Max: 10 Weeks Old

Max has hit the double digits as far as weeks go! It's hard to believe :) 

What has this busy little baby been up to lately? 

Oh sorry, I meant besides saving the world. 

Well, he went on his first out of state day trip to visit his great-aunt, great-grandmother and only living great-grandfather in Connecticut last week. Of course he was a complete delight on the trip. I'm going to post some photos of that in a future post about all of Max's great-grandparents so stay tuned for that. 

He also had his first day of kindergarten a little early! 

I took him to visit my school/kindergarten class and it went really well. He was asleep but when 22 kids surrounded him he woke up and just looked around a bit, didn't even mind. It was so nice to see the kids, I really missed them. They told me all sorts of random information I have missed the past few months. I'm currently feeling excited to go back to work even though I know it is going to have it's challenges. 

Max also got his two month shots last week, and luckily it went well. He only cried for a few seconds and then he basically just did a lot of sleeping for 24 hours after that. 

The last big accomplishment recently has been transitioning Max to the crib. He has been sleeping IN the crib in his own room for over a month now, but because I was so scared to mess with his good sleep, I had the bassinet IN the crib with him in it ha ha. Eric finally convinced me that I didn't want to drag the bassinet to the Cape in a few weeks, so I just put him in the crib and all went well. The only issue is, he always manages to move himself all the way down the crib so he can kick the bars. Despite the fact that I have a video monitor I have NO idea how he is doing this. He always waits until I am asleep to inch his way down… someday I'm going to figure out how!

Before you just try to kidnap my son because he is SO GOOD, I should mention he has been going through a very fussy period the last couple of weeks. I think it's been too long to just be the go to "growth spurt" that everyone blames for everything. Yesterday, between Eric and I, we took the child on 3 weeks and had multiple dance parties just to keep the crying somewhat at bay. I think what it really is, is that he is having a hard time settling down for naps and then gets himself so tired that there is no chance of him falling asleep. I have done some good 2AM online reading the past few nights and I think I'm going to try to put him on a nap schedule and do as many naps as possible in his crib. I resisted doing this because I had high hopes of him becoming the type of baby who can sleep anywhere, plus I didn't want to be attached to a nap schedule like I am an eating schedule… but at this point I really think this is what's best for him. I plan to be pretty strict about morning nap(s) and more lax about afternoon naps if we are out and about. Hopefully this will work :) I will say that I am currently enjoying my first breakfast in peace in several days (other than yesterday when my mom held him while I ate ha ha) and I'm actually getting around to writing this blog post all because Max is upstairs napping, SO… nap schedule it is!

Speaking of naps/sleeping, Max has resisted an arms in swaddle since Day 1, so my mom got him these AWESOME swaddles that allow his arms to be out easily. However, I think he recently realized that they kind of look like a dress...

Look Max… with me as a mom, you are lucky pink is not involved :) 

Likes: cuddling, getting his diaper changed, fighting naps, going for walks, hanging out in the Ergo, bath time (yay!)

Dislikes: any clothes that require being put over his head, when he is super tired, the witching hour (or is that just us)

Feeding: He is doing great with eating, still eating on a schedule but I've discovered a couple of times in the last week that I can push the schedule at this point and he still does okay. Yay! 

Sleeping: Max's sleeping at night is going well. On the days when he naps a lot, he wakes up twice during the night. On the days when he fights naps all day, he only wakes up once. We shall see what happens with the schedule, but at this point I'm willing to sacrifice those blissful one time wake ups for a little bit happier days! 

Mom Update: The past few weeks have been a bit more of a challenge since I now have a baby who cannot be put down, so simply emptying the dishwasher has become a task that can take hours at a time. But, on the other hand, it's not so terrible to just cuddle with a baby for hours at a time either as long as you don't focus on the complete lack of productivity :) Exercise continues to go well which I am happy about, really hoping I can push this momentum into May when I'm back at work, yikes. Also, I said goodbye to my maternity clothes (except my pair of jeans that I may never say goodbye to) the other day. I found some work pants that fit, so I figured I could officially put everything away now. I love maternity clothes but it is nice to have a little space in my closet!

