Ad Hoc Updates

I have this week off from work - yay!

I had originally decided to take the week off since Beanie was to have started daycare today and  I wanted the flexibility to just put her in for a couple of hours a day initially.

But all that changed due to me chickening out!

The nanny (recent college grad) has found a full time job which she starts on Aug 1. While, I am really happy for her, I was secretly hoping her start date would be Sept 1 giving me more time to have her come in to take care of Beanie, through Aug.

So the NEW plan is that next week through end of July, if the nanny is available, which she says she will be, she will come in a few days a week and my Mom and I will handle the other working days.

Stating Aug, Beanie will go into daycare only part time, not full-time as planned. None of us are ready for that transition.  For part-time, I was thinking 3 days a week, but was vetoed by my parents who say twice a week only and they will help with her the remaining 3 days.  We will start her at about 3 hrs and build it up to 6 hrs.

We will see how it goes in Aug and decide in Sept if we want to keep it part-time to 2 days, change to 3 days or make it full-time.

This week I just want to hang with Beanie and enjoy her without having to feel rushed, due to work. 

On Saturday we went for a walk, It was really short since its been pouring rain here so we only got a really short spell of no rain. It was fun. Beanie spent the entire time looking down and playing with Sophie the giraffe, not looking at the the trees etc - sigh!

Today we went grocery shopping. We were at the store with alacrity at 10am. I had timed it perfect since she fell asleep and allowed me to shop for almost 1 hour and stock up on food. I made several rounds of the store, hence clocking in my activity of the day.

Other updates:

1. Sleep: Beanie has been sleeping much better the past couple of days.  On Sat night I got another 5 hr stretch since I was smart to have slept at 9pm. We have been doing two feeds, at 1-2am and a 5-6am. Sometimes she will go back to sleep after her dawn feed until 7:30am or even 8am, other times like today she is up at 6:30am ready to "play" and then naps around 8am.
2. Breastfeeding: My milk supply seems to have improved. I pumped almost 6oz yesterday in one session - I was so thrilled given the first time I pumped when she was a week old I got maybe 1/2 a ounce total, if that!  Its been a long and arduous road to get here!!  My initial goal was to nurse until 3 mos, but now that we are there and its going fairly well I will carry on and try and get to 6 mos. Hopefully I can make it!  Other than her dinner feed which is 4oz formula (only because she goes longer on it), all her other feeds are breast milk with maybe an additional 2oz-4oz of formula thrown in during the day if I feel I did not produce enough. I have been religiously drinking Mothers Milk tea which helps with lactation.
   
   I mention pumping because I have been doing a lot more of it the past few weeks simply because (a) it helps me know how much I am producing (b) allows others to feed her when I am working (c) her latch tends to be a bit shallow.  The other day she was refusing to nap so I was forced to pump in her line of sight. The moment I removed my shirt, her little face lit up and she started moving her legs with excitement thinking we were going "rooting", and then had a odd look when she saw me attach the pump and kept staring at it. Poor baby.  I felt really bad. All the night time feeds are nursing anyways, but now I make sure to do some daytime nursing too when she is alert and can enjoy that closeness with me. The most adorable thing is when half way through feeding she will pull away and give me the sweetest smile - aw!
3. Others: Its my Mom's birthday tomorrow so Beanie and I are taking her out to lunch. There is a family dinner planned with my sis in attendance but I want to avoid her. She has not seen Beanie in 2 mos and not even asked about her. She lives 5 min from my house - BTW. Even my parents find is very strange given Beanie is her only niece.  I have no idea what her issue is!Anyway, dinners do not work with Beanie's schedule. She has a set evening timeline, and I don't want to stray from it so it gives us a good excuse.
   
   I need to call the dentist and get the final crown put back on. Its been about 2+ mos since that saga began. I am being able to chew from that side so hoping the root canal has resoled whatever the issue was.

Wow this is a very long post...more later on Beanie's new adventures!