Stella's Baptism

Today has been such a great day! Wait, scratch that! It's been a great weekend! 


Stella's godparents, Emily and Marcus, arrived Saturday evening. They spent some time hanging out with Stella while I prepared some dinner. Stella was in a good mood, but she was ready for a nap. Emily held her, and she fell asleep in Emily's arms. It was so sweet! After Stella went to sleep for the night, we stayed up for a bit - maybe a little late since we were all pooped - hearing about Emily and Marcus's recent move to Minneapolis. In the morning, we all got up early to get ready for the 8 am mass. 


Of course, I was stressing. Not only did Stella find her gown and bonnet (thank you, Jessica!) terribly uncomfortable, I didn't get much sleep. The little piglet woke up at 4:15 am for her night feeding and change, and we put her in bed with us. We put her down parallel to us, but, well, here's how she ended up:

How can 11.5 lbs of baby take up most of a king size bed? 

Stella decided that she HATED the bonnet, so we just took it along. Chris tried it on, but unfortunately, it didn't fit :( 

Emily and Marcus gave her this beautiful Pearl and Aquamarine bracelet. She wore it with her ensemble:

In typical Ratcliff fashion, we all made it to mass by the skin of our teeth. Amazingly, Stella was an angel. Chris and Kerry sat behind us on the pew since we ran out of room, and Stella was mesmerized by Chris until about the Homily, and then she pooped out on me. She slept for the rest of mass and woke up just before 9 am. 


Well, from that point on she screamed and screamed. Father Mark could barely speak over her, and Derek and I were doing our best to console her. It was often hard to concentrate, and I was a little flustered. 

Here Derek, Stella, and I are, waiting for Father Mark 

With Emily and Marcus 

Getting Started 

I think you can see the embarrassment on my face and the absolute misery on Stella's

Trying desperately to console her

The actual baptism

Chris went to light her candle

But had trouble figuring out how to get up there, so Father Mark had to go help

When it was over, Derek, Stella, and I made a fast break for the car for a diaper change, feeding, and a wardrobe change. 

She was an angel in J. Christopher's

We had a lot of fun, and Chris even broke out the napkin man, haha 

She finally pooped out on Daddy

While at J. Christopher's, she opened a gift from Kerry and Chris:

The lamb is a rattle - so sweet! 

When we came home, Stella got a wardrobe change, feeding, diaper change, and a nap. Meanwhile, we spent some time with Emily and Marcus before taking them to the airport. Minneapolis sounds so awesome that we think we need to move there! We're so jealous, and besides, we think Stella needs to see her godparents more often! :)

And here's a better shot of her candle:

Now, we can burn this candle every year on June 5th to celebrate the anniversary of her baptism :)

Today was such a wonderful blessing, and we're so thankful to get to share it with such wonderful friends, celebrating such a beautiful and perfect daughter! All of our love to Emily and Marcus and Kerry and Chris. Thank you for making our girl's day so special! 

2 month check up!

Wow - our little piglet is already 2 months old! She had her check up (and yucky vaccines) yesterday, and everything is great. Here she is, just before her appointment:

Her stats:


Weight: 11.5 lbs! Dr. DeMauro said, "What was her birth weight?" Derek and I replied together, "6-15." He said, "Well, the milk is agreeing with you!" 
Length: 22 1/4 inches. Dr. DeMauro said she's only in the 50th percentile or so, and he says she will likely be very petite. Derek and I looked at each other after he said that and said, "We didn't think she'd be very big!" and all of us were laughing. Derek is only 5'7" and I'm barely 5'3" - Stella will definitely be very small.
Head Circumference: 41 cm - Yep, she gets it from Daddy!


He said she's very healthy, and he's pleased with her progress. I asked them to check her eye, and Dr. DeMauro said it's very common and that it's not really anything worrisome until about 9-12 months. He said to keep doing warm compresses and massaging it. He advised to stop the antibiotic drops that Dr. Kreh gave us. 


