Life after Baby :: Sleep

She fell asleep on her activity mat the other day. What a little doll baby!

 
Our lives have changed quite a bit since January 20th. I won't speak for Alex here so consider the following solely my opinion.

Before having Scarlett, I loved sleep. I didn't like to miss out on too much sleep. Sleeping in was what I looked forward to on the weekend. I would set my alarm for work with the precise amount of time I needed to get ready, no more, no less. I would snooze that same alarm because I wanted just a couple more minutes. Now, i'm up twice a night to nurse my little girl. Once around 2am and then again around 4 or 5am. My alarm goes off much earlier for work now and I sneak quietly out of bed so I don't wake her, so that I can get myself ready as much as possible before she wakes up and one of our parents arrive to watch her for the day (except Mondays). I make breakfast now where before I just took something small with me. I actually sit on the couch and check my email/facebook/blogs for a little bit, as long as she isn't awake. When she is awake, I nurse her and get her ready for the day. I need more time if she is awake but I don't mind one bit. It's time I get to spend with her then before I head off to work. Extra smiles for me before I leave since the morning is one of her best times of day.

We do go to sleep earlier though. The evenings fly by now when we start to get ready for bed around 8:30pm. Assuming that will get pushed back once she has a consistent bedtime routine and is sleeping in her own room. For now, it means we go to bed a little earlier and get some extra sleep. Sleep I need to make it through the night time feedings and not be tired during the day and sleep Alex needs to wake up at 5am for work. 8:30pm always comes too quickly and I imagine it will continue to do so as spring and summer approaches.

I cannot say I've been the stereotypical "exhausted" yet since Scarlett arrived. Maybe that first night in the hospital when I was up almost all night and the next day was tiring but we caught back up and exhaustion never hit. Maybe it's because I'm lazy? Maybe the mom's that get exhausted have a lot of other stuff going on where I had nothing else going on. The phrase "sleep when the baby sleeps" was taken advantage of from time to time. I think the key for me was the early bed time and the later wake time. Scarlett would often go back to sleep after her 7:30 or 8am feeding and sleep until 10 or 11.. I did the same. It helped. It also helped that Alex was there the first four weeks to take her out of the room so I could continue to sleep if I felt the need. Sure, she would end up having to eat an hour later but that hour of extra sleep was glorious and I think really made a difference.

I remember a quote that I heard a while back, "True love is not wanting to go to sleep, because reality is better than any dream" and that's how I feel. It's not that I don't want to go to sleep, but I don't mind not getting a lot of sleep. I'd much rather watch my baby girl sleep or hold her while she sleeps. Trying to soak up these bitty baby moments while they last since it won't be forever!

10 Things :: Volume 4

10 :: Back to work ain't so bad. It's kind of a best of both worlds scenario. At least I get to work part time, some mom's don't have that luxury and have to leave their baby every day of the week. Pluses include- talking to other adults, having a list of things that actually gets done, doing things with two hands. Minuses include- missing everything between smiling and crying while i'm away. Thank you iPhone for providing way too many photos and videos for me to look at/watch throughout the day!

9 :: Easter is coming up so fast, it's this weekend! I'm very excited for Scarlett's first official holiday. I have her Easter outfit ready to wear and the Easter buckets filled (for all 3 of us, score!). I even hid Easter eggs around the living room for Scarlett to find (with assistance, haha!). Alex see's a new one every day and says, "there's another egg!" .. maybe he'll forget where they are come Sunday? I also kind of opened the tin of chocolate covered pretzels yesterday when I could not find a suitable snack after work. They were tempting and I have zero willpower in my new-found love for chocolate covered pretzels. Salty and sweet, mmhmm! Plus, Plus! Easter = Ham. I don't even care about the other candy, I care about the HAM!

8 :: Scarlett has really been teasing her father recently saying that she only wants mommy to hold her in the fake boob position (it's like she's nursing but there's a pacifier in her mouth). I hope this is a phase because although I don't mind holding her 24/7, I don't want to have anything Alex can't have. I'm sure there will be another phase soon enough where all she wants is her mommy. Stay in the future, phase, okay?

7 :: Let's talk about body after baby, shall we? I am 10.5 weeks post partum. I feel like I look pretty good for someone who just had a baby 10.5 weeks ago but as always, not good enough. I lost most of my pre-pregnancy jeans somehow (maybe in the heat of pregnancy I thought I would never wear them again?) so I only have one pair of jeans currently (don't worry, I don't wear jeans daily, I wear sweatpants mostly, haha!) but I also refuse to buy more jeans until I can fit into a size that is acceptable to myself. What is that size? Honestly.. 6 but that's far away so I'd even settle for 8! To make matters worse, I think I am one of those BF moms that BF does not help in the weight loss department. Maybe it takes longer than 10.5 weeks for anything crazy noticeable to happen? Maybe I should get off my butt more. So many unanswered questions that actually do have answers but somehow I continue to ignore them!