Thanks for reading all about Max :) I have not been keeping up with his baby book at all (oops) so it will be nice to be able to read all these updates later! 

Max is 2 Months Old!

Happy St. Patrick's Day and 2 Month Birthday to Max! It's funny, Max likes to have eventful birthdays- his 1 month was on Eric's birthday and 2 month on St. Patrick's Day. His three month will be the last day before I go back to work, which is basically a holiday in itself. 

The super skeptical looks Max gave me frequently at six weeks have now evolved to full on teenager "seriously mom?" faces: 

Not to mention super anger when things do not go his way. 

Or in the case of the picture on the left, anger that Eric's finger is not giving him any milk. 

But really, Max is a very happy baby. He is beginning to smile more and I THINK it is in response to things, but not always :) I'll take smiles any way I can get them. 

Max is starting to show slightly more interest in toys and I introduced him to his Activity Gym last week. He is interested in all the animals but just not sure what is going on with them yet. 

Max continues to be the champion of restaurant behavior- even when he is awake, he just hangs out and enjoys life. This means I can just hang out and enjoy my wine, thank you best baby. He has attended yoga with me twice and just slept through it both times. 

Looks Like: 

 

Likes: pretending to walk on dad's lap, using mom and dad as a jungle gym, throwing up and not letting us clean it up, still in love with his rock n play, starting to MAYBE enjoy bath time as long as the water is nice and warm, peeing as soon as his diaper comes off...

 

Dislikes: most everything after a puking incident, being awake for too long, starting to possibly notice when his diaper is wet (maybe?), getting dried off after a bath, when he cannot immediately find the boob...

 

Feeding: He still eats on the regular schedule during the day, and has been averaging about 30 minutes per feeding (which is about 10 minutes shorter than before… progress!). At night, he often gets one 4 hour stretch, and then a 2-3, sometimes in the reverse order. He is up twice a night still but going to bed a little earlier, so hopefully we will continue to make progress with this. Last week Max went on a bottle strike where he would either refuse to drink his bottle or drink it and then be super crabby pants after. We switched bottles and this made a huge difference, so fingers crossed that remains. 

 

Sleeping: At least one 4 hour stretch a night is becoming the norm, and the past two nights Max has only woke up once, yippee! I'll take what I can get :) 

 

Mom Update: Two months in I'd say I'm definitely in a grove. I keep myself sane but having at least one adventure with Max every day. I am becoming a pro at lugging him, his car seat and all the crap he needs everywhere. I'm hating breastfeeding far less (maybe only 20% of the time?), but I still absolutely despise the fact that if someone gives him a bottle I have to pump when all I want is a break! My exercise routine continues to go well- I did 2 days of Couch to 5k, 2 of swimming and 1 of yoga last week. I tried my first Barre class today. There are still tough moments, but most of the time it's just good moments :) It might have something to do with the fact that I have the best and cutest baby ever. Luckily, I'm not biased at all. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Return to Exercise

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was hoping to get cleared to work out again at my 6 week postpartum appointment. That happened :) So, I've officially been back in the game for a little over a week. I'm not planning to do weekly workout updates but I figure I'll summarize the first week and then I may do another one when I return to work and things get even more complicated. 

Right now my challenges are:

1. I have a baby attached to my hip/boob. 

2. I was hoping I'd be able to pass Max off to Eric as soon as he gets home since he works out at home, but I forgot about the whole feeding thing… so really I can't work out until 5pm or later. 

3. I'm tired, so the last thing I want to do at 5pm or later is work out. 

4. I couldn't do all the work outs I wanted to the last 10 months, so now I have workout ADD and I want to do EVERYTHING. 

But, my super lucky things are: 

1. My mom is willing to watch Max during the day so I can work out. So far I've taken advantage of this to swim once a week.

2. I found a yoga class I can bring Max to. 

3. I have a treadmill at home so I can walk and run with Max sleeping next to me. 

So what have I done so far? 

