carrie's first pregnancy

Well, Benjamin may be growing out of his clothes like a weed, but he's not the only one with problems. I'm in a tough situation right now, as none of my pre-pregnancy clothes fit, especially for work. I was wearing a suit and jacket before I got pregnant, and my work attire is a little more casual now. When I started at my new job and gave up my suit, I was wearing strictly maternity clothes... so that's what I am back to wearing right now. However, maternity clothes make me look pregnant, which was proven when someone offered their seat to me on the Metro last week. I declined, and when she pressured me, I had to admit that I had already had my baby, and she looked embarrassed. Doh! So if that wasn't a wake up call to get new clothes and start back on Weight Watchers, I don't know what is!

It's odd, I still weigh less than I did at my highest weight, when I joined Weight Watchers the first time in 2003, but my shape is different. I have a lot of loose skin in my lower abdomen area, as the baby really stretched things out. I'm really worried that losing weight and toning up will not get rid of the squishiness... I'm sure it's partly from the c-section, and my sacrifice for having a great baby, I guess. I also seem to be storing more fat in my legs than I remembered from before, but that could be my memory just failing. I swear my shoe size also went up a half size, as all my shoes feel really tight, and I am not swollen anymore! I'm in dire need of new tennis shoes anyway (mine are sporting some sexy holes in the mesh), so I'll find out if they really did grow (which I've heard could happen as a result of pregnancy hormones). So odd!

Overall, I have about 30 lbs to lose to get back to where I was pre-pregnancy (I was 147, and I'm 176 now). So not an overwhelming number, and I'll take it 10lbs at a time. My ultimate goal is to get back into a healthy BMI, since pre-pregnancy I was still about 15 lbs overweight. So that makes 45 lbs total to lose, and seeing as how I lost 70 lbs my first go-around, I'm confident I can do 45 this time :) I got the monthly pass for Weight Watchers, and I weigh in either tomorrow at lunch or Saturday morning... I can't decide which I'd like better. Wish me luck!

In other news, my schedule with baby Benny has started being fairly consistent. He's still sleeping 6-7 hours at a stretch, but going down around 7pm. So he's awake again around 1-2am, eats and falls back asleep. Then up again at 4am, repeat, and then once more at 6am, and then he's up for good. When he wakes up for his 4am feeding, that's when I am up for the day, so that when he falls back asleep, I can walk the dog, pump, and eat breakfast, just in time for him to wake up again at 6am. I feed him and then Joe takes him at 6:30am so that I can finish getting ready for work. I leave between 7 and 7:30am, and Joe has Benny for a few hours, until he leaves for work around 11am. He's at daycare from 11am to about 5:30pm, and I get him home around 6pm. So I only have him for 1 or 2 hours before he is down for the night. I play with him, sometimes give him a bath, and then once he's down I have time to cook dinner and get my stuff ready for the next day. I'm usually in bed by 10 or 11pm... and I'm still surviving on 4-5 hours of sleep. Joe sometimes takes the 2am wakeup time, so that I can get in a longer stretch of sleep, and that always helps :)

So we're getting along pretty well, and it will be interesting to see how long it takes him to start sleeping longer. I can't bring myself to wake him up before I go to bed and feed him, as it was suggested to me, to see if that would help him sleep all night. I'm too scared that he will stay awake, and I'll be stuck with a fussy, tired baby when I'm exhausted at midnight. So for now, I'm just getting by with less sleep.

We're hoping to get a trip to NY here in a week or two, since Joe's dad and grandfather haven't met Benny yet, and then my Mom is coming to visit the weekend of the 14th (when he turns 3 months old). Then we're hoping to also get a trip back to Michigan in, hopefully in late April/early May. We'll see though... my vacation days are all gone since I used them for maternity leave, so I'm back to square one with those!

We'll see everyone sooner or later... and in the meantime I'll work hard on getting those videos online! :)

2 months 1 week 4 days old

Posted by carrie at 9:21 AM | Permalink | Comments

What I'll miss about Benny as he grows... those 2 or 3am times, just after he's fed, where he falls asleep on my shoulder. The house is quiet, and this morning I just sat with him and snuggled for a good 30 minutes, even though I knew it would make me exhausted in the morning. I got teary just thinking about how I'll miss it when he's a teenager and driving off someplace... but that for right now, he's still just my little baby boy. He's the best thing to ever happen to me, and I love him more each day.

2 months 1 week 3 days old

Posted by carrie at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments

Courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa D :)





2 months 1 week 1 day old

Posted by carrie at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well, I had to clean out the drawers again this past weekend as Benjamin finally outgrew all of his 3 month old outfits and is comfortably wearing 6 month clothes... at 10 weeks old. It struck me this morning when I was feeding him at 3am just how much he has grown! I know it all happens so fast, but wow.

I have more photos that I hope to post tonight, with a special one for Grandpa Jim and all the other hockey fans in Michigan ;)

We're still doing great... Benny and I have gotten over our colds and feel much better. He's smiling a ton and has started to make more sounds when he's playing. He almost sounds like he is trying to talk to Joe and I... it's so fun! I have a bunch of videos that I need to post, but finding free time is ridiculous. Hopefully Ben will make his youtube appearance soon! :)

2 months 1 week 1 day old

Posted by carrie at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments

Happy Valentines Day from baby Benny, 2 months old! :)















and the rest of the crew:



2 months 2 days old

Posted by carrie at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments

We had our two month doctor's appointment today, and all is well! Benny is 15 lbs 8 oz, and 24 and 7/8 inches long (so almost 25 inches), which is still above the 95th percentile for weight and height. Still a big boy! He got his vaccines today and was a trooper while they gave him 4 different shots. We brought a bottle with us, and afterwards fed him right away, and it calmed him right down. He's now sleeping, and will probably sleep a lot today. Which is good since he kept us up last night with a small cold, or at least, it sounded like a cold but today at the doctor's he sounded fine. He was having trouble breathing through his nose and sounded congested, so we gave him some saline drops and ran the hot shower for a few minutes. Once he sounded clear again we propped him up on his boppy and he slept near us on the bed.

