Monday Mashup

1. Pretty sure this will be my first "normal" post which does not have to do with the baby. *gasp!*

2. I desperately need the following: a haircut, to go to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned, and a pedicure. My hair is the longest it's ever been, my teeth feel manky and my toes...let's not even go there.

3. It was 105 DEGREES this past Friday and Saturday. I can't even begin to explain to you how hot that is. I didn't leave the house. I stayed cool indoors.

4. I have this weird thing, I guess you could call it a habit, where I think the TV and lights in a room make the room hotter. I don't think I'm imagining it. So needless to say I was trying to keep TVs and lights to a minimum on Friday and Saturday.

5. This weekend we're having cement poured in our backyard for a large patio. I took a before picture and can't wait to get the patio all set up with our rugs, table and chairs and plants to get an after photo.

6. Mom and Dad are coming for this Father's Day weekend so Dad can help Kevin frame out the patio, and to also celebrate Father's Day, of course.

7. I'm mostly looking forward to having Mom here to watch the Babe so I can run some errands on my own for once!

8. Kevin's family is all in St. Thomas for 12 days on vacation. We're not jealous at all YES WE ARE. Kevin's uncle lives there and charters a sailboat. If you're ever in St. Thomas and want a great sailboat tour, check out Jester Sailing Adventures!

9. On Friday I went to the grocery store and only purchased beer and wine. One hundred dollars worth. No food. My justification of this is twofold: 1) We did need to stock up, and 2) Since I can drink again (in moderation) I just want to drink all the things!!!

10. Let's not talk about the gigantic black widow (along with it's hundreds of black widow babies) Kevin and my BIL found under an old deck in our backyard that they tore up yesterday. I won't even post the picture of it because it makes me want to vomit every time I look at it. The disgusting thing was so big it could barely walk! *gag* Gross!

Hope you all had a nice weekend!

Shots of Shots

When Preslie had her two month checkup on Monday, she was all smiles and so talkative. I kept thinking to myself "Oh baby girl, you have no idea what is about to come your way."

She ended up getting three shots (she'll get the other three at her four month checkup) and one vaccine was by mouth. She took the liquid vaccine with no problems. She was flirting with the nurse and holding her finger for the longest time.

She has a bad habit of lifting up her dresses. We need to work on that. ;)

Then the shots came and boy oh boy was that nurse quick with administering them. I guess you have to be when it comes to screaming children.

Here's a run down of Preslie's reaction to her vaccines...

First shot was just about being injected. It hasn't quite registered with Preslie yet, but she's sure giving that nurse a good look.

The second shot has definitely registered. 

And the third and final shot just ticked her off. I have never seen her face turn that red before!

I was surprised that I didn't cry. She was just too pathetic that all I could do was laugh. When I picked her up her bottom little lip was just sticking out and she was so sad. Bless her sweet heart.

After all the drama, she settled down and went right to sleep. She was fussy that night and a little the next day because I think her chunky little thighs were sore, but she's back to her old self now.

Preslie Kay at Two Months

I'm a couple days behind, but oh well!

Preslie turned two months old on Sunday, June 2nd. She is literally growing before our very eyes. And FAST!

 This was the best we could do for this monthly pic.

And this pretty much sums up how Preslie feels about photo shoots. So much drama!

Measurements
Weight: 11lbs 8oz (53%)
Height: 23 1/4" (82%)
Head circumference: 16" (90%)

The doctor said we have a tall girl on our hands! She certainly doesn't get that from Kevin or me, so it must be from some distant relatives.

Appearance 

• The hair on the top of her head kind of thinned out but it is growing back with a vengeance. She's going to have a head full of thick, dark hair in no time.
• Her eyes are still a very clear, bright blue. They'll either stay blue or they might turn green, but the doctor said they definitely won't be brown.

 

• She's got a belly on her that shows her love of milkies.
• She has the longest, darkest eyelashes I've ever seen.

Sizes

• She's in 0-3 month and 3 month clothes, now. She no longer fits into anything newborn - all those tiny outfits are packed away.
• She wears size one in diapers.

