Well, breast feeding my baby girl is officially over. Done. Finished. Ancient history. Okay, not all that ancient yet, since our last day was today. But still. It seems so final.
Yesterday was actually supposed to be our last day. But she was grumpy. Very, very grumpy. She cried and fussed and cried some more. I had to coax her into drinking instead of it being easy, comfortable, and cuddly. I decided I didn't want our last day to be like that. So we made today our last day. She still wasn't as happy and playful as she usually is, but she wasn't crying either. It was still cuddly though. Maybe she was sad it was our last day.
I probably could have gone on for a while longer. I certainly didn't mind that she was getting immunities from my milk in this crazy flu season or the ridiculously precious cuddle time every morning. But she seemed to be kind of over it. We have been having to give her a bottle after the morning feeding because she wasn't getting enough. It was like she was just getting a pre-breakfast bottle snack. But who knows. That's the thing about breastfeeding - its hard to know how much they are actually drinking.
So, I breast fed my daughter for 14 months and 1 day. I am sooo proud of us. And sooo not crying right now... =(
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Lovey = Binkys?
Elizabeth has never really latched onto any traditional type of lovey. She doesn't have any stuffed animal she carries around or a blanket that she's particularly attached to. She does, however, LOVE her binkys. She'll have one in her mouth and be carrying anywhere from 1-3 binkys around with her. She'll switch them out too. She'll pop one out and stick a different one in. We call this "The Binky Exchange." Some binkys are more for just carrying around though. The Nuk 6+ months binks make her gag, so she still uses the 0+ months ones to suck on, then just carries the other ones around. Same with her Hawkeye binkys her dad got for her when I was pregnant. When we put her to bed, we make sure to have at least 2 binkys ready, one for her mouth, and one to hang on to. The whole time we are reading her bedtime stories, she is switching the binkys back and forth.
Lizzie's 1st ride in her big girl car seat holding on to her Hawkeye binky
Another shot of Lizzie with her loves
Trying to get Christmas pictures taken with the binks. I had to bribe her with puffs and then sneakily hide the binkys.
By the way, even though it might look like it from these pictures, she doesn't always have a binky in her mouth! She IS capable of playing perfectly happy without any binkys. And she also loves putting the binks in a cup and carrying the cup around. I am dreading the day that we have to take these things away from her.
This was taken shortly after Liz started walking. Its a little hard to see, but here she is with a bink in her mouth and one in her right hand.
Lizzie's 1st ride in her big girl car seat holding on to her Hawkeye binky
Another shot of Lizzie with her loves
Trying to get Christmas pictures taken with the binks. I had to bribe her with puffs and then sneakily hide the binkys.
By the way, even though it might look like it from these pictures, she doesn't always have a binky in her mouth! She IS capable of playing perfectly happy without any binkys. And she also loves putting the binks in a cup and carrying the cup around. I am dreading the day that we have to take these things away from her.
Updates
Elizabeth has been doing AWESOME at the whole putting herself to sleep thing. It just amazes me! Now when we lay her down in the crib, she won't even make a peep. She'll turn over onto her tummy and go to sleep! Okay, about 95% of the time she does this. There are a few exceptions where she'll stand up and fuss before she lays down and goes to sleep. But that is so rare. I am so proud of my baby girl!!
This morning Elizabeth came up to me with a binky in her mouth and one in her hand. She climbed into my lap and just cuddled, so I knew it must be nap time. I took her to our rocking chair to read her a couple stories, but she just stayed laying on my shoulder instead of turning around to look at the books. It was sooo wonderful. She is the best cuddler in the whole world. The only time she'll cuddle for more than 2.5 seconds at a time is right before bed/nap time and right after she wakes up. Normally she is a girl on the go. She's got things to do, doggy water dishes to explore. So when she is in the cuddly mood, I take advantage. My baby girl and I sit and snuggle until eventually, she'll get down and start playing with her toys.
I don't think I ever did an official post when Lizzie started walking, sooo...
