We have a winner!

Well, maybe we have a winner. My lactation consultant recommended I try to go dairy free to help improve Charlotte's spitting up. I kept trying to make it a day without dairy, but I'd end up not thinking about it and having cheese on accident. Basically dairy is in everything. Vegans are far more disciplined than I am! So I decided to try those pills you take when you eat dairy to break down the lactose.

I had a pill with my dinner last night and again with my dinner tonight and so far the spit up seems to be improved.

Right now my mom is cooing the Jeopardy theme at Charlotte who seems to be enjoying it as she's cooing back. I felt the need to mention this since it's adorable.

For people who have read my blogs for awhile, you're probably familiar with my "3 things a day" rule. Basically I try to keep my day to 3 things. I define a thing as being stuff you do in one location or stuff that can be grouped together. Like today, I had lunch with a friend (thing 1), ran a few errands (thing 2), and cleaned the kitchen and cooked dinner (thing 3). Normally this would be a pretty reasonable day. But with a baby running errands is 1. finding parking, 2. getting out the stroller, 3. loading the stroller with the carseat and diaper bag, 4. shopping for what I need, 5. consoling crying baby, 6. going back to the car, 7. putting the stroller away, 8. feeding the baby in the drivers seat, 9. changing the baby's diaper, 10. putting the baby back in her seat, 11. reinsert binky, 12. drive to next place, 13. repeat things 1-12.

This is like 1000 things. This leaves me exhausted. So I need to either limit my day to one of my original "things" or I need to allow myself more things in baby terms. This makes it rather hard to get anything done. Parents of older kids tell you that you won't sleep and you'll be nuts until your kids are 18, but they never tell you that you will also be unproductive for that amount of time too!

3 months and working with momma

At the mall after mom trying new lipstick.

Charlotte turned 3 months yesterday. I was going to do a facebook update, but I've been so busy that I didn't have time! Actually, I hadn't really thought much about how ridiculously busy I am until I was sitting in my weight watchers meeting today.

My leader was talking about how everyone has 5 minutes here or there to exercise...while they're watching tv, while they zone out on facebook, that sort of thing. I started to think about this and realized I kind of don't have 5 minutes to do anything. My day is a combo of trying to get anything done at all and taking care of my baby. Most of the time I end up spending more time on taking care of Charlotte than anything else and even though I get things done it doesn't feel like it most of the time. Sure I could do my shake weight, but then I couldn't update my blog or reorganize my makeup, or clean on the rare occasions that I have time. I think 5 minute workouts here and there are for moms of babies that can entertain themselves or sleep more than 20 minutes at a time.

3 months old and
already posing for topless
pictures! that's my girl!

Today was the first day that I took Charlotte to work with me. I have it worked out where I have students to watch her while I'm teaching for most of my lessons. I haven't quite figured out the whole pumping and breaks thing since I set my own hours, but it didn't go too badly and my students are pretty happy to have her sitting in. Honestly working moms, I don't know how you do it. I feel stressed out by working 3 hours  two days a week!

This weekend I have the last wedding of this year to attend and then we have to repack our mess of a storage pod. We're also going to look at a house that I'm really excited to see. I think it will help keep us motivated to get on track with our finances so we can hit the ground running to buy a house as soon as possible.

Almost 3 Months

It's hard to believe that Charlotte will be 3 months old in three days. The last few days have been busy but so rewarding as Charlotte has discovered her voice. She's been cooing for awhile, but it's been kind of at random. Now she can be upset and we can convince her to be in a good mood. She's also started to be more aware of her hands. We got her a teether that she's more than happy to shove in the general direction of her mouth with both hands.  I took several videos today of her cooing and talking. It's pretty fun!

Last week she hit her milestone of rolling over on her own. She hates being on her tummy too long and honestly with so much going on we've been neglecting her tummy time. I'm glad that she's still developing properly. She's rolled over one more time, but hasn't done it again since. I'm definitely more motivated to give her tummy time now though!