She then got her vaccinations. She handled it very, very well. Obviously, she screamed like crazy, but the rest of the day, she was very sleepy. She kept giving me this sad little look like, "I don't feel well, Momma." It made Derek and me so sad. They told us to rub her thighs to help the pain, and when I tried after her bath, she flinched and acted like, "Get your damned hands off me!" so I stopped.


Dr. DeMauro said she'll likely start sleeping through the night when she's somewhere between 12-14 lbs. Derek and I were very excited to hear that since she's very close to that weight range. 


Before her appointment, we stopped in York Hall to see Daddy's desk. People were stopping to see her, and she got to meet the SCAD Pizza Fairy (Counselor Pat Mooney - one of my favorite SCAD people!) Bernie, who works at our front desk, said that she looks just like me. Now, I've heard that she looks exactly like me, she looks exactly like Derek, and that she's a blend. Derek and I were talking the other day, and he said, "I can see both of us. I think she looks like Stella." I think that's what I'll go with. She is a good blend of us both. I imagine people see me in her more because she's a little girl and wearing tons of pink. 


As far as her developmental progress, she's really amazing. She's SO close to flipping over, and I honestly blame the heavy cloth diapers for not having already done it. She is definitely raising her head up to 90 degrees and getting her chest up during tummy time. She smiles a lot, and she likes to mimic my faces. She can bring her hands together, and she can grasp things. She loves to swing around a wind chime that my coworker Alexis bought for her. I have to watch her really, really carefully with it, though, since she likes to "nom" things. Our favorite saying is, "Nom on Mom!" she spends most of her time nomming my shoulder or any other bare skin I have.  She's still an eating and shitting machine, eating about 10 times a day. She loves to look at her baby books since they're full of bright pictures. Her favorite is this one:

I think it's hilarious that this is her favorite. I imagine its red background and black and white contrast make it easy to see. She always smacks her lips and stares at it, and when I show it to her, she'll usually squeal in delight! 


Her other favorite toy right now is this one:

It plays music. It was a gift from her Aunt Maureen and Uncle Greg in Indiana. She loves it, and she usually hits it and knocks it over for sport. Derek likes to make remixes with it.... 


And speaking of cloth diapers... we tried a Fuzzibunz overnight last night, and when Derek went to do her 2am change, she had peed everywhere. It was all over her and in her bassinet. We had to change her clothes and swaddler, and then we moved her into our bed for the remainder of the night. In fact, she's still in our bed right now. I made a little fortress for her - inspired by Megan and Justin's sleeping compound for Truman (they shared an adorable photo on facebook of it!). 


We're so excited for this weekend. Stella's gown fits perfectly - we did a little fitting on Sunday - and I'm so excited for her to meet Emily and Marcus. Our friends Kerry and Chris will be at her baptism. They've become known as Aunt Kerry and Uncle Chris in our house! 


Anyway, I better run before the little piglet wakes up! I'm so proud of her for being so tough yesterday! 

Duck, I says...

On Thursday, Stella turned 8 weeks old, and she's getting ready for her 2 month appointment with Dr. DeMauro on Wednesday. She's also getting ready for her baptism next weekend. We have a lot coming up! However, we made a huge leap this week: Stella slept in her bassinet! 


Derek and I decided to weigh her last night to see how the little piglet is progressing. She weighed 11 lbs and 5 oz. She's really packing on the pounds. In fact, some of her 0-3 months stuff is getting a bit more snug, and in Huggies diapers, she needs a 2. We bought Pampers today, so we're sticking with a 1. As I've said before, we do disposable at night because we're still getting up about 2-3 times. Plus, it's just easier to pop one of those on than to deal with a wet bag and pre-folds and Snappis. During the day, she wears her cloth diapers, and we're now able to put pre-folds on her. That means we're using the good ol' traditional cloth diapers! I have Gerber and Econobum for these, and I honestly prefer the cheap Gerber ones. They're perfect. The Econobum ones are rather bulky, but I do love the Econobum covers. 


