Avocado yummies!

Today we started little miss on her first solids! Avocado! Delicious, nutritious and soooooo easy to prepare! Yesterday while we were out buying snacks for an impromptu date night, I found an avocado (finally!) that I didn't stick my thumb through. We decided that Abi is well enough to try her first solids even though she's not completely over her cold. So about a half hour after her first bottle (she's a much happier baby in the morning so we decided to start in the mornings...) hubby mashed up half of the avocado really well, and I thinned it out with just a smidge of water. We set lil miss up in her high chair and away we went! :) She actually took to it very well despite all the faces. I do believe she got more in her tummy than on her face!  I was astounded how well she did since it was her first time. To me, this just solidifies the fact that she is ready for this step. She didn't eat much, in fact we only put about a table spoon in her dish and she maybe ate a fourth of it, but I wasn't expecting her to devour the whole thing the first time! Hubby took pictures and caught some adorable faces. I don't think Abi knew whether she liked it or not, half the time she'd turn her nose up at the spoon and the other half she'd just open her mouth.. then make a face. lol. I think she'll be like her parents and end up loving avocado... someday. :)

Before I go insane...

I have a confession to make. While I have made it to 6 months of giving Abi as much breast milk as I can, I am tired of pumping. I am tired of feeling like a milking cow who's past her prime. I have been tired of latcing and unlatching and trying to get my super distractable baby to pay attention and eat from my right side which has an incredibly slow let down. Lets face it, I was so tired of that that I stopped trying to breast feed and switched to pumping around the time I started sleep training (almost 2 months ago now...) I feel like a failure still. But I didn't give up entirely. So Abi has gotten more breast milk than she would have had I given up months ago. And that is my husbands argument. I want to quit pumping altogether now. I'm already down to two times a day, once at lunch time before playing with Abi at daycare between classes and once at night while trying to study once Abi has gone to bed. To top it off, the time I take to pump at school I could be in the lab practicing my scanning. My school work has always taken a backseat to pumping. Because it had to. But now that it's been 6 months.. and I absolutely have to be able to scan the anatomy correctly to pass my classes and move on.. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I would be in the lab right now if there weren't other students in there desperately trying to practice before their first practical today at noon. Mine is on Thursday (wish me luck! I think I can pass....) But today is my first day after making the decision to cut down to a once a day pumping session, at night after Abi is in bed. Hubby and I had a very long conversation about it last night and I think I'm going to continue to let go slowly. I don't know how well my 4oz combined supply will last with a once a day... When I started this 2x a day pumping it was 5-6 oz each time. So we'll see how long it takes for my supply to adjust to once a day. Hubby says if we can give her a bottle of breast milk every other day at this point, that's what we'll do. Abi will be starting solids as soon as she's over this cold (hopefully before the next one starts!) So we want to be able to thin her first solids with breast milk.. and if that's all we can do with what I pump, so be it. At this point I don't know when I'm going to quit all together. I remember saying that "as long as I pump something, I'll pump and give it to Abi." But now... I feel so selfish, but there are other reasons along with my wanting to quit and have my breasts back. (Not to mention they hurt, my nipples are still purple and cracked even with lanolin.. sorry if that's TMI!) We are planning on buying organic produce and meats (everything in the "dirty dozen" and whatever else we can afford) to help give Abi the best possible foods. I told my husband since I was not able to exclusively breast feed, that we must give Abi organics whenever possible. There's no way around it. We are planning on making our own baby food, which looks like so much fun! I just hope I have enough time when I'm home alone. I've already got a few supplies so that I can freeze a few batches at a time and hopefully that will make things easier. I just hate that I want to quit pumping so badly. I still cry over not being able to feed my baby the way I had originally intended. The way I'm supposed to be able to feed her. Which brings me to another confession; we are thinking we may not have more kids. There are a lot of reasons for this but a major one is the breast feeding issues. I beat myself up so much over it with Abi and I am afraid I'll have the same issues with our next baby. If that's the case, I don't know how I'll handle it. It's been such a rough road, emotionally more than physically, but I just don't know if I could do it again. Then again I think "wow, I'll never be pregnant again.." and that makes me want to rethink it. So we are still in the deciding process. We are young yet, so we have plenty of time to decide. I know that if we do have more kids, I am spending every moment I have free with a lactation consultant. I may hire a dula. I don't know. So that's my bit of crazy for today. :)

Happy 6 month birthday Abigail!!

