Eleanor Farrell

Bringing Eleanor into this world was vastly different from bringing Adly into the world. Enter lesson 1 for mama: Eleanor is not Adly.

Beginning around the start 36 weeks, I went from having regular Braxton Hicks to having some big contractions. Just a few, and not regular. It is crazy how quickly you remember "that old feeling" of a good tight squeeze from back to front. At 36 weeks, 4 days, I spent the better part of the day dealing with contractions. Of course, I was teaching so I had no time to count them. All I knew was they were consistent. By the end of the day, I called my doctor who ordered me straight to hospital. Adam and I headed in around 4:30. When I got in, I was 2cm dilated and still contracting regularly. They had us walk the halls for 2 hours to check for any changes. After two hours of walking my behind off, there were none. So we were sent home. I was grateful. Having an early baby can bring a whole host of complications and if we were able to avoid it, I was ok with it. By then I had started my weekly checkups, and when I saw doc the following Monday, there were still no changes. Nor had I experienced anymore powerful contractions, just your usual Braxton Hicks.

Counting contractions at home. 

Ready to head in. 

During the next week, I experienced my bloody show, mucus plug loss and more sporadic contractions. I didn't experience any of this with Adly so it continued the rollercoaster of "is this it?!". At my 38 week appointment I had progressed to 4cm dilated without much effort. My doctor was convinced I wouldn't make it to 39 weeks, but in the event I did, she allowed me to schedule a voluntary induction. I figured at that point, my body had been progressing through labor for a few weeks, it would be ready by 39. Contrary to everyones beliefs, little miss Ellie hung on for another week. She even gave mama one last scare of thinking my water broke. But that turned out to be just another form of liquid leaking from my body. (Pregnancy is the sexiest time in a woman's life EVER!) 

So on Tuesday, November 10 at 6am, we packed our bags and headed to the hospital one last time, ready to have our sweet little girl. 

I was happy to end up with an induction because I was induced with Adly. While it can take a while, I was so far along already, as soon as I was checked in I began hearing "oh, this will go fast" from all the nurses and doctors. I was also happy to be scheduled so I could ensure I didn't go too fast to get the necessary drugs to not feel the birth. 

I know drugs aren't for everyone, but they're for me. I don't deal well with pain, and thanks to medicine, I was able to "enjoy" my delivery of Adly (despite the exhaustion for pushing for an hour and fifteen minutes). I wanted that same (hopefully shorter) experience with Ellie. Soon after starting pitocin I was also hooked up with anesthesia and then began the waiting game. 

At noon, I was still only 4cm but my contractions were ramping up and becoming more regular. So doc broke my water. Soon after that, I began noticing I could "feel" my left side and move my left leg, while my right side was completely numb. I began asking the nurse what could be going on, she called in the anesthesiologist to check it out. She couldn't figure it out either, so she began moving the needle in my back to try to realign the insertion. They also had me turn on my left side to see if the drugs would naturally take to the left side. By now, my contractions were STRONG. So the left-sided-laying-experience involved me curled up in a ball, crying my way through each awful contraction. 

The anesthesiologist came in once more and tried to readjust the insertion point. That still did no good. By this point I was full on sobbing yelling to the nurse to get the anesthesiologist in there again and do her f*%*ing job! (I mean come on, hell hath no fury like an in-pain-Kelly). 

In that time, I suddenly felt that old feeling. "Oh my god I'm going to poop. I have to push!" I yelled. The nurse asked if I was sure and I yelled yes. She dashed to call the doctor in, and she came in no time. With Adly, we had 5-6 people delivering her. This time, it was so quick it was just Adam, the nurse and my doctor. The doctor immediately told me to get on my back because Ellie was crowning! I panicked and began crying and yelling, "I can feel everything!! I don't want to do this without druuuugs!!!" But it was too late. Doc yelled for me to push, I pushed my hardest and then she was yelling for help. I panicked and she said she couldn't get baby out. She told me to push harder than I've ever pushed before. I screamed screams I never thought possible, and pushed harder than I ever thought possible and then just like that, Eleanor Farrell was on my chest. She came so fast, the assistance the doc needed, which was because her shoulders were stuck, came in after she was already on my chest. Crazy, right? According to Adam, when the doctor came in, she had looked at him and said he was going to have a baby by 3:15. When he looked up at the clock, it was 3:10. She arrived at 3:14pm. 

I spent the next 15 minutes with Eleanor on my chest sobbing my eyes out because I was still so upset over "feeling everything". It was not the way I had wanted it, and I was still reeling from it all. Not to mention she came SO FAST I was in complete and utter shock. 

As soon as the shock wore off I realized no matter how painful it was, SHE WAS HERE! At last. I had waited 39 loooong weeks to get to meet her. And she was perfect. 

They do things differently now from the 2.5 years it's been since Adly. They allowed Ellie on my belly for what seemed like an hour. It was a good chunk of skin to skin. I'm grateful for it, but it was a long hour of Adam waiting excitedly to get his own hands on his baby girl. When they took her to weigh her, she was a very healthy 8lbs, 9oz.

