We’ve all been there.

Daydreaming about what life with a baby would be like, without truly knowing what to expect. Thinking we “know” how things will turn out, but in the back of our minds knowing that it will be different. Now that Lexi is 1 YEAR OLD, i can look back at the year of babyhood and see things for what they were.

I don’t think Andrew and I were off base when imagining what life with a baby would be like. I think it’s that we couldn’t FEEL that difference until said baby came along.

All the negative “just you waits” from bitter moms were met with an eye roll. All the good-hearted ones were a drop in a bucket of the attempt to imagine our life with the baby.

I don’t think you can know what it is going to be like. No matter how hard you try. I think you can picture it, but you cannot FEEL it. So here’s what WE thought life with a baby would be like. And here is how we were wrong (or right).

Keep in mind that our experience will most likely NOT be yours. Your baby might sleep 16 hours a day and be the newborn you read in all the books about, nurse like a champ from day 1, fall asleep in your sling or contently stare at the mobile while you go around your business. That was not our experience. Nor was it the experience of millions of other parents. Because every baby is UNIQUE!

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LABOR & BIRTH

Expectations:

I had hoped that Hypnobabies would help me get through labor but I was prepared for it to go whatever way it would, since I had read/heard how unpredictable it is.

Reality:

Two years ago I was lucky enough to have a ton of time on my hands, a passion for photography and countless fun times. So when I participated in Ashley’s Memories, Dreams, Reflections, there was a lot to reminisce about. The next year that followed was all about my pregnancy and, honestly, I couldn’t even think about anything but the upcoming birth, so I skipped MDR.

This year, however, is perfect! It was simple, different, somewhat uneventful, but at the same time HUGE when it comes to our roles as parents and our baby girl. So here is a look back at what 2012 had in store for us, based on the prompts provided by MDR 2012.

I guess the post titled, “Time Management”, was misleading some people into thinking I’d write some tips, or about how I get things done, so I changed it to a more relevant name. Eventually I might write about what I actually do to manage time in detail, but for this post I wanted to describe the frustration of never having enough time and how I dealt with it from the emotional perspective.

I think the hardest change that motherhood brought for me has been time management. When you’re pregnant, people tell you that you won’t have time and you have a vague idea of what that means, but like with everything in life, you don’t truly understand until you’re there.

Some people have it easier, some people have it harder. If you’re a stay-at-home mom and your baby sleeps perfect 2 hour naps each time, then you probably find yourself with more time on your hands than you did when you were working. But that’s really rare. Most of us are in situations where juggling responsiblities, desires, hobbies and babies is a reality that we have to contend with. Everyone, obviously, deals with it differently. Every person is different in their needs and what issues they have with lack of time, as well as how much their baby allows them to do while asleep and awake, and finally what they are happy with and what the priorities are.

My problem has been that I am used to being very engaged with things I do, having a lot of hobbies, only feeling good when I am productive and get things done. On the other side, I do love to relax, take a bath, sit back with a book ( i love reading), swing in a hammock, listen to music. I didn’t have much problem giving the latter up, though I do miss a good read and a cup of tea once in a while. However, what really bit me in the ass with was not being able to be productive in the sense that I am used to.

I have always had a ton of hobbies and I have been very fast and productive at my job, as well. To switch to something that doesn’t have deadlines, rushes, unlimited work time, no interruptions, and more importantly for me thinking- it was hard. And the hardest thing was to never be able to rely on a certain amount of time that I could dedicate to one task.

I went from a 24 hour day where I could work and do things I wanted virtually at any time of the day and night to 3 naps a day that lasted anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. To me the uncertaintly was the most challenging. What complicated things further is that I refused to do anything but engage with Alexis during her awake time unless she was interested in playing on her own ( which she wasn’t until literally 2 weeks ago).

I would be rocking Lexi to sleep, thinking and planning in my head all the things I was going to do and GET DONE once she is asleep. When I’d get up to put her down and she would wake up, I’d think “Oh that’s alright, I’ll get it all done after I rock her some more”. When I would finally put her down for good, after 4-5 failed attempts, I’d rush to my computer with a massive list of things to do and, before I can even check my email, she’d wake up.

So needless to say, I’ve had very very frustrating days in the beginning. I have to admit I’d get VERY frustrated, because I wasn’t getting anything done and I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to do them when Lexi was up. She needed my attention and my love and my most important job, as a SAHM, was to give that attention to her. What didn’t help matters was that I didn’t have any time in the evenings when most babies go for the night around 6-7pm and sleep relatively well. {Lexi STILL goes to bed around 8-9pm, up for the day at 6am and wakes up often enough that it necessitates that we go to sleep with her so that we could get ANY decent amount of sleep.}

But the resentment kept building. The resentment of the situation where most every other baby “appeared” to have normal 1-2 hour naps and I would fight for 10-20 minutes of nap time. (Since then I’ve met a few moms whose babies need to be rocked to sleep and only nap for 20-30 minutes as well)

I was enjoying rocking Lexi to sleep and spending time with her while she slept, but I wasn’t enjoying not getting things done and feeling completely unproductive. I decided that I had to do something about it. Change the way I thought about the whole situation.

