blah...

blah.. it's how I feel lately. I have started P90X...again... and it's going okay. It's a LOT different when you have a child and really don't have the time to work out. I've been lucky enough to get off around 3:45 or 4:00 from work so I can come home and get my hour workout in before Cami gets home. Because let me tell you, ALL I want to do when I get home is play with that little Cami Lou.

Losing weight has been challenging... I don't really have the time to work out like I want to and eating healthy is a challenge as well. I'm still eating like I am pregnant! I should NOT have this baby weight STILL.. so it's hard. But I can say that it's my own fault.. mainly related to diet and lack of consistent exercise...
So, along with some of my coworkers (who in my opinion are beautiful and don't need to lose weight ) I am doing the special K diet. I figured it would give me a kick-start to my weight loss and hopefully if I can get some initial pounds off, it will motivate me to work out harder and eat healthier.

Like most Americans, I just eat too much and I like dessert and Coke! LOL. But I have been good about only having a soda 1-2 times per week. But I still have that need for a dessert after every meal, even breakfast! But I'm hoping to replace unhealthy desserts with something like sliced fruit with fat free cool whip.. we'll see.

I will let you all know about P90X and the Special K diet and how I am doing with it. Day 1 is today and so far I've had a protein drink and some coffee (fat free half and half and a little sugar). As for P90X, I am on week 6. Progress is slow but that's because I'm not consistent! :(

Until next time! [and hopefully out of this funk]

5-6 months!

These 2 months were filled with milestones!

First and MOST important: Cami learned to sleep through the night. Until she was about 5 1/2 months old, she was still eating at least once through the night. As I said in my last post, I bought the book "Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems" and it taught us how to wean her from her night feeding as well as teach her how to fall asleep on her own. Well, lucky for us, she weaned herself from her feeding. Just one night, she decided she didn't need it. So one step down, one to go. Next we did the "Cry it out" method. There are a lot of people against it, but I'm against waking up multiple times throughout the night! SO there! But really, it was a breeze! She got it within two nights. Now the first night was not the best, but we make it through. The second night was SOOO much better and after that, she's been sleeping! 11 hours of pure sleeping bliss!!! YAY! If I had to give advice, I would say do the program!! It saved me (and my marriage!)

Speaking of that, since I"m being truthful, it has been difficult. It seems that we have been fighting ever since we had Cami. We really haven't... but it's hard when both parents are sleep deprived and you have a slightly needy baby. All those things combined, along with general day-to-day stresses, makes for a difficult time! But we have learned to communicate our feelings instead of walking away or being silent. I am hoping that this will only make our marriage stronger! I'd like to hope that other couples feel this way when they first have a baby... but I can only speak for us.

Another important milestone: Cami is crawling!!!! Cami is officially doing hands and knees crawling as of last week! We went on vacation (more on that in the next post) and she picked that up somehow! We knew she was close anyway.

Cami is also eating 3 times per day as of 6 months. She generally loves food. Except squash. She is definitely allergic!!! She is enjoying trying new things and we are getting ready to introduce homemade protein (chicken and turkey, most likely) and we are excited!!

When we went home for the Flying Pig Marathon, our amazing photographer, Ashley Esterle, took her [early] 6 month pictures.. they are simply adorable. Here are a few:

Cutie pie!! Until next time... :)

4-5 months

Well boy you sure do get busy once you have a child. Whew. I just happened to check on my blog and realized I haven't updated since March! I'm a slacker!

Things have been pretty busy and exciting in our household. Many sleepless nights, teething, illness, and of course, fond memories with little miss Cami Lou.

4 Months: Cami was still rolling around all over the place at this time. We started solids on exactly 4/20/12. It was a rough few weeks at first. She really hated the rice cereal and I researched for ever and ever about it. I was convinced she wasn't ready for solids yet but didn't want to start a fruit because of the old wives tale. If you start them on a fruit then they will never eat vegetables. So I took to the internet to find out if this statement was true or not. And I was actually surprised to find out that it didn't matter one way or another! Breast milk is pretty sweet itself so they are already used to the sweetness. So I decided to try bananas. I used my finger because I wasn't entirely sure she liked the spoon. She ate ALMOST the entire jar!!! I was so happy! Then a few days later she got sick and constipated. We had to call the doctor and his nurse chewed my head off for giving her fruit instead of a green vegetable. Whatev lady. Long story short, she never (and still to this day) liked rice cereal. So we skipped that part. We still put it in her bottle every night, but she doesn't eat it from a spoon. We also started solid feedings at daycare too and they said she was doing great!

