David, Lisa, Kayla & Isaac

Happy Halloween!!!

Posted by Lisa at 05:00 PM | Permalink

So having a child is SO MUCH FUN!! I'm really enjoying it! Things are quite different, yet also quite the same. Everything is a little harder to do, but so much more enjoyable! She enjoys getting out of the house (and, well, so do we!), and we have been enjoying the warm October weather and showing her different atmosphere's. She is fun when we take her outdoors - she is so quiet and so alert, you can tell she is taking it all in! This weekend we went to Meijer Garden's with her - check out the cute pictures! The pumpkin is over 1000 lbs - yikes!

Posted by Lisa at 01:52 PM | Permalink

So we had Kayla's two month appointment today! She was all smiles and chatty with her Doctor! She weighed in at 11 lbs, 15.5 oz (so 12 lbs!), which puts her in the 75% percentile again. She was 24 1/2 inches long, which puts her in the 90% again. And her head circumference was 15 3/4 inches, which keeps her in the 75% for that. She is growing equally on all 3 growth charts, so he was quite happy. I found out some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I'm not a hypochondriac about her. The bad news is that she has thrush. It is just a mild case, but still. I'm not happy about that at all. She has a small white patch on her inside cheek, and she had a small patch on her lower lip earlier this week as well. He wrote a script for medication, but told me I didn't need to fill it yet... since I'm not experiencing any symptoms, it might just heal on its own. If it gets worse on her, or if I start to have pain, then I need to treat it. So, I need to do more research on it, because I didn't think it could heal on its own. But at least its a very mild case of it. Hopefully it heals itself quickly!! When the doctor left, she started screaming - she was quite hungry!! So I started to feed her before the nurse came back to do her shots. I had to pull her off, which she was less than thrilled about! Then she had some liquid medication and 3 shots in her legs. She was already screaming before the shots came, so it wasn't too traumatic for me! As soon as she was done, I started feeding her again, so she was happy. Now she is conked out in my arms, poor little girl!

I still can't believe that she is already 2 months! Seems like just yesterday she was born! At the same time, I can tell that she's been around awhile. We make a good team! I am getting better and better about reading her cues, understanding her cries (well, some of them at least!), knowing when she is hungry and when she is tired, and when she wants to interact! She has (obviously) grown quite a bit, and it is just so fun to watch! This is a fun stage - she is starting to interact more and more, smiling more and more, becoming more of a little person than a sleeping baby! She is reasonably good at self entertaining! She can sit under her John Deere mat and play for 45 minutes at a time sometimes!! She is mostly waving aimlessly at the toys that dangle, but she is starting to become a little more conscious about her flailing, and that is fun to see! David and I have been working with her on imitating gestures - sticking out our tongue and then she will stick out hers! She loves that game, and is responding all the time now! Sometimes it's almost like we are having a conversation! We say something or make a noise, and she responds by making a noise! It is just so fun! She is also interested in her mobiles - in the bassinet and also in her swing. She looks up at her "friends" and smiles!

One of my most favorite things right now are her eyebrows! She has crazy control of them and it is just so cute! She will often raise one and give this huge mischievous smile! It is absolutely adorable. Or sometimes she raises an eyebrow in a look like, "what exactly are you doing?" The questioning begins already!!

During this past month, she also discovered her hands! She now likes to hold them, look at them, eat them! She is more intentional about it all, whereas before she didn't really seem to know that they were a part of her body and she had control of them. I would just love to know what she is thinking, because she is often concentration so hard when she has them in front of her!

We are in no sort of schedule for either sleeping or eating. She sleeps when she wants to and eats when she wants to! Last week Monday she took (maybe) three 20 minute naps. Then Tuesday she slept almost the entire day! Go figure! I look forward to a day when I can count on a morning nap, an afternoon nap, and less frequent feedings, but for now we are both content with being completely flexible! She is at least starting to sleep a longer stretch through the night. She slept through it once, but is often going until 4 or so for her first feeding - that's not bad! I'll take what I can get! :)

I also want to make sure I'm documenting a few items each month. So, for my own notes:
1. Her eyes are a slate blue color, almost blue-gray
2. Her left tear duct is still plugged
3. She has cried real tears once
4. She is still spitting up quite a bit after her feedings (except the ones in the middle of the night)
5. I have seen her wiggle her left ear twice!!! (it might be a fluke, but that trait runs in David's family, so I'm interested to see if that is a hidden talent!)

This past weekend we went up North; for David to go hunting and also for us to be able to relax and get away for the weekend. We got some really wonderful pictures - here are a few, but there are more on the tab to the right!! Enjoy!

Posted by Lisa at 04:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

1. How is it that you can be screaming so loudly, and then suddenly fall into a deep sleep, and then go back to screaming so quickly?

2. Why do you flail all of your limbs when you are fighting sleep? I feel like most people might toss and turn in their sleep, but you flail - is this something all babies do? And if so, at what point do you stop the flailing? I can't imagine a grown adult doing that... so I assume it stops sometime. But when? Maybe when you start sleeping with a blanket? At that point, the flailing would cause the blanket to go all over the place and you get tangled up in it! Also, why do you bother fighting sleep? It's a losing battle!

3. How can I be so in love with someone I've known for only a few weeks?

4. How can I want both for you to grow and also for you to stay little forever - at the same time?!

5. What do you dream about? Sometimes you get excited, and sometimes you get scared while you are asleep! You have very limited life experience - what are you dreaming about? About how nice it was in the womb? About how traumatic birth was?

