Colin's first Christmas was definitely a white one! Funny because the day he was born we got our first snow and then his first Christmas was a total white out!
We spent his first Christmas in Socorro at my parents house.. but getting there was quite the adventure!
We were going to leave on Friday, spend the day doing last minute shopping in Albuquerque and then head down to Socorro. BUT a big storm was coming in. We had gotten over a foot of snow earlier in the week and when we saw that it was supposed to snow another 8" we thought maybe it would be smart to leave before the storm him. WRONG. We ended up leaving and driving through a blizzard. Like an actual blizzard. It was nuts. A blizzard, in New Mexico, who would've thought?! There were times where we couldn't see the road at all... only snow and there were cars rolled over, off the road and wrecks everywhere!
They shut down both of the major highways WHILE we were on them on the way to Socorro. I was soo scared that we'd be booted off the highway and be stuck in shelter with a newborn! I cried for a big chunk of the drive! Lol. But my stubborn husband was NOT going to turn around and 5 hours later we finally made it! It is normally a 2 hour drive!
Colin was a champ and slept almost the entire drive! Thank goodness... I don't know what I would have done if he was whaling in the backseat! What an adventure! We definitely had some angels on our side making sure we made it there safely!
Friday, December 30, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Quick update
Soo much to blog about it is ridiculous! We had a crazy snow storm, drove through a blizzard to see my parents for Christmas and just got back day before yesterday... hence the lack of blogging. I have a bunch of posts I will get to soon, I promise!
Colin had a great first christmas and got super spoiled hanging with his grandparents and great grandparents. We have Uncle patrick visiting us now and another set of grandparents coming this weekend and then another set coming weekend after next!
But on another note, I haven't used the shield breastfeeding since my last post. I don't even know where it is! So funny how before I couldn't imagine what it would be like to breastfeed without it because I used it for so long and now I can't even imagine what it would be like to use it again. :)
Colin had a great first christmas and got super spoiled hanging with his grandparents and great grandparents. We have Uncle patrick visiting us now and another set of grandparents coming this weekend and then another set coming weekend after next!
But on another note, I haven't used the shield breastfeeding since my last post. I don't even know where it is! So funny how before I couldn't imagine what it would be like to breastfeed without it because I used it for so long and now I can't even imagine what it would be like to use it again. :)
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Shield Free?
Well, we started going shield free the day after his tongue-tie was cut. We were still using it a couple of times throughout the day because he would get frustrated in the evenings for some reason and I'd put the shield on and he'd be fine. I think my milk was coming out too fast for him because he'd choke and spit out milk everywhere. BUT I have officially been shield free for 24 hours! :) Hooray! It is so amazing to be able to feed him without having to hunt for a tiny clear plastic shield (Really they should make that thing like hot pink so you can find it... because, tiny and clear is definately hard to find at 4 in the morning on little sleep!) and just be able to whip it out! "Yay! Lol.
Colin has been learning how to use his new tongue. He sticks it out and plays with it a lot and DROOLS a ton. He had never drooled before and now there are puddles of drool everywhere! But I don't mind at all! :) He seems to be eating much better and is fitting into some 0-3 month outfits now! I can't believe he is 6 weeks old! Holy moly!
I will post some new pictures later on today! :)
Colin has been learning how to use his new tongue. He sticks it out and plays with it a lot and DROOLS a ton. He had never drooled before and now there are puddles of drool everywhere! But I don't mind at all! :) He seems to be eating much better and is fitting into some 0-3 month outfits now! I can't believe he is 6 weeks old! Holy moly!
I will post some new pictures later on today! :)
Friday, December 16, 2011
Colin's 1 month apt.
Yesterday was a big day for us, it was Colin's 1 month check up.
I was a little shocked when we got there because they put us in a different room and rolled in a surgical cart. The nurse said, the doctor wanted to see us in that room because she wanted to cut Colin's tongue tie... even though the doctor had yet to see it!! Apparently my visit with the doctor on Tuesday made quite an impact with her. She said since she talked with me at my apt. on Tuesday she believes that his tongue tie is indeed whats been causing me all of my problems breastfeeding and wanted to clip it... can you say music to me ears!!! How fabulous to have a doctor who listens to you and your concerns. She claims that she actually felt so bad for not being there when I was having such a hard time that she is going to make it a new practice to have her nurses call her patients 2 weeks after they have the baby to check on them, instead of waiting for the 6 week check up.
