See those smiles??

Chili Cook-off and Car Show

The Websters and Pfeffers went to the Riverside Chili Cook-off and Car Show today!

For $4, Dave and Rob got to taste five different chilis and vote on their favorite.

 Andrew slept most of the time in the Baby Bjorn (he was actually covered with his blanket most of the time to protect his little head because the SPF 50 he had on wasn't "enough" in my mind; we went and bought him a hat for the Memorial Day picnic after the show).

Tawni and I entertained the boys!

I have a pretty nasty sunburn on my back. 

Word for the Wise:  Check the expiration date on last years' sunscreen before you use it.  Turns out that expired sunscreen doesn't work and actually can cause a WORSE burn that no sunscreen. 

Reese and HER baby

I walked into the dining room the other day and found this.

Believe it or not, Reese has figured out how to get onto the dining room table and decided that she wanted to be in the Little Lamb with the baby. She was actually curled up sleeping, but I reacted loudly and she sat up pretty quickly because she knew she was in trouble. I, of course, had to take a picture before I took her down!

Blanket Boy

Andrew loves his swaddling blankets! During the day I do not swaddle him for naps (unless he's super fussy), but he still wants the blanket to be touching him. He usually grabs onto the blanket and puts in onto his face.

Hmm... I wonder where he gets this from...

First Trip to San Diego

On Sunday, May 22 we took a day trip to Lakeside to meet some very important people in Andrew's life. 

First stop: Grandpa and Grandma Pfeffer's House. Grandpa met Andrew for the first time and enjoyed talking to him. Andrew seemed to like Grandpa's voice and calming stared at him as he talked. Grandma snuggled the baby too.

Stop Two: The Gregory's (Andy, Sarah, and Devin).

By this point, Andrew was tired and not sleeping, so they got to hear him screaming for 30 minutes without calming down reguardless of who was holding him. We fed him an hour early and it calmed him down; Andy and Sarah enjoyed a calm baby after his bottle :)

Stop Three: 'Grandma' Linda's house.
Andrew was finally completely asleep and content!

Stop Four: Rick and June Buxton's house

Stop Five: Subway for dinner

Stop Six: Travis' house

Stop Seven: Grandpa and Grandma Pfeffer's house

Andrew ate and played with Grandpa some more before getting into his PJs and snuggling with Grandma.

We left Lakeside at 9:30 pm and arrived home shortly before 11 pm. Daddy went straight to bed to prepare for work in the morning; Mommy had a long night with a cranky baby who wanted to eat every 2-3 hours.

Cost of Breastfeeding

Medela Pump in Style... $279.99

200 Medela Pump and Save bags... $98.71 (returned)
Medela Bottles and Milk Saving Kit... $21.99
Lanolin nipple cream... $9.98
Nursing breast pads... $4.55 (returned)
2 nursing tank tops... $37.96
2 nursing bras...$49.96
2 Nipple Shields... $5.10
Medela Breast Shield for pump... $4.45
2 (more) nursing tank tops... $37.96
2 boxes Organic Mother's Milk Herbal Tea... $10.98
1 bottle More Milk Plus Capsules... $31.95
1 bottle More Milk Special Blend Capsules... $31.95
1 bottle Fenugreek Capsules... $9.33
1 bottle Goat's Rue... $31.16
2 trips to Lactation Consultant... $10
Reglan prescription... $15
Womanly Art of Breastfeeding reading... 8+ hours
Internet Reading/Researching... 20+ hours
Kaiser's Breastfeeding Class... 2.5 hours
Time with Lactation Consultant... 3.5 hours
Pumping to Stimulate Production... 1 hour per dayX42 days... 42 hours
Trying to nurse Andrew despite him screaming... 5 times a day

Holding my precious baby while he eats happily from a bottle full of formula,
Staring down at him as as he stares up into my eyes,
Smelling his newborn goodness,
Realizing that I don't have to feel guilty,
Realizing that by continuing to push him to nurse is actually stressing him out,
Realizing that my son is the most important thing and that my desire to nurse shouldn't get in the way of that,
Realizing that he just needs to be fed emotionally and physically and I can do that anyway,
Realizing that I have to get my stubbornness out of the way...
PRICELESS

Yes, this does mean that I'm "done" trying to breastfeed. Emotionally, I don't think I can handle the innocent rejection from my adorable son when he screams at me instead of trying to nurse. It isn't fair of me to continue to beg him to "just try."

When my supply of supplements runs out in the next week or so, I won't buy more. I'm going to continue to pump three times a day (the only times I appear to even have milk there to pump out--morning, afternoon, and before bed) until my small amount of milk runs dry. My son will get the 2-3 ounces I pump out in addition to his formula of choice and we'll be okay.