Stella hates the pre-folds. Well, I shouldn't say she hates them. She hates peeing in them. I can see how they'd help a baby potty train quicker because she is PISSED - no pun intended - when she is wet. She flips out, and we can really feel how wet they are. It makes a huge difference. Here she is, kicking it in a pre-fold. I was calling her a diaper hipster:

I do a load of diapers about every other day or every day, depending on how she's pooping. She's a shitting machine. Stella has AT LEAST a shart with every diaper change and she poops a good, whopping poop about 2 times a day. I keep hoping she'll slow down soon since everyone says that breastfed babies poop less often. She also has a knack for peeing during a diaper change. We really hate it when that happens at night. 

As far as how she's progressing, she's doing well. We bought her some more toys - namely rattles and a play gym. The gym is great for tummy time, and she's getting really close to rolling over from front to back. She's SO close, but she seems to get really frustrated. 

She likes to bat the dangling toys. She seems to use her left hand more than her right.  

She can raise her head pretty well, nearly 90 degrees, and she definitely gets her chest off the ground for a few seconds. Here you can see her back in this picture. Derek and I always call her our little Shar-Pei :) 

Maggie likes to preside over playtime and feedings. I was telling Derek earlier that she's my "lactation consultant" since she hangs out with us so much during feedings. She's really become interested in Stella lately. Iggy still could not care less about Stella. 

Here she is in her crib. She sleeps in her crib a lot during the day. We probably won't try sleeping overnight in the crib until she's about 4 months old or so. I'm so proud of her that she slept in her bassinet last night! 

I was trying to peek to catch her being rotten!

Still using these magic things. Swaddling blankets are amazing. She hulks out of them a lot, though. This morning, I walked over to her bassinet and she had one arm swinging around. We think she looks like a loaf in them, haha.

She moves so much! She's such a little wiggle worm. You can see how blurry her hand is in this picture and she just worms around all over. 

She's very expressive. She's also making a lot of vowel sounds. We're always joking around saying, "Ay, ay" to each other since Stella seems to say that a lot. 

If you can't tell, she wears a diaper a lot since we do so many wardrobe changes - she had on 5 different outfits the other day! - and it gets really hot here. I get really cold, so I often turn our air off or way up to around 75 degrees. I think it makes Stella hot (I know it drives Derek crazy) so I let her hang out in a diaper to keep her from getting pissed. Anyway, I'll post more after her appointment on Wednesday and I'll definitely post some pictures from her baptism next Sunday. I'm really excited for Stella to meet her godparents, Emily and Marcus! 

Fun Pictures

I thought I should update on Stella with some fun pictures :) I've been trying to make a better effort of actually "dressing" her up - not just putting her in a sleeper or some goofy outfit that I cook up. I bought her some summer dresses from Carter's, and they seem to be perfect. She often gets uncomfortable or hot in more stuffy things, so these work out well. It's already summer weather here - in the 80s and nearly 90 on a couple days! Anyway, here's our girl. We weighed her the other day, and she was almost 11 lbs. She was 10lbs 14 oz. I imagine if we weighed her today, she'd be right at 11. She's such a chunk! 

She has a knack for getting pissed every time I try to take a picture of her... 

Rotten! 

She has a renewed interest in the swing. I changed the direction on it, and it seems to make her happy again. Thank goodness. That "I hate my swing" phase was hard! I couldn't put her anywhere! 

We got her all dolled up to go visit our friends Kerry and Chris in Savannah. She had never really been out like that, and it was her longest time away from home. She did okay, but definitely got fussy. I felt so bad that I spent most of our time there trying to console her, and Kerry and Chris barely got to hold her! :( 

My favorite :) She makes the funniest faces at me, and I seem to make her laugh and smile a lot. 

Here you can get an idea for how long she is... she's a doozy! I can't believe how big she is. She was so teeny when we brought her home. Now, she sprawls across me when I feed her. I'm always joking that she's my toddler sized infant... haha 

She's always fascinated by Derek. I think his beard and tattoos make him really interesting! 

They like to hang out together :) 

Anyway, we're working on the headbands thing. I'm not pushing hats with her because it's so hot here. She'd probably melt if I put a hat on her right now. She gets hot really easily, and I'm often cold and she'll be warm. I think she gets that from Derek since he's very hot natured. She's still hating her car seat. She screamed pretty much the entire drive to Kerry and Chris's house last night... weew. Not a pleasant car ride. We stopped midway to try and console her. 

