International Travel

Well, Lila and I survived our first trip out of the country together.  Texas was big and hot; just as I remember it.  Lila got to see her great grandparents again, meet her cousin Kate and her Aunt Annie, and dance with her granddaddy at the wedding.  I got to eat a waffle shaped like Texas.  (I'm planning to make some Kansas waffles...just use my rectangular waffle maker and take a bite out of the upper right hand corner.)

At the wedding, we made it a priority to get this four generation photo of my grandmother, my mom, myself and Lila.  Before taking this photo, my Nana informed my brother that if she fell while he was walking her down the aisle, he should just continue on and she would crawl into the nearest open pew. Way to take one for the team.

Lila loved the reception.  She danced with Mitchell and me in what I think was called the "Grand March."  It seemed to be like the Train except that it was somewhat choreographed and many people had on cowboy boots and said, "Yes ma'am," and "Yes sir."

Along with dancing on the dance floor, Lila danced the night away in her car seat.

Besides Lila having to sleep on the king sized bed with me because the Pack and Play the hotel gave us was covered in baby urine stains, it was a very successful trip and a beautiful wedding.  Lila slept on the plane the entire way home.

Now we just have to do it all over again on Friday.  Tennessee, here we come!

A Day in the Life

I realize that I haven't written much lately, but I find that feeding and cleaning are often not the most interesting things to read about.  We do have some good news, though.

Remember this acne?

Almost all gone!

Lila is becoming so vain now that she keeps telling me, "No more pictures, lady!"

When I was pregnant with Lila, I found myself looking around online to see if anyone had posted what a newborn's daily schedule looks like.  I realized that there wasn't much of a schedule, but I wanted to see what I was getting myself into.  Long story short, I couldn't find anything, so I thought I'd put up our schedule just in case anyone is interested.  I will say that this is subject to change...and by subject to change I mean always changes.

Last Wednesday's Schedule

4:00 am Lila wakes up to have her diaper changed and eat

4:45 am Lila goes back to sleep

8:00 am Lila wakes up to have her diaper changed and eat

8:45 am Everyone is awake and Mommy eats breakfast while Lila sits in her bouncy seat

9:00 am Lila gets her diaper changed and Mommy tries to pack for the trip to Texas while Lila lies on her blanket and listens to music

9:30 am Mommy and Lila go to Hy-Vee to mail some packages

9:45 am Mommy and Lila go on a walk

10:30 am Lila gets her diaper changed and eats

11:20 am Mommy puts Lila in her car seat and packs the diaper bag

11:25 am Mommy and Lila drive to visit Granddaddy at work

1:00 pm Diaper change in Granddaddy's office

2:30 pm Mommy and Lila get home, and Lila eats after napping in the car

3:15 pm Mommy tries to pack some more while Lila swings in her swing

4:00 pm Visitors to see Lila...Lila cries the whole time

4:15 pm Lila has a diaper change and eats again

5:00 pm Daddy comes home and gives Lila a bottle while Mommy makes dinner

5:30 pm Mommy and Daddy eat while Lila sits in her bouncy seat...then she cries so Mommy and Daddy trade off holding her

6:15 pm Lila swings in her swing for a few minutes

6:45 pm Lila wants to eat again so Mommy feeds her and changes her diaper

7:15 pm Lila falls asleep while eating, and Mommy holds her while reading the Pioneer Woman blog

8:00 pm Lila wakes up and wants to eat for real this time, so she eats and gets on her jammies and has a diaper change

8:45 pm-9:00 pm Mommy and Daddy make various attempts to put Lila down for bed, including making sure that the Princess's bed is warmed by a heating pad

9:00 pm Mommy goes to bed

2:30 am Lila wakes up and wants to be changed and to eat

3:15 am Lila and Mommy go back to bed

5:30 am Lila wakes up and wants to be changed and to eat

6:15 am Everyone back to bed for a few more hours of sleep

Flight of the Hutsons

It's true.  We're taking Lila on an airplane, multiple airplanes in fact.  Next Friday, I'm flying out with Lila and my parents to my cousin's wedding in Texas, and then the next weekend Johnny, Lila, and I fly to Tennessee for Johnny's sister's Naval commissioning. 

Though she seems so docile from all the pictures we put up.  Oftentimes, Lila is more like this photo:

I'm hoping that while we are on the plane, Lila chooses to be the happy cooey version of herself rather than the raving lunatic version.  The main reason I'm even bringing this up is I thought I would pick all of your brains for advice for traveling on a plane with an infant.  Here are the details: 

1.5 hour long flights

We're bringing the car seat and the stroller but planning to gate check

I have three helpers on one trip and one helper on the other (hope Johnny doesn't mind being called a "helper")

I'm still nursing and bottle feeding

Suggestions?

Visitors from the East

This past weekend, Johnny's parents got to come in town to meet their little granddaughter.

Johnny's dad helped us get a few things done around the house, and Johnny's mom was a huge help with taking care of Lila.  I think her favorite thing, besides going on walks, was changing Lila's clothes.  There were a few times that I put Lila down to sleep, and when I came back an hour or so later, she was wearing a different outfit.  