When she came in poor Colin was all smiles at her.. poor kid had no idea! She did his wellness check up first before the clipping. She said he looked really good. He was 9.95 lbs and 23 inches long. He is in the 12th percentile for weight, but she thinks a lot of that has to do with his tongue and he is 96th percentile in height... safe to say i have a long kid! Also his head grew almost 2 inches in circumference!
Then was the dreaded clipping. She had Ryan and I wait in the lobby while her and the nurses did it. How horrible to be waiting in the lobby hearing your child scream and not be able to do anything about it! The actual clipping isn't a big deal, the membrane is very thin and it hardly bled. I think he was screaming more because they were holding him down and pulling his mouth open... plus he was really hungry. He didn't stop crying until we got back there and I immediately grabbed him from the nurse... then he was fine. Poor little dude.
When we got home I immediately fed him and as soon as he latched on... even through the shield, I was like, wow, that feels so much better already!! Maybe it was my emotions from hearing him cry at the doctors, but I totally cried and wanted to call her, thank her and give her a hug, the second I had him eating because it felt soo much better already. She said he would have to kind of relearn how to use his tongue. He was the fussiest he has ever been last night and I'm assuming it was because he was probably in a little bit of pain. He kept moving his tongue around, sticking it out and drooling. This morning he seems to not be in pain anymore, so that is good.
Now the goal is to wean myself and him from the nipple shield and be able to breast feed NORMALLY. I am so glad this is behind us.
I was a little shocked when we got there because they put us in a different room and rolled in a surgical cart. The nurse said, the doctor wanted to see us in that room because she wanted to cut Colin's tongue tie... even though the doctor had yet to see it!! Apparently my visit with the doctor on Tuesday made quite an impact with her. She said since she talked with me at my apt. on Tuesday she believes that his tongue tie is indeed whats been causing me all of my problems breastfeeding and wanted to clip it... can you say music to me ears!!! How fabulous to have a doctor who listens to you and your concerns. She claims that she actually felt so bad for not being there when I was having such a hard time that she is going to make it a new practice to have her nurses call her patients 2 weeks after they have the baby to check on them, instead of waiting for the 6 week check up.
When she came in poor Colin was all smiles at her.. poor kid had no idea! She did his wellness check up first before the clipping. She said he looked really good. He was 9.95 lbs and 23 inches long. He is in the 12th percentile for weight, but she thinks a lot of that has to do with his tongue and he is 96th percentile in height... safe to say i have a long kid! Also his head grew almost 2 inches in circumference!
Then was the dreaded clipping. She had Ryan and I wait in the lobby while her and the nurses did it. How horrible to be waiting in the lobby hearing your child scream and not be able to do anything about it! The actual clipping isn't a big deal, the membrane is very thin and it hardly bled. I think he was screaming more because they were holding him down and pulling his mouth open... plus he was really hungry. He didn't stop crying until we got back there and I immediately grabbed him from the nurse... then he was fine. Poor little dude.
When we got home I immediately fed him and as soon as he latched on... even through the shield, I was like, wow, that feels so much better already!! Maybe it was my emotions from hearing him cry at the doctors, but I totally cried and wanted to call her, thank her and give her a hug, the second I had him eating because it felt soo much better already. She said he would have to kind of relearn how to use his tongue. He was the fussiest he has ever been last night and I'm assuming it was because he was probably in a little bit of pain. He kept moving his tongue around, sticking it out and drooling. This morning he seems to not be in pain anymore, so that is good.
Now the goal is to wean myself and him from the nipple shield and be able to breast feed NORMALLY. I am so glad this is behind us.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
6 week check up
I had my 6 week check up on Tuesday... Colin hasn't had his one month check up yet and it is 5 weeks out... Safe to say there was a bit of a scheduling mix up! Lol
I was excited and nervous for my apt. because it was the first time seeing my doctor since Colin was 5 days old. I've had so many issues since then that I was anxious to tell her everything that had been going on.
