We decided to have everyone who has been hosting us over for a BBQ.

I made a Carne Asada feast!  With limited kitchen supplies it surprisingly turned out really well!  The girls liked it!

Here’s the gluten and dairy free version:

-Bed of lettuce
-Carne Asada
-Rice
- Black Beans
-Salsa
-Tapatio
-Un-pictured yummy guacamole, courtesy of the wonderful Aunt Megan!

The others had flour tortillas, cheese, and sour cream. 

Our $25 grill from Craigslist, did it’s job!

After dinner, the boys moved my $15 Craigslist desk (can you tell we’re LOVING Craigslist?) into my office.  It was heavy!!!

Dropping it:

Getting it up the step!

Well, maybe…

It made it!

I LOVE my old school, metal desk-it’s exactly what I wanted.  I just need to get some Goo Gone (oh wait, I have a gallon sitting in San Francisco) to clean it well.

While the guys moved the desk, Lu, Megan, and I played “cheese” (taking pictures of Lu while she tries to put the lens cap on my camera).

Another wonderful day in Boise!

Blueberry oatmeal with farmer’s market raspberries and strawberries.  Topped with my sister’s GF banana bread and almond butter. 

Yesterday was the epitome of a perfect day for me.  I met my sister and we walked down to the farmer’s market and got some great local produce.  After shopping, we ran into a parade.  I didn’t have my camera but it was cool!  The bagpipers and old fire engines were the highlight.  (Crappy phone pictures)

A random parade is not something I would have found in San Mateo!  After the parade we took the girls to the park where they had a blast! (I was so bummed I forgot my camera).

In the afternoon, we went over to my old college roommate (and good friend) Megan’s house for a BBQ.  I’ve written about Megan and Luke before. I am so excited that Megan and Luke live here!  And?  Luke and Shaun will be working together.  How awesome is that?  Shaun starts work on Tuesday and I imagine that we’ll be seeing a lot of Megan and Luke. YAY!

They had set up a table out in their backyard, in the shade.

With beautiful flowers from their garden.

And yummy appetizers!

Lu had a great time running around the backyard.

Dinner was served!

Chicken, steak, fish, grilled veggies and rice salad. YOM.

After dinner Lu went for a swing in the hammock.

Lucy LOVED Aunt Megan.  Lu is pretty shy and takes time to warm up to people.  NOT MEGAN.  She was like Megan’s shadow and couldn’t get enough of her.  Megan is a teacher and is going to be a great Mommy (around Christmas!).

Megan had picked up some fireworks for Lu and we were unsure how she’d react.  What do you think she thought of them?

She kept asking for “Mo! Mo! Mo!”  It was very sweet. 

At the end of the night, Lu christened Megan and Luke’s new tub-they just got a fantastic bathroom remodel and Lu had a popsicle that got all over.

Before we left, Lu gave Aunt Megan a huge hug.

