First goal almost complete!

As of March 1st (or so) I will have nursed Wes as long as I nursed Izzy. Getting to 7.5 months was definitely my first goal for breastfeeding him. I was sad that Izzy went on a nursing strike that early although it was nice to get my body back. 

This time around it sure would be nice to get my body back but Wes shows no signs of wanting to stop and I am also not ready to stop either. Especially with Wes' hospital visit this past week I think it would be best for him to get the immunities/antibodies in breastmilk for a little while longer (at least until the end of winter/RSV season). 

I think that if I can just take away the pumping I would be more than happy to nurse a while longer (having to pump all weekend long for two weekends did not help with my hatred of my pump). So starting next week I am going to try to drop down to one pump a day at work and work towards just a morning and night nursing session. Will dropping down to one pump a day tank my supply? Not sure. I have to hope that my boobs will still produce something and that even that little bit will help Wes' immune system. I also still have some milk in the freezer so if my supply totally tanks I can still give him a breastmilk bottle for a little while longer.... This way I can eventually get my full work day back while also balancing the mom guilt that I should still be nursing. Fingers crossed!

Playing catch up

So much to catch up on! I have been a bad blogger recently because I simply haven't felt like writing. I think it has to do with being so exhausted every day after hearing whatever Trump has done that day to bring our country closer to Armageddon. So- bullets it is!

*Two weekends ago I headed down to Ft Lauderdale sans CP and the kids for a long weekend with ladies from my freshman hall in college. Despite being in four different sororities and now living in states across the country, 6 out of the 8 of us were able to get together for a fun girls weekend! It was nice and relaxing to be in sunny FL and to not have to worry about diapers, naps, etc. Saturday night we even pretended like we were still in collegeand did way too many shots! Thankfully I don't have many nights like that any more. The only annoying thing about the weekend was having to pump.

I don't remember FL beaches being this beautiful

*That Sunday night CP called as Izzy had puked all over herself. Later she had diarrhea so CP was trying to handle a crying, sick Izzy while also dealing with Wes. I came back on Monday night and we took turns taking off of work to stay home with Izzy (she was able to go back to daycare on Thursday). Since I was already home with a sick Izzy on Valentine's Day I made use of the day to clean parts of the house, bake some bread, and bake some cookies! We didn't do anything special for the holiday....

CP complains that I don't bake much anymore so now I'm good for another year or so? LOL

*The house renovation seems like it is a go! We are finishing up finalizing the scope of the project and CP and I are trying to nail down housing for three months starting April 1st with a 90 pound dog (harder than it sounds!). Thankfully after refinancing our house (cash-out), getting some money from my parents, using money from our savings, and getting a loan from my parents we won't have to take out any more commercial loans for the project. It isn't everything that we wanted to do but we can't afford everything we want to do so we are moving forward with what we can do. With any luck all of the renovations will be complete by the end of June!

*Buster has been limping a bit and acting weird about going up stairs and jumping into the cars so I took him in for x-rays. Unfortunately it looks like he has partial ACL tears in both hind legs. We are doing our best to keep him quiet so hopefully they scar over and we don't need to have surgery on either leg just yet but he is not even 6 (next month). Poor buddy.

*This past weekend I flew out sans kids and CP to perform matron of honor duties for my best friend in VA. It was a fabulous wedding and although I missed CP, he would have been dreadfully bored the entire time because I was busy with MOH stuff all weekend long.

*Unfortunately when I got back on Monday night, I noticed Wes breathing fast and retraction in his belly/throat. So CP stayed home with Izzy and I took Wes to the ER since it was too late for urgent care. He had two nebulizer treatments (one 5 min, the other 1 hour) before we finlly got a room on the peds floor at 3:30am. Poor Wes screamed bloody murder when they tried to put a cannula on him- I think he may have PTSD from his NICU days. We stayed at the hospital most of the day Tuesday and CP is home with him today. Is the universe trying to tell me that I am not allowed to get away from my kids for a weekend??

Napping on Mommy in the ER....unfortunately his oxygen levels dropped while he was sleeping

Sleeping with oxygen

In his baby jail once we got moved up to the Peds unit

Mom uhhh where the hell am I?

*Finally, last night Izzy had a nightmare. She was crying in her room and when I got in there, she told me that "wolves were chasing her." Essentially she was having a nightmare about a short section of the movie "Frozen." LOL.

7 months

Seven months

Height- ?