5 Months: She had her first visit to Disney World about 4 1/2 months! She loved it! We had a good time and she did very well! She was STILL (repeat STILL) not sleeping through the night at this point. Remember that hole I talked about in my last post? Yeah, we were pretty deep in it! I finally bought the book "Solve your child's sleep problems." It was a good book and I learned a lot about why she wasn't sleeping through the night and what we were going to do about it... but more on that later. Other than introducing some more solid foods (sweet potatoes and peas), this month was eventful for our first ear infection, multiple issues with a fever, and she sat up alone!!!! YAY CAMI!!! 4/29/12. Such a big girl!

I started making our own food for Cami. It's actually very simple and I feel like such a good mom for some reason. I just feel so accomplished when she eats the food I make. And boy does she eat!!!! Although she is still not yet 15lbs! :)

More next time! 

2-4 months.

Well time sure does fly! And boy are we busy! Me especially since I went back to work. It's been quite the adjustment, but each day is a little better.

I started back at work on Jan 30th. It was very hard that first week, but like I said, it's getting better. I am working full time (although I wish it was less) and Cami is in daycare. She likes it so far and only has had a few bad days. Usually they have to call us. Dan has only been in there once to feed her because she just flat out refused all day. So Dan took a little field trip and fed her! So glad he can be nearby! I like that she is going to daycare but essentially we are paying someone else to raise our daughter. That's how I see it, anyway. I wish I was home with her, but the cards didn't fall that way.

2 Months: Let's see... Cami started sleeping through the night around 2 months. But don't worry, that lovely joy came quickly to an end. She was not and is still not on a schedule for sleeping or eating. She was eating every 2 hours still about 3-4 oz. She had her doctor's appointment on Jan 24th. She got 3 shots and some nasty medicine in her mouth. I thought she was going to stop breathing with her first shots. Her face was turning purple she was so mad! Dan couldn't be there so it was difficult on me. But she did okay and we survived! Daycare sends home a sheet with her feeds and naps everyday so it's helpful to determine a trend of eating and sleeping times. But we sort of figured out that they aren't always that accurate. But they are helpful, I guess.

3 Months: Cami kept sleeping through the night until Feb 16th.Why do I remember this date, you ask? Because   I have looked it up numerous times because she still hasn't slept through the night since then. Bummer. HUGE bummer. But on the bright side, this month she learned how to roll herself over!!! :) As I type this, she is rolling all over the floor on her mat. Back and forth and back and forth. It's pretty cute.

We are stumped as to why she is not sleeping through the night anymore. She was waking up 1-2 times and I researched it and it seemed like a growth spurt. However, a month later, she is still waking up. So unless this is the longest growth spurt in history, we have dug ourselves a hole. I think she has gotten into a pattern of waking up knowing that we will feed her. However, if we don't feed her, it's impossible to put her back to bed. Dan is against the "cry it out" method and I'm all for it, if it teaches her to sleep thru the night again.
Then there's the fact that she is sucking down a bottle at 4am every night like she is starved. So recently we started adding cereal to her bottle at night. It's only a tsp for 5oz of milk so it's really not that much. It's helped so that she only wakes up once (she was waking up multiple times) but still not keeping her asleep all night. We have not tried any more solids and are waiting to see what the doctor has to say on Tuesday. I hope he'll give us the okay. I feel like if she had a little more on her ribs she would sleep. But probably not knowing her!

It's certainly been a challenge since my last post, which is probably why I haven't updated. I am always dead tired and barely making it to ten o'clock. It's been straining on Dan and I because we hardly spend any time together. So we are hoping that once she will start sleeping again, we can stay up a little later and enjoy the time without Cami. This sure is testing us and our relationship, but if Cami wasn't so cute, I would be a bit more mad! :)

Until next time! :)                                                                                              

All Good Things Must Come to an End.

Good things must end. Example: a good book, vacation at the beach, Cami sleeping through the night, and my maternity leave.

So my lovely sweet baby who was sleeping through the night for the last week has decided to not do that anymore. I don't know why I find it so frustrating but I do. I was disturbed in my slumber at 4am this morning. I don't know why, but while I was feeding Cami, I started crying. I think because, since my maternity leave is coming to an end I don't know who will get up with her in the middle of the night. Usually I do and Dan has been sleeping through the night since Cami was born. But now that I'm going to work, we have to share this responsibility. Its just very frustrating when you think you've got something down pat and then it just changes. But I guess that is parenthood for you.

Another lovely thing coming to an end is my leave. I am thankful for the weeks I got to spend with her, but I wish I could spend another few months with her!! But I need money and have to go back to work. Last week I felt ready so I called base daycare and asked if they could get her in a week early so I could go back to work a week early. As soon as I got off the phone I cried. And I'll probably cry every day until she goes and the entire first week she is there. But I guess this is also part of parenthood. She will be starting daycare on Monday. :( We have to go tomorrow to see the place and fill out paperwork and then orientation. The worst part is that Dan has a class to attend all next week and will not be able to take Cami. The reason we chose base was so Dan could take her because I'm not sure I could do it. But now that he has class, he can't drop her off. Sucks to be me. This was the hardest 8 weeks of my life thus far, but I wouldn't change it for anything. I loved spending every day with her.