We’ve made the right decision

~~~~~

Yes, that is a plastic bowl and a spoon of Lucy’s up there in the first picture of my morning oatmeal.  Our stuff isn’t here .  It was supposed to be here by July 2nd at the latest but it is now sitting in San Francisco.  They can’t find a driver.  I didn’t even know that that was a possibility.  When they schedule a move, shouldn’t the driver be scheduled too?  Mayflower is paying us $125 everyday that our stuff isn’t here and they don’t seem too concerned.  They’ve basically told us that our stuff will get here when it gets here.  So, we wait.  I’m not very happy with Mayflower right now.

BUT

We haven’t let it slow us down.  My sister let us borrow 2 arm chairs and a table with 4 chairs.  We bought a picnic table for outside and we’re having a good time “camping out”.  I was wondering today if we really even needed our 5,000 pounds of stuff?  We do, of course, but it hasn’t been that bad. We have each other, family, and friends-it’s all we really need.

Shaun stayed home with sick Lu today so that I could get some work done (this post needs to be short!). Last night was our hardest night but I her fever finally broke around 3:30 and she woke up VERY hungry.  It felt like we had a newborn all over again.  I checked on her at 10, 12 and then she woke up screaming at 3:30. I did the first shift-getting her meds and some milk and Shaun did the second shift-rocking her back to sleep.  She woke up at 6:45 today HONGRY-which is a very good sign.

I left a list of instructions for Shaun:

With dosing instructions from the doctor:

Thankfully, I left a smiley little girl:

Who was enjoying her O’s and nanner:

I just got a text from Shaun that she went down for a nap at 9.  I guess she pointed at her crib   She normally only goes down for one nap from 12-2.  So she’s definitely still sick but recovering. 

We went to the doctor last night and he gave us some steroids and I think they’re helping.

Sigh. It’s days like today that I wish I didn’t have to work.  It was really hard leaving her.  With that, I’d better hop to it so I can get home as early as possible.

Gratitude

I’m grateful for really great doctors who care.  I love our pediatrician!

Weaning has been a very emotional thing for me. I really fell in love with nursing. It wasn’t a question to me IF I would nurse but I didn’t know for how long and I was really scared that it would gross me out. It was the exact opposite. It was the most natural thing in the world and brought so much joy to my life.

First Time Nursing

I struggled through supply issues, pumping in airport bathrooms, bleeding nipples (yes the pump caused my nipples to BLEED) but I made it to a year! I’m so proud that I did and I’m so happy that Lucy and I got to experience that bond for 12 and half months.

First Time Nursing in Public

The BEAST (the dreaded pump)

When it came time to wean I had too many questions to count. I called the lactation consultant numerous times and consulted many of my online Mommy friends and friends in real life. I read books, I researched, I searched online. Still, going through the process was confusing and hard and most of all scary.

Six Months

I thought I’d tell you about my experience.

When Lucy was about 10 and half months old I started paying attention to how much she was nursing. At that point it was around 4-5 times a day. I decided not to just whip out the boob at any provocation and tried to only nurse 3-4 times a day.

The next thing I tackled was pumping. I reduced my pumping sessions from 3 times a day to 2 times a day. I was pumping at 10, 1, and 4 and I started to just pump at 10 and 4.

Six Months

Then we went to Hawaii and I was REALLY glad that I had my superhuman milk making powers! That 6 hour plane ride would have been hell without nursing! While we were in Hawaii, Lu nursed 2-3 times a day but while on the plane ride home she nursed almost constantly.

Nursing While Hiking in Hawaii-Almost 12 Months:

We got home a few days before her 1st birthday and I REALLY wanted to be done pumping. I tried to only pump once a day for 10 minutes (vs. the 30 minute sessions I was doing before). My plan was to reduce it each day by 2 minutes. On the second day I was super full and in pain. I ended up pumping twice that day, just to relieve the pressure. I did make sure to STOP pumping before my milk stopped dripping. Milk is totally dependent on supply and demand and I needed to let my body know that there was no more demand during the day.

By the end of September (her birthday is on the 22nd of September) I was DONE pumping.

I was still nursing morning and evening but I noticed that she was barely nursing at night. I decided to cut out the night nursing but continue nursing first thing in the morning.  I did start to nurse for shorter amounts of time but wanted to keep going. Our morning nursing was my favorite part of the day and I didn’t want to stop that just yet. I would bring her into bed with me and would nurse while I got a few more minutes of sleep and we would cuddle.