ELIZABETH IS WALKING!!! =D
Okay, she's been walking for a while, I just feel bad that I haven't written about it yet. :) She started taking several steps around her birthday, and right after that started walking half way across rooms. Then she would drop to her hands and knees and crawl because that was faster. By 12.5 months, she was walking more than she was crawling. She'd crawl a little bit then stand up and off she went. And now she's practically running. It is SO CUTE seeing this tiny little short person walking around like a "growed up." She's getting so stinking big!
OH, and she still only has two teeth. FOURTEEN MONTHS old and still only has the two bottom teeth! I'm pretty sure there are more teeth in there! She fools us often and we think she's teething only for no teeth to ever appear. However... we are cautiously optimistic this time! ;) I just checked her gums the other day and thought I saw some white there, but then later I couldn't see it, so I thought she'd gotten me again! Trickster. But last night when Nate was brushing her 2 teeth, he got a good look at her gums. He saw white! I tried to see but she wouldn't let me, so she got her teeth brushed again! HA. White! Definitely! So we'll see how long it takes for those little stinkers to actually poke through. Hopefully not too long! Fingers crossed...
This morning Elizabeth came up to me with a binky in her mouth and one in her hand. She climbed into my lap and just cuddled, so I knew it must be nap time. I took her to our rocking chair to read her a couple stories, but she just stayed laying on my shoulder instead of turning around to look at the books. It was sooo wonderful. She is the best cuddler in the whole world. The only time she'll cuddle for more than 2.5 seconds at a time is right before bed/nap time and right after she wakes up. Normally she is a girl on the go. She's got things to do, doggy water dishes to explore. So when she is in the cuddly mood, I take advantage. My baby girl and I sit and snuggle until eventually, she'll get down and start playing with her toys.
I don't think I ever did an official post when Lizzie started walking, sooo...
ELIZABETH IS WALKING!!! =D
Okay, she's been walking for a while, I just feel bad that I haven't written about it yet. :) She started taking several steps around her birthday, and right after that started walking half way across rooms. Then she would drop to her hands and knees and crawl because that was faster. By 12.5 months, she was walking more than she was crawling. She'd crawl a little bit then stand up and off she went. And now she's practically running. It is SO CUTE seeing this tiny little short person walking around like a "growed up." She's getting so stinking big!
OH, and she still only has two teeth. FOURTEEN MONTHS old and still only has the two bottom teeth! I'm pretty sure there are more teeth in there! She fools us often and we think she's teething only for no teeth to ever appear. However... we are cautiously optimistic this time! ;) I just checked her gums the other day and thought I saw some white there, but then later I couldn't see it, so I thought she'd gotten me again! Trickster. But last night when Nate was brushing her 2 teeth, he got a good look at her gums. He saw white! I tried to see but she wouldn't let me, so she got her teeth brushed again! HA. White! Definitely! So we'll see how long it takes for those little stinkers to actually poke through. Hopefully not too long! Fingers crossed...
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Sleep success!!!
Well, we did it... we let her cry it out. Almost 2 weeks ago, she started putting herself to sleep. At first, she was NOT thrilled. In fact, she was pretty pissed off.
I got the book "Sleeping Through the Night" by Jodi Mindell and read it in one afternoon. That very night, we put our new knowledge to use. The book said to expect crying for about 45 minutes the first night, or up to 2 hours for stubborn kids. We were expecting the full two hours.
It was decided that Nate would be the one to break her heart, I mean, put her to bed on the first night. We did her bedtime routine and then Nate took her in the bedroom for story/cuddle time. Then he put her in the crib, said good night, I love you, etc.... and left.
After the initial look of shock, she cried. And cried. And cried. I cried right along with her. The first night, we checked on her a total of three times (every five-six minutes). I went first, then Nate, then me again. After 22 minutes, she laid down! Within three minutes of laying down, she was sleeping! She fell asleep in almost HALF the time the book said it would take! (I LOVE my video monitor, by the way. Really don't know how we functioned without it.)
The book said to expect around an hour of crying the second night. It said something about how the kid is thinking, "Okay, last night was a fluke. Tonight I really mean it." Or something along those lines. I thought that was funny and pretty scary sounding. So we prepared ourselves for lots and lots of crying. It was decided again that Nate would put her to bed. I just wasn't prepared to do it yet. After story time, he put in her the crib, said good night, I love you, etc, and left.... my precious little baby girl, who I am sooo very proud of, cried for less than a minute before laying down. She squirmed around a little and then fell asleep! We were SOOO impressed with our daughter.
