A Quick Update

I have been neglecting the blog and I apologize. I hope to get Lydia's 10 week update up very soon and I will try to post some extra pics this upcoming Sunday since I missed last Sunday's snapshots.

I have been very busy... with school, teaching, housework and of course feeding my baby a bunch more. I really committed myself to trying to help Lydia gain weight this past week and it took up a ton of time! Nursing is definitely a full time job, and I was also trying to pump 4 times a day as well as increase her amount of daily feedings. Another thing that I had to put more energy into was eating. I really tried to eat more everyday, which meant fixing full meals for myself and trying to incorporate more good fats. On top of everything we went to NKY this past weekend which was, of course, wonderful yet SO busy.

But, as of yesterday I found out that it was all worth it. Our little girl is not so little anymore... she broke the 10 pound mark! She now weights 10 lbs., and 1 ounce which means in the past week she gained 11 ounces. That is right - 11 ounces in 7 days. Go baby girl! Our pediatrician is now happy with her weight (this gain bumped her from the 10th to the 20th percentile for weight, while she is in the 80th percentile for height). So that means we can continue only breastfeeding and we don't have to return to the doctor until she is 4 months old. Yay!

Also, we got her thyroid result back at the end of last week and that finally came back normal. So no more heel pricks or worrying about if her thyroid is okay.

And while I am bragging about my perfect little one, I should tell you that yesterday she started grabbing at things! She has a play mat on the floor that she lays under when she is happy and yesterday she was definitely putting her hands out and hitting the toys around, and a few times she would open up her hands and try to grab at them. It made me really happy and so proud.

Yesterday was just a great day of confirmation that Lydia is perfectly healthy. I wanted to let you all know since I know so many of you have been praying and been giving me some great advice.

Hope you have a good Wednesday!

The Heartache of a Mommy

I truly love being a mother. It is such an honor to be given the opportunity to love and shape a perfect creation of God and in so many ways I feel that it is exactly what I was put on earth to do. I really haven't written enough about the joy that motherhood brings - it is a deep joy that hurts my heart sometimes. My Lydia is so precious to me and I just feel unbelievably blessed everyday.

However, being a mommy is also hard. Today was one of the hard days... It was the dreaded day of her first round of vaccines. I knew that it would be difficult to hear her cry when she got the shots but there were so many other emotions with which I was bombarded that I never expected.

Like second guessing myself for choosing to vaccinate in the first place.

Like feeling guilty and nervous for putting such harsh things into her tiny, perfect body.

Like feeling anxious and worried about facing the appointment all day long.

I can't describe how hard it is to feel your baby cry when you are a mom. It is an emotion and pain that I had never experienced before and it is really hard to stay strong. Especially when you know that the baby is hurting. I heard Lydia cry in a whole new way today and it was so hard to not break down myself. On top of the vaccines she also had to get her heel pricked yet again to test her Thyroid again. We are praying hard that it comes back normal this time.

Not only did I have to face her first vaccines today, but I had to face some more hard news at her appointment. Lydia Grace isn't gaining the amount of weight "they would like" her to gain. Instead of gaining 20-30 grams each day from her last appointment until now she has only gained 13 on average. It may be that my milk supply has decreased, it may in fact be an abnormal Thyroid issue. It may be nothing at all... I think she is just a small baby! But either way, this week I have to pump 4 times each day after her feedings and then give her a bottle of anything that I pump and then we will bring her back in next Tuesday to check her weight again. If her weight gain hasn't increased by then, I know that the formula supplement conversation will begin with the doctor.

There isn't any reason to worry... and I know that. Lydia is very healthy and we have so, so much to be thankful for. If we have to supplement with formula we will and everything will be fine. But it was hard news to accept for me. It made me feel a little bit inadequate, because I see feeding her as "my thing" kind of, something that I truly love to do and am proud of myself for doing. I know it is silly, but it affected me a lot more than I thought it would, and it has been hard to come to terms with this evening.