6 :: Last night, Scarlett slept 5 hours straight for her first session. This was followed by a short 3 and then a long 3.. the long 3 I am speaking of never really happens anymore. She has absolutely no schedule what so ever! Oh well! Keep us guessing, little Scarlett!

5 :: Once Upon a Time.. the tv show on ABC is awesome. It's not as awesome as Revenge (c'mon new episode, it's been long enough!) but it's still pretty good. I really love starting a new series late and then watching 15 episodes in a row. Makes me want to start series late all the time. I also really enjoy Happy Endings and the New Girl. Honestly, at first I thought the New Girl was silly but they've really amped up the character of Schmidt and he is the reason to watch if nothing else. Hilarity!

4 :: Yeah, so you see the blog header hasn't changed, huh? I have a picture in my head of what I want but it's really difficult to find the time to take the pictures and then edit them and then edit the bloggy stuff that goes with it. I will get to it, okay? But I can't promise when.

3 :: Why are shower curtains so expensive? It's a piece of fabric!!! It's nothing that special. I don't get it. I refuse to spend too much money on something so silly. I'm actually thinking of getting just a clear plastic one for our bathroom so that when I'm showering and Scarlett refuses to sleep, I can at least see her instead of constantly opening the current shower curtain and getting her all wet, whoops!

2 :: What is with this weather? Just choose to be warm outside and then stay that way. I don't like this in between thing because I'd really rather not wear a coat if it's optional. I know it's only April 3rd but we were so spoiled before and I can't go back, I just can't!

1 :: It's sad to say that I didn't win that giant Mega Millions jackpot last week. Every time I play the lotto, I spend too much time thinking about what would happen if I won. I go through the motions of how I would find out, how I would tell Alex, what we would do with the money. It's almost the same every time. It's a little sad that I waste time thinking such silly things. At the same time, it's freakin' exciting because anything can happen!

Happy Tuesday!

This used to be a link up but alas, it is not anymore so I'm linking up with nobody!

Scarlett :: 2 Months

Stats
Length- 24.5" (20.5" at birth) 96th percentile
Weight- 12 lbs 13 oz (7 lbs 5oz at birth) 97th percentile

Details
Eating- She seems to be a bottomless pit! She still eats about every 2 hours during the day and about 3 times per night. While I'm at work she'll eat about 5 bottles, each at 3-4 oz. She did go through a growth spurt a couple weeks ago where she was (what felt like) constantly eating and getting fussy when she wasn't eating. She's a long and lean little blue eyed baby girl! I can't believe how much she weighs since she's not getting too chubby yet!

Sleeping- She sleeps like a dream for other people during the day when I'm at work. When I'm home and on weekends, she likes to sleep in my arms (or Alex's.. he's just better about putting her down). Some days it seems like she won't let me put her down at all for naps so I give in to holding her so she can get a couple hours of shut eye. I don't mind at all but hopefully having her crib in our room now will get us accustomed to laying her down in there for naps and for bed. Night time is still pretty unpredictable, some nights (mostly nights I let her sleep with me) she sleeps for up to 5.5 hours. Nights she's been in the bassinet have averaged about 3-4 hours at a time. Again, hopefully the crib in there will help. She was getting too long for the bassinet and the fact that she could touch the sides and kick the bottom wasn't helping her sleep.

Activity/Skills- She's getting so good at holding her head up while sitting (with support) and while we're walking/moving around with her. She's getting better and better at tummy time too, when she feels like doing it. She's been smiling and talking up a storm in the last week or so. She has certain periods where she's completely satisfied with life and will smile and chit chat for at least half an hour. Having her look right at us and smile is heart melting! She's also sucking on her hands a lot more which is hopefully helping her self-soothe. She still startles herself when she's sleeping which wakes her up, so hopefully she's going to grow out of that soon. Doesn't it sound irritating to be asleep so soundly only to be startled awake?

Other thoughts- The cloth diapers are still going well. I think this has helped us prevent blow-outs because sometimes she'd go a couple days without pooing, so when she did it was monstrous! Now she's back to normal. This month we started putting her in the swing from time to time and rocking on the rocking chair. She enjoys both things greatly and they help her fall asleep from time to time.

At her two month appointment she got two shots, one in each leg. She was quite fussy that evening and slept from about 6:30pm until the next morning (but waking up to eat of course). And now she's been pretty happy. I'm hoping that last night was the worst of it!

We feel so lucky to have a happy and healthy baby girl! She is an amazing little person!

See Scarlett's at 1 Month

iPhone Photo Adventures :: v1

I take a ton of pictures with my iPhone, so I figured I should start putting some of them on the blog for other people's viewing pleasure. I use Instagram a lot to post photos to facebook, my apologies if you see duplicates on this here blog but some of them are just too cute not to use!

