Best Wishes

Gabby has really bonded with her teachers at daycare (as have I). One of them is leaving to move on to a different chapter in her life. When I found this out I was excited for her, but super sad that she was leaving. She is in the EPS1 classroom that Gabby will be going to sometime this summer and I was looking forward to her teaching Gabby on a day to day basis. So I wanted to give her a great going away present. My craftiness actually took hold and I was able to get something pulled together.

Here is it:

Mrs. L if you are reading this, we are really going to miss you, we wish you the best of luck in your new town! You were a wonderful teacher and Gabby enjoyed seeing your smiling face every morning. She still talks about E all the time!

A New Day

Its amazing how you don't realize how different things can be until there is a change in something. For us lately it's been daycare. It's also amazing what you think is important to you before you have a baby for daycare and whats important to you after you have a baby. When you first tour places you ask all the standard questions and you tend to gloss over some of them. You sometimes forget what's really important.

We made a decision to go with our 2nd choice for daycare and it was a good choice at the time. We made the decision based on the tour and the information that was given to us and we really liked the people and the place. It's been a little over a year since Gabriella has been in daycare and I have to say that somethings have changed our minds.

Last summer we put a deposit down on our waiting list for our first choice before she was born. At that time we weren't even sure if she would ever get into this school. They told us that they didn't have an opening for her age group until September 2012 - Yep you read that correctly, about 15 months before we even had a glimmer of a chance to get her into this school. But we still put our name on the list (even though we were 11th, and then 13th when she got older) and waited. I emailed the director around September, and got the same story, nothing until Sept 2012. I emailed her again in the beginning of January because we were struggling with our current place..Still nothing. Then I decided to just stop in there and see if there was anything they could do. Well it just happened that there was an opening for the Toddler room. They needed a specific child that could stay in there until August. The catch was that there were 2 families in front of us that had rights to the spot before we did. We also found out that the one family in front of us had turned their form in 2 days before we did (Bummer). Well after 2 weeks of patiently (or not so patiently) waiting we got the call from the school saying the spot was Gabby's if we wanted it! I may or may not have squealed when Mike told me the news.

Today was Gabby's first day and she did great! I know she will miss all her friends and teachers at the last place, but I know she and we will feel much better about her being at this place. There were no tears when we dropped her off, it was like any other day. We put her stuff in her cubby and then brought her to the other room where they were having breakfast. She sat down after a few minutes and had breakfast with the kids. She played outside, painted with a paint brush, at most of her food and slept almost 1 1/2 hours! We went to pick her up and she had a super huge smile on her face and looked like she had a great time. She was super happy on the way home (which is not usually the case) and we were happy.

The new place, filled out the sheet completely, told us exactly what she ate (and how much of each things) or rather didn't eat. They wrote a big note about what she did. Sent us home with sign language they are learning, flash cards and a newsletter about the week. Hopefully tomorrow's drop off will go just as well!

Wordy Wednesday

I know I usually do Wordless Wendesday, but since I didn't get the lovely pictures of Gabby covered in Avocado (See next week) You are getting a Wordy Wednesday post. It's also something that has been on my mind the past few days and I want to get people's opinions/advice and what they have done. So all you BTDT (Been There Done That) Mom's I need you to come out of the woodwork and stop lurking. Especially those that are working moms and have pumped for any period of time.

If you are regular followers you know that Cuddlebug has been exclusively on breast milk since the day she was born. We had our troubles in the beginning but I stuck it out and now here we are almost 10 months later and while I LOVE LOVE LOVE to nurse my little Cuddlebug I HATE HATE HATE pumping. Yep there I said it. I hate pumping and I want to quit. I know she only has 2 more months until she is a year, so I am trying to make it to then to quit. I have to go home tonight and tally up all the milk I have in the fridge and see how much that is and how long that will last me.

