The Seasonal Rush

Man, it's been busy lately! Sorry for the absence on here...there has just been too much going on. We spent the weekend after Thanksgiving recovering (well, at least I did). We also gave Lainey her first taste of oatmeal (first taste of anything besides my milk!) that Saturday after Thanksgiving. She made a few weird faces but she did great with the spoon (she kept wanting to grab it) and the whole feeding thing. Troy would go, "Ahhh!" and she would do it too and he would stick the spoon in her mouth. Voila!



She gobbled it up but then she had a rash the next day so we waiting a little over a week to try again just in case it was a reaction to it (it wasn't). We've only given it to her three times but she seems to like it okay. And that old theory that it makes them sleep through the night is so not true. That hasn't worked at all for us!

On December 4th Lainey saw her first snow. It was the perfect kind...the trees and grass were covered in white but the roads were clear. My Mom had come up to do some shopping with me and it was perfect to put us in the Christmas spirit!



Somehow, I have managed to get our house decorated for Christmas. I love this time of year and I love Christmas stuff so I always like to get the house decorated right after Thanksgiving to enjoy it as long as is reasonable. And since Lainey is still so little, there's no need to childproof so I could put out all the usual stuff. Here is our tree when it was nearly done (we did eventually get out the real tree skirt...the cat was just a stand-in).



What with everything going on, we have been tired! We've had shopping, parties, decorating, cleaning (okay, not really)...you get the idea...we've been busy! That will really wear you out.



But with everything going on, we did make time to go see Santa yesterday (despite Troy's concern that his lap was a breeding ground for germs). The line actually wasn't too awful and everyone in line was very nice and patient. I think the holiday spirit was actually rubbing off on some people! Lainey took a nap in her stroller so we had to wake her up when we got close to the front of the line. When we plopped her in Santa's lap, she just looked around. She wouldn't smile but she didn't cry and that was good enough for me. Instead she just looked at us like we were crazy (because, well, we looked crazy...us and Santa's "elf" shaking bells and a light-up Rudolph trying to get her to smile or look at the camera). But I think the picture turned out really cute and she was so cute in her dress that her Aunt Kristen got her!



And finally, be sure to bundle up...it's cold outside!

Thanksgiving Recap

Well...we made it (mostly). It's a good thing Lainey won't remember her first Thanksgiving because it wasn't terribly memorable. I ended up getting strep throat but had to suffer through the holidays undiagnosed which wasn't pleasant. I yo yo-ed between freezing with chills and sweating out fevers. My throat hurt so badly that I wasn't even much in the mood to eat. We came home from Goldsboro on Friday and I sacked out on the couch for the weekend while Troy did stuff around the house. It was actually really nice...just snuggling on the couch with my baby. We put our tree up and turned the fire on and it was very cozy.

So now that Thanksgiving is behind us, it is full-speed ahead to Christmas! It's just a little more than 3 weeks away and I am not even halfway through with my shopping. But this is my favorite time of year and I am excited that we have a baby to celebrate this year. She may be too little to be all excited Christmas morning when she gets to open her toys but her Daddy will make up for it. ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are excited about Lainey's first Thanksgiving. She can't really enjoy the food this year but it's the holiday for her favorite toy, Durkey (we can't tell if it's a duck or a turkey but she loves it. I'm sorry I don't remember who got it for her but thank you!!). She's also been enjoying some arts & crafts with April:





I hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving! From our turkey to yours. :)

Four Months

I wanted to make this a separate post even though it involved yet another trip to the doctor for Lainey. This one was a good one though! (Also, as a side note...we really do like our pediatrician's office. The doctor we saw on Friday was an anomaly and the staff there was really great throughout everything.)

Lainey was four months old on Sunday. She now weighs 13 lbs 14 oz and is 25" long. She's 50% for weight and 75% for height (that girl's got some long legs). Troy said that she tried to talk over the doctor so she obviously seems to be feeling better. :) She is still exclusively on breast milk (which the doctor encouraged us to do until 6 months unless she starts to act hungry after feedings) and is doing great developmentally. When she hasn't had a cold, she's been sleeping through the night since about 3 months but currently, she gets up once or twice to eat which is fine with me.

Generally, she is a healthy and happy baby. She loves to talk and she now likes to grab and hold or shake things. She would like to be able to sit up on her own but for the now, the Bumbo does the trick. She also hasn't rolled over lately. She did it for a few days and then hasn't done it since. Go figure. Now she likes to push up on her elbows and talk (of course). ;)

An (Or)Deal a Day

I like to think we are responsible parents but after the past few days, I am thinking about not taking Lainey to the doctor again! Kidding. Sort of.

It started when she had a low-grade temperature Wednesday evening. She had a higher temp of 103 Thursday morning so I stayed home and we took her to the doctor at 10. They said she probably has a virus but they wanted to do some labs to rule out an infection. They did a CBC (finger stick to test her blood) and that said her white blood cell count was high. So then they wanted blood and urine samples. Well, in a little baby, that means an IV and a catheter. Which was bad enough until it proved difficult to get any samples out of her. Her chubby little arms did not show any veins and she had just peed all over the exam table before they decided they needed a urine samples. We finally had to go to LabCorp so they could do a third IV and get a blood sample and the nurse managed to catch some pee in a cup (while she had her third catheter in). Then just for good measure, they gave her a painful shot of antibiotics. So that was a difficult day...I hated to put her through all of that.