I was nursing at night on my right side and in the morning on the left side. I decided to try and let my right side dry out and continue to nurse on the left in the mornings.

After I cut out the night nursing, my right boob was fine. I thought that I was “drying up” already and this confirmed it for me.

Well, until 2 days later. Oh.My.God. I have never been in so much pain in my life. My right boob was engorged, hard as a rock, and painful to the touch. I decided right then and there that it was time to to completely wean because I didn’t want to prolong the process.

I had the added benefit that my in-laws were visiting and we we sleeping out on the couch (they got our bed) and so our routine was messed up anyway. They tell you NOT to go where you normally go to nurse when you’re trying to wean. Since, we wouldn’t be in our bed for almost a week, it seemed like the best time.

Instead of nursing Lucy that next morning I gave her her normal morning snack of string cheese as soon as she woke up (rather than after she nursed) and I gave her a sippy of water. She seemed fine with it.

To deal with the pain I was in I took hot showers. I massaged my breast in the shower. I wore cold cabbage in my bra (ahhh that felt so good-wear it until it wilts and then replace). I took anti-histamines at night (notorious for drying nursing mothers up). I drank mint tea (also helps dry you up). My left side did get a little engorged but it never got painful. Almost a week later and my right breast was still in pain. Like, MAJOR pain. My whole right side hurt. It was horrible. I felt my breast and discovered that it was completely soft except for one spot that was rock hard.

I had a plugged duct. I had gone 382 days of nursing with no plugged ducts and then this. The best way to get rid of a plugged duct is to have your ‘lil one nurse. I was hesitant to do that since Lu was doing so well not nursing.

That night I got into a really hot shower (heat helps with letdown) and started massaging. Then I pressed on the lump and milk SHOT out of my nipple for a good 5 minutes!!! No hand expressing, just pressing on the lump-CRAZY. I swear to you-that was the best shower of my life.

After that I’ve had no pain. I haven’t needed cabbage or anything and my boobs seem to be back to “normal”.

Emotionally-weaning has been hard but not as hard as I thought. Lucy has become a little cuddle bug. I get more cuddles now then I did when I was nursing-it’s fabulous! She has asked to nurse 3 times in the last week and a half and I was able to distract her and just give her cuddles instead.

I also have about 100 times the energy now as compared to when I was nursing. I didn’t realize how much it was draining me. I feel like the “old” me again.

If I had it to do over again would I stop nursing sooner to get the old me back? Never in a million years.

Last Day We Nursed

I stepped on the scale this morning.  It’s the first time since I had Lucy that I’ve legitimately gained weight.  I basically went on an eating binge the last three weeks and I was rewarded with a 4 pound gain.  I’m sure I didn’t really gain 4 full pounds but it just reconfirmed my commitment to be healthy.  I don’t want my daughter to see me struggle with this.  I want her to see a healthy and happy Mommy.

I’m posting my weight on the internet for everyone to see.  I’m 5′2 and think that I look best right around 135.  When I’m 135 I’m a size 4 and look really great.  The scale this morning said 164.

I was 153.5 when I got pregnant with Lucy so that is my first goal.  I want to be below my pre-pregnancy weight and then I’ll set another goal.  11 pounds to go!

Here’s the food plan for today:
-Whole Wheat toast with almond butter and a banana (already ate)
-Oatmeal with figs and milk
-butternut squash, black eyed peas, and some grilled steak (I’m using some baby food (the squash) from the freezer since I haven’t had time to go to the store this week )
-String cheese, apple, ryvita cracker
-Nuts and dried fruit (if needed)
-Chicken, brussel sprouts, and spelt for dinner

That’s a TON of food and really good food too. YOM.

I already put the spelt in the rice cooker and set the timer so it should be ready around 6.

I think my daughter is going to be one of those people that can eat whatever she wants and not gain weight.  I don’t want her to stuff herself full of junk food just because she can.  I want her to eat real, whole, good for you foods.  It’ll make her a healthier person, no matter her size.  It starts with me.

I think Lucy has been reading my blog Ever since my last post she has been pretty close to her “old self”. She’s been happier at night and even lets Daddy play with her while Mommy is in the kitchen/laundry room/bathroom. She also slept 8 PM – 5:30 AM straight through last night!!! We think she’s been cold. It has gotten warmer here and so we had started to just put her in fleece footed pjs with no sleep sack. Well, Shaun though that maybe she wasn’t sleeping because she was cold and suggested the sleep sack last night. It may be a coincidence but she slept like her old self again-that sleep sack is going on tonight-that’s for sure!

