Happy Halloween!

My little pumpkin :)

Derek was the Man Who Stares At Goats... :)

Check out the Halloween outfit... Daddy's little pumpkin...

Scott, Kama, Abby, and Ryker - The royal family and their dragon :)

Trick or Treat!

Jacob the nerd and Addison...
Erin the zombie and Addison... Alex the princess and Addison...

Abby the Ice Princess and Addison...

Grandpa the pillow and Addison :)

6 Weeks Old...

Length: Longer than when she was born :)
Weight: 8 lbs. 9 oz.

Feeding Schedule: She's eating about 3 1/2 ounces every three to four hours...

Sleeping Schedule: It's been a rough few days in the sleep department... we are working on transitioning Addison from her bassinet to the crib part of her pack-n-play. It's flat and big (and apparently scary) like her crib so I thought it would be a good idea to get her used to it for these last six weeks before we move her to her own room. She hasn't loved the idea and she wakes up more often and cries harder but I think after a few days, we'll get her used to it.
Milestones: We survived our first bout with the flu (Derek and I, thankfully Addison didn't get it). It was a rough weekend but we made it...
Best Moment This Week: Going to the pumpkin patch for the first time!!

Parenting Wisdom: There is nothing on this planet more rewarding that seeing your baby smile at you for the first time. You'll have to act like a tard to get that smile but it's so worth it!

The Domino Effect

I knew this day would come sooner or later... I've tried to prepare myself for it and I really honestly thought that I would be able to hold it together but here I am at the keyboard, in tears. I just got an email letting me know that my horse, my best friend from my teenage years, had to be put down yesterday because of colic. He was the only horse I ever owned and I loved him more that I could ever put into words. When I was 16 I somehow managed to convince my parents to drive to Duvall to look at this black QH/TB that I had seen in the paper. I fell in love on our first visit and even though I hadn't ridden in a year I knew that he was the horse for me. I had spent the last few years screwing up my life royally and things were just starting to turn around and I fully believe that buying Domino cemented me onto the "right" path. I went from a total delinquent to a barn brat and spent every waking moment grooming, riding, cleaning, or just hanging out. I spent every dime on that horse and wouldn't have changed a thing... we competed and won, we had our accidents, and we bonded like I never imagined possible. When I went off to college I had to make a decision and I ended up leasing him to a lesson barn instead of selling him. A year or two later I found out that one of the girls who was taking lessons on him was interested in buying him and it sounded like a perfect match. So, on Valentine's day of 2002 (I think that's the year - it's gone by so fast...) I sold him and said my goodbyes. Thankfully I've been able to keep in touch with the girl who bought him and through pictures and updates I've been able to keep him in my life.

Addison and the Great Pumpkin

At the Schell Farm's Pumpkin Patch...

Addison wants to be a ninja for Halloween... she was showing of her mad skills, yo.
Derek and Addison were equally unimpressed with my desire to snap pictures...
We picked the cutest pumpkin in the whole patch!!

Holy Sh*t!!

Houston, we have POOP!!! :D

All I can think about is poop.

How sad is that?

I guess that's when you know you have made the switch and become a parent - suddenly, someone else's bowel movements are the main focus of your day.

Case in point - Addison had not pooped in seven days. She has the most horrendous gas (who knew someone so small could produce such foul smelling toots??) and screams in pain when she tries to fart, which lately seems to be for hours on end.

Here's the problem... a few weeks ago we started the rice cereal and then went three long days without a poop. I spoke with the pediatrician and was reassured that breastfed babies can go a week or two without pooping and be perfectly fine. So, when we noticed it had been a day, then two, then four without a poop we decided to be brave and wait it out without calling the pediatrician. Now we're on day seven and we spend our days alternating between a sleeping baby and a screaming baby. So this morning, after an hour straight of red-faced screaming, I gave in and called the doctors office. I was fully prepared for the normal, "just wait it out" response that I got a little panicked when the nurse instructed me to do "rectal stimulation". Um, what??? So, being the good parents that we are, we followed the nurses instructions, lubed up a rectal thermometer, and spent four long minutes holding it up our poor baby's bum. In theory, this was supposed to stimulate her to push and, TA-DA, she was supposed to poop. Since however, she is her mothers child and seems to have inherited my bowels, we got nothing. Not even a stinky fart. So now, Derek is preparing to go pick up an infant suppository from the pharmacy to see if that works. If it doesn't, we have been instructed to call the office at 8am tomorrow and go in for an appointment.

Every time I think I'm finally doing something right on the parenting front it backfires in my face! Grr. I feel awful that I let her get to seven days being in pain and now we have to resort to "rectal stimulation" to get a poop out! More poop news (or lack thereof) to come...