I have to note, I later found out the anesthesiologist was actually doing her job. The problem was, Ellie had dropped down so fast and far down the birth canal that she was blocking any of the drugs from reaching my left side. In hindsight, that would've been a big clue she was coming, but it's ok. It's all a guessing game for the most part. Also, in hindsight, the pain wasn't that bad, it just wasn't what I had in mind. So those of you drug-free mama's I applaud you. But I also applaud all mama's for going through the act of childbirth in general. What an incredible act of strength it is, no matter which way you go about it!

We are so very thrilled to have this beautiful addition to our family. She, like her sister, has already begun writing her own story, from the very start of her sweet little life.

Welcome to our family, Eleanor! We love you to pieces.

Family photo. 

Dada getting some time with his girl. 

We're having a.....

GIRL!!!

Despite almost everyone's boy predictions, despite the different pregnancy and totally opposite cravings, Baby Bway 2.0 is a girl!

To say I was shocked is an understatement. I don't know why. From the start I really wanted another girl. But then I spent so much time being told it was a boy and telling myself it was a boy, I think I honestly believed it was a boy. And then I started to really want to experience having a little boy. So when the card read GIRL, it took me a full few minutes to soak it in.

We found out the sex at our 20 week ultrasound so they also examined every inch of her teeny little body, and everything appears to be very healthy. She was very tired and all balled up for most of the examination, but would move throughout the poking and prodding so they were able to get a good peek at her. This is different than her older sister, who was very stubborn and took two doctors pushing, poking, and prodding to be able to get a look at her. However, just like her big sister, she appears to already be self soothing through thumb sucking. How did I end up with two thumb suckers?!! Orthodontists everywhere will love us in 15 years. 

Our plan had been to keep the sex a secret until Adly's family birthday party next weekend, when most of our family would be present. I laugh out loud at this decision now. I don't know who we were kidding. We are the WORST secret keepers that ever lived! Literally as soon as we found out, I dried my tears, Adam slammed some wine (TWO girls!?!) and the appetizers arrived, we were ready to head home and call our families.

Adam always knew he wanted to carry on his middle name, Farrell, to one of his future children. Once we found out Adly was a girl, we decided to pull her middle name from my side of the family. For the second baby we decided we would use Farrell for the middle name, whether it was a boy or a girl. Soon after Adly was born, we began talking about another girl name, and how it could it ever be just as special as Adly's name. That was when Adam brought up the idea of carrying down his grandma Eleanor's name. I loved the name from the start, and although I was never able to meet her, I had heard many amazing things about her. From that moment on, we planned on using Eleanor, were we ever to have another girl.

I'm so glad we ended up doing it the way we did, and not waiting another week. We were able to share the news and the decision of the name individually with our parents and it was very special. When we called his mom to tell her the news last night (Eleanor was her mother), she was beyond thrilled and it was a very special, emotional moment.

So, meet little miss Eleanor (Ellie) Farrell. Sucking her little thumb from the start, just like her big sister!

Big News....

Yep. It is official. I spent enough time in a few bottles of wine in Napa to decide that why yes, being pregnant and having a newborn was so fun I'm up for it all over again!! Let's do this thing!

As it so happens, Adam and I are apparently extremely fertile. He so much as looks at me and BAM! There's a baby in there. We decided to start "trying" in February because it would mean the birth of our second child would happen at the end of Adam's golf season. 

While it lands in the middle of my school year, we decided Adam being home was more important. Well, I had the main influence over that. Baby number one was extremely hard on me mentally and physically. Hard to imagine now that she's almost two and so good. SEE??!! This is why people do it again. They forget. They forget everything. Anyways, on top of that, Adam was gone 90% of every day. Throw in the fact most of our family lives far away and a dose of PPD that caused me to want no help whatsoever created a big storm of a hell I hope never happens again. I wrote about all of it when I was coming out of it and I hope one day I can find the strength to share about it all. 

But that's besides the point. Let's get to the fact that we started trying in February and by the end of February some funky spotting was going on so on a whim I took a pregnancy test. I mean, there was no way I was pregnant....right?

Sure enough, that little test showed up a nice faint positive. This was quite different from Adly's three tests in a row that turned a bright blue positive immediately. I called the doctors office to find out the chances of a false positive test. The regular nurse wasn't in, so I spent an hour on the phone with the hospital, trying to convince them I didn't need to come in and that I wasn't having a miscarriage. I mean, I spent two weeks heavily bleeding with Adly, hence why we didn't know until around 8 weeks. Plus, I was so early this time I didn't think there was major cause for concern. I went in the next week for blood tests and sure enough, I was pregnant at about 4 weeks along. 

Knowing you're pregnant so early suuuuuucks. I felt like crap for most of it and had nothing fun like a hangover to blame for it. Then there's the constant, incessant worry. I would much rather live blissfully unaware until the end of the rocky first trimester and then be all like "Oh! I'm pregnant! And I only have 28 more weeks to go! Lovely!" I started to feel amazing again around 9 weeks after feeling pretty crappy, which of course in the twisted world of pregnancy is never a good sign. At 11 weeks I was a nervous wreck as we went in for our next ultrasound. As soon as we saw inside, that little baby was a kicking and a punching, which put my mind at ease....for a week.

Then we went to Mexico and I felt soooo good, I just couldn't believe I was still pregnant. So by the time I made it to my 13 week checkup, I was convinced something had happened. I mean I didn't feel pregnant in any way. I could've easily been drinking my way though Mexico, dancing the night away (until 10pm because oh my God I cannot stay awake!!)  Sure enough, she found that little heartbeat be-bopping away immediately. It's just another reminder that this time is no different. We pregnant ladies are all CRAZY, no matter how many times you've stepped into the ring. 

