Easter Weekend

We had a great weekend that went way too fast. My parents came to stay with us for the weekend and Whitney LOVED all that extra attention. It was nice for me too not to have to take care of both of them all day long. We did an egg hunt for Whitney in the back yard and she had lots of fun despite the cold. Sunday we went to my Aunt's for dinner and then to Wade's brother's for a surprise visit. Whitney had a busy and exhausting weekend!

Whitney and Owen having dinner

Cousin Brynna

Round and Round

Ellison- 2 Months

(for some reason Blogger thinks she looks best upside down?!?, that's what you get for a picture today!)

We had Ellie's two month check-up yesterday. She is doing great, 11.3 lbs and 22.25 inches. I grow my girls the same because Whitney was 11.1 lbs and 22.25 inches at her two month check- up. Not much to report on her at this age. She smiles and coos. She lifts her head up for tummy time. Her hands are still fisted most of the time. She sleeps swaddled on her back and will do 5-7 hrs for her first stretch. Last night after her shots she was wiped out and did 7.5 hrs and then 3hrs, awesome!! She has tortecolis (sp?) on the left side of her neck, which means she was really cramped inside of me and had her head cranked. A little stretching and muscle strength should take care of it. I knew this since birth and have been working on it. She wears a size 1 diaper and I think I should move it into the size 2's very soon. She loves bath time and being held by mommy!

Feeding Ellie

Saying that breastfeeding Ellie thus far has been frustrating would be an understatement. The first few days of breastfeeding were normal, no problems. As my milk came in more and more we started the breastfeeding battles. Ellie knew she liked it, but had a hard time when my milk came down. She would choke and gulp and end up with a belly full of air. She still does this. Eight weeks later it has not gotten much better. I can never tell if she is upset because she is getting too much milk or not enough. Sometimes she wants me as a pacifer and gets mad when milk comes out. As much as I like the cuddles, I am here for nutrition. This is super frustrating because Whitney was on me all the time and content as could be, whether she was hungry or not. Ellie breastfeeds the best if she is sleepy and calm. Therefore she feeds well at night. Thank goodness! I have been forced to pump during the day and she drinks out of bottles. More fun....

I exclusively breastfed for the first two weeks before I broke out the bottles. We started with formula to supplement and she took it just fine. She seemed to prefer bottles to breast during the day so I started pumping. I hated pumping. I have by far pumped more in the last month than I did for 11 months with Whitney. At first I didn't have enough so we mixed bm(breast milk) with formula until I built up my supply. Feeding became hit or miss and frustrating for both of us again. I noticed that she struggled with bm but did fine with formula so I always made sure it was mixed. I thought it was because bm is thinner than formula and that it came out faster and she choked on it. Well, I was building up quite the stock pile from all my pumping and mixing. I started taking a swig of her milk after it was heated to check it instead of sticking my finger in her bottle and I noticed my milk tasted like soap. Literally. I remember it tasting like that with Whitney's milk that I had froze and thawed and assumed it went bad somewhere in the storing process. Well, my milk for Ellie that had been in the fridge for no more than two days tasted awful like soap. No wonder Ellie didn't want to drink anything!!! I suppose if there was enough formula in there it masked the taste of my soapy bm.

I googled soapy tasting breast milk and it turns out that I have a high level of lipase in my milk. Lipase is a naturally occuring enzyme that helps to break down fat. With my high levels it starts to break down the milk faster. I did a whole lot of bm tasting yesterday and dumped about 12 oz of milk. It was heartbreaking to see all that liquid gold go down the drain! From what I figured out on the internet is that it is pretty rare to have high levels, it is not caused by food I eat or anything else, and that the only way to nuetralize this enzyme is to scald the milk before storing it. I don't need to scald it if I use it that day. With all my taste testing (yeah kind of gross to be drinking my own milk) I figure I have about eight hours to use my milk if it is not scalded. We are now pumping and using my milk immediately. Ellie seems happier with fresh, no formula added bm. I have no idea if high levels of lipase is an issue with my health. If anyone has any time to look it up let me know. Maybe it just means that I can eat a pan of brownies in less than two days and it doesn't affect me!

I have also had mastitis three times already. The first time being the worst. I never got mastitis once with Whitney. With Whitney being two (two on May 1) and seeing that she is healthy as a horse with very minor illnesses she gets over quickly, I am determined to continue breastfeeding with Ellie. I read to get the full benefits of breastfeeding you need to do it for six months. I agree that any breast milk is beneficial and have no ill feelings to moms who can't or choose not to, or do for a while and then stop just because. I would totally throw in the towel this time around if it wasn't so good for them. And you're probably thinking, well you're a SAHM, you have time to pump, scald, and bottle feed. Um, not really. It definitely makes the day a lot busier with needing to pump and clean parts every 2-3 hrs. I feel like a freaking cow called into the barn for milking.