Oh, and she officially ruined another onesie yesterday. We didn't get a picture, but man oh man... what a blow out! I'm sure she's going to hate me for sharing all of this someday :) 

Well, there's a quick update on our adorable girl :) I just love her! 

Six Weeks!

Holy smokes! Time flies! I can't believe our girl is six weeks old today! I also can't believe I had my six weeks postpartum check up either. I checked out all healthy and everything is healing normally. I was really worried about that because I had stopped bleeding (tmi, I know) at 3 and a half weeks, and I went for a run last week and came back to a bunch of spotting. I was so scared that I hadn't ran since. 


Well, all is well! I'm only 5 lbs from my initial OB weigh in back on Aug 23. I was so happy about that! I've still got about 8 lbs to go to be at my true prepregnancy weight since I gained a little before my first appointment at 7 weeks. I'd like to lose about 10-15, though. Anyway, enough about me!


Derek and Stella came along to the appointment. Derek drove separately since he had to go to work afterward. Stella was quite popular in the office. Some of you may have seen this picture on Facebook, but here she is, all ready to go:

I just can't believe she's already six weeks old! Derek and I weighed her last night, and she weighed 10lbs 2oz. She's definitely getting bigger, and she is so heavy compared to the teeny weeny baby that we brought home. She's also getting so much more alert and we do playtime every day. Here she is, letting me know that playtime is over (i.e. she's pissed):

I like to play music for her. So far she seems to enjoy Fleet Foxes, Datarock, and Death Cab for Cutie. She does not like Beastie Boys so much, so no one tell her that I already bought her a Beastie Boys onesie... Here's a video of her having fun:

She's also sleeping so well anymore. It's weird! We have a nighttime routine that looks something like this:

620 or so: Mom and Dad eat dinner (Stella usually interrupts for her meal)

645: Stella eats

700: Stella gets a bath - She LOVES bath time! Derek and I always bathe her together. It's sort of our big evening event, haha.

730: Stella nurses again 

745 or so: Stella naps 

830: Stella wakes up pissed and fusses 

915: Stella nurses

930: Stella's in bed

That's sort of the gist of it, and there's some deviation of this schedule that happens every night, often more fussing. She stays asleep, generally, until about 145-2am. We do a fast diaper change and she eats. She falls asleep and stays that way until about 530-6. I'm always amazed because I feel like this is too much sleep for a six weeks old baby. My mom and Derek keep telling me not to worry about it. 

Some of her favorite activities include: bath time; tummy time (she always grunts and farts!); looking at her books - she likes high contrast images like zebras and penguins and she laughs at those the most. I always joke and say that if Stella were on facebook, she'd "like" nursing. This is her favorite, and no, she won't take a pacifier anymore. She only wants the boob. 

Things she hates: being in her carseat; walks; bottles; pacifiers; her bassinet; headbands and hats. Oh, and being dressed. She HATES having anything pulled over her head. She really does have Derek's head, so I can understand why this is traumatic for her. 

However, I do like dressing her, and one of my favorite activities (for myself) is to see what wacky outfit I can come up with - like this one:

I love Babylegs - baby leg warmers! I kept singing, "Let's get physical, physical!" to her :) 

We're still co-sleeping, and I honestly really like it. It makes feeding her much easier. Sometimes, we just side-latch it and she just falls asleep after she's finished eating. We're still using the nipple shields, but we're working on it. Every day, I have her eat at least once without it. She gets pissed, but we're slowly getting better. In fact, she just did a feeding without it, and now that she's bigger and her tongue tie is gone, it doesn't hurt me at all.

Anyway, Stella is a doing great. She has her two months check up with Dr. DeMauro on June 1st. I hope her gooey butter eye clears up before then. I've been using the antibiotic drops and cleaning it, but the left eye just can't seem to shake it. The right eye is all cleared up. If it's not totally better by then, I plan to bring it up at her appointment. Dr. Kreh said it could take months, so I'm trying to not be a total spaz about it. 

