Breastfeeding has become a contact sport.

I am not even kidding.  

I have battle wounds.  

It all started when she hit 5 months old and realized that eating took her away from playing longer than she liked.  So she would eat as fast as possible and then get back to playing pronto.  

Well now she has figured out that she can play AND eat...at the same time.  

She flails her arms about constantly.  I can pin one of them down but the other one is a little more difficult.  She hits me in the chest, face, or arm the whole time.  It doesn't help that she has what I call fingerclaws.  Yeah, those are her nails.  They grow over night I tell you!  I bite them down and then the next day they are longer than the day before.  And yes, I do bite them. I tried to clip them and she almost lost the tip of her finger so I'm too scared to try that again.  I have had scratch marks on my chest and one day she literally punctured my lip!  There was blood involved.  She loves when she gets my lip or nose...she puts them in a vise grip!  

She also somehow manages to pinch the heck out of the flab on my arm with her feet every.single.time.  She rubs her feet together and my arm gets caught in the mix.  Not cool.

And lets not even get into the hair pulling.  How does she manage to grab the little painful hairs every time!?!?

Usually once my milk lets down she will be still for about 30 seconds but then its back to constantly moving her arms and legs.  Oh but she keeps her head still while there is milk...most of the time.  But once she is done she doesn't slowly back off...oh no.   She clamps her gums down and then throws her head back.  I promise you she is going to rip my nipple off....it is just a matter of time.  I'll be sure to let you know when it happens.  What am I going to do when she has teeth???

It is pretty funny to watch actually.  My husband just laughs.  And then she flies off my boob because she heard him laugh.  Then I have to coax her back on.  And then this process repeats over and over.  I usually take her away to another room and that helps the de-latching but not the squirmy wiggly nursing.  

Now, don't get me wrong.  She LOVES to nurse.  At night she would stay on there forever if I would let her.  She is just so mobile!  She doesn't want to be still for a second.  What happened to my little blob of a baby that just laid there exactly how I put her?  

She got big :(

Six months old!!!

Our sweet girl turned 6 months old on April 13!!  That is half of a year people!!  

doesn't she look like such a big girl in this pic???

Firsts this month
Blakely's first time celebrating mama's birthday/St. Patrick's day

First time drinking out of a sippy cup

Blakely rolled from back to belly for the first time on 4-2-12.  She has only done this a handful of times.  She hasn't figured out (or doesn't care) that rolling can get her places.  

She started sitting up without assistance on 4-3-12.  Since then she never wants to be laying down...just sitting up.  

What mom?  I'm busy!

This is what happens when you try to make her lay down

First Easter

First boat ride!!!!

First time swinging

First time to go to church

First time trying solid food (besides cereal)

Feeding:  I am still exclusively breastfeeding.  She nurses 6 times a day, sometimes 7.  We were giving her one bottle a day, but now we are giving her one every other day or every third day.  I am doing this to help store up more milk...because you know I am total wreck about my milk!  There are many reasons why I want to store more milk, but I will save all of that for its own post.  I am pretty confidant that I will continue nursing her until she is one year old.  It is going so well I just don't want to stop.  I am able to provide this for her so I feel like I should.  I have lots of feelings about this but, seriously, I should save it for another post.  She is seriously distracted while nursing these days.  I have started taking her down to her room and feeding her in the glider and that has seemed to help.  If I stay upstairs she hops off the boob at every noise.  Then I end up spraying her in the face while trying to shove it back in her mouth.  Fun times....

This month Blakely has tried avocado, squash (acorn), carrots, and green beans...in that order.  She is doing much better now with the spoon and actually leans in to get a bite sometimes. I have been trying to be more consistent with giving her the solids and I think that is paying off.  We tried green beans last night and she LOVED them.  She still doesn't really seem to like cereal, rice or oatmeal.  I don't feel like her tastes are that developed yet so I am wondering if maybe it is the time of day I am giving her the cereal?  Anyway, the doctor said since she is breastfed she does need the cereal for the iron.  He said I could mix it with whatever veggie I am giving her.  So I think I will start trying that once a day.  

ehhh...not sure about it

I have been making all of her food and it is surprisingly SO SO EASY!  Yesterday I bought 4 acorn squash.  Then I baked then, smashed them, and put them in an ice tray.  Now I have enough squash for her for a long while!  Easy peasy....and cheap!  I also did green beans and carrots.  I actually enjoy it.  

