My last post about sleep got a lot of comments and I was offered help from all types of mommies and I am oh so thankful for many reasons. I am thankful that I have such a village of helpful, loving women and a few daddies who reaches out and these past 10 days we have seen so so much improvement. Thank you! After incorporating womb noise all night long, feeding a little bit more solids at dinner time, and cutting out a nursing session at her first waking she has been sleeping full nights or just waking up once. We even took her to SB for the weekend and she slept so well! It was a miracle!! How was your weekend? Our was amazing and I feel like a list is the best way to lay it all out for you - We had the Camaro for the drive to SB & traffic was not even that bad for a Friday afternoon. - We cheers many bottles of wine in celebration of Jaclyn graduating with her Masters. - The girls and I got blow our - my first one! I was obsessed! - We woke up to the beautiful view of the ocean and that was the place where Claire first crawled around looking for her Easter goodies. - We spent the afternoon with my parents and they set up another Easter egg hunt for her with a big ol basket to find, she even got a gigantic bunny and lots of awesome beach toys for our camping trip next weekend. - We spent the afternoon with my in-laws and again Claire got a basket and Todd even hand made her a little egg surfer girl to start off her egg person collection. I will have to share a picture with you soon. How was your weekend? & then it was Monday again, my day care was closed I am not sure if they are Canadian but they seemed to be celebrating Easter Monday, so Claire got to run around with me all day. It was a good day. Some days I run around and get home and into bed and think, "what the hell did I even get done today"? But not on 4/21/14 I felt like a supermom haha Claire & I were in sync and we kicked a lot of ass. We started off with a hard workout at the gym and then we took care of business. Mondays are my 'float days' which means I go to all the salons and handle customer issues, do some deep cleaning and get everything ready for the week/take care of stuff that happened over the weekend. Claire was great. She crawled around and made lots of customers happy. She ate like a champ thanks to her GT who made her lots of homemade apple sauce that I added oatmeal to, she wolfed it down AND she didn't even need a bib! This is a awesome event in itself. After two salons I also needed lunch, we cant all survive on applesauce alone, so we walked over and got pho. I know right!? what a perfect day. Well it just got better. We finished our salon hoping and it was time to head home. This can be rough sometimes because after day care she wants to be held by me and I am unable to get things done around the house right after work. But today she was tired of me, she crawl/ran over to her toys and just played happily for a good 30 mins while I got the dishes done, brought the laundry up, got her bath ready and even put a bottle of wine in the fridge to chill for dinner. Then it was bath time, she loves bath time. We played around awhile and then got her out and dressed and then DADDY WAS HOME! Ryan brought up all the groceries he has just picked up and then he & Claire started their evening of play time. I made steak fajitas, while Ryan fed Claire her sweet potatoes, I poured a glass of wine and before I knew it bed time routine had started and I went in laid in bed until it was time to nurse. It was such an awesome day. Not every day is like this, not even every other day so I wanted to write it all down because when times are hard and I'm crying on my way to work I can look and be like well at least on 4/21/14 I rocked. I hope you have a great rest of your week!
xoxo Nikol Dear Claire,
I haven't written you a letter in awhile and I thought after our beautiful 72 straight hours together it was the perfect time. You are awesome. I'm so glad we got to have another fun filled weekend, got to celebrate your first Easter and then you got to come with me to work. I wanted to thank you for keeping up with us and for being such a trooper. We spent lots of time in the sun, your face got licked repeatedly by doggies, you were passed around, and you got to spend time with Ela, Pops, grandma Dean & GT! Even with such a busy weekend you were mostly smiles and such a great addition to everything we were doing. We want you to experience it all. In the past few weeks we have had our shares of downs too but we got through them. You are back to sleeping better and we are all happier for it. You are starting to display your independence and as tough as it is to hear you scream because I took the plastic bag out of your mouth or to watch you cry because I wouldn't let you eat that price tag I know that in the long run you will be a strong woman who knows what she wants. I think your tastes will greatly develop from plastic bags and price tags though. Thank you for keeping me on my toes and making me laugh. Only you could crawl away from me while getting poop on the carpet and I wouldn't bat an eye, that is just the kind of lady you are haha I know we have lots of gross, hard, fun, and new times ahead. I'm so excited. Love you baby, momma Hey all, I need tips. Please send me links, opinions and whatever comes to your mind about to get my lovely daughter back to sleeping at night. We did Sleep Easy Solution and loved it for sleep training but not so much for night weaning. I am totally cool with feeding her every few hours if she needs it but I am pretty sure this is just for comfort. The problem I am having is