Spotting that makes me happy

It's weird that I'm happy about spotting, but I may actually be getting my cycle back!  I'm not going to fully wean K anytime soon, but I am trying to offer milk or water first and trying to keep her from getting bored to try to cut back a bit.  The little girl is quite persistent when she wants something though.  I'll update again soon with what happens on if I get my cycle back soon.

To (partially) wean or not to wean?

K is still nursing probably 10 or more times in a day, even though she eats solid food great generally and is pretty much night weaned. I'm not planning to completely wean anytime soon, but I still haven't had a period and we want to start trying for baby #2 and have wanted to for a while.  I'm not sure how to gently reduce her nursing.  She is pretty persistent and know where the milk comes from.

 She nurses right before bed between 8:30-9 pm, and then usually wakes briefly between 6-7 am to nurse and generally goes back to sleep for another hour or so.  She nurses again when she wakes for the day between 7-8 am.  Once she up, I make our breakfast and she generally eats some fruit, an egg yolk and some yogurt.  Then about 9 we go to take our shower and she nurses again.  She then nurses before nap about 11, but sometimes she will even nurse before that.  She nurses again after her nap (between 12-12:30 pm).  Then we have lunch (meat, veggies, maybe rice, etc.).  She usually nurses again after lunch.  I do try to offer water when I remember, but a lot of the time she just wants to nurse.  She nurses again before her second nap usually between 3:30-4 pm.  She nurses again when she wakes up between 4:15-5 pm.  We usually eat dinner around 6-6:30 pm and she usually has a slice of cheese as a snack before that.  She usually nurses once or twice between finishing dinner and getting ready for bed.  She has a cup of kefir (cultured milk, kind

She seems to tend to nurse more when she's teething (she's getting 3 top teeth right now) or when she's bored.  She also wants to nurse when she is sitting on the potty.  I've started to take her on more walks to keep her from getting bored.  I definitely want to continue nursing before bedtime and naps and first thing in the morning.  Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

K at 1 year old

I just finished my class yesterday except for the final exam so I actually have some time to post.

K's doctor appointment last week went well.  K weight 17 lbs 14 oz, which is up over 2.5 pounds from her 9 month visit when she was 15 lbs 5 oz.  The doctor was very happy with her weight gain.  She got one of her shots, and only cried for a second.  She didn't really cry when they got blood from her finger (they test all kids at a year for anemia).  The only problem we had was that she almost immediately took the bandage off and got blood on her dad and herself.  They ended up wrapping her thumb and the palm of her hand so that she couldn't get it off.  I have pictures, but I'll have to post them later since they aren't on this computer.

K still isn't quite walking yet.  She climbs stairs and will even scoot down the stairs.  She cruises like crazy but just doesn't seem to be ready yet for independent steps.  When she walks holding our hands, she practically falls over because she seems like she's trying to run and she can't get her feet to move fast enough.  She has been standing independently a bit more, but she reminds me of a Looney Tunes character, when she realizes that she's not holding anything, she falls down.  

We have been working some on K using the potty, but we've had a pretty crazy schedule in the last couple weeks and we haven't been able to do much on that front. 

K is starting to talk some.  She says bye a lot and waves too. She's says some other words, but not very consistent.

Despite the fact that she's only about 18 pounds, she is wearing 12 month clothes.  She even has a few things that are 18 month size.

We went swimming this past weekend at my SIL's house, and she just loved it.  It took her a little while to get used to it, but after that she was in for probably an hour.  I'm glad she likes to swim so much, because we both like to as well. 

Sleeping has generally been better.  K now goes to bed between 8:30 pm and 9 and I don't go in to feed her until she wakes up between 6-7 am. Most of the time she goes back to sleep for another hour or so.  Her naps are so-so.  Sometimes she naps well in the morning taking a 1.5 hour nap or so, but about half the time she only sleeps about 30-45 minutes.  Her second nap is generally shorter and is about 30-45 minutes most of the time. 

K loves being around other people, especially babies.  She did really well with everyone on Easter for the party and everything.

K is 1 and Happy Easter!

My computer broke on Thursday, so between that, working on my class and getting ready for Easter/K's birthday, I haven't had time to post.  I'll try to do the big detailed 1 year post tomorrow after her 1-year appointment but here's a picture.

Bread recipe?

Does anyone have a good bread recipe for a whole grain bread recipe that they want to share?

Belated 11 months

K will be turning one year old on Easter.  We'll be having our parents and my SILs for Easter, as well as a get together with some local friends for cake.

K is doing pretty well.  She still isn't walking but she is crusing and climbing like crazy.  She can climb stairs, even though we don't have any at our house.

