Recent Happenings

It's still hard to believe that Abby is almost ten weeks old!  Things have been going really well lately and I feel like I've finally really adjusted (and so have my crazy hormones!) to being a stay at home mom with a baby.  Abby still doesn't have a set routine during the day, but she is definitely more predictable lately.  Knowing what to expect has made things MUCH easier for both of us.  Of course, now that I feel like I've got her figured out, I'm sure something is bound to change!  That's just part of being a parent though :)

Since Abby was born, I've loved baby wearing.  I have a Baby K'tan wrap carrier and also an Infantino carrier.  I still adore the K'tan for close snuggles, but it's not a great wrap for walking distances or wearing long periods of time.  The Infantino carrier is this one:

It's not terrible, but my back really starts bothering me (especially because I am still experiencing pain at my epidural sight) after a bit and Abby honestly never seemed all that comfortable in it.  The buckles are located in a weird spot and touch her face a lot if she moves her head back and forth.  Anyway, after doing a ton of research and spending a lot of time on eBay, I finally decided to splurge on this beauty:

It's a Boba 3g.  First of all, how cute, right?  I love the kangaroo pattern.  But even more importantly, it is SO comfortable.  Abby loves it.  I've only had it a few days and we've used it every day, once to walk around Meijer, plus a few outside and inside walks.  

She's so cozy in it and usually ends up falling asleep after looking around for a while.  One of the great things about this carrier is that it fits children from 7-45 pounds without an infant insert.  The bottom of the carrier snaps up into itself to shorten the torso for babies under 15 pounds.  Abby fits perfectly.  Then once she's older, the seat deepens and widens to provide an ergonomically correct sitting position for her.  I am so excited to use this for years to come with her and any other children we end up having.  I'm excited to back carry too once she gets big enough, but that won't be for quite some time yet!

Abby had a few rough days last week where she wasn't napping or sleeping at night as well as she usually does.  Thankfully (knock on wood!!), that seems to have passed and she is back to taking a few naps during the day, with one longer one in the early afternoon, plus sleeping well at night.  She goes to bed at 7:30pm and usually gets up to eat sometime between 2-3am.  Then she goes back down until around 6:30-7am.  Sometimes after that early morning feeding I can get her to go back down for another hour, but sometimes she's up!  I don't mind having an early riser since we're all up early in this house anyway.  Dave is usually up around 5am!  One night very recently Abby actually slept 8 straight hours!!  I'm hoping that her good sleeping habits continue and that eventually by 4-5 months we can try cutting out the middle of the night feeding.  We shall see how things go!  We're also going to try to transition her from the rock 'n play to her crib this weekend.  She naps in there occasionally, but has never slept in her crib longer than an hour.  Part of me is scared to crib train her and lose the 7-8 hour stretch, but maybe it will go smoothly and she'll sleep in her crib at night just as well as she does in the rock 'n play.  I'll be back with an update next week!  Until then , here are a few more recent pictures:

Two Months Old!

Abby is two months old! How is that possible?! She's changing every day and showing so much more of her personality lately. She is such a little snuggler and loves to cuddle up on the couch with her binky. I can definitely see her getting attached to a blanky or lovey when she's a bit older because she loves to hang on to either my shirt or her own whenever she gets the chance. We still haven't gotten a real laugh from her yet, but she smiles all the time and is cooing so much these days. The other day I was singing nursery rhymes to her and it really seemed like she was trying to sing along! She especially loves it when I sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", "Mary Had a Little Lamb", and the alphabet song. Abby is still a great sleeper and lately she goes to bed around 7:30pm and wakes up at about 2:30am and 6am to eat. She gets up for the day between 7:30am and 8am most days. Naps are still all over the place right now, but we're trying to get her on a more consistent schedule. I have a feeling that will happen once she gets closer to three months, and for now I'm quite happy with how well she sleeps at night! So far she has taken one short nap in her crib, but otherwise sleeps in her rock n' play. We'll probably work on more crib napping but let her sleep in her rock n' play for at least another month or so. I'm not ready to give up the seven hour stretch yet! :)

At two months old, Abby weighs 9lbs 15oz and is 21.25 inches long. She's officially outgrown all of her newborn clothes and is wearing all 0-3 month stuff at this point, although some of it is still a bit big. We're even going to move her up to size 2 diapers as soon as we use up the last of the size 1's in the house! Thanks to amazing friends and family (mostly the Schroeders and Grandma and Grandpa Main) we haven't bought a single diaper yet and probably won't have to for at least a few more weeks yet! It's been wonderful!

