8 weeks and baby gear

Happy birthday to Piper! She's 8 weeks old today, and as I told my husband last night, I feel like I have loved her forever. She is such a joy and we are beyond lucky. This is an old pic, but it's still one of my favorites. I love it when she makes this face - of course it's usually right after she just went to the bathroom, but whatever, it's still cute :-)

I wanted to do a post about my favorite baby gear, but I think I'm going to limit it to my two favorites for now because there are two that jump WAY out to the front of my favorites line. I will say, there is SO much baby gear out there that for first time moms it can be pretty overwhelming. I remember the first time I went into Babies R Us, I thought I was going to have a panic attack. Baby stuff EVERYWHERE and I didn't know what half of it did. Reid and I were both on the same page and wanted to be pretty streamlined in terms of the gear that we had. I'm still surprised by how much stuff is now in our house, but we have what are the necessities for us. Obviously every family is different, but what we have works for us. And I'll give huge props to Baby Bargains - a must have book if you're feeling overwhelmed and don't want to go overboard.

Probably my two favorite items are the Boppy Pillow for nursing and then the Baby Bjorn (the Active style). With how much time I spend nursing, I can't imagine trying to hold Piper up to my chest the entire time. I have a hard enough time getting comfortable while nursing - my back and I have definitely had to learn how to nurse so that I don't end up in pain! And then the Baby Bjorn is a life saver. Piper loves to be in it and it's extraordinarily comfortable. I wear it while she's gassy (it helps for her to be vertical), while I'm doing housework, on walks around the neighborhood, shopping ... the list goes on and on. And it's so easy to adjust so it can go between Reid and I with no issue. I've heard that the regular one can be a bit tough on the back after a while, but the active is fantastic. I recommend it to everyone!

Following up on my Fat Post, the sports bras that a friend recommended to me arrived today from Title Nine . Apparently they really prevent bouncing in big breasted women ... I hope so! I ordered the Frog Bra and the Last Resort bra. The Last Resort was definitely pricey ($60), while the Frog Bra was pretty reasonable ($33). I'm hoping the Frog Bra is great and that I don't need the Last Resort, but either way, I'm hoping that heavy duty sports bras will soon be on my list of favorite gear as well. I will say that I wore pre-pregnancy jeans this weekend and it was nice to get them on. The footnote here is that they were tight and I had to wear my Bella Band so that I didn't have to button them, but with fall on the way, I'm happy to not have to buy new jeans!

Smile!

Now isn't this just the cutest thing you've ever seen?!?! I love how the smile goes right up to her eyes :-) She's smiling at her daddy, who was talking to her and playing with her nose. So adorable!

Piper didn't sleep very well last night - she was up from 1-4, so I was too - so this is all I'm doing for a post today (I've been dragging all day today), but I just had to share this little piece of heaven!

Now where did that come from ...

Body image isn't something I've typically struggled with, probably because I've always been pretty skinny. Even in my "fat" days, I never broke 145. Well, now here I am fatter than ever and without the pregnancy excuse. It's not to say that I hate my body - I think hate is too strong of a word - but I do think it's accurate to say that I certainly am not in love with it right now.

Problem area #1: BOOBS BOOBS BOOBS. Ginormous, gargantuan boobs. Now obviously I do have a good excuse for the mams since I'm a nursing mom, but that doesn't mean I have to like them. They definitely make me look larger than I am, and they make the thought of running a very scary proposition. I don't know if they make a sports bra that could keep them where they'd need to be for me to be comfortable. And even though I don't know when I would run if I did own the world's most supportive bra for enormous boobs, I would still like to have the option :-) For me, running is one of the easiest ways to get back into shape and slim down. The weight drops off quickly and easily when I run, but I'll stop this pipe dream because it's not a reality currently ...

Problem area #2: Stomach. Yuck, it's fatty. Not sure what else I need to say here other than my abs are still stretched out. Gross.

Problem area #3: My thighs. Also fatter than usual. Thank God I bought two pairs of shorts on clearance at the Gap when I was pregnant last summer and they're one to two sizes bigger than I usually wear. I've been wearing them, alternating every other day basically, for the past few weeks. They're not maternity so I'm excited to say that (and my maternity shorts are all too big now so they look like crap anyway), but they are a size that I don't wish to be in for much longer!

One area I am loving: It's important to end on a high note! I love my arms and shoulders. This is one area that I didn't really gain any weight in during pregnancy and hefting around Piper and her multiple chins has helped to regain some tone. And thankfully I show more arm than thigh and stomach on a daily basis!

If we still lived in Austin, I'd definitely want to get in on the OutOfControlFatRoll fun. These ladies (three of them are my coworkers, past and present) rock!

And now, a cute pic of Piper, whose hair gets curly as soon as its wet ...

Smiles and breastfeeding

In the last 2.5 hours, I've done two loads of laundry, loaded and run the dishwasher, ordered diapers and bottles from www.diapers.com, finished vacuuming the pool, caught up with my friend Heidi AND written this blog. This is Piper's first long nap during the day that hasn't been in the car since she's been sleeping well at night and I'm taking advantage of it!

The most exciting update at this point is that Piper has started smiling! Now the little grin in the picture above isn't her big toothless grin that absolutely melts our hearts, but it is close and it's the closest we have to anything resembling a smile on camera so far. When she first smiled, my heart just about burst. And my emotional reaction hasn't changed since I've seen her smile since then. It's what I imagine heaven to be like. Pure joy.