Oh, and Stella's baptism is scheduled for June 5th at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist just after the 8am mass. Her godparents, Emily and Marcus, are flying in from Minneapolis to be here for it. I'm looking forward to her meeting them! :) We hope that Derek's grandparents will make it for that as well, so she'll hopefully get to meet her great grandma and great grandpa! 

Mother's Day

Honestly, if you asked me this time last year if I'd be celebrating Mother's Day this year, I would have told you that you were crazy. It's still kind of hard to believe! We didn't decide until July to try to have a baby, and we were so lucky to have success from the start :) I know a lot of people really struggle with that, and we were so, so fortunate to have no problems at all. Anyway, I can't believe it - it's my first "official" day of celebrating being a mom! 


To celebrate via blog, I'll just share some reflections/ramblings on motherhood. It has honestly been so much more fun and natural than I ever expected. I was never interested in dolls or babies as a child or teen, and when Derek and I first married, I wasn't entirely sure I ever wanted children. That quickly faded ;) Obviously. Now that I have Stella, I can honestly say that she's the absolute love of my life. That should go without saying but after spending nearly six weeks watching day time television, I realize that it's not. 


I was always one of those people who would get grossed out really easily. Derek would stick his finger in his nose to make me scream and he'd chase after me, sticking his finger in his belly button just make me heave (I have an outie, and innie belly buttons always gross me out). Yesterday, I was spit up on so many times that I lost count, and I had to make serious wardrobe changes multiple times. She also was sitting on my lap and made the funniest face yesterday when all of sudden she let out the biggest shit I'd ever heard. I laughed and Derek was cracking up, but then I looked at her back. It was all the way up to her shoulders and all over my legs. I was like, "Derek... we have a serious one." We both dropped everything and went in for a double teamed diaper change. Derek was joking about needing his NBC suit from the Army. Weew, it was a doozy. 


The point in me telling you all of this? Well, I never dreamed that I'd be totally comfortable with being pooped, peed, and puked on, and it honestly doesn't phase me at all. I also never dreamed when Derek and I were dating that I'd be okay with spending my Saturday nights, laying on the floor with him and Stella in the nursery, playing music and looking at baby books. I am, though. I'm more than comfortable. It's the most wonderful feeling to spend time with her and Derek, looking at her cute toes and seeing her smile. Yes, she is officially smiling and giggling now. It's so stinking cute. Being a mom is the most wonderful experience in the entire world. 


My day so far has been great. Derek offered to either go to breakfast or make me pancakes this morning. I thought that getting out of the house would be nice, so we went to IHOP. Well, Stella woke up rather hungry as they sat down my strawberry banana pancakes, so I had to leave with her for the car. Derek asked for my food to be to go, and he came out a few minutes later. I thought to myself, "What better way to spend Mother's Day than to just be a mother?" I sort of laughed as I sat in the car, nursing Stella, as I watched all of these old ladies waddle into IHOP. Part of me wanted to say, "Hey, asshole, look who's in the shit! I'm getting my mom on right now!" The other part thought that I'm thankful that I'm right where I am. Someday, Stella will be an adult and I'll (Lord willing) be one of those old ladies, and I'll miss the days of diaper changes and clusterfeeding in the middle of the night. I've already developed a nostalgia for her newborn clothes that don't fit, and I teared up the other day when Derek and I were cleaning out her drawers and he pulled out the little white shirt that she wore in the hospital. In fact, I'm tearing up as I type this. Being a mom has made me a sap! 


I guess the point of all of this rambling is just to say that I'm so thankful that I have her and I can't say enough how much I love her. I know she's not able to go buy me flowers or give me a card, but I know that she loves me when it's just us together during the day and she's been crying and she just wants me to rock her. She's adorable, fun, and sweet, and I love spending all of my day with her :) I hope that in the years to come that I'm the mother she deserves, and God knows I'm going to try my hardest. To end with a joke, I asked her this morning when we woke up if she had my Mother's Day present in her diaper, haha. You know me - I couldn't end being all sappy :P


Cheers to motherhood and having the cutest and best baby in the entire world :) And, happy Mother's Day to all mothers, grandmothers (sorry if I was hating on ya'll at IHOP), expectant mothers, and those who wish to be mothers. And, I have to give props to Derek. When I get tired or I've been dealing with the night fussies, he's always there to help. He's still the master of the diaper change, and I think I may start timing him for sport. He's amazing.  Simply amazing, and I'm so fortunate to have him. Well, shit. I did end being all sappy, haha. 