Sick baby :(

Friday, we were back at the doctor for a follow-up visit at 3:30 where they had told us they would probably just give her another shot. Boy, were we wrong! This doctor said that she wanted to rule out meningitis and that we needed to take her to the Wake Med Pediatric ER for a spinal tap. Excuse me? We were shocked and upset. Her way of comforting us? Yelling, "Your baby is not going to die! Babies don't die from this!" Somehow, that wasn't so comforting. But we packed it up and headed across town to the ER.


Traumatized baby at the doctor's office

Thankfully, the ER doctors said they didn't see any reason to do a lumbar puncture on her. By this point, Lainey no longer had a fever and had been playing and talking and seemed fine for the most part. So we were relieved to hear that. But since they had her there, they did a chest x-ray which showed some upper respiratory inflammation (because of her cold). We finally got home from that around 9:30.


In her little hospital gown

We were exhausted after Thursday & Friday but had to get up early on Saturday to go back over by Wake Med for a follow-up appointment at our pediatrician's office (that location is the only one open on Saturdays). That was the appointment that we should have had on Friday...in & out, no scary tests or crazy doctors. They had to do another CBC but that was it. She said Lainey seems okay, probably just a cold but she was going to prescribe a round of antibiotics just to cover all the bases. Good enough...we left that appointment and headed home. Whew! I had been ready for the long haul too...I had packed toys for Lainey and granola bars and a water bottle for us.

After we got home, Troy's Mom came for a short visit, followed by my sister. In and around that, we also hung out some next door for the Carolina/State football game (still not our year). We didn't so much get to rest on Sunday, but we did get lots of good food! Troy's Dad's side of the family always gets together the Sunday before Thanksgiving to celebrate and it was great food and fun times as always. :) Lainey loved it...she was held and passed around the whole time and everyone said how cute she was (of course!). By the end of it, she was passed out and snoring loudly.



So that was our unexpectedly long weekend! I am really glad this is a short week because I'm worn out.

What a difference a year makes

I realized last night that it was a year ago yesterday that we found out that I was pregnant. I can't believe it's been that long! It seems crazy that in a year we've gone from this:



to this:



I remember that day a year ago...it was a Saturday morning and Troy and I were getting ready for the UNC vs. Miami football game. My parents, sister and friend Carrie were coming to our house and then we were going to tailgate and go to the game. I was a few days late and that never happens to me so I thought I'd take a test. I had actually taken one on Wednesday morning but hadn't seen anything so I tossed it. This time, there were instantly two pink lines. Hmmm. I took it into the office where Troy was on the computer and showed it to him and said, "I think this looks positive. What do you think?" He took a look and casually said, "Yeah, looks like it." and went right back to the computer. Um, hello??? So I went over to my laptop to look up (again) the test directions to see if it really was positive. I was so floored and Troy was just so casual! He said, "Why don't you take another one to be sure" or something so I went and did that. I think it was about the fifth test when he started to get excited. I guess he just didn't really believe it at first! (Yeah, and I fished out the test from Wednesday morning and there were definite but faint lines...I guess I was just too sleepy to see them.)

So that was the beginning of our journey to becoming a family of three. It is still strange to me and still a work in progress trying to fit everything into our life now. It just seems so...full. In a good way! But very busy. As Troy says, I'm still working on finding my "mommy groove." But so what if I only get about 1/4 of the house cleaned each weekend or that it's sometimes hard to see the table for the mail. We're happy and healthy and have an awesome baby with giant cheeks.

The First of Many Firsts

In the past two weeks, Lainey has had her first real cold and her first Halloween. Then last Wednesday, she rolled over for the first time! I don't have it recorded yet but here is my little chatterbox doing some tummy time at daycare last week:



Wednesday evening, we were all in the bonus room. Troy was playing his new X-Box (oh boy) and so I had Lainey on her play mat on the floor with some toys. I thought we'd do some tummy time so I turned her over onto her stomach. She ordinarily is not a fan of tummy time so I was ready for crying. But instead she lifted her head up in sort of a push-up position and then got one arm under her and flipped herself over onto her back. I was shocked! I said, "Troy! She just rolled over!" and he said, "Nuh-uh!" and paused his game while I flipped her back over. Sure enough, she repeated her trick and looked surprised but pleased to find herself back on her back. So I grabbed the camera, flipped her back over and sat back to record. Yeah...mostly just screaming and crying. I guess she'd had enough! I kept trying for awhile but she just got more and more angry so I gave up. I will have to capture it another time. (And I will try to post the video from that night even if it doesn't show her rolling over!)

