Lily's 30th Week (9/21/09 – 9/27/09)

This week I worked at the Brighton Health Center on Monday through Wednesday. It was really hectic out there. I was overbooked and crazy busy all day Monday so I only got a ten minute lunch. Finding time to pump was difficult but I managed. After work, I had to hurry to Kirsten’s to pick up Lily and take her with me to an appointment with my General Practitioner. I hadn’t seen him since April of 2008. Back then, I was really frustrated and was taking a sanity break from my failed infertility treatments. A lot has changed since then! I was so stressed and miserably unhappy back then. Now I couldn’t be happier. I am so glad that I didn’t give up hope and went back to my Reproductive Endocrinologist for another cycle of treatment in May of 2008 because that was the one that gave me my beautiful baby girl.

Work on Tuesday was even busier than Monday. I didn’t get a lunch at all but it’s not like I couldn’t stand to skip one. I still found time to pump but I was quite off from my usual schedule. After work we ate a quick meal because we had an informational meeting with Rachel’s teachers at 7pm. The students at Navigator have different teachers throughout the day but they stay together in teams when they transfer between classes so that the same kids are together all day. Rachel’s team this year is called Team Tsunami. The meeting was very interesting. I like her teachers and I like the way their processes work for homework and communication. It is all very organized and structured which Rachel definitely needs. Lily was a big hit at the meeting. She kept trying to talk so I kept putting her pacifier in her mouth to quiet her which is too bad because her chatter is so darn cute. Mostly Lily just played quietly in my lap but as soon as Mrs. Simon would talk, she would stop everything and listen to her, completely mesmerized. For some reason, Lily absolutely loved Mrs. Simon. It must have been her tone of voice and her animated way of speaking. After the meeting, Rachel proudly showed us her locker.

My parents came over while we were at work on Thursday and my mom cleaned the house. My dad mowed the yard then patched up the walls in the hall where I wanted to rearrange some pictures. While he was at it, he went around the house and patched various nicks in other walls as well. He got the spots spackled, sanded, and put Kilz on them but we still need to repaint the areas. After we got home, my mom made a nice dinner for all of us then my dad and Paul hung up new family pictures for me. I’ve had a few of them framed since Lily was one month old but, sadly, it has taken six months to get them up. I was very grateful for all of their help.

Friday was a busy day as well. After picking up Lily, I was home for only 30 minutes then went back to Kirsten’s house for a scrapbooking/card making party. A bunch of her neighbors came to the party as well. They are all really cool people and I had a lot of fun but I was so tired from the week that I kept screwing up the cards that they had us make to demo the products. It didn’t help that I had two glasses of wine as I have no tolerance for alcohol anymore. I bought some stuff to make Halloween cards. The party ran long so I didn’t get home until about 10:30pm. Those three and a half hours I was gone was the longest Paul has watched Lily in my absence. I was totally wiped out and missed my little baby who was asleep for the night when I got home. Even as I held my sleeping baby, I told Paul that I still missed her but knew better than to wake her up!

I slept in a bit on Saturday morning then got busy doing stuff around the house. I really wanted to go to a Mom-to-Mom sale that my friend, Christina, was participating in but I ran out of time to attend it. We went to my parents’ house around 1pm so that my dad could help Paul replace the brakes on my car before we went out to dinner for my mom’s birthday. They only had time to replace the back brakes which was fine because they needed a different tool to get a part unstuck on the front brakes anyway. We went to dinner to celebrate my mom’s birthday at Italia Gardens with my parents, my grandmother, Lee, Robin, Ashlee, Jeremy, and a little boy that Ashlee and Jeremy were babysitting. Lily had refused to nap at my parents’ house so she got fussy as soon as we got to the restaurant. After ordering, I took her to the car to nurse then she fell asleep as soon as we came back inside. She slept in Paul’s arms while we ate. Luckily, he ordered pizza which he could eat with one hand. After dinner, we all went back to my parents’ house for cake and presents. Both kids fell asleep there while we continued to visit with my parents. We ended up getting home fairly late.