Sleeping:  B is still a great sleeper, although we had a bit of a setback this month.  It is all my fault really.  I tried to change up her schedule and she let me know that was so not cool.  We had been putting her to bed at 9 every night for a long time.  She always took a cat nap...10-20 minutes...at 6:45.  Then she would eat at 715 and then 9 before bed.  Well she stopped taking that nap and was super sleeping at 8-830.  So I decided to start putting her down at 8. For the first 3 night she slept from 8 at night to 8 in the morning!  I was so excited.  Then all hell broke loose.  She woke up at 2 or 3 the next four nights, then again at 4 or 5.  Now, she has totally spoiled me, I know.  She hadn't gotten up in the middle of the night since she was about 2 1/2 months old.  I was dead tired and thinking omg what have I done???  After about 2 weeks she would sleep 8-4.  At 4 I would feed her and she would go back to sleep until about 630.  Well I am not a morning person and this was starting to wear on me.  So I went back to putting her down at 9...about a week ago.  She is sleeping great.  She will sleep until about 630 or 7, eat, and then sleep until 830 or 9.  Thank God...

Around that time I also started focusing more on getting her to take good naps.  When she naps good she sleeps longer at night.  I have been trying to put her down in the crib at least twice a day for nap.  She has started taking a great afternoon nap, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours!  Heck yeah!  Morning nap is so so.

Diapers:  We are still in cloth all day and then a disposable at night.  We are going on vacation in a couple of weeks and staying in a condo that has a washer.  I am going to use cloth on vacation and I am a little nervous about it!  I'll let y'all know how it goes :)

Clothing:  Blakely wears some 6 month stuff but mostly 9 month clothes.  I think 9 month pants would probably be too big but since it is so warm she never has to wear pants!  Speaking of clothes, I made my first dress for her!!!  My mother in law is teaching me how to sew...not sure if I have mentioned that or not.  She got me a sewing machine for my birthday and I made her a dress for our vacation.  I am pumped about this!!

Weight:  15 pounds 15 oz.  I thought she would weigh more and was a little worried until I talked to the doctor and he showed me the charts.  She is right in the 50th percentile and doing just fine :)  

Height:  She was 26 inches long this morning.That is just above the 50th percentile.  


Hair:  It has thinned out quite a bit but she has a ton that is starting to grow back in.  It looks really light..maybe light light brown or strawberry blonde?  Hard to tell.  She still has some long hair in the front and then a big ole patch of dark hair on the back really low.  

Eyes:  blue blue blue!  This picture is the best one that shows her eye color.

Dr Appt:  We went today and he said she was doing perfectly!  A mama always loves to hear this.  She got her last round of shots until she is one!  YAY!  SHe did a great job with them too.  She screamed hen she was getting them, of course, but as soon as I picked her up she stopped.  When we got home she went to sleep and has been napping ever since.  Almost 2 hours!  Which is why I have time to write this post ;)

whiny face...

Daily Routine:  Our daily routine hasn't changed much.  Like I said, she eats about 6-7 times a day.  She takes a morning nap (30-45 min) at about 10 or 1030.  Then she takes and afternoon nap around 3 (1 1/2 to 2 hours).  She goes down for the night at 9pm.  

Favorite Toy:  This month, her favorite toy is, BY FAR, a damn red solo cup.  Who knew??She gets so excited when she sees it.  We give it to her in the bath tub and it just gives her fits!  

this is a good one of the dark patch of hair!

A few other things about Blakely at 6 months old that I don't want to forget...ever.  