This month Abby likes nursing as often as she can, taking baths, her vibrating bouncy chair that we got from the Roemkes, "talking" to the animals on her swing mobile and her play mat, her crib soother, her binky, and snuggling as much as she can. She's still not a fan of tummy time, poopy diaper changes, shirts that go over her head, and spending time in her car seat. She really is such a good baby, and although she has her fussy times in the evenings before bed, she's having a lot more happy time lately which has been so fun! Here are some recent pictures of our little snuggle bug!

A Typical Day - 7 Weeks

I saw this on another blog I follow regularly (Daily Garnish) and thought it might be fun to do my own "day in the life of" post. I'd like to try to do these every few weeks or so since I think it will be neat to look back and see how much life changes based on Abby's age. Obviously our day varies based on whatever we have planned, but here's a snapshot of a pretty typical day with a 7 week old.

5:30am - Abby wakes up for her early morning feeding. We nurse, do a diaper change, and then I reswaddle and rock her for a bit before putting her back down to sleep for *hopefully* another hour and a half or so. I go lay in bed for a few minutes and check email and Facebook while I wait for Dave to finish up in the shower. We only have one full bathroom and even though showering really could wait, if I don't take one early in the morning before Abby gets up then who knows when my next chance will be! Once he's out, I take the monitor with me and hop in the shower, then it's time to make coffee, have some breakfast, and catch a little news. I unload the dishwasher now too if it needs to be done.

7:30am - Abigail is up for the day! I nurse her and then give her some play time in her crib for a little bit while I pick out an outfit for her. If she's happy in her crib, I'll get laundry together at this point and run down to the basement to get a load started. Then it's back upstairs to change her and get her dressed for the day. We spend a little time snuggling on the couch early in the mornings.

8:30am - Nurse Abby again. She eats frequently in the morning to compensate for sleeping during the night.

9am - Abby is getting fussy and ready to take a little cat nap. Usually this happens either in my arms on the couch, in her swing (although lately she hasn't really liked that!) or in the boppy pillow on a fluffy blanket (supervised, of course). If I can get her to nap out of my arms, I take this time to run upstairs and do my hair, put a little makeup on, and get dressed. If we're not in a hurry to go out anywhere, then once she wakes up (usually after 30-45 minutes), I will drag her bouncy seat up to the bathroom and she watches me get ready. Abby nurses again after waking up.

10am - Sometimes we go out to run an errand at this time. Today we ran to the mall so I could look for jeans (mission: FAIL). Other times we just play at home. I read books to Abby, sing her songs, she lays on her play mat and "talks" to her friends Mr. Owl and Mr. Lamb, does tummy time, etc. If she's fussy, this is also the time when I wear her in one of the carriers I have. Today while we were out and about, she took a little nap in the stroller. At home, she'll nap either in the carrier, or sometimes, depending on her level of crankiness, I'll put her down up in her nursery for about an hour nap after play time.

11:00am - Nurse again. I *try* to follow an eat-play-sleep schedule. Note that I said try! Abby eats pretty much every 1.5-2 hours throughout the day, with the exception of a longer afternoon nap. Hopefully as she gets older she will be able to go a bit longer! Today, this meant that I nursed her in a dressing room at JC Penny!

12:30pm - Abby is showing signs of extreme tiredness and is ready for a solid nap. We nurse, and then she gets swaddled and goes down for her afternoon nap. If she took a morning nap up in her nursery, then her afternoon nap would be pushed back to later in the day. Since she only snoozed here and there at the mall this morning, she was fading fast and in desperate need of a solid nap!

1pm - Abby goes down for a nap. I spend this time doing more laundry, prepping dinner for tonight and also for tomorrow's crockpot meal, and sweeping the floors. Then I'm able to sit with my iPad and catch up on my favorite blogs, write this post(!), have another cup of coffee, etc. My goal is to eventually be able to workout during this time, but right now we don't really have a set schedule and Abby isn't a consistent napper yet. Once she is I know I should be able to get a workout in along with the other things I want to get done around the house!

Sometime between 2-4pm - Some days Abby takes a great nap, and other days it's much shorter. It really depends on what the morning looked like. There are also days where she won't go down for her afternoon nap until 3 or 4 instead...I'm trying to work on getting a schedule down but it's so hard! Someday though! After Abby gets up, I nurse and change her, and then we have more play time or snuggle time. We're working on getting Abby to take a bottle, so I may give her a bottle instead of nurse her when she wakes up, and then I pump once Dave gets home from work. Often he gives her the bottle while I'm pumping too, it just depends.