On Sunday, Paul replaced the front brakes on my car while I reorganized Lily’s closet. I packed away her 3 month size clothes which she hasn’t been able to wear for quite some time. I then worked on adding her 9 month size clothes to the closet. Before, the only 9 month size clothes I had out were the sleepers as she always wears one size higher in sleepers and other one-piece clothing items since she is tall. Right now she seems to be on the edge of 6 and 9 month clothes. My baby is getting big! I also tried to sort through the three totes of clothing from Roni. While I worked, Lily did quite well playing with toys in her crib. I played a children’s music CD and sung and danced around to keep her entertained. I had to pick her up for a while numerous times but then she let me put her back down for a while. This went on for a couple of hours before she was fed up with letting me work anymore. I didn’t get to finish so there were bags of outgrown clothes all over the floor, 9 month clothes all over the changing table, and hangers all over the toy chest. Oh well. Kirsten called later that evening to say that she was sick and wouldn’t be able to watch Lily on Monday so I called up my mom, wished her a happy birthday, and asked if she could come watch Lily. She drove down and stayed the night so that she didn’t have to get up so early on Monday morning.

Lily is so close to crawling now. She still frequently gets her one leg stuck underneath her but sometimes she gets perfectly positioned on her hands and knees, rocks back and forth a few times, then collapses. She gets frustrated with it as she hates being on her tummy. She is still using this motion to get around fairly well and can get to toys and cats that were previously out of her reach. She is now eating some stage 2 solids mixed foods. She is enjoying the taste variety. We are still mixing grains in with each meal and her GI system is doing quite well with her schedule of eating prunes every other day as recommended by her pediatrician. We are still only doing solids for lunch and dinner. We have not yet introduced breakfast as nursing her before we leave for Kirsten’s is our special time together in the morning. I was a bit disappointed this week as the power pumping I did last weekend only increased my supply by about 2 ounces daily starting midweek. This is almost enough to keep up with demand but not quite.

Here are some pictures from this week.

Lily was sleeping when we picked her up from Kirsten’s house on Thursday. She always has to be wrapped up in a soft blanket and likes to rub it on her face when she falls asleep. Here is my snuggle bug:

Playing with Grandma Chris when we got her home on Thursday:

She likes this play-yard a lot more now than she did when it was age-appropriate for her. Now that she is more mobile, she can play with everything at once:

Hanging with her friend, Nolan, on Friday morning:

Lily and Rachel, both dressed all in pink, playing at Grandma Chris and Papi Tim’s house on Saturday:

Lily shared some laughs with my Aunt Robin while my mom opened her birthday presents:

Showing my cousin, Ashlee, her red frog:

I put Lily in her “Whoooo’s Sleepy” pajamas but then she proved that the answer was not “Lily” as she played on the floor with her rings and showed an odd affinity for chewing on the blanket fringe on the ottoman:

Playing with her trumpet. Lily wants to be musically talented like her sister, Rachel:

Laugh Attack (9/15/09)

What is Lily laughing at? Her crazy sister, of course! Only Rachel can elicit this kind of hysterics from Lily. I love the mad look she gave me when I took the washcloth out of her mouth. She could only stay mad for a second because her sister was just too darn funny.

Lily's 29th Week (9/14/09 – 9/20/09)

Paul and I drove separately to work on Tuesday because he had a dentist appointment that evening. Thankfully he was cavity free and problem free. I don’t have any fillings and haven’t had any dental problems but Paul’s teeth have cost us a lot of money. Hopefully Lily takes after me. Lois came over around 7pm to get a Pulmonaria plant from us that Paul wanted to dig up and divide. (It is very appropriate for us to give it to her considering we all work at the Pulmonary Lab together.) We didn’t realize how short the days were getting. It was nearly dark when Paul got home from the dentist and was trying to dig up and divide the plant. Lois stayed for a while to visit. The cats were happy to see her as she was the one who took such wonderful care of them while we were on vacation at Higgins Lake in July. Lois was amazed at how Nolan interacts with Lily. Nolan just goes right up to her and lets her pull his fur, tail, and ears, all while purring happily. They love each other. Lily shakes and squeals with excitement every time he comes near. All you have to say is, “kitty,” and she looks all around for him. The other two cats are interested in Lily and come fairly close to her but always keep out of arm’s range. Nolan intentionally comes up to her whenever she is on the floor for her version of petting. She giggles hysterically if he licks her finger or toe. It is so cute.

On Thursday, we went to Macaroni Grill after work with a bunch of our coworkers which was arranged by Meghan. Paul got out of work early so that he could go pick up the girls and meet us at the restaurant. At dinner, Meghan made a big announcement that she is three months pregnant. I am really happy for her. I actually knew her secret because I have been helping her navigate all the red tape involved in pregnancy restrictions at work. It brought back a flood of memories of the hoops I had to jump through to set up for maternity leave, the confusion about the 80 hours of bridge time to extended sick pay, and all of the other problems I faced. I can’t believe what a difficult process it is. I am glad that I can at least pass on my knowledge and advice to someone else.