• How when she gets excited she moves her arms and legs all over the place and gets this look on her face that screams...I AM SO EXCITED AND I CAN BARELY STAND IT, MOM!!!!  So cute...
• The noises she makes when she nurses.  I have taken quite a few videos lately of this because I want to remember what it was like.  Before my milk lets down she will whine whine whine.  Then when she gets the milk she is such a loud nurser!  Smacking away!
• How after I feed her she loves to play on my chest while we are face to face.  She gives me kisses, pulls my hair, plays with my shirt.  We usually take pictures or videos to send to daddy at work.  

• How much she loves her daddy and gives him the biggest grin when he gets home from work every day.  And then they sit like this for the rest of the night!  

• How she has really bonded with her Grand Di (my mom)

• How she sleeps in "the position".  Her head turned to the right with her right arm above her head.  Her left arm draped over her face.  
• How she puts herself to sleep by sucking on the back of her left hand.  Sometimes she will be so tired that her hand doesn't even make it up to her mouth and she makes a couple sucking noises and she is out!  
• How she can say mamamamamama, dadadadadadadada, bababababababa, gagagagagaga, and yayayayayaya.  Sometimes she will even say mamagagadada.  Her favorite is dadadada though.  I can't wait until she actually says it and knows what she means!  
• How she loves to play with my phone.  
• How she loves to watch videos of herself.  She laughs out loud at those!
• How she loves the Bonanza theme song.  Don't ask me why but she loves it for real.  
• How I just know that she is going to love roller coasters just like me.  She loves to be "dropped", thrown in the air, spooked, and startled. 

Dear sweet Blakely, 

I can't believe you have been in our lives for half of a year already.  You have grown up so fast.  You are a wiggly, happy, energetic baby.  Everyone always asks me if you smile like that all the time and I tell them YES!  You will smile at anyone...the checker at the store, the person behind us at the restaurant.  You just give them that grin and they start laughing every time.  You have changed my life in a way that I didn't even know was possible.  Thank you so much for that.  I am so proud of you, sweet pea, so so proud.  I am lucky to be your mommy and I try every day to be the best mommy I can be.  Love you bunches, my little pea pod.  

Mommy

TVT

Lots of random vomit for your Thursday reading....ENJOY!  :)

1.  We bought a shaved ice stand...on a whim...  I shit you not.  A friend of ours was told one was for sale and he and his wife asked us if we would want to buy it with them.  We said yes.  Within a matter of like 48 hours we were the proud owners of B.omber Shaved Ice.  Ummm...yeah.  I'll do a post with more about it later!  


2.  I am currently making 20 gallons of simple syrup in my kitchen....for above mentioned shaved ice stand.  20 GALLONS!!!  Just please imagine how messy and sticky that is, just for a second....


3.  I think we have turned the corner and Blakely has decided that it is ok to eat stuff off of a spoon.  She was a hater at first but yesterday she actually leaned in for some carrots...SUCCESS!!  


4.  We are going to the beach in a few weeks and I am pumped!  I have so much to do to get ready but it is all fun stuff.  Bathing suits (for her, not me...dear God), beach toys, pool toys, outfits, etc.  


5.  Speaking of bathing suits, I decided to try to find one for me the other day.  I actually didn't think it would be that hard.  I was kind of excited because I weigh about 7 pounds less than I did when I got pregnant and my boobs rock right now.  Well it sucked hard core.  I had so many issues...let me just run them down for ya.  My tummy is just squishy...it is sort of flat but really a squishy mess.  Not to mention the stretch marks, but I am past caring about those.  So I wanted some bottoms that were pretty low so they wouldn't cut into the squish.  I thought I could just get one of those "young adult" bikinis that ride low.  And since I have boobs now the top wouldn't matter, right?  Wrong....the tops made my boobs look saggy  WTF?  SO then I tried on the more "mommy type" bikinis.  You know the ones that come up higher on the tummy and have like a serious structured contraption in the tops?  Well those squished my squish.  Shit.....  The whole situation was the highest form of torture.  Oh and small sidenote...the bikini is only for our trip, with family, to the beach...not for days on the lake.  I will be rockin' a tankini/one piece if there is even the slightest possibility of seeing someone I know.


