Whitlee | 5 Months

I’m a little behind once again, but I’m sure any mom can attest to how busy you are with a small child. She is getting to the age where she plays with us a lot more, so we spend all of our free time playing or napping. Momma is tired a lot too, so I like to squeeze in some naps with Whitlee while she’s still little enough to snuggle. Aint mad about it either.

Stats:
We don’t go back to the pediatrician for a well visit until 6 months so I don’t have any official stats, but we went last week for an ear infection and she was 13 lbs 12 oz! Goodness that girl is growing!

Eating:
Whitlee is now eating 4-6 oz every 4 hours during the day now and occasionally eats 7-8 oz. We’re still using Enfamil Gentlease and all is well. We’re also still mixing to 22 calories. We did try the Parent’s Choice version of the Gentlease, and Whitlee started pooping kind of weird, like not very much at one time so I started researching it. Turns out Enfamil Gentlease is made up of something like 80% partially broken down proteins so that it’s easily digestible, and while the Parent’s Choice is comparable to the nutrients, it has ZERO broken down proteins. What even. So we switched back and now she’s back to pooping like normal. Well, except right now, because she’s on antibiotics for her ear and both times she’s been on antibiotics, it gives her a looser stool so she’s pooping like 4 times a day right now. Goodness!

We haven’t started Baby Led Weaning (solids mentioned in my 4 month post) yet; we’re still waiting on 6 months and some signs of readiness, like being able to sit up on her own. Giving solids before they can sit up on their own is the leading cause in choking during BLW. We did give her a teething biscuit to chew on that was supposed to be quick dissolve and appropriate starting at 4 months, but she choked on a piece that I guess didn’t dissolve enough (?) and we haven’t tried it again since. And I don’t mean a gag, which is to be expected with BLW, it was a full on choke – like her face turned blue and I yanked her out her highchair so fast and whacked her on the back. She threw up and was right back to normal. And actually got mad when I wouldn’t give her any more of it. Sorry kiddo, sit up on your own and you’ll get the good stuff! I do let her taste stuff on my finger occasionally just to see what kind of face she’ll make, but its mainly just for fun.

She’s tried: organic applesauce, a lemon (which she actually liked – no face…so uneventful), greek yogurt, refried beans, spaghetti sauce, and ranch dressing. She seemed to like the lemon the most and the greek yogurt the least. I’m so looking forward to letting her start eating real food!

Sleep:
We’ve actually moved Whitlee’s bedtime up just a tad. I read a lot about sleep stages and transitions and I think she might have been going to bed too late. We tried bumping it from her normal bedtime routine of about 9:00/9:30 up to 7:00, but she was restless until 9 and then fell asleep so I think that might have been too early. Now we start the bedtime routine about 8:15 and she’s usually asleep by 9. Usually she sleeps in her crib at that point until about 3 AM, when she s t i l l wakes up for some reason. Then I bring her to bed with me and she sleeps until 5 or 6. I have no idea why she’s waking at 2 or 3 in the morning. And she pretty much will not go back to sleep in her crib at that point. It’s just not worth the struggle for me to force her. We get much more sleep if I just bring her to bed with me at that point. We’re still swaddling, and we’ve tried weaning. It’s just nightmarish every time we try. This girl’s startle reflex is insane. We watch her do it at the most random times while laying on her back – even during playtime, she’ll suddenly throw her arms out and startle herself. She still normally naps two really good naps a day like 2-4 hours, usually in the morning and in the afternoon, and she catches a couple of 45 minute to hour and a half naps randomly throughout. We’ve discovered she is such a morning person though. Super happy all the time in the morning!

Milestones/Firsts:
-First Easter
-First time to stay at KK’s house
-Met Heston (cousin), Aunt Courtney, Uncle Craig, and Uncle Travis for the first time
-First time to wear jeans (and my eyes exploded hearts out of them)
-First ear infection
-Reaches for toys and brings them to her mouth
-Can hold toys for extended periods of time now
        

She’s still trying to sit up on her own but hasn’t quite gotten there yet.

She’s still wiggling all over the place. She’s trying so hard to roll from her back to her belly, but hasn’t rolled all the way over yet. She’ll rock really hard to one side, then roll back. She can work herself completely off the plain mat now and on her tummy is starting to try to army crawl. If she can get a hand full of the mat and pull herself, she’s on the move.