The Weighting Game

Okay, the zipper on my fat suit is stuck and I'm getting annoyed.

Once upon a time (about a year ago) I weighed in at a solid 125 pounds. I had been at that weight since college and I was okay with it. My clothes fit, I was comfortable enough to wear a bikini, and I felt okay about how I looked. Fast forward to January 19th of this year... I peed on a stick, got a plus sign, and then hopped on the scale. The day that I found out I was pregnant I weighed 130 pounds. We'll blame that on the holiday food and drink and not the two weeks of pregnancy :) Fast forward nine months and put me on the scale the day I delivered... I weighed in at a whopping 175 pounds ::gags:: Thankfully, a lot of that was water weight and within a week I had dropped down to 150. By two weeks I was at 145 and now, at five weeks I weigh in at 136 pounds. I want to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight but even more than that, I just want to fit into all my jeans. I used to be a size 5/6 and now a 9/10 is baggy and a 7/8 is skin tight. So... I have devised a plan...

1. Continue breastfeeding. (It burns an extra 500 calories per day)
2. Complete the 30 Day Shred Workout
3. Go for a 1-2 mile walk each day (weather permitting) at the park
4. Stretch every day or do yoga
5. Limit carbs ::cries:: and load up on protein and veggies
6. Drink at least 48 oz. of water every day
7. Take meds and vitamins every morning (Celexa, birth control, prenatal vitamin, vitamin C, B complex, fish oil, and probiotic)
8. Get as much sleep as possible at night... at least 7 hours (Addison permitting)

My goal is to be able to fit into my pre-pregnancy jeans by the time I go back to work (December 1st.). I don't really care what the scale says since I'm hoping to gain a little muscle and lose a bunch of fat but if my pants fit, I'll be a happy camper. I'm giving myself the month of November to drop one and a half pant sizes. If I can do it, I'll treat myself to a spa day before I go back to work.

5 Weeks Old...

She just fit so nicely inside my giant pregnancy pillow... I don't know how impressed she was but Derek and I thought she was super cute :)

Length: Okay, let's just come to an understanding that I'll update this after her doctor appointments when a professional measures her... if I do it, I'll just end up telling lies about how long she is :)
Weight: Another area where I seem to seriously lack accuracy... the only way we can weigh this pipsqueak is to get on the scale with her, then get on the scale alone, and do the math. I can't promise it's incredibly accurate but it's the best we can do. That being said, she's somewhere in the ballpark of 8.5 pounds.

Feeding Schedule: Things have stayed pretty much the same on this front - she's eating about ever three to four hours and taking in somewhere around 3 1/2 ounces at each feeding. We started the Prevacid and it seems to be helping with the pain from the reflux although it's hard to know when to give it because she's supposed to take it 30 minutes before she eats... When Addison gets hungry - she wants food NOW not in a half an hour! We've stayed away from the rice cereal and stuck with just breast milk. I'm breast feeding at least once a day and it's going pretty well although I don't think she eats as much when she nurses as she does from the bottle but it's wonderful bonding time so I'm not complaining. One thing I haven't figured out is what is making this poor child 'constipated'. I know that technically breastfed babies can't get stopped up but she hasn't pooped in at least two days and you can tell that she's uncomfortable and has to go. She scrunches up in a little ball and screams and then kicks her legs... I feel awful but I don't know what to do for her and the doctor says it's nothing to worry about. :/ I don't think I agree.

Sleeping Schedule: We are still getting to be around 10pm, waking up between 2am and 4am to feed and then sleeping until about 7am. It's much more manageable then the 90 minute intervals of just a few weeks ago so I'm not complaining. That being said - I can't wait to sleep for eight hours straight!

Milestones: We left her with Grandma and Grandpa while Derek and I went on our first date in months. It's hard being away from her but it was so nice to go out and do something fun!

Best Moment This Week: Realizing that I've finally started to come out of the funk that I've been in for the last couple of weeks. For a while there I couldn't see the light at the end of this recovery tunnel but now I'm starting to feel like myself again, some of my clothes are starting to fit, the scale is only 6 pounds away from where I started in January, and I feel like I can manage all the different jobs I have to do during the day. I've started making appointments and plans that involve leaving the house and I feel confident enough that I can do it and run around town with the baby in tow. I also got to hang out with a good friend and have lunch at a real restaurant which was a nice change from the PB & J that I've been living on lately.

Parenting Wisdom: The first four weeks are by far the hardest... hang in there and tough it out - things do get better.

One Month Pics...

Oh boy... we're already getting "the look".

Playing with daddy...
Another priceless look...
Cuddled up with daddy.... look how happy she looks!

I don't know who was enjoying this more :)

We were having a good conversation...

She's telling me stories again...My little love...

Save me!!!

Who IS this guy?