I got cleared on Thursday February 27, so I'll begin with February 28th. My doctor had said I could do yoga and walking before the 6 week appointment, so I started both of those about a week earlier. 

Friday February 28th: Postpartum Yoga. I am loving this yoga class for many reasons. The first is that I can bring Max and he just hangs out in the car seat sleeping (at least so far, we shall see ha ha). The second is that the class is at a yoga and pilates studio, so the class incorporates some great pilates exercises as well as yoga. Pilates was a love of mine way before yoga so it's nice to get back into it especially now when I need core work! I ended up signing up for a 3 month unlimited to this studio so I can try a full pilates class and a barre class as well! Workout ADD. 

Saturday March 1st: Walk with Max and Eric

Sunday March 2nd: Walk with Max and Eric

Monday March 3rd: I returned to swimming, wahoo! My mom watched Max, thanks Mom! I was really hoping that going mid day would mean that I had my choice of open lanes, but the pool/gym was PACKED. Do people work? 

Tuesday March 4th: My first very slow return to running. I did a modified Couch to 5K on the treadmill. I survived running! Yay!

Wednesday March 5th: Off

Thursday March 6th: I met a friend at the pool at night. This is going to be the key to late night workouts for me, meeting someone there. We may have spent slightly more time chatting than swimming, and the pool was kind of insane but hey, I got some laps in, so that's all that matters. 

Friday March 7th: Yoga

Saturday March 8th: I returned to outside running. I did the Couch to 5K with the app on my phone, which is pretty freaking awesome not going to lie. 

Sunday March 9th: Walk with Max and Eric

Monday March 10th: Swim

Tomorrow it's going to be 50 degrees so I'm going to wait until Eric gets home and go for a quick run before Max's 4 o'clock feeding. I'm not sure how running will go right before a feeding, but it's all about experimenting at this point. to surprisingly, my return to working out has made me feel 100 times better and even given me some energy back. I really don't know how people survive without exercise! 

What workouts have you been doing lately? 

How Do You Make Friends?

I am very lucky that I have a large supply of many wonderful friends. I have friends I work out with. I have friends I go out to dinner with. I have some faraway friends and many who live nearby. I have friends through blogging, through work, from high school (and middle/elementary school) and college… 

I would say I am pretty good at making friends. 

However, there is one friend making method I just totally fail at: forced friend making situations. I'm not sure why this is. Is it because I prefer to take my time getting to know someone? Is it because I just find those kind of situations awkward? Is it the pressure of "we must be friends!"?

I first discovered how bad I was at this in college. Before that, I just kind of made friends in classes or through friends of friends, and never gave it much thought. Then I went to college. I immediately befriended my roommate and a few others from my dorm. But, at BC it was a big thing to go on weekend retreats and become OMG BESTIES with everyone you went with. So I thought I'd give it a try. I'm sure you can imagine how that went. Then I tried doing some volunteer things to make friends… again, nope. It seems the more I TRY to make friends, the less I actually do. 

I bring this up now because I am obviously in a new "phase" of my life. At first I thought, I really don't need any more friends, especially because several of my current friends are having babies right now anyway. But then, week 1 of maternity leave went by and I'm like I NEED MORE FRIENDS (specifically stay at home mom friends). So, I decided I'd start going to a moms group and see if I could make friends that way. I blame sleep deprivation for this temporary lapse in judgement. 

So, I've been to this moms group twice. There are some great people there, and some completely ridiculous/weird people there. I handle the structured part well- the guest speaker and the check in, but then when it is time to just mingle, I find myself feeling super awkward. I fiddle with Max's car seat straps to avoid eye contact. I glance at the clock to see when would be an appropriate time to leave. I try to make small talk, but… I hate small talk, and small talk about babies is a special kind of torture. I love Max, but he has not increased my excitement about poop and sleep schedules (unless you know a way to get him to sleep longer at night, then I'm all ears). 

