Weaning, and other things

Well, we are officially down to one feeding a day. I am happy that we have a little extra freedom to go and run errands and just bum around town and have fun. But I am having a little bit of an issue with missing the closeness and bonding time. Like scooping her up from the crib first thing in the morning, put on the news and snuggle up and nurse her. Knowing I can do something for her that nobody else can. I am the one who nourishes her with MY body. I feel like I'm losing something that I can't get back. I know that it's best for both of us, and I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. I am sure there have been COUNTLESS other mommies who have gotten a little teary eyed knowing that our babies are growing up and they don't need us like they used to.

On the upside, there has been a little bit of tenderness but no outright pain, no engorgement. My body seems to be transitioning very well. And for that I am most thankful.

She's picking up speed with her crawling, pulling up on the sofa now. In her defense, our couch is high and rounded cushions so its harder for her. But man is she getting good! I may be losing nursing and bonding, but I am gaining a new perspective on life EACH DAY. I see a new little girl growing up before my eyes!

On a different note, my sister and mom's DNA tests came back a few weeks ago, and contrary to what our geneticist thought, My mom was not the one to pass on the genetic balanced rearrangement. SO now its either passed on from my dad's side of the family, or I am the first and it happened at conception.

HOLY SMOKES! It's 1/4 to 2! i'm jumping in bed. I'll post more later!

All of our love

Lara and Kaelyn

Guess who is 11 months old?

We are 11 months old as of the 5th and celebrated with a fun little photo shoot of our own! Woo hoo! We are under a month away from her birthday and her party! My mom made the invites and they are starting to arrive in the mail. We received our first call today. My grandma on my dads side is unable to make it. But we are home the weekend before and after the party so we will make sure to stop over for some special grandma time!

This next month is going to be amazing!

On the 16th we have ANOTHER meeting with our birth-to-3 ladies, Mary and Natalie. Those women are simply amazing. These little exercises they have us work with Kaelyn on has made such huge strides! She army crawls and then she crawls! It's hard to get her to do them now that she is crawling because she is so inquisitive and wants to explore and get into mischief.

The weekend of the 25th we are heading back home for the weekend because my brother-in-law and his wife are having their baby shower that weekend! Yay! We'll get to visit with my mom and sisters hopefully and some of the great-grandparents too!

We get to come home and clean like crazy and wait for the weekend of the 1st for Kaelyn's birthday party! I can't believe my little girl is turning one in just 3 short weeks! It seems unreal that just one year ago she was in my tummy, breech and stubborn and all over my bladder! And then she was OUT! She's here and she's thriving in the real world!

The very next weekend is TRIVIA! We participate in the world's largest trivia contest in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. It's a pretty big deal where we are from and the contest takes over the WHOLE town. It's going to be fun. Kaelyn gets to spend a whole day with her Auntie Kristin. Yay!! (what will this mommy do without a baby to keep an eye on?)

On a different note, sippy cup training is AWESOME! We are all but weaned from the bottles, doing awesome eating more and more table food. We have been weaned from pacifiers for months! She started rejecting them around thanksgiving, which is awesome!

Time sure is flying and its crazy to me. Next step is Kaelyn walking and having a fun spring/summer, her first easter (since she was born the day AFTER easter 2010) and all the rest of her milestones.

But if one more person says my headache is me being pregnant or asks me when we are going to have another baby, I am gonna scream! We are gonna wait just a smidge longer, due to the c-section and all.

Later taters! Gotta get ready to put Kaelyn to bed!

Take care and thanks for reading!

Lara and Kaelyn

March is here!

Does that mean springtime is on its way? I surely hope so. It's been a week or so since I have updated last and I think I'll just make it a weekly blog.

Last week, Kaelyn started crawling. I put a video link on my last blog entry. It's so adorable! But one thing nobody warned me about, the learning curve. Once they learn, you put them on the floor and they are off and racing! It's nuts!! Sometimes I lean over to put her on the floor and her legs and arms are already going!

