Lots of Updates - Plus BIG NEWS!!!!

I'll start off with the big news - I'm pregnant again!!!! We're so excited and are so looking forward to a new baby. I'm thrilled that Ariella will have a sibling. Baby 2.0 is due on 12/25/11!

Once I was pregnant, my milk supply plummeted. We hung on with breastfeeding in the morning and at night for as long as we could. Then, we reduced to only in the morning. Then, only once every couple of days. And, now I'm totally dried up. I didn't intend to wean, but I figured there was no point in trying to increase my supply. Some women just lose supply when they get pregnant (a lot don't, but some do, and I was apparently one that did). I'm thrilled with how well we did with breastfeeding - made it to 14 1/2 months! And, I didn't have to deal with any engorgement at all with weaning.

Last Friday, I transitioned Ariella from the bottle to sippy cups for her milk. She's getting the evaporated organic goat's milk (which is supposedly closer to breast milk and has fewer hormones in it).

Ariella has also been sleeping much better. I don't dare call it yet, but the past 3 nights she has completely been sleeping through the night - 6am, 4am, 6:30am this morning. She hasn't been waking up at 2am - yay for me (especially since I really need my sleep now in this first trimester).

Ariella now has 5 teeth - her bottom 2 front teeth at Halloween, her top 2 front teeth several weeks ago, and 1 bottom tooth to the right of her front ones this past weekend. Only the bottom 2 front teeth are all the way in. The others are still coming in.

Last Saturday I restarted Ariella in her MyGym classes. I'll take her on Saturdays at 9:15am now. Her first class back she was a bit overwhelmed. She clung to me quite a bit and was sort of in awe of all the other babies. The age range is 14 months to 2 1/2 years, so she's the youngest one, and the only non-walker. I kind of wish she had been more in the middle age-wise, but she still had a ton of fun. After a while, she really got into some of the activities, and she crawled all over the place, and pulled up and such.

Speaking of crawling, have I mentioned that she can finally crawl!!! She crawls and then when she's about 2 feet short of where she wants to go, she switches to her sitting scoot. She is too cute. She's also pulling up on everything, and she loves emptying out mommy and daddy's clothes from the drawers.

So, that's the scoop - lots of new things here lately.

Finally Free from the Pump!!!

Last Thursday was my last pump at work!!! It's very freeing to have retired the pump. Ariella's still nursing in the morning and before dinner, so we'll see how long she'll keep going. I'm thrilled that we've made it past 14 months. My supply has dropped quite a bit, but I still seem to have enough for the 2 nursing sessions. She seems to especially like the morning nursing session. I suspect she'll keep that one the longest.

For her other milk, she's been drinking warm organic goat's milk. It took a little adjustment for her (I tried both goat's and cow's milk, both warm and cold. She didn't really like either at first.) But, after a couple of days she's doing great! Next step, switching from the bottle to the sippy cup! I'll probably give her another couple of weeks and will switch her over then. I don't want to do too many changes at once.

Ariella Weighs...

22.4lbs! And, how do I know this? I weighed her on the scale at the veterinarian office when we took our dogs last night for their yearly appointments! Tyree gave me a look like I was crazy when I said I should weigh her and said something like, "should you be doing that?" But, the tech chimed right in that it was totally fine. :-)

Ariella was a total charmer, and had all the techs and even the vet fawning over her. When we were waiting to pay, Ariella kept looking at this big cream-colored cat laying on the counter. She started babbling, and they were all convinced she was saying "kitty!" over and over. (In reality she was just saying "gee gee gee gee", but still I'm thrilled she's actually really babbling more. She's also started doing "duh duh duh duh" and "dee dee dee", etc.) But, I just went with it. Who knows? Maybe she really was referring to the cat.

She's been babbling a little bit, but lately she's the little chatterbox, so that's made me really happy. It's fun hearing her "talk" rather than screaming or just lots of "aahhs" or "eat", "ate". I'm glad she's doing the consonant first now. She really is starting to progress quickly. Just this weekend she stood without holding onto anything in her pack and play for 1-2 seconds, and she took a full step from one side to the cati-corner side.

Our poor dogs, though. They're never the center of attention anymore. Oh well. I guess that happens when you have a baby. :-)

Sitting Up Instead of Going to Sleep!