When I dropped her off at daycare the next day, I told April how she had rolled over. She was so surprised and said they had done about 30 minutes of tummy time on Wednesday without her even attempting to roll over. She said she would work on it with her today and sure enough, before lunch I had an email (and the picture above) saying that she had done it at least 3 more times. I am just so glad that Troy and I got to see this "first first" for ourselves. I know with her being in daycare, we will likely miss a few of these milestones. So it was nice to get to see this one. And now she can stop growing. Seriously.

Boo-tiful weekend

We had a nice Halloween weekend. My Mom came and stayed with us. On Saturday we went to the Smithfield outlets to do a little shopping. Even though Lainey has her first cold, she still managed to be really good (shopping is in her genes!) and we had a fun time. Then Sunday of course was Halloween. We didn't dress Lainey up in a costume but we did stick her in her Halloween onesie. Unfortunately the matching pumpkin hat no longer fit and the onesie just barely fit. Here are some pictures of our little punkin:

Is it Friday yet?

This morning I got to experience getting spit up on as I was getting ready to leave the house for work. Nearly the last thing I do each morning is to get dressed to try to avoid this. So I had just gotten dressed while Troy got Lainey dressed. Then I carried her downstairs and went straight to her carseat to put her in and saw that she had white spit up all around her mouth. I was like, "What the...?" and then I turned me head and saw that my shoulder was covered. Gross!! She hadn't even made a noise or anything but she obviously had managed to throw up on me on the way downstairs. So of course I had to go back upstairs, rinse off my shirt and find and put on a new one. Then I had to clean her up and we finally left the house. So much for being on time! And I had been so proud of myself because I was wearing the first outfit I put on (which never happens). Sneaky baby...


This is not a pic from this morning but it is the outfit she is (was) wearing!

Hot & Cold

Isn't this some crazy weather we're having? As I write, we're under a tornado watch and it's about 85 degrees outside and about 85% humidity. Hard to believe it's the end of October...but that is NC weather for you. And right on track...it will be cold by Halloween. It always is which was always a bummer because it ruined the cute outfit you had planned to dress up in. That is why this year I think I'm going to wear adult footie pajamas so Lainey and I can match. I'm not really sure what that will actually be as a costume other than comfy and that is okay by me.

Lainey will definitely want to be comfy as she is getting over her first cold. The poor thing was all congested yesterday when I got home from work. She would cough and sneeze and she sounded like she had a lot of phlegm in her chest. I just knew that this would spell a bad night for all of us. Just the night before, we had finally decided to forego the middle of the night feeding and see if she would just go back to sleep. It went okay but that was before the cold and all the mucus. So color me surprised when I woke up last night at 2:39 a.m. because I was becoming painfully, ah, full and not at all because of Lainey. I actually had to get up and pump and then she didn't wake up until 5:20 wanting to eat. And even with a cold, that girl is a morning person. When I go to get her out of her crib, she gives me a big sleepy smile and then lifts her legs up for me to get her.


It is so cute! She does it on the changing table too. (I know, I know...it is ridiculous how much she looks like Troy.)

So I'm hoping that tonight will be another good night and that the weather will change to actual fall temps and that Lainey will soon get over this cold.

PS - Thanks to everyone who helped me out with advice on how to care ofr a 3-month-old with a cold. Everything everyone said was a huge help! Well, except the rum & Coke (sorry Cheesy...although Troy did have a beer and I think that helped him feel better).

Not a designer

So...how do I get my blog back to the good old basic layout? I can only find the new Blogger templates and even the "Simple" one isn't it.

Bored at work = eating chocolate = NEVER FITTING BACK INTO MY PANTS! :-P

Funny Phonics

I just wanted to get this down so I wouldn't forget...Lainey has been making all kinds of vocal strides in the past couple of weeks. I have a feeling that she will be a bit of a talker (gee, I can't imagine where she got that from! She is definitely Troy's mini-me.). She now has very distinct words/sounds for her moods. For example, things that end in "-ing" are her "I'm upset" sound. I have been waked in the night to her frantically calling out "ghing ghing ghing!" She also says "bing" and I swear she says "un-GEE!" (like she's saying she's hungry). I'm not crazy...Troy has heard it too! When she is happy and content, she makes "oo" sounds. She has been practicing for Halloween with her "boo"s but it is becoming more of a "boof." One of my favorites is when she is really happy and she smiles really big and goes, "hoo!" (that was likely was she was doing in the picture April send in the post below...I know that face!). Lainey has also been laughing a lot. She gets tickled with herself and will squeal. Then she kind of looks surprised like, "Did that noise come out of me?". I keep trying to capture her talking and laughing on video but she is wise to both my phone and the camera (both of which can record videos). Yesterday she was talking up a storm to me but the second I hit the record button, she clamps up and stares at the camera apprehensively. So I have minute-long videos of her giving it a look. Which is still cute, but not exactly what I was going for.