Now comes the waiting game of finding out the sex. This is our last and final child and I want to know more than ever. With Adly, I had a feeling of her being a girl from the moment we found out. It was just this weird feeling. This time, I'm not having a strong feeling either way. Some days I feel it's a boy, some days I feel it's a girl. However the other day, I came home from work and Adly was feeling quite snuggly. She leaned up against my stomach, rubbing it saying "Mama got a baby in her belly. Adly be gentle." These sayings are all normal. Then she whips out "mama got a brudder in her belly."

I'm sorry, WHAT!?!?

Never before have any of us mentioned her possibly having a brother. If anything, I'd expect her to say sister since we always call her a big sister. So either my child is a creepy psychic or its just by chance. But I swear if it turns out to be a boy, I'll be watching her from now on out of one eye. Always.

Being a second time preggo mom with a toddler is very different. I can tell poor baby number two is definitely going to get the shaft in pregnancy. I'm sorry in advance child. I'm exhausted most of the time and I have a toddler who likes to "work" on my keyboard as I do, so blogging about it seems to be extra difficult. And the nursery. Or as we call it, the guest bedroom, will remain that. Baby number 2 will be getting the crib from Adly. The one with beaver chew marks all over the railing (apparently we don't feed her enough). And the same changing table and rocking chair. As far as decorating, I'm not nearly as concerned as I was with baby #1 now that I know they'll spend most of their time pooping, peeing, and spitting up all over any decorating I do get done. And the belly pictures...I keep thinking about starting them but that takes work. And I'm kind of burnt out from working my day job and then my mommy job by 7pm. Heaven forbid Adly actually help me take pictures. I mean, what gives?! Hopefully I can get on board with those sooner than later.

After getting through 3-4 weeks of feeling terrible, eating only cereal and toast, and all kinds of nighttime yucky nausea, I've been feeling amazing since 9 weeks. And THAT I can't complain about. But of course, I'm me, so I will find something. You want to know what is the most not awesome thing so far this pregnancy? My OBGYN went over my charts from Adly at my appointment on Thursday (she wasn't the one who delivered me) and as she did, she balked at the size of Adly at 8lb, 13oz, who was born one week early. Adly had been hiding in there. She hadn't measured big, so we weren't prepared for a giant baby to exit me. I specifically remember the doctor going "woah that's a big baby!" as soon as she came out. Therefore, my doctor is now concerned I may have developed late onset gestational diabetes. I don't know, it may have had something to do with the bags and bags of Sour Patch Kids and cookies and ice cream Adly made me eat, but I'm trying not to point fingers here. Anyways, this time I get to take that God awful diabetes test twice! Let the fun begin. It's ok, I'll just keep stockpiling these moments of amazing things I did for them to bring back up when my children are in high school and want to hate me. 

So there you have it. We have officially entered the rollercoaster of pregnancy and new parenthood one more time. We will be becoming a family of four sometime November 2016! 

Sleep Habits

Lately I've been finding that I'm getting more and more comments and questions regarding Adly's sleep schedule, so I thought I'd write about it. My favorite comment has been, "wait, you just put her down and then she goes to sleep?!" Before I get into it though, I have to add a disclaimer. Google "sleep training" and you'll find a plethora of information. Go to a book store in the baby section and you'll find books upon books offering different ways to get your baby to sleep. And as soon as you get into reading about it, you'll quickly find there are a thousand different opinions on how to get a baby to sleep or how not to. Everyone has different views on babies and sleeping. So whenever I tell people what we did with Adly, I always start by saying something like "everyone needs to do whatever they are comfortable with". Because everybody is different. And every baby is different.

If you read this blog, or know me in any way, you'll know I'm a planner, I like routines and I like to have some semblance of organization in my life. As you can imagine, have a crying newborn at all hours of the day certainly provided some stress in my life. I can remember when Adly was 5 days old wearily going into the pediatricians office desperate for help. "How do I get her to sleep?!" was the first thing I wearily muttered to the pediatrician as soon as we were in the exam room. 

As with many things during the newborn phase nothing ever made sense until someone would say something with clarity. Our doc first recommended to start a "night time routine". I couldn't believe we could actually begin that early....that idea had never even entered my mind. Additionally, she stressed having a dark, quiet room to signify sleeping. Oooohhh....so maybe our late night music, lights on, talking feeding sessions were sending mixed signals to the little miss. Who knew?! That night we set to putting together some sort of bed time routine. Of course we had no idea what to do so we just winged it. Around 8pm, we gave her a bath, I nursed her in a quiet and dimly lit nursery, then put her down in her rock n' play and left the room. She slept for about 3 hours. HEAVEN. 

From that night on, we kept with the night time routine listed above. Sure enough, as the weeks went by, her sleeping stretches became longer and longer. Don't get me wrong, there were still plenty of random sleepless nights; including a 3 day stretch around 6 weeks where she was up every hour on the hour. That was a hell I hope I never know again. 

