Maeve’s one year check-up

This morning was Maeve’s one year check up. It is also Lewis’ birthday. We woke up, opened some birthday presents in bed and went for a birthday breakfast at our favourite spot before going to the Doctor for her appointment.

Maeve is now 20.2lbs and 30” tall!

Doctor M was very happy with her progress. She said that it’s okay for her not to be talking yet as long as she’s babbling a lot which she is. She’s started making new vocal sounds and sounds like an alien character or something (“b’duk duka ticuh” etc). She commented on her friendly social nature saying that most 1yr olds are dubious of her but I think Maeve is a generally good judge of character. She can be shy with some strangers and friendly with others.
She was given the all clear to eat any food she wants! Yay! And as for the reflux Dr said to try her on the ¼ tablet once a day for a few more weeks and then try stopping altogether! She’s been doing the once a day for 10 days now so I’ll give it to the end of the month and see what happens. I can’t believe we might be done with medicine. She still spits up once in a while, but it’s not even every day now 🙂

After the doctor saw her, she got 3 sets of shots (2 in one arm, 1 in the other). She cried a lot, but the nurse was very quick. Then we went to get blood drawn which #1 was the rotten cherry on the top of the pile of crap that was the 3 shots and #2 was just miserable for all involved 😦 she cried so much and was sobbing throughout. I had to hold her legs between mine and wrap my arms around her so she couldn’t wriggle. The nurse tried twice to find a vein in the arm, when she found a vein she wasn’t able to get any blood so she had to do a pin prick on the finger and collect the blood for 2 vials that way (which of course takes so much longer). Maeve was sobbing, Lewis was unhappy, I wasn’t happy, I felt sorry for the poor young nurse too. It was a rough 10 minutes or so.

Since her birthday she has had a few new things going on:

Pooping. She has started to go to the bathroom door when she needs to poop. It’s only happened a few times. Or she’ll come over to me and want to climb up on my lap for a cuddle and I get a whiff 🙂

Weaning: A few weeks before her birthday we were down to one or two breast feedings per day, then a few days after her birthday I went out for the afternoon and she wasn’t able to have her mid-afternoon snack so she went all day with only sippy cups. I think it was the next day that I managed to distract her and she went 2 days without breastfeeding! I was so surprised when I went to bed that night I had to text Christina 😛 We are now managing to breast feed every 2^nd or 3^rd day. If she sees my boobs when I’m changing she gets excited and sometimes she’ll grab at my shirt but I can usually offer her a sippy cup or a pacifier and she’s happy. Now I have to hope she doesn’t get too attached/dependant on a pacifier. I’m trying to keep it out of sight and only offer it at nap time and even then only when she’s fussy about going down.

So she’s now 30” tall which means her reach is even longer and not too many surfaces are safe from her grabby little paws. She can also climb, remember?! She can climb onto the loveseat and onto the windowsill behind; she can climb onto the couch and then onto the table behind; the other day we turned around to see that she can climbed onto the windowsill by my bedside and was looking out at the world below!!!; she can move the step stool around the kitchen and has started to attempt to climb it… This morning she wobbled the rack where her food is kept just enough to knock a munchies cup filled with cheerios down. I might have to do some rearranging!

I’ve bought a little harness/leash type thing at Babies R Us. I’m hoping that this way I can wear her when we go out and then when I get tired or she gets fidgety she can walk around without darting into a street. I am also looking at getting a cheap umbrella stroller for some outings so that we can ride the bus if needed. The jogging stroller is great for most trips but it’s a pain to break it down if I want to ride on the bus (and I hate taking up the space on the bus if I don’t break it down).

I love the little person she’s becoming. I look at pictures or read my journal from a year ago and it amazes me. Those first few weeks were a haze of sleep and feeds and now she’s a blur as she zips around the condo.

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9 months

The Stormbringer brought us one hell of a storm on the day she reached 9 months. I like to think that the storm on the night she was born helped soothe her and now whenever we have storms they feel familiar and calming rather than frightening. She slept through most of it 🙂 But man did it do some damage! Flash floods in lots of local neighbourhoods, even as close as 2 blocks north of us! Thankfully our street was unaffected.

The basics: She is now 18lbs 1oz , 28.5inches long and wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes. I put some clothes on her the other morning that were clearly too small for her so have gone through her drawers again to sift out the small items. I always feel sad when I have to pack away my favourite items of clothing because she didn’t get to wear them often enough.

What is Maeve up to now? Well she’s walking for reals now. If she wants to get somewhere fast she’s down on her knees crawling but otherwise she’s very comfortable toddling about the apartment. I got her some shoes (size 3) but they only just fit and are kind of clunky for her so I’ve exchanged them for some softer more flexible shoes. I love watching her follow Roomba around 🙂 As some of you know she is also climbing very well! If she is on the couch with me she is quick to scale the back of the couch and tries to get onto the table. The other day she had maneuvered an empty box over to the coffee table and climbed up on to it to reach something on the table! So, yeah, I have to keep an eye on that!

I am still breast feeding but she is taking the bottle at meals and occasionally at non-meal times too! It’s about 50/50 breast vs bottle these days. She is starting to get the hang of tipping the bottle up too 🙂 She started venturing into finger foods at the end of March. She is getting less interested in purees and spoon fed cereals so mealtimes can be a challenge, but generally a good one. I have to have a few things ready for her in case the spoon fed stuff is rejected. I really don’t want to encourage a picky eater but I can’t force her to eat if she doesn’t want to Foods she currently likes include: banana, melon slices, parsnip, broccoli & cheese nuggets, pasta & sauce, steamed apple slices,rice puffs, green beans. It all depends on the day though we just got the go ahead for yogurt and egg yolks and cheese, yay! The other night we went for dinner at Penny’s Noodles and she happily sat in the high chair and ate her parsnip mash but then she kept grabbing at my plate so I picked out some chicken and broccoli pieces to cool down for her. I think she was watching her cousin across the table eating gyoza (pot stickers) with her kiddie chopsticks 🙂 Today I bought her a new sippy training cup to try too!
Oh, we are continuing on with the Prevacid (her reflux medicine) twice a day until she hits the one year mark. Then after her one year appt we’re going to go down to once a day for 4 weeks and if she’s doing okay we’ll talk about getting her off it within 6 weeks. Fingers crossed she’ll be reflux free by 15months 🙂 Funnily enough Dr M is away for the entire month of July so Maeve’s one year appointment will be on her original due date of August 5th. 🙂

She is still not sleeping through the night on a regular basis, but in the past month she has had 2 or 3 awesome nights! One night I woke at 2am and realized she’d been asleep since 8 or 9, I lay there wondering if I should be worried but she woke at 2:30 for a feed. Then one night last week she slept from 8pm until 3am and then again until 6:45am. It was great! Last night she woke just before 2 am and 4am and managed to soothe herself back to sleep without me going in at all!! Hurrah!!! I’m trying to get her to sleep better at night by the end of May so that she doesn’t keep Nana & Papa up all night while we’re out of town for a wedding.
Edited to add: Exciting news! Last night (April 27th) Maeve went to bed at 7:30 and slept through until 5:15am! That’s almost 10hrs of solid sleep!! Then after a quick feed she went back to sleep until about 6:45ish ❤

Our place is becoming overrun with Maeve toys. My brother brought over a bunch of clothes and books and toys (oh my!) from his kids. I’m very grateful and I love that Maeve gets hand-me-downs from all of her cousins (I think it helps build a connection between them) but we need a bigger place for everything! Of course she’s happy playing with anything she finds around the house too. She’ll play with my shoes, the Roomba, an empty box, the mirror in our bedroom, a paper bagfilled with paper bags, the cords to our laptops (which we have to say no to!), the remote control, my keys, an empty plastic bottle… anything really 🙂 She also loves her books. I have a basket with her big kid books out of her reach, and all her board books are on the entertainment centre for her to get to easily. She’ll pull them all down and study them intently. Sometimes she pulls our books off the lower shelves of our bookcases too which is rather more dangerous/annoying. Window sills aren’t safe surfaces to display our things anymore. I’ve had to remove Lewis’s bobble head collection, a Dalek and our Tokidoki things and pack them up in preparation for the new house. I kind of want to start packing up a bunch of stuff in preparation for the new house but that’s rather presumptive seeing as we haven’t even been to any viewings. It would just be so much easier to pack things away rather than constantly shifting things to a temporary new place out of her reach 🙂

I saw some tasty looking finger foods at the store this morning but as we’re on a tight budget at the moment I decided to research some more recipes for making my own veggie cookies etc for her to nibble on. I don’t want her to just snack on the rice puffs (although they do go down easily!), I’d like to know that she’s getting some real fruit/veggies in there. Chris also brought me another Annabel Karmel book of recipes for Maeve (Feeding your Baby & Toddler) that they’d found useful. So I have more fun recipes to try out 🙂

Edited to add the part about me: I got my period today. Woo hoo, welcome back to the joys of being a woman 😛 When she grabs at my shirt I have been trying to give her a couple of ounces from a  bottle, and I keep boob time for before naps or in the night. Like I said, I guess we’re at about 50% bottle now so that has affected my milk production and allowed me to resume periods. I guess I have to watch my snacking habits again now that I’m burning less calories through breastfeeding 😛
The other day I managed to squeeze in a semi workout. I played Kinect while Maeve toddled around and laughed at me jumping about. I’d like to get out running more, but I’m generally happy with the activity level. Walking 1.5miles to the store while wearing an 18lb baby is *work* 🙂
I’m definitely enjoying alcohol on occasion again. Generally I save it for the weekends and only have a drink before bed, but the freedom to choose is nice.

8 months

The part about Maeve:

Goodness she’s growing up. Everyone new to meet her can’t believe how young she is because she’s so mobile.
Every day she is working hard at walking although she still hasn’t taken more than one step before sitting down or crawling. If I hold something out for her to walk to she’ll try to reach for it and if she can’t reach it she’ll just crawl. Even if she’s not walking yet she is getting all over the place in a speedy fashion. I have to keep the bathroom door and baby gate to the kitchen closed.

