Board Report

I’m getting used to this whole maternity leave thing. The first few weeks were a little strange; not just the fact that I suddenly wasn’t working, but figuring out who this little person is and learning how to take care of a newborn baby - it was a lot of change all at once. We’re halfway through now, and it’s getting really fun! Not only is Aurora smiling and interacting more, but I’m settling into it. We’re getting out more often, I have more energy, and I think I’m pretty lucky that I get to spend my days with my daughter. After all, she won’t be this tiny and adorable for long.

Yesterday we figured out how to get her to sleep longer through the night. In hindsight it seems so obvious, but once Chuck started giving the last bottle of the day and putting her down to sleep, it took a couple days to step back and figure out how we could establish a better nighttime routine.

The first nights that Chuck put her to bed, she woke up before 3am, which was just too early. I’d feed her and put her back to sleep, but it messed up our schedule and made for an overly tired momma. I realized in the morning that Chuck had left her in a onesie, and she was wriggling out of her blankie and getting cold. I’d bring her into our bed and we’d snuggle to warm her up. I asked Chuck to be sure he’s changing her diaper and putting her in warmer pj’s before bed, and the last two nights he also swaddled her more snugly. Low and behold, she started sleeping longer! Turns out, the warmer and cozier she is, the more she sleeps. It’s been so hot here in Austin that I think he didn’t want her to overheat, but we do have the A/C and ceiling fan on, and she has a very little body.

The other thing that’s been bothering her is gas, which is a struggle day and night. About a week ago I picked up Mylicon infant gas relief drops, and they’ve been helping. Now before bed we feed her, give her Mylicon drops, change her diaper, change her into pajamas, rock and sway her, kiss and love her, wrap her up nice and warm, and voila - she sleeps 6 hours straight, from about 10:30pm-4:30am. And this will continue to extend as she gets bigger.

Parenting really is a full-time job, and having a happy family isn't just luck - it requires the same skills as any other job: analytical thinking, planning, organization, scheduling, flexibility, delegation, communication, creativity and patience. I think I might deserve a raise!

6 weeks

Today Aurora is 6 weeks old, which means I’ve been on maternity leave for 6 weeks, and I have 6 weeks left to go.

Today was also my 6 week postpartum OB check. I’ve been thinking things haven’t been healing quite right, and I’ve been worried that I’ll never be the same again. Dr. Belt said “of course you’ll never be the same, you had a baby!” Turns out, some of my stitches haven’t dissolved yet so I’m still a little sore and swollen for good reason. She said everything looked fine otherwise, but did not release me to partake in all “normal activities” yet, if ya know what I mean.

As far as the fibroid is concerned, I told her that I’d done some research, and found that small fibroids often grow during pregnancy due to increased blood flow and an increase in estrogen, and usually shrink again after having the baby. Low doses of progesterone can help shrink them, and that’s what’s released in most birth control these days. So, I decided I’d like to try the Mirena IUD, and hold off on the surgery for now. She said that’s totally fine; we can do another sonogram in 3-months and see how things are looking. If it’s shrinking, we’ll leave it. If it’s growing, we’ll have the surgery. Sounds like a plan.

Yesterday I picked up the photos from our Mother’s Day photo shoot. Nothing fancy, but didn't they turn out cute!?

Hitting the bottle

We spent Memorial Day with our neighbors Ron & Kathy, Amy, Ron’s sister Wendy and her family (including a 9 month old and a 3 year old), and a few others… it was great to hang out with friends, and even better that we could just stroll over to their house with Aurora. Ron barbequed delicious shrimp & pineapple skewers, salmon, and corn on the cob; and Chuck had almost a full bottle of wine (along with a few Mai Tai’s).

Aurora did quite well. Lauren, the 3 year old girl pictured below who entertained us with her amazing dancing, LOVED having a baby girl there and really wanted to play with her. It was cute.

Aurora did start getting fussy by the end of the evening, and was pretty upset by the time we got home – so much so that she refused to eat. So we did something we’ve been planning on doing for a couple of weeks; we had Chuck give her a bottle of expressed milk, and it went great!

We’d just been talking to the couple at the party about feedings, and Wendy said that she always had her husband give one bottle a day. It allowed them to bond and gave her a little break. It’s time we start doing that – and I’m thinking the evening fussy time is just the time to do it! That or the last feeding of the night, so I can go to bed a little earlier.

We wanted to wait to introduce the bottle until she got really good at nursing, as the two feeding methods require different skills. A baby who’s struggling with breastfeeding might decide that bottles are easier and that’s the only way they want to eat. You also don’t want to wait so long that she won’t accept a bottle at all. We have to get her used to bottles so that she can eat when we start her in daycare!

The whole feeding thing is kind of crazy… I mean, here’s this living human being who is being sustained on nothing but mother’s milk. It’s an awesome responsibility, and you don’t want to screw it up. Since her recent growth spurt, Aurora’s been stronger and better at breastfeeding, and it’s gotten easier for both of us. If only there were no fussy times...

