Thanksgiving et al.

Long time no bloggin'!  Here's a quick recap of the past two weeks, not in chronological order:

Thanksgiving
We ate turkey with family!  Shocking, I know.  Only, we did it with two different parents in the same day.  First, with grandma Chris and grandpa Ron at noon.  We had to get a quick pic before BugBat's outfit was inevitably changed :

I made an appetizer-shish-kabob-turkey-tail-type-cute-thing that I discovered on Pinterest.  Yay, pinterest! It was clearly delicious. I spent an entire 30 seconds cutting out the turkey head and taping it to a gourd.  You can probably tell how artistically talented I am.

Grandpa Ron and Cousin Carlie were baby-whisperers during dinner, and put BugBat to sleep, but don't worry, she wasn't drugged, despite the LiveStrong bib ;)

Then we went to Papaw Bill's house for 4:00 dinner, who also kept BugBat happy during dinner and let us eat uninterrupted for once (note the changed outfit):

Cousin Ella enjoyed BugBat as well, and the room nearly exploded with cuteness:

About Mom

Before Thanksgiving, I was finally closing in on my pre-pregnancy weight, nearly breaking into the 120's again.....

...but after Thanksgiving, not so close. I can't complain though, considering the weight loss must be completely credited to breastfeeding - it's practically liposuction at 500-600 calories a day!  Plus, I'm pumping all the extra I can not only for BugBat's daycare, but to donate to preemie babies since there is a big shortage going around.  I have to have at least 300 oz. to make it worth donating though, so it will take a bit longer - so far I think we have about 80 extra oz. stored, but we're quickly running out of freezer space haha.  I'll have to smuggle some over to a family freezer sometime.  Moving on....

BugBat's current Likes

• Sucking her thumb - sometimes too much, she will suck it when she's hungry instead of asking to nurse, so I have to guesstimate when she's due to eat, and offer her a snack, in which she eagerly partakes. 
• Sitting - she can sit up almost unsupported now, and she loves it.  She'll look around and study the new view, and insists (by crying if on our shoulder) on being carried in a sitting position now; observe:

• BugBat also loves touching things, after discovering how to use her hand.  I still suspect she is left-handed like her Great-Grandpa Sitterley was (Kermit).....observe - video taken while waiting for her two-month shots at the pedi's office:

• Bouncing while walking is still a favorite activity, as she always wants to be in motion like her parents. This can be exhausting at 2 am though.
• The mobile above her crib is fascinating and will keep her intrigued while mom or dad gets ready in the morning, or for bed at night.
• She has begun to be more vocal, practicing her conversation with us, and getting annoyed if we don't respond appropriately:

• Kicking is a common past time, especially during diaper changes, or when we are trying to put some pants on her.  She particularly enjoys kicking whichever leg we just put into her pants while trying to get the other leg in the other side, thereby taking the first leg out of her pants.  Maybe she just likes being ornery. 
• The cheep-cheepy dance.  It cannot be explained, but it works:

• Baths (and touching the rubber ducky):

• Finally, she has taken to playing with her food.  Note that she is not eating solids yet....yes, that means that part of her new appreciation of touching things includes her mommy, while nursing. Sometimes it takes all my will power not to giggle and disturb her.  

BugBat's current Dislikes

• Diaper changes during the nighttime.  I admit, getting wiped with a cold wet cloth can't be fun, but it's got to be better than continuing to sleep in a dirty dipey. 
• Being tired.  This happens quiet often considering she takes 4-5 naps a day, yet she'll fight going to sleep by screaming louder and louder until she finally conks out for a sound slumber. For everyone's sake, there will not be a video of this. 

Cloth Diapering

So far, a success!  Apparently we've only had one major leak (at the family care, oops! Sorry, Miss Steph!), but otherwise, everything is going smoothly, and everything is washing completely out with no stains or smells, despite using an older washer.  My only complaint is that the BumGenius 4.0 are substantially bulkier than sposies, but that's to be expected, especially for an all-in-one that grows with the baby.  Luckily, we have several 6 month outfits that fit over it just fine.  Her first fluffy butt:

Trying to take "Portraits" at home

I recently received a promotion at work - yay?!  Yes, it's a good thing, but the problem is that now I no longer have a reliable salary - my draw is based on feast or famine at the firm.  Now I receive a percentage of whatever is left over after all overhead is paid, which is neither reliable in amount nor timing.  It could be  1 month, 3 months, 6 months, or even more, before I see another paycheck after December 31st of this year.  Scary, since we are still paying student loans, car payments, mortgage, etc.....but I guess no risk, no reward, right?  So we are hoarding whatever money we can now, until we can save up a better cushion, so to speak.  

This relates to pictures in that we had previously planned to take 3-month portraits of our little sweet pea using a local photographer that we like, but we are pushing it back to the 6-month pictures now, to play it a bit safer financially. Since we still wanted to document our babe's progress, we tried setting up our own home studio and posing her ourselves.  Chaos may or may not have ensued. 

