:-)

I'm having one of those mornings where I look at my life and it is 100% exactly how I had one day hoped it would be. Our beautiful baby girl is napping peacefully up in her nursery, I'm making pizza dough and folding laundry in my nightgown, the house is quiet and still. It's moments like these when I just want to freeze time. Our families are happy and healthy, Dave has a great stable job, I get to stay home with our baby like I always wanted. It brings tears to my eyes, because when we were trying to get pregnant I thought a day like this would never come. And yet here it is, with crisp morning air and warm coffee in my cup and love in my heart. 

6 Months Old!

I'm a few days late, but Abigail is 6 months old!  Time has been flying lately.  At Abby's 6 month check-up she weighed 16 pounds 8 ounces and was 25 and 1/4 inches long.  Still short and chunky!  (Wonder where she gets that from?!)  We started feeding Abby solids last week, and so far she is doing pretty well.  Her pediatrician said we should quickly work up to three solid feedings a day, so that is what we are aiming for.  At the moment, Abby has only had oatmeal baby cereal and sweet potato puree to eat.  Some meals she seems to love eating solids and then others she doesn't have much interest.  I'm excited to keep offering her food and let her try a variety of different foods!  I've been using the Baby Bullet we received at one of our baby showers to make lots of homemade baby food for Abby, so the freezer is well stocked with sweet potato puree, pea puree, and homemade applesauce that should get us through the next few weeks.  It's been fun making her food and doesn't take much time at all.  Dave and I plan to continue with purees, but also let Abby have some small pieces of table food when we think she's ready so that she can get used to all different textures.  Of course I am still nursing as well, and I have to admit that I'm very proud to have been able to breastfeed for so long!  6 months down, 6 months to go until I reach my goal of nursing for one year.  After that we plan to try to have another baby, so we will probably work on weaning.  I remember reading somewhere once that nursing while pregnant can be incredibly difficult because you are essentially trying to sustain three separate lives (your own, the nursing child, and the unborn baby).  Considering that the beginning of my pregnancy with Abby was difficult, I don't think that continuing to nurse would be very good for me personally.  This is TMI, but I originally started this blog as a way to share our conception journey, so I think that this piece of info is applicable because we do plan to have another child soon: my monthly cycle has returned!  Oddly enough, it came back exactly on Abby's 6 month birthday.  Not many women would be happy to have their cycle return, especially while nursing, but I am thrilled.  It's just one step on the way to conceiving our next child, and my ultimate hope is that we won't need to use fertility assistance this time around!

Abby is still such a wonderful baby and I am honestly thankful everyday that I get to stay home with our little girl.  She's sweet and cuddly and silly and I just love her so much.  She's been doing great sleeping again lately, and will usually sleep from about 6:30pm to between 5:30-6:30am straight.  If she wakes up on the early side, she will most likely nurse and go back down again for a bit.  We still don't have a nap schedule in place.  Some days I am lucky to get two 45 minute naps out of the girl the whole day...which isn't great.  But she sleeps so well at night that I really can't complain.  She's still not sitting on her own, so we are really working on that.  Abby still loves her baths (unless she is super tired) and she loves getting a bottle of pumped milk before bed.  She sleeps with a little blanky that I sewed for her and it's so cute putting her to bed because she takes the blanky in her hands, sucks on her thumb, rolls over onto her side, and goes to sleep.  Still no teeth and I doubt that she'll have any for a while yet.  She really enjoys riding on my back in my Boba 3g carrier, and that's how I have been grocery shopping and getting housework done lately, which has been wonderful.  She is quite content to just hang out on my back and look around.  It's definitely easier wearing her on my back than on my front!  Especially now that she is almost 17 pounds!!  I think that's about it for updates right now, here are some recent pictures of our sweet girl...

