Happy Birthday to my sweet Evelyn!!

OMG are we really at a year already? I remember giving birth like it was yesterday (altho those first few months of her life are fuzzy...).

who is that chubby baby in the middle?!

Weight: To be updated next week at her appt!

showing off her jammies!

Size Clothing: She's definitely in mostly 18 month and 12-18 month clothing! i tried to put a 12 month sweatshirt on her (thinking it was 18 month) and it was super tight! Its reassuring knowing that she's still growing despite not drinking as much milk lately. i think she's still short for her age but we'll see next week!

her new expression

Milestones: The biggest milestones is that she's talking more. She says "more", "mmm" (milk), "muah" (kiss), "mama", and "dada". she for sure knows what the first 3 mean, not sure if she knows the last two yet :-( but she's pointing alot now at things she wants. i'm working on teaching her how to say please and thank you since i'm not a fan of whining! she's walking with a walker fast these days. she learned how to turn corners. she also knows how to climb the stairs now, gotta keep my eye on her! she mimics sounds now too. like if she's watching a video of herself she'll mimic the sound she makes.

caught this bugger opening the puffs container and eating them! or trying to at least

Food: she's doing 3 solid meals a day and 2 snacks. we've been officially off bottles for about half a month! she's doing great. at first she drank probably 12-15oz a day. when i started transitioning her to whole cows milk she started drinking a crazy amount! like 20+oz so i limit her so it averages to about 16oz. a milk monster for sure. so she does milk with meals and water with snacks.i stopped pumping around 1 week b4 she turned 1, so thats when she started on all formula/whole cows milk. i tried to transition her to cows milk too fast and she got a bad diaper rash and weird poop. but now we're back on 50/50 and shes better. i'll start to decrease the amount of formula in the next couple weeks and will hopefully be okay on whole cows milk. shes still a great eater, but shes in a phase where she's starting to throw food off the table and it annoys the heck out of me! i think maybe i was spoiled with a good eater before? so i've been trying to teach her to give me back food she doesn't want by collecting it in another dish. it actually works pretty well, about 75% of the time she'll hand back food to me. and i just give it back later on during the meal :-) i don't think she always does it when she's bored, but i think just cause she sees the dogs or if she doesn't want the food. i don't want her to be a picky eater so i try to get her to eat whatever she just threw by feeding her myself. we'll see how that works out.

Schedule:
7am - wakeup, 4-6oz straw cup of milk
8am - scrambled egg with cheese,  breakfast sausage, cereal, 2-4 oz straw cup of milk
9-11am - nap!
11am - water in a straw cup, cheese/fruit/some other snack
12pm - veggies, meat, cheese, pasta, and/or egg, 4oz straw cup of milk
1:30-3:30pm - nap!
3:30pm - water in a straw cup, cheese/fruit/some other snack
5:30pm - dinner veggies, meat, cheese, and/or pasta, 4 oz straw cup of milk
7pm - 2-4oz straw cup of milk, bath, brush teeth, sleep!

on daycare days she does 1 nap for 1-2 hours. that girl is having too much fun to sleep there.

love when shes sleeps with her blankie

Sleep: sleeping thru the night about 730pm-630am. i don't get her til 7am tho since she is calm and quiet and entertains herself. naps at home are usually about 1.5 hours at least, sometimes more sometimes less. i'm sad for the day she goes down to 1 nap!

Her favorite things: she loves the christmas tree. her face lights up every time we light it. she loves grabbing things from tables, walking around the house, taking things out of baskets, loves getting people to smile, loves being chased by daddy

her halloween costume!

rick grimes saving an ewok!

Going through her stash

she didn't actually eat any, but she sure tried!

daddys girl

daddys girl x 2

her in her new princess castle! which we got for free off CL

me with the birthday girl! <3

My Non-Breastfeeding Breastmilk Journey

I'm proud to say I officially pumped and provided breastmilk to Evelyn for one whole year!!! (okay, one week short, but i'm still saying a year...). I still had to supplement with formula, but I was able to provide her with at least 50% breastmilk every day and I'm proud I made it this far! So here is the story of our non-breastfeeding journey.

