breastfeeding – Page 6 – Keeping up with the Hoffmans

NICU day two

May 20, 2016August 6, 2018 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

Emmett is two days old now – about 55 hours to be exact. So much has happened in just one day, and I think the gravity of what we have ahead of us is starting to sink in. How can we do this for three months? It feels impossible. But I guess we have to. The alternative is even more difficult to fathom and I refuse to even type it. The good news is, Emmett continues to impress the NICU team, though we certainly got our first taste of the “two steps forward, one step back” pattern we were warned about today.

The biggest milestone today: they removed his breathing tube! That’s a huge step in his journey toward breathing on his own. The problem was, he still needed some assistance, and the team determined a CPAP (like what adults with sleep apnea use) was the way to go — and Emmett HATED it. It was too much air pressure for him, so every time he would get a puff of air from the CPAP through his nose, he would open his mouth in reflex and chuff out some of that precious oxygen. This caused the oxygen sensors to go berserk every couple minutes and made it sound like he was crashing. Even though the nurse and RT assured me he was fine – that he just needed to get used to it and that the alarms were just overly sensitive, the sound of all those alarms was just so unnerving, and in my sleep deprived state (3 hours last night and 4 the night before), it was simply too much for me to handle. Emmett was flailing around in protest, alarms were going off left and right, and I broke down sobbing. This went on for a couple hours. They even put a chin strap on him to keep him from letting all the air out his mouth, but then his face just looked smooshed and he was still fighting the machine. Finally, the team determined he was expending too much energy fighting and tried a nasal cannula instead of the CPAP. It was like an instant calm came over the room and things have been better ever since. I swear, I’m going to be hearing that damn alarm in my nightmares. D joked that E will probably need it to fall asleep once we take him home.

One thing I should mention, that was pretty amazing, was in between pulling the tube and putting on the CPAP, I got to see his full face again for the first time since birth. It was only a split second, but I snapped a quick photo.

Another benefit of not having the breathing tube is that he can actually cry now! As of right now it sounds more like a kitten mewing than a baby crying, but to me it’s the most beautiful sound in the world. I hope six months from now when he’s hollering and screaming all night, that I remember and appreciate how truly beautiful that cry really is, and how far we’ve come.

His bilirubin was looking a little low today, so after bragging yesterday that he hadn’t needed phototherapy yet, he started on it today, and will be on it through the night. They’ll draw his levels again in the morning. Thankfully, he doesn’t seem to mind it, though our whole room is glowing blue.

Around 1 p.m. the nurse wanted to insert a PICC line for nutrition and antibiotics. It’s a bit of a complex procedure so they require parents to step out of the room. D and I used the opportunity to take a walk and get some fresh air. We went down to an outside courtyard and sat in the sun, and I called my parents and gave them an update. The nurse called me on my cell when they were done and we went back to the room and found a calm and sleeping Emmett. Everything had gone perfectly with the PICC.

Around 5 p.m., the doctor stopped by to tell us she was concerned with how high his metabolic acid levels were. She said it could be something as simple as dehydration (he has been peeing a ton), or it could be an infection. She wanted to give him fluids and another dose of antibiotic (he’s been on antibiotics since birth due to the amniotic rupture), and then check his levels again at 8 p.m. If they didn’t drop, she wasn’t sure what could be causing it and mysteries are no good. D and I were a little troubled, but took a break to go home to the dogs, ate some dinner, cleaned up the house a bit and then met the doctor back in E’s room at 8. Thankfully, his metabolic acid levels are now fine. What a relief.

Another highlight of my day? I officially have working boobs. I may have shed tears of joy over pumping a whole 1.5 ML of colostrum this morning. It’s not much, but it was enough to get into a syringe and we can start feeding tomorrow (he’s been on just IV fluids so far, and the doctor wanted to figure out what was happening with his metabolic acid levels before we attempted feeding). I’ve been pumping every 2-3 hours around the clock since he was born and was beginning to get pretty frustrated with my lack of anything to show for it. But since this morning’s pump, I’ve been gradually increasing my production and am now up to 8 ML. The nurse says we’re already way ahead of what he needs, so I guess I’ll just get started on that stash! Since we’ll be pumping for quite a while before I can actually nurse him, it’ll be nice to have a good stash built up so I don’t have to worry about running out. Speaking of nursing — the nurse and I both noticed he has a tongue tie, which could interfere with nursing. They said it would be no problem to clip it once we get a little closer to that milestone. No use in putting him though more than necessary right now.

D went home to sleep shortly after talking to the doctor this evening, and I’m spending another night in the NICU. Tomorrow I’m going to take a little break and take T to swimming lessons, and D will come stay in the NICU. Then around naptime we’ll trade off and I’ll head back here and he’ll take T to a party. I’ll probably go home to sleep tomorrow night since we’ll have T with us again. Balancing our home life and our NICU life is going to be a bit tricky. We still haven’t decided when or how to tell T about baby brother, but will probably wait until E is presentable enough that we can introduce them. Right now all the wires are pretty intimidating and he’s too fragile for us to even hold. I can’t wait for the day I can get a picture of Theo holding Emmett.

Really looking forward to seeing my big boy tomorrow. I’ve missed him so much.

Baby Emmett, breastfeeding, NICU

NICU day one.

May 20, 2016August 6, 2018 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

Emmett is now about 34 hours old and we are learning all there is to know about milestones, life in the NICU and a bunch of other stuff I never thought I’d need to know. I’m going to do my best to keep this blog updated with Emmett’s progress and things we’re learning, even if some of the details may be a bit fuzzy to me. As you can imagine, my head is currently spinning.

Honeymoons and two-steps:

When we arrived yesterday, the doctors and NICU staff warned us right off the bat that the first 24 hours in the NICU tend to be the honeymoon period, and that going forward, it’s common for things to take a “two steps forward, one step back” pattern, even in the best of cases. So we’re learning to strike a balance between positive thinking and realism. That said, everyone has been marveling at how well Emmett has been doing so far!

Goals and milestones:

Long-term (i.e., in order to spring him from this joint), our big milestones we have to hit are: breathing on his own, regulating his temperature on his own, sleeping in a crib and not an incubator (I think this is related mostly to temperature regulation) and all feedings via mouth (breast or bottle, as opposed to IV or tube). There are many, many smaller milestones and sub-milestones, but those are the biggies.

Progress report:

I’m happy to report, E is already making great progress on the breathing front. When he was born, they had to immediately intubate him and hook him up to a respirator that breathes for him. According to the doctors, babies this premature get easily tired and basically forget to breathe. So he has to learn to do it on his own. Earlier today they were able to stop the continuous forced breathing and instead set him up so if he didn’t take a breath every two seconds, the machine would kick on for him and help him. Later this afternoon, they increased that interval to four seconds. They’re basically testing his ability to do it himself by offering less and less help (but always having safeguards in case he doesn’t take a breath on his own). He’s been doing great, and if he continues to do well throughout the night, they will actually remove the breathing tube tomorrow morning (which will allow us to see more of his beautiful face and actually hear him cry!), and put him on a CPAP or a forced-air cannula. These will still offer some assistance and not let him go without oxygen if he were to forget to breathe, but they both allow for a little more independence. They’ve cautioned us that if he doesn’t do as well on that as they’d hoped, there’s always a chance we could have to go back to the breathing tube (again – two steps forward, one step back), but at this point they’re feeling optimistic he can do it.