We’re headed down to Monterey tomorrow night for the weekend. Shaun has a Mountain Bike race there on Saturday. He’s really been looking forward to this and has been training since January, so it should be a lot of fun.

Lucy gets new foods every Wednesday and Saturday. I can’t decide if she’s going to get black beans or coconut milk on Saturday. Since she can’t have any dairy, I thought the coconut milk would be a great source of fat but black beans would be a great source of protein. Hmmmm. You’d think this was rocket science-really, it’s just feeding a baby

Oh and this just cracked Shaun and me up. Someone in my 18-unit building posted this above the garbage chute on our floor:

Priceless.

WAS WRONG.

Lucy is going through separation anxiety plus trying to figure out all her emotions and learning how she can get what she wants without having a vocabulary.  It is kicking my butt.  What happened to my happy smiley baby? Sure she’s still happy and smiley alot of the time but she’s starting to throw tantrums and cry and not sleep.  It’s hard.  It’s really hard.  I guess I deserve it.  I had such an easy go of it and now it’s not so easy.  She’s also getting to be more fun-it’s weird.  Her little personality is emerging and we can play with her and know what makes her giggle and get her sense of humor but at the same time if we do something she doesn’t like (like take away the remote or my watch or the keyboard) she throws a tizzy fit.  We don’t give in but then there’s the sleep issue.  Sometimes she just doesn’t want to go to sleep and she’s screams and cries.  What do we do then?  I have never been a fan of the “cry it out” method but I was desperate the other night and tried it.  I let her cry for 5 minutes and then went in there to soothe her.  They tell you to not pick them up but to rather rub their backs and speak gently to them.  When she realized that I wasn’t going to pick her up she got PISSED and started wailing and then choking/gagging.  Of course I picked her up.  Oh and she doesn’t want Daddy through all of this.  If he tries to soothe her and rock her she flails her body, tries to hit him, and screams like someone is hurting her.  It’s exhausting. It took us 2 hours to get her down that night.

Last night she went down without a fight at 7:30 but then woke up at 9:30.  I nursed her and tried to put her back down but she did not want to go to sleep and started screaming.  I tried to soothe her for about 20 minutes but every time I would make a move to put her in the crib she’d start screaming.  Well, I was running on 3 hours of sleep and was tired so I brought her into bed with me and she slept on my chest (after screaming while laying on my chest for 15 minutes) until about midnight (I think?) At that point I put her in her crib.  She woke up at 5 to nurse and started fighting the crib again so I brought her into bed with me again.  Thus giving her exactly what she wanted BUT Mommy needs to sleep!

I know that this is a stage and that it will pass but it is just really hard.  Really, really hard.  I hope it passes quickly.

I have lots of exciting things to talk about!  But first I have to complain about ME.  Lucy woke up last night at 1:30 to eat (I think she must be growing because she ate A LOT yesterday) after I got her back down, I never went back to sleep. WTF?!?!?  That means I got maybe maybe 3 hours of sleep last night.  ARGH.  Oh well.

First I wanted to answer Monica’s question-I know I could have done it in the comments of my post that she commented  on but I’m too lazy so I’ll answer it here-I only keep track of how much milk I pump in my spreadsheet.  She only gets a bottle at daycare.  When we’re home she’s a boob feeder-thank GAWD!  I’ve only ever fed her a bottle once and it was because she was having trouble breathing and was biting me.  She much prefers the boob.

Next-fun stuff!

I planted my garden yesterday:

Tomatoes:

Cucumbers and Bell Peppers:

I should have veggies and tomatoes (aren’t they technically a fruit?) in about 60 days. WHIPPEE!!!

Second-We.Are.Going.To.Hawaii!!!!! WHIPPEE x2! My husband gave me a very good piece of advice about 2 years ago. When I wanted a baby BAD, I bugged and bugged and bugged him about it. He told me “If you stop talking about it, I’ll want a baby faster.” I didn’t say a word from that point on and what do you know? A month later he was ready for a baby. So I pulled the same tactic here and have not mentioned Hawaii for a week or so. Well last night he showed me a picture of a bike with a bike trailer for a kid (we’ve been looking into renting these locally) and he said “Doesn’t that look neat?” and I said “Yeah…we’ve been looking at those for a few days…” and he said “Yes, but this one is in Kauai!” I’m so excited-we’re going in September.