But for the most part, she began to recognize night time as "sleep time". At her 8-week checkup, the doctor informed us she weighed enough to make it all the way through the night without eating. Her recommendation was around 11 pounds. This was fantastic news to me and of course I gleefully put her to bed that night telling her she was going to sleep through the night now. Because, you know, newborns totally listen. She didn't. It was also around that time that I moved her out of our bedroom. Babies are noisy and I wanted my room back. We did a gradual release by starting with her sleeping in the nursery in her pack n' play and then transitioned her to her crib a week later.

After Adly had transitioned to the crib and was 10 weeks old, there was a night where I had a large glass of wine. On top of that, I was exhausted. Adly was going on day three of another no-sleeping binge, which meant so was I. That night I hit the pillow and was out cold. I didn't wake up again until 5am. I shot out of bed thinking, "Oh my god! My baby! Is she alive!?! I'm the worst parent EVER! Of course, she was and she was fine. There's no telling if she woke up at her usual 3am feeding time or not that night, as neither of us heard a thing (you'll find that men have amazing sleeping super powers and almost never hear cries at night). The next night, when she woke up at 3am, at the encouragement of my much more stable husband, I didn't go in and let her cry it out. She cried for a little bit and then fell back asleep. Same thing the next night. A few days later, she was sleeping solidly from 7pm-5am. Oh my goodness I can't even tell you what sleep like that does for a human being. It was from that point on, that I did everything in my power to maintain her sleeping patterns.

Through some trial and error over the last year, we've created one very routined sleeper. There are upsides and downsides to this, but overall, it has really worked for our family. Therefore, I thought I'd put together a list of the things I've found that worked well for us in getting Adly to sleep through the night. Take some of it, take all of it, take none of it. I will add that most of this came from bits and pieces of advice I've received from many different moms throughout the last year or so.

Routine, routine, routine. In my biased opinion, routine is so important when it comes to babies. The same is also true for older kids. Therefore, from the start, we created a routine for Adly to help her "expect" when it was time to go to bed. This is the same for nap time as well. She goes to bed at the same time every night (for us, it's 7pm). There is no exception. This piece of advice came from a mom of three I used to babysit for. I babysat a TON growing up, and I've never seen kids go to bed as easily as these three. I probed her for a lot of advice when Adly was a newborn and I took it all to heart. The most important thing she told me was to always make sure Adly was in bed at the same time. No matter what. Yes, it sucks for your dwindling social life, but this, I believe, was key to Adly's sleeping. Additionally, we do the same little things every day to make sure she's aware it's bedtime. Silly things like we made up a song about bath time and sing it every time. She now hums the tune as we sing and and she crawls her way to the bathroom. We also have a song for bed time. It's as simple as, "It's nye-nye tiiiiime." Seriously. But she knows whats coming. Here is our bedtime and nap time routine:

Naps:

-Head into nursery, put on sleep sack. 

-Turn off the lights, on the fan

-Kiss night-night, lay in crib. 

-Say night-night, close the door. 

Bed:

-Bath

-Lotion

-Nakey quiet play time to air out her bum. She loves to read her books during this time. 

-Get dressed into pajamas and sleep sack

-Read a book together in the rocker

-Kiss good night, lay down, turn off lights, shut the door. 

The Roller Coaster of Naps. Naps were the bane of my existence for so long. The fact that she would not nap at certain times every day drove me nuts, since it was impossible to plan for anything. Unfortunately, I think this ability only comes with time. I had one mom friend who's son started napping regularly at 6 months. I set myself up to think that on her 6 month birthday, she'd just start napping at 8am and 12pm and 3pm. Not so much. It took us until around 10 months to get to a time nap-time. Meaning, she goes down at a usual time, not when she's tired. Until then, we lived and breathed looking for sleepy signs (yawning, whining, rubbing eyes) and would immediately put her down for a nap then. Until about 8 months, she was taking three naps a day. Now she is down to two naps, for about two hours each a day. The length of naps also took a long time to settle down. When she was younger, naps could last anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours. And every baby is so different. I've also met a handful of moms who's babies refuse to nap at all. The difference is, a cranky baby and a happy baby. If your child is happy as can be without naps, then obviously they don't need them. If your child becomes an alternate personality that closely resembles the devil reincarnated when it is time for "nye nye", the kid needs to sleep!

Sleep Buddy. Going into parenthood, I did not want a thumbsucker, I did not want blankies, I did not want binkies. I know how hard all of these soothing habits are for kids to break. Unfortunately, I can't control everything. As karma would have it, my child came out of my belly sucking her thumb. "Awwww look at her self soothe!" the nurses exclaimed as I shuddered at the thought of having a thumbsucker. However, over time, my opinions have changed. I now think they are vital to getting a baby to sleep. We'll deal with breaking the habit someday when mom and dad need to take a vacation and the grandparents are watching her.

Once she was old enough (she could roll over easily and was moving around her crib) I introduced a blankie for her to sleep with at night. She actually picked the blanket itself out on her own, as she began snuggling up with it whenever she was tired, so one day I put it in her crib with her. To her, the blankie now means sleep and comfort. Because I'm mean, I won't let her take it out of the crib. This is because it is my philosophy that it helps to even further signify sleep for Adly. It's not something she can have at any time, but only when she's tired. On a recent long road trip, I was worried about her sleeping in the car seat because she never does anymore. In the car, as soon as I tossed her the blankie, the thumb went in the mouth and she was out soon after.