Cloth Diapers

As our five week old daughter sits in her swing, grunting and farting while asleep, I thought I'd take a moment to share what we've learned so far with cloth diapers. Let me preface this post with this: I think anyone can do cloth diapers. I think they're great, and they're much easier than you'd expect. 


First and foremost, the brand/style matters. We had heard that you should purchase multiple kinds because different styles suit different babies better. Also, as the baby grows, he or she may end up doing better in a diaper that was formerly a piece of shit. Oh, and you gotta have plenty of wet bags. We have three. I plan to get more, too. Wet bags are priceless. (And if you don't know what a wet bag is, just imagine what it sounds like ;) It holds "wet" things). We have several pre-fold diapers (with Snappis) but Stella is WAY too small for those yet. We also have gDiapers, GroVia, Fuzzibunz, Econobum, and some covers by Swaddlebees. Thus far, these are our favorite cloth diapers:


1) GroVia - https://www.gro-via.com/ : we love these. They come in different styles, and you can use all in ones - which are great but once they're dirty, they're dirty. You have to use another. We use the hybrid diapers a lot, and they're fabulous. The hybrids are definitely our favorite. The hybrid diaper does not leak - unlike other brands like gDiapers - and they're durable and can take a heavy pee pee or a blow out shit. Best part of all: you can flush the insert! No stinky baby poo mess! 


2) Fuzzibunz - http://www.fuzzibunz.com/ : these are awesome. They're all in ones, and they're soooo soft - literally, fuzzy. They really catch the pee pee and they hold up well for craps, too. They handle the gooey poo really well, and they always come very, very clean. They fit Stella well since they aren't a "one size fits all" kind of diaper. However, that makes them more expensive than the GroVia diapers which can grow with Stella. 


The grow with the baby feature is really nice since it saves A LOT of money; however, it does make for one big ass diaper right now. Stella is small, so maybe our girl is the exception. It's very annoying, though, to have this enormous diaper on such a small baby. She looks like she has ghetto booty and most of her clothes fit funny when she wears them. I know they'll pay off in the end, though.


Anyway, that's my bit about cloth diapers. I wash them on the deep clean/sanitize cycle in our washer with a bit of Dreft and then dry them. Sometimes they take a VERY long time to dry, so I hang dry them to be a little more environmentally friendly. They always come super clean, so it's nice to feel like I'm putting a fresh diaper on her.


Stella doesn't mind them at all. In fact, she doesn't show any opinion at this point. We still use disposable at night since she had the monkey butt there for a few days and we didn't want it to get worse. It's all cleared up now (thank you, Desitin), but we don't want it coming back. We also like the disposable diapers at night since we do so many changes. Once she slows it down to only one change a night, we'll swap over to all cloth, all the time. 


Well, I'll end with a picture of our sweet girl rocking out in one of them:

That's a Fuzzibunz in Buttercream. She's too stinking cute! :) 

I encourage everyone to use them. They save a lot of money, and we only buy a 44 pack of disposable diapers every so often. It also allows us to buy better disposable diapers, too, since we buy them less frequently. We don't have to do any of that crazy bulk-buying stuff. Check out CottonBabies.com for purchasing. It's a great website with lots of great deals. ;)

One month old!

So Miss Stella Mae is officially one month old today. I know her ticker says 1 month and 1 day, but I think it's confused. April only has 30 days, and she was born on the 31st. 


I can honestly say that I can't believe one month has passed since she was born. Every day flies by and she keeps us both so busy. I thought I'd share some fun pictures of our adorable little piglet enjoying her one month "birthday." :)

Kickin' it on our bed - she's in a pretty good mood here 

I asked Derek to take a picture of us together. I never get pictures of her with me since I'm the one always running around with the camera :)

Going for a walk - she took them off promptly after the picture was over... 

