I’ve never done a giveaway post before, so this should be pretty cool. And if you’re anything like me, coming up with the “perfect gift” year after year for any event – Father’s Day, birthday, etc. – has become next to impossible. Fortunately this giveaway has the perfect solution – a gift basket!
Continue reading “Father’s Day Gift Basket Giveaway!”
2 Friday Funks in a row?? Crazy. I must be on a roll over here. I’ll call this one the “No More Moo” edition, because I’ve been given the green light by Lana’s pediatrician to start weaning her from breast milk. Time to start shutting down the milk factory.
The reason for doing this is kind of a need mixed with a want. She NEEDS to start sleeping through the night again, and her doctor said weaning will absolutely help with that. I took her in the other night for her first sick check because she’s had this congestion and cough for months now, and I was afraid she might have an ear infection since she tugs on her left one all the time. Ears look perfect, the doctor said, but she said she still sounds a little croupy. Something in her upper respiratory system is definitely still bugging her, so she’s currently on a 5-day antibiotic just to try and kick whatever keeps running around in there.
But anyway, I was telling her how terrible Lana’s sleeping at night has gotten, and she was pretty surprised to hear that she almost always wakes up 2-3 times per night now. A complete sleep through is essentially nonexistent these days, which is really shitty for a 7 month old.
So after we discussed the decline in night sleeping and I asked about maybe stopping breastfeeding soon, her doctor said yes, let’s definitely start to wean her. That’s where the want part comes in.
I’m ready to be done nursing this time around. I don’t know if it’s the novelty wearing off earlier the second time around or maybe the fact that me having been home basically all of Lana’s life so far with her she’s just spent more time actually nursing than Della did since she was in daycare so much or what, but I’m pretty much over it. That “magical bond” between mother and nursing babe just isn’t that magical anymore.
As when Della was stopping breastfeeding, I would love to not have to worry about it over the summer. Taking my stupid hand pump to all-day events gets so old, and enduring the pain of engorgement when I’d rather just not have to think about it is getting annoying right now. Plus we need to get Lana to know that boobs are no longer an option in the middle of the night. That’s the worst part – as long as she continues to wake up inconsolable save for nursing, we’ll keep taking steps backward instead of forward in this process.
So enter Enfamil, the formula I’ve always dreaded due to its price tag. The act of giving my baby formula doesn’t bother me in the least; it’s paying for the crap when I know I can provide plenty of breast milk for free. But like I said, I’m willing to sacrifice the dollars for a few months this time to get my body freedom back. Selfish? Probably. But Mama needs her sanity too, thank you very much, and Lana will thrive just fine on formula for only a couple months. For when she turns 11 months, we’ll put her on whole milk anyway.
Day 1 of the weaning saga was yesterday, and it was an utter failure. The doctor said to begin by replacing the least important breast milk meals with formula until there is no more nursing, so we’re starting with the one she usually has between her now solid lunches and dinners. Yesterday I whipped up a 6 oz. bottle containing 4 oz. of breast milk and 2 oz. of formula, thinking that would be more than enough breast milk to mask whatever the foreign taste of formula is in there. Nope. She drank a couple good gulps, then refused the rest of it. Well shit. I even made a separate 1 oz. bottle of strictly formula, thinking maybe the breast milk was bad. Still refused. Double shit.
I was afraid of that. Della did the same thing when she stopped nursing, refusing formula. She was about a month and a half older than Lana is now, though, so I just pumped another month or 2 until she started whole milk. I’m not pumping for 4 more months this time, though, so we have to get this to work with Lana. Fortunately round 2 this afternoon went better. I made another 6 oz. bottle for her, but this time I used only 1 oz. of formula and 5 oz. of breast milk, and she drank the whole thing without hesitation. Much better.
My hope is that I can just keep upping the formula ratio in this afternoon bottle and her mid-morning one over the next week or so until those 2 are strictly formula. Then we’ll work on switching the morning wake-up feeding to formula, then lastly the bedtime feeding. The doctor said that’s the order of importance for the feedings to be breast milk. I may start transitioning the bedtime feeding to a mixed bottle sooner, though, so I can make it bigger. When she nurses I obviously have no idea how many ounces she’s taking, but her doctor said to give her a bigger bedtime bottle (at least 6 oz.) to help her stay satisfied through the night better. Makes sense to me. Let’s get this pony rolling.
