41 years and 4 weeks

Today Allan is 41 and Henry is 4 weeks. The last month has been crazy and fun and exciting. I am not sure if I would recommend having a baby right before Christmas, since there were pros and cons. Considering I am so happy to have Henry here - I am not complaining!

We had a great birthday dinner at Wishbone:

I had shrimp and grits without the shrimp and Allan had pan fried chicken. Yum. I had my first whole beer post baby and was ready for bed when when we got home at 8:00pm.:)

We had cupcakes from Sprinkles when we got home (before I passed out)!


Henry continues to get stronger and more alert every day. He clearly knows me now and will quiet down when he hears me coming or stop crying if I start singing to him. His eye gaze is much more directed and he seems to recognize me. Makes me happy, and more in love every day! Just this week, he started batting at the toys in his bouncy seat. New skills every day!

Sunday Funday

I actually got to go out last night for a Girls Night Out/Wine Tasting at a friends house in the South Loop. I thought the wines were "eh" and the prices were high, but loved getting out for a few hours.

Other highlights of the weekend:

1. I got out this morning and actually incorporated some 30-60 second jogging breaks into my walk with River. It was awesome and I felt great - STARVING this afternoon though. Hopefully I will still feel great tomorrow.

2. Henry continues to seep for about 5 1/2 hours at night, so Allan and I are human. I thought he might be off schedule at one point last night, but he continues to wake up within 5 minutes of 5:30am every morning.

3. Met Laurel for coffee/brunch this morning, which was great.

4. PEO food drive! Food is being dropped off tonight, the freezer is low - LOVE PEO!

Here is what I am stressing about.:

Breastfeeding is better and easier, I think I am producing more milk. I have come to terms with the fact that I am going to continue to both breastfeed and supplement with formula, the nipple shields are not going anywhere. I talked to a friend on Friday who did a 50/50 thing with her son and pumped (and froze) enough in the first three months to bank enough formula to last from 3-6 months. I've been doing some pumping, but we usually just turn around and feed it to Henry within the next few hours. Her plan made sense to me, especially since Henry is going to start to spend some time with a babysitter in Feb (and we have a TON of formula). This morning I pumped and was excited to get about 1.5oz in 10-15 minutes. This afternoon, I pumped less than an ounce in 20 minutes....WTF? So frustrating. I'd like to get enough to freeze 4oz a day at least.

River is soooo needy. Even with daily walks/runs, he is like velcro and follows me around, desperate for attention. The good news is that he is great with the baby and the baby does not seem to notice when he turns into Cujo when someone is at the door.

Poop - Henry is pooping once a day or once ever other day. I think it is supposed to be more. Not sure what I can do about this, he seems fine (not that fussy) and poop when it comes in normal. Again, eh.

Laundry is in, I am vacuuming, getting ready for the week ahead!

Red Sky In the Morning...

I've always heard, "Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning.". The weather has been BEAUTIFUL for the past two days. I hope the sunrise does not mean that our beautiful weather is not here to stay.....

Finally Friday

I liked what I did yesterday (writing my post/goals early and then updating and posting later) so I am going to do it again today:

Goals:
1. Drink 100oz (water/juice/milk) only 1 cup coffee:( - Done by noon. I am so thirsty this is easy. Not going to have it as a daily goal anymore.

2. eat 5/f/v - fail, not only did I not do this. I waited to long to eat lunch and was then hungry all afternoon and ate waaay to much junk and sugar:(

3. walk at least 3 miles (I have a friend coming to walk with me today so this should be no problem) - done, 4 miles with a friend.

4. print out and fill out passport application for Henry/take passport photo (for possible upcoming trip to Mexico in Feb:) - done, hope this works! We dropped it off Sat morning - done!


5. fold and put away laundry - I asked Allan to do this

6. 5 minutes arm workout w/weights - Fail

I am really happy today is Friday. How lame is it that I miss Allan during the day now that he has gone back to work...? It will be fun to have him around this weekend. Again, Henry slept great last night and Allan and I did the early shift/late shift thing so we each got about a 6 hour chunk of sleep. Considering Henry is only 3 weeks old, I am thrilled with this.

*Meh*

Thursday Goals:
(I am writing this early morning and will mark my goals and post at night)

1. 5 minutes of arm workout with weights - done
2. walk (at least 2 miles) - done
3 eat 5 f/v - done
4. work for at least three hours - sort of....at work for three hours, did a lot, one more thing I MUST get done....
5. grocery store - costco
6. cook dinner - see below, don't be jealous of Taco Thursday....


Allan saved me last night by staying up with a fussy baby from 10:30 -12 (when he fell asleep). I still consider us very lucky that we *bonk* at different times. It was no problem to get up with the baby at 5am when he woke back up because I was well rested!

Mini Goals

I am the queen of the "mini goal". Sometimes I think I am actually to much of a mini goal person. My mini goal for the day was to eat more fruit. I put all the fruit I wanted to eat for the day out in my pretty colander, so I could remind me to eat fruit....and I did! Mini goal reached: 2 clementines, 1 small bunch grapes, 1 small banana, 1 small apple AND I had asparagus for dinner. This is more f/v that I have eaten (in one day) in days. yeah!