Crib Only. Adly only sleeps in one place: the crib. This is a sticking point for a lot of moms I know who love that their babies can sleep anywhere. And to be honest, I'm somewhat jealous of them. We are pretty tied down to our house for nap time and bed time because of the routines we have set in place. Additionally, those delicious baby snuggles have all but disappeared. I think that is largely due to her sleeping habits. However, anytime I get sad about missing my baby snuggled up on my chest snoozing away, I think about how blissful it is to sleep through the night and to get things done during nap time. For me, it's for the better. She still snuggles when she's really tired or hurt or having her morning ba-ba, and I can live with that.

Cry It Out. The dreaded words. There are two major camps on this subject, and obviously I am in the cry it out camp. Those who are not, I totally think whatever you chose to do is fine too. Crying it out just seemed to work best for me and for our situation. For my own mental health, I had to get a good nights sleep. I can't say that I was totally fine with it at the time or that it wasn't hard for me. As new moms, our instinct is to stop the cries. and to help our babies in every way we can. As you read above, our crying it out adventure began unintentionally. I can't say for sure I would've done it that early otherwise. However, I do believe it is the best way to get your child used to sleeping through the night. Once we got the go ahead from the pediatrician, I felt comfortable with implementing it for our child. When she was younger, I would keep her awake while feeding, kiss her goodnight, lay her in her crib and walk out. Now we don't do a night time bottle, so the routine has turned into putting on pajamas, kissing goodnight and then laying her down. I don't rock her, hold her, or stand and rub her back to get her to sleep. It's my belief that she should be the one to be able to get herself to sleep, and she does. 

Be Prepared to Do Over. This part is tough because you've set in place some amazing routines, you've got your baby sleeping like a champ and then.....it all goes out the window. Sleep is a fickle thing with babies and it comes and goes like the wind. Anything that is "off" can change a baby's sleeping patterns. The usual culprits are the 4 month sleep regression, teething, and illness. If you choose to do cry it out, you usually have to re-do your hard work around these times. It never gets easier to hear your child cry, but I swear, it always resets itself in one night or two.

Where to Start. Like I said, I never actually read a sleep training book. Instead, I chose bits and pieces from all of the people I talked to and research I did online. In the beginning, some of the most important steps to get Adly sleeping, that I found, were the following:

-Create a quiet, darker environment for them to sleep in

-Look for any sleepy cues: rubbing eyes, yawning, fussing (when not hungry)

-As soon as you get a sleepy cue, put them to bed immediately

-Use some sort of pajamas to signify sleep. We've always used a sleep sack. 

-Same bed time every night no matter what

-Have a routine in place to signal that its bed time

-Let them cry for at least 10 minutes before going in to soothe

To all you new mommies or seasoned mommies looking to get some sleep once and for all, I wish you luck! Sleep is a beautiful thing and we all deserve it. However you go about getting it, I hope that some of these tricks of the trade can be helpful to you. 

Sweet dreams!

Big Moves

I was flipping through Adly's baby pictures the other day and it reminded me how big of a deal all of her milestones were back then. When a baby is 3-6 months old, there are some huge milestones they pass, but each of them are pretty far apart. Therefore, when they come it practically becomes a national holiday for you and your family.

Fast forward to the 9-12 month phase and milestones begin happening at an alarming rate. So much so in our case that these days it's a mere, "Oh! She just did that. I should probably get it in the baby book soon". That's not to say I care any less....its just that they're happening so often it kind of loses the need for a huge party each time. Therefore, I felt it was time for a mid-month check-in. Adly is quickly approaching 11 months which is just dumbfounding. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by.

In the past few weeks, we've made some big changes as far as feeding Adly goes. We've been cutting back on the amount of formula she's been eating and are now down to three bottles a day. In addition to that, we've also cut out her night time bottle. Someone once told me the nighttime bottle was the most important one to drop early on....because the last thing you want is a two year old who can't go to sleep without a nightcap. And I'm not talking about the kind of nightcap we all like, ya know what I mean? There is a lot of advice you are given when you are pregnant, and it doesn't stop once the baby is here. I try my best to just hold on to pieces that I think will suit our family. So far, she's handled the transition just fine. We replaced the ba-ba time with reading a book, which I think is an important night time routine anyways.

In addition to cutting back bottles, we are also trying to transition from bottle to sippy cup. In my ideal, glorious motherhood picture I had in my mind, I would've loved to transition right to a regular cup. There are some natural mama's who succeed with this early on- around 6 months- and I give them major kudos! I however, just don't have the patience for it yet. We've tried a few times and the result is a big mess and me holding the cup constantly. Therefore, what has worked best for us has been transitioning to a sippy cup. Another piece of advice I was given that I held on to was to use the sippy cup with formula to ease the transition. This, just like the bottle introduction, has been an expensive process. Because as with bottles, no two sippy cups are alike. Just like babies. So a sippy that 99% of moms LOVE means that your baby just might not. And the kicker is, you won't know until you've opened, disinfected and used the sippy. We've got quite the collection sitting in our cupboards! Thankfully, we were successful with one such sippy. So far we only have one because I wanted to be sure this was "the one" before I ordered a few more. What I like most about this sippy is the handles and the measuring lines on the side. Adly seems to only like a sippy with a rubber nipple that she can bite. The hard plastic ones are useless in our case.

