the weaning machine

i'm in the middle week six of our weaning calendar.

this means i am now nursing three times a day

and giving her a bottle twice a day.

6:00am - nurse

9:00am - bottle

12:15pm - nurse

3:30pm - nurse

7:00pm - bottle

 

so here are a few things i've found that have helped.

first - helped ME.

since the goal is to produce less milk

i want to gradually drop my supply,

but i have had clogged milked ducts TWICE

so i wanted to make sure and avoid that.

i found a good way to do this is

by reducing the amount of time i pump per week.

my schedule goes a little something like this:

7 mins the first week

5 mins the second week

2 mins the third week

no pumping the forth week

after that i'm ready to add another bottle to our schedule

and so i start all over.

so far, so good.

and i like that i at least get one week with no pumping.

my hat is off to all you working mammas.

if i had to pump for the last 8 months

i don't know if we would still be nursing.

it sucks.

 

 

now - helped HER.

two things.

one - i changed up her feeding routine.

i found that if i sat in the same chair i used to nurse her

with the boppy and gave her a bottle,

she was a little fussy when the bottle was finished.

i think she had a connection with those things and nursing.

now i don't use either and she is much more content.

 

two - the nighttime bottle started off way more challenging.

i was getting her all ready for bed and handing her off to ronnie.

after the bottle was done she would scream.

like crazy, i will kill you, give me my mom scream.

ronnie was not pleased

and it was taking him awhile to get her calmed down and finally asleep.
we were ready to wave the white flag.

after a few nights of this,

i wanted to try something new.

since it worked so well on the night i went out,

i thought that i should just removed myself from all bedtime routines

for awhile so she doesn't even see me or know i'm around.

so now after dinner, ronnie pretty much takes over.

he does everything and she has gone right down with no tears.

well... the majority of the time she goes right down.
we've still had a couple hard nights,
but i'm blaming her teeth for that.

 

big points for ronnie.

he has been super about taking charge.
especially since he gets off work and
can't just come home and call it a day. 
it's nice that he gets what it means to be a dad.
here he is getting her ready for a bath.




and yes, for ronnie, that requires a beer.

 

good eats

its not news that i have been trying to cook

more and more at home.

i have a goal to make dinner four times a week,

leftovers twice

and eat out once.

i have to share a couple of recipes i've made over the last week

that were the bomb.

 

meatloaf.

seriously, this was so freaking good.

it makes a lot, but we had ronnie's mom and gma in

town so they helped us eat it and i love leftovers,

so i didn't mind.

i'm telling you.  make it.

especially the sauce on top.

so good.

 

ham and bean soup.

my mom makes this and ronnie really liked it

so we thought we could make some up ourselves.

i love that it made enough that i froze half of it,

so now we have dinner for another night.

 

meatballs.

these looked good and i thought ronnie

would like them.

i was right.

(ps- i just bought frozen meatballs and made the sauce

instead of messing with making meatballs from scratch.)

semi-homemade.  works for me.

 

 

any recipes you think you should tell me about?

i always need new ideas.

 marge - what was that chicken parm recipe?



eat up.

 

 

will the real slim shady...

please stand up.

 

now,

i know what you're thinking.

slim?

brette?

maybe not the right word,

but standing nonetheless.

 

 

i talked about brette's lack of movement

with two of my bff's.

marge and shannon.

marge has a tornado for a son.

he was seriously on the move from day one.

and shannon had a kiddo that would. not. move.

i thought getting both their ideas would be helpful

when working with brette to get stronger.

 

first, marge.

she told me to give brette what she can't have.

instead of trying to get her to crawl to toys,

try something that she really wants but i normally wouldn't give her.

like my phone.

or the remote.

it worked like a charm.

i was mopping the floors so i laid brette down

and put my phone out of reach on the floor.

she was instantly scrambling to get to it.

10 mins later...

 

 

next, shannon.

her suggestion was to take the couch cushions off

and set b's toys on the seat.

it gives her a lower and sturdier place to play.

and its the perfect height to practice standing.

loved it.

we now do this everyday.

she not pulling up yet,

but once i get her there,

she's good to go.

 

   

incredible.

thanks girls.

day break

on sunday i made my way to st. louis

but just for the day.

i thought it would be cruel to make brette

ride in a car for 6 hours so i left her with ronnie.

it was our first day apart.

and ronnie's first full day of dad duty. 

i actually wasn't that nervous.

ronnie can feed her and put her down for nap.

what more does she really need?

i left at 6:30am and got home at 6:30pm.

twelve hours.

and it was really really nice.

i got to spend the morning with marge and her boys

and then i spent the afternoon with my sorority sisters

celebrating another one of us joining the mom club.

(congratulations, com buddy!

can't wait to meet your new little man.

 and ps- the baby shower was immaculate.

like seriously, out of a magazine.)

 

i will admit,

i was a bit anxious that last hour in the car.

i was just really ready to hold my baby.

which was also nice.

normally i'm ready for ronnie to take her

and give me a break.

it was actually a great feeling to miss her.

i never get to.

i guess that just means i love my girl.

and can you blame me?

just look at this face.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ps- ronnie sent me pictures through the day,

which i loved.

he also had his family over for lunch,

so he also had a super duper back-up helper.

his sister.

 

cupid's aim

did you have a nice valentine's day?

mine started out fine.

i made ronnie coffee

(first time ever)

and sent him off to work with a card at 6am.

then i went back to bed

and when i got up i found a card

and a reese's peanut butter heart on the counter.

yesssssss, breakfast.

 

yay us.

very romantic.

 

but brette had a hard day and

i ended up having a huge headache by the afternoon.

oh, and then ronnie decided to work late

and didn't get home until 5:45.

i asked him if he thought working late was a good idea since

it was a friday and also valentine's day...

he said, well do we have big plans?

more proof that men don't get valentine's day.

