Monday, January 30, 2012

Childcare - CHECK!

8 Weeks


Biggest hurdle jumped! We talked to three possible candidates from care.com (well spent $35 to put in our "ad."


Candidate #1 was a 21-yr old Mother with her own 3 month son. We pulled up to her and her husband’s home... very bad first impression. I try not to judge a book by it's cover, but this house was BAD. Trash everywhere on the front porch and the husband’s over-filled ashtray. Red flags! We knocked... and knocked... and knocked. No answer! I tried to be nice and call her cell to ask where she was and it went straight to voicemail - weird. We left that place right fast. (She later left me a VM that her cell battery had died and had to run out to get a new one.)


Candidate #2 was a 46-yr old Mom who has watched kids in her home for 6 years. The neighborhood was cookie-cutter suburbs about 5 miles away, nice clean house and her husband and daughter were home and very nice. She was so nice and very sweet towards Nora. I felt very comfortable in her home and with her.


Candidate #3 was an 18-yr old with 6 yrs babysitting experience. She would actually come to our home, but one day with her rate would be more than two days with Candidate #2! She was very sweet as well. 


I felt so sure about Candidate #2 that we aren't interviewing anyone else and feel confident in our choice - what a major weight off our shoulders!


Nora is pleased!

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Elephants & Owls

7 Weeks


Just a shout out to Jannelle and Jen for their lovely animals for Nora - so unique and cute!



Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Nora’s First Shopping Trip

7 Weeks


Nora isn’t fitting into newborn clothes anymore and her cloth diapers are making her rather bottom-heavy.  So all she really had to last through the winter were onesie jammies. Plus I mistakenly turned down some hand-me-downs from a friend - doh! We needed pants and long sleeve onesies. 


Soo I wanted to avoid school letting out in our neighborhood and the rain approaching so after the 11:15 feeding we headed out first to Target! The best prices seem to be there - Nora got a pair of camel pants and some grey sweatpants and a cute blue-striped long sleeves with yellow accents.


Then we hit TJ Maxx and found some cute casual play dresses. I was heading home on 129 and Nora was snoozing so I thought I’d throw caution to the wind and head out to Bridgewater Falls to Old Navy - I’m so nuts! Old Navy was actually a little pricey, but I knew they had long-sleeved onesies with really cute prints. Plus you can never deny the clearance rack at Old Navy. 


Nora did very well and woke up on the way home with no fussing. We’re heading up to Tipp City on Friday to meet Great-Grandma Heitkamp and have a 4-generation photo, so now Nora will look super cute for the day!



Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Artistry of Naps

7 Weeks


Frustration: Nora fights naps. At least for me. She can fall asleep easily in Nana and Grandma’s arms but I get fussy and crying Nora. Supposedly there are signals I should be seeing to lay her down and she’ll simply fall asleep - ? I don’t seem to be hitting this window at the right time and it’s trying my patience and emotions as a good Mother.


So this week I’ll be experimenting laying her down at different times after being awake and see if she can put herself to sleep instead of me calming her down out of her fussiness. 


Wish me luck and please pass on any advice!



Monday, January 23, 2012

Keepin’ Fit

7 Weeks


Tim kindly moved all the baby paraphernalia around in the basement to make room for the treadmill. I know I have to start out small; simply walking on an incline for a week or so. Then maybe try out a little running on the treadmill - even better, if it's nice out on the weekend (40˚ or above), get a mile or two outside (since treadmill running blows). It’s interesting how I can be at a goal weight, but still 2 sizes above my Pre-Baby size. 


So today while No-Nap-Nora managed just half an hour of sleep, I got 20 mins of walking and some planks and crunches in - I think it’s a good accomplishment for the day! If I can manage that for a few weeks straight, maybe I can get down at least one size. 


I’m on my way! (No, that photo is not me)


Sunday, January 22, 2012

7 Straight Hours!

7 Weeks


That growth spurt this week has come out lovely! Nora had 5hour/4hour chunks of sleep on Thursday and Friday nights. Saturday was so nice - Nora was happy and “talkative” despite not sleeping much at all - but we welcome it because last night she slept 7 straight hours! Wahoo! It’s too bad my boobs woke me up at 2:30 - I couldn’t get back to sleep for the hour before Nora woke. 


Cheers to a growing baby!



Friday, January 20, 2012

A Day In the Life of A [Near] 7-Week Old

6 Weeks


Found this post on a blog I enjoy - I think it illustrates how my days go!


http://blogs.babble.com/babys-first-year-blog/2011/12/15/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-seven-week-old-baby/#more-23957


Thursday, January 19, 2012

Growing Pains

6 Weeks


Growth spurt! Nora slept all day on Wednesday - like she woke up at 6pm to eat then went back to bed until 8:30 - !! We thought this was all fine, we won’t wake her up, but she woke up every TWO hours last night to eat - very unlike her. Gotta be a growth spurt! 