We thought she would fit inside this stocking, but underestimated how big she has already grown. 

Now she just looks like a chubby, flailing mermaid.

So we tried laying it on her instead.....

She didn't like that idea.  See "kicking" supra. 

Looking cute and smiling here, but also showing her *ahem* bloomers.

What's with all the flashing lights, guys?

DO NOT LIKE!

Ok, different outfit, different attitude?

Nope.

Help, I'm falling over!    She actually did roll down the slope here, resulting in delayed reaction sobbing for about 6 minutes haha.....oops!

Recovered and smiling for the only time in 20 more minutes of pictures.

Wait, I have flowers on my outfit.....how interesting......

Screw it, we'll go to Sears for $5

Ta-da!  Coming to a holiday card to you soon.

 Then we get home from our Sears session, and she and Atticus-cat are all:

Yes, the cat is actually licking the back of her head here.

But no caterpillar toy can ever be as yummy as a thumb!

 Goodnight!  

We have kept BugBat alive for 2 months and counting!

Huzzah!

But seriously, yay :)

To celebrate, here are some pictures:

First, our friend, Lea Barker PAINTED this painting HERSELF for Amelie!  What a fantastic gift - she's really talented.  Thanks so much, Lea!

She matched the colors perfectly to the nursery.

Discovering daddy's toes!

Finally getting the hang of tummy time

Nothing like taking a Halloween portrait 2 weeks late and with only one Halloween participant : )

A pea in a pod

Beautiful sunset in Lancaster, Ohio... yep, they do have them here

2 months old!

BugBat and her buddy Mr. Chocobo

Getting Choco-kisses on her 2 month old day

Abashed

 Vaccinations
Unfortunately, living for two months also meant that BugBat needed to get her vaccinations this week, so we went to the pediatrician yesterday.  First the good news:  she is 11.8 lbs, which is in the 54% for breastfed babies, and 68% for all babies (apparently BF babies are bigger?).  She is 22 1/2 inches long (50% percentile) and her head has really grown, to 39 centimeters, which jumped up to 71%!   Everything else looked good - eyes, nose, ears, mouth, reflexes, and the doctor even commented that BugBat looked really strong on her tummy time, which is ironic because I thought she was behind on it......she hadn't started lifting her head until about a week ago, but I guess it was just because she didn't want to, because now she's practically at 90 degrees haha.

Anyway, the shots......three total, two on one thigh, and one on the other, with two simultaneously to get it over with faster.  I'm pretty sure I cried more than she did, though she was definitely the louder one for a couple minutes, poor baby!  Also, I'd never seen anyone bleed so much from a shot - it was running down her left leg and the nurse had to mop it up.....not sure if it was a bad nurse or she somehow hit a vein, but it was rather disconcerting and we may be looking for a different doctor soon. Neither nurse said a thing about it and just rushed right back out of the room.  Though we really like the doctors there, the staff has always seemed less than stellar - not very friendly or helpful, and that's a big deal when you end up dealing with them more than the doctors more times than not. They could have at least said something comforting after making her bleed so much.  :(

I was half hoping that BugBat would sleep for the 48 hours that everyone told me she would after the shots, but nope!  She was wide awake and definitely more fussy after her 2 pm appointment, and we ended up going out to get baby tylenol around 9 pm, which apparently helped since she was finally asleep by 10 and slept until 6 the next morning (with a couple brief nighttime feedings).  Thank goodness because she wouldn't stop crying unless she was being held and the second I put her down she would startle and begin wailing.  Today she has been perfectly normal in every way and woke up with a smile on her face as usual.

Balancing life
This week has been a little more stressful on all fronts for me - I feel like I'm falling behind at work since I can only be at the office, uninterrupted, for two days a week.  I feel like I'm falling behind on mothering since the doctor asked me what her normal daily schedule was and I couldn't tell her how often BugBat ate, or slept, or for how long.....I don't really keep track, I just do it on demand.  And I guess I don't pay attention as well as I should....I didn't think it mattered unless something was wrong.  I notice days when she generally sleeps more often than others, or eats more frequently, but beyond that, I figure as long as she keeps eating, sleeping, and producing diapers, than everything is fine.  Oh well, I guess there's an app I can download for that. One more thing to do, sigh.....

I also feel like I'm letting my husband down because I'd been optimistic about how this whole scheduling thing would work out, but apparently I'm either going to have to cut back my hours and pay at work, or find another day care person for BugBat because our current one can't take her more than 2 days a week.  I just can't get my work done efficiently at home, and taking BugBat to the office isn't much better.  I have until January to figure it out before work demands a set schedule, so we'll see if things begin to click better soon.

Self-Soothing
On the plus side, BugBat just put herself to sleep on the play mat by sucking her hands, and she did it in her crib earlier this evening, so that's a huge improvement from last night's need-to-be-held-at-all-times session.  Maybe I WILL be able to get more work done in the coming weeks *fingers crossed*......going to go work on a POA now, quick, before she wakes up!