Personality

• She is a really good baby. She rarely cries and is generally very content and happy. She had some vaccines yesterday and has been a little weepy the past day and it just breaks my heart. But even still, she's happy the rest of the time. 
• She loves to smile and we'll do just about anything to make that happen.

• We just think she's so much fun.  
• She's "talking" a lot more these days.

Likes

• She stills loves her bath. When 7:30 rolls around and she's not in her tub, she'll start to fuss to let us know that's what she wants. Oh, and we have to keep her diaper on her during bath time until the very end because we've had some poop fiascoes in the tub in the past that just don't make for a successful bath time.
• She is obsessed with her bouncy seat and play mat. She spends up to an hour on those things and is just happy as can be. She prefers to play by herself. When we're on the ground with her she'd rather look at her toys than us.
• She enjoys taking naps in her swing.
• Today, I discovered that she is a fan of the Moby Wrap.

• Milkies.
• Looking at Kevin and me. We turn into mush each time.

Dislikes

• She does not like to take naps in her crib. I've learned that I can get her to take a full two-hour nap in her crib for her 8:30am nap because she's usually pretty tired then, but any other nap time she will fight it to the very end if I make her sleep in her crib. She prefers the other naps in her swing (or the Moby now).
• She doesn't particularly enjoy tummy time. We have to make sure we don't do tummy time right after she eats because she'll throw up. She can stand maybe five minutes on her tummy and then she's had enough.
• She fights her swaddle like no tomorrow. In the beginning we were swaddling her with the Aden and Anais blankets and they were working, but as she's gotten older/bigger/stronger she's been breaking out of those bad boys so we use the SwaddleMe swaddle blankets now. Those things are lifesavers! Anyways, she fights them but settles down after a minute or two once she realizes it's time for nigh-nights.
• If I have to wake her up for a feeding during the day, she is not a happy camper. She gets so grumpy. I would be too.
• She doesn't like to have her clothes put on or taken off. I think she'd be happier in the nude.

Eating

• She eats five ounces of breast milk six times a day: 3am, 7am, 10:30am, 2pm, 5pm and 8pm.
• She nurses maybe twice a day but I mostly pump and we bottle feed her the breast milk. It just works out better for us this way.
• She was falling asleep during almost all of her feedings, no matter what we did (undressed her, cold washcloth, tickle her feet, etc) but she's starting to stay awake during them a little more often now.
• My supply has increased a whole lot within the past two weeks so I'm hoping I can keep her on breast milk as long as possible; or until I'm sick and tired of pumping.

Sleeping

• She takes three, two-hour naps during the day (8:30-10:30am, 12-2pm, 3-5pm) and then a little cat nap in the evening.
• She's slept through the night more often this past month which has been great! If not, she'll usually go six or seven hours the first stretch, and then four hours after her 3am feeding.
• The night of June 2nd she slept 10 hours straight!!!
• This past month we've been working on her learning how to self-soothe by doing some Crying It Out (CIO). I'll admit it wasn't easy at first, but we rarely have to do it now. We put her down in her crib when she's drowsy but not asleep, and she'll fall asleep on her own once she's swaddled.  When we first started CIO, we started with five minutes. After five minutes we'd go in and soothe her and leave the room. She'd cry again. We'd do this in five minute increments until she'd fall asleep. As she's gotten older we upped it to 10 minute increments. Usually, if she's been crying for 20 minutes (two ten-minute increments) we'll pick her up and check her diaper and more often than not she has a dirty diaper, we'll change her and she'll fall right to sleep after that.

New Experiences

• She was a little sunbathing beauty and hung out with the ladies by the pool in May.

• She met her Grandpa Barry for the first time.
• She celebrated Cinco de Mayo with her parents, Uncle Machew and Grandpa Barry.

• We spent almost a whole week at Grammy and Grampy's house, visiting.

• She helped celebrate her mommy's first Mother's Day.

 

• She attended two BBQ's at friends' houses and did great both times.
• She celebrated Memorial Day with a BBQ at Grandma's house.