The worst part was not having my expectations met when it came to being “productive” for the day. When I’d expect to get a few things done, but be unable because Lexi would wake up the second I put her down or 5 minutes later. So I told myself to ALWAYS go into her nap time EXPECTING that the first 3 times I put her down, she will wake up right away. Then after that, when I managed to put her down with her still asleep, I would tell myself that I would ONLY be able to open my computer and check my email. Then if I got THAT done and she was still asleep, I’d tell myself that I WILL NOT have time to finish the next task I am about to do. And so on and so forth…

This made A WORLD of a difference in my levels of frustration. I wasn’t setting myself up for failure, I was setting myself up for constant pleasant surprises (” Oh she is still asleep and I can do one more thing?”). Of course, I had to keep reminding myself to think in this new way.

I lived like that managing my expectations for about 4 months and then her naps started evening out. Now I still keep it in the back of my mind that, most likely, I won’t be able to finish what I am doing, but now I get a pretty reliable 30-40 minutes with occasional days where she’ll be up constantly.

My husband and I had also agreed that, for my sanity, I needed 2 hours a day to work on things. So he’d take her for 2 hours when he could, while I would FRANTICALLY try and get stuff done (some work stuff, some accounting, some blogging, some family stuff). This is no longer necessary on most days, but it helped me get over the hump.

Now that she is over 6 months, she can play on her own for a bit. I still refuse to do any computer work while she’s awake, because it’s a slippery slope to ignoring your child for me. But now I have the opportunity to get a bit of cooking done, throw in a load, hang up some clothes, mail some returns. And her nap time is exclusively reserved for blogging, researching, ordering, emailing, editing photos and videos. I am still very organized during the nap times, because I can only rely on 40 minutes twice a day (or 40min x2 twice a day if I am lucky). I don’t eat, I don’t drink, I don’t take time to go to the bathroom (unless I can’t hold it)- I just work, work, work. And then when she wakes up, I catch up on all that eating, drinking, peeing business :)

I still spend about 1/3 of my day just rocking Lexi to sleep, because of how often she wakes up and how hard it is to put her down occasionally, but I have adjusted emotionally to not expect anything different.

My next goal is to find a way to work out and to do my hair/light make up/moisturize/take a consistent shower in the morning.  {edit: I do take showers when I have/want to. But I just always feel like there are more important things to do lol Like play with Lexi} Up until now that hasn’t been the priority, but now I feel things have mellowed out enough that I can start to figure out ways to get even more organized and get that done as well. I had stopped “taking care” of my skin and my hair for a month or so for lack of time, and I see a huge difference a month has made. I also need to tone up and Lexi still doesn’t like the stroller much, so we can’t go jogging with her yet.

{Lexi is at 3.5 months, wearing a Polarn O. Pyret onesie}

But I am HAPPY.

I am happy with the place I am at, emotionally, productively and physically. I am happy about the way things are ( with occasional bouts of frustration here and there). We’re in an equilibrium and life is just awesome right now. I love having a baby, I love having a 6 months old, specifically. I love Lexi, and our time together. I love to occasionally have time to blog. It took a little bit of adjustment, but once you figure out how to deal with the curveballs thrown by life and/or your non-sleeping baby, it’s all pretty darn good.

Dear, girl!

You are half a year old. 6 months. It’s a big deal! It’s a really big deal! So much has changed. YOU have changed.

This month brought on so many changes. These changes almost sneaked upon us. Without warning. Just BOOM – you’re different.

The biggest thing I’ve noticed is you LOOK older. You look like a little girl. It’s quite adorable. You make cute little girl faces, and wave your arms around in frustration or happiness. Those two can come one after another.

You’re the most amazing kid on the planet. Like really, you bring us joy every day. And you are becoming easier and easier to handle every day.  You laugh so much, you’re such a happy girl. Six months rocks. Really- the best age so far!

You’re becoming more and more beautiful. Either that or I am getting more and more biased because I love you more with each day. Your eyes are so big and blue and so captivating. Your lips have that perfect pout and you have the most rounded head I’ve ever seen.

This month has had a lot of firsts for you:

You had your first road trip to Orlando, your first wedding reception, your first 4th of July party and many others I’ll mention below.

You did amazing at the late night 4th of July party. You were too busy looking around to realize that it was past your bedtime and wouldn’t go to sleep even when I tried putting you down in the  quiet and dim nursery.

You’re into both mommy and daddy more and more each day. My favorite part is when daddy goes to get you when you wake up from your nap and brings you out to me while I am working on my laptop, and you JUST LIGHT up and start kicking and bouncing in his arms so hard that he can barely hold you.

You had your first stay at the hotel and you absolutely loved it. You loved seeing all the places and people. You slept just as well as you do at home and you never complained. Except on your 4 hour ride home, which was a little bit rough.

You do so good in the car now. As long as you have a toy to entertain you and switch them around periodically or  I talk to you or sing to you, or play peekaboo, you’re happy as a clam. You will actually fall asleep in the car seat pretty consistently if you’re very tired with some help from mommy or daddy (singing usually helps).

You are wary of strangers, yet with enough time and smiles, you smile back and bounce in my arms. You’re super social while staying cautious of anyone you don’t know.

You met your auntie Boom Boom and you loved her. You took to her very quickly and allowed yourself being carried around and played with.