I told her all of my breast feeding issues and everything I had gone through and of course broke down and cried, but fought my tears! She felt so bad and apologized profusely. If she had been at Colin's 2 week apt, she would have heard it all then, but she was on vacation and we had a fill in dr. I had called her office to talk to her after our apt. with the fill in, but her nurse called me back and said she'd address our issues at Colin's 1 month check up. So I think she felt really bad for kind of dismissing me and as she said, leaving me hanging in the wind. She could not believe I was still breastfeeding after all of that drama and kept telling me I was a very tough and strong woman and that most people, including herself would have given up. I told her I was stubborn! :)
She seemed a lot more open to cutting Colin's tongue tie than the other doctor was. She said she never rules out anything and that his tongue tie could've very well been causing me issues breastfeeding. She of course has to see him and his tongue first before she can really say anything. She did say if it was very tight that they will break themselves without clipping, but his apt. with her is TODAY (yay!) so I am anxious to hear what she says.
It was a good visit, I am all healed down below, except one of my "dissolve able" stitches hadn't dissolved... so she had to take that out. Fun stuff. I am cleared for everything and I am excited to start Zumba next week and today I walked on the treadmill and did sit ups! :)
Colin's apt is this afternoon and I am soo excited to hear how much he has grown!! At birth he was 6.13 and his 5 day apt. he was 6.5 and at his 2 week apt. he was 7.5 pounds. I just weighed him on the scale here at home and I got 10.2 pounds!!! I'm not sure of the accuracy of my scale, last time I was about 3 or 4 ounces off... so we shall see! Plus I am betting he is close to 24 inches long... he is such a long kid! Soo excited! :)
I was excited and nervous for my apt. because it was the first time seeing my doctor since Colin was 5 days old. I've had so many issues since then that I was anxious to tell her everything that had been going on.
I told her all of my breast feeding issues and everything I had gone through and of course broke down and cried, but fought my tears! She felt so bad and apologized profusely. If she had been at Colin's 2 week apt, she would have heard it all then, but she was on vacation and we had a fill in dr. I had called her office to talk to her after our apt. with the fill in, but her nurse called me back and said she'd address our issues at Colin's 1 month check up. So I think she felt really bad for kind of dismissing me and as she said, leaving me hanging in the wind. She could not believe I was still breastfeeding after all of that drama and kept telling me I was a very tough and strong woman and that most people, including herself would have given up. I told her I was stubborn! :)
She seemed a lot more open to cutting Colin's tongue tie than the other doctor was. She said she never rules out anything and that his tongue tie could've very well been causing me issues breastfeeding. She of course has to see him and his tongue first before she can really say anything. She did say if it was very tight that they will break themselves without clipping, but his apt. with her is TODAY (yay!) so I am anxious to hear what she says.
It was a good visit, I am all healed down below, except one of my "dissolve able" stitches hadn't dissolved... so she had to take that out. Fun stuff. I am cleared for everything and I am excited to start Zumba next week and today I walked on the treadmill and did sit ups! :)
Colin's apt is this afternoon and I am soo excited to hear how much he has grown!! At birth he was 6.13 and his 5 day apt. he was 6.5 and at his 2 week apt. he was 7.5 pounds. I just weighed him on the scale here at home and I got 10.2 pounds!!! I'm not sure of the accuracy of my scale, last time I was about 3 or 4 ounces off... so we shall see! Plus I am betting he is close to 24 inches long... he is such a long kid! Soo excited! :)
Monday, December 12, 2011
Christmas parties
Ryan had his work Christmas party this weekend. I didn't really know about it until the night before... but that's all good. It was free dinner, which means I didn't have to cook! :) But I had to dress up and stuff... small compromise.
The dressing up part was hard... like what the heck do I wear because I'm in between clothes! Luckily I have LOTS of dresses so I have a bit to choose from. I could not handle wearing any of the maxi dresses that I wore/lived in when I was pregnant, because I still felt pregnant in them. So I found something else and just went with that. It was fun dressing up again... as opposed to the sweats that I am usually sporting nowadays.