I was so excited when Ariella finally started sitting up from laying down and then pulling up. She's even starting a little bit of cruising now. BUT! She won't fall asleep in her crib anymore! I used to put her in her crib awake. I'd sing to her for a bit or play her seahorse music toy, maybe rubbing her back a bit. She'd usually settle down within 5 minutes and go to sleep.

She won't do that anymore, though! I lay her down and before I even get myself fully standing straight up again, she's sitting up! Last night I was up with her for 30 minutes, singing, rocking, continually laying her back down, trying to keep her laying down by holding her down with one hand and then rubbing her back with the other. No luck.

So, I figured I should try to leave her there by herself to setting down. Nope! The child was screaming for 20 minutes! So, I went and got her, put her in her swing, and she was out like a light within like 30 second! I know it's just a phase because of learning all of these new skills, but it's really getting difficult for me without getting a decent night's sleep. Also, when she wakes in the middle of the night, she can't go back to sleep anymore either because she sits up. Aaahhhh!!! Tired mommy here.

Milestones! Pulling Up!

2 weeks ago I posted about Ariella learning how to get herself from laying down to sitting. Well, Sunday night she learned how to pull up!!! We were playing over by the steps. I had some toys and cheerios a couple of steps up. I got on my hands and knees and then I put my hands 1 at a time on the bottom step, saying "Up Up!" She joined in and copied me! She only did it that 1 time that morning, so in the afternoon I had her trying it again. I had to help her some, but she did it a couple of times on her own.

Then, we moved her over to try by the sofa to get to my ipad to play a game while standing at the side of the sofa. She pulled right up! We couldn't get her to do it again, though.

So, then Sunday night I took her back to the steps. She pulled up a ton of times! She made it a game to stand up and then sort of try to stand without holding on. She would plop down on her tushy, and I would say "Whee! Boom!". I moved her over to the sofa, and she did it there, too - not even to get to a toy, just to do it so she could fall back to sitting and try again! Then, I brought her over to her toy where she can stand and play, and she got right up! I even got video of her pulling up to that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SoXL9Pu6K8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Yesterday my mother in law said that she was able to pull up several times during the day on both the steps and the sofa. And, last night she pulled up on all 3 places that we've been practicing. It wasn't effortless for her. She had several attempts where she didn't make it up. But, I'll bet after some more days of practice she'll be able to do it every time.

I'm very excited! This is huge progress for her!

Zombie Day

Tyree has been on vacation this week, so he and his mom have been taking care of Ariella. Yesterday Ariella didn't take an afternoon nap, and she was overtired when I got home a little after 6pm. I got her to sleep right away, since I knew she was tired. She stirred around 7:30pm, which excited me. I figured I'd nurse her, get her some dinner, and then she'd probably get back to sleep around her normal bedtime.

Wrong! She nursed both sides, but then she was back asleep! So, I put her to bed for the night, skipping her dinner. She woke up around 12:45am, so I nursed her. But, then she didn't go back to sleep. I was up for maybe a couple of hours with her trying to get her back to sleep. Then, she woke again for the morning around 6:30am. Zombie day for me today.

I told Tyree to make sure she had an afternoon nap today. Apparently, his mom was to blame for this one. Tyree said he had put Ariella in her swing to take a nap, but his mom stayed in the room watching her (so of course she wasn't going to go to sleep) then within only a couple of minutes his mom had taken her out to play because she said Ariella held her hands up to her! Sigh.... Need sleep!!!! But, I'm stuck at work.

Bouncing off the wall!

Ariella was soooo active when I got home from work last night. Tyree was home yesterday on vacation, and they apparently came up with a new game - tumblesets on the bed! She would be sitting on the bed and would put her head down (as if she were about to do a tumbleset forward). Tyree would pick her up and flip her over! She got so excited!!! She just wanted to be thrown in the air or held upside down, pretty much the whole night! I asked him twice if he or his mom had given her sugar, but he said no. She was just sooo cute, though.

And, she started saying more "words" that started with consonants - baaa! daaa! This was new because she had normally been saying things that started with vowels - eat! ate! I wonder if the new Baby Babble video that I bought for her is making a difference. It was created by speech pathologists to encourage speech in babies. Maybe it's helping. :-)