Day In the Life - 5 1/2 Months

It's been a while since I've done a day-in-the-life post, so here is a snapshot of yesterday. Not all days are a busy as that one, and Abby's naps are still all over the place! It's a good recount of life as we know it right now though :)

3:30am - Abby cries out in her sleep. She's been waking up crying occasionally for the past week or so, and we think it's because she is either teething or having gas. I wait a minute to see if she'll settle down on her own. Success!

4:30am - Abby is cooing (better than crying!). I know better than to leave her this time and go in for a quick nursing session. Dave is awake when I get back to bed and he decides to get up for the day. I read, etc on my phone and never fall back asleep. 

5:45am - I give up trying to fall back asleep and hop in the shower before Dave does (so that I can have as much hot water as I want! Haha). 

6:00am - I pump, have some coffee, and warm up some baked banana oatmeal for breakfast while watching the news. 

6:40am - Abigail is up for the day! I leave her in her pjs and try to nurse but she's not interested. She gets a quick diaper change and then we say goodbye to Dad and have some playtime. 

7:20am - I need to get some chores done so Abby goes up on my back in her "Roo" (the Boba 3G carrier) while I sweep, dust, and do some laundry. 

7:45am - Abby is getting fussy and rubbing her eyes. We go up to her room to nurse, then she goes down for a nap (still in her pjs!). She is asleep by 8am. Time for me to get dressed and ready for the day. Then I have another cup of coffee, check email, Facebook, etc, and make some lists for our camping trip this weekend. 

9:20am - Abby is up from her nap! Some days she only takes short naps but that one was an hour and twenty minutes so I'm thrilled! She gets a new diaper and a clean outfit. I offer a quick nursing  "snack" and then we head to the grocery store across town. 

9:45am - Abby rides on my back in her "Roo" while I grocery shop. They store is being remodeled (I shop at Aldi) so it takes me forever to find everything I need. By the time everything is bagged up Abigail is fussy and ready to be done in the carrier.

11:00am - Abby plays in her jumperoo while I unload and put away all the groceries. I sit and play with her for a little while so she can practice rolling over and sitting up. She starts getting fussy and I know her "afternoon" nap is getting close. 

11:25pm - I take Abby up to nurse and get another fresh diaper. She is exhausted and goes to sleep without a peep. I have lunch, dig out the air mattress and some other camping stuff from the basement, do some laundry, and read for a bit. 

1:20pm - Abby wakes up. That was a GREAT afternoon nap! Almost two hours! That's practically unheard of lately. She nurses a little bit and gets another diaper change (we still nurse a lot!). There were a few things that Aldi didn't have so we head out to Family Dollar to search for them. 

2:00pm - Home from the store. I couldn't find everything I needed, plus we need to get some drinks for our camping trip, so we will have to go to yet another store later (the joys of shopping at Aldi! It's worth it though). I bought Abby a sippy cup at Family Dollar so I put her in her high hair and put an ounce of breast milk in the cup. She plays with it but doesn't really drink anything. We are going to start solids soon so I experiment with feeding her breast milk on a kiddie spoon. She loves the game but doesn't really get it!

3:20pm - A is fussy again and I know that there's no way she will make it until bedtime without nap #3. I try putting her down without nursing but that ends in tears, so we end up nursing for a few minutes. I don't nurse her to sleep, just a little bit to get her drowsy. She's out by 3:40pm. 

4:00pm - Start prepping dinner. It's just BLT's and salad so it's quick and easy! A friend texts and asks if I want to meet her for dinner. As much as I really want to, we're already over budget this week and it's just not in the cards. I remind myself that being a SAHM is about making choices, and sometimes those choices include sacrificing fun times out to be able to stay at home with Abby. I'm sad about not seeing my friends, but it's worth it in the end.

5:00pm - Dave is home. He usually gets home by 4:30 but stayed a little later today. I actually have to go wake Abby up from her nap! She almost NEVER takes a long third nap like that. We eat dinner in the living room while A plays on her playmat and jumperoo. We plan to stop watching tv while eating dinner pretty soon!