Sleep is still a challenge. She goes to bed at around 8pm and wakes at 11pm. I’ve asked Lewis to handle the first wake and soothe her back to sleep so that I can get some sleep before, she wakes around 3am wanting a feed. Lewis will also handle things if she wakes again around 5am. He’ll either soothe her or bring her to bed. Then we’re up for the day between 7:30-8am. On rare occasions she’ll sleep a solid chunk between 3am and 8am, but it’s not often. At least she doesn’t need feeding every time she wakes these days. Whew. I had a very rough week when I was waking up every 1.5- 2 hours dealing with her and Lewis had no idea, so I asked him to take over the lat night and early morning shifts. This way I can get 2 solid chunks of sleep and he gets 6+ hours before going to work.

She is back to accepting a pacifier to suck on/chew rather than needing a feed from me for every comfort situation but she really doesn’t seem attached to the pacifier which makes me happy.I don’t want her becoming dependent on them and still using them at 3yrs old.

She is getting better at taking formula from a bottle at meal times. I manage to get 2oz into her at meals and finish off by offering her some boob but she normally doesn’t want more than a minute or two. Speaking of meals, she just started trying to feed herself with a spoon a few days ago(!). Mostly I’m still feeding her, but every so often she shuts her mouth and kind of stares at the spoon as if to suggest that she wants to try, or she outright grabs for it. I’ll put some food on the spoon and then place it on the tray in front of her and she will pick it up and get the food into her mouth most of the time. Sometimes she puts the wrong end in her mouth and sometimes she just shakes it about and flings food everywhere, but she’s working on it  🙂

She’s still wearing mostly 6mo clothing with a few 3-6mo items and one or two 6-9mo stuff. She’s just about to move up to size 3 diapers and I found some slip-on ones that I’m excited to try! I’m hoping they will be easier to get on her since she’s so wriggly. I still have half a pack of size 2s to use up but she’s right on the cusp of the size change. Mostly we’re using the cloth diapers, if we’re hanging out at home, but if we have a long day out visiting friends I find it easier to use disposables.

Last weekend we went to the ‘burbs and got Easter pics taken with real live bunnies. It was adorable to watch her study the rabbits and gently pet them. It was also just kind of hilarious trying to get her and her 3 yr old cousin *and* a bunny to sit still for any amount of time and pose nicely 😛

This weekend was Maeve’s first St.Patrick’s Day. We skipped the festivities downtown in favour of returning to the Irish American Heritage Center and watching some Irish dancing. Lewis whipped up a cute little kilt for her that will probably still fit her next year too 🙂

The part about me:

I’m generally feeling more energetic now I’m getting better sleep, but some days are still exhausting. I’m mildly obsessed with looking at houses online for our potential move this summer. I check online a billion times a day. I am reminding myself that this will be our family home and the one Maeve grows up in so I want it to be one I love and not just settle for one that is okay and within our price range. there are a bunch of houses out there that are ‘okay’ and I’d consider if we were renting, but if we’re going to own our own house I want to be proud of it.

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Maeve and Me at 4 Months

So Miss Maeve hit her 4 month birthday on Sunday and today she had her 4 month appointment with Dr Maxouris. She weighs 12lb 11oz, and is 24 inches long. Dr Maxouris said that she has reflux, but that from her healthy weight gain and everything we told her it doesn’t seem to be anything to worry about other than laundry issues. But she told us what to look out for if it starts to be a problem and we need to give her medicine or add cereal to her feeds. Otherwise we’re to carry on with breast feeding for the next 2 months as she seems to be getting enough from me and growing well. Whew.

This visit she had 2 more shots and an oral vaccine. She was so happy and smiley for the first nurse who took her measurements, but then she had to wait a long time before the doctor came in and it was getting close to nap time. So I fed her and the doctor came in talked to us for a bit, and then checked her ears, mouth and hips etc which made her cranky (apparently her teeth are still far down so all her dribbling is really early prep). We managed to calm her down again and another nurse came in to give Maeve her Tylenol and vaccines which she really did not like 😦 she was really crying hard for a while. I gave her another feed and we tucked her up snug in the stroller and walked home. She was fine on the walk and managed to fall asleep, but when we got home and she woke up she needed a fresh diaper and poor Lewis had about an hour of her crying and fussing and whimpering before she went to sleep while I went out to my usual evening with friends. Hopefully she wakes up feeling less miserable.

So at 4 months she can still fit in to a few of her 0-3 month clothing, but if she’s wearing a cloth diaper she has to wear the 3mo clothing. She is wearing size 1 diapers (which fit up to 14lbs) but I think I’ll buy some size 2 this week and see how they fit.

Her favourite toys are still the crinkle paper and her exersaucer/play station and now the puppy that Ian gave her. It is soft and cuddly and has a rattle in the head and 3 things to chew on. Her feet *almost* touch the bottom of the exersaucer! She still wobbles a bit and can’t spin herself around yet, but she can now reach the toys and enjoys figuring out how they work. I have started to video her for a few minutes most days so Lewis doesn’t miss these special moments of her figuring out how to work the toys or vocalizing a new noise etc. A passing stranger at the store the other day commented that she isn’t very smiley, which is somewhat true I guess. She’s certainly not as outwardly cheerful as Simon, but I think she’s just very intense and studious. She studies everything. Her most cheerful time of day is first thing in the morning when we first wake up. I pick her up and sit her on my tummy and we have smiley giggly time for almost an hour before I get up.

