The Littlest Champion

August 2, 2013 (3 weeks old)

 

We had a big week last week. My Aunt from Delaware visited for four and a half days, and we had a lot of visitors come by the house to say hi to Sierra (and us of course). We already had our friends who live in Davis come to visit previously so Sierra knows a lot of people now! I have to tell you one of the nicest things you can do for anyone who recently had a baby is bring them food (and I will do the same for all of my pregnant friends in the area)!

Lisa and Jeremy brought over lunch for us in the first week we were home, and brought over dessert the following day.

 Jill and Levi made us dinner within the first week. 

Gus' sister, Lyn, and his mom, Anne, both helped with food stuff in the first week too! Sierra met our friends Carmen and Michhi on Saturday morning too!  (Unfortunately we forgot to take some pictures).

I thought we would surely be fending for ourselves within the second week but no! We were visited by our good friends Julia and Chris for lunch on Sunday. Julia made an awesome recipe she found from Bon Appetite and Chris made sure to bring a select Farmhouse Ale with him too.

Cousin Rikki, Curt, and (Sierra's cousin) Celisse came to visit on Sunday and brought over some pizza and spent some quality time with us and the baby too.

 Bailey, our nanny, came by on Tuesday with her girls to introduce them to Sierra. Her four month old was the same length as Sierra at 2.5 weeks! My Aunt treated us to take out on Friday. We were also able to make some easy meals ourselves during her visit, since we had an extra set of hands having Asha in town.

I have also gone to 2 "new mom's groups." They were interesting and I actually enjoyed the one in Sacramento quite a bit. It was outside at a local park and all the moms used cloth diapers and co-slept to some degree. So I was able to ask a bunch of questions. The one I went to in Davis was geared towards women with babies around 4-6 months so we were a little young for the crowd, but it was fun anyway.

We (Asha, Gus, Sierra, and I) were able to get out to Rockville Regional Park Sunday morning for a hike while Gus mountain biked.

It was nice to have Wednesday to just have some down time with Sierra and me. I was able to go for a morning walk with her that was longer than usual which was nice, and do all the house chores I could in between her frequent feedings. Thursday I had to go to Sac State to get on to the waiting list for staff and faculty at the day care for the Spring semester. Apparently it is next to impossible to get your child into the day care there since they serve students and their children first, but it was worth a try. Our car rides are usually good, going in one direction but coming back the other direction is usually a scream fest. So in the evening when we headed to Anne and Jerry's house we decided to try to introduce the pacifier. Which worked for a while, but she much prefers my finger.

Grammy Anne and Grandpa Jer Bear were happy to see Sierra, as she was to see them.

Today we headed down to see Great Grandma Marybeth (who just moved to a retirement home in Fresno all the way from Seattle this past week).

That's our littlest champion, as Gus calls her. She is out and about meeting everyone these days, and seemingly making a lot of people smile while she's at it.

Eat, Sleep, Poop

July 26, 2013 (2 weeks old)

Three of the things that newborns are best known for...

Sierra is 2 weeks old today, and gaining weight fairly quick too! At her 4 day-old appointment she had regained the weight she had lost in the first day and was back up to 8lb 7oz. On Thursday (July 25) she was up to 9lb 4oz (which might I add was the estimate of what she would weigh when she came out). These are good indicators that she is doing well with her breast feeding! I am so proud of the little oinker... I am serious though sometimes she makes little piggy noises while feeding. It's so funny. I have quickly learned that she needs burping after every meal and usually half-way through a feeding too. This makes her gas less severe and her spit ups less frequent. Oh the lessons you learn through doing. Gus and I plan on introducing a bottle with breast milk in it somewhere around August 10th since he will have to feed her with one during my 3 hour escapade back to work on the 13th and 15th. So I have read up on it. I will need to pump and freeze (normal freezer breast milk will last up to 3 months, but the longer it is frozen the more Vitamin C it loses) 4oz servings for the little one. Whatever we don't use of a serving has to be thrown away. Or I can pump a little bit before and put it in the fridge, but only for up to 2 days. All recommendations vary but I will stick to the conservative side just to be safe. Also the process of unfreezing breast milk must happen slowly in the fridge, and when it defrosts it must only be stirred gently not shaken... Wow, there sure is a lot to remember... That's why I have a reminder on our fridge... Just in case we forget! I feel very strongly about breastfeeding her as long as I can because of all the benefits... maybe even up to 18 months, but more than likely only up to a year. At 6 months we will most likely start introducing solids (when I say that I do mean mashed up veggies etc.) and supplementing breast milk. 

