There is a 12lb Breakdancer in my Womb

I went to see my doctor last week and after looking at my most recent u/s she said to me, "I hope you are ready for a 12lb baby!".   Ummm... WTF did she just say?  Did she say 12lbs?  I told her that I hoped she would induce me before this baby hits 12lbs (hopefully between 38-39 weeks).  To which she replied that I handled W's birth fine and he was 10lbs (yes I give birth to thoroughbreds).  Yeah, my doctor is not the one squeezing a 12lb baby out of her vagina.  My lady bits may never be the same again!   Not only that, but I'm pretty sure giving birth to a 10lb baby is A LOT different than a 12lb baby.

Not only does it look like I will be giving birth to a teenager, but this kid is already nuts.  I've had 4 ultrasounds at this point and on EVERY SINGLE ONE this kid is going nuts moving around.  He actually mooned the tech and shook his little booty on the last ultrasound.  My doctor made mention of how much trouble I will be in once this one arrives if the ultrasounds are any indication.  Lord help me!

Daycare - Day 2 - The Snack Dilema

Today is W's second day in daycare.  Yesterday he did excellent until I went to play with him at lunch time.  Then he freaked out.  Then last night he woke up at 3am and was inconsolable until I moved him into bed with me.  I'm sure it didn't help that we had no 'together' time since I didn't see him until 7:30 when I picked him up from my friend's house. Then as soon as we got home it was bedtime.

When I dropped W off today he FREAKED out.  He was screaming and had these big tears in his eyes. I felt awful.  I wanted to run over and pick him up and hug him, but I knew that would just be delaying the inevitable. 

One of the things I'm finding tough with our daycare is that the snacks they provide.  They are prepackaged  processed crap like cheeseballs.  ICK!  Another issues we have is W eats breakfast at about 7:45am and snack time is between 8:30 and 8:45am so I need to pack something that is not too heavy but will help hold him over until lunch at 11:30.  His afternoon snack is between 3 and 3:30 so I need to pack something heavier or else he is ravenous when I pick him up. Here's a list of the foods I have come up  with:

Morning Snacks:
Edamame
Cucubmbers
Green / Red Peppers
Cherry Tomatoes


Afternoon Snacks (I choose two of the following)
Apples
Pears
Grapes
Banana
String Cheese
Organic Animal Cookies
Homemade Oatmeal Cookies
Wholewheat Goldfish
Cheerios
Chick Peas
Dried Fruit

And because every post is better with a picture, here are a few pictures what he takes to daycare:

AM Snack
Edamame

Lunch
Mesquite Steak
Cheesy Quinoa Broccoli Bite
Red Peppers
Grapes

PM Snack
String Cheese
Apples

Just to make it easy on everyone I labeled everything with a dry erase marker.

Daycare

For the last year we have been blessed to have a friend who has watched W in her home.  It was the best situation we could ask for.  I felt so comfortable leaving him there and she even worked around my crazy and long work schedule.

Last month she had a job offer and decided to take it and we enrolled him in daycare a few blocks from my office. They didn't have any immediate openings so a friend of my friend (a former preschool teacher) offered to watch W until we could transition him (see my last blog entry for all the details).  Long story short today was W's first day at the new daycare.  It broke my heart to leave him somewhere new and unfamiliar all alone.  I wanted to scoop him  up and take him with me.  When I left he was perfectly fine, but looked at me with these big puppy dog eyes as if he were to say "Wait mom!  Where are you going? You forgot me!", but he didn't cry. 

At lunch time I went over to visit him, snuggle, and play.  We had a good 20 minutes of playtime before I had to go back to work.  This time when I left him he started screaming.  He totally broke my heart.  My poor little guy.  I know all this is for the best and it is good that he is being socialized, but it still hurts to know that if he falls and gets a boo-boo I won't be there to kiss it better.  I hate knowing that they probably won't pick up on his baby signing that I taught him.  They will not know that when he pats his belly he is really saying "Please" and when he says "der" it means he doesn't know the name for something, but wants it.

I think the worst part is I work until 7:30 on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday I have to be at work by 7:30am and I have an appointment right after work so his former nanny will be picking him up those days.  I'm going to feel totally disconnected from my little guy those days.

Deep breathes!

True Working Mom Struggles

What do you do when your babysitter does not show up and you HAVE to be at work?  It is a question no working mom wants to face.  On Friday I had to deal with just that.  W's nanny got a new job and she started last Monday.  Our plan was for her friend to watch W at her house (she has a playroom all setup for him).  She started Monday and all was going well until Friday when she didn't show up.  She didn't call, didn't text and she wasn't answering her phone either.