You cut your first 2 teeth. For some reason, it is so special to me. Your first tooth came through after a few days of fussier than normal behavior, though I cannot reliably connect it with teething. At first I saw the gum getting whiter and then there was a blackish dot on top of it. I was sure it was a tooth, but your daddy didn’t believe me. And sure enough the next day there was a white cap. And then the same thing happened with the second bottom tooth. They are still pretty small but your smiles are even more adorable now.

You are a much more proficient sitter now. You’re strong and solid. You LOVE playing with your hands while sitting up. Your coordination is so good now. You grab a toy with one or two hands while sitting down and then you start shaking it side to side. Eventually you accidentally let go and your toy goes flying a few feet in the air. You easily reach for things all around you when sitting. You love playing with your Finn&Emma gym while sitting up.

You don’t know how to get into a sitting position, but you do know how to move from sitting to crawling/tummy down.

You aren’t a crawler yet. I was sure that after getting on your knees last month, you’d be crawling by now, but you somehow shifted your focus to other things and put crawling aside until just a few days ago when you went back to trying to get on your knees and move.

I find it really cool how you keep switching from thing to thing working on different skills at different times. It’s a little bit like me. I usually get interested in so many things at once I have to split my attention between them.

And the big one is you rolled over from your back to your tummy. And then to your tummy again. And that was that. I knew you had been waiting for something to start rolling consistently and that something was  apparently going from back to tummy. As soon as you knew how to put yourself into your favorite position, the other way around wasn’t an issue. You still prefer scooting on your tummy to rolling around, but you’ll occasionally roll when you need to get a toy or for the fun of it. You became really good at it, too. After the very first roll from back to tummy, you kind of just continued doing it all without hesitation whenever you needed to.

You’re quite the social butterfly nowadays, you love smiling at people after you’re done studying them and determining whether they are good or not. We had painters getting our house finished last week and oh my god, you just couldn’t stop smiling and talking to them.

Speaking of talking, that picked up too (I can tell you worked hard on many things this month). You try to talk to us and strangers as much as you can, but it’s mostly raspberries, aghoos, and these forced screams and types of sounds that make me think you want to go potty. Only recently did I realize that  it is you attempting to talk to all of us by screeching and you’re trying to make sounds the only way you can right now. In the last few days you have expanded your vocabulary to include more ba-ba-bas and na-na-nas and ma-ma-mas and all kinds of different sounds that really sound like speech. So much fun!

You still sleep with us, even though I try to start you off in the crib each night, but you won’t have any of that silliness. You have to feel mama’s breath on you or touch her, or the best thing in the world: nurse to sleep. Oh, you love that and I love it just as much. You didn’t used to be a baby that nursed to sleep, but it’s something that I sort of started with the bedtime routine. I might regret later, but for now I treasure the times when you fall asleep at the breast.

I really enjoy lying down with you, though I don’t get to do it often, because your short naps are the only time I can write for the blog. But the time that I spend rocking you is one of my favorite times during the day. I love smelling your sour milk cheeks and feeling your warm breath and having your soft squishy body cuddle into my arms. Seriously, I will miss it so much when it’s gone.

The last two weeks you’ve been playing on your own for good stretches of time (10-15 minutes), but we are still always there whenever you need us once you’re done playing. I’ve been putting a pillow behind you so that if you fall you don’t hit your head.

Your sleep is still the same. Every 2 hours seems to be your thing at night and every 40 minutes during the day.

You developed this shy smile that is just beyond adorable! It’s this tentative little thing that soon evolves into a big grin and a little nose scrunching. I love your nose -scrunching. And snorting- oh your snorting is beyond adorable ( probably to me only). I really need to get that on video (put it on my today’s to-do list)

You’re IN LOVE with water! Such a water baby, it makes me so happy! You squeal with delight whenever you get splashed, you love being rained on or going under sprinklers, having fun bath time with daddy or when mommy fills up a big girl tub and lets you play there with her.

We recently bought your a non-vinyl baby pool and you adore splashing in it. You’ll laugh every time you get water in your eyes and face.

You also had your first swim in the pool. Again it was a great hit. I’d hold you up and you’d kick your legs and swim like a big girl. We are now going to the pool every other day or so and it’s by far your favorite activity

You’re also back in your cloth diapers which makes mama so happy. I am excited to be buying more cute colors and prints and ditching the disposables.

Your first boat trip happened this month, as well. You did so good. It was pretty hot, even though we got started early and kept you in the shade. You fussed occasionally when it got hot or when we had to put an lifevest on you, but as soon as the boat would pick up speed and you’d feel the wind on your face, you’d start bouncing and smiling. We love watching you experience new things.

Here’s a big one: YOU STARTED BLW! {baby  led weaning}. I say YOU because you truly commanded this one. I’ve been keeping you away from solids even though you’ve been able to sit unsupported and have been reaching for our food and had the pincer grasp down since 4.5 months. I wanted to wait till 6 months. You had other plans and you let me know. One day you grabbed a cherry out of my hands and started gumming on it. So I bit into it for you to see what you’d do. Well, as soon as you tasted the juice your eyes got all big and you started sucking it out and gumming more. The next day as you were sitting in my lap and I was eating a peach, you reached out and took the peach with one hand (I didn’t stop you this time), you instantly brought it to your mouth like you positively knew what you were doing and started EATING it. I took that as a clue that you were ready and eager to start solids. Since then we’ve been ocassionally giving you whatever it is we were eating as long it was appropriate. You’ve had peaches, strawberries, zuccinnis, avocados, potatoes, mushrooms, plum,  navy beans, red pepper, banana and maybe a few more I am forgetting.