 

• She rode in her stroller without her car seat for the first time like a big girl and loved it (fell right to sleep).
• She visited Daddy at work and got to meet all his co-workers.
• She joined Mommy and Daddy on a lunch date at Chili's.
• We had a play date with Mikaela and Kesara.

 

We can't wait to see what this next month will bring!

Newborn Photos

When Preslie was a week and a half old, we had her newborn photos taken. I would've loved to have her photos done earlier than that, but I wanted to wait until her jaundice cleared up.

My co-workers were generous enough to gift us with photo sessions for Preslie for when she was a newborn, three months, six months and nine months. How awesome is that?!

The photographers were from Manhart Photography and they did a great job.

See for yourself...

And here is her birth announcement...

Your questions, answered

I wanted to do a post to answer some questions people have been asking me. Plus, I figure it's good to document all this so I can look back on it and be able to use some of this if there's a Baby Pino 2.0.

Are you breastfeeding?
Yes, we are now breastfeeding. But it's been quite a journey.

When Preslie was born she had an almost-severe case of jaundice. When we were released from the hospital we had to go to the pediatrician's office for three additional days after that, and her little heels had to be pricked each time. :( Since she wouldn't cry the first couple days after birth my milk took longer than normal to come in. Which led to her losing weight kind of rapidly and hence her jaundice getting worse.

So I was somewhat forced to start her on formula. We tried one brand at first but she was having issues with it, so then we switched to Similac Sensitive and she seemed to be doing okay on that. Once my milk came in I would nurse her and supplement with formula because she'd cry so much after we'd nurse that I thought she wasn't getting enough breast milk. Eventually, all she would do was cry each time she would have breast milk, so I chalked it up to her being allergic to my milk (even though I adjusted my diet).

When she was around three weeks old I made the decision to just put her on strictly formula, and no longer breast milk. I thought it would just be easier for me, she'd be happy and full and I wouldn't have to stress so much. After that I'd try to justify to myself that I was making the right decision and she'd be fine on formula, etc. etc. But in the back of my mind I still wasn't 100% okay with it.

So about a week and a half ago I decided I just was not ready to stop nursing. I didn't want to look back a year later and regret not giving it another shot. I had a goal going into this parenting thing to make breastfeeding work and I knew I'd be disappointed in myself if I didn't give it a little more effort. The fact was that she nursed beautifully, latched on great and could go from nursing straight to a bottle and back with no issues at all.

Keep in mind that between deciding on her being on formula and then me making the decision to go back to breast feeding I had started to let my milk dry up and stopped pumping. I could KICK myself for doing that! Luckily, when I made the decision to continue to breastfeed I still had a supply left, although it was very small. The past two weeks it's been an incredible challenge to get my supply up to where it needs to be to meet Preslie's demands. As of today I've gone through all the frozen breast milk I had stockpiled away, so my supply better kick into overdrive tomorrow or else we'll be in some trouble.

Side note: I've been doing everything "they" say to do to increase my supply - drinking Mother's Milk tea, taking Fenugreek, pumping and nursing constantly, drinking lots of water and making sure to eat enough. I want to get back to what I was producing before (which was anywhere from 20-26 ounces per day), rather than what I'm producing now (which is only 10 ounces per day). If you have any other suggestions, please help a sister out!

The current status is that Preslie is doing wonderful on breast milk! She's digesting it easily and she's not crying in pain from gas or constipation. Looking back now I realize that her system just couldn't handle the combination of breast milk and formula - it had to either be one or the other.

What kind of schedule do you have Preslie on?
This is Preslie's schedule as of right now:

2am or 3am: Feed and then right back down to sleep
6am or 7am: Feed and then right back down to sleep
9am: Feed
9:30-10am: Play
10am-12pm: Nap
12pm: Feed
12:30-1pm: Play
1-3pm: Nap
3pm: Feed
3:30-4pm: Play
4-5:30pm: Nap
5:30pm: Feed
6-6:30pm: Play
6:30-8pm: Nap
8pm: Bath
8:30pm: Feed
9pm: Bedtime 

We use a lot of the methods from Mom's on Call for Preslie's schedule. It's made things much easier because if she's fussy or crying we usually know why based on what time it is (i.e. she's hungry or tired).

