When I first started this blog I told myself I was going to continue it after I had my kid. Ya well that's a lot harder than I thought. Working part-time, taking care of a baby, and attempting to make mommy friends takes up a TON of time! Luckily at least I'm having fun.
The first couple months home alone were definitely hard. Your baby doesn't even really interact with you at all. He just kind of sits there. Then life starts to get better with each smile, laugh, sound, etc. Yesterday while picking Avery up from my mom's house he even reached out his hands to me. I just wanted to melt right there. That's a pretty adorable gesture.
Some other info about not being pregnant anymore. The massive shedding finally stopped around 5.5 months which was glorious. I was literally finding tumbleweeds in my house of my hair! Also my wonderful pregnancy nails are GONE. Back to massive cracking and flaking.
Breastfeeding is still happening, just not going as well as I imagined. I feel like the older Avery gets the harder is gets. Half the time these days I hook him onto my boob and then he starts sucking for a little while then he pulls off and starts yelling at me.... Basically I assume he's saying "mommy this milk isn't coming out fast enough!" Great.... Sadly if it gets really bad I resort to giving him Similac Supplementing Formula. Yes I know mother's out there this isn't the greatest solution for my low milk supply these days, but a mom has to do what a mom has to do. I can't sit there and listen to him scream at me while I attempt to keep re-latching him. I'm still attempting to get rid of formula. Most days I can get through the entire day with no formula until nighttime. Then he just gets so hungry so I feed him one of those 2oz pre-mixed formulas. This and feeding him like a ton of mush food a night keeps him asleep for like 11 hours. Hmmm sleep is sooo good.
I've also pretty much given up pumping. I really hated it. I tried for a long time, but it just kept getting me frustrated. I would hook the entire machine up to myself and turn it on and I would end up with less than an ounce from each boob. OMG what a waste! Just seemed pointless. So now when he's with me I feed him from my boobs. Then when he isn't with me whoever is with him feeds him formula. Works well for us.
Back to feeding baby solids. I tried at 4 months. Didn't happen. So tried again at 4.5 months and it worked out much better. We went with the mushy rice/oatmeal cereal stuff by Gerber that you mix with breastmilk. It went pretty well for awhile until I realized Avery was pretty much never going number 2. So I started introducing other solids, mushed peaches, apples, pears, peas, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, prunes, and avocado. Got rid of the cereal all together and the whole bathroom issue fixed itself. Also prunes are a godsend. I make all his other food, but the prunes I buy. They are from Gerber in the plastic square boxes. We feed him a container of prunes at lunch now and then like 6 tablespoons of the other stuff at dinner. Works out pretty well. A well fed baby is a happy baby. As you can see in the photo above - my son's chunky cuteness.
Anyway hopefully I'll be able to write more often.
The first couple months home alone were definitely hard. Your baby doesn't even really interact with you at all. He just kind of sits there. Then life starts to get better with each smile, laugh, sound, etc. Yesterday while picking Avery up from my mom's house he even reached out his hands to me. I just wanted to melt right there. That's a pretty adorable gesture.
Some other info about not being pregnant anymore. The massive shedding finally stopped around 5.5 months which was glorious. I was literally finding tumbleweeds in my house of my hair! Also my wonderful pregnancy nails are GONE. Back to massive cracking and flaking.
Breastfeeding is still happening, just not going as well as I imagined. I feel like the older Avery gets the harder is gets. Half the time these days I hook him onto my boob and then he starts sucking for a little while then he pulls off and starts yelling at me.... Basically I assume he's saying "mommy this milk isn't coming out fast enough!" Great.... Sadly if it gets really bad I resort to giving him Similac Supplementing Formula. Yes I know mother's out there this isn't the greatest solution for my low milk supply these days, but a mom has to do what a mom has to do. I can't sit there and listen to him scream at me while I attempt to keep re-latching him. I'm still attempting to get rid of formula. Most days I can get through the entire day with no formula until nighttime. Then he just gets so hungry so I feed him one of those 2oz pre-mixed formulas. This and feeding him like a ton of mush food a night keeps him asleep for like 11 hours. Hmmm sleep is sooo good.
I've also pretty much given up pumping. I really hated it. I tried for a long time, but it just kept getting me frustrated. I would hook the entire machine up to myself and turn it on and I would end up with less than an ounce from each boob. OMG what a waste! Just seemed pointless. So now when he's with me I feed him from my boobs. Then when he isn't with me whoever is with him feeds him formula. Works well for us.
Back to feeding baby solids. I tried at 4 months. Didn't happen. So tried again at 4.5 months and it worked out much better. We went with the mushy rice/oatmeal cereal stuff by Gerber that you mix with breastmilk. It went pretty well for awhile until I realized Avery was pretty much never going number 2. So I started introducing other solids, mushed peaches, apples, pears, peas, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, prunes, and avocado. Got rid of the cereal all together and the whole bathroom issue fixed itself. Also prunes are a godsend. I make all his other food, but the prunes I buy. They are from Gerber in the plastic square boxes. We feed him a container of prunes at lunch now and then like 6 tablespoons of the other stuff at dinner. Works out pretty well. A well fed baby is a happy baby. As you can see in the photo above - my son's chunky cuteness.
Anyway hopefully I'll be able to write more often.