There’s also a chance tomorrow that they may be able to remove the catheters that are inserted in his belly button that are measuring his ~~blood oxygen level (I think? My head is swimming)~~ sugars and blood gases (just confirmed), and if that happens, we may even get to hold him and do skin-to-skin for the first time. We can hold him with most of his tubes and wires still hooked up, but the belly button ones are particularly fragile, so those have to come out first.

I’m happy to report his bilirubin levels have been pretty good and he isn’t showing signs of jaundice. So no phototherapy needed yet, but that doesn’t mean he won’t need it at some point. It’s still early.

Random learnings:

It’s past midnight now and after just four hours of sleep last night, I think the adrenaline may finally be surrendering to the fatigue, so I’m going to wrap this post with a random brain dump of just a few of the many things we’ve learned about life in the NICU. It’s a whole ‘nother world, for sure…

You will wash your hands raw. Enter a room? Leave a room? Eat? Touch your face or hair? You wash your hands before you do anything and everything. I got an amazing care package from some dear friends yesterday and they thought to include hand lotion. Smart.
It’s hard not to jump every time you hear an alarm. And there are a lot of alarms.
You do start to learn the difference between the really bad alarms (heart or breathing-related, etc.) and the more innocuous ones (for example, the IV station monitor alerts when a bag is half full, then 1/4 full, and then empty. We get it, IV.).
In addition to the alarms in your own room, the monitors in the hallway have alarms for all the patients for safety redundancy, and since doors are almost always open for easy staff access, it’s sometimes hard to tell whether the sound is coming from your room or the hallway. And then you feel relief, followed by guilt for feeling relieved, when you realize it’s not your baby’s alarm that’s sounding.
The NICU staff are truly amazing. I’m already in love with our doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists and we’ve only been here a day. I can already tell leaving them will be a bittersweet and emotional experience. I can only imagine the types of heartbreaking situations these folks deal with on a regular basis. On top of that, they patiently explain everything to parents like me who hover over their shoulder and ask them millions of questions while they’re trying to do their job.
Trying to get your milk to come in via pumping instead of nursing SUCKS. Especially when your boobs thought they had another 14 weeks before they had to perform.
There’s a lot of downtime. We have been told we can touch Emmett when he’s awake, but to let him sleep as much as possible. So for a lot of the day, we’re just sitting here. I’ve kept myself busy keeping friends and family updated, but even if I’m not interacting with E directly, it’s still comforting to just be here beside him. If (God forbid) something went wrong, I would want to be here, and I also want to be here to celebrate every milestone and achievement.
There’s a certain solidarity between NICU families. Whether it’s a weary smile from another parent in the hallway or an email or text from a friend who’s been there (or a friend of a friend, in some cases!), I’m finding a rapidly growing network of others who just get it. Some of the best “therapy” for me so far has been simply hearing success stories of children who got a rough start way too early but are thriving now. There’s actually a wall in the hallway here with photos of beautiful, smiling children of various ages. Under each one is a plaque that states their weight and gestational age at birth. It’s truly beautiful, and brings a smile to my face every time I walk by.

Baby Emmett, breastfeeding, health & body, NICU, pregnancy

Welcome to the world, Emmett!

May 19, 2016August 6, 2018 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

This is certainly not a post I ever thought I’d be writing at just 26 weeks 2 days.

I really should go to sleep right now. It’s been a long, emotional day. But I’m completely wired and I don’t really feel like leaving the NICU, so I thought I’d grab my laptop, sit by my baby, and try to make sense of the day’s events in one of the most therapeutic ways I know — writing. And, much like my birth story with Theo, I know is is probably way more information than most people would ever want to read, but recalling all the details helps me process.

The short version:

Emmett John Hoffman made a dramatic entrance into this world today at 2:20 p.m. At just 26 weeks 2 days gestation, he weighed in at 1 lb. 14 oz and is 13 inches in length. We have a long road ahead of us, as doctors estimate he’ll stay in the NICU until close to his original due date of August 22. But this guy is already a fighter. He came out crying and already peed on the nurses.

The novel:

For the last couple days, things have felt, shall we say — a little more damp than normal. A lot of this I just chalked up to one of the less glamorous things about pregnancy that no one talks about. I remember The Grossness with my pregnancy with T, but I couldn’t quite shake the concern that it seemed to come on fairly suddenly this time. By last night it had increased to the point where I was genuinely starting to worry. Still, I know I can be a bit of a hypochondriac, and the fact that we’ve had two losses certainly doesn’t help that. After googling whether you can check for amniotic fluid at home, I hopped onto Amazon around midnight last night and one-day-Primed some Ph test strips. I figured $10 was a small price to pay to put my mind at ease. I’d test today and if anything looked questionable or I wasn’t reassured, I’d head to labor and delivery to get checked out. Just to be safe.

This morning I woke up around 5 a.m. to not only more of The Grossness, but it was tinged with blood and I was having mild contractions about 3-5 minutes apart. Even though I’ve been getting Braxton Hicks contractions for a few weeks now, I’d never had them this regularly. This was all making me feel really uneasy so I called the on-call OB. Without hesitation she told me, “Go to labor and delivery.” Unfortunately, D was out of town for work, so I had to get T off to daycare myself first. Getting him ready has been a bit of a struggle lately and timeliness has not been our strong suit. I may have bribed him with candy just to hurry and get in the damn car. Dropping him off was an incredibly emotional experience. This was possibly his last day as an only child but I had to rush him into his class while trying not to appear too worried (after all, there was a part of me still holding out hope it was nothing). I fought back tears as I kissed both cheeks, the top of his head and inhaled the smell of his hair. And then I practically ran out the door and sped to the hospital.

When I went to check into triage, I burst into tears and could hardly even tell them my name. I was alone and scared. D had no clue what was happening because he was on a plane and I couldn’t reach him. And I didn’t want to worry anyone else until I knew what was going on. They took me back and monitored my contractions and the baby’s heartrate for what felt like hours, and then finally the on-call OB checked me and determined I was 1 cm dilated. A tad concerning, but since I’d already had a baby, some dilation can actually be normal. She also took some swabs to send to the lab to see if there was amniotic fluid. She said it didn’t necessarily look like amniotic fluid to her, but that there was definitely more fluid than she was comfortable with. She said it actually looked more like what your cervix produces when you’re in labor (I had no idea this was a thing). Either way, not ideal, but no amniotic fluid was certainly the preferred outcome, so this sounded promising. If it were “just” preterm labor they said there was still a lot they could do for me. They would give me some magnesium to slow labor and could maybe even send me home tomorrow!

After the OB exam, I was sent to Maternal Fetal Medicine for an ultrasound to assess the baby’s size and viability. The MFM told me baby looked beautiful for a 26-weeker, but was very honest about what a rocky road we’d have ahead if we were to deliver now. Survival rate is about 90%, but beyond sheer survivability, we face potential heart, lung, eye and brain complications. He said the magnesium would help protect the brain and that they’d give me a steroid shot that would strengthen the lungs — just in case. The good news was that there was still a fair amount of fluid around the baby, so even if I were leaking amniotic fluid (we were still waiting on test results), it was likely a slow leak. And he said in rare cases, a pinhole leak could even repair itself. Either way, he didn’t think I was in immediate danger of “draining the pool,” so to speak, but if I were to completely rupture, I’d deliver within 48 hours.