This past week she has suddenly started eating more and I feel drained dry! She usually feeds for 8-10 minutes every 2.5-3hrs, but this week she has had occasionally had 20minute feeds. Lewis had to give her a bottle of formula on Friday evening as I wanted a chance to ‘fill up’ again.

She is being bad about sleeping in her bed at night this week. She wakes up crying and stretching and arching her back and refusing to be put back in her bed. She arches her back and stretches and then she pulls her head up and kind of uses her elbows to push herself off the bed wanting to be in a sitting position. If I haven’t mentioned it before a few weeks ago we got her one of these (http://www.fisher-price.com/en_US/brands/babygear/products/51903) rocking beds. It holds her in a more upright position than a regular bassinet or crib and she can rock herself to sleep by kicking her feet. She’s so much more comfortable in this! She’ll get to sleep in this until she hits the 25lb weight limit or can pull herself to a sitting position, which to be honest will probably be the sooner for her.

She’s *so close* to needing a bigger bed and to be honest I’m kind of looking forward to when she moves into her own room. Having her cry during the night is tough on me because I have to try to quiet her down so Lewis can get his sleep. Technically I have the option of sleeping later or taking a nap in the afternoon but that rarely happens. I am surviving on about 5hrs of broken sleep per night these days.

When I lay her on the floor for tummy time she is starting to lift her legs into a downward dog type position but still doesn’t lift with her arms past the elbows and if she’s on her back she is starting to wriggle and arch her back like she’s getting ready to flip over, so I think by Christmas she’ll be rolling. Also, I think she’s headed toward skipping the whole crawling thing and moving right on to walking, but we shall see, maybe once she gets rolling figured out she’ll work on crawling.

Our next appointment is toward the end of January when she’ll be 6 months! Wow.

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3 months

Maeve is 3 months old! That’s crazy! She’s 13 weeks & 1 day old, 92 whole days old.

She’s wearing 0-3 and 3month clothing depending on the brand and is starting to feel more solid. I look at her hands and can’t believe how big they’re getting, they still feel delicate and graceful, but at the same time they are strong. She is fascinated by her feet and tries to grab her toes all the time. You can see the concentration in her eyes when she’s trying to do something with her hands (like grab hold of something or swat at something).

Her favourite toys are still the rattle, crinkle paper and her exersaucer/play station that she can sit in and try to figure out the toys.  She loves being upright and looking at the world. Her feet barely touch the bottom of the exersaucer so she still wobbles a bit and can’t spin herself around, but she is generally happy and entertained in there 🙂.  And she likes sitting in the bumbo chair too for a change of pace. She has a few other toys around that I show her (keys, squeaky cat, chains) but so far she doesn’t seem very interested in them. I figure I’ll keep showing new things to her, but won’t force anything she’s not interested in so a lot of her rattles and toys are still sitting in her basket. She’s not much of a fan of tummy time, but is getting better about lifting her head and occasionally working on a commando crawl. One of her newest favourite things is when we make silly faces at her, she watched our tongue waggle about and copies us. This is my current go-to trick when she starts to get whiney.

We are still breast feeding 90% of the time, but we have cracked open the formula for times when I’m not home or we’re on the road. Now that we’re settling into a routine I’m trying to get more stuff done between feeds so I’m not managing to pump as often.  She isn’t too happy about getting her meals from a bottle, even if it’s pumped and there are some bottle she flat out refuses to drink from. She prefers to get her meals straight from the source so I am not looking forward to weaning her off in coming months.

We’re settling into a bit of a routine these days (yay!): Eat, Play, Sleep on a 2.5-3hr cycle, although if we’re out and about she sleeps longer. When I put her down for a nap it can take 8-10 minutes for her to fall asleep which is hard for me to ignore, and sometimes by the time she’s calmed down/fallen asleep I need a nap too. When we saw the doctor 3 weeks ago she told us that it would take 7-10 days to settle into a routine. Unfortunately our weekends have been so busy that they throw off any progress we’ve made during the week so 3 weeks later we are still working on perfecting the routine and I know it will *never* be perfect, but hopefully it will get easier?

Monday mornings we start our week by skyping with Grandma & Grandad in the UK, and Monday evenings Maeve gets daddy time while I go out to catch up on Eastenders at my friends. So the deal is that  for my Mates Date Night I am out of the house for about 4hrs max. Two of the current plots involve newborn baby girls about Maeve’s age.