You love it, you truly love exploring food, playing with it, chewing it, learning how to manipulate it in your mouth and swallow it. And we enjoy watching you learn. I am looking forward to you joining us at all our meals.

Your personality is sparkling! You’re expressive, fun, you smile so widely when you see people you like/love, you get so intently focused on things one second and another you’ll just lying there pondering the problems of the world.

On a serious note, recently I’ve had this weird train of thoughts ( you know how sometimes a situation pops into your head and you think about what you’d do in that case).. Well, with the Colorado shooting, I’ve been thinking a lot about what would I do in situations where our lives are in danger. And without a millisecond delay, there’s no question in my mind that I would give my life for a 1% chance of saving yours.

For readers

In this post:

Hair flower: Hopscotch Boutique

Wooden Gym: Finn&Emma

Non-PVC pool: The Pop Up Pool

Excersaucer: Evenflo Jam Session

 

Upcoming Posts:

Written and scheduled to post: First Swing Ride, Nursery Updates, Morning walks

In the process: 4th of July, Boat Trip, Orlando Trip, Time Management, Parenting Duties Split, Baby Safety

Reviews/Giveaways: Maxi Cosi car seat, Mutsy stroller, Tiny Love, and more

Around 2.5 months, when life with Lexi started getting easier and she could tolerate being out for a short periods of time, we started taking the time out of our day to go to the pool. These trips were mostly for me, to be honest. I needed to get out of the house and the closest thing, without getting Lexi into a car seat, was our community clubhouse and pool. Alexis has never been the kind of baby that would just tag along wherever I go. So at first I kept it short. We’d leave right after she woke up and spend no more than an hour, at most. I wouldn’t be able to even get in the water. It was just to go somewhere, to get out of the house. One of these outings, my mom stayed with Alexis in the shade and Andrew and I went swimming, just the two of us. It was AMAZING! It was the first time we did something as a couple again, and we had so much fun for that half an hour we played around in water. We laughed till our bellies hurt, and splashed and jumped and just hugged and talked. We won’t get another chance to do that until my mom comes back in January.

 

Alexis LOVED looking at the water. We didn’t have her get in the pool, since it’s not recommended till 6 months of age, but we would sit on the edge of the pool for a few minutes when the sun goes behind the clouds and look at the water in awe. I cannot wait for my water baby to be old enough to splash around.

{FYI: There are two reasons that I know of why little babies shouldn’t swim in public pools, chlorinated pools or natural bodies of water (like ocean or lake). One is that their skin is VERY absorbent for the first 6 months of life. Much more absorbent than an adult’s skin. Which means any chemicals (chlorine) will be readily absorbed into their bloodstream ( that is the only the reason for why we went with organic clothing for the first 6 months of her life). The second reason applies to public pools and oceans/lakes- there’re a ton of e.coli bacteria found each season in oceans, and lakes can be even worse with all kind of flesh eating bacteria and Naegleria Fowleri ( that sci-fi sounding bug that lives in lakes and enters through your nose and eats your brain- I KNOW RIGHT?)
Now, granted, the flesh eating bacteria and the brain bug can harm an adult just as easily, but infants are more susceptible to e.coli and other more benign every day bacteria that an adult might fight off. In addition to that, there’s always the issue of overheating and sun exposure. Most sunblocks also state that they should be used starting at 6 months of age ( most likely for the first reason I outlined above). So it just makes sense to keep the little ones out of the water and in the shade for half a year, before they get stronger.

Additional Info from Megan from The Memoirs of Megan: Babies before 6 months of age have a harder time regulating their body temperature. To place them even in “warm pools” of 88-90 degrees (which most public pools are kept between 82-86 unless states that it is a warm water “therapy pool”) is lowering their core body temperature by over 8 degrees. That’s huge for an infant! Around 6 months of age is when scientifically, infants can control their own body temperature better.
Also, they have proper head control. Yes, my daughter was able to hold her head up unassisted at 2 months, however, some babies cannot, so 6 months is the typical age that the ARC and YMCA wait until.
But like E said, the biggest reason is that public pools are DIRTY (wanna know what’s worse? Hot tubs) Public pools use chlorine (bleach) to “Clean” the water, and muriatic acid to keep the pH (acidity level) in check. Even salt water pools must use muriatic acid. With your infant’s skin being so absorbent, it’s just not recommended. e coli and cripto can kill an adult, why risk it with a newborn? }

Now that Alexis is nearing her 6 months birthday, I am getting more and more excited about introducing her to the cool water of the pool and warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. She grew out of all of her swimsuits pretty much before I was able to try them on her, so I am shopping for new ones, but I cannot find anything as cute as these adorable Lourdes one pieces. There are some cute bikinis, but I think at this age, I might as well just have her wear a swim diaper. Once she can walk, we’ll see if we can find some cute bikinis.