How is Preslie sleeping?
She sleeps great at night, going five to six hours the first stretch and about three hours the second stretch. This week though, naps have been another story. She's been fighting them like crazy. She usually takes two naps in her crib and two naps in either the swing or bouncy seat. But she's just not having them this week. We're trying to keep things consistent though and she'll get the hang of things eventually. Oh, and she doesn't usually nap the full two hours during her naps. Sometimes it's an hour and sometimes it might be more.

Are you using a pacifier?
Ah, the great paci debate. Yes, we use one. About 80% of the time she wants nothing to do with it. The other 20% of the time she'll take it when she's tired and then will spit it out herself. I'm not too worried about her being hooked on it and if she does, then we'll just break her of it when the time comes and deal with it then. But for right now it works for us and soothing her.

How are you doing?
I'm doing good. It's taken longer to feel like "normal" after delivery than I thought it would. Some women bounce right back, but for me it's required the whole six weeks until I've finally felt back to my somewhat old self again.

How much weight did you gain / have you lost?
I gained 18 pounds during my pregnancy. I was honestly shocked that I didn't gain more. I'm short as it is and have always had to watch my weight, so once I got pregnant I thought for sure I'd really gain a lot of "EL BEES." For some reason I didn't - which I'm not complaining about one bit!

At three weeks postpartum I had lost the 18 pounds. At five weeks postpartum I lost an additional seven pounds.

How are the dogs adjusting to the baby?
Stella and Kahlua are doing so great! We decided to not really make a big deal about the baby with them. We didn't do the "smell the baby blanket" thing with them or anything like that. We just brought Preslie home and acted like she's always been a part of the pack, and the dogs have just gone along with it.

Kahlua prefers to sniff Preslie every now and then, and will maybe lick her every once in a while.

Stella likes to lick Preslie's toes, hands and head. She also likes to be in whatever room the baby and I are in. Sweet girl.

Are you going to have more kids after this?
If it's in God's plan, we definitely want more kids. In all honesty, I miss being pregnant. Just knowing that Preslie was safe inside me and I could feel her kicks and movements, I miss that. I however do not miss the labor. Ha!

How do you like being home?
I've really enjoyed staying home with the little Squirt, but I do miss work. Not so much that I want to go back right now, but enough that when I do return I think I'll be ready.

Is motherhood everything you thought it would be?
It's exactly what I thought it would be, except way more baby poop. HA! So far it has been what I imagined. Remember, my goal for 2013 was to not have any expectations about this baby and how I wanted things to go. I was just going to take things as they came - and so far we've done that. You know the saying "Keep it simple, stupid?" I have to remind myself of that often! Sometimes I'll start to over think things about Preslie's mood or why she's being extra fussy or not sleeping or not pooping, etc. If I just keep things simple and remind myself that this too shall pass, and tomorrow is a new day it helps to keep me and our household sane.

Preslie Kay at One Month

I am in complete denial that our little girl is already one month old!

Like everyone always says, it goes by so incredibly fast. I honestly get sad when I pick her up out of her crib each morning and she feels a little heavier than the day before; because that means she's growing up and I'd just like her to stay little for a tiny bit longer. I am in no hurry for her to reach all the milestones (like teething, crawling, walking, talking). She can take her time so we can soak up her baby-ness as much as we can.

Here is what Preslie has been up to this past month...

~ She lost her umbilical cord stump within her first week. And just an FYI...it smelled! It had a horrible smell. The doctor said that was normal.
~ At three weeks she started lifting her head consistently.

Tummy time

  Not a fan

~ At four weeks she started lifting and turning her head towards our voices.
~ We started Moms On Call with her at three weeks.
~ She started sleeping in her crib for all naps and bedtimes at three weeks. I was hoping to have her in our room a little longer than that, but she is such a loud sleeper (which I've come to learn is common among newborns based on what my fellow mommy friends have told me about their little ones) that neither Kevin or I were getting much shut-eye because she was so noisy.
~ Last night (at one month old) she slept through the entire night! A full eight hours! That sleep was glorious!
~ This week she has been trying to work on her smile. She has a dimple in each cheek that are pretty adorable. She's also started cooing this week.