About this time, we got the labwork back on the amniotic test. It was showing very small amounts of amniotic fluid. Not great news, but they were optimistic we could still keep this baby baking for longer with magnesium to slow contractions and antibiotics to stave off any infections threatened by the leak. I was able to catch D on a layover and update him on what was going on. While he was worried, everything I had been told sounded promising at that point. I told him not to worry – just get here when you can. I got officially admitted to the maternity ward for 24-hour observation.

Unfortunately, after a couple hours on the magnesium, contractions were getting progressively stronger, not weaker, even after they upped my dosage. And when I stood up to use the restroom, it was clear we were dealing with more than the slow leak we had suspected. When the doctor observed me writhing in pain and yelling through a contraction, she thought we should probably check my dilation. I’ll never forget the way her face fell and she said in a quiet voice. “You’re complete. We’re taking you to delivery.”

At that point I kind of traveled out of my body. I heard myself let out a scream that sounded like no sound I’d ever made before. Suddenly there were about 12 doctors and nurses in the room. We weren’t sure whether I’d need an emergency c-section, and they knew they needed the NICU team on standby, so they wheeled me down to the OR, even though the regular rooms are typically set up for delivery. I had about three contractions on the way and was yelling like they do in the movies (nothing like Theo’s calm but long birth!). I had completely lost control and I think it was part pain and part complete and utter fear. I had an overwhelming urge to push, but they kept telling me not to because the NICU team wasn’t ready yet. I knew the only way I could not push was to get an epidural. I asked if it was too late, and they all looked at each other like they didn’t know. They paged the anesthesiologist anyway and he met me in the OR. He agreed to the epidural. Unfortunately, he was working so quickly that he didn’t get me completely numb before putting the giant needle and tubing in my spine and digging around to get it into position. I think I yelled as loud as I had during contractions. To make matters worse, he messed up and had to start over. So I’m the lucky girl who got two epidurals today.

About this time, D burst into the OR in scrubs. I’ve never seen him look so scared in my life. He held my hand while I yelled through two more contractions, fighting the urge to push (why was the epidural not working yet?!) and then suddenly the NICU team was ready and it was go time. About 20 seconds and two pushes and he was out. It would have been one push but they actually made me slow down. He cried once he was out, which the doctors said was amazing for a 26-weeker. They held him up so I could see him and then they whisked him away to the NICU. He was bright pink, not blue – which the doctors also said was a good sign. His APGAR scores were 1, 4 and 8, which I’m told is also pretty amazing for a preemie this small. We later learned in the NICU they had to intubate him and then perform CPR to get his heartbeat back – not uncommon, but scary nonetheless.

While I was waiting for my placenta to deliver, I felt my lower half begin to tingle and go numb. Huh. Nice of the epidural to start working now. I delivered the placenta and got a quick exam, and then they rolled me back up to my room. It took forever before we were allowed to go see Emmett, partially because we had to wait for my epidural to wear off (again, so glad I got that ). He is hooked up to a lot of tubes and wires, which is a bit intimidating, but everyone assures us he looks great for such a tiny preemie. We aren’t allowed to hold him yet, but they said we might be able to as soon as tomorrow or Friday. In the meantime, we’re allowed to hold his hand or foot, or sort of cup his head and feet while he’s awake. When he’s sleeping, they’ve advised us to let him rest. Meanwhile, I’m pumping every 3 hours around the clock to give him what I can to help him grow. I’m not producing anything just yet, but the frequent pumping should tell my boobs to get with the program!

I will get discharged from the hospital tomorrow, but I think we’re just going to camp out in E’s room and not go home just yet. Grandparents are watching T for a couple days, and I think the NICU is going to become our second home/office for a while. The doctors have told us he’ll likely stay in the NICU until close to his actual due date in August. I don’t think I’ve grasped the magnitude of spending three months in the NICU at this point, and I have a feeling we aren’t getting off the emotional roller coaster any time soon. For now, I’m trying to look at the NICU as an extension of my pregnancy – only now they’re carrying the baby, not me. We hadn’t planned on meeting him until August anyway, so this is sort of a sneak peek, and we’ll get him in August as planned. We’ll see how long this optimism holds up, anyway!

Holding Daddy's hand — Holding Daddy’s hand

Baby Theo, breastfeeding

The end of an era.

June 15, 2015June 15, 2015 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

This post was originally started in August 2014, but I never got around to finishing it. In an effort to restart this blog, I’m resurrecting some old/half-finished content.

Yesterday, Theo turned 16 months old. And this morning I nursed him for the last time. I’m sure most of our friends and family are thinking, “it’s about time!” but I’m sad about it.

It’s funny, I never saw myself as an “extended breastfeeder” – a term used to describe those who go past a year. I knew before I was even pregnant that I wanted to breastfeed, and I had hoped to make it to a year, but I never thought I’d go past that. A year always felt like an ambitious goal – and God knows we had our share of hurdles to overcome in the beginning – but once we got into a routine, nursing became something that just felt natural and even easy. I loved the bonding aspect and the fact that I never had to remember to take bottles with us when we were out and about. We never once gave him formula, which I’m sure saved us tons of money. And the emotional benefits were really great too. Anyone who knows Theo knows he is a kid who does not sit still. Like ever. But the nightly nurse and snuggle before bed became our special time, and it was something I cherished and would look forward to after a long day at work.

I happily gave up pumping at a year. Good lord, I hated pumping at work. But he still seemed like such a baby to me, so I figured there was no reason to give up nursing him while we were together, as long as my supply would hold up. It did, so we just kept going. Along the way we’ve dropped nursing during the day, and for about a month now we’ve just been nursing first thing in the morning and at bedtime. And even the morning session was sporadic. That basically came down to when he woke up. If he woke up before I was ready to get up, I would pull him into bed to sleep-nurse and he’d usually let me get another hour or two of sleep (which was amazing on the weekends!). During the week, if I woke up for work before he was up, I’d let him sleep and we didn’t nurse before dropping him off at daycare.

***June 2015 addendum***

Those last 4 months – between a year and 16 months – were the best part of nursing. Unlike in the beginning when I was uncomfortable and worried about things like supply and whether he was eating enough, this period was just… easy. It was like extra credit at this point. I had already reached my goal of a year. I was nursing because we both still enjoyed it; not because he had to eat. And if my supply dropped and I had to give it up, it was no big deal. No pressure. To be honest, the only reason I stopped when I did was because I had a five-day work trip and there was no way I was bringing the pump. I knew five days without nursing or pumping would be the end of my supply — and I was (mostly) fine with that.

Okay, I’ll be honest, I cried, hard, through that last session the night before my flight — watching him peacefully drift off to sleep, snuggled up against me, knowing it was the last time. But at the end of the day I can only be happy that we had that time, as I know a lot of women aren’t able to breastfeed as long as they’d like to, and at one point I wasn’t sure if I would be able to either. But babies have to grow up sometime, don’t they?

Baby Theo, breastfeeding, friends & family, monthly updates

Theo es Uno!

July 8, 2014July 8, 2014 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

I’m way late on the last monthly post, considering Theo is 14 months old tomorrow.

Things have been crazy busy lately — the usual work and daily life hectic-ness, along with an unexpected death in the family, and the monthly recap just sort of got put on the back burner. I knew I didn’t want to rush this post – it’s such a huge milestone! – but it’s just been really hard to find the time to write.