She’s wearing mostly 3 months in Carters and some 3-6 months in certain brands. She can still squeeze into a few 0-3 months but they’re mostly too small. We’re still in size 1 diapers, but may be moving up soon. I’m going to check how they fit after this next package of diapers is up. She’s got a tiny little hiney, but getting some chunky thighs!

Likes:

-Still loves bath time .. the splashes are getting CRAZY.
-The TV .. so much that Daddy will turn it off if he wants her attention.
-The swing at KK’s house
-Her outside swing .. we have it set up out at Daddy’s shop
-Stuffed Elephant toy .. we have two just in case one is unavailable (i.e. being washed because momma dropped it in the parking lot)
-LOVES other kids
-Being outside
-Her activity mat
-Lamb Teether

Dislikes:

-Being forced to lay down for a nap, even if she’s super tired and really needs one. She fights it so hard and is usually out in 30 seconds.
-Pacifiers .. I know I mentioned this is in our 3-4 month favorites, but it was premature. It’s now officially a fail. She’s just not a pacifier baby.

That’s really about it. We say all the time that she’s really such a good baby. She only cries when she’s sick or overtired. We’ve had a few busy busy days where she doesn’t nap well and then we pay for it later. But other than that, we got lucky!

Miss Whitlee is seriously the joy in our life. We both look forward to getting home to her every work day and spending all weekend with her. I feel like we tend to soak it up and just play a whole lot as opposed to how I was on maternity leave. Don’t get me wrong, I still have days where I question if I’m doing the right thing, or days where I want to quit and make it work as a stay at home mom, but it’s not every day and I hope it will eventually get more routine. Since I’m posting this a little late, she’s become even more fun in between 5 and 6 months and I can’t wait to fully share our family pictures we took this past weekend!! I shared a sneak peak that the photographer sent me for Mother’s Day and I’m in. freaking. love.

Annnddd.. don’t forget Southernly Ever After’s very first giveaway is coming up. I’ll be posting about it very soon! There will be multiple ways to enter!

Whitlee | 2 Months

Our sweet girl was 2 months old this past Sunday! I’ll probably say this every time, but I can not believe how fast it’s going by. I try to soak it up, especially since I go back to work in March. She changes so much every day, though. We are thoroughly enjoying this little girl!

Stats:
We went to her 2 month appointment on Monday and she was 8 lbs, 15 oz! So almost 9 freakin pounds of baby chub. I love it! And she was 21 inches long. So I mentioned before I don’t think they put preemies on the growth chart until much later because they start out so small, but Whitlee is now on the charts! Her pediatrician was thrilled and said she’s catching up quickly. She’s only in the 5th percentile right now, but she said that’s amazing for a 2 month old born 6 weeks early. I was a proud momma!

Eating:
Whitlee is eating like crazy! She eats 3-4 ounces every 3-4 hours. Occasionally she fights us a little on the bottles, but it’s usually because she needs to burp. If she doesn’t get a burp several times during a feeding, it’s like she can’t possibly hold any more milk and she basically spits it all back out. Not like spit up, but she just lets the milk in her mouth run out. She is extremely impatient waiting on a bottle to warm up, so I tried to give it to her cold one time and she wasn’t having that business at all. It totally jacked with her suck, swallow, breathe capabilities. It was crazy! Warmed it up, and she was right back to normal. She’s still getting breast milk for all of her bottles, and we’re fortifying them all to 22 calories with Similac Neosure. When we run out of breast milk, we’ll be switching to Enfamil Gentlease, but we’ll still be mixing it to be 22 calories. They’re having us continue that until 9 months. It’s working though, girlfriend is growing like a weed!

Sleep:
So I typed a massive blog post about Whitlee’s sleeping arrangements and my lovely WordPress app deleted that sucker about the time I was going to post it. So I’m trying to retype it, but my thoughts are a little scattered since I had notes typed as it was happening, then built the real post from the notes. Long story short though, as I mentioned a few posts back, she is now sleeping in her crib at night and for all of her naps. She also goes to sleep mostly on her own once we lay her down. I still hold her until she’s asleep about half of the time because I like my snuggle time, but she’s definitely capable of doing it on her own. She’s growing up too fast! But the up side was that after a night time feeding (she still wakes up twice a night usually to eat), we can put her back in her crib whether she is asleep or not and she is usually back to sleep in less than 3 minutes. Next step is to sleep through the night. I’m not really holding my breath on that one though.

