Ingenue Mom

It was a really wonderful year! This was the year we became a family of 4! This was the year Isis really went from being a toddler to a child! This was the year I finished my first year of teaching & began my second year, which is wonderful because it's not considered an intern year anymore! Here was my top 10 for the year!   1. Isis turned 2 years old ! 2. We found out we were pregnant with baby #2 ! 3. I finished my first full year of teaching (& KTIP)! 4. Isis was potty trained !!! 5. Isis took her first swim lessons at the YMCA! 6. I joined the gym - which if you know me well you know that's CRAZY. 7. We found out we were having another girl ! 8. Lewis and I celebrated 8 years of marriage on October 2! 9. Lux Violet was born on October 12! 10. We celebrated 1 full year in our house, right before celebrating our first Christmas as a family of 4! And then in honor of the new year, here are 5 resolutions for 2013! 1. Read...

Christmas was really fun this year! I have never had a little baby at Christmas before. Isis was born right after Christmas, so she was almost a year old her first Christmas. It was really great having Lux there. It was also truly magical seeing the Christmas experience through Isis' eyes. Our festivities started on Saturday. My parents, my grandfather, his wife & daughter all came over for a brunch & gifts! I was excited because we had gotten my parents a Keurig! Isis got a super cute Coach purse from her Aunt Ellen! She loves it and puts her lip gloss and dress-up rings in it and carries it around. I didn't even know they made little coin purses like that, but it is just Isis sized! She also got a Sit & Spin! I loved those when I was a kid!! She loves spinning around on it while I make dinner in the kitchen now! Lux got a really cute little play mat. We are taking her old one to the babysitter's house when I go back to school, so we needed a cute one ...

This week was Christmas! It was so fun!! Nursing: Same as last week. Both sides at a time, exclusively breastfeeding. Waketime: Hour & 15 minutes to Hour & a half. Nighttime Sleep: Dates of 12/21-12/27. Due to all the Christmas stuff, we had some difficult nights, but it was worth it! Night 1 - Friday night - I fed her at 7:15 and put her to bed. She woke up at 11:15, 3:30 & 7:15. She had 2 feedings after we went to bed (11:15 & 3:30) and her longest stretch was 4.25 hours from 11:15 to 3:30. Night 2 - Saturday night - I fed her at 7:30 & put her to bed. She woke up at 12:00, 4:00 and 8:00. She had 2 feedings after we went to bed (12:00 & 4:00) and her longest stretch was 4.5 hours from 7:30 to 12:00. Night 3 - Sunday night - I fed her at 7:15 and put her to bed. She woke up at 12:30, 4:00 & 7:30. She had 2 feedings after we went to bed (12:30 & 4:00) and her longest stretch was 5.25 hours from 7:15 to 12:30. Night 4 ...

I'm so behind on these. Thank you, Christmas festivities! LOL so I'm going to keep this one short. Nursing: Things are normal. Nursing both sides every time. She's feeding every 3 hours. I'm not going to stretch her past 3 hours until after she starts consistently sleeping 12 hours. I want to make sure she gets enough during the day. I also met with the pediatrician at Lux's 2 month appointment and she said not to do formula once a day unless I have to, so I stopped. I mean, we've done it a couple of times because we needed to when I had an appointment and had to leave or something, but other than that, I've just been exclusively breastfeeding. Waketime: She was at 1 hr and 15 minutes this week. Sometimes an hour & 30 minutes. Swaddling: She is successfully unswaddled. I have her in the blanket sleepers. She will either wear a long pants, long sleeved pajama outfit with a sleeveless blanket sleeper over it or she will wear a short sleev...

Best thing about this week was that we had 2 nights where Lux slept through the night & didn't have a night feeding!!   Nursing: Nursing has been great. I'm still doing 1 formula bottle a day most days. She also started sleeping longer at night really consistently, so I've added a pumping session around 9:30 to get me through the night & build my frozen supply. She's doing both sides at every feeding except the first one of the day & any in the middle of the night. Waketime: She has been being a lot more interactive during waketime! You can play with her more, which is so fun! I love taking pictures of her, which is really obvious from my Facebook & Instagram. She's very clearly alert for longer, so waketimes have also gotten longer. Swaddling: I've been transitioning her out of the swaddle at all. She's still got both arms out, but she's swaddled around her torso. My friend Laurel gave me some more swaddle blankets that ...

Time for a new reading list! I just finished reading the 4th book in the Fallen series. It's called Rapture. I liked it! It wasn't an absolute favorite, but I like the series as a whole a lot. But it got me fired up again about reading! I've been so busy lately that I just haven't thought much about reading. So I've updated my reading list and here are a couple that are on there! Young Adult Fiction: This is one of my favorite genres. I can't handle the really steamy stuff, like the 50 shades books. I just can't do it. It's not my thing. But I really enjoy love stories, so young adult books tend to really fit my need for a love story without having anything that leaves me super embarrassed. A couple from this genre I'd like to read are: Falling for Hamlet , a modern-day retelling of the Shakespeare story; Daughter of Smoke & Bone , a fantasy kind of story ; If I Stay , which I was drawn to because apparently it has lots of emphasis on mus...

Nursing: This week I started doing 1 formula bottle a day most days. I pump in place of that bottle & save the breast milk. That way I'm building up a supply & Lux is getting used to both taking a bottle & taking formula. She's done great with both! We are using Tommee Tippee bottles. We used Born Free with Isis, but after seeing the Tommee Tippee & how many fewer parts they have, it's just way easier & I actually like them a lot more.  Actually nursing has been fine this week. She nurses from both sides most feedings now except in the middle of the night and first thing in the morning. Both of those I seem to be really full on just 1 side, so she just takes 1 side and is fine. Reflux: If she eats a lot, she spits up. That's really all I've seen. There is a little spit up with most feedings, but nothing crazy. I didn't notice any change with breast milk as opposed to formula. She seemed to do fine with the formula, both with bowe...

The week I earned my Parent Card. Seriously. The week began with Thanksgiving celebration at Lew's parent's house. 2 days later, the stomach bug hit our house really hard. Lewis got it bad and it basically lasted the whole week between him, me & Isis all getting it to some degree. Thankfully Lux didn't get it, but it did end up affecting things with her. Here's how: Nursing: Nursing was fine at the beginning of the week. Then Tuesday I got sick. I never had the vomiting like Lewis did, but I had other stuff and I lost my appetite completely and didn't eat the entire day. So then on Wednesday, I noticed a significant drop in my milk supply. It was clear that Lux wasn't getting enough and finally on Thursday I had to supplement with some formula a couple of times. I usually can pump from one side and get 5 ounces since I was doing single side nursing. On Thursday, I decided to pump one time to see how much I was producing and I got 2 ounces total from...

(I wrote this last week & then never edited & published it. Whoops!)   First of all, I need to get back to posting on this blog! With the holidays, our week was a little crazy and I don't even think I opened my computer!   Nursing: Nursing has been about the same this week. I tried a few times to offer both breasts for feedings. Sometimes she will take the other one, sometimes she won't. The biggest thing this week was a growth spurt on Sunday. She ate every 2 hours the entire day.   Burping: Also about the same. I try to burp her after every feeding except the middle of the night. Sometimes she burps, sometimes she doesn't.   Reflux: She spit up several times this week, but several times over the course of a week really isn't bad.   Waketime: I'm doing about 1 hour of waketime at each cycle. At night she will go longer before bed. Sometimes I can't get her to go a full hour, so she goes down early. I've been trying ...