Thirty Three Weeks!

Weight: I'm thinking girlfriend is putting on the pounds! My guess is around 15 and a half pounds right now. She's feeling pretty solid these days!

  
Sleep: I had thought that with the switch-over to formula, Lizzie might sleep through the night again. Alas, it's not true! Baby girl is still waking sometime between midnight and three and is ready to eat. After that she'll typically fall back asleep until morning, but I've noticed a sad trend that I hope changes: she doesn't fall asleep like she did when I nursed her in the night :( I'm not sure if it provided some comfort or if it's the tryptophan that breastmilk has in it that helped her completely zonk out right away/during a middle-of-the-night-feeding, but she's definitely not "zonking" out anymore. It takes some effort to get her back to sleep when she wakes now, and she might wake up once or twice within a few minutes of putting her down, too.

Medical Issues: Nothing to report! She does have a yucky cough that we're working on getting rid of right now, but other than that, baby girl seems perfectly  healthy.

Clothes: We're in three to six month clothes and six month jammies. The jammies are still quite big right now, but that's okay… they're fleece and cozy for the sub-zero temps we've been having!

Socialite!: Sweet girl went back to daycare this week :( Although it was sad, I can tell how much she loves the interaction with the other kids (and playing with all of their toys :)).

Diet: (I'm going to keep this section strictly about her diet… my feelings/thoughts on it will come in the "Mommy News" section.) Lizzie is now on formula. We made it one week shy of her eight-month birthday with breastmilk before going to an iron-enriched formula. We were VERY surprised to see how quickly my frozen breastmilk ran out! I had probably 80 frozen bags, and it only lasted probably 14 days between weaning and being exclusively bottle-fed. I was initially pretty confused about which formula to buy for her -- after all, I wanted the best (which I realize is breastmilk, but "second best" then) I could get her, but there's so many kinds out there! So after lots of online reading, I decided we weren't going to go with any pre-mixed formula. Not only is it more expensive, it's also got more BPA in it, which I do not want. The least amount of BPA comes from powdered formula, so I knew we'd go that route. And again, powder = most cost effective. I asked a few people what they would recommend and found the same response as what I read online: generic and name-brand are practically the exact same thing, so you may as well save 50% and go with the store-brand. Daycare told me that Wal-Mart's brand tends to be gritty, so they stick to Target's Up & Up brand -- so I found a Cartwheel for it (whoo!) and in the cart it went!

Anyway, in terms of how much she's eating, she's an interesting little lady. She seems to eat a relatively small amount throughout the day, typically between two and, at most, five ounces throughout the day. Before bed, I keep hoping she'll tank up and take eight ounces to get her through the night, but she never does. Some nights, she'll take two ounces (two!How's a girl supposed to sleep through the night on that? Oh yeah, she doesn't). Most of the time, it's four ounces. Last night, she took seven (!) ounces! I thought for certain we'd be sleeping through the night. Wrong. She was up at 12:44 a.m.  to eat another six ounces. What the!? And then she woke up this morning and at two ounces. So it seems she's tanking up overnight, rather than before the night begins. I'm perplexed, and am wondering if anyone has any advice for how to change this… ideas? Suggestions? I'll take 'em!

Her daily schedule for eating typically goes as such:

6:30 a.m.: Eat between three and five ounces.

8:30 a.m. (daycare): Eat five ounces.

11:30 a.m. (daycare): Eat food (for example, today I packed Lizzie a lunch of whole wheat bread, hummus, broccoli, cauliflower and pears.

3:00 p.m. (daycare): Eat four or five ounces.

6:00 p.m. (home): Eat supper (for example, the other night she had chicken breast cut into strips for her to pick up and eat, steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, a peach segment (frozen, then thawed -- no sugar added), two cherries (frozen, then thawed -- no sugar added), two blackberries (smashed a bit on her tray). This sounds like a lot, but it's usually one or two of each thing, and some of it either doesn't get eaten or ends up in the pouch of her bib or on the floor. I used to give her just a couple things at a time (usually a veggie and a fruit), but now I'm trying to give her the same things we eat, including the main course, and I like to give her options. This lets her explore and choose what she likes. I do always wait to give her fruit until after she's eaten some of the "main" meal and her vegetables. She's her momma's daughter and would eat only fruit if allowed I think :)

7:15 p.m.: Eat anywhere from two to six ounces.

Sometime between 11:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m.: Wake and eat anywhere from two to six ounces.

So as you can see, her eating is pretty night-heavy (just like momma, again!). Any suggestions for how to make her take in more during the day?

Baby Gear Love: Girlfriend loves that silly 1-2-3 Go Snail from Fisher Price! She sees it and her eyes light up :)

Crying: Lizzie cries when hungry or tired, but she's added two new ones: when we lay her down for diaper changes, she cries like we're hurting her! So sad. She's also crying hard when we take things away from her that she either shouldn't have (i.e., cell phones, tablets, remote controls…) or that are in the way (i.e., taking her foot out of her mouth when trying to change her diaper). Luckily, a little distraction goes a long way and she stops crying quickly :)

Mommy News:  So. Weaning. It's over. My body now knows that we're done nursing, which is good from a "pain" perspective (so swollen!). Unfortunately, this is a double-edged sword -- because pregnancy and nursing were like a natural plastic surgery for me! And not that I'm dissatisfied with what God gave me, but, ya know, it was a side effect I really didn't mind. Can I get an "amen"? :)

Anyway, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't incredibly hard for me to mix Lizzie's first bottle of formula. I had tears in my eyes and a few sniffles as I shook it up and offered it to her. For some reason it was so sad to know that I wasn't the one nourishing her anymore. Granted, I never felt sad when we started offering her real food and she got nourishment that way, but somehow this was different I guess.

Another thing I struggled with in terms of weaning, was not turning back and quick trying to "save" my milk supply from dwindling as I let my body get used to not nursing. When I still had milk to give, I had this ridiculous panicked feeling that would show up randomly that made think, "No! It's almost gone! You can still save it! Just have her start nursing again now before it's too late!" I think the thoughts mostly came from A: I'm crazy and hate change, and B: it's such an amazing gift that God has given us, to nurse our babies and provide them everything they need. So incredible! And it seems so sad to turn away from that gift. But both A and B both are issues I'd have to come to terms with no matter when I'm weaning, so that's just that.

Anyway, aside from readjusting my wardrobe life to my new, non-pregnant, non-nursing body and getting the crazies out of my system, life as a mommy is amazing. I love my sweet babe.
   Milestones: Girlfriend is clapping now and making an "aaaaayyyy" sound that sounds like "yay"!  It is so darn adorable. Eek!

We also ROLLED OVER from back to front the other night… probably around eight times! She was reaching for the TV remote (one of the forbidden objects we don't let her suck on) and wanted it badly enough to send herself over the edge!  Of course I broke out the camera and caught it on film once, but she refused to do it again afterward and has only done it two or three times since (just tonight, actually!). But she proved my theory right: girlfriend can do it, but she just doesn't want to. I mean, she hates her tummy -- so why would she put herself there?

Rumor has it, she also got on her hands and knees at daycare for a little bit the other day… we have yet to see it at home, though I'm noticing she's getting a bit closer to doing it.

We're also starting to understand how to pull ourselves up to stand next to things. I'd been trying to show her how to do that for a few days, and then suddenly one day she just sort of "got it" and grabbed on to the edge of one of her toy baskets and tried her hardest to pull up! The trick is now, understanding how to transition from our knees to our feet. Tricky, tricky...