to be back at work or not. My last day of work was April 27th (the day before she was born), so I know it's going to be a huge change of pace from what I've been doing at home. For some reason, I scheduled myself to work 40 hours my first week back (I know, I know...!) and 10 hours my first day back (what the...?!). I'm slightly concerned about my milk supply, because I've heard from several working mamas that it's hard to keep your supply up when you're working (despite efforts to pump at work and nurse baby all you can at home). I'm determined to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months (about the time you start introducing foods) and continue to about 1 year (depending on how everything goes, of course). I feel like we have a fairly decent milk supply in the freezer and I continue to try and pump once or twice a day (a reminder to other mamas out there... don't try to pump both sides at about 9pm at night before you go running on a treadmill. Baby will want to eat later on that night and be PISSED that you don't have milk. Yep, I learned the hard way. I had to give her a bottle of what I had pumped earlier, but she was not happy. Babies prefer boobs over bottles, for sure. I had forgotten that your supply tends to decrease over the day... I won't be doing that again).

 We finally got the photos we ordered from Ayla's Mother's Day shoot (when she was about 10 days old)! I found a frame and substituted the 7th photo with her foot print. 

     She's still sleeping in our room in the play pen and only occasionally in our bed. We have discovered that if she wakes up in the middle of the night and I nurse her laying down in bed, she falls right back asleep after she's done eating. That will be super nice after I go back to work, because I know I'm going to be exhausted. Trying to get up, take her to the other room, change her diaper, get set up in the glider chair, nurse her and then walk around to get her to sleep again (taking about an hour all together) is not going to be enjoyable when I work the next day. So far we've had a pretty good system of me staying up/getting up with her on nights where Chris works the next day. If Chris doesn't work the next day, he stays or gets up with her and gives her a bottle. But now that we've discovered this nice little secret of her going back to sleep in bed after breastfeeding, we're hoping it stays that easy. Sometimes Chris will get up, change her diaper and then put her in bed with me, which is really helpful (and he promptly passes back out, ha ha). I end up staying awake until she's done, but I bet after I start working again, I'll be so exhausted that I fall asleep when she's nursing. She's just about at the point where she can get herself set back up if she takes a little break and the boob falls out of her mouth, so that means I can totally sleep and not worry about it! Whoo!  

6 weeks!

     Cupcake is 6 weeks old and weighs 9 pounds!

     I've always known that I wanted to  be a mom and now that I am... I love it! I'm not saying that I don't get frustrated or tired or miss having just myself to think about, but 90% of the time, I'm really enjoying this new role! Of course, it helps to have a fantastic partner to share it with. Chris is always helping, whether I've asked him to do/get something for me or he does it on his own (he's always bringing me water, which is awesome!). I don't know what I would do without him, honestly. And single parents? More power to them! I have so much respect for someone who has the strength to do this on their own.

     I went to the New Mama Support Group at the waterbirth center this week (first and third Monday of the month, 12-2pm). I woke up later than I wanted and got there at about 1pm, but I'm glad I went. There was only one other pair there (Heather and her baby, Logan--Heather was in our parenting class, so it was nice to see a familiar face again and to meet her baby!), along with the lactation specialist/midwife, Sonya. I got some good information on breast feeding and pumping and dealing with that when I have to go back to work. She recommended the  book I'm already reading (Nursing Mother, Working Mother by Gale Pryor) and a website (kellymom.com). I really like the book because it talks about a parenting style that Chris and I have already adopted and feel naturally comfortable with (things like baby wearing, co-sleeping or a family bed, and obviously, breastfeeding).

     We just recently brought the play pen into our bedroom for Ayla to sleep in occasionally. Chris and I both enjoyed sharing the bed with baby the first month, but as she's getting more noisy and active while she sleeps in the mornings, we thought we'd try keeping her in the room, but in her own space. It hasn't really helped the sounds she makes ;)  Sometimes I'll take her to bed with me (or bring her back into bed if I have to wake up in the middle of the night to feed her) and let her cuddle/sleep on my chest for a bit before rolling her down in between Chris and myself. We feel that co-sleeping is a safe and natural option for us. Besides, who wouldn't want to wake up to this sweetness? During the day, we let Cupcake sleep where she's comfortable. Sometimes that's in her crib in the second bedroom, or the play pen in our room, or on the couch in her Boppy cushion (or even in her car seat for a bit if we've just gotten home and she's passed out).