Posted by Lisa at 02:36 PM | Permalink

So David's alarm went off this morning at 6:30, and 2 thoughts immediately popped into my head:

1. Oh my goodness, Kayla didn't wake up to feed in the middle of the night!!!!
2. Oh my goodness, is she still breathing? (she was!)

She went 7.5 hours between feedings, and slept like a little angel during that time. I'm not by any means counting on that happening all the time, but I could get used to it!!

Posted by Lisa at 11:02 AM | Permalink

So, before Kayla was born, I did a lot of research. I read books on pregnancy, books on labor and delivery, books on parenting techniques, and books on breastfeeding. I like to be well informed so that I can make smart and researched decisions, rather than flying by the seat of my pants. I'm too much of a planner for that. However, in all of my reading and also talking to friends with babies, I clearly missed something about breastfeeding. Or, perhaps, I was just reading and hearing what I wanted to hear! I was determined to breastfeed, so that was that. What I missed was that breastfeeding is a full time job! Seriously. It runs my life and takes a whole lot out of me (literally and figuratively). I read that babies feed every 2-3 hours. What I did not read (or ignored) was that it often takes about an hour to feed - by the time you get all situated, latch her on, feed her, burp her, offer her more, feed her some more, burp her again, change her diaper, try to get her to sleep (if it's at night). Therefore, what they should say is that you have maybe an hour between the end of one feeding to the start of the next. Now, Kayla is really a fantastic baby, I can hardly complain. She is eating every 2-3 hours during the day, but sleeping for longer stretches at night (now, that is). But still, when you only get 1-2 hours between feedings, suddenly time slips away. And for Kayla, she often needs to be touched, so she is sleeping in my arms or on my lap! So, suddenly, things like getting myself breakfast or lunch, going to the bathroom, doing a load of laundry, preparing for dinner, going grocery shopping, etc, become ridiculously hard. My life is run by her feeding schedule. Now, I'm fine nursing her out of the house - I have done it at her Dr office, in the Target parking lot, in the conference room of my office, in the Kohl's dressing room, while walking around Costco (she was in her sling for that feeding!). But I'm not really discreet about latching on and off yet, unless someone else holds up a blanket for me or something, so I try not to need to feed her when I'm just running errands or whatnot. Therefore, I plan my day around her feeding. She feeds, I shower and try to eat breakfast. She feeds, I try to do something around the house. She feeds, I run to the store and run home, to feed her again, before I start on dinner. Then I feed her before dinner. When she does her last feeding at night determines when I go to bed. When she wakes up to feed in the morning determines when I get up. For me, (formerly) a planner, this is quite an adjustment.

I also didn't (want to) believe that it could hurt to breastfeed. I'd heard it might hurt at first, but La Leche was clear that it should not hurt, and if something is hurting there is generally a problem. So, I believed that it might be a bit of tenderness at first, but would soon be pain free and easy. Seriously, I must have been in denial! Now, agreed, it should not hurt. But that certainly doesn't mean it won't hurt for you... Kayla, thankfully, had a great sucking reflex when she was born. Not all babies have that, so I am thankful she did. However, she was trying to suck the nipple right off. My chest was SO SORE those first few days in the hospital, but I was determined that the pain would soon go away. A lactation consultant from the hospital taught Kayla how to nurse correctly, and that was a big help. However, damage had already been done. She had caused a crack to form in one of my nipples. Despite the All Purpose Nipple Cream, the Lanolin and a proper latch, the nipple was cracked for the next 4-5 weeks. Meaning, every time she latched on to my left side, I wanted to cry/scream in pain. Thankfully, it was just for the first 15-20 seconds that it hurt this much, but still. Every 4 hours I knew that I would be in extreme pain. It made me resent her need to eat every other nursing session! But, time heals all things, and now that it has healed we are doing really well. However, it is honestly a full-time job. And like any job, there are good days and bad days!

Speaking of jobs, I am officially out of the paying work force. We had decided that I would not go back to the bank full time, and I was seeing if my office would let me work part time. However, the amount of time I was willing to offer (um, 1 day a week!), isn't enough for them. So, I guess my days there are over. It is both a relief and a sadness. A relief because this has been an unknown situation for some time now... and now the uncertainty is over, and I don't have to dread leaving her, or figure out the logistic of that. However, I cried on my way home from talking with my boss.... and again when I got home... and again when David got home!! :) I absolutely loved my work environment... loved the people I worked with, loved my boss, loved the work I did, even loved the crazy-busy, running around like a chicken with my head cut off, times. I thrived under that kind of pressure, and know that I will really miss that. I hope that I am making the right decision by not going back to work at this time. I hope that I am able to find that kind of situation whenever I go back into the work force. It is a bizarre feeling not to go to work. It's strange not having to rush out of the house to be somewhere on time (minus appointments and whatnot). It's strange not to have to dress up every day. It's strange (and sad) to not get a pay check :) But we are blessed in that we are able to live off of one salary, so that makes it a decision rather than a necessity for me to work. I realize that not many people have that option, and I am very thankful that we are where we are. My mom stayed at home with me, and I really appreciate the sacrifice that she and my dad made to make that happen. I absolutely believe that it contributed to the trust and good relationship I have with my mother today (of course those teenage years were tough!), and helped mold me into the person I am. I hope that one day Kayla will thank me for this decision we have made, and I hope it helps us form a bonding relationship that we would not have if I were working. While this has always been in the back of my mind, that I might stay home with her, it wasn't reality until yesterday. And, now that reality is setting in, it is kind of sad. It is a passing on of something I loved. I will miss it, for sure. But I am also truly enjoying being a stay-at-home mom. And for now, that is all I can ask for.

More pictures have been added on the tab to the right, but here are a few of the latest to enjoy!!

Posted by Lisa at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)