that after she nurses [for example last night] she nursed at 11:30pm then screamed for about 20 mins and finally slept then woke up at 1:30 nursed then screamed for about 20 minutes and when you lay her down she becomes stiff and punches at you but then fell asleep and then at 3:30 am she woke up nursed and we did the dance again but this time I said, "OK YOU WIN" and let her come to bed with us and she slept soundly in her daddies arms until 5:30 and then we started our day. So yea, I am a touch grouchy today haha but also worried about my lady. Does she hurt? Is she starving? Am I messing up her sleep for life? lol ok these are dramatic but I would love to hear what works for you. She has been refusing naps at day care too so I know sleep begets sleep but I don't know how to get any sleep.... As much as onesies like that make me laugh I do want your advice, this is the time I want you to just GO OFF with all your "I'm a mommy/daddy and I know everything about babies" rant. Please, I love you, please help. haha I am thinking tonight I might even wear my ear plugs from the Grand Prix and go balls to the wall cry it out method just to see how that works... But I am sure we would have a house full of tears from both of us if I tried that. Ok thank you for reading my no sleep fueled bloggy blog about something all parents complain about oxox take a nap today Nikol I have a daughter, I know I have had a daughter for the last 8 months and a few more months before that when she was a lady in my belly but now she is not looking like such a baby anymore but a little girl. Her hair is getting fluffy and puffy on the back of her perfectly round head, she has lots of bruises and a lot of spunk. I love that she is growing and changing but I wish I remembered her as a little baby more than I do. I look at pictures often of her a teeny baby and I want to smell the pictures and kiss them and remember how it felt to hold such a tiny newborn but we are past that stage and on to new and exciting things. Claire has us on our toes, she is a quick one and could not love iPhone chargers any more! Give her that and a water bottle and she would probably be happy until she turned 10 months. I have a feeling walking is going to take place soon, right now she crawls like a pro, pulls to stand and occasionally lets go and just stands there. I think once she feels more comfortable she will be on her way to taking off. When it comes to talking, I am still waiting with baited breath for mama. Ryan says that he has heard it but until she says it to me I don't believe it. Lately she says a lot of things that sound just like "hello" and "thanks" but I think she is still just babbling. She chit chats a lot and when she is feeling passionate about what she is saying she punches her hand in the air, how could you not take her seriously then? At 8 months I have heard that sleep regression can occur and I think we are totally hitting that mark, last night she woke up to eat like she has been lately but she refused to go back to sleep, lots of screaming and crying. She arches her back and then stands up to just yell at me haha, it is hard to just let her cry it out even for the 5, 10, 15 min intervals because it sounds painful. She is fed, has a clean diaper and healthy but just wants to be held and with us. Tonight I am crossing my fingers will be an easier night but we shall see. I need to chat with our day care to make sure her napping is going well, they say it is but I might want to start having a daily log. I am sure that won't annoy them at all lol. Well, thanks for reading along for all this time love ya Nikol Hey Claire, happy birthday! Can you believe that 8 months ago you momma sat in a tub waiting to meet you? That you were then brought earth side from my tummy and we were both happy and healthy. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around it. You were beautiful, you are even more beautiful. So full of life and love. I know that right now you want to be with me at all times and it is so sweet to be needed that much. I plan on wearing you a lot more in the ergo while we are at home so that we can cuddle and get stuff done. We are so busy little one, I hope you enjoying everything we are doing. Tomorrow you get to go to your first Grand Prix ever and we are both so excited [but your dad is beyond excited] we love sharing the things that make us happy with you and we just want to make you happy. Thank you for the love and laughs, please say momma soon. Love you little boog xoxo momma I have to tell ya, this parenting gig can be tough but it can also be tons of fun and even relationship strengthening if you do it with someone who works well with you. We by no means have this all down, I don't think anyone ever gets it perfect. Each day we start out wondering just how it is going to go because with an almost 8 month old it could really go any way and she can keep us on our toes. These past two weeks we have taken Claire on a plane and on a 900 mile road trip to go see family and friends. We disrupted her sleep schedule, her eating schedule and even how often her diaper got changed and we all pulled through. I have to give it up to single parents because without my husband I do not think I could do it. Ryan shares all the jobs with me, there are diapers to be changed, meals to be fed, rocking that needs to be rocked, books that need to be read, snot that needs to be sucked, snuggles that need to be cherished, open mouth kisses that need noses to land on, sharp nails that need to scratch faces, and a baby girl that needs both parents to take an active roll in her precious little life.
