Night and Day

Brynlee and Makenna are like night and day. Night and freaking day.

Brynlee was such an easy baby. She had this harmless habit of being fine wherever she was. She was great in the car. She didn't cry in restaurants or anywhere really. She didn't throw up after eating. She was content sleeping in her bassinet beside my bed until she started to move too much. Then she was content sleeping in her crib (even though that was more work for me to get up to feed her). She slept really well until she cut her first teeth at 8 months and again at 9 months, but was totally fine when she cut four molars at once. She could sleep through anything and everything. She was a cuddly little love bug.

Makenna is sweet. I love that little love bug to death. I do. But she is a high maintenance baby! She is super gassy. For a few weeks, she threw up almost every feeding. Not a little bit. A lot. Thankfully, that has stopped. She does not like to lay down. She is very nosy so she wants to sit up and look around. At first, she hated the swing. Luckily, she tolerates it now. She hates the car. HATES THE CAR. Aren't babies supposed to fall asleep in the car or something? She hates it and screams almost every time we're in the car. Thankfully, she has not been screaming in the mornings on the way to daycare this week. I am sure it is because she falls back asleep since it is early in the morning. I'll just admit that I bedshare with her because it is MUCH easier for me to just nurse her in bed in the middle of the night and go back to sleep afterward as opposed to having to go to her room and do everything that way. I feel like I sleep better this time compared to when Brynlee was itty bitty. This girl is a light sleeper though. If I wake up to use the restroom or switch sides, she typically wakes up or at least stirs around and fidgets. Oh, she fidgets a lot. She always seems on edge and as if she doesn't know how to relax. It can get frustrating when you just want to cuddle her.

But oh boy, her smiles. Her smiles are so sweet. She loves being talked to and I love talking to her. She is a Mama's girl. I love it. :)

Here's a picture of both girls at 2 months old. They have similar features. You can't tell because of the lighting of Brynlee's picture, but their complexions are completely opposite. And of course, Brynlee was born with a 2 year old's amount of hair while Makenna was born with an old man's head of hair. :)

Oh, my girls. I love them. <3 My heart is so full...and so is my schedule.

My boss showed up at my office 2 hours early today and I was updating my blog. This was my face...

First day back to work

Yesterday was my first day back to work. Makenna didn't sleep well Sunday night so I was tired, but I honestly didn't feel it until about 7pm last night. Then exhaustion set in by 8pm. I have no idea how I did it, but I managed to drop them off on time and get to work on time. I didn't cry when I dropped them off at school. I know that is a surprise since I've teared up randomly for a couple of weeks just thinking of going back to work. I think I felt better about it because Brynlee is there. Even though she doesn't interact with Makenna all day, I just feel better knowing that she is there, too. It also helps that it's not a new daycare that I am taking her to. Minus her 12 weeks off, Brynlee has been at this daycare since August 2013. We haven't had any issues with teachers or students. So I can feel comfortable knowing that my girls are in good hands. Work actually went by quickly since I spent the day catching up with my temp about my students, reading their case files, and pumping.

I hate pumping. I am still very much in the "must pump or feed baby every 3-4 hours" stage or my boobs will be on the verge of exploding. Truth. There's a sign on the bathroom mirror at work that says there's a lactation room on campus and who to contact. I go down to Health Services and they walked me up to the lactation room. Check out these digs!

It's a private room with badge access only. It's a nice setup. There's an empty, clean fridge for storing milk. There's a microwave, sink including dish soap to clean pump parts, hot water, and a ice/water machine. There's two super comfy chairs with a large divider in the middle. It's nice! I used it twice yesterday and was the only one in there both times. It's very relaxing and quiet as well. It sure beats pumping in a closet or a bathroom as some women have to do. Yuck.

Both girls had a good report for their first day. Brynlee walked in to daycare and when she saw Ms. B (her favorite former teacher who is now the infant room teacher), she shouted, "WE'RE BACK!" LOL. She said she didn't get in trouble and her teacher said she had a great day. Makenna did what all infants do: eat, poop, play, and sleep. She did have a poop explosion though. Ms. B said she wasn't fussy and only cried when she was getting her diaper changed. That girl HATES having her diaper changed.

