Getting the hang of this... Maybe.

Alright, 12 weeks old tomorrow and I am up at 9am on a Sunday posting a blog, that's a good sign. (not that time or dates mean anything to me anymore, but there it is).

Eating
We are steadily drinking 6oz at every feeding and promptly every 3 hours. Which means I am burning roughly 500 calories a day sitting on my butt making and serving milk. It was getting bad though, I was very close to quitting nursing the other morning. I have been suffering a painful latch every since he was born (consider every 3 hours for the past 12 weeks... 672 latches... give or take a few we skipped from sleeping over night and a few from pumping/formula bottles). I talked to some girls of mine who are well versed in baby-feeding and unofficially diagnose myself with vasospasms. From what I understand it's a blood flow issue (which makes sense due to my crazy anemia earlier). It's not dangerous or unhealthy, it just makes nursing hurt like a mother... So to temporarily remedy the situation, I have been exclusively pumping for the past 2 days. This has shifted some responsibility from myself to Matt, which I also needed. I like pumping because I can sort of do it on my own schedule, so long as it falls in the 3 hours after Jesse's last bottle. I also can monitor exactly how much he is eating and best of all! Pumping is way easier on me so it gives the gals a chance to catch up and heal a bit.

Sleeping: I have started to learn his tired cues so that he doesn't get so tired that he has a 2 hour meltdown every time he wants to sleep. Usually after a bottle, we'll play games and chat for about 30-45 minutes before he's yawning or seeming restless. That's when I start walking him around. He loves to look at everything so at first he thinks he's getting a treat. But after a little while (5-15 minutes of walking) he realizes he's tired and falls asleep. That's when I lay him in the snuggabunny (aka best thing EVER) and voila! Anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours of time is mine! 5 out of 7 nights a week he is going 6-8 hours between feedings. Now if we could only get ourselves to bed once we put him down, we'd be fine!

Playing: Last week Jesse found his hands! A lot of people were asking about it and talking about it like it was a huge milestone. I didn't think he had yet and was wondering what the big deal was. Until one day I noticed him looking right at his hands and moving them around to see every angle. He does this often and I think it's the most amazing thing. It's crazy how much he has to learn about the world. It's overwhelming thinking about it. But you gadda start somewhere, and he has- his hands. Other than that he still likes to play under his jungle animals and bat them around for a bit, until he gets bored of them.

Me! Most of the above updates are also updates on me, how well I'm sleeping and eating and playing as well. I have a bowl of oatmeal and a mug of Mother's Milk tea every morning to boost my milk. I've heard that there are also problems with over supply, but I would rather have that then the opposite. The past few days have been great. Learning how Jesse likes things and noticing he needs them before he gets upset is really helping. We had a lot of quiet time (not crying time) yesterday. Hopefully we're headed in the right direction and it wasn't just a fluke. I have been meaning to get my hair cut for the past 2 weeks and I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I plan to post before/afters should I end up doing it. Right now, Matt and Jesse are chatting to each other and it is heartwarmingly adorable.

Also, something exciting is on the horizon for me! But it's very early still- I'm trying to work everything out before I start spreading the word. But I'll give you a hint, I bought one of these the other day...

soooo you make your guesses but you will find out soon enough! :)

Some more pictures!


This is the blanket my dad gave him right before he was born! Thanks Dad! :)
Serious discussion.

I love this outfit. He looks so old!

Dino outfit. Rawr!

Daddy and Jesse <3

AND A very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of my very best friends, ANNA! Go check out her amazing food and running blog: Run and Yum she is amazing.



Mmmm chocolate...

See what I mean...?

So I figured out the problem...s!

#1 I have an infant who is very spoiled... I mean... loved.
#2 Blogging comes right after cleaning the house in my order of importance these days. (see below)
#3 The computer is in our bedroom where there is no good place for Jesse to hang out, so I'm never up there. I will talk to Matt about rearranging things so that the computer is downstairs in the living room.

