Neglecting my duties

I've been neglecting my blog =/ I apologize. *sigh* It seems life always gets in the way of my good intentions.

What to update on? Lets see....

Turtle-Love is doing well. We are introducing one new food a week. He has had rice cereal, peas, avocados, and sweet potatoes. We will be trying out carrots next. I've made his baby food twice (avocados and sweet potatoes) and it went well enough with my mini food processor. I put the food in the snappi containers the hospital sent us home with to pump milk into. I'm afraid to use them for milk because I watched a girl drop one in the NICU and the top popped open and the milk went everywhere. I'll stick to screw on lids, thanks.

Turtle-Love is gliding across the kitchen floor in his walker and thoroughly enjoys it. He has gotten a bit tired of the jumper at the moment, but has finally figured out how to make the piano play on his own (with his elbow). We've recently realized he needs new, more age appropriate, toys - all of our toys are for around 3 months. Turtle-Love is around7 1/2 months now - its time for an upgrade. We are looking for good deals and while I'd rather go with all wooden toys the fact of the matter is Turtle-Love gets very excited about the ones that make noise and light up (of course) and wooden toys are pretty pricey (of course) so I'm hoping for a healthy mix.

My milk supply has either increased, or I've become more efficient at pumping. I switched to pumping every three hours at work per the lactation consultant's suggestion, which works out okay. Either way - I'm no longer worried or anxious that he isn't getting enough. I bought my firrst nursing top yesterday. It was cute - only $27 (only?! uhhhh, that is a lot of money for a shirt!) which is great compared to some others I have seen. It even has a bit of my personality to it - a little punkish if you will. I've gone 7 months without a nursing shirt, I should be able to go through the end of nursing without one but I'm tired of layering in the summer! The heat index has been in the 110's!

I've also started weight watchers. Toad has too - we both have a wedding to look nice for. Also, we generally need to be in better shape and have better eating habits if we are ever going to expect Turtle-Love to eat healthfully. So far so good, I feel good knowing I'm not just eating junk, and I've been trying new veggies and cooking too. Yum!

We found a great deal on suits for the guys for the wedding. Our wedding isn't a super formal occasion, but it isn't a jeans kind of affair either. The guys will be wearing three piece suits - which Toad happens to look amazing in. I'm very excited. I think I've made a decision about the bridesmaids shoes - but it isn't 100% yet. I'm pretty indecisive, it's myself proclaimed worst attribute. Anyhow, if my decision holds there will be many shocked, and possibly disappointed people. *shrug* I haven't decided, I know the day is about what WE want, and this is what Toad wants. I'm just having trouble with it.

Turtle-Love's baptism is in 2 1/2 weeks. I'm very excited! We've received his gown and are on the hunt for shoes that he might wear with it. If not, oh well. We have our baptismal prep class this Saturday, and then we will need to start making his candle as well. Invitations have gone out but I haven't heard from many people. I hope there is a decent turn out - this is an important event to us and we would like to share it with as many people as they are willing.


Mama MoMo and I are still working on getting our little cloth diaper project running. we have had some great ideas but there is more to be discussed. Hopefully this weekend - after the baptismal prep class - I'll get to sit with her and chat. I missed last Saturday at the Snap, which always sucks to miss because I look forward to it so much all week.

Speaking of cloth diapers, Turtle-Love is outgrowing some of his. We have 5 fitteds that are approaching too snug, and two Lil' Joeys that he has out grown. We have a size small BottomBumpers that the rise is getting low on too, even though the waist is of course fine - my little bean stalk, lol. Toad and I are discussing the possibility of purchasing a few more diapers to replace them in our stash - the number we have in rotation now is fine while we still have disposables for laundry day but we have decided once we have used them all (soon) we will be full time in cloth so we will need an extra days worth of diapers at least. I would love to get a hold of some itti bittis, more AppleCheeks, and a few other diapers I've been eying for a while now. It is just a matter of making the financial commitment. I'm trying to get away from microfiber though. It seems they always produce an oder, even a minute one. I've "rocked a soak" a few times (actually I try to soak over night every other wash) but maybe I should use some funk rock or strip them. There is a woman here local that makes inserts from zorb that I'm like to try. Again, these things require financial commitments and we are already tight. We can make do without the extra diapers I think - but I'm not sure I want to try. I'll have to overview our budget and see what we need to do. It is just so hard to resist buying the adorable diapers!!!

