Six months!

In vintage, circa 1981

To my sweet AG,

I can't believe that you are six months old already! I look back and wish that I had been doing these each month - somehow it feels like we just brought you home from the hospital and at the same time its already hard to imagine the early days where we rarely left the house. You go everywhere with me now; we run errands, go visit friends and family, go on play dates and to story time at the library.

You have grown and changed so much already. You just started sitting up on your own, and almost overnight you went from not being able to sit unassisted to pulling yourself up to sit and staying that way! You are so proud of that too - you often wake up in the middle of the night just to sit up. It's almost as if you are making sure you can still do it so you don't forget overnight. Now that you have sitting up mastered, you have started pulling yourself up on everything (and everyone!). I know that you are going to be moving soon too since you already try and scoot across the floor. Time to baby proof!

You are the sweetest, most mellow baby I have ever seen. Everyone is always commenting on how sweet and happy you are. You can go all day without a nap (not for my lack of trying!) and still have that sweet happy smile. You smile at everyone, and your Daddy says that you have never met a stranger. You have almost outgrown your six month clothes. You weigh 16lbs 12oz and are 26 3/4 inches long.

You have brought such happiness to our lives - for only being with us six months, it feels as if you have been with us forever. I love you, my sweet girl.
Love,
Your Mama

Vay-cay-shun

As I mentioned last week, we just got back from a wonderful week at the beach. We decided to go low key this year, despite my longing for London, and "just" go to the beach. We are very fortunate that we live within a few hours of this:


The view from the back porch



Sometimes its easy to take it for granted - we used to go for long weekends all the time, but as our lives and careers got more hectic, it got down to a few times a year .

We had a blast, once we got there. Two adults + one infant + one large dog = way more crap that I anticipated. Did I mention that we were towing a boat too? I really wish I had a picture, but by the time we finally managed to get on the road we were all so frustrated that I wasn't slowing down long enough to snap a picture.

It was worth it though. We went to the beach every day (short visits with lots of sunscreen and hats).

AG discovered her big brother (and vice versa).

We took a day trip to Beaufort, SC and AG sat in her very first highchair.  Note the Captain taking a picture with his cell phone, because we needed pictures of the momentous occasion from every angle.

We explored alternative means of transportation.

Most of all we just enjoyed spending time together and relaxing.  Even if she won't remember it, the 1,412 pictures we took of our first family vacation will be there.

Enjoying a sunset

A Weight-y Issue

Most women I know would rather tell you their bank balance than what the what their bathroom scale reads. (Who wants to see my checkbook? 'Cause that number on the scale is not going to be written down for all eternity to read.) Yeah.  I have struggled with my weight off and on my entire life. I've never been officially "overweight" (ok, maybe once, shortly, but that's a story for another day) but I have definitely had times that I have been less than comfortable with that number on the scale. Now is one of them.

I haven't been one of those women who magically lost all of their baby weight before they left the hospital (who are these women?! Wait, don't tell me. I might try and eat their cookies.). AG is now six months old and I still have eight pounds to go to hit pre-pregnancy weight, and they don't seem to be budging. I'm 5'4 - that's a lot for me. Once I lose that I have five more to go until I'm back to where I want to be. You see, even though my plan (ha!) was to be at my lowest weight/best shape when I got pregnant, it didn't happen. I'd put on five or so pounds of the "happy weight". For me, the expression fat and happy is more than an expression. It's more a motto for my thighs. Whenever I am the happiest in life I always eat more; conversely stress makes me lose weight. I love to cook and cooking makes me happy..So if I'm skinny, you better ask me what's wrong. I was happy and content that we were starting to plan for a baby. Hello eclair, goodbye elleptical. And so I find myself with 10-15 pounds to lose, four outfits I can wear, and fall right ahead of us. I flatly refuse to buy any more clothes when I have a closet full of clothes that I can't fit into. (I will however shop because there are pretty things in J Crew again. Finally.  We were on a break but they seem to have come to their senses.) I just have to find the motivation to do something about the extra weight so I can shop for sizes that I like.

Excuse Me...

I spent last week here -

So please forgive me while I get back into the swing of things...

Accomplishments

This week, Baby Lovely (who also goes by the nom de plume A.G.) will be six months old. Later this week I'll do another post with more about that, but this one is about how in the last six months I have achieved what, to me, is one of the biggest accomplishments of my life.