Charlotte in the sweater I knitted before she was born.
Glad it finally fits!

I'm taking her tomorrow to mom group and I'm looking forward to talking to the lactation specialist. Charlotte has had pretty bad spit-up issues. I took her to cranial-sacral therapy twice and she seemed to be doing better, especially with the weather cooling off, but today it was right back to where we started. She was even spitting up clear liquid rather than the usual milky stuff. My sister looked it up and we're pretty sure she has acid reflux. I've been avoiding feeding her rice cereal and for reasons I can't really pinpoint, and I haven't filled her prescription for acid reflux because I wanted to try to improve her spitting up without the use of medications. I'm hoping the lactation specialist will either validate her doctors suggestions or offer some other ideas for how to help her. In the meantime, it's at least good that she's growing!

Charlotte isn't screaming in her bath bucket! This is a huge
improvement!

Trying, unsuccessfully, to eat her rubber ducky.

Camping and Rolling Over

I'm sitting here updating Charlotte's baby book after neglecting it after so many weeks of activity. Charlotte hit a milestone today by rolling over from her belly to her back for the first time today. It was kind of amusing actually. I had put her on her tummy (which she typically hates) and she started fussing, but then she saw football on the tv. I turned her so she would have to lift her head more to see it, and then she flipped. When she landed on her back her eyes were wide and her arms were spread like someone had pushed her unexpectedly. I was so excited I tried to put her back to get a video. Unfortunately she still didn't like being on her tummy and screamed bloody murder, so I gave up and picked her up to console her.

This last weekend we attempted our first camping trip as parents. It was fun spending the weekend with fellow new parents Zach and Sarah and baby Amy. Amy is about 4 months older than Charlotte. It was cool to see the differences in development and to spend time with an older baby for a prolonged period of time, even if it was outside of her normal environment. I feel like I have lots to look forward to! Camping went pretty well other than the weather. Here I thought that planning our camping trip in September would give us the advantage of skipping the heat. Instead we end up in the elements on one of the hottest days of the year...which would have been okay if there was somewhere to swim, but our campground was lacking. Once it cooled down, it was fairly pleasant. We're hoping to try to squeeze another camping trip in before the weather gets cold and wet again.

We're starting to get a bit more settled at my parents now. Paul and I spent some time today trying to clean up our storage pod and the garage. There's still quite a bit of stuff to find a place for, but it's coming along slowly. I have to keep reminding myself that everything will be the same tomorrow and I can take my time cleaning and putting things away. Hopefully in the next few weeks we'll be back into some semblance of a routine again and we'll have homes for all our things.

Wedding Survival

It doesn't stop surprising me how different life is as a parent. Just when I was getting the hang of the day to day stuff with a new baby I get a whole series of curve-balls thrown at me forcing me to make huge adjustments to my way of being.

I can't seem to get over how much more difficult it is to do all the things that used to be no big deal. This last week has been the ultimate example. In the past when we've moved it usually takes a couple days to get everything moved and then about a week to get everything unpacked and situated. This move has taken over a week already and I haven't even put all my clothes away.

This last weekend was filled to the brim with activities. It started with a mani/pedi that had to be shortened to just a pedi because I kept having to take care of the baby. Then I embarked on a 2 hour drive that turned into a 4 hour drive when my navigator took me 45 minutes south of the beach I was trying to find and I had to stop multiple times to feed and quiet the baby. I ended up missing the ceremony of Paul's cousin's wedding. Sunday was a flurry of get dressed, feed the baby, get my hair done, feed the baby, do my makeup, feed the baby, get pictures taken, feed the baby, participate in the ceremony, feed the baby, eat dinner, feed the baby...you get the idea. My whole existence is peppered with feeding my baby.

