23 Weeks...

Addison is 23 weeks old today!  As you know we started cereal this week, which is going very well!  She eats more and more each night.  Last night Dan got a little crazy pouring the dry flakes into her bowl and put a LOT in there!  Our little chunky monkey ate it ALL!  She has now eliminated a night bottle and just has one right before bed.  She has been sleeping well through the night, getting up around 7:30am and one morning she didn't get up until 8am...what a PERFECT little baby!  Dan and I have been so lucky!

Not too much new to report on milestones. She continues to scoot a little on the floor, but is having a hard time figuring out how to crawl.  Dan had her on the floor yesterday trying to teach her with the phone as his incentive to get her to move.  He would help her with her legs and show her how to move them!  She still didn't get very far, but what an accomplishment for such a little girl!

She gets better each week with sitting up on her own.  She still has trouble with falling back when she gets too excited about a toy or mommy or daddy walking into the room.  She is babbling like crazy as well, most of the time saying bababa.  Whenever Dan and I try to get her to say mama or dada, she just laughs at us, probably thinking that we are the crazy ones!  She loves playing with her toys, especially when she gets to sit in her highchair and throw them on the floor.  Then watch mommy and daddy pick them up a million times.  One day she threw one on the floor, I picked it up and set it back on her tray, she looked right at me and swiped it on the floor again!  What a little stinker!  So I was a mean momma and didn't pick it up again!

My little brother Max stayed with us on Friday night and when we got up on Saturday this was the outfit he picked out for Addie.  After we put it on her we realized it matched her little doll that she has!  Later on we had a blowout in this outfit...you really wanted to know didn't you!!?

So after that, we changed her into this shirt that says, "I love my mom and dad."  I love it!  We also decided to go shopping on Saturday afternoon with Addie and she was (as always) great!  She loves shopping with her mommy (and daddy who reluctantly went along with us!)!  Mommy's incentive to get daddy to go shopping...FOOD!  I tell him we will go out to eat and he will always come!

This is our little dress that we wore to church on Sunday.  The bow unfortunately would not stay in her hair.  Her hair is getting longer, but not long enough.

I have been putting her in her pack and play to play with her toys now while I am doing things around the house.  She really likes it because her toys can not get too far from her and they are all within reach.  Here she is this morning...looking a little tired still!

"The world does revolve around me!"  This is what her shirt says today...and it is SO true! Doesn't she look so proud to be wearing it?  What a silly girl!

Happy 23 weeks to our little Addison!

All About Mommy...

I have been doing this every so often, sharing my feelings on the blog.  I have noticed that most of the time I am so focused on my physical self and how I look to others.  I read this quote the other day and it occured to me that I should not worry how I look any longer!

There comes a time when a woman needs to stop thinking about her looks and focus her energies on raising her children.  This time comes at the moment of conception.  A child needs a role model, not a supermodel.  ~Astrid Alauda

I really began thinking about this and the way I have been acting around Addison.  Ever since she was born I have worried about how I look after having a baby and the fact that I have stretch marks and loose skin.  The fact is that these were given to me along with the most precious gift I could EVER ask for, my baby girl.  All I want is to set a good example for my daughter and not have her think that to look "good" you must be skinny and have flawless skin.  I want to raise her to think that to be happy you just need to be healthy.  That means eating right and exercising.  If that does not get rid of the the loose skin...then so be it!  I am proud of what I have accomplished in my life and I have the scars to prove it! So from now on I am going to focus my energies on being Addison's mom...not her supermodel.  The fact of the matter is...that I don't have time to look like a supermodel anyway...I'm just lucky to get a shower taken most days!

Houdini?

Dan and I woke up this morning to find that Addison had gotten out of her Miracle Blanket!  We are thinking she really must be Houdini!  This thing is almost impossible to get out of, but our little Addie managed to do so.  If you follow our blog I posted a couple months back (on our previous blog) how she was getting out of her other swaddle blanket, so we purchased the Miracle Blanket thinking there was NO way she would be able to maneuver out of this one, but she did!  If you don't really know how these things work...just Google it and you will see.  Her arms are literally held down and she is wrapped around like three times with the blanket!  We just put her in a onesie because she is wrapped so tight that she sweats like crazy in the night. Can you tell we are just awed by this?

So here is the picture of our little Houdini this morning.  I think I am also going to have to take off her bumper pad now that she is moving like that!  She slept in until a little after 8am this morning...YAY!

Attempt No. 2-4: Rice Cereal & Weaning

I am happy to report that our second, third, and fourth attempts at rice cereal have been quite a success!  She has really come to like eating the cereal and has got the hang of eating from a spoon.  She now moves towards the spoon with her mouth open and keeps most of the cereal in her mouth!  Just another step in her little life that seems to be flashing before our eyes.

I am also excited to again get some sleep at night!  We have adjusted her night routine a little to include eating her rice cereal, which has really seemed to work for her and satisfy her through the night.  My plan is to just keep feeding her once per day at this point and let her tell me when she is ready for more. 

I have also given up my mid-day pumping in preparations for weaning at 6 months.  We have enough breast milk in the freezer to last her these next six months and we will then start her on cows milk at a year old.  This decision was really hard for me because I feel that this is really the last thing that I have to hold on to her "newborness."  It is the one thing that only I can provide for her.  On top of that, I had a rough weekend and was pretty uncomfortable, but in a few days it will get better!  My milk supply has not gone down yet, I am still pumping about 10oz. in one breast and 5oz. from the other (yes I know - I am going to have lop-sided boobs...ugh!!).  So we still have about 30oz. of fresh milk per day, which is enough to feed Addison throughout the day when we mix her last two bottles with formula and now with starting her cereal.

