Thanks Ya'll

Thank you guys for your encouraging comments on my last post. While my blog has never blown up or become huge (I wish), I will always love the friendships I have made, and endless stories I have read because they helped me in my own specific situation.

Coral and I had a great day yesterday. I was off for MLK day, and it was so nice to just be with Coral all day, to really spend every minute with her and not feel rushed to do this or that. She was so sweet to me, and I could tell how happy she was to be with mommy. I got to sleep in a little bit, didn’t get dressed til 10 am (holler!) so her requests for more attention didn’t wear on me. I feel so terrible, but it’s just a fact of life. You come home from work and your patience levels are just lower than they should be as a mom!  She’s also finding her feet right now, and I got to soak in all that yumminess. It’s just the most adorable thing to watch a baby suck on their toes!  Proof below!

Just a tinsy sleep update: Coral’s sleep has gotten better. We aren’t cured and magically getting sleep, and sometimes it’s a total toss up and we feel like we are back at step 1 (Like last night LOL). We don’t know why Coral has so much trouble staying asleep certain nights, but I definitely rearranged her, or put her pacificer in her mouth about 5-6 times last night to keep her down. Throw in a feeding at 3:15 a.m., a diaper change and we’ve got one exhausted working mama! We are going back and forth about sleep training, and decided to wait a while before we do anything in that arena. I am also going to have my mom start letting her fall asleep unassisted for naps, and approach sleep training in a gradual way. Let grandma do the heavy lifting if you will! Removing me from sleep training as much as possible is A-Okay for me!

And that’s all I got lovaaaas. 

The (sleepless) 4th Month

Ohh the fourth month. Hands down the most challenging month yet, and all because of one thing: lack of sleep. Obviously all mamas expect to lose sleep in the newborn days, and most likely you’re on maternity leave. You hang out in your PJ’s, shower at noon, maybe cash in on everyone’s advice “sleep when the baby sleeps.” and of course, a new baby is just bliss.  But for your baby to sleep semi-well for 7 weeks, then WHAM all the sudden not sleep? AND you have to go to work the next morning? That completely blindsided me, and to be honest, left me feeling worse for wear all month. I definitely had a meltdown or two and lost confidence in my ability to mother. I spiraled myself into reading sleep blogs and questioning EVERYTHING we were doing. It was really, really tough.

Fortunately I had some adrenaline to run on because it was baby’s first Christmas. I mean, I was making outfit lists and coordinating plans weeks in advance. I was so excited about Christmas, and I gave myself some grace (thanks for that line Darby). Decorating and over-the-top gift giving/wrapping was just not important. All that mattered was Coral’s first Christmas! And me surviving zombie-mode.

Anywho I'll stop rambling. But to all first time moms, the 4-month-sleep regression is definitely not a joke. Hopefully I'll get my act together to implement a routine followed by some sleep training. 

and some stats to remember:

• 14 lbs 7 oz, 26 inches long. 60th percentile for weight, and 95th for height!
• size 3 diapers 
• 3-6 m clothes are too short. 6-9 m are a little baggy and need to be cuffed

Coral's likes:

• bath time! she loves to splash
• mirrors
• fingers! staring at them while moving them, sucking them, chewing them. Holding onto our fingers. her hand movements just make me melt daily.
• mam teething ring. putting everything in her mouth.
• being sung too. she loveeeees music. 
• getting out of the house. Coral is much more calm in new places. 

Coral's dislikes:

• getting dressed
• cold milk. 
• eating in the morning 
• playing by herself

Sleep: mostly bad. lol. co-sleeping from midnight to the am. in crib all other times/naps. Although it              has recently gotten better, this post is late and it happened in the 5th month. (to get technical)

Eating: 

• Still breastfeeding, and supplementing 4 oz of formula a day. We give her two half and half bottles a day basically. 
• This helps me not feel so stressed if I miss a pumping session, and eases my mind that she can take formula if needed for an emergency situation. I also can quit pretty easily when I decide to end our journey. Supplementing has overall taken the stress out of breastfeeding/pumping for me. 

Milestones: 

• giggles. not laughing spontaneously, but we can sure make her laugh if we tickle her! 
• sitting up with support very well. great head control. 
• her movements just became so fluid this month.

Mom & Dad:

• Matt has turned into superdad this month. I finally broke down and asked for him to step it up, since naturally I was carrying a lot of the load on maternity leave. Once I went to work I just needed way more help. Especially since pumping is quite the ordeal. 
• on the topic of pumping: exclusive pumpers deserve a serious shout-out. I tried to pump / bottle feed coral breastmilk very consistently when I went back to work. even on weekends and holiday breaks. She had developed a snacking habit when nursing and we just needed to get her out of that mode. and once she got it, I didn't want to go backwards.