Just gotta brag a little.

I am so proud of my Lucy!

When we first decided to nightwean, I struggled. I worried about how Lucy would handle the change. She surprised both Brett and I when she made the adjustment relatively smoothly, with very little fussing at all. The whole process took less than a week, and we maintained our family bed. For more details on the technique we used, check out Dr. Jay Gordon's website.

However, we all knew this was a short-term solution- while I love, love, love bed-sharing, it simply isn't safe with a toddler and a newborn in the same bed. So Brett and I finally took the plunge and began to make the adjustment to having Lucy sleep in her own crib. Right now, the crib's still in our room, but eventually we will move her to the nursery- we don't want to have issues with the new baby waking her up and vice-versa.

Anyway, tonight marks Lucy's fourth night in her crib. The first two nights, it took 45 and 30 minutes to put her to sleep, respectively. Because I don't believe in allowing babies to "cry-it-out," I spent that time sitting on a pillow beside Lucy's crib. Following her nighttime nursing session and follow-up bottle, I would lay her down in her crib with her "lovey" and "paci," and rub her back while singing to her. If she stood up and tried to play, I would simply lay her down again and continue on. Although it took more patience than I previously knew I had, my persistence overcame Lucy's will to stay awake, and she eventually fell asleep with virtually no tears shed and minimum fussing.

On the third night, Lucy put herself to sleep! After laying her down with her paci and lovey as before, she just went right to sleep. The same thing occurred tonight. I am in awe!

Although we still have a ways to go (Lucy still wakes up several times at night, often needing one of us to replace her paci before she can fall back asleep, and she does come in to our bed in the morning, because I nurse her before work), I am so proud of my daughter! She is proving to be a very flexible and resilient little girl.

Just a little note.

I love nursing one of my children to sleep, while the other is happily kicking away!

Lucy at 1 year.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but I wanted to wait until Lucy’s 1-year checkup so that I could post her weight and height. However, I’m increasingly concerned that I’m going to forget to do it at all, so I’m going to go ahead and blog now, insert data later (her appointment is on Tuesday, btw.)

At one year of age, Lucy eats…..

Everything we do! She particularly likes chicken, avocado, and all kinds of fruit. Despite my attempts to keep sweets to a minimum, Lucy is a sucker for Daddy’s homemade chocolate chip cookies and will mooch whatever I’m eating- especially ice cream! It’s great to be able to feed her whatever we’re eating and not worry about preparing anything especially for her. Next up: working on eating with a spoon and fork.

Lucy drinks…..

Organic whole milk, water, breast milk. It’s funny because I always thought that once she was off formula we’d be saving money, but….organic milk is expensive, and we go through a ton of it. Add in her supplement (to make up for the nutrients milk is lacking), and we’re definitely spending more. At least we are minimizing the yucky additives- Similac recall, anyone? Still, I prefer beetles to corn syrup any day! She still takes her milk from a bottle, but she drinks water from a sippy or a regular cup and breast milk straight from the tap. I’m not a fan of juice at all, and prefer Lucy eats fresh fruit instead- fruit has a better concentration of vitamins, no extra refined sugar, and no empty calories. Lucy still nurses twice a day- once in the morning, and once at night. She occasionally will skip a night session (this usually happens if she ends up being satisfied with what’s in her bottle and decides to just go to sleep), but she always makes up for it in the morning. Next up: working on getting more proficient with her cup, and ditching the bottle.

Lucy sleeps….

In our bed for the most part. We just bought a crib, and we’re working on putting her in it for a few hours at a time at night and for naps during the day. She generally sleeps from 6:30-7pm to 6-7am. Nighttime wake-ups are very infrequent now that she’s night-weaned, and she is getting much more consistent with sleeping through the night- although I will confess to giving her the boob if she’s having a rough time. My usual technique is to lay on our bed with her, cuddle while she has her bottle, nurse her when she’s done, and then move her to the crib. However, she always ends up in our bed by the end of the night. Next up: working on getting her to sleep through the night in her crib.

Lucy loves…..

Humming and singing to herself while she dances to her own songs, her “Baby Sign” dvd (the only tv I let her watch besides Classical Baby- she gets super excited when I put it on and mimics the signs), playing with the dogs (I’ve had to pull her out of their kennels on numerous occasions), making music with her “shake-shakes,” picking out her own clothes and “helping” get dressed, pushing her baby doll around in her stroller, JEWELRY and other "pitty" things (both mine and her own), going through her extensive library of books at least once a day, pointing at everything to hear its name, turning light switches off and on, dancing to music, playing outside, throwing/stacking/organizing building blocks, being worn by Mama (but not Daddy), being around other people- she’s a total show-off.