Baby, work, wedding...

Just a few topics I wanted to write about briefly while Turtle-Love naps...

Nursing to sleep. Does anyone else pretty much HAVE to nurse their child to sleep?? Turtle-Love refuses to sleep for me without the boobie. He was refusing to sleep without me holding him, but we are working on that and doing pretty well. I'm thinking that was just a phase. However, nursing to sleep does NOT seem to be a phase. It doesn't matter how tired he is - he will NOT go to sleep with out the boobie. Unless I'm not home. Not just in the other room, but actually gone. Then apparently he will go to sleep. And SOMETIMES in his car seat, if he is stuffed to the gills.

TV time What is your policy on TV time for your infant? Sure, Turtle-Love has inadvertantly watched some NCIS with me, but today I actually decided to put him in his bouncey seat with a Baby Einstein video. He is about 24 weeks old. Bad? Okay? Good? Who knows. I guess as far as TV goes, Baby Einstein is definitely the lesser of the evils. He was a good distance away from the screen. The video was Meet the Orchestra and he really seemed to enjoy it - complimented by grunts and babble =)

Starting solids Attention preemie moms but of course I would love feedback from everyone. What is your view on solids? Did you do purees? How old was your baby when you started? Preemie moms: did you wait til your child reached the appropriate adjusted age, or actual age? I'm having a bit of an internal battle with this. Turtle-Love will be 6 months in 2 weeks. He is sitting supported and has some moments of balancing upright on his own. He salivates at the table when we eat and stares hardcore at food. We have been letting him hold breads for a couple weeks but he wasn't interested in putting them in his mouth. I've spoon feed him formula supplements a couple times to see how he does with the spoon, btw he loves it and grunts and whines if I'm not fast enough. The past three times we have handed him a bread item (a biscuit, a pizza crust, a cracker) he has put them in has mouth - I made it a game and took it from him before he could ingest anything. The last thing we gave him was a cracker 2 days ago - he slobbered on it and broke a piece off. I was terrified at first, and then watched him chew it! I made it a game again, and fished it out lol. He thought it was funny. Originally, I wanted to wait until his 6 month appointment to see what the doctor said about starting him on solids - mainly because he is a preemie and I worry about his digestive system being ready. He has given me tons of signs he is ready though. I'm just not sure. I know I'd like to make my own baby food when we get to that point.

Working & babysitters I've been working from home since January. I had asked my company to let me work from home for at least 6 months, and that mark is coming up. In addition to that, one of our employees turned in her 2 week notice. So my boss has asked that I come back to the office. s2bDH has an off the wall schedule that revolves around events at the university for his "day job" and events at local music scenes for his security job. We can't count on his paycheck or his hours more than a week at a time because we never know what the schedule will be for either job. He is about ti hit a slow point in his day job, and my sister will be up for about 2 weeks so they will be home with Turtle-Love through mid June at the least. I'm now having to decide is paying for a daycare or a sitter, which is about half my take home based on the prices I've seen, is worth my job. Obviously we need the money, but if I'm putting out everything I take in AND losing time with my son, I'm just having a hard time accepting it. If we go with a daycare, or can't find a sitter that will use cloth diapers and handle breast milk (assuming I can keep my supply up) we will also have the added costs of disposable diapers and formula. I love my job, honestly I do, but this is difficult. I don't even know where to begin on choosing a place/person to care for my son.

Wedding We are less than 5 months from our wedding! Yikes! We are certainly pinching pennies right now to make sure we can save enough to cover all of our costs, but this added expense for day care is going to injure our bottom line for the wedding. I've already signed some deposits and contracts and such so we are in it regardless, its just a matter of coming up with it all, as we are hosting our wedding.