Thanks Uncle Barry, Aunt Laura, and Cousins Rachael and Gwen for the awesome cloth diapers! We're using cloth diapers during the day now. Disposable at night since she gets pissed pretty easily at night if the change takes too long. Pisses me off, too. Also, she's developed a bit of diaper rash (aka Monkey Butt, in our house), so we don't want her to sit on it too long with the cloth diapers. Cloth diapers are actually known for being bad with diaper rash. 

Anyway, things are great with Stella. Her eyes - the clogged tear ducts - still get a little gooey from time to time. We call it her gooey butter eye. I hope it clears up soon. The pediatrician said it could last a couple months, and it makes me really sad to see how icky it gets. It doesn't do it every day, though, so that's at least good. Otherwise, she's just a chunky little baby, getting chubbier every day. We weighed her again, and it's still clocking at around 9 and a half lbs. She had a cloth diaper on so we aren't totally sure of the exact weight. I'm scared to weigh her without a diaper on since she may blow ass all over the scale and cause a huge mess. 

Her hair seems to be getting longer, at least in the back. I love how fuzzy her head is :) She still hates anything on her head, too. No hats, no headbands. She hates them all equally. 

Oh, and a big thank you to our awesome friends Kerry and Chris for making us dinner last night and bringing it to us. It was like magic having some of Chris's delicious chef-awesomeness. :) Well, she's getting grumpy because she's hungry ;)

Yay for one month with our Pig! :) 

4 weeks old and packing on the pounds!

So our infant scale arrived, and I finally weighed Stella today. Now, she was wearing a diaper and sleeper, but she weighed in at 9lbs 8oz. I was like - woah! I expected her to be in the 8lbs range, but she totally exceeded that.


She's definitely getting chunkier and she's now wearing 0-3 months clothing. She's wearing size 1 diapers finally, and we're transitioning to cloth diapers/hybrid diapers. We have to be careful with those since she often has blow outs in them. They aren't really well designed for gooey poop, so we try to use them for a while until she gets poop everywhere. Once her pooping slow downs and eventually becomes more solid, we'll be money with those.


Derek and I both swear that she seems like she has for real smiled on a couple occasions. We do something - like Derek likes to say "blop!" in a high pitched voice and touch her nose - and she starts making this funny face at us. Maybe we're reading too much into it. It's super cute regardless :) 


We're doing well overall. We visited Derek at work and we went upstairs to visit my office. She did great until it was time to leave and she decided she didn't want to be in her car seat anymore. She now officially hates her car seat and hates her swing. She actually likes her bouncy chair now, and she loves cruising around with Mom or Dad in the Moby Wrap or sling. She's actually in the sling asleep as I'm typing...


She does about 10 feedings a day, and she's still clusterfeeding in the evenings. We're exclusively using the nipple shield now and no longer pumping. I may pump before I run this weekend, just for my own comfort. 


Things are going great, and she has her fussy moments but what 4 week old baby doesn't? Derek and I both think she's very alert. I read to her and I sing to her a lot. I like to play Fleet Foxes for her, and she seems to really like it. :) Truly my daughter... 


We may try going to mass this weekend since it won't be crazy busy like Easter. I'm not sure, though, since we'll need to see how her mood is. Derek is back to work full-time now, and we miss him a lot during the day. I like to send pictures of her doing something cute to his work email ;) Anyway, I better go finish up this laundry while she's still sleeping. I'll end with some fun pictures of her :)

This is one of my favorite shirts!

I think she looks a lot like Derek here :) 

Actually using the bouncy chair! I was so happy! Usually she screams as soon as I put her in it.

Oh, and we owe a big shout out thank you to The Gemperlines in Indiana - thank you for the gifts! - and The Gemperlines in Lancaster - thank you SO much for the cloth diapers!! :) And my super sweet friend Jessica sent us a bonnet for Stella's baptism - so sweet - thank you so much! :) 

3 weeks old, Easter, and a medley of other topics

Our little snugglebunches is officially three weeks old, and she's changed so much in such a short amount of time. One of the biggest differences is her size - she's so much heavier! 


