Need to update

Sammie milestones:

1/19-20 - slept from 10:30pm-8:15am
1/20 - crawled up stairs
1/20 - fever
1/21 - clapping

Ellie:

Speech is amazing "I am going to do that",etc

It's official.... we are weaned....

I was going to wait until the end of the weekend to wean, but I realized that Chris would be out of town when I was HUGELY engorged and I would have no help at night. And that would be really uncomfortable several nights in a row. Now I'll have some help tomorrow night when I think it'll be worst. (I think I'll be fine tonight and I hope so since Chris will be at the Broncos playoff game!)

So at 10:30 this morning, I breastfed Sam for the last time. I actually had Chris take a few pictures since that might have been the last time ever. How am I feeling? Here are the emotions I'm going through:

Guilty - I think this is natural. I feel guilty that I couldn't go longer. And that I wasn't able to keep all the allergens out of my diet better for her.
Sad - That may have been the last time to breastfeed. I'm also a sad because I truly did enjoy it. I think if she hadn't had food issues, I probably would have gone on to a year.
Excited - To have my body and my emotions back. And to be able to EAT without reading all the labels! Oh, and excited to have my libido back! *blush*
Pleased - That I was able to make it this long with all the issues we've had. Pleased that I did the best I could to give Sam the best start she could have.

And to make it official, I burned my bridges just a short while ago. I had eggs and sausage biscuits! LOL! It's a bit odd, though, because when I quit breastfeeding Ellie, I could still go back to it if I wanted - easily. With Sam, i'd have to pump for a few days to keep my supply up before I could feed her to get things out of my system.

Those eggs were awesome!

Now to figure out how to keep the weightloss going with my newly found food freedom! (Creme Brulee, here I come!)

Weaning update

We've had several tough nights (wanting to play at midnight, constipated the next night, sleeping well - her, not me - I'm too busy thinking of ALL I have to do), but it's going well! A few days ago I made the decision that I would wean as fast as I could after a tough night because of food..... And I refused to give the boobie at certain times. (But still making sure she got adequate food/drink.)

She's sooooo headstrong that we had a "fight" a few times before she took the bottle (maybe twice or three times), but once I had a little help from Chris and our nanny, it went MUCH better. (She didn't want the bottle from me, but took it from them! Stinker!)

Now I can literally go 24 hours without feeding her. She's had a few 5 minute snacks in the last 24 hours, but that's it. I'll probably wean for REAL this weekend sometime.

I am realizing now that I think I react differently to nursing and all the hormones than they say you will. I get some crazy emotions going on - I'm really down, quite often. It reminds me a lot of when I'm on the pill, only not quite as bad. I feel SOOOOO much better than I have in about a year. I'm really glad I bfed this long for Sammie's sake, but I'm realizing it took a bigger toll on me physically and mentally than I ever would have thought. *sigh* Physically, I'm very achy and exhausted and I just don't feel *right*, but I seriously doubt it has anything to do with being sick. We'll see.... I think my body will do GREAT when I add everything back into my diet soon....

Finally, I'm losing weight! I stepped on the scale and I'm 171.5! (I was 175ish at Christmas.) I'm just not interested in the foods I used to want and I can't have the foods I DO want yet so I'm not eating as much as I should. I'm not super concerned - this will shrink my tummy and I know I'll be eating well again by Sunday.

That's it! We're getting a few minor kinks (constipation, mainly, and some wasting of the stupidly expensive formula), but we're doing great!

On weaning.....

I think I may have figured out why Sam sometimes sucks down a bottle like she's starved and yet other time she rejects it!!! I was feeding her and I could tell she was starved, but she was fidgeting and fussing while eating. And she was eating SOOOO slowly. So I started thinking - and remembered seeing some faster bottle nipples. I had Chris bring me a faster nipple.... and she sucked down the bottle! WOOOHOOOO! This may be easier *knock on wood* than I was originally thinking.

A few other comments..... (Some from posts.)

I have to say, it's such a catch-22 for me.... Sam is SO easy to breastfeed and I do enjoy it. If it weren't for the food issues, I wouldn't mind going to a year. But the food issues are a biggie. I mean, I have cut down my food to nothing, but it's nothing compared to how she reacts to accidental ingestion on my part. So when she reacts, I feel bad. And yet I know the breastmilk is good for her and could help her a ton in the long run. It's just that it can cause such issues in the short run. Ugh.

It has also become very apparent that she sleeps better with formula. I feel bad that she's had crummy sleep for so long, but I think that the breastmilk she's gotten is going to outweigh that in the long run. And hopefully we'll BOTH get more sleep with her on formula!

General update

I guess you could call this a "catch all" update....

Chris started his new job and has traveled on and off. Luckily I haven't had any more hell weeks like his first on! *shudder* And he is also really enjoying it. Although it's taking more of his time than I'd like, the fact that he's enjoying it and when he's home, he's generally NOT working at all, it's going well!

We're both a little freaked at the thought of moving out of this house and into the new house. We love this place and there are a lot of things about it we'll miss. The expansive livingroom, the gorgeous windows, the huge propert and so much more. But there are also a lot of things we won't miss like the rotting dead things in our walls, the occasional flood, the super heated livingroom on slightly warm days (as we've had a LOT of lately) and more....

But we're getting really excited about the new house! We ordered several rugs today and have finally gotten a handle on what's staying for staging and what's going to the new house.....

Uh, oh, I think the girls are waking up. So real quick: I'm losing weight (172), weaning is going okay and I'm so ready to move and start cross country skiing! I'm ready to sleep better and get back in touch with friends. And I'd better get Sam before she gets really sad.....

Ellie update

My little girl is growing up! Well, sort of..... She's definitely getting older and has the cutest things to say!

