So behind..

Hello to anyone who still reads this sad excuse for a blog! I struggle to write here and I dont know why. I dont have work to do so I have plenty of time, its just that I feel like I would be saying the same thing over and over again.
So random stuff....
1. I am training for a 10K. 10K is a long way to run when you hate running. I am doing pretty good so far. The furthest I have gone on this training program is 4 miles so far, but this weekend I have to do a 4.5 mile run. We will see how this goes. Right now my goal is to run the 6.2 miles in less than 1 hour and 15 minutes. I did 4 miles in 45 minutes the other day and that is about 11:30 per mile, so if I can maintain that in the 6 miles I should be ok. But really, I will be happy to finish. (Like I said, I don't like running :))
2. I am currently 5 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight. I have about 32lbs to go to get to my goal weight. Weight watchers is still working well for me, but I really have to give credit to nursing still. It is helping me lose this weight...b/c I feel like I NEVER stop eating. Thank goodness for those extra 500 calories I burn!
3. I don't like pumping. I know I have said this before, but its still a buzz kill. Oh well. Selfishly, the one thing that keeps me going is the weight  loss. Thankfully, my supply is keeping up with what Lizzy eats, and so far I haven't had any issues feeding her. She basically stopped breastfeeding when she went back to daycare (except for in the middle of the night, which she can stop doing ANY day now) so I am pretty much an exclusive pumper.
4. Lizzy is freaking adorable and I love her to pieces, but the girl needs to sleep through the night! A couple of weeks ago we implemented the cry yourself to sleep business. The first night I went in after 5 minutes and soothed her for a couple minutes and then left and she fell asleep after about 3 more minutes. Ever since she has either rolled over and gone right to sleep or cried for about 3 minutes and gone to sleep. The problem comes in the middle of the night when she wakes up and wants her stinking Nuk. That thing is the bane of my existence. I think some weekend SOON we are going to have to let her cry in the middle of the night and not use the Nuk anymore. I can't keep waking up just to give her that damn thing.
5. I miss my horse. I haven't been out to see him in weeks, or ride him for that matter. Its so hard to get out there during the week to ride b/c I pick Lizzy up at daycare. And on the weekends I have been going out to my moms new house (closer to me! yay!) to help her put in fence posts and do other manual labor. Hopefully the horses will be moved soon.
6. I need new winter clothes. Last winter I spent in maternity clothes and the stuff I have from the winter before is all too big. Any suggestions on where to get sweaters and work appropriate clothes is MUCH appreciated!
7. I love fall. Everything about it (except that it is followed by winter)...the weather, the leaves changing, the ability to wear jeans and hooded sweatshirts, apple picking, pumpkin carving...ahh! I love it :)
8. I am 3 lbs away from losing 50 since I started Weight Watchers. Holy crap!
9. My baby will be 5 months old this month, 6 months October 16th. Holy crap! I can't believe it. We tried rice cereal this past week, she LOVES it!! Its so cute to watch her eat...(I may or may not be thinking about #2. What is wrong with me? Wasn't I just saying how Lizzy needs to sleep through the night!!)
10. My daughter is freaking adorable. Have I mentioned that???

 

Her bouncer/activity thing is too big for her, but she loves it. She stands on an accounting book to help her out :)

 

I look exhausted, but she sure is cute!

 

This was at the State Fair, it was exhausting :)

 

This was before going to her 2nd Twins game! She loves Joe Nathan (or her mama does and loves this shirt:))

 

So happy!!!!

Random

I apparently suck at blogging. Sorry 'bout that.
I feel like I am living in the movie "Groundhog's Day." All my days kind of run together lately. I get up (way too early). Get ready for work. Nurse Lizzy. Get her ready for daycare. Run out the door (usually about 10 minutes later than I wanted to). Get to work. Sit here hating my job for 9 hours. Eat for too much food b/c I am so bored. Leave at 4. Pick up Lizzy. Get home. Either go for a run or do the 30 Day Shred. Wash the bottles and my pump from the day. Make dinner. Make lunches for the next day. Give Lizzy a bottle (she hasn't nursed at night in a couple weeks, she screams bloddy murder). Put Lizzy to bed. Shower. Go to bed. Rinse and repeat Monday -Friday.
I feel like I have no time for my hubby, and if I do, I am too tired to do much.
Lizzy is still getting up in the middle of the night. She gets up once to eat, the other times we just put her nuk in and hope she goes back to sleep. I would really like to cut out that feeding but I will wait until we go in for her 4 month check up next week. She is still screaming when I try and nurse her at night. The only time she will nurse is when she is mostly asleep (1am and then at 5/530 am if I catch her before she wakes up too much). At first I was sad she didn't nurse more, but I have gotten used to it and it is kind of nice to know how much she is getting.
Pumping is the bane of my existence. I hate it. It makes me cringe hearing the sound of that thing. But I use it four times a day and I should get used to it I guess. I don't know how long I will actually make it past my goal of 6 months. If I can pump that long she will probably have enough milk from the freezer to last through her 7th month. We will see. I would like to keep breastfeeding/pumping til about January but we will see. I am over it right now.
And to add to this debbie downer post, I hate my job. I get paid well and I have good benefits. Those are the only good things I can say about this place. The oldies I work with are complaining about something all the time. The new system we just got, the fact that they are moving our desks around, the sun shining, the clouds....anything they can think of. I'm over it.
But I have a cute kid, a husband who tolerates my moodiness b/c of my sleep deprivation (and offers to get up with her but really its not worth it b/c I just lay there awake until he comes back to bed), and a paycheck every other week. Life is pretty good :)
Here are some pictures from the last couple weeks (off of Facebook...so if you are my friend there, these are repeats). I have some video I want to post but I haven't put it on the computer yet.

