Just a Fluke

Tuesday night Eleanor slept from 9 pm -6 am, nursed and then went to bed for 2 more hours.

I woke up around 1:30 and she was moving around a little, and while normally I would just feed her I decided to let her sleep.

At 4 I was back up, and thought let's see how long this lasts.

At 5 she was still sleeping, and I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable.

At 6 she started sucking on her hands and I got her up to feed her.  I thought for sure she'd be up for the day, but she went back to bed for 2 more hours.

I felt great

Last night, she was wide awake cooing at 2:30 and 5:00 and up at 7:30 for the day. 

I'm tired and feel like this.

Well not really, but I'm tired.

The Eleanor Update: Week 16

Sleep: Still no routine really.  She starts to get tired around 7 each night, but isn't ready to go down for the night then.  So she might nap until 7:30 and then be up until 9:30.   Some nights she still fights the going down part, but usually is good once she get's there.  

A few times last week she woke up crying on her own in the middle of the night.  That's something she rarely does.  She wakes up happy and smiling in the mornings, and in the middle of the night she stirs a little, but usually doesn't fully wake up.  I feed her when she starts to stir because it's woken me up or I'm already up and it's easier to feed her then.

Day time naps are still about 30 minutes and she usually takes 4-5 of those a day.  If she's in her car seat she will sleep longer.  She slept in her car seat almost 2 hours yesterday during church and while I ran into the grocery store and Rob stayed in the car with her.

Breastfeeding:  She's starting to have some latching issues again on the left side.  Partway through her nursing it starts to become painful and when she finishes my nipple is white and stays that way for a while.  

Misc: She started to laugh this weekend.  She's given us a few sporadic laughs here and there, but never like this.  Rob sent this video to pretty much every person in his phone.  It was cute.  I instagramed it, and posted in on the blog facebook page and my personal page too so I can't say much.  Proud parents right here!

She's still got a little cold.  It's been on and off for the last few weeks.  The few times I've checked she hasn't had a fever

I'm also paranoid about a flat head- I don't know If I mentioned that before.  Especially since with my new job she'll be in the car seat for a few hours a day plus her love of the kick n play toy and the fact that she sleeps in the rock n play and she's probably putting pressure of the back of her skull 20+ hours a day. 

Weekly Wrap Up 1-26

I need to start keeping track of the things I want to mention because I forget so it's super short.

1) I started my new part time job this week.  I think it's going to work out well, and while it's not much, it's something.

2) I won a $25 visa gift card and a coupon for $50 off a $50 p & g purchase at Babies R Us.  I was starting to kind of stress about diapers since we don't have very many size 2 diapers, and I know Rob doesn't like using cloth so now I can get some!

3) I went to a baby shower for a cousin of Rob's yesterday.  Eleanor got to meet some more family and it's fun to go and admire itty bitty baby stuff.

Win a $800 Stroller!

I'm no where near ready for round 2, but I do have a nephew six months older than Eleanor and this would be fun to use with them.  And it just looks really cool!

Click the image above to enter. Good Luck!

Jolly Voxbox Review

*I received a voxbox free.  No other compensation was given.  All opinions are my own*

I'm a little late on posting this, but last month I received the Jolly VOXBOX from Influenster (leave me a comment if you want an invite to the site and a chance to get your own.).

This was the second one I've received, and I loved it.  (You can read about the first one here).

This one has skinny cow chocolates, puffs tissue pack, Mini ducklings decorative tape, NYC HD color trio and Rimmel London lip lacquer 

All my goodies!

I loved this eye shadow.  I don't rarely wear any but being a stay at home mom means that only Eleanor sees me, and really I don't think she would care.  When I do leave the house I do wear some though and I'm kind of a novice at applying it.  This product is great because it tells you exactly were to apply each color.

The chocolates were delicious.  I wasn't sure how I would feel about the peanut butter cream, but I really enjoyed them.  Even Rob liked them, but then again he isn't to picky on sweets.

The lip color wasn't quite the right shade for me and it felt a little sticky.  I have used it though.  I apply it and blot a little and it is fine after that.

The Puffs tissues were perfect for keeping in the diaper bag.  Eleanor has had a little cold and I like that they are soft on her nose.

I haven't used the duck tape yet, and it's tough to see in the image above, but it's a paint splatter design.  I do have plans to use it on a glass jar to decorate it and use it to store Eleanor's things (probably hair clips) in.

I love this program and I love the chance to try out new things.  Everything in this box was new to me.  I probably wouldn't purchase the lip lacquer, but would purchase the eye shadow and the chocolate.  Definitely the chocolate.

Cloth Diaper Stash

( I started this post before Eleanor was born, so I'm a little slow posting it. I have accumulated a few more things since I took the first set of pictures, thus the random add on's at the end)

I've been very fortunate to win most of what I have with the exception of a few diapers. The total I've actually spent is around $125 at this point.

Pockets

Top Row- Giggle life bamboo (yellow), Giggle Life (green with animals), Knickernappies (brown), Baby Babu (green).

Bottom Row-Cutie Patoties by Lauren (green with white stars and white with animals), Glow  bug (houndstooth), Applecheeks (blue).
I think all are one size except the applecheeks which are a size 2.






All in ones

All Grovias.  Top row are one size, bottom row are newborn.  

I also have a bumgenius newborn size all in one.











All in two's

All soft bums echo. These have a toggle drawstring to adjust the size.  I think I'm going to love that feature.  They claim to fit from 5lbs up, and in my experience they did work when Eleanor was a newborn.