Even though I felt good and thought I was looking pretty good, I still got the dreaded when are due question... REALLY? Ugh. Suck. :( It was a girl I don't know very well, who knew I WAS pregnant. She looked down and at my belly and said congratulations. I thought maybe she meant for the baby, so I said, Thanks, he's over there with his dad. And she then said, when are you due? I said, I WAS due on Nov. 8 and had him on Nov. 7. And then she said something like Oh you already had him, when did you have him. I dunno it was loud in there... but it still sucked. Operation loose this last bit of belly weight couldn't come soon enough, after that! Lol
Colin was VERY good and slept through the very loud party. Until I started worrying that he'd be up all night (which he was, until 1 am) and then we woke him up and he ate and looked around at the Christmas lights. :)
Here are some photos we took before our first major family outing! Wish we would've taken a family photo.
The dressing up part was hard... like what the heck do I wear because I'm in between clothes! Luckily I have LOTS of dresses so I have a bit to choose from. I could not handle wearing any of the maxi dresses that I wore/lived in when I was pregnant, because I still felt pregnant in them. So I found something else and just went with that. It was fun dressing up again... as opposed to the sweats that I am usually sporting nowadays.
Even though I felt good and thought I was looking pretty good, I still got the dreaded when are due question... REALLY? Ugh. Suck. :( It was a girl I don't know very well, who knew I WAS pregnant. She looked down and at my belly and said congratulations. I thought maybe she meant for the baby, so I said, Thanks, he's over there with his dad. And she then said, when are you due? I said, I WAS due on Nov. 8 and had him on Nov. 7. And then she said something like Oh you already had him, when did you have him. I dunno it was loud in there... but it still sucked. Operation loose this last bit of belly weight couldn't come soon enough, after that! Lol
Colin was VERY good and slept through the very loud party. Until I started worrying that he'd be up all night (which he was, until 1 am) and then we woke him up and he ate and looked around at the Christmas lights. :)
Here are some photos we took before our first major family outing! Wish we would've taken a family photo.
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| matching double chins! :) |
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| New dress to avoid, cause apparently I look pregnant! Lol |
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Work
I went to work for a couple hours last week. It was interesting. I picked a day where I knew nobody would be in the office. I had planned to keep Colin awake all morning, feed him really good, and he would sleep while I worked away at the office and since nobody would be there I could get a TON of work done. No such luck. It was a good plan, right?
When I left the house he was WIDE awake. As usual the car puts him to sleep, so I pulled into the office and saw he was sound asleep... Yes! I got into the office, plopped him down in my cubicle and pulled the blanket back to peek on him and he is WIDE awake again... NO!! Lol. I spent the next hour trying to do all of my work as fast as I could while holding onto a baby who did NOT want to be in his car seat and had decided he was hungry. I was feeding him a bottle of pumped milk while trying to fill out paperwork and write reimbursement checks. It was hectic and chaotic.
I did like 2 hours worth of work in one hour.... hopefully I didn't mess anything up! Lol
It made me nervous about returning to work WITH Colin. I know when I come back he will be 2 months older and hopefully have a little bit more of a schedule (ha!) by then. ALSO, when I go back to work, he will not be coming with me to the office, just to the visitor center, which will be better because I won't have like paperwork and office work to do at the visitor center, for the most part it is just dealing with visitors. I do worry because right now he likes to be held a lot... my rules at the visitor center are pretty much just that he can't be out front when visitors are there and he has to stay in the back. I hope by the time he is 3 months he is content being by himself for a couple minutes in the back in the play yard or something.
Sigh... I guess I just worry about balancing the two. I've always tried to kind of separate family and work and it seems so weird to know that the two are going to be crammed together. I imagine I will figure it out, I just need to get it through my head that it is ok to combine the two and nobody will think any less of me as a professional if I have to take a break to breast feed, change a diaper or hold my baby.