(She sleeps on her back or side, this was just after a nap during tummy time, which turned into knee/butt in the air time, ha ha)


     Something I thought while I was at the New Mama group this week... I'm glad we ended up getting a stroller, car seat and diaper bag that are gender neutral (ours are brown and green with elephants... see previous posting for a picture) in the event that we have more children (which we're planning on, as long as nature makes it possible). Logan was in his sister's car seat which was pink. Personally, I don't care whether boys wear blue or pink, but in our society, I couldn't help but wonder how many people see this when they're out somewhere and make the assumption that he's a girl. It's kind of funny how people want to genderize babies (and people in general), otherwise they don't know how to interact. I don't think that just because you dress a baby in pink and treat her like a princess that she's going to necessarily turn out to be super feminine. I think people are going to become who they're supposed to become and if boys want to be more "girly" and girls want to be masculine, then who does it hurt? There was recently a news article I read about a family raising their third child ambiguously and not telling people whether it was a boy or a girl. While I think this an interesting way to do it, I can't help but think that it might be slightly harmful to the child (the article said that their other two children, both boys, were allowed to wear what they wanted--they sometimes chose pink and "girl items"--and if a stranger made reference to the child being a girl, the parents didn't correct the person, but rather let the child correct the stranger if they felt like it. The boys are 5 and 2 or 3).

5 weeks!

  
     Ayla is growing! We know this because her little newborn clothes are getting a little more difficult to get over her head (why they make newborn/baby clothes that you have to pull over their heads, I'll never know. It seems like they hate it!) and are fitting almost snuggly. Just a few more weeks and I'm sure she'll be in size 1 diapers, too. Ahhh, she's growing up too fast already! She's also starting to grab my hair when I'm holding her, so I have to keep it up in a ponytail most of the time. As for HER hair... well, it's growing a little, but it's longer in the back, so it looks like a mini mullet :)

     We started doing a little bit of bottle feeding this last week. She took right to the bottle, which was nice. It allows Chris to help out with feeding her from time to time (if I need to sleep or if I'm out). We're just starting with about once a day for now until I go back to work. That makes it easier for me to just breastfeed her when I'm awake/around and freezing what I pump for when I'm working. I have just a couple weeks until I have to go back, so I want to make sure the little I'm pumping every day is making up a good back stock (I want to freeze the bottles I'm making now as opposed to pumping and then just giving them to her). And the good news is that she is still latching on and nursing really well (forget about nipple confusion)! We also have given her a pacifier (or binky as we like to call it) a few times and she takes it about half the time. She really likes it when she's laying on the changing table, waiting for us to get her dressed. She's usually really quiet and good for diaper changes (she just looks around quietly),  but the getting dressed part... well, she doesn't like that so much. The binky helps a little. I initially didn't want to use a pacifier because I feel like it's a cheap go-to for when they're upset (it seems sometimes) and I don't want her to get dependent on it. We only give it to her when she's been fed and changed and isn't fussing about something, so it's less of a pacifier and more of something interesting and different for her to do. Sometimes she'll take it and sometimes she doesn't, so I'm happy with it so far.

     Today, we went to Portland Saturday Market. Of course, she slept through it all. We were parked over by Barre3 (NW 10th and Marshall) since Chris was hanging out with her at the park until I was done working out and she slept the entire walk to the waterfront and back and the drive home. Life is passing her by! :)

     I started working out again this week, hooray!! Kelsey and I went to Barre3 on Thursday (ballet/yoga/pilates in a 60-minute workout) and I went back again this morning. Yes, I'm a little crazy. I was still sore from Thursday (yeah for delayed onset muscle soreness!), but I  knew I could do it anyway. Don't worry, I'm taking it easy. I'll go back to Barre3 on Thursday, but I might try the apartment complex workout room for a little treadmill time. It'll  be easier to do that instead of go to the gym since I can just put Ayla in her carseat and cart her over to the workout room with me. My gym has a kid's area, but I don't want her to be in a daycare-like setting just yet. Too many germs!

     I'm reading two books right now. The first one, Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina, is really interesting! He's a developmental molecular biologist, but his writing is really easy (and funny) to read. I recommend it to anyone who's planning on getting pregnant, is pregnant, or has kids. The second book is Nursing Mother, Working Mother by Gale Pryor. It's got some good tips and information about mamas who want to continue breastfeeding after they go back to work.

                                                 Daddy's first time giving her a bath!

                   Not happy after hearing the bath does not come with a massage and pedicure

    I'm looking forward to going back to the New Mama support group at Andaluz on Monday (first and third Mondays of the month). The group is usually lead by a lactation consultant (she was gone during the last group), so it'll be nice to talk to her and get some more tips on breast feeding and keeping my milk supply up when I go back to work (I really want to nurse for as long as possible!).