Theo is one. My baby is one. My baby is no longer a baby; he is a toddler. It’s exciting and scary and sad all at once.

I love the little man he has become. He is so funny, and he is all boy. He climbs on everything, gets into everything, loves to take apart/knock down/destroy everything, thinks farts are funny, the whole nine yards. And he loves his mama. Everyone said having boys is amazing because of how much they love their moms, and while I don’t have anything to compare it to, it’s pretty awesome.

We ended up having two birthday parties for him, to keep the crowd a little more manageable. We had one party for just immediate family (Theo’s grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles), and then a party the following weekend for our friends. We did a Cinco de Mayo theme since he was originally due on May 5 (but was 4 days late). Both parties were nearly identical for easy planning purposes, and I had a lot of fun with the details (more on that below, in photos).

Stats: 20 lbs., 6 oz. (13th percentile); 30 inches (50th percentile). Definitely not a big kid, but the doctor wasn’t concerned

Milestones: Walking everywhere now – running, in fact. Four teeth (two on top and two on bottom). Not really talking yet, which the doctor noted, but isn’t “officially” concerned yet. She said most kids usually say “mama,” “dada,” and one to three other words by now. If he still isn’t talking by 15 months, she may have us see a speech therapist. In the meantime, she wants us to narrate everything we do. He’s quite the chatterbox, but doesn’t really say anything understandable yet.

Sleeping: He’s down to one nap a day usually, around noon(ish), which lasts for an hour or two. Sometimes he’ll do two naps on the weekends. Night sleep is pretty consistently 7:30 or 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. During the week, the early wakeup isn’t a big deal since we’re usually up around that time anyway, but on the weekends, I so wish he’d sleep in a little! But it’s such an improvement from just a few months ago that I can’t complain much. Some kids are great sleepers and some aren’t. It’s really the luck of the draw and we got the latter. Maybe our next one will be a good sleeper!

Eating: We have officially packed up all the bottles and he’s drinking whole cow’s milk from a sippy cup, but he doesn’t drink as much as he should, and the doctor wants us to keep working on that. I do notice that he drinks better from his sippy when I’m not around. I’m still nursing him first thing in the morning and last thing before bed, and occasionally to get him down for a nap. Maybe he isn’t drinking as much from his sippy because he’s holding out for the good stuff? Thankfully he’s a great eater when it comes to solid foods. He loves carbs, fruit and dairy (yogurt and cheese, especially), and does okay with meats and vegetables. They’re hit or miss. Lately I’ve been steaming frozen mixed vegetables — corn, peas, carrots and green beans — and he loves those. Not a big fan of broccoli. We’re working on getting more green in his diet!

Likes/Dislikes: Now that the weather is nicer we’ve been taking him outside to play more and he loves swinging on our play set. I’ve taken him for walks around the neighborhood too and he seems to like that okay, though sometimes I think he gets bored and wants to get out. He’s been better about riding in the car lately. He still fusses a bit when we put him in his car seat, but he doesn’t usually outright scream anymore unless he’s tired, in which case he’ll pass out after a couple minutes anyway. I think he’ll enjoy the car a lot more once we can face him forward, but the latest safety guidelines say kids should be rear-facing until they’re two years old.

Other likes include empty water bottles, remote controls, our cell phones, toilet paper rolls, lotion bottles, dad’s shoe… basically anything that’s not actually a toy is his favorite toy. I’ve mostly quit buying him toys since they’re a waste of money.

Mama: I am officially done pumping! I pumped for the last time the day before his first birthday. As mentioned above, we’re still nursing occasionally, but we’re at the point where we don’t really NEED to. There have been a few nights where I’ve had to miss putting him to bed because of a work event and D put him to bed, so he didn’t get nursed to sleep. I’m a little full and uncomfortable in the morning when I don’t nurse the night before, but it’s nice to know I can make it 24 hours between nursing sessions if needed, and that he didn’t need to nurse in order to fall asleep. I will admit, though, nursing him to sleep is one of my favorite times of the day. It’s just so peaceful and relaxing, and it’s the only time he’ll let me snuggle him. I think that will be the last session to go. Next step in the weaning process will be cutting out the nap fix, followed by the morning nursing session. I never saw myself nursing past a year, but a lot of women are doing extended breastfeeding these days, and the World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding up to age two, and beyond. I don’t think we’ll go that long – in fact, I have a work trip coming up in September and I’ll be gone for five days. Since I am not pumping, we’ll need to wean before then so I don’t explode. I am noticing my weight is starting to creep up again now that I’m not burning as many calories, so I need to keep an eye on that. I’m still below my pre-pregnancy weight, but not as skinny as I was a few months ago when I was nursing constantly. Baby bonding and nutrition aside, I can totally see how some women get addicted to nursing for the calorie burning! 😉

Okay, I’ll wrap this up with the usual photo dump. This will be my last monthly update, and I’m hoping to start blogging more frequently with short one-off posts to capture milestones and memorable stuff. Maybe I’ll procrastinate less if it’s not such a long daunting post I have to write!

All set up for Theo's first birthday fiesta! — Family party – all set up for Theo’s birthday fiesta!

Playing with his new bike from Grandma and Grandpa.

Party guests at the friends birthday party one week later.

Brooke and her boys swinging on the swingset.

Cousin Ryder and buddy Declan. These two are the same age, if you can believe it!

Waiting for brunch on Mother's Day. — Waiting for brunch on Mother’s Day.

Mother's Day at the Mariner's game. — Mother’s Day at the Mariner’s game.

Hanging with the older ladies at Kara's birthday party. — Hanging with the older ladies at Kara’s birthday party.

Baby gate fail. (climbed under the railing)

Helping in the kitchen with Boppa and Grandma Hoffman.

Obsessed with hats. Wants to be like dad, I guess!

Baby Theo, breastfeeding, friends & family, health & body, monthly updates

Eleven Months Old.

April 24, 2014 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

The countdown is on to a year. Where has time gone and what happened to my little baby? Hard to believe in just a couple weeks we’ll officially have a toddler (sniffle). It’s really bittersweet; while it’s so much fun to see what a ~~little~~ big personality he’s developing, and watching him learn and grow every day, it’s sad to look back at how tiny he once was and know we’ll never get that time back. Even if we have another child, those precious first days, weeks, months will just never be the same as they were the first time around.

Stats: 21 lbs! He’s put on almost two pounds in the last month, which is good, since he’s always been such a little guy.

Milestones: We officially have a walker! He took his first unassisted steps a couple weeks ago… while his aunt and uncle were babysitting him, so I missed it. Sad face. Thankfully they got a video and he’s done it several times since then. He still prefers crawling as his mode of transportation since he’s so fast, but he’s been gradually walking more and more. Knowing this kid, he’ll be running in about a week. We now have three teeth – two on the bottom and one on the top – and the second top tooth is about to poke through any day now. He’s clapping his hands, waving bye-bye and his latest achievement is giving hugs. Melts my heart when he does that. As I’ve mentioned before, he’s never been much of a snuggler since he never sits still, but now at least he’ll pause for a sec and give me a hug before he’s off and running again (and by “running” I mean crawling at warp speed).