Sleeping has been interesting. For awhile she would only sleep when we were holding her, but now I have been putting her down in her crib and bassinet for naps. If she is being really fussy we put her in the Moby wrap and walk around with her for a bit before she promptly passes out. We think the pressure and closeness resemble the womb state and make her feel comfortable. At night, all bets are off though. It is hard for us to get her into the bassinet for longer than a few minutes without screaming, and since Gus has to work again it really puts a damper on the sleep department. So we have been doing quite a lot of co-sleeping with very short bouts of bassinet sleeping. Yes, yes, we HAVE read all about the slight increase co-sleeping has for SIDs, but do keep in mind a large number of the cases were with people who drank heavily, smoked, or were obese. Luckily, these things don't apply to us so we are essentially in the clear as long as we have a sense of awareness about us when she is sleeping. I am on what feels like an "alert mode" with her. Sometimes she just slightly stirs and I jolt up. It's crazy... do moms really have super powers or is it just all of this oxytocin and progesterone flowing through our veins?! Anyhow, I loved reading this article about co-sleeping. It was among the first few positive articles I read about the subject. It also address the cons of it, but it lets you make up your own mind on what you feel is right. http://www.babycenter.com/0_sleep-sharing-the-family-bed_7753.bc I really enjoyed reading it, and it also brings up the good point of trying to "wean" her off of the habit around 6 months before it becomes engrained. 

On the poop front... we made the switch to cloth diapers two nights ago after I suggested we see if the disposable diapers we were given were from Costco so we could return them. They were and we were able to return them (with the member's number who bought them for us... so I had to tell them that we would be returning the gift unfortunately). Anyhow, my image of easy cloth diapering may have been slightly off, but I am starting to get the hang of it. I was given a nice stack of prefolds (http://www.greenmountaindiapers.com/prefolds.html) and some covers (I also bought some of my own covers) from my friend Jackie. Apparently, in my first few days of attempting this I was literally just folding them and putting them in the cover... okay for 1 year olds during the day, not okay for runny breastfed newborn poops. I was having many casualties. After going to a "Natural Moms" group I was enlightened (plus I did a little YouTube research to see what I might be doing wrong). This is a great video on the variety of ways to fold a prefold (unfortunately all the moms suggested snappies too but I only have pins... so pins it is) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDqa45EOHfE. I have also realized (yes this may be too early on to state, but) I think I like the All-in-ones (AIOs) like BumGenius 4.0 the best. These are "pocket diapers" that have an absorption layer insert that goes into a soft fleece-like pocket, and the whole thing gets washed after. Anyhow, there is one point that I do want to bring up whether you cloth diaper or use disposables... you have to put the poop in the toilet (unless it's exclusively breastfed poop only). http://alphamom.com/parenting/baby/the-straight-poop-on-cloth-diapers/ Either way, with cloth diapers you surely will want to spray (with a diaper sprayer...we bought a dog washing spray house that Gus hooked up to the toilet plumbing... super strong spray) them off into your toilet first so the stains come out easier.

On a side note, our trip to Downieville was a success. The guys went mountain biking and I bonded with Sierra and did "online and work-related errands" (including stuff for Sierra). I also read read read about newborns... Did I nap much when Sierra fell asleep? Not really, although I know it's recommended and I sure did need it. Oh well. The meals I previously prepared and froze, I had decided to bring with us to eat on the trip and it worked out splendidly. We were all very pleased!

I think she has my nose, maybe?

July 20, 2013

When Sierra was born she had a lot of visitors, and a lot of people began pointing out her similarities to Gus or I. It is a weird feeling. Although, it is something we expected, searching for my face in my baby's is strange because I just see her as her. Either way, once I got home I started looking through some of my baby photos, and I asked Gus' mom to send me some she had of Gus too. This is what we have. My infant pictures are first, then Gus', then Sierra's. It's hard to tell especially so young, but you can decide for yourselves and leave us a comment to tell us what you think!

 

6 Days in the Life of Sierra

Sierra is a popular little girl! Grandparents and Aunts visit in her first days of life. Although Gus and I were exhausted it was extremely satisfying to see how happy she made our family. She also met the 4 legged members of our family. Gentle Oso is still timid in her presence, he is unsure what to make of all her noises and smells. Keta has taken on the role of mama dog, always checking on her to make sure she is ok. Now it's time for the 5 of us to establish our routine as a family. Soon we will head out on our first family vacation to Downieville. We'll fill our days with walks along the river with the dogs. We look forward to getting Sierra's feet wet in her first mountain river. We'll also take in the sites of this quaint gold rush town. Gus will be hitting the trails on his mountain bike, taking in some of the best terrain in greater Tahoe. 

 Our little quacker on day 6.

 Everybody wants a pic of the prettiest girl in town.

 Grammy is happy beyond words.

 Can't take their eyes off of her.

 Pop-pop has it covered.

 Even Grandpa Jeff made it all the way from Costa Rica.

 She even has a hat just for her.

 She's a mama now.

 The Wick family.

 Everyone crowd around the baby!

 We're so happy you're here!

 Arrrrgh!

 First day home.

 SIERRA!!!

 Mama dog checks her out.

 Hands free walks with the ergo carrier. (Oso still requires hands.)

 Nana Maryann.

 I'm still thinking on that one, I'll get back to you.

 You woke me up to put me in this!?

Snoozing with auntie Lyn.