Since then, she cries for around 10 seconds or less when she goes to bed. And Nate doesn't have to do it all by himself anymore. I de-wussed myself on the fourth night and managed to put her to bed. My heart was breaking as I was reading the last book and I was trying, pretty unsuccessfully, to hold back tears. After a day or two, when she caught on, it was especially heart breaking reading to her before a nap or bedtime. She'd cry every time a story would end, and then be okay when I picked up another book. And she'd whimper throughout the last book that we always read before we put her down. She is so dang smart. She doesn't really do this anymore, thankfully. She does reach for more books though.
We started doing this "sleep training" at nap times about a week ago. It was really hard on all involved at first. She didn't care for it. But we got through it and now for the most part, she goes down for naps pretty good.
Before we "trained" her, putting her to bed, for naps and at bedtime, was sometimes an hour long (or more) ordeal. And then sometimes it didn't take very long. After the bedtime routine, and the story/cuddle time, we'd have to pace the floor or sit in the rocking chair until she fell asleep. Then slowly, oh-so-carefully put her in the crib, silently pleading with her to not wake up when we lay her down. The pleading rarely worked. Sometimes she'd stay asleep, but a lot of times she'd wake up the first couple times we would lay her down. She'd wake up enough to realize that she was in her crib and then would start crying, stand up, reach for us... we'd start over. Rocking... pacing... taking shifts, waiting for her to fall asleep. Etc etc etc.
For a while, she slept through the night. She didn't sleep in like her mother would like her to, but she slept until around 7:30. But recently, she had been waking up a lot in the middle of the night. Usually Nate or I would just have to go in there and pick her up and she'd be out within seconds. And then we repeat the pleading to not wake up when we lay her down again. And sometimes she wouldn't go back to sleep until she ate again. It was like she wanted to go back to sleep but just didn't know how to do it by herself.
Now, however, is a different story. Now my wondeful little baby girl sleeps through the night. Yep. You read that right. She sleeps through the night!! Anywhere from 9-11 hours straight, without waking up!! Well, without needing us to put her back to sleep anyway. She will sometimes wake up, maybe sit or stand up, maybe even cry or fuss for a minute, but she puts herself back to sleep. She'll find her binky and lay back down. Its incredible. We haven't had to go in there to put her back to sleep since before Day 1 of this new sleeping situation. (By the way, this book says that if the baby has night wakings, you can put the baby back to sleep as you normally would, so pacing, rocking, etc. They don't need to keep crying it out all night.) But, we haven't had to!
Putting our daughter to bed is no longer such a chore. We don't fight over who's turn it is. It is actully really nice to have that special cuddle time while we read books before she goes to bed. I don't cry (as much) when we put her down. She still cries for the 10 seconds or less, but I'll take it. Of course there are times that she will even cry for a minute or so, and we realize that there will probably be setbacks from time to time for various reasons. That's okay. Because right now, our baby girl is sleeping!
I got the book "Sleeping Through the Night" by Jodi Mindell and read it in one afternoon. That very night, we put our new knowledge to use. The book said to expect crying for about 45 minutes the first night, or up to 2 hours for stubborn kids. We were expecting the full two hours.
It was decided that Nate would be the one to break her heart, I mean, put her to bed on the first night. We did her bedtime routine and then Nate took her in the bedroom for story/cuddle time. Then he put her in the crib, said good night, I love you, etc.... and left.
After the initial look of shock, she cried. And cried. And cried. I cried right along with her. The first night, we checked on her a total of three times (every five-six minutes). I went first, then Nate, then me again. After 22 minutes, she laid down! Within three minutes of laying down, she was sleeping! She fell asleep in almost HALF the time the book said it would take! (I LOVE my video monitor, by the way. Really don't know how we functioned without it.)