K still eats pretty well.  She had a little food strike this past weekend, but is back to eating pretty much anything we give her at most meals.  She loves yogurt, egg yolk and cheese as well as meat.  She continues to breastfeed pretty often still and starts digging in my shirt when she wants to nurse.

We are very slowly and mildly doing potty learning/elimination communication.  She has been having BMs on the toilet most mornings for months now, and I'm moving toward trying to get at least all BMs on the potty.  We've done pretty well.  I've only had to change a dirty every 3 days or so in the last week.  She also has urinated on the little potty that I got her as well.  I'm trying to relax about it.  I'd love to have her out of diapers by 18 months.  We are working on figuring out her signals that she needs to go and what times she generally needs to go.

She probably weighs about 16 pounds.  She wears a mix of 6-9 month and 12 month clothes.  She still is in the medium prefolds and the Flip covers.  I haven't used a true disposable since she was about 2 months old.  On long trips when we fly or at the church nursery during my bible study, we use the G diaper liners in the Flip covers.

I can't believe my little girl is almost 1.

Not walking yet

So we are a little surprised that K isn't walking yet.  She rolled over back to tummy at about 11 weeks, started scooting on her tummy at 5 months, was crawling and pulling up at 7 months and cruising at 8 months, but she seems to have stalled out on progress toward walking.  She's 10 months old and I really thought that she'd be walking by now.  I mean I know that most babies aren't walking at 10 months, but she really seemed like she was going to be an early walker.

Double digits

K is 10 months old today.  She is between 15 and 16 pounds.  She's still crusing like crazy but not really trying to walk independently yet.  She waves hi and bye and even says hi.  She can clap her hands.  She says mama and dada but don't know that they only refer to us yet.  She's mainly wearing 6-9 or 9 month clothes, but she does have some 12 month clothes that she wears.  She still nurses a lot and has figure out that she can nurse from both sides when I'm lying down.  She pulls on my shirt and crawls down me when she wants to nurse.  She is happy a lot, but when she is angry, she's really angry and even throws herself around.

She is doing pretty well going to sleep at night in her crib but she still wakes up a few times in the night to nurse.  Naps have been kind of hit and miss the last few days.  She was taking a good 1-1/2 hour morning nap, but she had some problems for about a week there.  She is doing better letting other people hold her and was pretty good for my ILs this weekend when they held her.  She is a great eater and eats all sorts of food and quite a bit of it.  She eats whatever foods I eat.

Only 2 more months until her first birthday.  We already have her Easter dress.

Food :) Sleep :(

Sorry I haven't posted in almost a month.  I'm super busy trying to finish my class and taking care of K.  K didn't gain much (4 oz) between 7 and 9 months, but she is eating solids well now so we aren't overly worried.  We now just feed her whatever we are having for dinner.  She really likes meat, and ate the mild curry that I made really well.

She is still nursing a lot, although I'm not sure how my supply is.  She's often just nurse for a minute or switching back and forth.

Although food is going really well, sleep is not.  K now naps in her crib, which is good.  When we traveled at Christmastime, she was only sleeping in the carseat driving or on walks, so once we got back I started putting her in the crib.  For a few weeks, she was napping in the morning for about 1 1/2 hours, but the last week or so  it's been only 30-45 minutes.  Wednesday night she was up from about 4 am to after 5:30.  She is nowhere near sleeping through the night.  Often she's waking every 2-3 hours to nurse.  She is still in our room, and we are doing a mix of her sleeping in her crib and cosleeping.  She goes down for the night in her crib, and I try to put her back in after feedings or if she is tossing around a lot.  However, she seems to have a hard time settling without us getting her if we are in the room (I'm pretty sure it's that she sees us and wants us to get her).  We may need to either move her to her own room or put up a curtain to block her view of us.  We need to discuss it.

K will be 10 months on Wednesday, so I'll try to post again then.

Meal ideas?

I need some meal ideas for K (now 9 months old).  She loves to feed herself, although she will let me feed help her feed herself soup or applesauce type things.

Here what I have been giving her:
Breakfast: A slice of peach or steamed apple, applesauce, part of a no sugar fruit muffin made with whole wheat and oats.
Lunch: Sometimes I give her soup, a green bean or two, possibly some sweet potato, part the vegetable version of the muffin from breakfast.
Dinner: Similar to lunch, possibly with the addition of a meatball.

I need ideas that she can mostly feed to herself.  She has only 1 tooth so I cook/steam her most of her foods including fruits and vegetables.  She has had cheese and yogurt as well.  TIA.