For the past six months (well, 15 if you count the time she was incubating) I have been able to provide her with all of her nutrition. I have successfully breastfed my child for six months, and I'm ridiculously proud of this fact. When she was born I thought I could be proud of myself for having an unmedicated birth, like I had hoped. I have learned that a few hours of labor are nothing compared to the trials of breastfeeding. For something that is so natural, there were a lot of times when it seemed downright impossible. I'm proud that I made this decision and have been able to do it this long. I'm proud that I fought through a battle with mastitis that was most likely the sickest I have ever been. I'm proud that on days when I was nursing my daughter in the back of the car while everyone I was with was eating lunch or being social, I stuck with it, even though it might have been easier to make a bottle and be with my friends.

I know breastfeeding isn't for everyone. I know that a lot of people try, and aren't successful. I realize that a lot of people have to overcome a lot more obstacles than I have. There have been a lot of things I have tried to do, and failed. (Anyone ever see me attempt to to swim? Or remember my desire to run a 10K? About that...) I know that this can be a very controversial subject, but this isn't about controversy. I firmly believe the best mothers are happy mothers, and doing something that makes you miserable, whether because you don't want to be doing it or you aren't able to because of physical limitations, isn't worth it. You know what though? That doesn't make me any less proud of what I have accomplished, because to me, this may be my greatest accomplishment yet.

Consideration

I spent the weekend in one of my favorite places in the world, Charleston, SC. We were having a great day, Baby Lovely and I had spent some mother-daughter time walking around downtown and shopping. When we returned back to our car, we found a whole different situations though.

Seriously?

To anyone who has ever been to Charleston, you most likely know that the parking situation can be a little..tricky. There is a parking lot that I always use whenever I'm in town - we call it the "secret parking lot". It's an unassuming little stretch of spaces tucked behind a building off of King Street, and I can almost always find a spot. The only drawback is that the spaces can be narrow, but as long as you are somewhat conscientious of how you park, it's not usually a problem. I, however, returned to find the above (my car is on the right). The Prius next to me was so far over the line that not only could I not load the baby into the car, I couldn't even open either of the doors on the driver's side. To anyone who has ever loaded a baby and a stroller into a car you know my dilemma. The other side was so tight I couldn't open the back passenger side door to get to the car seat. I had no idea what to do - I finally stopped a very nice family with a baby and asked if they would watch BL long enough for me to move the car. I moved her stroller to a safe area away from the cars (where I could also watch the kind people who were watching her - they seemed nice, but you never know anymore.) I squeezed into the front passenger side and climbed across, backed out far enough to open the doors and got BL safely in her car seat. I somehow resisted the urge to do anything violent to the other car. The worst part is that the Prius was parked in an END SPOT! They had plenty of room on the other side, but they just didn't take enough time to even think about anyone else. How selfish is that??? I don't know why I let stuff like this bother me so much, but it just seems so inconsiderate and rude. Otherwise, we had a great time and enjoyed perfect late summer weather.  How was your weekend?

Sleep like a Baby

I believe the phrase "Sleep like a baby" may be the most incorrectly used string of words in the English language. Either that, or someone forgot to tell my baby about this policy that encourages long periods of rest among the infant set. As I mentioned, one of the most popular questions I get asked is "Is she sleeping through the night?". I'm not sure why this particular question is so popular; either misery loves company is truer than I thought or people just enjoy using it as an opportunity to brag about how their child began sleeping through the night at two weeks old (and takes three, two hour naps daily and makes diapers full of rainbows, no doubt.)

Life is cruel; towards the end of my pregnancy I was so exhausted but I couldn't sleep most nights - between the frequent trips to the bathroom and the giant, almost comically large belly, a good nights sleep was rare. Then when I traded those in for the infant, those nights pretty much disappeared completely. I have noticed a few things though - when Baby Lovely naps, she sleeps better at night, and the earlier she goes to bed the longer stretch she will sleep at night. While both of those facts seem counter-intuitive, they definitely work to get a few more hours of sleep.

For some reason she HATES to nap, though. She fights it every time. I finally came to the conclusion that I needed a little help, so I checked out Elizabeth Pantley's The No-Cry Sleep Solution. I'm currently in the process of reading it, but I'll let you know if it makes a difference. I have several friends who use the "cry it out" method or a modified version, but I personally haven't been able to. For one thing, I just don't think I have the stomach for it.  Baby cries do me in. I also don't know if it would work for us - on the few occasions where BL has had to cry for any length of time when I couldn't immediately get to her, her screams would escalate to the point that she would make herself sick. (Specifically a thirty minute car ride home from my dad's house one night. I even stopped ten minutes in because I was afraid something was wrong with her. I don't know which one of us it was more traumatic for.) Until I finish the book I'm just going to continue to encourage long naps and enjoy the time I do get to watch her sleeping peacefully.

My sweet girl as a newborn, sleeping like a baby