Photo credit: Amazon.com

We're also experimenting like crazy with foods. She seems to love pretty much anything we give her except avocado. She's just like her dad in this case- loves guacamole, hates avocado. Our doctor gave us the advice to feed her what we're eating so that she starts liking what we like from the start. This has helped majorly with creating foods for her to eat. Her favorite by far is her daddy's famous roasted pork loin. She gobbles that up any time its available. The pieces she eats are getting bigger and bigger as she's learned how to chew and deal with swallowing too much. Watching her "choke" a little is still super hard. Her latest trick is to shove a whole bunch of food in her mouth, hide in her huge cheeks and then work her way through it. 

Speaking of chewing, she's also currently cutting three top teeth. I have to mommy brag a little and say so far we've been blessed with a pretty easy teether. She is seriously a teething champ. I didn't even know these three teeth were coming through until I saw them as she giggled laying down. Her reaction to teething seems to be just sleeping more. She's napping better than ever and the only other side effect has been drooling. Ok, baby brag over.

Now on to what we're struggling with....Adly's latest cognitive developmental process has been testing the limits. This comes by way of trying to sneakily work her way towards no-no zones, (electrical outlets, cords, drawers, toilet). She knows it's a no-no as she sits and shakes her head at me, then dives for it. When I remove her I'm usually met with a tantrum: cries, a VERY angry face and lately, slaps to the face. I will say this has been a very hard process for me. I know its normal (google told me so), but still it's very hard to see your sweet baby start to act badly like this. It makes me sad and wish she would always be happy. But she comes from two very strong willed parents, so there is no doubt her "determination" is here to stay. I've tried many parenting tricks of the trade to deal with this....we still have no magic answer but the best seems to be leaving her alone for a minute.

Lastly, she's begun pulling herself up to standing! This has been really exciting, yet terrifying. There are so many more things she's getting into now so babyproofing is a must that I've put off for too long. With this new feat also comes more boo-boo's. She's pretty shaky on those legs and is fine when she's on the rug pulling up using the couch. But this ability is carrying over into other areas of the house like cabinets, the pantry, bookshelves, anything that has a ledge. We're in the process of bolting everything to the walls, but the different areas of the house have different landing pads for her body when it comes crashing down. We've had a lot more tumbles, screams, and huge tears in the last few days as she learns to deal with her new ability.

So many things, all in the last few weeks. It seriously amazes me how much they grow and change at this stage. For now I'm willing time to slow down before my baby turns a full year old. 

roll over, roll over....

Rolling over is a big milestone for little itty bitty's, and yesterday, mine finally accomplished such a feat!! I can't explain how happy I was. It's so exciting to see your little one achieve something that to their little body must seem so hard.

As with all milestones, there is no specific time any one baby might roll over. Some babies have the ability to roll over right from the start. Such as I, who was so angry my first night at home, apparently I rolled myself over in a fit of rage. So fitting. While my offspring appears to have the same tenacity, those thunder thighs clearly require a lot of strength to move. Therefore, it hasn't been much of a shock to me that rolling over has seemed to be of little interest to her.

As we were pushing our way through tummy time bootcamp I started to notice she was beginning to kick her legs over as if to roll herself over. So I took that opportunity to start showing her the world of rolling from tummy to back. She appeared to just enjoy the ability to suddenly be returned to her backside and would immediately start sucking her fist, unamused, amid my cheers.

Then last night, I put her on her tummy and as I was paying no attention whatsoever SHE ROLLED OVER. What the...!?!? Why is it that any time your not being a good parent (ie, staring at the TV, wrapped up in a Nicholas Sparks book on your phone, clipping your toenails...) something huge happens!? So of course, I put her back on her tummy and made her do it again. I just couldn't believe she actually did it without my help. And wouldn't you know, she did it again. And again.

When I frantically got out my phone to video it for her daddy on the FOURTH time, my phone decided it was too full. (Thanks to the OtterBox case, I still have a phone today). Minutes later, Adam walked in from work and of course at that point, Adly decided she'd had enough of her new trick and threw a fit. Such is life.

Today was a new day, and thus time to see if it was a fluke or if my little puppy daughter really had learned a new trick. And sure enough, she has.

Ignore the soccer mom cheers from the sidelines. 

Guess what!?!

Hey everybody....guess what. Being six weeks old is the PITS!

I had heard from multiple people and sources that around 6 weeks, wee ones tend to hit some sort of a growth spurt, complete with regression, devil reincarnated episodes, etc. My sweet pea is so far nailing this stage on the head.

Fussy wussy is her new nickname. Hey why you fussing!?! 

Of course she can't tell me. She just glares at me, punches me in the face, sticks her tongue out at me, and continues with her wails. So I try everything. Change the diaper, bop around the house, paci, snuggles, silly faces. She responds to all if the above by sucking the life out of my arm, my shirt, my neck (ever had an infant hickie??), all ways of not so subtly telling me, "I WANT THE BOOBIE!!!!"

Prior to six weeks, I had gotten our little hungry monster in a pattern of eating every two hours or so during the day, thanks to the paci. It was at least long enough to recover and make more milk. But now, at six weeks, we're back to being hungry every minute of every day. Cluster feeding or snacking is what the experts like to call it.