Lila also got baptized!  Pastor Tony did a great job of explaining what it means to us, and Lila stayed awake for the whole thing and didn't make a peep when he put the water on her head.

We had a little brunch afterward where Johnny's mom totally outdid herself.  When I originally planned to have this brunch, I hadn't had Lila yet, so I had no idea how difficult it would actually be to make all the food in a timely manner.  Jeanne was a huge help by making everything, and it was all very tasty.

Lila is so blessed to have two sets of loving grandparents.  And Johnny and I are blessed to have two sets of such great babysitters.

One Month Photo

My plan is to do a photo each month of Lila with one of her cute cloth diapers on in a laundry basket to see how much she's growing.  Looks like she won't fit for long.



Weight: 10lbs 12oz
Height: 21 3/4 in

Moline

This summer Johnny has to go away for two weeks of training for the National Guard.  Lila and I get to go with him, and we're super excited because it's in Moline, IL!  For those of you who weren't fortunate enough to be on Wheaton's rowing team, Moline was the location of a really fun regatta that we went to every year and always won.

To top it off, Johnny just called and said that we get to stay at the hotel right next to the boat house!  Maybe they'll let Lila cox.

The Natural Way?!

I can't believe that it's been a month since Lila was born.  Clearly from my lack of posts, we've been a little busy.  Everyone talks about how hard childbirth is, but the real difficulty, to me, is the actual raising of the child part.  Lila has been great; she's not a very fussy baby, and she sleeps a lot.  Yes, lack of sleep for me has been difficult as well as learning how to do everything one-handed while holding her, but the most difficult thing has been something I did not expect. 

I went into having Lila planning to breastfeed.  I didn't think much about it.  We did a class just to learn what to do, and I figured that everything would be hunky dory.  Once Lila was born, I fed her in the hospital.  We talked to a couple of lactation consultants, and everything seemed to be going well except for the fact that she had to have her foot pricked and her blood sugar tested every time she ate since she was so big.  When Lila was discharged from the hospital, her weight had gone down from 9lb 6oz to 8 lb 12oz.  It's apparently normal for a baby's weight to go down, so no one said anything to us, and we went home.

Once we got home, Lila had a really hard time staying awake when I would feed her because of her jaundice and her broken collar bone.  It seemed to me like nothing was coming out, but everything that I had read and heard in class was that it would seem this way, but the baby only needs a little bit so everything will be fine.

The next day, we had to take Lila to the pediatrician from the hospital because of her jaundice and collar bone issues.  Her weight had gone down even more to I think 8lb 4oz.  At this point, her weight loss was way past normal.  The doctor was concerned and told me that he thought I should supplement every once in awhile with a little bit of formula in a syringe until my milk came in.  We followed up the next day with our pediatrician, and Lila hit her all time low of 8lbs.  At this point, Johnny and I were extremely worried about her and wondering what was going on.  The lactation consultants at the pediatrician worked with me for two hours to help her get a better latch and had me give her an ounce of formula with every feeding.  

The next two weeks were a blur of doctor's appointments.  Every time we substituted with formula, Lila gained weight.  When we stopped, she lost weight.  She would want to nurse for 2 or 3 hours at a time when there was no formula involved.  After using two different syringes, a tube, and two different cups, we started feeding the formula to Lila with a bottle, making life much easier.  Our worry with using a bottle was that she wouldn't nurse anymore since the bottle is so much easier, but she has yet to have trouble.  At this point, I was nursing her for about 30 minutes, feeding her with the bottle for about 25 minutes, and then pumping for 20 to try to get more milk to come in.  After all this, she would want to eat again about an hour later (I think that's why I don't remember these first weeks very well!).

Eventually, I called my friend Jane's mom, Sandy, who is a lactation consultant.  She told me to take Fenugreek and had me come in to her breastfeeding support group and do a weight before nursing Lila and after.  We realized that Lila was only getting a third of an ounce from me when she needs more like 2 or 3.  For some reason my milk just never totally came in (normally it comes in four days after giving birth).  Under the advice of Sandy and the consultant at Lila's pediatrician, I decided to stop pumping because I was exhausting myself, and ironically, some of the things that keep your milk from coming in are stress and not sleeping.

Fast forward two weeks, I'm still going once a week to Sandy's support group.  My supply has gone up to an ounce and a half.  I nurse every 2-3 hours for 30 minutes and then give Lila three ounces of formula in a bottle.  This works for us, and Lila is now a whopping 10lbs 6oz!  The reason I'm writing about this is because I really thought that breastfeeding would be the natural and easy way to feed Lila, but the more people that I talk to, the more I'm realizing that a lot of women have problems with it.  I also wanted to write this down because I'm pretty sure in about one year I'm not going to remember any of it.  Anyway, we've survived the first of many difficult situations, and our family is closer because of it (even though one of us can only see 12 inches and in black and white).