Third-Since we’re going to Hawaii in September we have to look at dates and Lucy’s birthday is in September (on the 22nd to be exact). I don’t want to be in Hawaii for her actual birthday since I’d like her to have a cupcake on her birthday and she’s allergic to both dairy and soy. Which means I’ll need to make her birthday cupcake for her and even though we’ll have a kitchen at the condo where we’re staying, making cupcakes would be difficult. I know a silly reason but a very valid one to me. Additionally, I want Lucy’s birthday party to be close to her birthday and if we went to Hawaii over her birthday that would cancel out the 2 weekends closest to her birthday. Which brings me to my point. You still with me? I’m an super planner person and so I’ve been thinking about Lucy’s first birthday party for quite some time. I’m not alone though because Shaun said to me 2 weeks ago, “wouldn’t the park be a perfect place for Lucy’s birthday party.” My thoughts exactly sir! Her party is going to be Very Hungry Caterpillar themed and then that theme will no longer be an option because I don’t want Lucy or myself to OD on it. I also want to do cupcakes for the party and thought that I would make them in the shape of the caterpillar. Well a foodie friend of mine (who has not heard my plans) just sent me a blogpost to show me this picture:

Other very cute cakes can be seen here.

I doubt I can do the fondant but this was very close to what I was imagining so now I have a blue print!

See? Those were 3 very exciting things!

I think you get the point. I had originally wanted to write here every day if not more than that but my life has just gone nutso. I want to write everyday and write about what’s going on so I’m going to try to post every day now.

It’s 1:50 pm and I’m sitting here in my pajamas. Meetings started at 7 am for me and I have yet another meeting at 2 so real clothes aren’t going to happen until sometime after 3. Why bother with real clothes? I need to go to the grocery store, or else you’d better believe that I’d just wear my pjs all day.

Our long weekend was nice although Lucy is teething and going through some MAJOR separation anxiety which led to a very grumpy/crying baby. What happened to my happy go lucky baby? She’s still super smiley but she’s been crying at the drop of a hat (huge crocodile tears too) and if she can’t see me, she’s basically crying. She’s okay at daycare but at home she wants to be in my presence at all times. It makes for one tired Mommy.

Someone asked us if she was sleeping through the night and Shaun had the best response ever: “She sleeps through the night for just long enough for it to mess with our heads when she doesn’t.” She’ll have weeks where she’ll sleep from 7:30-6:30 with no peep and then she’ll completely regress and I’ll be getting up every few hours. Last night she went down at 7:30 and then was up at 8:30, 12:30, 2:30, 3:30, 5, and then up for the day at 6:15. I let her sleep on my chest last night from 12:30-3:30 and then from 5-6:15. I knew I had an early morning meeting that I had to lead so I couldn’t fight with her and just brought her to bed with me. She wimpered all night long through her sleep so I know she’s in pain from her teeth. I gave her Motrin but it can only do so much. I don’t think that there’s anything else wrong with her. I hope not at least! She’s not pulling her ears, she doesn’t have gas, she’s not constipated. But she is chewing on EVERYTHING and her gums are swollen.

We had a really fun and active weekend. I didn’t think about work once and that was really nice. Here’s some cute pictures:

In Sausalito:

Crying because Mommy put her down for 30 seconds (seriously!):

She also started taking steps this weekend! We got video of it and need to post it to her blog. She’s been standing (with support) since December. In the last few weeks she’s started pulling up on Shaun and me but would just stand there-no foot movement. This weekend she started taking steps while we hold her hands. It’s scary and exciting all at once!

Man, I wish the weekends were three days long!  But I know that if they were I’d be wishing for four days.

Yesterday, while Shaun was mountain biking, Lucy and I went down to Richard and Elaina’s for breakfast and then to watch Elaina’s soccer game.  We had a blast!  Lucy LOVES balls and loved watching soccer!

She sat up the entire 90 minutes we were there!

I was going from 8 am (Shaun let me sleep in!) until 9 pm yesterday.  I literally did not stop all day.  It was an exhausting but good day.

Here’s today’s picture!

My two favorite people

Things are going really well and I’ve been really happy.  I have to say that the last 7 months have been  happiest of my life, they’ve been hard too but oh so happy.  I really don’t have much else to say right now.