Before Piper was born, I hoped that I was one of those people that would just love to breastfeed - and in fact, I was pretty sure I would be that way. Unfortunately, that just hasn't been the case. I'm still breastfeeding her and my goal is to do it for the first six months, but I definitely wish that I felt the ooey gooey sense of bonding and joy that many people speak of while nursing their baby. Instead, it was super frustrating at first because it took both of us a while to learn how to nurse well. In particular, she did not latch well for a while ... and the jaundice didn't get us off on the right foot, but the challenges did continue from there for I would guess a couple of weeks. So nursing took FOREVER. Now we're down to about 45 minutes for each nursing session, but without the ooey gooey feelings, it can still feel very time consuming. During the day, she nurses pretty much every two hours, so once I've fed her, we have 1.25 hours until she eats again. That combined with my apparent phobia of nursing in public makes it pretty hard to get out and about, which is SO important in my opinion. So I do try and get out, at least four or five times a week. We just make the trips quick. Thank God we don't live far from the grocery store or Target! I'm hoping that since she's getting older and better at nursing that I'll enjoy it more.

Oh, and there's a cry so I'm logging off - to go nurse!

Happy anniversary to us!

Three years ago today, my husband and I boarded the Northern Lights in Burlington, VT as singletons and disembarked later that night as husband and wife. It was an unbelievable day ... the weather was gorgeous. Even though it was August, it wasn't hot or humid. We were surrounded by our friends and family, and looking back, it was pretty much perfect. Now three years later, life is fantastic. I couldn't be more head over heels in love with Reid and Piper has only added to our joy. Happy anniversary, honey!

And now a quick update on the little one. She is doing GREAT. She seems to have finally figured out the difference between night and day and has been sleeping like a rock star for several days now. She wakes up once in the night to eat, and then typically goes down again for the remainder of the night, which has us recovering and feeling like humans again. I'm not going to lie, when she wasn't sleeping, it was really hard. There were three days and nights in a row that she hardly slept and I was a walking zombie. It's so difficult to be rational when you reach extreme exhaustion, and a good cry never seemed that far under the surface. It was very overwhelming to have this little human whom we couldn't seem to make happy for an extended period of time ... but now she, and we, seem to be figuring this out and life is much improved again. My mom told me that this (motherhood) will be the hardest job I'll ever have, and so far I agree. But at the same time, it is an unbelievably awesome job and I'm so happy to be doing it :-)

Piper is chunking up nicely and she seems huge now compared to when she first arrived. I love her chunky cheeks, multiple chins and fat thighs. It's almost time to put her newborn clothes away, which in a way makes me sad because she barely had time to wear many of them! The 3 month clothes are just as cute, don't get me wrong, but I can't believe I'm already putting stuff away in the basement, either for another little girl or for Piper's dolls if we have a boy next time. It's insane how quickly this is all passing. Everyone tells you that - and to enjoy every minute because time does pass so quickly - but the first month was such a blur between adjusting, sleepless nights, exhaustion, overwhelming happiness, etc, that there really isn't enough time to just sit and take it all in and enjoy it. It kind of reminds me of our wedding day in that respect, and is a good reminder of how important it is to just chill and put these things to memory while we can.

She's not just getting bigger either - there are so many other changes. Her eyesight has definitely improved and she now stares at us and objects intently. She also likes to track people and toys as they move around. It seems like she's starting to enjoy the animals hanging down from her gym and now we're just waiting for her to smile. She smiles every once in a while in her sleep, but I can't wait to see her light up in response to us, and not what I'm guessing is just gas.

I still owe many people phone calls and I definitely need to upload more photos and order birth announcements and all that jazz. Our house is still a mess and the nursery still doesn't have pictures on the walls. It's hard fitting it all in and it feels like there are always a million items on the to-do list, but I feel like we're getting a bit closer to a balancing act. Sleep definitely helps with that!

Piper just woke up! Time for her to eat. More to come, hopefully soon ...

Adjusting to reprioritization

As is evidenced by the time lag in between blog posts, I've had my hands full. For all of the parents that are reading this, the response will probably be "duh," but one of the lessons I've learned over the last almost four weeks is just how much life gets reprioritized with an infant at home - especially one that is still learning the difference between night and day (and therefore preventing sleep!). I feel like I've been totally out of touch with everyone, and it's not by choice - trust me, I would like to call you back - but by necessity. It's just that when I do have my hands free, I have to choose between 1. sleeping, 2. catching up on laundry, 3. making dinner, 4. putting said laundry away, 5. taking a shower, 6. making those phone calls, 7. blogging and keeping up on my digital life. And not that they always fall in that particular order, but the first five have been taking precedence over the final two and likely will until Piper is sleeping better and I'm not feeling like a walking zombie.

We do have LOTS of adorable pictures of Piper, but uploading those to my laptop would fall under the seventh category on my to-do list so this blog post is going to have to survive picture free. Sorry!

Piper is doing great though! She's fattening up and her chunky cheeks are super cute. She has a double chin and her newborn sized footed PJs are starting to get a little short (when she stretches out, she definitely reaches the limits of the onesie). We've seen a few almost smiles, but have yet to catch one on camera. She loves her gym and is starting to show interest in the toys that hang down at her. It's amazing how much she's changed in almost four weeks and her baby coos make my heart melt ... I just heard one of those coos so I'm going to sign off and hopefully get her nice and awake for the next hour or two so that she will (HOPEFULLY) have a better night's sleep tonight than last night!