5 Months Old: Meeting Daddy

DADDY IS HOME :D Our little family is finally whole.

Baby E got to meet her daddy for the first time July 15th. I had a photographer come out to capture his homecoming, and I am so glad I did. We got some excellent pictures. Here are a few of my favorites.

Baby girl loves her daddy ^_^ I was worried she would be scared of him, but I played recordings of him reading books to her. Knowing his voice helped ease transition immensely. 

Having the hubinator home is such a relief. Major props to single moms, I have no idea how they raise children alone. Caring for baby girl on my own was one of the more difficult things I've had to do in life (I'm pretty sure childbirth wins that title haha). Traveling back home frequently helped since I had my parents' help, but it's not the same as having my husband home. 

Our homecoming wasn't quite what I thought it would be. There were tons of wives, children, and family members waiting for the men to be released, so there was a lot of nervous tension. Baby girl, our photographer, and I showed up around 1530. The guys were supposed to be released around 1600, which I knew would not happen. Not nearly enough "hurry up and wait". They ultimately got released around 1700. 

This massive flood of men collided into a wall of ecstatic women and children, and all the while I'm searching for my husband. Eventually, most of the families reunited and started dispersing to go home. Hubs wasn't there. I cannot explain the complete adrenaline crash that followed this realization. I went back and checked my phone. Sure enough, I had a message saying he couldn't go with the main group and he would be another 15 minutes. 

Suuuuuuuuuuure, haha. 

I felt kind of bad for the photographer. Some of my husbands' friends found me well before he was released. As they would walk up to say hi, I could feel the question of, "Is that him?" That happened about three times. 

It worked out in the end though. Since practically everybody was gone, there aren't a bunch of random strangers in our photos :) Plus, some of our friends got the hubs' gear together for us and put it by the car since he was so delayed, so that saved us some work. 

It's been so amazing to watch the hubs with our daughter. He is so fascinated by everything she does. I love watching him interact with her and talk with her. 

Speaking of little miss, she is 5 months old today! And she is gigantic. I know I say that all the time, but she is. She barely fits in 6 month clothes and is mostly in 9 month clothes now. It all depends on the brand of course. As of the 24th, she weighed 16.8 pounds. Thankfully, most baby clothing brands give a weight range so I can just go off of that rather than what month-size they claim the outfit is. 

I swear she normally is a very smiley baby. She gives me dead face when she sees my phone.
I have to sneak the pictures now to capture a smile.

Look at how much bigger she is!

Baby girl has reached some new mile stones. She's been babbling for months, but now she says mama! She obviously has no idea what mama means, but she says it all the time :) She is also so close to being able to sit up unassisted. She can do it for 5 seconds or so, but ends up keeling over to one side eventually. She's also working on her crawling skills. She's no where near actual crawling yet, but she turns herself around in circles and can push herself backwards.

She also greatly enjoys her walker. I know the powers that be recommend against using them, but whatever. My house has no stairs and I'm watching her anytime she is in it. Plus, she loves to motor around. For awhile she could only push herself backward, but she's figured out forward movement now :)

She also likes to chuck all of her toys as she scoots around and then is highly confused as to where they all went.

The toy graveyard

Growing up, my brother and I each had a child-sized rocking chair that our granddad got us. Dad repainted mine and bought a tiny toy one. He painted it to match for baby girl to use for dolls and such when she gets older.

It is currently the perfect size for her.

Look at the bad mambajamba lookin' so fly. 

We also have a nimble nook pack n' play now. I call it baby jail hahaha. She seems to like it well enough.

Now that I am five months post partum, I feel pretty much back to myself physically. Of course, I'm not nearly as strong as I once was and my lungs are no where near their past capacity. I frequently forget this though.

Bearing that in mind, I did this workout today:

30 sit ups
21 Burpees
21 Dumbbell (DB) swings
30 sit ups
18 Burpees
18 DB swings
30 sit ups
15 Burpees
15 DB swings
30 sit ups
12 Burpees
12 DB swings
30 sit ups
9 Burpees
9 DB swings
30 sit ups
6 Burpees
6 DB swings
30 sit ups
3 Burpees
3 DB swings

I've done it before pre-baby and it took me about 15 minutes. So there I was thinking I would do this workout then go for a run.

27 minutes later, I was finished haha. It is deceptively difficult. Then again, there is a reason nobody likes burpees. 

4 Months Old: When Life Gives You Lemons

Baby E is a big, four month old baby today! As of yesterday, she weighed 15 pounds and 10 ounces. What a biggin'. She has figured out I must be doing something when I pull out my phone to take a picture of her because she just blankly stares at it now. She absolutely refuses to smile if she sees my phone pointed at her. What a stinker. Also, her big toes nails are painted red hehehe.

Here hair is getting a lot lighter.

Here are our other attempts at a 4 month picture.

Thinking hard about this smiling thing.

Trying to eat the hand.

Not even gonna try to be helpful.

For the last few weeks, baby E has been a teething fool. She drools constantly, bites everything, and gets a serious case of the grumps in the evenings. Gripe water seems to help though.

It's been a rather trying month. Baby girl tested positive for MRSA. She doesn't have an infection or anything, she's just been colonized. I had to swipe some goo inside her nose for 5 days to get rid of it, and it was pretty awful. She absolutely hated it and screamed the entire time. Thank god that nonsense is over. She also has eczema, so I have to slather her up in industrial strength moisturizer. It seems to be getting better.

My knees have been killing me and I finally got an MRI done. My doctor though it was a meniscal injury, but it turns out I have fluid build up. They suggested physical therapy, but when exactly am I supposed to do that? Work, schweet babe, and flying solo do not add up to free time to go to physical therapy.

I also had a freckle on my face biopsied . It showed up under my eye last summer and started to darken and grow this summer. The results came back as a moderately abnormal, precancerous mole. It's also much larger and deeper than they originally thought as well.

Apparently it's a bigger deal than I thought because the dermatologist wants it taken care of as soon as possible. I asked if it could wait until after summer since we have a lot coming up in the next month, but she said absolutely not. She says it's an issue because of how quickly it started to change after showing up on my face. Then she dropped the word "Melanoma" casually in conversation.

I now have to go see a plastic surgeon who specializes in surgery near the eye. As the dermatologist put it, "The scar shouldn't be bigger than a centimeter." Last time I checked, a centimeter long scar is frigging huge when it's on your face. I'm really not thrilled about it, but it's better than leaving it and having it turn into melanoma. Blah.

And lastly, I had my post partum pap come back "unsatisfactory," so I have to get it done again. Because that is every woman's favorite thing to do.

Oh, and I can't take baby girl to any of these appointments. No babies allowed, they say. We live to make your life more difficult, they say.

Basically, life decided to upend a box of lemons on me. I found this picture on the interwebz, and it sums up how I feel about it:

However, it's not all griping and moaning. Baby E does some super adorable stuff now. The best things she does by far are blow rasberries and giggle when tickled. She wasn't ticklish up until a week or so ago. Baby giggles = endless entertainment.

In an abrupt shift in focus, I found some quality old photos. Well, actually, my parents unearthed them from the depths of our sunroom, but whatevs. They're awesome.

See? My baby looks like me too, dagnabbit.
Also, dad is big cheesin'

This is my first cat, Kitty Boos. Look how big his head is. I'm 5 in this picture. 

For some reason I wanted all of those barrettes in my hair.
Also, look at dem curls.

Guitar cat.

There are a ton of other pictures, but my mom said she would scan them so they're better quality. These are just pictures I took of the originals with my phone, so they're kind of funny looking.

Fitness, fitness, fitness time. I was chatting with an old friend in the last week or so, and I realized I haven't posted any workouts in awhile.

I got an interval timer for Christmas this year, and I am getting a lot of use out of it. Here is a 30 minute leg and core workout I did the other day (use weights for a bigger challenge).

Legs: 50 seconds work, 10 seconds rest

squats
forward lunge - left
goblet squats
forward lunge - right
squat pulses
side lunge - left
curtsy squat - left
side lunge -right
curtsy squat - right
reverse lunge + kick - left
sumo squat
reverse lunge + kick - right
curtsy squat pulse - left
forward lunge pulse - left
curtsy squat pulse - right
forward lunge pulse - right
plie squats
lunge jumps
squat jumps
alternating side lunges

Core: 50 seconds work, 10 seconds rest (repeat 2x)
scissor kicks
Russian twists

jack knives

plank hand taps

reverse crunches

I also went to a friend's baby shower recently (due in a couple of weeks!!). I got her some diapering and baby bath supplies, made her a diaper cake, and knitted her a baby blanket. Love me some baby blankies.

