Miles is 1 week old already! The first week seems to always be a blur of realizing you have a baby and learning to adjust. We had family in town for a few days to keep Lauren entertained otherwise it would have probably been pretty disastrous. Even though we had a homebirth, I still had to stay put and recover which isn't as easy compared to being confined to a hospital bed.
Miles is doing AWESOME! The midwife returned to our house 1 and 3 days after he was born. They check his vitals and make sure he is eating good. The biggest difference we discovered (and appreciated) was that he was not weighed. We were curious to see if nursing was going successfully but she mentioned that it is expected he will lose weight and there is no reason to confirm it or stress out mom which might impact supply. On Friday, we took him to his first pediatrician appointment. He weighed 8lbs. 3 oz. (back to birth weight already) and was 20.25 inches long. The pediatrician said most babies return to birth weight at 2 weeks...I guess nursing on demand really works!
He has been sleeping with us in our bed. We tried the bassinet by our bed a few times and whenever I laid him down he cried. I figure as long as he is eating and sleeping, I am not going to mess with it. He will generally sleep 3-4 hours before waking up for a diaper change and feeding. He rarely cries just starts to rut around and suck on his hand.
We've made it out of the house a few times which helps keep Lauren entertained and my mental state in check. I am not a "homebody" and it will be nice when I have the energy to hit up some play dates soon!
And just so she is not out-shined by her little brother, here is Lauren's latest outfit! Can you believe this was her last Halloween costume and the tag says 6-9 months...??
Getting to hold him!
First trip out of the house at 4 days to eat breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa at the hotel.
First bath at 4 days old. He was not a fan! The pediatrician said his skin would probably start peeling soon and sure enough shortly after his first bath it has started. His cord stump fell off at 4 days old too.
I nursed Lauren for the last time on Thursday night! What a bittersweet feeling!! It is nice to know that I have my body back for a short time before hopefully another baby starts to inhabit it but so sad knowing that my little girl (who will be 2 this weekend) is done nursing and won't be getting those beneficial nutrients anymore. She is not so keen on this new arrangement but seems to be managing great. We were down to before bed and possibly once in the night or early morning depending on how tired I was.
I tucked her in Friday, said our prayers and goodnights, and then told her that she was a big girl now and didn't need her 'na-na's' anymore. I explained that her good friend Gabby (who is 3.5 years old) goes to bed each night all by herself and Lauren is a big girl too so she can go to bed all by herself. I kissed her cheek again, played her music box, and plugged in her castle night light. She wimpered a few times and then went right to sleep! REALLY...it was that easy and has been happening every night since. While we get ready for bed, she will ask to have some na-na's but I explain that they are gone now and empty.
Yesterday, while on the way to the grocery store, I peered back at Lauren in her car seat and said to Kyle, she is getting so big...what happened? Lauren looked at both of us and said, "I a big girl, I go to bed by self like Gabby!"
Sigh...they grow up! Makes me so happy that I didn't try to rush her to sleep by herself or 'cry it out'. It all seems to happen when it is the right time.
Of course, Lauren! My friend, Ashley, is having a baby real soon and has been talking about making a wrap for little Miss #2. Because I LOVED my Moby so much, I knew that she needed one compared to making her own. I searched online for a great deal and eventually found this beauty at 50% off because the store was going out of business. Because Ashley isn't a recycling cloth diaper freak like me, I decided to keep it for myself and send her my old one (she was okay with that). I didn't think that Lauren would fit in it anymore because she is SO SQUIRMY. The weight limit is 35 lbs (Lauren is about 21 lbs) but since it is jersey knit, it has some stretch to it and Lauren tends to weasel her way out of it. The minute I pulled it out of the bag though, she was flapping her arms and so excited to get in. I could barely wrap it fast enough!
In other Lauren news...she has been a little difficult to live with lately. I really hate to use that word but those darn molars are going to kill me. Testing Mommy and Daddy have been her favorite things to do and she is definitely trying to figure out what she can and can not get away with. Sleep has been horrible, thanks again to the lovely molars! Last night I got a 5 hour stretch of sleep...my first 5-hr. stretch in ages! I went to work today so refreshed and actually felt competent and enjoyed my job. I guess I forgot how important sleep is to parenting and working competently. I could really get used to that!
For example...here is little Miss climbing on top of the table as she is yelling, "no, no, down, sit!" The chair pulled out is how she got up.
I will take a brief moment to share about my latest joy and to show my dad how it is done! This is my new favorite breakfast: fresh juice, 1-2 bananas, a heaping spoonful of peanut or almond butter, and a large bunch of spinach all blended together.
It looks like this when done. You can barely taste the spinach but it definitely aids to the smoothie and makes it divine. Lauren is quite a fan as well hence the alternative of almond butter. If you do not have a power juicer, you can easily use milk or yogurt. This morning I added coconut milk instead of fresh juice as my time was limited.
Potty training has been moving along well. We are in no rush to make things happen and are moving at her pace. She loves sitting on the potty, especially in the morning, and reading books. I now have to set my alarm clock earlier in order to sit with her and read about 5 books while she 'takes care of business'.
She now loves her 'pretty' and is begging to look through her basket of bows, headbands, and hats. If you didn't notice, Dad decided to put her headband on funny in this picture and she kept it there for quite some time squishing the rest of her face.
The other morning I had MOPS at our local church. Lauren's babysitter, Heather, and I go every other week. Usually we bring the kids along and they go to the nursery during our two hour group. This week, however, Kyle had off from work so he decided to stay back with both of them and play instead of exposing them to the nasty germs that they always seem to bring home after MOPS. We came back to two happy babies playing and about 70 pictures on the camera.
Lauren trying to balance a toy tuna can on her head.
Showing Jax the snow outside
This is a typical Lauren face. I can only imagine her being a bossy little lady one of these days, sorry Jax.
Jax in all his smiley glory. Kyle said several times he forgot that Jax was there because he was so quiet and not as "high-maintenance" as Lauren. He was so impressed that Jax ate his meal in its entirety quickly, played quietly, was easily entertained, and could fall asleep on his own. My response to him...maybe baby #2 will be like that.
They both wanted to play in Lauren's bed. It may look different than what I posted a few posts back. Her mattress is now off the floor and she is in her crib, minus one side rail. We put a bolster under the fitted sheet so she can't roll off but can easily climb out when done sleeping.
She seems to like it and the nice thing is that I can nurse her while she is laying in it by kneeling next to the bed. Before her molars decided to make an appearance she was staying in there until about midnight-2 am so hopefully we can increase that time each night. We are following Jay Gordon's night weaning method between 11pm-6am but had to stop momentarily to get through the molars. Hopefully we can start back up again soon. I was completely shocked when I told her that the na-na's were 'all-gone' in the middle of the night and she rolled back over and fell asleep.
For Christmas I got some nifty food contraptions. The one above is from my MIL and is a homemade baking dish that you can use for bread, casseroles, beans, etc. I decided to whip up some bread in it and really liked the shape that it produced instead of a loaf pan. The other really cool one that I mentioned in my post below is the power juicer! This thing is amazing!! We all enjoy getting up in the morning now and having some fresh juice. For example, below is what we juiced the other morning: two oranges, apple, pear, and half a sweet potato.
This was the final delicious product! Since your body doesn't have to digest all the fruit skin/pulp, it absorbs much quicker into your body giving you the nutrients and antioxidants that you need.
Lauren sucked it down! She really doesn't drink much other than breast milk and occasionally Almond Milk and water so it is nice to have her drinking something. We give her a powder probiotic too, so it mixes up nicely in her juice.
The juicer sucks out all the liquid from the fruit and leaves behind the pulp. We have been saving that for recipes like these scrumptious harvest blend muffins below that had all the pulp from the juice above, coconut, raisins, pecans, and carob chips. Lauren thinks they are cookies. We made a green smoothie the other day and saved the spinach and fruit pulp to add to meatloaf.
This week has also been 'BedTime Boot-Camp'. We decided to use our Christmas funds to buy a new mattress...finally! We contemplated getting a king-sized bed for us all to fit or get another queen and kick Lauren out. Well...Kyle won! We bought another queen bed and it is coming TODAY! I have been slowly working on transitioning Lauren into her own space. I knew she wasn't going to sleep in her crib because it is so difficult getting her in there without waking her up and she enjoys nursing to sleep so I just laid her crib mattress on the floor. She has been napping in there REALLY well this past week! We have a few toys, some pillows so she doesn't hit the wall, and her favorite bedtime books. She is always pointing to her mattress when we wake by her room and saying 'ni-ni' so we know she is starting to understand that it is her own space. For night, I have been nursing her down in there around 7ish and then when she wakes up for the first time bringing her back into our bed. I did that for two nights and noticed she was getting up around midnight each time so last night I went back in and nursed her down hoping we could go another stretch in her room but she woke up about 20 minutes later. I think I will try again tonight to nurse her down in her room for the first time and bring her in our room the second time (if she wakes up). Obviously there have been a lot of patterns in our room for the past 16 months and they are not going to change overnight so we are taking it slow. Plus, I still enjoy her snuggled next to me and couldn't stop cold-turkey either!
