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 :)

3 weeks

Cami is almost a month old! Crazy to think that.. but they say it goes fast. And it does!

Things are going pretty good here at home. Cami and I are getting out more, mostly to do some Christmas shopping. I realize now how complicated it is to go out with a newborn. Yes, she is easy to transport because she just gets to stay in her carseat, but it's such a production to take her somewhere. On Monday, we decided to do some shopping around town. I had to take her into work to drop off some paperwork. Easy. Then we had to go to Hobby Lobby. She had a major meltdown in the middle of HL. I thought I was going to have to leave my cart behind and just run out of there. Horrible. Speaking of carts, why aren't they big enough for an infant carrier?! HL was WAAAAAYYYY too small. She had to sit on there sideways in order for her carseat to fit. Anyway, I got her to calm down and we went on to Walmart. But since we had been out for almost 2 hours, I had to nurse her. So I hopped in the back seat and nursed her there. People might think I'm crazy, but she has to eat! So get over it! :) Walmart carts were not big enough for her carrier either. If I put it on top, she was almost rolling out of the seat. Poor head positioning is not good for her. So she had to ride in the cart. Annoying because nothing would fit in the cart with her in there. Then our last stop was Lowe's. Seat didn't fit in that cart either.

Anyway the point of this is that it's very complicated for me to take her out to run a few errands. I'm sad to say I miss those days that I can just run into a store and pick something up real quick. But, happy to report that even though it's a big deal to go out, it's all worth it! (never thought I would say that either).

This past weekend we transitioned her to her crib. She is really well! She is still having a lot of trouble going down at night (takes us almost 2 hours), but she is sleeping in her own room. It makes it easier for Dan since he is trying to get as much sleep as he can during the night. We have this nice system working out for us. He takes the night shift of putting her down after he last feeding. Then I try and go to sleep early since I wake up overnight to feed her. Then I do the morning feeding as well. Since this past weekend here schedule is something like this:

9:00 pm - Last feeding of the night
9:30-11:00 - Dan's (and mine too) attempts at putting her down
3:00 am - Middle of the night feeding
7:15 am - Morning feeding

It's kind of nice that first stretch. That is when I get my most sleep. Then throughout the day, she nurses every 2 to 2 1/2 hours. I have a feeling she is going through a growth spurt because she is nursing a lot more lately. But since my boobies are supply and demand, I can't really do anything about it. I want a healthy baby! :)

We have also used bottles a lot more recently. I sometimes give her one at her 9pm feeding and have been giving one at the 3am feeding. It's a lot faster. And I know it shouldn't be about convience for me, but I usually will be up for about 2 hours with her during the night. She takes forever to nurse, falls asleep on the boob, and then I have to change her and put her back down. All of this takes about 2 hours. And then an hour and a half later, she is ready to eat again. This just wasn't working out for me and I was pretty much a zombie. So we switched to bottles during the night and it's been wonderful. (knock on wood, please!). We also use bottles during the day if we are going out.

Overall, it's been good here. We are starting to get on a little schedule and I can't wait until it sticks! I'm such a rigid person that all I need is a schedule and I will be happy. I have my follow up postpartum appointment tomorrow and I hope she can tell me I can run! I can't wait to get back. I am down about 25 pounds since I left the hospital, but since I was slightly overweight to begin with, I have a bit more to lose. I am also anxious to get back into training for the Flying Pig! I was going to do that race before I found out I was pregnant. Then, per doctor's orders, I had to cut running out of my life during the pregnancy. So... needless to say, I am ready to get back!

143 days and counting until the race!

Until next time! :)

Breastfeeding 101

I'll try not to make this too personal and graphic.. but like I said in a previous post, I am doing this for those of you who are expecting or want to get pregnant and eventually breast feed.

Breastfeeding was a very touchy subject when I was pregnant. Dan really wanted me to try it out, but I said it just didn't sound normal. Before Cami arrived, I would think about it and feel like it was so foreign and strange. The thought of having a baby strapped to my boob was not something I was excited about (or even wanted to do). But I promised Dan I would give it a try.

While I was in the hospital, I lost all modesty (which is what everyone told me would happen). They have to watch you breastfeed and to me, this felt completely wrong. Hello, personal space! I didn't really want some lady to come watch me nurse Cami and judge about incorrect latch or small nipple size. But with all the crap that people saw during labor and delivery, I thought, who cares about a boob!

