Better post tomorrow

Still under the weather....but wanted to post a silly picture of the little girl. Brynn still hates her swing and bouncer and I've slowly been trying to get her used to both. Poor thing looked a little terrified when I put her in her bouncer I thought her eyes were going to bug out. I'll have a better post tomorrow but I thought her expression today was pretty funny when I was trying to get her used to things :-) Hope everyone is having a great Martin Luther King Day!

Cold nights snuggle with those you love

The windchills lately have been more than 10 below zero and the next few nights are going to be the same. When you have a cold night, Neela and Brynn say snuggle with those you love. They also think that Boppys are made to be shared.

Gas Passers big and small

This weekend Brynn had a tad of a temperature from her vaccines, but it quickly went down with some good old tylenol with the dose the pediatrician recommended. My husband and I are battling an icky cold and although I'm feeling a ton better already I seemed to have lost my voice completely over the last couple of days. My husband thinks that this is hilarious because he says he is sharing his house with three girls...none of which can talk or ask him to do things, LOL! (Neela our dog, Brynn - the baby and me of course). Recently the CRNAs (nurse anesthetists) from work had a baby shower to welcome Brynn to the "gas passing" community. One of my coworkers was nice enough to have it at her house for all 50 or so of us. Several people brought their children so you could say that there were many people who are used to "passing gas." Little ones doing it at the very event (phew!) and many of the rest of us big Gas Passers coming from work, LOL! Being around all of the great people made me miss work a bit and made me realize I need to figure out when I'm going back eventually. I can't believe I've been off 8 months already between bedrest and maternity leave.

We chowed down on Mexican food and margaritas and the chocolate raspberry cake was super yummy. The CRNAs also generously got us our convertible car seat, our jogging stroller, exercauser, diapers, Dreft, wipes, and a slew of other things. The girls went all out and we are so fortunate!

At the end of the day we all were ready for a little nap!


Pumping still is going well - I seem to be able to get about 8 oz more per day than Brynn is taking in so I'm trying to get a good stockpile in the freezer. I seem to like the bags from Lansinoh the best and the organizer from First Years makes them flat and easy to store as you freeze them. As much as I do like pumping, I have to admit that there are times where I am double pumping home alone and Brynn is crying next to me because she needs something. I'm unable to get to her at just that moment until I am done pumping and that is frustrating. I find I often cut my session short because I can't stand to her her cry- it makes me feel too bad to see her upset.

Although we didn't quite get the 10 inches of snow this weekend - we did get a good 8 inches or so. We're supposed to get another 5 tonight and I think I'm finally getting a little "snowed out" and am ready for spring. I can't wait until I can take Brynn out in her stroller and go for a walk around the neighborhood. Thanks again for the input on the spotting question I had. My OB said that we'll watch it this week and if it's still there then we can do another transvag ultrasound to see if anything is going on as well as draw a few of my hormone levels. I'm not sure what exactly would cause this that would show up on hormone levels - but I'm sure that they know what they're talking about. Thanks also for asking about Brynn's LFTs (liver function tests). We haven't had one drawn too recently as this is just something that her pediatrician is going to trend over time. The last one was 2 weeks ago and it was still double what it should be, but had come down. Her next appointment is next week and we're hoping for a good level. So please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers. It is so appreciated!

If you get a chance go say hi and keep the girls on the bedrest category of Lost and Found company. I remember how much it brightened my day to get a little comment from someone new to my blog when I was on bedrest. Also, I've mentioned her before...but go say hi to Megan at Two Shorten the Road who is a fellow unicornuate girl on bedrest in the hospital. She has been through the ringer. I'm slowly but surely trying to check in on people...it's really great to see so many people doing so well!

My friend at Just Me...help me out

Hey there...for some reason I can't access your blog anymore and I can't find your email. Can you help me continue to follow along? Thanks!

Two months sleeping along Brynn McStretch Bauman

I finally got most of the little bit of Christmas I had out put away. This included Neela's Christmas outfit that I don't think I posted a picture of. We officially called her "Santa Paws" this year and my niece and nephews had a lot of fun with her on the holiday.

See...it's only been a day and a half since I posted...I'm doing much better with my resolution for posting more often already, LOL! I'm just trying to do better at catching up with every one's blogs and that seems to be the challenge. But slow but steady wins the race, right? Thank you so much for your help with my couple of questions from my previous post. You ladies are simply the best and deserve and award I swear!

Brynn had her two month appointment - she'll be 9 weeks tomorrow holy cow! All in all it went great. She got a couple of shots and drank the other oral vaccine. Of course sappy old mom me got teary eyed....yeah I know I'm pathetic. She's almost 7 pounds measuring in the 5th percentile adjusted. I guess around a year is when they stop adjusting. But the crazy thing is that she grew almost 4 inches in one month! She is one long skinny baby. The pediatrician measured her twice just because she thought it was crazy that she grew length wise so much in one short month while still being under the 7 pound mark. She proclaimed her Brynn McStretch Bauman, so for now that will be her nickname. Basketball anyone? Or perhaps a she'll be up for a riveting game of volleyball around the 3 month mark?