 Mostly Scarlett but one picture of a ton of starlings that were in the yard and tree's. I took a video for Alex so he could hear them. It was insane how loud they were. When I opened the front door, they all flew away which I got a couple pictures of as well. Crazy!

Back to Work!

This morning my alarm went off at 6:30am. I had to set an alarm for the first time in 8 weeks. I last nursed Scarlett at 5:00am and I knew that I would only have another hour or so to sleep after her diaper change so I selfishly kept her with me to sleep for that final hour. The alarm chimed, I turned it off and laid there awake for 10 minutes drinking in the time I was holding my baby girl that I was about to spend 9 hours away from. The longest amount of time since she was born 8 short weeks ago.

I got ready, made my lunch and ate breakfast. I even had some extra time to read some blogs. I used to wake up with just enough time to get ready and get out the door but the silence in the morning was lovely. I went in to say goodbye to Alex and Scarlett as they slept and fought back tears as I shut the door behind me. Needless to say, things got easier from there.

I have to admit the first day was a little rough as I received pictures and video from Alex throughout the day. We even got to facetime so I could see her for a couple minutes. I also have to admit that it was easier than I thought it would be. I was distracted with things that needed to be accomplished and an email inbox that needed to be cleaned up. Not to mention that i'm still continuing to breastfeed or in this case, pump so she has milk during the day, so pumping takes a good chunk of time. At least for now because I don't have it down quite yet.

Alex enjoyed his day alone with her which I think will definitely help grow their father daughter bond. We're quite lucky that our parents have also offered to help. My mom will be watching her on Tuesdays and Alex's dad will watch her on Thursdays. The thought of dropping her off at daycare at such a young age sounds awful to me at this point, so I'm glad we don't have to do that.

I think once we get our new schedule down things will be just fine! The mental stimulation during the days I work are great and I still get plenty of time with Scarlett. It's so nice that my workplace is so flexible to let me have this schedule for a while. Plus, blogging will be more regular now since I have a half hour at lunch to dedicate to it! Get ready for some photo blasts!

This is how we play!

Playing on the mat with Harper!

Tummy Time. We're working on it!!

Relaxing and looking around!

Adventures in Cloth Diapering

Ever since I read about how much money cloth diapering saves and how easy it was, I figured why not give it a try? After running the numbers and talking to my cousin, Sarah, who cloth diapered her two children and soon to be third, we went for it. We bought a 24 diaper set from SmartiPants and received 2 as a gift so we have a total of 26 diapers on rotation. On their website it's about $280 plus tax and shipping for 24 diapers. We spent $120 on two packs of newborn diapers and three packs of size one diapers in the first month of Scarlett's life. I can't imagine continuing that trend.

So far I've received lots of questions regarding cloth diapers so I thought I would share. First of all, these aren't the diapers that your parents may have used to diaper you growing up (or that you diapered your children with, trying to cover all ages). We bought what are called pocket diapers. There is an insert and the shell as you can see below in the top right corner. The size of the diaper is one size fits all. It is supposed to fit from 8lbs to 35lbs (typically). Scarlett's little thighs were too thin for them at first, hence the need for disposable diapers. But she's chubbed up just enough now and though we've had some minor leaks due to that, I don't blame the diaper. It will be great once she's chubbed up even more! After they're washed and dried, you just put them back together again (bottom left) and reuse

I rigged up a line drying system using door handles, sweet huh?

 Cleaning is also a snap (ha, get it?). At each changing station in our house and in the diaper bag there are things called wet bags. These are the bags we put the used diapers in until they are cleaned. I should've snapped a photo because I love the pattern on the one set. Every other day or so, I take the wet bags and empty them directly into the washing machine. That's right, I don't take apart the diapers and I don't have to scrape any poo from them (at least not yet, this will come when Scarlett starts eating solid foods). I wash them on HOT with regular Tide powder with an extra rinse and what our washer calls power boost (or something like that). They come apart in the washer and I remove them to hang dry (or at the least, hang dry the shell, the insert takes longer to dry so if i'm short on time or diapers, I put those in the dryer). Simple as that!

And our model, Scarlett showing off her cloth diaper!

Check out these links for more info.

Jillians Drawers - Huge resource. Lots of different types of cloth diapers. Great explanations of each. They also sell lots of good nursing bras and accessories. Not to mention they have super fast shipping, esp if you're anywhere close to NY, where they ship from.
SmartiPants - We bought our diapers directly from the website instead of through Jillian's Drawers. Mostly because they had all the colors and Jillian's Drawers were out of stock on most of them. They also had a discount for buying larger quantities and we got a small wet bag for free.
PlanetWise - Wet bags in so many patterns. They have other things for sale on the site as well and this brand is on Jillian's Drawers too. Sometimes it's just easier to go direct though, so that's what we did.