Category Archives: New Baby

A Lonely Week

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I’m a very lucky wife and momma. Monday through Friday, week after week, hubby wakes up with Charlie, changes her diaper and maybe even changes her into real clothes and/or cooks/feeds her breakfast.

Then, at lunch time, he comes to see us at work. Every. Day. 

Most nights, he’s home to help feed Charlotte her dinner or hang out and get her ready for bed. On the really good nights, he’ll read us her bedtime stories.

It’s perfection. 

This week, my guy is out of town for work. Monday through Friday… 

It sucks.

And of course, I’m fighting whatever nasty illness my poor hubby is fighting and I’ve been absolutely exhausted.

My first day alone and it was already a little rough. Charlotte was up at 5 am, she cried for about an hour this morning before going down for her morning nap, she was wildly hyper and simultaneously exhausted during our ladies’ lunch, her second nap was ended abruptly by a startling noise, she woke up screaming her face off, and then she refused to go to bed even though she was exhausted. Oh, and did I mention that our dog chewed through our wooden baby gate (finally after two years of hard work destroying the damn thing – thankfully he wasn’t hurt by the scary death trap).

  
Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

And hopefully I can sleep tonight. A king sized bed seems pretty damn lonely with only Toby the 5 lb pup and I to fill it. 

Now that I think about it… Hopefully Charlie sleeps tonight. Fingers crossed.

 Post-work playtime:  
           

She may have been a handful today, but at least she was still a sweetie pie… 

      

And finally, time for mommy to kick her heels up (and plug in the monitor)!

 

Low Milk Supply

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Over the past two months, I’ve gone on three trips without baby Charlotte (to Seattle with my girlies and to Puerto Rico and New Mexico for weddings). Not to mention, I’ve had a few nights away with the hubs to Chicago for my birthday and for random evenings out with friends.

While I’ve had a blast, my body is suffering a bit.

Before this last trip, I was starting to notice that my milk supply was down, but since I’ve been back, it’s been so low. Charlotte ends each of her four daily nursing sessions in tears because she wants more milk.

It’s so frustrating and upsetting.

I’ve been chugging liquids today and am going to eat a ton of oatmeal in the coming days to help increase my milk supply, but I’m a little worried that this far into the game (10.5 months into nursing), that my body isn’t going to be able to recover and rebuild my supply. So worried that I might also add another daily pump session… and I HATE pumping.

My original plan was to nurse for the first year, but truly, I don’t see Charlotte or I being ready to give up nursing in a month and a half. She’s naturally weaned a bit, drinking closer to 25 ounces compared to the 40+ she was consuming before. But despite the mild wean, she still loves nursing and shows no signs of being done. Not to mention the fact that I’m not ready… at all… either. I love our quiet, sweet time together.

Nursing my little babe is pretty much my favorite part of each day. She’s just so sweet and cuddly during those times.

With that said, I have to apologize to my friend who asked me for my pre-momma opinion of her nursing her babe until 1.5 years old. I shouldn’t have judged… I get it. Love you, J!

We’re Home!!

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After a cancelled flight, an extra night away and a long day of travel, we are finally home. We got back yesterday afternoon at around 2:30. 

I was a little nervous about the reunion with Charlie because the last time I left, she seemed pretty pissed off. 

Of course, we arrived about 30 minutes past when Charlotte should have been napping, so the odds weren’t in our favor… But truly, it wasn’t so bad!

She gave big hugs and a lot of confused laughter. We brought her home and I put her down for her nap right away. I ended up having to go back in to soothe her a bit, but she finally fell asleep around 4:45… As did I. 

Mark got home from his couple hour stint at work, I made dinner, we ate and relaxed. Around 7:15, I put my ear up against the door to see if she was awake (our monitor wasn’t hooked up from the babysitting adventure). Of course, my creeping woke her.

She literally woke in tears, which is not common for Charlotte. It took a bit of distracting in the form of song, dance and pets… But we finally settled her. We fed her dinner, gave her a bath and played a bit.