 

(the card i wish i bought him)

 

i had soup made and i was planning on making

heart-shaped grilled cheeses,

but my head hurt too bad,

brette sucked

and ronnie annoyed me.

so i threw a frozen pizza in the oven,

put brette to sleep

and crawled into bed with my laptop.

 

yay us.

very romantic.

 

but on sweeter note,

we've actually been celebrating the day of love all week.

brette had a bunch of vday clothes from madeline

so everyday she's been wearing lots of pink, red and hearts.

 

 

happy valentine's day! 

 

 

 

 

 

 valentine's day pasts:

2013

2012

2011

 

 

brette: eight months

growth:

ronnie weighed her the other day

and our scale said 18lbs.

not sure on her length,

i guess we  need to bust out our tape measure.

her next doctor appointment isn't for another month

so we'll have to go off our numbers.

she wears size 3 diapers and

is in 6-9 month clothing.

so far she still only has her two bottom teeth

but i think she's working on her next one

because she's starting drooling again.

we had a screening done and she is on target in her development.

she was tested on her
personal/social, fine motor, language, gross motor and problem solving skills.
b was perfection and on target in all areas, but

she got her lowest scores in her gross motor skills,

which is no surprise.

gross motor skills are:

 sitting without support, crawling, scooting, standing, beginning to walk.

so far, she can only sit without support.

we've been working hard over here to have her stand up

which means more time in her jumperoo and excersaucer.

i can already tell a difference,

but since she hates being on her tummy,
its hard to get her to even think about crawling. 

i'm interested to see how she decides to start moving around.

 

sleeps:

brette is back to sleeping through the night just like always.
i think her teething last month has run its course.
the one thing i can complain about is that
every night i put her down around 7:30 and
every night she wakes up about 15 minutes later
and i have to put her back down.
talk about annoying.
i'm really excited for next week
because we're going to start something new
and i hope that it takes care of this little issue.
(more on that under the eats topic)
she is still taking two naps a day.
one is long and the other is short.
sometimes her morning nap is 2 hours
and her afternoon nap is 45 minutes.
then other days, she reverses it and
her longer nap is in the afternoon.
she is definitely not consistent,
which makes it hard on me to plan out our days.
i never know when she'll be asleep.
but as long as she's napping,
i won't complain.
 

  

eats:

watching brette eat is so much fun.
she feeds herself so well
and it makes mealtime an adventure.
she has already moved past baby food
so i stopped making it.
she is able to pick up and eat almost anything with her fingers,
so that's the majority of what we do.
we can cut up veggies and fruit and she goes to town.
her favorite right now?  black beans.
she goes crazy for black beans.
i haven't given her meat, diary or berries yet,
but i think we decided to start meat this month
and start diary and berries when she's nine months old.
i give her food two to three times a day (depending on her naps),
nurse her four times a day
and give her a bottle once a day.
we've started weaning her,
 so starting monday she will be ready to add another bottle
and give up another time with me nursing.
we are going to try to replace her 7:00pm feeding
and have ronnie put her down.
(when i went out with my girlfriends he did a trial run of this and she past out so fast and never woke back up.  hopefully this takes care of her little wake period that i'm experiencing now.)

talks:
i added a new little segment here
talking.
brette is quite the talker
and i'm pretty sure i'm going to be making lists
of the words she is trying to say.
she is always yelling and making noises.
her favorite thing to say right now?
dadadadada
i'm pretty sure she's calling out her favorite parent.
what. the. hell.
new project:
mamamamama

 

plays:

one thing that was suggested by the lady that did her screening
was to not give brette toys.
instead, lay them around her and make her squirm and drag herself
to them to help her gross motor skills.
brette is not a fan of this,
but its what we've started to do.
i used to she sit her down and give her a toy and let her play.
now she is constantly a little frustrated at  t r y i n g  to get to her toys
but not quite making it.

i've also started putting small toys inside bowls
so that she has to work at getting them out.
she's really good at it,
so now i'm working at getting her to put the toy back in the bowl.
we haven't quite mastered that yet.
her favorite toys right now are bath toys.
she plays with them all time
and they are always in her mouth.

 

firsts:

she fed herself with her fingers.
she can stand and put all her weight on her legs.
she had her first dentist appointment.
she had her first month pacifier-free.


time is flying
and miss brette annaleigh is exceeding
all our expectations.

 

and for the first time...

all of brette's outtakes

and what i think she's saying.

 

you will be punished.

 i know, i'm shocked too.

do you smell something?

that outfit is not cute, mom.

 

 

more than just a hamburger

when my friends and i get together

its normally for a play date.

which means there are lots of interrupted convos

and spelling words out.

example:

when can we get d-r-u-n-k?

hahahah - just kidding.

kind of.

so during the super bowl

while the boys were laid back upstairs

and the girls were rallying the troops downstairs,

we decided we needed a night out.

without kids

or husbands.

and what's funny is,

we ended up at the one "safe" place for any married gal.

a gay bar.

hamburger mary's

 

we needed a little bit of

liquid courage to really enjoy ourselves

because we walked into a

drag queen game show

and everything that you think might be

said or done... was.  times 20.

i might even have a picture of a guy

in his skivvies

on stage.

 

a couple of us might have graced the stage too.

all in good, clean dirty-minded fun.

lots and lots of fun.

our team name and a little tribute to shannon long.

the host of the game show.

and yes, we lost.

our team

kass and i playing paper, rock, scissors to see who had to go on stage.

i lost.

 

me and shan at the end of the night.

 

 

loved it.

thanks girls.

can't wait till next time.