Stuff I don't really want to know

A coworker of my husband is looking at taking her son to our daycare. He is just a couple of months younger than Rylie. She has been going to the class and sitting for an hour each day this week. She came back yesterday and told Joe that Rylie sat on the floor and cried and her teacher did nothing about it. Uhm, thanks for nothing!!! I don't want to hear shit like that. I am a realist - I know that she cries during the day, I know that she doesn't get picked up right away. There isn't much I can do about it. In some ways, I think it can be good, if she gets held all day then she won't ever learn that it's okay to play on her own. On the flip side, you never know how much is too much. But, the bottom line is that I don't know what I can do about it. Besides quit my job and stay home. And of course vow to never let her cry. Because it's not like she doesn't cry at home. I know she isn't feeling great this week, and honestly she has tested my patience at times too. But I can't take the week off when she has the sniffles. Again, not a damn thing I can do about it. Now I am pissed and grumpy and feeling guilty. Again, thanks for nothing.

Weekend

I got so wrapped up in Rylie’s Birthday party I haven’t been able to do much else lately.  Thank goodness it’s done.  It went great, all the food turned out good and we had just enough guests.  A few folks that I would have loved to have had didn’t make it, but still lots of fun.  Rylie totally ate up all the attention – she grinned from ear to ear and played with her cake and got frosting in hair.  Thank goodness it is over though (did I say that already!!); seriously it was a lot of work!

So other big things, Rylie is standing on her own.  Trying to walk already???  CRAZY!!  It is so fun to watch, she blows me away every day.  Within a month I think we’ll have a toddler on our hands.  She has been a pretty fun and happy baby.  Her napping has been shifting a little, she is sleeping one long nap and one catnap on weekends.  It actually works out great for us, she naps in the morning and then sneaks in a nap in the car in the afternoon.  Can’t wait till we are down to just one long nap – I’ve been waiting for this for sooooooooo long!!

Deserving of its own paragraph: RYLIE IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT EVERY NIGHT!!!  Been about 17 days in a row I think??  So glorious this sleep thing!!

And cow’s milk seems to be going great too.  My only reservation about switching over completely during the day is that it will make weekends more challenging because we’ll have to give her a bottle before naps….hum.  Not sure how she’ll feel about that….I did give her a warmed sippy of straight cow’s milk over the weekend and I think she drank an ounce or two.  She seemed happy enough about it too, so that was good.  I’m a little sad to think that weaning is right around the corner.  Hard to know how difficult it will be for her.  And me!!  More to come on that, I’m sure.

Finally, Sunday was great.  I road up Emigration with Carrie and then we got to test out our new grill Sunday night.  Joe made some a-mazing steaks!!  And it only took like 10 mins.  Yum, yum J Can’t wait to cook up some more stuff this wee

Been too long!!

Just a snippet of the kidlet with her mama

When it’s good – it is VERY GOOD!!

Wow, I’m like a whole new woman.  Rylie has SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT 4 TIMES IN A ROW!!!  And yes, I am shouting. 

I guess it just took a little nudging from us to finally get her there.  She will occasionally peep in the night, but less than a minute and she is back to sleep…..ahhh.  Now, let’s be clear here, I know that no state of baby sleep is ever permanent.  In a matter of a few nights we could be right back where we were and agonizing once again over what to do to help her (and us!) sleep better.  But let’s just not think about that right now, let’s simply revel in our bliss of sleep and think not of the future.

In other baby news, we found out our peanut is still a wee little thing.  She weighed in at a whopping 15lbs 7oz at a week shy of 1 year old. In case you are wondering what “percentile” that is, it’s the nothing percent.  She doesn’t sit on that funny little chart, she makes a curve that is below and it has lost a bit of it’s gusto since she learned to crawl.  The doc was not negative per se about her weight, but instructed us to add some delectable yummies to her diet.  So now her veggies have butter and she gets peanut butter and avocado, etc.  Last night she was gobbling up toast with cream cheese – yum, yum, if I do say so myself.

We also got the green light on cow’s milk.  Woo hoo!!!  Milestone reached.  However, our first go-round led to some spitting of milk.  But I’m trying not to despair.  We’ll start mixing it into her bottles and see what happens.  When she’ll take it straight up then we’ll start dropping pumps and la, la, la, la I will have my day back.

All of this, while totally baby centered is ME centered as well.  She napped wonderfully yesterday, allowing me to get a nice bike ride in and led to a happy stress free baby day.  As I posted earlier, the bike ride was fabulous.  The weather here in Salt Lake has been a-mazing and I’m looking forward to more miles coming up.  I’ll keep ya posted.

Magic Sunday

The beautiful Salt Lake weather this weekend prompted me to dust off my road bike and head for the hills. I am so proud of myself for getting out - and actually pushing myself even though I am so out of shape it is hilarious.  My Cannondale road amazingly and it really felt good to be out on the roads.  I will always be a road biker :)

Does this make me look fat?

The answer is always yes, because if you feel like you look fat than it doesn’t matter if you look fat or not.  I do “feel” a bit fat, but I also feel a bit off in other ways.  My hair has been very “eh” the past couple weeks and my complexion is not exactly rosy.  I presume it’s because I’m fighting a cold and still trying to get enough sleep.  I also worry about the foods going in when I’m sick because I’m much less likely to be eating healthily when I’m tired and sick.

You’ll find out, if you stick around here long enough, that I have an interest in learning about food and its health benefits.  However, sometimes I feel very overwhelmed by the glut of conflicting information out there.  It seems like everywhere you turn certain foods are being vilified as the new cancer causing poison – but it happens so much that you are left with a feeling of not being able to eat anything.  And I hate that, I’ve never done well trying to completely eliminate a food group.  In addition, I have to keep Joe fed and he doesn’t tend to fall prey to as much “food fear” as I do and he grows weary of drastic “food kicks” that have popped up from time to time. 

Of course now we have Rylie to feed.  In some ways it’s easy – veggies and whole foods in, not too much sugar or salt or processing.  But, how do I make sure she is getting enough iron, vits, minerals, fiber, calcium, etc??  With breastfeeding starting to become less important in her diet, I feel a new responsibility to provide her with the best food I can – as well as eating healthily ourselves as examples.  But how can I do this with such limited time? And how far is too far, or not far enough? 

All of this is food for thought. In the meantime, I’m just trying to heal my body inside and out, so that I’m not stuck asking myself, “does this make me look fat?”

Kidlet at my feet

Pick me up!!

Just an update

Been having a rough go of it lately. Had to scale things back in life just to stay afloat. I have had a nasty cold for the last week and seem to be developing a sinus infection. As I'm still nursing it's best I avoid antibiotics so I'll be hitting the netipot hard at least until I can try and get my head unplugged. I just heard on the radio that antibiotics are over prescribed for sinus infections anyway, so we'll fight it the Eastern way I guess. Just sucks cause it takes a lot longer...

Rylie's sleep has continued to suck and we are still in sleep debt, her and I. I think we may have had a breakthrough last night though. She woke at 12:30 and I didn't go in. She stayed calm and just whined for a bit. Less than 20 minutes and she was back to sleep. Hallelujah!!! She woke again at 4, so I fed her and then she was up for the day at 6. Much improved for sure. Hopefully we can keep knocking out that 12-1 wake-up for a bit. Eventually we'll work on sttn, but 1 step at a time.

Sent out our e-vite last night for Rylie's party. Could be like 40 people if everyone comes. Yikes!! Tiny house will be busting at the seams!! But I've stressed enough about it, just gotta clean house and do some cooking. How hard can it be, right? Right.

Feeling pretty out of shape, doesn't help that it's snowing again here. But honestly it has more to do with my lack of energy than anything.

Starting to drop pumps, I guess I've given up my evening pump for good now, unless the doc bursts my bubble and says we have to wait on cow's milk. We'll know on Friday. I'm excited, but nervous and guilty all at the same time. Can see there might be some feelings about this whole deal that haven't surfaced quite yet. Stay tuned I guess!!

That's it for now, I'll try to post something more focused later this week.

Another post about sleep

I had no idea before I had Rylie that so much of our time would be devoted to helping her sleep. Naps and night wakings, we spend countless hours trying to fit the puzzle together to somehow get the right fit - a well rested family! This week has been awful and I've switched into survival mode. Exercise, cooking, etc all need to wait until I am back on my feet. I'm skipping my evening pump and going down early. I'll fill you in more later, right now I'm going to try and get some shut eye.