When I left the house he was WIDE awake. As usual the car puts him to sleep, so I pulled into the office and saw he was sound asleep... Yes! I got into the office, plopped him down in my cubicle and pulled the blanket back to peek on him and he is WIDE awake again... NO!! Lol. I spent the next hour trying to do all of my work as fast as I could while holding onto a baby who did NOT want to be in his car seat and had decided he was hungry. I was feeding him a bottle of pumped milk while trying to fill out paperwork and write reimbursement checks. It was hectic and chaotic.
I did like 2 hours worth of work in one hour.... hopefully I didn't mess anything up! Lol
It made me nervous about returning to work WITH Colin. I know when I come back he will be 2 months older and hopefully have a little bit more of a schedule (ha!) by then. ALSO, when I go back to work, he will not be coming with me to the office, just to the visitor center, which will be better because I won't have like paperwork and office work to do at the visitor center, for the most part it is just dealing with visitors. I do worry because right now he likes to be held a lot... my rules at the visitor center are pretty much just that he can't be out front when visitors are there and he has to stay in the back. I hope by the time he is 3 months he is content being by himself for a couple minutes in the back in the play yard or something.
Sigh... I guess I just worry about balancing the two. I've always tried to kind of separate family and work and it seems so weird to know that the two are going to be crammed together. I imagine I will figure it out, I just need to get it through my head that it is ok to combine the two and nobody will think any less of me as a professional if I have to take a break to breast feed, change a diaper or hold my baby.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Happy Anniversary!!
Yesterday was my hubby and I's anniversary. We celebrated 3 years married and 9 years together! 9 years... that is crazy that we've almost been together a decade! Even greater that we get to celebrate our anniversary with a 1 month old! :) Hubby did good and is going to give me an upgrade on the promise ring he got me 5 or so years ago! :) So I spent my evening perusing the Helzberg diamond website searching for a new right hand ring!! Very exciting! And here are some pictures to make you laugh... One of our only 2 family pictures (the other was at the hospital! Lol I wish we could have taken a family picture yesterday.. I looked MUCH better, that picture was taken on Thanksgiving when I only had like 3 hours of sleep!), a wedding picture and a picture of us at our senior prom! Ha!! :) We were soo young and skinny!
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
1 month old!!
I can't believe I have a 1 month old!! Soo crazy! That was the fastest 4 weeks of my life!!
Colin's 1 month Dr. apt isn't until next week so I don't have any stats....BUT I weighed him and I am certain he weighs 8lbs now and I measured him and think he is about 23 inches!! Long and lean! We are still in newborn clothes and diapers.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Crazy Legs
It seems like just this week Colin has discovered his limbs... and how much he can wiggle them! He started finally stretching his legs out and he now seems soo long! We were doing blanket time tonight during the football game and his legs were just going CRAZY... so I took a video of it! :) Enjoy!
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Update on us
Getting on the laptop has been quite the chore lately, so I haven't been able to blog. I am lucky if I open my laptop once a day... and when I do I check my necessities and then close it. (Although I was able to do some cyber Monday/Christmas shopping, got my Mom a camera because her camera sucks and she wants to take million pictures of her grandson and I got Colin a play mat that we registered for, but didn't get and I got me... hey I deserve something... some cute little boots... not that I needed more boots, but whatever. :) )
Sleeping : Was going really good at first. He hated his bassinet, but I discovered he liked his crib. So, he was sleeping in his crib for the first week or so. He was sleeping 1-2 hr stretches in his crib... until the other night and then he decided he didn't like his crib anymore. He only wanted to sleep on someone. I would try like hell to get him to sleep in his crib or bassinet. Feed him, put him in the one of them and then he'd wake up... sometimes less than 2 minutes after putting him down and he'd wake up and be starving again and we'd rinse and repeat. I got NO sleep one night and thought, this HAS to change. The other night we retried swaddling... he HATES it, I swear. He hardly ever cries, and last night he screamed trying to escape his swaddle. I was tired so i laid in bed trying to console him... and I fell asleep. I woke up with him in my arms THREE... count them... THREE hours later. I hadn't slept a 3 hour stretch