First scratch :-(

I know I'm overreacting, but I feel awful for McKenna's first scratch on her face :-(. She's left a few marks from her fingernails before, but they were the light ones that disappeared within 10 minutes. 

 

This one is a real scratch, one that will scab and take a few days to go away. I've diligently been keeping her nails clipped, but I feel responsible still. Kevin informed me that she's a baby, and she will inevitably find ways to scratch herself no matter how hard I try to avoid it. I still feel bad, I don't want my baby to endure any pain. Ever!! 

Oh man, I'm going to have a tough time with her as a toddler!!! 

First Super Mommy moment?

First off I must disclose I am trying my first post from the Blogger App on my phone, so we'll see how this goes. AND I have a baby sleeping on my chest.

So after a rough night of trying to get McKenna to go to sleep, she ended up sleeping a good 7 hours til about 6am. I, of course, was not so lucky. I tend to wake up with her every movement. That, and I had to get up to pump when she would normally wake up. After she woke up to nurse at 6 we let her fall back asleep in our bed. 

She must love our bed because she was out until I encouraged her to wake up at 9am to nurse. 

After feeding and dressing her she was in a good mood so I put her in the playmat. Bad idea. This is where my self-proclaimed first Super Mom moment happened. I got the suspicion she was about to bring something back up so I grabbed her. Within a flash of a second I held her strategically to where I got completely soaked down my chest in projectile vomit and she didn't get one single drop on her. After all, she was in her cute outfit and I was still in pjs. I was pretty damn impressed with myself. 

Vomiting requires re-nursing her to fill that belly back up, a mom with oversupply's worst fear. Vicious cycle, she vomits because she gets too much milk, then needs to eat again, telling my boobs to make even more milk. After nursing, we went on our first solo outing to Target. 

Went off without a hitch. I got some human interaction and got a few supplies for Easter! We always get stares when I wear her, and this is just a Boba... I can't wait for my Ring Sling to get in!!

Sundays & McKenna's first church service

We love weekend mornings in this house!  McKenna comes to bed and hangs out for a couple hours with both Mommy and Daddy!

McKenna is smiling on a regular basis, and the feeling that I get is overwhelming!! I cannot think of a single better thing in the entire world than witnessing your baby's first smiles, intentional ones at that.

Kevin was the first one to figure out how to make smiles on demand.... I caught the tail end of this smile session, so the smiles are waning. But her face is priceless nonetheless.

 

Daddies are always silly like that.

McKenna went to church for the first time this week!!

McKenna and Daddy sharing some smiles before getting ready for church.

Unfortunately her late breakfast coincided with the very beginning of the service... we literally had to go out to the car at 10:01!  And what a fiasco.  We just got a new car, and I had NO CLUE how to turn it on!! I was sweating my ass off, pressing buttons, and literally almost brought to tears. After 10 minutes of that, McKenna nursed for a few minutes and decided she wasn't in the mood.. I don't blame her.  I knew that would rear its ugly head eventually. Then she pooped so I had to change her on the tailgate, making me sweat even more!  So after all of that fun, we sat back in the pew and within 20 seconds she started whining. Ugh.  Luckily our church has a Cry Room, a "soundproof" windowed room in the back where you can watch and listen to the service without disturbing the congregation.  McKenna and I spend the rest of the service there.  I'm still glad we took her to her first church service!

Daddy picked out her dress...

 

And McKenna and I got our first picture together where I'm actually in some makeup and something other than PJs.

 

Have I mentioned that McKenna's favorite place in the whole world is her changing table? 

 

 

We spend more time dancing, kicking, smiling, and making faces there than anywhere else in the house.  I'm considering buying another changing table to put in her playmat :-P  But she did spend a little time in her Sunday Best doing tummy time!

 

 

Any chance I can get to put her on her tummy without her getting upset I'll take!

 

 

Slept through the night?

Yes, that's a question. Because it depends on who you are asking slept through the night.... me or her. And of course Daddy sleeps like a log so that's not even a part of the question.

Miss Cranky Pants yesterday still lookin' cute

Last night we had a particularly rough time getting McKenna to go to sleep. I'm attributing all of the last couple of days' extra fussiness, eating, and sleeping to a 6 week growth spurt. We took turns trying everything, and she is also now adamantly refusing the paci. Every time we got her to sleep, she would wake up within minutes of being put down. Even nursing lying down, she fell dead asleep but as soon as she was transferred over to her bed she was screaming.  Around 11:30 I tried a desperate trick.  I rocked her to sleep in my arms, holding her in an uncomfortable position for me but one that I knew would be easy to get out of. Once asleep, I leaned down to place her in the bassinet and froze for a few minutes. Then little by little I moved one arm at a time out from under her. The process took a good 10 minutes. Success.

