During my breastfeeding woes in the beginning, I remember thinking if 'I could just' make it to 6 months. At the time that sounded impossibly daunting, yet here we are. It's been such a worthwhile journey for us. I am so glad that I have stuck it out through all of the frustration & uncertainty. I think in the future I would like to find an avenue to help support other new mommies in their breastfeeding journeys. I wouldn't have made it through the first month without the unbelievable support I received!
We just got back from a long visit to Atlanta. It was great seeing friends and family! However, I don't think we will be traveling anywhere anytime soon. Layla slept like crap the entire time we were there & there were nights that I was bawling & wanting to pull my hair out. We had spent so much time & effort getting Layla to sleep at night & things were finally falling into place before we left town. It felt like she was up all night, every night. Totally frustrating. But, we had a wedding we had RSVP'd for & had to stick it out until then.
Now that we've been back in NC for a week, she is settling back into her regular sleeping patterns. Thank you Jesus!
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| This was me, sleep deprived...very very sleep deprived. |
Layla & I were in Atlanta for close to 3 weeks and during that time I was buying the organic pouches for her out of convenience. I quickly realized those pouches (2/day @$1.50/ea) were adding up! Once we got back to our NC home, I ventured into making her own food.
I found some inspiration from this blog. I think I made bigger batches & did different combinations (some good, some not so great) and all in all I think I made about 25 8 oz. portions. I stored them in Ziploc baggies laying flat. As much as I would love to say it was so much fun & I'll do it over and over, I admit that about half way through the process those damn costly pouches were sounding pretty awesome. I think the blog said she spent a total of an hour making her food & for me it took about 3 hours by the time I chopped, steamed, pureed, rinsed the Vitamix between batches, portioned out the baggies, etc.
Another thing I realized while out of town was how much I really love cloth diapering. I didn't take any of Layla's cloth diapers with us since our trips to Atlanta are always hectic and it didn't help that I left North Carolina like a bat out of hell (Our A/C unit's fan blade broke and it had to be ordered..after a few days of no air conditioning + one night in a hotel I decided to take off for Georgia ahead of schedule). I admit that before our trip, I wasn't totally in love with cloth diapering. I kept reading how awesome it was & I was trying really hard to love it...I mean, disposables are so easy! Before our trip, I would say I was cloth diapering 70% of the time. Now that we are home I'm using cloth 95% of the time. The cost of using disposables full time was nuts! I change Layla really frequently, like probably more than really necessary, so I was flying through diapers. Between the cost of her 2-pouch-a-day habit & buying diapers more than usual, our trip was getting expensive.
After seeing how costly disposables are, the little extra work involved in using cloth is totally worth it to me! I typically do a load of diaper laundry every other day & it's no more involved than doing a load of regular laundry. We use Sunbaby diapers and haven't had any issues. There is the occasional leak but I blame buying the Size 2 (for chunkier babies) before Layla was born when I thought I would have a chubalub baby. Now here I am with a long & lean little peanut who probably needs the Size 1 diapers. I'm sticking it out though & actually just ordered 6 more of the Size 2. I figure she will be wearing these diapers until she's potty trained so sticking with the larger size can't hurt.
What Layla lacks for in weight she makes up for in personality! She blows me out of the water. Dylan and I laugh because we don't know where she gets her crazy high energy from! I still believe she burns so many calories that she can't keep any weight on. She is literally non-stop...if she's awake, she is on the move! She is rolling both ways, loves to bounce in her exersaucer, and is so so close to sitting up without assistance.
I'll be curious to see what her doctor says about her size. Whenever I start to wonder or stress out about her weight, I just remember to 'look at the baby, not the scale'. Layla is beaming with happiness every day and hitting all of her milestones right on time. I am trying to remain open minded to the fact that the doctor may suggest introducing formula. Honestly, there is a part of me that would be okay with slowly weaning. The same part of me that's ready to have my body back, to eat how I want & have a little more of my 'old' self back. On the flip side, the other part of me would feel sad. Nursing is all I've known & all Layla has really known. I feel anxious thinking of no longer having the ability to nurse. I know that our nursing days will end eventually so whenever it happens, I will learn to live with it and adjust. I just hope that it can be gradual & that we can ease into a new normal when the time comes.
I love waking up everyday to such a happy baby girl! She is such a bright light in our lives!
Happy 6 months LBG!
xo
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