Anyway, in general it was a hard day. Today made me realize all of the new emotions that a mommy experiences - all of the heartaches that are truly unique to being a mother. It is a difficult thing, but a beautiful one at the same time.

Seven Snapshots Sunday

My love of gDiapers

I never thought I would say this... but I really love using cloth diapers. After my brave friend Melissa tried them out with her little one last July I thought that maybe, just maybe I could try them when we had kids. After finding out that we would be having our first baby while we were both in grad school, I dismissed the option as being too much work and something that I could handle until I was a "stay at home mom" full time. However, we received a whole pack of gDiapers at one of our showers as well as a wet bag and diaper sprayer, so when Lydia was 5 weeks old and we began to run out of gifted newborn diapers I gathered up the courage to try them and just see if it would be okay.

As it turns out, cloth diapering is a breeze! So I am here to tell you all of the nitty gritty details of how to get started (because when I wanted to try and start I found it a little bit difficult to find detailed instructions of what was going on). This may be information overload, especially if you aren't interested in cloth diapering at all. But I will try to keep it short. Also, we have only tried gDiapers so far (they are considered a hybrid cloth diaper, I will explain why later), but I am sure there are other great diapers out there too! We will be trying bumkins and bum genius here soon as Lydia gets bigger.

So, here is what you need to know first about gDiapers:

THE BASICS

 There are 3 parts to a gDiaper: an outer shell, a waterproof liner, and a reusable cloth.
gDiapers are hybrid because if you wanted to skip the laundry part of it you can buy biodegradable refills instead of the reusable cloth and use them as the absorbent part of your diaper. The refills are cheaper than normal diapers, you just throw them in the trash, and they are better for the environment!

 To assemble the diaper you just place the cloth inside of the liner, fleece side up. It will fold into a U-shape.

 Then you snap the liner into the outer shell.

 Then fold and store.

BEFORE FIRST USE

Before you begin using gDiapers wash the outer shells with baby's clothes. Make sure you fold the velcro back. I use cold water and I hang the shells to dry.

Wash the liners and cloth together with a small amount of soap and in hot water. After one wash remove the liners and hang them to dry. Keep the cloth in the washer and rinse them with hot water 5 more times (no soap!). This process is called stripping the diapers. If you ever notice soap build-up on the cloth, if they start to smell, or if you notice them being less absorbent just strip them and they should be good! Hang the cloth to dry as well.

DAILY USE

We have 5 shells and 16 liners and shells. We still use a disposable at night and with this amount of diapers I have to wash them every 3-4 days. Theoretically the shell shouldn't get dirty or wet since it is protected by the liner, but sometimes if we leave the diaper on too long there are small leaks around her legs. No matter what the shells will get a little musty smelling after a few days, so I usually just throw a few in when I do a load of her clothes. The snap-in liner and cloth will both get dirty with dirty diapers, but for wet diapers the liner could probably be re-used. Since we have the same amount of liners as cloths, I just un-snap the liner with the cloth inside each time and place it in the wetbag that hangs in our laundry room. You don't even have to rinse them off, and the wet bag prevents any kind of smell.

The one "con" of cloth diapers vs. disposables it that they have to be changed more often. There are leaks if we ever leave one on for more than 3 or 3 1/2 hours. So I try to change her every 2 1/2-3 hours and then everything is great. This is why we use a disposable at night (sometimes she sleeps for 5 hours straight!), but soon we may try to transition to cloth at night and just put a reusable cloth and a biodegradable refill in the liner to make it super absorbent.

LAUNDRY DAY

When it is time to clean the diapers the process is so easy with a wet bag. Just add a little bit of detergent (I use Tide free and clear... you can buy special soaps but I think that most free and clear detergents would work too) to hot water and turn the wet bag inside out to empty out all of the diapers, and throw the wet bag int the washer as well. Wash it all, remove the liner and wet bag, and then rinse the cloth one time with hot water. This will prevent the soap build up and keep the cloths nice and absorbent.