My first time nursing was a bit strange AND painful! They warned me of sore nipples and cramping, but HOLY COW! I'm pretty sure my nipples were blistered after the first day in the hospital. And the cramping is awful! Not only do women have to endure labor and delivery (more power to those who do it naturally) but after it's all said and done, you get contractions of your uterus while you are nursing! How lovely it is to be a lady. But, I got through all of them, but it was painful. I used plenty of nipple cream while in the hospital and even had my first leak session while I was sleeping. Soaked all the way through to the nursing hospital gown. Embarrassing.

Also while I was pregnant, I was nervous about Dan seeing me breastfeed. It didn't seem natural and I didn't want him to watch while I did that. This also changed after Cami was born.. now I just whip that boob out and nurse her without even thinking about it. It's really not a big deal anymore! I've even nursed in public!

I'm not going to be one of those crazy moms who nurse until their child can request milk, but I'll continue to provide breast milk to Cami. I have been feeling really guilty lately for giving her a bottle (about one every few days), but eventually that is what she will need since she will be going to daycare. For some reason, they don't accept my boob there! :) A bit of advice to those who are thinking about breastfeeding - It's hard at first and painful. I will be honest. But it does get better! I never thought I would say this, but it's a good bonding experience and I look forward to nursing Cami, except in the middle of the night! I'm just too tired for all that. If anyone needs advice, let me know. I'm no expert, but I may be able to help somewhat.

Until next time!

btw - Cami is 2 weeks old. We had our 2 week well baby visit and she weighs 8lbs now! Her head circumference was 14 (grew an inch! - we need to make room for that engineering brain!) and her length is still the same because she was too wiggly to get it right! Our little girl is growing! Hopefully she'll fit into her 0-3 month clothes soon!

Postpartum and Home!

Let me continue my updating process with what happened after labor and delivery!

At our local hospital, there are 2 different locations throughout the hospital for those who are delivering and then after the baby is born. Labor and Delivery is in the Women's Center. I went there for only the labor and delivery process. After delivery (and when I could finally feel my legs again) I was moved downstairs to the postpartum floor. This is where I would recover and also where the nursery is.

Cami had to spend a few extra hours in the nursery because her temperature was not quite right. She spent some time under the french fry lamps to warm up, and by time I could feel my legs again, she was ready to leave the nursery. I met her and Dan in my room and I finally got to spend some time with her after having not seen her in about 4 hours.

This is where the real fun began (besides going home). It was so strange to see her laying in the bassinet from the nursery. I just kept looking at my belly and thinking "this was what was inside the whole time. This is who gave me nights of bad sleep, horrible back pain for the ENTIRE pregnancy, and heartburn I never want to experience again." But like they say, once you see your baby, all those feelings disappear and you are so totally in love with this little person you just met for the first time (besides being in your belly).

We stayed in the hospital for about 2 days. I was so ready to get home, but very nervous at the same time. When we left the hospital, I was in charge of putting Cami in her carseat. May I suggest practicing with a baby doll or stuffed animal. I jacked those car seat straps up so much trying to get this tiny person inside. I actually had her leg on the top side of the lap belt. HA! It was frustrating (mainly because Dan was yelling at me and making fun of me) but now that I look back, I can laugh about it.

Home:
Oh man was this an experience. Talk about eye opening!! First of all, let me just be completely honest with all of you (whoever you are that reads this) and say that it was VERY HARD! I had real bad baby blues (still lingering at times). I would just cry and cry for no reason. Cami was having a hard time nursing and it was like the end of the world to me. For those of you who read this who may be having a baby soon, let me assure you that the baby blues do go away. It's hard at first knowing that I was the only one who could feed the baby and when she eats every 2-3 hours, that's overwhelming. But it does get better. It's not entirely better right now, but I am used to it and we are starting to develop a bit of a schedule so I can anticipate when she will be eating again and so on. It was also hard having my family here. I LOVED to have them here, but it was so much at one time, it just caused me to breakdown even more. I just wished that Dan and I could have spent a couple days home with Cami before family was in town, but since she was stubborn and wanted to "bake" a little longer, we didn't have this option. But let me tell you, having family around was nice because I could rest and know that she was in good hands. So it wasn't all that bad, just felt like too much at the time.

Right now we are trying to get Cami to learn her days from nights. She will sleep all day and then be up all night. It's frustrating, but from what my friends and family have said, it will be here for a few more weeks and we just have to live with it. But everyone says, "it's gets better!" Let's hope so. The 3 hours of sleep last night aren't really working out for me today! :(

Until next time! :)