Now mama (that’s me) herself is completely out of bikinis that fit her chest unless she wants to look like a pornstar ( which she doesn’t). I just ordered 4 new bikinis (FINALLY!) and cannot wait for the them to come some time next week. I am excited and scared at the same time, because in the past I could rely on everything fitting me exactly like the model on the pictures, now it’s a bit different (hopefully not for long) with me having to try and picture what it’s going to look like on me. We’ll see, we’ll see….

I have more pool photos coming up from our recent pool playdate and Father’s Day.

I cried because when I looked at Lexi lying on the bed all naked and chubby and cute, smiling at me with her gummy smile, I realized she is changing. She is growing and changing and she will never be this sweet, this small, this innocent. In that moment I realized how much I need to savor every moment, spend every waking second with her.

And also how vulnerable that love for her made me!

In that moment I realized that nothing else matters, not my work, not my hobbies, not “me” time. What matters is that I don’t miss out on tight snuggles, and soft limbs, and fingers in her mouth, drool all over her shirt, those heart melting post-nap smiles, the look on her eyes when she’s nursing, the way she opens her mouth when I kiss her, the way she is happy to see both of us, the serious thinker’s  face when we carry her around, her little face and chubby cheeks. I hope to keep those memories via thousands of photos and videos that I take of her every day.

I am not of the emotional kind, but it makes me extremely sad thinking that every moment with her can’t be re-lived, it’s gone.

And at the same time I am over the moon thinking about the moments we are yet to have. And I’ll be damned if I miss any of them.

I am not an emotional person. I do not cry. But today I did.

{Alexis at 1 month old}

I always thought newborns were like almost everything in life, by the numbers. I guess I never really gave babies a thought, never wondered what people who just have had a baby go through. But I just assumed that it would be the exact same experience like everything else in life. Everything I’ve encountered has made sense, has been about the effort and knowledge you put in: high school, college, relationships, work.
Newborns are a whole different breed. Newborns aren’t by the numbers. Newborns don’t make sense.

They sleep less than every book says, they eat more, they fuss the rest of the time. They smile and coo at the most random things, like the picture of you and your husband on a cruise on the wall behind the glider. They are the hardest to put to sleep when they want to sleep.

For us practicing AP style parenting has been what works. Do what she wants, give her as much love, food and attention as she will ask for and then some more.

{Alexis at 2 weeks old. Onesie by Nohi Kids}

It’s not always easy and ALWAYS exhausting but it’s the only thing that makes sense to us.

We’ve been able to keep crying to a minimum. She’s generally a very happy baby, but when she needs something she lets us know.

The most difficult thing for me about a new and more importantly first baby is the constant second guessing yourself if you’re doing it right. Cry isn’t the best communication tool even if you learn to disipher it a little bit. Newborns are SO extremely vulnerable that you worry about everything.
You worry about supporting their head, about not overheating them or leaving them too cold, about swaddling too tight or not tight enough, about keeping them comfy, about them being upset, about spending enough time with them, about their sleeping and eating patterns.

{Alexis at 3 weeks old. Sleeper is from Finn+Emma}

These are not conscious worries, but they are always in the back of your mind. And with that you become just as vulnerable yourself.

The first month was tough, emotionally, mentally. But once all the questions were more or less answered, came pure enjoyment of our baby. You know what she wants and when she wants it.

We’re not out of the woods yet. From what I’ve gathered, I don’t think we will
ever be. You enter the Forbidden Forest the day that stick turns blue and just hope that you can navigate and deal with the things it throws at you well enough.

Alexis is sleeping better nights. MUCH better nights. 3-4 hour stretches at a time. A good night means going to bed at 10pm, waking up at 2-3pm to eat, then again at 5 am and then waking up for the day at 7:00-7:30am. A bad night means waking up every 2 hours.

{Alexis at 1 week old}

It’s been incredibly hard to put her to sleep though. Most of the times, I spend 8pm to 10 pm just rocking her and shushing her until she finally passes out around 10. The whole two hours is squirm and fuss central.

About 2-3 weeks ago she became very interested in her surroundings. She’s always been a very alert baby and wanted nothing but to be carried around to look at things ever since she was born. But 2 weeks ago she took it to a WHOLE new level. If she’s not being stimulated, it’s the end of the world. However, with her being only two months old, her nervious system isn’t mature enough for all this stimulation, so she ends up OVERstimulating and going into a HUGE inconsolable cryfest. This is exactly what happened the few times I was gone and my hubby and my mom couldn’t calm her down. Back then we didn’t know about this new development of hers. We had no clue what was wrong.

{Alexis at 4 weeks old}

Nowadays, I have learned that with the amount of stimuli she gets, she needs to go to sleep within 50 minutes of waking. If I don’t start rocking her around that time, if I get to the point where she starts fussing, it’s way too late. So recently, we’ve had a nice little routine going: wake up, eat, play play play, sleep, wake up, eat, play play play….and on and on and on.

She started spacing out her feedings to 2 hours this week, which is freaking me out, because every time she’d fuss I’d try to give her the boob but she won’t take it :) So after I figured out the day sleep issue, I now know that if I hear a peep, she needs to sleep :)

Oh and she slept for 5 hours the other night. I think that’s considered sleeping through the night. So weird to think of that. I am so used to my little Alexis waking up often.

{Alexis at 3 days old.  Sleeper is from Finn+Emma}}

So this has been very disjointed, I realize. I cannot write “short” spur of the moment posts like these without them being a mess of thoughts.