Plot #1: Janine and Michael had Scarlett back in June I think. She was severely early (11weeks) and that was a hard thing to watch while still pregnant myself. Now though, she is home and healthy. Janine had a hard time adjusting to motherhood and some other issues with Michael caused her to leave them, so Michael is a single father now. Most of Michael’s storylines have involved him being devious and sociopathic, so he’s not a natural father figure and as viewers we’re not geared up to be sympathetic to him:) On the one hand it’s kind of funny to see him floundering and trying to schmooze everyone on the square to babysit for him, but on the other hand it breaks my heart when they show baby Scarlett crying in her crib and he’s downstairs turning up the volume on the TV to drown her out. Last night he packed her up and left her at his cousin’s house deeming them better parents than him, but they returned Scarlett to him and talked him ‘off the ledge’ so to speak. He asked why she would want him as a father as both his parents and now wife had all left him. But they reminded him that for Scarlett, he is her world and she loves him. They did a close up on the baby smiling up at him then and it was just how Maeve smiles sometimes. 🙂

Plot #2: Lola is a teen mum. She grew up in foster care and recently found her grandfather. They live in a squat and she has just had her probation tag removed from a previous incident. Her baby girl Lexie was born a week after Maeve and even though Lola makes some bad choices about some stuff (ie nicking cleaning supplies to earn money cleaning houses) she’s doing it for Lexie. This week her best friend was being bullied by a gang of girls Lola had been in care with. You could see how Lola was torn between looking after Lexie or stepping in and helping her friend. In the end she stepped in, told her friend to take Lexie somewhere safe and ended up punching one of the girls for threatening the baby. Good reason, bad choice. The girl called the police and social services on Lola, and Lexie was taken into protective care. It was again heartbreaking for me to watch this young mother have her baby girl taken away from her.
This is *not* what I want to watch during my short time away from Maeve 😛

Last week Maeve had a play date with her cousin on the South Side and we’re hoping to add more of that in to our weekly routine. This morning we had a special skype call with cousins in England. She got fussy after 20minutes or so, but hopefully we can do that more often and she can become familiar with them by the time we get to visit the UK next (or they come over here for a visit).
She and Simon are slowly becoming conscious and aware of each other which is fun to watch. At V’s wedding a couple of weeks ago she enjoyed dancing with us and seemed intrigued by Simon (he seemed disinterested in her, but he was feeling under the weather). This past weekend however, Simon really noticed Maeve and was babbling at her and reaching for her and grabbing at her sleeve! She was more interested in his exersaucer 😛 It will be really fun to see them interact as they become more mobile and verbal.

She has started chewing on her tongue this week, which could mean she’s ready for food (like baby cereal) or that she’s gearing up for teething. She’s getting better (although not perfect by any means) at self soothing and unless she’s actually hungry or wet can calm herself down to sleep in the night. I can hear her sucking on her hand in her bed as I type. I still wake up every hour or so though.
Lewis got his flu shot this week and suffered 2 days of the mild flu-like symptoms. His arm ached so he couldn’t pick up Maeve easily. I figured I will wait until next week to get mine so at least one parent can pick her up! She is starting to have different cries. She has an angry cry and a whiney cry and a few others I haven’t figured out yet.
I love watching her play and trying to figure things out. I love when she smiles at silly faces we make or songs we sing, and how her brow furrows when she’s studying something. I love when she quiets down the instant I hold her (sometimes).

If I had had a full time job I would have been ‘entitled’ to 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave, which means I would have returned to work a week ago and I can’t imagine that. I can’t say I wouldn’t mind earning some money on a regular basis, but I think I’d be happy with just a couple of days a week like Christina.

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Six Weeks.

This a post partum mile stone, I had my 6 week check up this week and got the all clear for resuming normal activities “everything is back to normal down there” 🙂 First they took my blood pressure (102/66) and weighed me (back down to 141lbs), then I filled in a short questionnaire about PPD http://www.fresno.ucsf.edu/pediatrics/downloads/edinburghscale.pdf .  It helped me see that even though the first few weeks were tough and I did worry about PPD I am generally feeling good and most of the anxiety I feel is within normal new parent range and that the bouts of sadness etc are relatively minor.
We discussed contraception choices during breastfeeding. If I wanted to go on the pill again I could go with a progesterone only pill or I can have an IUD or return to condoms. Frankly condoms are my preference.  If we want Maeve to have a sibling the pill and IUD require a time commitment to make sure they are effective and then for my body to resume stuff after use and we’re not going to want to wait 5 yrs before trying again.

The numbness in my knee has disappeared, yay! About a week or 2 ago I suddenly realized I was able to walk upstairs without thinking about it. 🙂 Apparently it wasn’t from the epidural (whew) but actually from the pushing and holding my knee tight. It put pressure on nerves that then needed time to recover.

I’m wearing my wedding ring again after taking it off around the 6month (?) mark. The weather was cooler on our anniversary a couple of weeks ago and I took the chance at seeing if my wedding ring would fit and it did! Huzzah! It is back to being a bit tight and difficult to remove again but that’s due to the usual summer temps.

I have mommy thumb. Now that I know why my hand hurts and better ways to lift my darling girl I’m hoping it will get better before she gains much more weight 🙂

I am feeling significantly more relaxed since my parents went home. I know that’s bad, but I just wasn’t able to relax when I needed to while they were in town. I felt that frustration of having to assist them in every little thing while they wanted to help me. Now that they are home I only have to think about me and Maeve, without having to try to figure out scheduling anyone else in for the most part.