It's most definitely worth having my beautiful baby girl in my life. She's pretty much the cutest baby alive. But it's still a huge adjustment. I feel like I'm learning more and more how to set my boundaries around my activity level. I get it now why parents don't do as much after they have kids. It's not even a matter of being too tired or wanting to spend more time with their kids, it's more about how much frickin work it is!

A Day of Firsts

 Yesterday was quite the day for little miss Charlotte. We started pretty early with her first trip to the pediatrician. She got weighed and measured. She is 9 pounds, 5.5 ounces and 22 inches now. I had just fed her when Dr. Paul came in to examine her and she was spitting up everywhere. He told me she was in the 15th percentile and that she was underweight, but he did say that she was healthy and gaining which was impressive considering how much she spits up. He recommended I feed her breast milk mixed with some rice cereal a couple times a day and that I feed her more often otherwise. She also had her first round of vaccines. Paul and I decided to have her vaccinated on Dr. Paul's recommended schedule. Dr. Paul's Schedule

I was  bit baffled with the rice cereal. She's only two months old! He told me that researcher are starting to recommend solid foods at 4 months instead of 6 for infants and that our great grandparents would have fed babies solids at 2 months. He also said to do the cereal instead of formula because he hates baby formula. I agree with that part. He comes very highly recommended from multiple trusted sources and I trust him. So last night was also Charlotte's first encounter with solid foods.

He told me to feed her with a coated spoon. I didn't expect her to be able to eat very well from a spoon, but she handled it pretty well. I was really surprised actually at how easily she adjusted, and how quickly she caught on and kept opening her mouth for more! After she finished the cereal I fed her normally and she latched on just fine for that too. I was a bit relieved. Paul took a video.

After her appointment I stopped at the post office to pick up the package with her baltic amber teething necklace. She's been rather drooly and wants to chew so I figured it couldn't hurt to try it. It's really pretty! I guess the idea is that wearing the necklace on your skin warms the amber and it releases oils into your skin and then to your bloodstream that have natural pain and healing properties. The website has more detailed information if anyone's interested: Baltic Amber - Alternative Medicine I figure if it doesn't help with the teething, at least it's a cute keepsake. 

Then we went to visit the in-laws. Charlotte got to meet her Grandpa George and Grandma Carol for the first time. Charlotte fell asleep in Grandma's arms.  It was somewhat challenging spending the day at James & Dori's with the baby. I got up so early to go to the pediatrician that I was in a sleep deprived haze and didn't really pack her diaper bag very well before I left. I ended up with only one diaper pant all day and two burp clothes that quickly became pretty saturated. I managed to get by with hand-washing the diapers, running to the store for disposable diaper pads, and using paper towels instead of burp cloths. We got home pretty late, around 9:30 and then I was reminded of the massive amount of work I still need to get done with the moving stuff. Today I need to finish unpacking boxes so I can take them back to the apartment and fill them again. My mom and I are going to go over this evening and try to finish packing up the pod. 

2 Months Old!

Today Charlotte is 2 months old. The last few hours I've been just staring at her in awe of how much bigger she's gotten. It's like I have a whole different baby. She's so much more responsive and she likes to talk. Sadly her good moods are rather fleeting so you can be in the midst of a great happy conversation and all of sudden she starts to frown and protest.

We are in the thick of being super busy. Yesterday we started moving. We ended up getting our trailer several hours later than planned and it was the hottest day of the summer so far. Go figure. On top of that I was making mad phone calls to try to get details planned for the bachelorette party that had me out until 4:30am. We had to be at the mall at noon today to get family photographs with a fussy baby that had been kept up all night and then finish moving before we had to turn the trailer in. In summary, I'm completely exhausted.

Unfortunately this is the first leg of activity. Paul's parents arrive tomorrow. We have the rest of the week to finish moving the smaller stuff and to finish packing our pod let alone getting settled at my parents. Friday is the beginning of the wedding bonanza weekend and then I have to start thinking about teaching at the high school again. I'm excited for all of the things we're doing I just wish they weren't all happening at the same time! What doesn't kill us right?