6.  I am so upset that P.icnik is closing....sad day I tell ya...


7.  My boobs have finally stopped leaking enough to where I don't have to sleep in my bra and nursing pads.  YAY!  I wake up a little wet but it isn't terrible.  Funny story about boobs real quick.  I babysat my friend's 11 day old baby for a couple hours the other day.  I just got finished feeding Blakely and little Jayda got hungry.  I was holding J as I was heating up her bottle.  She was rooting around on my shirt like crazy and guess what happened?  My milk let down....  It was pretty funny...but I was a little embarrassed so I didn't say anything to anyone.  Except now the entire internet...


8.  TMI warning....but sex still hurts, y'all!!!  UGH!  It is nothing like it was right after I had B but it still hurts.  Not the whole time, just for a bit in the beginning.  I'm starting to wonder if it will ever be back to normal....


Happy Thursday!  

Prepare yourself...

For an unbelievable amount of cuteness!!!!!!!

Those eyes...omg....

This was the last picture taken because this is when she realized there was a bunny on her....

Also, Blakely turned 6 months old....WHA????  That post coming up...
AND, I had some 6 month pics taken as well.  Yes, I know, 2 weeks after these bunny pics.  I couldn't help myself....

Blake on the lake

We took Blakely on her very first boat ride the other day.  It was our first boat ride of the season as well.  We just got it out of storage about a week ago and the weather was so nice we couldn't wait to get out there!  We live on the lake and one of our favorite things to do is go out when Lonnie gets off of work.  It is so quiet and peaceful at that time.  We sometimes take a snack or a glass of wine...awesomeness I tell you.  

So I got B a life jacket.  It is probably the most uncomfortable thing to put on a baby.  Not only that but it is impossible to hold the baby with it on!  It took a little maneuvering but we finally got her comfortable.  There was no way I was taking her out with out a life jacket....no way.  She cried for about 5 minutes until we could figure it out and then she loved it!

This was before we left the dock.  She is smiling super big but it is hidden...

Best thing about the life jacket?  Besides it life saving abilities?  Easy access chew toy...she did this the whole time!

We stayed out for a little over an hour and had a great time!  This will be the first of many boat rides for our little B!  I can't wait to see what she thinks when we put her in the water!  

Easter 2012

We went to my brother and sister in law's house for Easter weekend.  They live about three hours away from us and we hadn't been up there in a while.  We drove up on Saturday and spent all afternoon playing outside.  

Me, Syble, and Blakely

Collier, Lonnie, B, and Syble

This is seriously the best baby toy ever...

This was Blakely's first time to swing and she absolutely loved it!

Big smiles!

We went to church with them on Sunday morning.  We never go to church so this was a little bit out of our norm.  We had a good time and Blakely did so well...she only talked a few times and it wasn't loud or anything.  

 I love her...

Me and Marshall...Lonnie's brother

My little family...I love them so much

 Blakely checking out her Easter basket

 What?  A new Soph.ie the Giraffe teether???  I don't care what else is in there mom!

 I told Syble to be very careful when Blakely was sitting up because she still falls over sometimes and she put her arm around her.  She was also reading the Bible to her because she wanted to.  melt.my.heart.

 Her fun new toy...a huge hit!

After church we had a huge lunch that Marshall made for us.  It was fantastic and I was so ready for a nap after all that food!  Before we left we tried to get a picture of all the kids.  It didn't go so well because Blakely super hungry and sleepy...not good.  Here is how they turned out :)

Sophie Grace is looking at Blakely like why the heck are you crying??

Also, I had some Easter pics of Blake taken last week.  I haven't placed my order yet...need to do that like now.  But here are the preview ones she put on Fac.ebook.  Can you even believe the cuteness?????  I nearly died....

I'll post a few more when I get them...   Happy Wednesday!!!