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Mommy’s 6-Week Check Up

6 Weeks


Well I’m doing better than I thought - I’ve been having some tenderness/irritation where I tore, but Dr. Bowen wasn’t concerned and said it’s still healthy skin growing and healing - whew! I still can’t get too active and bendy so I can keep healing, but now I can get back to core/ab exercises!


I was also pleasantly surprised that I’m 8lbs away from pre-baby weight - woo! Tim and I are going to clean up the basement to get the treadmill in place so I can at least walk when I have 20-30 mins here and there. If I can at least do that much [no running yet] then I’ll feel great!

Maybe I should consider Nora as my weights...

Sunday, January 15, 2012

6 Weeks!

Well we made it to the 6-week mark. We’re being realistic and not expecting any major changes from Nora quite yet. She is making a lot more noises - cooing and testing out her vocals - been cute! She’s very alert now and holds her head up well when we hold her up on our shoulders. The past 3 days have been somewhat consistent [!] - bedtime around 7:30/8pm, eats at 12am, 4am and 8am - do I sense a routine starting?? 


New revelation in cloth diapers. Our daughter pees. A lot and in large quantities. And unfortunately she’s leaked out the back twice now in her Bum Genius.’ So we’ve already moved her to the larger inserts which are supposed to be for when she grows larger, but her mass quantities of pee are deeming it necessary to upgrade. 


Nora is also starting to finally follow objects with her eyes - slowly beginning to stare at us and did a good job watching the toys above her on the playmat. And every now and then we get a genuine emotional response from her in smiles! 

I’m glad she’s growing up - the first 6 weeks have been a challenge to me, so I’m excited to start more of a playing/communication exchange with her!

Tummy Time with Nora!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Trials of a New Mom Continue...

• Yesterday - asleep all day. Today - 3 half hour naps. What the hell?!


• She calms down when we lay her on the changing pad, as well as looking at dark ceiling fans and black picture frames. 


• I’ve been very frustrated with nursing this week - she gets really gassy right away and I can’t tell what food I’m ingesting that’s causing it. I don’t eat a lot of dairy or citrus. I have like 2 squares of chocolate a night - would that be enough to cause it? Every morning I have oatmeal with blueberries and honey - nothing there, right?? And I’ve been drinking coffee since day 1 so it can’t be that all of a sudden... Gonna nix the chocolate tonight, maybe that will help...



Lessons in Cloth Diapers...

5 Weeks


• Nora has been cooing and making more “baby” noises - it’s fun to hear and we’re eager to get a real response from her in the form of a smile!


• Sleeping is obviously still not on a schedule... I’m at least getting used to being up two times a night though. 


• She’s still not a pooper! She goes about once a week but is not constipated and there are no obstructions. It’s strange. So we poke her with the thermometer once a week to get things going. And boy does it work!


• We finally started the cloth diapers! They seemed really large even though they’re One Size - and still are a bit bulky on her - makes her clothes fit tight. So far, they seem to work great! The cloth inserts really soak up the pee well. 


And of course after we poked her bum with the thermometer on Monday PM, she saved up a big BM for Mommy on Tuesday PM. It was pretty awful and I was bumbling all over the place because I wasn’t quite prepared [no liner in the small pail for poopy wipes!]. I actually left the poopy diaper in the sink because I couldn’t step away from Nora to clean it! So when Tim got home, I handed her off and used the very handy sprayer [highly recommend if you’re going cloth!] attachment to rinse off the diaper in the toilet and get the laundry going. 


Cloth diapers are more “green” in that I decided I don’t want to make the extra landfill waste. However, we’re using more water to clean them every day. I guess it’s your choice which you feel is the lesser evil!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Mom Lesson #17


4 Weeks


I thought I’d roll the dice and have a second cup of coffee this morning. Well I flew too close to the sun - my damn daughter slept only 1 1/2 hours between 9:30 and 5:30. Way to go, Stine. 


One Month Old?!

4 Weeks


What the what - it’s been one month?? I think we’re all getting used to each other now with some loose form of a “schedule.”


We went into the pediatrician this past Friday because Little Miss Nora can’t seem to poop very frequently. We checked her temperature rectally which we knew would open her up - it did. I just hope it isn’t up to us to cause the poop every time!


Our one month check-up is this coming Friday - I’m curious to see if there are any adjustments to make to feeding/sleeping at this point.


I’m getting more comfortable being home with Nora - my one goal is to shower every day. Showering makes me feel like I have one bit of control over myself and if I feel presentable, I feel good. Even if I don’t see anyone but Tim for the day.