One Month Old

My baby Boo Bear (this is what I've called her since day one. Not sure why, but that's just what came out when I saw her) is one month old today!! I don't know where the past month has gone, but it has flown. Things get a little easier every day despite the struggles we have from time to time, but that's to be expected.

We celebrated her one month birthday today by her taking a big nap late this afternoon (hoping this doesn't mess with her sleeping well tonight), me making some pina colada cupcakes, and putting a headband bow in her hair. We had a cute festive cloth diaper on her this morning before we dressed her for the day, but then when she pooped and daddy changed her, it got on some of the outside so that was the end of that festive diaper.

Here's some pictures of Eden on her one month birthday!

Success!

It appears that the Gerber formula is a success for us!! I was starting to get worried because it had been almost 3 days since Eden has pooped and if she didn't go today, I was going to call yet again. But when E got up at 8 this morning, I changed her diaper and was happy to see just a little bit of poop. I go to change her and sure enough, I should have waited longer because as I'm changing her, she starts pooping more! I couldn't even be mad though because it was regular baby poop...no hard turds, no diarrhea, plan old stinky formula baby poop. I wish her poops would still be more breast milk poops, but at this point, as long as she poops at least once a day, I'll be happy. Looks like we'll be able to combo feed until I decide I've had enough, or my boobs say enough and stop producing. Either way, I'm happy with how things are and I'll be okay with whatever happens from here on out. Yay!

Finding What Works

We've been struggling lately here at the Nakel house with trying to find out what works in terms of supplementing formula along with breastfeeding. There are days where I simply can't nurse Eden ALL day long. It's exhausting and we've had days where she wants to nurse for almost an hour, takes a half hour off, and then wants to nurse again. My boobs simply can't handle that. Plus, in the event that I have a chance to get out of the house by myself, I hate being a slave to the clock of, "Oh I have to hurry up and get back to nurse E." Plus, when people visit, I'm not overly comfortable nursing her in front of people so it's a pain in the ass to go upstairs to feed her...not to mention, no one else can feed her so that's no help to me.

We tried using the little bottles of formula the hospital gave us when we brought her home. It was the Similac Advance ready made and we found out that it gave her horrible diarrhea. All those giant blow outs she was having was caused by that and it broke my heart to know that it was my fault by giving her that. I called the pediatrician and talked to the phone nurse and she suggested I try the Similac Almentium and left a can for us to pick up and try. So we tried that for a few days, but I started to notice that she was SO fussy. John kept saying that it was because a book we have on "Your Baby Week by Week" says something about babies getting fussy at this age, but I was convinced it was the formula. She was never fussing at night when I nurse her, just during the day/evening hours when she'd get a bottle or two.

Well, Mary was giving her a breast milk bottle today and the 2oz. it had just wasn't enough (she usually takes between 3-4 depending on the time of day she gets a bottle) so I made her another 2oz. bottle of the formula to finish her off. Sure as shit, as she was burping her from that, she was instantly fussy. That was all I needed to seal the deal that it was the formula making her fussy, so I made yet another call the the pediatrician phone nurse. This time, they suggested Gerber and said it was supposed to be better for babies who are also breastfed and said they'd leave me a can and cooler pack at the front to pick up.

I'm hoping that this will work for us because it's killing me to know I'm putting my child through hell, just to alleviate some of my inconvenience and stress. I have the utmost respect for the women who can exclusively breastfeed because I just can't do it all the time. I love nursing at night because it's easier for me. No heating up any bottles or messing with anything else, and since I'm the only person who ever gets up with her when it's just John and I, why not. But if this formula doesn't work, I don't know what I'll do!

Gym Time

Grandma got Eden a little gym/activity mat the other day after we got pedicures and so far, she likes it in small doses. She's still pretty picky about whether she wants to be on her back, or in the swing, or in the bouncy seat. This morning she was awake and seeming pretty content, so I took it out of the package, put it together and put E on it. The whale seemed to be her favorite.

Last Night

John and I had another date night last night (dinner out at Giffy's Bar-B-Que) and I dressed Eden so cute for the day that I desperately wanted to take her with us. Unfortunately, I still think she's too small to take along out to dinner, and plus, with Grandma Nakel here, we left her to spend time with her. So since she was awake when we got back (we're never gone more than 2 hours...yes, I'm THAT mom right now) I snapped these 2 pictures. I think this dress makes her look like she's ready for a Hawaiian vacation. I'm going to try and talk daddy into it for next summer!




Of course, here's how she spends most of her time with Grandma. Not sure quite how I feel about it because once she's gone, I can't hold her all day long. But when you look at that face, it's hard not to want to!!

Bath Time!

In my last post, I said that Eden LOVES bath time. Here's pictures of her first real bath. I'm glad my mom was here to 1.witness it 2.take pictures of it for us 3.be there just incase it was an epic fail.

Small Victories

So my posts are far and few between these days as I'm still trying to figure out how to manage my time. We've had 2 small victories in the past 2 days. Yesterday's victory was Eden and I going out to Walmart all by ourselves. I fed her right before we left, waited about a half hour, and then put her in the car seat to go. As soon as I put her in and fastened the buckles, she SCREAMED. I thought for sure that I was going to have to cancel our outing because I was nervous about her screaming all the way there, but I decided that I was going to try and swing the car seat back and forth to see if that would do the trick, and sure enough, it did. Yay! With that, I hurried to get her in the truck and away we went. She slept all the way there, through Walmart (minus a 1 minute crying fit that stopped as soon as we started moving again) and back. It was a great day for us!

Today's victory was giving her a bath by myself. We've been giving her some formula in addition to me breastfeeding her (my boobs simply can NOT take some of the constant hourly nursing she wants to do) and I hate doing it for one reason. It causes her to have MASSIVE blowouts once a day. I've never seen so much poop come out of such a tiny body. So today, after I took these pictures of her, she had her blowout and it was BAD. Instead of the poop coming out the sides of her diaper, it came up out of the front and there was a 2 inch wide band of poop all over her belly. I knew that no amount of wipes was going to clean her the way she needed to be cleaned and waiting until later in the evening when John got home just wasn't an option I wanted to entertain. I figured I might as well do it now since once John goes on the 2-midnight shift, I'll have to do it by myself then anyways.

She was such a perfect little girl! I laid her on a towel on our bed while I got her bath ready and she was so good. Didn't fuss, cry, or fidget one bit! She loves bath time and I am so thankful because if she hated it, I'm not sure how I'd get through it.

So I'm celebrating small victories in my world. I'm on my own pretty much 90% if the time so this helps me stay positive and feeling like I'm not a failure as a parent!

Here's some pictures before our big blowout. This onesie has since been demolished and thrown away. Not even worth rinsing out and trying to save, especially since I'd say in a week or two she won't even fit into it.







And now that we're all pooped out and clean, we sleep :)