Maeve has started to cry more often (and started to cry actual tears, which is heartbreaking) and eat more often and spit up a lot. It is frustrating. I have put it down to her reflux at night. She’s not sleeping at night so she gets fussy so then she comfort eats and spits up and that makes the reflux worse.

Yesterday we got her a new bed and she slept for 3 solid hours in it last night! She then woke up for a feed and I fell asleep with her, and then she was awake from 3:30-5am for her next feeds and diaper changes, but then she spent the rest of the night in her bed again and slept until 7am. This is a major improvement from 40 minutes of fussing and screaming in the bassinet before sleeping in our bed. Our bed is not big enough for 3 people (or even 2.5).  And she had fewer issues with her reflux (less grunting and fussing and less spitting up). She did go through 2 diapers in quick succession when she woke up, but I can live with that 🙂

We are enjoying a much calmer, happier day today.

I bought myself a new back pack that works much better as a diaper bag. Yesterday we bought the new bed and a new stroller so that Sarah and Riley can have theirs back. I feel like things are slowly coming together, but I read that weeks 6-8 are big crying weeks for babies as they figure some stuff out.
Other (less Maeve-related) stuff has also happened 🙂
Last weekend was V’s bachelorette weekend which was a lot of fun, if exhausting. Friday I tried to pump a bunch of milk and stock up (very difficult with Maeve being so fussy). In the evening she had some daddy-daughter time while I went out for some time with the girls and enjoyed a delightful dinner and Karaoke. It was truly fun to get dressed up and not have to think about when the little one was going to wake up for a feed or a change. And I had my first alcoholic drink since before I peed on that stick! I had half a bottle of cider during dinner which allowed me the 4 hour window before Maeve’s middle of the night feed.

On Saturday, we bundled into Angela’s car and drove to Oak Park where we had brunch before heading out to the ‘burbs for Andy’s birthday party. It was another fun day, but I got tired fairly early. I guess the party went on until really late but I’m glad Maeve and I hitched a ride back to the city because we would have both got frustrated and cranky.

Sunday was V’s bridal shower back at Angela’s. Speaking as a guest, it was a really great party. Even though it’s still August and summer I didn’t mind that it was raining for most of the day, once we got past the initial uncomfortably muggy feeding session Maeve and I enjoyed snuggling up together and listening to the rain. She also enjoyed being cuddled by anyone who would have her for the most part 🙂

I was expecting Lewis to be swinging by the house on his way home from a boys day out so hung out with the girls before Lewis said that they had spent the day up on our end of town and wouldn’t be coming by OP. Sigh. Maeve was getting fretful so I bundled her up, loaded up the stroller and headed to the train. Three blocks in a torrential downpour. I felt ill-prepared and a terrible mother. Maeve was completely fine protected from the rain in her buggy, while I got soaked to the skin and struggled not to sob uncontrollably. I’m glad it was warm at least and not windy, I’m also glad that the train wasn’t heavily air-conditioned. She was actually calmed to sleep by the rain on the buggy’s canopy and the rumble of the train as we made our way home. I just beat myself up about not having the appropriate stuff for such a situation. By the time I got home I was tired, wet and miserable, but at the same time I was relieved that Maeve had slept through the entire adventure and hadn’t got rained on or cold. Lewis gave her a bottle and got her ready for bed, while I had a nice hot shower and cup of tea. It’s amazing how much better I felt after those little things. I was upset that Lewis hadn’t been with me on the ride home as I had expected, but it would have been silly for him to come all the way out to OP just to ride home with me. I would have been waiting around for at least half an hour and we would have got home much later and then we’d have both been soaked through and miserable. This way at least he was able to do some stuff around the house and look after us when we got home.

 I have managed to get some decent walking in this week. Still no running, but I’m trying to make my peace with that for now.
When I walk to Target I try to switch up my route a little and explore some of the side streets and see if there are any pretty houses for sale.
I finally bought my bridesmaid dress for V’s wedding (whew) and I am catching up on my To Do List which feels really good. I am going to treat myself to an old school radio with a tape player with some birthday money, because I like to listen to the radio and I have some tapes that I’d like to enjoy once in a while.

…………and miss Maeve has just woken up for her lunchtime feed so I guess I’m done for now 🙂 chat later folks

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One Month

It’s been 4 weeks since the dragon brought us our Stormbringer.