Total financial cost: $681.48 Exclude the breast pump: $401.49
That is 28 weeks of Formula…more than 6 months worth!

Week Six

The above look is the look I'd assume he's make when he sees the one of him in the bear hat. And, yes, that is my super star son holding himself up with his strong neck.This is the adorable bear hat I ordered from Etsy to take his sleeping newborn pictures in (you know, the ones we never got to take because my son doesn't sleep at night).The past two weeks Andrew has changed a great deal. His head has gotten a lot larger and he's growing rolls on his neck and tiny ones on his legs.

Friday, May 13, he began smiling directly at mommy (and Aunt Melissa too) which was super wonderful!

Saturday, May 14: Left with Aunt Melissa for five hours while Mommy and Daddy attend Louie and Kristen's wedding (Mommy missed him a lot and Daddy was ready to check into a hotel).

Sunday, May 15: Moves up to 3.5 oz per feeding (from 3) but continues to be a piglet, screaming when he's being burped. Monday, May 16: Discovered his love of the crib mobile, especially the car and tow truck. As it rotates around, he smiles and coos, kicks his legs and throws his hands up and down.

Monday-Wednesday, May 16-18: Stops sleeping during the day for longer than 30-45 minutes at a time and we hit the 6-week growth spurt. Stops failing asleep in the car and stroller unless he's moving for extended time periods. Andrew eats every 1.5-3 hours and is super fussy.

Thursday, May 19: Grandma comes to spend a few days and witness that Andrew does not sleep during the day (total of 2 hours of naps). Starts sleeping at night again with a 5 hour stretch usually from 8:30 pm to 1:45 am.

Friday, May 20: finds his hands!! Grandpa comes out and the whole family walks to the Plaza for lunch and exercise.

Saturday, May 21: 6 weeks old

Reese is a bit lonely and attention starved--feel sorry for her with these sad eyes.

The mirror is a useless intevention

"The mirror is a worthless invention.
The only way to truly see yourself
is in the reflection of someone else's eyes."
~ Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

Voltaire is obviously right, but the mirror isn't the only thing telling me that I have a few (read 50) pounds to lose after welcoming my cuddly baby.

My normal clothes don't fit.

My maternity clothes don't fit.

Not a single pair of pants/shorts/capris I own, fit.

Instead of whining about this any longer, or feeling bad about it, I have started Weight Watchers again. This isn't shocking to me, nor did I ever think that I wouldn't start up as soon as Andrew was here, but it is still a shock to the system. When I stopped WW (or was actually told that I couldn't come anymore), they were on the Flex plan. Now, the "Points Plus" plan is here and everything is a bit difference. I'm sure that it is a wonderful thing for me and everyone else, but I have to re-learn all the points I had memorized because now they are "points plus." This week (Thursday actually), was my first official day on program.

My super fussy baby and I walked to the Plaza for lunch with Dave at Pick-up Stix (Child's House chicken with brown rice for me--9 points) and then walked home and all around the neighborhood to get him to stay calm.

The before mentioned fussy baby kept me from cooking the dinner I'd planned, but wonderful Dave stepped in, read the recipe and make "Weekday Night Stew and Veggies" (6 points per serving).

While I washed bottles (my least favorite task of the entire mommy hood), Andrew and Reese chilled in the kitchen and watched Daddy cook.

Thankfully fussy baby turned into Captain Adorable and was wonderful for the rest of the evening/night.

So here is to losing the weight again and fitting into my HUGE wardrobe of clothes that I've been missing since last September. I'd love to stay I'll be back at goal by September, but I'm not crazy. It took me 9 months to gain it, I'm going to give myself 9 months to lose it (February 2012).

is it weird that

I would consider getting donated breast milk from a stranger through something like Human Milk 4 Human Babies (www.hm4hb.net)?

Andrew is still only getting 4-6 oz from me a day...

Reality

Um, I usually only share pictures on here where I look half-way decent and several people have commented that they are amazed that I get up, shower, do my hair and make-up everyday...

This pictures is to show you that this idea is not even close to the reality at my house. This picture represents reality!

Confessions:

• I haven't even succeeded in shower every other day... it is usually every three days.


• Hair/make-up only happens when I am going somewhere in public and then it isn't even usually fully "done" (despite the fact that I have a 5 minute make-up application time) because I'm too lazy.


• At home I live in 4 pairs of workout/pj pants that fit and a rotation of a few shirts, but when I go out I rotate a pair of maternity jeans and a pair of maternity cargos. Nothing else fits.


• I only put on a real bra when people I know are going to see me (going to Target doesn't count).

Wienerfest

Gotta love free, fun things to do in Riverside!

This past Saturday, we went to Wienerfest at Fairmont Park.The event was advertised at the Plaza and it caught my attention before Andrew arrived as something we should do. We drove to the park, put Andrew into the Baby Bjorn and walked around for two hours. Not only did the event brag about having wiener races, old cars, and a costume contest for the dogs, but they also had a ton of booths set up with every rescue organization represented. Most booths had adorable dogs and puppies that were adoptable. I'm sure that a lot of people went home with new pets. There were wiener dogs everywhere you looked--I had no idea that there were this many wiener dogs in the area!
This poodle was representing a traveling dog groomer company.

Dave enjoyed the old cars while Andrew enjoyed sleeping on mommy.

Mommy enjoyed being out of the house.

One Month Old

It still seems a bit unreal that he is here and mine, let alone that he is a month old already. I catch myself staring at him wondering what God was thinking when he blessed us with such a beautiful baby.As a month old newborn, he officially becomes an "infant" today.

Milestones this Week: Two trips to Arlington, Lunch with Mrs. Rachel at CBU, first doctor's visit, Wienerfest, and Mothers' Day.

Things he appears to really like: singing (or people around him doing it), tummy time, cuddling, his car seat

Things he appears not to like: burping, getting his clothes changed

• 
  
  Sleeping: Andrew's biggest accomplishment this week has been adding a 4-5 hour sleeping stretch to the nighttime! Usually he goes down sometime between 9-10 pm and sleeps until 1-2ish. On Thursday night, he slept 5.5 hours straight. We have been working on following the EASY method of sleep during the day and it is going really well; nighttime sleep after our long stretch has been the only major issue time, he doesn't want to go back to bed...


• 
  
  Eating: Piglet is still a piglet (although my dad says I'm going to give him a complex with that nickname). Last week he went through a growth spurt and added at least one full feeding to each day, but that appears to have slowed down now. We're fully back to Similac and have purchased our first Costco size container.


• 
  
  Breastfeeding: We're still chugging ahead. Friday, he ate enough during BF that he fell asleep and stayed asleep for 3 hours, but then followed it by Saturday and Sunday refusing to BF by screaming at the top of his lungs. Today we're back on track with the help of the SNS system. Still taking the goat's rue and other stuff to see if it makes a difference--so far, no change.


• 
  
  Diapers: He's officially fitting into size 1 diapers without issues and blowing through them just as fast. The child pees constantly...


• 
  
  Clothing: He is still wearing newborn clothes and most of the newborn onesies are still too big around, but are becoming too short. Most of the sleepers are already too short and pull at his neck. I keep trying on the 0-3 months clothes (because I have a ton and they are CUTE), but we are so not there yet.

How's Mommy? Better, but not great. This week I've actually been able to "forget" about the birthing process and healing some of the time, but the pain comes back when I forget too much and do something over eager...

Mother's Day

I had a wonderful, laid back day yesterday. We started the day by going to Mag (relatively ontime) for church, then ate pizza and hung out with the Websters, and ended the day by watching The Kings' Speech. Drew was wonderful and slept most of the day, although last night was a different story. Reese and Drew gave me a digital photo frame to show off my pictures of them and Dave gave me my FAVORITE white chocolate ever.

We celebrated with my parents on Friday by hanging out and going to Roadhouse for dinner :)

The day I became a Mommy

In honor of Mother's Day, I thought I'd finally get around to posting Andrew's birth story. For those of you who don't want the nitty-gritty, you may just want to move on now :)

On Friday April 8th, my water began leaking about 10:45 am, but I didn’t realize anything possibly strange was going on until 2:15 pm. After checking with Dr. Google, conferring with Robyn, and calling Kaiser, I called Dave about 3:15 and told him he better finish up at work and come home before 5 so we could go to Kaiser “just in case.” At this point I was still pretty sure I’d lose bladder control and was positive I wasn’t in labor.

He got home about 4:15; while I took a shower, did my hair and make-up, he set up his new BluRay DVD player. The plan was to go confirm I’d peed myself and go buy our deep freezer; however, once we got to Kaiser, they were able to confirm that we were indeed going to have a baby within 24 hours! With an ultrasound the midwife on call told me that I still had “plenty of fluid” and told us that “by the size of that head, this is going to be one big baby.”