Weight- 23 pounds with a fresh diaper and onesie on

Nicknames- Chunk, Monkey, Buddy, Moose (CP is really trying to push this one!)

Wes rocking the Non Sequitur Chica family cleavage. LOL

Diapers- Size 3 but has been wet a few mornings so I might put a Size 4 nighttime diaper on him to sleep

Milestones- Sitting up unassisted. Rolling from back to front (which I haven't seen yet- he only does it when sleeping). Spinning himself around in a circle in order to reach something. Passing toys back and forth between his hands. He also has a cool move where he is sitting, reaches forward while moving his legs back and ends up on his stomach!

Contorting his body every which way

Language- This month Wes started to recognize the "milk" sign and smile if I gave it to him and he was hungry. He also understands the "more" sign. We are still working on getting him to actually do the signs as well. :-) Lots of babbling throughout the day too.

Sleep- This was a good month of sleeping through the night. His naps were not as great this month until his teeth popped through. Wes is generally asleep by 8-8:30 and will sleep until 6:30-7. He is not a fan when I have to wake him up for daycare! This month Wes also started to flip over to sleep on his stomach at night.

Eyelashes!

Clothes- Still in 9 month clothing...for now. I may wash the 12 mo clothing soon to see how it fits him.

Eating- Wes nurses morning and night, and eats 3 5oz bottles of breastmilk/formula every day at daycare. We also bring breakfast into daycare every day and then he has dinner at home every night. He LOVES pureed butternut squash, carrots, banana, avocado, broccoli, and peas. He is not a fan of plain yogurt with mashed raspberries- but I may not have mashed them up enough.

Umm why is this bowl empty?

Teeth- Wes now has 2 bottom teeth that have popped out (one is further along than the other which looks pretty funny).

Likes- Watching Izzy and Buster, grabbing Buster's fur, nursing, drooling, putting his hand or toys in his mouth, kicking in the bath, pulling mommy's hair and daddy's beard, spending time in the exersaucer

Misc- Overall, Wes is a happy baby! We are looking to move him to a convertible car seat soon because he is so heavy. He needs to get a little better at sitting up before we can put him in the front of a shopping cart but I am looking forward to that as his car seat takes up a lot of room!

I feel like this is going to be their relationship for a while....Wes obsessed with Izzy and Izzy pulling away

A needed laugh

Last night Izzy was so proud to show me this when I picked her up from daycare:

I couldn't stop laughing. 

She told me that it was a "big lollipop." Ummm sure kiddo.

7 months postpartum

At almost 7 months postpartum, here is what is going on with my body. Let's start at the top and work our way down.

Right around 4 months pp, I started to lose my hair again. This was right around the same time as it happened after having Izzy. The major hair loss also lasted about as long as it did after Izzy too- about two months. The hair on my head is growing slowly...at least for now and is pretty dry.

Throughout my pregnancy I had two raised marks on my face (cysts?). They were frustrating because they weren't zits (so I couldn't pop them) and no matter what I did they didn't go away. Well soon after delivering Wes I noticed they were gone! I did have two skin tags near my arm pits and unfortunately, they never went away so I guess I am stuck with them. At least they are small.

My few black chin hairs (thanks Lupron!) grew like crazy during pregnancy, slowed down after giving birth, and have now ramped up growth in the past month or so (boooo!!).

For the first four months postpartum, I had the WORST body odor. I showered as much as possible, used deodorant like crazy, etc. but it didn't matter. I did some research online and found out this was normal as many other women have this happen after giving birth...but it was weird because I never had it with Izzy. It must be a hormonal thing because once my period came back (around 4 months), the body odor went away. So weird!

My boobs are still huge because I am still nursing. I have no idea what size I am right now but plan on getting resized once I am done nursing. Right now I am feeling guilty that my supply is not fantastic, but dropping down to two pumps a day at work has been nice. Possibly by the end of the month I will only pump once a day at work. I would like to continue nursing Wes in the morning and night for a while but it all depends on him and my boobs.

I am about 10 pounds lighter than when I got pregnant with Wes which is great. I still have a squishy midsection though....I assume that I need to do some work on my diet, work out some more, and finish breastfeeding for that to go away.

Finally, my feet got bigger when I was pregnant with Izzy, didn't get smaller after giving birth, and then stayed big throughout my pregnancy with Wes and now postpartum. Sadly while some of my size 10 shoes fit, I'm more like a 10.5 or an 11 these days. :-(