I ended up taking W with me to work for a few hours.  He had to come to a meeting with me (where I chased him around the office).  Then we hopped in my car to go to my office when I scraped my door when I cut a turn too sharp coming out of the parking garage.  At that point I just lost it and started bawling in my car.  I called my mom crying.  I couldn't take much more.  We arrived at my office and he was SO well behaved.  I ended up working a half day before I took him in for a doctor's appointment.

This week, my mom, who lives three hours away, drove out to watch W all week and help us save in daycare costs and next week he will start at a daycare.  I'm really not looking forward to sending him.  His original nanny was so great with him and overall awesome.  We were so blessed to have her watch him for more than the first year of his life.  I know having him in daycare will only help him to be better socialized, but we are going to miss her!

Working Mom Problems

Is it me or do weekends just fly by?  As much as I try to spend as much quality time with W as possible I feel like some weekends I don't get quite enough in.  On Saturday mornings we go to My Gym (which we missed this week), but other than that I feel like we are stuck in the playroom the rest of the weekend and even then I'm working on stuff to get ready for the following week.

Our Sundays usually consist of us waking up, going to brunch then heading to the grocery store.  By the time we get back from the grocery store it's W's nap time.  After he wakes up from his nap it's lunch time and by then it is usually close to 2 o'clock already and he goes down for another nap by 3:30 and he won't wake up from that nap until 4:30 at the earliest then it's nearly dinner time.  After dinner time we get a few hours of play in before it's time for a bath and bed.  I'm exhausted just reading that.  I have come to the point where I dread Sundays because it feels like we go non-stop.

Why do weekends have to be so short?  Better yet, why do I feel so limited on the time I have to spend with my son? Don't get me wrong, he is with me all weekend, but the uninterrupted time I get with him never seems like much.  For example, he will be playing with pots in the kitchen while I am making meals I can freeze for the week. Sure, we will play in the playroom while everything cooks, but it's all interrupted.  Then I will have this great idea to take him swimming or something like that on the weekend, but without fail, something always comes up that makes it impossible to go to the pool.  Like on Saturday we both took a nap together but didn't wake up until 6pm and by the time I fed him dinner it was even later and I didn't want to take him to the Y that late at night.

Am I totally wrong in thinking that when spring / summer come and it stays lighter longer we will some how get more time?  Maybe that's what I am looking for is more time outside and we are in a winter funk?  I just don't know!  I mean we make it home around 6pm and that gives us a solid two hours to play, eat dinner, take a bath and wind down before bedtime, but it really isn't that much time.

Breakfast on the Go! Pumpkin Muffin Recipe

I made these pumpkin spice muffins over the weekend and my husband and son both LOVE them.  I made a bunch in mini muffin tins as well as a dozen in the medium sized pans for my husband.  This recipe made a bunch so I kept 1/4 of them out and froze the rest for a rainy day.  Here's the recipe I used:

Ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg  

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 can Pumpkin (I used the 15oz can)
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup Apple Sauce
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine flour, spices, baking soda and salt in large bowl and in another bowl combine sugar, pumpkin, eggs, apple sauce and vanilla in large mixer bowl; beat until just blended. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture.  Next you will add the batter to your muffin tins.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Here is a picture I took on my phone of my yummy muffins.  If anyone can tell my why Blogger insists on publishing my pictures sideways I would really appreciate it!

Quick Breakfasts - Peanutbutter Pancakes

Most mornings I am rushing out the door to get W to his nanny and me to work on time.  My awesome husband takes care of getting him dressed in the morning, but he has to leave at 7:30 and we don't have to leave until 8:20 so it is up to me to feed the little guy.

The problem I run into with breakfast is that's when I give him his multivitamin with iron so I have to avoid giving him anything with a lot of dairy in it (there goes yogurt and cottage cheese).  More often than not I feel myself falling into a rut with breakfast or I say to hell with it and give him dairy and move when I give him his vitamin that day.

Thankfully this weekend I was motivated and made a huge batch of Peanut Butter Pancakes and Low Fat Pumpkin Muffins.  I put some in the refrigerator and the others I froze so he has them to eat at a later time.  I like to think I make his pancakes healthier than most.  I really try to ensure he has a protein, dairy (unless he is taking his vitamin), whole grain as well as fruit and or vegetable at every meal.  These pancakes are full of whole grain, fruit and protein and I'm pretty darn proud of myself for coming up with the recipe.  Here it is:

1 Cups Old Fashion Oats
1/4 Cup of Apple Sauce
1/2 Cup of Milk  (add more if you want a thinner batter)
1 Small Banana
2 Tablespoons of Peanut butter
1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon 
1 Tablespoon Vanilla (I LOVE vanilla so I always go heavy on it)
1 Tablespoon of Brown Sugar or honey (optional)

I mixed everything together in my Magic Bullet and voila!  There is the batter.  After that I make the pancakes like I would normally.

Here is a picture.  I'm sorry it isn't prettier and that blogger won't let me flip the image.  I almost forgot to take it until I had everything all cleaned up and frozen.

Stay tuned tomorrow for low-fat pumpkin muffins!

My Nursing Journey with W

This weekend I was working on putting things away and organizing our freezer when I found a few of my last frozen bags of pumped milk that needed moved to the deep freezer with the rest of my milk.  While I am super happy to be done pumping I am bummed that at some point very soon W will be done nursing.  I seriously LOVE nursing.  It has been such an awesome bonding experience and to know that I am doing everything in my power to give my little man the best possible start makes me feel awesome.

Nursing wasn't always easy for me.  When I brought W home from the hospital he at lost a pound and a half and for the first month I had the most difficult time ensuring he kept weight on him.  I felt like I was nursing constantly, but he wasn't gaining.  Not only was he not gaining weight, but my nipples were so sore that my toes curled every time he went to nurse.  Thankfully, my hospital has an awesome nursing support group that meets once a week that was a huge help along with a mommy board I belong to.

On top of him not gaining weight I was terrified of what would happen when I went back to work.  I had a few ounces frozen in the freezer, but what if that wasn't enough? And how much exactly would he eat in a day?  I cannot tell you how much milk I gave my nanny the first day back to work, but it was enough (thank goodness).

When I went to pump at work I was fortunate that I do have a private office and could pump at my desk while I worked.  The problem for me came when I went to pump.  I set my pump up (complete with my sports bra with holes in it so I could pump hands-free) and turned it on.  I had a few pictures of W on my desk to look at as well as one of his blankets I could smell to help with the let-down.  I figured I would sit there for 15 minutes and I would be done.  WRONG.  It took me nearly an hour to get 3 ounces!  At that point W was almost 2 months old and eating about 12 ounces a day plus what he nursed when I went to visit him at lunch.  In order to keep up with how much he was eating I was going to need to figure something out quick.  My pumping schedule from January until July while working was as follows:
Pump 2-3AM  = 4oz  - 8oz
Pump 7:20-7:30AM (while nursing on the other side) = 1 - 2 oz
Pump 10-11AM = 3-6oz
Pump 2:30-4PM = 3-5oz
Pump 5:30-6PM = 1-2 oz
Pump 8:30-9:30PM = 1-2oz
At my height (and this only happened a few times) I was pumping close to 27 ounces a day. 
(the numbers above reflect when he was eating between 12 and 27 ounces a day while with his nanny).

I quickly came to the realization that I was married to my pump.

When he started eating more than I could pump I would freak out that I would run out of my freezer stash.  Thankfully that never happened and I still have a sizable stash in my deep freezer that I plan on donating to a milk bank.

I think the thing that drove me nuts was when I was on the road for work.  I took W with me on every overnight business trip I took and thankfully my wonderful mother made those trips with us.  My first one was when he was about 8 or 9 weeks old.  We had to drive 5 1/2 hours to the opposite end of the state.  I learned to pump when I drove.  This would save time, prevent engorgement and give W a fresh snack during the ride.

I always traveled with a big cooler (as well as my nursing cooler that came with my pump) to ensure my milk stayed cold and would only stay at a hotel that had a mini refrigerator.    I brought all my bottle cleaning and sterilizing supplies with me to the hotel and would wash bottles there.  As far as pumping while working on the road I still remember the first time I told my candidate I needed a 'break'.  Thankfully she was a woman and very understanding.

I really wanted to share this story with any other nursing moms out there especially the working ones who may be struggling to continue nursing their babies or may be struggling with returning to work.  YOU CAN DO IT!!!!  Looking back on all the milk sweat and tears the last 13 months I am so glad I continued to nurse.  There are so many memories that I will cherish and look back on and laugh throughout my entire experience.