I was having very mild, inconsistent contractions (I could actually feel them, but I could talk through them). I was 4 cm, 70% effaced, and he was -2 station when they checked me at 7:45 pm. They started me on pitocin at a very low dose because my contractions still weren’t consistent enough to make; the pitocin drip stayed on the entire labor process, but was constantly adjusted up and down based on my progress.

Melissa showed up about 8:30 pm after calling in “baby day” to work (best decision ever—having an RN as a labor coach was spectacular!!), Dave went to get dinner, and we sort of just hung out. Melissa and I played a half of game of Skipbo and my parents came and talked for awhile. It took a few hours for the pain to really start in and I begged for the epi about midnight. This is when I started telling Melissa that Robyn was CRAZY for doing this without medicine. It took another hour to get it and when it finally took effect (1:45 am) it was stellar. I slept on and off and tried to stay relaxed.

At 6:00 am, the pain started to return to my back, left leg, and I could feel every contraction. Contractions were about a minute apart and lasting 60-90 seconds. I cried. A lot. I was slightly freaking out because I knew that I was going to have to do “this” without pain relief and my biggest fear is that I’m a major wuss.

Dave and sister were both pretty calm and tried to reassure me and I was trying to do all of our breathing techniques with Dave. At 7:15 am, I was checked the second midwife on duty and was 9.5 cm, 100% effaced, but Drew was only at +1 station. The pain kept increasing and I started to beg (well, to be honest, cry and whimper) for some relief. At 7:55, I was given another type of pain medicine through my epi catheter which took the edge off and I was able to calm down.

At 8 am, I was checked again and was complete, but the midwife thought that it would be best because I was calm for me to “labor down” to get Drew to drop more. I was comfortable enough to breathe through the contractions for another hour and a half. At 9:30 am, the pain and pressure was unbearable again and I was given the okay to start pushing.

According to my RN, I pushed like a champ and almost as effectively as I had no epi (maybe this was because by this point I had 100% feeling in my left leg?!). I struggled through the stupid three set of 10 second pushes and was told many times by the RN to stop talking. My OB and midwife kept checking on me and praised me over and over again that I was doing a good job. My temp went up to 100.2, my OB said that we have to pay very close attention and may have to “expedite this,” and then I heard him mention possible c-section to someone on his way out.

Two hours later, I was still being told I was doing a good job and got flat out mad at the nurse and Dave for telling me so. I used my teacher voice and said, “Do not tell me that I am doing a good job when that is not the case. If I was doing a good job, the baby would be here by now.”

Finally about 11:35 am, I told the nurse that I wasn’t putting my legs down between contractions and a second wind came. There were four other people in the wing delivering at the exact same time as me and my RN couldn’t find a doctor/resident/midwife, but I didn’t stop. Dave saw Andrew’s head coming out fast and yelled to get someone in there as the RN was at the door yelling for a doctor. A resident from the clinic ran in the door and started to introduce herself and I yelled “I DON’T CARE WHO YOU ARE!” One push later at 11:47 am, everything went from relatively normal, painful labor, to scary.

The cord was wrapped around his neck and he did not breathe right away. DH said that as he was coming out the resident was rotating him around trying to release the tightness. He was put on my chest for about 10 seconds and then taken to the warmer for about 15 nurses/doctor’s to figure out what was going on—it was the worst moment of the entire process—and I kept sending Dave over to see/report what was going on to me and told him to “take pictures!” His one minute Apgar score was a 3 (on a scale of 1-10, 3 is a horrible score).

It seemed like an eternity, but after five minutes, they had him breathing, kind of crying, and wrapped. His five minute APGAR was taken at this point and he was up to an 8. The NICU charge nurse, Michelle, placed him on my chest to hold/see for about a minute and then he was whisked him away to NICU. Dave followed.

A very long four hours later, I was able to hold him for the first time in the NICU and we got to spend 2 hours of skin-to-skin contact. It was heart breaking to see him with an IV in his arm, cords attached all over, and have him stuck in the NICU, but we were reassured that he was doing fantastic and everything was right on track to have him released to us.

He was released from NICU to my post-partum room at 9 am on Sunday (4/10) when he passed the five different NICU tests. From then we started what I thought was going to happen 22 hours before… amazing, stellar, tear-filled baby moments!

He's Growing!

Yesterday, Andrew and I went to Kaiser for his first well baby check-up (3 weeks, 4 days old). Thankfully the appointment went better than the waiting room. The doctor checked him out, reviewed all the NICU information with me and followed up with the NICU issues (which were all now non-existent) and gave him a wonderful report that everything is super healthy. All of my first-time-mommy fears were put to rest as I asked my silly questions about congestion, knees clicking, and pealing. They did not assign Andrew to the pedi that I requested, but I really liked Dr. Ghebriel who he saw (I'm going to continue with him for now).