I didn't get tired until I got home. As soon as I got home, the baby was hungry. I had to get Brynlee a snack because I knew I wasn't going to be starting on dinner any time soon and honestly didn't want to hear her ask for snacks every 5 seconds. I started a load of laundry, unloaded the dishwasher, and started dinner while also juggling the baby. We're working on eating healthy as both Joey and I want to lose weight. We had baked lemon tilapia, green beans, blue cheese asparagus, and a little brown rice. I am not a big fish fan, but I do like basa which is a very non-fishy fish. I figured I'd try tilapia as Joey said it's also a non-fishy fish. Nope, I took a few bites and didn't really like it.

Brynlee doesn't like asparagus. I've never met a kid who does. But she ate all of her fish, green beans, and rice. Then she asked for more so she ate the rest of my fish and more green beans. That kid loves green beans. I am glad she likes fish. It's better than her eating mac and cheese or peanut butter and jelly.

After dinner, I really started dragging. I went to take a shower while Joey loaded the dinner dishes. Then I gave the girls a bath. I wanted to just pass out, but I still had so much to do. I nursed the baby and she fell asleep. As soon as I put her down, she woke up. Go figure. So I carried her around while I put the laundry in the dryer and got everything ready for the next day: getting my pump parts washed and the bag loaded, prepping tonight's dinner, getting Makenna's bottles and milk ready, laying out the girls' clothes. Exhaustion. I went to bed at 9:30pm. I am pretty sure I fell asleep quickly.

Luckily, Makenna slept better last night. She barely woke up around 1am, looking for food. She ate quickly and we both were back asleep. She woke up again right before 5:30am and ate again. I got up at 6am and here I am...another day at work.

Better go pump. And because babies are cute...

Updates!

As always post baby, I slack on updating. I'll just do a quick run down. I do plan to get back to regular blogging soon. It's easier once I am back at work and on a consistent schedule.

So the first update would be: we had our second little girl. She's just adorable. Makenna was born 12/23/14 at 5:03pm. She was 7 lbs 5 oz and 20 inches long. Here's a few pictures of her and big sister.

I'll post more about her this coming week.

Secondly, thanks to nursing, I am down 22 lbs. I was down about 26 lbs, but my sweet tooth was OUT OF CONTROL. Luckily, that seems to have calmed down now. Joey is now on board to lose weight so it should be "easier" to make healthy choices to both lose weight.

Third, I have wonderfully fabulous news. As I've posted about, I had gestational diabetes with both pregnancies. Doctors advice mothers who have a history of GD to get tested yearly as having GD increases a woman's chances of developing Type 2 diabetes. After I had Brynlee in 2011, I did the glucose test again at 6 weeks post partum and was cleared of diabetes. In 2012, I did the test again at my yearly well woman check. My results came back in the "pre-diabetic" range. I didn't do the test in 2013. In March 2014, I had my ac1 checked by my PCP. Again, it came back in the pre-diabetic range. When I got pregnant in April, I went ahead and told my OB about my history of GD and about my recent ac1 results. So at 12 weeks pregnant, I saw a high risk OB and went ahead with the 1 hour glucose test. I failed. I opted to skip the 3 hour (as I already knew it'd come back as failed) and went ahead with all that comes with diabetes: carb counting and finger pricking. My high risk OB was very impressed with my numbers at each appointment. At my six week check up, my OB wanted me to come back the next week and do the 2 hour glucose test as it is more accurate than just doing the ac1 blood draw. I got my results back: normal, no signs of diabetes or pre-diabetes. You have no idea how happy this makes me. It motivates me even more to make sure that my results are never back in the diabetic range.

Fourth, I go back to work on Monday. WAAAAHHHH. Well, I have mixed feelings about it. Obviously I HAVE to go back as we just can't really afford to live on one income. Plus, I enjoy working outside of the home. I was actually supposed to go back to work on 3/23, but asked my boss if I could come back on 3/16 (just a week early) because of the way our paychecks run. We are paid on the 22nd for days 1-15 and on the 7th for days 16-end of the month. So if I go back to work on the 16th then I will get paid a full paycheck as opposed to half. First, most of the USA pays little to NOTHING for maternity leave. I did use all of my personal/sick/vacation time (had to) for maternity leave as well as 6 weeks of short-term disability that paid me 60% of my salary. So I have had a little bit of time where I haven't been paid. So that's the main reason I am going back a week early. I have enjoyed being home with the girls, but Brynlee needs to be back in school. She's already been gone for 3 months and I know I don't do everything with her that she does at school. I have had my hands full with Makenna. But I didn't want Brynlee to feel like she isn't important and that I didn't want to spend time with her. I think she mostly enjoyed being home with her mommy and sister.

I promise to update more often. I know I only have one or two people who read my updates, but I don't want to leave them hanging. ;)