Saturday, June 29, 2013

Embracing my inner hippie

I did it. We are cloth diapering! I always wanted to cloth diaper, but when the time came I started to chicken out. I have a close family friend who works at Buy Buy Baby, so I used her discount to get six Bum Genius Freetime cloth diapers. I knew that if I was going to cloth diaper, I probably wanted to use all in ones to make it easier. So far, it's been very simple. The six diapers are enough to get through an entire day of diapering, and I'm just doing laundry every evening. Since Greer is exclusively breast-fed, all I do is throw the diapers straight into the wash, let it run and that's it. I may feel differently when her poop changes after she start eating solids. :) I've already picked up two more (exchanged some clothes she wasn't going to wear), and I plan to get another six, and that should be more than enough to get us through two days. They are definitely a bit bulky, but she doesn't seem to mind and they look pretty cute on too. Besides the cost savings over the lifetime of diapering her and potential future siblings, I love that she has not had a single blow out since we started using cloth. And those were, unfortunately, quite regular occurrences.

I also returned to my Paleo eating ways as a result of being disgusted with my body. A little more than two weeks in, and I've already lost five or six pounds. Plus I just feel better, and my WOD performance at CrossFit improved drastically. Too bad I can't keep going to CrossFit once I go back to work; there's just not enough time. Thinking I might resort to Jillian Michaels workouts for a few months and then maybe go to back CrossFit when Greer starts going to bed around seven.

So I'm officially a cloth diapering, whole food eating, mostly natural product using (Matt boycotted the use of natural laundry detergent) hippie mama. And I'm cool with that. :)

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Double digits!

Greer is 10 weeks old today... how did that happen?  She is growing and changing so fast.  At her two month appointment (this past Monday, a little late), she weighed 10 pounds 11.6 ounces and measured 23-1/8 inches long.  Her head was 15 inches.  This puts her in the 50th percentile for head circumference and weight and 75th percentile for height.  Lucky girl.  ;)

She has become so interactive.  She smiles a lot, and it is really the best thing ever.  There really is nothing like her catching my eyes and giving me the biggest grin.  I'm pretty sure I will never forget the first time she smiled at Matt.  She had been smiling at me for a while and she's just been a smiley baby (gas), so I really didn't think a whole lot of it, but when she smiled at Matt, I think we both melted into a big puddle of mush.  She even giggles, which is about the cutest thing ever.  She is also talking a lot, which is really no surprise given she is my daughter.  I know she hasn't really said her first word, but I was sitting with her on my lap with my knees bent up so she was looking right at me (a normal position for our many conversations), and I was saying "hi" to her over and over again and she actually mimicked me and said hi.  Or made a sound that sounded like hi.  :)  I can tell she is studying my facial expressions and mouth as I talk and wants to copy them.  Sticking out her tongue is a new favorite thing too, and we've discovered she definitely inherited my long tongue.

She enjoys her play mat independently for awhile and loves her changing pad.  She also gets a kick out of her crib mobile and thinks it's awesome when I sing songs to her.  I think her favorites are "Ice Ice Baby" (yes, I know all the words and I censor them appropriately), "Build Me Up Buttercup," and "Rockin' Robin."  She still doesn't nap well in her crib.  I don't even attempt to put her down for a nap in there unless she's already passed out, but she usually wakes up early and wants to be back in the action.  She naps well in the swing and rock 'n play sleeper thingy that some friends let us borrow and she naps REALLY well in her car seat when we're out and about.  She gets a little fussy in the evenings at home like most babies, but if we are out, she just sleeps in her car seat and is a happy little camper.  She usually likes her bath unless she's just over the evening and ready to eat and go to bed.  I can't wait to get her in a pool when she's not sleepy and hungry.  I think she will love it.

She slept through the night for the first time (past 6 am is sleeping through the night to me) at 7 weeks 1 day and then regressed from there.  She was all over the board waking up in the 4 o'clock and 5 o'clock hours and even once or twice in the 3 o'clock hour when she'd had some busy days.  I would let her cry for awhile but she never went back to sleep.  I tried a paci and it worked for 15 minutes.  Many times when I'd be watching her on the video monitor, she was thrashing about trying to free herself from the swaddle.  So, I finally decided to drop it.  I've heard this can be a tough process, but she wasn't phased in the least.  In fact, she's started sleeping through the night again!  I think we're on five days in a row now.  I even switched up her schedule this week and backed her bedtime up by 30 minutes and she's still going to at least 6 am (well, there was some on and off fussing this morning around 5 but her eyes were closed so I just turned off the monitor and got her at 6:15).  I try to hold her off until closer to 7 to start feeding and then we follow the Moms on Call schedule.

She was also baptized over Memorial Day weekend (in the same gown I wore almost exactly 31 years earlier) and Grams, Aunt Brandi, Uncle Steve (or Uncle Bub as I call him), Aunt Christine and cousins James and Brody came in town for the occasion.  We had other friends come to witness her baptism and then had a luncheon here afterward.  It was a beautiful weekend and we had a great time celebrating.

I am dreading my return to work just for the fact that I won't see her all day.  I know every working mom deals with this, but I am having a really hard time with the fact that I will only see her awake for about 3 hours per workday.  I'm hoping my bosses will let me go down to four days per week, and we are meeting on Tuesday to discuss it.  We'll see.  I proposed a two month trial period in which we all have an out if anyone feels it isn't working.  The last thing I want is to cut my pay to 80% but still be working full time just in four days.  It's a total win for them... pay me less to do the same work I'm doing now!  We'll see if it's even feasible.  Thankfully, I have another month before I have to worry about it!  God bless a 14.5 week maternity leave.  :)  I didn't have a choice as we don't have child care until July 8, so that's when I'll go back.

Enough words, onto the good stuff (pics are out of order).  Of course I am completely partial, but isn't she just a doll!?  Her eyelashes are ridiculous.  Although I love nothing more than big, blue eyes, she sure is lucky she got her daddy's eyes because they are as pretty as brown/hazel eyes come.  It'll be awhile before we know for sure what color her eyes are going to be... some days I think they're going to be dark gray, but they definitely aren't light.  I'd just die if they turned out to be green.  Time will tell!  Sure do love this little nugget.


Enjoying the mirror at her two month appt









Party time with Rollins!


 


From her newborn shoot at 9 days old

The whole famdamily (also from newborn shoot)




workout buddy

free at last!



straight chillin' w/ Rollins

Who you lookin' at?