Like I said before, I wash the shells with her normal clothes. And I hang everything to dry. 

WHAT ABOUT THE POO?

Currently we don't have to do anything different for a dirty diaper vs. a wet diaper since Lydia is breastfeeding and her poo is water soluble. But when Lydia begins to eat solid food we will either rinse off the cloth in the toilet using the toilet sprayer, or we will buy these things called cloth inserts that you set right on top of the reusable cloth and it catches anything solid. These cloth liners are super cheap (8 bucks for about 100) and they can be flushed.

SUMMARY OF WHY I LOVE THEM

• They are easy
• They are CHEAP! Seriously... they can be an investment at first, but I would say they pay for themselves after 2 or 3 months since disposables are so expensive.
• They are good for the environment (I can pretend like this was a big reason for us, but really it wasn't... however, it is a nice plus).
• They are so much better for baby's bottom. No diaper rashes at all for Lydia.
• They hold poo better. We haven't had any blow outs in gDiapers, whereas with the disposables we were getting poo-up-the-back every 2-3 days.
• They really aren't gross. Just a note to you future mommies; you won't be grossed out by your baby's bodily functions. But even David and babysitters agree that these diapers are very user friendly for everyone.
• And, of course, they look adorable on your wonderful bundle's bum!! From what I have read, this is one characteristic that is kind of exclusive to gDiapers. A lot of cloth diapers can be bulky, especially when baby is so little, but gDiapers fit very snugly and look good under clothes. 

 

That is all about why I love cloth diapers! If you have any questions, let me know. And if this post was boring for you... sorry. I will send you off with a funny video link. The video is called "'Stuff' Crunchy Mamas Say". A crunchy mama is kind of a hippy mom, I guess, and I cracked up when I saw this video because even though some of it I couldn't relate to, other parts I totally could. Have fun!

As of Thursday...

Oh yea... I forgot to tell you.

Remember all of that crazy math research that I did this summer? Most of you were probably thinking, "How do you research math?", or "I thought we already had math down... you know, 1+1=2."

So if you are at all curious, you should follow the link below to see the paper that we wrote about the research. It is posted on this thing called the arxiv; it's an online data base run by Cornell for papers that have been published in journals or are awaiting publication. Our paper would be in the latter category, but being posted on the arxiv is one step closer!

http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.2013

After you click on the link you can download the PDF on the right side of the page if you want to glance at the paper itself. It will look crazy... I only understand about 3/4 of it since I haven't thought about this stuff for a few months!

Enjoy :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I had a really good Valentine's Day, and I hope that you did too! 

It started out normal; we got up early, I taught two classes and then I came back here to hang out with Lydia. Today we went over to my friend Melissa's house and played with her and her little boy Caedmon. It was so much fun!

I got home around 5:45 and fed my baby, and around 6 my hubby came home with peanut M&M's and hydrangeas! I was surprised since last week he randomly gave me a Steelers Tervis Tumbler and said it was my valentine's day present. David is always about surprises and as much as I may tell myself that I don't care if I don't get anything for Valentine's Day or our anniversary I have to admit that he always makes me feel special with his gifts :)

At 6:30 David's friend from law school came over with his girlfriend to babysit Lydia. They had offered to watch baby girl while we went to dinner and even though I was a little bit hesitant because her fussy period is always at night I decided that I shouldn't get in the habit of turning down babysitting. So we went to a small, casual restaurant 5 minutes away called Bourbon and Toulouse and had a great time! Even though we were only gone for an hour it was amazing to sit across from one another and eat a good meal and have uninterrupted conversation. Of course we talked about our baby girl most of the time :)

It was a different Valentine's Day for sure, but still great. And after our date I got to give our adorable girl a bath and hold her close. Ahh...love.