Coming up is Cami's 2 month appointment on the 24th. She will get some shots and I am not looking forward to it. I also have to take her to this appointment because Dan is in class. Sucks again. But I can and will do it!!!

Until next time....

Milestone!

We reached a huge milestone last night! Cami has been "sleeping through the night" for about 3 weeks now. I put that in quotes because the definition on babycenter.com is much different than my definition. To me, sleeping through the night means baby goes to bed when I do and gets up when I do. I sleep through the night and Cami sleeps through the night... well I was wrong! By definition, sleeping through the night means sleeping 6+ hours a night. Well she has been doing this for a while.. however, since she goes to bed at 9:00pm, her six hour mark hits about 3-4 am! So technically she was doing this. But since I don't get up for work at 3am, this was not sleeping through the night to me.

Recently, Dan and I have been trying to put Cami down a little bit later so she will "sleep through the night" when we do. And it worked! Well last night anyway! LOL. She ate around 9:15 and finally fell asleep around 10. And she didn't wake up until 6! We'll see if this happens tonight... I won't truly think she sleeps through the night until it happens for about a week.

I have been trying to get Cami to take scheduled naps in her crib during the day. This has been my project since we got back from our Christmas vacation. I try and put her in her crib in the morning after a feeding and also in the afternoon after her lunch feeding. It's been sort of working. She will take one good nap either in the morning or afternoon, but the other time, it's just not working. Usually she just sleeps in her bouncer. As she is currently doing as I write this.

Other than that, I have been trying to get her to eat every 3 hours. I have done less nursing and more pumping. It seems to do the trick. The problem is, Cami is having a lot of trouble getting enough breastmilk while she is nursing. If I just nurse all day, then she will eat every 1.5-2 hours. We are lucky if we even get to 2 hours. However, if I give her breastmilk from a bottle, she can eat about 4oz and she will eat every 2.5-3 hours, leaning more towards 3 hours. So I am hoping to give her bottles more throughout the day and exclusively pump for her. I do miss nursing, and still might a couple times a day, but I feel like she is not getting enough. My concern is her health. So we'll see.

I will be going back to work soon (Feb 6th). We are trying to get Cami into daycare on base around the week of Jan 23rd or Jan 31st. I wanted to get her in a week before I had to go back to work so that I could adjust. Sometimes I look forward to her going to daycare because somedays it's very difficult. She just cries all day and for some reason I can't soothe her. But days like today make me want to stay at home forever! But, in all honesty, I am excited to get back to work. I miss doing what I love (besides being a mom) and I also love my job! We'll see how my opinion changes when I go back... :)

Until next time! :)

A Very Merry {pinterest} Christmas

How fitting of a title. If you have not been to Pinterest, I highly suggest it. Dan refers to it as a "dumbed down version of Google" but I love it! I really can't even describe what it is or how to use it, because I am learning myself. Anywho, since it was hard to get out of the house to shop, I had a lot of homemade gifts this year! :)

For the lovely ladies in my life, I made these:

Homemade sugar scrub! Peppermint and lavender flavor. Made with sugar (duh!), sunflower oil, essential oil (peppermint and lavender), and the peppermint has bits of candy cane! The sunflower oil makes it a bit oily, but in turn, makes your hands/feet very soft!

For my family and Dan's family I made these:

Photo coasters! Used tiles from Lowes, had pictures printed, cut to size, glued on, then used Resin to give it a glass-like finish. The resin was the hardest part of this project. I had to figure out how to use the resin just right, then it took forever to dry. It, honestly, could have used about a week to dry. But, alas, I didn't have a week. :/

So about pinterest, I got all of these ideas from that website. Amazing. I also made JT and Grant portable car holders that they can use to transport their matchbox cars and it even has a road so they can drive on it while in Church or in the car. I try to give my sister something to keep her boys busy and  out of her hair! :)

In other Cami news - She got waaaayyy too much stuff for Christmas! She is so spoiled!! :) But she got some great things for Christmas and a lot of it was off our registry. We only bought the things we needed right away for her, then we asked our family to get us the other things from her registry for Christmas since it was so close to her birth. Worked out nicely. And, she loves every single thing she got! (I do, too). Here is picture of her on Christmas Day:

She learned how to smile while we were home... Melts my heart every time. She is starting to coo a lot and I'm pretty sure in the next couple of weeks she will laugh! We are settled back in at our house. We took this weekend to clean the whole house. It was a crazy hot mess. But, since I can't get much done during the day, I needed Dan's help to keep Cami occupied while I cleaned. IT worked out nicely. Here are some pictures of Cami throughout our trip home:

Go Bearcats!! :)

looking cute!

up in the bobby

that precious smile that melts my heart!

As you can tell, things are going pretty well around the Welsh household! Until next time :)