I know I could continue to go every week and give it more of a chance, and maybe I will. But in the end I know myself, I will not make friends this way. Let's be honest, I only have 7 weeks left of maternity leave and then the last thing I will need is stay at home mom friends, so it really doesn't matter. Yesterday I had lunch with one of Eric's friend's wives who is also on maternity leave. It was super fun and I didn't need to fiddle with the car seat or glance at the clock even once. 

How do you make friends? Are you the type that can go on a weekend trip and come back as best friends? 

A Day in the Life: Maternity Leave

Ever wondered what I'm doing all day these days? Here is a somewhat typical day in the life of Kelly on maternity leave :) The only major difference is that because I wanted to go to yoga at 1, Max's feeding schedule was nothing like normal. Also, Max has no nap schedule yet so sometimes he is awake all morning and sometimes he naps. Plus on a real typical day my mom comes over, brings me lunch, cleans up my house and entertains me for a bit. So I guess, there is no typical day in the life of me at the moment.

Full disclosure: If the day starts at midnight, we were already wake at 1:30am and 5:00am. I'm totally okay with this since the night before was a big mess of inconsolable crying. 

6:50am- I hear Max crying on the monitor. I go get him and we get downstairs just in time to say bye to Eric :) 

7:00am- Max gets a diaper change. Max eats. I read my book. I'm reading Rules of Civility. 

8:00am- Now, I eat an egg, toast and an apple. I make faces and talk to Max while I eat. 

8:30am- Max takes a nap and I go into crazy productivity mode. I pick up around the house (seriously, being home all day creates SO much mess!), I put up Max's 6 week blog post, I e-mail back and forth with Caroline about birth announcements, I FINALLY order them, I finish a couple of thank you notes, I pay two bills. I start a load of laundry. 

9ish- Max squirms around and gets a bit fussy. I pick him up and we dance around the house to the country music Pandora station. He enjoys this and then promptly falls back to sleep, ha ha. Productivity continues. 

9:30am- Max gets another diaper change. Max eats again. I read blogs on my phone. 

10:30am- We have Max and Mom reading time for a little bit. You can see below Max finds reading time VERY interesting. I don't know if reading to babies at this age has any advantages (it must though!), but I miss reading to 5 year olds every day, so Max and I read instead :) Then I try to convince him how fun tummy time is. I didn't take a photo of his tummy time because I am now doing planks while he does tummy time, lol. Max finds this amusing and it helps convince him to lift up his head so he can see mom trying to find her abs again. 

11:30am- Max eats again (seeing a pattern?). I eat a bagel with peanut butter while I'm feeding him. I hope getting peanut butter crumbs all over your child does not contribute to peanut allergies...

12:15pm- Max takes over Eric's bed spot while I get ready for yoga. Then, Max gets a diaper change and I put him in clothes. I pretty much only put clothes on him when we are going out because he is always HOT. He gets this from Eric, not me. But I do appreciate that he heats me up every time I feed him!

12:40pm- Max and I head out to postnatal yoga. I'm allowed to bring Max :) 

1:00pm- I get my butt (actually my abs) kicked in yoga while Max sleeps peacefully in the car seat. When he starts to make noises I rock the car seat with my foot. It makes yoga poses interesting :) 

2:30pm- We head home and I decide to push my luck and see if Max will let me take a nap before I feed him again. He rewards me for the frequent feedings this morning by letting me sleep another hour. Best baby ever. 

3:30pm- Max gets a diaper change and pees on his nice blue outfit. He gets naked again and then eats. I read People magazine and catch up on the important gossip of the world. After awhile I switch back to my book. Max slow plays this feeding big time. 

4:45pm- I take a shower and put a new outfit on Max. 

5:00pm- We take Max out to dinner with Eric's parents at Not Your Average Joes. For the second time today, he sleeps peacefully in his carseat. Am I going to pay for this later? (hint: yes, he was a fussy pants all weekend). 

6:30pm- We arrive home and Eric's parents give Max a bottle while I pump. We try to give him a bottle once a day so he is used to it when I go back to work. He is happy to take it as long as I don't give it to him, then he gets extremely angry. Apparently this is common? 