We were napping on the couch together in this one and she was just so darn cute!

 Super smiley baby!

 She wore this dress and a cute black bow on her head to her Uncle Alex's wedding. She kept eating the dress :)

 I turned 29 on July 26th. Don got me a balloon :) (And tickets to see Cavalia)

 

And because he is my first baby here are a couple pictures of Leo. Love this guy! :)

Any ideas?

So we have had some issues with Lizzy as of late. I feel like it started right around the time I went back to work and I am not sure if it has anything to do with daycare or not.
Mainly at night, but sometimes at other feedings she will scream and scream and scream when we try and feed her. I can get her to calm down with a pacifier and I will try and switch out my boob for the pacifier and she will latch on, eat for a minute at most and then scream again. Last night I ended up crying right along with her and then she continued to scream for a good 15 minutes until she just passed out....
Needless to say she doesnt sleep well b/c she doesn't eat well at night. She has been getting up about 2 times a night which gives me at most, 3 hours of sleep. It sucks. I feel like death warmed over.
I have taken her to the pediatrician and the only thing they came up with is MAYBE she has some slight reflux and they gave us some meds to try. That was a week and a half ago. I don't think anything has changed since we started those meds. I have called a lactation consultant and they have no new ideas besides what we have tried or heard from other people.
At daycare she only eats two bottles during the day. We give them 5 ounces in each bottle and she sometimes eats all 5 ounces, but sometimes doesn't. I don't know if she isn't eating enough during the day or what. We have talked to them about it and they tell us they try and feed her and she just sits there and smiles at them. She is in a good mood pretty much every other minute, except when she is screaming.
I am at my wits end. I am *this* close to saying screw it to breastfeeding. But I don't know that formula would make a difference b/c we try and give her a bottle when she is screaming but she just keeps screaming. She doesnt care if it is breast or bottle.
Ugh..any ideas? Any? Please... :)

I need to get better...

at this blogging business.
So this is week 3 of work and I am still not quite used to being back. I don't mind working, but I liked having my days free to get my errands done, play with Lizzy, and clean a little (ha, that didn't happen a lot, but at least I had the option!) I don't think I am cut out for being a stay at home mom (God Bless you if you are!) but I could definitely work part time.
Lizzy is coming up on being 15 weeks old. I have no idea where the time has gone. She is so full of personality, it is just so much fun! She smiles all the time, she giggles when I do stupid voices and make a complete fool of myself trying to get her to do so and she is so, so close to rolling over from her back to her tummy-I am just waiting to find her on her tummy one day. She is happiest in the morning, sometimes she is so happy she won't eat...which causes problems when I have to go to work b/c there isnt a lot of extra time built into the schedule. But I appreciate that she is happy that early, but I rarely am ready to start my day at that hour.
She still isnt sleeping through the night. For awhile around 6 weeks she was, but that didnt last too long. She gets up about once a night, eats, and goes right back to sleep. While Don is nice enough to offer to get up it is just so much easier for me to go in there and breastfeed her.
Lizzy went to her first wedding this past week. Uncle Alex married his long time girlfriend Megan. Don and I were both lucky enough to be part of the wedding party (Don was the best man and I was an usherette.) We had to coordinate someone to come and watch Lizzy at the church so no one in the family had to worry about her, and then my sister was nice enough to be waiting at our house so Lizzy could go home after the ceremony. It was nice for Don and I to have a kid free night :)
This is a picture of Lizzy with her great-grandpa. I was lousy at taking pictures since I was busy ushering but hopefully someone will have some (I know the photographer took some of her looking super cute :)).

The bib came off for the formal pictures, dont worry :)

So what else is new....not much. This is a really random post so I will just add some more randomness in bullets...