A Day in the Life

Last night was the closest Aurora’s come to sleeping through the night. She fed at 10:30pm, we were asleep by 11, and I didn’t hear from her again until 5:30am! Then she slept again from 6:00-8:30, the whole night in her own bassinet with no pacifier. Wow.

Chuck woke me up at 4:15 to ask if I’d fed her, or if it was okay that she’d been sleeping for so long. I told him we want her to sleep through the night, and he promptly fell back asleep. I spent the next hour listening to her breathing noises, anticipating when she’d wake up hungry. Oh well. I still slept over 8 hours total, and woke up to the happiest baby.

That was just a little out of the ordinary. For the past week or so, an “average” day for us has looked something like this:

3:30am feeding, back to sleep
7:00am feeding and diaper change
I wake up, eat breakfast, take a shower, then go online
Chuck & Aurora snuggle and snooze
9:30am feeding and diaper change
Aurora has her most fun active awake time
Chuck wakes up, brews coffee, starts working
12:30pm feeding and diaper change
I make lunch, Chuck takes a break
3:30pm feeding, diapering, and a long nap
Sometimes I nap with her, sometimes I go run errands
6:00pm feeding and diaper change
Chuck might jog and shower now
I make food or we go out to dinner and take a walk
8:30pm feeding, diaper change, and fussy time
We watch a movie (or TV depending on the night)
11:00pm last feeding and diaper of the day, bedtime for the girls
Chuck usually checks email or works for another hour

All in all, a good routine for a 5-week old and her parents. But I do hope longer night sleeping becomes a new trend!

Memorial Day?

I have to tell you, I didn’t even realize it was a holiday weekend until my neighbor called to invite us to a BBQ on Monday. I thought to myself… Monday at 4pm? Did she get fired!? See, every day is a holiday when you’re on maternity leave.

It did get me thinking – maybe while I’m on leave we should take Aurora on a little road trip somewhere! I’ve been scouring the internet for baby-friendly things to do nearby; there’s Baby Day at the Alamo, the Austin Children’s Museum, story time at the Public Library, the zoo (all of which we plan to do when Katie’s here); I hadn’t even considered a road trip!

I guess the question is – where would we go? Where would you take an infant? If you live in Austin, your ideas are appreciated. If you don’t live in TX, heck even if you don’t have kids, leave a comment with your ideas anyway – and tell us what you’re doing for Memorial Day weekend!

Ommmmmm...

Today Aurora and I went to our first postnatal yoga class at Yoga Yoga.

Rora was by far the youngest baby there. Most were between 3 and 6 months old, and they were sitting up and interacting on a completely different level. But Aurora didn't fuss once and seemed to enjoy watching me do downward dogs and warrior poses. She didn’t mind getting picked up and swung around to songs like “Itsy Bitsy Spider,” and she ended up spending about half of the class napping on her blankie.

The teacher couldn’t believe I was feeling up to it after only a month, but since taking several long walks with my parents, I’ve been ready to get back into yoga, and it was an easy workout. We’ll be back next week!

A cousin is born!

Zeland Andrew Wadey was born at 4:21 this morning. He weighs 6 lbs 14 oz and is 20.5 inches long, and he is SO CUTE!!! He looks just like his dad (Chuck's brother Andrew), which means he has a beautiful Wadey nose!

We just found out 14 hours after he was born, and I hear Julia only pushed for 3 minutes. These 2 facts make me mad. Okay, I’m not really mad that she only pushed for 3 minutes, but I might be a little jealous!

Congratulations Andrew & Julia. We are so happy that our children will get to share holidays and milestones, even if we’re in Austin and you’re in Phoenix. Enjoy your sweet little boy and get some rest.

One month old

Friday Aurora was 4-weeks old, and today she turns one month old... I'm not sure if you're supposed to count a baby's age in weeks or months, but either way I'm sure it's worthy of celebration!

Today we had Daniela and her mom over for lunch, and it was fun to clean up the house and cook some yummy food. I made a spinach and salmon frittata, as well as a lemon pound cake (inspired by Devon's orange pound cake) from scratch. Daniela and her mom have both done so much for us - it was nice to do something small for them.

Afterwards, Chuck danced around with a happy smiling baby

Then I brought down her tummy time mat and she played on it for awhile

Of course, the happiness was interspersed with fussiness... I'd given her a little bit of apple juice mixed with water to help with the gas, but she ended up throwing it up all over me! Oh well. It may just be a fussy time in her life, and as long as she's not in terrible pain or failing to thrive, we won't worry about it too much. Happy one month birthday baby girl.

Why so sad?