I have to say I’ve been in a very good place lately, in a sort of equilibrium. Work is good, Lexi is good, I’m enjoying blogging like never before, I’ve gotten time management down, I don’t feel I’m slacking on anything I should be doing, I feel good. Now if I could only get into a work out routine, the world would be a happy place. I think I’ll start working on squeezing some Pilates in first thing in the morning. Vsemu Svoe Vremya! (“everything in its own time”)

It’s been 2 months and I cannot believe that I have finally gotten around to working on the newborn photos of Alexis. All the annoucements have been delivered so I am free to post these without spoiling the surprise.

Btw, for those looking to get baby announcements/thank you cards, etc, check out MetroBabyCards. That’s where I got mine and I was very happy with the quality, unlike some of the mainstream services I’ve used before (won’t name names).

When Alexis was born, I knew that newborn shots should be done in the first 10 days for easy positioning and cooperation from the newborn. The problem occurred when Alexis decided that newborn photos didn’t really matter and that she will NOT sleep for the first two weeks of her life. AT ALL! (well, not really but you get my point). She wouldn’t nap and wouldn’t sleep at night, unless she was on our chests and was a very alert newborn. You see the issue there when it comes to photographing a SLEEPING newborn? So I waited a week hoping that she would start sleeping soon. Nada! Finally I said, I’m just going to try the very next time she falls asleep on my chest.

I figured if it’s too hard, I’ll get a professional photographer, since I have never photographed newborns.  Hard to photograph was underestimating what Alexis presented us with. We would dress her, rock her to sleep, pose her, take 2-3 photos and she’d wake up. That continued for an hour or so, until I didn’t want to torture my poor baby anymore for the sake of her newborn shots. I took a few pictures of her awake with an adorable owl hat from Melondipity (and sucking her fist on most of them) and called it a day. In the next few days I attempted to take a few more but the girl would wake up THE second she was put down. We didn’t even have time to pose her. We had the heater up, a comfy place for her to lie on and yet the second she was off our chests, her eyes would pop open. So I gave up on the whole thing and didn’t call a newborn photographer, because with the way Alexis slept, there was not much that could have been done even if you have mad skills. However, to this day I see cute newborn photos on our people’s blogs and their account of how easy it was to pose him/her while sleeping ( yes, Melissa, I’m talking about your adorable boy), I smile and wish I could have had the same.

The most important thing is that I have a few posed shots of her as a little baby and a million others taken every day since they day she was born. So the memories will always be there. And it’ll be so much fun to show her the outtakes (they are HILARIOUS!).

Alexis at 10 days old

owl hat is from Melondipity

OH-MY-GOD!!!!!!

If I thought it was hard to take pictures when I was pregnant ( you know the whole “gather up the energy, put make up on, wash my hair, possibly style my hair, put clothes on, go somewhere pretty to take pictures), well it is twice as hard trying to get a good picture with Alexis in tow. I still have to do all the preparations listed below, all while she’s hopefully sleeping, then pray for good mood on Alexis’ part, so that all the pictures didn’t look like this

And even when she’s in a good mood, how on earth do you get a 2 months old to pose? You don’t! So you take a million shots hoping that at least in ONE of them she’s going to look decent in and you don’t have a closed eye or busy shushing her. It’s even harder with Alexis because she tends to make all kinds of faces that might look cute in real life, but definitely don’t when they’re frozen on a photograph.

So nowadays, I have to be content with 1 photo out of about 100 that looks good. And after yesterday’s Mommy and Me shoot, this is The Photo:

I think the result is decent considering yesterday was a fussy day!

We’re both wearing a Mommy and Me set from Boob Design, my absolutely favorite item in their store. If you’ve been reading my blog since I was pregnant, you’re aware of my undying love to this brand. I think they have the cutest maternity  clothes and absolutely THE BEST nursing wear on the market. They just opened their US store which makes it impossible for any pregnant or nursing woman to resist buying something. I wasn’t planning on running another Boob giveaway, but after numerous requests from readers, I finally have it ready. So enjoy! It’s open internationally and anyone who’s pregnant or nursing or planning on becoming pregnant or has a baby can enjoy Boob Design clothing. I also have a DISCOUNT CODE if you plan on purchasing something. It’s 20%OFF any purchase except for Outlet and it’s valid till April 12th. Use BOOBDESIGN-APRIL-20% code to get the discount.

Some of the other Boob items that I have:

 

So for those who aren’t familiar with Boob Design ( and note: this is not a review, I just love them this much), their nursing dresses, tees and tanks have a special pocket that opens up without exposing your belly so you can breastfeed in public without the darn cover-up. They are definitely my prefered online retailer of nursing clothes. I’ve nursed in Boob tees in public and it’s a breeze!

It’s funny that I had to nurse Lexi during the shoot, but it looks damn good, doesn’t it? You open the top pocket and latch the baby on- VOILA! No boob hanging out :) Most items are made out of organic cotton or  lyocell and are very nice to touch and are very stretchy ( which is a key to baby onesies, because Alexis has developed hatred of clothes going over her head, so I have to stretch the neck to make sure it doesn’t touch her face as I put it on)

So here are a few other photos taken that I am somewhat ( but not fully) happy with.

