Postpartum Follow Up

Since I finally stopped bleeding/spotting last week, I went in for my final appointment with my midwife. It was bittersweet seeing them for the last time, especially when it came to say goodbye. I formed quite the relationship with them over the past 10ish months! Anyways, everything seems good! She didn't look at my healing since it was so minimal at 2 weeks and told me to go with my gut on any activity down there (like there's time- LOL!). We discussed a few things then went our separate ways. They did weigh Gavin, who chunked in at a whopping 13lbs! It's crazy how fast this kid is growing.

Wordless Wednesday

Our First Road Trip

Sure, it was only to Dallas, which is about 4 hours away normally, but I have a 7 week old. The trip up there? A little over 7 hours with about 4 stops, putting our arrival time at a little after 1am. Fun stuff. The ride home was much, much better- only two stops and five hours.

Thankfully, the reason that we hopped in the car for such a drive with such a little baby was worth it. It was my first LLL conference! I got some great information on breastfeeding and parenting, but mostly it was nice to be around people who "get you." It was so awesome to see all the little babies being worn, NIP happening like it was second nature (and very discreetly, as much as people might think it would be different at such a conference), and I got to see some great gentle discipline techniques at work. They had a play room, and Jeffrey loved it! There were some fun little activities for him to do, along with the hotel pool, so he is now a fan of Dallas, since that is what he associates the city with! Gavin loved getting so much one-on-one time with mommy while we attended sessions all weekend. Jony really enjoyed seeing that the other dads were just like him and not all crazy hippy stereotypical. He even got to go to a session on Fatherhood and enjoyed talking to other dads about stuff that's hard to talk to dads who aren't on the same philosophy page as you are.

Overall, even with the driving fun and stopping to nurse all the time it seemed like, it was a really great weekend. We're not exactly thrilled about doing it again anytime soon, although we are going to my parent's farm next week (a two hour trip) and back to Fort Worth at the beginning of August! Apparently, our strategy is to force Gavin to be a good car rider like his brother is :)

Graduating from Guppy

Today was the last day of Jeffrey's 2 week everyday swim lessons. Phew. It's been an interesting two weeks,for sure. We were pretty much housebound since we couldn't do anything before the class and then there was nap afterwards. So, Jeffrey has been getting continuously more difficult as the days go on. He gets major cabin fever. Even with a more difficult child, it was most definitely worth it. The difference between Day 1 and 10 is AMAZING. My child can now float on his back completely on his own, get out on his own when he's not on a step, and is starting to actually swim. He has no fear of the water, but he understands that it is important to be safe. It really was money well spent, and Jeffrey absolutely loved it. Since he's the youngest age to go in the pool on their own, he was in the Guppy level class. The skills they had to master in that level was: comfort in the water, puts face in the water, blows bubbles, glides, kicks, row-row arms, assisted back float, rolls over in water, turns and climbs out of pool and retrieves rings. He mastered all of them, so he is moving up to the Goldfish level for his maintenance lessons next week! He'll only be going once a week from here on out, though. Thank Goodness. The plan is to have him in weekly lessons until/through next summer so that he's a fully independent swimmer this time next year! I have no doubts that he will be after seeing him learn so much in such a short time.

Wordless Wednesday

I can be replaced

We finally got around to trying a bottle tonight, and it went really well. It was slow since it comes out much faster than he's used to, which means you have to stop and let him swallow every so often. He took it all, though (only 2.5oz- one pump this evening plus the clog from Saturday)! I had to buy new bottles since we got rid of all of them after Jeffrey, so I went with Tommee Tippee. I do need to get bigger breast shields, though; that crap hurt when I pumped! I'm not sure how I did that last time! I'll be aiming to get a pump in every day and build up a small little stash so I can have a night out and so we're ready for the wedding I'm in the beginning of August. Fun stuff. Can't say that I'm looking forward to it, but it will be nice to know that I'm not trapped at home or having to take him with me ALL the time. Good thing that I want to most of the time :)

Craziness.

My littlest boy slept for SEVEN hour last night. I didn't ever believe that was even possible from a five week old. It took us months until Jeffrey slept for near that amount! It is one pretty amazing feeling. I can't even imagine it happening again, but just the one time?!? Lovely. Although, he does consistently sleep in a 4-5 hour stretch at the beginning of his night, so maybe it's not so crazy to think about?

To make Gavin even more awesome right now- he's smiling! A lot! He's such a happy little boy, and it's so easy to make him happy. He absolutely loves Jeffrey and smiles whenever he gets around.

It's looking to be a great weekend :)

Gavin is 1 month!

Technically, he turned a month on the 3rd, but today was his 1 month pediatrician appointment. We were thinking that Gavin seemed to be a bit chunkier than Jeffrey was, and we were right! He weighed in today at a whopping 10 pounds and 4 ounces! Jeffrey didn't reach 10lbs until he was about 2 months! He's also a wee bit shorter than big brother was (21.75 inches), so he's quite the little pudge. His head is only slightly larger at 14.75 inches.

He did great at his appointment, save for a small spit up and not being a huge fan of his shot (Hep B- his very first one; so sad). He's in perfect health and got the gold star from our pediatrician. Our next appointment is not until July 25th since our pediatrician will be on vacation over the 4th of July, so he'll practically be 3 months at his 2 month appointment! It's going to be awhile until we get back on track from that one!

I'm hoping that the little guy doesn't have too much of a reaction to the shots. He does seem to be having somewhat of a hard time, though. Poor thing.

Swimming, swimming...

Jeffrey started swim lessons this morning! It went really well, although I'm supremely exhausted now. I was pretty nervous about it beforehand since he goes in by himself, and I just stay in the waiting room. Obviously, this works out quite well with having a 4 week old, but I was so scared he'd freak out! Of course, he didn't. He took an instant liking to his teacher and listened like a rock star, which is most definitely the benefit of me not being in there! It's going to be a bit of a hassle going every day for the next two weeks, but I'm hoping we get some real progress from it. He loves to be in the water and is really excited about the concept of being able to do it all by himself, so I think that psyched him up for the lessons. It should be interesting to see where he is at the end of the two weeks!