When asked in the car how Sammie is doing, she replies, "Sammie is doing fine." LOL!

She is still in love with Nemo and now Dory has been added to this. Pooh is definitely on the back burner for now. But her love of these fish makes me and Chris a little nervous - when will she realize that the fish sticks she loves so much come from little Dory and Nemos? ACK!

A few weeks ago (12/28) she decided that the crib was no longer good enough to hold her in during her naps and she climbed.... rather, fell out! Talk about a scare for mom listening on the baby monitor. *thunk* "AAAAAHHHHHHH!!! MOMMA!" Luckily, aside from her ego and a small bruise on her forehead, she wasn't hurt. We still haven't moved her to a big girl bed because there is SO much going on in the next few weeks that we don't want to stress anyone out more than necessary.

Toilet training is definitely a frustrating deal. With the craziness of the holidays, it's been less than fun. We've had many too many accidents. And then we'll have two or three GREAT days in a row and it'll seem less like a burden. I know she won't graduate from high school in diapers, but sometimes I wonder about grammar school!

She's also surprised Chris and me a few times by knowing something that neither of us have told her - and that was a short enough word that it could have been read! I doubt she's actually reading, but if you ask her how to spell her name, she'll tell you, "L-I-E spells Ellie!" Of course, that's also how you spell Nemo and Bobo and much more. LOL! We have ways to go before she start spelling/reading for real.... (Nope, not even remotely concerned - I know she's *really* early with recognizing the letters and their sounds so reading should be a long way off!)

Ellie has also become fixated on "new house". For a very long time she's ask us to "go conno" [go condo]. But that has transformed into "go new house". She understands that something is going on and will constantly ask if we can take something to the new house. LOL!

"Take Gunther new house?"
"Take dada new house?"
"Should we take momma and Sammie to the new house, Bobo?"
"YEAH!"

A few other things of note - I was quite terrified until Monday that Ellie had decided to go from 3+ hour naps to NO nap. *YIKES*! But once I got her back onto a normal schedule (woke her up earlier and put her down for a nap a little later), she went right down and slept. *happy sigh* I love my daughter, but I definitely need a little break in the afternoon! And she definitely needs that nap to stay happy.....

Ellie is such a wonderful, sweet girl. I'm really loving the affectionate side that's come out more lately!

Sammie update

Can you believe she's 8 months old? I can't!

In the past month she's started sitting (12/12), scooting backwards (12/13), crawling (12/21), pulling up (a few days later), getting down from pulling up (1/5ish), sitting and pulling up in bed (1/7 - even though she's been sitting and pulling up for a while, she just realized she can do it in bed!) and cruising (1/6)!

And we've started.... I mean *I've* started the weaning process with her. We had a bit of a scare two nights ago when she refused the bottle all night long after doing so well with it.... And then last night she SUCKED down 4oz and I didn't have time to get more so I finished her off by breastfeeding. And she took bottles all night long!

I'm trying VERY hard to wean for several reasons... Mainly, I think she'll start sleeping better without any random foods getting into her diet. This is probably the biggest reason - and I have seen that this will probably hold true after bottle feeding her to sleep several nights and having MUCH better nights than previously with breastmilk.

With everything going on, I would rather not have to deal with all my food issues. (You know, no dairy, soy, eggs, nuts, shellfish and very little gassy foods like cauliflower and broccoli as well as garlic and more.) It would be SO nice to eat anything I want while I'm so busy!

I'm also ready to get my body back.... 38E boobs for a year or more is long enough for me! I'll get to that more in another post.

But the other big reason is so that I don't have Sam getting things into her system and causing her major issues anymore. I can't remember if I posted this, but the day before Thanksgiving she got some dairy (I assume from her reaction) into her diet. Or I did. Or something. And Thanksgiving sucked from that standpoint. I had to hold her, she didn't go to anyone and she was just plain miserable. Not fun for anyone - and it seemed to be very painful for her.... *sigh* I really hope she gets past most of her allergies - especially the dairy.

Sleep is all over the place still. We had several good weeks and then it went bad again. Now it's good, not great. Honestly, I don't think she should be waking nearly as much as she is. She'll go down and be up 30 minutes later. It can take 10 minutes or 3 hours to get her back down. Then she's up at 2am generally. And again at 5am. But hopefully moving to formula will help this. It certainly seems as though it will since last night she didn't eat at 2am when she woke (she PLAYED) and she woke again at 5am for more food, but wasn't ravenous.

But she's so darn happy and sweet! Loves to kiss me, lights up when she sees her daddy and just adores her older sister.....

Another long month....

Or 3 weeks, at least.... In a nutshell (since I just want to catch up quickly) the holiday season was wonderful, but extremely hectic. Sam quit sleeping well shortly before it hit and it was a bit crazy with very little sleep for me.

But we had a great time with my mom and dad and G3 (Greg, Gwenan and George) when they came over on Christmas Day in the afternoon.

Then Judy and Tom (Chris' mom and step dad) came over and stayed with us after their whirlwind tour of Tom's family the day after Christmas.

We had Laurie and Bill over the following Wednesday and asked them to be Ellie's god-parents.... I think they were happy with that.

Then it was down to Colorado Springs for Christmas with the rest of the Poirier's. And another great time.

And finally up to Granby for fun with the Sholines at Sal's new place. It was wonderful and a blast.....

We are now looking at packing up, weaning Sam, doing 2 pro photo shoots, finishing some projects around the house, and finally moving to Crested Butte. And that's just January. *deep breath*

It will be a crazy, crazy month, but at the end of it (or rather, the beginning of February) things should settle down and we'll be into the new house! YEAH!