Sleeping: Sleeping is going great. He’s very consistently sleeping from about 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. He’s down to one nap per day at daycare, which is required for him to transition to the toddler room, but at home I notice he still does better with two naps most days.

Eating: Kid loves to eat. He’s able to take bites of things now that he has two teeth on the bottom and one chomper on the top. Last night I gave him a pickle, which was hilarious. He’d recoil and shiver with each bite, but then go back for more. He loves fruits, carbs (bread, pasta, rice, cereal), yogurt, cheese and meat. Vegetables are hit or miss. He loves zucchini and carrots, but when it comes to most green veggies I can only get him to take a few bites before he starts turning his head. We’ve started introducing whole cow’s milk, which he’ll sometimes drink a little of, but isn’t crazy about. We’re also working on getting him better at using a sippy cup. This is another milestone he’ll have to reach before he can make the transition to the one year-old room at daycare — drinking cow’s milk from a sippy. I can’t remember if I mentioned this already, but D has a new job which makes our old daycare location really inconvenient for dropoff/pickup, so we’re going to transfer T to a different daycare. In order to minimize the number of transitions, we’ve decided to make the move at a year of age, when he’d be moving classrooms anyway. But since he can’t move until he hits certain milestones, we’ll have to keep him in the infant room (which, in addition to being out of the way for D is about $75 more per WEEK!). Needless to say, we’re eager for him to “graduate!”

Likes/Dislikes: Still loves bath time. Thankfully his little phase of pooping in the tub seems to have passed (knock on wood!). He has developed a fascination with putting his mouth in the water and blowing bubbles — and occasionally sucks in, causing him to cough and sputter! Hopefully he learns his lesson soon that he can’t breathe water! I REALLY want to get him into swimming lessons, but they always fill up before I can sign up. He really loves the water and I want to take advantage of this and continue to build his comfort in the water before he decides he doesn’t like it. That’s one thing I’m learning quickly about this age – nothing is a given. He may love something one day and hate it the next, or vice versa. He’s been going through a phase now where he HATES the car, for example, but I think we’re finally turning a corner there, as he hasn’t been as bad in the car the last week or so. Last weekend was Easter and we took him to the in-laws’ farm for an egg hunt. That was his first time in the grass (ours has been so wet lately), and it was really funny to watch him. He didn’t like the poky feeling on the palms of his hands and refused to crawl anywhere. The terrain was a little too uneven for him to walk, so he just scooted around on his knees a lot.

Mama: I’m coming to the end of my breastfeeding journey and I have mixed feelings. I’m definitely looking forward to not pumping anymore, but I’m starting to realize just how dependent I am on nursing him. For better or for worse, nursing has been a pit of a panacea. Hungry? Instant meal that’s just the right temperature and no bottle parts to clean. Fussy? Here, this will calm you down. Need to go to sleep? It’s like these things are filled with Nyquil and he’s out in 5 minutes. And I’ll admit, a small (vain) part of me is going to miss burning an extra 500 calories per day while eating whatever I want and continuing to lose weight! 🙂 Then again, my appetite has been enormous while breastfeeding (even moreso than when I was pregnant), so maybe that will subside once I wean. I just hope he’s able to make the transition to a sippy with cow’s milk in the next few weeks. My plan all along has been to be done pumping by his first birthday. I’m already reducing my pumping sessions at work, so I’m supplementing an average of 4 oz per day from my freezer stash. At the rate I’m going through my stash, I should have about 85 oz left by his first birthday, so even if he isn’t fully on board with cow’s milk by then, maybe I can do some mixing of breastmilk and cow’s milk to ease the transition. I may still nurse morning and night for a while if my body will keep producing, just because I enjoy that time we have together, but I’m otherwise planning on retiring the boobs in just a few weeks! I really am thankful to have made my goal of breastfeeding for a year. It certainly hasn’t always been easy.

With that, I’ll leave you with some pictures from the last month…

Playing with his favorite new toy on Easter.

Not sure what to think about the poky grass.

Egg hunting with dada. — Egg hunting with Dada.

Playing with his new Easter toys at Grandma and Boppa's. — Playing with his new Easter toys at Grandma and Boppa’s.

Baby Theo, breastfeeding, friends & family, musings

Flying with a baby…

March 19, 2014 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

As I mentioned in my last post, we took Theo to Hawaii last month. It was our first time flying with him and we pretty much just dove right into the deep end with a 5 1/2 hour flight. I did quite a bit of research ahead of time on tips for traveling with a baby, but the truth is, you really never know how your baby will act until you just do it. With that said, in case any friends or family need advice, or any strangers stumble upon this blog while searching for tips, here are my two cents based on my limited experience flying with a nine month-old:

Booking the tickets:

Since children under two can ride on your lap without their own ticket, we went this route to save money; however, we purposefully booked an aisle and a window seat for D and me, hoping the middle would stay vacant. Different airlines have different policies, but many will allow you to bring your car seat on and use it in the empty seat if it’s is still vacant at boarding time (here’s Alaska Airlines‘ policy). I figured, best case scenario we get to bring the car seat on for free; worst case scenario, we offer the person in the middle the window seat. It’s not like they’d refuse. Our plan worked on the way there. On the way home our flight was full and we had to gate check the car seat.

Having done it both ways now, I’ll say this: if you can swing it financially to spring for that extra seat, it may be worth it, particularly on a long flight. On the way there when we had the car seat, we were actually able to get him to fall asleep for a little while (he sleeps great in the car, so I imagine it felt similar). On the way home, he squirmed the ENTIRE flight, and I had to stand most of the time. But if you’re on a budget or can’t justify the price of an extra seat, you may just get lucky and have an empty middle seat – especially for a touristy destination like Hawaii where people are less likely to be flying solo. Either way, you definitely want that aisle seat, so you can get up easily. Because chances are you’ll be up a LOT.

In-flight entertainment:

I had read one article that suggested buying a couple new toys to introduce while in flight, hoping the novelty would hold the baby’s attention more than toys they already know. This might work better with an older child. Or maybe my kid is just super ADD. But he was interested in the new toys for all of five minutes before he was squirming again. A napkin, a plastic cup and the in-flight magazine held his attention just as well, so my advice would be to save your money and not go gangbusters buying a bunch of new toys like I did, especially since you aren’t going to want to buy noisy electronic toys, so your selections will be rather limited.

Food actually held his attention much better than toys did. What can I say? My kid loves to eat. I brought some squeezy pouches and a spoon, and fed him small bites of food at a time, and that bought us about an hour. Puffs are always a hit, and as a bonus, you can let them hold and shake the container, which doubles as a rattle.

The best form of in-flight entertainment, I discovered? Other people. For a social baby like mine, having old ladies coo at him was pretty much the greatest thing in the world. Oh, and other babies can be great distraction too. Go on a walk and visit with the other babies on the plane. Chances are, their parents are also trying earnestly to keep them happy and will be grateful for your company for the sake of their own kids’ entertainment.

Mile-high diapers:

Nothing makes you realize just how tiny those airplane bathrooms are like trying to wrestle a squirmy, poopy baby on a changing table the size of a place mat. During turbulence, I might add. (Imagine my horror when the fasten seatbelt sign came on while I was doing damage control on a blowout.) The last thing you want to do is add a giant diaper bag to the mix, especially since there’s nowhere to set it except on the nasty floor. I’d suggest getting something like this; something you can stow in your big diaper bag under your seat, and quickly grab before heading to the lavatory. It folds out into a changing pad, which you’ll want anyway (in case the person before you lost the battle with poopy turbulence!).