My almost one month old baby is growing fast! I'm not sure why this surprised me so much, but it did!

Here are his new stats:
Length: 21.5 inches, 58 percentile (born at 20.5, grew one inch)
Weight: 8 lbs, 14.9 ounces, 24 percentile (born at 7 lbs, 5 oz, gained 1 lbs, 9.9 oz)
Head Circumference: 15.5 inches, 84 percentile (born at 13.5, grew 2 inches)

My mom should be proud of me...

We're sitting at Kaiser, waiting and waiting for Andrew's doctors appointment. After 35 minutes of waiting, Andrew is fully awake and I'm assuming hungry because he won't calm down no matter what I try. I prepare a formula bottle while he screams and I try to soothe him. Quickly, I pop the Breastflow Bottle into his mouth and he begins to suck away. The lady sitting next to me with maybe a 6 month old baby strikes up a conversation.

Lady: How old is your son?
Jennifer: He'll be a month old on Saturday.
L: He's so skinny.
J: Yep, he's long and skinny like Daddy thankfully.
L: I bet he's so skinny because you're giving him formula.
J (scrunched eyebrows, eye raised, but calmly feeding and looking at Andrew: It is just the way he is, but rest assured he is a piglet.
L: You really should be breastfeeding him. Your milk is 100 times better than that formula crap that you're feeding him.
J (eyebrows raised, big eyes, sending the 'drop it' vibes to this lady): Okay.
L: Seriously, breastfeeding is critical to a child's life. You can't be selfish when it relates to your child's well being.
J (gritted teeth, low tone of voice): We're working on it.
L: Work harder

At that moment the lady was called into the doctor's office and walked away while giving me a dirty look. If she had talked to me for another second, she would have been told the following:

J: Look lady, you have no idea what you're talking about and who you are talking to... you have NO right to tell anyone anything about how they should be raising their babies. You are not a doctor nor are you a child nutritionist. My child will thrive in a loving environment no matter if he eats breast milk or formula.

And as you preach at me, you should also be aware that I am trying and have been trying everything possible to feed my baby breast milk. You should know that I have done a ton of research, seen and talked to a Lactation consultant many times, am taking supplements that are more expensive than a week of formula, pumping every three hours, trying to breastfeed with a nipple shield all day and still only producing enough to give my son one ounce every other feeding, it takes 7 pumping sessions to produce 2 ounces that that isn't even enough for ONE feeding. And you tell me to work harder at it?! I'm sure you were one of the ladies that complained about sore nipples and engorgement, which is fine, but honestly I WISH that was the problem. Don't freakin' tell me to work harder...

But yes, I probably should be attempting to breastfeed him right now, but I am going to be "lazy" this time. I don't particularly want to whip out the nipple shield to breastfeed for a few minutes on one side to then reposition my son so I can move the nipple shield and feed him for a few minutes on the other side so that I can then feed him two more ounces out of the bottle that I now have in his mouth.

So shut up and mind your own business!

Now, I didn't say any of that, nor was I mean which is why my mom should be proud. Also, believe it for not, this is the second time someone has said something to me. The first time was in Target (but I walked away quickly so I didn't get as mad). Thankfully Susannah told me a story when someone said something to her about it, so I wasn't totally shocked.

Family Shower

This Saturday, my mom put together a beautiful family baby shower for Andrew. Represented was both sides of my family and Dave's family. We had four generation of Bennetts and Langevins in the room at the same time--not sure when that will happen again (and we COMPLETELY forgot to take the generational pictures!)

Andrew dressed up for the occasion

Sue, Kathy, and Great-Grandma Dee

(mommy and baby too!)

Great-Grandma Ruth, Grandpa Bennett, Grandma Pfeffer

(and mommy and daddy)

Great Aunt Carol, Second Cousins Sandy, Carolyn, and Meghan, and third(?) cousin Abby (arriving in June)

Aunt Melissa and Grandma Bennett

my Grandma Bennett (aka Great Grandma Ruth) won the award for holding the baby the longest and he slept the entire time

again, we were very blessed with some awesome presents

this is one of the several blankets my mom made for Andrew

cute Mickey onies for when Andrew goes to Disneyland at one!

Daddy opened a few presents too--this is too small for him, but some day it will be perfect for Andrew to help Dad with all those trips to Home Depot!

Also there to shower baby with love was Grandma Linda (aka Nicole's Mom), but she'd kill me if I posted the pictures I have of her!