• I am one pound away from my pre-pregnancy weight. While this is great, my goal is to lose another 37 lbs. I am doing Weight Watchers again (I did it before I got pregnant and lost 40 lbs) and I love that I am nursing b/c I get 14 extra points.
• I am signing up to run the Twin Cities 10K. Yes, I am crazy. Yes, my only goal is to not die.
• Don is running the Twin Cities 10 Miler. 
• Both of us trying to train for races (I should put race in quotes b/c I will not be racing anyone!) will be interesting. I feel bad taking time away from Lizzy during the week but I am doing this to get in better shape...and a happy mom is a happy babe. So Don and I are trying to devise a plan so we both can get our runs in.
• I turn 29 tomorrow. I will not be turning 30 next year.
• We are going out for my birthday on Friday. We are going to dinner and then to see Harry Potter. Don asked if I wanted to go out on my actual birthday but I said no b/c I have to weigh in on Wednesday and I know if I eat out I will not eat well :)
• We are going out of town two weekends in August. I am nervous I will forget something at home that Lizzy will want. It should be interesting to see how much I pack!
• Pumping three times a day at work is getting old. My goal of 6 months seems so far away. But at the same time I am a lot more attached to nursing her than I ever thought I would be.
• Speaking of pumping...I need to go do that now!

I will try and be more regular in my posting. And next time I will post more cute pictures of my babe! :) Most of my good pictures are actually on my phone which is dead right now so I can't send them to my email!

Back to work

So today is day #2 of being back at work. 12 weeks of maternity leave is just not enough time. I so want to be at home with Miss Lizzy right now.
We took her to daycare (thankfully) last week. It made coming into work yesterday about 100 times easier. Last Tuesday when we took her to daycare for the first time I was a mess. I cried before we even left the house. I did hold it together long enough to make it out of the building before crying in the car after we left her with the daycare worker. It was rough. But I survived, and she has been happy everyday when I pick her up. That smile just kills me every time she breaks it out! :)
So the last 12 weeks have been the longest, shortest, most frustrating and rewarding 12 weeks of my life. She is a handful at times, and at other times the easiest baby.
The last two nights have actually been especially frustrating. I get Lizzy all ready for bed and prepare to feed her and she starts screaming bloody murder and Will Not Stop. It is so hard to hear. She usually is screaming so hard she starts to choke a little. I dont like it. The first night we ended up giving her a bottle, last night I got her to calm down with a Nuk and then she neded up eating like normal. I don't know if it is just a phase or what. (any ideas are welcome!)
Another thing...at daycare they are feeding her every 3-4 hours but at home she eats every 2.5-3 hours (and has been for most of her life) so I don't know what that is about. I asked them (just today) to feed her at least every 3 hours. I don't know if she gets overly hungry or what. I feel really needy asking them this, but I know how often she has been eating so its ok that I asked that, right?
I don't like sending her to daycare, but I know in the long run it will be fine, and even good for her. I just don't want to see someone else taking care of her for 9 hours a day. It kind of sucks.
So I just keep looking at all the cute pictures I have at my desk to get me through the day :)

I was taking her temperature...hence the thermometer in her pit :)

Over half way...

Done with my maternity leave that is. I can't believe it has been 7 weeks already.
Right now she is hanging out in her bouncy seat, sound asleep.
The last week she has been a fabulous sleeper. I know it will go back and forth, but she has been so great about her night time sleep. She usually goes down around 830 or 9 and then sleeps until about 330, eats and goes back to sleep in about 1/2 hr. After that I usually end up pumping because my boobs feel like might explode. After that she usually sleeps another 2.5 to 3 hours. I feel like a new person when I get over 5 hours of sleep. :)
I am enjoying my time off with her but sometimes I go crazy at home. Especially when she doesn't nap! I try and go out for a walk, or go to Target everyday. Yesterday and today (and possibly tomorrow) will be too hot to take Lizzy out and about for a walk, but we did go to Target today! That girl has been there more than most normal people!
Here are some pictures of my cutie. She is such a great baby...We are lucky!

The answer to the question on her shirt is no!

She is entertained by her "Friends" for the longest time...its adorable. She shrieks and smiles at them.

She has the cutest smile...this is the best I can do with a picture from my phone but she is very selective when giving me smiles when a camera is around.

Well thats about it for now. I love my little girl but sometimes she drives me bananas when she won't nap ;)

Shes sleeping...

so I need to type fast if I want to get this published before she wakes up!
There are a number of things I didn't know before coming a parent.
1. You can get by with very little sleep. Everyone told me you could, but I didn't believe them.
2. Breastfeeding sucks. Sorry if you love it and you think its a great bonding experience...the only thing that is keeping me going is that it is making me drop the weight, and the cost of formula is horrible.
3. Dirty diapers from your own baby are not that bad.
4. Pacifiers are a God send.
5. You can love your child so, so much and yet when they are screaming for more than an hour at a time you think to yourself...What the hell were we thinking?!?!?
6. I was actually told this but I didn't think I would do it...but the first time she slept from 11-6 I woke up thinking something had happened to her. I went into her room and had to make sure she was still breathing.
7. I didn't know your boobs could actually feel like they were going to explode (see #6...she slept for 7 hours!)
8. Mass amounts of spit up used to concern me. Now I just hope I can get it all out of her w/o ruining her outfit, or my own.
9. A smile from your baby can melt your heart.

There are more but someone is awake now. Bummer. I will leave you with some of her newborn pictures. They turned out great :)

All pictures were taken by Leann Warnest of Honeybee and Peony. Don't steal them please.