::Henley:: Sleep Update & Mother's Day Celebration!

Well I have good news to report---Henley slept 11 hours! Day two in the crib was fantastic! I put her down like normal at 8pm. She stirred and squawked a little here and there but stayed asleep. I woke up at 12, 2, and 4, each time more and more shocked she was still asleep! At 2 she was doing a little chatting, I debated going ahead and nursing her since we were both awake but she went right back to sleep so I said forget it, back to bed I went. I got up at 6 and got ready for work. I had to actually wake her up at 7 to nurse her and get her ready for daycare. Crazy! I never imagined it would be that good. She has never slept more than 6-7 hours in a row without waking. I guess she loves her crib!!

In other news, daycare had a Mother's Day celebration for all of the moms in the infant room. We had muffins and juice and got to snuggle our little ones in the middle of the day (that was the best part)!! I didn't want to leave and I stayed as long as possible. Henley even fell asleep on my shoulder, that always makes me melt!!

My artwork she made me. It had a little poem on the back:

This isn't just a butterfly

As you can plainly see

I made it with my feet

Which are a part of me

It comes with lots of love

especially to say

I hope you have a very

Happy Mother's Day!

It's so sweet and love it. I have it hanging at work so I can see if everyday. At least I have a little piece of her while I am at work.

Mere :-)

::Henley:: Sleeping Like a Big Girl!

Well, we made the leap! Last night was Henley's first night in the crib. I have to say I was extremely nervous and expecting the worst. I'll give you details on last night later but first let's back up a bit :-)

Since birth, as many of you know, Henley has been sleeping in the Rock n Play. On a typical good night she would sleep 6 hours, nurse and then go back down for 3 to 4 hours. I really think the RnP attributed to this, that little thing has been a lifesaver! She nestled right against our bed and I could check on her just by leaning over. It was also great when I was still on maternity leave because I could move her around the house to wherever I was.

Jan 2013

We really have had no issues with the RnP but recently it has just felt like it was time for Henley to move on from this. She was stretching like crazy after getting out of there and she started rolling over, loving to snooze on her belly.

About two months ago we started putting Henley in her crib for naps. I placed rolled blankets on the side of her and place a pillow under the mattress to mimic the RnP. She would nap here and there for 20-30 minutes. We weren't absolute about it and sometimes she slept in the RnP for naps as well. At daycare she was usually sleeping in the swing or the bouncer.

Starting about two weeks ago I decided to transition her to the Pack n Play in our room. This move was horrible---not a disaster but close. On her best night in the PnP she was down for 3 hours and then up every hour until I caved and put her in our bed. I got a little frustrated with this because I wanted her to be happy and rested while still being able to get a good night's rest.

This brings us to this weekend. On Sunday I put Henley down for a nap in her crib and she slept for almost two hours!! She was out like a light. I decided to give it a try last night and put her in the crib. I was expecting a bad night but was pleasantly surprised! She went down at 8 like usual. I had her little seahorse that sings lullabyes on and the white noise. She stayed down until about 11 and then did a little rumbling. I got up, put my hand on her back, reset the white noise, and she was back asleep. She woke at one again and I nursed her. She fell asleep while nursing and stayed down until four!! I nursed her again and she seems to go back asleep. About 30 minutes later she was awake and chatting away. If it wasn't 4:30 in the morning, I would have loved to chat back with her lol. I got up again, rubbed her back but she wasn't interested in going back to sleep. I picked her up and rocked her for about 20 minutes and she was back asleep.

I think because I was expecting the worst possible situation, I was so pleased. She slept almost 8 hours with two very short nursing breaks. I'm hoping it wasn't just beginner's luck but tonight we will see. I love seeing her in her crib, it's so cute how she stretches out and hugs her little stuffed bunny (I know---stuffed animal in the crib ::gasp!::)

Wish me luck---I'm off to bed as she is already down for the night!

