Like everyone says, it gets easier and easier with time. The third week has been a lot better than the second! I hope the fourth is even better!!!
I’ve started to go walking everyday for at least 30 minutes with Kye. He sleeps, no surprise there, but I still think he enjoys the outdoors and it’s good for him to get some vitamin D since breastfed babies often don’t get enough of it through the milk. For me, it’s my exercise. I’m pretty proud of myself for doing this. For some reason pushing a baby in a stroller and sweating like crazy is a lot less embarrassing then going for a run alone. The construction workers even enjoy it when I walk by! haha! I’m hoping it will help burn off some of this baby weight, but so far no luck. 🙁
Breastfeeding has gotten much, much easier. He actually has latched on himself a few times without me having to force him! I’ve done away with all the extra pillows and now just use the Boppy. I have to sit Indian style for the boppy to be high enough but at least I don’t have a million pillow scattered everywhere! He’s a funny eater though. During the day he’ll do what he “should” which is 15 min per breast but at night he barely wants ANY. I have to force him awake to eat longer than 5 minutes and he typically only wants one breast!
I’m pretty sick of tv. I watch it every time I nurse so it’s gotten really old really fast. Luckily, we have cinimax (it’s a penny a month..that tells you about its quality haha) so I record a bunch of movies to keep me occupied. During the late night feedings though I HAVE to watch romantic comedies or light-hearted tv shows as dramas make me fall asleep!
I’m also sick of laundry! I do so so so much laundry! I have figured out an awesome trick to getting breastfed baby poop out of things. Spray and wash it, then wash it in the washer and if the stain is still there then lay it out in the sun! Seriously, the sun makes it completely go away! Even if it’s cloudy out it will work 🙂 Awesome huh?
He looks like SUCH a dude in this picture…
Kye really recognizes me which makes me feel so good! He will stare at me, make eye contact and will stop crying whenever I pick him up! He KNOWS I’m his Mommy! He knows Zach too but it makes me feel good that he knows me 🙂
He picks his head up constantly and looks around all the time. I try to walk him around the house a lot so he can look at different things. He smiles so much! I know it’s “just gas” but it’s precious and everything I read says we’ll “just know” when his smile is real but he does smile in responce to things we do so how will I know?
Our favorite time of the day together is getting the mail. Checking the mail has been a highlight of my day for awhile haha! When you are super pregnant and too ugly to go out in public it’s pretty much the only exposure to the outside world. Now I include Kye in my daily enjoyment! We sit out on the front porch and open the mail together. It is so hot outside but just for a few minutes it’s a nice break from the house!
Speaking of mail, it was so neat to get mail that was addressed to “Candler Kye Parker” His social security card came!!! Pretty exciting! I wish they sent out a copy of the birth certificate but I have to go get it at the health clinic…annoying. I’m a little worried about his social as it’s super easy to memorize and his last four digits are all one number! Kinda cool huh?
Since his umbilical cord fell off he gets “big boy” baths now! We were pretty pumped about it and he LOVES them. We bathe him every night and it’s one of mine and Zach’s favorite parts of the day. It’s quick, easy, and fun. I think it will be one of those things I let Zach do since he doesn’t get to spend as much time with Kye as I do but so far I just want to be part of it because it’s so fun!
Since he is such a big boy now, we’ve said goodbye to the mittens. I just make sure I bite down his nails really well and so far no major scratches to mention! And he loves his hands being free (especially because he loves to suck on them) 🙂
Over the weekend Zach wanted to give me a “break” so I layed out. It was not what it used to be. I only got to lay out there for like 30 min total so I got zero sun. Plus I STILL can’t lay on my stomach! When your boobs are filled with milk it’s not too comfy to be on the tummy. It was a nice gesture of Zach to let me do that but I think I’ll just stick with my “i-bod” tanning system for awhile. We tried putting Kye in the little UV protected tent we got him for when I go to the pool and such but he hated it. Oh well! Maybe he’ll like it more when he gets a little older…it’s not like I’ll be going to a pool anytime soon with this body!
After the laying out adventure we got ready for Stevie’s first birthday party! I felt bad because we got there an hour late but I’m very strict on his feeding schedule (I’m doing Baby Wise…more to come in another post) and of course the party started right when he was supposed to eat! I’m still so glad we went though. Stevie was precious and we got to see her eat her cake! It was also so so so awesome to be around other young parents. Seth and Crissy have Stevie and another one on the way, Autumn and Danny have Alina who is about a year old, Blake and Felicia have twins who were born in Jan I think, and I met Cami who has a baby who is almost 2 I think. Crissy is SO lucky to have all these friends with babies! All we have are THEM so I’m hoping I can get to know her friends better too 🙂
We decided to tough it out and go to church Sunday morning. It was rough for me to get ready and feed him and everything but we did it! Of course his feeding time is at 10 and church starts at 10:30 so I fed him early but we were still a half hour late! Zach was embarrassed to go that late but I told him I didn’t get ready for nothing! We sat in the back but I’m still so glad we went! It was nice for some people to get to see Kye and it just felt GOOD to be at church. It will be AWHILE before we go to class or to night church but at least we went to half of morning services! We get points for that right? haha
This was not my idea, someone told me we should get a picture of our first time with him at church so duh I took them up on it 🙂
Monday was a REALLY rough day for me. Zach had to go to Macon to work a prison so he left at 3:45 in the morning! Of course, Kye picks the day that I’m exhausted with no help to be horrible. He cried constantly. I got really worried because he just seemed so miserable. I read up on acid reflux and I was worried he had it because he was spitting up a LOT (and breastfed babies aren’t supposed to spit up very often) and he was so so so grumpy with the hiccups too! One of the preventative measures everything said was to give him a pacifier. I’d been holding out until the pediatrician gave it the “okay” but I caved! I gave it to him! The kid has been a constant sucker since Day 1..if he’s not on the breast then he’s sucking on his hand or arm and I don’t want him to be a thumb sucker so I figured it’s easier to get rid of a pacifier. Plus they are supposed to help reduce the risk of SIDS. For some reason though I still feel guilty about giving it to him…he LOVES it though. Even though I do wish I could tape it to his face because whenever it falls out he bawls again (like he is right now!).
This is the moment I lost it and just caved in! He’s laying on the carpet haha that’s how desperate I was. I layed the kid down and popped that junk in!
When Kye was born Zach and I didn’t really know who he looked like. During the first two weeks I didn’t see Zach in Kye, but I saw Kye in Zach! Zach would make a face and I’d be like, “that looks like Kye!” haha! A lot of people said he looks like Zach which is natural being that he’s a boy and that most babies do look like their daddies! Well this week his face has REALLY filled out and now more people are saying he looks like me! It’s really nice to hear that although I’m sure it won’t last long 🙂
This is me RIGHT after I was born…at least we know where he got the huge cone head from haha! Now looking at this though I do see some similarities! The hair, nose and cheeks!
Hey Y'all, I'm Emily! I'm a stay at home mom and consider parenting to be my passion. Disney is my happiest place and I love making memories as a family together. I'm a big believer in transparency and share all of my real-life moments as a mother of four.
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He is so adorable! I love all of his pictures. If you want to meet friends with kids then you are going to have to get out and find them! Damian and I started Gymboree when he was 5 weeks and it was the greatest decision ever. I have met so many friends there and two are even some of my very best friends now. Damian loves all of his little friends and we all go really fun places together. Plus, it’s really nice to have someone to talk to who knows exactly what your going through. I would definitely see if you have a Gymboree in your area.
This was about the age that SETH gave Stevie a pacifier, he did it when I was out of the room. I NEVER wanted her to have one, because they were so annoying and I didn’t want it to delay her speech. I freaked out when I walked in the room, but he said, “Awwww, but Honey look how much she likes it!” She ONLY liked the Soothie kind (from the hospital). She liked it for about 2-3 weeks. Our dogs kept getting them and chewing them up, so she never really got a chance to like it bc they were always stealing hers 😉 Some speech therapists where I work say that a paci actually helps with speech bc it gives the baby oral stimulation which increases the mouth muscles, but who knows? We just kinda quit giving it to her, I never was really big on giving it to her, so it wasn’t that hard for her to adjust. Since she only liked the big, bulky, ugly soothie ones I wasn’t going to have her looking all cute in her sweet outfit and then have this BIG bulky paci in her mouth. We were trying to invent a thing to help the paci stay in so we didn’t have to keep putting it in 😉 Plus, at $4 every time the dogs got a hold of it,it was a habit that needed to be broken AND they were only sold at Target on the other side of town.