Baby's First... March?

O.M.G. I have so much to say! It's been so long. I've been looking for a day where I had a couple hours to just sit and focus and today is finally that day! FINALLLLLLY! Phew.

Let me start by saying that daylight savings is a little beeee-atch. It took Ryan a week and a half to get adjusted. Oh wait, that's false. Ryan managed to fall asleep about 5:30 and woke up between 4:30-5. I, on the other hand, could not fall asleep, and by the time I did, it'd be like waking up at 3:30 everyday to start my day. So basically, I missed out on 2 hours of sleep each night. But then Ryan's eating and napping throughout the day was off which made for a grumpy baby til bed time. We had a handful of rough days. I'd wake up in the morning wishing I had a 9-5 job because it'd be easier than taking care of a baby all day. But we're back on track and things are much better-well, more or less.

My little monkey

I switched from the progesterone only BC to regular BC with estrogen and it's been amazing and awful at the same time. I do not like the person I am without my dose of estrogen! The POP made me sooooo moody and axious and uptight!! I could not handle my emotions. I went over a week without making it to the gym-which is not like me at all, and my body felt so incredibly run down that I didn't even want to get up off the couch. It was worse than pregnancy! I even took a pregnancy test because all of the symptoms reminded me of my first trimester! It was not fun. It took a while for my hormones to regulate after I made the switch, but this new BC has made me a happier girl-I feel like myself again. That's the good news.

The bad news is once I switched, my milk supply went down. A lot. I used to pump 5 oz in 5 min on one side, and then I was barely able to pump 1 once between both sides. It was devastating. I noticed it was taking Ry a lot longer to eat and after I pumped, I found out why. I talked to our lactation specialist yesterday and she gave me some good ideas. She said to eat oatmeal, flaxseed, and barley and those not only boost my supply, but also the quality of my milk. I think I'm going to look up some recipes for lactation cookies (basically cookies with those ingredients) and start eating them. I've also been drinking Mother's Milk tea (which contains flaxseed and fenugreek) along with trying to pump throughout the day and feed Ryan more often to try to help out. I think it's working-I was able to pump 3 oz the other day!!!

Just chilling on the couch like a big boy! I can't believe how grown up he is

It's seriously such a sad feeling when you think you can't supply your own child with milk. I felt so inadequate and wanted to cry at the thought that my breast feeding days might be over and I'd have to switch to formula. I feel it for the mama's that can't breast feed. Even though it isn't your fault, it still makes you feel like it is. I'm seriously going to try everything I can to prevent myself from completely drying up. And I can't sit here saying I didn't know. The doctor warned me that it could happen once I switched my BC over, but they also said if I felt my supply was strong, it'd probably be fine-and my supply was extremely strong! I guess I didn't think it'd actually happen. Oh well, I'm remedying it!

Ryan's becoming quite the little eater!!! At first he was not a fan of the bananas, but now he's a pro! We also introduced him to brown rice cereal. He's adorable! It took a while for him to get a hang of it. I had to do one bit for me, one for him. Once he saw what he was supposed to do, he did it! And I'd cheer after each bite which made him excited to keep eating. Now, as soon as he swallows his bite, he'll yell at me until I spoon the next one in his mouth. I originally wanted to try led weaning, where he feeds himself with small bites of food while exploring, but that didn't see to work out too well for us. Maybe I'll try again as he gets more familiar with his foods.

Ready for spring!

Now that Ry's older, he's napping less, which means going out and running errands includes a baby who's awake. It makes it so much harder to get things done. If he's grumpy, it makes my day that much more stressful. I might invest in one of those cart covers so he can ride around with me outside of his car seat-not because I'm worried about him being exposed to germs (I definitely think the more germs, the better for his immunity system) but because even though he sits up, he's still too little to sit in there without any cushion. But I do love hanging out with him! The other day, G asked me if I wanted to leave Ry home while I ran errands and I said no, because then I wouldn't have a shopping buddy. As frustrating as it is to get things done somethings, I still love the fact that he goes with me everywhere! BESTIES.

Now that he's sitting up on his own, we've transitioned bath time to a solo event. Last week was maybe the third time ever G got to be there for bath time and he watched as Ry sat up on his own in the tub. I threw in a few of his bath toys and it was adorable!! He would splash around in the water and watch the boat and turtle float around him. We skipped bath time last night because we had stuff going on, but I'm going to make up for it tonight and I can't wait. It's too cute to pass up. We only do the full-on bath time once a week and the other nights, we do sponge baths because trying to do that every night would be a nightmare.

He loves his daddy!!! Playing together

He's such a big boy and so incredibly fun to hang out with. He's mostly all smiles and such an independent player. I can just sit and watch him play all day long. Most of the time, he doesn't even care if I'm there or not, which makes getting things done around the house a little easier. I love his face so much!!!!

I guess I don't have nearly as much to say as I thought I did-mostly because I can't remember half of the stuff I wanted to talk about. I guess I'll make a shout out to one of my amazingly beautiful friends. She's about to have a baby any day now!!! I'm so incredibly excited for her!!!! The thing is, I remember how terrified I was before having Ry. Everyone talked about the pain (which yes, that part was so true-but every situation is different) and everyone was so focused on, "oh, get sleep now while you can cause you'll never sleep" and people would keep saying, "just wait-it gets worse" or if their baby cries they'd say, "this is what you have to look forward to" and everything was so negative. Well I disagree.

He toppled over while playing. He didn't cry or try to move, he just gave up on life and laid there. Lol! He cracks me up. 

You're going to be tired as %#*& but the fact of the matter is-it's so worth it! My favorite part was waking up at 3am to Ry trying to talk to me because for whatever reason, that's the time of the morning he liked to talk and it was so incredibly cute. Your baby cries because he needs something and he's trying to talk to you-not because he wants to make your life miserable. Hearing him cry breaks my heart-it doesn't annoy me (although I do have those days). I love every second I have with him and I hate when I pick him up in the morning and he's bigger than he was the day before. In fact, I hear him stirring right now and I'm soooo excited that I get to go run over and play with him because I've missed him the past two hours he's been sleeping (yes, we got up at 4 today and I am excited to still see him). The labor pain is unimaginable, but I would 100% go back and do that again just to start all over with this amazing bundle of joy that I get to claim as mine. Motherhood is amazing. And you know what else is unimaginable? The love you get from this child! It outweighs the pain more than you can ever guess until it happens. And even better? It's not something that only lasts for a few hours-the love is every day!

Okay, time to hang out with my little man :) :) :) xoxoxo to you all! Thanks for being a part of my life!

P.S. Mommy fail: I'm totally watching Frozen this morning. I hate when Ry watches the TV, but I know he likes the songs from Pandora so I'll allow it this time.