In the past week we’ve both got more comfortable with riding the train to various neighbourhoods and getting changed in public restrooms. And I’m getting better at packing a bag with what we might need (by the time she’s 2 months old I might have it sorted properly, but each trip out is a little bit better than the last).
Last Friday, we met up with my mum and Aunt J for lunch and a wander through the shops.
On Sunday, we drove out to the ‘burbs for the Baby Shower Lewis’ family were throwing for Maeve. It was the longest car ride we’ve had with Maeve. I packed 2 bottles of pumped milk for the day in case she got hungry en route, and we swaddled her up so she wouldn’t ruin her party dress if she spat up. Mum and dad wanted to see a bit of where Lewis comes from so we took a scenic tour of some neighbourhoods before stopping for lunch at a favourite pizza place. It was also Maeve’s first visit to Daddy’s home town and she slept through the entire tour, but she’ll be back to daddy’s home town often enough I don’t think it matters 😛
At the pizza place we had a hiccup. I went to change her diaper in the bathroom (told you we were getting used to this) and whoops!- she exploded a little 😦 She got poop on her party dress bloomers so off they came and then I see that she pooped on the swaddling cloth too, and a little on her dress. sigh. I changed her diaper, wiped down her dress, wrapped the bloomers in the poopy swaddling cloth and *then* saw delightful poopy colours down the front of MY dress 😡 Gah! baby wipes managed to remove most of it and my cardigan covered up the last discolouration, but geez!
I had packed an extra dress for her and a couple of extra swaddle/spit cloths, but nothing extra for me to change into. I considered stopping by Christina’s to see if I could borrow something, but in the end the cardigan was fine. In hindsight I guess we should have kept her naked until we arrived at the church and put her in her party frock there. oh well. Every day provides a learning experience 😉
The baby shower was fun and I managed to get a couple of quick feedings in (trying to save the 2nd bottle for the ride home).
The ride home was even longer due to an accident on the expressway and by the time we got home we were all exhausted and hungry.

On Monday, Lewis returned to work and Maeve and I had our first day alone. I managed okay I think. My parents and J came over to hang out in the afternoon and Lewis had to work late so by the time he got home and they all left we were once again exhausted. I think that we’ve had a few weeks getting used to just being new parents and now we’re starting a few weeks of getting used to being a working parent (Lewis) and a stay-at-home parent (me, duh).

On Tuesday I settled into the stay-at-home-mum thing some more and mum and dad came over in the afternoon for a few hours so I had a quick shower and got some Thank You cards written while mum watched Maeve, and dad explored the neighbourhood and washed some dishes etc. Maeve tried out her bouncy chair for the first time and seems to like it more than laying on her back in the Moses basket or bassinet. I think it cradled her in a more cozy way and she can see more of what’s going on. I realize how tedious this all sounds, but I never conceived of how much of a shock to the system having a new born to care for would be. Physically and mentally, I am having to shift gears to a new and unfamiliar pace.

Today we tried out the moby wrap! At first I just had her in it while I pottered around the house but then we arranged to meet my parents for lunch, so I changed Maeve’s diaper and got dressed and got her back in the wrap… and then she got fussy and wanted a feed. Sigh. Handily I was wearing the new nursing top that Christina got me for my birthday so I was able to shift some stuff around and feed little miss Maeve *while leaving the house and walking down the street*!!! Major new experience right there. Seriously, woah. First thoughts on the Moby Wrap are that it will take some getting used to. All the layers of fabric wrapped around us in 85degree temps got very warm and uncomfortable for both of us and poor Maeve got very fussy, and walking around for too long made my back ache so I cut things short and headed home to rest in the air conditioning.

And now for something completely different: Sex.
Getting back into the swing of things “in the sack” as it were are weird. I want to, Lewis wants to, but at the same time I want to wait until I get the all clear from my doctor in two weeks time. It’s frustrating that whenever we finally have a moment where we both have energy and motivation there is this little voice in our heads slowing us down. But it’s also kind of nice to just slow things down and enjoy being naked together or have a make out session without it leading anywhere more physical.
More often than not when we start to snuggle there’ll be a murmur or whimper from across the room and that kind of cramps our style. Sigh 🙂 Also, catching a glimpse of a cute little baby outfit or toy out of the corner of my eye while in the middle of a make out session is very distracting…

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One Week

Today Maeve reached the one week mark and it’s been a busy week.

I stayed at the hospital until Maeve was 24hrs old but as soon as both of us were given the all clear I was desperate to get home. I was feeling claustrophobic in the hospital room, and even though there was a shower I didn’t have a chance to enjoy it because of the steady stream of doctors and nurses needing information from me or Maeve. I was exhausted and people kept asking if we’d fed recently or pooped and how I was feeling etc. I felt kind of bad that I was finally a mum but that after such a long day all I wanted to do was have a long sleep and a decent shower. I was not physically capable of tending to this child I had just brought into the world. My right knee was still numb (from the epidural?) so getting in and out of bed or going to the bathroom was slow going. Maeve had her first photo shoot (well, aside from the billions taken in L&D by family), Lewis booked an I-Go car and we bundled up our girl to head home at just before 9pm on Thursday 19^th.

We arrived home on Thursday evening to some parcels for miss Maeve and the cards and gifts continue to come. We are rather overflowing with cute clothes and stuffed animals and I’m hoping today to go through some of the clothing at least and see what we’ll actually use. So far she’s only worn 2 outfits- her coming home onesie which was on the snug side, and her doctors visit outfit. The rest of the time she’s just in a diaper and a swaddling blanket if she seems cold.