Throughout the night she stirred and moaned and groaned. Plenty of those times I was up and seconds away from picking her up to feed her.  I'm still learning her cues (which seem to be changing daily), I could have sworn several of those times she was actually awake. Nope. 7 AM rolls around, Kevin was already up and doing stuff as she started waking up.  Overall I probably woke up a total of 6 times, at least. Several of those times weren't even from her making noises, but me just waking to make sure her chest was moving up and down. But she didn't wake to nurse at all.... I guess the marathon nursing we did yesterday evening paid off.

I just hope the process we used to get her to sleep is a phase that is a part of a growth spurt and not something that is becoming a habit. Fingers crossed.  Either way, SHE slept through the night.

St. Paddy's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Sunday we ventured out for our first time eating at a restaurant since McKenna's arrival.  I was a little uptight, worried about her crying while we were there. Sure enough just as we order food she started crying.  We tried givng her a paci which she refused, but I knew she was hungry.  I took her back to the car to nurse and had food waiting when we got back. I also had Kevin have a beer waiting for me too ;-) First one for 10+ months.

After dinner we took a walk around (there was a block party in the plaza going on for St. Patrick's Day) and we got our first taste of people's reactions to her.  Everyone wanted to see her, and it seemed like everyone had to turn around to look at her as we passed. Luckily I didn't have to smack any unassuming hands.

Overall, I survived! It's a very freeing feeling to know that we can be out for extended periods of time. I knew we could, I was just scared to actually do it.


We didn't do much for this little one's First St. Paddy's Day.  I've been warned of the 6 week growth spurt and it seemed to be showing itself yesterday... Eat, Sleep, Eat, Sleep.  And if I tried to put her down to sleep she shrieked until I picked her up again to which she would fall immediately back asleep. AKA I did not had 2 free hands all day. This pretty much sums up my St. Paddy's Day:

I put her in the Boba for a bit, but we both get so freakin' hot in that thing. It's not an all day babywearer.

In the morning time was a rousing adventure in her playmat.

Zonked.

And of course she needed to dress accordingly.

Maybe next year we'll try doing something festive in addition to looking the part!

This week in growing baby.. noises, kicks, and smiles, oh my!

I wrote this post a few days ago and am just now posting because we had a few minor technical glitches :-)

I cannot believe all of the little things McKenna has done this week!!  She is gripping, and making noises, and kicking... boy is she kicking! She is a dancing machine right now, if she's awake she is kicking.

AND I GOT A SMILE OUT OF HER!!!

I could and have stared at these pictures for an amount of time I don't even want to admit.  That face melts me! That smile is elusive though.... each day she's trying more and more.

She's been loving this monkey's polka-dotted belly.

A couple of nights ago we were doing a bit of tummy time and was able to catch her on camera lifting her head!

Not the greatest photo, but I knew my time was limited to snap this moment! And look at the determination on that face. Usually she just moves her head side to side and makes noises into the floor.

Breastfeeding support group & Mckenna's weight @ 5 weeks

I've attempted to go to this breastfeeding support group offered at the hospital around the corner a couple of times since McKenna was born.  The first time the only person there was the substitute lactation consultant (no other mommas).  So while there wasn't much of a "group" I had one-on-one time with a lactation consultant and got some good feedback.

The second time I tried to go NO ONE was there, not even a lactation consultant.  I used it as an opportunity to weigh McKenna and went on my merry way.

I tried again this week... I first walked in and no one was there so I just began to prep to weigh McKenna. Another momma walked in, followed by the lactation consultant, and two other mommas... finally a "group"!

It was a nice experience, I didn't realize there were other moms my age around here. It's nice hearing other moms dealing with their own issues when it comes to breastfeeding, or even dealing with obstacles that we have.

McKenna was great! She slept most of the time we were there, until the other babies started firing off... then when I undressed her to weigh she was wide awake.

But, great news! This Little Lady weighed in at 10 pounds, 8 ounces!!