Today marks 6 months from the first day we met our little angel. It has sure been one heck of a ride! I fall more and more in love with my little girl every day, she's just such an amazing addition to our family. So here's the rundown on what miss Abi has been up to:

She's sick.... again. I'll be calling her dr Monday since she really didn't have a break between colds. No fever, no croup cough but a miserable baby with a stuffy nose and cough mostly when she's trying to sleep is not good.
Abi has rolling from tummy to back down really well! So well in fact that she rarely stays on her tummy at all when I put her there. I believe she will walk before she crawls! lol
She still puts everything in her mouth, and is very content to chew or suck on her fingers and toes. She has been sucking on her toes through her socks and recently has started pulling them off and chewing on them. I still don't see any signs of teeth yet, though the drool is getting worse.
Abi has taken a two hour nap every day this weekend (she's going on an hour today... fingers crossed) I'm hoping this trend continues after she's no longer sick. A two or two and a half hour nap midday is soooo much better than 4 or 5 twenty minute naps!
I don't officially know how much Abi weighs or how long she is. I wont know until her 6 month apt in about 2 weeks. But i weighed her here and I'm certain she's over 15.5 lbs. My best guess on her height is 27 inches. She's pretty long tho!
It looks like Abi has finally taken to her carseat. She no longer screams in the car at red lights, and if we drive for longer than 20 minutes, most days she'll fall asleep.
She's not yet sitting up on her own, although she has great head and neck control. She will sit up very well when someone is holding her. We were going to start solids today to celebrate her 6 month birthday but since she is sick we've decided to wait.
Hmmm what else... oh Abi is a groaner. Instead of the consonant sounds she makes groaning or grunting sounds. This evolved from a moaning sound (think zombie or mummy.. aaahhhhhh brains...) now it's more of an "oooohhh oooohhhh.. uuuhhhhh" It's hard to explain. I hope she starts picking up on the consonant sounds soon...  I think that's it for now. I'll post some pics later!

:side note: I have reached my goal of giving Abi as much breast milk as I can for 6 months! Originally it was to exclusively breastfeed for 6 months, but that went out the window a while back. I didn't give up, through all the difficulties and rough spots... even though I really wanted to quit sometimes, and am currently exclusively pumping, I am still giving her everything I can. It's not enough, but it's better than nothing.

When it rains...

I think I've got a post from a while back with a similar title.. but boy oh boy is it true that when it rains it pours! We've been having trouble with our washer for a while and it finally started making some noises we couldn't ignore, so our clothes have been piling up because it's taking forever for the appliance maintenance guy to get here (we live in an apartment). Then last night Abi had a horrible nights sleep, she woke every hour from 7-2:30 then woke again at 6 and again at 7:20. She wasn't screaming but she didn't do her regular "talk to herself and fall back to sleep" either. She wouldn't go down without a fight and/or a bottle. Which is so weird because for the past 2 weeks I haven't had to feed her in the middle of the night. So of course since today is my husbands 16 hour work day I took the entire night shift. Needless to say I'm a little sleep deprived and coffee isn't helping. Then at 5:45 when my hubby was leaving for work, his car wouldn't start. He had to come in, wake me up to tell me he was taking my car to work and that he needed me to call for repairs on his car. Mind you he just got new breaks and we are less than a year out from major repairs on both of our cars. So he takes my car, leaves me the stroller but not the carseat base (which I would need if I had an emergency and had to borrow a car...) but an emergency with Abi will just mean a 911 call. Anyway... the tow truck guy said he thinks the ignition switch is broke. Great. At least our insurance covers the tow. So then as the tow truck guy is loading the car onto his truck the appliance repair guy shows up... in the middle of me trying to put Abi down for her first nap. Which she needs desperately. So of course he's turning the washer and dryer (combo unit) on and off to try to figure out where the noise is coming from, which is keeping Abi from sleeping. Turns out it's something stupid that we could have fixed ourselves (some cap was loose. Go figure, lol.) He did find $20 in the bottom of the washer when he unscrewed the front. Total bonus! By the time he leaves Abi is too wound up to nap, but is so crabby from not sleeping well that I can't do much with her. She doesn't want to play or read or be on the floor or be held. So less than an hour after her first bottle I decided to try to give her a few more oz to see if that will help her fall asleep and it worked! Thank goodness. She has woken up twice from her nap but I've been able to put her back to sleep with some patting and shush-ing. I know it doesn't seem like such a terrible day, but for all this to happen so early after a sleepless night? And for it to be my husbands long day.. he won't get home until midnight. On the bright side at least I didn't have school today. That would have been awful. Hopefully we will get his car back tonight so he can go to work and I can go to school tomorrow. I have a very important test tomorrow, but if I had to choose hubby missing out on a day of money making (especially since today gives him over time) or me missing my test... I'd have to miss my test. And I don't think they allow us to test after the fact unless we are in the hospital. Ugh.