Milestones:
We are getting real smiles these days! Like smiles that I don’t think are just gas. Sometimes she wakes up from a nap in such a good mood, and I’ll ask her, “Did you have a good nap, baby girl??” and she just smiles at me. A few nights ago, Nolan was tickling her belly and she was smiling her little head off. She is a daddy’s girl for sure!

She’s got some serious head control now too. Our pediatrician was shocked and said she didn’t expect that at all. She likes to lay on our chests and put her arms under her and raise up to look at us. She’ll do that for long periods of time.

She also puts weight on her chubby little legs! When she’s on our chests, she’ll push off our laps and if we put our hands under her feet, she’ll keep pushing until she “climbs” up our chest. It’s the craziest thing. She’s so strong!

She found her hands a few days ago. Nolan had her laying back against his legs and all the sudden she started waving her hands to her face really slow, and like went cross eyed looking at them. It was pretty funny! She actually likes to suck on her hand more than a pacifier most of the time too.

She got her 2 month shots Monday and I cried a little right along with her. They let me hold her while they did it and I (thankfully) have never heard her cry like that. It was awful. But I’m glad we’ve never heard that cry because I take that to mean we haven’t ever hurt her like that. I popped a bottle in her mouth right after they were done and it helped her calm down. She ran a little warmer temperature than normal the rest of the day and slept like crazy (both of which the pediatrician said was expected) so I gave her some Tylenol late yesterday evening and we had quite a rough night last night, but she seems to closer to normal today. We took a long walk in the stroller (Texas was experiencing abnormal highs for January while there was a blizzard up north) and she was awake the whole time, just soaking it all up. I think it cheered her up. 🙂

Likes: 

Bath time

Riding in her stroller

the Boba Wrap (seriously best $40 I ever spent!)

Being talked to, especially by Mommy and Daddy

Playing on Mommy and Daddy’s bed (No, we don’t have multicolor chevron bedding, that was my hospital pillow case and I kinda like it so I kept using it even though it doesn’t match at all.)

 

Holding my finger while she eats her bottle – melts my heart!

“Hugging” me while she sleeps on me. She started wrapping her arm around my neck and snuggling her face in the other side… I love it!

And apparently, daddy’s warm t-shirts fresh out of the laundry. Last night I needed to fold laundry so I put her in the Rock and Play by me and she started crying. So I laid one of Nolan’s warm t-shirts on her and she went silent. Made some funny faces, but she was content.

Dislikes:

Waiting on a bottle

Cold Bottles

Being put in or taken out of the car seat (she’s fine once she’s in or out)

When the car stops moving

Changing clothes – she fights us every time!

We still can’t believe how fast she’s growing but it makes us proud because she started out so small. It’s so much fun playing with her and watching her personality develop even more. I’m not wishing her life away, but each new month is more fun and exciting than the last! And I love to kiss her fat little cheeks!!

 

Look how much she’s grown in one month! ❤

Our Breastfeeding Journey

While I was pregnant, I googled everything I could about breastfeeding and increasing/maintaining supply and pumping to build a stash for when I go back to work. I had a secret pinterest board (so I didn’t bombard anyone’s feed) dedicated to all things breastfeeding related. I asked questions and watched tons of YouTube videos. I thought I had it under control. I was ready.

When Whitlee was born unexpectedly at 34 weeks and we were facing a NICU stay, I never even flinched. I had my friend Kaitlin bring me my breast pump from home (she and her husband came all the way to the hospital to get our house key, went 45 minutes back to our house and back to the hospital again, on her husband’s birthday no less… so blessed to have good friends!) and I started pumping the night she was born. I pumped almost an ounce of colostrum instantly, which was amazing and the nurses told me not to get my hopes up, that an ounce that early was highly unusual. They were right though, the next couple of days I pumped round the clock, every 2 hours and would get anywhere from 10 to 30 ml. On Day 3, my milk came in with force. I was suddenly pumping several ounces every couple of hours. But I was thrilled because while I couldn’t be with my baby all day, every day, and I couldn’t even hold her until she was 6 days old, my body was doing what it could to feed her. I was proud! The more my supply increased and our freezer began to fill up, the more proud I was. We figured out later that an average supply is about 25-30 ounces per day – I was pumping nearly 60!