Despite the fact that I normally prefer cloth diapers, we went with disposables for the flight (and the entire vacation, actually), which I would highly recommend. They pack more compactly and you don’t have to worry about wet bags or carrying smelly diapers back to your seat. There’s enough going on already when you’re flying with a baby, and there’s something to be said for the convenience of just being able to toss them in the trash and forget about them. I’d say that’s a pretty good overarching theme for flying with a baby: do whatever is most convenient and makes your life easiest. You can save the planet or worry about instilling good habits another day.

One more tip: on many airplanes, only one of the bathrooms has a changing table. It took me forever to figure this out the first time I went into one of the non-changing table lavatories.

What (and how) to pack:

The rules will be different if you’re traveling solo with a baby (and in that case, you have my condolences), but here’s what we did, and it worked well for us:

The diaper bag was my one and only carry-on. I had my wallet, phone, chapstick, gum, and the rest was stuff for Theo. Don’t even bother with magazines or books for you – chances are you won’t have much time for yourself and if you do, count yourself lucky and get some sleep! If you’re feeling really optimistic, maybe consider installing the Kindle app on your phone and downloading a book ahead of time. But you’re better off saving your bag space for baby stuff. Back to the diaper bag: in addition to minimal items for myself, I had my nursing cover, the diaper changer thing I linked to earlier (stocked with diapers, wipes and hand sanitizer), an extra change of clothes for Theo, several small toys and books, and some baby food in a small bottle cooler bag with an ice pack. I put the toys and food in the outside pockets where I could quickly grab them if he started to fuss. I also packed my manual breastpump in case he decided not to nurse and I needed some relief. I ended up not needing it, but if you have a finicky or distracted nurser and a long flight, it may be worth it.

I had D carry our rollaway carry-on bag, which had extra changes of clothes for both of us, extra diapers and anything we couldn’t live without for a couple days in the event our checked luggage got lost. We checked one very large bag with everything else for the three of us. Normally I hate paying to check a bag, but when you’re traveling with a baby you need a lot of crap that’s hard to fit into a carry-on. Plus it was nice to not have to worry about dealing with yet another bag through the airport and onto the plane. So walking through the airport, D carried our rollaway and empty carseat, and I carried the diaper bag with Theo strapped to me in a carrier (I have the Beco Gemini and it’s awesome – it was also a lifesaver for the flight home when I had to stand/walk the aisle the entire time). For a really tiny baby I would have considered bringing our snap and go stroller for the carseat and wheeling him through the airport since you can gate check strollers for free. But since we knew we wouldn’t use the stroller at our destination, we opted not to bring it.

What to wear:

I would recommend wearing pants or a skirt you can get on and off with one hand instead of jeans or anything you need to button, so you can hold the baby with one hand and get your pants up and down with the other (on a related note: if you go to the bathroom to change the baby, don’t forget to go yourself while you’re there – the last thing you want is to have to go later when the baby finally falls asleep on you). If you’re nursing, you’ll obviously want to wear a top with easy access. I would recommend stretchy low necklines as opposed to anything with buttons or clasps. Less to fumble with in already tight quarters.

Footed jammies are convenient for baby. He’ll be comfortable (and hopefully sleep?) and you don’t have to worry about losing shoes or socks. Plus, then you don’t need to take pants completely off to change him and risk dropping them in the nasty lavatory or something. Bring a couple extra changes of clothes – for you and baby. We had a blowout about 20 minutes into our flight, thanks to some antibiotics Theo was on for an ear infection that caused massive explosive poops several times per day. Speaking of ear infections…

Ears

I was really worried about his ears in flight. I had heard babies can sometimes have trouble equalizing the pressure in their ears on takeoff and landing, but surprisingly we didn’t have much of an issue, even though we were dealing with the tail end of an ear infection. He got pretty fussy on takeoff on the way there, but I had him in his car seat and was trying to feed him a cold bottle of pumped milk, which he wasn’t having. About halfway through our ascent with him screaming, I took him out of his car seat and nursed him instead and he instantly calmed down. We nursed most of the way through descent until he lost interest and got distracted by the turbulence (which he thought was fun – laughed and squealed with every bump and drop, even though my stomach was in my throat). Thankfully he didn’t seem bothered by his ears at all.

Security

Security was a lot easier than I expected it would be. On the way there we got waved through a special line and didn’t even have to take off our shoes or remove liquids from our bags. On the way home, we had to go through the whole song and dance, but they still let me wear Theo through the scanner, and even though we had to declare the breastmilk and baby food (they made us take it out, briefly looked at it and then waved us on through), you don’t have to adhere to the 3-1-1 rule when it comes to breastmilk, formula or baby food (or ice packs to keep the aforementioned cold).

Other passengers:

This was perhaps what I was most nervous about – getting dirty looks (or worse) from other passengers. I read somewhere that you should hand out candy or Starbucks gift cards to the people around you, but that just seemed overly apologetic to me. Yes, he’s a baby and he’s rude and noisy sometimes, but he has just as much right to take a vacation with his family as anyone else does. If he were particularly fussy I could see offering to buy your seatmate a drink, but it felt like overkill to me to preemptively apologize for your baby just for being on the flight.

Actually, most people were really nice. A few people even commented about what a good baby Theo was being, or gave me a knowing look and told me I was doing a good job; that they’ve been there before. We only had one rude encounter when the woman across the aisle from me made a loud passive aggressive comment to the person next to her about me standing in the aisle for the whole flight (believe me, lady, I’d much rather be sitting).

I’ve always tried not to show my annoyance toward fussy babies when I know the parents are doing the best they can, but I also can’t say I’ve ever paid any parents a compliment for having a good baby either. But I’ll admit, it really meant a lot to be reassured that I was doing a good job, or even just to hear people tell me how cute Theo was. I’ll remember that next time I fly and will go out of my way to tell a flustered looking parent that they’re doing great.

This turned into a long post and I haven’t even gotten to the actual vacation part yet! I’ll stop here and will save that for a separate post. With that, here are a few pictures of my little flyer.

Baby Theo, breastfeeding, friends & family, monthly updates

Nine Ten months old.

March 18, 2014 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

Welp, I procrastinated long enough that I’m just going to combine the 9 and 10 month updates. Thankfully, I’ve been pretty good about at least taking the photos on time. Theo turned 9 months old while we were in Hawaii last month, hence the beach towel photos. I’ll probably put together a separate post about our vacation, and things I learned traveling and flying with a baby for the first time, but in general, it was a really fun trip and we got some great photos.

Stats: 19 lbs. (16th percentile), 28.35 inches long (39th percentile). He eats great, but he is so active that he just burns everything off. I also have a feeling our short genes are starting to manifest themselves. Sorry, bud.