Mere :-)

::Get Fit:: Clean Eating

Clean Eating---I have been hearing this term thrown around a lot recently and I thought I’d look into it. While I have been working out, I have not been diligent with my diet and nutrition. Breastfeeding uses a lot of calories and I am hungry very often throughout the day. This has resulted in me consuming whatever is available and while I am getting healthier and closer to my pre-pregnancy body, I feel like I need more---I still have a little ways to go to what I want my end result to be. What I eat affects my mood and how I feel overall, it even affects my self-esteem. I find myself feeling much better and much more confident when I eat better. All of this has led me to my interest in Clean Eating.

The best resource I have found so far for information on this has been The Gracious Pantry. She has explanations of how Clean Eating works, grocery lists, and tons of recipes! From what I've read and derived from online research, Clean Eating is eating as close to nature as possible. We need to limit processed foods overall. No white flour or white sugar, no chemically-enhanced foods, and no artificial flavors---a good rule of thumb is to shop the perimeter of the store and limit everything else to foods with less than 5-6 ingredients and to make sure the ingredients are foods we can pronounce.

Working full time and having an infant can make eating healthy difficult and while I plan to begin this Clean Eating, I am not going to kill myself in the process. My plan is to grocery shop with these guidelines as best as I can and eat out as little as possible. I feel with this as a starting point I am bound to get healthier and feel better overall.

Here is my meal planning for the week:

Breakfast: Oatmeal (either steel cut or rolled oats. Steel cut is best but I may have to ease into that since I wasn't a fan the last time I tried them)

Morning Snack: Greek yogurt with honey or fresh fruit

Lunch:
M: Chicken breast on Ezekiel bread with tomato and avocado
T: Salad with roma tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, chicken, and balsamic dressing (I’m going to look for an organic, all-natural one)
W: Brown rice with black beans and chicken
R: Chicken breast on Ezekiel bread with tomato and avocado
F: Salad with roma tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, chicken, and balsamic dressing

Afternoon Snack: Hard boiled eggs or fresh fruit

Dinner:
M: Stuffed Bell Peppers
T: Tandoori Chicken with brown rice
W: Whole wheat pasta with chicken, roma, and basil
R: Tilapia lime tacos
F: Grilled chicken with pineapple and brown rice flavored with pineapple and allspice

This is my busy week at work and I usually end up eating crappy foods when I am busy. My plan is to go grocery shopping today and arrive at work stocked so I don’t end up with temptation. My weakness is definitely going to be sweets, ever since I was pregnant I have had a craving for something sweet after dinner and that has continued since Henley was born. I’ll be sure to keep fruit around just for these situations.


Any of you try Clean Eating before? Wish me luck!---oh and Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Mere :-)

::Get Fit:: 30 Day Shred Results

It's a little delayed but here are my 30 Day Shred results. I have to admit that I lost steam. Level 1 and Level 2 were great and I didn't miss any days at all. Level 3 however is a different story. I actually liked Level 3 more than Level 2 but by the time I got there in the program I was a little burnt. 

Level 3 has a lot of planking and other moves that require pressure on the wrists. My wrists bug me often and just doing the Level 3 workout 2-3 times was causing me aching wrists. This issue combined with the lack of motivation resulted in 2 weeks of no workouts. 

I went ahead and took pictures today to show you. I can definitely see some difference but not drastic changes. This is pretty humbling experience so please bear with me. :-)

Like I said, not dramatic but just enough to keep me going. I should note that I ate pretty much the same as always and didn't follow any strict diet or nutrition guides. I'm hesitant to workout and change my diet at the same time due to breastfeeding, I've heard it can mess with supply.

Next steps: I have Jillian's 90 Day Body Revolution and I think I'm going that direction for my next phase. Hopefully in 90 days these "afters" will be my "befores"!

Hope everything is going well. We've had some wakeful night lately so I'm pretty exhausted. Heading to bed!

Over the hump, Friday's around the corner!!

Mere :-)

::Baby G:: One Year Ago...