The second she comes off, she's making hungry gestures at me, trying to crawl her way back down to the boobie. I put her down, she cries. I hold her, she cries. Her sleep patterns are all a mess and together we are both a couple of cranky pants.

Thankfully, I have veteran moms around the world (well, just around here) cheering me on, promising me, IT GETS BETTER! Let's hope so, because this momma has had enough of being a personalized all day buffet! 

Little E in the House!

This past Monday, one day after our latest Bellies Who Brunch meeting, my preggo partner in crime Laura went into labor. Adam and I had actually invited her and her husband Zach to a Cubs game that night. They couldn't make it...not because she might've given birth (her due date was June 11)... but because Zach had to take a grad school exam.

Thank goodness they declined! Around 4pm, Laura was admitted to the hospital. At 11:11pm, she gave birth to their son, Elliot. Laura had been updating me randomly before the going got tough Monday night, so I spent that evening tossing and turning in excitement for them. Tuesday morning I got the text that he had arrived...the night prior! I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that she had an "easy" labor.

When I found out he had arrived safely Tuesday morning, I couldn't stop crying. Not only was I beyond excited for them, it was definitely the first time reality hit me. This thing, this pregnancy thing thats happening has an outcome. And she's done! And I'm next. O.M.G.

Today, Nicole and I barged our way over to their house to meet the little guy. Before heading over, Nicole mentioned maybe we should get a stuffed animal for him- something cute. Pssshhhh. I'm sorry, but after 10 months of not drinking, what I will want is a big ass bottle of wine. These babies get loaded up with endless amounts of goodies that will be used once, if at all. So with that, we changed gears and picked up a nice bottle of champagne (for the first time they get alone time) and some flowers.

We walked in right as Zach was cleaning up what he called a "diaper changing crisis". Little Elliot had waited until the diaper was off to do the #1, all over the changing pad. Let me tell you. If that's the only crisis newborns have, I'm in! He is the calmest, quietest, most happy baby. He happily relaxed in Nicole and I's arms the entire time we were there.

And believe you me, I took the whole time to get Laura to tell me the real lowdown on labor and breastfeeding. She even stocked me up with some extra hospital bed pads in case I ever decide I'm too tired to get up and pee for the 4th time at night. Juuust kidding...in case my water actually breaks on it's own at night. If it happens out in public while I'm standing in line for ice cream, well then that just can't be helped.

I'm so incredibly happy for Laura and Zach and can't wait to join them in the adventures of parenthood in just one month or so. He is an amazing little guy!! Stroller parties, here we come!

This kid keeps up this quiet act, I might have to start calling him Easy E. 

Babies 101

This week, Adam and I took our first newborn class at the hospital where we are going to deliver. While I grew up babysitting and taking care of my little brother and sister, I'm definitely a novice when it comes to newborns. This would most likely be because nobody in their right mind wants to leave the sight of their precious new bundle of joy. Therefore, we figured both of us could use some brushing up on all things baby/newborn so we signed up for this class.

Here are some things we learned. I will say I walked away with my head about to explode over the information. There is so much to know.

1.) There is a man named Dr. Harvey Karp who's practices the hospital endorses. I swear he is the freaking baby whisperer. He is the creator of the 5 S's when it comes to calming babies who cry non-stop. The man would pick up a shrieking newborn with frazzled parents looking on, only to calm the baby immediately using one or a combo of his 5 methods. Our jaws were on the floor. I've got his DVD locked and loaded in the online shopping cart, ready to order on a whims' notice if needed.

2.) We now know how to properly swaddle. From what I hear, babies are not typically fans of swaddling. Either way, guess which one of us was a rockstar at swaddling? You guessed it: Adam. I don't have patience for step-by-step processes. I'm more of a "just wrap it up like so and tuck it in and it'll work somehow" person. Adam, however, has every step down to a science, so he will be known as the Swaddling Savior, I've decided.

3.) I'm terrified of overheating my baby in her sleep. It stresses me out that there's no real way to know if they're too hot because they don't sweat as newborns. It didn't dawn on me until this class that my child is being brought into this world in the middle of our hottest time. My husband sweats "like a rat in a wool sock" (his words) so our AC is always blasting in the summer. Gah. Will she be too hot? Will she be too cold? What about me and my wants/needs!?! And the bumbling through parenthood begins.

4.) Adam also rocked at holding the baby. He has the football hold and the one-armed hold down flat. I on the other hand felt awkward in every position. This was the first time I experienced the pang of "what if I'm just not a good mom?" Of course, I know I will be a rockstar. I've held plenty of babies and none of them were rubbery, unbendable shapes. It's just a weird moment when you're holding this doll that you realize that in a short matter of time, the one in your arms will be all your responsibility.

5.) We learned allllll about what baby poops should look like in the first weeks. There's a whole rainbow of colors you should expect to see. Something tells me our child is going to have some real beauties in that department. No worries. I'm already planning to be "napping" during any explosive, up the back episodes.

6.) Adly was kicking and moving about like crazy anytime the babies on the video were screeching and crying. This leads me to deduce two things. One, she was pissed off, trying to get them to cut the racket out as she would never, ever do such a thing. Or two, she was gleefully kicking away in anticipation of joining the ranks of newborns who cry non-stop. I'm going to go with number one for my own sanity.