That's up 3 pounds, 2 ounces from birth in 5 weeks!! Yay for Momma's Milk! After all we've endured this chunky monkey is a glutton.  I know it still has to do with my oversupply still regulating, but I don't think any breastfeeding momma can complain about their baby gaining too fast.

After weighing it was like a Domino Effect of hungry babies.  I did my best to "time" McKenna eating just before we left the house... anyone that's breastfed knows that there really is no such thing as scheduling feedings. Baby eats when Baby is hungry. I anticipated myself being pretty private about breastfeeding, and I still am.  But when you're baby is hungry and you have no place to go, you can't starve your baby. 

At this point all 3 of the other moms were feeding their babies and McKenna was getting fussy.  What was I supposed to do, excuse myself from a group of breastfeeding women to go breastfeed in private?  I just dropped the anxiety, covered myself with a blankie, and let McKenna eat. I was more comfortable that I expected to feel, and Baby was happy.  I won't be making a habit out of nursing in public (and this wasn't really even public), but I do feel a bit more at ease knowing that if we gotta, we can.

The Clutch, 5 weeks

McKenna amazes me every single day. Before having a baby I wondered how you would know what and when your baby is supposed to reach certain milestones.  Little did I realize that she would more or less be the one to let me know. I won't even realize that she hasn't done something yet and out of nowhere, Holy Cow, I can't believe she's doing that!

And everyday there's some new little thing she's doing or something new that I've noticed.

This weekend she was clutching her blankie with intent when we were on a walk with the Chiefs.

And of course she just looks adorable so that's reason enough to celebrate :-)

Here's the outfit that matched that stinkin' cute hat...

Tummy Time!

We officially started doing Tummy Time this week.  McKenna has been holding her head up pretty steady when she's laying on Kevin's or my chest, and when she's in the Boba she likes to lean out to look at her surroundings. So I figured it was a good time to start practicing Tummy Time.

I've wanted to be very slow in introducing her as to avoid having her dread it.  So the first time we tried it on Monday I don't even think she had an opportunity to react before I picked her up.  I thought that was a fair way to gauge what this experience would be like. Literally just long enough to snap a couple of pictures...

The next couple of times I left her a little longer.... and she wasn't the biggest of fans. She would just put her face straight into the floor, even when I tried to help move it to one side or the other. But the moment I heard discontent in her noises I rolled her back over to her back or picked her up.

Today we spent a couple of solid minutes doing Tummy Time! Quite the progress....

Though I just hate seeing Babies like this, they just look so helpless!!

She actually seemed to somewhat enjoy it today, even briefly. I can't wait to watch her develop and slowly improve.

The many faces of McKenna

Just a little over a month, we're starting to see a bit of a personality.  She's been focusing on our faces as we talk and make silly faces. She's been imitating facial expressions, and we've even seen smiles beginning to emerge at the corner of her lips. 

I literally take 30 pictures of this munchkin a day,  and then I don't want to delete any of them! At least this gives me a place to store them so my phone can rest. And yes, this Little Lady spends much of her days in diapers and Jammies... You got a problem with that??

I could literally stare at this face all day long.  Oh wait, I do. :-)

One Month videos and Bathtime

I forgot to mention in her One Month update that McKenna wass up 2 pounds, 1 ounce from birth weight! With all of the troubles we experienced establishing feeding, this is a huge feat.

I had a couple of videos to upload from last weekend, but one of them keeps getting an error :-(

The little noises she makes while she sleeps are priceless....

Whimpers, whines, grunts, snores, you name it, she's likely doing it.... and keeping me up all night in the process making sure she's breathing!  And just like in my tummy, McKenna gets the hiccups on a regular basis, we're talking 3-4 times a day.

And I swear she's learned that vomiting is a surefire way to get a bath (which she loves). Check out this face while she relaxes in the bath....  Just happily staring out the window.

....she gets a warm, relaxing bath while Mommy sits in vomit drenched clothes until further notice. Must be a Mommy thing because strangely, it doesn't bother me all that much.

Hot off the press: McKenna's first photo shoot

We just got back McKenna's newborn photos, her first experience as a little model. And she was a perfect angel! She let us dress her up and put her in awkward poses.  Granted she slept through most of the shoot, we were able to snap a couple with her eyes open. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure.....

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think this is my favorite:

 

She is just so perfect. Every little thing about her is perfect.  I find myself just gazing at her in awe. Wow. Her Daddy and I were incredibly blessed to receive such an angel.