Overall, she is just growing up so much! I can't believe it...she seems bigger every day when I pick her up from daycare. April even commented today that she looks like she grew over the weekend. She really is getting bigger, as evidenced by these thighs:



She pays attention to us more and seems more aware in general. She is also moving her hands and arms with more purpose and not just the general flailing of a "new" baby. Lately, she's been pulling up her blanket or dress to her mouth and sucking on it (or her fist...just whatever gets stuffed in her mouth). I always thought she looked like a little Peanuts character but I never really pegged her as a Linus.



Super cute baby belly!! :)

Weepy Wednesday

Yesterday was my first day back at work and therefore dropping Lainey off at daycare. We have found a great person to watch her at her house with 3 other little kids (after this month it will just be a total of 3). So I'm really happy with the situation except for the fact that I have to leave her.

If you know me, you know I try to be super organized. So I had everything all ready to go and the morning went great getting ready and I left pretty much on time. We arrived at April's house and I tried to hold it together. I decided it was best if I tried to make the drop off pretty quick and that helped some. But then Lainey started crying and gave me The Lip. If you haven't witnessed it, it is very dramatic!



That did not help my efforts. I got out of there as quickly as I could and tried not to cry all the way to work. Here is a breakdown of my first day back:

Pros:
- Had some sense of purpose because I got up, dressed and out of the house before lunchtime.
- Got to wear my new black pants that I got on clearance at Target for less than $14.
- Said pants are already too big. (Good thing they were so cheap!)
- Got to eat lunch when I got hungry, go to the bathroom when I needed to and drank plenty of water throughout the day (if you have a baby, you understand these things).

Cons:
- Have spent countless hours crying.
- Had giant zit pop up in the middle of my face that morning.
- Ended up eating a Lean Cuisine from before I went on maternity leave.
- Missed all of my Food Network friends.

I don't even think I need to mention the fact that I had to leave my baby for the day. That was absolutely heartbreaking. I am now well into day two and it has not gotten the least bit better. It's funny because I never really envisioned myself as a stay-at-home type but I could totally do it! With my newfound love of the Food Network, I think I could learn to maybe be a good cook (?). Ah well...it is what it is. At least I get super cute pics of my baby during the day from April like this one:

Super Swaddle

So...I think we have found the answer to our sleeping problems:



This wonderful swaddle blanket made our Lainey sleep like a little angel last night. Big thanks to Christina for hooking me up with a few! I determined a couple of nights ago that Lainey gets cold at night. This wasn't too surprising...she has hated being cold pretty much her whole little life. We've always been swaddling her in a blanket at night but she was kicking out of them, even when we switched to bigger blankets. The other night, she woke me up at 5:30 just to have me re-swaddle her and she instantly went back to sleep. So I decided this swaddle blanket might just do the trick and my neighbor Christina said she had some that her Jackson wouldn't use anymore. Man oh man...I wish I had been using these all along! I think it was a combination of the swaddle blanket and us turning on the heat last night, but Lainey essentially slept through the night*. I even had to wake her up at 7:30 this morning! Wow!! Fingers crossed that she continues to do so well since I start back to work tomorrow...

Yes...the dreaded time is here. I got up this morning and did a dry run of getting dressed and going to daycare. I needed to go anyway to drop off her supplies and the check. We stayed for about an hour and I feel really good about things there and I know Lainey will be fine. I'm definitely more worried about me in this equation. Mommy is not doing so well. I came home and basically cried my eyes out from about 10-2 today. Even while I was doing it I was upset that I was wasting precious time in my last day with her but every time I looked at her about thought about the fact that I would no longer get these wonderful hours spent with her each and every day, I just couldn't help but well up. I've never been away from her for more than about an hour and that has only happened about 3 times. I knew I would be upset but I just didn't expect it to be this tough.

I hate to admit it but there was a time when I even wondered if this whole baby thing was such a good idea. The first month she was here was kind of tough. I mean, I loved her and all but I wasn't constantly flooded with overwhelming emotions like I thought I was supposed to be. Dealing with a newborn who does little more than cry and scream at you and chew your nipple into a bloody pulp just wasn't quite what I had expected with motherhood. But as time (and her period of major gasiness) have passed, I have fallen deeply in love with my little baby. I mean, how could you not love this face??



She has the best gummy smiles and has been working on squeals of laughter. And those giant cheeks go perfectly with her big blue eyes. She's just so cute! Plus she really is a sweet and good baby. We are really lucky, I know. I hate to not get to be with her all the time, especially now as her personality develops more and more each day, but I know it will be the best for our family. Obviously, I'm doing it because we need me to work financially but I think it will be good to have some balance of being outside of the house some too. I'm not exactly a domestic goddess and I'd be lying if I said I could be happy cooking and cleaning all the time (although I have begun a new love affair with Food Network on my maternity leave. Maybe one day I will even try out some of those new recipes I'm forever jotting down!).

So...wish me luck tomorrow! And if you see me, please don't ask me how it was unless you are armed with Kleenex.



*Because she slept for so long, I had to get up at 3:30 to pump and I woke her up. But even then it was just enough that she wanted to eat and go right back to sleep without any fuss whatsoever!