Longer Outside...9 Month Quick Post

K is 9 months old today.  I'll trying to do a longer post after her appointment.   She isn't walking yet, but she is pulling up like crazy and cruising some.  She has started "talking" a lot and says dada all the time.  She very recently started eating significant amounts of solids at every meal and loves the vegetable/fruit (no sugar) muffins I've been making her.  She has 1 tooth on the bottom and seems to be teething for the one next to it.  She is really funny sometimes, but she's still pretty clingy to me even sometimes when it's just going to her dadda.

8 months on the 8th

K turned 8 months today.  She started crawling on her hands and knees a few weeks ago and that same week started getting into the sitting position on her own and pulling up.  She started babbling yesterday and makes the "dada" sound.  She seems to do things very suddenly without too much buildup most of the time.  She is doing better about eating and generally eats a bit at each meal or at least 2 out of the 3 a day.  She loves avocado, and she won't eat the other things if she see that I have avocado.  She's averaging about 3 ounces of formula a day, and she is willing to take a bottle now when she's away from me.  She's in a pretty clingy phase right now and wants me to be near as she crawls around.  She hits herself into my desk if I'm trying to work while she's awake.  She loves going to the baby storytime group at the library.  She's very good at church and out in public in general.  She really loves playing with her daddy.

I'm in a really busy mode right now and probably won't be posting much other than the monthly updates until at least her birthday (Easter) in April.  I'm still reading; I just don't have time to comment.  I'm pray for you all.

Cold help please!

I need some suggestions for any natural cold remedies because I seem to be getting a cold and I don't want to get K sick if I can avoid it.  I am breastfeeding so it needs to not adversely affect lactation.  TIA!

Football Game and More

We are continuing to do baby-led solids, and they are going relatively well. K definitely has an independent streak and won't let us put food into her mouth. If she want the food, whe will either pick it up herself or she will let you put it in her hand. She really likes avocado, apples, carrots and green beans. I think she likes peaches but is having issues with the slipperiness since I have gotten frozen and canned. I am continuing to steam her food until it is just tender. I peel carrots but leave the skin on apples. She doesn't eat a whole lot, but she does like to stuck on the carrot, apple and green bean. It's nice to be able to sit her in her chair and she can feed herself while I eat my own food.

K had an appointment on Tuesday for her shots. She had gained about a pound and weighs 15 lb, 1 oz now. She is pulling up like crazy. She also started hands and knees crawling, which is really funny because she is so deliberate when she does it. She really likes the times when we are around other kids. She likes to see adults, but she doesn't want to be held even by her grandparents, aunts and uncles. She gives us about 10 seconds, and then she gets this look on her face and starts to scream, even we are right next to her.

K went to her first A&M game this weekend as an outside baby (she went to 3 last year while I was pregnant with her).

She did really well. We got little pink ear protection ear muffs for her, and she wore them the whole game. She spent some time in the Beco Gemini carrier, some just sitting on our laps and nurse and napped under the blanket. She's also getting better about car rides and pretty much slept the whole trip to my ILs', most of the way to A&M ady tnd back, and most of the way home.

We are ready to start trying for #2, but I'm not even cycling yet. I'm not going to wean her until she is at least a year because I'd rather not mess with more bottles and formula than necessary. I'd like to wait until she doesn't want to do it anymore. Hopefully as she starts to actually eat more solids I'll start cycling, but right now I'm just back to waiting again. It's definitely easier than before I got pregnant with K, but waiting seems to be something that God thinks I need to do a lot.

Bow holder winner

The winner is Little Joann!  Send me an email at mrsblondies at gmail dot com, so you can tell me the color, theme, etc, and give me your address.

K is 7 months old

K is 7 months old today.  She wears 6-9 month clothes generally and is wearing medium size prefolds.  She's probably about 15 pounds.  She takes 4-7 ounces a day of formula and still nurses a lot.  She has started to try solid food more regularly this past week.  We are doing the baby led solids.  She likes carrots and Granny Smith apples that I have steamed until tender but not mushy.  She also eats oat bread with spread with pureed chicken or turkey and mashed peas.

She's is still scooting and not crawling on her hands and knees.  She has figured out how to crawl over things and is starting to pull up on things a bit.  She is super curious and loves to try to find things that we don't want her to get into.  She recently figured out that she has a voice and has started to "talk".  She makes little sounds, but not really constanant babble.

Check out the bowholder giveaway.

Bow Holder Giveaway

I made this bow holder for K.  I am going to give away a custom bow holder to be picked randomly from whoever comments on this post by the night of Friday, November 11, and I will try to announce the  by Saturday, November 12.  K's has a turtle since her room is turtle themed and a place to put headbands.  The winner will get to choose the letter, a theme and the colors.  Good luck!