I would love more than anything to have her nearly fully weaned in the next 3 weeks before we go to Colorado, but I won’t push it. I’ll try, but if I have to take the damn pump, I’ll take it. So wish us luck on this journey! Any and all easy weaning juju you can send our way will be much appreciated.
Speaking of Colorado, my sister had her baby today!!!! I could just poop I’m so excited for them. His name is Roan, and from what I’ve seen so far he is absolutely perfect. I simply cannot wait to hold this newest little Goonie nugget, and Della already knows she has a new baby cousin. She can even say Roan pretty well. I’m so happy we’ll get to meet him when he’s still so little. I just hope my sister and brother-in-law truly know what they’re signing up for when they invite us all to stay with them with a newborn in the house. Heh.
What else? Oh yeah – my race last weekend. Dudes, I kicked its ass!! I was hoping for under 27:00, secretly wishing for under 26:00, and I blew that thing out of the water. 25:11 was my time. BOOM to the OOM! 8:06 pace. I was floored. No way was I expecting a time like that, which is one of my fastest 5k times ever. Let alone after having 2 kids and just getting back to running a few weeks ago. It felt like a terrible run, too, because I started off way too fast trying to keep pace with a group of grade schoolers. Note – never EVER try to keep up with 7 year olds in a race. They’ll destroy you every time. So when I saw sub-25:00 on the score clock as I approached the finish line I was ecstatic.
Then it was off to Miller Park that afternoon with great friends for the Kenny Chesney concert. Yahoo!! That was an absolute blast. We skipped the first couple opening acts and went in for Eric Church and Kenny, and we had so much fun. It turned out to be a gorgeous day, and we had a wonderful afternoon and night.
I think that about wraps everything up for this week. Just another batch of random I wanted to write down before I forgot it all. We’re off to Madison on Sunday for my cousin’s wedding, which will be awesome. So you all have a great long weekend, thank you to those whom we remember in the name of this holiday, and I’ll talk to you later.
Lana turned 7 months old on Tuesday. Slow down!
We don’t have another well check until 9 months, so no official measurements again this time. However, I do know her weight is 16 lbs. 9.75 oz., because she had her first sick trip to the doctor last night. But let’s see what’s changed since last month with this latest update.
Let’s start with sleep. It’s been nonexistent lately. I have no idea why, but Lana has apparently forgotten everything she learned about sleeping through the night. She’s done it maybe twice in the past month plus. Why? What’s going on in there? Growing, teething, just too busy to sleep? I don’t know what the issue is, but I sure hope it corrects itself soon.
I have tried to cut out all feedings during the night, but sometimes she just can’t be soothed back to sleep, so nursing is my last resort. I know she needs to relearn how to put herself back to sleep, but I can only take so much high pitched screeching in the middle of the night, let alone the other sleepers in the house. I am so ready to get her crib out of our room, too.
Fortunately her naps are still pretty good. I’ve noticed a few times she strays from her solid 3-nap-a-day schedule and takes a longer late morning nap paired with a longer late afternoon nap, so maybe she’s starting to transition from 3 naps down to 2. Most days, though, she still gets in all 3.
Eating. I started her on a meal of solids for dinner shortly after 6 months, and just this week I added a second meal of food in there. So now she gets some baby cereal for lunch and sweet potatoes for dinner, with some more cereal if she’s hungry enough. Right now it’s just sweet potatoes because that’s all I’ve made so far, but she also has eaten and loved baby food pears and apples. I mashed up some banana for her the other night, but she didn’t like it at all. So I think I’m going to bake and mash some apples for her, then maybe try throwing in some green veggies after that.
I keep meaning to look for a baby food cereal that I can make with oatmeal, too, because we have a ton of it in the house and it has to be cheaper than buying box after box of baby cereal. So she’s up to 2 meals of solids a day (sitting in the highchair even!) and down to roughly 4 milk feedings a day, either nursing or from a bottle at work.
