Belén enjoying the book, "Where the Wild Things Are"
It’s time for another episode of “Deadliest Catch” when I only half pay attention and get caught up on the blog. I forgot to mention last week that I actually saw Captain Phil, the captain of the Cornelia Marie down at the Reef when I met my friends for dinner as he was in Boise for some promotional event at Albertsons for Alaskan Amber beer. He was tall and I wanted to say Hi but I couldn’t remember his name so I thought that would be inappropriate. I am not as big of a fan of the show as Andy and his sister Erin. Ooh, they just showed the preview for next week and it looks like the Cornelia Marie is in big trouble in the ice…stay tuned.
Gosh there is so much to talk about this week. I have thought of writing about ten different blog entries but with the little kiddo, it is much easier said than done. I never thought that days with a baby would truly be busy, but in short, they are. They fly by regardless if I have activities planned or not. I am not good about following the ubiquitous sage advice of “sleep when the baby sleeps” because that is the only time I can clean the house, exercise, or get anything done.
In my last entry, you will recall that I was concerned about our Miss Fussy Pants. My dear sweet friend Laura happened to drop by our house to bring me two handmade heating pads, you know those ones that have corn on the inside and are heated up in the microwave. She thought they would help either or both my clogged milk duct and potentially Belén’s tummy with gas. She came by on the first day where I honestly wished I was the one at work and Andy was home with the baby as I was frustrated with her constant fussing. She asked me how things were going and due to the timing, my response was a “they are okay” as I broke down into tears. Ahh, so dramatic. Laura and Aiden, her seven month old son who she was holding, gave me a much needed hug and she was so sympathetic as she has absolutely been there only a few months earlier. She was great.
Later that day, Laura sent me an email saying that she should have brought over the book she had been telling us about, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” by Marc Weissbluth but that she had reread the section of the book on six-week old babies and it turns out that is when they are at their peak of fussiness. She also mentioned that at six weeks of age, the baby should not be awake more than two hours at a time and that you should treat their need for sleep as seriously as their need for eating. The book also talks about how to get the baby on a sleeping schedule and get them sleeping through the night by three months so I am very excited to read it, as she just dropped it by my house today. So the good news is that the fussiness we experienced last week *should* be the peak of it with the possible exceptions of some future growth spurts, shots, etc. We may be through the worse of it, hooray! [and it hasn’t been that bad at all!]
I did try going off of dairy, starting Saturday. Belén seems to be less fussy but I am not convinced it is from the dairy because she still toots up a storm at night. I have almost been off of dairy for four days now so I think starting tomorrow or Thursday I will start adding it back in and see if we see any difference. All of my snacks are dairy products so it has been a good exercise that helped me realize that I need to vary my diet more. We had dinner at our next door neighbors house on Sunday night where we happened to learn a lot about milk allergies as their son, Noah (age 4) is allergic to everything including milk. They actually served soy ice cream which we didn’t even know existed and this started the discussion on milk allergies. It was the first time I have ever seen Andy eat ice cream since he is lactose intolerant.
Today, Grandma Eileen came over and watched Belén while I went for a 2 1/2 mile run! So, yes I did get the go ahead from Dr. Hodges to do pretty much everything except abs and running downhill which I have to wait two more months for. I have slowly been adding distance, generally 1/4 or 1/2 a mile at a time. Saturday I ran two miles and today I was only going to do 2 1/4 but I decided to go for 2 1/2 since I was feeling good. It is definitely less effortless (I know, double negative) than I remember, but it sure does feel great to be running again. I am SLOW, at a 10-minute mile pace at best and probably a lot slower, but oh well, I will improve. I can still tell that my abdominal area is not as strong as it was and feels not entirely whole, but it is good enough to run and improving every day. One other change in my running now as compared to the past is the songs I have in my head when I run. Today it was “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” It used to be Green Day (although I do have to say that Belén’s play list has some pretty hip songs on it, it just so happens that those nursery rhyme stick in your head more so than the hip songs.)
It has been raining relentlessly in Boise this past week. Our basement flooded which sucks! We have the carpet torn up in the baby’s room and part of our family room. Belén is sleeping in our room for the third night in a row tonight and I have to say it has not been half bad. The ironic part of it is that the first night she slept in the Pack and Play in our room she had a six hour stretch of continuous sleep which is a record. We hope to get the carpet re-stretched in the next couple of days and Andy has been working to get proper drainage of water from our rain gutters to prevent future flooding.
My stomach continues to shrink. I am wearing fewer and fewer maternity clothes but am gravitating towards shirts that are not tight across my stomach as I still have a pouch. It looks more like a ate too many Sarandipity pops or Girl Scout Cookies pooch rather than a four-month pregnant pooch, which is great progress. I am very happy that nobody asked me when I was due, after I had the baby as that would have been very depressing. I definitely still have more weight to lose (15 lbs) but I am feeling pretty good about my progress. It is nothing like my amazing friends from my running group, but I feel like it is good for me.
Today I met a couple of girls to walk who both recently had their second child. They were a lot of fun and full of great motherhood advice. I felt like I was trying to soak in all of their knowledge as they truly knew so much about child rearing. It was also interesting to see the things they worried about with their second (very little) which pointed out to me that we are very obviously the stereotypical first parents who worry about way more than we need to. I feel like it would be okay if we are more laid back about some things and I am sure we will get there with time. A couple of great things I learned from these girls are ways to soothe the baby when out and about such as bringing along a bottle of breast milk in case the baby gets hungry (seems obvious but I hadn’t done it before) and just how to do life’s activities with the baby while not worrying about the baby melting down (and also how to prevent that.)
Belén continues to grow like crazy and change every day. I am realizing that each day she becomes a little more independent and Andy and I already have joking conversations about her asking to go out on dates, etc. Her little personality is starting to show through and my prediction is that she will be energetic and strong willed, which I am happy about except for the fact that it will make being her parent more difficult. And who knows, I might be wrong on the personality prediction. She now smiles often, especially after she has just slept and eaten. She coos from time to time as well which just melts everyone. It is so precious. She has started to enjoy books more and we read books a couple of times a day. We do read some kid books but I often find myself reading whatever book I am reading to her if she is fussy as long as she will tolerate it.
When she is happy during the day, I take pictures on my iPhone and send them to Andy at work and he loves it. I sent the one at the top of this entry to him with the subject “literary genius” this week as well as the fussy one from the last entry with a subject “taming of the shrew.” He likes to follow what we are doing during the day.
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