I cannot believe that on Saturday, Kaelyn will be 11 months old! Party invites are in the mail and my mom did such an amazing job on them. Kaelyn will have such pretty invites for her very first birthday ever! I can't wait!

I've got quite the day of laundry ahead of me. Not only did i get 5 pair of pants (garanimals) on sale at walmart yesterday, but a co-worker of mine is through having children and gave me a HUGE TCP bag full of hand me downs! Gonna rewash them so we don't have any detergent issues, but OMG. Some of the outfits are so cute! I think tomorrow Kaelyn and I will have a mini photo shoot tomorrow for her 11 month pictures. I have heard as much yet, but I'm sure the grandmas would love something more than the Valentine's Day pictures I posted 2 or 3 weeks ago.

We've been feeding her more finger foods lately and we've been pretty successful! We LOVE macaroni and cheese, potatoes, fruity pancakes (bisquick gluten free pancakes with left over baby food puree in them) Graham crackers, cheerios, chicken, ham, turkey, spaghetti (not quite there on her own yet.) and others. I am going to steam some carrot coins and those can be her next new finger food. She also FINALLY found a sippy cup that she will drink out of and is starting to learn that she needs to tip it back to get to the bottom of the cup. We've done apple juice (50/50 mix with water) and whole milk. She REFUSES to drink formula with whole milk or breast milk with whole milk, and it doesn't seem to bother her tummy in the least. Thank the lord. Jeremy had a hard time getting her to drink her bottle on Tuesday when I was at work. She wanted either a.) the boob, b.) formula, or c.) whole milk. not a combination. luckily for this mommy, she was hungry when I got home so I could avoid the breast pump.

Odin is struggling with Kaelyn being more mobile as she loves to crawl over to him and yank his tail or pull his ears. He just kinda growls and walks away but that is by no means a deterrent for her wanting to "play" with her puppy. I was very impressed today by his behavior. He laid next to us on the couch and let her stroke his ears while she nursed. He was patient and seems to be learning that she's not going anywhere so he better get used to her. Our only REAL issue is that she thinks its okay to feed Odin. So when she gets finger food, he's put away in our bedroom. Today Kaelyn had bananas and got it on her feet. (don't ask me how, i'm still scratching my head at that) I run potty and come back to Kaelyn laughing so hard she's hiccuping. Odin is by her feet, head sideways, licking BETWEEN her toes. Too funny. Thank goodness my bladder was empty because it was HILLARIOUS!

We are battling a little diaper rash right now on her girly parts. Poor dolly hates when I lay her on the changing table because she KNOWS I'm going to have to wipe her down and put more A&D back on it. Desitin at night seems to help a little, but I believe because she is a tummy sleeper and the pee goes to the front of the diaper, a healthy glob of A&D before bed will go a long way towards being a skin protecting barrier than the desitin for this particular incident. I just hate knowing that she is so miserable for diaper changes. But oh well.

I forgot to mention that I emailed our Birth-to-3 (also known as "early intervention") lady after Kaelyn started crawling and they mailed out a few other ideas to work on for the next 2 weeks. We'll see if we can get her to sit in one place long enough to do them! Now that she is crawling, she is off like a lit firecracker!

I'm off to bed. I wanna get up early to read a little before kaelyn gets up. I baked oreo cupcakes again and need to frost them as well. But after making dinner, feeding Kaelyn, and baking the cupcakes, I decided that I could frost them later. I plopped on the floor and played with my girl and read a book on my Nook and before I knew it, she nursed, fell asleep (while nursing) and I laid her down. BONUS! Now, all I have to do is wrestle the remote away from Jeremy so I can put some news on to fall asleep to. OH! and kick Odin out of my spot on the bed. Jeremy have him a few treats when he came home after I gave such a GLOWING review of his behavior. I don't want my pillow smelling like dog breath and dog biscuits. ICK!

Later gaters!

All of our love,

Lara and Kaelyn