since before he was born! We fed and then I went back to bed with him... and he slept another 3 hours. Daddy's alarm went off and I couldn't believe I had only gotten up once in the night. Since then we've been co-sleeping... because that seems to be the only way I get sleep. I really hate co-sleeping. Our bed sucks, it is old and really squishy and I feel like Colin is going to suffocate. So I hold onto him all night. He is a squirmy sleeper so I wake up a lot... but still not as much as before. I am still not sure this is right for us because I am soo paranoid about it. I will continue to try to put him in his crib and bassinet and hopefully he will out grown this whole only sleeping on someone deal. Right now he is sleeping in a vibrating chair... better than me! :)
Breastfeeding: This has been a huge challenge for us. We've been using a nipple shield since my little breakdown. Honestly, I don't think we'd still be breastfeeding if it weren't for the shield. I was starting to feel some more pain the other day, so I FINALLY called a lactation consultant. I should have gotten help weeks ago, but I didn't. She gave us some really great tips and breastfeeding is definitely more comfortable than it was before. I am hoping that was the stepping stone in the right direction for us and hopefully breastfeeding will only get better. I am still using the shield, but I just want my poor nips to heal a bit more before I go back without it. :)
With Colin sleeping more at night, he is MUCH more awake during the day. We've been doing tummy time and blanket time on the floor and yesterday we had a MAJOR photo shoot so I could get a photo for our Christmas cards. :) He was quite the little alert boy during his photo shoot and I got lots of good pictures! He is such a good baby, we are really lucky! No crying unless he is hungry or if the diaper wipes are exceptionally cold! I love him so much! I can't believe it has been 3 weeks already since I had him!
Here are some pictures from our photo shoot!! :)
Sleeping : Was going really good at first. He hated his bassinet, but I discovered he liked his crib. So, he was sleeping in his crib for the first week or so. He was sleeping 1-2 hr stretches in his crib... until the other night and then he decided he didn't like his crib anymore. He only wanted to sleep on someone. I would try like hell to get him to sleep in his crib or bassinet. Feed him, put him in the one of them and then he'd wake up... sometimes less than 2 minutes after putting him down and he'd wake up and be starving again and we'd rinse and repeat. I got NO sleep one night and thought, this HAS to change. The other night we retried swaddling... he HATES it, I swear. He hardly ever cries, and last night he screamed trying to escape his swaddle. I was tired so i laid in bed trying to console him... and I fell asleep. I woke up with him in my arms THREE... count them... THREE hours later. I hadn't slept a 3 hour stretch since before he was born! We fed and then I went back to bed with him... and he slept another 3 hours. Daddy's alarm went off and I couldn't believe I had only gotten up once in the night. Since then we've been co-sleeping... because that seems to be the only way I get sleep. I really hate co-sleeping. Our bed sucks, it is old and really squishy and I feel like Colin is going to suffocate. So I hold onto him all night. He is a squirmy sleeper so I wake up a lot... but still not as much as before. I am still not sure this is right for us because I am soo paranoid about it. I will continue to try to put him in his crib and bassinet and hopefully he will out grown this whole only sleeping on someone deal. Right now he is sleeping in a vibrating chair... better than me! :)
Breastfeeding: This has been a huge challenge for us. We've been using a nipple shield since my little breakdown. Honestly, I don't think we'd still be breastfeeding if it weren't for the shield. I was starting to feel some more pain the other day, so I FINALLY called a lactation consultant. I should have gotten help weeks ago, but I didn't. She gave us some really great tips and breastfeeding is definitely more comfortable than it was before. I am hoping that was the stepping stone in the right direction for us and hopefully breastfeeding will only get better. I am still using the shield, but I just want my poor nips to heal a bit more before I go back without it. :)
With Colin sleeping more at night, he is MUCH more awake during the day. We've been doing tummy time and blanket time on the floor and yesterday we had a MAJOR photo shoot so I could get a photo for our Christmas cards. :) He was quite the little alert boy during his photo shoot and I got lots of good pictures! He is such a good baby, we are really lucky! No crying unless he is hungry or if the diaper wipes are exceptionally cold! I love him so much! I can't believe it has been 3 weeks already since I had him!
Here are some pictures from our photo shoot!! :)
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