I am somewhat overwhelmed by everything, it has been a week of snatched sleep, and one day on/one day off energy levels, but I know I would be even more so if Lewis wasn’t able to be home with me as I have enough on my mind making sure she’s fed enough and sleeping okay (we have a work sheet to keep track of her feeding schedule and how many poopy/wet diapers she’s producing). Having Lewis home to change the occasional diaper or swaddle her (he’s much more skilled at it than I am), or hold her while I shower or go to the bathroom is a major reason I haven’t broken down yet. Feeding her is an ongoing adventure so far. She seems to have no set hunger schedule and can sleep much longer than recommended so I often have to wake her for a feed which then takes a while to get through.

On Saturday we had people over to socialize and meet Maeve in a more relaxed setting than the hospital and on Sunday I did nothing but try to feed her. On Monday, we had our first doctor’s visit and I got to fill out lots of forms for Maeve. After a few fretful days of worrying if I was feeding her enough etc it was immensely comforting to hear from Dr M that she is a healthy weight and has no signs of jaundice and that I’m “doing a good job, mommy”.

Hopefully by the time Lewis returns to work we’ll be a bit better prepared and organized around the house and I won’t be quite as exhausted. I’m also very thankful for all our amazing friends. Angela & Dugan leapt into action on the Big Day and bought us emergency diapers when we were housebound by exhaustion, V brought us an amazing dinner after a busy day out on Monday, Christina & Andy went to IKEA and picked up some stuff for us, Sarah (and Riley) are loaning us a stroller until we find one we like so we can go for walks (Maeve is still too small for the sling) and our boss at the studio made a huge and fantastic lasagna which we’ll be enjoying for days 🙂

I’m trying not to set myself up for disappointment and only setting myself small daily goals like ‘shower’, ‘post blog entry’, ‘call doctor office/health insurance’. Even skyping my parents or writing thank you cards etc are a somewhat daunting prospect, but hopefully they will be crossed off the list in the next few weeks.

I’m looking forward to getting into more of a schedule with the whole feeding thing so that I can pop Maeve in the stroller and get out and about for little walks, slowly return to a more active lifestyle. I don’t have huge amounts of surgical healing to deal with, but my knee needs me to take my time with getting back into any running etc. I was 181lbs on the morning I checked in with contractions, when I got home from the hospital 38hrs later I was down to 158. This morning, one week after I checked in I am 148lbs, which is what I was back in early April! Breast feeding is hard at times but clearly burns some hefty calories 🙂 It sounds vain to talk about weight loss and body image and the frustrations of being heavily pregnant and inactive when I have a beautiful little girl because of this pregnancy, but I know myself well enough to know that I’ll be better equipped to look after her if I look after myself too. I wouldn’t be doing her any favours by ignoring my own mental well being and exercise is a wonderful mood lifter (for me).

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Breastfeeding Class

So, originally months ago I figured I’d sign up for this and then I changed my mind, figuring there’ll be a lactation consultant at the hospital anyway to help me if I need it. But in our last Prepared Childbirth Class one of the women had said it was really helpful and totally worth $20 and 2hrs of an afternoon, so I signed up and went to yesterday’s session.

I figured Lewis didn’t need to come along to this class (the others classes were far more useful for both him and me, but breast feeding seemed less useful for him), although once we got there there were 7 pregnant women and only 2 of us were without our partners. Oh well. I’m still not sure how much the guys got from it except for a bit of background info.

I was hoping I’d see some familiar faces from previous classes, but nope. Our teacher from the other classes, Kim, did show up and sit at the back though and we had a quick chat during the break.
I was the closest to my due date (again- I guess I’m leaving these classes until the last minute :P), the next closest due dates were at the end of August and one women wasn’t due until October! I was also the only women waiting for the Big Reveal of baby’s gender.

The class started by talking about how as a society we’ve moved away from breast feeding as The Norm compared to when our own parents were having us, but how there is a strong trend to reverse this and encourage breast feeding to become acceptable again. My own personal reasons for choosing to breast feed are primarily financial, but the other reasons we discussed make sense too, I’m just not a full on ‘breast is best nazi’. Breastfeeding Groups/ doctors/ lactation consultants all say that breastfeeding for at least a full year is optimal but I will try to breast feed for 6months and see how it goes. My sister -in-law and a few friends were unable to breastfeed and I don’t think shaming women who can’t or choose not to breast feed is very useful. Let’s support new mothers whatever their choice. I found myself wondering about the other women in class and what their reasons were.

There was a brief moment when we discussed the birthing process too and I saw a few glances exchanged when c-sections were mentioned. US society  (and western society in general, I guess) has moved away from the majority of the natural part of pregnancy and childbirth. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with a lot of the medical interventions and whatnot, but I think we should be allowed to remember that it can all be done without the drugs etc and has been done for thousands of years. I really wish I had had as many ultrasounds as Christina and got to see Baby Miller’s progress, but at the same time it’s just my own curiosity and excitement about seeing the baby, and not  medically needed so I can deal with it.

Anyway… back to breast feeding class: it was a somewhat whirlwind 2hr class and I didn’t take as many notes as in the other classes, but it was useful. It was reassuring as much as anything, as most of the classes have been- just confirming stuff I already feel and all that good stuff.

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