7:00pm- My college roommate Ashley arrives for a weekend visit and cuddles with her new buddy Max for awhile!

8:30pm- Max gets another diaper change and I feed him. 

9:15pm- We start to wrap up the feeding and swaddle him up. Max hates to not have access to his hands, and he busts out of the swaddle if he try to put them in, so we let him have them out now. After we swaddle him I usually feed him a little more and hold him up/burp him for awhile. 

10:00pm- Max goes into his crib and goes to bed. Yay! 

10:30pm- I check in on Max on the monitor. Is he picking his nose? Oh well- I'm going to bed! 

Another night begins! 

Music, Miles, Books and Looks

I'm not going to lie, I'm super happy to say goodbye to February. I have hope that March is going to bring SLIGHTLY more spring like weather… please? 

Music

I have no attachment to my hometown, or the south, but I still love: 

My Hometown, Eric Church

Southern State of Mind, Darius Rucker

Even with a non-serious name, this is a serious song that I think everyone can relate to: 

Funny how the good ones go

Too soon but the good Lord knows

The reasons why I guess

Sometimes the greater plan

Is kinda hard to understand

Right now it don't make sense

I can't make it all make sense

Drink a Beer, Luke Bryan

Plus, a fun throwback. Because, sometimes it's 2am, and I'm wishing my life was closer to this song rather than what it is. I kid… or do I?

Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off, Joe Nichols

 

Miles

There was that 20 minute walk that amounted to less than 1 mile. So… yeah, probably 5 miles total. I can only go up from here :) 

 

Books

I lowered my book goal to 20 books for the year because I didn't know how motherhood and reading would go, Then I started nursing 10 hours a day and I am already over halfway to my goal. Ha. I read 9 books this month, which is a record for me. I actually could've read more but before the last book I had this total rebellion against reading, which was probably a rebellion against spending 10 hours breastfeeding, but anyway. I think I'm over that now (the reading part). 

5 Stars- I absolutely LOVED this story told from the perspective of a man with Aspergers. 

 

3 Stars- This book was okay… I'm a little confused about how it's going to be a movie because not a ton of things actually happened...

 

3 Stars- This was a fast paced thriller, but I felt like the children characters were completely not realistic/believable. 

 

5 Stars- There were several different (sometimes related) stories told in this book, which could get confusing, but overall I really liked this book I just used the "who is this character" feature on my new kindle a lot! 

5 Stars- Such a great young adult book about a fifth grade boy. It was a really feel good story, but at the same time I felt like the characters were pretty realistic. 

 

4 stars- I loved the characters and storyline in this book about a woman who travels to Paris to receive an inheritance from someone she doesn't know...

4 stars- I love to listen to The Art of Simple podcast, so I decided to check out Tsh's book. I particularly liked the section about travel and the importance and logistics of traveling with kids. 

3 Stars- I didn't like this book as much as Midwives (also by this author). It was historical fiction and mystery, which normally would be a perfect combination for me, but I found that it had too many war details for me. 

4 Stars- I decided to read this parenting book this month written by a baby nurse (code: night nurse, I want one!). Like all parenting books, I loved some of it and left the rest. This book helped me put Max on more of a feeding schedule to save both of our sanity and help him sleep better at night. However, some of the things she suggests just don't work for Max. For example, as the baby gets older she recommends trying to "pat and shush" the baby in the middle of the night instead of feeding. This would totally not work for Max who would be like WTF are you doing, I want to eat! And seriously, if anyone tries to shush me when I want to eat, I will kill you too. 

Looks

I started wearing some normal clothes again this month. Wahoo! 

A new dress from Banana Republic:

Two new sweaters- one from The Limited and the other from Gap. Jeans are still maternity jeans… they are falling off but I can't part with them, SO much more comfortable than regular jeans. Seriously contemplating trying to make them smaller and wearing them forever. Jeans with yoga pant tops are just genius I tell you. 

Recommend your current favorite songs, books and looks to me :)