A girlfriend and I chatted about this a little bit this past weekend, it can be a struggle because sometimes as a mom it feels like maybe this does all fall on you and that your husband works so hard all day blah blah but come on. This is not that era and I am thankful that I live in a time where we all pick up the slack and we care enough about each other to work together. We both work full time jobs and we both want sleep so we work together to try and make sure we both get what we need and that Claire gets anything and everything she ever wants xo, thanks bun for all you do. Cesarean Awareness Month was something I had never heard of before or had even thought of but I guess there is a month for everything :)Cesarean Awareness Month is sponsored by The International Cesarean Awareness Network. ICAN is a non profit whose mission is “to improve maternal-child health by preventing unnecessary cesareans through education, providing support for cesarean recovery, and promoting Vaginal Birth After Cesarean (VBAC).”
I am thankful for my csection because it brought my favorite lady into this world, it was not my first choice but sometimes not everything can go as planned. I have come to terms with my birth and I just wanted to say happy awareness month to all my other csec mamas xoxox It has been awhile since I have done one of these and reading the old ones is pretty amazing. I am glad I kept up on them and now I feel like the categories do not really work as much any more so I will just keep up the ones that do and I just want to write down how I have been feeling about lots of different stuff when it comes to Claire and being a working mom. SLEEP Now this one is totally still relevant haha if you read my post about Giving Up you might be happy to hear that on Sunday night Claire only woke up once around midnight, then she did the same thing on Monday night and last night she slept alllll night long! It was amazing! I could not believe the downpour did not wake her and yes I still woke up around 1am to pump and then woke up for my day at 5:30am and pumped before getting ready for work but it was really great to see that she can do it and that she is going to do it even if it is on her own time. That has not really changed just how tired I am but hopefully soon that will also get better. I think traveling and having a few busy days at work have a little something to do with it though. This past weekend while we were in Utah she slept pretty well too, she started the night in her play pen and after nursing around 4am she stayed with us in bed, mostly because I was lazy and wanted the cuddle time, vacations mess up sleep anyway so I thought it was totally worth it. I won't start celebrating just yet because who knows how tonight will go but as of right now sleep is going well, Claire is getting much better at it. BREASTFEEDING I am happy to say that I really feel like we have got into our perfect little groove. She eats well and she doesn't hit me while nursing [which I found out is really a thing] She does like to pop off and look around which makes her get a little bit distracted which is not that bit of a deal so in reality we are doing so well. She will be 8 months old in a few days and it amazes me that I have been able to sustain this little human with what my body makes. At a baseball game last night, my friends daughter asked me why she eats out of boobie so I told her that my body makes all of her food for her, then she asked me "why" now I haven't been a mom for very long so I do not know how to answer all the whys I am sure I am going to get and I just said that the body does amazing things and then another friend told her that its because God made it that way. Both great answers but I really want to get better at describing this wonderful thing my body can do so that a child can understand because I know they look and I know they are curious and I just want to be better at normalizing this for them and giving them the best answer that I have. I plan on researching this soon. This past weekend while we were in Utah I was not sure how my family would react to my breastfeeding and I have to say that it brought me to tears when my grandma said, "oh you are still nursing, I think that's wonderful" now because I thought she would have any issue with it but because I just hear all these sad stories of unsupportive families and I am happy that even though she was not able to breastfeed that she is cheering me on. My cousins wife is breastfeeding her 9 month old son and it was nice to be able to chat about it. I am so looking forward to many more months of nursing Claire and hope that if any of my friends are pregnant or just want to chat about it that they'll come to me, its easy to forget how hard it was at the beginning and when I look back I know that if I didn't have the support I had I might have given up. Working, pumping & being a mommy Now this section is a little harder for me, I do not feel as happy and positive about it because I am tired and this is tough to balance. I love my job, I love breastfeeding and pumping and I love being a mommy but they can take their toll. I want to workout more, I want to go see the chiro, and I want more hours in the day but that's not really how it works. So right now I am in a little bit of a slump but I think it will pass, this entire month is packed full of fun stuff and hopefully more workouts. When it comes to my after baby body I am not where I want to be, people kept saying "well, it took you 9 months to gain it so itll take at least that long to lose it" well I am inching close to the 9 month mark and I have a funny feeling about how I am going to feel if I haven't hit my goal, I know its silly but I can tell that I am starting to get into a funk towards myself, my body and my progress. Today I am going to start putting Claire in the ergo right when I pick her up from day care and we are going to go on a walk, I need to be more active and I think that might be the best time because once we get home there is so much to do. Ill keep you updated and thanks for reading along with my rant. xo Nikol We took quite a few pictures and video while we visited my family - here are a few :) The 1st one is when Amber announced her secret wedding ahah It was so nice to see Claire playing with my cousins babies [what are those? 2nd cousins? who knows] I loved being back in my grandmas house and this time with a little baby of my own. So much fun I am so glad that we were able to go and visit.
xox Nikol |
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AuthorI am a working mother who jots down random thoughts, monthly updates and occasionally my husband posts. |