Okay focus on the positives of today so far... We are $20 richer! lol and Abi is currently going on about 45 minuets of sleeping (with a few wakeful minutes in between.) I still had creamer for my coffee this morning, always a plus. The weather is beautiful right now, nice and chilly so we don't to have on the air or the heat!

And for more positives.. here are a few pics of my little sweetie!

While I have a moment...

Oh my gosh, I feel awful for not truly writing for so long! However, I have been super busy with school and Abi has been sick and it's just been a crazy few weeks. Here's what I've been doing:
School is much harder than I ever thought it would be. Sonography (ultrasound) is very interesting, however, physics is VERY hard! And my teacher is the type who thinks everyone gets it the first time around and that she doesn't need to explain things differently. Not the way I learn at all. I have to read, see, explain, do, write.. basically all my senses have to be engaged for me to get a topic. That's not so easy with ideas that you have to build upon. I am a linear thinker I guess you could say.. I'm great with anatomy, because that doesn't change. It basically always is what it is. Unless you have an anomaly like me (two of my arteries come off of my aorta in the same spot, highly unusual from what I understand) anyway... it's hard. We have a test on Monday and I'm mildly freaked out. Mainly because my teacher doesn't give us what we need to know, she says instead "know chapters 1-4." She gave us a study guide but added that it was not all inclusive. YIKES! lol Okay enough about that.

Abi got sick a few days before hubby's grandparents came into town. It started off as a super stuffed up nose and she must have been achy because you could just look at her and tell she didn't feel well. I let her nap on me a few times that weekend (weekend of 9/1) because I just couldn't put my poor sick baby down. She had good moments and bad moments for a few days, and then the cough started. It seems she's like me when she gets sick. It starts as a head cold and then moves into a chest cold. Poor baby. So while she started to be able to breathe better, she was coughing a lot and it kept her from sleeping for a while. Eventually she could have a coughing fit and go right back to sleep, but again you could just tell she wasn't feeling well. She has had nights of awesome 7p-7a sleep, and then after a few nights of that she'll wake up every hour from 7p-12a and then every 2-3 hours after that. It hasn't been the "oh I'm awake, guess I'll talk to myself for a bit" kind of waking.. no it's the "scream till I'm picked up" kind of waking. That had gone on until just recently. Her cough is finally starting to break up (it's a little phlemy but sounding better) and she seems to be back into her sleeping 7-7... it's a wonder week this week though, so we'll see if that lasts. I'm hoping she's through the worst of it and we will be able to finally move on. Poor kid always seems to go through some sort of cold along with a growth spurt during a wonder week! (*If you have never heard of a wonder week, you can check it out here thewonderweeks) She also doesn't nap very well these days and has been waking up the moment anyone sets her down. While she is sleeping through the night, she still needs her naps and since she's not getting them, she's a little cranky! It's the worst at daycare because they can't spend the time I can to get her down and stay down for a while. I get her used to going down again by Sunday and it's all out the window come Monday because of daycare. I hate daycare. But that's for another post. Well, looks like my 20 minute window has ended and little miss is up from her nap. I hope I haven't rambled on incoherently! :)

Randomness

We have not done Pinspiration night for 2 weeks. I miss it.
I have been super busy with school, and I have 3 tests next week. Goodbye weekend. Hello studying my butt off.