This was taken after the shoot, while I was putting Alexis to sleep in the stroller (more on that later)

BUY IT:  Use BOOBDESIGN-APRIL-20% code to get a 20% off discount until April 12th.

WIN IT:

So now, due to popular demand, I present to you a Boob Design giveaway.
There will be 3 winners of $150 credit to Boob Design Store each. The contest is open internationally and there’s a new entry that can be entered in once a day.

BELOW ARE THE GIVEAWAY RULES
and Mandatory Entries: {read carefully}

There are two mandatory entries, after which you will have additional entries available,
and 2 daily entries for which you can come back to enter daily.
The winning entry will be verified and the winner disqualified if the action is not found or if the mandatory items are not fullfilled.
Make sure to notate how you’re following the blog in the extra info field (entry #1). The entry won’t count if that information is missing.
Please make sure to visit Boob Design facebook page and write on their wall what you’d buy if you won.
The giveaway is open to INTERNATIONALLY. See the rafflecopter widget for additional terms and conditions.

UPDATE: You can now log into the Rafflecopter through Facebook or just by using your name/email.

If you have a blog, there’re 2 entries each worth 10 points ( post our button on your blog’s sidebar and blog about the giveaway)

{If you’re not sure how to use to enter, feel free to watch this video tutorial or email me at contact {at} prebabyblog {dot} com
Otherwise, make sure to read everything carefully. Click the DO IT link first, then I’VE DONE IT once the action is completed}

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: This is NOT a review.

I can’t believe it’s only been two months! I wonder when I’ll stop saying that. I feel like we’ve known Alexis for years.

So much has changed in two months. I will try and catch this blog up on it all, starting from first bath to videos and walks, all the way to our breastfeeding journey, beach trips and loving talks.
But today….well today is exactly 2 months since Alexis made her arrival and turned our world upside down.

I won’t be writing this update in any coherent manner, because you can’t make sense when you have a baby. Babies don’t make sense (more on that in a different post). {All the photos below are taken in the past month}

Personality

She has grown so much. Both in weight/height and mentally. From day 1 she’s always been a very aware, serious, alert baby. But this month it has taken on a new meaning. She wants nothing else but to be propped on your shoulder and carried around like in the picture above. She looks around like it’s her job. She’s so incredibly serious all the time.  She has a face that says “I am thinking about the solution to the world’s problems”. It’s calm and collected and serious and curious. I can almost see her little brain taking it all in and processing the information. Her favorite are pictures of mommy and daddy. She can stare at those for hours. Well, no, not hours, because she gets bored of one thing too soon.  But she will smile and laugh and coo at them and it’s amazing to watch. Sometimes after a feeding, she will fall away like a little monkey and I’ll put her on my lap facing me and after a few smiley faces she’ll redirect her attention to a picture of me wearing a red dress and my husband on a cruise hanging over the glider. She will laugh and smile and coo at it like it’s nobody’s business.

 

She also LOVES to smile. Her smiles come from two things and two things alone: interaction with people (preferably ones she know) and pictures of people. And when she smiles the whole world lights up. She transforms from this serious little baby to an adorably silly girly girl. There isn’t an time when she sees me that she doesn’t break into a big toothless gummy smile. She loves her mommy (or mommy’s boobie). Oh the smiles she gives me. Every morning, at every nap time, any time I lock my eyes with hers and smile, she laughs right back :) She’s starting to respond to “I’m gonna get ya!” type of games. I almost got a belly laugh ( it lasted all of 2 seconds) from her playing the game today.

Daddy and grandma have to work a bit harder to get her affection, but when they do, she loves them right back. Alexis has even smiled at strangers. We went to my 6 week OB appointment and she smiled and cooed at my doctor who delivered her ( and proceeded to fuss right after that).

She doesn’t really cry for no reason, which I am grateful for. She has all her needs catered to and if we’re not prompt enough in reading her cues, she lets us know with a little short yell “Ah!” and then again “Ah!” And if that doesn’t get our attention, the fuss train arrives. She fusses/cries for 4 reasons only: diaper needs to be changed, it’s time to eat, she’s sleepy and sometimes she needs an activity change. She has started not digging clothing and a few times would really get upset at it, but she quickly calms down when we are done.

She likes her gym but only a few minutes at a time, same with tummy time, though she hasn’t been too big of a fan so we do tummy time on my chest. She holds her head up sooo well that we almost don’t need to support it when we carry her (but still do just in case). She adores looking at clothing catalogs ( taking after her mama), especially if the model is blonde and is wearing a red dress. She talks at them like they’re real people.

Sleep

Because her nap routine has been so random up until now, it was hard to tell when she was fussy because she was overtired. I think I got it now that she’s been napping more consistently and boy is it much easier, but I am sorry it took me 8 weeks to nail that down. Her naps are hit or miss nowadays. She gets fussy/tired every 1.5 hours or so and some days she’ll only nap on us and will wake up the second you put her down and other days (more rarely) she’ll go down for a 1 hour nap.

The nights are geting so much better. Just this week she started sleeping an initial 4 hour stretch. It started with a 2 hour stretch which was amazing, then a week later we got a 3 hour stretch, a week after that we got 3 hours and 2 hours stretches, and now this week she’s been sleeping 4 hours when she’s first put down and then wake up every hour from then to eat like before. For some reason she won’t go down until 10 pm. Her bedtime used to be 8 pm before the time change, but now she wakes up every half an hour if we force her to sleep at 8 or 9pm and won’t go for her nightly sleep till 10.