So all is well, and I have more photos to post once I get them downloaded off the camera. We're having a blast with Missy and Shawn and baby Will, and I'll be sad to go back to work again tomorrow.

2 months 1 day old

Posted by carrie at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments

We have smiles! :)









Ok, that's a yawn, but it was still cute :)

I see more every day, and I'm lovin' it! :)

1 month 3 weeks 5 days old

Posted by carrie at 9:59 PM | Permalink | Comments

Benny was 8 weeks old yesterday, and I finally saw the smiles!! Saturday night he flashed one at me around midnight, and it was so cute! I tried to get him to do it again all day Sunday, but apparently we weren't fun enough that day ;) Monday was my first day back at work, and everything went really well. I was up at 4:30am, changed and fed Benny, and then after he fell back asleep I walked Lily, then had just enough time to eat breakfast, check my email, shower, and I was out the door by 7:15am. Not bad, considering my goal was to leave by 7! I think making my lunch and setting everything out the night before saves me a bunch of time. I was treated to breakfast at work (my coworkers brought in bagels, donuts, fruit, and coffee) to welcome me back :) It was so nice, and I am happy to be busy here again. It kept my mind off of missing baby, and it was actually nice to have conversations that DIDN'T revolve around baby :) But of course I was super excited to get home to pick him up, and when I arrived at the daycare, he was wide awake. He apparently also had a good day, and our daycare lady said he was an "easy baby" :) It's so comforting to know your baby is being watched and cared for by someone so great. I even managed to get a lot more smiles last night after we got home. Around 7pm I knew baby was getting tired, so I gave him a bath and a bottle and then he was out for the night. He's been sleeping for 7 hours consistently, going down between 7 and 8pm. Now, it still means he wakes up around 2-3am, but I can get a lot more accomplished (including cook dinner) when he's sleeping in the evening. Someone mentioned to try waking him up to feed him right before I go to bed, so I might try that to see if I can get him to sleep until 4-5am (when I normally get up anyway). If I can get 5-6 hours of sleep I think I might actually be able to feel like a normal person ;) Although I must say, I'm shocked at how the body adjusts to running on such little sleep! There are days where I only get 3-4 hours and I feel fine.

So for the first days back at work, things are going well! Last night he woke up at 2:30 and again at 5:30, so I only got about 3 hours of sleep total. I'm dragging today, but I have resorted back to drinking coffee (one cup) so that really helps me get through the tough spots. I'm hoping I can keep up this routine, and hoping Benny slowly starts to increase the times that he's asleep at night. We'll see, but so far so good! I have photos of him smiling, and I'll try and post them later tonight after he's gone down.

This weekend Shawn, Missy and baby Will are coming for a visit over the 3 day weekend, plus Benny's 2-month checkup is on Monday. He gets vaccinated so I'm sure he won't be a happy camper, but I'm interested to know how much he weighs now! Hard to believe it's been 8 weeks since he arrived! He's growing so fast :)

1 month 3 weeks 5 days old

Posted by carrie at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments

Well, we had fun this weekend with Joe's mom and grandmother. They stayed Thursday through Monday morning, and we got a bunch of fun photos. No smiling yet, but Benny did start to discover the items above his head, so now mobiles and other items on his activity mat are catching his interest. He gets really excited when you put him on his back, and he kicks and punches like crazy. He also started sleeping longer at night... two nights in a row he slept from 8pm to 3am... 7 whole hours!! Now if I can only convince him to shift that a bit, so that he sleeps from 10pm to 5am, we'd be golden ;) I'm sure it's just a fluke, but it sure is nice to get that extra sleep. I go to bed around 11:30-ish (so I can pump) but those stretches of 4 hours of sleep make a big difference :) Anyway, here are the photos:



Capitol Hill gear :)



Here he started out with his head on the white burp cloth, but when I came in to check on him, he was like this. Not quite sure how he managed that!



Great-Grandma Chris (Joe's grandmother) with Benny



Squinting with Grandma (Nonna) Becky





Benny finally discovering the things above him on the activity mat





Joe's mom got Benny a lion suit for Christmas, and it almost fits! :)





This looks like a real smile, but it was soon followed with enormous amounts of gas ;)





A friend of Joe's grandmother knitted this poncho for Benny... and another friend sent us a pair of baby UGG boots as a gift :)















Just the boots



Making faces with daddy:





And then Joe's mom made us a Peter Rabbit quilt, with all the Beatrix Potter characters embroidered on it:





With matching pillows:





I also weighed him again using our bathroom scale, and according to that, he weighs 15 lbs at 7 weeks. In my "What to Expect the First Year" book, at THREE months the weight for the 50th percentile is 13.2. He's not even two months yet, and he's way above it. It will be interesting to see what his pediatrician says at his appointment on the 16th!

Tonight he fell back asleep at 7:30... so we'll see if it lasts as long as the past two nights! He was pretty fussy from about 5pm to 7pm... he cried real tears :( I am pretty sure it was just gas, but I felt so bad for the little guy. He's out like a light now though, and here's hoping he stays that way! :)

1 month 2 weeks and 5 days old

Posted by carrie at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments