Life with a Baby: Weeks 22-23

Hellooooo! Wow, it’s been over 2 weeks since I posted. Can you tell things have been a little Crazy Town around here? That’s an understatement, but seriously…life is a crazy, beautiful tornado right now. I’m soaking up every every second with her as I can possibly squeeze into one day. I can’t believe she will be half a year in less than 3 weeks.

I’ll start with something different this time – a mommy milestone. I had my first girl’s night out last week. My first night out alone in over 5 months. That means I showered, people! And I wore clean clothing. I also put on make-up and blow-dried my hair. It was exhausting! I had a rough sleep the night before, but I’m glad I made the effort to go out. Adriana doesn’t take a bottle so it’s been challenging getting out on my own, but now that she goes to bed around 6:30-7:30pm I figured I could sneak out for dinner with the girls. We picked a restaurant that was close to home which was a good plan because I had to leave a bit early. But still, I consider a few hours out with friends a big success. I had a blast and felt so uplifted the next day. Eric gets out every week for volleyball, so it was nice to be able to do something on my own too. We are going to try and make it a regular occurrence.

We’ve been going through a bit of a rough patch these past two weeks which is why I haven’t had a chance to post. Adriana is going through so much! Teething is ramping up and I think she’s knee deep in another leap. She’s been needier, crying more, sleeping less, and just seems off many days. But it’s for a reason of course – she is changing so much. Every day I’m like…holy crap this girl is determined. If she can’t do something she wants to do it over and over again until she does, all while frustrating herself entirely. I feel like she has a stubborn streak in her just like her mama!

The biggest news this week is that she discovered how to roll in her crib with her sleep suit on! Cue new parent freak out. Of course, we are all told to sleep babies on their backs these days, so when they start naturally sleeping on their tummy it feels super scary (at least for me). I proceeded to text my mama friends and family members asking for advice. hah. They are like…girl…chill. It’s normal. (said in the nicest way possible of course). I’ve been spending most of the week staring at the baby monitor and sneaking into her nursery to make sure her airways are free and her head isn’t pointing directly into the mattress. Like all the baby stages, I know that this just takes some getting used to and we’ll be fine, but I do kinda miss the days when we could just put her in her bassinet/crib and she’d stay in one spot! The photo collage (above) that I took during nap time one day kinda makes me die laughing. She is such a squirmy girl! And she even knows to smile for the camera. Good grief. We’re now sleeping her in the fleece Halo, but she absolutely hates it. I mean hates it. She’s definitely a baby who likes to be tightly bundled up and the Halo gives her a bit too much freedom for her own liking. Hopefully she gets used to it with time.

This is how our nights (and naptimes) have gone this week: Adriana is put on her back in the crib. She immediately rolls onto her tummy, then she cries out of frustration, rolls back, kicks the crib rails, rotates, cries, chews her hand, rotates, creates a puddle of drool on the crib sheet, etc. with her finally ending up on her tummy to sleep at long last. She does seem to love sleeping on her tummy, but when she wakes up she’s frustrated and cries which I think is a combo of not being used to waking up on her tummy and also her teething pain ramping up. We’ve been waking up 5….6…7…8 times a night this week. I don’t even know how I’m typing right now because my brain is lagging about 5 minutes behind my finger strokes. I’m hoping once she gets used to the tummy sleeping a bit more the frequent screaming wake-ups will diminish and we will get back into a better routine again!

Funny story – one night I woke up to her crying and I checked the monitor and all I saw were her FEET in the monitor! Being half asleep I kinda freaked out and was soooo confused. When I went to her nursery I realized she had rotated herself a full 180 degrees! How in the world? Babies are so funny!

Breastfeeding: Still going strong! Her nursing duration has decreased a lot per session these days. Sometimes she’s done in 4-5 minutes, other times she wants to feed for 15 minutes. It really depends. My plan is to exclusively breastfeed until 6 months and slowly introduce solids thereafter. I’m thinking her first food might be pureed avocado with breast milk mixed in. Sounds delicious, right? lol. Eric and I are going to have a video camera set up so we can capture her first bites. I am so pumped!!

Loves: putting her feet in her mouth (this is new, lol), sticking out her tongue really far while squeaking (also new this week), blowing bubbles, looking in mirrors, being tickled under her chin, babbling, rolling as soon as she’s placed on her back, playing airplane, diaper changes, chewing her hands and teethers, her daddy, squealing at the top of her lungs, playing in the jumparoo (her fav thing ever), big Sophie, falling asleep on me after nursing, body slams, grabbing toys/my hair/my face, her baby doll who laughs when you squeeze her, activity centre, sitting in her big girl high chair at the table with us, looking all around during nursing and playing with my bra and shirts, begin sung to (she thinks mama’s voice is quite funny and she laughs every time I sing twinkle, twinkle little star), watching the cat, and soft crinkle books.

Not much love for: bottles, when she gets too tired, middle of the night diaper changes, having shirts put on over her head (the look of horror on her face kills me every time), the cold outdoors, vitamin D drops (she makes this funny face), cold body lotion, getting her ears, nose, or chin rolls cleaned. ;)

Weight/height: She is now over 15 pounds and 26.5 inches in length. I can’t get over how tall she is! And her chubby thighs and elastic band wrists kill me. I was looking at pictures of her as a 1 week old and my jaw dropped. I can’t believe she was once that tiny. I just want to cry…and have 6 more of her! She is now wearing 6-9 month clothing (it depends on the brand), but I’m packing up more and more 6 month sleepers as the days go by.

Oh – her fauxhawk has officially turned into a combover. I die. You know the saying “business in the front and party in the back?” Well hers is “party on the top and old, balding man in the back” heh.

Exercise: I’m happy that despite the craziness going on I’ve been really consistent with workouts lately. They are my sanity-savers. I’ve starting doing a mix of hill walking and running. I’m still doing core work (safe for diastasis recti) about 3 times per week for 5 minutes or so. My core is finally feeling stronger, but I still have a way to go. I haven’t done much strength work lately, but I want to get back into that too. I’m sure as spring approaches I’ll feel more motivated.

Reading: My friend shared this post on parenting lasts called “The Last Time” and I pretty much cried all the tears.

Just a head’s up – I might switch back to updates every 2 weeks now, but I’m just going to play it by ear. If I feel like I have things to share I will pop in. It will depend on the week! You can always check out what we’re up to on Instagram – @theglowspot

Ok, drop me a line and let me know how things are going with you! Any new milestones to share? Challenging weeks? Leaps? New teeth? First words? First steps???

Or maybe you want to share a funny crib story yourself? What antics have your babies/toddlers gotten up to over the years? Tell me what we have to look forward to…