So I was talking to some of the mom's here at work and they asked me how much and how often is she eating and nursing. Here is our schedule:
6:30 to 7:00am is wakeup and eat time for the day. It's the only time I nurse her before going to work
8:30 or 9:00 - Pump #1
9:00 - Gabby eats anywhere from 4 to 8oz of BM depending on how hungry she is
10:00 - Snack time -she usually gets toast, avocado, cereal, puffs, or whatever puree is open for the day, or if I send some leftovers from the meal the night before.
12:00 - Gabby eats another 4 to 8oz.
12:30 - Pump #2
3:00 - Gabby usually eats about 4 to 5oz
3:00 - Pump #3
5:00 - Gabby nurses from me and then has dinner with us. Same as lunch, whatever are having.
6:30 - Nurses a bit and then goes down for sleep.

This next part varies widely. I think the past couple of days she has been nursing for comfort and I have been letting her because honestly sometimes it's just easier....
10:30- usually wakes up and needs a diaper change and sometimes I feed her, really depends on the mood. I know I need to be more consistent and I am thinking of trying to stop this feeding.
1:00 or 2:30 - wake up, change diaper feed again.
4:00- Wake up, change diaper feed again.

and we are back to the 7am feeding again. That being said I am usually pumping about 12 to 15oz a day, sometimes up to 17, but I havent' had that in a long time. as you can see Gabby can eat from 12 to 20oz a day sometimes...so obviously there are days when I can keep up and days when I can't. Also I am usually giving her frozen stuff which has to be used within 24 hours, so if we don't use it up at daycare then I have to throw it, which is like throwing away gold.

I took for granted in the beginning that I had an over supply and I am now kicking myself for not pumping more and saving more, but I can't change that. I also am so sick of pumping that I don't like to pump on the weekends or anything when she is with me.

So here comes my dilemma. Do I cut down her bottles. it's suggested by a few people that she is eating way too much at daycare. So I was thinking of slowly cutting down the amount that I bring to daycare to get down to 12oz during the day, instead of the 17. Then I can cut down my pumpings to two times a day which wouldn't be nearly as bad and I could probably manage at that rate for another 2 to 4 or 6 months. at that point she can be transitioned to Almond or cows milk and more solids and would be drinking less. Then my goal would be to cut out my pumpings and just nurse at night and in the mornings. until she is 18 months, loses interest or I lose my milk supply.

What have others done?

Graduating

Yep! My little girl is graduating...from the young infant room to the older infant room. Okay so maybe it's not graduating but it's still a milestone and a bittersweet one at that. I LOVE the fact that she is getting older, learning new things and learning about the world around her, but the fact that it just seems like yesterday I was holding her in my arms for the first time and now she is 8 months old is just crazy to me. So Monday morning when I go to drop her off I will have to bring her stuff to Miss Virginia's room - who she loves by the way!

Miss Erika is going to miss her, but it's not like she is going that far away...so at least she will still be able to see all her favorite teachers. She is getting so big! She is moving more and more and crawling backwards (yep still backwards) and getting pissed when she gets stuck against furniture or a wall.

She is also clapping all the time and is starting to wave goodbye, she is learning so much! My sweet baby girl

Separation Anxiety

This past weekend we have come into something that I wasn't quite prepared for...Separation Anxiety! With Gabby it tends to be at weird times and for weird things. I really noticed it when we were at Giants Ridge this past weekend. She would be quietly playing on the floor in the hotel. I would walk literally to the other side of the room into the kitchen - still in full view. and she would wail! I started to say Good Bye to her, wave to her when I left and I would come back right away. We usually can leave her in the morning while we are getting ready for work just fine and no problems, but apparently at certain times she is having trouble.

I got to daycare yesterday and her teachers were like "her new thing is getting upset when we walk away." Apparently whenever Tamara or Erika would step more than 2 feet from Gabby she would start to cry and want them right by her. I guess she even did this when she heard Erika's voice while she was asleep in her crib.

Not really anything we can do, because it's like it's with people she isn't used to. She knows me, Mike, Erika and Tamara. She loves her teachers at daycare...Hopefully it won't be too big of a deal when she transitions to the bigger infant room at the end of the month. My little girl is growing up so fast!