No wonder she's been sleeping better lately. That's one heck of a lot of growing. When I tried to get her some tummy time the other day she fell asleep. I plopped her on her back and she did the same :-)
My husband has fallen in love with the front carrier now that she is getting big enough to use it. Technically I'm a bad mom and I put her in it a little early (weight wise), but we watch her while she's in it and Brynn loves it. I think my husband loves it because it allows him to talk on the phone with work, play XBox 360 and watch the baby all at the same time. Now that's for some multitasking. Last night I had to giggle because he was on a conference call with China around 10PM and had Brynn in the carrier. I think her head was close enough to the phone to hear the different pitches and tones of the Chinese man he was speaking with that she turned her head and her eyes got really wide like "what the heck is that?"


We're still doing the frequent feedings every hour and a half or so since Brynn's been doing so good with her weight gain on that schedule. My husband is a saint and gives me a break at night when he gets home from work. My only job in the evening is to be a milk machine and pump away so we have a good stash in the fridge. I take the middle part of the night so he gets a few hours of uninterrupted Brynn free time to sleep upstairs. And he takes the late evening until midnight and then resumes the early morning around 4:30 or 5 AM. It seems to be working well. Brynn is on her Zantac which seems to be helping her reflux along with her vitamins to help with her malabsorption. Thank heavens for Comcast DVR which allows me to tape all of my favorite daytime shows so I have something decent to watch between 12 and 5 AM while feeding Brynn and holding her up for her mandatory 30-45 minutes afterwards :-)

Tonight we're supposed to get about 10 inches more of snow so I think we'll wake up to a white morning! I might try to sneak out and grab some groceries from Kroger when my husband gets home so we don't have to worry about it for tomorrow. I think I'll finish the second half of the bachelor I have taped as well tonight in the middle of the night when Brynn is partying like a rock star at 3AM. This season's bachelor is kind of cute...what does everyone else think? I missed the last few seasons but I might just have to watch this one until the next season of Big Brother comes out to produce my next TV eye candy...Yes Candi...I'm talking about your love as well!

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Next weekend my mother in law is having a small shower for us in Ohio with my husband's side of the family. The work girls have taken care of a shower for us as well. It's kind of fun having showers after the fact since I wasn't able to have them before Brynn was born. I'm just so grateful for everyone's generosity. Brynn has even gotten a gift from her extended family in Australia. I'll have to take a photo of her in her outfits from people and gifts and post. You have simply been the best. To say I feel blessed and fortunate would be an understatement. I just wish there was more I could do for each of you!

Too late to write a birth story?

Quick question....is 2 months after the fact too late to post a birth story entry? Thoughts?

Award for worst blogger = Me!

Well, I have a new award for the world's worst blogger. And the clear winner is me! I won't go into a long list of excuses and I'm not even sure if anyone would still be reading after such a long break anyways. But my new resolution is to write on here at least three times a week. Also I'm going to try to comment more like I used to...now how's that for some resolutions, lol!

So for now to catch up I'll do some drive by blogging, aka quickies...wait...quickies have got me all hot and bothered! Well, at least more excited than the phrase drive by blogging (even if I am from Detroit, aka the land of drive bys :-)

Christmas was absolutely wonderful. We were all home together and got to see my family and my husband's family from Ohio. Brynn got a ton of presents most of which she'll not use for awhile, but we're grateful for the generosity. I spent the last week catching up with several of my aunts, uncles and cousins that are in from out of state which was great to get to do. New Years was super quiet...we went out to eat and watched the ball drop at home. Over the last couple of weeks I actually went out to eat and it was the first time I'd been out to a restaurant since August because of the crazy bedrest, hospital stays and pregnancy. It was absolutely wonderful to rejoin the human race again!

I'm feeling much better, eating better and have completely plumped back up! I do have a question for anyone who may be able to help. I'm still pumping about 8 times a day for Brynn. I have bright red spotting everyday still. After my D & C I had a week and a half of no bleeding and then this started so this isn't D & C related I don't think. Has anyone had constant red spotting everyday while pumping or breastfeeding? And if so how long did this last? Did you have periods or no periods while breastfeeding?

On that similar note....Brynn is 2 months old and will be 9 weeks this weekend. Absolutely crazy and mindblowing! She is over 6 and a half pounds and her doctor is much more pleased with her weight gain. She has some issues with malabsorption (hence the slow weight gain since birth) but it's slowly improving. Pumping and giving breast milk has helped along with some vitamins that they have prescribed. Sometimes we have to feed as often as every hour and a half (hence the lack of blogging...okay no more excuses I promise!) but it is so worth it to see her thrive.Luckily with the help of my Medela Pump in Style and Reglan I've been able to keep up with her demand so far.We bottle feed the breastmilk because it's still importnt for us to know what she's getting.

Well it's time to feed again, but I promise to blog every other day or so! I hope everyone is healthy, happy, and well....I'll be checking in with all of you great ladies soon!