Pinspiration Sunday~Abi mini update

This past Sunday we made a fun pineapple Hawaiian ish chicken with garlic ranch mashed potatoes. Here is the link to the recipe pineapple chicken. It's from a gal who has dealt with overeating and weight gain a large part of her life and she is now committed to healthier eating and maintaining a healthy weight. I love her blogsite! The only thing I'm not currently able to get on board with is her teeny tiny portions! LOL So, here are my changes to her recipe... We used a whole can of pineapple tidbits, not just 1 cup of pineapple juice. Then, since we don't have a grill (apartment living sucks!) we poured the whole concoction in a glass baking dish and threw it in the oven for 30 min. Worked nicely, except of course we missed out on the yummy caramalization you get from grilling. But once we get a house and a grill we will be trying this again. It's simple and yummy for sure and these days I'm all about simple.

yummy!

On to the mashed potatoes.. we are not a mash em' and mix em' kind of family. So we use the boxed potato flakes. No, not the best mashed potatoes in the world, but they fall into the simple category which makes me happy. We also like to punch them up with garlic powder/salt and sour cream. Well, since our discovery of Greek yogurt as an excellent sour cream substitute we've been using that instead. This time however, we added a packet of Hidden Valley ranch to the Greek yogurt.. um if you've never tried that, you should! It is sooooooo much better than ranch salad dressing/veggie dip and so much better for you! Well, anyway I made up the mashed potatoes, added some garlic salt/powder and a few big globs of ranch Greek yogurt, mixed it all together and wallah! Super delicious mashed potatoes!

Hubby says this is his absolute favorite mashed potato concoction so far! lol

This week was super simple, yummy and took barely any time at all. I love it when things can be thrown together and come out so delicious! On a side note I am not sure we will be having "Pinspiration Sunday" this week as hubby's grandparents are coming into town for the long weekend. While normally I would cook for any visitors, hubby's grandparents refuse to let us "dote" on them and usually treat us to dinner out. I am really excited for this visit because it will be the first time they get to meet Abi! Thankfully they are getting to meet her in her first year.. we were unsure they were going to make it as hubby's grandma has been in ill health. But I guess while she isn't getting better she isn't getting worse (thank goodness!) so they are driving the 18 hours to come see us!

Okay on to an Abi update:

Little miss has been doing much better in daycare this week, she's been taking naps (2-3) for about 35 minutes each! Unfortunately she wasn't eating very well while there and made up for it at night. She's been waking every 2-4 hours to eat. It's driving me crazy! But I guess that's why she's taking a long nap right now.. we're going on an hour! I love it! Anyway, yesterday when I stopped in to see Abi between classes she was napping.. and I couldn't stay too long because I had just spent time pumping and needed to leave so that I could find a parking spot near my next class. Ugh! I missed her soooooooooooooo much! When I finally got out of my last class and rushed over to pick her up I cuddled, hugged and smooched her for like 20 minutes before putting her in her car seat to go home! I hate missing her so much, but this time away is good for us.. I guess. We have her 5 month shots on Friday, so I will be able to at least update on her weight then. They don't measure her fully on the "off" months when we just go in for a nurses visit for shots so I won't know how long she is until next month. I think she's at least 27 inches though, mainly because she's slowly growing out of her 6 month pants! Which is crazy to me because she just turned 5 months. Thankfully her 6 month onsies still fit really well! There are quite a few really cute ones that I'm not ready to put away yet! lol

Alrighty, that's it for now.. I believe just heard lil miss awakening from her slumber. :)