Milestones: We finally have teeth! Two bottom teeth popped up within about a week and a half of one another last month, and I think the top ones are starting to come in now, as he has been extra fussy and his gums have been swollen the last few days. Teething sucks! He had his first major fever last month, which was pretty scary. It got at high as 104.8 at one point. I called the doctor, who told me not to worry until it got over 105 (uhh… isn’t that close enough?!). She also said that how he was acting was a better indicator of how serious it was than the actual number. Aside from being a bit crankier than usual, he was still cruising around the house and getting into things like his usual mischievous self. Thankfully he got better after a couple days. He’s babbling a lot now but doesn’t seem to be assigning words to anything. He also blows raspberries and makes this funny popping sound with his mouth. Sort of a cross between a “p” sound, but nearly silent. It’s hard to explain, but funny. He climbs stairs like a champ and walks with a walker! I’m sure actual walking is just around the corner…

Sleeping: Sleep continues to improve. Every once in a while I have to get up once with him, but he’ll usually put himself back to sleep if he wakes, and most nights he sleeps from about 7:30 or 8 p.m. until 5 or 6 a.m. On weekdays we just get up at that time, and on weekends, we pull him into bed with us and he’ll usually let us get a few more hours. His favorite way to sleep? With his butt in the air. So cute.

Eating: He’s doing awesome with solid food and eats pretty much everything now, as long as it’s relatively soft. Sometimes he’s randomly picky about what he eats, but if you feed him something he knows he likes, he’ll eat and eat and eat forever. I swear the kid has a hollow leg. He’s showing less interest in nursing, which is both freeing and a bit sad. During the workweek I only nurse him briefly in the morning and at night before bed, and on the weekends, he’ll nurse maybe two other times. One thing he’s started doing lately is biting me when he isn’t interested in nursing. Especially now that he has teeth, that HUUUURTS. Not cool, buddy. I really wouldn’t be surprised if he self-weaned from nursing before a year, even though I am hoping to nurse for a year. I would even consider extended nursing beyond a year, just in the evenings maybe. But I have a feeling his lack of interest will dry up my supply here pretty soon. Our doctor doesn’t really want us to switch to cow’s milk before a year, but it also seems odd to introduce formula for just a month or so. I’ve got a nice freezer stash, so even if my supply tanks completely, we’ll at least have a couple weeks to talk to the doctor and decide what to do.

Likes/Dislikes: My little babyzilla loves knocking things down. He has these little stackable toys, and he will haul himself across the room to knock them over if he sees you stacking them. He’s also obsessed with opening drawers and cabinets, so we’ve had to install cabinet latches on everything. He’s developed some MAJOR separation anxiety lately and doesn’t like to be held by anyone he doesn’t know well. Heck, even if I leave the room and D is with him, he starts screaming. I’m flattered, but it’s exhausting to feel like I have to be joined to him at all times when I’m home. Despite his attachment to me, he isn’t much of a snuggler, except for the time he was really sick. He really does not like to sit still. Lately he’s developed a fascination with taking off his shoes, socks and pants. The first thing he does when we put him in his car seat is take off his shoes and socks. He’s even resorted to taking off other kids’ socks at daycare! He has also taken his pants off at daycare a few times. Thankfully he hasn’t started taking off other kids’ pants! Still loves bathtime – probably his favorite time of day, and mine too! He’s just so cute splashing around, babbling and playing with his toys. Although, just in the past week he’s pooped in the tub almost every night! Hopefully this doesn’t become a habit…

Mama: I got my first postpartum period last month. I’m grateful breastfeeding was able to keep it away for as long as it did, but all good things must come to an end, right? The return of my cycle has made me realize we could try another baby if we wanted to, but neither of us is ready for that quite yet! Maybe we’ll revisit the idea in 6 months to a year…

Okay, I’ll wrap this up with a few pictures from the last two months.

Who needs toys when you've got a beer box? — Who needs toys when you’ve got a beer box?

A little fever can't slow down Batman! — A little fever can’t slow down Batman!

Happy Valentine's Day! — Happy Valentine’s Day!

Baby Theo, breastfeeding, friends & family, health & body, monthly updates

Eight months old.

January 17, 2014 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

Little man likes to move it, move it. Crawls at an alarming speed (can’t take your eye off him for a second), pulls himself up to standing, climbs on EVERYTHING and cruises along furniture now. He even briefly stood unassisted once. I know walking is right around the corner, which is both exciting and terrifying. A side effect of all this moving? The inevitable wipeouts. He managed to give himself two black eyes in the week leading up to his eight-month photos, and yet another one just the other day. Poor guy.

Stats: 18 or 19ish lbs., according to my super scientific method of weighing myself on our bathroom scale holding him and not holding him. We’ll get an exact measurement at his 9 month checkup next month.

Milestones: As I mentioned above, he is very mobile. He’s also been teething, though he still has yet to have anything break through. It’s strange – he was so uncomfortable for about a week and a half. His gums were inflamed, he was gnawing on everything, and we had to give him Tylenol multiple times per day. I could see his bottom two AND his top two teeth through his gums… and then everything seems to have stopped. There is still a translucent layer of gums over his teeth, but they haven’t broken through and don’t seem to be bothering him anymore. From what I’ve read, this isn’t uncommon – to slow and stop like this before finally breaking through. Still, I’m anxious for them to just cut through already. Oh, and he claps his hands now, which is so cute! Still not doing a ton of babbling (with consonants, that is – still mostly “aaah” sounds).

Sleeping: I’m excited to say, sleeping is going GREAT! We had a bit of a regression during the worst of the teething (and he has also battled frequent ear infections, which sucks!), but once he got over the teething discomfort, he settled into just waking up once per night, and the last three nights, I haven’t had to get up with him at all! I’m almost afraid to type that – I’m sure I just jinxed it. It’s been great, though. A couple of times I’ve heard him wake through the baby monitor, and he’s either fussed for a bit or just babbled and played in his crib, but in both scenarios he’s put himself back to sleep on his own without me having to go get him! I hope this keeps up. But a wise woman once told me to never trust a baby. So we’ll see…

Eating: Eating is going so much better now that we’re in a new daycare (that in itself deserves its own post). He is mostly finishing his bottles, and has even explored some new solid foods. Just yesterday at daycare he ate turkey, cheese and crackers. Seriously! At home we’re still mostly feeding purees (still making my own baby food which is super easy), but he does like to eat rice crackers (Mum Mums), and also really likes yogurt melts. He’s still getting the hang of perfecting the pincer grasp. Most of the time he just fists the yogurt melts and then tries to shove his whole hand in his mouth to make the transfer. This results in a lot of drool and melty yogurt dripping all over his chin and clothes. We usually time dinner to coincide right before bathtime just for this reason! 🙂

Likes/Dislikes: Speaking of bathtime, he still loves it. We’ve made the transition from the infant tub to just putting him in the actual bathtub. He kept trying to climb out of the infant tub and since he’s good at crawling and sitting up on his own now, we figured the real tub was pretty safe. There was one incident where he flung himself backward and hit his head on a toy, and another time where he slipped and dove headfirst into the water (which scared both me and him!), but overall he’s doing great. Not many dislikes, though he is starting to show just a little bit of separation anxiety when I leave the room or drop him off at daycare. And when I come home from work and he’s crawling on the floor, he gets really sad if I try to put my things away before picking him up. He’ll chase me down the hall, crying after me. It’s both sad and cute.

Mama: I’ve been bathing suit shopping lately, which is NOT fun postpartum. We’re supposed to go to Hawaii in a couple weeks (though there’s a chance the trip could get postponed due to the health of D’s grandma – more on that another time). I’ve lost all the baby weight – in fact I’m actually down below my pre-pregnancy weight, but my body is just different. I always assumed my midsection would be the part I’d be the most self-conscious about postpartum, but while I’ve got a tiny bit of a pooch, it’s really not that bad. Interestingly, for the first time in my life I’m totally self-conscous about my boobs! It seems like no bathing suit top will contain these puppies, and they just seem kind of big and floppy now. I miss my perky C cups.