We received a very kind gift from one my mom's friends  - a gift card to Wal-Mart - so we decided to order an infant scale to keep track of Stella's weight gain. I'm certain she's over 8 lbs right now, but not by how much. As soon as our scale arrives, I'll update everyone. She's such a piglet! When we took her for her 2 week check up with Dr. DeMauro, he asked, "Have you been supplementing?" We said no and that she nurses and I pump. I guess she's gaining a lot for where she's at. As for the supplementing, we've had to do that a couple occasions since then.


One night, she just kept eating and getting pissed off, and we couldn't figure out why. I tried pumping thinking she wasn't getting any milk, and I was totally empty. She was starving, and I didn't know what else to do. We gave her some of the hospital-grade formula, and I was really upset about it. I don't want her to take formula, but I figured I needed to get over it because she was hungry. We had to do it again last night because she did that again. I don't know if it's my supply or just maybe her appetite, but it's really upsetting when it happens. 


I feel like a terrible mother for not being able to give her the food she needs, but Derek's always the practical one and talks me out of being upset. It's only happened a couple times, and I'm hoping that we can get through some of this clusterfeeding and she'll even out. I hate it that it has happened, though. Really makes me hate myself.


Anyway, on to positive news! I am now running again! Woo hoo! I know this is Stella's blog, but I have to say that I've been running again and I'm very happy about it. Now, I'm not fast, but hey, I hadn't ran since I was 20 weeks pregnant. I had a baby three weeks ago, so go me. haha! 


On to Easter: now, we didn't go to mass today. I know - holy day of obligation - but I didn't feel comfortable taking Stella to a packed church and having her around a bunch of old people who sneeze and cough repeatedly through mass. We decided to stay home and introduce her to church when it's a little calmer. Easter is a busy day, and our church is packed every weekend so I don't want to know what mass was like this morning. Probably standing room only. Either way, sorry for no Easter dress pictures and all that. I want to keep her away from crowds to keep her healthy. 


And finally, we'll end with some pictures. She's grunting - meaning she's waking up - so I need to make this snappy. Here are some fun pictures of her yesterday:

She's getting very expressive and we've wondered if she's smiled for real on a couple occasions. She's always doing something cute with Derek. Although, this morning he was changing her and she pooped all over him. Oh, and she peed on him on the other day when he was bathing her... so almost always doing something cute. ;) 

Update on the Angry Baby

I only have time for a super fast update, but I can say that Derek, Stella, and I slept for a grand total of 7 hours last night! It was magic! Here's what we did:


Around 7pm: I pumped and fed her
Around 8pm: She was upset and crying. We laid her on her tummy and she repeatedly grunted and farted for a while. 
Around 9pm: I pumped and fed her
Around 9:30 pm: She wanted to nurse, so I let her nurse until she fell asleep
Around 10pm: She fell asleep
Around 11pm: She woke up. I pumped and fed her. She fell asleep.
Around 2am: She woke up hungry. Derek changed her while I pumped. Then, we fed her.
Around 3am: She's back to sleep!
Around 6:30 am: She's up and ready to eat. Derek changed her while I pumped. We fed her again.
Around 7am: She and I fall asleep while Derek plays chess.
At 9am: we all get out of bed. 


Magic! It's amazing what a difference that made! Now, to appreciate the difference, here's the previous night:


8pm: Stella screams
6am: Stella goes to bed.


Pretty much it.


So, I think the pumping makes sure she gets enough to eat and the nipple shield lets her nurse when she wants to nurse for comfort. Overall, we're all much happier today. She's now post-bath snoozing in her swing.


She did have a small fussy period from 8pm to 10pm, but I'm kinda thinking it's because I had some caffeine. Dr. DeMauro says that my diet doesn't affect her, but everything I'm reading says it does. I'm going to cut out caffeine today and see if it eliminates the night fussies. I don't mind a couple hours of fussiness - that's to be expected. Screaming throughout the night is not normal. I'm glad we resolved the issue pretty quickly.


Yay for happy babies!