What I mainly walked away with:

Having a newborn is a whole lot of looking at each other and going "What the hell does this mean?" or "What the shit do we no now?" or "Is this right!?" or "Pleeeeease stop crying and go the F**K to sleep!"

Next up, Breastfeeding 101.

A Night on the Town

Last night, my sister in law, Nora came down to visit A and I for the evening. She brought with her the cutest little birth bracelet as a gift to Baby B and I. Love!

 It has a footprint and says "Due in July".

Cousin Emily got wind that Nora was in town and wanted her hair trimmed so she came over to take advantage of Nora's visit and then decided to join us for dinner out. After having some cocktails at our place, we ventured out into the cold to a restaurant A had made reservations at. Fail. Major fail. We walked in and the whole place was empty except maybe 10 others. We sat down and then quickly agreed we needed to bolt. Instead, we walked down a block and went to another place which ended up hitting the spot.

A, Nora and I had been here before, but it had been about a year. Nora love mussels as much as I do so I was excited to have her there to split an order with. The place stepped up an even higher notch when I discovered they make something called a "mommy-tini". So while everyone else indulged in their wine and beer, I got to sip on my mommy-tini. Yum!

To be honest, I'm starting to realize the smart restaurants have already created a mommy friendly drink. They mix fruity juices into some sort of sweet sounding concoction, give it a cool name such as "mommy-tini" or "mommy juice", and then charge $4-$5 for the drink when I otherwise would've just stuck to water. Even so, I'm definitely sold on the appeal of having even a fake drink to sip on when I'm out and about.

 Babes and I out on the town. 

Em and Nora, our lovely dates. 

Cheers!

Hey Baby B, Whats your Load Size??

This weekend, A and I were with a couple friend of ours, Jamee and Dan. Jamee is one of my nearest and dearest friends who also stood up with us in our wedding in October. Since Jamee hasn't done enough for A and I in the last year, she's also going to be throwing a baby shower for me in Chicago along with another nearest and dearest of mine, Lindsay (also a bridesmaid). I'll owe these ladies my second born child at the rate I'm going.

Jamee, Dan, A and I got to talking about the baby shower when Jamee brought up the idea of a Diaper Shower for A. Diaper showers are something where A and all his beer guzzling buddies get together and drink all they can in a last hurrah- or in our case- an extension of his bachelor party. The only catch is, every attendee has to bring a package of diapers for Baby B.

Great idea, right? Dan and A were excitedly talking about how fun it could be when A got serious and asked how we could make sure Baby B didn't get all one kind of diaper. And this is when he dropped the best soon to be dad bomb I've heard to date:

"So, do I ask the guys to bring different load size diapers?" A asked in wonder. "They come in load sizes, right?"

To which all of us burst into laughter at. I love my husband. But I also love when I get to make fun of him.

LOAD SIZES!?! So, what do you think is going to happen? Newborn Baby B's gonna shoot you a wink and say, "Hey dad, after the amount of breast milk I had for dinner, I can feel a real BIG load comin' on tonight. Better diaper me up accordingly."

Oh my word I am dying laughing even as I type this. Hilarious. And oh, so innocent at the same time. After we stopped crying laughing we were able to explain that diapers come in baby age sizes, not load sizes. Phew. I'm so glad we had that conversation before A went on his first diaper buying adventure. I can just picture it now.

"Excuse me, ma'am, what load sizes do you carry in diapers here?"

xo,

Baby Lovin'

Today we got to go and visit new baby Ava, who's just turned two months old. I was excited to not only see our friends Reggie & Laura but to also be able to pick Laura's brain about all things pregnancy and of course meet baby Ava.

In other exciting news, IT SNOWED LAST NIGHT!! People, this is becoming headline news when it does happen. Its been a very dry winter, to say the least. All of which I could care less about, but my poor little darlings at school have been so depressed over it. Anyways, A and I bundled up in our winter gear and hopped in the car with Jamee and Dan to head out to the suburbs for the day.

 Weeee! To the suburbs we go!

When we arrived I was shocked and actually put at ease by the fact that their baby gear has not taken over their house. Granted, they have a beautiful 4-bedroom home which looks like a mansion compared to our humble 2 bedroom barely 900 square ft city apartment. But it still made me feel better about my "babies and all their never ending gear ohmygosh where is it going to fit in our house" fear.

Even better, Laura and Reggie seem to be fitting into their new roles as parents just fine. I mean, they've been able to handle it all on their own. And Ava's still kicking...alive and well. She even smiles a whole lot. Which is just too much to handle on the cuteness scale.

Chubby cheeks

We even got to hold her for a bit. I couldn't help but capture a gazillion pics of the moments as she is just so stinking cute.

 She's a natural, people!

 A trying to figure out what Ava's all about. 

This baby thing is a piece of cake!!

A big thanks to Laura and Reggie for hosting all of us for the day. I always love getting to squeeze in some baby lovin'. We also got word our pregnant friends, Zach and Laura, are having a boy!! All this baby excitement is almost too much to handle. 

Now it's time to to relax and get prepped for Fat Sunday, or the Super Bowl Sunday to most people. Although I could care less about what is happening on TV. My only concern will be about all the tasty goodies I get to stuff into my mouth and feel OK about it. 

xo,