So our night looks like this:
10pm-2am- sleep
2am-2:45am-  nurse, change, nurse, rock back to sleep
This sometimes proves to be difficult, as she tends to be wide awake around 3 am
3am-4am sleep
4am-4:20am- nurse
4:20am-5:20 am sleep
5:20-5:40 am nurse
5:40-6:40 sleep
6:40-7:00-nurse
7:00-7:30 sleep
7:30- she’s up for the day.

This is a welcome change for us, because before we had to get up every hour and now we at least get a decent 4 hour stretch. So now we’re down to 3-4 wakings or less sometimes. Our little girl is growing and I can foresee her sleep getting longer and longer.

 

Preferences

She still won’t take a pacifier, but LOVES to suck on her hands or MY knuckles for that matter. It almost makes me think she’s teething, because of all the drool and the gusto that she gums my knuckle with if I only get my hand near her mouth. But I know it’s way too early for that.
She’s also trying to sit up. Whenever she grabs a hold of my fingers, she tries to pull up and succeeds. She loves looking around in a sitting position and starts fussing as soon as you put her down. My mom gets really mad at me for letting her pull up, because older generation/Russian people have this thing about sitting babies up before 4-6 months. I couldn’t find any information about that, except for to encourage babies to sit up to get their muscles working and get them sued to the feeling, so I am going to ask our pediatrician about it next week.

She’s finally liking her stroller walks and starting to not mind carriers (though those can be hit or miss). I still can’t get her to do any one activity for longer than 20 minutes and I don’t like leaving her to her own devices, so there’s always someone interacting with her (mostly me), with occasional bouts of bouncy chair (when I need to pee or eat) and toys, but even then I try to talk to her about the toys she’s looking at (Did you know to maximize language development you need to say 30,000 words directed at the baby A DAY? Isn’t that insane?)

Health

Speaking of development, I also make sure to take at least 3 grams of DHA ( or eat 3 grams of DHA in fatty fish) a day, since that has been found to be extremely beneficial in nursing mothers (for baby’s brain development). When it comes to dietary restrictions, I don’t do dairy due to cow’s milk proteins and their negative effects on digestive system and allergic reactions (which is possibly why she hasn’t had ANY problems with lower intestinal pain and/or gas). I have also excluded tomatoes, citrus, onion to improve her reflux ( I didn’t realize how hard it is to NOT eat tomatoes or onions)

Speaking of reflux, it doesn’t seem to bother her much, except for on occasion when she really needs to burp. She does spit up, but it’s not of a big concern unless she’s lying on her back. So at night she sleeps on her side and during the day naps in bouncy chairs. I wonder how common mild spit up/reflux issues are… Is there anyone out there who ISN’T dealing with it to an extent? It’d be super awesome to just lay her on her back and not worry about food coming back up her throat. We both cannot wait until it eases up at 3 months (if it does), so that she’s more comfortable.

Eating

She still eats very frequently. During the day it’s pretty much every hour. Though for the past two days she’s gone more like every 1.5 to 2 hours between feedings most of the time, but it is not something I can rely on yet. One thing is clear. She’s growing and her eating and sleeping habits are changing for the better and all we had to do is wait for her to grow up a little bit. She does this adorable thing now when she eats: she runs her hand up and down my boob and when it’s well moisturized you can see the deliberation in it- she loves the feeling of her fingers sliding back and forth.

{Lexi is up from her 30 minute nap, so I’m going to give her some smiles and feed her and hope I can still get back to this post today (…) Daddy took her for a stroller walk so I’m back}

She’s has grown physically as well. Hourly feedings are definitely showing in her chins and cheeks and rolls and folds. She is a BIG BIG breastfed baby. She’s pretty much grown out of 0-3 months clothing and fits right into most 3-6 months. As a matter of fact, I got this adorable 3-6  bamboo romper from an organic Chinese  company via Zulily and it was too small (see picture below)

 

Appearance

Her baby acne is starting to disappear, her angel kiss (the forehead mark) is fading a bit, though both come out full strength when she is fussy, crying, or trying to poop, as well as at some other random times. Her diaper rash is gone, thanks to Lavanila and her body rash has cleared up. All her dry skin is gone and slowly her skin and body are adjusting to the life outside of the womb. I think her hair WILL lighten up (or fall out) and become blonde, because her eyebrows are super blonde like mine and her skin is fair ( I almost lost her nipples on one picture, I couldn’t differentiate her acne from her nipple). Her hair get sweaty so fast, because she’s constantly in our arms and when it’s wet, it gets this cute curl to it.

 

All in all, she’s a happy girl, who gifts us lots of smiles, a few fussy periods so that we’d treasure those smiles and a hell of a lot of personality! I am just dying to see how it develops over the years and months and cannot wait to go on adventures with my little girl!

HAPPY 2 MONTHS, baby girl! We love you!

 

To celebrate her 2 monthaversary, I’m going to run a BIG giveaway from organic baby clothing companies (1 clothing item each). I am going to try to get it out by tomorrow, but not sure if that’s going to happen. So look for it in the next couple of days.