The book said to expect around an hour of crying the second night. It said something about how the kid is thinking, "Okay, last night was a fluke. Tonight I really mean it." Or something along those lines. I thought that was funny and pretty scary sounding. So we prepared ourselves for lots and lots of crying. It was decided again that Nate would put her to bed. I just wasn't prepared to do it yet. After story time, he put in her the crib, said good night, I love you, etc, and left.... my precious little baby girl, who I am sooo very proud of, cried for less than a minute before laying down. She squirmed around a little and then fell asleep! We were SOOO impressed with our daughter.
Since then, she cries for around 10 seconds or less when she goes to bed. And Nate doesn't have to do it all by himself anymore. I de-wussed myself on the fourth night and managed to put her to bed. My heart was breaking as I was reading the last book and I was trying, pretty unsuccessfully, to hold back tears. After a day or two, when she caught on, it was especially heart breaking reading to her before a nap or bedtime. She'd cry every time a story would end, and then be okay when I picked up another book. And she'd whimper throughout the last book that we always read before we put her down. She is so dang smart. She doesn't really do this anymore, thankfully. She does reach for more books though.
We started doing this "sleep training" at nap times about a week ago. It was really hard on all involved at first. She didn't care for it. But we got through it and now for the most part, she goes down for naps pretty good.
Before we "trained" her, putting her to bed, for naps and at bedtime, was sometimes an hour long (or more) ordeal. And then sometimes it didn't take very long. After the bedtime routine, and the story/cuddle time, we'd have to pace the floor or sit in the rocking chair until she fell asleep. Then slowly, oh-so-carefully put her in the crib, silently pleading with her to not wake up when we lay her down. The pleading rarely worked. Sometimes she'd stay asleep, but a lot of times she'd wake up the first couple times we would lay her down. She'd wake up enough to realize that she was in her crib and then would start crying, stand up, reach for us... we'd start over. Rocking... pacing... taking shifts, waiting for her to fall asleep. Etc etc etc.
For a while, she slept through the night. She didn't sleep in like her mother would like her to, but she slept until around 7:30. But recently, she had been waking up a lot in the middle of the night. Usually Nate or I would just have to go in there and pick her up and she'd be out within seconds. And then we repeat the pleading to not wake up when we lay her down again. And sometimes she wouldn't go back to sleep until she ate again. It was like she wanted to go back to sleep but just didn't know how to do it by herself.
Now, however, is a different story. Now my wondeful little baby girl sleeps through the night. Yep. You read that right. She sleeps through the night!! Anywhere from 9-11 hours straight, without waking up!! Well, without needing us to put her back to sleep anyway. She will sometimes wake up, maybe sit or stand up, maybe even cry or fuss for a minute, but she puts herself back to sleep. She'll find her binky and lay back down. Its incredible. We haven't had to go in there to put her back to sleep since before Day 1 of this new sleeping situation. (By the way, this book says that if the baby has night wakings, you can put the baby back to sleep as you normally would, so pacing, rocking, etc. They don't need to keep crying it out all night.) But, we haven't had to!
Putting our daughter to bed is no longer such a chore. We don't fight over who's turn it is. It is actully really nice to have that special cuddle time while we read books before she goes to bed. I don't cry (as much) when we put her down. She still cries for the 10 seconds or less, but I'll take it. Of course there are times that she will even cry for a minute or so, and we realize that there will probably be setbacks from time to time for various reasons. That's okay. Because right now, our baby girl is sleeping!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The light at the end of the tunnel
My days of breastfeeding are almost over. I am down to nursing twice per day - in the morning and before bedtime. I have very mixed emotions about this! On the one hand, I am very much looking forward to being done with breastfeeding. I am very excited to have my body back to myself for a while. I won't have to think about how everything I put into my body is going to effect my daughter. I can enjoy a beer or two without worrying about pumping and dumping or waiting so many hours before nursing. I can quit wearing these super sexy nursing bras!! On the other hand... I think I'm going to miss breastfeeding!