During the week, I emailed one of the lactation consultants that I met when we did the Breastfeeding, Work, and You forum together in August. Back then I talked about how easily and successfully I was pumping and how I was getting an excess as I was pumping about 24 ounces while I was at work. Now I am lucky if I get 12 ounces. This is not enough to keep up with demand as Lily drinks about 15 ounces of breastmilk while she is with Kirsten. We are supplementing with my frozen excess but I hate that we keep tapping into the emergency backup supply on a daily basis. It is so frustrating. I was a failure as a woman because I couldn’t get pregnant without medical intervention then I couldn’t give birth without medical intervention but the one thing I could do well on my own was make milk. Now I can’t even do that adequately. When my period came the first time, it knocked down my production substantially. When I finally got it back up to meet demand, it got knocked down even further by my next period. This roller coaster is exasperating. Mary, the lactation consultant, was very helpful and emailed me right back with some suggestions and attached a handout on different techniques and herbs to try. The first thing she recommended is called ‘power pumping’ which I couldn’t do until the weekend because it is very time consuming. To power pump, you pump for ten minutes, rest for ten minutes, pump for ten minutes, etc. for one hour in the morning then do it again for one hour in the evening. For the rest of the day, you just pump or breastfeed as usual. She said to do it for one day so I did it on Saturday but then did it in the morning on Sunday as well. It wasn’t too bad because I just watched TV while doing it and had Paul watch Lily. Mary warned that if it worked, it would take several days to see the results. If that doesn’t work, I will try the herbs which again, work for some people but don’t work for others. I hope that something works because I still would like to continue nursing Lily as we both find it to be a very rewarding and enjoyable experience. Besides power pumping, the weekend was pretty uneventful. We mostly hung around the house. Paul worked outside and Rachel played with the neighbor boys.

This week Lily is so close to crawling. She gets on her hands and knees but one leg always gets stuck underneath her and she can’t quite rotate it around. She can move herself across a room or spin herself in a circle by getting on her hands and knees then sitting back down in a slightly different spot than she got up from. It takes a while but is very interesting to watch. She is still pulling up on her swing. She can’t pull up on anything else yet but can stand unsupported holding onto the edge of the coffee table. I think it is easy for her to pull up on the swing because she can get a good grip wrapping her little hands around the leg bar. We think she is going to be left-handed because she almost always plays with toys in her left hand. If you give her something on her right side, she will frequently take it with her right hand then transfer it to her left. We play a game with her on the floor where she throws us her ball and we roll it back to her. In this game, she almost always throws with her left hand.

Lily is adding new foods to her diet. She had apples last week and had squash and peas this week. She seems to like all the baby foods we have given her and hasn’t had any adverse reactions to anything. She is a really good eater. She is mostly eating stage one foods still but I mix them with oatmeal to a fairly thick consistency as she has never done well with runny foods. That way she gets her grains as she still hates cereal mixed with breastmilk alone but loves it mixed with fruits or vegetables. She is a lot less messy at dinner now but it is hard to clean her up because she immediately grabs the wet washcloth from your hands and holds it in a death-grip and sucks on it. Apparently Rachel liked to suck on washcloths when she was little, too. I don’t understand the appeal. Frequently we need to use two washcloths to clean her up after dinner or in the bath, one for her to steal and suck on and one for you to actually clean her up with.

Here are some pictures from the week.

Lily looking cool in Keegan’s sunglasses on Tuesday:

Lily with Meghan on Thursday. Soon Meghan will have a baby of her own:

Lily playing with her toys on Saturday:

Lily always wants to eat when we eat so we gave her some fruit in her Munchkin Fresh Food Feeder to keep her entertained while we had dinner on Saturday. We always have to strip her down as fruit juice ends up running down all over her. It is so funny listening to her slurp on that thing:

Lily laying across my leg and being goofy on Sunday morning:

Lily petting her best friend, Nolan on Sunday afternoon:

Pulling his ear:

More petting:

Eating his ear:

Lily and Nolan being lazy together on the floor later that day:

Still Bouncing (9/14/09)

Lily still loves her Exersaucer and we still call it her ‘Bouncer’ for obvious reasons. She knows what “bouncy” means and bounces up and down on command now. She finds it quite fun!