5:30pm - Dave and I both want to go finish getting the last of our camping groceries, so we all head out to Kroger. 

6:30pm - Back from the store and it's bath time! Abby gets a bath and jammies. It's Dave's turn to do bedtime tonight. Abby gets a 5oz bottle from Daddy. She fusses for a while before falling asleep,which is unusual for her but could be because of her late afternoon nap. I end up going up and rocking her for a little bit.  She's finally asleep by 7:40pm.

7:30pm - I pump while watching tv. Dave and I watch Wheel of Fortune and hang out.

8:40pm - Dave has an early meeting and needs to be in the office by 6:15am the next day. He starts getting the coffee ready for the morning when we both hear Abigail start screaming. She's been doing this every few nights or so and we are both stumped - she very rarely wakes up crying! Dave goes up to comfort her, but she isn't settling so I join him. We end up taking A in our bed for a few minutes until she calms down. She goes back to sleep in her crib after just a few minutes of snuggle time.

9pm - Dave heads to bed.  I should go to bed myself but I end up watching a tv show instead.

10:00pm - I head to bed. There is a music festival in town and the noise keeps me awake. I finally fall asleep close to 11pm.

4:15am - Dave is up for the day.

5:30am - Abigail is awake and the whole day starts over again! Thankfully she goes back to sleep for a bit and so do I!


So, that is what yesterday looked like! Not all days are filled with quite so many errands. Some days we have play group at a friend's house down the street, other days we walk to the park to swing, some days we just stick close to home or go visit granny. Sometimes the days feel long, and sometimes they fly by. We are still nursing very frequently and without much of a schedule. Hopefully once A starts solids we can cut back the nursing sessions a bit. Part of me longs for when Abby gets a little older and we can get out and about more, especially in the summer. I'm excited to take her swimming at the lake and to the splash pad or water park. Right now those things all seem silly since she's so little still. Time is flying though, so I'm trying to savor the baby years and all the sweet and silent cuddles while I can!

Lately...

I've been such a bad blogger lately! Things are going well and time is just sailing by. It's really hard to believe that Abby is almost 6 months old already. We are dealing with some recent sleep regression as she has started practicing rolling over in her sleep. Then she wakes up on her side or tummy and screams and screams! Silly girl. We still haven't started solid foods yet. About a week ago Dave and I gave her a little piece of mushy banana when we were all sitting at the table together. She didn't really know what to think and spit it right back out! I'm going to make a batch of sweet potato purée soon and we will start her on solids in a few weeks. I really can't believe that she has been exclusively breastfed for nearly half a year. She's getting so chunky and filling out quite well, and it honestly makes me really proud that I'm the one that's been able to feed her for all of these months. That being said...nursing is still not something I really enjoy. I find myself jealous of families that formula feed - it offers so much more freedom and flexibility. But breastfeeding is our choice, and I'm so grateful that Abby and I have been successful so far. I'm trying to look past all of the reasons I don't care for breastfeeding (pumping, worrying about supply issues, engorgement even after all these months, painful latching and let down) and enjoy the precious time with our girl while she's still little and so completely dependent on Dave and I for everything. Abby has finally started relaxing a little more now during nursing sessions, so that has been a positive development. She still occasionally hits, scratches, bites, and kicks me...but there are sweet moments too and I try to savor those for what they are. I know that these baby days will be gone before I know it and that at some point I'll probably even miss nursing her. She still gets one pumped bottle every night before bed and really loves it! I've also been working hard to get a really nice freezer stash of milk saved, and I have about 175 ounces so far, which I feel great about!! Dave and I are going camping and tubing with friends next weekend and Abby will be staying with my parents, so quite a bit of that freezer stash will be used up for that trip. She hasn't been away from us overnight in a while, so I'm a little nervous but I think she'll do great. I'm SO excited for some adult time with our friends and some fun in the sun! Enjoy some recent pictures of miss Abigail...