Replenishing the Stock

I can understand why more and more moms are just using formula to feed their babies. Making sure that you produce enough milk is a tough job! Our stock was non-existent for a few weeks. Talk about being stressed out. It meant that I would have to cut my work days short so that I could come home and feed Olivia. How we have been doing it is that I wake up at 4:30am, feed Olivia at about 5/5:15, pump whatever is left (and she goes back down), Mike feeds her during the mid-morning what I have pumped, I come home around noon to feed her and stay home (most days). After I put her down around 9pm, I finally have time to get things done and pump what I can before I go to bed so that it can be added to what I pump in the morning. Then it starts all over again.

I am excited to say that I have 5 bags of milk in the freezer again! WOOHOO! I have been trying to figure out how to balance and how to produce more. Olivia may be going through a growth spurt. We have thought about formula to supplement for what she is not getting because I am afraid that I am not producing enough to keep up with her growing body. She has an appointment coming up and we want to talk to her doctor first before we introduce formula or anything else.

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So, I was informed today that our baby girl has been alive for 109 days! WHAT!?!?! That is insane. But I was also informed that I have only blogged for 52 of those days :D Oops! At this point I feel like I do a lot of repeating though but if you all don't mind, I will keep rambling and try to remember my new discoveries when I have them.

Here are some photos of Olivia in her Christmas dress that somehow did not make it into the blog last night. Pretty, Pretty Princess <3

Too stinkin cute! We will need to do another photo shoot in the dress, she did not want to smile. The dress (thank you grandma Sheila!) says that it is 6 months and she fits into it pretty nicely. We will probably use it for Valentines Day also :)

Waiting in the car while daddy runs into the store

So, this outfit that Olivia is wearing is an outfit that I wore as a baby. When I can find the photo of me wearing it I will do a side by side. She is Thumper from Bambi.

Olivia is holding her own bottle!

She is picking up on things. Last night we had her laying on her floor mat with toys hanging above her. There are a couple that when you pull on them they play music. I pulled on one of them a couple of times and showed her how to do it. She was pulling and straining so hard to get it to play music, and she did it! We just loved to watch her work at it and learn. As you can see in the picture above, she is also learning to hold her own bottle (but not without supervision!). It is amazing to see how she grows from day to day. 

What I really love is to Skype with family and hear them say and point out how much she has grown since the last time that they saw her. We do not see it as much because we are with her all the time. But we do know that she is growing. As a teacher, I cannot wait until she can really start to communicate and I can teacher. 

Earlier I was on Facebook and came across a TED Talks that I thought I would share. For parents, happiness is a very high bar. It definitely gave me a new perspective. I let Olivia know all the time that I will do my best but I know that I will mess up and that we will have plenty of fights.

TED Talks: TED is a global set of conferences run by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, under the slogan "Ideas Worth Spreading". TED was founded in 1984 as a one-off event; the annual conference series began in 1990.

     There are several TED Talks worth listening to. There is one about introverts by a gal named Susan Cain. It is great :) I would encourage you to listen to a few!

Alright. To end the night, here are a few of our first professional family photos:

Yes, I did take pictures of pictures in order to post them... it would have taken too long to scan them! And I lied, the last thing for the night is a cute video of baby girl.