Going out to eat with a baby

Though we try to cook atleast 5 nights a week, we are foodies and love going out! Sienna never makes these outings a breeze and its actually become more of a chore rather than a luxury to go out these days. 

It goes something like this:

•   walk in, look around and pray there is no wait. Tell the hostess "two and a highchair, please" or as Danny likes to say "two & a half"

• sit down, hand Sienna a menu & crayons while we settle in. She plays with them for a minute then throws them on the floor and points because she wants them back. We don't give them back because we know exactly what she'll do.

• waiter comes, we order our usual drinks: waters with lemon. I hand Sienna her sippy cup so she doesn't get jealous when we get our drinks. ( note to all waiters of the world: never put a glass in front of a baby, EVER! or plates) I learned this the hard way the first day I was a waitress. We encourage her to drink from her cup, she throws it on the floor.

• We order or food, quickly and start entertaining the princess. Snacks, fruit pouches, drink coasters...whatever non breakable item I can find on the table. Husband & I attempt to converse so its somewhat of a date

• Sienna decides to practice her joyful scream. Its like shes having a contest with herself  with how loud she can scream. We try to distract her, shushing her but it only causes her to try and break her personal screech record even more. Other moms give us empathetic smiles, some laugh, some stare. People of the world with no kids, please give us a break on this one. You will be here too one day when (and if) you have kids & you'll hope people are patient and don't give you a side-eye. And I promise I will be the mom giving the empathetic smile.

• By now Sienna makes it known shes over every snack we brought her, puffs are on the floor, blueberries are smushed all over the highchair. We look at the time and wonder why our food is taking an eternity even when its only been 10 mins.

• Our food arrives! YES! we immediately start cutting up whatever we ordered so she can start chowing down, if she approves that is. If not it will end up on the floor with the rest of her snacks. 

• We eat our food fast as we know she wont last too much longer in the high chair & we stare our waiter down to bring us the check

• we have our card ready and hand it right to the waiter as they bring the check. We get all things together, pick up some chunks of food off the floor and torture wipe Sienna's face off & hit the road!

OKAY, so its not always this bad but for the most part its a challenge to have a nice dinner out. I think we are beginning to accept the fact that going out is going to  have to be a get-a-babysitter-first type of occasion, which means we'll be getting more take out because we don't like leaving her often.

If you're reading this & have a toddler that is an angel during dinner & does none of the things listed above, then please leave a comment RIGHT THIS INSTANT and tell me your magic tricks and if your kid is just a perfect angel during dinner please dont tell me about it! in fact, nod your head and pretend you have an extremely strong willed, super active child to make me feel a little better. THANKS! Bon appetit.

Things I'll never understand...

The end of BF

So here we are, at the end of our journey of breast feeding...or exclusively pumping I should say. Its been a long & far from easy road. I wanted to share my story for that maybe it may help another mom tackling the challenge of breast feeding.

While pregnant, I knew I wanted to try breastfeeding. I was determined to make it work somehow and knew I wanted to give it my all, because as a parents we should all at least try to do whats best for our babies

Sienna was born and latched on great 40 minutes after birth, but that only lasted a day...I'm not really sure still what the problem was. She would suck for a few seconds, then let go and cry...she cried and broke my heart because I knew she was hungry but wouldn't stay on long enough to get a decent feeding. It made me feel like such a failure...I was made to do this, it was the natural thing to do. So why wasn't it working? it killed me. We had 2 different lactation consultants come in to help...from nipple shields to tricking her with drops of formula...nothing worked. I think I went through every emotion there is that day....I was so happy I finally got to have my baby and at the same time I was heartbroken, miserable and beyond exhausted from a rough birth.

first feeding...about 40 mins old

We kept trying and going at it hoping she would finally get a solid feeding in, she didn't. We both cried & cried. Noone tells you how painful breast feeding is at first...lordddd I think it was as bad as contractions if not worse. My nipples were so beat up they bled as that sure took the pain to yet another level. I had to stop trying to latch her on because she would be sucking blood..YUCK! So we tried a nipple shield...no luck. So the last option that remained was pumping...The nurse bought me a pump...this thing was HUGE, it was no little medela pump...but it did the trick.

I sat there in that hospital bed holding a loud, cold pump, instead of holding and nursing my brand new baby. It made me feel like crap, but it was that or formula.

 accomplishment came through a tablespoon of colostrum...I felt like I had just produced pure gold. I gave it to her through a syringe...definitely not how I envisioned I'd be feeding my baby, but I wasn't gonna give up just yet.

When we got home from the hospital I went right to pumping, trying to get my milk to come in ASAP...I sat there clenching my teeth through the pain. On the 4th day, it finally came in HALLELUJAH, I remember waking up Danny...It was such a moment of relief. I pumped and pumped storing any extra I could get, trying to build up my supply.

My stash grew as quickly as Sienna did and I was a milk making machine. Little miss was a super small eater, so I  was able to put a lot away after each pumping.

 I literary had to walk around my house topless with an inch of lanolin cream smeared on my boobs...it was quite a site haha my girls were quite beat up.

Sienna decided that she would only nurse while half asleep in the middle of the night, it was quite bizarre and I'm not sure if she did it for comfort but it was better than nothing, at least I didn't have to mess with making bottles all night long. After each nightly feeding I would pump to empty out and try to trick my body into thinking I need more than she ate that way Id make more.

It worked. It was no ideal, it was a ton of work but one way or another she was still eating breast milk and that's all that mattered. We rented a hospital grade pump and I went at it every 2 hours at first then every 3. I hated being tied down to it, we couldnt leave the house for more than 3 hours at a time and there were times I wanted to quit, I told Danny I was DONE DONE DONE! and I'm glad he helped me and talked me out of stopping.

We reached our first goal, 6 months and I believe I did a little skip, yes I was proud. I made it so far and then I extended my goal to 1 year, not really sure if I was going to make it that far.

Though Sienna still woke up throughout the night, she stopped nursing at about 7 months. My supply dropped, I still pumped because some milk was better than no milk right?.....And then she became mobile...pumping became hell, she climbed on top of me...pulled the tubes, wanted me to hold her. I was miserable and I stopped doing it every 3 hours, it became impossible to do it with her around. I did it when she napped and when Dan came home and would take her to another room which meant it wasnt as often and my supply dropped some more.

So at 10.5 months when I pumped for 20 mins just to get an ounce or less, I decided not to bother anymore. Bittersweet, I loved being free of this chore but somehow I still have guilt that hangs over me too.  I particularly wanted to last though flu season so she would get my antibodies, but it is what it is and I should be happy to have made it this far.

So what is Sienna eating these days?

well the picture above is what my stash currently looks like, still have a decent amount and after  much research I found a formula that I'm comfortable giving her, the ONLY one I feel comfortable with as I can read all ingredients and know they're organic. Its called "Babys Only" I buy it at my local spouts. Its quicker to make her a bottle of than rather than defrost a bag of breast milk for 15 mins when shes hungry, or when we are on the go. She ALWAYS has BM before bed and whenever we can prep it before she gets grouchy hungry.

So there you have it, my whole pumping journey.

 Id do it all over again for her...hopefully with the next baby it will be easier, 

fingers crossed.

SO big SO fast!

At 10.5 months old Little Miss Sienna has been on a roll!

Thought I'd take a moment to jot down all the new things she's been doing lately...everyday is a new thing with this girl! she's a quick learner & stuns us with something new she hasn't done before...right when we least expect it

for 4 days straight now she's used her potty!
GO SIENNA GO!!

She took her very first step this past Sunday,
Daddy was so upset he missed it :/ he was in the supermarket

Started walking...almost running with her push cart toy

Knows how to scroll through pics on my iPhone and press the little triangle to play a video. We tried gifting her every toy phone on the market but she still wants mine

When we say "where is Sienna?" (in Polish)
she covers her face with her hands or blanket

Plays fetch with Charlie - shes obsessed with the fact that he brings back whatever she throws him

LOVES to feed Charlie, takes his little pebbles of food and gives it to him one piece at a time

started saying "Hi"

When you say "do upside down"
She does this....