Reality TV= Nursing

I saw a lactation consultant yesterday. It was a good news/bad news situation. On one hand, the nipple shields that I have been wearing are not impacting my milk supply, and Henry is getting good hydration and nutrition. On the other hand, I need to be nursing more often and for longer if I want my milk supply to increase. *ugh*

Yesterday was a hard day. I felt like I was nursing constantly and Henry was just not satisfied. Literally, 10 minutes after he was finished nursing, he would be crying and hungry. At 8:00pm we gave up and gave him a bottle (after he had nursed for over an hour). He fell asleep almost immediately and slept till 3:00am! At that point he woke up, nursed and had another bottle and (after being wake for an hour), slept till 8:00am.

I am going to hold off on the bottles today as long as possible, I have a friend who I was supposed to meet for lunch and a walk at an indoor mall in the burbs. She is now going to come to the house for lunch, and I am going to lay low. The good news is that I have NO desire to go outside today since the HIGH is 25. ugh

Reality TV is perfect for nursing. It keeps me a distracted and interested, but if Henry distracts me, I still know what is going on. Current favorites include:
RHW of Beverly Hills (I also like NY but it is not on now)
Biggest Loser - I need the new season to start
Bachelor - needs to get on On Demand
Top Chef
Project Runway - yeah, another one is starting soon
Survivor - I need a new season!

Henry loves his developmental pictures! Don't judge for no sheets, he peed through both early this morning and they are in the wash:)

New Year's Day

There seem to be lots of posts on blogs I follow with recaps of 2011 and goals for 2012. Today I am not into either so *meh*, maybe tomorrow.

I did get out for a good 2.9 mile walk. I did the Horner Park loop with the dog and then left him at home and walked to CVS to do some shopping. Here is a picture I snapped during my walk. Can't wait for the ducklings to come this spring:) The 1/4 mile walk along the river is my favorite part and I usually do that 1/4 mile at least once a day.

My tired point on these walks seems to be around 2 miles. My goal for the week is to walk at least 15 miles and to do 5 minutes of arm weights 4 times (I'd love to do this every day, but the days seem to fly by).

Last night I was asleep by midnight after a yummy dinner of steak, sweet potatoes, and broccoli. I did wake up at 1am to feed the baby. Someone was confused because they were lighting off fireworks at 1am. Allan said there were more at midnight, but I missed them:) Maybe next year!

Henry keeps growing, I still have some breastfeeding concerns (I am not producing enough) and I am excited to see a lactation consultant tomorrow to get some guidance. He is opening his eyes more, is more alert, and started batting at the hanging toys from his bouncy seat. So cute! Boy genius figured out how to hold is bottle today. :) Don't judge me - this kid eats like a beast.

Two Weeks

I can't believe that two weeks have flown by so quickly! We are home and adjusting well after a rocky start and admission to NICU. My parents left this morning, I am getting some decent sleep at night (usually two 3-4 hour chunks) and Henry is growing like a weed. I'm still worried about breast feeding. Henry is not satisfied afterwards and we are doing more supplementing with formula (after managing to pull back last week). I am not sure if he is hitting a growth spurt, if my milk supply is not enough (and if not, why), or if it is some combination of the two. I've been letting him feed longer and doing more switching back to first side if he is still awake to let him *finish* that breast. I am also trying to pump if I don't think he ate enough. Tomorrow I will try to pump between feedings to get things going.

I have been feeling pretty good. My goal for the week is to take daily walks with River of at least one mile. Dailymile.com has been helping me track my *mileage*. Horner Park is my sanctuary. I don't care if it is cold, rainy, dark, or wet. Taking the time for a walk with the dog with no phone/music/talking has been invaluable. Running will have to wait till I heal up a little more. I also need to keep building my fitness by walking.


As of this morning, I am down 24lbs, so -1 from prepregnancy. I'd still like to lose another 15 to get back to my WeWa goal weight. The problem is that I am not hungry and know I am not eating enough. Is this why Henry is not satisfied after nursing? ugh. I am going to a breast feeding drop in clinic on Monday and hope to get some help there.

Friends came over tonight and brought us pizza and beer (for Allan). One is an amateur photographer and took lots of cute pictures of Henry. Allan and I looked like death, so not many of those will be posted.....

Scrooge!

Allan called me a Scrooge today. (or maybe a Grinch?) I have completely cleaned up Christmas. Normally, I would wait a little longer to take everything down, but the tree was dying it was so dry and the clutter was killing me.

Henry's trick for the day was finding his thumb for the first time. I tried to take a picture, but Allan did not get to me with the camera in time. Given that I was a champion thumb sucker, I am not surprised that Henry found his early.

Rough night last night, lots of fussing with a GIANT dirty diaper in the middle of the night. We have already seen another today. I think the new schedule will be a day of poop, followed by a day or two of no poop!:)

Henry says to the Bears - better luck next year. He only had this on for about an hour or two before peeing all over it. Maybe he also takes after me in not loving football?:)