Ariella on the Trapeze!

Here's a picture of Ariella on the trapeze from her My Gym class last night. She's be doing a trapeze routine with me in no time!

Our Weekend - Moving and Swimming

This weekend was pretty full. On Saturday we helped a friend move out of her apartment. It was several hours of carrying things downstairs and onto the moving truck. We brought Ariella's exersaucer with us. She did great with that. And, we also had her reading videos for her to watch. I nursed her before we left the house, 1 time while we were out, and right when we got home. And, I fed her a jar of squash while we were driving to the new house to empty the truck. It worked very well bringing her with us, and we were still able to move a lot of things.

On Sunday, the big event was swimming! It's probably the last time we're going to be able to go before the pool is closed. But, that's ok because her swimming lessons start on the 23rd. So, it won't be too much of a gap.

Ariella still has the congestion/runny nose! The swimming helped to clear out her sinuses, and then I did the California Baby cold/flu congestion bubble bath afterwards. She was in good shape after that. But, this morning she was all stuffed up again with the runny nose and occasional cough. Sigh. How long is this going to last? Poor baby. At least she's still in excellent spirits for most of the day. Just sometimes it gets to her, and she still despises the nasal sucker thing.

Fitness and Trapeze Info

If anyone is interested in keeping up with my fitness/trapeze endeavors, I'll be posting about that in my fitness blog. I had kept extremely detailed logs in that for a couple of years, but now my life is focused on Ariella. I figure I'll post there after each trapeze class. So, if you'd like to follow along with that journey, here's the link my fitness blog:

http://joannafitness.blogspot.com/

Trapeze!

In the year or so before i had Ariella, I was heavily into fitness. I learned how to ice skate. I even took an ice hockey class after regular ice skating lessons! I was going to a rock climbing gym. I was doing weights several times a week. I did yoga and pilots at work. I trained for and ran in a 5k race. But, my main physical interest was the static trapeze - yes, like in circ de soleil. All my other activities were mainly just to help condition me for the trapeze. I took 2 sessions of classes, along with additional private lessons, and for each session, I created and performed a trapeze routine. It was a very challenging, yet exhilarating endeavor. But, of course, once I got pregnant, all of that stopped.

My husband still has his hobby. He goes to guitar lesson once a week. He also does guy's night out every so often. But, I've been in super Mommy mode, which has been great, but I really need a little "me" time. Several of my friends had told me this, but it's been so hard with scheduling time for myself, especially because of breastfeeding.

At my request,my trapeze instructor had kept me on her email list. She emailed out about an aerial choreography class on Thursdays from 5pm to 6:30pm. This is actually pretty ideal. I'll go into work a little early. I'll add an extra pumping session so that I can leave an extra bottle for Ariella, since I'll be home late those days. But, it's workable! Tyree is thrilled for me, which is great. And my instructor said she'd love to have me in that class. So, I'll be creating a new routine dedicated to Ariella. I can't wait for her to see me perform in December!

My Donated Milk Has Been Used!

I hadn't heard anything from the milk bank, so I sent them an e-mail yesterday to see if everything had gone well with the blood tests and the rest of the forms from my doctors. I got this response:

"Hello Joanna,

YES! We have everything and you should have received a donor acceptance via e-mail (sometimes it ends up in your junk folder). In fact we have processed and used your milk and it is in a baby’s tummy by now.

Thanks you so much!"

This made me so happy today. It's awesome knowing that a little NICU baby was helped by my milk!

My Gym

Last night Tyree and I took Ariella for a free trial class at My Gym in Chesterfield. She had soooo much fun. I was surprised that all the little babies in the class had both parents attend with them. It wasn't just mommies. Ariella was the youngest in the class. The next youngest was 9 months old, and then the rest were 12 months or a little older. So, she was the only non-crawler there. But, she was still able to interact with everyone, and she did pretty much everything. She loved the social aspect of it all. The class was 30 minutes, and it flew by.

We started out with circle time (sitting around in a circle), and we did some stretches (more like moving arms up and down, twisting from side to side, etc) with music and songs led by one of the instructors. It seemed like the 2 instructors were a married couple who might have been the owners.

Then, we branched out for some free play - they had a trampoline that I sat on and bounced Ariella on. There was a ball pit, which she enjoyed - especially when some of the other babies were in there with her. There were rocking horses and swings, which she had fun with.

There was this giant hollow barrel made out of padding that we put Ariella inside. I rolled it along, and she rolled inside of it. That was big fun. It was maybe 3 1/2 feet tall, so I couldn't really see her while I was rolling her, but Tyree kept telling me that she was liking it. In fact, her told me to roll it faster. Lol!

We also did some things with the instructors. The lady taught us how to help Ariella do a forward roll. As part of that, the lady played with Ariella, grabbing her feet and such. She had Ariella laughing and squealing! Several of the other parents looked and smiled at us, and some commented on how happy a baby Ariella is. Then, they had us put Ariella on her tummy on this big teeter totter like thing. The other babies crawled across it, but Ariella still had fun doing what she did.

The most surprising thing was that Ariella had her first trapeze lesson! I thought for sure that was only going to be for the older babies, but the instructor said that she could do it. We watched one of the other babies, and the instructor held her hands to the bar and swang the trapeze back and forth. It was quite impressive. I was a little scared to let her do it, thinking it was going to hurt her shoulders. The instructor held his hands over hers on the bar, while Tyree and I held her (yes, we both held onto her - Tyree under her arms and me under her butt - lol, I was a bit scared of this one). Then, we lowered her down slowly and gently and then let go. So, she was actually hanging (with the instructor holding on top of her hands)! Then, the instructor moved the bar slowly back and forth. I'm still not sure how it didn't hurt her, but she seemed to enjoy it. She had her wonderous look, like she was taking it all in.

Then, the lady instructor did a song with puppets and counting, in which Ariella was quite enthralled. It was definitely a successful night. We were able to talk with some of the parents. It was just the first time, so I'm sure that we'll get to know them better as the weeks go on. So, Monday nights will be the My Gym class, and then they have free play on Tuesday nights. We're going to that tonight, so we'll see how it goes.

There's one other interesting thing. We were talking with the mom of the 9 month old. She had quite a number of teeth! The mom said she had gotten them all in the last month or 2 and that it seemed like the teeth came emerged in pairs, and they seemed to pop in overnight. There were no teeth the night before, and then there were teeth the next morning. Well, last night I dreamed that when I woke up this morning, Ariella had a mouthful of teeth! They looked a little strange, too. Luckily, she's still toothless, though. But, that was a funny dream.

Sick!

Ariella had her first bout of being sick. Luckily, it wasn't anything serious - just a cold. I took her to the doctor's office Friday the 10th, and the pediatrician said that it was just congestion in her sinuses. Her ears looked clear, and her lungs were also clear. The pediatrician said that it was good that I brought her in, though, because a lot of times you can't tell where the congestion is without the stethoscope.

She reacted to being sick mostly by being extra tired, and she cried a little more. But, mostly she was the same happy baby - just very congested and with a cough.

The doctor said to get a cool mist humidifier and to use a saline spray up her nose and then suction it out.

Tyree and I were sick too, me more than him. I actually had almost no voice for several days!

I'm happy to say that we're all well now. I'm glad Ariella made it through her first time being sick with flying colors.