Having a sewing machine makes putting borders on blankets sooooo much easier. No more sewing them on by hand, woo!

3 Months Old and More New Mom Survival Tips

Baby E is three months old! So big! After my last post, baby girl had her two month check up with her pediatrician. She weighed 11.6 pounds and was 23.5 inches long (73rd and 90th percentile respectively). She also had to get some shots and it was awful. She only cried for about 15 seconds but the face she made was brutal.

WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?!?!?!?! WORST MILK MACHINE MOM EVER!!!!

She then had an epic blow out diaper, bled through her mini bandaids, and basically ruined a really cute pair of pants.

Also, why do we say "pair of pants"? It isn't a pair of pants. It is a singular object. A pair of pant legs I will give you, but it's not a pair of pants. Someone get on this stat. It is obviously very important information we all need to know.

Anyway, she up to about 14 pounds now (what. a. chunk) and is finally, finally sleeping for big stretches at night. Up until last Thursday, baby E would sleep for 2-3 hours at a time. Since I went back to work part time when she was 9 weeks old, this was obviously not working out for my sanity.

Then suddenly, gloriously, she started sleeping for 5-6 hours at a time. It literally came out of nowhere. I know we are due for a growth spurt. They come in threes: 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, etc. I am really hoping this growth spurt just makes her want to nom nom nom more during the day and doesn't disturb her sleep like the previous two did.

Dream big, Samantha. Dream big.

Without further ado, here are her progress pictures (there will be more ado after pictures, just not before).

Here she is being a happy baby, but she's scrunched up her legs so you can't see her full length.

Here she is silently judging me as I do my best to get her to smile and stay fully elongated.

Here is my gigantor baby compared to last month.

Here she is compared to one month. Big ol' baby head.

Now for all that ado I promised you above.

I went to the doctor yesterday and it would seem I have done myself an injury. Something has been wrong with my knee ever since baby E was born. It may have been an issue before and I just didn't notice until I started trying to do the momma sway (if you don't know what that is, ask your mom--she'll know). For whatever reason, my right knee really does not agree with the sway. It also does not agree with going up and down stairs, but only some of the times. 

When it decides that stairs are a no go, it is not a matter of, "Oh sweet mother of pearl, my knee hurts," it's, "You thought you could bend this knee? You thought you could ascend or descend stairs? THINK AGAIN BIZNATCH!" And then I fall down (or up) the stairs. This is obviously not ideal given that most of the time I am carrying a baby. 

El doctor says I have a meniscal injury and I need an MRI. Of course, I cannot bring the baby with me so now I have the super awkward challenge of figuring out what to do with her for the duration of the appointment. Apparently the military has some child care option, but I would really rather her stay with someone I know personally. 

Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually. 

Also, I have new tips to add to my New Mom Survival Guide. They are obviously very serious and very useful. 

1. Do not sleep on your stomach.

Being pregnant comes with quite a few physical limitations, one of which is not being able to sleep on your stomach after a certain point. I was very much looking forward to reclaiming glorious stomach sleep upon giving birth, but alas. It is not to be so. I have giant milk balloons on my chest that make this pretty much impossible. Of course, I thought if I pumped and/or fed baby girl shortly before going to sleep this would mitigate the issue. Then I woke up in agony because they re-inflated in my sleep. Ruined sleep is not on my list of favorite things, so side sleeping it is for now.  

2. Meal prep is a must

I've discussed food in my new mom survival tips before, and this is because I am constantly hungry. One issue with constant hunger is I have no patience to prepare dinner every single night while starving. Plus, baby E has this magic ability to know exactly when I least need her to wake up. Going to the bathroom? WAKE UP. Trying to squeeze in a work out? WAKE UP. Trying to cook dinner? WAKE UP. You get the idea.

To cut down on the amount of time I have to do battle with the oven, I have started to prepare 3 times as much food as I normally would. Then I divide it all up into individual meals and freeze them. This has simplified my life tremendously.

3. Assume it will take you 17 times longer to get anything done.

Case in point, this blog post has taken me I don't even know how many hours to type. I also just had to stop to go change a poopy diaper. So glamorous.