Sienna,

 I simply cant get enough of you and the silly things you do lately. I thank my lucky stars that I'm able to stay home with you and watch you learn & reach every milestone... no amount of money is worth you being cared for by someone else....oh how much it would kill me if I wasn't the one to be there for your first step, sentence  ect. Watching you grow has been the the best gift I could have ever asked for.

I love you SO SO SO much!!

The Bachelor

my guilty pleasure

 

 reality TV involving good drama & love

 

Every Monday I tune in wondering how anyone who goes on this show thinks its a good idea, its possibly one of the silliest shows out there...but addicting nonetheless.

 

Sean is FAR from my type, but an upgrade from Ben for sure.

 

At least 3 people have told me that I look like Tierra

  what do you guys think?

 

could it be the amber?

Sienna's teething became so bad at one point a few weeks go,

I had Danny in Walgreens in his pajamas in the middle of the night getting every remedy on the shelf.

He came home with a bag of stuff,

 hoping at least one of the items gave her some sort of relief...

Homeopathic teething gel, tablets, Camilia and Motrin.

We wanted the motrin to be a last resort if all else failed. I really try to avoid that stuff. I cant even tell you when the last time I took anything like Tylenol or Motrin myself. I would say its been years and years.

After a couple of nights of trying those things...we didnt notice any change

She still woke up literally every 10 minutes and seemed to be in discomfort, she didn't have a fever though she was pretty warm to the touch.

Someone suggested I put her amber teething necklace back on, I had her wear it when she was younger mostly only cuz I thought it looked cute to be honest...She was such a sweet baby back then I never thought teething bothered her since she never acted like it did and she popped 2 teeth no problem.

Running out of options, 
I decided put the necklace back on...leaving it on all day & night even for baths

and guess what?

She's been a different baby!! not drooling as much and not waking up every 10 mins anymore. Could be it just be a coincidence and the teething pains just passed? sure!

but I'm swearing by the amber



baldie sporting her necklace at 3 months old

Hallelujah, a date!

Adding a baby to the mix of things can be somewhat straining on a relationship....even the best of relationships. More than anything, its a HUGE adjustment... you find that there is hardly any 'couple' time anymore and you now have to change it to family time. 

But really a lot of the time its goes more like this: one person cooks dinner while the other plays with baby, then switch....same for eating dinner...when baby naps, you scurry around to get stuff done around the house. There is ALWAYS something that needs to get done in the rare event of 'free time' and 

so when is hubby & wifey time?

Pretty much doesn't exist

And on that note, we are so way over due for date night....we need to get out, just us and not worry about every baby squeak and cry and I don't even care where we go, I just want to enjoy the luxury of not needing to entertain a baby during an outing. 

So thanks to our more-then-willing-to babysit friends, we were able to go out to a nice dinner and just enjoy some us-time

 

I was so worried that Sienna wouldn't do well since she's been going through a bit of a separation anxiety stage, but they said she was great and text us smiling picture of her which eased my mind and allowed me to enjoy our evening.

we had an awesome dinner at Vintage 95 a really cute, wine lounge. 
Sneaky hubs called ahead and arranged for the staff to seat us by the fire and do something special for me. So when we sat down, the staff came out with champagne and toasted to "mother of the year" embarrassing & sweet at the same time. There was also live music, so hubs had them do a cover of Our Song 

it was such a great evening

we laughed, we drank adult beverages, we reminiscent, we talked about all the cute things the baby does and we flirted like crazy but the best part was the excitement from Sienna when we came home :) 

 

Now - don't get me wrong I love my new life as a MOM and FAMILY but we needed this. In fact, night like these are going to be mandatory every few weeks or so. I consider it an investment into my marriage. A good one.

ps -If you haven't tried bacon jam bruchetta you must!