2 months

This sweet baby is 2 months old today.  I can't believe how fast time is flying.  I swear I was just in the hospital with her.  She just had her 2 month check up today, and she is growing.  11 pounds, 5 ounces.  She has gained 3 pounds since birth.  I didn't catch how long she is, but I know she is getting long because I had to change her pajamas to 3-6 month pajamas.  She hated her vaccinations, but luckily she settled down and passed out shortly after.  No more for a few months.  She is healthy and happy (most of the time).  I love my little Squeakers (my nickname for her because she squeaks so much.)  She has been smiling for a while, but now it doesn't take much to get her to smile.  Just seeing me in the morning brings about a smile.  She is so close to laughing.  I can't wait to hear her first laugh.  I love baby laughs.  My baby is getting so big!

Help!

I have a problem.  I have a few hundred ounces of breast milk in my freezer, and I am not sure the best way to move it.  The husband and I are thinking throw it in a cooler with some dry ice.  It is only an hour between here and the new place.  However, it is in the 70s and 80s here so it won't take long for the milk to warm if we don't do this correctly.  I really don't want to lose that milk.  Have any of you moved with a freezer stash of breast milk?  If so, how did you do it?

Orders

My husband has orders which means he will finally breathe a sigh of relief.  He never relaxes until he has orders.  (You know how the Navy likes to change its mind.)  We have decided to move ourselves since it is a short move.  Now here is what I don't get.  They gave him orders yesterday.  He must report by the 11th of February which is less than two weeks after receiving orders.  However, the time needed to process the paperwork for an advance on the move is 2 weeks.  Why does it take so long with the Navy?  When we moved ourselves to Florida from Kansas it took the Army just a few days to finish the paperwork, and we had money in plenty of time.  We moved one week after he received orders. I guess the Navy has its own timetable for things. We were told a house probably won't be available until the end of the month, and we paid rent to live here through the February, so we hopefully we won't have to stay in a hotel at all.  We are number 1 on the list.  I am excited to have a garage and a yard again.  No more taking the dogs out every few hours. I can open the door and tell them to go run around.  Hannah can play in the yard and I won't have to worry about her running into a parking lot.  We can walk to the store if we need something.  I am looking forward to the change.  It will be nice to live in a city again.  It is crazy to think that in a week I could be hauling boxes onto a truck and leaving Kingsville.

Finally!

The husband received a phone call today.  A wonderful phone call.  He was told that he has been approved for the switch in pipelines.  He will fly again! He was so worried that he would be denied and have to leave the Navy.  He is so relieved.  Now we can finally start working on packing.  We had talked about stuff, and purged a bit, but he was too afraid to look for a house or really get things going.  He didn't want to jinx himself.  We found out we qualify for housing which is nice since we only have one car.  Plus it is hard to find housing within our BAH that allows large dogs. Or one that the pet fee isn't outrageous.  There is an apartment complex that charges $700 for a pet.  That is insane!  All we are waiting on our orders which hopefully he will receive next week.  I am so excited for him.  He is ready to fly again.  He hasn't been in a plane since October.  If everything works out, he will be in a class with some guys he already knows and he will wing with them.  I think it would be awesome if he could wing with friends.  Let's hope he can class up soon so we can get going.  I am ready to leave Texas!

This is the P3 that he may fly once he wings

All grown up

This is a bragging post about my daughter.  Okay, maybe not bragging, but I was so darn proud of her last weekend and I wanted to share.  Last weekend my husband we decided to go to San Antonio for two days.  We wanted to take Hannah to the zoo since hasn't been to a real zoo since she was 11 months old.  She loves the aquarium in Corpus Christi so we thought she would love the zoo.  We left early Saturday morning, but after all the stops it was after 12 before we made it to the zoo. Hannah was tired,  but she was excited so she was doing okay.  I missed most of the zoo because by the time we found a parking spot, walked to the zoo, and then made it in it was time for me to pump.  That meant I had to hike it back to the car, pump, and then walk back.  By the time all that took place, Hannah was ready to melt down out of exhaustion and hunger (she didn't eat her lunch.)  We decided to leave shortly after that, she took a nap in the car, and then even took one once we made it to the hotel.  She never voluntarily goes back to sleep once you wake her up.  I was very shocked.  We ended up switching from our hotel room to a 3 bedroom duplex.  We stayed at Randolph Air Force Base, and they called to say they had one available if we wanted it.  We took it!  It was very nice to have the room to spread out.  Now, this is why I am proud of her.  My little girl, who we have had so many sleep problems with during nap time and bed time, had absolutely no problem sleeping in an unfamiliar room all by herself.  I thought for sure she would freak out at bed time and cry for one of us to sleep in the room with her.  She does that here at home in her own room if she hears a train whistle.  She chose the room she wanted to sleep in, she climbed right into the bed, and told us good night.  I think it helped that the room had a tv with a dvd player and we let her play a movie.  We don't let her watch tv if it is time to sleep, but we were hoping it would help her feel comfortable in the room.  Maybe it helped, maybe it didn't.  Either way, she slept in that room all night without an issue.  I was so dang proud of her I almost cried.  She is growing up!  I know it doesn't seem like much, but it was a huge deal to me.  Every day it seems like she is moving more toward being a kid instead of a toddler.  Now if I could just get the tantrums to stop...

(If you read this rambling mess, you deserve a cookie. :)  This is what happens when I write a post during my  4am pumping session.)

Exclusively pumping

source:  Lansinoh.com

There doesn't seem to be too much talk out there about moms who exclusively pump.  You will see many articles about breastfeeding or formula feeding, but not many go in depth about pumping to feed your baby.  I have decided to exclusively pump for Meeghan..  I did nurse while in the hospital, and for a few days at home, but I switched to pumping.  Here is where I tell my dirty little secret.  I hate breastfeeding.  I can't give you a great explanation on why I hate it, but I do.  I have inverted nipples which makes it more difficult, and I don't know if that is the reason.  Pumping is a pain since I am tied to the pump for 20 minutes every 3 hours, but it is cheaper than buying formula.  I am not against formula since that is what I used to feed Hannah for most of her infancy.  I wanted to keep pumping for Hannah, but a weekend road trip killed the desire to continue when it felt like too much trying to pump in the car.  This time around my goal is to make it to 6 months.  I have made it almost 7 weeks, and I am pretty proud of myself.  I have a few hundred ounces in the freezer which I am really proud of.  I just wish there was a bit more support for pumping.  Maybe I am not looking in the right places.  I was shocked when doctors didn't try to stop me from pumping and switch back to breastfeeding.  When I was pumping with Hannah, the nurses at the WIC office made me feel like pumping was horrible and I should stop. I understand that pumping isn't as efficient as nursing, and Meeghan isn't getting the bonding like if she were nursing, but she is still getting breast milk and isn't that what is best for her.  I will admit that when I drag myself out of bed at 3am to pump, it does seem easier to just nurse or formula feed since Meeghan is sleeping from about 11pm until 5am.  That could be 6 whole hours of sleep! Or when we went to the San Antonio zoo this weekend, I had to go back to the car to pump while the husband and Hannah enjoyed the zoo.  It has been hard.  I down so much oatmeal I feel like a horse. I pump  as often as she eats to maintain my supply.  I feel like I am tied to the pump some days, and can't get out of the house. I do, however, tell myself that it is worth it.

My piece of advice to anyone who pumps, if you want some freedom while pumping get a hands free pumping bra. I love mine!  It is not comfortable wear all day (at least for me), but it isn't too hard to change bras when it is time to pump. I love that I can still use the computer, eat, or even play with Hannah while pumping.  This is the one I use Simple Wishes Hands Free Pumping Bra:

source: diapers.com

They did not pay me to endorse their product.  I just love it that much I wanted to share it with everyone.  I didn't even know it existed when Hannah was a baby.  I am so glad I heard about it this time around.

Differences

Lately, I have begun to notice that the husband and I have very different parenting styles.  When Hannah was an infant, we had the same philosophy on how to raise her.  Now that she has turned into a very feisty toddler, our approach is very different.  For instance, he will spank and flick her on the head if she has done something wrong.  I refuse to do any of that.  If she is misbehaving I try to talk to her first while she is in time out.  He will spank and  then put her in time out.  He threatens with more spanking while I will threaten to take her favorite toy away for a day.  I can tell by our parenting styles that we were raised completely different.  I was raised by parents who did threaten to spank me, but never did.  Instead of grounding me or sending me to my room, I would have to write an essay about what I did wrong or even do community service work.  My parents didn't use traditional methods to punish me.  The husband on the other hand was hit with a belt if he did something wrong.  I have told him that it makes me uncomfortable to watch him spank her, and I would like him to stop.  He said he won't because it is the only way she will learn.  This is definitely causing a problem between the two of us.  I am not sure how to fix it.  I would say we both need to compromise, but I don't know what the middle ground would be.  Have any of you dealt with this before?  I am at a loss on how to fix it.