Updates

Thank you to those who commented on my previous post. I don't even want to say it because I'll probably jinx it but I think posting about her bad sleeping habits did (as my friend Shay would say) a reverse-jinx: she slept great last night and was an angel today! Now please please please let that trend continue...it makes life so much more pleasant. ;)

Also, I realized I had not blogged about Lainey's 2 month appointment. Yes, she got the dreaded shots and the band-aids to prove it:


(Sorry this is sideways...I'm not quite sure how to fix this)

She weighed 11 pounds 4 ounces and is not freakishly long. They obviously measured her wrong last time because this time she was 22 1/4" long. So she is right about 50-60% for height & weight. The doctor said she's perfect and seems to be doing just great so we'll keep doing what we've been doing because it seems to be working okay.

As for me, I bit the bullet and got a haircut. I'm not sure that everyone is wild about it because not a lot of people have seemed to notice even though I cut about a half a foot off but I don't care. It's wash & wear which is great. Here are the before & after pictures (bear in mind that this is how the stylist fixed it "after" and it does look a bit mom-ish and that's not how I've been wearing it):





I know it looks like Lainey doesn't like it but she does, I promise. She was just upset that the Heels lost the football game that day. In other news, Troy went to NYC last weekend for our friend's wedding. I stayed behind for the obvious reason and ended up going home to Jamestown last minute to visit with Lainey's Grandmama and Grandpa. They were super excited to see her, as usual. Then I went home the day before Troy came home and it dawned on me that that would be the first night I'd spent alone with Lainey. To be honest, it made me a little nervous. Not that I can't handle her on my own. I'm the one who gets up in the night as it is and I'm with her by myself all day every day. But it's just nice to know that someone is there. You know, just in case. But we did fine and were happy to get Daddy home the next day. That is, until he showed up all sick and stuff. Hopefully we won't be catching that (see previous post about the not sleeping...this is my fear if she gets sick).

So now you're up to date on our exciting lives! :)

Going backwards

It seems that my sweet baby, while still sweet, has decided to start moving backwards in her progress at night. She has always been a pretty good sleeper, generally just getting up twice in the night (but really would only be once when I start back to work because the second time is usually about 5 or 6 and I would have to get up for work then anyways). Plus she is pretty good about eating, burping, getting a clean diaper and going back to sleep. But not anymore. Oh no...not anymore...

Let's take last night for instance. She was screaming and fussy in the evening so we put her to bed in her crib around 8:30. She was out like a light and slept great until 1:20 a.m. Then she woke up hungry so I got up, fed her, burped her, changed her and put her back down and she went right to sleep. Perfect! But...then she was up just 2 1/2 hours later (which incidentally is her span between feedings during the day...it's always right around 2 1/2 hours between daytime feedings) at 3:45 a.m. This time, it was not so smooth. I changed her first to see if maybe she would just accept a diaper change and go back to sleep. Big mistake. She screamed bloody murder as soon as I moved her to the changing table instead of sitting in the glider to feed her. She wailed all through her diaper change. So then I was definitely going to try to feed her to calm her down and get her to go back to sleep. Yeah...she ate for about 5 minutes and then passed out. So I thought, "No problem...we'll just put you back in the crib and I can go back to sleep." Except that the second I put her down, she started screaming again. I tried the paci which worked okay except that it would fall out of her mouth when she was on the verge of sleep and then she would scream (this is why I generally do not use the paci at night). I tried rocking her, walking with her, burping her...everything. Every time I would put her in her crib, she would cry. Finally in desperation, I turned on the little noise machine. It was on the creepy heartbeat sound. She instantly got quiet and quickly passed out. Sigh! So I crawled back in bed at 4:30 thinking that I could finally get some sleep (if I could get over the fact that it sounded like "The Tell-Tale Heart"). And I did...until 6:00 when she woke up crying again. This time I wasn't even going to try not feeding her. I got up and went through the usual routine and she was again a little fussy going back to sleep in the crib but I got her back down. For one hour. Yup, she was up again at 7. Now, I had planned to start getting up this week around 6:00 to get used to it for when I go back to work next week (yuck, did I really just have to say that I go back to work next week?). However, I acquired a splitting headache somewhere around 4 a.m. so I was trying to catch up on a little sleep. This plan obviously didn't work so well.

And this was not a fluke night! She has been doing this the past couple of nights. Plus, today she has been super fussy. Twice she's fallen asleep so I've tried to put her down for a nap in her crib. Each time it has only lasted about 5-10 minutes before she is frantically crying. This is such a change from my baby of a week ago. She had gotten to where she wouldn't even really cry much anymore. Instead, she would "talk" until I came to get her when she woke up, day or night. It was so sweet...going in there and her looking up at me and saying, "Gheng gheng gheng!"

As I mentioned, I go back to work next week so this is rather bad timing for her to suddenly become a bad sleeper. Plus, I don't want her to now become fussy during the day because I don't want her to stress out the lady who will be watching her. The past few days, it has not been enough to hold her all the time, she also wants you to walk around with her. She has always been such a good girl at entertaining herself. I could put her in the bouncy seat or Boppy lounger and get stuff done around the house and she would just hang out. I hope these days are not lost entirely and that she will be back to her old self. Perhaps she's just going through a growth spurt? Or doesn't feel well? If anyone has suggestions, I'm definitely open to them...