Blue diaper is Imagine,
Robots is Boogie Bear Creations.  
Hearts is Diaper Donks.
Both Boogie Bear and Diaper Donk's are Work-at- home- mom made and were custom made for me.  They were awesome to work with.  The imagine diaper I picked on a Thursday morning and had Saturday afternoon.  I was impressed with the speed.

Covers/Soakers

Green is Tajo's Tushies. 
Pirate is a fleece soaker by La-Bum-Buh (custom handmade)
Diamonds is by Barrel and a heap (another super fast shipping time).

Chelory AI2 (the camo print; Rob's favorite!)
Grovia Bioliners
Kissa's Newborn Fitted
Grovia Kiwi pie fitted












Accessories 

Soft bums pods
Imagine inserts
2 wet bags

2 bags Rockin Green detergent (I was not impressed with the shipping from the company.  Both times I won it took months to get it. I have used it and it seems to work okay)
Diaper Sprayer (I didn't use this because Rob put in a utility sink)
Tajo Tushies wipes haven't used these yet)

The cow & the blue bug are prefolds
The white with the lady bugs is a pocket diaper.









The top row are all Buttons diapers AI2 (the purple one I was lucky enough to review; read the review here).  
Middle row is a glowbug pocket, a cutey baby cover & a Joko fleece soaker (Check out her etsy shop)
Bottom row is a bumgenius aio xs


I don't have pictures because they are being used but I also have cloth wipes & a wet bag from Joko and another wet bag that I won from another seller.


I am liking using the cloth diapers so far, but I only use them 1/3 of the time.  I use them for 2-3 days a week.  I've had a few leaks, but I think that might be more user error (I probably had it to loose on the legs).

To wash them I do a cold rinse, a hot wash (with the rockin green detergent), and depending on if I think it needs it another hot wash and then a final hot rinse.  I'm a cloth newbie so I could totally be doing it wrong through.

I'm also finding out that I don't like pockets, that I like pre-folds because they are so easy to use,  and I much more prefer hook and loop to snaps because they are just easy to use. 

I really want to buy all the diapers but I just don't have the finances so I'm using what I have, but I'm still seeing the savings already which is one of my favorite parts.  Plus I love how cute they are!

If you have any tips, advice or just want to share your favorite diapers or products leave me a comment.  I love learning new things.

The Eleanor Update: Week 15

Sleep:

She was doing pretty well with sleep -I'd nurse her and put her down around 8:30/9 and she'd be good for the next 4-5 hours- but  not so much anymore. All weekend (Friday, Saturday & last night) she didn't get to bed until after 10.  Last night Rob got her down a little after 8, she slept for about 30 minutes then woke up crying.  I nursed her, she slept for a couple minutes, and woke up crying again.

This is a new challenge, but once she finally goes down for the night she's pretty good.

Last night I decided to not wake her up to eat like I usually do to see how long she would sleep and prayed I wasn't going to feel super full and uncomfortable.  She slept 6 hours.  Of course I was up twice and then woke up at 7 feeling really uncomfortable and had to pump.  Which stunk because she's up at 8,

On the plus side she took an hour plus nap yesterday which is not the norm for her at all.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed because we have nothing close to a schedule.  I'm flexible on times generally, but every day seems so different from the day before and I feel like I can't predict anything.

Breastfeeding:
Still going well.   I was nervous when Rob took her for a few hours over the weekend, even though I fed her on one side and pumped the other as close to the time her left as I could, but she didn't eat much when they were gone so she was hungry enough to eat on both sides which she usually doesn't.

That's part of the reason I don't like to be away from her for to long.  Pumping isn't easy for me like it is for some people.  I can do pretty well on the right side if I pump shortly after getting up.  I only ever pump that side, and I try to block feed overnight on the days I need to pump, which is only a couple days a week.  I usually can get about 4-5oz and it takes 30 minutes.  But that's about the only successful pump session I can get, so I can't 'just pump' like Rob thinks.  

That plus the fact she only eats on one side could mean problems.  For example say she eats every 2 1/2 hours. So she nurses on the right at 1 pm, the left at 3:30 and then the next nurse session is skipped (which she takes a bottle for) at about 6 (that would be right again). Then she nurses on the right at 8:30 so I went 7 1/2 hours, and then she goes to bed and doesn't get up until 1 is because I woke her.  That's 10 hours on one side, and it's really tough to 'catch up'

So basically it's just a lot easier to be with her and nurse her.

Misc: I was deleting some older pictures off my phone because I had no more room, and realized I only have two bare belly pregnancy shots.  I wish I had more.  I have weekly ones that I took with the belly covered but only 2 not covered.  One was from the beginning when I was just getting a rounded belly and one from around 30 weeks.  I'm regretting that.

She's had a cold last week so some days have been better than others

I'm feeling tired of being in maternity pants and feeling frumpy.  I'm ready to start working out, but the problem is it's too cold to walk and I don't have much time during the day.

Also I got a job! And I can bring Eleanor with me.  It's a few hours a day in the afternoons driving around a family member of Rob's girls.  I think I will have time to feed her in between pickups, but I kind of worry about her spending a lot of time in the car seat.  Luckily she doesn't mind being in it, but I'm paranoid about her getting a flat head.


So many pictures this week

Not feeling so good

I put her down facing the snail, vacuumed the hallway and came back 2 minutes later to find the had turned 90 degrees.

This girl always wakes up with a smile on her face.

I love those blue eyes

Pretty sure she's beginning the teething process