I tried to listen to the new Incubus single yesterday afternoon but had to stop halfway through because it was making Lelia cry. Guess it’s only the music of Baby Einstein for mommy and Leels! She absolutely loves the Baby Noah DVD. There is a part where two blue hippos sing some wacky song while a cracked out elephant dances insanely across the screen and interrupts. She LOVES that part. It usually gets one of her scream squeals. (She has morphed into a cross between a pterodactyl and a velociraptor the past week or so..so happiness equals headache inducing squeal screams.)
Baby Einstein is actually what is giving me a free minute to blog right now! She got her four month shots yesterday and is a little grumplestiltskin. I tried her play mat, her jumperoo, her changing pad (she usually marches on it to ocean songs) and even walking around with her..but all she wanted was baby einstein. She is now cooing away happily at all the puppets and animals on the screen! She should be back to normal in a few days…hopefully. I miss her smiley face!
I finally threw in the towel when it comes to nursing yesterday. I struggled with a low supply since she was born despite her having a fantastic latch from the get go. She barely gained anything her first month and I was forced to start supplementing with formula since she was “failing to thrive”. I tried fenugreek, mothers milk tea, oatmeal, keeping my calories around 2000-2500, drinking tons and tons of water (like 100oz a day!), power pumping, and even the prescription Reglan. Nothing worked to increase the supply though. (The reglan only made my small bout of post partum depression worse. The ppd cleared up almost completely once I stopped taking it!)
She was no longer interested in nursing since she would pop off and stare at her waiting bottle to “sad talk” so I was pumping and storing. I was only pumping about 2 oz a night and then that dropped to 1oz a night so I decided it was time I just came to terms with the fact that breastfeeding for a year as planned just wasn’t going to happen. I am proud of myself for withstanding the first 6-7 weeks of horrid nipple pain to give my daughter mommy milk..even if it only ended up lasting till she was 4 months and 1 week old. She is now thriving and couldn’t be healthier..weighing in at 14.5 pounds and measuring 25 inches at her appointment on Monday. She’s my healthy little chunkasaurus! I felt (and still feel) guilty for giving up on the pumping but in the grand scheme of things her getting 1-2 oz of mommy milk a day along with about 30oz of formula wasn’t going to make a big enough difference to keep up the struggle. I have a bunch of frozen milk I can thaw and still give to her for the next month or so too. I did my best and that’s all one can do right? (I am extrmely jealous of all the mommies who have no issues breast feeding…I reallllly wanted to exclusively breastfeed the first 6 months..but oh well.)
Now that I am no longer nursing I can at least start eating and drinking more normally without worrying about restrictions! I had my first cup of caffeinated coffee this morning and I was wired with energy. It was nice to feel nice and awake for a change! Hahaha. I am also going to make my mom’s recipe for chili tomorrow in the crockpot which I am super excited about. I have had to avoid all red sauce/tomato sauce items when nursing her cause it would make her spitting up worse. Now that I am no longer nursing I can make that chili! 😀 I even grabbed some sirloin beef chunks from Sam’s Club yesterday that I am going to brown up and add to the chili to do a little something different. I bet it will be yum! (And then I can make taco salads with leftovers..even more yum!!) I am hoping to make spaghetti next week as well since I have been craving homemade spaghetti and meat balls (loaded with parmesan!) for months now.
Well Baby Einstein is wrapping up so I better get back to work on some orders before she gets pissed again. I just wanted to check in! New post soon about fitness and weight loss goals now that my punkin is out of my belly (and I have about 10-15 more pounds to lose to be back to pre-pregnancy weight!)