Between feedings, diaper changes, and spit up changes, I am amazed when I get anything done in the time frame I wanted to. I budget extra time to do anything and everything but the day still somehow gets away from me.

Oh look, it's 4:00pm. Thank god for tip #2 or I would have to try and figure out what in the heck to make for dinner.

That is all for now. I will include more amazing tips as I learn them myself in the future. 

Two Months Old

Baby E is two months old! Time is flying by and she is getting so big. I wish I could make her slow down :( On the 21st she weighed 10 lbs 14 oz. What. A. Chunk.

That is almost 4 pounds heavier than her birth weight. She's also almost grown out of her Moses basket and she doesn't fit in any of her newborn clothes anymore :( She's wearing size 0-3 months or just 3 months depending on the brand.

Nona is still super jealous of baby girl, but she doesn't seem to be as terrified of her. In pictures it looks like Nona is giving baby girl some snuggles, but I know better. Nona just can't stand not having attention so she got over her fear and is trying to get pets when she can (usually when I'm holding baby girl, how inconvenient haha).

I don't really have anything new to report since last week other than baby girl's progress pictures. Here is her two month photo :) Look how much she's grown! Chubby baby cheeks :D

Here is another side by side:

Bonus picture. Once again, baby E didn't feel like taking picture time seriously. Ninja kick!

She also needed a wardrobe change. Naturally, due to the fact that she was wearing white pants and a brand new dress from her Great Aunt, she felt the need to have a massive diaper blow out.

I would have had these posted on time (say whaaaaaat?) except our internet crapped out yesterday around two in the afternoon and didn't get fixed until after 5:00AM. Thankfully it was a decent weather day so baby girl and I could go on walks.

I'm pretty baby girl has an upper lip tie  :/ It would explain her latch issues at birth and some of the other less than favorable nursing habits (popping off randomly, sucking air, gassy baby, not flaring her upper lip, etc). Here is a picture of it. It's kind of blurry, but baby girl really did not care much for my attempts to lift her upper lip to snag a picture.

I'm going to talk to her doctor about it at her two month well baby check up to see what our options are. I know it can be clipped, but I've also heard the upper lip tie bleeds like crazy and I don't want to put her through an unnecessary procedure if we aren't going to get that many benefits out of it.

New Mom Survival Tips

Man, does time fly when you have a new baby! Little miss is 7 weeks old today! However, her 6 week growth spurt is still going strong. Hopefully one day soon she will return to her awesome power naps. Until then, we are up every 90 minutes. This growth spurt isn't nearly as bad as the 3 week growth spurt though. That one I wasn't getting any sleep and I'm pretty sure I went a little nuts. Thankfully, my mom was visiting and could lend a hand. Thanks mom!

I also managed to snag a picture of her at one month on her super awesome blanket that my sister-in-law got for her. It has her name on it, so I've blocked it out for now. I'm still not really sure how I feel about divulging personal details about my child to the world wide web. So for now, no name sharing.

She was just really not into giving me smiles and stretching out full length to give you an idea of her size. I plan on using this blanket for all her monthly growth pictures (whether I get them posted on time is another matter entirely.

Above is baby E giving some serious side eye at my attempt to snag a picture.

And here she is being Super Baby. I either get Super Baby smiles or side eye frowny face. Oh well. I'm sure she will learn to ham it up for camera in no time.

I'm also back to my pre-pregnancy weight! This took about 4 weeks, but I'm still not back to my pre-pregnancy muscle definition. I have no idea if that will ever happen, but I'm working on it. The top picture is 3 weeks postpartum, the bottom is 4 weeks postpartum.

I plan on running a 5K tomorrow, so we will see how that goes. I ran 2.8 miles without stopping yesterday, so I should have no problem with the 5K. Stroller friendly activities for the win! I've been pleasantly surprised with how much of my endurance I retained. I'm only running at about a 10 minute mile pace, but considering I haven't run in 4 months and I'm pushing 50 pounds of stroller, infant car seat carrier, and baby, I feel pretty good about it. I seriously love my Bob jogging stroller.

3 weeks PP

4 weeks PP. Are those abs? No? Dammit. Maybe one day they will return.

Since my last blog post, baby girl has learned to roll over from her stomach to her back. Whether this is because she is a genius or because she really, really hates tummy time, we will never know. But since I'm her mom, I'm going with she is a genius.