I was doing some research on how many calories you burn while breastfeeding so that I could keep up with my weight loss.  I found a website that said you burn about 20 calories per oz. of milk you pump.  When my milk supply was at its best, I was pumping about 120-130 oz. per day.  This is why we have SO much milk frozen.  That adds up to be about 2400-2600 calories I was burning per day...WOW.  I am really wishing there was a workout that was as easy as that!  No wonder I have lost so much weight so fast!  I really need to keep up the calories I have been burning to maintain my weight!  I was just amazed by these numbers!  If giving your baby the healthiest option isn't enough incentive, I would think this would be...lol!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! We will be celebrating 23 weeks on Tuesday...YAY! (I say YAY, but really am just sighing at how fast this time goes, and am SO glad to be soaking up every moment of it!)

Attempt No.1: Rice Cereal

On Wednesday Addie had her 5 month check up and shots with the doctor.  Her appointment went really well and she is a healthy little girl!  At her appointment we discussed trying cereal because she just doesn't seem to be satisfied with just breast milk any longer and has been waking up in the middle of the night for a bottle.  Her doctor thought she sounded ready, since #1 - she is sitting up on her own, #2 - she is trying to eat mommy and daddy's food out of their hand, and #3 - Dan nor I have any allergies to foods.  I really wanted to wait until about 6 months, but I am also thinking that sleep is sounding really nice!  I am hoping that this will help keep her satisfied throughout the night.

Addie after her shots.  Such a brave little girl.  She only cried for 30 sec. and was giggling at the nurses again. She did great the rest of the night as well!  Look at her little Dora band-aids! 

Last night was our first attempt at eating rice cereal.  She didn't eat much, as she was trying to figure out what the heck her momma was feeding her!  She did very well with it in her mouth, but didn't seem to like having the spoon put into her mouth.  The faces she made were priceless and Dan and I were able to capture it on our video camera.  Dan was running that as I was feeding her and taking pictures at the same time!  So here are a few of the faces we captured last night!

 

She really did not like the spoon in her mouth!

  

Then we had trouble with her wanted to take the spoon from momma!

 

Tonight we will go for our second attempt and see how that goes!  Wish us luck.  She was still up around 1:00am, so I am hoping that once she learns to eat the cereal and not play with it, she will be full enough to go back to sleeping through the night again! Everyone have a great day :)

22 Weeks...

Addie is 22 weeks old today...amazing!! Another busy week has gone by!!  Addie and I have both been battling colds.  First she had one and than I got one.  I am still not sure if her cold was due to teething or not.  Either way we have both been a little miserable, and it has been hard to get things done around the house.  So I spent yesterday catching up on all that stuff!

We had a weekend full of birthday parties and shopping!  (I know we go shopping a lot and it scares Dan that I am going to turn Addie into a mini-me...hehehe!!)  On Friday we went shopping with Grandma Dawn.  We just made a few stops, which resulted in toys and clothes for Addison...imagine that!!  On Saturday we went shopping that morning with Grandma Jen, which resulted in more clothes and toys for Addison.  Along with a cute little bow for her hair!!  We stopped at Two 4 Tots, which is a great consignment store in downtown Waterloo.  I stop there every chance I get!  When we got home on Saturday we had to quickly get ready for a friends birthday party in Osage.  Addie was kind of overwhelmed by the amount of people and the noise with the D.J. so we didn't stay too long.  On Sunday I woke up with a TERRIBLE head cold.  No one tells you how much it stinks to take care of a baby when you are sick, especially when you can not take any medicine for it because you are still breastfeeding!!  Dan had to work, so it was all on me!  We stayed home that morning to rest before we had to head to a second birthday party.  That night we had Great Grandma Barb's birthday where there were a lot of people again, and again Addison was a little overwhelmed!  Because it was such a busy weekend we bummed around the house yesterday to recuperate.

Here is her little bow that we got for her!!

A few new things to report with Addison this week!  She has gotten exceptionally well at getting around, but not how I imagined!  I thought she would be scooting on the floor to get from point A to point B, but she has now decided that rolling is much eaiser.  She is now rolling across the living room to get her toys!  She continues to try to scoot, but usually just moves in circles instead of forward.

Her little mind is also discovering new things this week.  Addison now has shown a little more of her ATTITUDE!!  She now cries when you take a toy away or she drops it on the floor.  She will either cry for a minute or stop when you give it back...oh boy!!  She is also doing a lot more babbling this week and loves to hear herself talk!  We were in Kohl's shopping and I decided that I should take her in to change her diaper.  While we were in the restroom Addison realized that her voice would echo when she talked...so she decided she would yell in the restroom just to hear herself!  It was so cute, and everyone going to the bathroom thought so too!  Such a goofy girl!

And here is proof of her two first teeth!  This is really the first picture she has smiled with them showing, so I cropped the picture so you could get a better look..YAY!!

Here are some other pictures from this week...

Daddy and Addie at the birthday party!

 

Mommy and Addie when we got home from the birthday.

  

Sitting on the floor all by herself!

  

Before we left for the second birthday party, for which I forgot my camera!

  

Bath Time!  This was the first time she has sat up on the big girl side!  She did very well, but I think it makes her a little nervous!  Look at her playing with toes...not the toy in front of her face!

  

So...Dan thinks I torture Addie by doing photos like this!  Does it look like it tortures her? I decided to change the blog to an Easter theme and thought it would be cool to put up an Easter picture too.  So I got her dressed in her little bunny ears and lamb suite for some pictures!  They turned out SO cute!

  

It was hard to decide whether or not to put the bunny ears as the main picture for the blog, or the lamb suite.  Bunny ears won, but can't you see why it was such a hard decision? She is just so darn cute in everything!