Feeling like Home

As you know it's been awhile, since I last blogged. Since then we have packed, moved, cleaned and been unpacking. We love the new place and it's perfect for where we are in our lives right now!

I am loving the fact that I have my own washing machine and dryer! Doing laundry has actually been fun. I am sure the novelty will wear off soon though! :)

The location is great. David and Ivy have already made several trips, with the stroller, down to the local shopping center and Trader Joes. I have tagged along a couple times myself. Everything is so close and at the same time our actual neighborhood, is still really quiet.

The house is coming along. The kitchen is completely done, other than changing out the curtains. Living room is 90% done. Our room is about 50% done but Ivy's has a long ways to go.

I finally feel like we have established a new normal and am excited that the place is starting to feel like home!

At 4:00 AM

I pinky promise a real update is in the works.

Until then, I leave you with a sneak peak of Ivy's 6 month photos. She is growing so fast and becoming such a little girl. Her personality is really emerging.

Just this morning, I was woken at 4 am, by her patting my face (we have been bed sharing lately) and talking to me. Makes being woken up, in the wee hours, a tiny bit better.

I Found Love

Ivy loves this video! Her eyes get real big and she smiles.



I have the words memorized, that's how much she loves it. :)

My New Obsession

After working all day and not seeing my baby, when I get home I just want to kiss her all over, squeeze her and never let go of her. When I wear her, I get to go about doing things and all the while having her close to me!

Until recently, I have just been using a sling. Unfortunately after awhile, the sling starts to hurt my back and shoulders. We also have a Baby Bjorn, which we got when I went to Ellen's Mothers Day show. David loves it, but I find too bulky and hard to move around in.

I started doing research on other ways to wear your baby and came across wraps. I specifically wanted something that I could wear Ivy in and do housework at the same time. I considered getting a Moby Wrap but noticed that they were not recommended to be used to carry your baby on your back, due to them being stretchy.

So, a woven wrap it was! Thanks to the lovely girls on the AP board on the Bump.com, I became familiar with the baby wrapping world, which I never knew existed!

There are so many different types of woven wraps, different sizes and they are just beautiful. They are pricey, but I was able to find a used one that I loved on a FSOT board, that was a great price.

Woven wraps are definitely not easy to use. They take lots of practice. I think this one reason why they aren't very popular. It has been a fun learning process.

Here are some pics of a finished project. I believe this was my 3rd try at it and the first time that didn't leave Ivy crying. I was super excited after this and really proud of myself. What I didn't realize at the time though, was that I totally messed up the last couple of steps and Ivy is not supported well, at all! I was doing dishes and she started to slip down. I was a little horrified, once I had realized what I had done.

Didymos Indio Lilac, 4.6 m, supposed to be a double hammock carry

I made sure to re-read the directions several times before trying again! It's still a work in progress, but today's try was pretty good and Ivy and I ventured out of the house to get the mail!

It's a go!

Today, we got the call that our application to rent a house was accepted!!!! We are so very excited. It's about time that we get out of this place!

I used to love our little apartment, but we have outgrown it and it's time to move on. I am most excited about this new house is the backyard for Ivy, close to family and finally a washer and dryer! Also, the much safer neighborhood, is very nice as well.

I am grinning like a Cheshire cat right now! :D

But, I am not looking forward to packing. Especially only having 2 weeks to do it. Oh boy! I keep reminding myself though, it is going to be completely worth it.

Well I am off to start packing. I leave you with two photos that I took real quick today of the house.

This one is the living room, looking into the backyard. I love the big windows. And the second one is of the kitchen.

Why Hello

Quick update, since I am sure you are all dying to know what we have been up to and doing this past month! :)

 

It took me about a full month to be feeling 100% after getting pneumonia. Then David was sick and had bronchitis for a couple of weeks and now Ivy has a cold.

 

So, it's been almost 2 months of sickness in some form or another in our house. I will be glad when we are back to being healthy! We are getting there slowly, but surely!

 

Overall, we had a good Christmas and New Year. Not how I would have planned it for Ivy's 1st Christmas, but it really forced us to focus on family and the true meaning of Christmas. Rather than the commercialism and gift giving.

 

But exciting things happening in our household:

 

Ivy sitting unassisted.

Trying to learn how use a woven wrap and wear Ivy on my back.

Us submitting an application to rent a house.

Researching solids and stumbling upon the concept of Baby Led Weaning, thus Ivy trying Avocado.

 

and lots more. Hopefully, I can get back into the blogging grove soon and can update you all on this!

Never in My Life

have I been so sick before. I caught the flu and then it turned into pneumonia. 11 straight days of an on and off fever, with chills and sweats.

During those 11 days:

I spent Thanksgiving by myself, at home, in bed. No family get to together and no family picture of Ivy's first Thanksgiving. No pumpkin pie.

Our day after Thanksgiving tradition of myself cooking my mini day after Thanksgiving meal, with Stove Top stuffing and garlic mashed potatoes didn't happen. Or our putting up the Christmas Tree and listening to Christmas carols, while the turkey cooks.

Still a little bitter about all of this.

Instead, I went to Urgent Care the day after Thanksgiving. The Dr. said I had strep throat, an upper respiratory infection and bronchitis, all of this by barely looking me over. He gave me an antibiotic for the strep, that was safe for nursing, but I continued to get worse.

David called the families long time physician Sunday and he was really concerned about how long I had been sick. He had me come in on Monday and I had blood work done, chest x-ray, exam and the diagnosis was pneumonia!

He told me that I could try and continue the antibiotic the previous Dr prescribed, so I could continue nursing. But my Dr wasn't very optimistic that it was going to be strong enough.

I really didn't want to temporarily stop nursing, pump and dump and Ivy to have to have formula, so I stuck with the original prescription and spent two more days of being sick.

Come Wednesday night and I was still really sick and not getting better. I was starting to have issues with my supply. I think my body finally decided that it had to do something to get better, but not even that was enough.

I had had enough and made the switch to the stronger antibiotic. And then finally no fever!

It's been 3 days since switching and I am feeling much better! Still hacking up a lung and tired, but so, so glad to not have a fever anymore.

Ivy so far has done really well with the switch to formula. She hasn't had any tummy issues or anything. But the poo, oh my! I have already gagged several times from the foul smell.

I am pumping and dumping, which is a pain in the butt and sucks. My supply is going back up. I finally ventured out of the house, for lunch today. It was nice to be able to get outside, but it was tiring.

I'm not looking forward to going back to work on Monday. I probably need a couple of more days of rest, but I have already used all my sick time. This past week was all vacation hours.

I am ready for life to get back to normal. Two good friends had babies while I was sick and I can't wait to meet the little guys. I also want to get start decorating our place for Christmas and finish our shopping. Just ready for normal.

One lesson learned from the whole experience, I don't think I will ever go with out getting a flu shot. I don't want to ever go through that again.