Lucy dislikes…..

Having her diaper changed- it’s definitely been a challenge for us lately, riding in her car seat (unless I’m sitting back there with her), being fed ANYTHING with a spoon, being helped with tasks- she has an independent streak a mile wide and will not let us do anything for her.

Lucy can….

Take 4-5 steps independently (usually between Mama and Daddy), stand on her own, cruise around the entire house with one hand on the wall, “scoot” on her booty- leaving one hand free to carry items, sign (dog, milk, all-done, Daddy) even if she isn’t consistent with it yet, take off her diaper, throw items across the room, figure out how to open any and all containers, trash the entire house in about five minutes.

Lucy weighs 20 lbs, 2oz and is 30 inches long.

28 weeks.

Why hello, third trimester! It's great to see you. I'm equally parts ready to be done with pregnancy and terrified of having two children until 14 months.....

Pics are from a dear friend's wedding. I know my hair looks crazy in the photo, but rest assured that it looked fabulous in person :-)

We have names!

I'm not going to post these on Facebook, because I'm not ready for the potentially-negative comments...I know not everyone shares my love of old-fashioned names. But I'm so excited to finally settle on a girl's name that I have to share! We've been decided on a boy's name for quite some time- Max is for Maxcy, which is Brett's given name, and Robert is for my dad. We both liked the first name June, but we couldn't think of a middle name that we really liked...until last night. Because we don't find out the gender ahead of time, it's really important to me to have both determined ahead of time. It somehow makes me feel more prepared!

So....

If it's a boy.....he'll be Max Robert

If it's a girl...she'll be June Elizabeth

27 weeks.

I'm done with pumping...

...for now, anyway.

I have long looked forward to Lucy's first birthday for a number of reasons, one selfish one being that I could (according to most sources) safely cut-out pumping during the daytime.

For almost a year (I started pumping when Lucy was about a month old), I have pumped nearly every day. If it was a work day, then I definitely pumped- at least twice (for the first seven or eight months), then at least once. If I wasn't working, I still generally fit one session in, sometimes because Lucy was having a little nursing strike and I wanted to keep up my supply, sometimes because I wanted to put a little extra in the freezer (this was especially true when I was donating). So you'd think I'd be super excited about dropping my daily lunchtime pumping session.

Still, it feels a little strange. I think I miss having those few minutes carved out of my day to focus on Lucy.

Anyway, I still have a pump at work in case Lucy decides to skip her morning nursing session, and I have a pump at home for the same reason at night. Luckily, though, Lucy is pretty attached to nursing both morning and night, and I'm still producing enough to keep her happy at those times.

Nursing through a pregnancy isn't easy, but I think it's worth it- especially if you have a young child already (Lucy was only 6 months old when I became pregnant this time). Even if we weaned today, we'd have achieved 6 more months of nursing than we would have had we weaned immediately. Of course, everyone is different- some mamas lose their supply completely, and some drop in supply more quickly than others. And there's definitely nothing wrong with weaning due to pregnancy, as some mamas either don't desire to tandem nurse or are uncomfortable with nursing during pregnancy- either physically or emotionally. I would never judge nor criticize another mama for her decision in that regard.

No, breastfeeding while pregnant isn't very comfortable...but I'm counting the days until I have a fresh supply, and will hopefully be able to nurse both Lucy and her little brother or sister. On a side note, both Brett and I came down with a terrible stomach bug this week, and even though I ended up having to visit the ER for fluids, I managed to keep nursing...and guess what? Lucy didn't get sick even though she sleeps snuggled up to me every night. Another reason to push through!

Gettin' down on the farm.

I'm not gonna lie- our recent trip to PA was planned not only around Lucy's birthday, but around the county fair. As a country kid, I eagerly looked forward to the fair every year- when you grow up on a dairy farm, you don't usually get to go on family vacations, so the fair was our time to have fun. I was really excited to not only make it home in time for the fair, but to take Lucy for her first trip, too. We had a great time catching up with old friends, spending time with family, and of course indulging in some (nutrient-deficient and calorie-packed, but undeniably delicious) fair food!

She loves the Eeyore Mimi bought her for her birthday.

She made quick friends with Jordanna's Jersey calf.

Our new Ergo got LOTS of use- everyone wanted to carry the Goose.

Lots of animals!

Fair food- Lucy dominating an apple fritter.

Happy birthday, baby!

Happy birthday to my Lucy-Goose!

I know you're not technically a baby anymore, but you'll always be MY baby.