Big stretch! It's tough staying awake all night...

The many faces of Lainey

Too cute not to share! She has become very expressive. :)



(Click the above photo to get to a slideshow...sorry the first pic is so dark but it's the only one like that!)

Seasons Change...

I thought I would start out this post with a lyrical tribute to Expose. I do think I actually got that line right, unlike some other songs from my childhood. I apparently had a knack for making up the lyrics when I couldn't understand them and my sister thinks this is hilarious. Just the other day, I had to call her to inform her that I finally figured out that Phil Collins was singing, "She seems to have an invisible touch" and not "She sees a hat and gets it for her top shelf" like I had been singing since I was about 7. Also, Michael Jackson does not say "Show me hot monkeys" but "Show them how funky." I like my interpretation on that one better, especially considering Bubbles but whatever.

Anywho...back to the seasons changing and all that. Who's ready for fall?? I am! I love this time of year. Football is back, I'm not sweating every time I go outside and I don't have to shave my legs every day because I can wear jeans. Troy and I were so excited about the NFL season kick-off last Thursday that I bought some Harvest Moon beer and fixed pigs in a blanket for dinner (you know, in honor of the pigskin). We were so amped that we both fell asleep on the couch a little after 9. Just call us super fans. Thankfully, all the action happened in the first half so I don't really feel like we missed much.

As for Lainey, she is growing like crazy! I know I say that every post but I have evidence this time:



As you can see, she's about to outgrow her Boppy Lounger. Her legs dangle off so she has to pull them up in her froggy position. She's also getting pleasantly plump (I take credit for all of that!). She officially outgrew her newborn clothes & diapers over Labor Day weekend. I knew that she had when she had two back-to-back blowouts in her newborn diapers that shot up the back and got all over her onesies. Her clothes have been getting a little tighter in the belly and her pants had been too short for awhile. So she's now in her 0-3 and 3-month clothes and size 1 diapers. She is smiling a lot more now and also doing a lot of "talking." I bet she's going to be a real chatty Cathy like her Daddy. :) She slept through the night one night last week but it was just a fluke. She's had a bit of a cold so she hasn't been sleeping as well but hopefully that will be behind us soon. Other than that, she's been getting more blond fuzz and new creases in her thighs.



And before you all send notes saying that I look great (really, you don't have to butter me up!), that is a maternity top and I am covering my saggy belly with the baby. But I feel great and have decided to suck it up and buy some bigger clothes so at least I have some stuff to wear now. Will I ever get my body back? (Don't answer that.)

Because I know you've been wondering...

I bet you've been thinking lately, "I wonder how Holly's boobs are doing?" Much better, thanks for asking. ;) They actually have been doing better. It turns out that the lactation consultant at my pediatrician's office lives in my neighborhood (and we actually went to the same middle school and she's married to someone who graduated from Ragsdale with my sister...small world!) She is super nice and actually came over to the house last Sunday morning because my left nipple has been badly cracked since Lainey was just a few days old. It case you aren't keeping up, that is 5 weeks people! That is a long time to have an open wound on your nipple, especially when you have a hungry little animal gnawing on it every few hours round the clock.

But I digress...Jen came over and recommended nursing only on the right side and just pumping the left and giving Lainey bottles for a couple of days. That was the ticket! I am now mostly healed and hoping for a full recovery soon. So maybe I won't have to talk about my boobies all the time now. Maybe.

A (pleasant) side note about then though...Lainey has recently started smiling. I've caught a few little grins here and there on camera but I can't take pictures of when she does the best and biggest grins because they would all have my boob in them. When she is getting ready to nurse, her whole face absolutely lights up and she gets the cutest grins! Sorry world...guess those are just for Mommy. :)

And speaking of eating, I think Miss Benton is going through a growth spurt or something. She has been eating nonstop. Like, really...I feed her and about 30 minutes to an hour later she's screaming and wanting to eat some more. Um, really kid?? My friend Megan said she might just be trying to increase my milk supply. Which is crazy because I'm a milk machine! Either way...it meant that last night I went to bed about 11:30 after feeding her and then was up from 2:20 - 4:00 a.m. for a back-to-back feed, burp, change session. And then up at 6:00 to do it all again (I was just able to put her back in her crib a few minutes ago...at 7:00...after she tried eating for a third time in a row but the last one she was just faking and wanting a pacifier to go back to sleep). These chubby cheeks are proof that she sure is eating well!!

Splitting Hairs

Perhaps it is the time of year...even though I've been out of school for 8 years now (whoa), I still always get that nervous stomach at back-to-school time. I think for everyone it brings a time when you want to start fresh and make some changes. I always remember when I was little doing our back to school shopping and getting a new wardrobe. I thought it was interesting that I've lately seen several people posting about haircuts. I think it's my back-to-school self, but I too had been lately pondering making a change. The biggest hurdle is that I'm a mom now...and I don't want mom hair. But isn't that what it is when you cut your hair after you have a kid? Even if it looks good, it's like, "Oh, she had to get a mom cut." Am I right??