I have been looking forward to being done with breastfeeding for a while now. About a year, give or take. I do enjoy the special bonding time with my daughter, I love that she's getting the health benefits from it, it was super easy to prepare her meals in the middle of the night or when we were out and about (although sometimes it was a little difficult finding a place to nurse. Didn't so much enjoy nursing while perched on a gross toilet seat covered with toilet paper and trying to not let her touch anything. Ew.) And even though we had LOTS of trouble in the beginning with latch issues and not getting enough milk sometimes, I was also blessed to not have to deal with chapped or cracked anything, even though I usually forgot to apply the Lanolin cream, and I never had to deal with engorgement or mastitis. Its not like I dispised breastfeeding. Obviously not or I wouldn't have lasted as long as I have.
My goal always was to go a year. When she was around 9 months old, I considered weaning. I just wanted to be done. But I was so close to my goal. I had already made it 75% of the way, so I decided to keep going. Now here we are, past a year! I realized the other day that I made it to my goal! It kind of shocked me. I am so glad I continued.
I did have a freezer full of expressed breast milk. Well, around 65-70 oz anyway. But since I have only been nursing twice per day, we've gone through the freezer milk pretty fast. Even when mixing it with whole milk. I am down to only 2 bags left. This is really depressing to me! After these two bags, the only breast milk she'll get is twice a day from me. And that's not lasting much longer either.
Its really weird to me that after this whole year of wanting and waiting to be done, I'm going to miss it.
I have been looking forward to being done with breastfeeding for a while now. About a year, give or take. I do enjoy the special bonding time with my daughter, I love that she's getting the health benefits from it, it was super easy to prepare her meals in the middle of the night or when we were out and about (although sometimes it was a little difficult finding a place to nurse. Didn't so much enjoy nursing while perched on a gross toilet seat covered with toilet paper and trying to not let her touch anything. Ew.) And even though we had LOTS of trouble in the beginning with latch issues and not getting enough milk sometimes, I was also blessed to not have to deal with chapped or cracked anything, even though I usually forgot to apply the Lanolin cream, and I never had to deal with engorgement or mastitis. Its not like I dispised breastfeeding. Obviously not or I wouldn't have lasted as long as I have.
My goal always was to go a year. When she was around 9 months old, I considered weaning. I just wanted to be done. But I was so close to my goal. I had already made it 75% of the way, so I decided to keep going. Now here we are, past a year! I realized the other day that I made it to my goal! It kind of shocked me. I am so glad I continued.
I did have a freezer full of expressed breast milk. Well, around 65-70 oz anyway. But since I have only been nursing twice per day, we've gone through the freezer milk pretty fast. Even when mixing it with whole milk. I am down to only 2 bags left. This is really depressing to me! After these two bags, the only breast milk she'll get is twice a day from me. And that's not lasting much longer either.
Its really weird to me that after this whole year of wanting and waiting to be done, I'm going to miss it.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
My new favorite thing
When I say "good girl!" or "whoo hoo!" or anything like that, Elizabeth will start clapping! She'll stop whatever she's doing and drop whatever is in her little baby hands and smile real big and clap. I LOVE IT.
It is REALLY fun watching Iowa games with her. She'll be playing in her little Iowa cheerleading outfit, or whichever Iowa outfit she's wearing that week, and minding her own business. Then when there is a good play and we start cheering, she gets all excited and crawls over and starts clapping with us. Hilarious.
I just didn't want to ever forget this. Oh man I love this little girl.
It is REALLY fun watching Iowa games with her. She'll be playing in her little Iowa cheerleading outfit, or whichever Iowa outfit she's wearing that week, and minding her own business. Then when there is a good play and we start cheering, she gets all excited and crawls over and starts clapping with us. Hilarious.
I just didn't want to ever forget this. Oh man I love this little girl.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Its Party Time!
Here are some pictures from Elizabeth's 1st Birthday Party!
The invitation I made for the partay.
The drawing that my 16 year old cousin gave to Lizzie. Girl's got some talent!!! I may or may not have cried when I first saw it.
This balloon shows the design on all the stuff at her party- "Hugs and Stitches."
Playing on the rocking chair from her grandparents.
"I like presents!!"
The cake. They put "Happy 1st Birthday Girl" on it. We scraped off "girl" because that's just stupid.
Elizabeth's cake - Before"Happy Birthday 1st Elizabeth" Grrrr....
Mmmm... frosting.
I think she likes it!
"HEY! Who took my cake?!"