From dinner on, she was absolutely perfect. So fun to be around, very happy and adorable as ever. 

Now, it’s 7:20 am and the pumpkin is still sleeping. Hopefully today we’ll be back to our regular routine. 

Wish me luck!

Missing my Girl

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This morning when I woke up, I was feeling excited. I ignored any exhaustion I was feeling. I got up, packed my bag, and we headed out for our farewell brunch and hang time. 

It was another great day. And I was so pumped to be heading home to my sweet bunny girl.

As we made the drive from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, the nerves began… We were driving right into a storm.

When we arrived at the airport, our flight was showing slight delays. So we waited in line for at least an hour when they made the announcement: our flight was cancelled.

So here we are at 915 pm, bunking up 5 people deep at the Hawthorne Suites. 

Our new flight leaves tomorrow at 630 am for a 110 pm arrival. 

I just want to go home. I’m ready to give my babes so many smooches. It has been way too long. 

With that said, I have to mention that prior to this mishap, we’ve literally had the best time. Santa Fe is gorgeous, the wedding was perfect… It was a great trip. 

   
                         

Son-in-Law

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Today I met my future son-in-law and let me just say, he’s absolute perfection. I love him already. 

My childhood bestie had her new little baby boy, Avi David, on Sunday night. He was born 6 lb 10 oz, but currently only weighs 6 lbs. He’s tiny!!!

Remember, Charlie was born 8 lbs 9 ounces. She was born a toddler 🙂

I went to spend a couple hours with my lovey friend and her soft and furry little baby boop. I was in absolute heaven. He’s so dang sweet and kissable. 

I love him. A lot. 

I’m ready to go back and give him more smoochies. 

I will say, I definitely forgot how overwhelming those first days/weeks are. I forgot about how scared I was by Charlotte or I guess scared at the idea of taking care of an infant. Everything is just so new and overwhelming and Oy. Add in the exhaustion. Those first weeks were tough. 

But thankfully it doesn’t take too long to get your bearings. Although, I barely left the house with Charlotte alone during those first three months. 

It will be interesting to see what happens when we have a second. Will it be less overwhelming? More overwhelming? Will it bring a whole new level of chaos? That’s such a scary thought.

But, I guess only time will tell! 

And now, check out how cute this little guy is…

   
         

Full of Love

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Today started in the best possible way… with a nice little family snuggle session. The idea of “family snuggles” is literally how I convinced my husband we should upgrade our queen size bed to a king… and that was before I was even pregnant!

I just love it.

Charlotte happened to wake up early this morning, so we had a little extra time in our morning routine that gave us the opportunity to lay in bed while Charlie climbed all over us, waved to herself (and us) in the mirror, and played around! It was perfection.

By the time we got to work, Charlie was all pooped out and it was time to put her to bed right away… but not before I coaxed her into giving me some smoochies and a few “head bumps.” For some reason, Charlie is super stingy with most little signs of affection, but if you say “BOOP” in a high pitch tone and lean into her, she’ll usually smoosh her head/face against yours. It’s melt-worthy.

All in all, a great morning!

Making Moves

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Our little Charlie Girl spent the week mastering the art of standing. Anywhere and everywhere. Stand, stand, stand.

This morning while I watched her play, I noticed her standing up, resting her weight on her plastic lego bin, pushing it around… AKA ASSISTED WALKING! Instantly, I grabbed her little push walker thing.

I pointed to the toy and she quickly grabbed the handle, pulled herself up and started pushing it… assisted pushing. I have to put some weight on the opposite side of the walker, otherwise I think she’d fall flat on the ground like a pancake.

Of course, my wheels started turning… how can I catch this on video? So, I set up my camera, moved her back a bit and let her go!

As a warning… there are whiney tears. I swear these are a result of her being ready for a nap… not of her mother forcing her to walk with the walker toy 🙂