That being said, I have a few moments to catch up.

Eating: He is up to 10lbs 8oz as of his last doctors appointment last Monday. We are still going about 3 hours between meals. Last night was great with a wopping 6 hours. I pumped 6oz while he was sleeping and he ate every last drop when he woke up. I'm drinking Mother's Milk tea to try to keep up with Jesse's growing belly. Jesse is also taking some anti-acid medicine twice a day to help with some minor reflux issues. He seems to yak just about the same amount as he did before, but he is more comfortable laying on his back, and can sleep better.

Sleeping: We are starting to hit a breakthrough I think. Three times in the past few days, I have laid him down while he was wide awake, and he has silently slipped off to sleep on his own! A remarkable difference from the constant walking until he is in a deep sleep, laying him down gently and praying he doesn't realize you ever stopped holding him. This could mean miraculous things for me, a little more time, and a little less crying around the house! (but let's not scare it away since it's still very new...)

Playing: Yes! This is recently a new thing too, going hand in hand with the whole, not crying if he realizes he's not being held phenomenon. I laid him down under his jungle animal toys and he batted them around for a good 20 minutes or so instead of just staring at things.

Me!: I'm still not working out yet, but I'm doing the normal human amount of walking, laundry basket carrying, grocery shopping type of physical activity which is an improvement! I really love hearing about the amount of weight I've lost from people who haven't seen me in a while (since I was a 9 month pregnant whale). Which is also great to hear because I'm eating almost constantly. I burn so many calories from all of the breastfeeding, I need to stuff more food in my mouth to keep up!

I read an amazing article this morning. Here's the link to it: Don't Carpe Diem. I'm just going to share my favorite part.

"I think parenting young children (and old ones, I've heard) is a little like climbing Mount Everest. Brave, adventurous souls try it because they've heard there's magic in the climb. They try because they believe that finishing, or even attempting the climb are impressive accomplishments. They try because during the climb, if they allow themselves to pause and lift their eyes and minds from the pain and drudgery, the views are breathtaking. They try because even though it hurts and it's hard, there are moments that make it worth the hard. These moments are so intense and unique that many people who reach the top start planning, almost immediately, to climb again. Even though any climber will tell you that most of the climb is treacherous, exhausting, killer. That they literally cried most of the way up."

This is quite possibly one of the best analogies for parenting I've ever read. The article is actually about how older ladies in the grocery store always say "Oh, enjoy EVERY moment, it goes so fast." And how more than half the time, you wish those screaming moments would in fact go by so fast, but they don't. And this doesn't make you a bad parent. It's more about seizing the precious moments (however few and far between they seem some days).

While I was reading about this wonderful idea, I was actually doing just that. I had fed Jesse last night at 9:30 and we headed to bed. Everyone slept until 3, and then went right back to bed. The next feeding wasn't until 8, so we had almost 10 hours of sweet sleep, with only about 45 minutes in the middle for nursing. I was so well rested that after 8, we went downstairs and played in that jungle toy. He was laying there smiling, batting around the little zebra and hippo and I was brewing my tea and checking facebook. We were just enjoying the morning until he started to get a little fussy. Now I was prepared to walk him and hear screaming for about another hour (like every other morning) but after putting some laundry in and walking for about 4 minutes, he was out! And the rest of my morning has been so peaceful, it's been so very nice.

As I mentioned before, here is the list of my priorities these days:

Jesse (feeding, changing, getting to sleep)
Eating
Sleeping
Checking Facebook
Showering
Laundry
Grocery Shopping
Breathing/Relaxing/Wine
FaceTiming People
Catching Up On DVR
Basic Cleaning (the house)
Blogging
Art/Craft Projects
Organizing/Big Cleaning Projects
Extra Physical Activities
Syncing My Phone
Looking Good/Going Out

And last but not least, here are two teaser pictures from our adorable photo shoot!






And here are a few more cute Instagram pictures!