Today is a very special day to me and my husband. A year ago today I woke up nervous and excited. A year ago today was the first day we could know if “this month was it”. We would find out if all of our planning, thoughts, prayers, excitement, and trying worked or if it would be another “maybe next month”. We tried for a little over six months to get pregnant. During that time, there were months that I thought that it definitely wasn't going to be THE month but then there were months were I was certain we were pregnant, I just felt different. Every month when the time would come around I would pray---I prayed for this month to be it, I prayed for our unborn baby, and I prayed that if it wasn't the case that I be okay with it.

The worse month was January of last year. It was one of those months that I just knew. I was sure! I woke up on the day and took another test, sure that the test I took the day before was a false negative taken too soon. I had had a horrible day at work the day before, I was stressed and irritable and I needed this. Looking back I put way too much importance on that test, maybe I wasn't ready. I took the test and not only was it negative, my period started before I left the house---definitely a negative for the month! I was upset. Realistically I knew it wasn't the end of the world but in that moment, I was extremely bummed out. I got in my car to head to work, pulled out of our parking garage (crying of course) and I hit a car that was pulling into our building. I was looking but I didn't even see her. I couldn't hold any more in, I just started crying. This woman was what I needed at that moment. She looked at her car, then looked up at me and said “It’s ok, there are worse things in the world” and she gave me the biggest hug. It was exactly what I needed. Before she walked away she said “Whatever it is, things will get better. They always do”. While I was still upset after this, she made me feel so much better. Whoever she was I am grateful to have run into her at the perfect time in my life.

After that moment, I tried not putting so much pressure on myself as I knew it would happen when it was meant to happen, I had little control over it. A year ago today my life was forever changed. I’ll never forget being on the floor of my bathroom looking at that test, I’ll never forget the huge hug from my husband, and I’ll never forget the big smile on his face when we realized we are starting a family! What a year!

Mere :-)

::Henley:: We Have Rolled!

It's finally happened--after weeks and weeks of tipping up on her sides and trying to roll she finally did it although not quite like we were thinking. I've been putting her on her belly thinking she'd roll to her back since that is what most infants do first but turns out Henley was more interested in back to belly. She first did it on Friday night under her play gym, now she's doing it all of the time. Here is the video we took from today.

Henley Rolling Over

Happy Sunday all. We are heading to my mom's for dinner and to go to the pool for a little bit, well that's the plan as soon as little miss takes a nap that she's fighting. Hope your day is relaxing!

Mere :-)

::Henley:: Month 4

It's that time again---another month has passed. I love every day that passes as we can see her changing and growing right before our eyes. Having a child is really the best thing ever, it's truly awesome!

Weight

I'm guessing she is about 15 lbs now but I have no idea anymore. She is definitely growing but she doesn't seem like she is significantly bigger. She goes to the doctor on Monday so I'll keep you posted. I am so curious to see.

Health

She has been congested quite a bit on and off since starting day care but that hasn't changed her mood one bit. She's still as happy and smiley as ever. 

She seems to be getting a little bit of cradle cap in the last day or so. I've read that using olive oil and a baby brush can get rid of it. We were out of olive oil so I tried it with coconut oil. It definitely got some of it off but I felt like my "scrubbing" was getting rid of the last few strands of hair that she has left on top (she's been losing a little of it).

Other than those two things, healthy as can be!

Sleep

Sleep has been ever evolving lately. She has been really great with the night time routine overall and is usually asleep at 8 and up for her first feeding somewhere between 2 and 3, then awake again around 5 or 6 when I get up for the day. We of course have off days but they really aren't bad at all. Last night she broke free of the swaddle and woke up at 1, we just put her in bed with us and she slept until 6:30 (thank God she woke up squawking because I slept through the alarm).

We put her in the Pack n Play about three weeks ago and she did great. She slept similar hours as she did in the Rock n Play. There were a few times she was a little rumbly but I just reached over and placed my hand on her belly and she quieted down. Then she got another wave of being congested and needed the incline of the Rock n Play. Since then she has been in the RnP but I'm planning to try the PnP again soon.