Anywho...my long hair has been annoying me lately. It's so thick that it's like wearing a blanket on my head. Not so much fun in this exceptionally hot summer. And just in the past couple of days, Lainey has started grabbing a fistful of it (usually when she's in a gassy rage and so she's not very gentle). It's not like I do anything with it...I either wear it down or pull it all up. I've never been great at fixing hair. Plus, it takes like 10-15 minutes to dry my hair (and yes, blow drying is necessary...you don't want to see the frizzy wavy mess it looks like when it air dries!). That is some valuable extra sleep time in the morning people. Also, I have been thinking for awhile about donating it to Locks of Love if I cut enough off since it's not been colored or anything and is super healthy after nearly a year of prenatals.

So it sounds like I'm all convinced, right? Well, not completely. I know it's dumb but I'm a little afraid to cut my hair because I'm 30. I mean, I'm not getting any younger and I probably won't ever have long hair again after this if I cut it. So do I hang on to it as a symbol of my fleeting youth? (Again, scared of "mom hair".)

Help me out blog people. Should I cut it or not? If so, how much? Bangs? Bob? Suggestions please!! :)

Growing like a weed...

...but as pretty as a flower!



Lainey had her one month doctor's appointment this week. She now weighs 9 lbs, 4 oz and is 22.5" long! That is quite a lot of growth and the doctor was extremely impressed. Guess I can stop worrying that she's not getting enough food from breastfeeding. :) And I think we should get her a basketball soon considering she's in the 98 percentile for height! I knew she would be tall but yeesh! I just can't believe how much she is growing up right in front of me. Even this morning, I swear she's gotten bigger overnight. She has still exclusively been in newborn outfits but they are starting to get a little small (and her newborn pants are all totally too short...I think all her lengthening has been in her legs!). She's also still in newborn diapers which is a surprise. Guess we'll buy another box of those...

In other Lainey news, her umbilical stump fell off around 3 weeks and she got her first real bath last week (at 4 weeks...I wanted to be sure to give her belly button time to heal).



See that cute belly button?? :) She started out okay but then her Daddy was taking too long and she got cold.



She has also started practicing her smiles. She is so cute...she usually opens her mouth and then turns the corners up into a big gummy grin. I have been trying to capture it on camera:

Four Weeks Already!

I can't believe that four weeks ago right now, I was laboring away, waiting on the arrival of our sweet Lainey. I am just so amazed at how different our life is now! It has been challenging for sure but definitely a change for the better. :) We are slowly settling into things and figuring out this parenting business. Lainey has really been a great baby and is already growing and changing. She looks a lot more like her Daddy now (which makes him extremely pleased with himself) and she is starting to fill out and not be such a skinny little baby. She's still in newborn sizes (something I thought she would never wear!) but her legs are growing faster than anything else. She has footie pajamas that she loves and I think I'm going to have to cut the feet out of them soon! They still fit everywhere else but it's getting hard to shove her feet in them. :) She is also working hard on various expressions and Troy swears he's gotten a few little smiles out of her. I mostly get her serious old man face or her excited "oooh" face (especially when she's getting ready to eat). She is just such a cutie! I seem to be getting even less sleep lately though as her eating habits seem to be evolving. She used to eat every 3-4 hours for about 10-15 minutes and only on one side (the doctors said she's a "very efficient eater"). Now she wants to eat every 2 hours for 10-20 minutes and sometimes she even wants back on after being burped. This is making it extremely hard to get anything done in about the hour that I have between feedings now. I sure wish she would start eating more like 20 minutes every 4 hours but we'll see! Right now, when Lainey wants to eat, Lainey gets to eat.



In other news, I went shopping yesterday to try to find some "transitional" clothes. I tried on clothes all over the mall for hours with my Mom. What did I end up getting? A meternity top that was on clearance at Destination Maternity. I feel like I'm going backwards...

Happy Friday the 13th!

It's actually started out pretty well around here. Troy had to go to the bank this morning and worked remotely some so he hung out a little longer than usual which was nice. And after he left, Lainey fell asleep in her bouncy seat (and still is!) so I was able to shower, get dressed, start doing some laundry and lay out what needs to be packed for our quick trip to Goldsboro this weekend. Not too shabby!

Anywho...as I was packing and having my usual trouble lately of what to wear, I had to ask a couple of questions:
1) Why are nursing tanks and tops so fitted? With my post-pregnant flabby belly, I am not really feeling like wearing anything form-fitting. Also, my boobs are huge and these tops are all just super low cut tanks. So you can imagine it: my giant rack all out on display and then my soft belly pudged out just below that. Really nice.
2) Why don't the people who make maternity clothes go ahead and make them so they are also later conducive to nursing? This isn't something I thought about while pregnant but now all I feel comfortable in are my maternity tops but they all have to be pulled up from the bottom to nurse and this is kind of annoying.