Movement. This kid is all over the place! She’s been rolling for a couple months now, and that has been her major mode of transportation thus far. She can roll and spin to get to anything, and just the other day I saw her pull herself along with her hands too. So now that she’s added that weapon to the arsenal, she can seriously get around the house.
We definitely cannot leave her on top of anything anymore – changing table, Della’s bed, even our bed. The other day I went into the bathroom, and when I came back she had moved all the way from the dead center of our king sized bed and had 1 leg hanging off the edge. Yikes!
She isn’t crawling yet, but it has to be soon. She will plant 1 foot and 1 knee, but she hasn’t been able to get up on her hands while in that stance yet. She still keeps her head down, but a few days ago I saw her trying to figure that part out. She also rocks back and forth when she’s on her stomach and pushed up on her arms, which is so cute. It’s like she’s dancing, because she does it all over the place.
She still loves being in the jumperoo, and has been able to spin herself all the way around in the seat for a while now. She’s not a big fan of the playpen, but sometimes she’ll stay in there for a little chunk of time playing with all her toys. Thankfully she loves our new jogging stroller. I have taken her and Della for a ton of rides in it now, and I’ll also buckle Lana in there alone if I need to be outside and she’s not napping. She’ll happily chew on her toys and watch the outdoors for hours.
Personality. Getting bigger by the day still. She talks constantly, and her little strings of baby gibberish are simply divine. She blows raspberries all the time, and her belly laughs are the best. When Della tickles her or makes her laugh, she lets out the loudest chuckles, which warm my heart to hear. She still doesn’t like to be ignored and will let you know it, but her smiles far outnumber those squeals now.
She finally got her first tooth! It just broke through 1 week ago, and I’ve been waiting for this one for quite some time. Della got her first tooth at about 5.5 months, so we’ve been on high alert. Especially since Lana has been such a drooling fool for months now. At first I thought it was bugging her quite a bit, but now I don’t really think so. I think that’s just her normal persona shining through, ha!
She sits pretty well assisted, but still can’t sit on her own yet. She sure tries, though. One of her favorite moves is to try and pull herself up to a sitting position when she’s lying down or when you lay her down on something. She’s going to have abs of steel by age 9 months! Her thumb is still her best friend, which is great for me. I can tell she’s not really waking up in the night when I hear her little plug going in her mouth.
Now for the monthly collage. She’s really starting to grow, and I even brought down all of Della’s old 12 month summer clothes the other day. Lana easily fits into all the 6-9 month stuff, and some 12 month things are even close to fitting. So fortunately it doesn’t look like I’ll have to buy a whole new summer wardrobe for her. And just for posterity, she wears size 2 diapers.
Here’s our 7 month comparison too – Della on the left, Lana on the right. These are some seriously cute kids, eh? Didn’t Della look like a little doll? Weird.
Haven’t seen one of these posts in a long time, eh? In fact, the last one was the one I wrote right after Lana was born; my 39 weeks pregnancy update.
But I wanted to get something posted since I haven’t for a while, yet all my thoughts are just kind of random right now. So let’s see… We’ll call this one the “Start of Summer Edition”.
Tomorrow is going to be a spectacular day. Bold prediction, no? But listen to the itinerary – in the morning I have Run the Bay, the 5k for which I’ve been training this past month or so. It’s the first one I’ve run in 2 years, the first and last time I did this same race. I’ve been pushing the girls in our new jogging stroller along the race route for my training runs, so hopefully when I do it alone tomorrow I’ll go faster. The other day I pushed them at a 9:07 pace, which made me pretty happy. If I can get in the lower 8 minutes range somewhere for my race pace that’d be awesome. I think my fastest race pace is just over an 8:00 mile, so I’ll consider anywhere close to that a success, 2 babies later.
Then tomorrow afternoon we’re going to the Kenny Chesney/Eric Church concert at Miller Park. Let the summer of music begin! It’s Kenny’s “No Shoes Nation” tour, and the next stop is Milwaukee. We’re going with friends, and this will be I think the 3rd Kenny show my girlfriend and I will have been to together. I can already hear the Coronas opening and the limes being squeezed…
What else? Oh, Lana has officially sprouted her first tooth. Excellent. Just what we need – something else to make her scream. However, she did sleep completely through the night last night for the first time in at least a month, so I’ll take that. If teeth = sleep for her, I’ll even spring for some dentures to fill her mouth.