Also, in my 7 weeks of mommy-hood I've discovered a few tips and tricks that are vital to survival. Maybe I'll make an actual guide for new moms. Then again, that is assuming that what works for me will work for other people. Assuming is bad. Anyway, this is what I've got so far:

1. Invest in dry shampoo

Showers are not a given with new babies, especially during the periods where I'm flying solo. Instead of looking like a grease monster and smelling like a dumpster, I use dry shampoo and get creative with braids. I also shamelessly steal my daughter's baby wipes. A stinky, dirty mommy is not a happy mommy (at least for this mommy), so dry shampoo and wet wipes do wonders on the days that showers are not an option.

2. Breastfeed or pump BEFORE a workout

I got cleared around 3 weeks postpartum to return to light exercise (elliptical and light upper body weights). However, starting at 6 weeks I was cleared to return to all previous exercise including running and other high impact work outs.

I made the mistake of not feeding little miss before going on my first run...so much ouch. Never again.

3. Invest in better sports bras

I still need to do this. I currently only have one sports bra that can support my newly inflated chest balloons (boobs, whatever). I have another sports bra that can hack it if necessary, but I am not thrilled with it.

It's like when you wanted cake, but someone gave you a fig newton instead. It's still sweet and resembles a dessert, but it is not a dessert. It is not cake. It is inferior and you will only eat it begrudgingly. This is how I feel about my second so-so sports bra. It is fig paste where I need icing. I need a lot of icing actually, as only having one cake bra and one fig newton bra is just really not cutting it.

/food metaphor

4. Always have snacks within reach

I said end food metaphor, not end food discussion. I am so hungry all the time. The amount of food I eat is kind of terrifying. On my last visit home, I kind of freaked out my dad with the quantity of food I ingested on a daily basis. As he put it, "You eat dinner...and then you immediately eat second dinner."

I am a hobbit.

But seriously, breastfeeding makes me SO HUNGRY. Snacks are a must. I am like a weird squirrel storing snacks all over the house instead of in one hidey-hole. And don't you dare touch my snacks.If you find snacks anywhere other than the fridge or pantry, they are not for you. I may or may not throw a gigantic tantrum to rival that of a toddler denied a lollipop if you move or eat my snacks. You have been warned.

5. Make noise while the baby sleeps during the day

I do not even try to be quiet when little miss goes down for a nap during the day. I watch TV, I type out my blog loudly, I open bags of chips, I vacuum (lol, no I don't. Ain't nobody got time for that), I run a box fan, etc. I also tried to be around a ton of noise while pregnant as well to get her used to the sounds. Now she sleeps through door bells ringing, the phone ringing, the cat knocking crap off the table because she is an asshole a cat, and so on. This has been a life saver. This is how I manage to take showers. Sometimes.

6. Put the baby to sleep in numerous sleeping devices

I have a crib, a bassinet, a Rock N' Play, a Moses basket, and an Ergobaby carrier. She sleeps in all of these things. She always has, since day one. Now I can pretty much put her anywhere and she will go to sleep. It is fantastic. I have no idea if this will last or if she is just too young to care about where or what she is sleeping in, but I don't care. I currently feel like a genius, so there.

7. Stay off the internet

Well, just don't ask it anything. Just as WebMD will always tell you that you are dying of incurable toenail cancer, the interwebz will tell you that you are doing everything wrong as a parent. The interwebz is an opinionated ass and will only convince you that you are terrible and should probably return your baby to the stork. Or WebMD will tell you that your baby is in fact a tomato or something else equally ridiculous. Seriously.

If you absolutely must turn to Google, stay away from WebMD and anonymous mommy forums. I don't know why, but anonymous moms on the internet can be a vicious lot. Some can be truly helpful, others are just in it to be mean. Tread carefully.

8. Write it down

Get a journal. Even if you blog and take twenty thousand pictures of your wee little one, keep a journal. By the time I get around to my blog, I've forgotten half of the things I wanted to write. My journal has details I won't remember years from now (or maybe even hours from now) and it has details that a picture cannot capture. Sure, the picture is adorable, but do you remember why you took it? Was your baby just being cute, or did she just pull off a major mile stone? Write it down. Get a journal.

Those are my pearls of wisdom. Good luck to all my fellow new mommies :)