~ She eats 3 1/2 to 4 ounces every three hours.
~ On 4/17/13 she weighed 8 pounds 3.6 ounces (58th percentile). I'd guess she probably weighs about 9 pounds now. Her head circumference on 4/17/13 was 14.76 inches (97th percentile).
~ She is still wearing newborn clothes but is just about ready to start wearing some 0-3 month clothes.
~ Still in newborn diapers.
~ She was born with a full head of hair, but the hair on the top of her head has started thinning out and it looks like she has a receding hairline right now. Ha!
~ Her favorite thing right now is the swing. She loves the rocking motion and is just as content as can be while she's in there. Needless to say, it's been a lifesaver!

~ She also loves her bath, as per usual.

~ We've started putting her in her bouncer now that she has a little more control over her head. She's still getting used to it and will only last about 10 minutes in it for now. Once she starts kicking harder I think she'll enjoy the bouncing motion of it.
~ She attended her first birthday party for her two friends Mikaela and Kesara, who are twins!
~ She met more family and friends!

 Sheri and Preslie

 Alison and Preslie

 Margie and Preslie

Great Grandma Ruth and Preslie

 Uncle Matlee and Preslie

 Uncle Leo and Preslie

 Sevana and Preslie

I have no doubt that the next month is going to fly by that much faster. 

We absolutely adore our little one and think she is so fun and has the cutest personality already. We fall more in love with her each and every day!

.....Annddddd we're done.....

The first two weeks according to Preslie

Hi.

 My name is Preslie.

 

Mommy wanted me to update you all on what I've been up to my first two weeks of life.

April 2, 2013

 Mommy already gave her account of how I was forced out of my warm, dark, cozy womb. So far this new, bright world isn't that bad.

Going home from the hospital, April 3, 2013

My first week I had this weird thing called jaundice. Mommy and Daddy had to take me to the doctor three times after we got home from the hospital, and each time I had to get my heel pricked. It hurt really bad and made me cry. Mommy said it made them feel so sad for me.

In order for the jaundice to go away, Mommy tried to feed me lots of milkies, but because I didn't feel like crying the first few days it made it harder for her milkies to come in. So the doctor lady said Mommy needed to supplement with formula because I was losing too much weight and the jaundice was getting worse. Mommy was pretty sad about that.

I'm all better now though, and Mommy and Daddy always talk about how big my belly is because milkies are my favorite. Mommy's milkies seem to make my tummy hurt, so her and the doctor lady are trying to figure out what works best for me. Either way, I love milkies!

Here are some of my favorite things:

Mommy and Daddy (duh)

Milkies

Bath time

My swaddle

Having my hair brushed

Milkies

The swing

Nap time

Daddy's voice

Being outside

Sleeping with my mouth open

Milkies

 

Mommy says I'm on a fairly good schedule for only being two weeks old. I go nigh-nights at 11pm in Mommy and Daddy's room in my little crib and I sleep for three hours. Then Mommy has to wake me up to change my diaper and feed me. Then she rocks me to sleep and I have dreams for another three hours and then Daddy wakes me up to change me again and I get more milkies. Then I go back to sleep until morning time. During the day, Mommy and I spend a lot of time together and I eat, sleep and poop. I take nappies in my crib in my nursery during the day.

I get 2.5 ounces of milkies every 2 to 2 1/2 hours. My nappies usually last an hour to two hours. During my nappies Mommy says she tries to rush around the house to get as much done as she can before I wake back up.

I've had a lot of people come visit me. I don't know who they all are yet, but Mommy and Daddy tell me that I'll be spoiled rotten by them all.

Grammy and Me

Grandpa and Me

Uncle JJ and Me

Grandma and Me

 Uncle Matthew (aka Uncle Machew) and Me

Aunt Courtney (aka Auntie Frug) and Me

Great Grandma Helen and Me

 Aunt Lynn and Me

 Aunt Lis and Me

Cousin Carter (8 weeks) and Me

Okay. I'm going to get ready to do some crying because it's time for some more milkies.

Baby snuggles,

Preslie