Pictures of K

I hadn't loaded pictures onto my computer in a while, and I finally got around to it.  Here are some pictures of K from the past couple months.

K's first solids, avocado.  She likes it.

"Reading" a book by now Pope Benedict XVI.

K in her Tigger outfit with Tigger, Pooh, and Piglet.

In her crocheted outfit getting ready to come home from the hospital.

Same outfit at 6 months.

Baby led solids.  She doesn't always take a bite, but she definitely likes the bread when she's in the mood.

Halloween. My parents got her a drindl in Germany.  My brother said she's St. Edith Stein as a baby since we couldn't come up with any other German saints.

Cloth diaper update (almost 7 months)

My post on my plan for my cloth diaper stash.
My post on cloth diapering at 1 month where I talk about washing and other stuff.
My post on clothing diapering at 3 months.

K is almost 15 lbs.
Right now we are using: 
3 dozen Green Mountain Diaper Prefold Medium (Red)
8 Flip One-Size Covers with Snaps 
Snappi Size 1 Triple Pack 
Baby washcloths (I have about 3 dozen I think) as wipes
2 Fuzzibunz One Size Diapers 
4 Thirsties Stay-Dry Hemp Insert, Small
2 Fuzzibunz Hanging Diaper Bags
G Diaper Flushable Inserts (when we travel, etc.)
Planet Wise Wet Bag, Large


I've packed up what she's outgrown:
2 dozen Green Mountain Diaper Prefold Newborn (Orange)
6 Thirsties X-small Covers3 dozen Green Mountain Diaper Prefold Small (Yellow) 

We don't use the wool cover anymore because the snaps came loose twice:1 Little Beetle Little-to-Big (One Size) Organic Wool Cover with Snaps

At this point, we've been almost exclusively cloth diapering for about 6 months.  When she goes to the nursery during my bible study at church, she wears the Flip cover with a G diaper insert.  We haven't had any clothing-affected blowouts despite some bad possibilities.  The Flip covers have kept everything in.  We even use the prefolds when traveling to my in-laws and grandparents, since we can wash there.

She is finally wearing the medium prefolds, which are supposed to fit until 25 pounds, so she may be wearing them until she is potty trained.  I got 3 dozen because for a while with 2 dozen I was having to wash almost every day.  She likes to wet after you take her diaper off and sometimes I was going through about a dozen a day.  Thankfully, the number of diapers she is going through has slowed down, although she still likes to wet when her diaper is off.

I'm no longer using her Little wool cover because we had problems with the snaps coming loose from the cover.  I would like to get the Babee Green wool cover in medium (which is supposed to fit 15-25 pounds) when we can afford to get 1 or 2.  It is supposed to avoid the problem of the snaps getting loose and coming out.

Here are the things I would like if we are able to have another child:
2 or 3 Mommy's Touch Newborn Cover- for before the umbilical cord falls off, the Thirsties were a little too big for 6 pound, 6 ounce K when she was born and we ended up using disposables. They are like a newborn version of Flips that fold down for the umbilical cord stump.
1 dozen Green Mountain Prefolds Preemie size- to go with the Mommy's Touch Covers
2 Babee Green wool covers, small (fits 8-18 pounds)

Baby Led Solids

K has been fighting me a lot on eating solids.  Most days I'm lucky to get her to even take one bite (which is my goal).  She does like to hold the spoon and put it in her own mouth when she eats.  I have been making her food, steamed and then fork mashed.  So far she has had:
-avocado (likes)
-banana (doesn't like)
-sweet potato (ok)
-chicken pureed with sweet potato (likes)
-yogurt (likes)
-apples (likes)
-peas (ok)
-oatmeal/oat bread (likes the bread)

I'm starting to doing baby-led solids (also known as baby-led weaning) like I had originally had plan instead since she is able to decide if she wants to eat.  Spoon-feeding does not seem to be working for us.  It's not that she doesn't like the flavors because she will eat occasionally.  Today I put her different purees that I had already made on a piece of toast and she fed herself and loved it.  I'm going to steam up some more apple and sweet potato, but I'm going to cut them into stick/wedges (long and somewhat) that she can hold and gum.  I'm going to continue to do the chicken pureed and spread it on bread since she won't be able to chew chicken for a while.  Next up food-wise: carrots, green beans and peaches.  I'm going to steam her fruits and vegetables and occasionally mash them to spread on bread.  I'm trying to figure out about freezing things after I steam them since I'm not going to be pureeing/mashing them.