7 Months!

Living In The Moment

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how different my frame of mind is now, compared to a few months ago when Ellie was a newborn. In the 0-3 month phase, I remember constantly thinking 'it'll be easier when...' or 'I can't wait until she's able to...', filling in the gaps with milestones I thought would make my life easier. Having a newborn was simultaneously incredibly challenging and a wonderful blessing.

I feel like my attitude started to shift around the 4 month mark. Ellie started acknowledging and reacting to me (smiles, laughs, etc) and I started to feel like having a baby around was just as much fun as it was work. And even then, some of that 'work' was actually pretty great (breastfeeding, bath time, etc.).

Now, at nearly 7 months, she is such a joy to be around! She laughs, plays, reaches for toys, reaches for me, babbles, sits up on her own, makes funny faces (especially the one she makes when I try to feed her apples or hummous). She brings so much joy to my life and I couldn't imagine going a day without her (the day of my surgery was brutal!). All of this gushing doesn't mean she isn't still a challenge and a lot of work (that's just part of being a parent), but the work is a lot less daunting these days. Here's hoping she's still this much of a joy when she's a teenager ;)

Little Miss Pees A Lot

I love cloth diapers. I love not filling a garbage bin full of diapers or having to run to the store at the last minute (and that store is a 30 minute drive away too!) and fork out a ridiculous amount of cash for diapers. What I don't love is our current struggle with keeping Ellie dry overnight. We've stopped changing her diaper at night because she's just too sleepy and a diaper change results in blood-curdling screams from a child who just doesn't want to be woken up quite that much. Sadly though, we still have to sometimes as we are still figuring out the perfect night time cloth diaper. We have a few options. We have two DryBees fleece night diapers that seem to hold everything in, depending on how many inserts we put in them. The downside is that they are super bulky and for the last half of the night her bum feels ever so slightly damp, since they don't have any plastic lining (PUL I think it's called?). We also have two BumGenius 4.0's that we stuff with both inserts they came with (one long one that folds down and snaps to be a shorter length and one short one that's fairly thin). The downside to these is that we never seem to get the perfect fit around both legs and she ends up leaky about half way through the night. Finally, we have our cheapie CozyKids pocket diapers that we stuff with two regular inserts. This usually works to avoid leaks, but we sometimes have fit issues. The upside is that they aren't bulky, even with two inserts (neither are the BumGenius). Is there a perfect overnight cloth diaper out there? Can anyone recommend one? Something that's not too bulky, fits lots of different sizes, and can hold a whole lotta pee???

Let the Guilt Begin

I knew this day would come. I expected it from other moms, maybe even from relatives, but not from health professionals. Silly me. I thought doctors and public health nurses were meant to monitor your child's health and encourage you to continue healthy practices for your child. Unfortunately, the public health nurse we saw most recently decided to lay on the guilt about how and what I feed my baby and whether or not I'm doing a good enough job. (I seem to have similar somewhat negative experiences with all health nurses, I'm not sure why). See, at Ellie's 4 month shots, she weighed roughly 15lbs. This week, however, at her 6 month shots, she was a couple ounces less than she was 2 months ago. A couple things could have caused this, one being that they weighed her naked this time and fully clothed last time. Another being that she's much, much more active than she was 2 months ago. Adding to that, she's grown longer rather than heavier. At any rate, our doctor (who also saw and weighed Ellie at 4 months and 6 months) saw no reason for concern, yet the public health nurse proceeded to lecture me on my milk supply, what solid foods I was feeding Ellie, and whether or not Ellie was getting fed or nursed enough. Needless to say, as a first time mom, I basically spent the week in super stress mode trying to nurse more often, trying to feed Ellie more solid foods, and stressing out that my milk supply wasn't sufficient. That changes today. After listening to my gut and doing my own research I learned what I had thought all along - that breastfed babies simply don't follow the same growth curves as formula fed babies and that standard growth charts used by health professionals are based on an average of both breastfed and formula fed babies. So while Ellie may seem small when compared to all other babies, when her weight is tracked on a breastfed-babies-only growth chart, she's right on the mean. So I am done worrying and stressing myself out. She eats (often and plenty!), she plays, she sleeps, poos, pees, and laughs. She's perfect and she's doing just fine!

December Goals

I've decided not to make any concrete goals for this month. We have a lot going on over the next few weeks and my only goal for the month is to get through it relatively unscathed.

I started off the month in pretty rough shape because I had my gall bladder removed only a couple days earlier. Suffice it to say, those first few days were a blur of painkillers, no sleep and a lot of lying on the couch with heat packs and ice packs just trying to make it through. Thanks to a lot of help from Adam and my mom, Ellie and I were well taken care of.

I've now made it through my first week of recovery and I'm on to my next challenge. This week I'm putting together a staff holiday party for 20-30 people and then baking 7 dozen cookies for a cookie exchange on the weekend. I'm a little overwhelmed but I still seem to find the time to do fun things like set up a small Christmas tree and bake shortbread cookies.

During the last couple weeks of this month I have to plan and pack for a week long trip across the country with Adam and Ellie. To say I'm nervous/anxious/stressed/worried about all the things I need to remember and deal with along the way would be an understatement. I have no idea how Ellie is going to react to airplane travel, airport transfers, and a plethora of new faces. It may sound negative to some people, but I'm trying to plan for the worst so that I will be prepared for any scenario. Wish us luck!

So that's the month ahead. All while still recovering from surgery. Here's hoping I make it out alive!

A Passion for Pinterest!

The upside to being stuck on the couch recovering from surgery is that I get a lot of baby-free time to spend browsing Pinterest.

I'm trying to decide which recipe to try first - maybe something I can bring to our holiday staff party or as part of a cookie exchange with friends...

 

I'm also trying to decide which DIY project to take on first, likely after Christmas...

How do I decide what to do first???