Elizabeth's Cake - After
Hanging out with Uncle Mitoe
Hugs for mommy!
"ooh, something shiny!"
Mmmm... frosting.
I think she likes it!
"HEY! Who took my cake?!"
Elizabeth's Cake - After
Hanging out with Uncle Mitoe
Hugs for mommy! 
"ooh, something shiny!"
Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Just some stuff
- Elizabeth got her second tooth on September 21st!
- In mid to late September she started standing on her own for 20-30 seconds at a time. We were ridiculously impressed. Now she can stand all day long like its nothing.
- FIRST STEP! - October 7th, 2009 - She takes one step at a time and then falls down. So cute!
- TWO STEPS! - October 9th, 2009 - Now she takes two steps before falling or sitting down.
- Yesterday she took 5 steps in a row!
- Elizabeth turned one year old yesterday!!!
- Lizzie clicks her tongue! If we do it first, she'll smile really big and take her binky out (if she has it in) and click her tongue back at us. Sometimes she'll smack her lips. I love this.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Happy 1st Birthday, Elizabeth!
Dear Elizabeth,
Today you are one! I can’t believe we survived this first year with you! You, my dear girl, are quite the handful! =) I am amazed at how fast the past year has flown by. It feels like yesterday that I held you in my arms for the first time. You were so tiny and adorable and awesome. You depended on me to take care of your little baby needs. And now you’re trying to climb into the trash can. Even though you still need your mommy, you are very independent.
I don’t think I can accurately put into words how much I love you. I didn’t know my heart could be so full! I feel so lucky and blessed that I get to be your mommy. I get to hang out with the coolest person ever, every single day. I get to watch you learn new things, reach milestones, explore. (And explore you do! You don’t know how many times you’ve made my heart skip a beat or two, or how many times my heart falls to my knees. You fail to see any danger in anything you do. This worries me. A lot.)
You are such an amazing person. You are so funny. You are weird and ornery and adorable. I have never in my life seen anything more beautiful than you. Your smile instantly makes me happy. Your cries break my heart. (Not so much your fake cries that you have learned recently. Those are kind of funny. But your scared or hurt cries are gut wrenching). I watch you every day as you play, dance, climb on anything and everything that you can, and I am amazed at how smart you are and how fast you are learning and growing.
You made me a mommy one year ago today and it has been one heck of a year. You scared me more than I have ever been scared. You made me laugh more than I have ever laughed and cry more than I have ever cried. You made me love more than I have ever loved.
You are my world. You are my heart. I love you with every fiber of my being.
Happy 1st Birthday, Elizabeth!
Always and Forever,
Mommy
Today you are one! I can’t believe we survived this first year with you! You, my dear girl, are quite the handful! =) I am amazed at how fast the past year has flown by. It feels like yesterday that I held you in my arms for the first time. You were so tiny and adorable and awesome. You depended on me to take care of your little baby needs. And now you’re trying to climb into the trash can. Even though you still need your mommy, you are very independent.
I don’t think I can accurately put into words how much I love you. I didn’t know my heart could be so full! I feel so lucky and blessed that I get to be your mommy. I get to hang out with the coolest person ever, every single day. I get to watch you learn new things, reach milestones, explore. (And explore you do! You don’t know how many times you’ve made my heart skip a beat or two, or how many times my heart falls to my knees. You fail to see any danger in anything you do. This worries me. A lot.)
You are such an amazing person. You are so funny. You are weird and ornery and adorable. I have never in my life seen anything more beautiful than you. Your smile instantly makes me happy. Your cries break my heart. (Not so much your fake cries that you have learned recently. Those are kind of funny. But your scared or hurt cries are gut wrenching). I watch you every day as you play, dance, climb on anything and everything that you can, and I am amazed at how smart you are and how fast you are learning and growing.
You made me a mommy one year ago today and it has been one heck of a year. You scared me more than I have ever been scared. You made me laugh more than I have ever laughed and cry more than I have ever cried. You made me love more than I have ever loved.
You are my world. You are my heart. I love you with every fiber of my being.
Happy 1st Birthday, Elizabeth!
Always and Forever,
Mommy
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