Speaking of boobs (it’s amazing how much of my brain space is occupied by boobs these days… that and poop), breastfeeding is still going well, and I’m still pumping at work. I got new insurance this year, so I was able to take advantage of the fact that breast pumps are 100% covered, and I got myself a second pump to keep at work. It’s nice to not have to lug the pump back and forth every day now, and my new one (a Medela) is a lot more efficient than my old one (an Ameda). I can get just as much, if not more output in about half the amount of time. So it’s nice to keep the new one at the office and then I just use my Ameda on days I work from home, as well as the occasional morning pump. With T sleeping longer stretches, I find myself pretty engorged in the mornings now, and he isn’t always interested in eating much when he first wakes up, which means I have to work pumping into my already busy morning routine those days.

So that’s about it. I’ll save the stuff with D’s grandma for another post, and I also have a long post I’ve been working on to talk more about our daycare situation. It’s been quite the roller coaster, but the short story is that we’re really happy with the new daycare, which makes the incompetency of the old place even more glaring. With that, I’ll leave you with some photos from the past month…

Watching the Cougs play in the New Mexico Bowl with cousin Ryder.

Uh oh... time to lower the crib mattress! — Well, hello there… guess it’s time to lower the crib mattress!

Christmas nap at Grandma and Boppa's. — Christmas nap at Grandma and Boppa’s.

Teething baby who wouldn't go down for a nap until I wore him around the house. — Teething baby who wouldn’t go down for a nap until I wore him around the house.

Climbing and pulling himself up on everything.

...and I do mean everything. — …and I do mean everything.

Bathtime babe with a black eye. :( — Bathtime babe with a black eye. 😦

Baby Theo, breastfeeding, friends & family, monthly updates

Seven months old.

December 18, 2013 Keeping up with the Hoffmans

Where is time going? Our little dude is 7 months old now, and so much fun. I love him more and more every day, and every age is “the most fun age.” I’m sure that’ll stop at some point (not the loving him part – the “this is the most fun age part”) – maybe at the terrible twos? I can’t wait until he can start talking to us. He is so funny and full of personality and I can’t wait to understand a little more about what’s rattling around in that little brain of his.

Stats: 17.5 lbs and 28 inches. Even though that seems huge to me, he’s dropped quite a bit, percentile-wise, which has me concerned. I know some ebb and flow is normal, but I can’t help but worry whether he’s eating enough. He doesn’t seem to eat as much as other babies I know, and he doesn’t always finish his bottles at daycare, which bothers me (more on that in another post). But the pediatrician didn’t seem concerned, so I’m trying not to be either. Easier said than done…

Sleeping: Hallelujah, we have finally turned a corner on sleep. He’s waking up once or twice per night these days, and only needs to nurse back to sleep about half the time. The other times, if we let him fuss a bit, he’ll usually put himself back to sleep, and often without even full-on crying. He mostly just whimpers and whines and rolls around, and then it just stops and he’s out cold almost as soon as it started. To be honest, though, I don’t really mind getting up with him once per night. I feel like I see him so little during the workday, so the middle of the night nursings are sort of our special time. I sit in the rocking chair in his room and we snuggle while he eats. On the weekends he usually wakes up around 5 or 6, which is when we get up during the week, so I just bring him into bed with us and he’s happy to roll around in between us for a while (usually slapping our faces and trying to get us to play!), before he’ll conk out again. Most weekends we sleep in until around 8, and we’ve slept as late as 10 on occasion! I feel sort of spoiled and know it won’t be long before he’s an active toddler, raring to go at the crack of dawn!

Eating: With the exception of Thanksgiving, we’ve just been introducing one new food per week. This last month he’s had bananas and squash, and we meant to introduce pears last weekend, but the pears we got at the store still don’t feel very ripe. As soon as they ripen more, I’ll mush them up for him. So far the only thing he’s not crazy about is avocado, but I find if I mix it with something else like sweet potatoes he’ll eat it up. He didn’t like squash at first either, but after a couple days he started eating it. Our next green veggie we’re trying is green beans next week. We’ll see how that goes! I’m tempted to start giving him finger foods since he’s developing the motor skills for picking up small objects, but I’m terrified of choking. I know I’ll have to get over that fear eventually. He can’t eat mush forever. Still doesn’t have any teeth.

Likes/Dislikes: Kid likes to MOVE! He is crawling like a champ now and looooves to be on the floor. We’ve had to watch the dogs a little more closely because of it. We had an incident a couple weeks ago where Stewie growled and snapped at him when Theo got too close while Stewie was chewing on a bone. I, of course, FREAKED out. I would never get rid of my dogs, but I also could never live with myself if something happened. After talking with the president of the rescue group I volunteer with, though, she assured me it was completely normal. That dogs will correct babies/kids, and that if Stewie had wanted to bite, he would have. It was a warning, and we shouldn’t punish him for warning, because if you extinguish a dog’s ability to warn, that’s when you get dogs who seem to snap out of nowhere. When that happens, it usually isn’t out of nowhere, but the dog had been taught not to warn and so the dog doesn’t act until he just can’t take it anymore. So we make sure all bones and dog toys are picked up when Theo is on the floor, and we make sure Theo doesn’t disturb the dogs in their beds. Our rule of thumb these days is that we allow the dogs to approach Theo (as long as they don’t totally molest his face off), but we don’t allow Theo to approach the dogs. We’re just playing things safe until they get more accustomed to each other. Apparently this is very normal once crawling starts, and things may get a little off again once he starts walking. It’s our job as parents to ensure everyone is safe. Wow – that got long and detailed. It really isn’t as big of a deal as I felt it was at the time. Just a good reminder that dogs will be dogs and we need to respect them and not put them in a position where they feel the need to defend themselves.

Other likes continue to be mostly the same – bathtime, meeting new people, going grocery shopping, etc. There isn’t a ton that he doesn’t like these days. Still not crazy about getting strapped into the car seat, but he doesn’t fuss as much as he used to.

Mama: Breastfeeding is still going well for me. Pumping is still annoying. I went out of town on a business trip last week, and pumping and scalding my milk was quite the hassle since I didn’t have access to a stove. I had to scald my milk in a bottle warmer from the hotel room (using this method). I found the bottle warmer method to be quite a bit slower than just dumping everything into a pan on the stove and heating it – and trying to pack my pump, cooler bag, bottle warmer and two days’ worth of clothes into a carry-on bag was like playing a really frustrating game of Tetris – but it’s nice to know I have an alternative way to scald my milk when I’m out of town, and I was able to bring back more milk than he drank while I was gone, so I didn’t fall behind on maintaining my freezer stash. In exciting news, I’m getting a new pump! Since I have new insurance, I figured I’d take advantage of the fact that breast pumps are 100% covered now. I’m not crazy about my current pump (Ameda Purely Yours), so I ordered a Medela, which I had heard good things about. I’m really hoping I like this pump better than my old one, but at the very least, it’ll be nice to have a backup in case one breaks, and also this way I can keep one at the office and one at home instead of lugging it back and forth every day.

Okay, I’ll wrap up this already long post with some photos from the past month…