Look who my bed partners are this morning – how could it not start well? Sorry the quality is so terrible. It was taken on my phone, which has a ridiculously bright flash, so I kept capturing their recoils instead of their cute little faces, but oh well. You can still tell who it is. Lana has switched positions, though, and is currently trying to squirm her way over to eat the computer. Attention diverting is in full effect right now.
Della has started swim lessons at the gym, so we’re off to those later this morning. This will be her 3rd out of 7 sessions, and she said today she wants to jump in with the teacher and put her head all the way under the water. So far she’s been very hesitant to do so, but the other little girl in her class is a whirling dervish in the pool, which I think has prodded D on a little. I hope she does dunk under today, because I just want her totally comfortable with being in and around the water before we’re near any lakes this summer.
Oh yeah – there’s going to be a baby any day now too! No, not in this household, but in my sister’s. She and my brother-in-law are expecting their first, a little boy, sometime in the next week or so. She’s due next Saturday, but I have the feeling of tomorrow in my head. We shall see – I can’t wait to hear the news!
I think those were the main things running around upstairs this morning. Have a great weekend, everyone, and I’ll let you know how the race goes. Fingers crossed for a respectable finish!
Last night I attended the annual staff appreciation event the WAC holds, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. Ryan stayed home to watch the girls and at first I was very skeptical of going alone since I hate doing stuff like that by myself, but I’m glad I ended up going. I talked to a couple of the girls in the kids care room at work the other week to see if anyone else was going alone and a lot of people were, so I figured what the hell.
It was held downtown at the Milwaukee Athletic Club, and more than anything I just wanted to see the venue. It’s a fancy country club-type place to which I’d never been. (i work at the Wisconsin Athletic Club, this was held at the Milwaukee Athletic Club, with which the WAC has reciprocity membership. kinda confusing, i know)
The food was great, there were a ton of people there, and it was fun seeing everyone in something other than black and yoga pants. It actually took me a minute to recognize some of my coworkers since we girls all had our hair done nicely and were wearing dresses and heels. It was also entertaining watching a couple people get rather boisterous as the night wore on, the cash bar kept the drinks flowing, and the dance floor opened, but I was plenty content to observe all that from the sidelines.
Anyhoo… A number of awards were given out during dinner as well. There were some length of service awards, trainer and salesperson of the year, outstanding employee award, and on and on. In addition, each of our 6 clubs gave out peer awards – every employee received a ballot with their invitation and was supposed to vote for a coworker from their home club for each of the handful of categories listed.
In an amazing twist of fate, I won one!! The North Shore WAC, which is the one at which I work, bestowed upon me the “Most Contagious Smile” award. I was so surprised and deeply flattered. I’ve only worked there for about 3 moths, so the fact that enough people voted for me to win something was crazy. A number of members have told me how nice my smile is and appreciate that I always greet them cheerfully, but I had no idea so many of my coworkers felt the same way. And I got $25. Excellent.
And last week my boss gave me a gift certificate for a half hour massage, simply as a thank you for all that I do there. Sweet! Who knew working the front desk at a gym would be such a great gig?
In related news, Wednesday is my birthday. Well I guess that’s actually completely unrelated, but whatever. It’s just what I thought of next.
I’m never one to shun my birthday; I usually love celebrating it to the fullest. But just a few days ago I was remarking on the fact that it was already going to be May, and I realized I had honestly forgotten about my birthday.
I don’t mean like oh shoot, it’s just my little ol’ birthday, it’s nothing special. I mean like I literally had not given it one half of a thought this year. Guess that’s what happens when your life revolves around 2 tiny human beings – 99% of my brain is dedicated to them, the other 1% goes to me, Ryan, the house, what I need to do on a daily basis to stay sane and keep things running. You know, no big deal.
At least spring seems to finally have sprung around here. The lowest high temperature I see through the extended forecast is high 50s, which is much better than the high 30s we saw so recently. About damn time this year. My tulips and lilacs may actually bloom soon. Yay, my beloved May flowers!
