beefcake
That's me, of course. With all the thought of what I should be eating and how many calories things have and whatnot, I've found a solution.
Hemp protein powder and coconut milk smoothies. It's a quick 300 calories and 8 grams of protein, and that's less than a full serving. Granted, the hemp protein is grainy, but for making sure I'm not wasting away to nothing, it works. Also, it's non-dairy,
just in case , although I'm not avoiding all dairy (thankfully. that sucks).So. Now that we're all caught up on my dietary considerations...
Noel has been approximating words some. It's not a big "He said his first word!", like I thought talking was, but it's certainly a start. He definitely is mimicking the sounds in one syllable words (after mucho repetition), but not spontaneously. Yay Noel!
And he's been standing with better and better success lately, since the first attempt on New Year's Eve. Last night he shifted his weight from one foot to the other while standing- which resulted in his crashing to the bed, of course. But it seems to me that it's another step (haha) towards an actual step.
In all, it seems that he hasn't really done anything, but really, he has. Little bits and pieces of the final product. We'll get there, sooner or later.
Happy Birthday!
Noel, we didn't know what we were getting into, this being parents thing. Thanks for showing us the way.
proof of our crazy
Yay!
The cubes are up! The cubes are up! This will be Noel's third JazzFest, and Darrah will be attending her inaugural Fest, of course. WooHoo! This year, Noel should actually enjoy a lot more of the goings on. Can't wait!
And here's a funny. The night Darrah was born, we called out for Chinese. The midwife was adamant that I eat something, and the pizza place I wanted was closed. Anyhow, my fortune?
"You love the night life" Hee.
everyone hates me.
It's true. OK, not everyone. And not really.
But here's the thing. My 'problems' are the opposite of what people usually have. So everyone's all, 'oh, I don't have enough milk' and 'I can't get rid of this extra baby weight', and I'm the rotten bitch who can't eat enough to keep up with my little cow baby. This happened towards the end of nursing Noel- I was adding calories to everything I ate, but still, I was under my usual weight. With the way Darrah eats, and chasing around Noel, I've really got to get better about eating enough. It doesn't help that my weight plateaued two months before she was born, so I was really and truly all baby. No wonder she was eight pounds... I was eating entire sleeves of thin mints at the end there, and she was getting all of it.
The other thing? I have an oversupply of milk and an overactive letdown. Poor Darrah is practically drowning when she tries to eat, and sputters and swallows air. There are
things that help, and they're helping some. Mostly, though, I think that she'll get bigger and better able to handle it. Until then, though, we're not sleeping because Darrah's gassy or spitting up or both. And I don't complain much to my mom friends, because I'm in my regular clothes and have too much milk, and it sounds like bragging. But it's not, I swear.
From one end to the other
So, when Noel was a teensy baby, he lost a bit of weight after birth, like most babies do. He didn't make it up by two weeks after his birth, when he should have, so our pedi had us nursing all the time, every two hours, day and night. We managed, even with a sleepy baby, and all turned out fine, of course.
Miss Darrah, on the other hand... at our first appointment with the midwife, two days after her birth, she lost one ounce. Usually, a baby will lose more in the neighborhood of about a half a pound.
We saw the pedi when she was six days old. There, she weighed eight pounds, 2 ounces. So in the course of 3 days, she not only made up her birth weight, but gained.
At two weeks, we saw the midwife again, to check on my stitches, and weigh the baby. Excellent report- the stitches are healing beautifully (yay!) and the girl?
She put on a pound. Sixteen ounces in 8 days. She's gaining at a rate of two ounces a DAY.
That's my girl. We don't need no stinkin' dainty.
We were wrong...
Both the husband and I were guessing leap day for the new addition to make an appearance, but it wasn't to be.
Instead, after a six hour labor, she made her debut on the regular last day of February, with a whole bunch of screaming and crying and carrying on. From both of us.
Noel LOVES his little sister.
The rest of us think she's just amazing, too.
Her name is Darrah, and she was a whopping eight pounds, one ounce. This was surprising to us, as both midwives best guess was around 7 pounds, feeling here little body through me, and the fact that I was measuring a couple of weeks behind; as of Tuesday, my last regular appointment in the office, it was 35-36 weeks. Go figure, right?
Labor was fine, and I progressed quickly and relatively easily. Pushing was a WHOLE different story, though, and I would like to never do that again. Luckily, the stitches are healing up well, and the memory of the pain is getting foggy already. It was as lovely a birth as birth ever is (because birth is messy and hard, regardless).
There are more of us now, though, and it's pretty nifty. I'm not supposed to be on my stitches this long though, so any further thoughts will have to wait.
