My Eggo is Preggo

Sunday, July 22, 2012

25 Weeks

Favorite activity: Jumping in the jumperoo, not just standing in it.
Favorite food: breast milk, but nectarines and broccoli are favorites too!!
Favorite spot: Sitting in laps
Naughtiest moment: Pooping on May. Twice!
Important milestones: First trip to SF with baby AND two dogs on my own!
How Mom's Feeling: Let me tell you, it has been a crazy, busy week! These last two weeks, I've been teaching full day summer camps, leaving the house at 8 am and coming home by 3:30. While I love having afternoons with Lorelei, the early mornings (I have to get up at 6:30 am) are much harder!

Here is my morning routine: alarm goes off at 6:30, get up, go to the bathroom, pump, get Lorelei up, change her, bring her back to bed to feed her, leave her with Brian, get dressed, make lunch, prep baby bottles for the day, get Lorelei dressed, put her in high chair, make breakfast for me, put something in tray for Lorelei, eat, clean up my mess and Lorelei's mess, last minute cuddles, give her back to Brian, and leave. All in an hour and a half. It's pretty exhausting!

On top of just being busy, I've also been putting together my birthday celebration (dinner out on my birthday and a trip up north to an oyster farm on Saturday) and we're on baby watch! Baby Brown is due ANY MINUTE NOW!

We also had a fun trip to SF this weekend for our friends Debra and Lester's birthdays. It was at a dog park so we HAD to bring the puppies!

Lester photo bomb

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Me Gusta Garlic!!!

A few weeks ago, Brian's parents had their annual Garlic Festival Bootcamp party. It was fun, made more so because I didn't do any prep this year (just kidding, Barbara and Lisa, I always have fun helping!)

The theme of the party is, of course, Garlic Festival, but it also has a military vibe (ergo "Bootcamp"), so we all try to dress in our best camo/military themed attire. Lorelei borrowed a pair of camo shorts from her (very) soon-to-be cousin. Add in a ruffled shirt and a pair of white bows in her hair, and she was good to go!

The party was awesome. Brian's calamari (done G-Fest style with the giant flames) was better than ever and Jeff's pepper steak sandwiches were delish! Lorelei did a fantastic job, considering she had never been in a group that size before (there were usually at least 30 people there at any given time) and she was introduced to most of them! It helped that she was being held by either me, Barbara, Jeff, May, Tina or Lisa, all people she already knew.

Our friend Don (and Tina's better half--hee hee!) was there to take pictures and got some truly lovely pictures of our best girl!

Friday, July 13, 2012

24 Weeks

Favorite activity: Chatting in bed or on the changing table with Papa!
Favorite food: breast milk, but she sure does like her some broccoli!
Favorite spot: Sitting up in her high chair
Naughtiest moment: Spitting up right on Mama's face
Important milestones: First 4th of July, Starting to really get the hang of food
How Mom's Feeling: Mostly, I'm feeling good. We had a very nice week. We had a relaxed 4th of July, visiting with friends and grilling. Lorelei completely slept through the fireworks! We went to Vasona Park in Los Gatos for a playdate with Jessica and Danica. It was very cute to watch the two girls interact. They are only 3 weeks or so apart. Lorelei even got to try her first amusement park ride: the train! She loved feeling the wind in her hair and looking around. She cried when we got off! We also had a very nice visit with my dad and stepmom Janet. Lorelei was fascinated by my dad's mustache, hat and beer bottle!

They say when you have a baby, you live with your heart outside your body. In so many ways, that seems to be true. I never realized how hard that would be or the way it would effect me. I can't watch movies with violence or tragedy directed at kids or families. I'm preoccupied with the thought of "what if..." It's not helpful or constructive in any way. There are so many times when I think about how I just want to be with Lorelei, holding her, cuddling her and watching her grow and change!

Here are some pictures of our week:

4th of July with Auntie Bonnie

Celebrating th 4th with Mommy

Hanging in our Jumparoo

What's up, Parrot?

Hanging out with Danica

Cuddling with Grandpa Dan!

What's this, Grandpa?

Mmm...I sure do like Newcastle!

Broccoli is delicious!

Yum yum!

I need two hands to stuff it in my mouth!

Bummer and Finnegan, stalking Sophie the Giraffe!

Silly girl!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

23 Weeks

Favorite activity: Jump, jumparoo!
Favorite food: breast milk, but she's mighty fond of tortillas!
Favorite spot: At the dinner table with mom and dad!
Naughtiest moment: While out to eat with mom, tossing her toy on the floor so mom has to pick it up, then tossing it on the floor again and again and again!
Important milestones: First overnight!
How Mom's Feeling: Pretty good. I had this last week off, so Lorelei and I had a super packed week of fun activities! We went to music in the park on Tuesday (photos were in last week's post) with some other moms and babies, the zoo with Brian on Wednesday (she liked the sea lions the best--they barked like her puppies!), we visited Auntie Mel and Auntie Lisa in Sacramento on Thursday (did the drive there and back like a champ, but did NOT like the cold pool water!), then ran errands and had lunch out on Friday. Saturday we went to Gilroy for Barbara and Jeff's Garlic Festival Boot Camp party, then stayed the night and went berry picking on Sunday!

We were all really impressed with how well Lorelei did at the party. She had lots of people looking, smiling and talking to her, and she only fussed a few times! Mostly, she was a very happy baby. It definitely helped that for most of the party she was in the arms of me, Barbara and May, so she was always surrounded by a familiar face.

The funniest part of the weekend was after we went berry picking on Sunday. We went to Gizdich Farms (best place for Ollaliberry picking!). After a warm morning of picking, we went to their pie room and got some apple slushes (made from their yummy Gizdich apples!). Lorelei WANTED that slush! She stuck her hand right in it! Then, to see what she'd do, I put a tiny bit of slush on a spoon for her, and she slurped it down, then gnawed on the spoon! She's definitely getting the idea of what the spoon is for!

On a different note, Lorelei was not being a good napper at Grandma BeeBee and Poppy Jeff's house! She wouldn't nap in the pack and play or in her car seat, even if I rocked her. I ended up needing to take her on a couple of walks to put her to sleep. I've decided she's at the age to start transitioning her naps from the swing to the crib. She needs to be able to take a nap in places where she's not moving! We've been working on it this week since we've been back home from Gilroy. It's...a challenge. It was so easy to transition her to a crib at night, but it's been much harder with the naps!

On another, rather frustrating note, I'm having some challenges with milk supply. Hard to believe with the way I was producing at first! But with Lorelei sleeping solidly through the night, having to pump at work, and Lorelei eating more, I just haven't been able to produce as much as I'd like. We seem to be going through my stash of milk pretty quickly. The hardest part for me is that I'm not producing much at night. She goes down at 8 and I would normally pump at 11. Before, if I didn't pump, I'd be uncomfortably engorged in the morning and leak all over the bed. Now. Not so much. The past few nights, I've barely been able to pump an ounce or so :( So after some research, I've started to take fenugreek supplements and have also been pumping in the morning. I usually have plenty of milk in the AM, so if I pump a bottle, I still have plenty to feed Lorelei. Hopefully, this method will work. I'm trying really hard to breastfeed her for a full year.