I think I need to make a trip to Target and get some new clothes.

Okay, okay...here are some more pictures

Trying out some tummy time (we're not fans just yet):



Before we realized how tired we were:



I love her little sleeping poses...she does this one a lot. :)

Long time, no post

I am still around people! And doing much better, thanks. :) Thankfully I got over the mastitis of last week and now we are working on getting my left nipple to heal from the bad cracking (sorry...you just have to deal with these kind of details from a breastfeeding mommy!). It is still pretty painful so I went to see the lactation consultant at my pediatrician's office today. She is so nice and actually lives in my neighborhood. She was really helpful and said we're doing great (I admitted that we hadn't been but I have been diligent lately about researching proper latch and working towards that at each feeding). So hopefully things will get all cleared up on that front soon (the prescription-strength nipple cream she is starting me on should also help).

Anywho...let's not talk about the boobs for a minute, shall we?

Last weekend I took Lainey on her first road trip. I wondered if I was stupid, crazy or both but it actually turned out really great. My sister came up Thursday evening and then us three girls drove to Jamestown Friday morning to my parents' house. Then we all loaded up (in two cars...there was no way all of us plus the pack 'n play were going to fit in one vehicle) and headed to Georgetown, SC to my grandmother's house. It proved to be a bit more eventful than I would have liked when we hit a monstrous storm a little more than halfway there. It rained so hard most people had to pull off the highway or slow down and put their hazards on (we did both eventually). It was also so loud that it woke up my blissful traveler (have I mentioned that Lainey loves the carseat and that it works better than Ambian and a cocktail on her?). Then she of course needed to eat and be changed. That was interesting because it all had to be done in the car in a Hardees parking lot. But it all worked out and we arrived safely to find nearly my Mom's whole side of the family waiting at my grandmother's to meet Lainey. Needless to say, she was a hit and they all said how cute she was. She even scored some more baby gifts (she is so spoiled!).

The next day, we drove to Charleston for my cousin's engagement party. That was also a lot of fun but it was again interesting and challenging having to constantly go upstairs to nurse or change her. We're getting there.

Here is a (really bad) picture of 4 generations, spanning in age from just over 2 weeks to very nearly 91 years old:

Case of the Mondays

This week did not start off so hot. All of our company left on Sunday and we were finally alone with the baby. This was nice but a little intimidating. Plus Troy was going back to work on Monday so it would just be Lainey and me. I knew this was nothing I couldn't handle and she really is a great baby but still. My "baby blues" also kicked in at this time so I found myself uncontrollably weepy due to my hormones. I was encouraged when Monday actually started off okay. Troy stayed long enough in the morning so I could get a shower and get dressed. Then Lainey napped in her swing. She was mostly awake the rest of the day and just hung out and looked around and was generally good. However, I started to not feel so hot as the day went on. I was tired and feeling run down and my left boob hurt. Not to be too graphic, but Lainey had done a number on that nipple with her "efficient eating" (that's what the pediatrician said because she feeds for about 10 minutes on one side per feeding and that's about every 3 hours). So I had been putting lanolin cream on it to try to help it heal. Then I realized late in the day that my left breast was really sore and hot to the touch. I remember saying to Troy on the phone, "I just really hope I don't have mastitis or something." Well, somewhere around 6-7 that evening, I was pretty sure that's exactly what I did have. I looked it up online and I had about half of the symptoms (swollen, red in one area, hot to the touch). I had also read about my friend Meredith's misadventure with mastitis (although poor Meredith had it much worse than the usual case). By this point, I was at the end of my rope and was so exhausted and upset. Troy had come home from work only to immediately leave to help our friend Rob pick up a piece of furniture. I texted him, desperate for him to come home and thankfully he was on his way. But I felt bad...he came home to me feeling awful and not even wanting to take care of our baby. I think it scared him a little bit that I just thinking about feeding her made me cry. That night continued to just get worse. The fever and flu-like symptoms kicked in and I had an awful night. Thankfully Lainey slept well and only woke up once in the night to eat and then went right back down.

So Monday was pretty awful for my first day home alone with the baby. Tuesday was so much better. My Mom came in the morning and took me to the doctor and they got me on some antibiotics. Then she took us to Lainey's 2 week appointment where the doctor said she is perfect and we totally agreed. :) Lainey now weighs 7 lbs, 12 oz (2 oz more than her birth weight!) and the doctor was really impressed. She also has great muscle tone and is already strong and holding her head up pretty well. All in all she's just a great baby and we are so lucky. We are also lucky to have such great friends and family. After our appointments my Mom bought some groceries for us and helped clean up the house while I took a nap. She even got dinner ready before she left to go back home. I can't even begin to say how helpful she has been over the past two weeks!

So...things are starting to look up and we're all getting a little better at the Benton household to adjusting to our new life. Lainey is so cute and sweet that it's hard not to be encouraged to just move forward for her sake. And Troy has been wonderful and helpful and a perfect Dad. Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and I will leave you with these adorable images so as not to completely depress everyone. :)