I think we have this feeding issue under control now. Oh yeah, did I mention that she is a very sensitive eater too? If you move or talk it startles her and throws her off and she chokes and gulps. Not very easy to stay quiet with a toddler at home. Maybe we'll continue to get into this routine of pumping and nursing and I can stick it out with breastfeeding. Wish me luck!

Dora Couch

Ellie likes the Dora couch too!! I think she likes sitting up and not being abandoned on the floor or in the swing all the time where all she can see is whats up! Poor second child!
Sunday afternoon nap time!! Ellie woke up, which woke Whitney up and I got us all back to sleep for another hour and a half! It must seem like I nap with the girls all the time since Wade takes pictures of it, but I'm really not a napper unless I'm absolutely wiped out or else I can't sleep at night if I nap.

I wanted to document a few funny things Whitney has said lately, or funny to me at least......

Yesterday we were coloring and she said, 'oh no, it's broken'. I looked up and she was coloring with a white crayon!

This morning she was in bed with us because we were too lazy to get up and Whitney was standing on our pillows looking out the window and it was storming and when it thundered she said, 'oh my goodness, thunder youd' then she about lost her balance, "whoa, fall on mommy's head!"

Baby Coos

Outside Fun

It's turkey season so Wade has been taking Whitney out in the evening with him to scout out some public land. It gets Whitney out of the house and me some quiet, or quieter, time with Ellie. The last time they went out Whitney came back with some "treasures" for me. What you probably can't see is a deer tooth. Wade said, at least they didn 't bring the tooth back on the skull that it was attached to! We now have a treasure box so Whitney can store her findings.

Smile!

Ellie has been smiling and cooing for well over a week now, but I've yet to capture the big open mouth smile. Here are a few of her half smiles.

Sunday at one of the many parks in Ames. We went through the McDonald's drive thru to get some lunch for a picnic. As soon as I paid at the window Whitney was asking for french fries. Kids have a good memory, because we maybe get fast food like once a month. When we left the house it was just breezy and by the time we got to the park the wind was blowing through like a tornado. Not too much fun for Ellie so it was a short outing. I was trying to protect Ellie behind an umbrella and I had the blanket half draped over a picnic bench.

Owen Turns Two

Our nephew Owen turns two on the 13th, but he had his birthday celebration on Saturday. They had a great turnout with lots of yummy food and cake! Got to have pretty painted toes for the party!

Owen found a worm, they were fascinated!

Whitney didn't want to give it up and was very curious about it

Tiffany made this cake, she is pretty crafty!

He had the cutest face as we sang him Happy Birthday

What's Up at Home

Ellie is six weeks tomorrow!!! I LOVE that she is getting older and out of the newborn stage. She is finally sleeping longer at night. We're up to 5-7 hrs for her first stretch. If she goes to bed later like 9pm or after, that means I only have to get up once during the night!! LOVE IT!! She is turning into a tank, I believe she is up to 10lbs at least. Much more fun to cuddle a chubby baby than a skinny newborn! I still struggle with breastfeeding with her some days. You would think I would get that figured out by now. Bottles work well with her, so I should try to stick with that during the day than trying to figure out if she's hungry or full while she's nursing and getting mad at me. She has started to coo and sounds like a little morning dove and she smiles in response to your smile.

Whitney was sick last week with a fever and sore mouth so that was so NOT fun trying to deal with her and take care of Ellie. Talk about having your patience tested! Don't know if she had a fever because of a cold or if it was related to her "mouth illness", but she developed a fever on wednesday and stopped eating what little she ate in the first place and then even started complaining that drinking hurt, so I thought she had a sore throat. Finally on Saturday I looked at the roof of her mouth and she had a fingernail wedged into her gums behind her front tooth. No idea how long that was there, but as soon as I got that out she started eating again and has been in a better mood since. KIDS!

Nothing new with me. Just keeping up the day to day of being a SAHM with a toddler and newborn and living off brownies and chocolate chip cookies!

Just Because I Think They're Cute Pics

Keeping Whitney Entertained

Besides watching TV it's a bit of a struggle to keep a mama's girl entertained while I need to be with Ellie or get house stuff done.she "washes" dishes, A LOT!! My best way of keeping her entertained. she likes to paint and is very clean about it!

she also likes to cut. No she didn't cut out the star silly, I did, but looks like she did, huh?!?!

Flying Kites

With the insanely warm weather yesterday and the nice breeze we did some kite flying with Whitney. She deserved some attention and fun just for her!! Wade got her a little butterfly kite that she could fly (first picture below) and a normal kite. She flew the big kite by herself and we were pretty nervous that she would let go and it would fly away. When she was flying the big kite she was running with it and I assumed she was running for fun, but then I realized she was running because the kite was pulling so hard!!

yeah, the kite was stuck on Whitney, she thought it was hilarious