4:30pm - Dave's home! Yay! He either feeds Abby her bottle if it's time or plays with her while I grab the last of the laundry and/or get dinner started. We eat pretty early around here!

5:30pm - Dinner is ready and Abby is ready for another little catnap. Hopefully we can get her down in her swing for about 45 minutes so we can eat dinner. We usually watch a show while eating too. Someday, once Abby is older and eating with us, we'll cut out the "tv during dinner" habit, but for now it's a good way for both of us to decompress a little!

5:30pm - 7:30pm - Abby can get really fussy during this time. After we've eaten dinner we both take turns holding her and keeping her happy, and I let her nurse as often as she wants during this time. She'll usually eat two or three times during the two hours before she goes to bed. I believe the cluster feeding is what helps her sleep for longer stretches at night.

7:30pm - Bath time! Dave takes Abby to get undressed while I run a bath for her. She loves bath time and is so peaceful and happy laying in the warm water. Bath time is only about ten minutes (sometimes less), but it's a great way for her to end the day! After her bath, Abby gets a new diaper and a quick lotion massage, then it's into jammies. She nurses and then gets swaddled and goes to sleep in her rock n' play with white noise in the background. She usually goes down very easily and only needs soothed once or maybe twice if her binky falls out! We always put Abby in her bed while she's still awake to try to encourage good sleeping habits. So far it's worked very well!

8pm - 10pm - Adult time! Dave and I will either watch some more shows together, or go off and do our own thing. Last night I worked out while he took baby monitor duty and spent some time on his computer. It's really nice to have a few hours to ourselves at the end of the day.

10pm - Dave and I head to bed.

2am - Sometime usually between 2am and 3am Abby wakes up for her first nighttime feeding. She's very quick about things and after nursing and changing her she is usually back in bed asleep within a half hour. I try to get back to sleep as quickly as possible too but some nights it takes me a while!

5:30am - Abby wakes up again and we start the whole process over again!


So, that's what a day looks like, more or less! Right now at 7 weeks old Abby can't really stay awake longer than an hour to two at a time, so she takes a lot of naps here and there during the day. My plan is to get her napping in her crib soon so that she can get used to it...wish me luck! It will be interesting to see how a typical day changes from month to month as Abby is able to stay awake for longer periods and her sleep patterns become more consistent. Right now I'm just learning to try to go with the flow! I think the most important thing that I'm still learning is to watch for tired cues and encourage her to sleep before she gets overtired. When she is overtired she is super fussy and hard to calm down. When she's well rested she's a very happy baby! She's smiling at us more and more and I'm hoping that first little laugh is just around the corner!

Lately

Abby is a little over 7 weeks now, and things have been going pretty well lately!! In fact, she's even going to spend her first night away from home and sleep over at Granny and Grandad's house this weekend so that Dave and I can have a night of baby-free fun together. Hopefully I can get a little extra sleep too, even though I will have to get up to pump a few times! I'm nervous to leave Abby but also excited for a night out! She hasn't been great about taking a bottle lately, but I have to think that if she's hungry enough she will take it, plus my mom fed her a bottle a few weeks ago and she drank it really quickly without a tear!

Abby is growing so much lately! I already can't believe how different she looks from when she was brand new. I weighed her on our regular scale last night and she weighs 9 pounds 6 ounces. Next week she has her two month check up...I wonder if she'll be ten pounds by then! These days Abby is much less fussy and is having more alert awake time. She likes laying in her crib and looking at her soother, spending time on her play mat talking to her "friends", being held and walking around the house looking at pictures on the walls, and making faces and "talking" to people. She's so cute when she coos! I can't get enough of her happy little sounds. She has also just recently started making this "wah" sound that comes before she actually cries. Her whole mouth turns down into a big pout and she says, "Wah!" It's like she's warning me that unless I make her happy she'll start to cry. It's downright adorable and whenever she does it I just want to mimic her! Plus I love that she's communicating more these days and crying less! I need to take some video of her to post here soon.

Abby's Aunt Melissa flew in last weekend from Denver for a quick visit. It was so wonderful to see her! I was terrible about taking pictures - bad mommy!! Thankfully my in-laws took some! Here are a few pictures from Melissa's visit and also some recent pictures of miss Abigail: