8 Weeks - 8 Hours

I'm not gonna lie...this week has been tiring. Travis was out of town last week, and I was mentally prepared for that. However, while he was away, he caught the flu, and came home a day later. Then when he came home, he was still recovering for a few days, so I was still kind of on my own with the girls. Then when I thought he was finally feeling better last Sunday, he woke up with a terrible head cold on Monday morning, which basically lasted all week. By the time this weekend came around, I was exhausted. I felt kind of like I was in "survival mode" for the last few days, but I think things are turning around now that Travis has mostly recovered and we had some time to go out to dinner last night while Travis's parents stayed with Avery and Kendall for a few hours. I was also able to go for a run Friday, Saturday, and this afternoon, and that also helps with both my mental and physical health.

Luckily, Kendall has been sleeping for longer stretches, but not consistently. Also, she's been struggling with going back to sleep after a long stretch in the middle of the night...so there's been several nights where I've been up for 2 hours in the middle of the night just hoping Kendall would go to sleep!!

Yesterday, I re-read about managing your baby's day in Babywise, and I decided that one of our problems may be that we don't have a consistent "start time" for Kendall's day. She's doing pretty well on her "eat, activity, sleep" schedule, but times vary throughout the day, so I decided I'm going to work on that. I wrote down her "goal schedule" for the week, and I'm going to try to start her day around 7-7:15 every day. Avery has been waking up around 7:45 recently, so this will give me a little time to get Kendall fed before Avery is up.

Yesterday, although she didn't follow her schedule exactly, she had her last evening feeding at 9:30, and she slept until 5:20 this morning - almost 8 hours between feedings! She also went straight to bed after the 9:30 feeding, which has sometimes been a struggle, so she got a good 7 hour stretch of sleep! After she ate, she went right back to sleep (luckily) and I woke her up at 7 to eat again, and begin her day. I have a renewed sense of energy and hope that she'll be consistently sleeping for 7-8 hours very soon, and I'm looking forward to when she starts sleeping 10-12 hours at night!

We are also getting ready to celebrate our February birthdays...Travis and Avery are both in February.  I'm not doing a big party for Avery this year, just a smaller party with family, but I'm sure it'll still be a good time. I haven't done as much planning for it yet, but I still have a few weeks. She is just so much fun now, and I think she'll really enjoy her party this year.

'Single' Mom This Week

Travis has been out of town all week for work...leaving me on my own with the girls. I was nervous about how it would go, but honestly it's gone pretty smoothly. I've also had some help from my in-laws which has made it a little easier.

I feel like I keep saying it...but Avery is at the perfect age to be a big sister. She loves helping me with Kendall, and is great at sitting with her when I need to get something done for a few minutes. She loves giving her hugs and trying to hold her, and she's amazingly calm when Kendall cries. She just gets the pacifier and gives it to her without missing a beat. She understands when I need to feed Kendall or hold her, and is surprisingly patient. One I put Kendall down for naps, she asks to play and I try to give her my full attention for at least half of naptime. During the other half of naptime I'm normally eating or doing housework haha. I also love that they are less than three years apart, so they are close enough in age to be friends as they get older.

Kendall is also getting better at figuring out days and nights. She had been struggling with a "fussy" period in the middle of the night that would sometimes last 2-2.5 hours, but the last few nights have been so much better. She's getting one longer 5-6 hour stretch of sleep - normally eating around 8 pm or so, and then sleeping until 2 am. Then she's waking at about 4:30 and 7 or so and mostly eating every 2.5 hours during the day...sometimes longer stretches in the morning hours and shorter in the evening hours. I'm still breastfeeding her and it's going so well! This is the week that Avery started showing blood in her stool (from 6-14 weeks until I switched to formula.) Kendall hasn't shown any symptoms of any intolerances to my milk, so I'm hopeful I'll be able to nurse her much longer.

All in all we've adjusted so well to having Kendall and I can't believe she's almost 7 weeks old!!

Ice Skating

 

This weekend I finally took Avery ice skating! I skated competitively my entire childhood - until I went to college. Then I coached for a few years in my early 20's, but I also worked full time, so I stopped coaching about 7 years ago (wow...can't believe it was that long ago.) Travis and Kendall came along to watch and take some pictures.

Avery did amazing! She was really excited to go because we really built it up to her...and seeing Anna and Elsa from Frozen skate at the end of the movie helped too. She also liked to "skate" on our hard floor at home...so she was very happy to go. We put her skates on and I walked around with her a little before getting on the ice just to get her used to skates. I also had her practice "falling" and standing up on her own. 

Once on the ice, I wanted to make it fun for her, but also get her skating on her own. I pulled her along for awhile to have her get the feel and then I worked with her on marching on her own. She picked it up pretty quickly and had a great time! She wasn't even upset when she fell. I had to hold myself back from trying to catch her every time she fell...it's a little more challenging coaching your own daughter because you want to protect them, but also more fun!

I am going to take her more often this year because she can't officially take lessons until age 4. By then she'll be way ahead of the pack (hopefully.) We had a great time and I can't wait to do it again!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Christmas has come and gone so quickly, and it's hard to believe that Kendall is already a month old!

We enjoyed Christmas Eve and Christmas mostly at home.  I started out Christmas Eve with my first post-baby run! It was beautiful outside and I used my new running watch (push present) for the first time. It was a slow go, and only two miles, but at least I did it!

We did bring the girls to Christmas Eve service at our church at 5 pm. Avery decided to wear her hot pink rain boots with her silver skirt and blue sweater...but hey...pick your battles haha.

It was a great service for kids because the sermon involved them participating as kings, shepherds, angels, or animals in the Christmas story. They passed out mini costumes for the kids to wear during the entire service, and Avery loved wearing her crown as a king.

Both girls went to bed early that night, and this was the first year Avery was excited about Santa! Kendall decided to get up several times that night...about every 2 hours...and that trend continued all day Christmas until about 6 pm. It must have been a growth spurt because then she returned to her normal 3 hour routine. She's definitely found her voice though, and tends to have a bit of a fussy time in the evenings between 7-10 or so. Even so, we had a great day together as a family of four (plus Ranger.)

Avery loved opening her presents and we loved seeing her reactions. On Thursday night my parents arrived, and they spent the day with us Friday. We also had some friends over on Friday, with their kids, and it was awesome seeing Avery play with kids, and she was exhausted that night.

We celebrated Christmas with Travis's family on Saturday, and that went well too! On Sunday we went to my nephew's first birthday party in Pittsburgh, and it was great to see my family a little more, and Cooper is walking and basically a toddler now! We didn't bring Kendall with us, and while I was stressed about leaving her with bottles, she did fine without me.

This week has been nice and relaxing so far. Lindsey, Meesh, and Cooper came to visit on Tuesday, and we had a great visit with them. We took a trip to Cabela's yesterday, and since it's a two hour drive down to WV, Travis and I had quality time to talk about our plans and goals for the new year. Then we had friends over for a few hours in the evening, but they left and we were all in bed hours before the ball dropped haha. I went for another run today...I ran 3 miles and my pace improved to about 10:20/mile...about a minute faster per mile in just a week!

I have been so fortunate to have had so much time with Travis and our families for this past month. I've only had about 4 or 5 days to handle the girls without help, and January will probably be quite the reality check when Travis really starts working again. However, I'm embracing the time I have with Kendall as a newborn because I realize how quickly she'll grow and be on the move in no time.