When she got a little bigger in the NICU, they finally allowed me to try breastfeeding her. She latched the very first try but was a little lazy. She’d fall asleep after not eating very much. But she eventually got the hang of it and she was breastfeeding twice a day when they’d let me and getting pumped breast milk the rest of her feedings. At discharge, they told me I could continue to breastfeed every other feeding but that the rest needed to be breast milk bottles fortified with Similac Neosure to bump it up to 24 calories. (Most breast milk is about 20 calories.) At home, she fought the type of bottles we were using (Avent Naturals) but was still nursing well. Unfortunately, she wasn’t eating enough to empty me because I apparently am part dairy cow. So I was feeding her every 2-3 hours, either by breastfeeding or bottle (that she fought), plus pumping after each breastfeeding session to empty and prevent pain, plus pumping on schedule to keep up my supply. I felt like I was feeding three babies!

breastfeeding in the nicu

At Whitlee’s first pediatrician appt, 2 days post NICU, she hadn’t gained any weight since her discharge. I was working so hard, had an abundant supply, but still no weight gain at a time when it was extremely important. I was so upset.. and exhausted. So the pediatrician and I talked about it and decided I’d stop breastfeeding, but continue pumping and giving her breast milk bottles so that I could take one thing off my plate and also be able to measure everything she was eating. I also visited the NICU and got some of the bottles and nipples she was used to. (A week later, she thankfully had gained more than the appropriate amount of weight. So weight gaining is under control now.)

growing baby!

The same day of that pediatrician appt, I also had a postpartum appt with my OB. I planned the appts so that they were back to back, and Whitlee would only need to eat once while we were out, and I could breastfeed her, meaning I wouldn’t have to pump while we were gone. I have pumped in the car, but it’s a pain to do and keeping milk cold and whatnot is additionally annoying. Well, my OB got called out for a delivery and they rescheduled me for later in the day. I didnt have enough time to go all the way home and pump, so I decided I’d breastfeed her twice while we were out and hope for the best. Keep in mind, I was used to pumping every 2-3 hours with the occasional stretch to 4 hours, but it was nearly 7 hours before I got back to my pump that day. One nightmarish word came of that – Mastitis.

If you’ve ever experienced it, you know the hell I was feeling. If you haven’t, I pray that you don’t. It basically feels like you have the flu with body aches, chills, fever, and nausea plus it felt like I had huge sharp rocks in my boobs where the clogs were, due to not pumping. I was miserable for about 24 hours and it finally eased up. I’d put it on the same hellacious level of being on magnesium sulfate, and you all know I hated that.

Then, for some unfortunate reason, I ended up getting mastitis 3 more times and began battling constant clogs. There have been times when I can feel the knot and can’t work it out. There have been times when holding Whitlee physically hurts because of a clogged duct where she’s laying. Hugging people hurt, laying on anything but my back hurt, sometimes even raising my arms above my head to change shirts hurt. Each round of mastitis came with fever, chills, body aches, and straight misery. I decided to take the advice of all the pregnancy/parenting forums, and go with “happy momma = happy baby” over forcing myself to continue down a painful road. I had an awesome stash built up and due to my oversupply and being prone to mastitis I knew I’d have to wean slowly from pumping and it would probably gain me another month of feeding exclusive breast milk plus the stash would get us another month or more.

So after a roller-coaster of breastfeeding, breast pumping, fortifying bottles, mastitis and exhaustion, I threw in the towel. I feel like all gave it a lot of effort, especially when it mattered most. But Whitlee is growing and gaining weight like crazy (7 lbs 9 oz now!) and our lives are much better with a happy and healthy momma to match her happy and healthy baby girl.

It took me about 2 full weeks start to finish to wean completely but I haven’t pumped in almost a week now. I’m still leaking occasionally, usually when she cries, but I’ve finally put my pump away and started venturing into the freezer stash. We’ve gotten the approval from the pediatrician to make the switch when we run out of breastmilk and we’ll be starting on Enfamil Gentlease. We’ll probably do half breastmilk, half formula at the end to help make sure the transition is as smooth as possible. We’ll still be bumping the calories up to 24 every other bottle. The pediatrician wants us to continue that until 9 months.

So it was a rough road for a little while but I’m happy that I was able to provide breastmilk while she was in the NICU when it mattered most. I’m also happy I was able to stockpile such a good stash to get us another month or so. She should end up getting 3 months of breastmilk before we run out. And I’m mostly happy that she’s growing, she’s healthy, and I’m no longer in pain and can snuggle with her anytime I want without hurting.

happy baby & happy momma