2 weeks, um guys this bottle is a little big

Before having Evelyn, I knew I wanted to breastfeed. I got all the supplies like storage bags, nursing pads, read a couple books, etc. I thought I was well prepared. Yeah right.. I wish I could've told my old self so many things now that I'm at the other end. When she was born, she was able to latch okay (altho she was always so sleepy). All the nurses that looked at the latch said it was right. But something still seemed off to me. It hurt so bad, which I know can be normal, so I didn't think to look into it anymore. My milk came in on day 3 I believe and holy cow, I was super engorged. Evie could not get that milk out. Here was problem #1, I should've gotten a pump BEFORE I had her to help with engorment. I forget exactly why I waited to get one. Well, it was probably because she came 2.5 weeks early so I wasn't exactly prepared yet. Anyway, we went to see a lactation consultant to help with her latch since the milk coming in kind of messed it up. She gave some tips which helped. But then we learned that baby girl wasn't gaining any weight. She dropped from 6lb7oz to 5lb 13oz, was able to get back to 6lb 2oz i believe, but plateaued there for a couple days. So she was getting something, but not enough. The pediatrician recommended I pump and feed her to make sure she was getting enough. At the same time, she and the lactation consultant mentioned that Evie might have a tongue tie. I read about tongue ties before, and was on board with getting it snipped if it helped with her latch. But the appointment with the ENT wasn't for another week, so I just pumped and fed her what I pumped. Problem #2, I shouldnt' have stopped nursing for that week!! I was finally kind of getting the hang of nursing and I think maybe starting to callus up. But after I stopped to pump for the week, I lost it all! The latch, the callusing, and baby girl was getting used to the bottle so the latch changed. And I realized how much easier it is to feed a sleepy baby with a bottle than to try to keep her awake while nursing. So after the ENT appt, we did get her tongue tie snipped. but her latch was still bad, maybe worse. I started getting alot of pain after nursing, so I knew it wasn't because it was sore, but it was definitely something like blanching or vasospasm from a shallow latch. Basically I had crazy pain that went on for hours after nursing which I think is because blood was flowing back after nursing. Since baby girl had been eating well from her bottles since then, I decided around the 3 week point to just keep exclusively pumping. At this point I was able to provide her with breastmilk completely. Problem #3, I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to keep up with her supply by just pumping. I know some people are blessed with an oversupply or being able to increase it by pumping but i couldn't. I was sad that I would have to start using formula around the 1.5 month mark, but at the same time, i came to terms with it. I also think it helped her sleep at night better since she started formula at the same time she started sleeping through the night (i know it can be a myth but for us i think it helped!). From then on I just pumped about the same number of times she fed. The most i was able to pump was 23oz in the very very beginning, then it slowly plateaued to about 18oz for most of her first year. Then as AF came back and I dropped sessions I went down to 13oz. and today, I'm officially dooooonnne!! I actually didn't plan to stop today, but since i wasn't feeling much discomfort and I didn't have any stored milk to give her this morning (that girl is a milk monster and drank all of what i had left yesterday) I decided this may be it. 

4 weeks, her signature face "this is the best thing everrr"

Anyway, long story short... for my next time around, i feel like i'll be so much more prepared. my goal for the next one is to nurse for at least 2 months, and if it isn't working out, then to pump exclusively again. I know by the 2 month mark I'll have been able to get my supply up to where it needs to be (hopefully more). I probably won't nurse exclusively since its so much easier to feed a very sleepy baby with a bottle. so i plan to nurse all day, and give bottles at night time (pumping while i give the bottle), until they sleep through the night. I plan to ask the doctor to check for a tongue tie and lip tie right away so we can get that squared away in the beginning. and i will try to pump after sessions in the beginning so that i can get an oversupply hopefully. 

Now she's fully off the bottle! This girl is a milk machine

anyway, it feels like an end of an era, and i plan to celebrate with a big old cup of FULL CAFF peppermint mocha!!!!!! and maybe drinks tonight... ;-)