Yesterday was the fussiest day of Aurora’s young life. While I was glad to have my parents here to help, I feel bad that their memory of baby Aurora will include so much screaming and crying. Nancy & Steve endured fussy evenings, but nothing quite like this. I've been trying to figure out what could've been making her so upset. Here are my theories:

1. Over stimulation. I thought this at first when Nancy was here, as we were going out sometimes twice a day. My mom suspected that just having so many people around could be keeping her awake and over stimulated. At this point, I do not believe that was the problem.

2. Something in my diet is making her gassy. She’s been displaying all the signs of gassiness causing her distress. When Nancy was here I had onions and garlic a few times. I thought that could’ve been it, so this week I eliminated those from my diet. When the fussiness continued, I researched online and it turns out the main culprits are usually spicy foods and dairy. While my parents were here I had a lot of ice cream and milk. This week I will decrease my dairy intake and see how that goes.

3. Growing pains. This increased fussiness has been accompanied by a serious growth spurt. She was growing fairly steadily the first few weeks of her life, but this morning we woke up to a bigger baby. While I don’t have a good enough scale to weigh her, she is definitely heavier today, and her newborn diapers are suddenly too tight!

4. It’s hard to be a person. Along with this growth in size has been a growth in awareness too. She has started to focus on things that she never noticed before. When my parents were here, she started smiling and looking over at my mom when she’d talk to her. She had already been holding her head up during tummy time, but now she can decide which direction she wants to look to pay attention to her surroundings. As neat as this is, it could also be frustrating that she can understand things better but still can’t communicate.

Well, those are the theories. I think changing my diet should make the biggest impact, but combine that gassiness with everything else and I can see why she’d want to cry. Whoever came up with the saying “poor baby” got it right. Whoever came up with “sleeping like a baby” was just silly.

Speaking of sleep, one good side-effect of yesterday’s fussiness was that it totally wore her out and she slept for 6-hours straight last night! I feel so lucky that she’s saving all her crying for daylight hours and letting us sleep at night. Let’s hope I didn’t just jinx it!!!

Amazing

My parents have really been earning their keep here at the Wadey house. In these last couple of days my dad:

Mowed the lawn
Pulled the weeds
Took down the area of fence we didn’t want
Replaced bad fence posts with good fence posts
Replaced the outlets and plugs in Chuck’s garage
Replaced the upstairs smoke detector
Fixed our squeaky bedroom door
Fixed the light in Aurora’s closet
And fixed our bathroom fan

My mom has been cooking dinner for us every night (and giving us cookies & ice cream everyday), helping with dishes and laundry, and soothing the increasingly fussy baby whenever she has a spare moment.

Mom, Aurora and I did go get portraits taken at JCPenney yesterday, but we don’t get to pick them up for 2 weeks. I’ll scan and post them then – they are super cute! Chuck and I decided not to introduce bottle feeding to Rora and go on a date today. We’ve had 13 years of going out on our own, but only have 4 days with my parents this week, so we decided to take them out to lunch instead. Tonight we’ll watch a DVD at home.

So, a huge thanks to my dad; a happy Mother’s Day week to my mom; a shout out to Chuck - who’s been working as much as possible during both our parents' visits and is an amazing dad; another thank you to Nancy for coming and spending so much time with us - I hope things have been going well since you returned home; and a special thanks to my friend Kris, who just sent us the most amazing baby gift… she actually scrapbooked this entire blog! We’re all just completely amazed.

Now, I think it's time for a nap. Incase you haven't noticed, Aurora is a fabulous napping companion...

Smile for Grandma!

My parents came in last night, and this morning while my mom was holding Aurora, she smiled! She smiled at her grandma, then smiled at my dad, and then looked me straight in the eye and gave me the biggest smile too! I sure wish I had my camera at the ready for that... but later in the day I captured the end of a second smile-fest. How cool is that!

Here's a picture of Grandma Slane admiring her little granddaughter.

This visit will be too short, but we're going to fit as much into this week as possible. Dad's doing some electrical handyman work for us, and tomorrow me, my mom, and Aurora are going to get a photo sitting as a late Mother's Day outing. On Friday we're thinking Chuck & I may leave Rora with the parents and go out to a movie together!

Mother’s Day

First for me as a mom
First for Chuck’s mom as a grandma

A week long visit
Pedicures
Cards and gifts, calls and texts
Grocery shopping alone
Quiche and sweet potatoes
A long walk around Townlake
The sweetest baby girl
Gelato for dessert
Lots of pictures...

And a poem for all you mothers and daughters
(courtesy of a card Nancy sent me after Aurora was born)

Someday…

Someday, she’ll be a famous pianist
Or a high school science teacher.
She’ll settle down, marry, have a couple of kids.
Maybe she won’t.
Someday, she’ll help millions of people
All over the world.
Or maybe she’ll travel to Africa
Or phone you from Rome.
Someday, she’ll be a strong,
Confident woman…
But you’ll always remember
The first time
You held her in your arms.
Someday, she’ll have
Her own hopes and dreams,
Not knowing that once upon
A quiet time, you closed your eyes
And dreamed
To have her in your life.