Nakita Grinie

tidbits

You know you are a new mommy blogger when you have to do a 'tibits' random post and it takes you days to actually compose it. Par for the course! :)


1. On Wednesday morning I decided to make my first 'worried new mom' call to the Pediatrician. Truman's left eye had been crusty for a whole day and then over night it was REALLY crusted shut. Of course I'd done my Googling research and figured it was probably just a clogged tear duct, since it's very common in babies, but wanted to call to be sure. They asked me to bring him in just to look at it and rule out an infection and sure enough---just a clogged duct. HOWEVER, the big kicker at the appointment was that Truman weighed 8 pounds and 10 ounces! That means he gained over a pound in a week since his first 'one week' appointment last Monday. The doctor was happy with that gain and it made me feel a lot better about breastfeeding....guess little T likes Mommy's milk even more than I thought!

Tummy time has begun as well:





2. Birth announcements have been sent and received, so I can share them here now. While I was pregnant I researched different printing companies that would allow me to design my own announcements and I went with Vistaprint for their INSANE prices. I used them back in the day for our wedding Save-The-Dates and forgot how reasonable they are but holy cow--I love this company. I ordered 100 'postcards' with free envelopes and free return address labels for $13. No joke. At first I looked at their 'announcements' but those were a lot more expensive and I couldn't tell the difference in paper quality or size of the postcards versus announcements, so I went with the postcard style and it turned out just fine. No, they aren't the most amazing quality in the world but they get the job done on a budget. I designed them one night in Photoshop, printed all of our addresses on sticky labels bought on Amazon, and voila....a quick and easy way to send out announcements that really took me no time at all. I don't usually use pre-printed labels for addresses but I figured this time people would understand:)


3. Nate is officially on spring break and doesn't go back to class until March 29. Yay for some Daddy and family time! And then right when Nate goes back to school, my mom comes to stay with us for a whole week and I cannot wait. Truman needs some Missouri Grandma cuddle sessions and I have a feeling she will be all over that one.



4. It's been gorgeous here with temps up into the 50s and even reaching 60 one day! Of course, it's supposed to snow on Saturday but whatever...we've been making the most out of the sunshine while we can. I've gotten comfortable putting Truman in the Baby Bjorn and taking Henry on a leash for a walk outside. Then in the evenings when Nate gets home we will sometimes put Truman in the BOB and Henry on a leash for a longer 'family' walk and let me just say---fresh air and exercise are two ingredients for mommy's sanity and Truman's nap time:) I can tell I'm extremely out of shape but I know I have to start somewhere and walking will be it for awhile!

5. I mentioned before I've started pulling out the 'mommy tricks' to get Truman to sleep and calm down now that he's more awake. One thing I registered for after hearing rumors of it's magical powers was the Soothe and Glow Seahorse and I'm glad we fell for the hype. It totally works to lull Truman into sleep, you guys. Plus Nate and I kind of like the peaceful music ourselves so it's a win-win situation:) I mean, it's not totally perfect because sometimes he'll still need to be rocked and shushed to help him snooze but a lot of times if I put him down after nursing at night and he wakes back up, I just turn on the seahorse and lay him on his side and that will do the trick. It's kind of fun to investigate different options to soothe little man...at least for now:)



6. I've been doing better with pumping and find that doing it once in the morning and maybe once more during the day is plenty for me right now. So far I have about 10 ounces total in the freezer and of course, my bigger right boob produces WAY more than my left. So weird! I'm getting used to the pump but it doesn't feel the best and kind of hurts after awhile so I keep my sessions pretty short. I figure that since I'm just getting started with my storage supply I can still be pretty low key with pumping and can always do more later. After all, little man isn't even three weeks old yet so I have plenty of time to build up a stockpile:)

7. After my nursery reveal post, I had a comment from a reader about featuring my nursery on her site. Well I wrote up a little ditty about the room, she picked out a few pictures and voila....the nursery is featured on her site! The link is here if you care to look. Pretty exciting!

8. I wonder if I should even include 'Truman' as a label for my posts anymore. Pretty much the whole blog is now about him, huh? :)

9. After our doctor's appointment on Wednesday, I took a risk and decided to push my luck a bit with Truman and we went to Michaels and then Babies-R-Us. I never know when he'll be awake and cranky for food but of course, he was a gem and slept the whole time. It's really kind of fun toting him around in the car seat and taking him on errands. Total new mommy mode for me to be running around with my little man and I love it. Just as long as nobody breathes on him...then? Game over.

10. Truman is still all over the place with his sleep/wake patterns and for now I'm okay with that. I've been doing a lot of reading about baby scheduling and although I felt pretty strongly about trying to get him on a routine while I was still pregnant, now I lean more in the other direction of letting Truman dictate what he needs, when he needs it. I think now that he's still so young it would be silly for me to follow a strict schedule and NOT feed him when he's hungry just because the clock tells me it's not time for nursing yet. Once he gets a few more weeks under his belt I will attempt to follow the eat-activity-sleep routine but for now I'm just taking T's lead. Sometimes at night he will go 3-4 hours without waking up and it feels DIVINE, and other nights it's more like every 1.5-2 hours but I think that has more to do with his growth spurts than anything. I know with time he'll be able to go longer without feedings and will be awake longer and then I'll have to be better about putting him down for naps at certain times but I think we'll wait a bit longer before we worry about imposing a schedule. Baby scheduling is certainly a hot topic out there and I'm sure some people will disagree with what we're doing but it works for us right now and I haven't gone crazy without a set routine just yet---who would have guessed that one? :)



11. In other news, Keri is ENGAGED!! Her fiance, Brian, proposed on March 14---which is the two year anniversary since her breast cancer diagnosis. Life is good in Keri-land right now. Her last scans were all clear, she doesn't have to follow up with her doctors in Kansas again so she's going to find new doctors in Indiana, she just bought a house and she's sporting a new rock on her finger. I'm so happy for Keri and can't believe how much has changed in the past two years. She deserves every minute of this special time in her life and I cannot WAIT to help her plan the wedding. I envision lots of pinks, oranges, and greens because she and I have very similar tastes:) She's going to be one HAWT bride!
12. And finally, March Madness anyone? I filled out a bracket based solely on uniform colors that I like and I'm not doing much worse than Nate---who actually researches this stuff. Gotta love my skillz:)