I've toyed with the idea of the crib in her room but honestly, it seems so far from us and I'm just not ready for that step. Tonight I tried to swaddling her with one arm out since she's really been sucking on her fingers so we will see how that goes.

Clothing

She is in 3-6 month clothing very comfortably! This is actually exciting to me because I have been stocking up on the cutest clothing and outfits in this size, preparing for summer. She's only been in these for about a week so we are still enjoying the new-ness of all of the outfits. I told Ted I wish I got a whole new wardrobe every 3 months, he didn't agree that it would be awesome lol. 

We have also bumped up a size in the cloth diapers. We are in Medium gDiapers and Swaddlebees. These are her main diapers in her stash now and since they are so much bigger there was no way the 0-3 clothing would fit over them. She can still wear the extra small Charlie Bananas but she has outgrown the absorbency of these. I usually put these on her if I know I'll be home and can change her in an hour or so.

Diet

Mama’s milk. I feel really blessed that I have had success producing enough milk for her. Now that I've been back to work for over a month, I have established a pretty good pumping routine. She is drinking about 16 oz a day at day care and I am pumping between 14-18 oz while at work. If I pump a little less, I add a pump before bed to make up the last few oz. I typically give her the milk I pumped the day before. On Friday I freeze the milk and on Monday I thaw the oldest frozen milk in my stash. This system seems to be working pretty well so far although some days I feel like I am on the pump more than I'm not.

Baby Gear Love

With all of the congestion she's had I was pretty frustrated with the bulb syringes that we have. I've heard many great things about the NoseFrida Snot Sucker but I was so gross out by the idea that I totally dismissed it. She was so congested and I felt so helpless that I went on Amazon and started reading reviews---after seeing 1,300 positive, raving reviews I took the plunge and ordered it. Now that I have been using it I have one word---AMAZING! It is so great and it clears her up perfectly! I highly recommend it to anyone with a congested little one.

She's been really into chewing on things lately and has been really liking this little teether we got from Target and also Sophie the Giraffe. She's been chewing her hands and fingers every chance she gets so these toys have been great. She also really loves her little Taggies Blanket. She chews on this too and it's so cute to see her pull it over her face, adorable!

We still aren't really using the Baby Einstein Activity Center but hopefully soon, it looks so fun!

Crying

She isn't a cryer at all. She gets a little pout lip here and there but she really doesn't cry much. She has started learning when she wants something and has been using her newly found voice to express these feelings. This week she has started fussing and arching her back when I put her is her car seat but usually gets distracted once I make funny faces at her---hopefully this doesn't get worse.

Social

We have been SO social lately! Let's see:

Aunt Allie came and shared her favorite book with Henley, The Lorax

Hung out with Grandma and cousin Alaina---she loves her cousin "Henny" (so cute!)

Aunt Tara came to visit

Hated visiting the Easter Bunny but...

loved the bunny he brought her!

Took walks with Mom, Dad, and Fitzy to enjoy the beautiful weather

We went to her first birthday party for her friend Ronan followed by a party for Ella the next week.

First visit to the beach and...

...the pool! She loved both!

She was cracking up last night when my Dad and Toni came over to cook for us and visit.

She's a lucky lady to have so many people that love her!

Postpartum

Mama has been feeling great. I have been working out using Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred, currently on Day 20 (Hoping to squeeze it in after this blog post so I can move on to Level 3). Other than that just feeling great overall. Still get a little bummed about my body here and there but I feel better working out.

Milestones

Overall she is more responsive and loves to giggle and talk to us. My mom got this great video of her chatting while playing on the floor. It is probably my most favorite video to date.

She seems like she is more than capable of rolling over, just not interested. She holds her head up really well.

And she is definitely my child, she loves watching TV. This was too hilarious not to photograph.

Overall she is so smiley and giggly and just loves hanging out with us. Every day we find little things she is doing that she's never done before--this week she has started grabbing her toes. It's so adorable!

One thing I know for sure is how lucky I am. I thank God for her every single day. Hope you all are doing well----almost Friday!!!

Mere :-)